Re
. BD:

The Association of

‘st journal, Combat,

lated and reprinted below.

Police.

teacher,

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| Supid policy

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| Ussiong” ave face-to-face dis-

ta ae

Peach Catholic
ichers of Montreal has been on
Strike since Jan. 13. About 9,000
teachers are involved in the strike
which has left 271,000 pupils with-
out classes. Recently the Commun-
interviewed
some of the strikers, and their an-
Swers to the questions are trans-

pete interviewer for Combat is
rthur Vachon, former president
Quebec Association of Provincial

eve Charbonneau, why is there a

i ke of teachers in Montreal?
ie tponneat: The instructors es-
Sie ee want to be recognized as
€y are—professionals. Most

Battle for their rights

consultation?

make proposals on:

particularly they want:

—To be consulted on all decisions
presented by the school commission
concerning changes which are and
wil be made in instruction.

—Conditions of work which will
permit efficient management.

—Salaries which will allow the
instructors to live at least in con-
ditions of equality with the workers.
(At this point, Charbonneau present-
ed a table of comparison of the
small salaries actually given teach-
for Vachon was attacked by ers.)
es premier Jean Lesage during

€ provincial elections in 1966 as
2eing a Communist. He has since
rae the Communist Party, taking

his membership in Jan., 1967.
pean eine the questions are J.
fies arbonneau, director of inform-
Bea André Langevin, strike co-

nator, and J. P. Perusse, a

—Protection against the arbitrary
measures of the management of the
Commission of Catholic Schools of
Montreal which until now has given
a deaf ear to the demands of the
teachers in spite of a demonstra-
tion of more than 2,500 members of
the association. It is for these rea-
sons that there is a strike.

You say the teachers wish to be
consulted on the instruction. In
which particular phases do you wish

Langevin: We wish above all to

tions.

tary schools.

trade union?
Perusse:

Hiring policy; and rules and con-
ditions of contract during examina-

We want our presence in the
selection and promotion committees
as well as during admittance exami-
nations; a consultative committee
for each pedagogical
voice in teaching methods, construc-
tion and equipment and in text book

selections, regulations on the union
representative at the school; an
evaluation of the tasks of elemen-

Do the teachers support their

Evidently. The
vote in favor of strike action was 90
percent in favor. More than 70 per-
cent of the members were present
at the general meeting when this
vote was taken.

How are the commissioners of the
CECM chosen?

Charbonneau: Four members are
chosen by the government and three
by the church.

How do you place your strike in

Pehind the teachers’ strike

always
service; a

secret

the context of ‘Canada and North
America? ;

Charbonneau: As you know, it is
not the very laudable habit in North
America to treat teachers as if they
are the least important group. One
pays
material comforts and to the banali-
ties of life than to teaching. The
teachers
wish to have imposed in its place
the principle. that they revert to
being dispensers
knowledge.

In this we have received tele-
grams since the beginning of the
strike from unions in the rest of
Canada and the United States telling
us we are leading the battle for all
North America concerning the pro-
fessional rights of teachers.

Do the teachers of the Association
wish to place themselves above the
working class?

Charbonneau: On the contrary, the
association by its demands, by its
composition and by its forms of
battle proves that in fact it is for
the workers; above all, that it fights.

more attention to

‘instructing

in Montreal

of pedagogical

By WILLIAM ALLAN

No
I Supe of scorching at-
‘S Vic Reuther, adminis-

trative :
assistant i 5
er Walter to his bro

Union, charged top.
were more

€ than the Chamber

om
figs Merce and that their sole

lve j
War Is to carry on the cold

Arey
Zainst Communism, “a

that is isolating

er]
ran labor, more and

More.”
cee eakin
oe vy eates to the Wayne
foru, Ouncil’s education
tor of ee Reuther, also direc-
OF inte € UAW’s department
"ational affairs said:

yA ; i

Scientigns® agricultural experts,

uropean’ educators, all visit
.. S0Cialist countries and

Union, but AFL- CIO

Ids American trade

Onis
Views, from exchanging

T
to AFL-CIO leaders are

, He: gai
ian Said he considered “stup-

2 thir

We
and also @ the tr

*£0ple’s hie recognition of
the Us ba Where he said,
Sions With S to conduct discus-

- that nation through
SNould ph: tty, when what we

= ave j
‘nsulates p, 22 ambassador,

«ders thi but the AFL-CIO
y oe we should be talk-
Not q ang Kai-shek, who is

F People» €sman for the Chinese

; ade unionists
Wayne yo €arlier audience of
‘versity Students, that

at € Soviet Union last
4 tourist with Pat

» UAW vice presi-
Relic tat AFLCIO
Cles prevented him

& to 500 local AFL-

from going with and as part of a
UAW delegation.

“I! was in Siberia, right across
at one time from Mongolia and
everywhere we went the people
talked of the danger of war, of
what’s happening in China. They
told us of open threats of inva-
sion from China. They want the
Vietnam war ended, they want
closer relations with us, better
exchanges, more cultural ex-
changes,” said Reuther.

Reuther said: ‘“That’s a better
course to follow than to listen
to those in our own country who
want to drop the bomb, than
police out the bombs for the
next 20 years. There is no solu-
tion by bombs or sending more
troops. We need a negotiated
settlement. Hanoi is bargaining
tough, but so are we. Any drop-
ping of a nuclear bomb will
bring the Soviet Union and
China into the war.”

Reuther scored AFL-CIO Pre-
sident George Meany and Jay
Lovestone, head of the AFL-CIO
international affair department
for no “dialogue on these mat-
ters.” “But,” he added, I do not
wish to get into a polemic with
Meany here tonight. As far as
Lovestone is concerned, the
labor movement could have had
a person more representative of
American labor, though I am not
volunteering for the job. Unless,

however, the AFL-CIO takes
steps to start meeting with
workers in socialist countries
and their union leaders, like

other nation’s labor heads are
doing we will find ourselves all
alone, pretending these people
don’t exist.”

He said the German, British,
French and Italian unionists
were now regularly visiting the

socialist countries, exchanging
views, helping trade.

He scored what he charged
was a practice of the AFL-CIO
leaders “of going abroad to con-
duct business and interfering in
the internal affairs of the coun-
try that they visit.”

He told newsmen here that
he would stand by his claim last
May that AFL-CIO affiliates had
permitted themselves to be used
as covers for clandestine opera-
tions by government agencies,
including the Central Intelli-
gence Agency (CIA).

Before the Detroit unionists
he charged that unionists trained
by the American Institute for
Free Labor Development, which
is affiliated with the AFL-CIO,
helped overthrow the elected
government of President Goulart
in Brazil and install a military
dictatorship in 1964. He said the
unions were put under the mili-
tary and that the dictatorship
permitted big business to renege
on wage agreements reached
under Goulart.

Reuther charged that cost of,
living has risen over 120 percent,
that 50,000 steel workers in San
Paulo were turned down when
they sought signing a contract
with employers for higher wages,
that Catholic priests from Per-
nambuco who appealed to AFL-
CIO forces for help were told
that the sugar workers would
have to live up to a minimum
wage and no wage increases
could be gotten.

“I don’t know any AFL-CIO
official in America who would
dare to cut that kind of deal
with a military machine and
undercut the wages of his mem-
bers and get away with it. These
are the things the AFL-ClO
leaders are doing and they

have to be known by the rank
and file and leaders like you,”
said Vic Reuther to the assem-
bled Detroit unionists, Jan. 25.

Reuther charged that super
patriots in the top echelons of
the AFL-CIO, making interna-
tional policy for the organiza-
tion were doing this because
they were deadly afraid of Com-
munism and too little concerned
about democracy, social justice,
security for workers in other
countries.

He cried out: “Don’t let them
play God, make deals with mili-
tary governments, all in the
name of being against Commun-
ism—they have no right to make
unilateral decisions to commit

}
i

yi

Meany isolating U.S. labor

the labor movement to being in
on overthrowing duly elected
governments because someone
says it ‘threatens our freedom
and independence’.

“The Dominican Republican
government was overthrown, the
U.S. Marines went in to help
overthrow it. Chile, Venezuela
refused to back our policy there.
But who backed us, the Brazi-
lian military dictators who had
just seized control of the unions.

“We were condemned in Latin
America, not just by the Com-
munist, but by the labor move-
ment there. This is why we need
a frank, open, debate in the
AFL-CIO. How can we win
peace when this goes on?”

“And we will guarantee you work as long as you live!”

February 17, 1967—PACIFIC TRIBUNE—Page 5

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