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INJUNCTIONS — KEY ISSUE

The B.C. Fed convention—AND AFTER

By LABOR CTTEE.,
COMMUNIST PARTY.

T understand the conflict .

over injunctions waged at the
.B.C, Federation of Labor Con-
vention this year, between, for
want of a better name, the Fed-
eration ‘‘establishment’’ on the
one hand, and the progressive
‘delegates .on the other, one must
journey back in time to the Can-
adian Labor Congress conven-
tion in April of this year.

It was there that the now famous

’ Winnipeg Resolution on injunc-

tions was conceived. Conceived
albeit, only after the original
Tesolution put before the as-
Sembled delegates by the reso-
lutions committee was roundly
condemned by many speakers and
eventually referred back tocom-
‘mittee with instructions to pro-
duce a policy of action,

The motion to refer back was
a slap in the face for Congress
Officialdom, and reflected in
some measure the willingness
and determination of labor to
fight,

The subsequent resolution,
Produced after much laboring,
in the dying hours of the conven-
tion, called on the movement to
wage strong militant action when-
ever and wherever ex-parte in-
junctions were issued, Armed
with this kind of directive, the
delegates made their way home-
Ward, those in the West to be
faced. with Lenkurt Electric and
those to the East with Tilco
Plastics,

Labor, probably at that mo-
ment was beginning to move into
One of those classic confronta-
tions with management, and the
big business controlled state ap-
Paratus — with sails trimmed
and the semblance of genuine
unity and a sympathetic public
Slowly starting to grasp the in-
iquity of injunctions, and all the
indications of a massive cam-
Paign followed by an equally im-
pressive victory,

However, something happened
to mar the happy ending, The
CLC cailed a special conference
on injunctions in September with
representation restricted to two
delegates per National or Inter-
National union (two for all of the
UAW, IWA, USWM, etc.) At this
Conference in Ottawa, keynote
Speakers were lawyers John Os-
ler and David Lewis.

They did their best to present
to the conference what was in
fact a new “line” in the struggle
against injunctions, A new line
that was duly picked up by the
Press and scattered across the
land,
that there were other ways to
Skin the cat than the Winnipeg
Resolution way,

“NEW LINE”

_ The brake was being cautiously
applied to the policy of mass
militant action, in favor of legal
‘diplomacy, and “room at the top”
Manoeuvring, with some refer-

~€nces made to Harold Wilson’s

dilemma thrown in for good mea-
sure,

The new line wasn’t too popu-
lar, €ven with that conference,

and President Claude Jodoin felt:

obliged to remind the homeward

A new line which said >

oe

trekking delegates that the Win-
nipeg Resolution, still stood and
was still Congress policy. These
remarks were not picked up. by
the press, and certainly weren’t
scattered very far,

In B.C. the new line from
Congress found tangible form in
the decision by the Federation not
to appeal the conviction of the
‘tfour,’’ but only the sentence
Thus admitting guilt, and recog-
nizing the validity of injunctions
to be issued, and simply pleading
for a little less prison time.
Most important of all perhaps,
literally sinking the grass roots
campaign that had begun to de-
velop around the convictions,

wal

_seeaitvereomeniseinatitomsesactseinon the

in Congress and Federation, and
legal profession.

ACTION BLOCKED

The Sunday meeting prior to
the BCFL convention saw both
Tom Berger and Donald Mac-
Donald, CLC secretary, given the
opportunity for a talk fest on
the ‘‘new line,’’ which produced
to some degree, the desired affect
of deadening the “let’s get some-
thing done’’ feeling of the dele-
gates,

The composite resolution on
injunctions when it hit the floor
on Tuesday, came out flat-footed
against any demonstrationsat the
courthouse, as serving no useful

B.C. FED. DELEGATES AT COURT HOUSE. Photo shows some of the hundreds of
delegates to the convention marching around the courthouse to protest the jail-
ing of union leaders and the use of injunctions in labor disputes. The need for
more militant action by labor is urged in the article on this page to defeat injunc-

tions and win freedom for the imprisoned union leaders.

The decision to adopt this
strategy was taken shortly after
a regular meeting of the Vancou-
ver Labor Council which set forth
a six-point program in line with
the Winnipeg Resolution and,
called for the appeal of the con-
victions. This program was to be
placed before a special meeting
of the BCFL Executive Board on
the following Friday by VLC
President Ed Sims,

However, any discussion by
then was purely academic, for
Federation lawyer Tom Berger
had on Thursday already announ-
ced: ‘Sentence only to be ap-
pealed,” facing the policy-making
executive on Friday with a fait
accompli, and leaving only Sims,
and Rod Doran, President of the
Prince Rupert Labor Council still
opting for the VLC six-point
program of “fight all the way.”
The Marine Workers thereupon
in line with VLC and CLC policy
appealed the conviction of Jeff

Power,

The stage then was Set for the
BCFL convention, with injunc-
tions as the prime issue, and
with the B.C, Appeal Court judges
co-operating very nicely by ar-
ranging to have the cases heard
on the Thursday during con-
vention week.

A demonstration around the
courthouse seemed to be a
natural — after all the IWA
Regional convention had already
set an excellent precedent at the
time of the final sentencing in
October by adjourning their con-
vention to the courthouse, But
even this elementary form of

mass action was by now unac-—

ceptable to the “new line” people

- union fashion,

—Fisherman photo

purpose, Strange sentiments for

_the labor movement, which was
-nurtured on demonstrations, as

Staley, Moore, Alton and the
rest of them know full well,
particularly in B.C.

The resolution was certainly
at odds with the movement in On-
tario, where at the time of the
“demonstrate or not to demon-
strate,” issue was being debated
in the Bayshore, they were
marching through the streets of
Peterborough to the skirl of the
pipes, appealing convictions to
the Supreme Court of Canada,
and launching a mass public peti-
tion, In general, following the
Winnipeg Resolution and re-
sponding in a principaled trade
And in the pro-
cess, incidentally, acting rather
in the way that the rest of the
country had come to expect of
B>C.

In the debate, “establishment?”
speakers came out against dem-
onstrations per se, “Stupid,’’
said Geo, Johnstone, usually one
of the first on the line in recent
years, Predictably the election
of an NDP government was posed
as the only answer to change the
law, Forgetting somehow that
ex-parte injunctions are not
granted according to law, but
rather at the discretion of judges,
the next provincial election is five
years away, and electing an NDP
government is no guarantee that
labor laws will be changed, not
without a mass support movement
below, A lesson some British
unionists must be learning fast
these days!

There was also a job done to

disinherit the “adhoc” committee _

Scere

of Carol- Ann Power, particularly
by Ray Haynes, both publicly and

’ privately, on the basis of red

baiting, Pat O’Neal carried this
part of the debate well, hinting
at “red herrings” and dubious
politics involved, After the
events of the last week exposing
his connections with the RCMP,
the role he played at the con-
vention is understandable,

The noxious part of the resu-
lution dealing with “no demon-
strations” was duly referred
back, after speakers called for
mass militant action,

It was then reproduced, this
time with a demonstration, but
Wednesday not Thursday, which
was a further example of howfar
down the road to appeasement the
leadership were willing to go.

Syd Thompson at this point,
expressing the distasteful way
in which the “establishment’’
were willing to sabotage a Thurs-
day demonstration, said that he

wasn’t going to be the one to be:

accused of leading a split and
would settle for Wednesday, His
words expressed well the feeling
of the moment, and laid bare the
intrigues of a weak leadership,

By coming out strongly against
a demonstration on the day of
appeals, because it might be con-
strued “as intimidation of the
Courts,” the Judge was given a
beautiful weapon, and when dis-
persing the demonstration led by
Power’s daughter on Thursday,
was able to use the same words
as Haynes without changing a
syntax,

The demonstration of delegates
however did take place on the
Wednesday, and the subsequent
news coverage was able to convey
labor’s story tothe people, better
than all the cap-in-hand meetings
with the Cabinet could ever do.

NEED LABOR UNITY

There is the need now for all
B.C. labor to unite to carry out
some of the good action proposals
adopted by the convention, These
include the lobbying of MLAs
against injunctions; telegrams
and communications to the At-
torney-General against the use
of injunctions and imprisonment
of unionists; a meeting with the
Cabinet; the call to unions to
hold special meetings on the in-
junction issue; wide distribution
of a pamphlet on injunctions;
raising the $2.00 per member
contribution to the Defence Fund
and the convening of meetings
of church, civil liberties and
other interested groups,

Resolutions of a controversial
nature which in past conventions
had been a dreary procession of
“non-concurrence,” this year
were generally looked on with
“favor.” A recognition of the

- change of mood, but alsoa change

of tactics, for it is one thing to
accept new policies, but quite
another to carry them out, and
promises made on the floor of
the convention hall are not neces-
sarily promises kept in the
following months, Any criticism
from the left thereafter for not
carrying out convention decisions
is immediately presented as an
attack on the NDP as such, or
carried to its most vulgar con-

clusion, ‘‘any vote against Ray

Haynes is a vote against the

_trades councils, and local unions,

Resolutions dealing with bring-
ing all unions outside the CLC
back in, were as usual left until
after elections, and to the last
hours of the convention, This is
one debate that the present type
of leadership aren’t going to
touch with a barge pole, for all
their exultations of unity and
democracy,

Progressive delegates should
also realize that when the words
“provided they abide by the CLC
Constitution” are added to the
unity resolution, that is the kiss
of death, for as long as Com-
munists are proscribed, then the
path of unity will remain barred,

DEMOCRACY

An interesting paradox exists
among some Federation officials
in their good public statements
on the inequality of the electoral
system, where Socreds can get
less than 50 percent of the popular
vote and still get a majority of
seats, In the Federation elec-
tions however, the same people
insist on 100 percent fidelity to
their chosen slate, and succeed,
with a well-oiled machine that
would make Mr, Bennett iook like
a piker, ;

When C, Stewart can get 43
percent of the convention vote,
expressing a 60-40 balance of
power, yet still can find no place
on the 16-man council, or other

‘progressives too, then it is very

obvious that new changes in basic
thinking are necessary for some,

Without the International Long-
shore & Warehousemen’s Union
nothing moves out of the port of
Vancouver, or in, this organiza-
tion recognized far and wide as
one of the most responsible,
astute and militant. This union
singly challenged injunctions
more than any other, to the point
of sending 10 of their men to jail
over them, Yet Roy Smith,
Longshore President, and Fed-
eration executive aspirant, went
down to defeat before the ‘‘es-
tablishment’s” machine,

FIGHT INJUNCTIONS

Meanwhile, several church
groups recently issued a state-
ment on the use of injunctions in
labor disputes, a heartening sign,
and a response to the call of
the VLC and to all interested
bodies to protest their use,

Meanwhile, the four are still
in Thurston camp, and the threat
of almost certain prison sen- —
tence, plus criminal records
await anyone courageous enough
to challenge the next injunction
when it arrives, and arrive it —
will, whether in the building
trades, shipyards, steelworkers —
or what have you,

And challenged it will be, for
in spite of the inertia-stricken
leadership of the BCFL, who ap-
pear reluctant to take up the

cudgels on behalf of, not only Ff

the labor movement, but the ©
people, there are many who are
willing, : cee

The implementation of the
resolutions and policies passed
in convention will depend inlarge —
measure on how they are picked
up by labor councils, building

PACI