MAY DAY REVIEW OF PAST YEAR

Labor must play bigger role in
fight for peace, social advance

By CHARLES CARON

May Day’s historic significance
is-best commemorated by review-
ing our activities for peace and
social advance. This approach is
Ponsistent with the a‘ms and
struggles of the Haymarket vict-
ims who died for the eight-hour

In past years Canadians have
been very much a part of the
great international struggles. At
the centre of that world struggle
is world peace and independence
for many countries, including
ours. Canada’s involvment in the
war plans of the United States

has proven disastrous for us.,It _

has resulted in the economic and
military subordination of our
country, and the worst political
crisis in our history.

United States economic control
over the Canadian economy has
assumed great proportions. In
1960 it had reached 55.8% of the
key sector of our economy, and
has been greatly extended since.
In B.C. this process of concentra-
tion of capital under U.S. control
{'s_ most jextensive. Since 1950
eight large B.C. cpmpanies in the
wood and paper products industry
have been taken over by USS.
firms, with Crown Zellerback get--
ting five out of the eight.

U.S. control over our resources
also extends to minerals, petrol-
eum and natural gas, etc. The
struggle over the Columbia River
is an example of the insatiable
appetite of the U.S. trusts to gain
still greater economic control of
Canada.

Robert B. Pamplin, president
of Georgia Pacific Corporation of
Portland, on April 8th, told the

- Pacific Northwest Trade Associa-
tion that, ‘‘full union .between
- Canada and the U.S. is most de-
’ sirable. This is important for sur-
vival’’, he said. ‘In view of chang-
ing parties in power and the in-
' dividuals running government, we
are constantly having trouble co-
ordinating our national defence.”
ha ae born Mr. Pamplin said,
“This could easily be accomplish-
‘ed if the Canadian provinces
should elect to become states.”
Pamplin is proposing that Can-

ada should be broken up for the.

U.S. trusts to colonize us.

U.S. domination over the econo-

mic life of Canada has proven
‘most beneficial to the U.S. mon-
opolies. Profits for the third quart-
er of 1962 were up approximately
$80 million over the same period
_ for 1961. These super profits were
not reinvested in Canada to
provide new industries and jobs,
but were exported to the U.S.
Against this, labor income show-
ed a decline for a period in 1962,
notwithstanding labor’s increased
productivity. :
NEW PROBLEMS
Automation and speedup pose
new problems for the unions. The

labor force is being drastically cut

The wood-working industry alone
has been reduced by close to 6000
workers in the past 10 years.
While in hardrock mining, the
labor force has been cut from
8,094 to 3,741 in the 8 years ended
in 1960. However, these 3,741 men

‘produced almost as much as the ©

8,094 men were able to produce
in 1952. :

In February there were 52,000
unemployed in B.C.—8 per cent
of the labor force. Mass unemploy-
ment has become a permanent
feature of the Canadian economy.

both Liberal and Conservative —
to subordinate Canada to the U.S.,
poses a great challenge to the
working class. The question is:
Will labor rise to meet the chal-
lenge?

The working class in this per-
iod of sharpening struggles can-
not be satisfied with its past role.
In fact, its failure to adequately
cope with the economic and politi-
_cal problems has resulted in ap-
athy in the trade union movement.

This lack of leadership was il-
lustrated in the last I.W.A. nego-
tiations in B.C. The leadership
fought against the inclusion of
‘shorter hours of work in. the
union’s ‘bargaining demands, al-
though this was pressed for by
the membership. Then, when it
came to the overall settlement on
wages, and vacations with pay,
the leadership was most anxious
to accept the mediator’s proposal.
This, despite the fact that Mac-
Millan - Bloedel’s increase in
profits for the past year were

TWICE THE AMOUNT OF THE
WAGE DEMANDS OF THE EM-
PLOYEES.

A similar ‘“‘do - nothing’ ap-
proach to anti-labor legislation
was shown by the B.C. Federation
of Labor leadership. At the spring
session of the Legislature, noth-
ing was done, although Iabor
councils in the province called for

demonstrative action against this ©

legislation.

NEED UNITY ;

Obviously, if labor is to cope
with the situation it must unite
its forces for struggle. This means
_ putting an end to cannibalism
and jurisdictional wars, which are

he South African Communist
Party in a call for firm
resolute and revolutionary act:
Rion by the oppressed African
majority, warns that the count-
§ ry is heading for ‘civil’ war.

In a statement, the under-
y ground party’s central commit-

) tee declares the people ‘will —

QUEUES FOR PASSES. Every African woman as well
as.men must carry a pass — the badge of enslave-
ent. Picture shows women lined up outside the

the basis of disunity in the labor
unions. Attacks made on Mine

Mill by the Steel Union and sec- .

tions of the Building Trades lead-
ership prove the best ally for
monopoly attacks on the working.
class.

There is also a mounting de-
mand for trade union autonomy.
This is important and most nec-
essary. In some instances the
leadership of international unions
tried to block or influence political
action of Canadian locals. In the
Federal elections the international
president of the Oil, Chemical and
Aomic Workers’ Union, Mr.
Knight, did precisely that. He de-

-manded that Canadian unionists

support nuclear weapons for Can-
ada. This was outright interference
in Canadian affairs, and as such
was rejected.

However, the struggle for trade
union autonomy must be carried
on in such a way that it contri-
butes to the overall strengthening
of labor, rather than premature
acions which further split and
weaken labor. Trade union auton-
omy is ‘an integral part of the
fight for Canadian independence.
And, in fact, can only be won
within that context.

MILITANCY WINS

An outstanding example of the
type of leadership we need in the
trade union movement was dem-
onstrated in the Allied Engineer--
ing struggle. This struggle waged
on the political and economic
fronts showed clearly the relation-
ship of forces in present labor-
management struggles. We wit-
nessed a combination of govern-
ment anti-labor legislation, the
judiciary (injunctions and prison
terms), big business (Chamber of
Commerce, the daily press, polit-
ical parties of Liberals, Conserv-
atives and Socreds), all conspir-
ing to prevent labor from getting

~

-a decent standard of living.

In spite of that, united militant
action by the unions ‘won out.

Labor unions must provide a
higher level of leadership if they
are to stop the downward trend

of their influence and the decline _

in trade union membership. In
1958 there were 234,000 members
as compared to 217,000 in 1962.

ake bold initiatives against
ene merging every local
and partial struggle into a
might:’ river of people’s insur-
rection that will sweep away
minority white rule and win
people’s rule in a free South
1 Africa.”

imprisonment.

The people of South Africa.

“YOU'RE SQUEEZING MY PROFITSI”

> WAGE DENT PUTS SQUEEZE ON PROFITS

This decline should be a serious ~

cause for reflection on the part
of trade union leadership. Labor
unity on the economie and polit-
ical front is the goal that labor
must achieve if it is to be effect-
ive and extend its influence.

_ Canadians have just participat-
ed in one of the most decisive
elections in the history of our
country. The issue was whether
U.S. interference would involve
Canada still more completely in
the war plaans of the U.S. trusts.

After precipitating the parlia-

mentary crisis, U.S. monopoly in-
terests poured millions of dollars
into the Canadian elections in
support of the Liberals. They

perverted practically all agencies —

of propaganda. They distorted,
lied and intimidated. Still the peo-
ple stood up. The election results
failed to give the Liberals the
majority government sought by
the U.S. monopolies for a free
hand in Canadian affairs. That in
itself is an important victory. ©
NEED POLITICAL ACTION

Nevertheless, the labor move-:

ment cannot stop there. The im-
perative need in Canadian politics
today is for the working class to
take independent political action
to realize the kind of policy Can-
ada requires. Election results
show that the working class of this
country still fails to see the old-
line parties and the Socreds as in-.
struments of the monopolies. The
task of leadership is, consequent-

“are looking to illegal organi-
zations like the African National
Congress and the Communist
Party aor Reap custp and liber-
ation.’

_ Within South Africa, despite
the massive - appearing ever -
erpwing state machine of domi-
nation ‘and repression, the bal-—

pass office in a city in S. Africa. Some women stood
in line for three days. Without the pass they face

against the oppressing minority.

rural people against the fraudu-

' declares that exclusively \non-

- of use.

_ April 26, 1963—-PACIFIC TRIBUNE—Page

ly to bring labor into political

action in support of the program
it requires. In the process of
this struggle the lesson will be
brought home that the working
class and democratic forces alone
are capable of providing Canada

with the policies and government —

that she needs.

Development of such policies —

and programs have to be con-
cretely related to the industries
in which their members are work-
ing. This is being done to some
degree in a number of industries.

The United Fishermen and Allied

Workers Union has for a number
of years fought to protect our fish-
eries. The Mine Mill and Smelter
Workers union calls for the pro-
cessing of Canadian minerals in
Canada. The Marine Workers and
Boilermakers Union has’ made
representation to the federal gov-
ernment for the construction of
-a Canadian merchant fleet. This
is the direction in which the trade
‘union movement must go. In
order to realize that kind of policy
it will be necessary for Canad-
jan unions to assert their auton-
omy against U.S. interference.
As the drive to war and sub-
ordination of Canada is extended
by the U.S.-Canadian oligarchy,
the leading role of the working

class becomes more apparent and

necessary in the fight for peace

and Canadian independence.
This is the lesson that is im-

pressed on us on May Day, 1963.

REGIME FOSTERS CIVI

WAR

ance of forces issteadily chang-
ing in favor of the people and
their liberation forces and

The Communist Party sees
the general political struggle
‘taking a triple-pronged attack on
apartheid: the struggle against
the pass laws, the fight for higher
wages for the African workers
and the mass upsurge of the

lent ‘‘Bantustans’” now being
created to partition South Af-
rica. —

Together ‘these iubgiee pro.
vide therevolutionary conditions
for winning a democratic and
free South Africa. The statement

violent methods are no longer

“The Nationalist government
(of Dr. Verwoerd) cannot suc-
ceed in its atempts to check the
awakened people of our country
in their irresistible drive to
freedom: they can only succeed
in making that struggle more
bitter and bloody.” :