Defeat the austerity program: Battle brewing between Peoples’ unity needed cities and government By OSCAR KOGAN. Once again the Tory bid to control the Metropolitan Coun- cil has been defeated. No longer can the Tories depend on elect- ing a majority either in To- ronto Council or in any of the Borough Councils. If we examine the men who ran against Mr. Campbell we find that they were all Tories. They were hoping that one of them would be = sufficiently well placed to be able to compete with and defeat Seonabet the Liberal. We have already seen the re- sults of this break with tradi- tion in the statement that Mr. Campbell made on Oct. 2 when he said “. . . regional and Met- ropolitan governments will soon come of age and will not be so controlled by the White Father at _Queen’s Park. They (the Province) are still treating a municipality of two million like a child. Eventually, all such re- Sstrictions should come off. We are old enough now to run our own business without having to pull at father’s shirt tail.” (Globe and Mail Oct. 3, 1969.) This is the crux of the be- hind-the-scenes infighting that took place in the back rooms before the elections. Mr. Campbell being a Liberal, the fight could now develop into one between Metropolitan Toronto and other Metropolitan ‘areas, (Ottawa, Windsor, Ham- ilton etc.) and the provincial government. The fight will center around the issue of independent action and decision by metropolitan areas. As it is now the prov- ince controls all actions of mu- nicipalities and has acted in a highly arbitrary manner on many issues. The main issue, of course, has been and will continue to be the tax base allowed muni- cipal governments. The base at present is so narrow that muni- _ Cipalities have no other re- course but to continue to in- _€rease taxes on home owners in order to meet the, growing needs of improving” municipal services. Especially now, when the province has taken over the as- sessment departments of all municipalities, the local govern- ment will be completely at the mercy of the province. Now it will be up to the prov- ince to decide what portion of municipal funds will come from the industrial and commercial establishments as compared to what percentage will be placed on the small home owner. _A great deal will, of course, depend on the results of the election of Dec. 1. Should enough labor and progressive people be elected in the city and the boroughs to change the complexion not only of the Chairman but of the Council as well, then we can look forward to a very bitter battle develop- ing to force the province to give up its rigid control of municipal affairs and find new revenues for the local governments. What these new sources may be will depend greatly on how many labor and progressive people will be elected. Should we have a substantial number of labor people then we can forsee a battle taking place on forcing the industrial and commercial establishments to carry a more just portion of municipal costs than they do at present. This will of course help relieve small home owners from bearing the brunt of local government costs as they do at present. Should the election of Decem- ber 1 result in no great change, then we can foresee the battle being a very weak one as be- tween the two parties of big business the Liberals and the Tories. This may result in some ‘improvement but the major change required is in the tax base. The election of the Liberal Campbell in no way brings to an end the battle. On the con- trary it is only the beginning— a beginning that could lead to - major changes if labor takes advantage pt it. 2 The hunter and the hunted — In the saty 1950's ‘the nae: ~ young lawyer who worked ith the notorious Senator Joe cCarthy, during the dark days . the United States when that ommunist witch hunt. ‘For sheer arrogance and con- » were few oe Roy M. oy M. Cohn was well known in . He was an up-and-com- tor dominated the national — political scene with. his anti- t for every human decency, “d mail. If convicted he could re- ceive a maximum of 36 years in jail and a $41,000 fine. No doubt — there are many of his frameup victims who would think that to be on the light side. the te chair, owns a tele- phone-equi ped Lincoln limou- sine, a 99-f Mh arest with bribed i conspiracy, “mail fraud, extortion and black- __ Roy Cohn, who played a role” in the frame-up trial that sent Ethel and Julius Rosenberg to 13s yacht, and a Man- for a progressive The “austerity” drive of Big Business, spearheaded by the Trudeau administration, . which aims to further reduce the peo- ple’s living standards and en- rich the monopolies under the guise of “combating inflation” must be beaten back by the aroused action of the Canadian people. The national leaders of the Communist Party of Canada meeting in Toronto over the last week-end directed the mem- bers and supporters of the Party to work for a country- wide people’s counter-offensive that would compel the monopo- lists and their representatives in government to retreat. Reporting to Central Com- mittee members assembled from all parts of Canada, the party’s general secretary William Kash- tan proposed a program of ac- tion under the slogans ‘Defeat the Government’s austerity pro- gram! Make monopoly, not the people, pay for inflation! Curb profits, not wages!” Rejecting the Trudeau tricky “alternatives” of “either con- tinued inflation or deflation and a recession,” the party leaders propose a program that in- cludes: ea policy of full employ- ment; e substantial wage increases and reduction of hours of work; e end monopoly profiteering and force prices down; e a massive government hous- ing program, including interest free loans and rent control; - e@ overhaul social security and relate it to wages and sala- ries with a cost of living adjust- ment; @ a guaranteed annual _in- come, doubling of family allow- ances and a $2.5J minimus wage; e democratic reform of tax- ation; _ @ regional development pro- grams under Crown corpora- tions; e free education; e meaningful paride to agri- culture. : >the austerity program, Mr. : Kashtan said, is directed to slow down economic’ growth, stimu- late unemployment, - impose guidelines on wages through an _ incomes and price policy, and © “weaken collective bargaining. “The impression is being cre- ated,” he said, “that the aus- terity program. started with the speech of Prime Minister Tru- deau over TV in which he ‘stat- ed 25,000 civil workers would be laid off. This is completely false. In actual.fact the auster- ity program started in April when tight money policies were adopted Je slow own econgnule : security. measures, alternative sible for rising prices. Instead, it is attacking employment and wages, seeking to create a re- serve army of unemployed with which to freeze wages and step up exploitation of the working class. “Its war on inflation is in reality war on the working people.” The perspective, arising from deliberate government policy and state-monopoly regulation of the economy, is thus one of _Tising prices, rising unemploy- ment, and growing attacks on social security. This is part and parcel of the strategy of state- monopoly capitalism which uses inflation to attack living stand- ards through price increases, and then through deflation cre- ates artificial crises to slow down economic growth and in- crease unemployment as a means of stepping up the ex- ploitation of the working class. The report, delivered by Mr. Kashtan on behalf of the party’s national executive, pointed out that inflation exists in practic- ally all capitalist countries and is fed from the same sources, the U.S. war of aggression in Vietnam, and the militarization of the economy. Some workers think that a re- cession if it comes will be a re- latively mild one,. but there is no assurance that this will be so. “Controlled” deflation could before long become uncon- trolled deflation, all the more so in the face of a serious down- turn in the U.S. economy which some economists claim is now under way. “In light of these policies the labor movement should consi- der its attitude to the Income and Price Commission set up by the Government. Its purpose, as has been the case in all other capitalist countries, is to regu- late wages in the interest of monopoly profit and integrate the trade union movement into the mechanism of state mono- poly capitalism.” According to the Economic - Council Report last year corpo- rate profits per unit of output - increased by 20 percent, while money wages rose on an ‘ave- rage by 7.5 percent, the real ~ wages being” lower due to high- er prices, taxes, etc. Yet the government proposes to ‘“‘con- trol” inflation by freezing wages at the present level while allow-, ing Prices, profits and rents to rise. ire Me MaBicare. | ike Other "gocial should be based on national standards, “be universal in scope, have 100 | percent coverage, and be ‘paid © for out of general revenue. = _ Prime Minister Trudeau de- clares that. “we cannot afford a leads a $1,800,000,000 so-called ® fense program. i The austerity program o ‘i of a general reactionary of which finds expression tt posals for legalized wire ping, break-up of dem? i) tions, restrictions Of ¥ pre union rights, firing ° als sors, demagogic appeals “law and order” in Quebel other measures to we at divide the democratic and strengthen reaction@ nopoly control over the pe j The report points © ute these harmful domestic By are accompanied by int subservience to the yet evidenced by the ee, Royal Security by 4 cial firm although nl, ed almost the last Canadial iia! field of operations, 2” mergers and take-overs tighten the U.S. noose © Canadian economy. adherance to contine? which is in fact U.S. dom ana further undermines CH ie) sovereignty and indepen®™ 4) The withdrawal of on ‘| troops from NATO is 4 4 sion to widespread dema™ Canadian foreign policy tinues to be subordinalé wh U.S. imperialist aims ait? Trudeau Government’s 5g continentalism _includeS 94) tinued membership if © galt and maintenance of 2 | missile bases on Canadiat Fy “These developmen'* aft) ¢ out the contention of OU. © j that the battle for Canadi dependence and again dustrial military comple! essential part of the ® for socialism and must ™ the centre of our attenti Kashtan declared. “We ' port every current whic? weaken U.S. control 0 domination of the Cana lia nomy and foreign polic, to a_ strength Canadian independen¢ ~ Gershuny nominated | Phil Gershuny, well © progressive labor — Greater | Winnipeg, _ ; nounced his oe + alderman in nD.