WHAT ABOUT POLITICAL ACTION? Unionists look to CLC parley for leadership on major issues N MONDAY, April 21, at 10 a.m., President Claude Jodoin will open the second convention of the Canadian Labor Congress in Winnipeg's civic auditorium. Already, resolutions are on their way to Ottawa, with the deadline set at February . 21. At this convention, the CLC, launched in Toronto two years ago by the merger of the Trades and Labor Con- - gress of Canada and the Can- ' adian Labor Congress, will re- view its successes and its failures as a united body. Four major problems are LETTERS DIGEST E. C. Brown, 2790 West 18th Avenue, Vancouver, has sent us a copy of a letter he sent to the Vancouver Province. The letter read: “Sir: Russia and China are rapidly assuming world leadership, simply be- cause they have abandoned free enterprise.” Is this anoth- er letter that didn’t appear for “lack of space”? To the copy sent to the Pacific. Tribune was added this postcript: “We need a progressive daily in this city.” on ‘Mrs. H. J. Bunce of Prince George has written us a three- page letter defending the ideas of Dr. E. E. Rogers, .a central figure in the current contro- versy about naturopaths. Another letter too long for publication is that written by Rev. James M. Cassiday of Or- ington, Kent, England. We have published several of Rev. Mr. Cassiday’s somewhat shor- ter letters: This one, however, runs to six single-spaced type- written pages and would fill more than a page of our paper. ’ We are uncertain as to where we have erred, but E, Emery. R.R.2, Coquitlam, encloses a clipping from the Free Press’ Prairie Farmer on beef tariffs and urges us to “check the facts before printing.” Anyone reading our weekly mail might easily get the im- pression that this is a province of poets. On the average we get more poetry than prose. Among those who have put their political views into verse are: Mike Arishenkoff, Shore- acres; A. P., Vancouver; and Sylvester Jacura, also of Van- couver, who says he has heard we pay for good items. We do try to publish good items, but pay is something our con- tributors have never heard of. expected to dominate the con- vention. First will be the economic problem, with mass unem- ployment coming in for the sharpest fire. Second will be the ques- tion of political action. Many trade union members. are hopeful that the convention will chart a course of uniting labor with the farm move- ment, the CCF and other pro- gressive forces, to tip the bal- ~ ance against the Conserva- tives and Liberals in the next federal election by electing a solid block of progressive MPs. The timing of the election, of course, is a key factor, and one not within the control of the CLC. Third is the question of peaceful coexistence. Despite -the tremendous advances made by the peace forces of the world, it must be recog- nized that the threat of war still hangs over our heads. This means that organized labor must oppose the drive to increase armaments ex- penditures. Labor’s voice must speak out for an independent Canadian foreign policy of peaceful coexistence, expand- ed world trade, assistance to underdeveloped countries without any strings attached, recognition of China and high level talks between the Big Fowers. The CLC convention should give the lead in this respect, not only to the trade union movement, but to the country as a whole. Fourth is the question of trade union unity. Many urgent and complex problems facing the trade union move- ment, such as mass unemploy- ment, inflation, stubborn re- sistance of employers to legi- timate demands for higher pay and shorter hours and the threat of anti-labor legislation. These problems affect all workers, irrespective of their affiliations. They can be solved only by a united labor movement which adopts cor- rect policies to meet the situa- tion and which fights to im- plement its policies through united economic and political action. x $e xt While considerable progress has been made in uniting the trade union movement or- ganically, the job will not be completed until the Catholic Syndicates and the independ- ent unions are brought into the CLC. At the same time, close at- tention must be paid to the danger of jurisdictional strife between the Building Trades Unions and some _ industrial unions. No expulsions or splits originating with the re- cent expulsions by the Am- erican Federation of Labor in the U.S. should be carried over into the CLC. The emphasis must be placed on the need to strengthen Canadian autonomy and to make the CLC constitution more democratic. The rank and file membership must gain more control, as the best antidote to bureaucracy and corruption. If the ‘convention comes out strongly for a positive pro- gram to meet the needs of the unemployed and for a pro- gram is linked with labor political action, demands for expanded world trade, peace- ful coexistence. and all-in unity on a democratic. basis, the convention will be a major turning point to the Canadian labor movement. With the convention to he held in Winnipeg, big dele- gations can be expected from the prairies and British Co- lumbia, traditional breeding grounds for militant trade unionism and political oppo- sition to the old-line parties. No chance his being > pda TOWERS, former “ Governor of the Bank of Canada, thinks he has the answer to inflation. It’s one we've heard before. In a speech to life insurance underwriters in Toronto last month, he said that “massive and continuing unemployment on anything like the scale of the thirties would produce formidable political reactions. “But,” he asked, “can one assume that the same thing would occur if unemployment rose moderately above the average level of post-war years? “Can unemployment go no higher without forcing adop- tion of policies which impose on everyone the penalties of continuing inflation?” Towers wants more unem- ployment to save us from in- flation. He evidently thinks that under ‘free enterprise,” you can’t have jobs for every- one and stable prices too. He should know. He was Gover- nor-of the Bank of Canada for 20 years. a CONTRADICTION Gates parts with ‘socialist future NLY 11 weeks earlier John Gates appeared before the long - established Ford Mall Forum in Boston. “The Communist party has a future because socialism is the future of the United States,” he proclaimed boldly before the 1,000 Bostonians on November 24. And then, on January 10, before a _ klieglighted press conference in a New York hotel, movie and TV cameras trained on him, a dozen re- porters listening with pencils poised, Gates changed his mind. “The Communist party,” he said, “is an impotent and fu- tile sect.” He was through. At 44 Gates had been the editor of the N@w York Daily Worker. for some 10 years, a member of the U.S. Commu- nist national committee, a Communist of some 27 years. oa 5e3 % The party’s national ad- ministrative committee issued a statement (totally ignored by the U.S. daily press, which had given Gates considerable prominence), recommending that the party’s national com- out of job If Towers is right, let us put the responsibility where it belongs under capitalism. Big business sets prices and when prices go up, it is because big business puts them up. The power to raise prices comes from monopoly control. © Towers is now a director of several big companies, includ- ing Bell Telephone, which right now is trying to inflate its profits another $24 million by boosting telephone rates. January 24, 1958 — PACIFIC TRIBU pana © eee ee mittee accept the resignatidt, : ‘Despite serious politict differences with his @ leagues,” the statement 5%”) g “Gates was afforded @V | opportunity to express viewpoint within the fram | work of the Communist parll t and its constitution.” ( Commenting on Gatesiamm * cusation that the Daily work er, which suspended public® tion on January 13, was “mu dered” by his political op ponents in the party, the st” ment noted that “the rec?” mendation for susp | sion was made by an 0% whelming majority decisiy Elementary. democracy ~) quire acceptance of that ae cision, whatever the ultim?. reasons for the suspens® may be.” "I Og % ces For the time being, th ministrative committee scribed Gates by citing a statement, to which Gates © subscribed, on the resignal! 4 from the party of Jos. Clark, former Daily work foreign editor: “He has lost his theoreti pearings. Unable to see t f this crisis is a passing tho painful stage in the party life, he has lost faith in party and its future. . ay Reverting directly to G@ the statement went on: “For some time GateS (4 , been politically disorie? and has been challeng!, many of the basic princi? ‘ of scientific socialism, ism. He has utilized to the the right of dissent Ww) the organization — cour . with interviews in the 4‘ mercial press — to carry | 0 a sharp struggle for his VG, \ Now Gates has becomé avowed opponent of the C munist party and its. M@ ist, American working program.”