WOMEN ui ACTION By NAN McDONALD THE NATIONAL DAY OF PROTEST called by the Canadian Labor Congress for Oct. 14 should be seen by working-class and democratic women’s organizations as a further development in the present struggle for women’s rights. The National Day of Protest is the highest form of action by organized labor against the unequal and discriminatory wages of women workers. It deserves the support of all women’s organizations. The federal government, during International Women’s Year declared repeatedly that it was for the equality of women, but it cannot give equality to women with equality of wages. Women’s wages were frozen by Bill C-73. While protecting the profits of the multi-nationals, it denied women the democratic right to equal pay for their labor. Under the planned maximum increases contained in the government’s so-called anti-inflation program, the wages of women workers fell further behind. The gap in wages between men and women workers has grown even wider. There is no legislation guaranteeing equal pay for work of equal value. The government has frozen the wages of the majority of women workers below the poverty level. Many are employed in what are considered ‘‘women’s jobs’’, precisely the sec- tion of the work force which is least organized, but hardest hit. (Only 22% of working women are organized in the trade union movement.) The majority have no organized way of fighting back. The National Day of Protest is what is required to fight more effectively for equal pay rights. As long as the so-called anti-infiation program is held over the heads of all workers, no section of women will achieve - equal pay. Wage discrimination finally leads to the reduction of all workers’ wages, both in individual firms and industries, and in the country as a whole. © ee O* THE NEED FOR UNITY and support of the National Day of Protest by all women is clear. The present economic crisis is having a brutal - effect on their living conditions and standards. Women, particularly young women, are the first to be victimized by such severe economic conditions, and are the hardest hit by unemployment and poverty. As the rate of unemployment continues upward, it is aggravating the already serious economic and social discrimination against women, while profits continue to swell. Under government protection the defenders of the corporate elite, provincial and federal, have cut back on vital social ‘services, such as welfare, daycare facilities, health and education. It is no wonder wo- men are fighting back. Municipalities are in a crisis while multi-national corporations own and control the national resources of this country, with no benefit to the people. * * * WOMEN HAVE MADE OUTSTANDING contributions in the fight to roll back prices. They have gathered signatures and presented them to the federal government through John Munro; they have set up picket lines at the doors of the giant food chains, protesting the gouging food prices. They are on the picket lines of many strikes. An estimated 35% of the demonstrators last March 22 on Parliament Hill were angry, determined women, prepared to fight on working-class issues. The National Action Committee on the Status of Women, at its most recent conference this year, condemned the federal government’s so-called anti-inflation program and demanded government control of prices and profits. * * * THE STRUGGLE FOR WOMEN’S RIGHTS is part of the overall. struggle of the working class. The place for women on Oct. 14 is in the demonstrations. The Communist Party of Canada has consistently throughout its 54- year history fought for the equality of women in the work place, and in all aspects of Canadian life. Section 132 of the Communist Party Draft Resolution that will be before the delegates for debate at the forthcom- ing 23rd Party Convention, states: ‘‘ Unity of the working class requires acorrect approach to women workers and the fight to win equality for them. Working women today constitute close to 40% of the labor force. Discrimination against women continues. Rather than diminishing, the wage differential has increased between men and women in compara- ble fields. The battle for equal pay is today an important part of the class struggle.”’ f CHANDRA TO VISIT CANADA The Canadian Peace Congress has announced that Romesh Chandra, secretary-general of the World Peace Council, will ar- rive Oct. 21 for a four-day visit to Canada. He will spend Oct. 22 in Montreal and will speak at a public meeting in Toronto on Sun- day, Oct. 24. Chandra, who reports to the United Nations for the UN-affiliated World Peace Council is an activist in many international or- ganizations, particularly th- ose concerned with pro- gress in the developing countries. ROMESH CHANDRA Ni PACIFIC TRIBUNE—SEPTEMBER 10, 1976—Page 10 oh Communists criticize Bank Act legislation ‘A shameful parody of democracy ...” TORONTO — ‘‘The govern- ment White Paper on Canadian Banking Legislation bodes no good to the Canadian people,’”’ an Aug. 26 statement of the Central Executive of the Communist Party of Canada warned. The statement said the White Paper does nothing to curb high profits of banks and credit institu- tions and it opens the door to penetration of Canada by foreign, mainly American, banks. “It fails to use the banking sys- tem as an important element to- ward the achievement of policies of full employment. Instead it uses the Bank of Canada to raise interest rates and to curb the growth of the money supplies — policies which lead to a slow down in production, an increase in unemployment — while attract-, ing foreign capital into Canada, ‘thereby undermining Canada’s independence.”’ The statement continues: ‘‘The White Paper claims its proposed banking legislation is intended to curb the power and influence of the major banks and the high degree of concentration which typifies the banking system in Canada. ‘*... The real aim of the White Paper is to strengthen, consoli- date and centralize finance capital’s control over the econ- omy. Even the proposal to open Canada to foreign banks is geared to wider aims, to strengthen Can- ada’s finance capital and its ex- port of capital abroad. “If the White Paper was really intended to cope with the concen- tration of finance capital in Can- ada, it would have proposed ' measures of democratic control and nationalization of the banks _ and credit system without which no really serious steps can be taken to eliminate this concentra- tion, strengthen Canadian inde- pendence and ensure policies of steady, -pla: growth of the economy, rising standards and full employment. ‘Prime Minister Trudeau was 100% correct when he said, ‘the worst bitchers of all are the bank- ers. They have never had it so good as under my government. I’m ashamed.’ “