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Spain postpones vote

_ MADRID — Spain’s armed forces increased by 40% last week
as the fascist government conscri ted striking railway and postal
workers after they refused to retuth’to work. The conscripted men
are forced to wear’ badges showing théir army membership, but

are not given guns.

The strike movement that spread across the country continued,
and police crack-downs on strikes and demonstrations grew.

In Madrid Jan. 23 the fascist Council of the Realm voted against
Postponing’ the proposed March parliamentary “elections” in order
to prevent any changes in the election laws. The majority of posi-
tions in parliament are now appointed, and all political parties

except the fascists are banned.

Nationalize assets
of Douglas Aircraft

TORONTO — In a-statement
by its Central Committee, the
Communist Party of Canada re-
gistered its protest over the an-
nouncement last week that the
McDonnell Douglas Corp. would
be laying off up to 1,000 workers
at its aircraft plant in Malton,
Ontario.

The statement, passed. by the
Jan. 24-25 plennary session of
the Communist Party Central
Committee blamed the corpora-
tion and the government for the
layoffs of close to 6,000 workers
at the Malton plant in the past
three years.

“The announcement of the vir-
tual shut-down of the McDonnell
Douglas Aircraft plant at Mal-
ton, Ontario, brings to a total
layoffs of close to 6,000 workers
Over the past 3 years.

“This development again em-
Phasized the need for legislation
Which would compel companies
to show cause to a tribunal on
which labor is represented be-
fore any layoffs are undertaken
-Or plant closures take place. _..

The statement continued:
“This is yet another by-product
Of the disastrous policy of the
Canadian Government, in the
aero-space industry.

Excerpts from the Central
Committee meeting, Commun-
ist Party of Canada, Jan. 24-
25. For more materials see
‘Unite to Defeat Monopoly’s
Crisis Policies"—pages 6-7.

a

_ The main feature of the present
Situation in Canada is the fight
ack of the working class against
the crisis policies of monopoly
€xpressed in the Government's
Wage restraint program. This is
Seen in the determined opposition
Of the trade union movement to
the Government's wage restraint
Program. Despite enormous pres-
Sures on it from the Government
and monopoly, as well as from the
Night wing in the NDP, the trade
Union movement is standing firm
'N its Opposition to this program.
ile some minor defections are

to be noted, the main body of the
trade union movement stands op-

Posed to the Government prog-
Tam

The fightback is to be seen in
1€ growing strike movement in
ifferent parts of the country. The
Strike movement has widened,
embracing other sections of work-
lg people. The teachers strike in

€tro Toronto shows that more
and more professionals are using
the tried and tested weapon of the

“The Government of Canada
has subsidized Canadian McDon-
nell Douglas Corporation (a

Continued on pg. 10

Forces of the People’s
regulars

and mercenaries last. week. At week’

FIRST TIME SINCE 1919 GENERAL STRIKE

WINNIPEG—For the first time
since the 1919 General Strike,
Winnipeg transit workers are on
strike bringing the city’s trans-
portation system to a complete
halt early Monday morning, Jan.
26. :

The. 1,250 drivers and mecha-
nics, members of the Amalga-
mated Transit Workers Union,
voted 86% for strike action when
the city’s representatives on the
negotiating committee adament-
ly refused to budge from their
initial offer of a 9.3% ‘wage in-
crease.

epee. sent

This, in spite of the fact that
the consumer price index for
Winnipeg rose last year by
11.3%, the highest increase for
any of Canada’s major cities.

Last ditch efforts at an emer-
gency council meeting by mayor
Juba and Communist councillor
Joe Zuken to avert a strike by
proposing an additional package
of 5.7% failed by a vote of 25
to 23. Two NDP councillors were
absent,' otherwise there would
have been a tied vote, in which
case the mayor would have cast
the deciding vote.

Republic of Angola continued their push to rid the country of South African
s end, the South African government announced it was

going to withdraw its troops, officially acknowledging their presence for the first time. PRA troops are

now advancing on
but over, as last w

a

at of the strike

working class — th :
advance their

— to protect and
interests.

It is to be seen in the growing
trend towards unity, exemplified
particularly in the Common Front
which has been forged again in
Quebec, and in the appeal of the
CNTU .to the CLC calling for
synchronization of the struggle
against wage restraints on a
country-wide basis, including
general strike. .

The . growing attacks by the
AIB on the working class are
creating conditions for strength-
ening the unity of the workers and
of the trade union movement.

-The central task now Is to
examine what must be done. to-
gether with other left and progres-
sive forces. to develop a powerful
mass movement able to go on the
offensive. strong enough to defeat
the Government's wage cutting
and unemployment creating

"policies. its attack on collective
bargaining and the right to strike.
its increased regulation of the
trade union movement.. and
create the conditions for democ-
ratic advance on the basis of
anti-monopoly struggle and the
achievement of a democratic co-
alition. The wage restraint prog
ram can be defeated although it
will require great effort and great
struggle, provided the trade union

movement links its immediate
demands with the demand for
basic reforms, economic de-
velopment, economic indepen-
dence, detente and disarmament.

It should also be noted that
since the AIB has begun to func-
tion strikes have become contests
of staying power. It has led to long
drawn out strikes, the aim of
which is the breaking of the back
of the unions involved in strike
action. A case in point was the
postal employees strike, the
teachers strike in Metro Toronto
and the continuing strike of paper
workers in different parts of
Canada. These strikes show that
the tactic of Government and
monopoly is to isolate the work-
ers from the public. divide the
ranks of the workers and defeat
them one by one.

This demands an effective and
unitéd fight-back by the workers
and the trade union movement.
Unity. unity.and again unity. Sol-
idarity. solidarity and again sol-
idarity. These must become the
watchwerds of the workers and
their unions. something which
was sorely lacking in the postal,
teachers. and paperworkers
strikes. No group of workers

must be left to fight on their own. |

This is particularly important now
when large numbers of workers
will be involved in negotiations

Huamba, headquarters of UNITA in southern Angola. Fighting in the north is all
eek the FNLA collapsed after their headquarters were taken. oe

unions are on sound ground in
opposing the AIB and trying to

bypass it. They are on sound —

ground in declaring, as the Cana-
dian Paperworkers Union has,
that it will continue its strike until
the AIB approves the terms of
settlement.

The trade union movement:

must counter the effort of
monopoly and governments to
isolate it. This requires that it un-
dertake to build alliances not only
in support of its legitimate de-
mands but in opposition to the
Government's restraint program
and in support of its 10 point prog-
ram. To overlook the necessity of
winning allies for the struggle
could be a costly error for the
trade union movement and the

democratic movement as a.

whole.. This is particularly neces-
sary for the public service al-
though it implies with equal force
for all unions without exception.
No less important is the need to
formulate unifying demands
which neither monopoly or the
mass media can misrepresent so
as to cut off the workers from po-
tential allies.

In today’s situation economic
demands and economic struggle
have a growing importance.
However the. working class can-
not confine itself to the wages,

this year. The workers and their

Transit workers
strike Winnipeg

The majority on Council, rep-
resented by the Tory-Liberal
coalition, the Independent Citi-
zen’s Election Committee, refus-
ed to go beyond the guidelines
set by Trudeau’s anti-inflation
board. They were helped in this
by premier Schreyer’s compli-
ance with the Liberal wage con-
tro] program which made all pro-
vincial and municipal employees
victims of these controls.

Communist Councillor Joe
Zuken attacked this reactionary
stance by saying that “ICEC is
taking a vicious  anti-labor
stand,” ‘and he declared that
“this is a test for the entire
labor movement in Winnipeg.”

The reactionary councillors are
determined to make an example
of the transit workers because
six other sections of municipal
workers will be going into nego-
tiations this year. The transit
workers thus find themselves in

- the front line of struggle involv-

ing thousands of public service
employees and need the support
of the entire labor movement and
progressive citizens.

The determination of the
workers to conduct the struggle
was shown by the 86% strike
vote and the reaction by the rank-
and file to the high-handed ac-
tions of City Council, character-
ized as a “slap in the face” by
the union’s president. A long and
bitter struggle is expected.

In calling upon. the. civic
workers in the Canadian union
of Public Employees, the Winni-
peg Labor Council and the Mani-
toba Federation of Labor to

Continued on pg. 10

fight. To do so would limit the
struggle and tend to turn it into a
defensive struggle. What is re-
quired at the same time is a united
struggle for an alternative policy
to the crisis policies of monopoly
and Government. Such an alter-
native policy is embodied in the
10-point program of the CLC and
in the 3-point program of the
Communist Party. Our Party
must do much more than it has
done so far to bring its position
into the working class movement
and before the public at large.
The wage restraint program
and the overall monopoly offen-
sive has emphasised again that as
long as monopoly is in the seats of
power, any gains the working
class may achieve are but tem-
porary. The central question is
that of political power and the
struggle to achieve it. The wage
restraint program has also em-
phasised that the struggle cannot
be limited to an economic fight on
a plant and industry basis. It re-
quires political struggle against
the government and state as well,
without which the working class
and democracy cannot advance.
This makes necessary a correct
and proper combination of the
economic and political struggle.
What is involved is the struggle to”
change the balance of power in
Parliament and in the country in

favor of the working people.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—JANUARY 30, 1976—Page 5