things Showed ‘present Conada's pitiful record Public housing only 5% By OBSERVER The Nati onal blic housin ay public g agence held in Ottawa May among other ee pressing need for Messed housing for those not ae with the privileges of Del € affluent. a eetes to this conference ‘ ee Public housing pro- thst . Rcppments, and smaller actogg Ol public housing units aNd me anada to discuss ways ty | ans of having a greater n Public housing. 0 a result was a series fa al and the formation a conve ing committee to plan dna tion next year to form Chal organization of ten- a Organization is to Nants in public hous- iy +s Well as tenants of priv- Commercial landlords. on Dublie Conference zeroed in °atural - housing it was only arog at attitudes prevalent housing “nada towards public Into te tenants should come Bites limelight. Many dele- Sometime out that they ttizens elt like second-class attitude biased is the public’s the well against them, despite tt Cana hnown fact that 60% buy hgians cannot afford to and Ana at present prices lig hou the Waiting list for pub- am 8 is as long as your Thi tsp, Conference set out to teants eet all public housing "ots, a ive on welfare, have no lion Nd are a transient popu- ’ Or are just “treading LABOR SCENE by Bruce Magnuson Cision to ninister Trudeau’s de- Movi; convene a meeting of A} : Eeonona! treasurers to discuss must Policy on July 12 and Oe foo a seen as a response ®ihizeg ; oO Protests from or- Lg oe abor against grow- tious Unemployment. The Uthe, —S Of the situation is Motncem wphasized by the an- piture ae in the Ontario Leg- in Be 68 more plants are rit 3200 0m the province the gyarmore workers added fs, “Welling. number of job- Qn labor ay 31, the Canadian 4,009 ress called upon its ® to flor mbers across Cana- mts Pe Ottawa with de- We to 3 a new economic Dt of Provide jobs. The pre- alg. he CLC, Donald Mac- ment a larged the govern- ing’ throu, Precipitating — the “ ate 8h austerity budget- yt to med on the govern- Ce asion 0 get us out of it by Wy eg budgeting.” The long, Reed all affiliated taj, lab 7 ovincial federations “Stams a cuncils to forward ies Step aug letters to Prime acy, Bens deau, Finance Min- Dan asey ee Labor Minister lig es .F faders of opposition Ment, ll Members of par- lcieg to sisting upon new The Egy Produce jobs. lane diate 8ress call has evoked aya dj response from such pihe niluential labor bodies Ment an ee Federation of "Bolitan abor Council of 2n Toronto. Reports ity for. the water” until their “boat comes in,’ when they can buy that bungalow in the country with the white picket fence. There was some friction dur- ing the first day of the confer- ence due to some thoughtless “politicking” ‘by some groups who wanted to say that they represented “all” Ontario public housing tenants, combined with the fears of delegates not repre- senting organizations that this group would become a “power force.” But the common sense ‘of all the delegates overcame this possible schism, and they closed their ranks to present a solid front. This was shown by the resolutions adopted which, apart from one exception, were passed unanimously by the vot- ing delegates in the final ses- sion. An indication of the mood of the delegates was reflected at the previewing of a film, soon to be completed, under the dir- ection of Kathleen Shannon of the National Film Board. Cer- tain sequences of this film of- fended many of the delegates who felt sections of it portrayed an air of condescension towards public housing tenants. One sequence purported to show the small size of public housing unit kitchens, but un- fortunately showed only the clutter of the kitchen’s con- tents, reinforcing the impres- sion designed by those opposed to any form of public housing. It was, in the view of the dele- gates, quite unrepresentative of the majority of ordinary people living in public housing who, despite the smallness of their kitchens, still manage to keep a tidy .house. The film came in for much criticism, and promoted much heated discussion, all pointing out the mood of the delegates, as did their constant criticism of all levels of government for their completely inadequate con- sideration of the housing needs of the Canadian working people, be they working, unemployed, on welfare, mothers allowance, or old age pensions. The delegates were honest, outspoken and blunt in bringing plain common sense to this con- ference. 3 The overall amount of public housing in Canada is still little more than 5% of all housing built. Pitiful, when one consid- ers that every modern civilized country has paid more attention to the plight of housing for the working people. Even in the U.S. it is 15%; most Western Euro- pean counteries have up to 60%; with the socialist countries of Eastern Europe up to as high as 90% and more. Hopefully the proposed new National Organization of Ten- ants will put on enough pressure to change this lag of a quarter of a century. These changes will be far-reaching, if this confer- ence was any indication of the mood of the people from “Bona Vista to Vancouver Island.” Sask. Fed. of Labor — | Restore labor's rights REGINA — A conference to “Restore Free Bargaining and Employee Rights” was con- vened in Regina on May 29th by the Saskatchewan Federation of Labor. In. opening the conference, President of the Sask. Federa- tion: Ross Hale said; “The capa- city of the (trade union) move- ment to function and to grow —to attend to the best interests © of the working people of the provinces—depends on the real . right to organize and bargain collectively with employers. What has happened in Sas- katchewan is that this. right has been brutally violated. What this conference is about must be how we can act in unison to restore freedoms.” Mr. Hale pointed out how the rights. of the trade unions in Saskatchewan had been gradu- ally whittled away, beginning in 1966 through Bill 79, which weakened union sécurity, en- couraged the formation of com-. pany unions, and introduced the “hypocritical and damaging so-called employer free speech clause.” Later came the Essen- tial Services Emergency Act, known as Bill 2, which further eroded organized labor’s posi- tion, he said. In 1969, a new bill ‘was introduced with a “hot cargo” clause arid a compulsory strike vote after 30 days, by- passing the Labour Relations Board to enable prosecution of unions in the courts, etc. “But the chief thrust against the wage. earners and their or- ganizations,”. he said, “has come through the gradually tightened noose of compulsory arbitration. . . . In another Spe- cial Session, the (Sask.) ie lature: rammed through for arbitration in Bill 2 covering © 30,000 additional workers in the construction and ° associated trades...” The meeting adopted an elec- tion program calling among other things for immediate re- call of Bil] 2 and a new Trade Union Act to restore labor’s democratic rights; a $2.50 mini- mum wage; planning for full em- ployment; and early action..to establish “fair and guaranteed farm prices and a thriving mar- ket for farm produce.” Labor protests to flood Ottawa from elsewhere across the coun- try would indicate a veritable flood of protests from trade unions and members against Ot- tawa’s economic policies. By far the most effective call for united action of employed and unemployed to get the coun- try out of the economic mess it is in now came from the Hamil- ton Labor Committee for Jobs. Ten days before the CLC call, this committee published a full page advertisement in the Ham- ilton Spectator. The ad was sponsored and paid for by unions in construction, steel, auto, electrical, rubber, glass, teamsters, one national union auxiliary and the Oakville Labor Council. This excellent adver- tisement placed the responsibil- economic mess squarely upon big business and the government. It presented a 12-point action program as the basis for a completely new eco- nomic policy, and a concrete -6- point plan to increase buying power, reduce poverty and ex- pand domestic markets by means Of a re-distribution of national income in favor of the working people and those in need. Just how far the Trudeau gov- ernment is prepared to go in order to alleviate the growing job crisis will ‘be seen when Finance Minister Benson sub- mits his budget speech on June 18. Between now and then, and prior to the forthcoming July meeting of federal and provin- cial finance ministers, it is ex- tremely important that central labor bodies, local unions: and individual members. and their families respond to the call of the CLC and forward letters and telegrams as suggested above. It would be even more effec- tive if, wherever feasible, pub- lic meetings and demonstrations could be held, along with the fullest use of the mass media to get organized labor’s message across to the public. The greed of investment bank- ers, industrial and commercial monopolies and speculators knows no bounds. The most re- cent is the steel industry, which continues to raise prices. The cost of materials, land and in- terest rates is pushing up build- ing costs. Landlords use this to charge inflated rents. The blame is placed on labor. Even unemployment is blamed on labor. The mass media, owned and controlled by big business, make use of all kinds of bourgeois economists and so- called Jabor relations experts to distort the real economic rela- tionships in the interests of monopoly capital and its greed for super profits. This policy of clobbering the victims while re- warding the robbers is continu- ously extending in scope. As the crisis of the economic sys- tem deepens, the attack on its human victims becomes more insidious and inhumane. It is safe to-state that 99.9% of working men and women in this country prefer work and independence as a way of life, rather than dependence on pub- lic hand-outs as a means of ex- istence for themselves and fami- lies. However, there is always -that one-tenth of .one percent who are shirkers from respon-- sibility because of anti-social habits; habits which are bred, nourished by, and inseparable from our present private profit system. It is the few exceptions to the general rule which are now put forward as the excuse for a general attack on all wel- fare’ recipients as “people who shack up just to get on public welfare,” people who “think they’ve found a. gravy train” . making it unnecessary for them to work for a living, etc. Consequenly, municipal work programs for employable people on welfare are now promoted by local politicians who find themselves in a squeeze be- tween protesting taxpayers, and the increasing number of wel- fare recipients because of grow- ing unemployment. The fact that every fifth dollar paid out in welfare has to be charged back in. property taxes means a double squeeze on small home owners and tenants, employed as well as unemployed. In some cases supplementary welfare programs are financed entirely by local funds. The work-for-welfare propo- sitions, the proposed use of welfare funds to finance make- work programs for employable people on welfare at the muni- cipal level, is a most insidious attack on labor. Such a ‘system of work can bring about a new “serfdom,” a form of second- rate citizenship which will be used to undermine the living standards and working condi- tions of all organized workers. Labor’s solution to this prob- lem must be both an economic and political struggle to put curbs on monopoly control of our economic life. Anything short of this in a more fully au- tomated society will mean greater exploitation of fewer and fewer employed workers, with more and more of the labor force living on welfare and statute labor. The answer lies in eventual abolition of monopoly control, and in an economic system in which the benefits of a higher technology will be passed on to the people in the form of higher living standards instead of, as now, to the monepolies in the form of super-profits. Clearly the problems of the working class of Canada will not be solved in isolation from the working class of other na- tions, but in fraternal solidarity with the international working class movement of all coun- tries. Learning the lessons of their experiences in the strug- gle against international mono- polies we can win both jobs and income security, as well as a world .at peace. PACIFIC TRIBUNEL_FRIDAY, JUNE 11,1971 PAGED" (W.B.) -—