The ‘Declaration on the
Elimination of Discrimination
against Women’’ proclaimed by
the United Nations (General As-
sembly) on November 7, 1967,
stated, among other things, that

“discrimination against women,
denying their equality of rights
with men, is fundamentally unjust
and constitutes an offense against
human dignity’’. After spelling
out the forms of such discrimina-
tion, the proclamation went on to
State: “‘The. principle of equality
of rights of men and women de-
mands implementation of all
States in accordance with the
principles of the Charter of the
United Nations and the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights.”’

In the socialist states the con-
tent of this U.N. Proclamation
has long ‘been valid law. The
example set by the Soviet Union
and the other socialist countries is
today more than ever a powerful
mobilizing force in the struggle for
equal political, economic, social
and cultural rights of women.

Not so in the capitalist coun-
tries, such as ours here in Canada.
I have here in front of me a clip-
ping from ‘‘The Haliburton
Echo’’ of March 6, 1975, with an
article submitted by Louise Wat-
son. In this article, Louise men-
tions a number of women, champ-
ions of equality of rights for
women in days gone by. To men-
tion some of these and their
accomplishments:

* * * Y

Nellie L. McClung, Canadian
novelist, born in Grey County in
1873, who moved with her pa-

_rents to the west. As her horizons

widened she became interested in
politics. In particular she was
determined to get rid of that
ridiculous provision in the Elec-
tions act of Canada which said:
“No woman, idiot, lunatic, or
Criminal shall vote’’. She was
leader of the Winnipeg Political
Equality League, and through
this group and its work Manitoba

became the first province to grant

votes to women. That was in

1916. Five years later, in 1921,

Nellie McClung was elected to
the Legislature in Alberta. While

nex
wa

Annie Baller’ s self-defence at her second t
Capitalist exploitation and capitalist ‘justice’,
me Watson’s biography publishe

7

_ persons...

ABOR| The struggle for
SCENE women’s equality

Nellie McClung 1873-1951

‘Canada marked the 100th an-
niversary of the birth of Nellie
McClung by issuing a com-
memorative stamp in 1973.

Canada marked the 100th an-
niversary of her birth by issuing a
commemorative stamp in 1973, in
the early years she was _nick-
named ‘‘Windy Nellie’, carrica-
tured as a mosquito, and told that
“nice women did not mix in the
hurly-burly of politics.”’

Emily Murphy, born in Prince
Edward County, Ontario,
graduate .of Bishop Strachan
School in Toronto, wife of an
Anglican Minister. From child-
hood Emily wanted to become a
lawyer, but was thwarted in this
ambition by the fact that the BNA
Act decreed that women were not
She
brothers’ law books and became
well versed in legal matters. After
having moved to Alberta in 1916
she became the first woman
Magistrate in Edmonton Family
Court. Here she was continually
being challenged in court by male
lawyers as not being a “‘person’’.
She contacted Nellie McClung’s
group to join her in the fight to
repeal such a ruling. Five succes-
sive Canadian Governments had
ruled that women were not “‘per-
sons”’ and the Supreme Court up-
held that ruling. It was only fol-
lowing an appeal to the Privy
Council in England, by Emily and
her group, that this ruling was re-
versed on October 18, 1929.

aa a brilliantindictment of
is recorded for posterity in
d by Progress Books, Toronto, in

studied ..her

Most of these advances were
made at the end of the First World
War and subsequent to the Great
October Socialist Revolution ‘in
Russia. Canadian women have
had to fight against the evils of
ignorance and discrimination for
the right to enter medical school
and become doctors. In the
Soviet Union today, over 70% of
all medical doctors are women.

A. most outstanding champion

of working-class women in Cana- -

da, Annie Buller, was born and
raised in Montreal. A woman with
a keen mind and a gift of oratory,

_ and above all else a great love of

humanity, Annie became acutely
aware of the terrible conditions of
the women and young girls work-
ing in the “‘sweat shops”’ of the
needle trades. This concern led
her to eventually give up a prom-
ising career in the business world
of Montreal and cast her lot with
those working men and women
who were striving to find a way
out of the darkness of poverty and
unenlightenment, and despair.

It was in this capacity that
Annie Buller travelled across
Canada to help workers in or-
ganizing campaigns. It was in this
capacity that she marched with
the Saskatchewan coal miners,
their wives and children on that
fateful day, September 29, 1931,
from Bien Fait to Estevan, when
they were met by a hail of bullets
from RCMP rifles. Their “‘crime”’
was that they sought an audience
with... the..mine .owners.. and
government officials to plead for
enforcement of the safety and
sanitary regulations in the mines,
improvement in the shacks called
company houses, where they
were forced to live or forfeit their
jobs, schools for their children so
that they would not grow up to be
illiterate.

On this occasion, known as the
“Estevan massacre’’, three min-

ers were killed and close to 50-

were wounded. Annie Buller was
arrested and subjected to two
trials on the charge of ‘‘inciting to
riot’’. Her self-defence at her sec-
ond trial was a brilliant indictment
of capitalist exploitation and
capitalist ‘‘justice’’. It is recorded
for posterity in Louise Watson’s
biography of Annie Buller, pub-
lished by Progress Books, Toron-
to, in 1976.

Se ee

One could go on with names of
courageous women fighters for
equality and social justice. But
these suffice to show that the

source of the oppression of

women is capitalist exploitation
and that it is that system which
must be challenged and defeated.

The immediate aims in the
struggle must be the concrete ob-
jectives of equal pay for work of
equal value; paid maternity leave;
government financed and univer-
sal daycare for children; the
elimination of any and all dis-
crimination in employment, right
to apprenticeships, and equal op-
portunities to jobs without any
discrimination of any kind based
on-sex.

Finally, the Communist Party
of Canada supports fully all ef-
forts by the trade unions to or-
ganize the unorganized, with spe-
cial emphasis on large employers
of women not yet organized.

Calgary CUPE workers
call for strike vote

By DAVID WALLIS

CALGARY — Ron Brown,
president of local 37 Canadian
Union of Public Employees
(CUPE), Calgary outside work-
ers, told labor council delegates
here Feb. 21, the local is calling
for a strike vote to press demands
for unsettled issues in contract
negotiations. The talks, which
collapsed Jan. 6, began last
September.

Brown said he was confident
the membership would over-
whelmingly endorse the strike
vote and declared the union was
totally opposed to one Calgary al-
derman’s proposal for contracting
out work presently performed by
CUPE members to private enter-
prise, to ‘‘test’’ the municipal
workers’ efficiency.

The city has stubbornly refused
to budge from its initial proposal
of a 6%. wage increase. Brown
compared the demands Calgary’s
mayor has made in the past for an
$80,000 a year salary, to the
wages some outside workers with
20 years and more experience are
getting. Brown noted that many
of these workers, who can only
get four to six months employ-
ment with the city are expected to
survive on $6,000 a year. CUPE is
demanding an increase of $1.50 an
hour across the board.

Brown pointed out the union
has shown its willingness to
negotiate by moving from its ini-
tial demand for a 32-hour work
week to 36 hours spread over four
days.’

“Coca-Cola” Playground

In other business, delegates
heard Steelworkers’ delegate
Colin Constant reveal plans by
the Calgary Stampede Board for a
“‘Du Maurier Park’’ and a
‘Coca-Cola’ playground at the
edge of the Stampede Grounds.
Constant said the proposal was
that the companies would pay less
than half the cost for the privilege
of free advertising. The Alberta
government is being asked to do-
nate the remainder of the cost.

Canadian Union of Postal
Workers (CUPW) delegate Jim
Hall said: ‘‘If we don’t raise our
voices against this, no one will do

anything about it.’’ He pointed
out there are few public projects
named after working people who
have suffered injury or death as a
result of working on the project.
The labor council © over-
whelmingly rejected the Stam-
pede Board’s proposals.

The one-year-old strike at
Parkland Nursing home was
raised for discussion. by Alberta
Federation of Labor executive
secretary Eugene Mitchell. The
Edmonton nursing home is part of
Allarco Developments which has
Canada-wide « holdings. The
management refuses to negotiate
a first contract with CUPE which
would give the workers parity
with similar nursing homes in
Calgary. CUPE is demanding a
wage increase bringing the work-
ers up to $4.50 an hour from the
$3.00 an hour they earned when
the strike started.

Picketters Fined

With the full force of the law on
its side, management is sitting
pretty. Restrictions have been
placed on picketting and five
CUPE members were recently
fined from $100-$400 for violating
a court order and picketting the
nursing home.

The law is openly favoring the
bosses, Mitchell pointed out, and
as proof he cited the comments of
the first judge who heard the case
involving the nursing home and
the union. The judge said it was
no longer a fight between the
union and management but be-
tween the court and a ‘‘bunch of
hoodlums.”” He later excused
himself from the case.

The real criminals in our socie-
ty, Mitchell said were companies
like Allarco, and he branded as a
real crime the existence of legisla-
tion in a province allowing injunc-
tions to be used against workers.
These criminals never come be-
fore the judges, he said.

Welcoming the increasing
involvement by individuals and
unions in political action, Mitchell
said the labor movement can no
longer sit with its face in the sand
and continue to let important
political decisions in this country
to be made by big business.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—MARCH 10, 1978—Page 5