Making robots work for us

The Robot Institute of America defines a robot
as, ‘‘a reprogrammable, multifunctional man-
ipulator designed to move material, parts, tools, or
Specialized devices through variable programmed
Motions for the performance of a variety of tasks.””
Perhaps a more apt definition from the standpoint
of working men and women would be, ‘a machine
that will take the place of many workers.”’

The robot is just another stage of the techno-
logical revolution ... a revolution that has been
taking place since the early 1800s. We cannot, and
should not, stop technology’s march, but if we
familiarize ourselves with its intended course,
Pethaps we can better prepare ourselves for its
Coming,

_ The vision of a robot that resembles the tin man
In the Wizard of Oz is just that — a vision. In
Teality, the industrial robots now entering the field

ar little resemblance to anything remotely hu-
Man. Instead they are single-armed metal monsters

t can move however they are programmed with
Strength, speed, and agility.

These robots are powered by either fluid power
(Pneumatic or hydraulic) or servo-electric motors.

hey are generally blind and deaf and respond only
to a pre-programmed set of instructions that are
relayed through a companion computer.

The first robots to really shine in industry were
Used back in 1961 in a die-casting operation, (they
are still there according to last reports) where high
temperatures, heavy loads, and repetitive
Monotiny made the job horrible for human work-
ers. Today, they are being eased into the spray-

painting operation, where toxic fumes are hard on
workers, and the danger of explosion is ever-
present. Spot welding is another application that
they suit particularly well, and the list is growing.

Although the worst jobs may be the first to be
taken over by robots, they won’t stop there. There
will be new applications for new robots found
everywhere in industry and that is a reality we must

‘face now.

So ... what can you do?

Well, it may be a good idea to get some re-
training in a field that will remain untouched by
robots, or in areas that relate to their maintenance
— like hydraulics, pneumatics, programming, digi-
tal and analog electronics servo design, etc.

But perhaps the most important thing to do is to
start fighting — through your union — for pro-
grams that will off-set the layoffs that are bound to
come. (After all, one robot can replace up to 20
workers).

Before contract time rolls around, push your
reps to call for a shorter work week with no cuts in
pay. (Remember, these robots don’t need a benefit
package that workers need, and with a mere 5 per
cent down time, and 2312 hour days, the resulting
improved production means considerable profit in-
creases for employers.)

Let’s use the coming robots to our advantage.
Let them do the dirty work and improve work
conditions for all workers, but let’s see to it that the
resulting gains in profit get turned back to the
workers who have earned them through years of

toil.

NEWS ITEM: GDR WORKERS’ HOLIDAYS EXTENDED
TO A MINIMUM OF ONE MONTH EACH YEAR.

U46S 12-76

By PETER BOYCHUCK

‘Any lie can be expected from in-
dividuals who betrayed their own people
and went to serve the Hitlerites. Such

“raff does not hesitate to insult the
People it betrayed. But why whould
Spokesmen from ‘‘all three political par-
tes” (je. Conservatives, Liberals and
NDP in the Ontario Legislature) join in
Such a despicable exercise?

_ On May 29, an anti-Soviet cabal cal-

ling itself ‘Ukrainian’ organized a de-

MOnstration in Toronto to ‘‘com-

Memorate a famine’? which was sup-

Posed to have happened in Soviet
aine 50 years ago.

In 1933 Hitler came to power in Ger-
ne Many counter-revolutionary
2 Tainians, who had gone into service
OF various imperialist powers, after their
defeat by the socialist revolution in the
aine, began offering their services to
Nazi Germany. Hitler, with his rabid
anti-communism, seemed to offer the

Surest and quickest path to recapture lost

Skribin Khutor, in the Kiev region of Ukraine wa
his photo taken in 1946 shows village comple

positions in the Ukraine, so they
thought.

To: justify their collaboration with
German imperialism which had gone
through Ukraine with blood and fire at
the end of World War I, after the Social-
ist revolution of 1917, these **Ukrain-
ians’’ began to spread stories of famine in
the Ukraine, caused by the Russians.
Fifty years ago they were referring to
thousands of starving Ukrainians. By
May 29, 1983 in Toronto’s Nathan Phil-
lips Square, the figure had grown to no
less than seven million.

According to Toronto Star’s J ohn Fer-
ri, MPP Yuri Shymko (P.C. for High
Park) said Ukrainians were reduced to
the level of ‘‘animals’’ at the height of the
famine. ‘‘Parents ate their children, chil-
dren ate their parents.” This outrageous,
slanderous charge of animal behavior
and cannibalism hurled at a heroic people
who, more than once, proved in the
course of history, its moral, humanist,
self-sacrificing character in the face of
overwhelming odds, could only come
from the mouths of the most despicable

‘ : d

s razed by the nazis during World War Il.
tely rebuilt after liberation of Ukraine.

aS

Nazi big lie about Ukraine grows bigger

servants of the most reactionary
imperialists. Fifty years ago they did it to
serve Hitler. Today they do it to serve
Reagan and his gang of nuclear maniacs.

I was in the Soviet Union, including
Ukraine, during 1930.31. That was the
period of the first Five Year Plan. It was
the period when the movement for co-
operative farming was born, known as
collective farming. It was met by feroci-
ous opposition on the part of the rich
peasants, the kulaks. Co-operative farm-
ing meant the end of kulak economic
domination over the scores of millions of
poor peasants. The kulaks stopped at no-
thing, including arson and murder to in-
timidate the new collective farmers.
Their most grievous crime was the delib-
erate mass slaughter of their cattle herds.
The kulaks had the herds. The poor
peasant was lucky to have a single cow.
In a short time there was a state-wide
shortage of meat — it was something that
could not be overcome in a hurry.

Shortage of meat is not pleasant, but it
is not starvation either. Grains, vege-
tables, fruit, fish and fowl is not the worst
diet.

Contrary to what unnamed witnesses
say, implying that Ukraine was robbed
to make Moscow a show place, the situ-
ation was the complete opposite. Com-
ing from Canada, living near the Niagara
fruit belt, it was obvious to me that
Moscow’s 1930 supplies of vegetables
and fruit were very limited in quantity
and supply. I was understandably
amazed when I went to Ukraine and saw
the vast quantities of all kinds of fruit
and vegetables for sale. In August of
1930 I was in the city of Dniepropet-
rovsk, a major steel city. On Inter-
national Youth Day I saw thousands of
horse-drawn carts loaded with grain fill
up the huge city square. The farmers
listened to short speeches, then drove

Union.

News Analysis

off to the grain elevators, while the
square filled up again with more carts
loaded with grain.

The square was filled-up with carts
three times during my presence. The
peasants with their carts of grain were in
a jovial mood. The grain was mostly
from the new collective farms which
were delivering agreed-to amounts to
the state for a fixed price. That spelled
the end of kulak influence and their
exploitation of the labor of poor peas-
ants. The kulaks’ rage knew no bounds.
They caused considerable damage but
their days were numbered.

While in Ukraine I asked how come
there was so much fresh fruit and vege-
tables in the Ukraine, and so little in
Moscow. Couldn’t some of it be shipped
to Moscow, I wondered. I was 19 then
and it seemed like a simple solution.
Everybody agreed with me. There was
only one hitch. The railroad refrigera-
tion, at that time, for all practical pur-
poses was non-existent. Fruit would rot
before reaching Moscow and more dis-
tant cities.

Storage facilities were hardly any bet-
ter in Moscow itself. There was no
shortage of grain or bread anywhere.
Moscow had a fair supply of staples like
potatoes, cabbage, beets, onions, all
grown in the Moscow region. However
because of refrigerator problems, the
Russian part of the Soviet Union had for
many years a diet that was more re-
stricted than in the other republics of the

David Peterson, Liberal opposition
leader in Ontario Legislature who ad-
dressed the ‘‘Ukrainians’’ is quoted as
saying: ‘‘This is a human tragedy that
has yet to be recognized by the perpet-
rators’’. The tragedy took place not in
Ukraine but in Toronto when Peterson
willingly associated himself with the
Nazi big lie.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—JUNE 10, 1983—Page 5 |
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