EDITORIAL

Disarmament Week actions

Disarmament Week, October 24-31,
declared annually by the United Na-
tions, calls for widest public pressure on
governments to prevent the catastrophe
of world nuclear war.

Public opinion in Europe and, increas-
ingly, in Canada and the USA, rejects the
reasoning of maniacs, that endangering
all human life on our planet can be justi-
fied for either fat profits or the prolonga-
tion of the system of imperialism.

One of Canada’s concerns should be to
persuade the USA that nuclear war is
unacceptable under any circumstances,
risking as it does human annihilation
and massive fatal radiation.

Canada’s government should show it is
serious about its declared desire for dis-
armament. While Trudeau says Canada
has no nuclear weapons program of its
own, he has not assured us that no U.S.
nuclear weapons are stationed on our
territory. He cannot deny that part of the
$5-billion being spent on the highly-
complex, U.S.-made F-18 fighter plane is
to supply some 50 of these craft to
NATO to assist it in the very actions for
which the USA is deploying its nuclear
weapons in Europe.

Instead of Industry, Trade and Com-
merce Minister Herbert Gray running to
the USA to beg for more war equipment
orders, as he did this month, he should
be getting peace-time industry going
here to provide jobs and benefits from

our resource materials now handed over

to the multi-nationals. Statistics prove

that war industry costs jobs, when com-
pared with peace and service industries.
So, economically as well, the- present
course is suicidal.

The whole Canada-U.S. Defence Pro-
duction Sharing agreement is nothing
buta pretext for the U.S. multi-nationals
and their government to use our country
for their needs.

Disarmament Week is a time for mass
public outcry for an end to Ottawa’s
hypocrisy, and a start on genuine steps to
influence world disarmament.
Disarmament Week actions in various
Canadian centres.are of crucial im-
portance in informing broad sections of
the public and winning them for peace
actions.

President Reagan’s decision to seek
construction of 100 MX land-based mis-
siles and 100 B-1 bombers as part of a
$180.3-billion ‘jump in war spending is a
horror to which Canada remains tied
through NATO and NORAD.

It is time to break such ties and estab-

lish a Canadian foreign policy for peace,
détente and disarmament. Disarmament
Week is a unique opportunity to make
such demands, to pile up names on the
petition, Peace Is Everybody’s Business,
which pushes the government in this
direction.

Disarmament Week embraces an ever
expanding spectrum of organizations
and individuals. It deserves an all-out
effort to make the fight for disarmament

the decisive fight today.

Mobilize for November 21

No divisions! Solid working-class and
labor unity! These are the needs if labor
is to make a bruising impact on the big
business government and largely big
business parliament on Nov. 21._

The mass demonstration called for by
the Canadian Labor Congress, aiming at
100,000 participants, deserves the
pledge of every economically and politi-
cally conscious man and woman in the
labor movement, to make an unforget-
table impact on Ottawa on Nov. 21!

This paper has said that the target
needs to be more than interest rates; it
needs to include mortgage moratoriums,
rent controls, full employment, rights to

full health care and educational oppor- —

tunities; and government protection

from the U.S. war threat — nuclear
annihilation.
Its a package. Let no one tell us

otherwise. Life not only requires incom-
es, health care and opportunity for fu-
ture generations, it needs relentless re-
fusal to condone nuclear catastrophe.
They all go together.

It’s not a time to sit back and ponder,
to wonder whether each of us faces obliv-
ion. We do — piecemeal, by disposses-
sion, disallowance, or quick-sand pov-
erty in which we sink, or by the radiation
death recommended by the White
House.

The implications of the Nov. 21
PACIFIC TRIBUNE—OCT. 16, 1981—Page 4

demonstration go far beyond interest
rates — without in any way excusing this
vice of the capitalist class, which chokes
family life into sub-human existence.

It is important that the Nov. 21
demonstration — which we are called
upon to make into an overwhelming
statement to government — embrace
energy, housing, unemployment, indus-
trial development, the farm crisis and
other critical areas. A very important
side of our efforts in support of the
demonstration will be to ensure that the
total impact of the demonstration, while
focusing on interest rates, at the same
time points out an alternative people’s
policy and a new direction for Canada.

At the same time, our main concern
should be that the projected target of
100,000 demonstrators on Parliament
Hillon Nov. 21 is reached and exceeded.

The Communist Party of Canada and
the entire left has a critical role to play in
this mobilization. The left has consis-
tently demanded mass action by the
labor movement in pursuit of its aims.
Now that an action of this scope has been
called we have both an opportunity and
responsibility to give our total efforts to

‘ensure its success.

Organize mass participation in the
November 21 demonstration called by
the Canadian Labor Congress!

HON an aeeee

PUSH ME
THO rar/

Flashbacks

25 years ago... 50 years ago...

QUEBEC UNIONS
TO JOIN CLC

MONTREAL — Trade union
unity in Canada took another
important step forward last

week with the acceptance of the .

principle of affiliation to the
Canadian Labor Congress by the
35th annual convention of the
Catholic Syndicates (Canadian
and Catholic Confederation of
Labor). =

The 500. delegates cheered
the almost unanimous decision
to accept the principle of affilia-
tion; to affiliate on the basis of a
national union; and to continue
negotiations begun with CLC

‘leaders. :

They empowered a commit-
tee to calla special convention no
later than June 1, 1957 which
will take the final steps to link the
Syndicates to the CLC which will
then have a membership of
1,200,000.

Tribune,
October 8, 1956

Profiteer of the week

MINERS BURY
DEAD COMRADES ~

ESTEVAN — Over 600 min-
ers, their wives and children
paraded behind the bodies of
the three ‘murdered comrades,
who were shot by the North
West Mounted Police on Sept.
29.

_Eighteen miners held
shoulder-high the flower-
covered caskets. The demon-
strators bore banners. reading:

“They fought for bread and got

bullets instead”, “Honor to the
martyrs for the workers’ cause”
and “Murdered by the bosses
hired thugs.”

The local officers of the Mine
Workers’ Union of Canada of-
ficiated at the graveside. Eight of
the strikers facing charges of
rioting were released on bail to-
talling $12,000.

The Worker,
October 10, 1931

Spending too much for food? Not tightening the belt enough?
The proof is in the pudding, so to speak. Loblaws Ltd., the big food

. outfit had an after-tax profit for the 24 weeks ended last June 20, of
$10,221,000. That was an increase from $7,589,000 in the same 24

weeks a year earlier. |

Figures used are from the company’s financial statements.

Editor — SEAN GRIFFIN
Associate Editor — FRED WILSON
Business and Circulation Manager — PAT O'CONNOR

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