UNIONS URGE STRONG ACTION

‘Save our shipyard industry’

Warning that B.C.’s once-great shipbuilding industry is in danger of ‘‘passing into lim-
bo”’ unless strong action is taken soon, the Shipyard General Workers’ Federation has ask-
ed for a meeting with Premier Bennett and the B.C. Cabinet to discuss the critical situation.

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The letter says: “As our for-
eign trade expands, it should
normally follow that our ship-
building and ship repairing in-
dustry would likewise expand,
However, Canada is reduced to

. one ocean-going vessel flying the

Canadian flag, Our overall coast-
line is the longest in the world,
We are the fourth largest trading
nation in the world, and yet, we
have no modern passenger
freighters carrying our trade to
and from our shores.”

Pointing to the prospects of
port development in Vancouver,
the letter to the Premier says
that “the Port of Vancouver, in
terms of incoming and outgoing
cargo, is by far the largest in
the North American Pacific
Coast, and with the potential in
trade development with the
Orient, Vancouver could easily
become the largest port on the
North American continent.

The development of the port,”
says the letter, “goes hand in
hand with the development of a
merchant marine.’? Pointing to
the B.C, Ferry System, as an
example of what can be done,
the letter charges that the fed-
eral government “has taken a
very short-sighted look at the
potential development of Canada
and the role a merchant fleet
can play.®

The letter also accuses the

__federal government of striking

a blow at the development of a
merchant fleet by reducing the
shipbuilding subsidy. It charges
that this action by Ottawa was a
*¢calculated slight’? of B.C. and
an act of “discrimination,” “It
is as short-sighted an attitudeas
that expressed by the CPR to-
wards the development of the
Port of Vancouver,” says the
union,

The Shipyard General Work-
ers’ Federation has requested
the meeting with the Premier
and his Cabinet to present the
union’s position “and to suggest
a course of action to assist in
maintaining of a shipbuilding and
repairing industry in our prov-
ince,” An early meeting withthe
Cabinet is expected by union offi-
cers,

“I always say, if you can't take 'em over, at least shut ‘em up.”

May Day message to Canadian labor

The follouing May Day Mes
sage to the people of Canada
was released this week by the
National Committee of the Com-
munist Farty of Canada to mark
labor’s historic International
Day.

May Day, which arose out
out of the struggle of Ameri-
ean workers for the eight hour
day has always been a day of
solidarity around new targets
which the working class sets
for itself,

This year, over and above
everything else, May Day is
dedicated to peace and nation-
al freedom both of which are
threatened by the U.S. aggres-
sion in Vietnam, U.S, imperia-
lism has taken upon itself the
“richt® to brutally interfere
in the internal affairs of other
eountries, resorting to mili-
tary invasion to prevent the
peoples of small nations from
exercising their sacred right
to independence,

Having failed to destroy the
will of the people of Vietnam,
the United States is escalating
the war and threatening world
peace,

For the security of our coun-
try, the peace and well being
of all countries, the working
class of Canada needs to unite
with all peace-loving peoples

through the world to compel
the U.S. to withdraw its troops
from Vietnam, to strictly
abide by the Geneva Agree-
ments of 1954, recognizing the
National Liberation Front as
the sole representative of the
people of South Vietnam,

The people of Vietnam, like
all peoples everywhere must
have the right to freely deter-
mine their own destiny, with-
out outside interference and
control,

Support for the heroic
struggle of the people of Viet-

nam is a decisive part of the
fight for peace and against
the drift to worldnuclear war.

And peace is essential to the
realization of the aims of the
working people of Canada,
Many of the problems of in-
flation and heightened U.S.

interference in our economy
are the result of the war
against the Vietnamese people.

The jobs and living stand-
ards of the working people
are threatened by the way in
which the great corporations
are bringing in automation to
further fatten their profits
at the expense of the workers,
At the same time the monopo-
lists are striving to straight-
jacket the trade union move-
ment and clamp wage restric-
tions on the working class.

May Day this year is thus
also dedicated to the struggle
for economic and social ad-
vance, for the right of the
workers to have a say on how
automation will be brought in
— whether it is to benefit the
people or big business,

Now more than ever to defeat
this growing boss offensive,
the working class and trade
union movement in both Eng-
lish and French speaking Can-
ada need to strengthen their
unity and solidarity to win a
better life, and fo advance their
democratic rights and political
interests,

Let us make May Day this
year the basis for great new
advances for the working class
and all democratic Canadians;
for peace, national freedom,
independence and socialism.

April 29, 1966—PACIFIC TRIBUNE--Page 12