One bY BRUCE MAGNUSON |
of the significant decisions to
<4 Out of the Eighth Constitutional
: Buntion of the Canadian Labor Con-
: Was its commitment to “embark
Wide program of social, economic
Political action” aimed at abolish-
Poverty in Canada. The policy
pt adopted on this issue states
€ Labor Congress “will cooper-
th any other organization com-
mn. tO the same goal.”
1,” COnvention declared that, “Basi-
mocy Canadian, regardless of the
tt an vt his need, should be assured
Sel and services which to-
i Re rrovide him with a satisfac-
I} The inimum standard of living.”
Mssible onPlishment of this aim is
istrib Only by means of a major
ution of the national income.
litical = broad economic, social and
“ objective can only be achieved
Bike militant and all-embracing
Oy me of the whole trade union
; Rew acting in concert with all
tion” People and the widest cross-
mie. the population, to defeat
D LICy aims of monopoly capital.
5 OF FULL EMPLOYMENT
Come Provision of a minimum in-
ough ,OWever adequate, is not
tin oy’ S298 the ‘Convention resolu-
‘tha .POVerty. “Before large numbers
ae the answer lies not in such
Vide fg um but in opportunities to pro-
Dliey Pt themselves. This requires a
by ae employment, supplement-
on, str quate minimum wage legisla-
er. u8 labor market and man-
Policies and by improved pro-
iltation development and
4, Social action program adopted
widen ee Convention and which
i Donald MacDonald called “a
bor» 3° .Of direction for organized
the ¢, New in reality, something which
Mtiente d Munist Party and the leftward
Day, Orces within the trade unions
itime 3 advocating for a long period
= Nn fact, trade union leadership
‘ © catching up to do in this

SPECTAy.
‘TRECIAL ROLE OF UNIONS
ay grade unions have a role to
Says the convention document.

‘

“They can and must bring the advan-
tages of trade union organizations and
collective bargaining to the large mass
of wage and salary earners who are as
yet unorganized and who are the vic-
tims of low wages and inferior con-
ditions of employment.”

“Organized labor must also lend its
organizational expertise and other
means to assist the disadvantaged in
improving their conditions, because an
important characteristic of the poor is
their lack of effective organization to

deal with their needs and their griev- .

ances.”
None of this is particularly new and

revolutionary. With regards to the first
point about organizing the unorganiz-
ed, the thing to do now is to remove
all obstacles in the way and set to
work to do it in the most effective way.
INSTRUMENT OF CHANGE

As for the second point about turn-
ing union organizers into some sort of
social workers, that idea of so-called
“social unionism”, if set apart from
the class struggle and the basic role
of the trade unions, is both paternalis-
tic and utopian.

Perhaps this is what President Mac-
Donald had in mind when he said: “In
outlining such a social program, I did
not for a moment imagine that we
would proceed with it without at the
same time engaging in the activities
which are typical of trade unions. We
will continue to bargain hard for our
members. We will continue to organize
the unorganized. I am in fact firmly of
the opinion that a more broadly based
trade union movement is indispensable
to the successful implementation of so-
cial action”.

The trade union movement has to .

be seen as the major instrument for
social change. To bring this about re-
quires vigorous and relentless struggle
around economic, social and political
objectives.

LABOR UNITY MOST ESSENTIAL

Today in our trade union movement
there are rapidly growing numbers of
members turning to the left in the po-

litical spectrum for inspiration and ~

leadership. As the basic contradiction
in our capitalist society—that between
capital and labor—deepens, and mili-

tant struggles develop, this process will
escalate to a still higher evel.

A broadly based trade union move-
ment has to include people at various
stages of political development, peo-
ple with conflicting views and ideolo-
gies. What unites workers in the trade

-union movement is their common in-

terest in the fight against the boss and
against the social and economic sys-
tem which exploits them. The trade
union movement cannot do an effective
job until it is united. And the aim of
trade union unity is inseparable from
the struggle for specific economic, so-
cial and political goals. The broader
and more advanced the aims of the
trade unions become, the more indis-
pensable becomes the struggle to unite
on an all-inclusive basis.

In fact, this was the key issue to
emerge at the Edmonton CLC Conven-
tion, related as it was to the growth
of unemployment and the growing dif-

ficulties of our highly monopolized eco- .

nomic system.

RED HERRING — OUT OF STEP

But MacDonald was entirely wrong
and completely out of step with reality
as reflected in 550 resolutions, and the
feelings of nearly 1,600 convention
delegates, when he used the disagree-
ment over the form of admitting one
particular union—The United Fisher-
men and Allied Workers Union—to
launch into a tirade against the Com-
munist Party of Canada. For one thing,
the Communist Party is not affiliated
with the CLC and is not subject to
control by the Executive Council of
the CLC.

Secondly, .the Communist Party
speaks for itself as a party of the
Canadian working people. Thirdly,
Communists are not a sinister force
but members of a legal political party
which places its position fully and
without equivocation before the public
as ‘it did at the CLC convention. Lastly,
communism was never an issue at any
time’ in the convention, except for Mr.
MacDonald’s outbursts.

The obvious conclusion one must
draw is that Mr. MacDonald used the
disagreement with the Fishermen’s
Union over the particular form of ad-
mission to the CLC, as a red herring.

Manitoba

It was a deliberately invented smoke-
screen behind: which to bury the real
issues before this convention, defuse
the universal demand for action on
those issues, and to turn back the
growing tide of left unity now in the
process of emerging ‘around those is-
sues. :

LAUDABLE SOCIAL ACTION LINE

There is nothing seriously wrong
with the social action program that
emerged from the CLC Convention.

It’s implementation demands _ mili-
tant action to lift the living standards
of the native peoples, the underpaid and
the poor. It demands action to help our
aged and disabled obtain higher pen-
sions and a better life. It calls for ac-
tion to obtain decent housing for mil-
-lions of Canadians at prices they can
afford. It demands action to establish
an equal status for women, proper care
for millions of children in dire econo-
mic straits, and a new deal for our
youth who represent the future of this
country.

The biggest obstacle to the realiza-
tion of the CLC social action program
is entrenched conservatism. This con-
servatism find its expression at leader-
ship level in certain forms of accom-
modation to the corporate monopoly
and state structure, seeking to substi-
tute some elusive “respectability” for
confrontation based on class _ strug-
gle and the real world we live in.

A united effort behind the social ac-
tion program by local unions, labor
councils, provincial federations of
labor, the independent unions, as well
the CLC and the-CNTU, will serve to
draw the unions closer together and
strengthen the bonds of solidarity be-
tween organized and _ unorganized
workers in Canada.

Linking this up with action on eco-
nomic policy, Canadian unity and in-
dependence, closer international co-
operation, an end to war_and for uni-
versal disarmament, this kind of ap-
proach will help us get at the real
cause of poverty. Then we can ap-
proach the building of a truly just and
equitable society based upon political
power by the working people.

auto insurance

plan wins wide support

Lo
MhampDON—American freedom
lq... 8nd world renowned
n «© Specialist Dr. Benja-
eek a told Britons this
Boin the U.S. government
Stay 8 crazy”, the Morning
Hp, Ports,
Raina ° have to stand up
Atitig, Ib” he declared. The
MM the OPle should “get up
'T hindlegs” and stop
vernment giving tacit
L 2 the Vietnam war.
Rhifieg ite-haired, immensely
ere ae genial, Dr. Spock
his bo launch the publication
Which Decent and Indecent
he ruthlessly examines

Co;
On, Rdemns American aggres-

yak Terribly Wrong
tir

Ut
“St oe also came, he says, to
There’, Militancy” in Britain.
Ameri. things terribly wrong
n Ca,” he told a crowded
“My Press conference.
ion COvernment has killed a
a letnamese people. It
» Tesponsible for the
2 _ 50,000 American
: = and for the wound-
rican Hatter of a million
ich ig a war in Vietnam
: totally illegal.
pay), YOUL government acts

l
Stan we brutally you have

Of President Nixon, he said:
“Tt despise him and everything
he stands for.”

Of Lyndon Johnson, he de-
clared: “I campaigned for him in
1964 because he promised not
to escalate the war in Vietnam.

“He called me up and said he
hoped he would be worthy of
my trust. Then he tried to throw
me into jail for pointing out the
illegality of his actions.”

Ruthless Violation

In his book, Dr. Spock de-
clares that the contrast between
what the U.S. is doing in the
world and what she should be
doing will be judged “a mon-
strous evil’ by future genera-
tions.

“I doubt if there will ever be
a clearer example of how a na-
tion lets itself in for war —
through power striving and the
* paranoid projection of its own
aggressiveness —
*ca’s involvement
he writes.

He traces the history of the
war and indicts President John-
son with a list of his broken
promises and the “wholesale,
ruthless violation of the laws of
warfare.

Record of Horrors

“We poisoned crops to starve

than Ameri-
in Vietnam,”

the civilian population, bull-
dozed whole villages out of
existence and put the people in
camps, bombed villages with
napalm and white phosphorus,”
he writes.

Americans, he continues, have
“levelled most of the cities of
North Vietnam and used cruel
anti-personnel bombs on civil-
jan areas.” They -have turned
prisoners over to the Saigon
army for torture.

“All these actions are forbid-
den by international law,” he re-
minds his countrymen. ©

He accuses Johnson of “crim-
inal egotism on a monstrous
scale’ and among those who
arouse his compassion are “hun-
dreds of thousands of children
orphaned who, as a result, will
never be emotionally normal.”

He sketches the long history ©

ofe America’s aggressive foreign
policy—its domination of West-
ern Europe through NATO, its
aid to Batista, the Cuban dicta-
tor over-thrown by Castro, and
its intervention in Guatemala in
1954 and in the Dominican Re-
public in 1965.
Police State

He recounts the oppression
endured by the black population

of America and warns: “Our

WINNIPEG — “A public auto
insurance plan for Manitobans is
a long-overdue reform advocat-
ed by the labor and farm move-
ments,” asserts a statement is-
sued by the provincial commit-
tee of the Communist Party.
“For too long have car owners
and pedestrians alike been at the
mercy of the private insurance
companies and their exhorbitant
rates, drawn-out and expensive
delays in settling claims and po-
licies cancelled with no recourse
to any appeal. :

“The lavishly - financed cam-
paign by the insurance compa-
nies in opposition to the govern-
ment plan has been launched in
order to confuse the public and
to: protect their profits. The gov-
ernment must not yield in face

of the pressure from the insur-
ance companies and the Cham-
bers of Commerce. The public
good must come before the pro-
fits of a few. :

“Experiences in Saskatchewan
as well as impartial studies have
demonstrated that a government-
operated compulsory car insur-
ance plan can provide cheaper
and more efficient coverage. That
is the test of any public service.

“The Communist Party sup-
ports the general principle of the
government plan but is of the
opinion that it should be amend-
ed to reduce the $200 deductible
Clause to $100 and that any ad-
ditional coverage requested by
the motorist should also be made
available to him by the govern-
ment.”

country is already a_ police
state.”.

“But the only people who real-
ize this as yet are the groups
that happen to have had person-
al experience in being repress-
ed.”

These groups, he says, in-
~clude black militants, anti-war
demonstrators and student dis-
senters.

“Congress passes laws to

make the exercise of their con-
Stitutional rights a crime .. .

Judges set exorbitant bail for
the black militants to keep them
incarcerated.

“Then the victims of police
brutality are prosecuted with
false accusations of having as-
saulted the police. I have close
friends who have been through
all these experiences.”

PACIFIG. TRIBUNE—FRIDAY JUNE 12, 1970 —Page 9

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sat Sein. PARIS BHU Gtr AS