candidates have been nominated to contest the next provincial elec-

ion, bringing the number of candidates nominated so far to five.
Named to run in the two-member riding of Vancouver East is Sam
Jr., a steamfitter and a member of the Plumbers Local 170. Vint,

will be running with Communist Party provincial leader Nigel

organ who was nominated last week. _
Rod Doran, a longshoreman employed at Robert's Bank, has. been
inated in the riding of New Westminster. Born in Glasgow, Doran
ne to this country in 1948 and has been active in labor in community
4irs for several years, having sat as president of the Prince Rupert
District Labor Council for three years. He is presently an
ecutive member. of the New Westminster and District Labor
ouncil. He is married with three sons and one daughter.

rth is Sean Griffin,

Y

= Organized labor continues to
‘Yoice jts opposition to the
‘Provincial government’s Bill 146,
i flatest reaction coming from the
| Duilding trades unions. Last wéek,
€ provincial council of Car-
nters annual conyention passed
; ee emergency resolution which
q “Ondemned the actions of the
- *arrett government for passing

‘

breaking legislation.

- pe carpenters further pledged

_,,. Sampaign vigorously to defend
| “l€rights that workers have to free
Collective bargaining” through the
q et Federation of Labor and the
|.°.C. and Yukon Building Trades

~ Council,:

The emergency resolution noted
} nat provincial NDP policy has
io orcally been one of opposition
Pe croment intervention in
tr or disputes and in defense of
Bi collective bargaining and that
.. 146 has shattered many
“forkers’ ‘trust and respect in the
\. government.”’

; tho vowing the carpenters’ meet,
Bp: 03000 member B.C. and Yukon
Wilding Trades Council met: in
“tre ention. Len Guy, secretary-
A Lapsurer of the B.C. Federation of
or reaffirmed that body’s

 qppesition to Bill 146 telling the

fe fine ‘Convention condemned the
chy al government wage controls
of aac that they had a total lack
Drofits to ‘control prices and
ot legates responded to a-plan to
or unemployment by en-
z pubis a call for developing
: thigesed owned: secondary in-
nati LY; nationalizing multi-
oN ‘corporations when plants
nies down, and starting a crash
€ram. to build more housing. |
legates tied the finai point of

Bill 146 and repudiated all the .
A’s who supported the strike _

Construction trades —
|teject wage controls

the employment expanding plan
with.a call for the establishment of
a- government sponsored housing
program which. would — provide
350,000 units per year. Such: a
housing program was termed
absolutely necessary in view of the
inability of the private housing
sector to build ‘“‘at- prices af-
fordable to the average wage
earner.”

The parley also planned further

action towards the establishment

“More CP candidates U.S. experience shows
enter election race | }

The B.C. Communist Party announced this week that three more

inequities of controls.

With the ‘federal Liberal
government determined to impose
its wage control program on
Canadian workers it would be well
to recall the U.S. experience with
its 2-1/2 year wage and price

- control program which expired

April 30, 1974.

~The U.S. legislation which set up‘
the legal framework for controls
was Called _ the
Stabilization Act. Under it the
Nixon administration pledged to
hold down prices and wages and to
bring inflation under control. In-
troduced late in 1971, the U‘S.

~ government allowed the Act to die

on its expirty date in 1974 after it
had become completely
discredited. SA

In his 1974 Economic Report of
the President, Richard Nixon was
forced to acknowledge that “‘it is
difficult to believe that controls

_ have had a significant effect in
‘ reducing the rate of inflation.” But

it was not possible for him to deny

their success in preventing wages ~

from rising to a level that would
otherwise have prevailed if wage
controls had not been imposed.
U.S. statistics show that the
average wage adjustment in 1973
in the U.S. was less than half that
realized in 1971, despite double the
rate of price increases in the same
period. az

U.S. labor’s reaction to the

‘controls was summed up in. an

editorial in The Dispatcher, organ

of the International Longshore-

man’s and Warehouseman’s Union
(ILWU) oh April 5, 1974. Here are
excerpts from that editorial:

“The program was an enormous
failure. . . It did precious little to
restrain inflation’ - by many in-
dexes 1973 was the most in-

_flationary peace-time year since
-1948. The consumer price index

was up over six per cent, food

_priees were up 15 per cent.

“For what it’s worth, those of us

“who opposed the program from the -

start can take some satisfaction in
the thought that the course of
events convinced most people that
we were right — holding down

of.a.National Council of Building: - wages and making a few token

Trades in Canada, a goal which
they said had been actively. pur-
sued over the years by officers of
the B.C. and Yukon Council.

In final convention business, Cy
Stairs“was reelected. to another
three-year term as president of'the
council. All other officers will be

slashes at prices simply missed the
point. gc fe
- “On the other hand, the program

could be seen as a success. The
Nixon administration was able to

place the blame for this inflation on

the shoulders of American working

people and make it stick. Even

Economic -

many workers and their families
bought the argument. :

“The early seventies were very
heavy collective bargaining years

for U.S. industry - literally millions _

of workers were affected by
contracts negotiated in all the
major industries. From the point of
view of the employers who pumped
millions into the President’s
campaign fund, the effect of
controls on thése negotiations was
remarkably good.

“In 1971 the average wage in-
crease came to 11.6:per cent; in
1972 it was-7.3 per: cent, and_last
year it was down to 5.6 per cent.
And over the whole of 1973 the

purchasing power of American
workers declined by three per cent
as a result of wage-price controls.

“The fact that controls’ are -

being weakened or abandoned
(after 2-1/2 years) may only Mean
that in the eyes of the ad-
ministration and big business they
have done their job on labor and
are no longer necessary . . .”

Will history be allowed to repeat
itself — this time in Canada? Price
and wage controls as administered
by capitalist governments always
end as controls on wages, while
profits and prices keep going up.
This was also the experience in
Britain. Don’t let it happen here.

Fred Wilson, outgoing provincial
secretary of the B.C. Young

Communist League, told delegates _

to last weekend’s provincial
convention of the YCL “‘we are.
confident that our organization is
healthy, strong and growing. The
policies which we will adopt, and
the tasks and objectives that we
will set at this convention are
based on this optimistic view.”

Wilson made his comments in
introducing the report of the
provincial council of the League
which summarized — today’s
political situation and _ the
responsibilities which that
situation places on the growing
YCL organization. :

The report welcomed the
socialist direction which countries
such as Portugal, Mozambique,
Guinea Bissau, and South Vietnam
have recently taken and pledged
‘solidarity to these peoples. As well,
the report noted that ‘“‘even in the
last bastions of fascism, in Spain
and Chile, there are powerful
revolutionary movements
awaiting their time.

“There is a. world movement
towards socialism’? the report
said, ‘‘and our work-in B.C. is in
step with the march of the entire
world.”

Referring directly to the
situation in B.C., the report praised
the ‘‘general improvement in
social services’? which the NDP
government -has introduced in its
three years in office, but expressed
bitter disappointment in some of

elected néxt year in Victoria.

Members of the Y
“the Hastings Community Cent

oung Communist League as they discussed policy at the annual provincial convention in
re last weekend. :

—Sean Griffin photo”

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—OCTOBER 31, 1975—Page 3

B.C. YCL convention:
charts new

campaigns
its. most recent actions,
ticularly Bill 146. ‘‘Still,”’ the
report said, ‘‘all of the basic
problems of a capitalist system
“remain in B.C.” and pointed to the
continuing housing crisis, high
unemployment, and inadequate
‘minimum wage as proof of that
assertion.

The convention: delegates

unanimously adopted a resolution .

condemning the © provincial
government for introducing Bill
146 and going along with the
federal government’s wage freeze.
The resolution called upon the
federal and provincial - govern-
ments to withdraw both pieces of
legislation as they ‘“‘represented
nothing more than further attacks
against the working people of
Canada and threats to free
collective bargaining.”

In another resolution, the con-
vention rejected the plans of the
Surrey Municipal Council to in-.
troduce a curfew by-law for those
under 16 and their intention to
fingerprint and photograph so
called ‘‘juvenile offenders.”’ The
resolution demanded that instead
of stiffer punitive measures,

council should greatly “expand

community recreation facilities
and programs to get at the root
causes of the problem.”
Among a number of other
resolutions were -those greeting
International Women’s Year and
calling for government action to
ensure that-the status of “women
was one of ‘equality in fact as well
as in law’ and another calling for

’ the immediate release of all
Chilean political prisoners.”
“Delegates also mapped -out a_

plan of work for the next period of

time which stressed the uniting —
and building of a youth movement
- aS a prime goal. - : fd

The plan of work re-affirmed the
YCL’s intention to press for
changes in the minimum wage law
to remove © discriminatory

classifications for workers under
18 and to raise the minimum wage _

level to $4.00 per hour.
Additionally, the convention
decided to pursue an even more
vigorous educational program as
well as initiate several new

political campaigns.

A new seven member provincial ~

council was elected with Marty
Smith named as_ provincial
secretary, and Mike Gidora
elected as provincial chairman to
replace Sean Griffin who stepped
down from that position after
serving on the (YCL) provincial
council for the last five years, the
last three as chairman. of the
League..

par-~

seventies