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By WILLIAM BEECHING

“The Americanization of Can-

ada ... It’s the REAL THING.”
That was the slogan draped
across the speakers’ platform at
Convocation Hall, University of
Toronto. It was the theme of a
iteach-in organized by the To-
‘ronto NDP Club and the Waffle
‘Manifesto Movement in the
NDP.
. The opening session was to
feature a discussion of The Poli-
tics and Economics of Indepen-
dence—a confrontation between
Walter Gordon, former Liberal
Party minister of finance, and
Mel Watkins, professor of eco-
‘nomics, author of the Watkins
‘Report and co-author of what’s
“Waffle Mani-
festo.”

Professor Watkins, stricken
‘with the ’flu, was replaced by
Professor Cy Gonick, NDP MLA
from Manitoba, editor of Dimen-
sions, and professor of econom-
ics.

There was an audience of ap-
proximately 1,500, mostly uni-

‘versity students and_intellec-

tuals, but also a number of
workers. The fact that such a
large number of people showed

‘interest in the meeting is a con-

firmation of the growth of the
sentiment for Canadian inde-

pendence. It is being fed by the

movements against the U.S. war
in Vietnam in the universities
and among the intellectuals.

The Waffle Group movement ~
_for Canadian independence,
. emerging as a post-NDP national

convention phenomenon, mainly
organized among the students,
will help to strengthen the al-
and growing
movement for Canadian inde-
pendence. It reflects the widen-
ing concern about the U.S. mon-
opoly domination of Canada,
and the latest pressures from
U.S. monopoly for Canadian
energy resources.

It must ‘be said that the “Waf-
fle Group” has now established
itself as a distinct trend in the
New Democratic Party. ©

Walter Gordon opened the de-
bate. He claimed that American
control over Canadian economy
and the Canadian trade union
movement is extensive, and that
it reaches into Canadian art,
universities, influences defense
policy, and even has some mea-
sure of control over the think-
ing of Canadian economists.

He said that he did not. think
it too late for Canada to regain
“a measure of independence”,
and that an increasing number
of Canadians are becoming con-
cerned about it. He claimed that
more Canadian businessmen
than is generally realized are op-
posed to American economic
domination.

In his opinion, there is a need

for the federal government to |

propose a much’ more compre-
hensive policy than it has done
up to now. He did not think
restricting foreign investment
would bring on a depression. It
was not true with Mexico, he

said which has insisted on own-

ing 51 percent of all joint U.S.-
Mexican developments.

He condemned the U.S. war
against Vietnam in these words:

“There is,no justification for
the U.S.: participation. in that
war, or for U.S. support for a
corrupt and dictatorial govern-
ment in Saigon, which entails
acts of barbarism, dcfoliation
and mass Killings.”

“American policy,” he -said,

“runs counter to Canadisi in-
terests elsewhere, especially in
Central America and South
America. Let us hope that the
U.S. will not be tempted to send
in the Marines (into Latin Ame-
rica) or the more dubious CIA.”

He warned that there is a re-
surgence of the ideology of the
late Senator Joseph McCarthy
years. “The %".S. has become a
sick society. It is unsafe to walk
the streets. Opposing views are
not heard sympathetically. We
should avoid becoming part of
what is going on there,” he said.

His proposals called for the
development of a clear policy
by the federal government on
resources; a repurchasing of
American-owned businesses; a
greater degree of government.
intervention, such as in Mexico.

Mr. Cy Gonick was next.

He was of the opinion that
the debate about foreign owner-
ship had been legitimized today.
He said that those who own the™
means of production do not
serve the people but control
them. It is foreigners who run
our lives, he said.

He pointed to the fact that
over a billion dollars is siphoned
out of the Canadian economy to
flow southwards, that Canadian
jobs and foreign exchange are
lost, and that Canadian raw ma-
terials go to the United States
to provide jobs there.

The corporate interests are
too selfish to fight for Cana-
dian sovereignty, he said. “I do
not oppose foreign ownership,
per se,” he stated. “We will not
join any anti-American crusade.
We oppose the Americanization
of Canada because we oppose
corporate capitalism. We want
to build a democratic socialist
Canada, and we cannot build a
democratic socialism in Canada
while it is American owned,”

He called for distinct Cana-
dian methods, based on Cana-
dian reality and Canadian tradi-
tion. He said that his group op-
poses further control of Ameri-
cans over industry in Canada,
also in Canadian universities. He
opposed the cuts in the National
Film Board, and called for the
CBC to cease transmitting Ame-
rican culture, and for it to de-
velop indigenous Canadian cul-
ture.

“We oppose the energy scheme,
the auto trade pact, military al-
liances, and call for Canada’s
withdrawal from them,” he said.

In response to a question
about international unions, Mr.
Gonick said, ‘We oppose the
further. Americanization of the
labor movement and the student
movement. Insofar as American
control over the labor movement
is concerned, the Waffle group
has no-formal position on that.
I was giving my own views. In-
ternational unions are a form of
American control in Canada,
and have to be stopped. This is
a personal position.”

The meeting has been a con-
tribution to the further develop-
ment of the struggle for Cana-
dian independence. It is confir-
mation in life of the position
taken by the Communist Party
of Canada since the end of
World War II..

Not only has the idea that
American domination is bad for
Canada broken through, but now
it promises to become a matter
of wider organized resistance.
The key to the success of that
resistance is the degree to
See WIDESPREAD CONCERN, pg. 9

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—MARCH 13, 1970—Page 4

Trudeau, trusts and tractors

By WILLIAM BEECHINC

The statement that there is
super profiteering in the farm
machinery industry, charged by
the Royal Commission on
Farm Machinery, confirms the
position taken by the Commu-
nist Party in its brief to that
Commission in 1967.

The shocking revelation that
the same tractor sells in Canada
for a much higher price than in
Britain gives the lie to the Tru-
deau government’s entire posi-
tion on inflation control. Not
wages, but price fixing by these
-great international trusts, is the
cause of high prices.

The United Automobile Work-
ers, in a public statement, said,
“The profit gouging by tractor
manufacturers, revealed by
the Royal Commission, is
just further proof that prices
in this industry are administered
and have no relation to cost...
Certainly, the myth of ‘labor

-“costs’ ought to be well laid to

rest this time, once and for all...
It is not just the Canadian trac-
tor industry that stands indicted.
It is the whole profit-making
system. It is profiteering which
is causing inflation.” :

The Barber Commission states
that profits and prices are higher
in Canada than in Britain on
identical tractors, made in Brit-
ain. The Commission recom-

By JOHN WILLIAMSON
The wages movement in Brit-
ain is developing on a wide
front. Its most significant feat-

ure is the nature of the demands .

which represent a complete
break with the old wages move-
ment for relatively small in-
creases.

Ford’s is the most dramatic
manifestation of this, with the
union’s-demand for a $24 a week

increase, a previously “unheard

of’? demand. Other manifesta-
tions of this new militancy in-
clude the seamen’s demand for
a 50 percent wage increase; the
demand of the 300,000 nurses
that the 22 percent pay rise won
by their stoppages and demon-
strations be paid now, and not
over a two-year period; the es-
calating two-week strikes of
teachers now covering 6,500
teachers in 400 schools; and the
10 to 20 percent demands by
workers in local government,
post offices and civil servants.

The scope of the wages move-
ment in industry is a recogni-
tion by the workers of the great
benefits the employers are gain-
ing from the technological re-
volution and their determina-
tion to get some of these bene-
fits also.

The demand of 48,000 Ford
manual workers for $24 a week
increase and setting Feb. 2 as a
strike deadline — initiated in
January by a national meeting
of shop stewards, but supported
by the two largest unions, the
Transport and General with
17,090 members in Ford, and the
Engineers with 15,000 “gave the
industry its biggest fright.”

The basis of this demand was
to achieve parity with the Mid-
lands auto workers. Mr. Moss

mended that the federal govern-
ment take direct action to reduce
tractor prices in Canada below
the ‘discriminatory, artificial
levels now maintained arbitrari-
ly by a few multi-national cor-
porations who dominate the
Canadian market.” Dr. Barber
boggled at the word “conspira-
cy,” but said the data suggested
“at least a tacit agreement be-
tween the Big Four to maintain
Canadian prices.”

Apparently some manufactur-
ers have taken steps to prevent
the farmers from importing trac-
tors directly from the cheaper
British market. The prices of
British tractors, at the wholesale
level, ranged from $837 to $2,287
lower in Britain than in Canada.
It is-estimated that at least one-
third ofthe difference was due
to higher profits in Canada than
in Britain.

Dr. Barber’states that if Cana-
dian farmers had been able to
import: ‘tractors directly from
Britain in 1967 they would have
saved $8,600,000, even after pay-
ing their own ocean and domes-
tic shipping costs. After devalu-
ation in 1968, the savings would
have amounted to $14,900,000.

‘However, the Royal Commis-
sion had secured evidence show-
ing that the manufacturers have
prevented tractors moving from
the low-priced British market to

Evans, the TGWU leader in auto,
says that for years the Ford
workers have been getting less
money than workers anywhere
else in the car industry. They se-
lected as their target for parity
a Rootes (Chrysler) factory in
Coventry, where last year a $2.14
an hour rate was negotiated.

A year ago, when Ford work-
ers struck against the company
proposal for a penalty clause in
case of “unofficial strikes” and

~ the company had to retreat, the

men warned that, in accepting
the 7.5 percent wage rise, they
would carry on the fight for par-
ity with the Midlands.

During the last three months
of 1969 the Shop Stewards Com-
mittee conducted an intensive
educational campaign among the
48,000 manual workers and had
overwhelming support in Janu-
ary for the $24 demand.

The company claimed parity
was “impossible.” To try to stop
the rising movement it offered a
$7.20 a week. increase» This
meant a 15 cents an hour in-
crease which it said would be
its “final” offer. The shop stew-
ards, trade unions and mass
meetings of the members of the
two largest unions rejected the
offer and began preparations to
strike. In a few days, the com-
pany came back with what it
called a “genuine final offer” to
$9.60—that is, 24 cents an hour,
amounting ‘to an 18 percent rise.

Again the unions, shop stew-
ards and members rejected this
offer and decided to defer the
strike date to allow for further
negotiations. The TGWU set
March 1 and the AEF set Feb.
16. The workers in the Ford
plant at Swansea came out on
unofficial strike on Feb. 2, but

|

py
- increase — which the comPr |

‘that the militancy of the

the artificially high-priced Can
dian market. All major Britis
tractor manufacturers — Ford,
Massey - Ferguson, International |
Harvester, David Brown alt)
British Leyland Motors (Nuffield)
have inserted clauses in the
dealer agreements to prevent the
dealers from directly export!
new tractors or selling them @
someone who would.

The Ontario Federation of
Agriculture attempted -to import
British-made tractors. Up to mide
April 1969, it imported ab0u
150. However, it is under pre
sure. Manufacturers’ represenl@
tives turned up to view
OFA’s Inloading of 13 Britis
built tractors on March 10, 19%
Three of the tractors Me
“disguised” as “used” — 0”
oil in the crankcase, and hou |
meters altered to show 1} ;
hours of use—and nine othe!
had plates welded over the sé
numbers ‘in an effort to pre tes
the British supplier. The pla! b
were clandestinely removed. wi
a heavy crowbar overnight f
that the selling company 60?
be discovered and disciplined:

The Royal Commission sub
gests that the Canadian gover ;
ment should approach Czee
slovakia and Japan, to dis
importing low-priced tractors
the Canadian market.

>

after hearing arguments iro

union leaders, returned tO Va
after one day. {0
The Ford Company agreed
another meeting on Feb. a a
formed sources feel confi '
work
plus the new unity of the sh
stewards with the leadershiP'
the two largest unions will ati
pel the compariy to make 4 ve!
tional concessions. If nots of
the Times recognizes that ©
“will face. a: massive walk?
that will cripple its entire
duction. . eek

The proposed $9.60 2_

says is the largest ever Oe ak
in British history — AO? ris)
further hole in the govern
so-called Incomes Policy- ait t
Last year, Fords of ae :
made a profit of $113 milli0 Pan
$1,877 for each of its 61,007 oy
ployees (this includes jt
manual workers who 4, ig
unionized and not involV@ |
this dispute) . ae
The company admits it fe the
most efficient and sayS thee k
“net added value per emp: nest
in Fords is $6,634—the I?
in Britain.” mn
In general, the auto ind!
in Britain represents 1 pe sit
of total industrial produc” oq
percent of manufacturing f of
ployment and 16 perece!
manufacturing exports. ord
Today all eyes are 0 "sinh
but rumblings are alrea Y “pit -
heard in Vauxhall, Jaguar 48
ish Leylands and Rootes rit
the Times Business News opel
“Trouble continues else. 1 hot
the car industry” and ‘go
exists at the moment 18 ~~
easy peace.’ :