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HAYMARKET MASSACRE! An artist's view of the attack by police ona peaceable labor
meeting held May 4, 1886, at Haymarket Square in Chicago. The meeting was called to pro-
test police brutality and the murder of six locked-out workers at the McCormick Harvester
Works. The rally was attacked by 180 police. A bomb suddenly exploded. Police fired wild-
ly. Several civilians and police were killed and injured. Leaders of the eight-hour movement
were arrested and later executed. These events were closely connected with the founding of

May 1s? as labor's international day.

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New issues face Pacific
coast labor this May Day

oO: May 1st, the international

working class movement will
again lower its banner in memory
of the martyrs who fell in the
Struggle for the eight-hour day.
In 1887 Albert Parsons andthree
of his companions were framed
and later hanged as a result of
that struggle,

The international working
Class movement has continued to
fight and to win in the ensuing
years, Carl Sandburg described
it this way in his poem “Up-
Stream,” é
The strong men keep on

coming,

They go shot down, hanged,
sick, broken,

They live on fighting,

The strong men keep on
coming,

The strong men’s march has
achieved monumental victories.
Socialist construction, embrac-
ing over one billion people is the
highest product of the interna-
tional working class struggle.
Today, Socialism demonstrates
to the world its ability and power
to lead in the new era, Socialist
achievements, all aimed at im-
Proving mankind’s condition,
Creates fear in the hearts of the
imperialists and prompts them to
acts of desperation, There is no
Other explanation for their ac-
tions in Vietnam and in other
Parts of the world,

They have made Vietnam one of
the high points in the struggle
of the international labor move-
Ment. It is a confrontation be-
tween the forces of reaction led
by U.S, imperialism and the in-
domitable forces of social pro-
gress,

At the present time there are

2 countries (Canada is one of
them) giving material aid to the
U.S, invading armies. Against

them, the Socialist countries are
leading the democratic and peace
forces to assure that world peace
is maintained and the door of
social progress left open,

In the past year, Canadian
labor forthrightly condemned
AFL-CIO president George
Meany for his endorsation of
U.S, actions in Vietnam. One of
the officers of the Vancouver
Labor Council stated that the
greatest service Meany could
make to the labor movement in
America was to resign his post
as president, Similar challenges
were expressed at the conven-
tions of the International Long-
shoremen, B.C. Federation of
Labor, Mine-Mill and Fisher-
men, And of no small account
is the stand of the NDP and the
Communist Party in calling for
a new foreign policy for Canada,

Considering the decisive na-

ture of the war in Vietnam it is
of the utmost importance that
many more actions for peace be
organized by the B.C, labor
movement,

Canada’s domestic policies are
bound up with her foreign poli-
cies and shows all the stressand

By
CHARLES CARON

strain of the capitalist system
at this stage of its decay. All
intensified in Canada because of
U.S. domination of our country,

There are many Canadians who
are puzzled by the government’s
actions in curtailing production
at this time, Sure it is not

because of a lack of need of
goods and services. Onlyashort
time ago Prime Minister Lester
Pearson spoke of the “war on

p

“He follows me around all day ees my pocketbook and
you tell me it’s leg

poverty” his government was
going to launch,

Let us make no mistake about
itt The government’s action,
initiated in the U.S. and carried
through in Canada, will do pre-
cisely what it is intended to do,
cut back production and further
‘increase poverty instead of
waging war on poverty,

Why should the governments of

monopoly, federal and provincial,
take such steps at this time?
' First, because the monopolies
have been caught in the squeeze
of the economic boom, A short-
age of skilled labor has meant
they have had to pay more in
wages than they would have to
normally,

Secondly, for a number of
years, particularly in the period
marked by automation, the con-
tradiction between abundance,
made possible through increased
productivity and scarcity due to
lack of buying power, has brought
us to the brink of deep economic
crash on a number of occasions,

Big business has appropriated
to itself, most of the benefits
resulting from increased produc-
tivity, The human factor has no
place in their plans. Workers in
many instances have been dis-
carded like obsolete equipment.

Now, however, workers are
fighting back, They do notintend
to be cowed, and left high and
dry on the scrap heap. Noone
can convince workers that they
and their families need go hungry,
be ill-clad and live in poor hous-
ing, They realize that such condi-
tions need not be, but will be
unless they fight, And they are
prepared to fight.

No better evidence of this truth

can be seen than in the militancy-

and unity of the Oil Workers’
strike, And arising out of this
struggle and others like it, im-

portant and new types of gains
have been won, Justice Freed-
man’s recommendations regard-
ing the rail workers is of great
significance to the whole labor
movement, It calls for the modi-
fication of the managerial pre-
rogative of employers,

The Oil Workers settlement
forced from the oil companies
and the Bennett government
moves in the same direction.
Corporate interest is most
anxious to arrest that develop-
ment, In fact, the last Fed-
eral election was held for that
purpose and this is the main rea-
son that Bennett is speaking ofan
election in B.C,

Many major unions are now
engaged in contract negotiations
which include shorter hours of
work, What stands out in these
negotiations is the determination
of the employers to fight the
unions to the point of provoking
strikes, It is clear that this
policy is not the result of indiv-
idual employers, but a planned
attack on the part of big busi-
ness with Premier Bennett inthe
wings, prepared and standing by
to help them. Their answer to
the present social problems is
the Big Stick,

At this juncture of social de-
velopment, when man is engaged
in the exploration of outer space,
it is incongruous that a large
section of our society should live
in a state of anxiety over satis-
faction of their physical needs,
The new era of technological ad-
vance requires federal and pro-
vincial planning to eliminate this
contradiction and thus provide
stability and future progress,

Therefore, in distinction from
1886, it is not only the question
of shorter hours of work that the
working class needs to fight for
but they must fight also for politi-
cal power, Achievement of these
aims would move the Canadian
working class on the road to
democratic advance and social-
ism, This is the mark we can
make on this period just as the
workers of 1886 made ther mark
fighting for a shorter work day,

April 29, 1966—PACIFIC TRIBUNE—Page 5

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