Labour _ “There shouldn’t bea single commun- ity in this country that ‘Moosejaw’ can go to without having to face some kind of demonstration or pro- test.” That’s what one angry delegate to the recent Canadian Labour Congress con- vention said on the picket line outside the Vancouver hotel where the prime minis- | ter of Canada was slated to address the “beautiful people” who were pulling up in their BMWs and Mercedes Benzes. It was a demonstration that caught some media attention, coming as it did during the proceedings of one of this country’s most representative and demo- cratic public forums. It could have pro- vided the labour movement’s leadership with an effective prime time platform on which to bind the economic and political Labour in Action Mike Phillips issues uppermost in Canadians’ minds — from the Tory fire-sale of our resour- ces and crown corporations, to the dis- mantling of consumer-protecting laws like the drug patent scandal, all the way to Canada’s very survival under. the threat of free trade. What better message to send the peo- ple of Canada than to have a couple of thousand delegates from Canada’s labour parliament peacefully demon- Strating their opposition to the betrayal of this country and the Tory war declared on our living standards. The delegates not only hada firm grip on what the corporate elite is determined to do to us in the drive for fatter profits, but they had framed an action program to eliminate the neo-conservative agenda, and the Tory government that is carrying it Out. That program — peace, disarmament, negotiations, labour internationalism — linked with an industrial strategy Anti-Tory protest deserved support based on expanding public ownership of important sections of the economy, democratic tax reform, more social ser- vices, and all focused on full employment and equity, holds a tremendous unifying potential. It’s an open hand extended to women, Native peoples, retirees, the poor, the jobless, tenants, ratepayers — in short all the forces under attack by corporate Canada. A most interesting feature of this con- vention was not only the unanimity expressed by the delegates, but the unus- ual agreement in the analysis of that gathering by all sides. A trade unionist asking him/herself what message the Tories and the tycoons derived from this meeting would have to conclude simply from the coverage: “They saw that we have their number.” The task of dumping the Tories in the next election brought the necessary focus to the convention. One pundit suggested the axis of unity between what he des- cribed as “the hard-left caucus” and the executive council could be seen in the congress’ determination to broaden its ~ ties with unions in the socialist world. Buta more penetrating analysis would have revealed that unity in the face of a well-identified enemy and an impulse from the front ranks of the labour movement to fight that enemy rather than search for a non-existent “class partnership” have typified the Canadian labour movement for most of the current period of global capitalist restructuring. From the National Day of Protest against the Trudeau government’s wage controls program, continuing through the CLC’s support for affiliates fighting concessions, with epic battles such as the Gainers strike, the recent national postal workers’ strike and the campaign to save # PRIME MINISTER BRIAN MULRO- NEY ... should face pickets ‘every- where he goes.’ the Post Office — and nowa firm com- mitment to coalition-building against the corporate agenda — a clean, strong line of struggle emerges. More significantly, Canada is perhaps the only country where the neo-conserva- tives have had to face a unified, comba- tive trade union centre like the CLC. In this setting, the congress leader- ship’s stubborn refusal to lead the protest against Mulroney in Vancouver was an unfortunate thing because, like the CLC’s aloofness from the June 12 national day of protest against free trade, it sets up a jarring contrast between its actions and its program. There is a blind spot that some in the AARNID SS. CLC PRESIDENT SHIRLEY CARR... Congress program needs enaction. labour movemént must come to terms with. Electoral support for the NDP, as crucial and necessary as it is for bringing _ about the demise of this Tory govern- ment, can only be one aspect of the labour movement's strategy for progress. The other ingredient is mass action by labour and its growing field of allies. Our disgruntled delegate was right. People who turf a government out of office do so out of conviction rooted in the practical knowledge that change can in fact be brought about through con- certed action. It’s going to take a tidal wave of political discontent to swamp the Tories, and that takes a lot more than a 60-day election campaign to build. CUPW wins ruling _ for leaflet mailing OTTAWA — Despite obstruction by Canada Post Corp., the Canadian Union of Postal Workers intends to proceed with the mailing of its householder leaflets criticizing postal closures and the Tory government's efforts to dismantle the postal service. Canada Post won an interim injunction last month preventing the mailings, but Federal Court on May 10 threw out an application for a permanent injunction and ruled that the issue was within provincial jurisdiction. Union officials see the corporation’s manoeuvering as a desperate response to a CUPW campaign that is gaining public support. “Someone from the government got hold of Canada Post to try to do some- thing to try and stop the campaign. They lost badly, and now they’re trying to redeem themselves to get a victory somewhere,” union vice-president Daryl Tingley said. An April 14 agreement between the cor- poration and the joint postal union commit- tee including CUPW, the Letter Carriers Union of Canada and the Canadian Labour Congress recognized that two million union leaflets had already been printed. Canada Post has indicated it is consider- ing provincial court action. At press time the CUPW local in Lon- don, Ont. was seeking its own injunction to force the corporation to comply with its lawful duty to move the mail. Three CUPW locals in British Columbia and Nova Scotia have also taken steps to lay criminal charges against the corporation for tampering with the mail. Meanwhile in Timmins, Ont., the RCMP are investigating similar tampering charges against the corporation in connection with the householder leaflets. i Vancouver [AM members picket Air Canada during lockout last fall. Machinists in Canada to elect own leader In January, some 50,000 Canadian members of the International Association of Machinists will be launching an historic process. For the first time the Canadian members of the 750,000-member IAM will be deciding through a referendum vote to elect their own leader. Val Bourgeois, the international vice- president for Canada, is expected to win the mandate. The decision to amend the IAM constitu- tion to provide for the Canadian election came earlier this month at the union’s 100th anniversary international convention in Boston, Mass. Angie Schira, president of the union’s British Columbia council. and a_vice- president of the B.C. Federation of Labour, noted that the resolution had been before several other conventions without passing because of the American members’ inability to recognize Canada as a separate country within the union structure. “People were tying territorial issues to the election of our officers in this country,” she said, describing the tendency to see Cana- dian autonomy as just another expression of regionalism. “I asked the delegates to look up the meaning of international, to ask themselves what it meant. I said we are two countries and that this issue should not be clouded with the territorial question. “T wanted them to know how we as Can- adians felt,” Schira said. Pacific Tribune, May 25, 1988 e 7 — DAN KEETON " ‘TRIBUNE PHOTO