INTERNATIONAL WOMEN'S DAY —————____________

| Protecting the jobless

Two agendas come forward at the inquiry into Unemployment Insurance

he federal government should confront

: the ‘‘unemployment crisis’’ by creating

jobs, not dismantling unemployment

-| insurance, says the National Action Committee
| on the Status of Women.

“Tt is the lack of jobs in this country that has

forced more Canadians than ever before to use

- the unemployment insurance system. It is not

that unemployment insurance has seduced

workers away from gainful employment,” the

+ {| women’s group said in its brief to the federal

commission examining unemployment insur-
ance.
The women’s group points out that the past
_ two Federal budgets, the Macdonald Commis-
sion report on the economy and the guidelines of
the Commission itself are proof that the
government is unable to see the “‘real problems
this country must confront with respect to
employment issues’.
The root causes of unemployment can ‘‘be
_ found in the technological changes and
} rationalizations that are developing in the work-
| place, the hypermobility of international capital
and the continuing weakness in the consumer
demands for goods and services, much of it
because of reduced incomes,"’ the brief says.
“These are the problems that an Inquiry
should be addressing ... UI claimants should
| not be treated as the convenient whipping boy
'!| for the failures of our economy.”’

Business Pushing Cutbacks
Charging that there is “a” ‘startling concur-
rence of views’’ between government and the
| business community in pushing for cutbacks in
- the system, the brief says that corporate
submissions demanding a reduction in the cur-
| rent benefit rate, increases in the 10-14 week
entrance requirement, reductions in the 50-
week maximum benefit period and separation of
social benefits from income benefits are just
some of the moves that would penalize the poor
and women particularly.

"The 60-page briet” prepared Sid préSSatealby

NAC vice-president Laurel Ritchie, took on
| government and business groups who have used
| women’s increased participation in the work-
| force as justification for further cuts.
| _ **Claims that women have entered the labor
|i] force because of the existence of a ‘too liberal’
ji} unemployment insurance system ... is an at-
- tempt to resurrect old notions of women as
's ‘secondary income’ earners. Women are only

‘secondary income’ earners insofar as their pay...

_ cheque is likely to be smaller than their

| spouses’’’.

| The Commission of Inquiry on Unemploy-
| ment Insurance, headed by Claude Forget, as-
\}| sociate director of the right-wing C.D. Howe

~~

Institute, is a spin-off from last May’s federal
budget.

“It is a page out of the Macdonald Commis-
sion,”’ said Ritchie. ‘‘Labor and other groups
should be aware that this is more than just
another of the periodic attacks on unemploy-
ment insurance we’ ve experienced in the past. It
is an attempt to dismantle the system outright,
to replace a social insurance with a commercial
one.”

NAC, whose 416 member organizations rep-
resent a membership of over three million
Canadians demanded government fight unem-
ployment by ‘‘adopting long term planning for
Canada, with a full employment policy at its
centre.”

NAC’s alternatives include ‘‘the revita-
lization of the Canadian manufacturing sector”’
which will lay the base for ‘timproved social
services and more jobs with the public service”’.
It also called for ‘treduced work time with no
loss of income, to allow for the sharing of the

benefits of increased productivity and tech-

nological change.”’

The organization strongly rejected free trade
as an economic cure-all and called for measures
which would reduce the power exercised over
the economy by the transnational corporations.

It also emphasized: ‘‘We do not need the kind
of jobs that come with a war economy, one
based on participation in such projects as the
USA’s ‘Star Wars’. Nor do we want the young
people of Canada introduced to work through
compulsory military service as the Commis-
sion’s participation guide suggests as a possible
route’’.

New Political Will
NAC recognizes such a strategy ‘‘would re-
quire a new political will’. That will has been
expressed at the hearings through another out-
look expressed by labor, women’s, churches,
anti-poverty and other people’s organizations

who, were unanimous in‘their opinion that ‘thé!
most pressing problem facing Canadian society

today is unemployment.

It is one of the predictable ironies that the
Commission set up to make a whipping boy out
of the unemployed has given rise to another
consensus, one that is at complete odds with the
views of the corporations and their government.

In all likelihood, this consensus will be left out
of the final report of the Forget Commission.

. However what is becoming increasingly appa-
_ Fent is there are two agendas developing on the

Canadian scene, one belonging to the corporate
sector which seeks to increase its already pow-
erful position and one by working people
demanding democracy, justice and social prog-

ress. — K.M.

Continued from page 8

has routinely condemned.

race.

‘‘No Free Trade”’ post cards.

ment as it finds itself campaigning to
save the women’s job ghettos which it

It is to the credit of both the women’s
and labor movements that they haven't
fallen prey to the Tory bait. The job
ghetto dilemma has been answered
with a call by women’s movement
spokespersons for a new “‘vision”’ of
society. A vision where full employ-
ment, equality and security prevail.
NAC has raised the demand for in-
creased government intervention in the
economy to revitalize the manufactur-
ing sector; that action be taken to limit
the power of the transnationals and that
Canada extricate itself from the arms

NAC has also taken the initiative of
calling together women’s, labor, cul-
tural, church and social service groups:
in a united campaign against free trade.

The United Autoworkers kicked off
its campaign in February with plans to
meet in centres around the country; to
lobby all levels of government and to
flood the prime minister’s office with

At its November convention, the On-
tario Federation of Labor embarked on

its campaign, holding hearings in cities
around the province and urging the
development of local anti-free trade
coalitions. It is to cap offits effort witha
mass protest April 26 at the legislature.

Ina leaflet voicing its opposing to free
trade the Communist Party offers a
five-point program for consideration:
lessening Canadian dependence on the
U.S. as a trading partner and develop
mutually beneficial, multi-lateral trade
with all countries including the socialist
and the developing world; adopt full
employment policies which would
consequently increase the size of the
home market; halt the drain of capital
by nationalizing the transnational cor-
porations operating here; adopt a new
Canadian foreign policy based on peace
and Canadianize our cultural life by
fostering an independent and demo-
cratic culture.

The free trade issue has galvanized
public opinion like few others. Its de-
feat could open new doors in the strug-
gle for progressive change. What re-
mains is the need to build the broadest
unity possible, to extend the debate
beyond its limited-confines and lay the
groundwork for ongoing action in the
fight for a people’s economic alter-
native.

Marxism in Life

By MAGGIE BIZZELL

about, is to take up the ideological battle, a compo-

nent part of the class struggle. This battle has to be as
active, planned and scientific as are the economic and political
fronts of struggle.

For Marxists, the first weapon is the struggle for a precise,
accurate definition of the reality of our world and of the struggle
to change that world. Without constant effort to weave the laws
of scientific socialism into the complexities of our day-to-day
political life, the- theory of Marxism-Leninism remains only
theory, not the active material force which marches alongside the
economic and political fronts.

In order to successfully take on the battle of ideas, we must
submit ideology itself to rigorous study. Materialist philosophy
provides the key to our understanding of what makes people
think the way they do and how ideas change.

It was the emergence of class society which brought the need
for ideology, for a system of ideas which guarantees the preser-
vation of power in the hands of the ruling class. That system is
formulated by the servants of the ruling class, their intelligentsia,
whom Marx called the “‘hired prize fighters’* of the bourgeoisie.
It is transmitted in complex forms, from art and literature to
philosophy, politics and religion. It becomes an active material
force which determines the conception of reality, the values and
goals of everyone in society.

T: put Marxism into life, which is what this column is

Thus a conception of reality formed by the servants of the
dominant class, in the interests of the dominant class, becomes a
system of ideas for all classes even though that system does not
represent the reality or the interests of the non-ruling classes. For
them it is an illusion, a myth. Millions of people accept that what
they think is real, whereas their ideas are the product of the
dominant ideology, not an accurate reflection of their reality.
However, that illusory concept is real for them — it is the system
of values which rules their lives. Since the emergence of capital-
ism people have accepted the illusion that money creates profit.
The fact that it is their own labor which creates the wealth
appropriated by the owners has been hidden from them. Only
recently the myth that everyone is free to become a Henry Ford
has begun to fade. Working with the unemployed we have to

dispel.the myth that they are responsible for their plight.

Marxists see that the dominant ideology in a society is deter-
mined by prevailing economic relations in order to maintain those
relations. But it would be simplistic to limit our analysis of such a
complex social force to economic determinism. Although ulti-
mately determined by economic relations, ideology takes on its
own independent existence relatively free of the economic base
and in turn, reacts on the base. It can develop in advance of or
behind an historical epoch. Society today still adheres to ideas,
superstitutions left over from feudal times which have no relation
to contemporary economic structure. On the other hand Marx
and Engels took the most advanced ideas of 19th century Europe,
combined them with close analysis and participation in the strug-
gles of the European working class and developed the'‘philosophy
upon which 20th century socialism rests.

Marx and Engels saw that just as there are two antagonistic
classes so are there two ideologies locked in mortal conflict for as
long as class society exists. As Lenin insisted, there are only two
ideologies — bourgeois and working class, there is no middle
course. :

Today in our crisis-ridden society it is more and more difficult
for dominant bourgeois ideology to maintain the illusions on
which it rests. The gap between the reality of Canadian life and
the myths of capitalism is widening. As this inexorable historical
process continues, capitalism, like any species whose survival is
threatened but which still possesses terrible strength, responds
with more dangerous attacks. In Canada we are seeing a new
ideological onslaught in which the work of the think thanks and
organizations like the National Citizens’ Coalition are only the tip
of the iceberg. :

We have to study the nature of that onslaught. It is important in
the people’s movements to see what are the fundamental illusions
about the reality of our world which serve the aims of Canadian
monopoly and its U.S. military and profit-hungry masters.

In future columns we shall look at what are the most dangerous
illusions today, what is socialist ideology, how does it emerge,
and what did Lenin mean by, “Ideas become a power when they

‘grip the masses.”’

* * *

Maggie Bizzell is Education Director of the Communist Party of Cana-
da. —

cee RE A Sil a at a a nicer a emanate oni ite

PACIFIC TRIBUNE, MARCH 5, 1986 e 9