Jobless lines like
this are growing

everywhere.

We Are Nof Pricing Ourselves Out of World Markets

THE WAGE FREEZE
WILL NOT COMBAT UNEMPLOYMENT

the sanctimonious tones of
John Diefenbaker, has at last
responded to labor’s demand
for action on unemployment
The “action” is a demand on
labor and employers for a vol-
untary freeze of wages and

. BS government, through)

The response was not en-|
tirely unexpected. The way for}
it had been paved by some
people in the labor movement}
peddling the slogan that we}
have been pricing ourselves|
out of the world market.

John Diefenbaker knows, or}
if he is not bright enough to|
know it himself, his advisers
know, that there is no such}
thing as pricing ourselves out
of the world market. They|
know, moreover, that there is|
no such thing as a freeze of|
wages and profits — freeze one!
and you increase the other.

If it were true that a coun-
try can price itself out of the
world market, Japan’s exports|
today would be nil. For, while |
Canada’s prices have increased |
about 100 percent over pre-
war, Japan’s have increased
25,000 percent. Yet Canada

| has gained no perceptible ad-

vantage from this. Our position
in world trade, and Japan’s
position, are relatively about
the same today as they were
in the thirties.

The fact is that, for example

|the German buyer is not con-

cerned about what our exports
cost in dollars; he is interested
only in their cost in terms of
marks, and thereby cancel out
the price increase so far as the
German importer is concern-
ed. This has not happened,
however, because in point of|
fact, no major country in the

| world has kept its prices as

Communist Party Proposals

—Stop exporting jobs to
economy and
Process natural. resources

—End trade dependence

countries through low long

—Cut arms spending in

diate one billion dollar
gram.

whole

ployed during

and possessions.

To Fight Unemployment

resources to

manufacturing industry. Nationalize U.S. industries and
keep them working for Canada’s imterests.

countries like People’s China and other socialist and
newly independent lands. Help build up underdeveloped

—Raise people’s living standards through higher ]|
wages and pensions, shorter work week.

—Unemployment insurance payments for all unem- }|

Raise benefits to a liveable amount.

—Legislation to halt foreclosures on workers homes

the U.S. Put the Canadian
work for Canadians.

here. Build the Canadian

on the U.S. Trade with all

term credits.

half and launch an imme- :
national construction pro- }|

|
|
|
|
|

period of unemployment.

|

/is acute, and its solution will!
|not wait for any monkeying

close to the pre-war level as
Canada.
e

What would labor accom-
plish by accepting Diefen-
baker’s plea for a freeze on
wages? A glance at Canada’s
economic statistics provides a
clear enough answer.

® From 1957 to 1959, em-
ployment in Canada fell; the
employment index being 122.6
in 1957 and 117.9 in 1959, a|
drop of 3.8 percent.

@ During the same period,)
industrial production rose, the|
production index being 155.4|
in 1957 and 165.4 in 1959, an
increase of 6.5 percent.

@ In short, 3.8 percent few-|
er peOple produced 6.5 percent|
more goods, hence each work-
er was turning out 10.7 per-
cenit more.

Labour must ask Mr. Dief-
enbaker, if in the next two
years we again increase our
output by ten percent, but
wages remain the same, just
who will receive the benefit of
the additional ten percent?

More to the point, if there
are ten percent more goods to
be sold, but the purchasing
power of the workers is frozen
at the present level, just how
will those goods find a. mar-
ket—and what then will be-
come of our jobs?

Diefenbaker’s formula is not
a cure for unemployment. It

is a barefaced attempt to use|

In this article the Trade
Union Research answers the
false “‘cures’’ put forward
by Prime Minister Diefen-
baker and big business to
handle the growing jobless
crisis in Canada. ©

chasing power of the workers
necessary to buy their increas-
ed production. Instead it gen-
erates asinine politicians who
recommend a contraction in
the purchasing power which is
already too low to maintain
full employment.

In August of this year, the
season when employment
reaches its peak, the govern-
ment admitted there were over
322,000 unemployed in Can-

;ada. This was a postwar rec-

ord, both in total and as a per-
centage of the labor force. This
unemployment record has been
reached in a period that no
one has as yet characterized as
a depression or “recession” or
even ‘crisis’.

Let us remedy that deficien-
cy. The present economic
crisis started last winter, when
the seasonally adjusted indices
of production, employment,
hours worked and labor in-

1958 slump, so far as employ-
ment is concerned, lasted only
15 months, probably the short-
est recovery on record.

e

The outlook for the coming
winter is bleak. Unemploy-
ment normally doubles, or
even triples, between mid-
summer and midwinter. Today,
in the middle of October, with
the worst unemployment in
years, the government has
made no moves to amend the
Unemployment Insurance Act,
or to institute policies to pro-
vide jobs, other than a vague
promise of $100,000,000 for
public works — a mere pit-
tance, amounting to about two
percent of budgetary expendi-
ture.

Worst of all, the government
clings to its reactionary cold
war trade policy, spurning the
opportunities for increased
trade which could give a new

come began to fall from their; stimulus to our manufacturing

previous peaks.

A Sar :
This means} industries and put our people

that the recovery from the’ to work.

the present unemployment sit-|

uation as a means for further |
increasing the exploitation of|
the workers.

The unemployment situation

around with Diefenbaker’s
foolish remedies.
6

At the root of the situation |
is the process of rapid mechi-|
anization and automation in an
economy which is not econ-
omically equipped to dispose
of the resulting increase in
production, because it does not
generate the increased pur-

October 21, 1960—PACIFIC TRIBUNE—Page 6

a teat