Embattled

By BRUCE MAGNUSON

Labor Secretary, Communist Party
o: Canada

Organized labor in Canada entered
the decade of the 70’s in a militant
mood. Behind them were the immense-
ly hard fought strikes of 1969. Ahead
of them were the new contract\ nego-
tiations for one and a quarter million
workers in auto, electrical manufac-
ture, logging, pulp and paper, construc-
tion, mining, chemical, public utilities,
Civil servants, municipal employees,
shipping, communications, hospital
workers, teachers, clothing, _ retail
trade, and several other trades and
professions.

The climate for this bargaining did
not look too promising. Layoffs of a
Permanent nature were beginning to
mount as plants were closing down.
Already as we turned over the calen-

dar to 1970, some half-million Cana-.

dians were looking for work — and
were unable to find it. A recessionary
trend had already begun to slow down
the U.S. economy. The effects of this
were inevitably spilling over into Can-
ada. At the same time monopoly con-
trol arid price-fixing, along with U.S.
spending on the war in Vietnam, con-
tinued to feed inflation. To make mat-
ters worse for the Canadian workers,
Our government imposed its hard line
of austerity and deliberately fostered
unemployment.

Organized workers’ claims for more
wages to meet soaring prices and

shrinking buying power were declared °

to be the “cause of inflation”. In hypo-
critical fashion Prime Minister Tru-
deau declaréd his government to be
the champion of the unorganized
against the “greed” of the “big unions.”
The unions, said Trudeau, were “try-
Ing to get a big slice of the cake
and pass on the result of their greed
to the little people”.

The ‘basic issue of who produces

and who appropriates the wealth pro- °

duced in our monopolistic private pro-
fit system, was neatly evaded. Instead,
an effort was’ made to fragment the
working class by turning employed
against the unemployed and retired,
Organized against the unorganized—in

other words, to turn the anger and

“*, ore

frustration of an exploited working
class inward upon itself.

Never has there been, in the history
of this country, a more brazen and
deliberate attempt to mislead people
by distorting reality. Never has the
coilusion between the state and em-
ployers, to load the cost of capitalist
crisis on the backs of the working
people, been more evident. The conse-
quences are there for all to see:

Deliberately planned unemployment;
physical speed-up of those employed;
monopoly-fostered price and profit in-
flation; shrinking buying power of
wages and small incomes; laws to
Straitjacket the trade unions; court
litigations to rob union treasuries and
to stifle any labor fight-back; a head-
on assault on workers’ right to strike;
return to the hated means test instead
of universality of the right to social
secur ty; a nightmare of unemploy-
ment and starvation, ‘with fading hopes
for our youth; such are the conditions
that continue to plague our society as
the first year of the new decade draws
to a close.

Moreover, the frailty of our bour-
geois democracy has also been expos-
ed during the fateful days of last Octo-

ber, when crimes born out of the
frustration with the above-mentioned
conditions served as the pretext for
the abrogation of our civil liberties,
and for the military occupation of
French Canada.

Despite the ferocity and power be-
hind the government-monopoly offen-
sive, Canadian workers rose to the
‘occasion and repulsed the attack on
the wages front. Some of the struggles,
such as the fishermen on the east
coast, the postal employees, the auto
workers, and many others, stood out
for their tenacity and determination

not to surrender. On the legislative ©

front, labor won victories as well a$
suffered some serious defeats, depend-
ing on the degree of unity in action
developed to counter the monopolies
and their governments.

The senseless gimmickry of a Prices
and Incomes Commission has been ex-

‘, poset and discredited. Yet there are

rumblings of mandatory controls,
which in fact will be focused on wages,
and for the defeat of which a new kind
of labor unity in action will be re-
quired. :

As we enter a new year, unemploy-
ment is zooming upwards. To ‘cope

Ina letter to Premier Ed Schreyer
of Manitoba on the eve of the meeting

of the three Prairie provincial pre-
miers, Manitoba leader of the Com-
munist Party W. C. Ross urged the
adoption of a nine-point program of
€conomic development.

Although the Prairie Economic Con-
ference 1S Now over, this program re-
uns its importance for the future.
Pointing Out the hardships created by
8rowing unemployment and_ falling
farm income, Mr. Ross proposed the
ollowing: ae
. 1. An immediate investment in
-Fairie economic development of $2
billion by the federal government, an
amount equal to that which Ottawa
claims ‘wil] be received in return for

‘he séll-out of 6.3 trillion feet of ‘Al-
berta natural gas.

‘ 2. Demand an emergency three level
areas of federal, provincial, and
shee governments, with business,
a 5 and the farm movements invited,
om ‘scuss a joint federal-provincial
a gram of action to create more basic
Condary industry in the west.
BS seize the three Prairie govern-
face to undertake out of provincial
at an immediate crash program of
nter wor
Undertake the construction of publicly-
wned low cost housing.

4. Demand that Ottawa pay for full

Ks to provide jobs. Rapidly»

costs of elementary education to re-
lieve the tax burden on the municipal-
ities plagued by rising welfare costs
due to rising unemployment.

5. Call upon the Prairie premiers to
reject the Federal Task Force on Agri-

culture and call for a guaranteed an- |

nual income for farmers; an expansion
of markets through easier credit con-
ditions for potential buyers; legislation
to control U.S. dumping practices
an expansion of credit to family farm-
ers and adequate assistance to farmers
to develop cooperative forms of farm-
ing. ,

4 Repe>t the long-standing demand
of the west for the nationalization of
the CPR. Oppose the proposal of the
CNR to abandon the Toronto to Win-
nipeg run of the Panorama and the
CPR Canadian passenger. trains. Call
for reduction of air fares to far north-
ern points.

7. Oppose the federal government’s
attempt to weaken social legislation
such as family allowances and unem-
ployment insurance. Demand that the
principle of universality without a
means test be maintained combined
with the ability-to-pay principle ap-
plied to taxation. Increase unemploy-
ment insurance and old-age pensions.
The federal government’s arguments
about | selectivity in social legislation
result in higher paid workers getting
less while lower paid are maintained

mi

at poverty levels. Selectivity is a
cover-up to force all wage earners be-
low $10,000 to carry the main burden
of costs of social legislation. The gov-
ernment is aiming to control income
not to overcome poverty. Combined
with the retention of the 3% surtax—
the federal government has drastically
lowered living standards for working
people.

8. ‘Call for increased royalties on
firms extracting raw materials from
the west. Call for a curb on the out-
flow of profits to the U.S. from U.S.-
owned subsidiaries operating in Can-
ada. Call for legislation to compel
banks, finance companies and trust
and insurance companies to invest in
nation-building projects in Canada in-
stead of investing in quick-profit
schemes in the U.S. Capital to develop
the west could also be gotten through
an immediate reduction of 50% in
arms expenditures and the investment
of this money in useful social pro-
jects.

9. Urge the Prairie Economic Coun-
cil to oppose the federal government’s
proposed energy sell-out to the U.S.
financial interests. Call for public own-
ership of Canada’s energy resources
and the immediate construction of an
east-west integrated power grid as a
power base for expanding industry on

- the Prairies.

labor is setting its sights

with this situation the trade union
movement will have to turn its atten-
tion towards the battle for new jobs
and for new and different economic
policies in 1971. Some unions may
still have few members who are unem-
ployed. Others have a_ considerable
number and, in ‘some cases where
plants have been closed, union locals
have disappeared. Then there are the
new and young workers entering the
labor force for the first time. A policy
of organizing the unemployed is need-
ed in the labor movement now more
than ever. All signs point toward a
crisis of a rather prolonged nature. At.
any rate, even governments see a
rather permanent 4% or more unem-
ployment rate. :

To cope with the new struggles on
the economic front and to counter the
social and political offensive of mon-
opoly, the trade union movement will
have to advance to greater effective-
ness in struggle by means of better
organization, more unity and solidarity
in action. It must also become active
in battles on new fronts, such as peace
and for a reversal of national policy,
foreign and domestic.

New. objectives should ,include the
following for 1971: t

e Independent economic develop-
ment and the use of Canada’s great
natural resources for economic expan-
sion, including public ownership and
control to develop a truly independent
national industrial base with useful em-
ployment for our growing ‘labor force.

_ @ This should be combined with
measures to curb and roll back prices
and to put an end to arbitrary price
fixing by monopoly.

e A plan for full employment has
to include a serious tackling of the
housing crisis and of urban renewal
and development for people.

e@ An attack on regional disparity
and poverty to be meaningful means
a raising of living standards of the
population as a whole everywhere. It
means establishment of adequate
-standards of income, health and edu-
cation, with equal opportunity in all
areas.

e A shorter work-week with no re-
duction in take-home pay. A lower.
pensionable age at 60 for men and 55
for women, with pensions adjusted
periodically to meet rising expecta-:
tions, needs and possibilities. An im-
mediate increase in unemployment in-
Surance to 80 percent of earnings
while employed, and for the duration
of unemployment.

e Democratic control of automation
with the right of workers and their
unions to a say over the introduction
of technological changes which extend
beyond their right to severance pay
when laid off.

e A redistribution of national in-
come through democratic tax reform,
based on ability to pay.

e A new Constitution and with a
Bill of Rights embedded in it. Such a
Constitution must establish a relation-
ship of equality of rights for French
and English speaking Canadians. It
should also provide for the recognition
of local governments, to givé them a
constitutional status.

The new year will confront the
trade unions with even bigger and
more difficult problems. The economic
and legislative struggle in the. tradi-
tional trade union sense will not suf-
fice now. It will have to be augmented
with the kind of broad social and eco-
nomic program, backed up by effective
economic and political struggle, that
will bring about defeat for monopoly
and its policies.

What is required now is to go over.
to the offensive, with a’ strategy that
sets the higher aim of social change.
The trade union Left, which to be mean-
ingful and effective should include the
Communists, has the responsibility of
bringing a higher social and political
consciousness and understanding into
the struggles of the working people.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—FRIDAY; JANUARY 8,.1971<- PAGE 3

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