ey ‘SWEEP AWAY INJUNCTIONS’ oe See eee en | ean OH ae FREE UNIONISTS © Hundreds of trade unionists jammed the Vancouver Court House last Friday to express solidarity with their brothers on trial, In what some union lead- ers. called “Black Friday,’’ the judge sentenced Vancouver Labor .Council secretary Paddy Neale FRIDAY, OCTOBER 7, 1966 and Vancouver IWA local vice- president Tom Clarke to six abide by an anti-labor in months, UNIONISTS AT COURT HOUSE. Photo shows some of the hundreds of union members who gath- ered outside the Court House last Friday to express solidarity with the union leaders on trial for re- fusing to obey an anti-union injunction. Fisherman photos by G. Legebokoff PARLIAMENT MUST ACT: Curb the profiteers! Under the heading, “Stop Profiteering: The Keal Cause of Inflation!” the Central Executive of the Communist Party of Canada released the foliowing statement this week calling on Parliament to take action to curb the profiteers: Finance Minister Sharp is using gasoli.e to put out the fires of inflation, - It is WRONG to slow down production, delay medicare, cut public works, and abandon student Scholarships, It would be wrong to reduce take- home pay for working people, by placing another $300 million tax load on their backs; and to deny workers the right to bargain collectively and strike, These measures will not lower prices, com- bat inflation or curb the price gougers, It will make the profiteers richer, putting more burdens on the working people, the farmers, and small businessmen, These steps could open the door to large scale unemployment, WHAT SHOULD BE DONE? 1. Not planned unemployment, rising prices and more taxes, but apolicy of planned economic growth and rising living standards: 2. Restraints, yes, but on profiteers, with a ceiling on profits and a freeze on prices — higher corporation taxes and a Price Review Board to police prices, 3. A cut in wasteful arms spending; an end to support of the U.S. war in Vietnam — both of which are_driving prices upwards, 4. More purchasing power through ‘higher wages, medicare, student scholarships: no new taxation on those earning below $5,000 a year: tax exemptions on all Canadians earning under $3,500 a year and a tax on capital gains: no compulsory savings plan, 5. Guarantee genuine collective bargaining and the right to strike to all working people, Labor must have a say on all technological change, production, investment and trade, Parliament opens October 5, Compel it to act in the interests of the people, Phone, write, petition or visit your M.P, United action can make parliament serve the people not the profiteers, Boilermakers’ Union president Jeff Powers was sentenced to three months and Art O’Keeffe, former business agent of Local 213 of the Electrical Workers: Union, to four months. Fines totalling $3,100 were levied against 15 others, At the request of president Ed Sims the regular procedures of this week’s session of the Van- couver and District Labor (VLC) were set aside and the case of the four imprisoned union lead- ers unanimously placed as special order of business, taking precedence over all else, A VLC executive six-point plan of action aimed at freeing the im- prisoned union leaders and step- ping up labor’s anti-injunction campaign was unanimously adopted by the VLC delegate body, “Tt is time labor hada program in this struggle, which will give mature consideration to the posi- tion of labor on this issue, and to our brothers in jail,’’ said VLC president Ed Sims, © At the opening of the VLC session the delegates observed a standing ‘‘one minute silence” in tribute to the imprisoned union- ists, The six-point program of ac- tion was unanimously adopted by the VLC delegate body which will go forward as recommenda- tions, toa special joint session of the B.C, Federation of Labor and all Central Labor Councils, tobe DEMANDS LABOR Indignation ran high in B.C.’s labor movement this week against the vici- ous sentences handed out by the court against union leaders who refused to junction issued in the Lenkurt dispute this spring. Labor this week took steps to launch an all-out fight for the release of their jailed brothers and to sweep away the use of injunctions in labor disputes. held Friday of this week in Van- couver, The six-point program of ac- tion includes: ®That the VLC go on record that an appeal be launched against the conviction and sentences of the imprisoned leaders, SEE ALSO PAGE EIGHT ®That the B.C, Federation of Labor convene a broad confér- ence of all interested parties, concerned with the misuse of the courts in the issuance of exparte injunctions, ®All affiliated unions to for- ward letters and wires of protest to attorney-general Bonner de- manding the release of the four unionists until an appealis heard, ®Recommended that all VLC affiliated unions to hold public meetings under the co-sponsor- ship of the VLC and BCFL, for the purpose. of dealing with the unjust conviction and imprison- ment of union leaders, Two. other points stress the ur- gency of stepping-up the BCFL’s $2,00-per-member Defense Fund, in order to be able to meet defense and other require- ments in its anti-injunction cam- paign, Second, that all public or press statements by union spokesmen on the campaign should be made “in consultation See INJUNCTIONS, pg. 8 e Two top union leaders being led handcuffed from Court House last Friday to serve six months sentences for taking part in Len- kurt picket line to protest company overtime rule. Left, Tom Clarke, Vancouver IWA local vice-president, and Paddy Neale, Vancouver Labor Council secretary.