Drees Ps.

ai : their Beas ies to America, most powerful of

a tesistanee alist powers. But the working class of-

ee asnbseryin Washington opened its offensive

‘Unions vience of the unions of those countries.
. to be coralled if sacrifices were to be

Workers for Wall Street. -

all
de ant did not rely: only on the influence of
‘Union bu. but enlisted the top layer of the U.S.
iin a) qaucracy. Washington installed “labor at-
of the embassies, drawing them from. the
Signme wen burocrats, The AFL undertook the
aaa enthusiasm. “Labor emissaries” in
the major} hes” were despatched to split unions
€ and Tey ty refused to bow to Wall Street. In

gains, y they used U.S. dollars to create splinter
0, the Bria, Main unions, Finally they broke away
Dalley cone itish Trade [Union Congress and a couple

; “ters from the World Federation of Trade
8, €stablished: an opposition dominated by

is
the World-wide pattern. In Canada, where

~ {throy h aye unusual stakes as well as unusual
8 and CIO domination) they never-
te considerable resistance.

; gress of Labor (CIO), dominated
Mtadien ty democrats, swallowed the policy of
f * heads *: governments, hook, line and sinker.
# CCT, ete. aware of the substantial opposition
> ang Ne the other hand the older and larger
AY Supp Sr Congress (AFL), though led by old-
Oye .nrters, retained a semblance of independ-
keep , a TLC tried to stick to a Canadian
S autonomy. Unlike the CCL, the TLC

go :
han ett in red-baiting, or lose its head on

a
g
2.

2

5

Q

°o

3

irkeg

ext ot W ashington as it displeased the Canadian

"4 to th big business, which had completely sur-
0 a They joined hands to browbeat the
er them docile to Ottawa-Washington

ne all destroy their militancy before the crisis

Ping Militants from leadership,

hip of pp2gnates' tried repeatedly to bribe the
lng , ~ Beroic Canadian Seamen’s Union, They

thy, Bineh gy 22S: But he failed to smash that union,

Secur

“Sabo AFL officials to help them do what

Ping
‘i Stry could not do.

yn gp. S€amen’s “union” signed a contract with

ly Membe °wners on the Atlantic without having a

Wag ‘hd on those ships. Every Canadian deepsea
Atfiliage €mber of the CSU, which from its birth

My sie of the TLC and the recognized collective

What now?’

wh
fers a sl
they fo

ump is coming, many unionists are

3 at the Labor-Progressive party believes
Such of their needs as the following:
rel and provincial labor codes.

2 moy. er ~democracy in Canadian trade
fon vemen i

sheng

Hig, te
f) Nio,

ey

.

.

efend the unemployed.
to the UN for achievement of world

Pend
tmeng Ctr aide union political action to compel

“lion on this program.

hts of: a

wn ch adian workmen to belong to unions

to q Oice? Bargaining rights? Freedom of

Cour de their affairs? Nonsense, if those
T to the plans of Wall Street and its

Tun
ant, CUNte
ere. The CSU revolutionized the wages

erg h

their heads!

Mh ‘ch led to the present strike was hatched
to : he departments of labor, trade and
yeban, Tansport. The government’s own steam-
(Bove, pCetheaded the drive for the private
Use, Ament’s railroad and its police were put
na) ne external affairs department became

5 Strike-breaking instrument — hounding
als. 22 ports around the world. U.S. immi-

SO useq \
tiona)

Union leaders—not radicals—condemn-
and interference, the U.S. ambassador
Self admonished them for their “unfair
iti "Bante omstess itself was attacked. The AFL
fo With, a financial siege. U.S. heads of 14
r thejp held from the TLC the per capita’ pay-
Yereg ,. Canadian membership. An ultimatum
nes go x Change the basis of representations to
Re hat the AFL leaders could gain control

‘
(apy y’es Ordered to expel the CSU and accept
ye hE 4), officers who went to AFL executive

the, -@d with’ abuse and advised that they

ie y Were told or the TLC of Canada (form-

t ) would be split and an opposition

© the AFL set up. ue

& new attack. This time Ottawa’and.

What a humiliating and revolting state of affairs!

Lacking strength to continue their mass-supported
battle to victory, the TLC officers capitulated to the
foreign interventionists and the pressure of Ottawa and
big business. .

Such arrogant interference is not only practised in
the case of the seamen. Ottawa has deported !U.S. union
leaders (invited by their Canadian membership to help
in negotiations) if they were known to be critica] of
U.S. foreign policy.

The U.S. government has barred hundreds of Cana-
dian unionists from attending union conferences in the
U.S. Any Canadian who does not approve the policies
of U.S. imperialism or who advocates an independent
Canadian peace policy is denied opportunity to cross the
border on union business.

It is in the case of the seamen, though, that reaction
scored a tentative victory of far-reaching importance.
They believe that they have broken the independence of
the TLC (AFL), destroyed its autonomy and can now
make it subservient like the CCL (CIO) where the right-
wing CCF leadership surrendered without a fight.

But the struggle has only begun. Canadian unions
will not fail the working class or surrender their auton-
‘omy to’ U.S. imperialism.

The new attacks are launched when the economic
crisis is arriving, when international] solidarity: is becom-
ing a very positive force in support of Canadian work-
ers (the solidarity strike of the British dockers is a
magnificent example) and when the disastrous effects
of U.S. imperialist domination, including loss of jobs, are

_ hastening repudiation of Wall Street intervention. Events

are shaping up in favor of the Canadian unions.

The fight for the freedom and autonomous rights
of the Canadian trade union movement against gov-
ernment and big business interference is inseparable
from the battle for jobs, security, union democracy,
peace and friendship between nations. The first has
to be won to. win the second.

This means that you, your union and your dele-
gates to the TLC or CCL convention must stubbornly
battle for: 2 : .

@ the’freedom amd autonomy of Canadian unions
and their central bodies.

@ rejection of every attempt by AFL or CIO chiefs
to steal voting control of Congress conventions from
the Canadian rank-and-file.

@ immediate lifting of the CSU suspension and
all-out support to the seamen and their union.

@ an end to deportation of U.S. union officers
from Canada for their political beliefs,

@ an end to U.S. immigration interference in
Canadian unions ‘through selection of delegates to
union conferences. Restore free border crossing for
union officers of either country on union business.

T may sound strange but the gravest danger facing

Canadian unionism today comes from within the
unions themselves. It comes from those leaders who, for
eash or for compensation of another kind (government
appointment, etc.) are on a rampage that threatens to
wreck the unions. : :

Have I forgotten the grave external problems which
I dealt with above? No, I haven’t and I repeat that
the gravest danger comes from within.

Certainly labor will be facing crisis and unemploy-
ment and attempts of hostile governments, big business
and U.S. labor bosses, to dominate Canadian unions. All
that is true. But because it is true, the first need is a
united, militant and democratic union movement to de-
fend the interests of Canadian workers and make gains.
To split, weaken, ‘and burocratize unions on the eve of
the critical period ahead, is to condemn labor to defeat
before the battle.

Whoever carries the Drew-Duplessis-St. Laurent re@-
baiting poison into the ranks of labor, suspends, expels,
raids, and helps break strikes because of anti-Communist
madness, is playing the role of a fifth column inside the
camp of labor. Such activities paralyze labor from within
while the boss outside prepares the attack.

Let us learn from history. Communists have always
fought for a united union movement. In fact, the first
big campaign of the first party of Canadian Communists
was to reunite the unions after the One Big Union split.

In the twenties, thousands of Communists and other
progressives who fought for industrial unionism, organi-
zation of the unorganized, union democracy and against
speed-up policies of the high-salaried AFL chiefs, were
suspended or expelled by decrees of red-baiting burocrats.
This robbed the North American trade union movement
of its sould. It declined, and when the crash, which the
Communists predicted, came, the working class was easy
prey for the big shots. :

In the early thirties, the Tory Ontario government
outlawed the Communist party. of Canada and jailed
Tim Buck and eight of his colleagues, not for any of-
fence but because reaction hoped to behead labor and
throw the burden of the crisis on the poor. (Communists
are always singled out first for such reasons.)

It was Communists and other progressive unionists,
not the fat salaried “roadmen,” who organized tens of
thousands of workers through the Workers’ Unity League.
They stopped wage cuts, gained increases and showed

that workers could win even in depression.

It was then that Communists and other progressives
brought into being some of the most powerful unions
now affiliated to the CIO and AFL, such as auto, steel,
lumber, shipping, electrical, and fishing. Likewise Com-
munists played a prominent role in laying the founda-
tions in textile, chemical, rubber, mining, and packing.
Many red-baiting leaders of today had little, if anything,
to do with early struggles of unions they now try to boss.

In the post-war period, the Communists spark-plugged,
gave direction and considerable coherence to the great
wage struggles of 1946-47. Those battles defeated big
business’ strategy to destroy labor’s wartime gains.

What a glorious record the Canadian Communists in

ADIAN LABOR

the unions can point to! Is it in labor's interest to
fight them? Of course not! It was Drew and Duplessis
spokesmen for the most violent sections of finance
capital, who launched the domestic “cold war” with the
demand that unions “oust Communists”, They had learn-
ed from Hitler that first Communists must be eliminated
and then the unions themselves.

So long as their advice was not heeded unionism
advanced. But when the intensified anti-Communist hys-
teria absorbed many union leaders, progress stopped,
labor’s unity began to crack, and the bosses rejoiced.

The right-wing CCF leaders of the CCF were first to
heed the serpents of Bay and St. James Streets. They
set the pace in union disruption. Conroy earned the
honorary “doctor” degree, given him in appreciation of
his services .. ,

Co-ordinated wage movements are gone. It is every-
one for himself now. No time for the Conroys to fight
industry when they are fighting opponents of their union
splitting. They are fighting the war Drew asked for.

The Mine, Mill and Smelter Workers was led by
CCF’ers who refused to join the red-baiting. So the
CCF approved déportation-of Mine-Mil] officers. It expel-
led that honored organization and began the most dis-
gusting raiding campaign against it. Any CCL union
that differs with the leadership is a target for red-baiting
attack. ‘

CIO unions who won’t join the red-baiters are barred
by the’ Mosher-Conroy-Millard CCL leadership of CCL
from exercising their jurisdiction in Canada.

The CCL entered B.C. to capture or destroy the exem-
plary trade union movement there. They haven’t cap-
tured it yet, but they have destroyed it a-plenty. And
officers of the powerful United Electrical, Radio and
Machine Workers (CIO) have been suspended from the
CCL because that union’s Paper was sharply critical of
CCL Ontario Federation of Labor officers.

So it goes from bad to worse: in the CCL. Conven-
tions have become red-baiting, riot-inciting orgies. The
real union problems are left untouched or referred to the
executive. Union democracy has become a mockery. The
only CCL “organizational” work is among those the CCL
leaders have disorganized.

. In:the case of the seamen the CCL began with sabo-
age and ended up_openly aiding scabbing under guidance
of the federal department of labor, as in Sydney, N.S.

In the TLC it was the most reactionary clique among
the “roadmen” who first copied the CCL in red-baiting
and union-busting.

Now the TLC membership is in danger of losing con-
trol of its Congress. !Unless a wave of indignation causes
TLC unions to send a preponderance of honest rank-and-
file delegates to the 1949 Calgary convention, a dozen or
two fat-salaried “roadmen” may gain absolute voting con-
trol. Their Washington bosses are supplying the money
to pack the convention with stooges and change the
constitution to permit each roadman to vote for his entire
Canadian membership.

Such a scheme or any modification of it, would be_

the worst blow to the autonomy, democracy and unity of
the Congress. The Congress would become a U.S. agency,
a medium for disruption and demoralization, a tool for
big business reaction.

With such -an inner menace, how can Canadian
unions meet the colossal challenge the working class is
about to face? Victory for the red-baitfhg burocrats
would take the guts out of the trade unions just when
they need the maximum of strength and unity.

This is the gravest danger facing Canadian labor.
It is also the greatest challenge to class-conscious union-
ists to unite and fight this menace -with everything
they’ve got.

All unionists, regardless of political beliefs or affilia-
tions, who ‘stand for honest, democratic unionism and
labor unity, who value the autonomy of Canadian union-
ism, who prize the independence and national rights of
Canadian ‘workers, who want iabor saved from the:
nightmarish experiences of the thirties—all who hold such:
views must join hands. They are by far the majority,
and if they act together they will defeat the enemies from
within and without. : ,

Expose this danger to your workmates and your union
brothers and sisters! Your local should send delegates
to the Congress and conventions’ who will fight for unity
and autonomy, who will rout the red-baiters and splitters.

Your resolutions should demand retention of the old.

voting system in the TLC. The Congress must not be-
come the private property of the “roadmen” and their
U.S. bosses. Condemn red-baiting as a fascist method of
disruption. ‘
Demand re-instatement of the CSU in the TLC and
of the Mine, Mill and Smelter Workers’ Union in the
CCL, and an end to the suspension of the UE leaders.
Demand an end to union-raiding. Demand union
democracy. .

A LESSON of recent experience is that the main body
of unfon officials have gone overboard. They have
joined Drew and St. Laurent on war and p€ace, on their
disastrous war. policy, on supporting all anti-labor regimes
in the world, on red-baiting and union disruption. They’
are carrying Wall Street’s “cold war’ into Canadian
unions,

But the “cold war” bolsters world reaction and fas-
cism (see Germany,: Japan, Greece and Turkey)? It
brings calamity to the people of countries which join it
(Britain, France, and beginnings in Canada). It threat-
ens the disaster of another world war. And the cold war
technique right-wing burocrats are’ bringing into our
unions can only have similarly disastrous effects for us.

Have these burocrats a program to protect jobs, de-

‘feat speed-up and galvanize labor to lead the people

against crisis? They have not. If they had they couldn’t
disorganize unions. One cancels out the other. :
Instead of organizing the millions of unorganized to

(Concluded on Page $—See CANADIAN LABOR)

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—AUGUST 5, 1949—PAGE 7

ie