isband Niagara anti-labor police!

lief submitted to the Niagara Regional Council by the
tinsula Committee of the Communist Party of Canada)

¥ eppear before you today
fy the existence and use
ih Wagara Regional Police
ln, Task Force.
ite first public an-
aa of the exstence of
fr. . on June 5, 1971 the
illist candidate in Lincoln
»Mr, John Clout, wrote a
,0 the St. Catharines
ln, 22 Which he said the
ving:
7” €xactly what demon-
tal p Is this Niagara Re-
m cllice Force emergency
ae to put down?
ley mean the art of de-

Ons: carried out by a
Who is picketing against
, t corporation for a

me dollars in his pocket

improve life to some
Rinece for himself and his

t
iin

toy
“i

#29 on the picket line of
4 berly-Clark operations
, om Task Force did its

: the first time and bore
mi "'ophecy made by Mr.

* * *

Ie :
¥ . Surely permitted to
Nh a ompted the creation
ime force at this particu-
%i, 4.0 this particular area.
PR, © fact that the regional
Hb ase overloaded and a
OM. ‘0 be found to spend
OY se © excess money? This
‘ MS to be disproved by
of
of

AXA

my Hation of this year’s
tira Ich went up by almost
hiljgn  O_ $22 million’ to
Ps, 2, 2 Major part of the
iM, - Dein ‘
PTS tole & for just such a

a .
ft bey because of a history

} hd ‘mobs” “riots” or
| fe Of control” situa-
PM; Ne Niagara area. What

wh ag can be recited in
f stons WoO decades of such
tt re M the Peninsula that
i ee the creation of
: Ce at such a cost to
‘ty aa We challenge this
NG Th Name ai single in-
te Worke, first instance of
at €r confrontation has
Nm the Kimberly-Clark
Rengy cisely where the
x ap force made its first
Were atance.
: - Of coincidence, or
witong ore than coincidence,
ig LO bag Zens awoke a few
ht Dol to discover that a
i hlshe Ice force had been
Mn that city and viol-
ine Ushered in on the
Likewit Taxpack in Brant-
#Isitce © there has been no
Win .°! violence of any
t city for at least

q
ae

“than two months later,

A tery Regional Police herding scabs at Kimberly-Clark.

two decades. (Although there

has. been some evidence of -

police corruption.)
* *

It is evident that the creation
of these “special police forces”
is part of an overall provincial
plan and it is equally evident
that:they are strategically locat-
ed in areas where mass indus-
try and large unions exist.

Taken together with a de-
teriorating economic situation
and a growing demand for wage
freeze and for workers to tight-
en their belts, it is a fair as-
sumption that in anticipation of
increasing plant closures, lay-
offs, mass unemployment and
all the attendant miseries, the
police are being geared to run
interference for big corpora-
tions, to turn disputes between
workers and companies into
confrontation with the police,
with the state.

* * *

We must draw the attention
of this Council to an alarming
trend of police forces across
this country to push for exten-
sions of their powers to the
point where it threatens the en-
tire democratic fabric of Cana-
dian society. Beginning with
the infamous Attorney General
Fred Cass and extending since,
throughout the entire police sys-
tem in Ontario, and indeed

across Canada, there has been, «:

an open public struggle between
democratic-minded Canadians
and police spokesmen who are
relentlessly pressing to substi-
tute police coersion for demo-
cratic processes. Ss

We must remind this council
of its overriding responsibility
to protect the people against
such pressures. :

We would also remind you
that your very composition,
lacking as it is an adequate re-
presentation of the working
people from the shops, offices
and farms of this community,
makes it doubly necessary for
you to check whatever impuls-
es might thus arise to use your
offices to circumvent the time
tested principles of collective
bargaining through extended
use of police.

We must also issue the fol-
lowing warning. Whatever may
be the motivation. of those of
you who voted for the estab-
ishment of the special force in
the Niagara Peninsula, the final
effect of this force will be to
bring the police into open hos-
tility with the producers of
wealth in this area. It © will
weaken the authority of the
police to carry out the func-

ao

tions which ought to be their
lot, and invite and encourage
the very anarchy in whose name
the force was set up in the first
instance.
% a a

The incidence of crime in our
country, including the infiltra-
tion of the Mafia into the busi-
ness world, the literal fusion of
crime money with “legitimate”
business, the impact of the drug
culture on crime patterns cer-
tainly confront. our crime pre-
vention agencies with a mas-
sive challenge, one which they
are not meeting too well in our
opinion. It is all the more
alarming therefore, that in these
circumstances such large sums
of public money should be spent
for a special police force which
is in no way aimed at such cri-
minals but at the very people
who produce the wealth which
makes life possible in modern
society.

Gentlemen, we draw your at-"

tention to the deep-going chang-
es which are’ taking place in
people’s attitudes. We suggest
to you that the majority of
Canadians mow question the
right of corporations to close
down, phase out, shut up, or
behave in a Way which threat-

‘ens entire communities, simply

because it is not profitable for
them to: continue operation.

In these circumstances we
ask you what would be the
function of ‘your special police
force if the workers of McKin-
non Industries were to find it
necessaary to take the same
action as the shipyard workers
on the Clydeside. In the name
of the protection of private
property would they perform
the same as they did on the
Kimberly-Clark picket line?

* * *

In summary we view the es-
tablishment of the Niagara Em-
ergency Task Force as part of
an overall provincial extension

eae

ROME — The _ unilateral
measures taken by the USS.
president “are one of the
most salient aspects of the
present monetary and _finan-
cial crisis, through which inter-
national capital is trying, by at-
tacking their living conditions,
to make workers in the indus-
trialized countries carry the bur-
den of the contradictions inher-
ent in itself,’ says the joint
statement on the monetary crisis
made by the three Italian trade
union federations.

‘Faced with this situation, the
CGIL, the CISL and the UIL
“are convinced that specific ac-
tion by working people and their
trade unions on a European
scale is more necessary than
ever, to defend the present level
of wages and employment . . oa

French Position

“This crisis,” declares the Bu-
reau of the French General Con-
federatioh of Workers, “has
been caused by incurable ills in
the capitalist system...

“In these circumstances, trade
union solidarity of workers in
the capitalist world, and espe-
cially in Western Europe, 1S as-
suming major importance .. .

“There must be no confusion
of the interests of labor and
capital in the name of national

solidarity .- -

of the powers of the police to
attack the democratic rights of
workers, farmers and all citi-
zens struggling against the
growing economic crisis in On-
tario.

@ We object to the use of
taxpayers money to pursue such
aims.

e We ask that this council
move immediately to disband
the Emergency Task Force and
to ensure to the people of the
Niagara Peninsula -that police
forces will not be used to sup-
press dissent or coerce or inti-
midate people in pursuit of
whatever changes are _ neces-
sary to satisfy their economic
and social needs.

e That those responsible for
introducing police provocateurs
and spies on the picket line at
the Kimberly-Clark strike be
punished and exposed.

Vandals at

e That all charges laid against
workers arising from police pro-
vocations and brutality on the
Kimberly-Clark picket line be
dropped.

* * *

We make the above submis-
sion not with any particular
malice to this Council but be-
cause we consider the issue a
major democratic matter which
requires strong language and
strong action. You may choose
to disregard our opinions and
continue the course which you
are presently travelling. If so
we would only warn you will
have to live with-such a deci-
sion and answer to the people
of this area who, when they
fully understand the nature and
role of the Emergency Task
Force, will rise in mass indig-
nation against it and those re-
sponsible for its existence.

Bookworld

were political thugs

The Bookworld Management
Committee issued the following
press release last week:

“Last Friday night or Satur-
day morning, Bookworld in -To-
ronto was forcibly entered.

“Between 600 and 700 vol-
umes of works by Karl Marx,
Frederick Engels, and V. I. .Len-
in were destroyed by being sub-
merged in water in a bathtub
and sinks on the second fioor.
Water overflowing into the
book store did further exten-
sive damage to the ceiling and
to books on shelves below.

“Over $3,000 worth of dam-
age was done, less than half of
which will be covered by insur-
ance.

“The police were notified at
once.

“The singling out of these
particular -books for destruction
is a clear act of political van-
dalism.

“The management committee
of Bookworld points out that
this outrage is part of a pattern
of ultra-right violence that has
been going on in this city for
some time. That pattern in-
cludes the disruption and riot-
ing started by the Edmund

‘Burke Society at public gather-

ings including the celebration of
the Lenin Centennial in the
spring of 1970, the meeting for
William Kuntsler in Convoca-
tion Hall in June 1970, the use
of mace against by-standers at
a teach-in on the Quebec crisis
last December. It includes the
brutal attack this July on a

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 24, 1971—PAGE 9

Chinese bookstore and its man-
ager, Mr. Howe Kai. It includes
the recent pasting on Book-
world as well as other left-wing
stores of a provocative sticker
Have you killed a Communist
Today? Do it Now, which is be-
ing issued from the Edmund
Burke Society headquarters.

“The development of fascism
in every country has always in-
cluded the emergence of such
gangs of storm troopers using
extra-legal violence against the
democratic forces. It has always
included the burning and de-
struction ‘of books. Goebbels
said: ‘When I hear the word
culture, I reach for my re-
volver.’

“The Bookworld Management
Committee appeals to all de-
mocratic and freedom loving
people in Toronto to demand in
unison that the Metropolitan
Toronto Police and the Attor-
ney-General of Ontario act at
once to stamp out these dan-
gerous outcroppings of fascism,
to bring its perpetrators to jus-
tice, and to press for the max-
imum prison sentences to re-
move these fascist elements
from the community they are
seeking to destroy.”

FASCIST BOAST
Paul Fromm, Edmund Burke
spokesman, in reply. to press
queries, is quoted as saying, “If
it had been us, we would have
done it properly. It would have
been the whole store .. .”