By MAURICE RUSH
B.C. Leader, Communist Party

When the Citizens Lobby for
Jobs arrives on the steps of the
Legislature on March 30 the
message will be loud and clear
— the Social Credit govern-
ment has failed to live up to the
pledge on which it was elected
in December 1975, to get B.C.’s
economy rolling again. Instead
of fewer unemployed, there are
more — some 30,000 more.

The March 30 jobs lobby,
organized by the B.C.
Federation of Labor, will
recall an earlier period in our
history — the hungry Thirties
— when the Liberal govern-
ment of Duff Pattullo was
elected on the promise of work
and wages. That government
also failed to carry out its
mandate. The demand for
work and wages saw in-
numerable demonstrations
which grew in size as the
months went by until it brought
the defeat of the Pattullo
government and reduced the
Liberal Party in B.C. to a shell
from which it has hardly grown
to this day.

There can be no doubt that as
the crisis of the capitalist
system deepens the demand
will grow that the Socred
government .. live -.up.. to. its
promise to. get the economy
rolling’ again. The Citizens
Lobby for Jobs is not the end
but the beginning of ‘a mass
movement demanding jobs for
B.C.’s working people.

Two groups particularly
hard hit are the youth and
women. Forty three percent of
the jobless are under 25 years
of age, and 10.9 percent of
working women are~ unem-
ployed. This does not include
the thousands of women who
would and need to work but
have withdrawn from the labor
force because there are no
prospects of finding jobs.

Shocking as these figures
are, they don’t tell the whole
story of human suffering and
anguish which they represent.
Nor do they tell of the
frustrations, anxieties and lost
hopes suffered by hundreds of
thousands of Canadians. The
social consequences of mass
unemployment are’ im-
measurable. The thousands of
questionnaires collected by the
B.C. Federation of Labor
during its current campaign
reflects the nightmare which
unemployment imposes on
working people, young and old,
men and women.

Unemployment is not only a
problem for the jobless. It is a
problem for all society. Nor is
unemployment a pre-ordained
curse imposed by some
supernatural force over which
human beings have no control.
The twin evils of inflation and
unemployment from which we
are suffering are the con-
sequence of man-made
policies. They need not be if

The twin evils of inflation and

unemployment

are the

consequence of man-made
policies. They need not be if
other policies were pursued.

The major need today is for
new economic policies which
will put Canada and B.C. back
to work. This is attested to by
the Statistics Canada figures
released last week which
showed that in February there
were 1,007,000 unemployed in
Canada and 109,000 in B.C. For
the first time in Canada’s
history unemployment has
risen above the one million
mark. The actual jobless totals
are much higher. But even if
we accept the Statistics
Canada figures, the situation is
grave enough.

While Ottawa and Victoria
“play around’’ with the figures
to try and sweeten them as
much as possible, the
inescapable fact is that at least
one:out of every ten workers is
without a job. The January
figures revealed that 86,000
families in B.C. had at least
one unemployed member, and
that in almost forty percent of
those families it was the head
of the family. Those same
figures. showed that three out
of every four of the new jobless
eame from the 25 to 64 age
group who are in most cases
the. main wage earner in a
family...

other policies were pursued.
That is proven by the socialist
countries which today have no
inflation or unemployment.

Inflation and unemployment
are the result of a deliberate
course set by the capitalist
governments in Ottawa and
Victoria which seek to
preserve and extend the profits
of big business at the expense
of working people. They are
the price working people are
told they must pay to
“preserve the free enterprise
system’’. While corporation
profits increase and Ottawa
and Victoria continues to hand
out tax exemptions and sub-
sidies. to the monopolies, the
people are told they must
accept unemployment and
lower living standards.

An example of this policy is
the recent decision by Ottawa
to boost interest rates by
another .05 percent. This ac-
tion will increase the profits of
the big corporations, par-
ticularly foreign companies.
On the other hand, it will set
back housing construction and
needed public works programs
and cause more  unem-
ployment while at the same

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—MARCH 24, 1978—Page 6

MAURICE RUSH... outlines Communist Party's jobs program.

time leading to a new round of
higher prices for consumers.

Human resources minister
Bill Vander Zalm gave us a
sample last week of the kind of
thinking which predominates
among government leaders in
Victoria. He said that unem-
ployment insurance should be

reduced to encourage single:

men to go to work and ad-
vocated that it be based ‘‘on
need’’. If this were done, he
said, turning a blind eye to the
reality of the economic
situation, ‘‘industries would
employ thousands’ and
thousands (of) people.”

Advocating that the in-
surance plan be turned into a
social welfare scheme, he
suggested that ‘‘maybe $140 a
week is too much.” According
to his thinking, if the workers
went to work for low wages
that would solve the unem-
ployment problem.

His proposal to dismantle the
unemployment insurance
scheme goes in the opposite
direction to what is needed to
meet the problem today.
Workers are not unemployed
because they chose to be and
they should not be made the
victims.. Instead of cutting
back on unemployment in-
surance in the present
emergency, the waiting period
for benefits — shoul be
drastically reduced, payments
should be increased, and they
should be paid for the entire
period in which a worker is off
the job.

While premier Bill Bennett
sometimes adopts a posture of
disagreement with Ottawa,
essentially his government
follows the same big business
policies as the federal Liberal
government. In his recent

“State of the Province” report,
he announced a program which
favors the big corporations and
seeks to shift the burden of the
growing crisis on to the people.
He declared that his
government would limit
provincial expenditures to one
percent or less below the
growth rate of the B.C.
economy; hold the line. on
salaries in the public sector;
and support the closure of
““fnefficient industries” in B.C.
The result of this program will
be a further cutback in social
services and public programs
such as housing and transit,
-while freezing wages for
government employees. It
supports shutdowns such as
MacMillan Bloedel attempted
to carry through at Vanply,
and which only the threat of
militant action by workers
stopped.

who receives $279,000 a year!
salary, announced the shill
down at Vanply he said: ,
guarantee this will not bef.
last effort to save money.
we take him at his wl
MacBlo workers face furtht
cutbacks and attacks on th i
working conditions as a res
of the drive by this giant for?_
monopoly to boost profits.
At the very same time vic
Knudsen announced
shutdown of Vanply 0
company auditors wee
preparing a financ!
statement which showed us
Mac-Blo’s net profits for 1:
had risen to $60.7 milliOp
Although this company 3
been handed the lion’s share %a
B.C.’s best forest lands fof it
cent an acre a year, an? A
continues to export hundreds,
millions of dollars abroad in Nc
search for super profits, it dt

C

° RB
The Communist Party has :
advocated new economic ;
policies which would increase ,

purchasing power, curb the
monopolies and launch major :
projects to get the economy ;

rolling.

The attempt by MacBlo to
shut down its Vanply operation
and throw 700 workers out of
work demonstrates the callous
and cold-hearted policies being
pursued by big business today
in their demand for greater
profits. When its U.S.-imported
president Calvert Knudsen,

that the construction of oe

not hesitate to make Ba
workers the victims. if

Both Victoria and Otta ff
are now engaged in a vend
to convince British Columb!

Alcan natural gas _ pipe , “@
would go a long way to S® A
the unemployment crisis.