An alternative to separation

TORONTO The Parti
Quebecois government of
Quebec is laying down rules to
‘*hide the fact that there is a dem-
ocratic alternative to both separa-
tion and the status quo”’ and that
is the option advanted by the
Communist Party of Canada, the
Party’s Central Executive Com-
mittee declared in a statement,
August 29.

“The rules laid down-by the
Quebec Government to conduct a
referendum on whether or not
Quebec should separate from
Canada are far from satis-
factory,”’ the statement says. The
PQ government ‘‘proposes that
two committees be established —
one comprising all the political
parties in the Quebec Legislature
and public organizations outside

it who are opposed to separation,
with the other committee com-
posed of all those who favor the
option the Quebec Government is
yet to formulate.

‘*This suggests there are or will
be only two options the people of

Quebec will be asked to vote on °

-— separation or the status quo.

“‘A referendum around either
of these two options would lead
nowhere except to a deepening of
the present crisis,’ the Com-
munist Party warns. Its statement
continues:

The status quo means to per-
petuate national and social in-
equality in Quebec and leave the
source of such inequality,
monopoly control, untouched.

Separation would serve neither
the interests of the French Cana-

dian people nor the country as a
whole.
Democratic Alternative

The rules as laid down hide the
fact that there is a democratic
alternative to both separation and

the status quo — the option ad--

vanced by the Communist Party
of Canada. That option calls for
the adoption of a made-in-Canada
Constitution based on the equal
voluntary partnership of the two
nations, English-speaking and
French Canadian, in a bi-national
state. This includes the necessity
of a democratic restructuring of
the state and structural reforms
which would curb the power of
monopoly and the multi-national
corporations in Canada.

Press reaction in English-
speaking Canada to the Rules of

Quebec's

anti-scab law

It was good news for all Cana-
dian labor to learn that a bill to
outlaw strikebreaking had been
introduced in the Quebec Na-
tional Assembly last July 29th. It
was also good to learn a few days
later that the new national direc-
tor of the United Steelworkers of
America considered this bill a
model for the rest of Canada, and
that he plans to place the re-
sources of Canada’s largest in-
dustrial union behind an effort to
obtain similar legislation in other
provinces.

The amendments to the Labor
Code of Quebec, known as Bill-
45, does not prevent an employer
from continuing to employ work-
ers who have refused to join in a
strike. What this bill is designed to
do is to prevent an employer from
hiring outsiders to come in and
steal the jobs of striking workers.
It is that particular kind of proyo-
cation which often results in
workers trying to protect their
jobs, while the bosses, aided by
police, bring about violence on
the picketline.

It is in this sense that the
Quebec Labor Code amendments
are unique and unequalled any-
where else in the Canada and,
perhaps, in the capitalist world.
Besides outlawing the hiring of
strikebreakers, the new law also
guarantees workers the right to
have their old jobs back once a
strike is over. Employees will be
able to ask for a union certi-
fication vote once 35% of the
workers affected sign union
cards. Certification will be de-
cided by a simple majority of all
workers in a bargaining unit in a
secret vote. A group of workers
may also seek a secret-ballot vote
to change unions if 35% of the
workers favor a new union.

In the event of a newly-certified
union and an employer fail to
reach an agreement on the.terms
of a first contract, a conciliator

_ will be able to impose a one-year
contract. Either labor or man-
agement may ask for conciliation
within 90 days of the end of a con-
tract and after the 90-day period

the workers may strike legally.
Tragic Shooting

What prodded the Parti
Quebecois Government to im-
plement an election promise,
made to organized labor before its
advent to power last November,
was the tragic shooting of eight
strikers by hired and armed com-
pany goons at a Robin Hood
Multifoods Ltd. plant in Montreal
last July 22nd. The popular indig-
nation that arose out of this out-
rage also resulted in acampaign to
outlaw armed. security guards,
presently maintained as private
armies by the corporate estab-
lishment.

The hard-fought strike of
workers in four flour mills in
Montreal, grows out of the so-
called ‘‘anti-inflation’’ law (fed-.
eral Bill C-73) and its enforcement
agency the AIB, which ordered a
40-cent-an-hour rollback of a
wage settlement won by the
workers in collective bargaining.
The workers responded to this
AIB decision by going on strike.
They won.a partial victory when
the federal government — under
whose jurisdiction the strike took
place — agreed to declare the 40
cent-an-hour rollback as forced
savings. ;

The Montreal shooting left
eight workers wounded, two of
them seriously. This ugly incident
is yet another of many, where
workers’ lives have been snuffed
out by armed goons and’ police
provocations throughout Canada,
the United States and other
capitalist countries in the course
of strike struggles against mono-
poly attacks on livings standards.

The time has come when an
end must be put to such barbaric
attacks on working people, aris-
ing out of an economic system
where the quest for monopoly
profits takes precedence over
everything including human life.

Demand Anti-Scab Laws

There is good reason why all
workers in every part of Canada
should demand laws to abolish
strikebreaking and up-date an-
tiquated labor laws. It is in this

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—SEPTEMBER 9, 1977—Page 6

context that the statement by the
Canadian director of the
196,000-member Steelworkers
union in Canada must be wel-

‘comed and taken seriously. As

the Referendum shows that some
of the monopoly-owned press
have “‘learnt nothing and for-
gotten nothing’’.

What some of these papers call
for is federal government inter-
vention in Quebec to overrule the
Rules, coupled with the demand
that instead of a Quebes referen-
dum there be a country-wide one
to determine Canada’s future.

Such an approach, if acted
upon by the Trudeau govern-
ment, could have disastrous
consequences. In effect it is a
proposal to take away the right of
the French Canadian people to
decide their relationship to Cana-
da, their right to national self-
determination, and impose the
will of an English-speaking major-
ity over them. In short, a ‘‘load-
ed” referendum.

Such a proposition can’t work
and the best proof of this is the
present crisis of Confederation.

This is not to say that all Cana-
dians should not have a say in
determining the future of their
country. Indeed, the working
people have been striving for
exactly this against the resistance
of monopoly and of governments.

Influence on Vote 3

What needs to be emphasized
here however is that the outcome
of the referendum in: Quebec will
be decided by English-speaking
Canadians before the referendum
takes place. It will be decided by
the attitude taken in English-
speaking Canada toward the
elimination of national and social

Canada’s largest union in basic ©

industry of this country, the
Steelworkers have the clout to in-
fluence? the rest of the labor
movement, and rally the trade
union movement in both English
and French Canada into a coali-
tion of working class and demo-
cratic forces that can influence the
direction of economic and social
policies, and win governments
that will take heed of the needs of
the working people.

The Steelworkers themselves
will enter bargaining in basic steel
in 1978. It will be the first such
bargaining since mandatory wage
controls ‘were imposed. If the
controls remain they will con-

stitue a direct challenge to the |

ability of the union in this basic
industry to protect its members
from the ravages of inflation and
unemployment. Mr. Docquier
has been quoted in a press inter-
view as posing the question:
“‘How can you expect people to
live on $3.50 an hour or be
reasonable in their demands when
they are earning no more than
that?’’
Step-up Mass Actions

The only way workers can
combat inflation and unemploy-
ment, in the short term, is by a
substantial increase in real wages
and, a reduced work week with-
out loss in pay.

The achievement of these aims
would be greatly assisted by a ban
on strikebreaking and a general
advance in labor legislation in
favor of the working class.

To win victories on both the
economic and political fronts, the
trade union movement will have
to step up its extra-parliamentary
work in mass actions such as last
October 14th. Such mass actions
are imperative to the success of
the work in the legislative field in
Ottawa’s House of Commons,
Quebec’s National Assembly and
in all provincial legislatures.

inequality and its roots, and in thé
position taken toward the adop
tion of a new made-in-Canada
Constitution. If positions take? »
lead toward the status quo, [0
ward suppression of minority lat
guage rights in education, towal
denial of national equality, this
will obviously tilt the scales 10
ward separation. It’s as simple 4
that. In short, while the people 0
French Canada will vote on thé
referendum before them, hoW
they vote will be determined
English-speaking Canada.

The working class and dem
ocratic movement in English
speaking Canada have a majo!
role to play in this regal
Strengthening unity of action with
the working class, democrat
and truly national forces !#
Quebec may well be decisive bul
that in tur will depend on
understanding of the need to bring

‘an end to national and soci

inequality. - a
Despite the restrictions ii
posed by the regulations sur
rounding the Quebec referendum:
the Communist Party of Canad?
will continue, as:before, to bring
its democratic alternative to thé
crisis of Confederation before thé
people of French and English
speaking .Canada linking this !
the need for radical democrat
reforms without which ‘‘natio
peace’? is impossible undef
capitalism, and to the struggle fo!
socialism which alone can fully
eliminate national: and_ sociél
inequality.

SOMALI PRESIDENT VISITS MOSCOW ;
: MOGADISHU, Somali — President Mohammed Siad Barre arrived
in Moscow August 28 for a visit ‘at the invitation of the Sovit!
government” Radio Mogadishu announced. It said that presides!
Barre is leading a large Somali delegation.

THE ULTIMATE IN IDIOCY? 2
NEW YORK — Two New York advertising men have come up with
an idea — the ‘‘Nothing Card’’ — to help consumers cut down on the!
‘‘charge it’’ tendencies. The card is carried by the consumer to remill
him only to spend whatever money he has with him and not to ch

any purchases. They claim the card is the answer to reducing the U.»"_
consumer debt of $173-billion. The card can be purchased throug!
consumer and gift stores — for $3.

REPORT FINDS CAPITALIST CRISIS IS CHRONIC j
TOKYO — The world capitalist economy is today in its worst cris!
since 1945 and ‘‘is likely to stay there, groping in the dark, for som?
time to come.”’ This was the finding of a 75-nation survey made by
experts of the big Japanese firm Sumitomo and released last week. !!
said economy stimulating measures have failed and efforts to over :
come capitalist stagnation in the past four years ‘‘have proven futile’ :
The report revealed that 1,500 Japanese firms declare bankruptcy each
month at present. /

UN CALL FOR AID TO SOUTHERN AFRICA

LAGOS, Nigeria — A call for support for the liberation movemen!
of southern Africa and a condemnation of Western aid to the Sou
African government came from the UN conference for action again
apartheid when it closed here Aug. 26. ;

A 21-point declaration called on states, governments and intel
national organizations to give all kinds of aid to the people of Namibi#
(South West Africa). i]

It urged the promulgation of laws banning the mobilization, financi$
or training of mercenaries and treating these as acts of aggression.

International sports organizations were called upon to sever all)
sports ties with the apartheid regime. The declaration condemned
military and economic aid by Western states to the South Africa!
government and po the world conaLy not to give aid that would
help South Africa build a ‘‘nuclear arsenal.”’

GENERAL STRIKE BEING DISCUSSED IN COLOMBIA
BOGOTA — A countrywide general strike is being discussed by thé
four major trade union confederations despite threats of police vi0" |
lence by the government..Cement, petroleum and plantation worke®
are already on strike. :