_ Make November 21 a winner! TORONTO — They’re heading for Ottawa, Nov. 21 to protest against soar- ing interest rates, by plane, train, bus and automobile, in fact there are even 50 Members of the St. Catharine's Labor Council who will be running to Canada’s Capital. : > Auto workers and the entire commun- ity are calling it the Interest Rates Marathon. Ten runners, covering five Miles a day for a total of 50 miles a day will bring the ashes ofthe dream homes workers can no longer afford, and the Well wishes and telegrams of support of _ people throughout Canada for the Cana- ‘dian Labor Congress-initiatéd protest. Bob White, United Auto Workers di- rector for Canada, and a five-miles-a-day runner, himself, will help launch the | marathon from St. Catharines. Reports from across Canada indicate . an overwhelming response to the Nov. 21 rally: The Communist Party of Cana- da, ina letter to the Executive Council of _ the CLC pledged it full support for the rally and expressed its hope that together with actions to protect Canadians from high interest rates, ‘‘attention is also paid to the need for new economic policies to. take Canada out of the crisis.” British Columbia — Labor federation ‘Vice-president Joy Langan told the ‘Tribune last week that the B.C. Federa- ___ tion has chartered a plane seating 130. In line with the ‘‘everyone -is welcome” theme of the CLC country-wide coalition against interest rates, the federation has held discussions with the Teachers’ union, nurses, the provincial agriculture federation, hospital workers, the B.C. and Yukon Building Trades Council and a small business people’s organization to formulate plans for developing the cam- paign to lower interest rates. _ - So far, plans include two or three reg- ional rallies in B.C. for Nov. 25 to protest soaring rates and to gear up fora massive protest Nov. 29 in Vancouver’s 1,500- seat Garden Auditorium. The federation’s protest card cam- paign along the lines of other provincial federations, had an initial run of some 50,000. Public response to the cards is- * sued by various federations, has been so good, that the CLC sees 1,000-a-day hit- ting the Prime Minister's desk, says “press reports. The National Union of Provincial Government Employees (NUPGE) has chartered an entire transcontinental train slated to leave Vancouver Nov. 16 with B.C. demonstrators, and to pick up con- tingents in Calgary, Regina, Winnipeg, Kenora and Thunder Bay. Calling the train the ‘‘Spirit of 35°’ in memory of the unemployed workers’ march on Ottawa in June 1935, NUPGE invites all con- cerned Canadians, to join the train. The Prairies — Tribune Alberta cor- respondant David Wallis reports provin- cial labor federation mobilization for a - representative delegation to the Ottawa rally, but will focus its. efforts in parallel demonstrations throughout Alberta on the same day. Alberta Federation of Labor presidént Harry Kostiuk says labor councils in Edmonton, Calgary, Lethbridge Medicine Hat, and Red Deer | have been asked to organize demos. » ~ AFL. Nov. 21 co-ordinator Pam Kirk-_ wood said Nov. 4 that the Edmonton and Calgary councils were implementing the plans for the rallies with the other three councils discussing the AFL proposal. A meeting between the federation and . some 40 supporting: organizations was held Oct. 29 with church groups, the Federation of Alberta Students, the far- mers’ union and other groups. The response to the AFL’s protest _ card campaign, she added, has been ‘‘phenomenal. Fifty thousand were printed, and requests from affiliates are for more cards. In Saskatchewan, federation president Nadine Hunt said the Saskatchewan Federation of Labor is working to send a representative delegation to the Ottawa _demo, encouraging every affiliate to send a representative. Saskatchewan’s card campaign has had a. good response to the 65,000 produced. And at the recent SFL convention more than 600 cards were signed. Ontario and Quebec — Some 500 buses have been chartered and thousands of workers are preparing to descend on Ot- tawa in their cars as unions are busy organizing car pools and arranging for parking facilities and shuttle trans- portation in the federal capital. - _ Taking the lead from the national coal- ition set up by the CLC representing workers, farmers, churches, consumers, _ and co-ops, teachers, erivironmentalists, ‘Native peoples, social organizations, students, women, nurses, and others, - — local labor councils are. building their- own coalitions. - The latest organization to endorse the Nov. 21 rally was the Ontario Provincial Building and Construction Trades Council at ‘its annual convention in Hamilton, Oct. 31-Nov. 1. ~ In Quebec all three labor federations are working together to mobilize partici- pation. ' In the Ottawa-Hull area, the public service unions, particularly the Public Service Alliance of Canada is encourag- _ ing every union local to take part. Rep- resentative of PSAC’s 113 locals — some 50,000 federal employees — met Oct. 29 to finalize organization plans. Rank and file PSAC members are working with staff members to organize the de- monstrators and blanket the National Capital Region with flyers, posters, stic- kers, buttons, banners and picket signs. The union has booked 50 buses in the Toronto area alone and is expecting sig- nificant contingents from Kingston, North Bay, London, Montreal and Quebec. The Maritimes — Chester Sandford reports from Nova Scotia that a 113-seat plane has been chartered for a represen- tative delegation from Newfoundland and Nova Scotia. Local labor councils are being called on to organize, with community support, in the style of the _ CLC-inspired coalition, local follow-up demonstrations and lobbying of indi- vidual Members of Parliament. These are to take place simultaneously Dec. 5. The Nova Scotia Federation will dis- tribute some 100,000 protest cards. Sandford said labor is seeking the sup- port. of the churches, co-ops, credit unions and other public organizations to help build the support for both the Nov. 21 rally and the Dec. 5 actions through- out the province. In the early fifties, right-wing forces in the Canadian Congress of Labor and the Trades and Labor Congress used the Korean war to build up a cold war sentiment in ’ the Canadian trade union movement. In this campaign _ they shamelessly joined forces with the government, the “entire state and the employers, to destroy the left and progressive forces in the trade union movement. Many unions, such as the Canadian Seamen’s Union were totally smashed in this drive. Union raiding became common with the Steelworkers under the direction of Tight-wing social-democratic forces, in the forefront of this campaign. i2 The top trade union leadership, together with the Co- operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF) — fore- Tunner of the New Democratic Party — unashamedly joined forces with the state in uncritical support of the ‘Korean War. The World Stockholm Appeal for Peace and Disarmament was rejected as Soviet propaganda. Peace was to be gained through the strength of the west- em alliance and such wars as that in Korea. _ It was subsequently proven, of course, that the Ko- -Tean war was a John Forster Dulles, U.S.-inspired oper- part of the cold war plan for world domination by the Truman U.S. regime. « we I read this into the record today, not to dwell on differences which split and weakened the trade union and labor movement at that time, but to warn against any Tepetition of such’a grave disservice to labor soday: - There is, I would suggest, more than a little similanity between what happened in the late forties in Canada, and the U.S. and what some elements in the trade union as labor movement are trying to recreate today aroun Poland. = 4 a The right wing in the labor movement never abandons its aims of delivering the working class to capitalist ation designed to strengthen U.S: imperialism in Asia, — ideology. It never abandons its objective of weakening Anti-Sovietism helps the class enemy < struggle the Polish workers need and deserve the total Labor in action William Stewart and smashing the left and winning the movement as a whole to its policies of class collaboration. At certain times, because of the strength of the movement for ad- vance and against class collaborationist policies it is “forced into retreat, and appears to have changed its spots. However it is ceaselessly looking for issues around which it can move to weaken the left and pro- gressive forces. : ce : It is clear that such elements see the present situation in Poland asa heaven-sent opportunity to open up a breach in the growing alliance between left and centre forces in the labor movement and push politics to the To those elements in the centre and left in the labor movement. who find themselves being drawn into this ‘net, I would suggest they observe events which are - increasingly showing that what’s going on in Poland ‘today is much more than a struggle between altruistic workers who have been wronged, and the big, bad Polish United Workers’ Party which supposedly has wronged them. ts That part of the problem has been aired, and very much by the Workers’ Party in Poland. All the instru- ments for resolving the difficulties and moving on toward further enriching the lives of the Polish working people, have been created... ~ << What is now taking place in Poland is plain and simple counter-revolution. An attempt to destroy socialism and return Poland to the camp of world imperialism. In this which is directed really not at Poland at all, but at-the support of the entire labor movement around the world. What is under attack in Poland is working-class pow- er. If you allow any ‘‘partisan of Solidarity”’ to go on at length, he will very soon get to the crux of his argument, Soviet Union. And, what is it they don’t like about the Soviet Union? Stripped down it is working-class power. What they want for the Soviet Union is what we have ‘for Canada! Property in the hands of private cor- porations and the right to strike against them in the hands of the workers; the right of banks and monopolies to exploit the people, and the right of the people to stand on the streets and rail against them; the right of rich and poor alike to sleep under a bridge. The building of a new socialist society is not a simple task. It is accompanied by errors, hangovers of the old order, attitudes of greed and self-seeking. Overcoming these difficulties pose problems for each socialist coun- try, as they will for Canada when we embark on the construction of socialism in our country. We would hope for ourselves, understanding and support from the workers all around the world when we face such prob- lems, not their sympathy for those who want to smash socialism in Canada. The present needs and interests of Canadian labor will not be served by using the Polish events to stir up the cold war pot and exacerbate anti-Soviet sentiments being fostered by the capitalist media. This will disunite the workers and weaken their capac- ity to fight back against the monopoly offensive on their wages and social conditions. The left and centre forces need to give a sharp rebuff to those elements in the Canadian Labor Congress. leadership who are trying to use the present anti-Soviet campaign being waged by monopoly, to push the trade unions to the right. : PACIFIC TRIBUNE—NOV. 13, 1981 —Page 5