Labour By FRANK COX is misleadingly quiet on the labour front. gles. face, or the real nature of the fight ahead. something of a gab fest without a cause. It may only be my own perception, but it seems that as we near the end of 1990 all Unions throughout the province are ob- viously not idle — quite the opposite. Any that I am familiar with have been com- pletely beleaguered with their own strug- The B.C. Federation of Labour has un- dertaken some timely initiatives on issues such as Native land claims, free trade, and intemational solidarity and has set up a special Task Force on the Environment. Yet we sat out the main opportunity to engage in mobilization of the trade union movement during the Canadian Labour Congress-sponsored Recall Day against the GST on Nov. 10. Instead, there will be a demonstration of delegates in downtown Vancouver during the federation conven- tion. Somehow, as the largest organized sec- tor of the labour movement gets into the swing of this year’s convention, there is still no real sense of the true situation we This convention, which is perfectly timed to be a call to the kind of action, a council of war of sorts, which could help to meet the challenges of 1991, risks being Labour Forum The report of the B.C. Federation of Labour executive council being presented this week to the convention will cover quite a few bases in setting out a perspec- tive for the labour movement, if earlier drafts are any indication. It will lay the basis for some discussion, calling for such things as: , ¢ Making coalition building a priority; ¢ Building support for the CLC action plan; ¢ Endorsing co-ordinated bargaining for 1991; ¢ Continuing the fight against the Free Trade Agreement; ¢ Working for quality health care; ¢ Narrowing the gender based wage gap; ¢ Developing forums for settling land use disputes and environmental issues; ¢ Fighting for the defeat of the Socred government. Those points and others will provide ample evidence that the B.C. Fed has not been idle or that the labour movement is capable of coming up with good programs. However, rather than focusing on con- gratulating ourselves on what we have done, or making grandiose promises we may not be able fulfil, all of us in the labour movement should take this time to be bru- tally honest. The fact is that we are not winning on many crucial fronts — some- thing that we gloss over at our peril. Affiliate action, the cornerstone of any real federation success, will only be pos- sible by bluntly facing our challenges and refusing to cling to ineffective, old strategies. We need concrete strategies that will prepare us to meet the critical challenges ahead such as: * One of the biggest bargaining rounds the labour movement has faced for almost a decade next year will be coinciding with a growing recession; e An environmental crisis that is getting much worse coupled with resource use conflicts that have only begun to heat up as a result of corporate initiatives — again in spite of our efforts; ¢ The inability to force any real move- ment on aboriginal land claims and title; The effects of free trade that continue Recession looms larger as B.C. Fed meets to be felt not only in the manufacturing sector and the fishing industry, but also in raw log exports; ¢ The impact of Bill C-21 which will result in thousands of workers losing their entitlement to UI benefits at the same time as the economy goes into a slump. Clearly a main focus of the convention will be the election of a New Democratic Party government in B.C. Here obvious lessons are to be learned from the Ontario experience. The independent advance- ment of labour’s agenda helped to shape both the victory and the program of the government that took power. Advancing labour’s program will be critical here, as in Ontario, to help to ensure that an NDP government will be empowered to legisla- tively reflect the interests of working people. There is no good reason for this federa- tion convention to be a “business as usual” event. If the convention itself and the months ahead are used to galvanize the creativity and strength of the labour move- ment and link that with the interests of our communities, we can emerge not only as effective opponents to the neo-conserva- tive, corporate plan, but as electoral victors as well. 1,300 at WFTU congress confront a new world | By MARC YOUNG About 1,300 participants, from as far away as France, Togo, Yemen, and the United States, gathered in the huge Rossiya Hotel Nov.13 for the 12th World Trade Union congress. And while some appeared determined to treat the meeting as one more ‘If WFTUaffiliates are going to playa capitalism don’t appear to be that delegation’s main priority. A different member of the Polish group — noted over coffee that the congress debate on the first day, heavily peppered with prepared texts about the need for principles, wasn’t what he had hoped for. Vladimir Shchberkov, chair of the constructive role in the 1990s, they will have to embrace the idea of “business as usual” congress, a great number seemed at least aware that they faced a new world. Precisely what that world will be like, newly-constituted General Confederation of the USSR, told the congress that unions had a responsibility to see that the market economy isn’t introduced in the Soviet minus many of the socialist regimes that gave both strength and weakness to the World Federation of Trade Unions (WFTU), no one was sure. Most speakers were confident that neither market-driven models nor “the rigid mechanisms of authoritarian planning” serve the interests of working people. And there was overwhelming agreement that if the WFTU affiliates are going to play a constructive role in the 1990s, they will have to embrace the idea of “independent trade unionism,” and fight in the interests of workers. That will mean being unencum- bered by ties or obligations to employers, states or political parties. Where uncertainty, or at least anxiety, appears to prevail is over the question of how changed orientations to suit new times will affect the politics of the federation. General Secretary Ibrahim Zakaria struck a responsive chord with many when he as- sailed, in his opening address “the fierce ideological offensive” from the right which tries to convince people that capitalism is the only rational state of world affairs. “But is it really true that the drive for a socialist society is dead?” he asked. Prasenta Das Gupta, general secretary of the Trade Union Coordinating Center of India welcomed “the lessening of world ten- sion,” but did not agree that the cold war is over. “U.S great power hegemony still goes on,” he noted, “and workers are in a worse situation. "But socialism is still the best sys- tem for the majority of people." “Tt is certain,” noted Izze Aldine Nassar of the General Federation of Workers unions 12 « Pacific Tribune, November 26, 1990 of Syria, “that the failed application of socialism in one country or another doesn’t signify the demise of socialism as a convic- tion and objective adopted by hundreds of thousands of workers and peoples of the world.” : A speaker from Panama put the case squarely by charging that while the WFTU was going to face serious problems, among them financial (in part from the last couple of years’ wave of East European defections), the federation’s merit is in its “class values.” His organization would have to re-examine its membership if those values were aban- doned, he said. So re-organization and inde- pendence, yes, went the theme, but de- politicization, no. Initial debate suggested, however, that some organizations may be looking at other issues as they wrestle with the question of whether to remain federation affiliates. For East Europeans who at last count were still © part of the organization, rhetorical ad- herence to socialism was clearly not a primary attraction. Alfred Miodowicz of Poland’s OPZZ, the Solidarnosc rival, informed the congress that his organization would be determining its future membership largely on the basis of what developed over the course of the con- gress. (He added they might not even stay until the end, presumably if things went independent trade unionism.’ really badly). He gave quite a Polish-specific speech, detailing the crisis of poverty at home. He indicated clearly that what interests his or- ganization, and without a doubt Polish workers too, is a commitment to specific trade union strategies for improved living standards. Miodowicz welcomed the East- . West rapprochement, saying: “We can now work effectively for democracy, human rights ... and the environment.” Criticizing the International Monetary Fund for thinking “economies should be re-established on the basis of poverty,” the OPZZ leader identified his union with the Polish left. But declarations from the WFTU about strategic goals of abolition of Union against the interests of workers. He — called for “class solidarity ... against transnational corporations, ”’and for a “just solution of the international debt.” During an evening forum, in which ~ Soviet trade union leaders were lectured on the social pitfalls of the market economy by worried foreign delegates, Shchberkov told the audience his organization was com- mitted to the WFTU. According to the figures provided by congress organizers, the federation represents slightly under 200 mil- lion workers world-wide. Get the Trib every week Name: .. Address: .... FIRIBUOUNE Published weekly at 2681 East Hastings Street Vancouver, B.C. V5K 1Z5. Phone: 251-1186 op ca. se POSTAL COOG! 5 nee ge eee gnaw | am enclosing: 1 year: $20 0) 2 years: $35 C3 years $50 C0Foreign 1 year $32 L)