Worke The new Ford plant at Oakville, Ontario, is reported to have eliminated the jobs of 1,000 Fo ers by improving assembly line production—more workers than are shown here jeaving rd's giant Windsor plant. Labor has an answer to automation ce at : AN oe flick of a switch 200 cently eh lost their jobs re- Tation ne €n the Raytheon Corpo- Matic Chicago started its auto- Sempy peed circuit radio as- 4 ae turning out 1,000 ay with two workers. Tadiog Ola duyetttonic device at Motor- ladio ,.°¢ “The Monster” prints 8, rer cuits, feeds transform- Mie velume controls, Chasgig Ts and tubes into a radio the The Monster” assembles S completed radios. ‘Ord hag a Cleveland Engine Plant hes, ik of 42 transfer mach- Precise] linked together which i oY and automatically takes Sey cylinder block cast- 8 i ann at the entrance and ling o Tough 530 cutting and duman’ hee tations, untouched by Moyes ¢ 2d. The engine block dye 70M) foundry to final pro- Sug 4.6 minutes, completely 4nd controlled. Ad ‘3 : cing TA TV Corporation has a Work of chine which does the ets, almost 4,000 office work- Xam 2 A xXberimental computor Nes udrey” takes and car- Oder, _ ZUMan commands and Oi : busin se ineries can set up in Perating day with 12 workers 8 if nik ome A few years e Machine a Tuns a $2 million Companysct the Detroit Cross foothan® § Plant as long as a Machi eld which performs "ethogs NS cperations. Older Worker, “Cduired upwards of 75 ~The *attereg ond other developments pel Aenea the petroleum, int. °9, plastics, electrical, Out a nid food industries spell Worg the era—“automation”— ny oeabule has now crept into ary. or out rere are apprehensive Present , pW Processes which the highest stage in By MARK FRANK the mechanization of production —a combination of automatic machinery, electronic controls and computors that do away with workers on assembly lines and reduce the number on a given machine. The age of push-button factor- ies is upon us — with the possi- - bility ranging from automatic machinery in parts of a plant and in individual processes, to entire © systems of fully-automatic fac- tories, controlled and run by a handful of workers. Under monopoly ownership and the capitalist system of North America, workers facing layoffs with the introduction of the new machines are asking: “Is it a boon or a curse?” Automation in the U.S. is as yet spotty, spontaneously de- veloped. But where it has been introduced there is not only ruthless displacement of work- ers without regard for their fu- ture employment, but severe ex- ploitation and speedup of those workers remaining. * In Canada it is even slower in developing, with few examples to draw from. The new Ford Oakville plant is reported to have knocked 1,000 workers out of © jobs as a result of improved as- sembly line production. General Motors in Oshawa now goes in for automatic sanding, polishing, welding, nickelplate, end spray. It is not uncommon for a new process like automatic sanding to carry through a job- with two men where 14 were used before. Westinghouse in Brantford uses printed circuits for its new radio TV production. Canadian Admiral in Toronto does the same. McKinnon’s new foundry in St. Catharines used a panel-con- trolled setup that machines en- gine blocks, but it is not com- pletely automated. The new Chrysler plant in Windsor is reported to have new automatic devices for motor as- sembly. Canadians are asking a further cuestion: Will automation create new vast surpluses in the U.S. to be dumped at will on the Cana-. dian market, driving our country more and more into a raw material source for the U.S. fac- tory complex? This is the declared aim of U.S. monopoly ar outlined in the Paley Report and by President Eisenhower. Autcmation in the U.S. acts as a further stimulus to this drive for world mastery of the raw material resources of the world, and in particular of Canada. * Walter’ Reuther, president of the United Automobile Workers, sounded this note of alarm about the new developments at the union’s recent Cleveland conven- tion. “Improperly used for narrow and selfish purposes they can create a socia! and economic nightmare in which men walk idle and hungry — made obso- lete as producers because the mechanical monsters around them cannot replace them as consumers.” The UAW leader called for concentration on the program to win the guaranteed annual wage, the 30-hour work week with the same take-home pay, a Congres- sional probe of labor, industry and government to work out policies that would prevent the evil effects of automation from being realized. These defensive measures, of course, are vital, but automation cannot be fully realized under a system of private ownershrip, which uses such advance for the benefit of a few. “Capitalism is in favor of new techniques, wher they promise it the highest profit. Capitalism is against new techniques and for a resort to hand labor, when the new techniques no longer promise the highest. profit.” That is what Joseph Stalin wrote in his penetrating study, Economic Problems of Socialism in the USSR. * . Unlike the spotty automation in the U,S., directed to further exploitation, maximum profits and speedup, the USSR has been introducing automatic produc- tion for years on a wide and planned scale. Where there is social owner- ship of the means of production, automation is a boon to labor, not /a curse. The fears that confront work- ers under capitalism—of layoffs and speedup and further impov- ershment are inconceivable under socialist planned economy and application of automatic methods. One of the main aims of the 1946-50 Five Year Plan was auto- mation of production in ferrous and non-ferrous metallurgy, ma- chine-building, chemical, rubber, food and manv other industries. Blast furnaces, open-mouth furnaces, all hydrg-electric sta- tions are fully automated. HO wants atomic war? Well, U.S. Lieut.-General James Van Fleet for one. This is what he wrote in Life maga- zine on April 18: “But suppose the Commun- ists do launch a sizeable in- vasion to-capture any of the islands in the Matsus or Que- moy groups? It would pre- sent the U.S. with good rea- son to shoot back with atomic weapons and annihilate the Red effort. We -have needed such a specific military target in the Pacific to prove to our friends and to the enemy as well that we mean business. We have talked much about massive retaliation, but they are words which mean no- thing.. We need a deed. And here on the offshore islands is the perfect opportunity for the U.S. to perform the deed.” He wants atomic war LIEUT..GEN. VAN FLEET Back in 1946, years before Ford installed its automation sys- tem, the Moscow plant of the Stankokonstruktsia. set up an automatic line of lathes which without human hands perform- ed 134 operations for processing cylinder block heads for tractor engines. The ZIS-150 motor truck engine blocks are similarly handled. In 1952 there were 39 auto- matie lines of lathes in the So- viet. Union. The first fully automatic plant in the world for the production of motor car pistons exists in the USSR, with a capacity of some 3,500 pistons a day. Casting in electric furnaces. heat-treating, machining by turning lathes, dril- ling, grinding and other pro- ' cesses right up to packaging con- stitute the factory's production - hne. ‘ * There is a campaign in the U.S. and Canada to allay the fears of workers that their jobs will evaporate with automation. Victims of the regular cyclical crises of capitalism, the current: mass unemployment as a result of the lopsided militarization of the economy, their fears are well- grounded. But the Canadian Manufactur- ers’ Association president J. A. Calder told the B.C. Division members on March 14: “Automation opens up visions of eventual prosperity never be- fore imagined machines never did and never will put people out of work for more than very temporary periods.” He added the thought that the appetite of the consuming public was limitless. True enough. But what he forgot to say was that the ability of this self-same public to buy back the products they have worked up has severe limits un- der a system which exploits their labor and privately appropriates & maximum profit. One big business pundit put it this way in the U.S. Fortune magazine, October, 1953: “Men are difficult and tricky things to play around with... Get the men out of there (the factory) entirely and we would be better off.” : The madness of the position is apparent. If less wages are to be paid and stepped-up exploita- tion result from automation, who —under capitalism — is going to buy back the products of ‘these new wonder factories? * Automation poses the need for immediate defensive action by the trade union movement — the kind that is already being taken up by the biggest single union in North America, the United Auto- mobile Workers. No one can oppose automation as such, in the style of early 19th Century Luddites who went about destroying power-driven machines to preserve their jobs. On the contrary united action for the shorter work-week, against speedup, for higher wages, the guaranteed annual wage, and in- creased unemployment insurance benefits, constitute the immedi- ate armory of defensive action which the organized trade union movement has. In addition, there is need to link the struggle on the econ- omic level with political action to curb monopoly and prevent its jungle-like vrofit approach to automation, and to stop the flood of U.S. dumping of manufactured products on the Canadian market. Automation for Canadian labor emphasizes the need for winning new national policies to put the interests of the Canadian people first; that aim at building up our own country and processing our raw materials at home; that en- courage peaceful trade with the socialist countries and ends the U.S. domination of our economy. PACIFIC TRIBUNE — APRIL 29, 1955 — PAGE 9 ce ee ee eee oo Py