Countrywide protests
slam Ottawa’s wavering

By ALISON ACKER

Ottawa’s doubletalk became target of
El Salvador protest demonstrations tak-
ing place all over Canada, Feb. 28. In
Ottawa, MPs from left and right ham-
mered External Affairs minister
McGuigan at a protest meeting on the
steps of the Parliament Buildings. Four
hundred people, from Toronto, Kings-
ton, Montreal as well as Ottawa, braved
the rain, among them many political,
peace and church groups. In Montreal
there were 2,000 people protesting. In
Toronto, another 500.

In Ottawa, Ed Broadbent,
leader, attacked MacGuigan for
‘hypocrisy’. *‘He was reported in New
York to have told General Haig that the
Canadian government was
“‘acquiescent’’ to U.S. intervention in El
Salvador. Then he said he had been mis-
quoted and the word was ‘quiescent’. I
say the words he should have used for
Canada’s response was ‘hypocritical.’
We voted in the United Nations last De-
cember against any foreign intervention
or sending of arms to El Salvador. Surely
it is morally wrong to stand by- and re-
main ‘quiescent’ when the U.S. steps up
its military involvement. We should be
joining the church, labor and democratic
groups of Canadians protesting openly
before U.S. involvement becomes
wholesale and we have another Viet-
nam.”

Broadbent added: ‘‘When I hear of
12,000 murders by the right wing last
year alone in El. Salvador, I realize that
would be half the people in my own rid-

ing, and the killing is still increasing.

NDP |

Canada must learn to see things in this
light. We must tell the U.S. = get out of
El Salvador.”’

Walter McLean, PC nehibes for Wel-
land, spoke up for the need for Canada to
join Mexico, West Germany, France,
Austna and the Scandinavian countries
to condemn U.S. aggression. He pointed
to the U.S. diplomatic offensive which
has sent envoys to Europe to try and get
support for U.S. intervention and to cool
European sympathy with the Revolu-
tionary Democratic Front.

The same day of the rally, the Ottawa
Peace Council issued a statement point-
ing to Canadian weakness, and warning
about the recent Canadian donation of
$250,000 to the International Red Cross
for El Salvador relief.

The Council asked for a firm assurance
that the gift would be distributed under
the ‘‘protecting powers’’ of both the
junta and the Democratic Revolutionary
Front in accordance with Protocol 11 of
the Geneva Conventions, which -stipu-
lates that relief aid must go to both sides
in such a confrontation.

Toronto’s demonstration outside the
U.S. consulate brought out between 400
and 500 people. Supporters also leafleted
outside the Metro Toronto Library,
where a group fronting for the ‘‘Moonie’’
cult was showing ‘‘Attack on the
Americas’’, a viciously anti-communist
movie featuring Henry Kissinger and his
cronies. Such showings are seen as the
beginning of attempts to attack Canadian
support for the people of Latin America,
and stir up racist fears in support of U.S.
hawks.

TRIBUNE PHOTO

Quit doubletalk on El Salvador

OTTAWA — Four hundred Canadians marched at Parliament Hill Feb. 28 to protest the
growing U.S. involvement in El Salvador. The demonstrators also attacked the Canadian

government's hypocritical stand over growing U.S. arms shipments to the junta.

i

Poland’s new program winning support

U.S. Daily World foreign affairs writer
Conrad Komarowski is on the scene in
Poland. Through cooperation with the
Daily World, he is also reporting for
Canadian Tribune readers.

* * *

WARSAW — Polish mine workers
have responded to the government’s ap-
peal to increase production while work-
ing voluntary Saturday shifts. This is par-
ticularly significant because, miners are
among the groups that already have a
five-day work week.

Acting in support of Premier Wojciech
Jaruzelski’s appeal to support the econ-
omy, miners produced 289,000 tons of
coal last Saturday, 265,000 ton on Feb.
14 and 216,000 tons the Saturday before
that.

These amounts reflect the increasing
participation in the ‘‘Saturday coal ef-
fort’’ to step up production and to make
up for losses due to strikes.

I found a mood of optimism among the
people and a readiness to support the
government’s call for a 90-day mora-
torium on strikes as well as its 10-point
program for social and economic

- advance.

Letters to the press have been calling
for extension of the 90-day moratorium
to 120 days. Reports of increased
production are coming in.

Typical of the support for the new
government’s 10-point program was the
strong endorsement given it by the con-
ference of the Christian Association last
week in Wroclaw. The conference ex-
pressed its support for the policy of
‘‘renewal’’ which has become the theme
of Polish life as a result of the initiative of
the Polish United Workers Party. The
Association has five members in parlia-

has

From Warsaw
Conrad Komarowski

The conference stressed the full par-
ticipation of the Association in the
“‘democratic renewal’’ process and
stressed the role of the Roman Catholic

~ Church in helping to overcome the pre-

sent social crisis. Emphasis was laid on
the ethical and Christian moral character
of the democratic process taking place in
Poland and the government’s 10-point
program.

The program ranges from guarantee-
ing people adequate supplies (including
meat), controlling prices, checking the
tendency of farm production to fall, pre-
paring well for spring sowing, improving

the base of the economy, and improve-.

ment of the health system.
* * *

Interviews with workers at the huge
telecommunications plant here have
given me some insights into the chinking
of Polish workers.

The telecommunications bre
consists of more than 10 factories. The
warsaw plant is by far the largest of the
complex with 6,500 workers. The origi-
nal plant was established 62 years ago. A
strike by workers in the 1930s helped
make labor history in the old (pre-
socialist) Poland.

In 1959, the Warsaw plant had its first
strike which lasted five to six hours.
Workers demanded, and won, higher
wages.

Last July 11, during the wave of strikes
which followed the price increases set by

the government on meat and other con-
sumer products, some 600 workers in
this plant went on strike for wage in-
creases. The July 11 strike lasted only
four hours and resulted in an 8% wage
increase. All workers — striking and
non-striking — received the increase.

Throughout the wave of strikes in the
following months, workers in this plant
stayed at their jobs. On Nov. 1, a new
demand was presented, this time for
wage increases of up to 21%, which were
also granted.

The plant offers the benefits of the
socialist system — rest homes, chil-
dren’s centres, summer camps for chil-
dren and housing. There are health care
services, sports projects, excursions,
educational facilities.

Special aid to young married couples
includes bank credit subsidies, grants

and low rents. Arrangements are made -

for technical training which enables
workers to advance themselves in their
work.

More than 60% of the workers in the
plant are women. The percentage rises
to 70% in a department producing the
advanced ‘‘Pentacon’’ communications
‘system.

Today the new trade union organi-
zation, Solidarity, claims some 3,000
members among the 6,500 workers at
this plant. The branch union — based on
the old union — claims 1,200 members
and 800 members among retired plant

\

workers. The branch union has been re-
vitalized and democracized over the past
several months.

' Yet many workers, and not only the
younger ones, felt that their interests
were not sufficiently protected, and that
they were not adequately involved in the
running of the plant.

I spoke at random to workers doing
highly-skilled jobs in testing switchboard
set-ups and earning good wages. I was
told by one — who had been working in
the plant for five and one-half years —
that she saw no reason to continue with
the branch union or to join Solidarity.
She was at present non-organized. Two
others said they had joined Solidarity.

Another woman, who has worked 33
years in the plant, including the years
when the nazi invaders used the plant, is
a branch union member.

During all her working years she -has
been a union member, and has stayed
with the branch union. She feels that
many mistakes were made by the old
union, but that they are now being
worked out.

. The bulk of Solidarity membership in
this plant appears to be among the
younger members, though some. older
members belong. A highly-skilled work-
ers, 34 years on‘the job, and earning a
good wage, is a Solidarity member.
Asked why he belongs to Solidarity, he
said it was because it was “‘the first to
fight for our rights.”

Most of the workers were not so de-
finite in their response, but there is no
doubt that Solidarity was able to make
headway because of weaknesses, viola-
tions of trade union principles, and espe-
cially of norms that should prevail in a
socialist system. This has been acknowl-
edged by the earlier trade union. J

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—MARCH 13, 1981—Page 8