the official organ of

rade Unions (CNTU) of Que-
Produced the following
‘Poverty Must go; that’s

” in its October issue.
© thought it of sufficient in-
dae reprint in full for our

Ae ts the leaders of an
3 a ean society are con-
te Production is but one
Fe _ an overall view of hu-

§

system, he will
e is.
Ee collect his share of

There are
mcty that know j

. &fasping ai few

ree They kick over the tra-

| inj €xample, when it comes
Justices like the shutdown

( a Lauzon shipyard.

- per know the score be-
€y have to look on while

thers i
fe oe into the cake. For
|

| ™m thing, Spe is a pretty for-
, Obviously,

organized labor

4

overty must go; that's

but first...

we must
REALIZE
the plight

Our society

is

in today

A portion of the cake for everyone?

activity represents the greatest
threat to the kind of overall in-
dustrialized society in which we
live. Every long and difficult
Strike provides further evidence
that the fair sharing of the cake
is only a myth. That is why the
unions are branded as obstacles
to economic progress, as a dan-
ger to the dreamed-of society of
abundance.

While those who “have” are

fearful of organized labor, they—

continue to place their bets on

the poor and their traditional

silence. The image of the rich
and the powerful as “friend of
the poor” is still very well
known indeed — especially in
the realm of electoral folklore.

But the poor are getting rest-
less. The pot is boiling. Com-
mittees sounding the clarion
call to awake are emerging hith-
er and yofi. There is every sign,
moreover, that the underprivi-
leged are relying on their own
efforts.

Will the trade unions, despite

all their own battles to be

fought in the production sector,
form an alliance with the under-
privileged workers?

That is the question of the

hour.
Richard Daignault

litie: OFFICIAL. But today . . . the
Feltictan Gre devising slogans from it. And . . . the

te . J e e e e
i llectuals transform it into theories and statistics.

@ The well-heeleg have expend-

a
2 aes deal of saliva these
Wshionaty years to assure a
i ce a Be Image for the ex-
i" ion “war on poverty.” We
f €ard about the “
Wes, e “great
ety of Lyndon B. Thkson
fietnam fared in the mud of

© world on pover-
Al-provines three or four fede-
‘ Conferences that
nce 19¢ €d on it in Canada

- We know about the

weak-kneed attempts at regional
planning: that never get going
due to endless preliminary stu-
dies and conflicts over constitu-

tional jurisdiction (example: the.

Lower St. Lawrence-Gaspe Pen-
insula experiment). We've heard
about everything from the Tru-
deau “just society” electoral
slogan to the recent report of
the Economic Advisory Council
of Canada. All our guiding
structures, from the “establish-
ment” itself to the most mod-
est of our social services, seem

‘to have joined forces in a cru-

sade against socio-economic in-
equalities.
Newspaper headlines keep as-
suring us that the watchword is
out: those pockets of poverty
have to disappear.
So how come, in spite of all

the surface noise and rumpus,
the situation does nothing bet-
ter than get worse year by year?

Isn’t it because our present

system is decaying through
and through, and must be re-
built on a new foundation?

Poverty must go; that's OFFICIAL. But .. . the students
are only now awakening.

For a good decade, an active
minority of the scions of rich
and. influential families who
comprise the majority of, our
university students, have been
striving to make these institu-
tions accessible to all young
people. They want ability to be
the criterion, regardless of indi-

’ vidual background.

The student demonstrations of
1956-1957, for example, were
among the virulent ferments
that contributed to the downfall
of the Duplessis regime.

Student action exerted very-
ing degrees of influence during
the years of the “quiet revolu-
tion.” The creation of the Gene-
ral Union-of Quebec Students
has not sufficed to the task,
however, of instilling sufficient

‘dynamism to end the inertia of ©

the great mass of students —
those products of our exploita-
tion-minded bourgeoisie — who
are preparing to take over where
their fathers leave off.

But the leaders of the stu-
dent union have appraised the
turn of events and responded
with a bold gamble. They have
radically altered their-call for
the democratization of our edu-
-cational system. They are con-
testing our social set-up as a
whole. But at the same time they
ceased to speak in the name of
the union’s 60,000 members. In
order that there be genuine par-
ticipation, they want to let the
students from various environ-
ments assess their problems and
the desired solutions.

Poverty must go; that's OFFICIAL. But. . . the trade
unions have thus far been mainly preoccupied with
labor problems.

The labor union centrals do
what they can to meet the new
challenges of our consumer
society. :

Their first duty in this respect
is to make the benefits of trade
unionism extend as much as
possible to those broad sectors
of underprivileged workers —

notably in the service area —

who due to the force of events
are still adrift; and whose ex-
ploitation in many respects is
similar to that which factory
workers were subjected to at
the outset of industrialization.
The CNTU has been making

an extraordinary effort in this’

regard for the past several
years, As testimony to this, one
need only consider, for example,

the organization campaign being
conducted by the central in the
retail food business in various
.parts of the province. But other
proof has already been recorded
in the form of long and expen-
sive conflicts, that the. CNTU
never feared to undertake when
it came to defending the vital
minimum for members of cer-
tain of its unions. Some of the
noteworthy fights — which at-
tained heroic proportions—were
waged at Dupuis Fréres, Domin-
ion Textile, La Grenade, Domin-
ion Ayers, Baribocraft. Then the
retail food campaign, and now
the addition of the Quebec Li-
quor Board conflict.

All this is quite apart from the
work of the CNTU’s Family

_ built. wa
PACIFIC TRIBUNE—JANUARY 10, 1969—Page 5

Budget Service, which in recent
days has moved to the establish-
ment of a network of coopera-
tive family savings associations.

But even at that the CNTU
must do more. It must stir up
the unions and provide them
with the means to venture be-
yond the boundaries of the
collective agreement, so that
they: can become party to the
transformation of our society.
This was one of the main
themes of our 1968 Convention.

Poverty must go; that's
OFFICIAL. The poor have
decided on action of their
own.

There are those in our midst
who have always been left high
and dry. The Establishment ~
sheds crocodile tears for them
and for the unions which have
been unable so far to find a way
of giving them the help they
should. These are the under-
privileged, the fringe cases, .the
economically weak (as the so-
ciologists and economists so -
aptly call them in their vernacu-
lar). These are the poor people
and they have decided to take
their fate into their own hands.

Back in 1962 and 1963, at fed-
eral election. time, the ground
swell began. Several Créditistes
were elected in the under-devel-
oped regions of Quebec. As the

voting of June 26th showed, the

pot is still boiling without let-up.

We have also seen, over the
past few months, the emergence
of dozens of citizens commit-
tees. The start, which grew toa
surge, came in the grey zones of
Montreal (St. Henry, St. James,
the Petit Pacifique, Mile End,
Pointe St. Charles, Ilots St-
Martin, Hochelaga-Maisoneuve,
Saint-Jean Baptiste, the lower
town and downtown, Little Bur-
gundy, St-Zotique, etc.).

These associations formed a
common front at a meeting held
last May 19th in the St. Henry
district. They are not out merely
to make demands about certain
specific things. Their action is
designed to move little by little
towards total contestation of the
way in which our society is

5 ee cs i ed