by Bruce Magnuson

esident Nixon’s Labor Day
vas " the American peo-
dom € ravings of a politi-
oy, eOBUe. When he spoke
Mitaed me members of disad-
the 8roups being told to
“the Welfare road rather
telian Toad of hard work,

‘ Sas and self-respect,”
‘aking faping insults upon the

ie of America. His

e Hit dangerous overtones
tim vt Cta Of the 1930's.
to Bia Most sinister one.
Me ang ; ide the working peo-
Mike, Set Worker against
k Million: an effort to make
tare ns of unemployed,

e gc pients and working

4 eeeoats for the eco-
tociet Social ills of Ameri-
nol y, and to whitewash
4 Y capital.

5 U.S. president thus
a Stract the attention
a Ictims—the working
ets Fle Picking . their
the pete lavish subsidies
Dknoe Corporations, Mr.

: i how to bore from

“ - ag unions to find

their oo Prepared to be-

Prout ellow members and
Bh Tis jg monopoly.

extr € meaning of pro-

: nd from AFL-CIO
teneg TS at a White House
Ot. 19 shy the president
3 Wac © support Phase 2

B€ and price freeze
© two-hour confer-
forge Meany and
union leaders, and

igh administra-
» Tesulted in a pro-
Or cooperation for

er

Olicy will carry
Lbility » Of “fairness and
; but will in fact be
More. € workers to pay
Perialist schemes to

ABOR SCENE

Watch out, treachery ahead!

carry on aggressive war in the
interest of monopoly control
and super-profits.

It remains to be seen how far
this shameless betrayal of AFL-
CIO leaders will succeed
amongst the membership of
American unions. For it is now
clearer than ever before in his-
tory that the success or failure
of the nefarious schemes of U.S.
imperialism depends, in the
main, upon the attitudes and
actions of the working class,
and particularly the trade union
movement.

* * *

Back in 1952, the then pre-
sident of General Motors,
Charles E. Wilson, readily ad-
mitted that “it is not primarily
wages that push up prices. It is
primarily prices that pull up
wages.”

And on Aug. 5, 1969 the Wall
Street Journal exposed the lie
that wage increases are respon-
sible for inflation. Here is what
it wrote: “In the past 20 years
there have been three distinct
periods in which factory prices
climbed substantially over a
prolonged interval.

“In each instance, labor
costs per unit of factory out-
put were declining when the
price climb began . . . and these
costs continued to decline for
a considerable period after the
price rise was under way.

“In each case, corporate
profits began to increase sharp-
ly well before the price climb
started.”

Even further back, in 1933,
Major General Smedley Butler,
who commanded the U.S. Ma-
rine Corps stated: “The trouble
with America is that when the
dollar only earns 6% over here,
then it gets restless and goes
overseas to get 100%. Then the
flag follows the dollar and the

soldiers follow the flag.”

Today the U.S. has over 2,000
army bases in West Germany,
Japan, Italy, Ethiopia, Morocco,
Puerto Rico, South Vietnam,
Thailand and many other places
where U.S. monopolies have
large investments.

For organized labor to go
along with any kind of wage
freeze to support this drive for
imperialist domination is a be-
trayal of labor both in the
United States and in other coun-
tries exploited by United States
imperialism. With rising labor
productivity it means bigger
profits for monopoly capital at
the expense of labor—in fact, a
roll-back of wages.

Much is being said today
about the need for labor to com-
bat the growing menace of ex-
ploitation by international cor-
porations, the most powerful
and aggressive of which are
based in the U.S.

But unless leaders of labor
are prepared to break with im-
perialism and seek. a common
front with organized workers
all over the world to resist and
defeat the giant monopolies,
these giant exploiters will con-
tinue to rob the working people
everywhere they can. What we
will get is export of jobs, sub-
sidization of monopoly profits
at workers’ expense, mass un-
employment and poverty.

For U.S..labor leaders to con-
tinue their support of imperial-
ism, the sworn enemy of the
working class is an unpardon-
able crime, not only against the
working people in all other
capitalist nations exploited by
U.S. imperialism, but above all
against their own working class
at home in the USA.

* * *

For Canadian labor the hand-

writing is on the wall to step

for life

asish farmers came to
f Of fishermen bat-
peat to belong to a

isthen, (noice — the
SS Unione? and. Allied
4 Straigh ™.during the
% last Bht_. trawlermen’s
oy Podugy a eby_ donating
el tun 728: fishermen’s
'S Who w{8.,backing the
fle in TE Row locked in
‘fimce Edward

@ strong telegram
Campbell ee te
« message to the
Of the farmers’
heir al pledged
aor tUsgle against
ss,

t

typ ttlineg See Of The Fish-
SO, °8!8 o € issues and
4, oUt “te Island, point-
. foseOvernment’s
tet dri €r monopol-
ts Ores Small primary
lls » oO the unemploy-

at discontent
a are what
e S government
er, :

he erly. aimed at
Urist industry
business at
mily farm.
ing ets are beset
‘ANancial crisis

ca aren ma on

threatening their existence on
the land, the PEI government 1s
spending large sums of money
to build “playgrounds for the
rich,’ NFU members say.

Specific demands at this stage
include calls for lower farm
vehicle registration fees and
some tax relief measures—such
as the right to use marked gaso-
line in farm trucks.

‘Halt Monopoly’ :

More far reaching, though, is
the demand for an immediate
halt to policies aimed at elimin-
ating the family farm and hand-
ing over full control of agricul-
ture to multinational corpora-
tion.

There is also resentment over
inequities such as the provision
of certain subsidies to big dairy
producers, while the small farm-
er is denied similar assistance.

One reflection of the trend
against which NFU members 1n
PEI are fighting is the growing
number of foreclosures. About
1,200 farmers in the province—
total population, 111,000 — are
faced with various stages of
foreclosure, the NFU claims.

This is said to be the result
of farmers being forced, as a Te
sult of declining real incomes
and the inroads of monopoly, to
borrow heavily from the provin-
cial Lending Authority in order
to keep their heads above water.

Heavy Debts

“Government policies are lM

creasing the ability of agribusi-

e in-

ness to dominate the market
and to dictate how much the
small farmer gets for his pro-
duce,” an NFU national office
spokesman said.

“At the same time, the PEI
government has urged farmers
to expand, to increase efficiency.
To do so, they’ve had to borrow
from the Lending Authority.

“There wasn’t really a choice
— it was a question of going
into debt to expand or selling
out and moving off the land al-
together. Whatever choice he
makes in those circumstances,
the farmer gets screwed.”

In some cases, land which
already has been foreclosed is
lying idle, “just waiting for
agribusiness to step In and take
it over,” the spokesman added.

Fighting Back
“pE] farmers are being hit
from all directions — by declin-
ing earnings, high taxation, and
government policies directed at
making their province a play-
ground for rich tourists and a

-closed shop for agribusiness.

“Like farmers in other pro-
vinces, though probably to an
even greater degree, NFU farm-
ers in PEI have gone the whole

e of presenting briefs, mak-

rout ng
ing police submissions, and in

return getting a handshake, a
smile, and total lack of response
to their problems.

“Now -they’re angry. And

they’re fighting back.”

aoe
ROCKING

up the campaign to protect jobs
and for wage increase that will
maintain buying power of real
wages. ae

Of equal, if not greater im-
portance, is the need to enter
into the political struggle to re-
verse economic and trade poli-
cies, to seek trade and better
relations with the — socialist
world and to begin building
bridges of common understand-
ing and struggle against mono-
poly both at home and abroad.

The main aim must be world-
wide united action to tackle
common problems. Organiza-
tion, unity and struggle must be
the watchword, including inter-
national solidarity.

Until monopoly capital is
curbed there will be no peace,
no end to the recurrent crises,
no security—social or economic,
and no future but increased ex-
ploitation and poverty- for ever-
growing numbers of working
people.

British workers won't

let Tories kill Clyde’

By JOHN WILLIAMSON

LONDON — The work-in by
the 8,500 workers in the four
yards of the Upper Clyde Ship-
yards, led by shop stewards,
continues,

The 80,000-strong march in
Glasgow was historic, accom-
panied by a half-day stoppage
of 200,000 workers in the West
of Scotland in support of the
UCS workers. Marching arm in
arm were the shop stewards
leaders, including Communist
Councilman Jimmy Reid, the
Trade Union Congress secretary
Vic Feather and Scottish TUC
secretary Jas. Jack, Engineers
union leader Hugh Scanlon and
Boilermakers union — secretary
McGarvey, Labor shadow minis-
ters Wedgwood Benn and Wm.
Ross, and Scottish. Communist
secretary Alex Murray.

All of them spoke to the huge
march.

Broad Support
As over 300 ‘redundancies’

“have been declared by the UCS

liquidator, the shop stewards
management keeps them employ-
ed—from funds pouring in from
workers, unions and other sec-
tions of the labor movement
from all over Britain.

Soviet shipyard workers have

also sent $6,480.
The Glasgow City Council vot-

ed 57 to 12 in favor of nationali-’

zation of the shipyard industry.
While the Daily Telegraph

editorial is headed “Dreamers on

the Clyde” and says the 80,000

marchers were “both sad and
foolish,” shop stewards leader
Jimmy Reid declared before the
Scottish TUC Inquiry Board
composed of Prof. R. Illsey of
Aberdeen University, Frank
Cousins, former TGWU general
secretary, and G. Perry, general
manager of GM (Scotland) that
the Clyde shipyard workers are
not prepared to return to the
Hungry Thirties.

Expose Plot

The mass actions compelled
the Tory ministers to meet with
representatives of the shop
stewards, the TUC and of Scot-
tish industrialists ready to buy
the yards, but the Tory govern-
ment declares it is determined
to its “Kill the Clyde” policy.

Reid exposed a Tory docu-
ment drafted before the last
general election by the Tory un-
der-minister in charge of ship-
building, which said “on taking
office we should give no more
money to UCS. . . This would
lead: to the bankruptcy of UCS
. +. (and) ... we could put in
a government butcher and cut up
UCS and sell cheaply .. .” its
assets.

In the first six months of this
year the U.S. trade balance was
in the red for the first time
since 1893.

U.S. dollar holdings abroad
amount to $51,900 million,. or
five times the American gold
reserve, which stands at $10,500
million.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 17, 1971—PAGE 5

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