nts ui eI AR !

CHALLENGE OF AUTOMATION.

Shorter work day at same pay,
but socialism only full answer’

Automation—as they said of
the “talkies” and before that
of the “flying machine” — is
here to stay. It needs no inti-
mate knowledge of the intri-
cacies of science and- tech-
nology .to be able to accept
that. fact. Many workers (in-
cluding non-manual workers)
have already felt some of its
direct effects

Typical of what is happen-
ing is Ferranti’s computer-
controlled milling machine,
which the London Economist
states is 20 times as fast as
a manually controlled ma-
chine, doing the work for 38

percent of the cost of 20
erdinary machines ;
The Economist estimates

this machine would replace

20 skilled engineers by one
operator, two “progtfammers”
and a typist. <
Alongside the industrial de-
velopment of these new pro-
cesses there has been — and
it is*sometimes overlooked —
a rapid advance of automa-
tion, by means of electronic

‘computers and the like in in-
-surance, banking, government

services, railways and com-
merce generally.

Clearly, if any highly indus-
trialized country such as our
own is to compete in the
world markets as well as util-
ize the benefits which can re-
sult from. automation, we
must anticipate its extending
use in all fields of life.

LABOR

I byilded your ships and I sailed them,

I worked in your mills and your mines,
I sweat o’er your network of railroads,

I crushed the ripe grapes for your wines.

I toiled weaving cloth for your garments,
I gathered the grain for your bread,

My hands made your beautiful mansions,
I printed the books you have read.

I linked two great oceans together,
I spanned your rivers with steel,
Faced death on your lofty skyscrapers,

I builded your automobiles.

I harnessed the mad rush of waters,

And caged lightning bolts for your play,
I made ygur words leap over distance,

I made your nights into day.

Wherever there’s progress you'll find me,
© Without tne the world could not live,
And yet you would seek to destroy me,
With the. meagre pittance you give.*

*  Foday you may grind me in slavery,
You may dictate to me from your throne.
_ But tomorrow I throw off my fetters,
3 And stand forth to claim what I own.

You masters of field and of workshop,
I am mighty and you are but few,

No longer I'll bow in submission— -
I am Labor and ask for my due!

BUDD L. McKILLIPS
a o ro

7

® Commenting on this poem Labor’s Daily says:

“The late Budd L. McKillips commenced his labor
paper career on the Minneapolis Labor Review and. while
a member of Labor Review wrote this poem that has
gained world wide fame. He became associate editor of
the Railroad Brotherhoods’ great weekly publication Labor
and died in this position.

“He wrote the widely known ‘What Not Column’ for
the Minneapolis Labor Review. One of his greatest news-
paper exploits was the eyewitness story he wrote when
the U.S. Army drove the Bonus Army out of Washington.

“Budd McKillips was one of the grea/est labor news
writers and columnists of all time.”

It has been estimated that,
through automation, one
American worker can pro-
duce in a single seven-hour
working day as much as he
produced in a week of pre-
automation manufacture,

In the Soviet Union a
special ministry is responsible
for developing automation in
all spheres of industry —
something only possible ‘in a
planned socialist economy —
end its advances in this field
are also well known.

The basic difference be-
tween automation in the
Soviet Union and that of the
capitalist world is, of course,
that the new processes are
used in the socialist world to
advance the living standards

of the people as a whole.

When Walter Reuther, inter-
national” president of the
United Auto Workers, joking-
ly asked by one concern which
had installed automatic ma-
chinery: “Where are you
going to get your union dues
from?” he promptly replied,
“Where are you going to get

the customers for your auto-

mobiles from?”

Pin-pointing, in fact, the
major contradiction of capi-
talist society — in which the
vast. productive  possibilties
now available through the ad-
vance of science and technique
can only be fully realised if
there is a parallel increase in
the ability of the consumer
(the mass of the people) to
buy the goods produced.

In fact, the only long-term
solution to problems created
by automation is a change in

society as a whole—socialism.
: xt xt be3

But many workers are anx-
ious to know what to do about
automation and its effects at
the present time. Before them
looms the creation of man’s
inventive genius, the machine
that can enable one man to do
the work of 10 — or 20 or 30.
The question they ask is: How
will it affect us?

The British Labor party
executive, in its statement on
automation, has said: “The rate

of progress in the immediate .

future .. . will be largely the
product of imaginative enter-
prise by management coupled
with understanding and adapt-
ability by workers and trade
unions.”

But, experience in Britain,
as in the U.S. and Canada, so
far has shown, that “imagina-
tive enterprise” by manage-
ment has as its central motif—
increased profits. ear

Meanwhile, the trade union
movement — and particularly
the rank and. file involved—
are grappling with the prob-
lems created by automation
now.

They are demanding, among
other things, facilities for re-

_ training workers in the new

processes and a shorter work-
ing weck, without loss of pay.

-ADTOMATION ¢

©
¢
e
¢:
¢

a 22% e4een

, = ”
“Now, if we could only get them to reproduce themselves :

Film societies offel
varied fall programs

0 e
play,

TH Classic Film Society of deeply moving Japane
Vancouver will open its

: s ‘ t
a

fifth season on Friday, Octo- . Cuigren eee

ber 11, when it will feature S¢ntle American “e

a famous, five-reel Chaplin Green Pastures.

; the
film. Companion film will be Showings will be held a

. A
Crin Blanc, a French fable YWCA in downtown Van of
about a boy and a wild white ver on the second Fridé gio
horse. each month, with . admis

The 1957-58 season will run
for seven months, closing on
April 25 with a showing of
the great Soviet film., Alex-
ander Nevsky, made by Hisen-
stein in 1938. Altogether nine
countries will be represented
by eight features and 10
shorter films.

The programs vary from the
s

Marxist Review
now off press

PROCEEDINGS and resolu-

tions of the recent national
committee meeting of the
Labor-Progressive party out-
lining the party’s attitude to-
ward the Diefenbaker govern-
ment .are contained in the
October - November issue of
Marxist Review, which is now
‘off the press.

‘A large section of the report
made to the committee by Tim
Buck, LPP national TYeader;
and resolutions adopted by the
meeting are included in the is-
sue.

Marxist Review is the poli-
tical journal of the Labor-
Progressive party and appears
every two months. It is the
Successor to National Affairs
Monthly,

Subscription are $1.50 a year
and single copies sell at 25
cents. Orders for subscriptions
and bundles should be sent to
Marxist Review, 24 Cecil
Street, Toronto 2-B, Ontario.

confined” to members
guests. Membership tbe
$5.50, obtainable from) i
Classic Film Society:

Music Store,.
Street, Vancouver. A per”
number of student mem™)
ships are also available
$3.50. og
The Vancouver Film Soa
will open its new seaso? —
Friday, October 4, running -
May 2, with one showiné
the first Friday of each mon”
Among the films 10.
shown, are two Americ@
films, Sunset Boulevard, ™®
in 1949, and Queen Christi
made in 1932, Greta Garb?
favorité character role. $
Membership fees in the va
couver Film Society are $9?)
single, $10 double and $4 si
dents, obtainable at Mode
Music Store, 536: Seymou
Street, Vancouver. fi

ROOFING

/

Duroid, Tar and Gravel
Gutters and Downpipes
Reasonable

NICK BITZ PA, 603:

September 27, 1957 — PACIFIC TRIBUNE—PAGE ®

1

fee ®