LABOR FRONT

By WILLIAM KASHTAN

With a gun against their heads the lumber workers 1n
Northern Ontario have been forced back to work and accept
compulsory arbitration of the demands for which they went
on strike. The speed with which this was pushed through is
aimed in part at preventing a full scale in-
quiry into the killing of three strikers and
the wounding of nine others.

It would be nothing short of criminal
were a public inquiry sidestepped and
those responsible for the events leading up
to the shootings whitewashed.

As it is, something must be wrong in
the House of Labor when the leaders of
rs the Ontario “Federation of Labor and of
rt. the Canadian Labor Congress, with some
honorable exceptions, do nothing more than sit on their hands
in face of the shootings. Is this leadership? Is this solidarity?
Was this not the time to raise a storm of protest and point the
finger at those criminally responsible? :

Unfortunately some trade union leaders have become so
smitten with the need to maintain a pose of respectability,
are so sold on “people’s capitalism’ and the “affluent and
classless society,” that they cannot see the class struggle un-
derneath their collective noses, nor understood the absolute
necessity of arousing public indignation against those really
responsible. :

Not so the daily press. Papers like the Globe and Mail
can find nothing better to say editorially than that the killing
of three workers requires that restrictive legislation be im-
posed on the trade union movement.

* * a

What irresponsibility! If the Globe and Mail, and that goes
for the Toronto Star too, were really concerned with the prob-
lem, would it not have been useful to find out who really is
responsible for the tragic events?

How come men were able to mass together with rifles in
their hands? Who inspired them? How come the police were
caught “napping” when they knew the men were armed?

How come the provincial government ignored warning
signals that violence was being prepared and took no effec-
tive measures to scotch it?

How come the strike was allowed to drag out when all
the union asked for was an agreement similar to what had
already been reached elsewhere?

How come the American-owned company was allowed to
get away with a situation in which they could play off one
group of people against another, sharpen and aggravate the
situation and bring it to a point where it resulted in tragedy?

Neither the Globe and Mail nor any other anti-labor
element must be allowed to get away with a situation in which
they try to make the striking lumber workers and the trade
union movement the scapegoat for the misdeeds and ac-
tions of others, be it the U.S.-owned company or the govern-
ment.

On the contrary, what is required is that all sections of
the trade union movement press in the most vigorous fashion
for a public inquiry to establish where the guilt really lies.

In the meantime the lumber workers ought to hold an in-
quiry of their own so as to draw some lessons from their
month-long strike.

* * *

” The company had a few “aces in the hole” which they
used to good effect during the strike.

One was the use of the settlers, the independent wood-
cutters, to break the back of the strike or at least prolong and
weaken it.

The easiest thing in this situation was to call these men
strike-breakers. And objectively, they played that role. The
hardest and yet most necessary task for the lumber workers
was to take this ace out of the hands of the company and seek
out ways of neutralizing and, if possible, winning the settlers
in support of their demands.

But to do that required a proper orientation to the ma- .

jority of these settlers, most of whom are part workers, part
poor farmers. It required raising demands which would also
involve them in struggle against the company.
: An inadequate approach to this problem made it possible
for the company to play the settlers against the strikers and
make it appear as if the union was the force standing in the
way of their livelihood.

The company used the same divisive techniques by ex-
erting pressure on the International Union of Pulp, Sulphite
and Paper Mill Workers and on the Paper Makers, to prevent
the mill workers from expressing solidarity with the strikers.

* * * :

In face of this calculated policy of dividing workers and
pitting them against each other, the lumber workers and the
mill workers need to devise policies which will unite them
and the settlers against the company. :

Why shouldn’t an initiative be taken which could lead
to the formation of a joint council or other suitable form,
embracing these groups around a common program of action
so that this or any other company would be faced in the fut-
ure, not with division and disunity amongst groups in the
industry, but with a united front of all unions and the settlers?

Unquestionably, the events of the past week made it in-
creasingly evident that more not less unity is needed in
face of the vicious attacks by companies and governments on
the trade union movement. :

The increasing use of compulsory arbitration and efforts
to institute legisla ‘along these lines emphasizes how im-_
_porfaht and urgent this is. © 70 FS

Canon Collins’ advice fo Canadian voters:

‘Make sure Canada
does not fall into trap

of joining A-arms race..’

anon John Coliins, leader
C of the famed Aldermas-
tonton marches, told an audi-
ence in John Oliver High
School last Thursday, that
there is still time for Canada
to assume ~ the greatness
which Britain refused. ‘Let
Canada be the first nation
who refuses to be caught in
the trap of supposing that
greatness lies in having nu-
clear arms,’ he said. There
was time, he continued, for
Canada to show that human-
ity in a nuclear age recog-
nizes that we need a new way
of dealing with international
affairs.

Referring to the forthcom-
ing federal election, he re-
marked that it would be tra-
gic if someone who was hon-
ored as a Nobel Prize Winner
for Peace should be the first

man to introduce nuclear
weapons to Canada.
He appealed to the audi-

ence as fellow citizens of the
world, to see to it that what-
ever political party they may
favour, they insist that Can-
ada does not fall into the trap

CANON COLLINS, who told
a large meeting in Vancou-
ver it would be tragic if a
Nobel Prize Winner for
Peace should be the man to
bring nuclear weapons to
Canada.

of joining in the nuclear arms
race. We must find ways and
means, he went on, by which
Canada can give a lead to the
world towards sanity. Britain

stk

NEWS ITEM

Roun aces
ont!

: NEW YORK—A well-known Negro Com-

munist spokesman, Claude Lighifoot, was recently called be-
fore the Subversive Activities Control Board in Chicago. He
is being cited under the Smith Act and faces indictments, fines
and imprisonment if he fails to register. About the same time
a Federal grand jury refused to indict ultra-rightist General
Walker of Mississippi for his actions which added to the vio-
lence when James Meredith entered college.

cut a sorry figure when she
begged America to give her
a nuclear deterrent, he went
on, and tied herself up as a
satellite in the cold war.

Negotiation from strength,
he stressed, is a contradiction
in terms. Compromises must
be offered even if there is a
risk they will be refused. It
is necessary to take risks for
peace.

Mrs. Collins also addressed
the meeting briefly, and said
that it was quite a relief to
be in Canada after the some-
what alarming and hysterical
atmosphere of the United
States, where they had just
completed a speaking tour.

The peace movement must
bring into being a new ap-
proach to international af-

fairs, she urged. We are at
the end of the era of power
politics, she continued. The
use of force has become out-
dated, and the threat of the
use of force has become too
dangerous. ‘

She spoke of the damage
being done to children by the
terrible conflict between pri-
vate and public morality. We
are throwing a whole gen-
eration into confusion she
said. We are not only endan-
gering their physical health

from nuclear fall-out, but
also doing them spiritual in-
jury.

In-their tour of the Unit-
ed States, she said, they were
told many times that ‘you
cannot trust the Russians’.
“Our answer to this was that
we have no alternative but
to trust the Russians.”

Obituary
eres ect re cram

JOHN CAMERON

For many years an execu-
tive member of the Cumber-
land Local, United Mine
Workers of America, and
Board member of District 18,
UMWA, John Cameron pass-
ed away last Thursday in Vic-
toria Hospital in his 74th
year. :

Mr. Cameron served with
the RCAF as a mechanic dur-
ing World War 1 and later
served as the
fire department chief. His
wife Olive, predeceased him
a year ago.

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