GORDON REPORT-1

What’s needed to make it rea

By LESLIE MORRIS

How well will Canadians be
living in 1980?

Shall we see a two-thirds in-
crease in the living standards
of 11 million more people than
live in Canada today, while
they work a little over 30
hours a week in industry and
just over 40 on the farm?

That is the striking forecast
of the Gordon sxe
Commission —
the royal com-
mission on ec-
onomic._p ros-
pects set up by
the St. Laurent
government i
1955.

ary report which is of the
deepest interest to most Can-
adians, seeing that eight out
of ten of them depend on
wages or farming — not on
profits — for their livelihood.

There is no doubt that a
constant rise in living stan-
dards is what Canadians want
more than anything else. And
they realize that only in a
world at peace can this be
achieved.

Every family of working
people worries about the fu-
ture. They have been doing a
great deal about it, in the past
10 years especially.

In an expanding capitalist

economy, more workers are in
unions and more farmers in
associations than ever before.
Workers join the union to get
more pay and shorter hours.
The farmer gets together to
get better prices for his pro-
duct. :

The Gordon report will
sharpen the determination of
the workers and farmers to
get a bigger share of the na-
tional income.

They know from experience
that it is one thing for a group
of experts to say what is pos-
sible, but someihing else again
for the workers and farmers
to win a better life. They know
that better conditions were
won in struggle, not given to
them on:a silver platter.

The very day the Gordon
Commission reported, CPR
iiremen were on strike against
the effects of automation on
their jobs. This was perhaps
the most important strike since
the Oshawa GM strike of 1936
which opened up the mass pro-
duction industries to the CIC.

The firemen fought the first
major strike on the automation
issue in Canadian history. The
issue was: must technical pro-
gress throw men out of their
jobs? The firemen have won—
temporarily. In October, the

fat will be in the fire again.

1951

Vencouvee
844,900 (66%)

Surneby
$0,400 (1L2%)

nd
Ric os.

Oquitiam
20 (3.09,

Port Mood:

Total 20,900

> ¢ What will the population of the Greater
Vancouver area be in the year 2,000? At the
anticipated rate of increase, it will be 1,413,000 as

14,400 (2.8%)

14,000 (2.7 %)

15,700 (3.0%)

Por? Coquitiam
$,200 (0.6%)

2,200 (0.9%) =

Unorganized Areo_
#300 (0.0%)

While the Gordon report
paints a picture of what can
be done, the working people
and farmers will ask: How to
do it?

Granted the royal commis-
sion is not a political body in
the sense that it can make
government decisions, the con-
clusions the commission came
to are central matters for Can-
adian poiitics, especially in
this federal election year,

Already Liberal and Con-
Servative MPs are quoted as
asking: What’s in this for us?
How. can we use it for votes
in June? But the future is not
a political football for work-
ing people. It is of deep con-
cern to their. vital interests and
should stimulate greater in-
terest in labor-farmer politi-
cal action.

A number of vital questions
come to mind even from press
accounts and before making a
study of the commission’s re-
port ($2 from the Queen’s
Printer, Ottawa).

For instance, Gordon says
that the report is based on two
assumptions:

-© That there will be no global

~ atomic war.
® That there will be no big
depression like in the
1930's.
Prety big assumptions!
The submissions to the Gor-
don Commission proved that

compared to 520,900 in 1951. Of this Vancouver
proper will have an estimated 563,000, but its
percentage of the total will drop from 66 percent

Burnaby
267,000 (18.9%)

Vancouver
963,000 (39.9%)

Canadian labor and the people
generally want peace and na-

‘tional policies to develop Can-

ada. But the monopolists and

the St. Laurent government do

not follow policies that match

the people’s desires and hopes.
Let’s take the possibility of

global atomic war as it relates

t the present government. -

xt xt Le

The foreign policy of the St.
Laurent government is not
based upon the will to avert
global atomic war. This coun-
try, since 1947, has been fol-
lowing in the main, a policy
of going along with U.S. Sec-
retary of State, John Foster
Dulles — of hovering on the
“brink” of war.

To mention only a few
“brink” activities: Korea and
the attempt to invade People’s
China; the rearmament of West
Germany for anti-Soviet mili-
tary purposes; the NATO al-
liance; and the Middle East,
where, despite the govern-
ment’s opposition to the Bri-
tish-French invasion of Egypt
it essentially supports colon-
ialism and opposed national
liberation movements.

Add this to the fact that
since 1947 almost half of the
government’s annual budget
has gone to armaments.

Even the most vocal support-
er of the St. Laurent govern-
ment could hardly claim with

Tomorrow
2000

Richmond
146,000 (4.1%)

100,000 (7.5%)

&
=

reason that present Canal
policy is actively in sup
of world peace or is bas

the peaceful coexistence &
socialist and capitalist 5¥
—the essence of avé

atomic war. :

Yet the Gordon Com
sion bases its forecast
world peace, To make!
forecast come true requ!
a new foreign policy for
ada.

Take the matter of am!
onomic depression. Thelé
a great deal of ar
about this especially aM
the CCF and Communists?
in the labor and farmer md
ments. |

It is true that Canadians
cluding enthusiastic sup?
ers of capitalism.as well a)
Communists, did not
economy here to: expand #
did after the war, and
mistakes of judgement
made. fi

But again, you would
very few capitalists wh

- a frankly truthful mood, W?

tell you that they expel!
non-depression future,

few, if any CCF and Cont!
nist people. As for the a
unionists and farmers, th
is a  deep-lying suspi
among them, based on ©
ience, that capitalist freé.
terprise has not “abolt

Continued on next page

Coquitlam

North Von.(dist.)
@5,000 (6.0%)

Pt.Co uitlom
€5,000 (4.6%)

Total

in 1951 to 39.9 percent. The largest population 4
crease will be in Burnaby — from 58,400 in 197
to an estimated 267,000 in 2,000 — and Coquitl®
—from 15,700 in 1951 to 100,000 in 2,000.

JANUARY 25, 1957 — PACIFIC TRIBUNE—PAG?

1,413,000

Port Moody —
7,500 (0.5%) |

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iw

al