B.C. LUMBER WORKER Page Five President A. R. Mosher, PRESIDENTIAL SPEECH NO REAL PROGRESS TILL LABOR PAC BECOMES EFFECTIVE THREAT By A. R. Mosher overwhelmingly re-elected to head Canada’s 350,000-man CCL, set the keynote for the recent convention in a stirring speech. Here are excerpts from the speech which. gave him a stand- ing ovation from the entire convention: Because of the failure of labor | to develop political power, gov- ernments have been much less re- | sponsive to its requests for ade- quate legislation. Consistently during the past 10 years, the Con- gress has urged upon the federal government the adoption of pol- icies which would. have been highly beneficial to the people of Canada, but little or no attention has been given to them. Long before the war ended, we proposed a post-war program of reconstruction, including among others such items as: price-con- trol, housing, employment, health insurance, a national labor code. Since the war, the Congress has continued to urge action with respect to these and similar mat- rs, but with very little effect, nd I am firmly convinced that no real progress will be made un- til labor, in co-operation with other groups which share its views, develops a political’ party which will be strong énough to be elected to power in both the provincial and the national fields. CCF Endorsed The Congress at its Montreal convention in 1943, endorsed the CCF as the political arm of la- bor and recommended to its affili- ated and chartered unions that they become affiliated with the C- CF. ‘At each subsequent convention, resolutions have been adopted confirming the position of the Congress, and support has been given to the CCF through politi- cal action committees. It is quite evident, however, that the rank and file of our movement have not yet become firmly convinced of the necessity of voting for candidates endorsed by the Congress, and thus obtain- ing adequate representation in Parliament and the provincial ‘ legislature. . There are undoubtedly excuses and explanations for the lack of || success so far attained by the C- CF on a national basis. In every election and in every constituency there are circumstances which af- fect the vote for one candidate or another, but the basic difficulty is that the workers of Canada do not yet clearly understand the na- ture of either the competitive economic system, or the political system. which has been estab- lished on a basis of political par- ties responsive to the controllers of wealth rather than to the masses of the people. They do not realize that our political system is the creature and the servant of the economic system, and that the only way in which the evils of both can be » eured is by developing both econ- omic and political power. A strong labor movement may develop a strong political party, and be able to place itself in a position to administer the govern- |, ment of the country in the inter- est of all the people rather than of comparatively few. Cost of Living One of the chief domestic prob- Jems in Canada in recent years is the increase in prices, and con- sequently in the cost of living. The. Congress has repeatedly urged the federal government to exercise control over prices, and thus protect the great masses of consumers from exploitation. During the war, measures of | trol were found to be.so fective that from November, e , to August 1945, a period of i Aine of eye ages, xX Tose O1 .6 per ent. commodity, but with the removal of practically all controls, the in- dex rose almost 40 percent. In Great Britain, where a labor government is in power, the cost- of-living index since the war has risen only 14 percent. Refusal of the federal govern- ment to retain price-control or reimpose it has cost the people of Canada hundreds of millions of dollars, and has affected the standard of living of every man, woman and child in the nation. The workers have seen wage- increases, which were won only at the cost of effort and sacrifice, nullified even while they were trying to obtain them or shortly afterwards, with the result that in many instances they are worse off now than they were during the war. Government Snubs Labor It is obvious that neither the federal nor the majority of the provincial governments pay any respect to the representations of labor, because they do not regard labor as a potential threat, Our weakness in Parliament and the legislatures makes it im- possible for us to exert adequate pressure on governments, and to obtain legislation which would be of benefit not merely to the work- ers, but to the public as a whole. It is essential, therefore, that we undertake the task of organ- ization in the political field with as much energy and determina- tion as we have shown in organ- izing our unions for economic ac- tion. When we march to the polls to cast our ballots for candidates of | a party upon which we can de- pend to carry out our economic program, in the same spirit as we have marched on the picket- lines and to union halls in con- ducting a well-organized strike, \we can expect favorable results. PAC Urgent | 1 believe political action by the Nabor movement is one of the most important questions facing the workers of Canada today. It may mean not only the securing of legislation which will help to remove the basic causes of some of the social and economic evils of our time, but also the very preservation of democracy itself, since this depends upon the intel- ligent and faithful exercise of our democratic rights and privileges. | welfare deserve the government they get, but it is time that we began to apply a little common- sense to this whole question of political action. We ought to be thinking not only of ourselves, but of our fam- ilies and of the great numbers of | exploited people throughout the country. Generations yet to come | will find it hard to forgive us for | our stupidity in continuing to | support economic and_ political | systems which resulted in wealth for a few people and compara- | tive poverty for the great mass of | the population. i What Labor Wants Let us first of all try to gain | some clear conception of the kind | of world we would like to live in| — a state of society in which | there shall be peace and economic | security and ample opportunities for human service and human | happiness. Let us admit frankly | that we propose to abolish every | evil which stands in the way of jthat objective, through the use of our economic and political | strength as organized workers, and in co-operation with all who The time has come when we should give this question much greater attention and personal ef- | \fort than we have shown in the past. We have been lukewarm {and lackadaisical in our attitude ‘toward politics, voting when we | did vote without conviction and | | without definite objectives. | We have preferred the movies ito political meetings, and as in- dividual members of Congress | unions, we have refused to contri- bute toward the support of a po- litical party, which our Congress has endorsed, even the price ‘of Politieal | couple of movie ticke in saying that people who show such indiflerences to their own We can, of course, take refuge | are willing to work with us. (EXECUTIVE ‘HIGHLIGHTS | Highlights of the year’s work jby the CCL executive, summar- ized from their report, was: U.E, suspended for being in arrears of per capita. National Unemployment Committee organized. Mine, Mili jurisdiction trans- ferred to Steelworkers. Congress opposed discontinu- ance of rent controls in court action. PAS fund of $1 per member a year set up. Congress attacked govern- ment for inaction over jobless. 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