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Clark and the Tories

By GERRY VAN HOUTEN
The Canadian voters are in a
mood for a change. This was indi-
cated in recent by-elections which
saw Prime Minister Trudeau’s

Liberals lose substantially. But.

do the Tories, as they claim, con-
stitute a real alternative?
Voters are angry over the pre-

. Sent government’s unwillingness

or inability to come to grips with
the present economic crisis. Both
unemployment and inflation are
galloping ahead. The constitu-
tional crisis continues to split the

country. Cutbacks, wage controls -

and strike-breaking legislation
clearly show that the government
is on the side of the big corpora-
tions and against working people.

-The Tories benefitted the most
in the by-elections from the vot-
ers’ discontent, and raises the

‘specter of a possible Tory

government in the spring. -
Do the Tories constitute a real
alternative to the Liberals? The

Communists pledge fightback
against economic squeeze

TORONTO — Pledging full
Support to the labor mevement in
its strike battles and in all aspects
of its fightback against the
economic squeeze, the Central
Committee of the Communist
Party of Canada, meeting here,
Oct. 21-23, noted an encouraging
growth of worker militancy.

‘At the same time the meeting,
buoyed by reports of an influx
into the Communist Party of trade
unionists and political activists,
determined “‘to do all in its power
to achieve unity of action of the
working class and democratic

_ forces.

‘The key here,”’ said the Cent-
ral Executive report, delivered by
Party leader William Kashtan,
and endorsed by the 60-member
committee, ‘‘is united action of
the Communists and NDPers, un-
ited action of the left in the de-
veloping fightback waged by the
working class and all anti-
monopoly movements. This must
be patiently and systematically
striven for.” .

Protest Neutron Decision

e Defence of the gains of detente
and ending of the arms race. This
took in the whole spectrum of
world tensions and cited the op-
portunities for reaching agree-
ments aimed at throttling back the
arms race. A resolution was pas-
sed pressing the Government of
Canada to ‘“‘forcefully protest
(U.S. President) Carter's deci-
sion”’ to authorize production of
parts for the neutron bomb.

Included in discussion was con-
tinuing support for liberation
struggles in Africa, condemnation
of Maoist China’s collaboration
with Western imperialist aims. in
Asia, and support for the Gov-
emment, Communist Party and
people of Vietnam in their strug-
gle to overcome terrible flood
damage, while defending their
country against invasion insti-
gated by Maoist China.

The meeting condemned the
Camp David peace hoax and
stood firmly for the UN’s Middle
East resolutions, and’ the re-
convening of the Geneva Confer-
ence on the Middle East.

é
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:
3
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Defend Workers’ Gains

e Unity to defend the gains and
standards of the working people.
Noting that capitalist world un-
employment had now gone
beyond 17 million, the Com-
munist Party’s Central Commit-
tee said: ‘‘The so-called recovery
and end of the crisis is . .. a myth.
The world capitalist economy is
sull in difficulties.” The meeting
denounced the joint
government-big business wage-
cutting drive, and efforts to smash
trade unions.

To Create Jobs

Noting the enormous economic
battle before the working people,
the Central Committee set down
firmly a number of basic needs to
**put Canada back to work’’ — to
create jobs for all — and to get the
country out ofits economic crisis.

— adopt new economic
policies based on achieving
Canadian control through public
Ownership, on measures to pre-
vent foreign capital from dominat-
ing the key industries of the coun-
try, and on an investment policy
based on independent economic
development of the Country start-
ing with public ownership of gas
and oil. ~

— fight for the 32-hour week
with no reduction in take home
pay, eliminate compulsory over-
time, and struggle for workers to
have a say on all questions of con-
cern to them.

* hl

William Kashtan ... “The key is
a united fightback.”

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—November 10, 1978—Page 10

-

_ achieved.”’

— oppose the cutbacks in un-
employment insurance benefits,
the moves to disentitlement and
the more stringent qualifications,
and instead boost UI benefits to
80% of wages for full duration of
unemployment.

The gathering was critical of
right-wing policies within the
New Democratic Party, which do
not go beyond minor reforms, and
shy away from public ownership
or democratic control of the big
corporations, ‘‘without which no
fundamental reforms can be
However, Com-
munists welcomed moves within
the left of the NDP to look seri-
ously at the united front needs of
the working people. The meeting
condemned all efforts toward sel-
ling out the workers through
tripartism deals.

Confederation Crisis

e The present stage of the
crisis of confederation. The meet-
ing endorsed the report’s assess-
ment of the failure of both the
Trudeau’s Bill C-60 proposals,
and Levesque’s sovereignty as-
sociation ideas, to solve the crisis
of confederation. The Com-
munist Party’s demand for ‘‘the
right to self-determination as the
way to resolve the crisis .
guarantees the national rights and
aspirations of the French Cana-
dian people within a truly united
Canada ...’’ is proving itself cor-
rect, the meeting confirmed. It
further called for the ‘recognition
of the rights of the Native
Peoples.’’

The struggles of the working
people of Canada must include

-**the economic, the social, the

political, the ideological, all tied
in with the struggle for peace and
Canadian independence,’’ the
meeting. stressed. Parliamentary
and non-parliamentary forms
must be combined. In contrast to
the right wing of the NDP, the
Communist meeting put emphasis
on the fact that ‘‘without the
non-parliamentary struggle the
results of the parliamentary
struggle will be minimal. The
non-parliamentary struggle is
therefore of decisive impor-
tance.”’

A change for the better:

answer can be found in Canada’s
past and present.

In 1911, Bordeg’s Tories took
‘power from Laurier’s Liberals.
Before the Liberals finally suc-
ceeded in regaining power, the
Tories had brought Canada into
an unpopular imperialist war,
introduced the War Measures Act
to ban the political activity of
left-wing and progressive organi-
zations, smashed the Winnipeg
General Strike in a brutal and vio-
lent way, and deprived the trade
union movement of what few
rights it had.

In 1930, Bennett defeated
King’s Liberals. Rather than take
Canada out of the depths of the
Great Depression, Bennett and
his Tories. led Canada into a
deeper economic and _ political
crisis. Unable and unwilling to
overcome the crisis in the in-
terests of the working people, the
Tories resorted to systematic
suppression of all manifestations
of popular. discontent. Strikes
were brutally, and sometimes
bloodily, smashed. Unemploy-
ment demonstrations were bro-
ken up through the use of the

- police and troops. The Com-

munist Party of Canada was ban-
ned. Bennett quite deservedly
earned the nickname ‘‘Iron Heel”’
as his government was charac-
terized by mass violations of the
fundamental rights of the Cana-
dian people.

The last Tory Prime Minister
was John Diefenbaker. Elected in
1957, his government led Canada
into its deepest post-war
economic crisis, a crisis which
was not to be matched until the
present one. His program of au-
Sterity was really another version
of a program of cutbacks on jobs
and services which had been won’
by Canadian working people.

The Tories have not changed.
Provincial governments where.

the Tories are in power aye
characterized by policies of re-
straint, cutbacks, and support for
wage controls. Policies of cup
backs in educational, social and
health services has resulted ip
loss of jobs and the Jowering of
standards of all types of servicey.
Even schools and hospitals have
been closed down. Working
people in such provinces are all
too familiar with such policies
which have been introduced iy
Manitoba, Ontario and other pro-
vinces.

The federal Tories are no diffe
rent. They advocate policies of
restraint and wage controls. Thay
means that they favor cutbacky
and lowering the living standardy
of Canadian working people, ;
They stand to the right of the Lib,
erals and would more vigorously
implement the same policies as the
Liberals.

In short, they are policies
which will not solve the present
crisis. In all likelihood, they will
make things worse. q

The policies of both the Tories :
and the Liberals are policies
which favor big corporations and |
multi-nationals at the expense of —
Canadian working people. The
parties of big business are clearly
interested in pursuing policies
which will also deprive Canadians
of many hard-earned rights. This
is indicated by strike-breaking
legislation which has been
implemented by federal and pro-
vincial governments alike, and by
Liberals and Tories alike.

Canadians need governments —

which will implement policies in

their interests and not in the in- _

terests of the corporations and the

i

multi-nationals who, with their
parties and governments, are
‘responsible for the present crisis.
In the next federal elections,
Canadian working people must
elect a progressive majority in-
cluding Communists.

Manitoba Tory’s gift
to mining monopolies

By PAULA FLETCHER
WINNIPEG — Manitoba’s
Tory provincial government has
announced new concessions to
mining companies, including a
reduction in provincial mineral
royalties. While cuts in royalties
will be made effective next spring,
other concessions are to be put
into effect immediately. They in-

clude:

e Mining companies are no
longer required to file detailed in-
formation about their exploration
programs in Manitoba with the
government;

e The five-year review of-min-
ing claims started by the previous
NDP government will be dropped;

e Companies are now required
to spend only 50 cents an acre
(down from $1.) on exploration in
the first year after an exploration
permit has been granted;

e Companies are now allowed
to reduce the acreage of a permit in
the second or third year. Permits
last three years.

These handouts to the multi-
national mining companies, such

_ as Inco, are in addition to the con-

cessions made soon after the
Lyon government was elected
last fall. At that time the govern-
ment disbanded the Manitoba
Development Corporation by
means of which the previous NDP —
government had hoped to bring
about public participation in the
mining industry. The mineral ac-

- reage tax was abolished at about

the same time.

Mines Minister Brian Ransom
also announced that cuts in min-
eral royalties will be presented at
the legislative session next spring.
The amount of the reduction, he
said, will depend on what trans-
pires in the federal-provincial
talks on taxation of the mining in-
dustry in Canada.

While the mining monopolies

_ are being pampered in this way,

20 66

the government’s ‘‘restraint’’ pol-
icy is being applied harshly. in
other areas. Since the Tories
came into power, drastic cut-
backs have occured in health -
care, education and other social
services. In addition, the gov-
ernment is doing its best to hold
down wages in the public service.

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