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—‘‘GERD", U.S. Worker

‘End of the Road’

T HIS edition of the ‘PT’ fea-
tures a three-page presentation of
the long and hard struggles of the
peoples of South Vietnam for
freedom and independence, first
to rid themselves of the cppression
of French imperialism, and now
the U.S.

Despite its flagrant disregard
for United Nations authority, its
repeated inspired ‘coups of
“strong man” puppet native “gov-
ernments,” its Central Intelligence
Agency (CIA) engineered conspir-
acies and crimes against peace, its
spending of approximately $1.5-
million dollars a day, and its in-

Editorial Comment .. .

T HE Sun’s “Penny Wise” has
called for a week’s boycott (March
2-9) on all sugar purchases, or any-
thing in which sugar is an import-
ant ingredient — cakes, candies,
“coke” etc. Most of B.C.’s hcuse-
wives, the first victims of the
sugar monopolies in their prices

vasion army cf some 8,000 combat
troops, labelled “‘advisory person-
nel” and elaborate arms material,
U.S. imperialism cannot win its
“dirty war” in South Vietnam. Its
‘Dien Bien Phu’ which marked the
end of French imperialism in
South Vietnam in 1954, is already
being written for U.S. imperialism
in 1964.

When, and it may not now be
long delayed, U.S. imperialism is
compelled tc quit South Vietnam,
it will leave that tortured coun-
try and people with nothing save
their blood on its hands. The cour-
ageous people of South Vietnam
have buried their dead by the
countless thousands, but on each
and every funeral pyre their will
to freedom.and independence—to
be masters in their own homeland,
burns with unquenchable deter-
mination.

The U.S. CIA offices in Siagon,
about all that if left of U.S. puppet
“hegemony” will soon be marked
“Vacant—To Let”!

In this age - a ‘must

Back in the early years of the
last century (1811-16) the intro-
duction cof power-driven machin-
ery in the textile and other indus-
tries caused British workers to be-
lieve that such machinery was the
cause of their mass misery and
unemployment. Under the leader-
ship of a worker named Ned Ludd
there began the organized smash-
ing of machines. In British labor
history that era is recorded as the
“Luddite Movement.”

In this enlightened age of elec-
tronics, mechanization and auto-
mation, the displacement of hu-
man labor by a push-button in-
dustrial complex has already
reached a scale undreamed of by
the ‘“‘Luddites” or since. And the
process has only just begun.

While labor today doesn’t go
about smashing machinery, it is
still faced with the major problem
of ‘what to do about it?’”’ How to
make technological advance serve:
labor and the people, instead of
adding to the super profits of in-
dustrial monopoly ... and the

ranks of displaced wage earners?

Obviously, to begin the process
of making automation serve the
interests of labor, some vital in-
gredients in policy and outlook are’
essential. With a million or more
Canadian workers presently or
soon in wage negotiations, a cen-
tralized coordination and a max-
imum inter-trade union solidarity
and unity is a first prerequisite.

The “‘shorter work week with no
reduction in take-home-pay’”’ is
one step in the right direction—but

- only astep. If the present 40-hour

week were cut in half right now, it
still wouldn’t keep pace with the
degree of automation which will
take place during the next five
years.

Moreover, while all current goV”
ernment or other schemes for “T@)
training” in vocational pursuits®
ancther such “step”, again it ®
only a faltering one at best, will
little or no conception of the mag
nitude of the problem and its ec”
nomic and social effects upon thé
workingclass. i

Supplementary to all uniol
demands for substantial wage 1™
creases, in keeping with spirallinb
monopoly profits and paterné
after the high “standards” mono?’
oly governments “vote” them
selves in salary increases, aul?
mation ‘safeguards’ must no
become a 20th Century “must
in wage contracts. A clause i
every collective agreement, broa®
ly stipulating that come what ma)
in the steady advance of autom®
tion, the wage-earner shall becom?
a beneficiary—not a victim. _

In line with this basic princip!®

many other supporting deman@| m
can assist in cutting down the ha#  @
ards of labor displacements. B®) th
tended vacations with pay, thé @
cutting down of the practice d S
overtime, by hoisting the rates ®
double and triple the current p! s
vision, an end to the practice fd a
“moonlighting”, that is, a work ;
holding down two jobsina perl0™) 4
when tens of thousands of work
ers have no job at all. .
To make automation work ® ©
‘the interests of labor has now b®| ©
come one of Labor’s key battles. i
won’t be won overnight nor in 1") .
first negotiations skirmish. BUY
with trade union unity from top" ;
bottom, with determination and “
a clear concept of what is involve!) 4,
ultimate victory can be won, 4%) ¢

automation become a “blessifB |»
instead of a nightmarish curse#
Canada’s working force, wheth®
their “collars” be white or blu’) ,

—| |

racketeering and manipulation,
should find ‘““Penny’s”’ call for a
boycott worthy of their fullest sup-
port. :
Among other things it might
help to turn the public spotlight
on this sugar baron gouge, and help
the Pearson government turn its
attention to two immediate re-
quirements; to turn the Combines
Investigation Act loose on the
sugar trusts, and to extend its
trade with Cuba, where plenty of
sugar is available—at prices the
people can afford to pay.

* * *

Currently visiting South Africa,
the British nazi feuhrer Sir Os-
wald Mosley has urged all Britons
in that country to join the (gov-
ernment) Nationalist Party.

Sir Oswald won’t “organize”
any nazi branches in S.A., because
as he says, “Our views coincide
with those of the nationalists.”
So its “Heil Apartheid” in a good
old Oxford accent.

Pacific Tribune

Editor — TOM McEWEN
Associate Editor — MAURICE RUSH
Published weekly at
Room 6 — 426 Main Street
Vancouver 4, B.C.
Phone MUtual 5-5288
Subscription Rates:
Canadian gnd Commonwealth coun: -
tries (except Australia): $4.00 one year.
Australia, United States and all other
countries: $5.00 ane year. Authorized
as second class mail by the Post Office
Department, Ottawa and for payment

Tom
McEwen

any newspapers feature a small —
M comer in one or other of their
pages entitled ‘‘ Looking Backwards’’,
In years gone by we used to run such
a corner ourselves, not to encourage
readers to live in the past, but to
look ahead with the experiences of
the past as a helpful aid; a kind of
a guide against making ‘‘the same
mistake twice’’. It ¢lsu served as a
kind of milestone to remind us of how
much our world has changed.

Nowadays the ‘‘ Looking Backwards’’
theme seems to have gotten squeezed
out by the more modern innovation
of ‘*Weeks’’. If the tempo keeps up
we'll soon see the entire fifty-two
of each year dedicated to some alleg-
edly worthy cause or other; ‘‘ Lumber
Products Week’*, Brotherhood Week’’,
‘*National Fish Week’’, ‘National
-Health Week’’, ‘‘Drive Safely Week’’
etc., and so forth.

Such ‘‘weeks’’ produce one positive
result: viz. the illusion that govern-
ments at all levels “are doing (or
plan to do) something about the issue
so highlighted, when in actual fact
very little if anything is being done
or even contemplated!

Thus while government poohbahs may
be agitating public attention onlumber,
fish, health, safety or other ‘‘weeks’’,
the same governments may be doing
their damdest to hand over the bulk

of postage in cash.

of the economic values highlighted
by such ‘‘weeks’’ to Yankee monopoly,
in return for a fast buck. This in
turn helps to promote a fine public
cynicism which finds its ironic ex-
pression in a whole catalogue of new
*tweeks’’; ‘*Be Kind To The Wife
Week’’, *‘Don’t Forget To Put Out The
Cat’? week and so on. In this vein
the theme is limitless.

All of which points up the sheer
humbug and hypocrisy of these off-
icial ‘‘week’’ observances. Were gov-

“ernments to announce a ‘Stop The
Prices Hike’’ week, a ‘‘Save The Col-
umbia Week’’ a ‘*Curb The Monopo-
lists’* week or similar objective proc-
lamations, such ‘‘weeks’’ would make
sense, But of course that wouldn’t
be ‘in the public interest’’ (read mon-
opoly), so such ‘*weeks’’ are strictly
taboo!

If we start ‘*Looking Backwards”’
at such officially proclaimed ‘*weeks’’
the results are appalling. On mon-
opoly’s side in lumber a steady year-
by-year pyramiding of astronomical
profits, plus a steady grab of almost
all of B.C.’s rich timber resources.
On the lumber worker’s side, high-
ball, automation, mass unemployment;
one third less workers producing two-
thirds more lumber (read profits) for
the prime ‘‘week’’ beneficiary.

And if we start ‘* Looking Backwards’’
in the realm of fish, one lesson sticks
out like a sore thumb; that is if we
are going to have a ‘‘National Fish
Week’’ it should coincide with those
periods when the fishermen are com-
pelled to strike for decent prices for
their catch, since that is the only
time wage-earning Canadians can af-
ford to eat fish, bought directly from

» startling;

fishermen and in solidarity with thei! || \
strike effort. The rest of the yea
B.C, salmon prices, as set by *®}| }
monopoly packers, are akin to i!
bone steak prices.

Should we start ‘Looking Back
wards” at the annual ‘Safe Drivine
Week’’ tally the results are equally
a steadily rising total ?
mayhem on the streets and highway" ‘
so much so that we can now estimate], |
with a deadly accuracy just what the);

(ae ie en ee

increase of the designated ‘week .
may be,

‘Looking Backwards’’ to its editio?
of April 8, 1949 we find this pape!
saying editorially; ‘¢Mark well the 4a!
—March 28, 1949—the tragic day whe!
Canada’s House of Commons voted 14
to 2 to join the North Atlantic Treaty
Organization (NATO), It was signifi-
cant that 91 MP’s, well aware ®
public opposition toNATO, deliberate |
absented themselves from the Hous®
when the vote was taken.

“On this public opposition, Prim® :
Minister Louis St. Laurent with a toP” |
heavy Liberal majority, publicly d@
clared he ‘didn’t care if 99-percelt
of the people were against Canada jolt”
ing NATO, Canada would join’ *’. i

How well that -spot of “Looking |
Backwards’? fits into the NATO-nu@
clear arms policy ofa minority Liber?
government of today, $25-billion dol
lars down a ‘‘defense’’ drain, with
less to show for it than the end pro7
duct of a “Be Kind To Fido’ wee
with an equally cynical disregard fof
the peace desires and will of thé
Canadian people,

That much at least **Looking Back?

wards”, . . and a little ahead, shoul
teach us?

\Eribyriuveverr 01)

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