| Labor’s stake in the election —

arms budget.

By MIKE PHILLIPS

__ Canadian workers have a lot riding on

the outcome of the Sept. 4 federal vote.
In addition to deepening the system’s
Current economic crisis by fueling more
Unemployment and heightening the war

ger by tying us more closely to the

_ US., economically and militarily, a
- Majority win by either the Tories or Lib-

€rals on election day will be taken by big

usiness as a mandate to remove one of
the key obstacles in their plan to make
‘ne people pay for the crisis their
80vernment policies have created. That
Obstacle is — the unions.

_ Despite sweet-sounding promises by
Me Tories of an instant creation of

400,000 jobs the minute Mulroney be-

‘Comes prime minister, working Cana-
dians haven’t heard a single realistic pro-

. Sram by either of the big business parties

will create long term jobs.

© Communists on the other hand
i ve been the only party in this campaign
© outline a strategy of fundamental

£Conomic change through the Cana- ,

dianization of our resources, U.S.
ranch plants, the banks and industries

_ Such as steel and auto, to start the pro-

Sess of rebuilding our economy under
Public ownership and democratic.control

ne to lay the foundation for permanent,
_ ‘Ong term job creation.

© party also proposes immediate

-Mergency measures, including a mas-

Sive public works program and cutting
$8.78-billion military budget to shift

Nat investment into civilian, job-inten-
Sive production. The 52 communist can-
Cidates in this election have pointed out
a job creation in the civilian sectors,
ike low-cost public housing, health care,
€ducation and the rebuilding of Canada’s
ing secondary manufacturing indus-
S$ Creates millions more new jobs than
Same money blown away in a swollen

What’s in Store

_ What’s in store for Canadians, and our
€conomy, in the wake of a majority big
Siness -government was recently tip-

poets,

ped off in the business pages of Canada’s
major dailies when the influential cor-
porate think-tank-cum lobbying group,
the Business Council on National Issues,
BCNI, called on the Tories, the Liberals
and the New Democrats to outline their
policies to tackle what they see as the

most pressing questions facing the coun-

try.
How will they tackle the $30-billion
deficit, and reduce our national debt? Of

course, their questions were merely -

rhetorical, because they also included
the answers they'd like to see, including:

e@ a massive attack on government
spending (read social services) to the
tune of $5-billion to $10-billion a year, till

1987-8, reducing the government’s share ~

of the GNP from 50 to 40 per cent, (read
fire hundreds of public service workers);

e pull more teeth from the already
fragile Foreign Investment Review
Agency and weaken the National Energy
Program to encourage more ACES.
investment in Canada, (read weaken
Canadian economic, and political inde-
pendence by increasing foreign control);

e further ‘‘reform”’ our unjust tax sys- :

tem to tilt it more toward the rich and
corporations thus bolstering

“Gnvestment and entrepreneurship’’,

(read workers still carry the great bulk of
the tax load while corporations pay noth-
ing); ~ ps

‘e ‘“‘liberalize’’ trade with the U.S., in-
cluding the removal in some areas of
non-tariff barriers, (read free trade with
the U.S. and another giant step toward a
continentalist economy which will drain
jobs from Canada and further weaken

_our independence.)

Dangerous Agenda
With a foreign policy patterned on the

U.S. administration’s cold war nuclear

brinkmanship, a bigger and growirig war

_ budget, support for Cruise testing in
Canada and deployment of Cruise and -

Pershing II in Europe, and a program of

-trying to solve the crisis on the people’s

backs, big business in Canada has a

heavy, and for the workers, a dangerous
agenda.

It’s the same agenda Premier William
Bennett ruthlessly imposed on the
people of B.C. after he won a majority
government for big business. In fact
some of Mulroney’s key policy advisors
in this campaign were the architects of
the Socred majority win and helped plan
the widespread assault on trade union,
bargaining, civil and human rights in
BC.

Canadian workers can’t afford a big
business majority. The buying power of
their wages has dropped 12 per cent over
the last eight years. Average annual wage
increase in the first quarter of 1984 stood
at 3.9 per cent a drop from 12.8 per cent
two years ago. This and the massive job
crisis are a direct result of federal Liberal
and provincial Tory economic: policies
beginning with wage controls on private
and public sector workers.

The corporations aided by their
governments will use tech change to con-
tinue driving down wages and working
conditions. Instead of workers exerting
democratic control over its introduction,
tech change will mean higher profits for
the corporations, and speed up, and lay-
offs and lower wages for the workers.

No Big-Biz Majority

There will be no laws under the Tories
or Liberals passing the benefits of tech
change on to the workers through a-shor-
ter work week with no loss in take-home
pay, improved pensions for earlier
retirement, or any legal protection for
workers and their communities from the
disastrous effects of mass layoffs and
plant closures.

Neither party, particularly the Tories
will bring in laws to give full economic
and social equality to women. There’ ll be
no legislated equal pay for work of equal
value; no funding for much-needed free,
universal, quality child care centres; and

_ no right for women to choose when to

bear children. :
Only the mobilization of the labor and
trade union movements into action on

Communist

Communist Party election poster

Sept. 4 to ensure the big business parties

don’t get a majority, can impede the cor-
porations’ agenda for Canada and even
create a progressive balance of power in
parliament that could actually win some’
concessions that favor the people.

This can be done by electing the
largest possible group. of Communists
and New Democrats to parliament.
Communists are essential to such a pro-
gressive opposition. They are the most
consistent fighters during and between
elections for policies of peace, for jobs

- and democratic rights for the working
* people.

Denying the Tories or the Liberals a big
business majority on Sept. 4, and elect-
ing a large progressive opposition group
including Communists is the best way of
showing the corporations that Canadian
workers aren't going to allow themselves
willingly to be dragged into another
depression or be vaporized in a nuclear
war.

10 be

~ Is it too much to ask that just a little of the outpouring

_ Of concern shown by Canadian trade union leaders for

: Lech Walesa and Poland’s Solidarnosc be found for
the British coal miners.

We realize that there may not be quite the same.

Popularity for this issue with government leaders, media

| and other parts of the establishment. We are also mindful

at focussing attention on the bitter coal strike might
ring into question the level of struggle being engaged in

Y many Canadian trade union leaders. We are likewise
Mindful that it provides little advantage for those seeking
ad the left, excommunicate the Communists and
take the Canadian trade union movement down the road

_ Of all-out class collaboration.

_ But surely this is a minority of Canadian trade union
leaders. Surely our long standing relations with British
trade unions would bring forth a mass support movement
I Canada for the most heroic battle of the British coal
Miners.

_ Then, of course maybe there is a fond hope that the
Whole thing will end, loss or victory, and we will not have
to get into it at all? To those who are harboring this latter
Wish let me tell you what National Union of Mine-
Workers president Arthur Scargill, has to say: ““We’ll

_ Stay out until hell freezes over if necessary to win’’.

: What About Canada?

We are sure Arthur Scargill means this promise. We
are likewise sure the British miners and the unions back-
ing them in Great Britain and from around the world,
cluding the Polish. trade union movement, (not

lidarnosc), will help hasten this day of victory. But

: What about Canada?

Is this just a British coal miners strike? Listen again to
Arthur Scargill responding to a threat by the British Coal

Labor in action

William Stewart

Board to smash the union — ‘‘ Absolutely no one should
be in any doubt whatever as to what is at stake in this
dispute . . . That essense was brought home to me a week
ago in a special article in a Sunday newspaper.

‘The paper reported that in Liverpool there are now
between 10,000 and 20,000 youngsters on heroin. The
hopelessness and helplessness of unemployment has re-
duced the flower of the city’s youth to the devastating
world.of hard drugs.

‘‘Where once young people could look forward to
their working lives with hope, now they see around them
the human and physical waste deliberately created as a
matter of government policy.

: A Beacon For All

“It is that we are fighting against.

“I believe there is no one who can stand aside from
that fight in the mistaken belief that if they keep their
heads down they will be treated more leniently by this
government. That is why I say to the steelworkers in
particular, join with us. Do not be misled.

“Once the pits have been butchered, attention will

once again be turned on your industry, creating more ~

dole-queue fodder. And when that day dawns who will

Could we hear it for British miners?

be left to fight together with you? __

‘Before our strike you were already living a highly
uncertain existence, not knowing whether your jobs
would survive from one year to the next. The‘only way to
end that uncertainty is to join with us in fighting for and
winning a sound, secure and expanding industrial base in

-Britain. And that message can be extended to all groups

throughout this country.
“The miners in Britain are involved in a titanic strug-

gle to turn the tide of human suffering. Our heroic young

men and magnificent wives are lighting a beacon for all.
“I urge everyone, young, old, man and woman,
employed and unemployed, join with us and support us
in whatever way you can.
“On the Left...”

“Together we Shall lay the foundation for a secure and
decent future in which the reality of life becomes worth-

while — not something to escape from on the end of a

hypodermic syringe’’.

Can anyone doubt that a victory for these great
fighters would be a victory, not just for British workers,
but for working people all over the world? And can
anyone doubt that a defeat would leave us all the poorer?

If the official trade union movement in Canada has not
got the spirit to take up the challenge of the British coal
miners, surely there are individual unions and unionists
out there who can band together to make sure that the
militant spirit and generosity of Canadian workers helps
assure this victory. :

_- Donations should be sent to the Miners Solidarity
‘Fund, Cooperative Bank, Sheffield, England — Account
no. 30000009 Sort Code 90-75.

This column will start things rolling with $100. Line

forms on the left — the left, Dennis. $

5 ee

PACIFIC TRIBUNE, AUGUST 29, 1984 e 3