MOSCOW — ‘The Soviet
people-are the nation’s master.
They are the sole creators of the
country’s strength and wealth.
No.one except the people can en-
Joy the fruits of social labor in this
country.” ;

Leonid Brezhnev, general sec-

Tetary of the Communist Party of '

the Soviet Union opened the
two-day 16th Congress of the All
Union Central Congress of Trade
Unions (AUCCTU) of the USSR
March 21, with a respectful tri-
bute to his country’s working
people.

_ How to make work more effec-
tive, improve the quality of life
and secure a safe and fair peace
Were the central issues raised in
Brezhnev’s talk with the dele-
ates to the 16th Congress.

He stressed the need to do ev-
erything possible to bring the full
potential and advantages of the
Socialist system into greater play.
Good management of the
economy from ‘‘above’’, he said,
is not enough. The creative activi-
ty, initiative, and work en-

__. thusiasm‘of millions at the “‘grass.
. Toots level’ are equally essential

to develop socialism’s full poten-
tial, he said.

The ‘‘secret’’ of socialist socie-
ty, Brezhnev pointed out, was
that ‘‘the higher the stage it at-
tains in its development, the grea-
ter the sense of responsibility it
displays at. every level. Full
socialism: and the scientific and
technological revolution call for
many aspects of the practical ac-
tivities of the Party and the people

Vietnamese

celebrate

New Year

TORONTO — Vietnamese in
Canada and many of their Cana-
dian friends celebrated the New
Year, the Year of the Snake, at a
reception and cultural evening at
the University of Toronto’s Vic-
toria Theatre.

Le Quang Thai, attache at the
Vietnamese Embassy in Ottawa,
spoke to the gathering, bringing
New Year greetings and expres-
sing assurance of the reconstruc-
tion of lives and the economy in
Vietnam. A Vietnamese film at-
tested to this, showing the re-
markably positive outlook of the
government and people of Viet-
nam in healing the wounds of war.

congress of

“No one except the people can
enjoy the fruits of social labor in
this country” — Leonid Brezhnev.

to be thoroughly refashioned.”’
_ Rising Responsibility

The twin duties the trade
unions have a rising responsibility
to meet the Soviet leader said, are
organizing for greater productivi-
ty, and for the rights and interests
of the working people.

There is still room for im-
provement in working conditions
in the USSR, he said, and called
for the maximum reduction of
low-skilled and physically ardu-
ous work, and the complete
elimination of occupational dis-
eases and injuries.

The. priority under socialism,
he stressed, was not profit at any
price, (as under capitalism) but
everything for the sake of Man.
The improvement of public cater-
ing and personal services, he ad-
ded, along with the accelerated
construction of housing, ° chil-
dren’s institutions, schools, hos-
pitals, club houses and stadiums,
were needed to fulfill this task.

The Soviet leader noted the
widening range of responsibility
and powers of the trade unions in
socialist life, in providing the
mass-scale facilities for working
people to enjoy their rest, leisure,
engage in physical training, sports
activities and everything related
to the working people’s health
and leisure time.

School of Communism

He reminded the delegates that
the Soviet trade union movement
has been marching hand in hand

| TEAMSTERS, FARMWORKERS SIGN PACT

workers including truck drivers.

Frank Fitzsimmons (left) and Cesar Chavez look on as M. E.
Anderson, Western Teamsters head, sign an agreement between
the Teamsters and the UFW. The Teamsters have now agreed not

to organize workers employed primarily in far
California law. This gives the UFW agreen light to organize allfarm

f >

ming as defined by

Brezhnev addresses central
Soviet unions

with the party from the first days
of its existence, and evoked V.I.
Lenin’s reference to the trade
unions as a school of administra-
tion, a school of economic man-
agement, a school of com-
munism.

Brezhnev pointed out the
Soviet trade’ unions have re-
mained a mass school where tens
of millions of-people learn the art
of managing production and run-
ning the state and society, a
school of economic management,
and a school in which people learn
to live and work in communist
style. ae
The involvement of ever in-
creasing numbers of working
people in the management of pro-
duction is only one manifestation
of socialist democracy the Soviet
leader said. The pivotal thing for
socialist society Brezhnev noted
has been and will always be what
is literally expressed in the word
democracy, namely rule of the
people, the participation of the
masses in running the govern-
ment and social affairs.

‘*Socialism and democracy are
inseparable’’, Brezhnev said, “in
building communism we will de-
velop democracy socialist
democracy, a democracy that
covers the political, social and
economic spheres, a democracy
that above all ensures social jus-
tice and social equality’.

Morgan
condemns
arms build-up

By JIM BRIDGEWOOD

HAMILTON — Over 100
people heard Canadian Peace
Congress president John Morgan
condemn the arms build-up in the
West and Canada’s participation
in this increased military spending
at a meeting to celebrate Interna-
tional Women’s Day here March
13.

The meeting was jointly spon-
sored by the Hamilton Committee
of the Association of Ukrainian
Canadians and the Central Club
of the Communist Party. Morgan
pointed to the huge sums being
spent for weapons and asked his
audience to imagine the tremend-
ous gains for the world’s people if
these expenditures were plowed
into society for improving living
standards.

‘*The West has $25-billion an-
nually available for trade with the
socialist world,’ said Morgan,
‘and if this trade took place
everyone would gain by it.’’ He
pointed out that the socialist
world produces one-third of the
world’s goods. ‘‘Future trends
must be for better relations with
these countries,”’ said Morgan.

The Peace Congress president
spoke of the successes achieved
in gathering the support of one
million Canadians behind the

Second Stockholm Peace Appeal. °

These were presented to political
caucuses in Ottawa recently and
Morgan urged continued efforts
to win more Canadians behind the
Appeal.

He congratulated the Canadian
representative at the United Na-
tions for backing the UN resolu-
tion to abolish apartheid in South
Africa and Canada’s support for
the World Conference on Disar-
mament scheduled for 1978.

VICTORIA COUNCIL
REJECTS LOVE IN

VICTORIA — By a large
majority vote the Victoria and
District Labor Council rejected a

‘proposal to co-sponsor a seminar

on the. subject of ‘‘co-
determination’. The rejection
vote was seen as flowing from a
research document recently
adopted by the International
Woodworkers of America reject-
ing the class collaborationist con-
cept.

COPS STOP
SIT-IN

ST. JOHN’S — Fifty striking
hospital workers, members of
CUPE at a local Psychiatric Hospi-
tal, were dragged away from the
hospital foyer March 23 by 50
policemen who broke up their sit-
in to force management to resume
talks in the five-week strike.

The non-professional staff set up
their picket lines Feb. 18.

BELL OPERATORS
AWAIT REPORT

MONTREAL — About 8,000
telephone operators, members of
the Communications Union of
Canada will be in a legal strike
position one. week after the issu-
ing of a federal conciliator’s re-

_ port expected in a few weeks.

The Bell Canada workers in
Ontario and Quebec, have com-
pleted overwhelming votes favor-
ing strike action to back a one-
year 25% wage increase in the
face of Bell’s 13% two-year offer.

SHIPBUILDERS
END WILDCAT

ST. JOHN — The Industrial Un-
jion of Marine and Shipbuilding
workers ordered about 400 of their
members at the Saint John Ship-
building and Drydock Ltd., to end
a two-day wildcat March 18 over
the company’s use of scab subcon-
tractors.

The union leadership’s defense
was that certain subcontracts were
covered in the agreement.

WORKERS’ ACTION
BRINGS VICTORY

SASKATOON — A four day
wildcat by about 350 workers at
the Potash Corp. of Saskatche-

LABOR ™ BRIEF

wan’s Cory mine near here,
forced the company to agree with
the United Steelworkers local

_ demand to reinstate an employee

demoted for allegedly damaging a
piece of mine equipment.

PLAYWRIGHTS
GUILD FORMED

TORONTO — Fifty Canadian
playwrights agreed March 19-20,
to form the Canadian Playwrights
Guild for ‘‘the benefit of Canadian
playwrights and Canadian
theatre.”’

John Palmer and W.O. Mitchell
were named in a press release as
co-chairmen of the organizing
committee.

INJUNCTION
THREATENS CUPW

ST. JOHN’S — A protest
walkout March 21 by members of
the Canadian Union of Postal
Workers at three postal stations
here, has produced a threat of an
injunction by local post office of-
ficials.

. The 183 striking postal workers
hit the bricks when the post office
changed the evening shift of 1
p.m. to 10 p.m. to 3 p.m. to 11:30
p.m. without proper notice or
consultation.

GOODRICH
SACKS 100

BRAMALEA — The giant
U.S.-owned B.F. Goodrich
Canada Ltd., is throwing another
100 workers onto the 1.5 million
unemployment heap March 30, in
the closure of their plant here.

Goodrich said the plant has been
unprofitable for several years. The
choice between people and profits
was apparently an easy one for
them to make.

GUILD HOLDS DUES

IN OFL DISPUTE

TORONTO The 1,700
member Toronto Newspaper
Guild said March 14 that in sup-
port of striking staff members of
the Ontario Federation of Labor,
Local 343 Office and Professional
Employees Union, the Guild
would withhold its 13 cent per
member monthly dues to the OFL
until the dispute is settled.

The nine strikers have been out
for almost three weeks.

MONTREAL — A demonstration involving about 3,000 people took
place here March 10 in support of both striking flour mill workers, and
employees of a heavy equipment rental service (Mussens) fighting AIB
wage rollbacks of negotiated agreements. The mill workers affiliated to
the CNTU have been out since the beginning of February, while the UAW
members working for Mussens, affiliated to the QFL, have been striking ~

since Nov. 76.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—APRIL 1; 1977—Page 5