Lill : Im L ml s ale Ae Et all u i : 2 { 1 Ut } tr et Hn sent bemebiemeteaA eh Paes Mies et eM til 25 years ago... ' BARBERSHOP RACISM A message to Mayor Alan Lamport of Toronto urging ac- tion to prevent a recurrence of racial discrimination was sent from a public meeting held in the Mine Mill hall in Sudbury and sponsored by Local 598’s Civil Liberties and Minority _ Rights Committee. The message condemned the refusal of a Toronto barber to serve S. Thava Rajah, a Malayan Trade Union official visiting that city. Mayor Lamport re- plied that he was “whole-heart- edly in accord” with the views expressed by the meeting and that the Toronto police commis- sion would deal with the matter in a view to taking action under the city’s by-law forbidding ra- cial discrimination — a law fought through Council by Norman Freed and Charlie Sims. : Tribune Nov. 17, 1952 ‘FLASHBACKS FROM . ) THE COMMUNIST PRESS 50 years ago... ROB THE WORKERS, THEN GIVE ’EM CHARITY If the workers owned and con- trolled the government there would be no such thing as charity. The workers would be able to use the whole amount now taken from them as profits for their own benefit. They would be able to provide their own hospitals, sanatoria, and means of recreation. They would be able to provide their own insurance for their old age and possible unemployment. In- stead of. going to institutions as paupers, they would go as own- ers of the establishments and be able to demand _ proper treatment. If the workers want to do away with charity, they must organize and struggle to rid themselves of those parasites who now rob them of the fruits of their labor and then return a very little bit of it to them as charity. The Worker, — Nov. 19, 1927 a ‘Let’s Keep Corporate profits rise 17 This Private!’ per cent rn. date te try hed third qy ing \ \ PACIFIC TRIBUNE—NOVEMBER 25, 1977—Page 4 EIDITORILAIL COMIMUENT RCMP mirrors the system | The manoeuvers taking place in par- liament over the illegal activities of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police are not- able not only for what they reveal, but for - what they try to cover up. The Liberals threaten to legalize the illegal acts of the police instead of agre-. eing to democratic control over them. At least it distracts attention, they hope, from the new cost-of-living jump, mass unemployment, a faultering economy and sterility on the question of Canadian unity. The Tories, hoping to boost Joe Clark’s election stocks, careful not to of- fend reactionary supporters of police spying and harassment, want to confine it to an anti-Liberal campaign. What both old parties fear is that with the exposure of the RCMP as thieves, arsonists, peeping toms, and _black- mailers, the public might see that this, is the essence of the capitalist system. There are two roads open. The Com- munist Party demands democratic con- trol by parliament of the RCMP, and the strict application of civil law to the milit- ary. The expression of democratic public opinion is of utmost importance to pre- vent, further violations. This does not alter: the fact that a government of a democratic coalition of forces will be needed to really cope with these systema- tic attacks on human rights. The ingrained right-wing, anti-labor, and racist traditions of the RCMP, its functioning as a law unto itself is real and dangerous. But the long line of jus- tice ministers’ and solicitors-general — Liberal and Tory — who have encour- aged illegal police deeds bear equal guilt. Did the RCMP become pure and demo- cratic under a Tory government? Not a bit. ; ‘ Under the guise of fighting subver- sives, the RCMP undermines the rights of French Canadians, Native people, trade unionists, the New Democratic Party, the Communist Party, and untold immigrants. While these are being spied on, hounded, blackmailed, the RCMP al- ways protects business, the multi- - nationals, the wealthy, however despica- ble their deeds — right up to pro- fiteering from lung cancer. The system is sick and the RCMP af- fair is one symptom. More unity of unemployed You can’t eat statistics. Nor can work- ers and their families build any kind of rational or secure life on them. It isn’t statistics, but the common problem shared by more than a million Canadians forced into unemployment by govern- ment policies, that is giving impetus to the fightback. The fight is on in an or- ganized way to wring from the govern- ment both jobs and the means to main- tain family and personal life. Workers and their unions, on the level of labor councils and provincial federa- tions are now coming into battle on the unemployment issue in widespread parts of Canada. Unity of the unemployed, and of the unemployed with those still working, pooling their experience, funds and political wallop is excellent — exactly what is needed. It will grow into a power- ful alliance as more labor councils and federations join in. In the Maritimes, Sydney, Halifax, the Nova Scotia Federation, working with a variety of groups, has taken a firm, demonstrative hand in organizing the unemployed. In Ontario, the Brampton Full Em- ployment Committee, launched with a $20,000 grant from Brampton Labor Council, was echoed this month _ by Oshawa Labor Council’s decision to “bring the unemployed together to start helping themselves. The committee es- tablished will do a public education job, and help the jobless to deal with gov- ernment bureaucracy. Excellent responses like these to the crisis policies of the ruling-class corpora- tions and their governments are equal- led in British Columbia. A special com- mittee of the B.C. Federation of Labor decided to hire a co-ordinator to pull together unemployed plans and actions, and to hold a mass rally early in 1978. This paper will use its pages to the utmost to aid in the exchange of infor- mation and to publicize the activities and programs of such committees for jobs, and organizations of the unemployed across Canada. ; The_fight against this scourge of the working people deserves the unity of the entire trade union and labor movement. Whatever a worker’s long range view for | society, it is a weapon in his hand to know that unemployment is a disease 0 capitalism; there is no unemployment in socialist societies, where powerful tradé union movements take a hand if law-making. The heavy guns of the apologists fot the multi-nationals and home-growP corporations are turned point-blank o? Canadian workers and their unions to- day, defending mass layoffs and cut backs. The organizations of the unemployed springing up around the labor moveé- ment’ are a much-needed militant re sponse. They should be given every support. A Mideast question Whatever the expressions of mutual admiration at the expected Sadat-Beg!” meeting, whatever the lyricism about @ journey for peace, the question hone! observers should ask is; What does it 40] | for a Mideast peace including the legit” mate rights of the Palestinian Arabs! The world should ensure that thosé rights don’t depend on the ethics ? Messrs. Sadat and Begin.