CP. convention

LABOR RIGHTS
_KEY RESOLUTION

Asked by the Tribune about
resolutions which will be com-
ing before the Communist
Party’s 20th Convention which
is opening April 4 in Toronto,
Alf Dewhurst, the party’s labor
secretary, said that two impor-
tant ones were on a Labor Bill
of Rights and a program against
poverty.

“When dealing with anti-labor
legislation,” he said, “we see
two aspects. The first is the at-
tack to cripple the bargaining
power of the workers and
unions. The other, is the aware-
ness by monopolies of the grow-
ing radicalization in the labor
movement, the fact that demands
go beyond wages and conditions
of work to challenge the power
of monopoly.”

“Monopoly fears the danger
inherent in developing conscious-
ness,” he continued, “and this
underlies its drive for crippling
legislation.”

The resolution, according to
Dewhurst, warns the labor move-
ment that this second aspect
must be taken into account.

He said, “We feel we should
more and more bring out this
aspect, which others don’t talk
about so much.”

He referred to the experience
in B.C. in the fight against Bill
33 which “while big and fairly
united,” he said, “presented no
alternative.”

“There is need to present an
alternative,” he said, “since it
is important to give no sugges-
tion that the present legislation
is okay, which is not true.”

Dewhurst also pointed out that
Saskatchewan has just brought
in a law that says that after a
strike has gone on thirty days
the employer or any worker can
petition to take a vote on the
final offer of the company. This,
plus B.C.’s Bill 33, the Rand Re-
port and the rumors of the con-
tent of the Woods Commission
proposals add up to anti-labor
legislation at both provincial and
federal governmental levels,
Asked about the proposals

that the convention will discuss
in relation to the Labor Bill of
Rights, Dewhurst outlined them
as follows:

e “Gainful employment and a
guarantee of rising annual in-
come; $2.50 an hour minimum
wage; the same pay for the same
job opportunity to both men and
women; maternity and sick leave
pay, shortened work week and
security in employment.

e “Unfettered right to peace-
ful assembly, to strike, and to
picket to protect jobs,

© “Right to collective bargain-
ing on all measures arising out
of technological change thus im-
plementing basic demands of
the Freedman Report.

e “Right to strike during the
term of the agreement if bar-
gaining can’t resolve matters,

e “Right to take all measures
necessary to protect health and
safety of workers on the job,

e “Right to a meaningful say
on all economic and social ques-
tions affecting labor and an ade-
quate share in the benefits aris-
ing from technological change,
rationalization of technical pro-
cess and automation,

e “Right to leisure through
extended vacations and more
paid holidays,

e “Right to a comfortable
and secure retirement at 60 if
so desired by retiree.”

“The Communist Party,” he
added, “is doing everything to
help weld sufficient forces to
win these aims and above all to
win modification of these mea-
sures in the laws of Canada,
Quebec and the provinces.”

Turning to the other resolution
on a program against poverty,
Dewhurst said the basic ques-
tion is to work towards a guar-
anteed annual income but that
labor should give up nothing of
present benefits until that goal
has been achieved.

The resolution states, he said,
that poverty, insecurity and war
are warp and woof of the capi-
talist system. .. .The system
generates poverty even under

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CIFIC TRIBUNE MARCH'21 "1969" Page 20

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conditions of high economic acti-
vity, and unemployment grows
as price inflation increasts. Usu-
rious rents steal food from the
tables of working people, and
home ownership is beyond the
reach of all but a high-incomed
minority. Medical services are
extortionately priced, and are
available to poor people only
under conditions of declared pau-
perization.

“The final conquest of poverty,
insecurity and war will come
when the people of our country,
headed by the working class, de-
termine to take their future in
their own hands, and through
building a socialist society, make
public need the high purpose and
aim of all people. The Commu-
nist Party of Canada is dedicat-
ed to this aim, which is in ac-
cord with the historical direc-
tion of the working class of our
country, and the international
working class.

“The Communist Party, how-
ever, has never taken a position
that significant advance cannot
be made in struggle by the peo-
ple for their rights, needs, and
interests, within the framework
of the capitalist system. The
Communist Party unceasingly
works to organize and mobilize
the working people and their al-
lies to struggle for higher wages
and improved working condi-
tions, for social legislation to
meet social needs, and for poli-
cies which strengthens the basis
of world peace. Communists
view the struggle of the people,
and the gains they do make
through struggle, as invaluable
experiences through which class
consciousness and socialist aims
develop and deepen,

“The primary demands in the
fight against poverty must be for
economic development policies
which are based on a perspective
of full employment, taking into
full account regional problems
which require special measures,
the particular attention needed
to provide opportunities for
youth as they enter the work
force, extended and continuous
occupational training programs,
and re-organization of the edu-
cational system to fully harmon-
ize with these essential objec-
tives,

“Poverty and the problems
which flow from inadequate in-
comes cannot be tackled in terms
of any single social demand.
While a central demand must be
a guaranteed minimum income,
this would have little meaning
unless such an income provided
a living standard which makes
possible sufficient and adequate
food, clothing and shelter. This
will require a thorough restruc-
turing of the taxation systems in
Canada, somewhat along the
lines of the Carter Report recom-
mendations, which will make
possible a more equitable distri-
bution of total income — taking
from the large increments of
and _ redistributing
through transfer income to pro-
vide the basic needs of life.”

“The legislation that we pro-
pose,” Dewhurst concluded,
“would include the following:

e “A minimum wage of at

least $100 per 40-hour week, with

provision for’ its’ upward adjust: "'

Communists from Torus

said that

ment based on the consumer
price index,

e “Unemployment benefits to
provide 80 percent of normal
earnings for the duration of en-
forced unemployment, with em-
ployers making all necessary
contributions to the benefit fund.

e “The Canada Pension Plan
to be progressively increased to
ensure adequate retirement be-
nefits substantially above the
minimum guaranteed income,
periodically adjusted to reflect
the upward movement of the
consumer price index,

e “All Canadians to have fuil
medical, surgical and hospital
coverage as a matter of right,
with the costs being met through
general taxation, rather than

Protest Quebec
police raids —

The following statement was
given the Quebec Bureau of the
Canadian Tribune by Sam Walsh,
President of the Communist
Party of Quebec, concerning the
recent series of police raids in
Montreal:

“It is quite evident that the
police forces are using the pre-
text of the bombings in Montreal
to seek to intimidate members
and supporters of all progres-
sive organizations in Quebec.
Their concentration for the mo-
ment on organizations for friend-
ly relations with peoples of oth-
er countries, including those of
socialist countries, is in flat con-
tradiction with the declared pur-
pose. of the Canadian govern-
ment to improve relations with
these countries. If these raids
are permitted to go unchalleng-
ed by democratic public opinion
there will be the danger of slip-
ping rapidly into unbridled police
intimidation of everyone. It is
apparent, as a Montreal Star edi-
torial has indicated, that there is
a strong tendency to return to
the police-state methods of
Claude Wagner, the former at-
torney-general of Quebec. How-
ever much citizens may be op-
posed to terrorism and bomb-
ings, they must not permit these
to be used as the pretext for
destroying elementary civil lib-
erties.”

Dr. A. Paquin, president of the
Quebec-USSSR_ Association in
speaking of the raids made on
his home, office and on the head-
quarters of the cultural associa-
tion said that “under the pretext

‘of looking for bombs, thus seek-

ing to connect the Québec-USSR
Association and myself with the
recent acts of terrorism, they
proceeded to a minute scrutiny
and to the seizure of personal
books and papers. I strongly de-

Hamilton, Montreal and Ottawa picket.
ted on Parliament Hill, March 12th, in opposition to NATO. A state.
ment of their position was delivered to the Prime Minister,
of the opposition and the leader of the New Democratic

nounée” this -Unjustified “ proce-’°6f all articles.'seized,”: they

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the leade,
Party. They

“Canada's best interests would be served by withdrawing
from NATO and working for the dissolution of all military blocs,"

premiums based on ability to
pay,

e “Subsidized public housing
on a scale sufficient to ensure
proper accommodation for all |
requiring same, with rentals |
based on not reducing dispos.
able income below health and |
decency level,

e “A guaranteed minimum ip-
come related to the tax struc.
ture as an absolute right.”

Asked about labor representa. |
tion at the coming convention,
Dewhurst said that in line with
the party’s concentration on the
working class and in particular
its industrial sections, that he
expected a number of trade
unionists from across the coun- |
try would be in attendance.

dure whose purpose is to dis-
credit the Association and to |
intimidate our members and our
friends.”

“Quebec-USSR_ has _ always
functioned,” he added, “as a
body of cultural relations, with
the purpose of making known
to Quebecers the peoples of the
Soviet Union, their culture and
their history, and also of ac
quainting the Soviet peoples
with the history and the culture
of the people of Quebec.”

It is inadmissable, he added
that individuals and organiza
tions which strive for friendship
and a better understanding be
tween peoples should be at:
tacked, even in the name of jus-
tice. “Therefore,” he concluded,
“I ask all Quebec people to
strenuously oppose these. acts
of persecution.”

The Friends of the Latin
American Peoples Organization,
which was also raided, through
their president Jean Paré issued
a statement condemning the ac-
tions.

Our aims they said, “are to
seek a better understanding of
the social changes taking place |
in Latin America, promote
friendship, mutual exchange of
cultural, scientific and econd-
mic matters with similar orgal
izations in Latin America includ-
ing Cuba. ’

“We, as officers and executive
Board members of our organiza"
tion can only regard these raids
as acts of frustration and at
tempts by the police a la Dup-
lessis style to attack progressive
organizations.

“We call upon our fellow Can
adians as individuals and through
their organizations to protes'
these raids and for the retu