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__ EDITORIAL ——

International Women's Day

Marking the 72nd International Wo-
men’s Day, March 8, Canadian women
are expressing both solidarity with
women in differing situations through-
Out the world, and determination to
reach their own goals in Canada.

The Tribune greets IWD at a time

| When some of the bastions are falling

before the women’s struggle. But both
financial resistance from the monopoly
system, and a large residue of chauvin-
Istic resistance, presents challenge
enough to demand a further long fight.

We celebrate IWD as some sectors of
the women’s movement are seeing clear-
ly the need to focus on the whole picture
and not simply a few parts. Employment
Opportunities, they observe for example,

_ will not improve dramatically for women

while government policy dictates mass
unemployment in general.

That point of view does not ignore the
barriers specifically placed before wo-
men, but shows the potential for unity in
action, and alliances of a far-reaching
Nature.

The armaments budget, to cite an-
Other factor, takes $7-billion annually
out of investment in useful production
and job creation. An all-out effort to
Change policies based on that kind of
foundation is needed in order to be able
to attack family concerns such as inflated
Prices, cutbacks, housing costs, etc.

These are clearly not problems of wo-
men’s organizations alone. But women’s
organizations can provide a powerful
input and a strong influence on the
direction of the struggle, which will see
them working in unity with the trade

“union movement and working-class

political bodies to form a powerful force.

Just six days before [WD the federal
government at last agreed, when hauled
before the Human Rights Commission,
to pay some 3,300 of its lowest-paid
employees about $5,000 each to com-

nsate for past pay discrimination.

~ That 2,300 of them are women shows up

government policy. Whatever pros and
cons may yet arise, the contract was a
positive step for equal pay for work of
equal value. »

At the other extreme are some male
neanderthals in Toronto city council
who blame women for the fact that only
20% of the city’s employees are women,
contrasted to a Canadian labor average
of 40%.

Instead of trying to measure gains
made by women on a scale of one-to-ten
since the first IWD, however, we greet
the permanent place in capitalist society
of the struggle for women’s rights, for
equality of opportunity. It is never going
to go away until the goals are achieved;
and that is a good guarantee, given unity
with labor and other mass movements, of
the struggle’s imminent success.

Where’s the job creation? —

With 1.5 million Canadians unable to
Set jobs (even official figures admit 1.1
million), and now the authoritative word
Of Statistics Canada that the country is in
a recession — which appeared obvious to
Most of us — what is going to be done
about it?

The government alternately heralds
New spending on job creation — which

usually means a hand-out to a corpora-
tion — and cutbacks in job creation pro-
grams. The one unchanged fact is that
unemployment keeps rising. In the
spending estimates tabled in the House
of Commons, Feb. 23, the Liberal plan
chopped $102-million from its job crea-
tion budget for the 1982-83 fiscal year.

Workers have to ask what the govern-
ment’s priorities are.

Nuclear weapons-free zone

The mainstream of Canadians have ~

Neither the need nor the desire to live
their daily lives with deadly nuclear

_ Weapons ticking away beside them, wait-

Ng to be detonated.

It would be folly, and the most deadly
Misconception for Canadians to expect
any result but radiation death and an-

Tthilation from nuclear weapons.

It is not surprising that Canadians of

Yarious persuasions oppose nuclear

Weapons on Canadian soil, and call upon
ae federal government to prohibit such
Acursion, and to proclaim Canada a nu-
“ear weapons-free zone.
fo ost recently Walter Gordon, a
ormer Liberal cabinet minister, has
Challenged the atomaniacs.
_ lL would like to see Canada declare
(itself) a nuclear free zone and ask the
SSR and the USA to agree to this and to
‘ay they wouldn’t drop any bombs on
4s,” Gordon said.
t He, and all of us have the assurance of
he Soviet Union, but not of the USA.
The USSR has proclaimed that it will
Never use nuclear weapons against coun-
ties which do not manufacture

% deploy nuclear weapons on their
territory.

We lack the assurance of the USA,
which atom-bombed a former favored
trading partner, Japan, after the real war
was over, for the sake of testing its bomb
on the crowded cities of Hiroshima and
Nagasaki.

Said Walter Gordon: “Somebody has
to make the first move and it would be a
great example to the world if a country
like Canada did so. With any luck the
USA might say it would respect Canada’s
neutrality.”

We agree heartily with Gordon’s
sentiments. Unfortunately the USA has
never suggested it would spare anyone,
“friend” or foe, once it set out on Its
nuclear nightmare. Yet, on the basis of
the Soviet offer, if Canada gets rid of the
devices at Comox and those reputedly
kept at Chatham, N.B. and Baggotville,
Que., it qualifies as a non-target 1n the
eyes of the Soviet Union.

It is an urgent requirement that the
vast labor movement of Canada, and
major unions independently, join in the
calls of the New Democratic Party and
the Communist Party for the Canadian
Government to declare our country a
nuclear weapons-free zone.

ee ES eS ew a eS

7 ON MARCH 8TH, 1908 THE |
WOMEN OF NEW YORK’S
GARMENT INDUSTRY CAME
OUT ON THE STREETS AND J
A, RAISED THEIR BANNERS IN /#
THUNDERING OPPOSITION TO
THE CRUEL WORKING CONDITIONS
N IN THE NEEDLE TRADES
WEN, SWEATSHOPS. Mf
Aj WOMEN AND. GIRLS, 13 TO 14
BM Mj; YEARS OLD SLAVED 14 HOURS
PA, DAY IN DIRTY SLUM HOLES.

THE SPONTANEOUS WALKOUT
LED TO A 6-DAY, 54-HOUR |

WEEK. © 2
IN 110
MARCH 8TH WAS
ADOPTED AS
INTERNATIONAL
WOMEN’S

DAY.

tf h
Flashbacks

URS 9:T4-CRM

, 50 yearsago...

LESLIE MORRIS
FOUND GUILTY

MONTREAL — That it is no
longer considered necessary to
even maintain the semblance of
“impartiality” in railroading
workers to jail was evident from
the trial of Leslie Morris who
was found guilty by a jury here
March 2 ona charge of sedition.

Leslie Morris was arrested a

25 years ago...

MERGER OF
ONTARIO LABOR

When the curtain goes up on
the merger of what will be
Canada’s biggest provincial
federation of labor in Ontario,
the most important single issue
before it is likely to be labor in
politics as an independent
force.

‘The new federation will cover

an_ organized 400,000. workers
— almost 50% of the strength of
the parent national body, the
Canadian Labor Congress. Big
business and organized labor
across the country will be eyeing
this merger of labor with great
interest as it gathers in Toronto,
March 27.

There is. an awareness this
big, united force in Ontario will
exert special and decisive in-
fluence on the national scene
and spark a wide range of
actions on a series of economic
and social isses.

Tribune,
March 11, 1957

year ago along with the late
comrade Halpern for address-
ing a. public meeting in com-
memoration of the death of
Lenin. lt was one of a series of
meetings broken up by police
and resulted in the arrest of
nine speakers on charges of
sedition and unlawful assembly.
During the course of the trial,

in which contradictory evidence
was presented to a jury of
property owners, the judge
commented, when told Morris
had discussed the USSR, “And
what country is the Soviet
Union in?”. The Worker,

March 12, 1932.

a4

Campeau Corp., Ottawa, engaged in real estate and develop-
ment, had an after-tax profit in 1981 of $32,244,000, up from
$14,527,000 in 1980. The 1981 profit includes $21-million on the
sale of Toronto's Habour Castle Hotel, but to non-accountant
types, that’s just an alternative to profit from operating it.

Figures used are from the company’s financial statements.

Editor — SEAN GRIFFIN
Assistant Editor — DAN KEETON
Business and Circulation Manager — PAT O'CONNOR

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PACIFIC TRIBUNE—MARCH 12, 1982—Page 3