—

for social

By WILLIAM ALLAN

“a Pick up the torch and

, is ne dark places of Amer-
i 1S an Alliance for posi-

| We so 6;
UAW pt Purposes,” declared
ie

ipitt
1 Lup

hi pedent Walter Reuther,
“Inig gat™Ary closing the his-
elepat ‘day conference of 500
8 nq tom the Auto Work-
The Align mSters unions here.
(ALA) sm for Labor Action
/ Mpeth at was formed brings
Me er the 1.6 millj
thers and 3 million UAW
Sets 2 million Team-

Frank
Dresi actin
“ona of the Teamsters whe
€ proceedings with
the st all ALA sessions,
ae is ite eeeth Of this Alli-
"Solution, Program based in the
back is Now we must take
®cution ee membership for
© Will uni f we do this well,
ats ahead nee millions in the

Laction ’ build a great poli-
munity movement, establish
ce and Benons and _ bring
its ated to our land

: fooyy w2ties of the resolutions
4
TRCANIZING THE
| cop RCANIZED AND
fac ne BARGAINING
| uate. CMly through the ade-
Ment en of the ater move-
the kin ‘ there be represented
f = of dynamic and social
| Mteagin _ ential to meet the in-
» Cong, ey complex problems
‘ture Nee Us now and in the
"ter th €w workers continue to
tt € labor movement great-
 Rhizino ® Present - rate of
+ the ingn® 28 the full impact of
ten pal revolution is ex-
ally t 4 new fields and especi-
Otgani € basic industries. The
lk ai workers need the
Mover ovement and the labor

i Strength Needs the added
88 wit the unorganized work-
sy Provide. The alliance

| sks *S as one of its major
of, '€ immediate mounting
/aS8Sive program to assist
‘ M organizing the mil-
COm i Unorganized. We will
Will un; Tesources, manpower.
; this tty to the dimensions of
Fite We will do it by citv,
COmmig vUStrY and promptly
Mot oy, at to this . . . It is
| bership Purpose to raid the mem-
| due of established unions,
) With . Will work cooperatively
ng temntide labor organiza-
| Ollegti,  SAnize and strengthen
- D0ge ee bargaining. Our pur-
tivige 5 tO revitalize, not to
“A lit € labor movement.
the Jap, tle over thirty years ago
Metin movement underwent
Need § al change to meet the
at industrial organization.
labo, Ze has arrived when the
the _“Ovement must recognize
to restructure once
ne multi-industry. con-
Wi = € economic organization
‘nog tite the multi-industry,
bor nrate organization of la-
._ the lab Meet the new challenges,
hey, ae Movement must ‘think
ba d act anew’.”

N

ABMIONAL SECURITY.
et i. AP HUMAN NEEDS
| Pan. .> “me to play the peace
Thee ™ place of ettar came”?
Ug, 'olution called for the

France Soviet Union, Britain,

yas to confer, and to begin

=
oOo

2
Pe]
Ss

—

‘A mitation negotiations; the
tor} aa enter a mutual mora-
Aig _,Vith the Soviet Union to
Ning + Urther escalation, defer-
halt the ABM missile program;

€ nuclear arms race’ and

‘ALA—‘alliance

7

purpose

_ prepare for conversion to: peace-

time production, as over 3 mil-
lion Americans now work on
war work; call on the President
and Congress to re-examine the
defense budget, cutting from it
$5 billion to $20 billion for use
in critical homefront needs.

e AMERICA’S HOUSING
CRISIS
For 26 million houses includ-
ing. 6 million units for low in-
come families in the next ten
years. Use money cut from de-
fense budgets.

e HEALTH CARE AND
NATIONAL HEALTH
INSURANCE
The ALA hails the formation

of the Committee for ‘National

Health Insurance and joins with

this committee to win a nation-

al health insurance system.

e COMMUNITY UNIONS

“The rip-tides of poverty,
deprivation and alienation
threaten the foundations of this
society. The greatest victims are
the poor and they need to be
organized. The ALA Community
and Social Action Committee
will employ a full time director
and staff to work with all com-
muriity groups; to build new
community unions on the West
Coast, in the South, the Midwest,
and the East. The poor are
white and black, Mexican-
American, American Indian and
Puerto Rican. The ALA will ex-
tend hands of cooperation to all
of them.

e HOSPITAL WORKERS’
STRIKE
ALA pledges its full support
to the striking hospital workers
and, as an expression .of sup-
port, approves a contribution of
$25,000 as well as other aid.

e AMERICA’S UNMET NEEDS
AND THE URBAN CRISIS
The cancer of racism threat-

ens an integrated society; pOv-

erty and hunger are the lot of

30 million Americans; the elder-

ly receive so-called benefits that

don’t even provide the essentials |

for decency and_ self-respect.
Children’s education is endan-
gered with many schools threat-
ening not to open this Septem-
ber; cost of living soars con-
stantly. Polluted air, water
threaten to suffocate the people.
Unemployment continues to rise
as the cost of living went up 9
percent in two years. “We
should demand this Administra-
tion readopt the goals and
achieve the aims of the Employ-
ment Act of 1946—full produc-
tion and full employment. To do

this we must’ end the war in’

Vietnam. We must work togeth-
er with other powers to nego-
tiate arms control and cut
deeply the defense budget, using
the resources to help the suffer-
ing people. We must have full
enforcement of civil rights laws,
eliminate job discrimination by
use of federal laws, deny con-
tracts to any city, state or fed-
eral department practising dis-
crimination; end the all-white
jury system; for including equal
access to justice in all our courts
and reasonable bail. End segre-
gation in all schools. Jobs at de-
cent wages, and establish a $2
national minimum wage.”

The ALA leadership ‘should
‘seek an early conference with
President Nixon and his Cabinet
to acquaint them with the pro-

‘gram and demands of ALA.”

_ Hundreds of hospital workers,
at the Ontario Hospital Services

been laid down which prevents proper collective bargaining.

While they marched a brief was presen
which served notice that if the Commission persists in it
mass picketing and demonstrations by the hospital emp
for the low-paid workers is termed grossly unfair.

r the staff of 53 hospitals, and whose members are not permitted to
et of $2.00 an hour for maids. The current rate

tated that increases for hospital employees are lagging $15.99 to

a 6.5 percent increase which

The union, which bargains fo
strike under legislation enacted in 1965, is setting a targ
is $1.62 an hour. The submission s
$65.99 behind Canadian average increases.

“You are completely frustrating the hos
civil disobedience. You are inviting

.As a result you are inviting

situation like that which resulted in the Ontario Hydro hit-an

your present policy.”

members of the Building Service Workers International Union picketed
Commission in Toronto last week against the wage ceiling that has

ted by the union’s Canadian vice-president, A..G. Hearn
s present policy there would be wildcat strikes,
loyees. The ceiling being imposed on wages is

pital workers,” the brief says, “in their 1969 negotiations
demonstrations. You are inviting a
d-run strikes. You are inviting chaos with

An appeal from Mexico

Over ten years ago, Mexican
railroad workers were battling
for their demands and their de-
mocratic rights. There were
100,000 strikers. On March 28,

1959 they were crushed by re- |

pression: the entire police forc-
es, the soldiers and bourgeois
press were mobilized against
them. Thousands were impri-
soned.

That was over ten years ago,
and two trade union leaders, the
railroad worker Demetrio Val-
lejo and Valentin Campa, are
still in prison. The former, who
recently was on a prolonged
hunger strike, is now in grave
physical condition.

They were not, as is known,
the only Mexican political pri-
soners. It is not forgotten that
for many years the great painter,
David Alfonso Siqueiros was
their companion in captivity. But
since the summer of 1968, the
doors of prison cells have locked
on hundreds of student revolu-
tionaries of all kinds and on
militant workers. Among the
latter are two communist lead-
ers, Gerardo Ungueta and Fer-
nando Cortez.

It is, mainly against the Com-
munist Party of Mexico that re-
pression is directed. It is con-
tinuing. During the last few
weeks, it has been the teachers
who have become .its victims.
Dozens of professors of the Na-
tional Polytechnical Institute
and teachers have been dis-
missed for no other reason than
their active participation in the
student and people’s. movement
which inspired democratic opi-
nion in the country since July
of last year.

An appeal to the Communist
Party of Canada has been sent
by the Communist Party of
Mexico outlining further repres-
sive acts. They say:

“On April 10th, coinciding

with the anniversary of the as- |

sasination of peasant leader
Emilio Zapata, police agents
kidnapped Comrade Ramon Dan-
zos Palomino. Palomino is a
member of our party’s Central
Committee’s Presidium and gen-
eral secretary of the Indepen-

dent Farmers Central. Three
days later, the General Attor-
ney’s office made him appear in
Mexico city’s preventive jail, ac-
cused on.a number of charges.

“On the 15th of April the First
District Judge of penal law, law-
yer Eduardo Ferrer Macgregor,
arrested and charged Palomino
with incitation to rebellion, sedi-
tion, unlawful association, dam-
ages to property, attacks on
general highways of communica-
tion, theft, plunder, accumula-
tion of armaments, and attacks
against law enforcement agents.

“The detainment of Danzos

Palomino and the court
proceedings are an expression
of the obvious anti-democratic
policy of President Gustavo Diaz
Ordaz’s government, This action
constitutes an aggression on the
part of the government against
the Independent Farmers move-
ment by trying to prevent the
fight for a radical Agrarian Re-
form and thus favoring capital-
ist monopolies and large land
owners, who by diverse methods
and in accordance with their in-
terests of exploitation, oppress
the farming economy. At the
same time it ratifies the official
anti-Communist policy thereby
appeasing imperialism and Mexi-
co’s national capitalists.
- “Comrade Palomino’s name
has been added to the long list
of political prisoners — almost
200 — that fill Mexican jails.
Among those now in jail are the
following: Valentin Capa, mem-
ber of the Presidium of the Cent-
ral Committee; Demetrio Vollejo,
union leader; Gerardo Unzueta,
member of the Presidium of the
CC and Fernando G. Gortes,
member of the CC; Gilberto
Rincon Gallardo, leading mem-
ber of the Committee to free
political prisoners.

“This list also includes the
names of other outstanding stu-
dent leaders, intellectuals and
democratic personalities, such
as the well-known writer and
philosophy professor at UNAM,
Doctor Eli de Cortrai; journalist
and politician Manuel Marcue
Pardinas, founder. of. the maga-

zine ‘Politica’; novelist Jose
Revuelto; Doctor Fausto Trejo,
professor of the National Poli-.
tecnico Institute and ma
others.

“All this underlines that tha
struggle for the freedom of poli-
tical prisoners has become, for
revolutionary and democratic
Mexicans, one of the primary
tasks to defend democracy, in
the struggle of the Mexican peo-
ple for an authentic democratic
regime and a complete transfor-
mation of what today faces our
country.

“It also points out that a long
and hard struggle faces us
to obtain these objectives, since
it is absolutely clear that the
government’s policy is not un-
premeditated or tempororay and
that it corresponds with the gen-
eral policy of the powerful gov-
erning bourgeoisie against all

true democratic and popular-

mass organizations.

“In our people’s_ struggle
against the ruling oligarchy,
much support will be needed,
and has already been received—
to our profound thanks—from
international solidarity with out-
standing revolutionaries and
democratic forces in other coun-
iries..

“In view of Comrade Palo-
mino’s arrest, and the new turn
of events happening in our coun-
try, we ask your party to «‘evelop
a new solidarity campaign in
relation to freeing political pri-
soners in Mexico. The denounc-
ing of what is occurring in our
country, the publication of state-
ments in the press signed by
political and social organizations
or personalities in your country,
the organization of representa-
tive committees to visit Mexican
Embassies to demand ihe free-
dom of political prisoners’ in
Mexico, the sending of letters
and telegrams to the President
of the Mexican Republic, could
be valuable forms of solidarity
so greatly needed by our people
at ihis time.”

The address of the Embassy
of Mexico is 88 Metcalfe Street,
Ottawa, ' f

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—JUNE 6, 1969—Pages

RENATO “