BUSINESSMEN ACT FOR |

(a preliminary estimation of the newl
its contribution and

By NELSON CLARKE

The formation of a Committee
for an Independent Canada ap-
pealing for the signatures of
100,000 Canadians in support of
its policies, has aroused con-
siderable public interest.

That interest has flowed in
good part from the personalities
involved — a leading- French
Canadian editor, a prominent
publisher in English Canada,
and with ex-Finance Minister
Walter Gordon as _ honorary
chairman.

But of first importance as in
all such developments, is the
program by which the Commit-
tee defines its aims, and on
which it seeks support.

Briefly summarized this pro-
gram calls for:

1. Opposition to the “unsatis-
factory” present level of foreign
Ownership of the economy, draw-
ing “special attention to the
field of natural and in particular
energy resources.” An imme-
diate objective is creation of a
Canada Development corpora-
tion, “to foster greater participa-
tion by Canadians in the autono-
mous growth of their country.”

2. Greater allocation of re-
sources—both public and private
—to the less developed regions
of the country.

3. Safeguarding Canadian con-
tent in the mass media.

4. “Trade unions must have
the autonomy necessary for
them to reflect the aspirations
of their Canadian membership.”

5. “The streets and buildings
that surround us must be the
product of the Canadian imagina-
tion.”

6. A strengthened fight against
pollution, “emphatically” includ-
ing “the protection of Canadian
jurisdiction in our Arctic.”

7. Policies designed to ensure
a Canadian orientation in both
personnel and curriculum must
be given urgent priority in our
educational institutions.

8. A general foreign policy de-
signed to ensure Canadian inde-
pendence must be formulated by
our government.

The further focussing of public
attention on the above issues by
this Committee will undoubtedly
be useful. The intensification of

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its limitations in the fig

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AMERICAINS/

Fourteen years ago (June 1956); our photo shows part of the Com-

munist Party (then Labor Progressive Party) delegation te Ottawa

for an all-Canada gas pipeline.

the great debate about the future
of Canada is of critical impor-
tance to progress in this country.

But it should also in my opin-
ion be noted by the labor move-
ment, and all other left wing
forces that this is a program de-
signed to strengthen the inde-
pendent, capitalist development
of Canada.

e

For example, the Canadian
Development Corporation (so
long dear to the heart of Walter
Gordon) could be an important
instrument in transferring back
into the hands of the Canadian
people resources, energy sources
and industries which have been
sold out to the United States.

It could also be a means of
helping certain relatively smaller
Canadian capitalists to expand
their holdings and grow larger,
and more monopolized. Hu Har-
ries, MP, a former Edmonton
economist speaking to the Cana-
dian Chamber. of Commerce in
Vancouver on Sept. 23 said that
“Ownership of Canadian Nation-
al Railways, Polymer Corpora-
tion Ltd., and Air Canada will
move partly to private investors
through the proposed Canada
Development Corporation .. .

“The federal government will
move these Crown corporations
partly into private ownership

-because of its own need for

The election folder of the Labor Progressive Party, now the Com-
munist Party, issued in the federal elections of 1953 in which the

Party put forward 100 candidates.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE=-FRIDAY, OCTOBER 2, 1970—PAGE 6

capital .. . Some see the CDC as
an attempt to get government
into business but it could be an
attempt to get government out
of business.”

The Committee for an Inde-
pendent Canada does nothing to
dissociate itself from the line of
reasoning of this Liberal mem-
ber of parliament.

In some critical areas, the
Committee’s Manifesto lapses
into vagueness. One would like
to know a little more about what
this committee considers to be
“the autonomy necessary... to
reflect the aspirations of” the
Canadian trade union member-
ship. Some capitalist politicians
have taken to twisting this laud-
able objective into the means of
attacking international unions
which are exercising powerful
pressure on the bosses’ profits,
as the United Automobile Work-
ers are now doing to General
Motors.

What does the committee
mean by an “independent foreign
policy”? What about Canadian
complicity in Vietnam? What
about our relations with the
Caribbean and.Latin America,
and the Organization of Ameri-
can States; what about a Euro-
pean security pact — so much
feared by the Washington cold
warriors? ~

@

Now who are some of the peo-
ple who produced this program?

Jack McClelland of McClelland
and Stewart, one of the largest
Canadian publishers personally
very interested in strengthening
his ability to meet the competi-
tion of U.S. books.

John C. Parkin, president of
Parkin Associates, architects
and planners, personally very in-
terested that the buildings that
surround us be the product of
Canadian imagination.

J. H. Moore, chairman of John

Labatt Ltd. and President of
Brascan. Labatt’s recently beat
off a U.S. take-over. The Cana-
dian interests in Brascan one
may suspect, are having some
problems with increasing U.S.
interest in their company which
has long been one of the main
reflections of Canadian imper-
ialist activities in Brazil.

Edwin A. Goodman and Alvin
Hamilton—active spokesmen for
Canadian nationalism within the
Tory party.

Peter C. Newman, Editor-in-
chief of the Toronto Star — the
biggest newspaper in Canada,
here acting one can safely as-
sume as the ‘collective organiz-
er” for the particular group of
class interests represented in the
GIG:

Of some special interest is the
presence on the committee of
Eamon Park, assistant to the
National Director, United Steel-
workers of America. One cannot
avoid the nasty suspicion that
Mr. Park feels more comfortable
in this company than with. Mel
Watkins and the rest of the left
wing in the New Democratic

Party of which he is a long time -

member.
r)

Even more interesting is the
presence on the Committee, as
one of its co-chairmen, of Claude
Ryan, the Editor of Le Devoir.
Mr. Ryan in the context of the
politics of French Canada has
been a federalist, a leading jour-
nalist who has sought to side-
track the demand for the funda-
mental changes in the relations
between the two nations which
are necessary if Canada is to
survive, while at the same time
sternly warning English Cana-
dians that the “menace of sep-
aratism” continues to be very
much alive.

The joining together of this
spokesman for French Canadian
capitalist forces, with similar
forces in English Canada in this

expression of common concern

over U.S. domination is certain-
ly one of the newest and most
significant aspects of the forma-
tion of the Committee for an
Independent Canada. The labor
and progressive movement could
well take note of this example.
e

Thus the Committee for an In-
dependent’ Canada has _ been
formed. It speaks for what
Marxist-Leninists call in their
scientific terminology the nation-

Labor-farmer unity

I ea

NDEPENDENCE

y formed Committee for an independent Canada —
ht against U.S. domination.)

al bourgeoisie. Its program #
designed to serve the interests
of this class grouping. It reflects
certain contradictions within thé
ruling class of Canada, the ™
sistance of at least a small S
tion of that class to the betray4
and sell-out of our country PY
the big Canadian monopolies:
And this it must be emphasize
again is all to the good. 4
But Canadian patriots shoul
be clear on what the new Com:
mittee represents, and what i$
limitations are. : ;
More than that, in my opinion,
it is necessary to recognize quite
clearly that this grouping of 1
tional bourgeois forces has n&
ther the strength nor the PI
gram to effectively tackle t®
job of leading the way to Can®
dian independence. :
This is nowhere more obviou
than in their evasion of the 2&
cessity of a program of wide
nationalization of the great US.
trusts in Canada, particulatly
those operating in the decisiv®
areas of energy and resources:
This is the ground on which th
Communist Party of Canada has
stood for almost a quarter 0
century. It is the ground 0
which the new left wing of thé
NDP is taking up its positions

and thus presenting a challenge —

to right wing social democracy
such as we have not seen sine
the thirties.

It is this ground which the
working class of Canada, and il
democratic allies must mov
firmly on to, because it is this
class, and this class alone that
in our times can lead our 14
tions to independence, and
through independence to social-
ism.

Several lessons seen

Writing in the Union Farmer,
Official organ of the National
Farmers Union, R. S. Reid
points out that cooperation be-
tween workers and farmers on
the picket line, if understood,
can turn the workers and farm-
ers, united, into an “irresistable
force.”

He says,

“Several lessons should be
quite apparent from recent farm
union picketing actions in On-
tario and the Peace River Coun-
try. Three lessons, at least, may
be learned from the response of
organized labor to these activ-
ities.

“One lesson is that labor peo-
ple are not the self-centred ir-
responsible villains the establish-
ment press has long made them
out to be. Workers in the picket-
ed factory at Ingersoll sacrificed
wages, and put their jobs in jeo-
pardy in respecting the farmers’
picket lines.

“Transportation workers and
warehousemen in both areas
have given active support by re-
fusing to handle “hot” cargoes.
There was nothing in it for them

directly but these people believe ~

they have an individual personal
responsibility to support envone
who is resisting exploitation.
They know that the exploited
can only escave exploitation by
sticking together.

“That's the second lesson. La-
bor peonle understand the mean-
ing of ‘solidaritv.’ All it takes to
activate them is the knowledge
that someone is pushing hack
against the oppressors. When

the chips are down they dont }

waste time asking questions. A
they need to know is that 4

picket line is operating. They —

don’t cross it and they don't
handle cargo that has crossed it:
There lies their strength and thé
root of their effectiveness.
Effectiveness: that’s lesson
number three. By all the rules 9
past experience the powderé
milk picketing in Ontario had n?
right to succeed. It was unplan-
ned and lacked sufficient nun
bers. The company should havé
been able to hold out without
difficulty. Instead, the company

_ was brought quickly to the bal

gaining table because organize

workers in many trades gav& |

immediate, active support 1
both the picket line and thé
subsequent boycott. The Ontarl0
action owed its success, in 4
very large measure, to the c0-
operation of organized labor.

“Farmers have much to lear!
from organized labor about thé
strategy, tactics and philosophy
of collective bargaining. If they
learn well such lessons as thé
meaning and practice of solidat-
ity, they will be able to do much
for themselves in terms of get-
ting more equitable prices.

“The really hopeful prospect.
however, is in the lesson that
both groups can learn. If they
realize what an irresistable force
they represent when thev get t0o-
gether they can take idle words
out of the mouths of politicians
and turn them into reality. The¥
can make Canada a truly ‘just
society.”

he