Fighter vs high prices

for Ham

Sue Hammond, pretty 26 year
old mother of ree “has yan
ae her candidature for the
- oe of Education in Hamil-
Me | Ward 8. A former teacher,
oe is Chairman of the Protest
es Sumer Association in Hamil-
a and a director of the Cana-
: an Consumers Protest Associa-
ion.
aad Hammond is basing her
ae on the needs of the
hi Ing People in the ward
* re she lives, needs which

€ as the wife of a lithographer

Rows very well.
€ must equip our youth
ene new world,” she says,
tise aS Opening up the fron-

S of our country, exploring

Space and conqueri i
ering disease
and poverty,” q g

“Ninety percent of the chil-
dren today,” she adds, “are be-

onference takes on new urgency

The Memispheric Conference to End the Vietnam War

ilton schoo

| board

ing trained for jobs which ten
years from now will no longer
exist. The gap between what is
talked about in the schools and
the real everyday world with
everyday demands seems to be
widening instead of closing.”

Among her proposals are:

@ complete restructing of the
school system along the lines of
the Hall-Dennis report;

@ making commerce and in-
dustry pay for the training of
youth;

@ encouragement of student
organizations to work along with
parents and teachers;

e forcing the “bayfront pocket
books” to provide teachers with
the best training and equipment
possible to do the best job of
teaching;

@ a new relationship between
the Board of Education and the
citizens by making all meetings
public and equiring reports
from trustees to the electors.

“It is time,” she says, “that
we citizens realize our roles in

IN MEMORY |
LIEBKNECHT —
LUXEMBERG

am

| 'S proceeding ‘as scheduled but with even greater urgency,"
Stated Edward Martin Sloan for the Quebec Organizing
_ qommittee of the Hemispheric Conference on Oct. 31.
4 he announcement of the cessation of United States
_ Pombing and bombardment of North Vietnam has not end-
_ €d the terrible war against the Vietnamese people. It does
Teptesent the first essential condition required by the gov-

_ &mment of the Democratic Republic. of Vietnam for the
commencement of real negotiations with the United States
__90vernment to bring peace to all of Vietnam. With people
i toughout the world the organizing committee of the
emispheric Conference welcomes this development as

t € result of the heroic struggles of the people of Vietnam.
is first step to peace now requires that the will for peace

of all anti-Vietnam war forces, already expressed in count-
2 | 4888 activities, must now exert decisive influence to assure
i that no backward step be permitted in the future negotia-

society. We must become involv-
ed not only as workers, either
of hand or brain, but as people.
We must build our city-so it is
a beautiful city, a city that is a
pleasure to live in not only just
a huge factory that looks and
smells like a blast furnace. The
development of industry is a
wonderful creative thing and all
those who work every day in
thousands of occupations are
wonderful creative people. Every-
one of us spends time to make
our home attractive and clean.
We must also make our city at-
tractive and clean.”
She adds, ‘Part of this task is

Fifty years ago, on November 9, 1918, Karl Liebknecht proclaim-
ed from this balcony the Free Socialist German Republic. On that
day, the revolutionary forces had gained the upper hand in Berlin;
on the imperial palace fluttered a red flag. The November Revolu- ~
tion had shaken the power of German imperialism to its very foun-

vA tions to end the United States war against the people of the development of an educa- dations and the monarchy was abolished. Yet, the Socialist revolu-

rts 2 letnam. To this great purpose, the organizing committee tional system that reflects the tion did not eventuate, as Social Democratic politicians obstructed

at _ fenews its call for the widest participation from Canada, scope and beauty, the creative the bourgeoisie from being deprived of its power and put a spoke

si _ ‘atin America and the United States in the Hemispheric dynamic drive that is our coun- into the wheel of the revolution. The leaders of the Left, Karl Lieb-

an Contetence to End the Vietnam War to be held in Montreal try and our people. It is in this knecht and Rosa Luxemburg, were assassinated.

i at November 28 to December 4, 1968.” sate _ oe eee pias ; The Berlin Castle, which had suffered serious damage during

asi?! a — . os youth, sure footed an 1 prou on. the war, does not exist any longer. The portal with the famous

a oe ee the road to the future. balcony was inserted into the State Council building, when built.

No! :

: John Willi ; ;

a ohn Williamson

se ineers Strixe postpone

en : . .
: '

_ , LONDON
é 3 “ce ~4 + 29 : se .

te : The nationwide strike affect- year. The union wage demand The “Daily Mirror called the and the negotiating committee Committee, however, indicates

]00 ing 3.5 million engineering work- had been for $20 for the skilled proposed strike “nationally dis- for their work. the underestimation of the fight

astrous,” and that Scanlon was. The Union’s Executive Coun-

< has been postponed by a

alrbreadth decision. The Natio-

a ‘Committee of the Amalga-

wood Engineers and Foundry-
Orkers Union defeated the pro-

POsal of President Scanlon that
€ Strike proceed as scheduled.
€ vote was 27 to 25.

on a result of the pressure of
ne Preparation for strike in
factories, and the skilful ne-
eLuations led by the newly-
€cted Left Wing AEF Presi-
cab Hugh Scanlon, important
Ncessions were forced out of
: © employers in one week’s
°ntinuous hard bargaining.
: ese last minute resumptions of
nev tiations were at the initia-
ni € of Mrs. Barbara Castle, Mi-
et Employment and Pro-
Uctivity. The regular negotia-
‘Ons dragging out for over a
en had reached a stalemate,
eg ithe employers stubbornly
5 Using to make anything but
N insulting offer.
Ete final concessions by the
oye lovers were wage increases
te the next three years that
Rd bring the rate for skilled
Orkers up to $45.60 (at pres-

€nt!$30.70) , unskilled $36.00 (at -

spent $26.10) and) women
20 (at present $2.20). and
hree’ extra days hoidays per

workers, but up till 48 hours
before the end of negotiations
their top offer was $42.00.

The “Observer” said the con-
cessions “represent a revolution
in engineering workers’ pay and
conditions,” but Scanlon told the
news conference that “from the
point of view of the division of
the national cake . ... we are
really no better off.”

Failure to reach an agreement
in the final hour was caused by
the refusal, of the employers to
grant the women another pound
a week increase, bringing them
up to $33.60, which would still
have been lower than the rate
for unskilled men. There are
500,000 women in the industry.

While the concessions won are
important, there is no doubt that
the additional increase for wo-
men engineers could have been
gained if the National Commit-
tee had not rejected the recom-
mendation of Scanlon and the
Executive Council, that the
strike go on unless the women’s
demands were granted in full.

Tremendous forces were lined
up against the threatened strike,
and during the last few days
Scanlon was subjected to daily

attacks from the employers, the.,

saying “to hell” with the Gov-
érnment’s policy and with the
nation. The flag was unfurled
amidst oceans of crocodile tears.

Within the trade union move-
ment, other unions in the Con-
federation of Engineering and
Shipbuilding Unions, like the
Electricians, Municipal and Gen-
eral, and the Boilermakers, vot-
ed against the strike. Les Can-
non, renegade Communist lead-
er of the Electricians and Plum-
bers union, carried on a consist-
ent struggle against the strike in
the 29-union Confederation
which supported the AEF. Only
the big Transport Workers
Union and its leader, Cousins,
gave consistent support.

Prior to the next AEF Na-
tional Committee on Nov. 4th,
pressure is again building up
from the branches and the mem-
bers, to compel concessions by
the employers on the women’s
demands, or to go through with
the strike. The strike machinery
is being kept intact.

Typical is the action of the
influential Manchester District
Committee of the AEF which ex-
pressed bitter disagreement at

cil has now referred the terms
as arrived at when negotiations
broke off, to its 3,000 branches
for their views.

The women engineering work-
ers at the Glasgow Rolls Royce
factory are organizing a token
stoppage
union’s demands for the women.
Already women engineers in
seven other nearby factories
have decided to join them.

In the Midlands the 24-man
executive of the combined shop
stewards committee of the Bri-
tish Leyland Motors Corp. have
already convened an emergency
meeting to consider further ac-
tion.

Already it is possible for the
1144 million members of the
AEF and workers in all other
trade unions to draw lessons
from this experience. Of positive
importance is the lesson of over-
whelming unity behind militant
policies that challenged the Pri-
ces and Incomes policy of the
Right Wing Labor Government.
Equally important was the fight-
ing role of the newly elected
President Scanlon in contrast to
his Right Wing predecessor,
Lord Carron — now’a Governor
of the Bank of England.

gratulating—. Scanlon » »; The, vote: cof stheir: National

in support of their

for equal pay for women — in

this specific case the demand fell
far short of equal pay — on the
part of many men. While the
vote was for postponement of the
strike, it actually reflected a lack
of readiness to strike for what
was considered ‘‘women’s de-
mands.”

In exchange for the wage in-
creases and more holidays, the
union agreed in a vague state-
ment that production and man-
power in the industry should be
deployed and used more effec-
tively. They also agreed to co-
operate in dropping restrictive
practices such as the overman-
ning of production lines, to con-
sider shift work and that the
age limits of apprentices would
be extended, These concessions
are worrying many members.

The employers pressed for the
abolition of the right of the shop
stewards in each factory to try
and better their wages within
the framework of the national
agreement, but this was not
agreed to by the union negotia-
tors.

However, this is still one of
the key aims of the Donovan Re-
port which the unions will have
to. be alert to, and make no con-

. cessions on, but on the,contrary, -§ | |
fight it rélentlessly.- “*;#** °°

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—NOVEMBER 8, 1968—Page 7

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