LABOR FOCUS

La
ait
a
1A

By J. B. SALSBERG

United Electrical program
points way for all trade unions

HE 14th annual convention of the Canadian member- ,

ship of the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Work-
ers of America hag rendered a great service to the entire
union movement. It adopted a 5.point program which
highlights what is decisive in the life of the working
people at thig stage. It is safe to say that all other trade
union questions are subsidiary. to or largely determined
by the program which the Canadian UB adopted,

I shall quote the headings of the 5-point program as
published in the Canadian UE News, the official organ of
the union: ;

1. Higher wages now—vrising living standards.

2. Trade union democracy—fight for self.governing
rights.

3. Organize the unorganized.

4, Civil rights—social security legislation.

5. Labor is for peace. —
What struck me on reading this
program was its applicability to the
entire trade union movement in this
country. Any program which meets the
requirements of so large and basic a
section of Canada’s industrial workers
a’s those covered by the UE would
naturally also meet the overall require-
ments of all other industrial workers.
There is, however, another and more
impressive reason for my suggestion
that the UE program is applicable to
all unions’, It is because, the trade
unions with minor and limited excep-
tions have no clear-cut unifying action program to meet
the needs of the trade union movement as a whole. The

right-wing, reactionary leaderships which dominate both —

trade unjon congresses have failed to provide a construc.
tive program. On the contrary they are pursuing policies
and defeat of the working people. In the face of this
alarming situation, the UE program is like a compass.
for the threatened ship of Canadian labor. ;

4

At the 1950 conventions of the two congresses the
right-wing leaderships’ charted a course which can only
lead labor to disaster. The bureaucrats controlling both
gatherings surendered the basic independent role of labor,
endorsing the rabid war program of the ruling class and
thereby making inevitable successive retreats and betray_
als of the interests of labor and its organizations. They
embarked on a suicidal policy of union wrecking. They
attacked every principle of trade union democracy and
surrendered the autonomous and self-governing rights of
Canadian trade unionism as demanded by the US. state
department. They sabotaged the major wage struggle in
the country—that of the railway workers—and refused to
lead the battle in defense of living standards.

Since the congress conventions the reactionary lead-
erships have proceeded to implement their ruinous policies.
The railway unions are in the doldrums, The steel union
still talks about price controls instead of fighting for wages
¥reeman Jenkins stubbornly resists the demand of the
miners for higher pay. Top-ranking union bureaucrats
conive with the government to foist company unions on
the sailors. U.S. labor servants of the Truman govern-
ment come into the. country like wrecking crews, to
smash unions which defended union democracy and self-
government of Canadian unions. Unpri:.cipled job-holders
like Carl Berg, assume the role of gauleiters to destroy
trade unions which defend the right of union members to
elect their officers.

At this hour, when the living standards of the workers
and the very existence of the unions are under attack by
the enemy from without and their stooges from within, the
5-point [UE program is like a beacon illuminating the peri_
loug situation and showing a safe way out. It comes at a
time when countless thousands of honest rank-and-file
members are. carnestly seeking. progressive and unifying
trade union leadership. It can serve as a banner around
which all honest, class-conscious workers can rally. It
should therefore be brought to the attention of all union
members. Those who will agree with that. program can
and should work together within each union regardless of
all other differences.

1, Higher wages now ---
Rising living standards

OLED IAB and substantial wage increases are es-
sential. The workers needs are such that it requires
the development of a national wage movement to
fight for and win wage increases; and at the same
time mobilize the people in a fight to curb the profiteers.
The demand for wage increases must be accompanied
by a demand on the St. Laurent government for tax
relief for wage and salary earners and an end to the big

; business policy of placing the costs of the government’s

. war ‘program et the shoulders of the people. Strong
pressure is necessary to reduce the work week and for
full job and union security ‘

2, Trade union democracy --
Fight for self-governing rights

NNER trade union democracy demands a vigorous

struggle for the right to criticize, for free speech
and against witch-hunts and discrimination in any
form in the trade union movement. The rights of all
workers, regardles of race, creed, color, political or
religious belief or affiliation, must be recognized ...
Unions and all unionists must resist and demand an
end to the attack on their self-governing rights by
reactionary U.S. labor leaders who are increasingly

‘to... run their own unions... We of the UE are par.
has always recognized and has never infringed upon

' the rights of the Canadian membership to be the sole
_ determnnant of policy and organization.

UE's 5-poi

_,,. Canada is.well able to provide a fully rounded-out

usurping the fundamental rights of Canadian workers

ticularly proud of the fact that our international union _

nt program

3. Organize the unorganized

N intensive all-out campaign to organize the

44 unorganized, to raise the economic level of the mass
of unorganized workers and unite the energies and
' abilities of hundreds of thousands of additional work_
ers in the interests of improving the lot of all workers.

4, Civil rights ---
Social security legislation

HERE must be a determined fight against encroach_
ment on the rights and liberties of labor and the
people generally. Red-baiting is a deadly weapon in the
arsenal of the enemies of labor and is used.to drive
fear into the minds and hearts of the people and to
blunt their vigilance in defence of their fundamental
rights and freedoms, ;

It must be recognized that an infringement on the
liberties and rights of any one section of the people is
a big step in the direction of, weakening and eventual
destruction of the rights and liberties of all workers

program of social security. Labor, through pressure
on government, can achieve such legislative guarantees
as will include adequate old age pensions, health insur-
ance, unemployment insurance, minimum wage and
maximum hour laws,

5, Labor is for peace

ABOR is traditionally for peace and at all times,
down through the centuries, has been the great
force that stood in the path of those who desire and
profit from war. At this decisive period Labor can again
be that force that will determine against war and for
maintaining world peace ... Labor’s first task is to
assure that the policies of the Canadian government
are directed towards maintaining Government policies
must therefore be truly independent and free of dom-
ination or dictation by the U.S. or any other country.

THE NATION By CHARLES SIMS

U.S. military map
4 oe

‘annexes Canada
IFTEEN years ago, when I worked on the Daily Clarion,

we printed a series of secret Nazi maps. In detail, these
maps forecast Hitler’s war plans to conquer the world.

Now, in-1950, it is the U.S. government that is
producing maps of this description. Last month it became
known that the U.S. general staff has printed a map cov_
ering what it terms the U.S. Northeast Command. This
U.S. map includes Canada’s four Maritime provinces, all
of Quebec, all of Canada’s ‘Arctic archipelago right up to

_ the North Pole, and all of Danish Greenland.

Ross Munro of the
} Ottawa Citizen wrote
{ on November 23:
H “The black border
| line (of this U.S, mil.
| itary map) runs from
the Pole southwest to
the mouth of the
{ (Mackenzie then east.
ward across the Arc-
tic mainland to
Hudson’s Bay and
‘south ,through the
Bay down to the
Ontario _ Quebec

Sh. boundary to Mont.

DQ SS real. In fact the
a
%

frontier of the (U.S.
Army) Command, ac.
cording to this map,
§y passes across the

base of Parliament
Hill on the Ottawa
River, From Montre_
al it follows the Can_
ada-U.S. border to
the Atlantic coast
and then sweeps
northward, east of
the Maritimes and

yo ans porte Greenland back to
oa the Pole.”
Who is in com.
Rapper mand of this military
district?
4 Meee” Pcricl than
ajor General Ly-
poe as oe man P. Whitten of

the U.S. Army.
Where is his. com.
mand. base? No-
where else than at
(Fort Pepperrell, just
outside St. John’s
Newfoundland!

I also junderstand
that two other U.S.
military commands
cover central and

: western Canada.
This all goes together with the fact that, at the
present time, thousands of U.S. troops and airmen
are stationed on Canadian territory in 20 or more bases,
mainly located up north.

Not only is Wall Street imposing a policy that
rapes Canada of her vital uranium, nickel, iron ore, al.
uminum, oil and base metals, not only are Yankee “ad-
visers” active in splitting and disrupting Canada’s labor
movement, but here now is evidence, plain for all to see,
that the Yankee generals have taken over the country and
divided it into military districts.

.

Lester Pearson tries to pass it all off as a joke, a
“fantasy”. He advises his Yankee bosses to be more careful
in their map-making proclivities. He urges them to cooper_
ate more cunningly to hide the truth from the Canadian
people.

And M. J. Coldwell, the CCF leader? Not a word of
protest against this shameful violation of Canadian sover_
eignty and independence. :

The border of a U.S. military district crosses the
foot of Parliament Hill! And not one of our parliamentary
representatives protests. — Be ’

The expose of this map should serve to strengthen —
the struggle of all of us, as Canadians, and we are the
majority, who want to uphold the honor, sovereignty
and independence of our country. :

: It should arouse in,all of us a passionate resolve to’
fight harder to right our country’s national policies which

transform her into an economic, political and military

of American imperialism. 2

For Canada can and must play a vital part in the
world battle for peace, for the equality and independence
of all nations, big and small. This is a matter of honor and _
paramount concern to every patriotic Canadian man
and woman. ae

And the start must be made by pressing harder — :

than ever ‘upon the St, Laurent government to take a
stand for cease-fire in Korea, for recognition of People’s
China by Canada, for seating of People’s China in the _
United Nations, Canada must never be dragged into an
imperialist war against the friendly people of China. =
' Friendship with our neighbors of the !United States?
Yes, a hundred times yes! But friendship for peace, not
for criminal atomic war that would unloose a deluge of

suffering, tears and disaster, not only upon the peoples _ a

of Asia, but also upon the peace-loving people of Canada. —
That is not the road desired by Canada’s people in the ~
great majority, French and Englsh speaking, we want
peace, And we shall win peace and independence if we but
speak up, act, and unite to uphold the security and inde-
pendence of our beloved Canada. é 5

‘PACIFIC TRIBUNE — DECEMBER 8, 1950 — PAGE 9 z