en he ee ee ee | UME REET LOMt Ae A ANADA a eres eo A Communist Party statement on the current round of strike struggles nbere is an unprecedented strike movement cur- Y SWeeping the country. Workers are fighting for en: union security, and against concessions, Tacting out, union busting, and the general assault ae business. This is seen in the Gainers strike : Stands at the center of the growing strike strug- d taking place in Alberta. Other important strikes el actions by the working Class now stretch the t. John’s, Newfoundland, to grain handlers at Kehead, to woodworkers in British Columbia. Rin common theme of all of these battles is deter- €d resistance by workers to the unprecedented “RV by big business and their neo-conservative Mments. 'Gainers in Edmonton and in British Columbia, 7 1S Wage cuts and out-and-out union busting. fone pearance of police-state type riot squads in a of Peter Pocklington’s interests, graphically ne S home to Canadian. workers the lie about Utrality’’ of the state. In all more than 800 arrests Vea Kets have been made during Alberta strikes this @ ; vige dian workers and their unions have responded boy Money and other forms of support. The national : Gt of Gainers is already the most successful in lin adian history. But more needs to be done. Pock- Ston is backed by the largest banks and other rep- “def Natives of big business, who have a stake in the “at of this epic strike. That unholy alliance can Work defeated by the massive unity of all Canadian _ + “Crs and their allies. blow Newfoundland, the Association of Public Em- yees have resumed their strike against the Peck- 80Vernment after that Tory provincial govern- Teneged on its promises of wage parity and a | Ment NITY CAN WIN new look at the union-busting Bill 59. Here too, the police and courts have been active, arresting scores of picketers, some brutally, as the government employees refuse to be scape-goated, or cowed. Their fight is the fight of workers everywhere opposing lay- offs, cut-backs, privatization and de-regulation in face of the growing crisis of state budgets being used to finance monopolies at the expense of people. @ At the Lakehead, the grain handlers are faced with a demand for massive concessions by the transna- tional grain companies, and their ‘‘cat’s-paw”’ the Saskatchewan Wheat Pool, who are attempting to pit _ the already hard pressed farmers against the workers. The grain companies are conspiring to create a cli- mate for government intervention, not witha program for assistance for farmers, but, an attack to spread the misery to the workers. In British Columbia, the largest industrial union, the International Woodworkers of America is locked in a struggle against wage cuts and union-busting in the form of contracting out. Already hard hit by the loss of jobs to the low wage, non-union sector, the union is making a determined bid to preserve the remaining jobs and conditions of its membership in face of a massive attack of employers who wish to transfer the crisis of B.C.’s forest economy on the backs of industry workers. Rather than join the fight for new markets, and against the overhwelming dependence on the U.S. market, the forest giants and provincial government are attacking the working class. e In the transport industry, and the railways in parti- cular, workers are protesting the plans of the federal government to de-regulate the transport industry, BOYCOTT _,S WIETS AND GAINERS AND PUT THE HEAT ON PO.GK LING on PR UAT thus sacrificing thousands of jobs. The movement described above will intensify rather than abate as big new wage struggles start this fall in Ontario and Quebec. This new movement is different in a number of respects from past wage and strike movements. First the scope and depth is far greater than anything in the past. Secondly, the current round of struggle goes beyond simple economic questions and each struggle rapidly becomes political in nature. Thirdly, the grow- ing expressions of solidarity from one end of the coun- try such as for the Gainers workers indicate a new level of consciousness of the workers and new oppor- tunities for the trade unions. The Communist Party of Canada stands in solidar- ity with the current fightback of the working class and pledges to do all in its power to bring the many strug- gles to victory. These strikes can be won provided all sections of the trade union stand united and no group is allowed to stand alone, and provided the natural allies of the working class are mobilized to the side of labor. A victory on one strike front isa victoryforall. Big business must not be allowed to set the agenda of struggle. Labor must take the offensive, recogniz- ing that underneath monopoly’s attack is the attempt to get out of the severe, fundamental crisis of the system at the expense of working people. The real way out of the crisis is for a program of economic expansion, for full employment through substituting the workers agenda for that of big business. The Communist Party recognizes that the current strike struggles are at the cutting edge of the fight against neo-conservative reaction. Times dictate that these economic struggles be increasingly linked to the larger political battles, not the least of which is the struggle against free trade, and an independent course for Canada. For the attack by big business is directly related to the plans by big business to integrate Canada into the United States and its foreign and domestic policy. Labor must counter with its own plans to beat back the monopoly offensive. In this the coordination by labor and its allies is imperative as is the building of broad, popular coali- tions with labor at the centre, carrying forward the current struggles of the working class to a new level. ‘*An Injury To One Is An Injury To All.” Central Executive Committee Communist Party of Canada tax Canadians further at the Instead of that $1.5-billion gift Calling on Canadians to reject the latest $1.5-billion Tory give- away to the oil companies, the Central Executive Committee of the Communist Party, in a state- ment Sept. 9, urged the oil indus- try be placed ‘‘under public ownership and operated in the interests of the Canadian people.”’ The statement argues: The Mulroney government has ‘given $1.5-billion to the U.S. multinational oil corporations operating in Canada to help them maintain their high level of profits by cancelling the Petroleum Gas and Revenue Tax, the last remain- ing part of the National Energy Program. Canadians will now have to pay for this gift in higher taxes. And, despite the claim by Consumer and Corporate Affairs Minister Andre, that “‘there is no plan to pump, as far as he knows”’, we will pay in higher gas prices for this privilege. Mulroney’s give-away to the oil corporations is wrapped up with declarations that they will re-in- ‘vest these monies to create employment and exploration op- portunities. But will they? . With the world-wide oil crisis and resultant collapse in prices, this is highly unlikely. Today’s promises of energy jobs are the same as Mulroney’s election promise of *‘jobs, jobs, jobs”’. The Mulroney government’s program of give-aways to the cor- porations, which now totals $40- billion, is draining Canadians dry. _ Rather than creating jobs, funds given to corporations are being used to ‘“‘modernize”’ industry at the expense of jobs. to oil companies to ensure profits at people’s expense, it would have been better to use such funds to undertake massive, pub- licly-operated job creation pro- jects — and in Alberta, to use the Heritage Fund for like purposes in that province. Canadians cannot but note the sharp contrast between “‘give, give, give’’ to corporations and the brutal attacks by Toronto governments against working people. The corporations are slapped on the back — workers are slapped into jail when they fight for their jobs, for wage parity and in defence of their unions. As various polls shows, Cana- dians are increasingly fed up with such policies. The demand for new policies and for a new government is growing in scope. Rotarians and apartheid WINNIPEG — Claiming they don’t know what is going on in South Africa today ‘‘is right or wrong’, a group of Ro- -arians plan a trip to that coun- try next year as part of an ex- change. They claim theya re non-political, non-racial and non-religious. “There’s no way any ex- change will benefit anyone’’, charged Steve September a local anti-apartheid activist. ‘‘All they'll do is bring racist South Africans here to propa- gate their racist beliefs” - PACIFIC TRIBUNE, SEPTEMBER 17, 1986 ¢ 7.