OFL EDUCATION CONFERENCE

A just society ... What is it?”
Vith this question in mind,
egates from across On-
gathered in Niagara Falls
the Annual Ontario’ Feder-
of Labor Education Con-
mce last week-end.
our panels studded with pro-
ors, members of parliament,
workers and the odd
onist, tackled the sub-
of Poverty, Taxation, Hous-
ind Human Rights.
ough the conference con-
gave the place of priority
tion in their pre-confer-
e publicity, and indeed it
s the most heavily attended
el, the real cornerstone was
struggle against poverty.
this was recognized by
nizers who asked Rue-
C. Baetz, Executive Direc-
of the Canadian Welfare
incil to address the opening
session on the subject
Poor—Who are They?”
Baetz defined six types of
erty. Life cycle poverty, de-
‘ area poverty, crisis
erty, poverty due to long
dependence, inner city pov-
and poverty produced by a
of poverty.
eliminate these manifesta-
of poverty, not simply.
it them in a social worker
hion, Baetz proposed the
ling of family allowances,
federal-provincial ap,
es to areas
the present Agricultural
tation Development Act
nd For Rural and Econo-
Development, cash mater-
benefits for working mo-
increased unemployment
irance benefits, adequate fin-
al and social services for
) permanently handicapped, a
pped up public housing pro-
m geared to the occupants
lity and pay and last, but
y first, a guaranteed annual
tome for all Canadians.
luoting from Dostoevsky
come is coined freedom”
btz went on to say, “In any
sideration of a just society
natter of at least an adequ-
ome as a right must soon-
Jater be faced squarely .. .
r society of free enterprise
}man with sufficient income
bstantial freedom. He has.
range of choices as to,
» he lives, how he is hous-
nd clothed, what he eats
drinks, and who his friends
neighbors should be. Con-
, the individual with an
quate income loses sub-
freedom of choice and
ion, and can become the
st fettered and dependent of
"?

Infortunately in his paper
ttz tended to give support to
} Smith-Kerr position that or-
ized labor shares with the
ate society in the exploit-
of the poor. Thus he says,
€ now recognize that poli-
democracy may only re-
the domination by the
y few by the domination
= poor by the majorities be-
in advanced industrial
intries the poor are numeric-
yin the minority, in the case
nada only 30 percent of
le population.”
there you have it. The
blem is not the concentra-
of economic and political
in the handful of an ever
powerful group of mono-
but the domination of
oor by the “wealthy major-
which includes the organ-

ized working class. To the ever-
lasting shame of the labor move-
ment not one single trade union-
ist rose to his feet to challenge
Baetz.

Fortunately, however, Profes-
sor Brownstone, who delivered
a paper to the panel on Poverty
had this to say. “I want to
to stress here the key role of
the trade unions whose experi-

ence with poverty and with ef-

fective organization is unparal~
led but who have not as yet
taken prominent action in the
poverty field. We all know that
without trade union develop-
ment poverty would be more
widespread than it is today.
Unions force-a more equitable
distribution of wealth both in
industries and firms and in the
broader social context with
respect to pensions, unemploy-
ment insurance and so on. The,
tasks before us now are ap-
propriate to the history of the
trade unions, the skills of its
membership, its closeness to tha
poor, but also more difficult and
complex.”

“Trade union participation
can proceed on two fronts,”
Brownstone said.” First, organ-
ize the vast and growing num-
ber of unorganized workers so
they can insist in an organized
way on their industrial rights.
Second, organize the poor in the
communities so that it may be
possible for a genuine coalition
to emerge between the poor, the
trade unions and all those
groups and individuals who
have similar values and goals.”

The third paper presented on
poverty was by John Eleen, Re-
search Director of the OFL and
constitutes a good argument for
having more trade union ex-
perts, and fewer “prominent ad-
visors from the outside” lectur-
ing at such gatherings.

Eleen’s paper ties down the
role of labor in fighting for the
poor. “Trade Unions were the
first armies in the war against
poverty. They came into being
fighting economic and social in-
justices. Our whole program has
been directed to just that. When
we campaign for a higher mini-
mum wage it is not only for the
protection of the wages of or-
ganized workers but primarily
for the raising of the incomes of
the unorganized. When we fight
for medicare, pensions, hospital-
ization and other social. meas-
ures it is for all Canadians, not
just the organized workers.
When we press to have the
Carter Report on Taxation im-
plemented to replace the tax
jungle we now have, we are con-
cerned with the poor who bear
an unfair load of taxation.
When we urge the government
to plan, to follow an economic
policy devoted to full employ-
ment and when we talk about
repatriating our industries from
foreign domination as outlined
in the Watkins Report, we are
fighting poverty. We reject the
Smith’s and the Kerr’s who say
that labor unions are conserva-
tive and they, with management,
exploit the poor. Labor is and
always has been against the
status quo and in the forefront
in the battle against poverty.”

Looking around the delegates
and listening to them one is led
back to the remarks of Professor
Brownstone. Canadian trade
unions have the skill and the
organizational know how and
the concern that is needed to
tackle the struggle to alleviate

truggle against poverty

poverty. One could not help but
feel when the experts were
through and the membership
spoke, that in the organization
of such conferences if more
time was given to husbanding
the experiences and wisdom of
those assembled and less to lec-
tures from well meaning but
still somewhat remote experts,
the job would be done with
more dispatch.

Next week: Panels on Taxa-
tion, Housing and Human Rights.

NEED 8 PERCENT

Wage earners require at least
an eight percent annual wage
increase to keep up with the
cost of living according to Emil
Bjarnason, west coast economist.
Mr. Bjarnason prepared the fol-
lowing material for the Fisher-
men and Allied Workers Union
who are presently entering into
negotiations on behalf of the
Cannery Workers in that indus-
try.

In the past three years the
federal government has syste-
matically increased the tax bur-
den on wage earners. This is not

Asks action on NATO

In a letter to all members of
the Saskatchewan Legislature,
William Beeching, Saskatchewan
leader of the Communist Party
said, ‘Saskatchewan citizens
hope that this Session of the
Legislature will help them solve
many of their problems. Every-
one wants, and needs, relief
from the burden of taxation.
Farmers, faced with serious eco-
nomic losses, eagerly look to you
for help.”

The letter continues: “A
source of money for a meaning-
ful tackling of these problems
can be found by cutting Can-
ada’s huge military budget.

“Prime Minister Trudeau asks
for an open public debate on
Canada’s participation in NATO
—although the federal govern-
ment has already committed us
to additional expenditures on
our armed forces under the
NATO command,

“In the twenty years that
Canada has been a member of
NATO, our total, so-called de-
fense budget, has cost the tax-
payers in the neighbourhood of

$30 billion—an amount that, if
divided equally among the pro-
vinces, would be about 10 times
the budget you will be voting on
this year for Saskatchewan.
Here is the source of the funds
needed to provide an improved
standard of living for all
Canadians.

“NATO was brought into be-
ing 20 years ago in the atmo-
sphere of the Cold War hysteria
prevailing at that time. Like
most policies adopted then, it
was ill-conceived, and provides
no real defense for Canada, It is
a costly venture, which, along
with all Cold War policies, needs
re-examination in the light of
present-day reality.

“We appeal to you to sign the
enclosed card directed to Exter-
nal Affairs Minister Mitchell
Sharp calling for withdrawal
from NATO as part of the effort
to change the direction of Can-
ada’s foreign policy. This, of
course, should be backed by a
resolution from this Legislative
session calling for Canadian
withdrawal from NATO.”

ganizing

hundreds of Canadians.

Ontario.

Friendship Tour to the USSR

The Canada-U.S.S.R. Association announced it is or-
a Canadian Friendship Tourist Group to visit the
U.S.S.R. this July. The group will number thirty and travel
by Aeroflot direct from Montreal to Moscow, leaving July
1 and returning July 22. The itinery includes Moscow, Kiev,
Minsk, Volgograd and Odessa. The program will have the
assistance in the U.S.S.R. of the Union of Societies for
Friendship and Cultural Relations with Foreign Countries.
Most of the cities on this itinery have active branches of
the U.S.S.R.-Canada Societies that were set up ten years
ago and every year extended assistance and hospitality to

Those wishing to join this group should contact the
head office of the Association at 84 Avenue Rd., Toronto 5,

just a matter of wage earners
being hit by high taxes like
everyone else. The point is that
during this period the govern-
ment has imposed tax increases
which hit the wage earner much
harder than the wealthy. Here
are some examples:

Old Age Security Tax: This
tax takes four percent of a tax-
able income up to $6,000 and
only one percent of a taxable in-
come of $24,000.

Canada Pension Plan: This
tax takes 1.5 percent of income
come up to $5,200, and only 0.3 .
percent of a $24,000 income.

Social Development Tax: This
tax takes two percent of income
up to $6,000, and only one half
percent of an income of $24,000.

Unemployment Insurance: This
tax takes 114 percent of income
up to $5,000, and nothing on an

_ income of $24,000.

In addition there have been
changes in ordinary tax rates
that have discriminated by lar-
ger proportionate increases on
lower incomes.

According to government fig-
ures, the cost of living has been
rising at about four percent per
year. That this is a “cooked”
figure is obvious to anyone who
observes for example, that ac-
cording to the government in-
dex, it costs only 50 percent
more to buy or rent a home in
Vancouver today than it did in
1949!

However, the Consumer Price
Index is the only official measure
of the cost of living that is avail-
able, so we have no choice but
to use it.

Bringing these things together
we can see what has happened.

In the case of the maintenance
man, for example, his monthly
pay increased by $27.50 in 1966,
$35 in 1967 and $35 in 1968, for
a total of $97.50 a month over
the three years. But when we
have taken the income tax, Can-
ada Pension Plan and Unemploy-
ment Insurance deductions off,
his take home pay increased by
only $58.32, from $445.07 to
$503.39.

Then, when we divide these
by the cost of living index we
find that the 1965 wage was
worth $323.21 in terms of 1949
prices and the January 1969
wage was worth only $318.60.

So, in fact, the maintenance
man got $87.50 a month, and
ended up $5 a month worse off.

Similarly, the casual laborer
received total wage increases of
$46.98 a month, but when the
taxes are deducted, this amount-
ed to an increase in take home
pay of only $26.50, and when it
is adjusted for the increase in
the cost of living, it amounts to
a reduction of $15.

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C TRIBUNE—FEBRUARY 21, 1969—Page 5

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