THE BC.

R. MacMillan Big boss

logger,
s., North West Bay Loe Go.;
st Mills Export; Alpine
aber C€o.; Canadian White
2; Shawinigan Lake Lum-
Go.; Alberni Plywoods, etc.;
sctor, B.C. Power, ete. etc.

ickpocket’s Paradise

BOYS WHO

W. G. Murrin Head of the
B

ER; pres.,
of 14 powerful corporations,
covering hydro-electric power,
shipping, banking, insurance
and construction, and director
of Bank of Montreal; London
and Western Trusts Ltd.; Mon-
treal Life Insurance, ete.

COLLECT

asin Taylor Vice-presi-

dent, War-
time Shipping and director of
mining operations such as Bra-

lorne Mines, Harvey Greek
Mines, Buccaneer Mines, etc.
Director of Home Oil, B.C.

Power; Bank of Canada, Royal
Trust, ete.

THE

GRAVY

R. W. Diamend Head of
the pow-
erful Consolidated Mining and

Smelting: empire of Trail. Got
his training in the Anaconda,
Montana, and Utah mining
fields. Successor to S: G. Blay-
lock of open-shop fame.

Or Six Different Ways To Cut Your Wages

While the federal government has been easing the excess profits tax, selling its war
assets at scandalously low Prices to big corporations, and loosening price controls on hun-
dreds of commodities—while, in other words, it has sedulously been laying the groundwork
for bigger and better business profits during ‘the postwar period—the fate of the Canadian
wage earner is being arrogantly ignored or distorted.

The worker—the man who actually turned out the tools of war; and the soldier—the

fellow who actually did the fighting against foreign fascism, are now receiving their due
“reward” from Big Business, the group that waved the big flag and cashed in the big

dividend.

That “reward” is a severe cut in pay cheques that slices at least six different ways.
In the following article—prepared by the Tribune Research Department— it is shown these
cuts are working to lower the living standards of the Canadian working class and preparing
the way for depression and mass unemployment.

ERTIME

ut OQne—The reduction of
ttime and the return to
sormal” peacetime work has
vady slashed the workers’ in-
je and will have an even
ater effect in the next six
aths. This is the way it
tks. A worker, earning a
lar an hour in an aireraft
at, where the normal work-
sk is 40 hours, was probably
king 48 hours a week with
last eight hours being paid
time and a half: In other
eds, he was getting $52 a
=k. With the work week back
40 hours he will automati-
y have his weekly pay cut
$40. A 30 percent increase
wages is necessary, to bring

The average manufactur-
ig employes in Canada, on
resent wage rates, is more
iam $340 a year short of
le necessary income to pro-
de an absolute minimum
andard of health and de-
mey for himself and his
unily. (This minimum stan-
ard would require $1,850 a
sar, on the basis of the
orento Welfare Council
urvey made in 1944.) With
20 percent pay raise, he
ould barely reach this min-
num standard, if he, worked
| full 52 weeks in the year.
forkers today are demand-
‘{, not luxuries, but milk
ad shoes for their children,
edical care, decent homes,
chance to save.

AFIC TRIBUNE — PAGE 3

his take-home pay back tothe
war-time level.

DOWNGRADING

Cut Two.—Our aircraft work-
er may have been getting a
higher wage during the war be-
cause the heavy demands for
skill during the war enabled
him to be upgraded to a higher-
paying job. Now he—and thous-
ands of others like him—will
face the alternative of being
downgraded to his old level or
of being laid off.

RECONY ERSION

Cut Three.—If he is laid off
he will probably have to look
for work in lower paying: peace-
time industries. If his aircraft
plant laid him off in Septem-
ber, 1945, the average wage he
would be getting would be 85.6
cents an hour. Suppose he had
to get into a textile plant,
where demand for labor con-
tinues high. His average wage

.there would be 51.4 cents an

hour, or a drop of 40 percent
in his hourly rate.

The broad movement of work-
ers during reconversion has
been from the durable goods
industries (iron and steel, non-
ferrous metals, electrical ap-
paratus, etc.) to the non-dur-
able goods industries (service
and light consumer goods). In
September, 1945, the average
weekly wage in durable manu-
factured goods was $33.81 and
in the non-durable it was only
$26.80, a difference of nearly
21 percent.

PRODUCTIVITY %

Cut Four. — During the war
the productivity of Canadian
labor has increased 12 percent
at the very least. This figure
is based on the estimate of
government economists that
after the war Canada will be
able to turn out 50 percent
more in volume of production
with only a 27 percent increase
in the labor force. The real fig-
ure is probably closer to 20

percent, which is the estimate .

of increased productivity in the
United States.

Hither way, this means that
less men will be able to turn
out the same amount of goods
as more men did before the
war. The average worker will
be expected to turn out a great-
er amount and value of goods
each hour, in return for less
take home pay. His alternative
to join the growing army of un-
employed, already numbering
over 220,000 in Canada.
UNEMPLOYMENT

CUT FIV E.—The worst cut of
all occurs when a man becomes
unemployed. The best he can
hope for in this situation is his
unemployment insurance . bene-
fit cheque. But during Decem-
ber only about 40 percent of
those actually seeking work
through the National. Employ-
ment Service received a bene-
fit cheque. And the average
amount of compensation re-
ceived by these people was the
the princely sum of $10.80, or
an average cut of about 66 per-
eent in weekly earnings. The

other 60 percent registered as
seeking work, got nothing at
all.

COST-OF-LIVING

Cut Six.—The last cut is the
one that results from the in-
erease in the cost of living. On
December 1, 1945, the Domin-
ion Bureau of Statistics cost-
of_living index stood at 120.1;
In rough terms this means that
the 1989 dollar would buy only
83 cents worth of goods, a
decline of 17 percent. The aver-
age weekly pay cheque for De-
ecember then, which was rough-
ly $380, was worth only twenty-
five 1939 dollars.

But this is a highly conserva-
tive index. lately the steel-
workers’ union has accused the
government of playing with the
index during: the war period to
prevent it from showing the
real rise in living costs, and
thereby evading the necessity
of raising the cost-of-living

bonus. A. more accurate idea
of the rise of living costs
can be gained from two

surveys made by the Toronto
Welfare Council —one in 1939
and the other in 1944—which
show an increase of 24.6 per-
cent in living costs. That would
mean at least 26 percent today.
Using this index, the average
worker’s weekly cheque 6f $30
is worth only $23.80 in 1939
terms.

All these euts spell out a
simple slegan for the worker:
Unity in 1946 for higher wages
or unity in 1949 on the bread-
line!

labor.”’

U

SQUAT AATEC =

What Is
Capital?

ea TUT

What is a correct definition
of “capital”? ?

LUN

To begin with, capital is not
Simply a thing, it is 4 social
relation of production; one that
has arisen under definite, his-
torical conditions. Money, and

means of production, raw ma-
terials, means of subsistence
— these things may, and do,
assume the form of capital;
but for this to take place, cer-
tain conditions must have
developed. These include: pro-
duction of commodities, with
labor-power itself a com-
modity ,and the extracting ot
surplus value by the private
owners of the means of produc-
tion as the “direct aim and de
termining incentive of pro-
duction.” These are the con-
ditions which enable one part
G£ society to grow rich by the
purchase and use of the living
labor-power of wage-workers.
irom this angle, “Capital .. .
is essentially command over
unpaid labor” (Capital, Vol. 1,
p. 585). Capital is “a compul-
sory relation which obliges the
working class w perform more
labor than is prescribed by the
narrow circle of their own re-
quirements.” (p1338).

Viewed as a sum of com-
modities, of exchange-values,
capital is. “a self-expanding
value.” one which expands by
absorbing unpaid labor. Ac-
cumulation of capital takes
place by the steady absorption
of the surplus-value created by
the unpaid labor. “Capital is
dead labor that vampire-like,
only lives by sucking living
(Marx).

td
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FRIDAY, MARCH 1, 1945