THE WESTERN CANADIAN LUMBER WORKER

OES the Canadian Labour Con-
B® gress owe Mr. Trudeau and his
government an apology for its lack
of support for the government’s
Taiwan policy during the Olympics?
This rather startling suggestion is
raised in a letter to the editor
published on this page. The idea of
CLC President Joe Morris : apolo-
gising to Mr. Trudeau would be dif-
ficult to imagine, but on closer
examination, the writer may have a
valid point.
For years the CLC bitterly con-
demned successive Canadian
governments for not recognizing the
Communist Peking government as
the official government of China.
It scored these governments for
following the ludicrous policy of the
Americans, who ignored Peking and
recognized the corrupt Nationalist
Party sitting on the Island of Taiwan,
as the official government of China.
Now that Canada recognizes
Peking, the government had no

AN APOLOGY DUE?

“other choice than to do what it

did. Olympics or no Olympics, the
Taiwanese could never be allowed to
represent themselves in Canada as
official members of the People’s
Republic of China.

The government stood firm on the
issue and was widely abused by
those who considered holding the
Olympics far more important than
Canada’s friendship with China.

The government took the only
proper stand under the circum-
stances. Accusations that the
decision was a political ploy to curry
favour with China, is just sheer
hogwash.

For Canada to break its word with
any country just to appease those
who place a higher value on a
sporting event than their country’s

honour, would indeed be the height . |

of folly.

Perhaps a lot more of us than just
the CLC owe the government an
apology for our silence on the issue.

:

.

eae Pes eee
_ Editor’s note:

| JAMAICA'S MANLEY TARGET
" OF BIG COMPANIES AND C./.A.

;

With. the exception of the
American news services, more
and more well respected
sources are reporting that
there is a concentrated effort

_ being made by the U.S. gov-
ernment and companies such
as Alcan, Reynolds and Kaiser
to defeat the social democratic
vernment of Prime Minister
Michael Manley in Jamaica.
The following article is
reprinted from Latin America
and Caribbean Inside Report.
While most Caribbean
countries are coping, with
difficulty, with high unemploy-
decreasing tourism and
litical

eleven months, the govern-
ment faces an election and
while predictions are that
Manley will have no trouble
returning to power, the opposi-
tion Jamaican Labour Party
(JLP) and other forces are
interested in preventing that
from occurring.

Manley is no Marxist, but his
land, education and trade
union reforms and nationalist
stand against the foreign-
owned bauxite companies,
particularly Alcan, Reynolds
and Kaiser, have made him
popular among the majority of
workers and peasants and
unpopular among the most
privileged sectors. The latter
are also running scared as they
see Manley forging closer ties
with Cuba, a country whose
material attractions among
Caribbean nations are great
and growing. After all,
nowhere else in the Caribbean
have unemployment, hunger,
illiteracy and bad housing been
so successfully tackled.
Opposition has therefore

some fundraising is being done
in Canada. Reynolds and
Kaiser have said they paid
bribes to politicians. A JLP
organizer and _ executive
member, Herb Rose, has
resigned and accused his
former party leaders of using
violence and arson ‘“‘for strik-
ing panic and driving fear into
the hearts of those who see
their property and personal
effects burnt to cinders.’’ He
also said he had seen JLP
leaders giving arms to the
tough young slum-dwellers of
West Kingston and “‘in certain
areas, youngsters being
coached to harrass the forces
of law and order.”’

In a May 12th speech,
Manley described the ‘‘destab-
ilization’’ taking place in
Jamaica as “‘the most incred-
ible and unexplained strikes,
the upsurge of unexplained
violence, organized letters to
the press, internationally orch-
estrated articles for news-
paper publication, economic
squeezes, slowing down and
entangling of aid.’’ In private,
government ministers say that
they have evidence that U.S.
intelligence is stirring up
strikes and violence in an
attempt to ensure the victory
of the JLP and its conservative
leader, Edward Seaga, in the

AUGUST-SEPTEMBER, 19

Let’s see... Mary Alice Smith .. . now what would a
girl with a sweet name like Mary Alice want with a

logging job?

Editor:

For years and years the
Canadian Labour Congress
and its affiliates condemned
successive federal govern-
ments for their position of
refusing to recognize the
People’s Republic Of China,
based in Peking under Com-
munist Party Leader Mao Tse
Tung, as the true government
of the Chinese people.

I raise this point because of
the recent dispute over the fed-
eral government’s position not
to allow Taiwan to represent
itself at the Montreal Olympie¢s
as the Republic Of China. The
Trudeau government decision
has caused great furor among
the western countries and
especially in the United States
where even Democratic Presi-
dential nominee Jimmy Carter
lashed out at the Canadian
government for its position.
However during all this crit-
icism and furor directed at the
government, the CLC re-
mained conspicuously quiet.

It is obviously not good
enough just to recognize a
nation, we must back such
recognition with trade agree-
ments, educational exchanges,

Middlesex

Spanish Towne

thet
tte

and support. The Canadian
government, although decidely
anti-labour, conducted itself in
manner. consistent with CLC
policy. That is the recognition
of the People’s Republic Of
China as the true government
of the Chinese people. It would
seem to me that allowing the
government to receive all the
flack for its actions on this
issue was not the proper thing
for the CLC to do.

The government’s decision
was an unpopular one with
many Canadians and I assume
among them -were a_ good
number of trade unionists.
However, the government was
basically following policy
approved by the CLC anditis .
my belief that the Congress
should have supported pub-
licly, the move by the govern-

‘ment to make the distinction

between Taiwan and the
People’s Republic Of China.

Under the circumstances
perhaps the CLC would not be
out of line or jeopardizing its
position by apologizing to the
government for the lack of sup-
port shown.

A READER

1s

r Port Antonio

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