A new, Canadian union will
be born in Winnipeg on Sep-
tember 23-26, the Canadian
Union of Public Employees. It
will come into being through
the merger of the National
Union of Public Employees
and the National Union of
Public Service Employees.
Some 75,000 municipal, hos-
pital, hydro, provincial and
other public employees will
make history by the joining
together of their two unions,
the first large-scale merger
since the Canadian Labor
Congress was formed in
1956.

The Canadian Union of
Public Employees will seek to
affiliate public employees in
Canada at the municipal, pro-
vincial and federal level. This
could mean an all-Canadian
union of 500,000 members in
the not too distant future.
Such a union could be a
positive influence within the
Canadian Labor Congress.

A strong union, for all pub-
lic employees ‘in Canada
could bring substantial gains

- for its membership, in terms
of wages, working conditions,
fringe'benefits and job secur-
ity. It could also win full
trade union rights for all pub-
lic employees. One of the
most important.gains arising
from such a merger could be
the drawing into the trade
union movement of the many
associations and loose federa-
tions of federal employees

which today are remote from
the main currents of trade
unionism.

For the labor movement as
a whole, the success of this
merger will mean vindication
of the principle of one indus-
try, one union, If two large
unions in the public field can
merge, why not two unions
in the transportation industry,
or two in the production of
wood products? The fact that
NUPE was formerly an affil-
iate of the Trades and Labor
Congress of Canada and NUP-
SE of the Canadian Congress
of Laboy- underscores this
point.

Concern has been expressed
over sorhe sections of the
draft constitution for the new
union.

Section 3 of Article 3 aan
give the National Executive
power to suspend any subord-
inate body “dominated, con-
trolled or substantially influ-
enced in the conduct of its
affairs by any corrupt influ-
ence.”

Section 4 of the same ar-
ticle reads as follows: “Any
local controlled or dominated
by communists or fascists, or

whose policies and activities

are consistenly -directed to-
wards the achievement of the
program or purpose of any of
the above mentioned move-
ments shall not be allowed as
an affiliate of this Union.”
This McCarthyite provision
throws in the fascists for win-
dow dressing. It is designed
to impose thought control and
absolute conformity, under
the guise of protecting the
union against communists.
This conception is based on:
the false premise that you can

_ have a large trade union with-
out people who are commun-

ists or who believe in many of:'
the things that communists
believe in. It is so vague, and
so dangerous in its present
form, that it has hers res

Large union merger
faces public workers

,By JOHN SMITH

ferred to legal counsel.

Under Section 7 of Article
7, the National Executive
could label any subordinate
body as “corrupt”? and place
it under supervision, trustee-
ship or suspension till the
next convention.

Under Section 8 or Article
7, the National President, sub-
ject to ratification by the Ex-
ecutive Board, could place
any local under an adminis-
trator for a period of twelve
months,

A number of locals across
the country have expressed
deep concern over this propos-
ed concentration of power in
the national office, particular-
ly from NUPE. There is a
wide degree of provincial and
local autonomy in that organ-
ization and there are no such
clauses in its constitution. It
would appear. that NUPSE,
the smaller -union, has been
successful in demanding that
the worst features of its con-
stitution be incorporated into
that of NUPE.

Another point is the per
capita issue. It is proposed
that the monthly per capita
tax will be 85 cents a month,
except for the Hydro Workers
of Ontario and the Hospital
Employees of B.C. These two
unions are provincial in scope
and are to pay only 50 cents

month, on the basis that
they service themselves. This
has provoked a number of
large NUPE locals and dis-
trict councils to raise the roof,
because they too. service
themselves, through maintain-
ing paid staff.

In certain quarters the dis-
satisfaction over this issue
has led to open speculation.

“about the wisdom of with-

drawing from the parent body
and going independent. How-
ever, a moment of serious
reflection will convince any
sincere member that the
choice between being part of
such a progressive develop-
ment or saving 35 cents a
month is an obvious one. Se-
cession would be a backward
step.

So far, the draft constitu-
tion and the terms of merger
have been confined to gq nar-
row circle, Hence the demand
for copies to be in the hands
of every local at least two
months before the merger.
There is also a growing de-
mand for a full opportunity
to debate these documents and
to offer amendments at the
merging convention. The atti-
tude of the national merger
committee is this: You must
accept the merger on these
terms or else reject the mer-
ger. No amendments will be
tolerated. Let us get on with

the merger and we can dis-

cuss changes at the next Con-

vention in 1965.

Such a high-handed ap-
proach to the membership
should not be tolerated. The

national office of both unions —

FEDERAL ELECTION REVIEWED

PIONEER ROLE OF COMMUNISTS
BROKE THROUGH IN CAMPAIGN

By NELSON CLARKE |

The truth is a mighty weapon!
The Communist Party over the
years has rendered signal ser-
vice to the Ca-

nadian people

because it has

been able

t her 0 uge -h

Marxist - Len- .

inist science to

discern the

truth about

what is_ hap-

pening to our
country, and bring that truth to
a great many of our fellow citi-
zens.

If we trace back the circum-
stances surrounding this extra-
ordinary election through which
we have just passed, we will re-
call that it was brought about -as
a result of blatant U.S. interfer-
ence to impose nuclear weapons
upon our country. :

That interference took place
because the United States ad-
ministration found the, govern-
ment of Canada, upon which it
had hitherto been able to depend
to carry out its wishes, was be-
ginning to show a certain degree
of resistance.

John Diefenbaker himself -ex-
plained one of the principal rea-
sons for that resistance when he
spoke last fall of the pressures
upon him from the movements
for nuclear disarmament.

The force that pioneered the

‘fight for nuclear disarmament,

and against the horror weapons
on our soil, or.in the hands .of our
armed forces, was the Commun-
ist Party.

The Communist Party helped
to engender fhe movement of the
people that eventuaily brought
this issue into the very centre of
the political stage in our country
and which, let us add, is capable
of now keeping it there.

In the eight dramatic weeks
of the election campaign, the

Communist Party played a signi- -

ficant part in helping to keep
the national debate centered on
the issues as it was expressed in

our slogans — ‘No U.S. Inter- -

ference, No Nuclear Arms, Put

Canada First.”

Furthermore, we advanced be-
fore the Canadian people a per-
spective as to the best possible
gutcome of the election. We said
in our manifesto that the “best
outcome of this election would
be the return of a majority of
MP’s who are against being push-
ed around by the USA, and who
are against nuclear arms for Can-
ada.

REALISTIC ESTIMATE

“What is needed in the next
Parliament is a strong group of
MP’s holding the balance of
power, able to compel rejection
of nuclear arms.

“New Democratic Party MP’s,
pledged to oppose nuclear arms,
could hold the balance of power
in the next Parliament to-make
sure that Canada will not accept
nuclear arms.”

The actual outcome _ proves
this was a realistic estimate of
the situation in the country.

Although undeniably it would
have been better if the New
Democratic Party had won 10 or
15 more seats, and the Liberals
10 or 15 less, the fact remains
that the Liberals were denied the
clear majority for which they
and their big business backers
fought with all their vast re-
sources.

A majority of Canadians voted
for those parties that were either
opposed to nuclear arms, or ex-
pressed resistance to the com-
plete prostration of Canada to
Washington. The New Democra-
tic Party occupies what even
such a reactionary observer as
Frank Drea of the Toronto Tele-
gram admits to be a ‘“‘magnificent
tactical position.”

All this is a tribute first of all.
to the Canadian people. But it is
also a tribute to the power of
the true ideas that the Commun-
ist Party placed before the peo-
ple.

Considering our limited  re-
sources, we were able to mount
a campaign of which we are just-
ly proud.

That campaign included for the
first time the publication of our
manifesto as an advertisement in

over 40 newspapers from St.
John’s, Newfoundland, to Port Al-
berni, British Columbia. These ~
newsnapers go into over two
million Canadian homes. We also
published on only a somewhat
smaller scale our final election
statement in which we warned
sharply of the danger contained

_in the Liberal cry of ‘‘stable gov-

ernment.”

More than that we found it
possible to develop our campaign
in the twelve constituencies in
which we nominated, as well as
in other centres of the country
so as to ‘‘break through’’ in the
daily press, and on radio and
television in a way that has not
been possible before during all
the difficult years of the cold_
war.

This is further proof that what
we had to say in this election
bore so directly upon the central
issues that it beeame news which
could not be blacked out even
by a hostile press.

Side by side with this public
campaigning for the policies of
the Communist Party many mem-
bers of our party worked hard
as the good citizens they are in
the struggle to elect NDP can- —
didates.

In the course of these efforts,
we came to know better many
members and supporters of the
New Democratic Party. A spirit
of unity grew between us because
we were united in a great com-
mon cause — the crusade for
peace, against nuclear armament.
SENSE OF UNITY

This new sense of unity will
stand the labor and progressive
movement in good stead in the
major struggles that lie just
ahead.

To say this about the contribu-
tion of the Communist Party to
the election campaign is not to
suggest there were no weaknesses
from which we need to draw
lessons. Not all our members and
friends fully grasped our electo-
ral policy which emphasized both —
the responsibility of the whole
labor movement. to lead the na-
tion to peace and independence,

See ELECTIONS, pg. 7

CHINA DECLARES:

Will not rekindle border war’

By BERT WHYTE

PT Staff Correspondent
Peking — Premier Chou En-lai
has stated categorically that
China will not take any action
which would rekindle the flames
of war along the Sino-Indian

border.

Speaking at a banquet on April
21 in honor of Aly Sabry, chair-
man of the executive council of
ministers of the United Arab Re-
public, the Chinese premier said,
“although India is not yet pre-

Douglas to ask House
for probe of RCMP

should be flooded with reso-

lutions and letters demanding
the fullest opportunity to de-
bate the two documents be-

fore merger. This approach

by the leadership shows con-
tempt for the rank and file.

If the rank and file are
insistent enough, their dele-

gates will have the opportun-

ity for a free and open dis-

cussion on all important mat-

_T. C. Douglas, national leader
of the New Democratic Party,
says he will ask the Minister of
Justice to set up a select com-
mittee of the House of Commons
to look into security investigation
procedures of the Royal Cana-
dian Mounted Police.

Douglas said that recent state-
ments by RCMP Commissioner
C. W. Harvison “‘point up the need
for a special commitee of the
House of Commons to look into
the security investigations of the
RCMP.”’

Those investigations were ex-
posed in an article by Sydney
Katz in a recent issue of Mac-

lean’s magazine.

pared to return to the conference —

table, provided it does not re-
new its military provocations and
armed intrusions, the existing —
state of ceasefire and disengage-
ment will continue.”

Chou went on: ‘The Chinese
government absolutely will not :
take any action which will violate—
the border situation and prejudice
direct negotiations.”

Pointing out that China has sat-
isfactorily settled border ques-
tions with four neighboring coun-

tries he expressed confidence in |

a peaceful settlement of the Sino-
Indian boundary question and in:
the friendship between the Chi- —
nese and Indian peoples.

Commenting on the “‘increasing-
ly disquieting” situation in Laos,
Premier Chou said:

“From the recent series of PO
litical murders and.armed con-
flicts instigated and engineered
by the United States in Laos,
one can see that the U.S. and

_ Laotian reactionaries are redoubl-

ing their efforts to sow disse!
sion and disrupt the unity of #
Laotian patriotic foncess ed