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Richard ADVANCES DETENTE. Photo shows Soviet Commun

Ktembtin ixon at signing of long-term agreement on economic,
Une 29. Despite anti-detente propoganda by western

reg
Ments, (See story page 7).

Soon ;ABOR COMMENT
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Aw cath illiam King in search of
Ve creat of the blind alley they
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mat yee € obvious by this time
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SAF P}
evel a
With “ag sho nt and

locals. The fact that a delegated
conference is called for Friday of
this week is good news. The only
criticism that can be levelled is
that it was not called sooner. With
some Coast Local executives
declaring that their members are
on strike, and others calling upon
their members to stay on the job or
return to work, it is obvious that a
vital decision must be made.

When the Port Alberni and the
Loggers’ local announced this
week that their 11,000 members
were on strike, joining 6,000 others,
this meant that more than half the
32,000 Coast members were on
strike. To this should be added
many more who are not working,
despite pleas from their officers to
return to work.

Jack Munro, regional director
and Syd Thompson, president of
Local 1-217, are urging the
membership to return to work, as
are the officials of New West-
minster, Haney and Victoria
locals. The members in Victoria
and Haney voted to reject the
settlement. In the Southern In-
terior, where there is another set of
I.W.A. negotiations and the con-

ist leader L. 1. Brezhnev and U.S. President
industrial and technical cooperation In the
media, summit meeting achieved important

FRIDAY, JULY 12, 1974

—Tass photo

tract has expired, workers in some
operations have voted to return to
work.

Meanwhile, a meeting of the
Woodworkers’ Rank and File
Committee, which drew some 300
woodworkers last weekend, called
for an all-out strike on the Coast,
based on the rejection of the
negotiated settlement and the
earlier 94 per cent strike vote.

In a bulletin dated June 30, the
WRFC._ described the union as
being ‘split down the middle”’. It
also called for a delegated con-
ference to consider the best course
of action. The situation was then
described as follows: ‘It is a
situation which could lead to a
defeat if the union is not able to
preserve and consolidate the
necessary unity of action.”

What is new in the situation since
this estimation was made? First,
the strike has spread. Second, a
delegated conference has been
called. Third, some elements in the
top leadership are hoping that the
provincial government will get
them off the hook by calling for

another vote on the negotiated

See WOODWORKERS, ps- 8

Second class mail registration number 1560

VOL. 35, No. 28

“The outstanding feature of Monday’s federal election was
the clear-cut rejection of the Tory-big business proposal for a
wage and price freeze,’’ said B.C. Communist leader Nigel
Morgan in a post-election statement this week.

Morgan said satisfaction over
rejection of Robert Stanfield and
the Conservative Party, which the
big corporations and mass media
threw their support behind, (22 of
the 30 biggest and most influential
dailies in Canada backed the
Tories), is tempered by the fact
that Pierre Trudeau has got a clear
majority again, and that nine of the
former 11 NDP seats in B.C. went
back to the Liberals and Tories.

‘About the only thing worse than
a Liberal majority would have
been a Tory majority,” said
Morgan. ‘‘As the previous Trudeau
majority, and history (including
the Bennett government in B.C.)
has shown, the bigger the'majority
the more arrogant and the more
insensitive they become to the
people’s needs.”

“The big corporations always
want a strong, tough majority
administration whether it be Tory
or Liberal to advance their class
interests. They want a government
— and let’s face it — they’ve got
one, which will continue their
privileged position and ripoffs no
matter what hardships they create
for people.

“With a Liberal majority in
office it’s going to take the widest
possible unity in action of the
working class and democratic
forces to compel Trudeau to make
concessions to the people, and to
stop profiteering and to roll back
prices.

“Obviously the majority of
Canadian voters saw through the
fraud Stanfield tried to put across,
and in light of the half-hearted

stand of many NDP candidates on
Stanfield’s wage and price controls
scheme, they voted Liberal to
make sure the Tories didn’t win,”’
said Morgan.

“The call of David Lewis to the
big unions to ‘go easy’ cost Lewis
his Ontario seat and NDP can-
didates heavily, as did the
statements of three Western NDP
premiers supporting some sort of
controls. It is significant that
despite the fact that the Tories hold
13 of B.C.’s 23 federal seats, six of
the nine seats lost by the NDP
Monday went to the Liberals. The
justifiable fear of what the wage-
price freeze would do undoubtedly
drove large numbers of working
people to vote Liberal to keep the
Tories out.

“Undoubtedly there were ad-
ditional factors involved in the
right swing that emerged in B.C.,
including the powerful, heavily-
financed campaign of the mining
interests, land developers and
other right wing forces driving to
launch a reactionary coalition to
drive the NDP out of office in this
province,” said Morgan.

“They saw the chance to ad-
vance their cause and launched an
unprincipled, inflammatory
assault which they hope will give
them the momentum to set up a
new big business front. This should
not be interpreted by the leader-
ship of the NDP as a reason for
shifting to the right.

“On the contrary, nothing short
of clear, militant leadership which
would rally the labor and

See ELECTIONS, pg. 8

Social Credit’ 2. 32.26

6,859 ( 1.2%)

B.C. VOTE RESULTS

B.C. popular vote

1974 (Incomplete) 1972

Conservatives .....-.-- 250,730 (43.3%) 313,253 (33.0%)
NDP = cicge me « 136,405 (23.0%) 332,245 (35.0%)
Fikes aie ee 195,841 (33.0%) 274,468 (29.1%)

25,107 ( 2.6%)

B.C. seats won 73°57

NDR a 2 11
Conservatives 4 ee ee 13 8
Liberals. 6 i es ee ee ee 4
Total 23 23
e
Canada-wide results s:
1974 1972

Lifters 2 6 ee eee es Al 109
Conservatives .. 0... 0606s eres eee eee eee eee 95: 407
NDPo 6222022 se foe ee tee Fi wo 5 16 31
Spcial Credit «= oe ea cee 11 15
ACA SENG) 1 Daal gS Wee Be pene piesa aes 1 2

Total 264 264