ok Se "Breakthrough recorded at Boycott grapes’ rally _ By PHYLLIS CLARKE he announcement that Do- on Stores, Canada’s largest had agreed to stop buy- ‘California grapes, _ enthusiasm to supporters California grape boycott said, “have the same demands, | Tally in Toronto last week- ‘This was one of the many _ throughout Canada, the and Europe to signalize ort for the grape workers, ‘in the fourth year of their ead. with this .-through in Canada, news » also that British dock- cers and Swedish transport ‘ had refused to handle rapes. e Canadian market is worth million to the growers. The ott last year seriously cut ir sales, and the citizens nittees sponsoring rallies in ( sure that even ' success could be won r. They are asking peo- 9 sign petitions stating that ‘will shop in no stores that California grapes. construction Toronto I week with signs of ing to other parts of the i and settling into a 1 building trades unions a highly organized contrac- key construction pro- | in the Metro area have shut down. In Hamilton, fe the Carpenters and Lath- ‘NOW DONT Gordon McCaffrey, chairman of the committee and of the To- ronto rally, compared the strike of the grape workers to the general: strike 50 years ago in Winnipeg. “The workers,” he added better wages, an end to sweat- shop conditions and recognition of their union.” Speakers in Toronto included Donald MacDonald, Ontario’s New Democratic Party leader, ‘Sister Margaret Ordway of important Lorecto College, David Archer, president, Ontario Federation of pastor of Metropolitan Church. Marshall Ganz, of the United Farm Workers, outlined plans for the boycott in Toronto which include establishment of borough committees, petitions stating that signers will not shop in stores handling California grapes, dele- gations to the stores and a citi- zens’ delegation to California early in June, when the new crop begins to be harvested. A delegation from Quebec had just returned last week from Labor, and Dr. Clifford Elliot,’ California. It had consisted of Abbé Gérard Dion, professor at Laval University, Vincent Price, journalist with Le Devoir and Pastor Claude de Maestral, sec- retary of the Montreal religion- labor council. This committee called for sup- port to the boycott as “the only recourse open to the workers.” The Nixon administration last week had made clear that they could take no steps to include agricultural workers in labor legislation—which has been one of the demands of the United Farm Workers. The workers are without recourse to the laws on the rights of workers to organ- ize and to collective bargaining. The.proclamation of the Dela- no grape workers written by the union’s president Caesar Chavez for International Boycott Day, May 10 (printed elsewhere on this page), was read to the To- ronto rally by actor-broadcaster Bruno Gerussi. The Travellers, popular Toronto folk song group, also contributed to the program. Construction strike spreads across the province ers unions are on strike, the contractors are bit by bit lock- ing out the entire industry. In Toronto, in addition to the Electrical Union which went on strike last Thursday, precipi- tating the lock-out, the Operat- ing Engineers Union struck its operations across the province on May 12. The. Painters Dis- trict Council is on strike, while the residential section of that union has been out for almost two weeks. strike in entered its between _ the BE GREEDY. IT'S | NFLATIONARY? ae Oiihlsi eesl> bos enuisid s f ~ BIG BUSINESS \ (2) ey St > her — St} Ly —=—S en a Rec, Py | ER Sap P wee Pr -¥1g aly tuodasoii? 2eo'tow Jo a Structural Ironworkers, mem- bers of Local 757, settled with their employers for a $1.17 an hour package over two years. This brings their rate to $5.47 at November 1970, with a total wage and fringe benefit parcel of $6.40. According to union spokesmen, the next highest union in construction would have to pick up a $1.47 pack- age to have parity with the Ironworkers and the _ lowest would require a settlement of $2.04. Sheetmetal Workers signed a letter of understanding with the contractors giving them 55 cents an hour and two percent additional on their vacation pay, with the understanding they will receive parity with whatever the Electricians or Plumbers get when they settle. While the Ironworkers have settled for the structural end of their trade, the Millwright Rigging, Window and Orna- mental workers of that industry are going on strike. They have received no meaningful offer from the contractors. Most union officials are wary about strike predictions. They point, however, to a firming up of positions by both sides who seem to be digging in for a rough battle. Construction workers, partic- ularly the younger ones, are completely dissatisfied both with the existing wage levels they claim have not kept pace with the real cost of living, and with the conditions under which they work. Someone is going to have to yield in this battle and the un- ions are betting that it won’t be them. WI PaKInel A IeUIdS Veer NLF offers peace plan South Vietnam’s National Lib- eration Front last week put for- ward a ten-point plan with new proposals “for an overall solu- tion of the South Vietnamese problem.” NLF delegation leader Tran Buu Kiem made the proposals at the 16th session of the Paris peace talks. His proposals included the es- tablishment of a provisional co- alition Government, in which all trends of opinion, including the Vietnamese abroad, would be represented. This Government would orga- nize free and democratic General Elections. The plan proposed: @ Respect of the Vietnamese people’s fundamental national rights, independence, sovereign- ty, unity and territorial integrity as recognized by the 1954 Gen- €va agreements in Vietnam. @ The U.S. Government must withdraw unconditionally from South Vietnam all U.S. troops and other foreign military per- sonnel, arms and war material. It must also liquidate all U.S. military bases in South Vietnam and renounce all encroachment on its sovereignty and security. @ The question of Vietnamese armed forces in South Vietnam should be resolved by the Viet- namese parties among them- Selves. @ The people of South Viet- nam should settle themselves their own affairs without foreign interference. They must decide themselves the political regime of South Vietnam through free general elections. A constituent assembly would be set up, a constitution worked out and a coalition government of South Vietnam installed, reflecting na- tional concord and the broad union of all social classes. @ During the period between the restoration of peace and the holding of General Elections, neither side should impose its political regime on the people of South Vietnam. @ South Vietnam should carry out a foreign policy of peace and neutrality. @ Reunification of Vietnam would be achieved step by step, by peaceful means, through dis- cussions and agreement between the two zones, without foreign interference. @ As provided for in the 1954 Geneva Agreements pending the reunification of Vietnam, the two zones, North and South Vietnam, would undertake to re- frain from joining any military alliance with foreign countries. @ The parties’ should negotiate the release of prisoners of war. @ The parties should reach agreement on an_ international supervision about the withdraw- al from South Vietnam of the troops, military personnel, arms and war material of the U.S. and the other foreign countries in the American camp. Earlier in the week South Vietnam’s Liberation Press agen- cy accused the United States of stepping up its war of aggres- sion in South Vietnam. The Paris conference on Viet- nam had held 15 sessions so far without the U.S. giving up its “aggressive stand and perfidious machinations,” it said. “The U.S. still labors under the illusion of. roeking a ‘position eds ‘yas obdinnta® valaty 4 PAGIFIC TRIBUNE MAY, 16, 1969—Poge 5 h 9559-906! Of VAM--3IMUGIAT DAIDAA | of strength’ at the conference table while, actually, it is bog- ging down on the battlefield.” The agency added that the U.S. was intensifying its war of aggression and “is stepping up terror raids, toxic chemical sprays and wanton B-52 bomb- ings, pushing the war to a high- er degree of fierceness. “The initial and very impor- tant setbacks the Nixon Admin- istration has met with in its effort to intensify the war of aggression have dismayed it, and even made it a laughing stock. “Yet, it keeps urging ‘mutual troop withdrawals’ so as to avoid the complete and unconditional. withdrawal of U.S. and satellite troops from South Vietnam,” it said. In Washington, a group of businessmen opposed to U.S. policy in Vietnam, accused Presi- dent Nixon of appearing to fol- low the “bankrupt policies” of former President Johnson. “We call on President Nixon and the Congress to bring about the immediate and unilateral withdrawal from Vietnam of all United States armed forces,” the Business Executives Move for Vietnam Peace said in a resolu- tion. About 350 of the 2,300 busi- ness executives belonging to the group attended the day-long meeting, a spokesman said. Members include retired Marine Gen. David Shoup, “We deplore the passage of critical time during which the Nixon Administration appears to be getting locked into bankrupt policies which have failed to pro- duce either a military or political solution and hold no promise for peace,” the resolution said. “The professions of optimism about the Paris talks on Viet- nam that are now coming with regularity from White House and State Department spokes- ~ men reek with the phoniness of a Madison Avenue commercial,” said an editorial in The Daily World May 7. “On examination,” it contin- ued, “the hopes on which this feigned optimism is founded are without substance. They center on the belief that the Vietnam- ese can be forced to make con- cessions amounting to surrender. “This the Vietnamese and their allies in the Socialist world, the people’s liberation movements and the working masses of the imperialist pow- ers, ‘iticluding those of our own U.S. of America, have said re- peatedly, is not about to hap- “What is the purpose, then, of publicizing this counterfeit optimism? “First, it is intended to dis- tract the peace forces from what is actually happening in the Vietnam war—U.S. escala- tion of the war into Cambodia and Laos, the step-up of repres- sions and_ savage _ reprisals against opponents of the war by the Saigon clique of trai- tors, the plans for foisting addi- tional burdens of arms manu- facture and militarization on American taxpaying wage- workers. “Second, its purpose is to counter the growing tide of American opinion in favor of withdrawal of U.S. forces,” the paper said.