Impressive Gains

JABOR this past year has scored some impressive

gains.

Almost all unions won substantial wage increases and

improvements in conditions.

Some, like the longshoremen and newspaper guild,
won a great measure of job security against the threat of
lay-offs due to new automated processes.

The electricians won a further breakthrough toa

shorter work week.

Workers in the interior are demanding and winning
wage parity with their brothers on the coast.

Alberni office workers with the backing of the entire
labor movement won a good degree of union security.

Vancouver outside civic workers made history with

their highly successful strike.

All of these gains have been well deserved.

Profits are higher than ever.

The employers can

afford all they have been compelled to give, and a lot

more.

One thing is sure. It was only strike and the threat
of strike that persuaded the employers to share some of

their prosperity with labor.

The old saying still holds

good: the employer only “gives” what labor is strong

enough to take.

‘These struggles, many of them difficult, helped labor
to realize the need for greater unity. This was reflected
at the recent conference of the B.C. Federation of Labor.
There unions decided to give urgent consideration to
uniting their efforts through this central body, to respect
all picket lines, to treat “hot” goods as they deserve to be
treated and to establish a healthy strike fund.

There’s still plenty of unfinished business.

Tom

McEWEN

Tom McEwen is away on holiday
for a few weeks. In place of his

regular column the PT will publish -

guest columns until his return. This
week’s column is by VICTOR
PERLO, noted U.S. economist. It is
one of a series dealing with current
economic questions.

re Recessions a Thing ofthe

Past?” is the headline over
Edwin L, Dale’s section IV think-
piece inTheN,Y, Times (6-7-64),
Isn’t this where we came in? Old-
timers remember the New Era
permanent prosperity propagan-
da of the 1920s,

Claims of Truman Cold War
and Right With Ike economic
magic revived after World War

II, Stagnation and rising unem-°

ployment stopped it for a while,
Now it comes from Washington
full blast, fostered by recent good
times, But there has been one big
change, Coolidge Era propaganda
built on the supposed natural per-
fection of American capitalism,
Now the main reliance is on gov-
ernment regulation, :

Dale writes: “The present Ad-
‘ministration is the first in
American history to use what is
called fiscal policy aggressively
for purpose of pushing the econo-

my ahead, This means, in present
American circumstances, the
conscious purposeful use of budg-
et deficits,”

Also, the Federal Reserve now
pursues a continuous easy money
policy, Dale notes that the gov-
ernment is prepared to vary these
policies to counteract either
“overheating” or “tiredness” in
the boom, “though neither is in
immediate prospect,”

; Smilby in Puch, London

“We've made a _ breakthrough

toward an acceptable neutron

bomb, It destroys people but
not dogs.”

Copyright ‘The Observer” ¢

2Bu.

1 don) 1964

-
Le
444

_business of providing

—ABU, London Observer
“Look, he’s the aggressor, he’s hurting me.”

~

High on the list is the organization of the unorgan-
ized,especiallythe white collar workers, many of whom
are so badly underpaid.

Developing a whole program to cope with automa-
tion also deserves priority consideration.

The period ahead can be used to consolidate gains
and to prepare for the next big round.

His article is mainly a com-
mentary around the speech of
Treasury chief Dillon, who em-
phasized “the emergence of a
national determination to use fis-
cal policy as a dynamic affirma-
tive agent in fostering economic |
growth,”

The Wall Street Journal at-
tacked Dillon sharply: “Allin all,
we are unpersuaded that the Gov-
ernment is anywherenear finding
a magic key to uninterrupted
prosperity, It can indeed inflate,
but that customarily means ag-
gravating the business cycle
vather than smoothing it out, Itis
possible the economy would enjoy
sounder growth ifthe Government
would stick to its main economic
sound
money andan atmosphere of free-
dom,”

competition with socialism,

: It certainly has changed the
cyclical pattern, The waves have
been. shallower, the financial
shocks milder, than many occur-
ing before World War II, But the
new policy is unlikely to have
ended economic and fiscal crises,

True, itis possible to figure out
any stage of the cycle combina-
tions of spending, taxation, credit
and other policies which would
theoretically offset depressive
factors and keep the trend up-
wards, Bourgeois eonomists
have learned to dothis bettér, and
the capitalists are more agreed
than formerly that it should be
done,

* * *

But mounting contradictions
reduce the regulators’ margin for
maneuver, Conflicting class and
group interests hamper decision
on the character of the measures
to be taken, Everybody wants
prosperity—his way, Capitalists
seek to get it for themselves,
with only incidental leavings for
labor, Workers and the Negro

* * *

This seems to have become a
minority view among top business
circles. The tendency towards
more purposeful government
economic regulation increased
considerably throughout the post-
war period, But Dillon correctly
claims that the Kennedy Admin-

sa Set

with her fur coat payments,th ,
ance company wrote: ‘‘What W®
your neighbours think if we founé
necessary to come and repos
your coat?”’

In reply, the company received |
following note: ‘I have taken ©
with my neighbours as you $¥9g
ed, and they all think it would P
dirty trick.”

—CANADIAN TRIE

*

“Goldwater is proof of a PO”
climate that is not quite sane:
victory is a ‘‘symptom of de ng
tion and decline in the Repu»

Party.”

VOLKSKRANT, Christian Dem
~periodical, Amsterdam, Ho

*

Question: How do you evall
the possibilities of establishing ¥

class movement after your f
French, British and Scandin
Social-Democratic leaders?

N. S. Khrushchov: | mus a
briefly, for example, about the bel
fits of co-operation betwee" bi
Social Democrats and Commun!
questions of the struggle for pee
In the struggle for peace it is"
sary to rally the efforts of Co
ists, Social Democrats, all ™
good will. Our Party is for ty
action of all sections and organ
tions of the working class. This 4
plays a tremendous role !" fol
‘struggle of the working people eS
their vital rights, for social proglé |

ace!

of
na

inTeRviEW Wy
KHRUSHCHOV IN DENMAT”

people, deservedly, seek a (
major benefit, The U;S. econo" Ted
is more subject than oven ‘
shocks affecting the capit®
world economy, So it remail?
be seen whether the govern™
regulators will be successf™

ee

I do not know whether OF "
we shall see a “typical” i
of overproduction, But 1 9% pi
think we have seen the last oe
talist depression in the iF
States, And the classical oe
is not the only way in which”
tradictions explode, I think
will be various types of ec
and financial crises in thé
talist world, having 2
effect on the course of eve

Perhaps the factors ment,
in this series, and the neW atio™
ods of government regula
will raise the long-term &©
ic growth rate in capitalist
tries, the United States i0° i
If so, this will not be suffich
stop the gains of socialis™
world economic contest, |
prevent the ultimate vie
that superior social sy

istration crossed a “significant
watershed” by striving con-
sciously and with high priority to
avoid recessions and raise the
economic growth rate, The ulti-

tee Cl il Cree
Nay

a tad

yO)

[Dp
sl

et

M

is
Pilfsos cers EN
mate big business support for the sg oe
deficit-assuring tax cut indicated
the new balance of forces around
this issue,
Vancouver 4, B.C.
The Wall Street Journal line
may come back on top, But the
Kennedy - Dillon policy copies
from the experience of other
major capitalist countries, and
seems a likely trend for this

‘b
Bi postage incash. _

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Editor — TOM McEWEN
Associate Editor — MAURICE RUSH
Circulation Manager — JERRY SHACK ;
Published weekly at Room 6 — 426 Main Stree

"Phone MUtual 5-5288 _

stralial:

ass ™
Ottawa and for poy™

period of intensified economic

z , ie
August 7, 1964—PACIFIC TRIBUNE—P°?

mmr |