50 years ago...
THE MENACE OF REACTION

That Sinister menace to. the
Working class, the
@Mufacturers’ Association, has
ne in conclave. J. R. Shaw, the
+. Ming President of this dan-
*fous organization cast the sha-
ow of forthcoming events in his
ut Pening address. He complained
creasing wages and decreas-
Ours. He complained of the
h Ora of social legislation. “It
ae time the taxpayers took
oo utcrest in the business of
of iene: There is a shortage
ed labor, Jeremiah wailed.

Mg ollyanna soon rises to the
op o There is a silver lining.
rady Aa Element has been
longer. y disappearing and is no
tr a serious factor. The ex-
aa of the great Russian
has enistic _experiment which
= fen a tragic failure is. now

» €tc., etc.” Blissful Mr. Shaw.

The Worker, July 4, 1923
ee

Pleth

ci

Canadian:

25 years ago...

JAILS OPENED

ROME — The Italian govern-
ment of Premier Gaspari, whose
election April 18 with U.S. aid
was hailed as a triumph for de-
mocracy, is now speeding the
release of top fascists.

On June 20 it released Edmon-
do Rossini, who boosted the Ital-
ian labor front organization un-
der - Dictator Benito Mussolini,
and Luigi Federzone, -ex-president
of Mussolini’s fascist senate.
Both men were suddenly am-
nestied from life sentences
passed upon them after the
Allied victory.

Forgiveness was also extended
to Giuseppe Bottai, another lead-

ing fascist, who was never im- ”

prisoned because he managed to
get out of the country. Bottai
managed to enlist in the French
Foreign Legion, in which he
fought against colonial indepen-
dence movements in Africa and
Indo-China.

Tribune, July 3, 1948

- Worth quoting:

foiyvren | was a younger child than | am now, | did not know about

al Feusic, Folk music was for having a good time during the natu-

fo, «U'se of living, not at festivals and concerts (they were reserved

fo x ssical music’), but for housecleaning, organizing unions, or
®cial gatherings like hikes, picnics, car riding and rallies”.

—Patsy Margolin

West Coast edition, Canadian Tribune:

Publi Editor — MAURICE RUSH :
ished weekly at Ford Bldg., Mezzanine No. 3, 193 E. Hastings St.,
Vancouver 4, B.C. Phone 685-5288. @
5 _ Business & Circulation Manager, FRED WILSON
Bane eption Rate: Canada, $5.00 one year; $3.00 or six months
: and South America and Commonwealth countr:es, $6.00 one year.
All other countries, $7.00 one year

Second class mail registration number 1560.

Wage struggle gathering steam

The defiance shown by the machin-
ists in their fight against the airlines
was an indication of things to come.
They rejected the picayune offers and
staged a series of militant rotating
strikes that kept the company guessing
as to where they would strike next. The
tactic paid off and they won an increase
that compensated, in part at least, for
the rapid rise in prices and rents.

Other workers have been stimulated
by the machinists’ victory and as a re-
sult the wage movement across Canada
is gathering steam.

It has been six months since the rail-
workers have had a contract and the
workers are losing what little patience
they had with the stalling govern-
mental bureaucracy. Their frustration
with the long wait for a contract is
compounded when one considers that
there are railway workers who are
earning only $2.62 per hour. That is

not a living wage and the railway
workers know it. They are willing to
defy the companies and the govern-
ment to increase their. wages to a de-
cent living scale.
Nor is the struggle for higher wages
confined to the transportation industry.
The workers in the major auto plants

are showing increasing resistance to_

the slogan ‘Peace in ’73”.

While wages are not the sole issue
in these contract negotiations, they are
still a key issue, as the corporations,
aided by their political parties, reach
for maximum profits. Wages, directed
to keep ahead of inflation, working con-
ditions, and job security, those are the
central issues in this year’s negotia-
tions.

It is through unity and solidarit
that the workers can best beat bac

the continuing employer-government

offensive.

For whom the Bell tolls

Canadian consumers have taken an-
other slap in the face delivered by a
federal government which claims to be
concerned about rising costs. The an-
nouncement of a telephone rate increase
by Communications Minister Gerard
Pelletier last week show once again
how two-faced this government is —
on the one side faking concern for the
average wage earner who is bombarded
by soaring living costs, on the other
= allowing Ma Bell to bilk the pub-
ic.

This is the fourth Bell increase in 42
months. The Company with its reputa-
tion for arrogance kept true to form
once again. In 1972 Bell Canada made
a profit of $165,696,000! As if that col-
lossal figure wasn’t enough, the tele-
phone subscriber will now “pay an
additional five cents a month on basic
service bills and another five cents for
other services.

On top of this, Bell Canada has still
another and bigger rate application
before the CTC which may be heard
this fall which, if approved, will boost
telephone rates again in 1974. What
Bell is asking the CTC to approve is:
a boost in telephone installation charges
from the present $11 to $16.50; double
local calls from payphones to 20 cents;
add a 25 cent service charge for callers
seeking information from the operator.

Opposition to last week’s increases
was heavy and it did result in the gov-
ernment partially backing down, hold-.
ing off their agreement to the installa-
tion charge increase. But they did per-
mit the other increases. There is no
reason to believe, unless heavy public
pressure is applied, that this govern-
ment will not once again cave in to Ma
Bell.

The Communist Party opposes last
week’s increases and is opposed to the
new ones coming up in 1974. There can
be no justification other than the sheer
greed of this company, already making
hundreds of millions each year, to ask
for more. Ina telegram to Prime Minis-
ter Trudeau last week, the Communist

. Party’s general secretary ealled for an

S$ FOAI---EXP

annulment of the increases and renew-
ed the Party’s demand that Bell Can-
ada be taken over and run asa publie
utility.

Telephone service is too important to
be left to private enterprise, which,
with government collusion, strive for
maximum profits — and gets them. The
hundreds of millions of dollars should
be plowed back into the telephone sys-
tem, providing better and extended ser-
vice at cost to Canadians.

\
Gauvin’s strange silence

The British London Observer has
claimed that the CIA was directly in-
volved in the 1967 coup in which the
colonels took over power in Greece. The
paper’s correspondent, Charles Foley,
says that four out of the five top con-
spirators were closely connected with
the Greek Secret Service, the CIA and
U.S. forces in the area.

He revealed that Greek head of state,
Col. George Papadopoulos, was liaison
man between the Greek Secret Service
and the CIA from 1960 and is referred
to as “the first CIA agent to become
premier of a European country .. .”

For the last six years, jailings, tor-
ture and a massive A hoe of civil
rights have been daily occurances in
Greece. Conditions are so bad that last
week the U.S. Senate attached condi-
tions to its $740 million foreign military
bill because of what one Senator de-
scribed as an “authoritarian regime.”

Democratic Canadians should take
note that this country’s ambassador to
that country is none other than Michel
Gauvin—shifted out of that position to
become leader of the Canadian truce
team in Vietnam. Gauvin is expected to
return to his embassy in Athens when
the Canadian contingent leaves Viet-
nam.

Interesting, isn’t it, that Gauvin
made a lot of noise during his Vietnam
assignment about “NFL truce. viola-
tions” and became the darling of the
U.S. in the process, but never had an
unkind word to say from Athens about
Greek fascism in action?

O YIUL YAGIST~ SVLEIRT SROKA

A bs