TO AT THESE STRIKES — ARE RUINING THE COUNTRY / THERE OUGHT TO BE A LAW / ~Y WHEN | Wi PEEL LIKE AN INCOME INCREASE 25 years ago... GET BEHIND MINERS’ STRIKE The strike of 1,500 McIntyre-Porcupine gold min- ers Sept. 22 makes “it more ur- gent than ever that the whole labor movement rally around this fight” Nels Thibault, District 8 Board Member of Mine Mill told the Tribune in an interview in Toronto. Thibault made a dramatic offer of $1,000 or more a week to the struggle of the Timmins-Noranda miners, dur- ‘Inga session of the CCL conven- tion. Delegates greeted the offer with a storm of applause. Tribune September 28, 1953 Profiteer of the week: 50 years ago... STOP RUNAWAY INDUSTRIES BRUSSELS — Trade unions of all countries must combine to fight against international capitalism, which is prepared to shift its industries to India, China and other countries un- less wages in industrialized countries are reduced to starva- tion levels. This was the warning of Edo Fimmen, secretary of the International Transport Work- ers Union, to 30 students at the Belgian Labor College. He warned that American and En- glish textile workers may soon see the centre of the industry shift to China. The Worker September 29, 1928 eating? Things have picked up at the Oshawa Group. They’re food people, you know, and in 28 weeks ended August 12, 1978, their after- tax, after-expense profit was $2,073,000. That goes to shareholders and comes from you. Not a bad take considering the same period a year earlier registered a loss of $250,000. Now how did that happen? Did any of you stop Figures used are from the company’s financial statements. PACIFIC RIiBUNE Editor — SEAN GRIFFIN Associate Editor — FRED WILSON Business and Circulation Manager — PAT O'CONNOR Published weekly at Suite 101 — 1416 Commercial Drive, Vancouver, B.C. V5L 3X9 Phone 251-1186 Subscription Rate: Canada, $8.00 one year; $4.50 for six months; All other countries, $10.00 one year Second class mail registration number 1560 [To (oo eo 2 8 a kd. SL At aL i EDIMORLAL COMIMIEINT Back the Inco strikers! Solidarity with the Sudbury Inco strik- ers! That is the burning call of the hour to the entire labor and left political movement. Indeed to all democratic- minded people of Canada. The 12,000 striking steelworkers of Local 6500 now on the picket line against that callous multi-national are defending exactly the threatened trade union rights and living standards of everyone of us. In a pledge to do all in its power in support of the strikers, the Communist Party of Canada’s Ontario Committee, and provincial leader William Stewart, expressed the anger and determination of workers, who have learned in strikes and lockouts (and enforced back-to- work legislation) that the monopolies | and their governments are hard-line anti-labor. That means fight or be crushed! It’s not surprising that the big business Globe and Mail tries to incite a split in Local 6500, looking for splitters to beg the company for its kind settlement. For the mouthpiece of Bay street, that’s par. But isn’t it repulsive when attempts to sabotage workers striking against a vici- ous corporation, come from rats, dis- guised as labor’s friends? Stephen Lewis, now repudiated by other members of the New Democratic Party — by Ontario MPPs Martel, - Laughren, and Germa, as well as by On- tario NDP leader Michael Cassidy who — saluted the Inco strikers —*Lewis, the columnist for the big business Toronto | Star where he is very, very comfortable, attacks the striking miners and smelter- men. He ridicules their leadership and their good sense. While the millionaires’ Globe calls for a “rejection” of militancy by the strikers (and understandably), Lewis sees workers’ elected reps as “un- predictable”, their decisions “Archie Bunkerism of the left,” engaging in “rad- ical posturing”, and “blind perversity.” He says on behalf of Inco, the final offer “was probably the best the union could get in the circumstances.” What circumstances? The circumstances of having the company, all the powers and that he, and the sell-out artists dictating, their future? “The Sudbury local is wrong,” says the great seer. He speaks of picking up the pieces, months from now. ; Workers the country over are invited to show whose pieces will need picking up, who is “wrong” and whois leh caliag precious traditions and hard-won gains of the working people. Certainly the snide Forest Hill columnist won’t have any say in that outcome, nor would he warrant all this attention, except that those right-wing pretenders in the NDP who take his anti-labor line, should be advised. The answer to Inco, as both Com- munists and genuine labor spokesmen in the NDP state, is to put it under public ownership and democratic control (in- cluding labor representatives to operate the mines and mills, provide jobs for Canadian workers and forbid the ship- pig out of investment capital produced y the sweat of Sudbury workers! Behind Trudeau’s 3 Rs Pierre Trudeau’s grade one lesson to workers about the three Rs is just as in- sulting as if he were lecturing us on Readin’, Ritin’ and Rithmatic. He’s talk- ing about restraint, reallocation of re- sources, and renewal. But the restraint under his government, tied to the corpo- rations, is always restraint on working people and their living standards. The reallocation of resources always favors the multi-nationals as the sell-out of Canada quickens pace. Profits soar, but returns to the people from their own resources dwindle. ‘The only thing re- newed is hand-outs to corporate inves- tors, whose favor the Liberals and Tories vie for. > It has been said in these pages before, and real life is bearing it out, that putting the corporations under control is a key task of a united working people. But every effort of the monopoly corpora- tions, their governments and _ their media, is bent to heading off this senti- ment, casting blame on the workers and introducing side issues. The big money media likes to tell us we’re all in the same boat, and we have to tigthen our belts. The plain fact is we’re not all in the same boat; the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting. poorer. Not only that but the rich are using their money-power to run our lives, and run them into the ground. Why isn’t the Canadian Labor Con- gress McDermott taking a lead in this battle of real concern to Canadian work- ers. Can’t he take time off from his cam- © paign of anti-Soviet slander, of trumpet- ng support for spies and provocateurs, and meddling in the laws of another country? Splitting the labor movement, domes- tically and internationally is a full-time job with the ruling class, trying to turn masses of people against strikers, raving that it’s sinful for workers to fight for wages before they are suffering “special hardship.” The “bring back hanging” circus, had, among other purposes the distracting of mass anger against in- flation, uncontrolled unemployment, and the systematic theft of rights and benefits working people have won by > hard struggle. Today’s strike struggles are the focal point of the seesaw battle between the working class and the ruling class to pro- tect or drive down living standards, to limit monopoly power or give it free rein. Trudeau’s three-R smokescreen does nothing to solve the serious economic and social problems of working peo of Canada. Only the combined fightback of workers and their supporting seg- ments of society can solve those problems. PACIFIC TRIBUNE—SEPTEMBER 29, 1978—Page 3 en en em ht TT