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SOVIET TURBINES FOR B.C.’s MICA DAM. Leningrad workers are completing work on two turbines for
the Mica Dam which will have a power of 444,000 kilowatts and are the most high-power turbines ever made

by Leningrad workers for export. Photo shows the assembling of a rotor for the turbine.

— Tass photo

CLC Congress

‘Cont'd from pg. 1

of tax dollars each year, was
unacceptable. ‘‘Wherever there is
fascism and colonialism the multi-
nationals are there,’’ Arsenault
said. ‘‘We can’t unite with them
because they are the scum of the
earth.”

He went on to say that the labor
movement’s manifesto should also
contain a plank to develop the
broadest possible mass movement
against monopoly power and that
labor should be seeking allies in
other segments of society exploited
by monopoly such as farmers,
professionals and small
businessmen. “The process of
formation of alliances to defeat
monopoly control,” he said, “has
to be projected in this document.”’

Speaking iti support of the
manifesto, St. Catharines and
District labor council president
Gordon Lambert, warned the CLC
to exercise caution in proceeding in
this dialogue with business and
government. The course started by
the CLC, Lambert said, is risky

YCL PROTEST

Cont'd from pg. 2

a systematic campaign of ob-
struction. Had any other youth
organization in Canada invited
guests from the Soviet Union there
probably would have been no
problems at all in clearing the
visas.”

“Naturally, both the YCL in
B.C., and the other groups which
were to meet with the Komsomol
delegation are disappointed, but
more than that we’re pretty
disgusted that the government
would reach back into its bag of
cold war tricks to block what would
have been a rewarding experience,
both for the two Komsomol
delegates and for the many
Canadian young people who would
have met them.”

Gidora said that the League
would be contacting all other
concerned organizations in an

effort to bring public attention to’

the government’s - blatant
disregard for the terms of the
Helsinki treaty which it put its
name to.

and dangerous. Government and

management have worked
together so far to close hospitals
and cut social services. “‘Who is
management?’” he asked. ‘“‘They
are the multinationals, the same
multinationals which have
destroyed the economy in every
country they operate in. They are
also the government,”’ he said.
Lambert continued, ‘‘We have
arrived at this manifesto because

of the strength and courage of the

brothers and sisters back home.
We ought to say that the things that
are good in this manifesto must
prevail toward the people of this
country. We are going to win this
manifesto regardless of what we
have to do. If it takes a general
strike; so be it.”

AMENDMENTS

Cont'd from pg. 1

pointment of some delegates by
officers and staff of the affiliated
union.

The resolution would also have
curtailed the number of delegates
from directly chartered local
unions, federations of labor and
labor councils.

Speaking on the resolution,
Canadian Union of Public Em-
ployees delegate Dave Werlin, said
he saw in the resolution more than
just an attempt to eliminate un-
wieldiness.

“Tt is an attempt to place control
at the top of international and

national unions and at the top of the

CLC, and anyone who interprets it
in any other way is making a
mistake,” he stated.

His comments were echoed by |

CUPE national president Grace
Hartman who told the convention
that she would not “‘play God” in
her union by dictating who would
and would not receive convention
credentials, an inevitable result,
she said, of adoption of the
resolution.

A substitute resolution submitted
by CUPE instructing the com-
mittee to study alternate ac-
commodation for future con-
ventions — including a study of
European labor congresses — was
adopted by the convention.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—MAY 21, 1976—Page 12

Quebec Federation of Labor
president, Louis Laberge, in
support of the manifesto, ex-
pressed what the majority of the
delegates later on would express in
their vote of approval. ‘‘We don’t
have to like the government in
order to sit down with it,” he said.

He went on: “This government
has got to go,” referring both to the
Bourassa and Trudeau govern-
ments.

“On a short-term basis we have
to organize to get rid of the con-
trols. On a mid-term and _longer-
term basis we have to organize to
get rid of the controllers.” Calling
the manifesto a step in the right
direction, he admitted that along
with some of the delegates, there
were formulations and aspects of
the manifesto he did not like.

“Once labor has rid itself of the
controllers,’ he said, ‘‘this
program — it’s a ‘good program
that the labor movement has been
standing for for a hell of a long
time ... is something positive we
can support and fight for... it’s a
program for the labor movement
to support.”’

Taken with the defeat of the
executive council’s proposal May
18 to centralize its power through
its unpopular constitutional
amendments, both the manifesto
and the unprecedented general
strike mandate to the council, put
the Congress in an equally un-
precedented position to carry the
battle against austerity policy to a
higher stage.

The growing militancy and unity .

of the convention around the fight
for policy for direct action to fight
monopoly gives the historic
character of this eleventh con-
vention another dimension. In May
of 1918 a similar convention took
place in Quebec City, and un-
fortunately, as history has
recorded; resulted in a right and
left split in the labor movement
which is only now beginning to
show real signs of healing.

The Quebec City convention in /

1976 will show the labor movement
moving forward a more united,
militant movement, leading the
rising struggle for social change in
Canada.

The Socred government’s Bill 16,
which would tie B.C. to the federal
government’s wage _ freeze
program, came under sharp fire in
the legislature last Wednesday
when it ,came up for second
reading. The bill passed first
reading April 9 and has to pass
second and third reading before
becoming law.

The bill ran into unexpected
criticism on second reading. The
NDP and other opposition
spokesmen expressed approval of
the bill when it came up for first
reading. At that time NDP house
leader Bill King congratulated the
government and said the govern-
ment “‘now has been able to take a
clear stand.” Support was also
expressed at that time by Liberal
leader Gordon Gibson.

The fire against Bill 16 indicates
a shiftin the position of the NDP on
the bill, and also reflects a change
in the provincial Liberal Party’s
stand, which undoubtedly is
playing politics with the issue since
it is the federal Liberal govern-
ment’s Bill C-73 which is involved.

King told the legislature the bill
will only control wages and not
prices, and would be directed
mainly at the wages of the 43 per
cent of B.C. workers who are
unionized. ‘‘I see no provision in
this bill to deal with high salaries,
with high interest . rates, with
anything other than wages of the
working people of this province,”
King said.

“This government is obviously
prepared to wage a phoney anti-
inflation fight on the backs of the
working people of this province. It
zeros the whole force of the
program in on the 43 per cent of

workers in this province who are -

organized, yet that small per cent
of the work force cannot in any
realistic way be considered the
perpetrators of inflation.”

King charged that the bill
ignores prices and ignores the high
wages paid corporation executives
and businessmen, which are
ultimately reflected in the price of
goods and services paid by other
workers. ‘‘How do you justify J. V.
Clyne (former Mac-Blo chairman)
sitting there earning hundreds of
thousands of dollars while some

~ economies. They want to alle

poor widow with children on
pension can’t afford heating fuel!
he said.

The NDP house leader said
cost of living has already be&
increased by the Socred govell
ment’s program. He listed Soct®
measures which have cut into
cost of living of people such as
insurance, which he said increas
between 100 and 400 per cent; 1]
creases in the rental ceiling fr0
eight per cent to 10.6 per cél
elimination of a food and beveral
price freeze; increased fell
rates; higher medical premium |
increased sale and provincll |
income taxes; and higher hon ;
heating fuels.

“These people (the Socreds) @
obsessed with  bottom-lif,

their friends in industry to ha
their profits accelerate,’’ he sam

Liberal leader Gordon Gibs#
said he would oppose the
because of its selectivity in cer
areas and sweeping pow
elsewhere. There would appem
be a rift between federal |
provincial Liberals, with Gist
likely making a play for increas
numbers of voters who i
becoming disenchanted with 4
federal government contré
program. ;

He said the bill ignores #
recent government-caused MI
creases in living costs whit
amount to $1 billion more for ™ ¢
government ‘‘out of the pockets}
the taxpayer.” Gibson said
opposed the bill for the sweepil
powers given the government)
“Tt gives the government v
power to intervene in existl :
contracts.”’

Since April, when Bill 16 W
first introduced in the legislatul
the trade unions and Commu!
Party have directed sha '
criticism at the bill, and called # F
its defeat. The shift in the positi@ '
of the NDP; and particularly ho¥ §
leader Bill King, will be welcomé ©
It is to be hoped that the N :
MLAs will carry their fight agaill
the bill to the point of rouSl}
public opposition to it before i
reading, and voting against it w™
it comes up for a final vote.

Vander Zalm Bill 28
to scuttle Mincome

(cniahie resources minister wiiaee Zalm’s new Bill 28 —

Guaranteed Available Income for Need Act
sleight-of-hand trick by Social Credit to press their offensive agai
the poor and low-income people, Nigel Morgan, provincial leader
_ the Communist Party, warned Wednesday.

_ “While the full details of the new legislation are not yet known,
thing that stands out in his announcement is that one of the
popular measures of the previous government, Mincome, is be
‘scuttled, and those benefiting from that program are to be placed d
welfare and subjected to the hated means test. = —~

— is but anof

ee ae ee age eee pelt sak"; peed ON rey *

‘Vander Zalm’s promise of increases for an estimated 20,000 sin

_ parents, and 5,000 welfare recipients, is long overdue, but the |

cellation of Mincome is an extremely regressive move,” he said.
‘Morgan said the legislation has to be seen in the context of ti)
actions of the Social Credit government to cut back on services,
‘the price freeze on foods, and relaxing of rent controls. “It’s part f
Socred’s scheme to ‘Subsidize ” the super profits: vf the big ¢

_porations.

“The Communist Party: calls for broad united action to chall 1
_ Vander Zalm’s scheme to remove Mincome,”” said Morgan. “Wha
- needed is not cutbacks, but action to tax the excessive profits of
& monopolies. to make adequate provision for people’s needs.

_ requires more for health and welfare, education cad people’ sn

. hotles. And B.C.’srich resources can provideit.”

~ Vander Zalm’s bill has not spelled out what the new rates ae

be for people on welfare, Lashing out at Bill 28, form:
‘minister of human resources, Norm Levi, said the bi

Mincome as a program and “puts the lie to all of the ene:
(Premier Bill) Bennett that he was not going to change Mincome
Levi said the new act now means that anyone nea S :

a assistance is now on welfare, and is subject to an assets test. |