CNTU 43rd Congress Program for political Protest tenichers? sentencing: Headed inaction 12 teachers’ union by leaders condemned to 20 days in prison for sefusing to obey a court injunction during a strike in 1966, marchers choke a Quebec City street as they move toward the Legislature. The Protesters, numbering about 2,000, chanted “Liberty, Liberty,” and “‘Power to the Workers.” By MEL DOIG In the space of a few minutes on the last full day of the week- long 43rd Congress in Quebec City of the Confederation of Na- tional Trade Unions (CNTU), the 1,145 delegates adopted the “Rapport Moral” (main report) of president Marcel Pepin, and the report of the Central Com- mittee of Political Action. Both reports, which laid the policy and action bases of this Quebec trade union movement of 225,000 members for the next two years, were voted without any discussion of their contents. The main report called for the opening up of a “second front” by the CNTU. It was presented with the slogans: “First front— Production; Second front — Con- sumption. Let’s organize the sec- ond front!”’, and ‘Consumers who are organized workers, can become organized consumers.” It was adopted unanimously. The report on political action commits the CNTU to a policy of “non-partisan” political ac- tion. It concluded with the state- ment that it is necessary “to organize the political action of the wage-earners outside of poli- tical parties.” By majority vote, the Congress rejected an amend- ment to strike out the words “non-partisan.” Having adopted the proposal that the number of paid execu- tive officers of the central body of the CNTU be increased from three to five, the Congress, con- firmed the uncontested election of four of them, including Marcel Pepin again as president, and Raymond Parent again as gene- ral-secretary. The “non-partisan political ac- tion of the CNTU is based on the plan for massive political education and experience, (‘po- litisation’),- of the workers by means of the political action committees on all levels of the CNTU.” This “politisation” will develop around the theme of the 43rd Congress, the theme of “consumption,” the problems facing the worker after he comes out of the plant. On the basis of the CNTU’s call for a trade union struggle on behalf of the consumers, the “second front,” and of its ‘“non- partisan” political action, this Canadian Tribune representative asked CNTU president, Marcel Pepin, “Will this struggle ex- press itself,’ will it be directed against the Union Nationale gov- ernment of Quebec?” Mr. Pepin replied: “No. We are not against anyone. We are for the workers.” Asked ‘‘What is to be the main direction of this second front struggle, and will the CNTU seek unity for it with the Quebec Federation ,of Labor?”’, Pepin said: “Our efforts to defend the consumer in today’s exploitive society will take place on all levels, in all areas, We are not doctrinaire. We always desire unity with all other movements.” The suffocating moral air of the main report, in which the CNTU president makes it appear that the workers are just discov- ering that the bosses own and control this society, is coupled with a program for political in- action, called ‘non-partisan poli- tics.”. Together, they bring to mind Marcel Pepin’s predeces- sor. Jean Marchand, when he was president of the CNTU and later, as Minister of Trudeau’s cabi- net at Ottawa, hoodwinked out of their 10 and 20-year old jobs the shipyard workers of Lauzon; uttered these words: . “For the workers to organize a class political party of their own is immoral.” Marcel Pepin has made clear that he and the CNTU leadership have no more broken with this political philosophy de- signed to disarm the workers, than. did the late Daniel Johnson and his successor, the present Premier of Quebec, depart from the pro-monopoly and anti-labor policies of Maurice Duplessis. Within the last few years, principally from 1964 to 1966, the CNTU almost doubled its membership to its present total of 225,000. Today, almost half of its members are white-collar workers, and the majority of these are in public services, in the civil service, or, to a grow- ing extent, are salaried profes- sionals. They have not brought with them to the CNTU any trad union traditions, Claude Leme lin, Le Devoir correspondent commenting on the large-scal organization by the CNTU 0 petit bourgeois” and_salarie professionals, writes, “It is dif ficult to develop solidarity be tween these Workers; a certai paternalism . . | leads the offic saree. quite unlike the factor we to identify himself wil mployer, to confuse his if erests with those of manage ment rather than to place then m OPPosition — the main-sprin of action for demands.” The “other half’—those del gates representing the workel in forests and in paper-mills, i production plants in many field did not 2 a their Succeed jin makin Voices he : j decisions ard in the pall of the CNR 43rd Congres In what he call ed “a messag oat He Would have liked to brin € delegates at the CNT eeberese before it opene © Merineau, secretary-genl Quebec Federation ¢ for a common pol uebec’s union the worker sage s from politica} Parties.” At tl same ti “Tt pie e Merineau sai = Workers hat dee ong into oth rae Cutside, apa ween Various mOV ments on the p sib t f i+: OS ili 0 political common fronted an . his QFL Spokesman _leav . however hesita! Ssibility of the fc Mass | iti party in Que ec, a ‘Cue has slammed to open it wi ahead. : : ou the Rand Report scscaits The Ontario trade union move. ment needs to react much more vigorously to the viciously antj- labor Rand Report. If the pre. sent tendency towards compla- cency is not quickly corrected, the unions of Ontario will wake up one morning to find them- selves saddled by the most re. actionary Labor Act in Canada, The coming convention of the Ontario Federation of Labor, November 4-6, can correct the present harmful. tendency. If ’ the delegates so will, the con- vention can mark the beginnin of an all-out and united fight to bury the Rand Report in the dusty archives of Queen’s Park. The heart of the Rand Report is the set of proposals connec. ted with the setting-up anq function of a Labor Tribuna}. This Tribunal, standing above the law of the Province, jg nothing but a device to contro} wages and working conditions. Such control would not be caon- fined simply to public services but would apply to all sections of industry deemed to be in the “public interest.” . And — the judge of what is, “public intey- for its sympathy with the aims of the employing class. The main function of Mr. Rand’s Labor Tribunal would be to restrain freedom of strike ac- tion and, through the medium, to impose Compulsory wage Set- tlement. The same holds true in respect to the struggle to im- prove working conditions. Mr. Rand doesn’t propose that all strikes Should be automatic- ally prohibited. But he does pro- pose that the Tribunal be en- powered to prohibit strikes or stop those already in progress when jt (the Tribunal) deems such action to be in the “public interest.’ In this wise, his pro- posals are as one with B.C.’s anti-labor Bill 33 which is to be proclaimed as law this Novem- ber. This @Pproach is part and parcel of 4 strategy emanating from the highest sources of labor-employer relations, name- ly, the Federal Department of ’ R 25, 196g_-Pageq SSE aran eee strike, at least until public opinion and outcry have deve- loped to a point where great economic loss and public incon- venience are indicated.” (My emphasis). It is at this point, ac- cotding to Mr. Wilson, when it would be tactically favorable for governments or their agen- cies to step into the picture to bring the strike to an end, ei- ther through mediation of legis- lation, sending the workers back to the job with the dispute re- fered to arbitration. Mr. Wilson argues that such a procedure will prove to be more effective than the outright prohibition of strikes. For to de- prive workers of the right to strike could, if repeated, “. . . lead to a situation where the automatic deprivation (of the strike weapon, A.D.) will be ignored and strike acion taken.” On the other hand, according to Mr. Wilson, bargaining would be promoted if a strike was being conducted under threat of gov- ernment action to intervene. Federal Deputy Minister Wil- son states quite categorically that . federal experience has shown, “‘that a return to work is > facilitated by aiperiod