Veteran Communist dies at 78 Veteran British Communist R. Palme Dutt, member of the Communist Party executive committee from 1922 to 1965 and editor of Labour Monthly since its foundation in 1921, died in London December 20. He was 78. Known affectionately to countless Communists and pro- gressives throughout the world as “Raji” Palme Dutt was born and brought up in Cambridge where his father, an Indian doc- tor practised, and where his mother, who was Swedish, help- ed by mixing the medicines. He went up to Balliol College, Oxford, just as World War I broke out and soon made his mark by his activity as a So- cialist war resister and his re- fusal to fight in an imperialist war. When he refused to be con- A strike by 19,598 Ontario civil servants in the Operational Services Category has _ been averted, at least for the present. While the final counting of bal- lots is on January 11, the trend at time of writing indicates ac- ceptance of the one-year settle- ment providing an across the board increase of 21.5% for all workers in the operational cate- gory. Eric Winkler, chief spokesman for the Davis Government in the negotiations called the settle- ment “catch-up” pay for “people at the bottom of the rung.”’ The Civil Service Association of On- tario, which represents some 60,000 Ontario civil servants, started out by demanding a 61.5% increase for its members in the operational service. In so doing, the CSAO claimed the wages of these workers lagged an average of 37% behind what they cculd earn outside the gov- ernment service. The CSAO presented its de- mands last September 27. The Davis government responded by an offer of a two-year contract with a 10-16% increase in the first year and 8% in the second year, and did not budge from this position until December 3. It was this insulting counter offer and the intransigent posi- tion of the Tory government which resulted in a strike man- date being given negotiators with a deadline of Jan. 1, 1975. Minor Concessions On December 3 the govern- ment increased its original wage offer to a range of increases from a low of 15% to a high of 23% in a one-year contract. Two days later it coupled this with legislative proposals for changes in the Crown Employees Collec- tive Bargaining Act dealing with some minor items of arbitration and handling of grievances, but studiously avoiding issues cen- tral to the CSAO, such as the right to strike, the right to bar- gain on the pension plan and its management, etc. (It should be mentioned that the pension fund now provides the government with close to $1-billion worth of assets now being used as low- interest capital rather than in- vesting it where it would pro- vide employees higher returns.) December 13, the CSAO nego- tiators moved from 61.5% down to 41% and indicated prepared- ness to go even further. This was followed a few days later with a further concession from 41% down to 29%, plus the dropping BY BRUCE MAGNUSON PACIFIC TRIBUNE—FRIDAY, JANUARY 10, 1975—Page 8 scripted he was sent: before a military tribunal where his case was dismissed because it was said he was an Anglo-Indian and therefore not. subject to con- scription. During the war he was a member of the Independent Labour Party (ILP) but when the Communist Party was founded in August 1920, he joined and was a foundation member. He represented the party at many eonferences of the Com- munist International and contri- buted to the outline history of the Comintern published in 1971. Throughout Palme Dutt’s poli- tical life, his opinions and advice were constantly sought by lead- ers of the struggle against colonialism and __ imperialism throughout the world, notably in India where his works. were republished. He played an outstanding part in the party’s activities, local, district, national and internatio- nal and was for many years head of the party’s international department. He was unswerving in his sup- port of the Soviet Union from October 1917. In 1971 he receiv- ed from the Soviet Ambassador in London, the Lenin Jubilee Medal in recognition of his work as a Marxist Earlier he had been made an honorary doctor of Moscow Uni- versity in 1962. Dogged by ill-health during the latter years of his life, Palme Dutt nevertheless kept up his Labour Monthly Notes of the Month and completed those for the January 1975 issue two days before he died. —Abridged from Morning Star WAU: RS hs) SAO makes gains — Still far from enough! writer. . PAPERWORKERS WIN COL: ADJUSTMENT MONTREAL — About 4,400 employees of Canadian Interna- tional Paper Co. in six eastern Canadian mills .will receive two wage adjustments to their exist- ing contract, the company an- nounced. se The first increase, designed to ease the erosion of purchasing power through inflation, is for 25 cents an hour, retroactive to Sept. 1, 1974, said a company spokesman. An additional 20- cent increase is effective Feb. 1, 1975. The mills affected are located in La Tuque, Trois-Rivieres, Ma- tane and Gatineau, Que., Hawk- esbury, .Ont., and Dalhousie, N.B, The base rate for unskilled workers, whose contract does not expire until April 30, 1976, was $4.50 hourly before the ad- justments. The majority of em- ployees are affiliated with the Canadian Paperworkers Union. of the demand for a cost-of-liv- ing allowance clause in the pro- posed new contract. Here again an indication was given that the CSAO negotiators were prepar- ed to accept further modification in their demands. Shadow Boxing — At this point the government spokesman became almost cyni- cal in his reply that —- were the CSAO negotiators to come down to 21% he, Mr. Winkler, would be rather hard put to consider it as a serious offer. At the same time he suggested possible arbi- tration on the basis of an amended Crown Employees Col- lective Bargaining Act, while carefully preparing a govern- ment contingency plan for strike- breaking, should it come to a strike by Dec. 31. “From there on to the end, it became more of a game of shadow-boxing than serious ne- gotiations, particularly after Mr. Chris Trower had publicly con- ceded that a settlement would come in the area of some 23%. It was rather easy to divide the difference _ between that and 20%, with the provision for an across-the-board application of the increase. Apart from 2,201 guards in 57 provincial jails, who will get a raise of 23.5%, all the others in the operational category will get 21.5%, or roughly $1 per hour added to the present average wage of $4.27. Nonsense in Press Obviously this is not a large settlement, particularly in the face of a possible inflationary Halt of sales to rate of anything from 15 to 20% this year. To call this an infla- tionary settlement, as some Cy- nics in the kept monopoly press organs are doing, is of course unadulterated nonsense. Such an attitude can be explained only in the context of the deadly fear of both governments and private monopoly corporations that they may not come off as easy in other and now pending negotia- tions. Besides some 155,000 fed- | eral government employees, well over one million-and-a-quarter in private industry will be seeking new contracts this year. ; The main thing to remember is that we live and work in a capitalist society, dominated by ever-growing profiteering and price-fixing monopolies. Under such a system the governments and employers are on the oppo- site side of the fence from the workers. The capitalist state and its employees are equally as much antagonists as are the pri-- vate monopolies and their em- ployees. Consequently the adver- sary system of collective bar- gaining must apply with equal freedom to strike in the public sector as in the private sector, The second conclusion one must draw from this, is that the failure or success of collective bargaining depends on strong and militant organization and class solidarity, rather than on the smart or not so smart nego- tiator, as the case may be. The CSAO negotiations carry many lessons in both these respects. Ontario civil servants still have a long way to go. Cuba protested TORONTO — Lynn Williams, director of District 6 of the Unit- ed Steelworkers, protested to the federal government, the decision by Litton Industries to stop the sale of Canadian-made office equipment to Cuba. Williams said in a telegram to ‘Industry, Trade and Commerce Minister Alastair Gillespie, “This inexcusable action, which could jeopardize our members’ welfare and insults the people of Canada, proves again the need in our country for strong con- trols on the operations of multi- national corporations, American- owned, Canadian-owned or oth- erwise.” William continued in his tele- gram to Gillespie, ‘We urge your government to expedite legisla- tion that will protect subsidi- aries in Canada from such deci- sions made in foreign corporate board rooms. “To. match the power of Litton and other multi-national compa- nies,’ Williams continued, “our members have united in an in- ternational union. But in our union our right to pursue poli- cies that benefit Canada is never challenged, and is supported by our entire international union. “Our international union there- fore serves as an example of in- ternational co-operation between the people of separate countries. The proposed sale of Canadian products to Cubans is another form of international co-opera- tion, and our government should not allow such co-operation to be forbidden.” “Do you have a book on how to cook without food...f" | 100,000 WORKERS | workers following a slump } RAIL STRIKE IN U.S. POSSIBLE WASHINGTON — The t of an economy-crippling strike in the United States month became a possibility week as an agreement betweel the railways and the Sheet Mi tal Workers Union expired. — Expiration ‘of the agreement! \ Jan. 1 freed the union to call a strike by its 5,300 membef) on 14 days’ notice. The unioty already has exhausted all media‘é tion procedures under the Ral way Labor Act and apparent), would not. be subject to the 6 day cooling off period that ac requires before strikes can 00! cur. : NEW MINIMUM WAGE FOR NEW BRUNSWICK FREDRICTON — New Brui wick’s minimum wage law wel into effect last week, boostil the minimum wage to $2. Last July, the minimum w jumped from $1.75 to $1. Gerald A. Cain, provincial diré tor of employment standaré said the increase applies to #, employees except those in Gh mestic service, agriculture %, employed by the Crown. The 4 cent boost applies to the first 45 hours of work, with the mif mum rate after 44 hours set $3.23 an hour, or time-and% half. Labor Minister Rodman * Logan said another 15-cent crease is scheduled for July VOLKSWAGEN LAYS-OFF BONN — Two West Ge automobile manufacturers fré cently announced temporat) lay offs affecting almost 100, domestic and foreign markets? Volkswagen, the country’s larg est car producer, laid off 86,00% of its 111,000 workers unt 5 Jan. 10, in accerdance with pré ' LCUC WILL REPRESENT MAIL CARRIERS OTTAWA — The Letter Car- riers’ Union of Canada has been granted the right to represent about 15,000 mail carriers. In a decision made recently, the federal public service staff relations board rejected bids by the Teamsters Union and the Canadian Union of Postal Work- ers to represent the drivers who collect and deliver mail. from postal boxes to- post offices. Harold Wilson, a spokesman for the letter carriers’ union said in Ottawa that the union would again go before the board Jan. 11 to show proof of mem- bership. thing, _ wagen raised its domestic pric viously announced plans. Thi General Motors Opel subsidia® laid off 11,000 employees for ‘ total of eisht days to be stagge! ed during the month of Janv ary, the company said. At th beginning of the year VolK* by an average of 3.5%. MORE CIVIL SERVANTS ADMITTED TO CLC OTTAWA — Four more pl vincial public service unions 39)’ cluding the Civil Service As' ciation of Ontario, plus the ci service associations. of - katchewan, Manitoba and No -Scotia were admitted into Canadian Labour Congress Dec. 11. DETROIT tee Part of the crowd in an unemployment office w®! to see an adjuster to claim their benefits. Unemployment in © United States passed six million persons last month for the fi time since the depression in the thirties.