When the labor movement unites
behind a cause, the mere display of that
unity can be a powerful force.

__ And the delegates to the B.C. Federa-
tion of Labor convention demonstrated
that Nov. 27 as they stood up, 900-
strong, to declare their solidarity with the

_ Haidas at Lyell Island and to demand

t the provincial government drop all

charges against the Haidas and negotiate
a fair and just land claim settlement.”

| _ A resolution condemning the Social

& Credit government for its “‘cowardly use

"| Of the courts and police” and affirming

| thedemand for the land claim settlement

__ Was backed unanimously by convention
delegates,

The resolution noted that the govern-
Ment had “refused to accept its responsi-

- bilities to recognize and negotiate the
Settlement of aboriginal land claims,”

forcing the Haida nation to “take action

__ to defend the resources and their aborig-

ial title to Lyell Island rather than

_ accept policies of cultural genocide.”

| _ Since Oct. 30, 72 Haidas have been
__ 4trested for blocking the logging road in

. their efforts to force negotiation of the

| land claim in the Queen Charlottes and

to dramatize the rape of the forest

Tesource on the island. The road is used

by Frank Beban Logging, contractor for

Western Forest Products which holds

the Tree Farm Licence on Lyell.

~ On Nov. 29, 10 were cited for con-

_ tempt of court in Prince Rupert by B.C.

Supreme Court Justice Allan McEach-

em who gave them one week to “purge

€ir contempt” or face severe penalties

Of up to six months in jail.

AVoiding the sentences would involve

= Lyell Island for’four to six months and
| R0t to defy the Supreme Court injunc-
tion prohibiting obstructing logging
Operations.

But the alternative he offered — to
Seek legal and lawful recourse to resolve
their dispute with the provincial govern-

_ %0cred government had adamantly
_Tefused to discuss their legitimate aborig-
inal claim,

The affirmation of support for the

Continued from page 1

i launched by affected companies against
Similar actions taken by the Pacific Press
Unions in refusing to handle Famous
the ee reatre advertisements during
_,© Strike last year by the Theatre
Employees Union. The LRB ruled
8ainst a Pacific Press application that
‘Sought to establish the press unions were
oe when they refused the Famous
tyers’ ads,

Joint appeal filed by the B.C. Business
~ouncil and Pacific Press. The participa-
n of the former, which represents most
the province’s big employers, shows
the extent to which corporations are pre-
Pared to go to quash labor solidarity.
, Such actions also reveal an attempt to
Wear down trade unions, which have
Considerably less financial resoures than
He companies. “It’s killing us finan-
Sade remarked Kube, noting that the
“amous Players case has cost the federa-
a the Guild thousands of dollars

__ Three. unions — the Canadian Air

ited Auto Workers and the Interna-

tional

a “minimum” of a pledge not to visit”

‘Ment —offered little hope since the .

The case has bearing on the challenges -

Flight Attendants Association, the —

Association of Machinists and.
Pace Workers — are allied in a

Talks, not chain saws
— page 4 —

Haidas’ cause at the federation’s annual
meeting came after-the convention gave
standing ovations to three delegates
speaking during the debate, including
two Haida unionists.

B.C. Government Employees Union
delegate Delphine Trudell, a Haida, told
delegates: “Our people have suffered for
years with the highest rate of unemploy-
ment and child mortality. ..now we are
defending the only resource we have —
the land. 08

“We area
nation forced to
undertake civil
disobedience to
support our only
future — settle-
ment of our abo-

Trudell warned mer
that Attorney-

General Brian JROR NICHOL
Smith and Premier Bennett were attempt-
ing to whip up anti-Native hysteria,
adding that they “represent the interests
of the big resource companies, not the
interests of ordinary British Columbi-
ans.”

She brought delegates to their feet as
she told the convention: ““We must
clearly answer Bennett — we will not be
divided.”

Earlier, International Woodworkers
delegate Earl Foxcroft, whose regional
union leadership has in the past taken a
contentious stand in favor of logging in
areas which are under aboriginal claim,
affirmed his “full support” for the resolu-
tion backing the Haidas.

“This is not the first time that the
government has tried to use [WA loggers
to try to come between Native rights and
what the government has failed to do,”
he said.

UFAWU delegate Todd White, who
told delegates he was “one of the few
Masset band members not yet arrested,”
said the Haidas “want only to talk and

PWA employees rejectc

Our Business
Is Still Alay
Flying,

\\ <PacificWestern

a Pe
PWA AD. ..stopped by h

“Co-action” coalition in their strike
against PWA’s demands for concessions.

Diane Rientra, CALFAA’s director
of communications, said the airline
demanded 166 concessions of the 1,800
employees. Included were demands for

concessions in “everything: hours of
work, wages, vacations, sick pay and .

working conditions” =
Jn information leaflets which pickets
have been distributing to passengers at
airports across the country, Co-action
points out that PWA realized a profit of
more than $18 million in 1984, while its
return on investment for the past five
years was a “staggering” 14.5 per cent.
“pWa is the richest airline in North
America,” Rientra said.
“Yet after all that, they claim they

ot declaration.

= . BE Shacscceoont —o
we will pull back as soon as

negotiations.

“But once we take a stand, we won’t
back down,” he declared.

UFAWU president Jack Nichol told
the convention to applause that the labor
movement “‘owes a debt of gratitude to
the Haida nation — that someone has
the guts to stand up and defy the law.”

He also pointed out that there was
“another story” to the logging on Lyell
Island, noting that the logging contractor
has already used up its quota for 1985
and was working on the 1986 quota.

In addition, he said, the parent com-
pany of WFP, Whonnock Industries, is
advertising logs for export sale.

“This company is raping the resource
with few benefits for the people of B.C.,”
he said, “It’s a scandalous situation.” __

And while the multinationals are
stripping the resource, the provincial
government is “building a bogeyman”
— that land claims would bankrupt the
province — to make Natives the scape-
goats for mismanagement by the forest
companies, charged UFAWU delegate
Homer Stevens.

“It’s an absolute disgrace that the
Haidas, who are standing up for their
rights and for the proper use of the
resource, are arrested and charged
instead of the government negotiating on
their just land claims,” he told delegates.

“To Smith, it’s a new version of cow-
boys and Indians,” he said, adding that
“you can almost feel the racism” from
both the government and the forest
company.

Another delegate had earlier drawn
similar conclusions, noting that Smith

~ seem determined to “tbe another General
Custer” in his stand against the Haidas. —

“The Native people have said over
and over again — they have to start with
aboriginal title and negotiate from there.
That’s what this labor movement is say-
ing too,” declared Stevens.

He was also given a standing ovation
as he called on the trade union move-
ment to say to the government: “Take off
the police, take off the injunctions. The

‘labor movement is prepared to back the
‘ Haidas to the hilt.” _

oncessions

need 14 per cent more return on invest-
ment in anticipation of deregulation.”

Deregulation of Canada’s airlines,
widely expected to be handed down by
the Conservative government in Ottawa
in the near future, is “unilaterally
opposed” by CALFAA, said Rientra.
The union made its position known in a
brief presented to the House standing
committee on transportation during
recent hearings in Vancouver.

Rientra said the union was “‘delight-
ed” with the B.C. Fed support, noting
that ‘‘any union has the right to refuse to
handle any hot goods. It’s in the labor
laws of the country.”

She said the unions have “made it
clear we want to go back to the bargain-
ing table.” PWA management have
refused to meet with the three unions
collectively.

CALFAA has charged that PWA,
through its use of scab labor, “has jeo-
pardized the safety of passengers from
the ground up.”

“While this strike is going on, the air-
line is limping through the skies with less
than perfect service. Our members con-
sider it an embarrassment,” said Rientra.

The union has documented several

~ cases of safety violations, which NDP

transport critic Les Benjamin has raised
in the House. of Commons.

‘Contront right,
fo win gains,’
says Swankey

Trade union rights and social services are
under attack around the western world. But
that attack won’t be stopped by accommoda-
tion, labor analyst Ben Swankey told B.C.
Federation of Labor convention delegates
Nov. 27.

Swankey told some 80 delegates at a Com-
munist Party labor committee dinner that “the
attack from the right, led by the big corpora-
tions, will not change” even if social-
democratic governments are elected, “because
it is a long-range plan.”

The way out of social service cutbacks, mass
unemployment and inflation and erosion of
trade union rights and workers’ wages lies not
with the weak reform programs advocated by
some social democratic parties, but with the
economic alternatives advanced by trade
union and church groups, and ultimately
socialism, he asserted.

The corporate agenda for change includes
public spending cutbacks, continued high
unemployment, and layoffs through techno-
logical change, Swankey noted.

“If these changes are implemented, the
Canadian economy as we know it will be
unrecognizable,” he said.

The future will see [~~
“a society of the sur-
vival of the fittest, }
with an unpreceden- |
ted concentration of
wealth at the top,” he
predicted.

. Unfortunately, said
Swankey, there is a
“whole. new _ idea”
among elements of
social democracy and
labor that the right
can’t be defeated, and
therefore their attack must be accommodated.

Recent measures to counter the worst effects
of capitalism’s agenda include workers buying
factories slated for closure, accepting reduced
hours of work with cutbacks in wages, and
tripartism, Swankey said.

But groups such as the Vancouver and Dis-
trict Labor Council and Catholic bishops’
social concerns committee have tabled alter-
native’ economic programs, which have a

BEN SWANKEY

‘*common base in emphasizing “a fairly high

degree of public ownership,” Swankey noted.

The programs also stress public control of
publicly-owned enterprises, the creation of a
strong manufacturing sector, and a “great
expansion of social services,” he said, noting
there was “something new” about the
tive programs. tai

“They reocgnize that capitalism today is a
system that no longer works,” Swankey
pointed out.

Capitalism, Swankey asserted, can’ do
nothing about unemployment, inflation, the
negative effects of technological change and
regional disparities, “and even the war danger

is itself a product of capitalism.”

All these problems exist even during the
current period of “recovery,” Swankey noted,
asking “If this is the best capitalism can offer,
what will it be like during the next crisis, two or
three years down the road?”

The alternative programs advocated by the
bishops and others “‘aren’t socialism. But, if

’ enacted, these would bring about a fundamen- |

tal change in capitalism. The next logical step
would be socialism,” he said.

Noting the Communist Party has “‘no prob-
lem’? with the tenets of the various alternative -
programs, Swankey called for a “broad coali-  ~
tion” of anti-monopoly forces guided by “mil-
itant class policies.

“The time is right for advancing programs
of fundamental social change as a guide for —
action for every trade union in Canada,” he
asserted.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE, DECEMBER 4, 1985e 3 |