i
}

A firm stand coupled with

Mily and coordination in bar-
thee has paid off this year in
i Quebec and British Colum-
-€ achievement of a $100
um weekly wage for near-
quarter million public em-
anis 1S no small victory for
i en workers in Quebec.
sl Donic €roic struggle on the eco-
ron; front and coupled with a
ng Political awareness can
lens an credit for initial
minum wage. the legal
fiji, itish Columbia the solid-
| tefanc Organized workers in
tment of Compulsion by a gov-

| tiation appointed so - called
Ea: of | Commission has also
Psi thas forced employers
tiate settlements in good

tity
ie
terion than to depend on

Th th

Ve
“lida E

nim
Va
Hloye

i Maritimes too, there
N signs of developing
e €ven though results
of visible achievements
a. een as spectacular. Of
q ; e pence. Alberta
A € progress tow-
fic epeter unity in the econo-
k one’s: while woefully
N the political front.

Manitoba and Saskatchewan,
with much weaker and less co-
ordinated economic organiza-
tions of the working class, have
achieved more success on the
legislative and political arena of
struggle.

But in the strongest. industrial
province of Ontario, with nearly
one-half of all organized work-
ers in Canada, solidarity and
coordination is almost totally
absent. While heroic struggles
have been conducted over the
years on both economic, legisla-
tive and political issues, these
struggles have not been sustain-
ed. For almost three decades a
Tory administration has been
successful in operating within a
conservative atmosphere, _ be-
cause of the absence of a united
working-class political challenge
to the domination by monopoly
capitalist exploitation.

There are, of course, objective
reasons for this state of affairs.
Ontario is not only the key pro-
vince in English Canada, but the
heartland of Canadian monopoly
capital. But if anything, this
points up the need for much
stronger solidarity of organized
labor in Ontario. Yet, and parti-

‘Need revival of groups

Ss :
Holi, ‘Sue, the Tribune ran a
PME rig, bruce Magnuson on

er tie food and other con-
thd g, + ods prices. In order to
h ‘ What these increases
Duple of People’ we made a
: werone calls. What we
Is'tising Set nice. Here is how
“incomes affect people on

eg
one first call was to a pen-
Yen i W living in an apart-
en mown Toronto.
bs She gor, OOut the rising
Bre donee “Till talk about it,
fiat 4 know if it’s fit to
Ne infor day before her land-
mortise qyet her that he had
rath, way, Tent by $20 per
ats t Mthough he had re-
+ higher Ove that his taxes

€. I’m living on a

tye Goes 2 accessories and

: else. €ave much for any-

fy © fel

toytve " that she would have
in op, q Ower rental housing

fhe like to get by, but she

te ere . the idea.’

NY a elots of disadvant-
nd . itles ©W-rental housing
tide he ae to one room
Hoy ot the Ng would be out-
ion’ Sena oWNtown area. It
in, SS a fe me. fromm
lan oin ACtivities, And rar
ight tre tha; °° With the little

and an at it took my late
tt Do 7 we Years of saving
the J thin have to sell many
the? thar: that are dear to

ae a T can move into a
sertment?" she said.
> all Rk food prices:
lg Whe a do on a fixed
Neh he we are shopping

t €r day when |

é What can be
"sing prices?”

N dollars a week |

lo protest price rises

She had a few suggestions, “In
1966 there were protest groups
throughout Canada that were
fighting the rising costs. Many
of them have disappeared now,
but it’s time they were revived.
Unless we speak up, there is go-
ing to be no stopping the rising,
costs.”

The second call was to a
single parent with six children.
When asked about the rising
food costs she said: “Sure the
prices are rising and- when you
buy the kind of food that is
needed, you just don’t pay the
rent. I shop for bargains and I
have to be very careful. There
are two supermarkets in my
area in Weston and I shop for
specials there. But when the
specials aren’t there, then you
need carfare for better prices.”

She is on a fixed income of
$361 per month. When asked
about her budget, the careful
planning was evident when she
recited it without faltering:
“$108 for. rent, $35 for hydro,
$8 for telephone, and $45 per
week for food .” That leaves less
than $30 per month for clothing

_and accessories for seven people

and there are no savings for the
upcoming school costs.

She is allowed to try to make
$99 per month at a job. “So you
try to make a little more money
and try not to get caught. When
you get caught it’s fraud. The
government is going to have to
relax its requirements and
create some jobs if I’m to live
in some sort of human dignity,”

When asked how these things
could be achieved she said, “I
support the demands of the On-
tario Anti-Poverty Organization.
If people would come together

behind those demands we might

get somewhere.”

The Ontario Anti-Poverty Or-
ganization is demanding a mini-
mum wage of $3.40 an hour, re-
cognize welfare as a right, a
guaranteed annual income, and
a moratorium on debt while peo-
ple are out of work.

cularly in this year of most gig-
antic labor struggles in Canada’s
history, Ontario labor has not
come through with the kind of
militant leadership one would
have every right to expect. True,
the Ontario Federation of Labor
and the Metropolitan Toronto
Labor Council have held a con-
ference and brought forth a
comprehensive report and a
most thorough exposure of
monopoly - government - organ-
ized strike-breaking. But it is a
contradiction to expect the same
government to completely re-
verse its policies and pass legis-
lation outlawing its own strike-
breaking, at least without the
pressure of a well-organized, co-
ordinated and all - embracing
mass struggle of the people.

In the absence of the organ-

_ization of such mass campaign-

ing and unity, first of all among
organized workers in the pro-
vince, monopoly and its repre-
sentatives at Queen’s Park will
continue to carry on as per
usual. The seven - month - old
strike at DeHavilland, and the
firing of 350 workers at the To-
ronto Western Hospital provides
an example of what can be ex-
pected. Some 1,800 production
workers at Douglas Aircraft are
facing layoffs over the next
year-and-a-half.

Unable to solve the growing
problems of the economy and
deepening contradictions — be-
tween the selfish profit motives
of monopoly capital and the
interests and the needs of the.
people, governments serving the
monopolies have abandoned
even the pretence of seeking
full employment and stable in-
comes. While banks, big corpor-
ations and speculators are reap-
ing a bonanza of profits, the
working people are the victims
of rising prices and class discri-
minatory economic and tax poli-
cies.

Working class struggles of
unprecedented scope will be re-
quired to win full employment
with guaranteed jobs or an ade-
quate income for all Canadians
as a right; a shorter workday
of six to jeight hours and a
shorter workweek of four to
four-and-a-half days; increased
take home pay to bolster living
standards based on the fruit of
the new technology and higher
productivity being passed on to
labor and the consumers.

To win such policies, along
with an extension of democratic
and civil rights, a united and
independent Canada based on an
equal and voluntary partnership
of our two nations in a sovere-
ign and democratic bi-national
state, requires labor unity, ex-
pressed in political as well as
economic action for common
objectives.

The Canadian Labor Congress
must act to bring into affiliation
all genuine labor bodies and
put an end to its phoney ob-
structionist conditions for such
unity which have nothing to do
with genuine trade union prin-
ciples.

Only a united trade union
movement can provide the dyna-
mic force and leadership to ex-
pand the mass democratic move-
ment now arising in this coun-
try, to curb monopoly by be-
coming the centre of a new Ccoa-
lition of political forces that can
end monopoly exploitation, and
begin to align Canada with the
new and rising world of social-
ism, peace and progress.

defective, unsafe, and
overprice Fie

*Your ates this ‘eacre
manufactured and sold three ‘ : a2 ae
ymillion ears he Knew to be dont do it agin, sir’

* Tsk, tsk. Please

*This bum swiped
ohe of those cars,”

from International Herald Tribune, Paris

“THIRTY YEARS!”

OTTAWA — “The unemploy-
ment figures August 15 indicate
once more that the federal gov-
ernment’s. policies in dealing
with unemployment in _ this
country are totally inadequate,”
said Canadian Labor Congress
President Donald MacDonald
last week.

“In spite of all the govern-
ment’s promises and the definite
commitments made to the Cana-
dian people over a very long
period of time that the unem-
ployment problem would dimin-
ish, no such thing has happened.
On the contrary, the problem
has grown worse.

“The- seasonal adjusted rate,
the measures of the basic un-
employment trend, has reached
its highest level this year and is
up from a year ago. To suggest
that the government of the day
is bankrupt in its ideas of how
to cope with the unemployment
problem is hardly an exagera-
tion. Nearly a year ago, the then
minister of finance introduced

his so-called anti-unemployment
measures which the government
claimed would relieve the unem-
ployment problem. They failed.
Some months ago the present
minister of finance undertook
certain measures again sup-
posedly for the purpose of cop-
ing with unemployment. They
have also failed. The Canadian
Labor Congress and _ others
pointed out at the time that all
these measures were doomed to
fail because they were far too
ineffective in dealing with the
massive unemployment  con-
fronting this country.”

: Declaring that what is needed
is “a full employment budget,
rallying the entire resources of
the country through fiscal and
other measures, to provide
jobs,” the CLC chief suggested
that “if the government is un-
able or unwilling to pursue such
a full employment policy Cana-
dians will soon have the oppor-
tunity to choose another govern-
ment more concerned with their
social needs,”

A world-wide postcard campaign has been launched by the World

Federation of Democratic Youth calling for civil rights for N
ireland. The card (photo above) is addressed to Prime Saaleseraicum

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—FRIDAY, AUGUST 25, 1972—-PAGE 5