Ottawa ‘abandoned pfetence of controlling prices’

Dropping of export tax condemned

TORONTO — The Central
Executive of the Communist
Party of Canada has charged that
the federal government and the

So-called Anti-Inflation Board -

have abandoned ‘‘even the pre-
tence of doing anything about
Monopoly price rigging. and
Profiteering.”’

In a statement issued March 3,
the CP executive said: ‘‘The only
Way to deal with the situation is to
Teverse government policy to
Control and curb monopoly and
Move toward public ownership
and democratic control of the
means of production and distribu-
tion of wealth.”’

Here is the statement in full:

The farcical performance of Ot-
tawa in its so-called fight against
Inflation has been further
Confirmed by the scrapping of its
Plans to control monopoly

. SUper-profits by means of an ex-
Port tax. The tax was conceived
as a means to keep excess profits
in Canada and to stop goods made
for-the domestic market being di-
verted to the more lucrative ex-
Port trade.

Maximum Profits

The giant U.S. corporations
€ngaged in extraction of our
natural resources, as well as fab-
Nication of semi-processed and
Manufactured goods for export,

Tyee
will now be.able to fix prices and
profits to maximum levels with-

‘out restrictions of any kind.

The tax levy of 100% on profits
in excess of those to be made in
domestic trade was never what it
was purported to be in the first
place. Under the plan, companies
would have been allowed a refund
of up to 90% of the tax if it were
invested in creating jobs, improv-
ing the environment or conserv-
ing energy. Even without such in-
vestments, 75% of the tax would
have been refunded.

The importance of Finance
Minister MacDonald’s an-
nouncement on Feb. 26 lies in the
fact that even the pretence of do-
ing anything about monopoly
price rigging and profiteering is
being abandoned.

But the squeeze on workers
wages, peoples’ living standards,
and social and community ser-
vices, is tightening. This latest
concession to the monopolies
could mean the intensification of a
trade war in search for new export
markets, all carried through at the
expense of Canadian working
people.

More Inflation

The end result of the
monopoly-government attacks on
the working class and all working

people will spell ruin also for
small businesses and result in
more unemployment and more
inflation.

The only way to deal with the
situation is to reverse government
policy to control and curb
monopoly and move towards pub-
lic ownership and democratic
control of the means of produc-
tion and distribution of wealth.
We have all the needed resources
and skilled labor and technology
to provide full employment and
abundance of goods and services
for both the home and foreign
markets.

The people of the socialist part
of the world have shown the way
of putting an end to “‘stop and go”
economic policies of capitalist
monopolies.

Hundreds of millions of people
also in the under-developed coun-
tries of the world need goods and
services that Canada and its
working people can produce.

The first step in the direction of
social, economic and_ political
change in Canada is to scrap the
whole phoney so-called anti-
inflation program aimed at rob-
bing the victims of inflation, and
institute in its place a program to
curb monopoly capital and pro-
vide full employment without
inflation.

Teachers aid paperworkers

Continued from page 4

OSSTF Communications Di-
Tector Jack Hutton said the idea
to collect donations for the
Paperworkers, many of whom
Were on strike for as long as seven
Months, came as the teachers re-
turned to classes under the lash of
back-to-work legislation ending
their own 9-week strike in Metro
Toronto.

Hutton said that the teachers
wanted to demonstrate solidarity
with the paperworkers who were
facing the same kind of struggle
for better living conditions as
teachers were facing. He said that
Xperience on the picket lines had
8lven them an appreciation ‘‘of
the problems faced by the work-
€rs at Abitibi.’

Solidarity Needed

Compassion was the main
reason that the teachers of Dis-
ttict 16 (Scarborough) donated to
the fund, said representative

yra Johnson.. Though the
teachers had not experienced the

ardship that the paperworkers
aced in their struggle, Johnson
Said that they could identify with
them after their own two-month
battle,

Speaking for District 15, John

cEwan referred to the “ham-
Mering’’ the teachers had re-
C€ived at the hands of the provin-
Clal government and the. media

Uring their strike. He said he
hoped that this action by: the
teachers would serve as an exam-
Ple of the kind of solidarity that
Would be needed within the labor
Movement to fight the wage-
Cutting policies of governments at
all levels. He added that he hoped
that the donations would be of as-
Sistance to the families of the
Paperworkers. j

Fred Birket, District 14
(Borough of York), in presenting

18 Cheque to the paperworkers,
Said that teachers he represented

donated both from a humanitarian
standpoint and in the knowledge
of the action’s political implica-
tions. ‘‘ They know whatits like to
stand on their own,”’ he said. He
added that the presentation
should be seen as a token to the
Ontario Federation of Labor to
express teachers’ understanding
of the need for closer bonds be-
tween the OSSTF and the provin-
cial labor federation. ‘‘We’ll all be
in a better long-run position if we
build bridges to the OFL,”’ he
said. _
Mortgage Foreclosures

Filling in for CPU ‘vice-
president Norm Paxton who has
been coordinating the campaign
to collect donations, Bud Galley
indicated that he was pleasantly
surprised that the donation was so
high and said that the recipients
would feel good to know that
people are behind them in their
fight with the paper cartel.

He said that the workers had
gone through some very severe
trials during the strike’s course
with many among them facing
mortgage foreclosures and having
their utilities cut off because they
couldn’t pay. He praised the local
committees leading the strikes at
the grass roots for their fine work,
and reiterated their appreciation
for what has been done in the
strike appeal campaign.

‘OFL president David Archer
welcomed the teachers’ act of sol-
idarity and pointed out that
teachers were playing their role in
fighting along with the trade union
movement to fight the cutback
measures of the Ontario Special
Programs Review, better known
as the Henderson Report.

Archer denounced the SPR
saying that he'd “spent (his)
whole life building the social sec-
urity system that we presently en-
joy”’ and that he wasn’t “‘about to
sit back and watch it destroyed.

He announced the establish-
ment of a Public Service Coalition
composed of Nurses, the OSSTF,
the Ontario Federation of Labor,
the Canadian Union of Public
Employees and the Ontario Pub-
lic Service Employees Union and
that the coalition would be hold-
ing aconference at the OFL build-
ing starting at 9:30 a.m. March 27
to discuss the effects of the report

-and that the conference was open
to the public.

Also present on behalf of the
OFL were Greg Murtagh director
of education and former OSSTF
member, treasurer Terry
Meagher and Louis Lenkinsky
administrative assistant
Archer.

WAGE LAW
CHALLENGED

Continued from page 4

Brandt ruled that since there
had been no legislation in Ontario
giving the provincial cabinet the
right to issue orders in council on
the wage control program, that
left only the legislature with the
right to. make such an agreement.
Since the legislature was not a
part of the decision to place the
province’s civil servants under
AIB jurisdiction Brandt ruled that
the agreement had no _ legal
validity and was not therefore
binding on him as an arbitrator.

He said that he would go ahead
with hearing the case and make
his recommendations based on
the merits of the arguments.

The government negotiators
have argued throughout the arbi-
tration that the wage settlement
should fall within the guidelines.
Spokesmen for the government
say that their position has not
been changed by the ruling. .

to .

In defence of supermarkets, who were accused by the extinct Food
Prices Review Board of over-charging by 4% (!), Toronto Star financial
editor, Jack McArthur wrote a column pleading for the supers, whose
profit is “pretty modest.” Under company reports came the news that
Dominion Stores jumped its 39-week profit (up to Dec. 20) to $14,129,000
compared to 1974’s 39-week, $11,035,000. Let workers ask for a ““moder-
ate’”’ 28% increase and see what happens.

Guyana needs unity — Jagan

Continued from page 4

military, bureaucratic methods of
tule, its vacillations and com-
promises with imperialism,’ Ja-
gan said in a press release.
However, in August 1975, at its
25th anniversary celebration, the
PPP changed its 1973 political line
of ‘‘non-cooperation and civil re-
sistance’’ to ‘‘critical support’,
Jagan pointed out. ‘‘This is in
keeping,’ he said ‘‘with the
change in direction of the PNC
government from pro-imperialist

. to anti-imperialist — nationaliza-

tion; active role in the non-
alligned movement; trade and dip-
lomatic relations with the socialist
countries; participation in the La-
tin American cooperative organi-
zation, SELA; and breaking off of
diplomatic relations with Israel.’*
Policy Changes

Among recent indications of
change of policy of the govern-
ment were its opposition to the
U.S. package deal proposals on
the entry of South Korea and Vie-
tnam to the United Nations, its
condemnation at the UN of
Zionism and racism, support to
the MPLA in Angola, and an an-
nouncement that the trans-
national monopoly, Booker-
McConnell and Co. would be
nationalized.

‘*Critical support,’’ Jagan indi-
cated, means ‘‘conditional sup-
port ... support for any progres-
sive measures and criticism of all
shortcomings.
means giving a firm’ message to
the imperialists and reactionary
forces not to meddle in Guyana’s
affairs, that whatever the differ-
ences between the PPP and the
government, it (PPP) is prepared
to join forces with the ruling party
to stop any intervention. And if
such intervention were to suc-
ceed, to carry on a relentless un-
ited fight against it.””

: Proclaimed Goal

The PPP had stated, Jagan

pointed out, that if the Forbes »

Burnham government’s “‘proc-
laimed goal ‘towards a socialist

revolution’ is to be attained, then |

the national liberation, anti-

imperialist revolution must first
be completed — they are two as- .

pects of the same process — and
administrative methods must give
way to peaceful methods of polit-
ical struggle.

‘*A socialist Guyana cannot be
constructed without democra-
cy,’ Jagan’s statement declared.

In the view of the PPP, ‘‘the |
drive for completion of the anti- |
imperialist *phase will result in |

Above all, it —

and attempts at ‘destabilization’
and counter-revolutionary coups.

‘‘To maintain and defend the
national independence, sov-
ereignty and territorial integrity of
Guyana, national unity is of prime .

importance.

‘Imperialism must be given a
firm warning that any attempt at
intervention will be met by a un-
ited people,”’ the Jagan statement
said, and went on:

Ask Equal Opportunity

‘*Towards the objective of at-
taining national unity, the ruling
party must abandon its idea of
creating a one-party state, stop
the harassment of the PPP and
remove all obstacles to its normal
democratic functioning, recog-
nize truly representative mass or-
ganizations, and take constitu-
tional, legal and institutional mea-
sures to provide for equality of
opportunity for all.

‘Finally, the PPP advocates
that the foreign policy of Guyana
should be so framed as to help not
only in social and economic de-
velopment but also in defence of
Guyana.

‘This means that the Guyana
Government must stop isolating
and attacking the Soviet Union
while at the same time propping
up China as the example Guyana
must follow ...”’

As a severe critic of the
Guyanese Government’s pro-
Maoist line — “‘two superpower-
s,”’ “‘two-imperialisms,’’ which

equate socialist USSR with im-
perialist USA, the PPP leader
pointed out Maoism’s treachery
in Bangladesh, Diego Garcia, An-
gola and other places.

“BY MAKING UNEMPLOYMENT 1
LEN NE AO HARD 1D
; A FAVOR.
ITS BECOME A STATUS SYMBOL.” 1+

~__sfeant |

pressures, internal and external, |

—

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—MARCH 12, 1976—Page 5