By MIKE PHILLIPS

TORONTO — Organized labor is ex-
tending its hand to everyone in this coun-
try who wants to bring a message to the
federal government Nov. 21 that soaring
interest rates have to come down.

In a flurry of activity over the past
three weeks since the Canadian Labor
Congress called for the ‘‘largest mass
demonstration”’ ever seen on the steps of
Parliament, weekly meetings have been
taking place across the country within
the labor movement as well as jointly
with other organizations representing a
broad cross section of the working
people and their allies.

CLC president Dennis McDermott in
launching the call for a massive protest
set the country-wide target of 100,000
angry citizens protesting the federal Lib-
eral government's refusal to do anything
to bring relief to millions of Canadians
- watching their lives being destroyed by
the bankers’ and financial monopolies’
profits greed.

The CLC in launching the protest also ~

called for the formation of a Coalition on
Interest Rates, which McDermott said
Oct. 19, the congress hopes will continue
to operate beyond the proposed rally. So
far, while not committing themselves
without formal approval from their
organizations some 1S national groups
met with the CLC in Ottawa, Oct. 14 to
agree in principal with the formation of
the Canada-wide coalition, and a total of
27 country-wide organizations have ex-
pressed agreement with such a formation
through support messages to the
congress.

Represented at the Ottawa meeting,
Oct. 14, were such organizations as the

National Farmers Union,. the Co-Op |

Housing Foundation of Canada, the

Committee of Progressive Electors, -
(COPE), Women Against Rising Prices, |
the City of Vancouver, the Canadian |

Teachers’ Federation, a pensioners and
senior citizens group, the National

Anti-Poverty Organization, the National
Union of Students and the Canadian
Association for Sensible Interest Rates.
There was even representation from the
Canadian Chamber of Commerce and
the Canadian Construction Association.
The 27 groups who have expressed
their support to the CLC for sucha coali-
tion include a wide selection of church,
consumer, farm, student, women,
homeowners, nurses, educational, and
native peoples organizations.
Organizers hope the coalition will be.
formalized by official representation
from these groups by the next meeting of
the coalition at the end of this month.
Coalition members are being urged to
work with the provincial federations and
local labor councils to organize regional
and local committees to help mobilize a
massive turnout for the rally, and
follow-up activities.
The Ontario Federation of Labor held
its first meeting to pull together such a

‘coalition in the province Oct. 22. Plans

are also under way to help create a simi-
lar coalition in Metro Toronto. :

The rally is seen as the centre-piece of
an on-going campaign to lower interest
rates which. is expected to continue
beyond the presentation on Nov. 21 of
the demands and alternative economic
policies by labor and its allies to the big
business government in Ottawa.

The Ontario and Quebec Federations
of Labor have already been circulating

protest cards demanding lower: interest

rates and the CLC hopes to see card
campaigns carried: out in almost every
province.

In B.C., the provincial federation is

. planning anon the job canvas to get cards"

signed during the December 81, to March

| 82, period. In Alberta, while efforts are

being made to ensure as large a.turn out

' in Ottawa as possible, demonstrations in

five provincial centres are scheduled to
coincide with the Now, ‘21 rally in
Ottawa.

‘CANADA

Everyone urged to join Nov. 21 rally — CLE

Other federations are looking beyond
Nov. 21 to organize protests of their own
in their own provinces after the CLC-
sponsored rally is over, and it is here that

- the role of the coalition at regional and
: local levels is expected to also come into
» +, play to carry on the campaign.

The main burden of organizing the

- labor movement itself will fall on the in-
' dividual affiliates. Already a number of
, unions have set targets of the numbers of

workers they want to bring to Ottawa.
The United Auto Workers, for example
has announced it will bring at least 5,000

_ to the giant rally on Nov. 21. The United

Electrical workers, (UE) is aiming for
1,000 of its members, and the Energy and
Chemical Workers Union will work to
bring out 10% of its membership in
Ontario.

A special organizing effort is being
conducted in Ontario and Quebec where
it is expected the bulk of the workers will
come from. Co-ordinating committees
have been set up in Toronto, covering
most of Ontario, Ottawa-Hull to mobilize
Eastern Ontario and the Ottawa Valley

_ where a large number of public service

workers are located, and Montreal,
covering Quebec outside of its western
regions.

Plans for the demonstration stress the
need to mobilize both affiliated and non-
affiliated unions, labor councils, and
coalition groups.

Despite the recent dispute between the
CLC and the building trades, a number of
building trades unions including the
Toronto-Central Ontario building trades
council have agreed to participate in the
rally.

Affiliates, the federations and the CLC
are producing publicity in the form of
leaflets, posters, and multi-media ads to

help gear up. support for the rally. Al- _

ready the UAW, and the Ontario Public
Service Employees Union, have pro-
duced leaflets, stickers and posters urg-

ing their members to march on Ottawa on

Nov. 21.

A special media and advertising blitz

will be conducted in the Ottawa-Hull

area to encourage not only union mem-_
bers but their families and friends to join —

in the rally. In fact, organizations
throughout the country, particularly in

Ontario and Quebec, are being encour

aged to make the rally an occasion for

protest by their members’ entire

families.
Everything from buses to car pools are

being organized to transport the masses —
to Ottawa. Paul Forder of the Ontario

Federation of Labor, who along with the

UAW’s Gord Wilson is helping coor
dinate the rally from Ontario said Oct. 21 .

that ‘‘almost every bus or major avail-
able charter coach has already been

booked for the rally.’’ He estimates that —
anywhere from 200 to 250 buses have
already been locked up. Negotiations are —

under way with Via Rail for a train to

Ottawa, though Via had earlier indicated _
that all of its passenger rail stock would —
be tied up because of the Gray Cup game —
which also takes place on the same i

weekend.

The National Union of Provincial

Government Employees has chartered 4

train from Vancouver picking up mem- —
bers across the country as it comes to

Ottawa.

Forder said arrangements are beinl
made with Ontario's provincially-owned

‘Go Transport’ service to book 14 dou-

ble decker Go Train cars. Each car holds —

262 passengers.

The Public Service Alliance of Cana-_
da, with three full time organizers for the
demonstration in Toronto alone, has~

spoken for 51 buses to carry its members
to the rally.
In.summing up the situation, based on

reports from weekly planning meetings —

being held in Ontario, Forder noted that

excitement for the rally is starting to

build.

The dogs bark - — but the train rolls on

In the labor movement you run into cynicism from the
right and from the left. When you strip them down there
is very little difference between the two. They provide a
convenient excuse from giving leadership to the real

struggles of the working class: A smug retreat from .

which to hurl contempt at the daily efforts of working
people to fight off the cruel effects of monopoly exploita-
tion and find their way to socialism.

Both these maladies are evident today as the labor
movement gears up for one of the truly great demonstra-
tions of his history on November 21.

The right wing of course is doing everything it can to
sabotage the demonstration. It is doing as little as pos-
sible to mobilize its membership for participation. It is
deliberately narrowing down the scope of the demon-
stration in order to minimize its political impact on the
country. It is peddling its line that demonstrations do no
more than let off a lot of steam for hot-headed radicals,
while the real job of electing labor’s friends on election
day remains untouched. All these arguments are de-
signed to weaken the elan of the working class, destroy

its confidence in itself, prevent the kind of discussion in:

preparations for Nov. 21 which would deepen the under-

standing of working people, and keep participation to a

minimum.

The left cynics insist that the CLC is not really serious -
about the demonstration, they are only calling it because -

the CLC convention is due and they feel the need to
_ make some gesture to protect themselves from ciriticism
at the convention. They argue that it is in any case, a one

shot affair, just like the one day general strike in 1976,
and as soon as it’s over the CLC will step up its tri-

partism and quality of work life program. There’s not
enough time to organize a proper demonstration, they

at Labor in action
y : William Stewart

claim, and the time of year is wrong.

' Fortunately, the labor movement as a whole is ignor-
ing the right and left cynics and proceeding apace to
make the Nov. 21 demonstration an overwhelming
success.

By raising this matter here we realize the danger that it
might appear such elements are threatening the success
of the Ottawa demonstration. This is not the case.. We
raise it because it is important in the course of such
actions for the workers to learn to recognize those in
their midst who work together to help the class enemy,
even while pretending to be friends of the workers.

While these negative elements are spreading their

defeatism the real impact of November 21 is already

being felt. Union education materials and union and
labor newspapers are landing at the homes of hundreds

of thousands of Canadian trade union members giving a ~

working class appraisal of the crisis in the Canadian

economy, showing how interest rates are a symptom ofa’

larger disease and in one way or another indicating an
alternative economic program for Canada.

Before Nov. 21 is over the level of understanding of
Canadian working people can be significantly extended
and following November 21 the confidence of the work-
ing class in their capacity to do something about it, can
also grow appreciably. Factories, offices and neighbor-

profess to be on the left take such positions?

simply defending itself against the system and chart an

hoods can become centres of discussion about the sick-
ness of capitalist economics and capitalist politics. The
alternative of working class politics and economics can
be introduced in a mass way among the working people.
November 21 can be a very important part of the
process of pushing politics to the left in Canada. It is
clear therefore why labor politicians from the right op- —
pose such mass actions. But why should those who

Lenin: dealt with such aberrations throughout his
works and notéd that such left aloofness is rooted in lack
of confidence in the working class, intellectual disdain,
petit bourgeois conceit, impatience with the slowness of
working people to achieve the ‘‘perceptive brilliance’’ of
their saviors.

In a word, it amounts to the inability of such self-pro-
claimed revolutionaries, to combine the real day-to-day
struggles of the working people, with the science of
socialism. One day they emphasize reforms with no
revolutionary content, another they emphasize revolu-
tion with no relations to the ongoing struggles of people
to solve their day-to-day problems. The two sides of
struggle are seldom brought together.

Thus it is on Nov. 21.

The working class is seizing this demonstration as an
important instrument in its efforts to protect itself from
the ravages of monopoly capitalism, and at the same time
illuminate a path ahead on which it can move over from a
defensive to an offensive struggle.

It is showing an increasing capacity to go beyond -

alternative course for itself and its democratic allies.
The dogs bark, but the train rolls on. om at an ever
increasing speed. :

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—OCT. 30, 1981—Page 6

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