LABOR FOCUS

. By J. B. SALSBERG

' Don't let cabinet members escape
responsibility for strikebreaking

iB is an ancient practice for governments to try to

conceal their class character and role. ‘The bour-
vial go to great lengths to make it appear to the simple-
4 ee and the gullible that their governments stand
s: IF and outside of all classes. Their propaganda seeks
gai the illusion that governments m a capitalist
a represent all the people and that their function

© act as “the arbiter’’ between conflicting interests.

_, Nothing, of course, is further from the truth. Bour-
8€0ls governments are the executive and enforcement
ae of the ‘ruling class as a whole. That is why

a “arta of people, and the working class in particu-
son nd themselves in. continuous opposition to the bour-
aes governments and in ‘entrenched battles against their
; M policies and decisive social laws.

as qatslend provided many classical examples of this
; ion. The battle for the franchise; the battle against
< Ro Wage rates; the sanguine battles for the right
eee bene the fight for social legislation ; the battle
st intervention during the Communist revolution in
sae all are milestones in that never-ending class battle
_ he British people against the governments of the
ae ruling class. The same struggles under different
nditions have and continue to take place in all bour-
8fols states, including, of course, Canada.
@ : :
eco In the present seamen’s struggles, the St. Laurent
a emment has discarded every pretence of neutrality
acts as the spearhead of the shipping interests. The
af’ aurent government, under the immediate direction
Fion.. Lionel Chevrier, minister of transportation,

Permits the shipping companies to violate the labor laws —

Which

ie the government has adopted—bad though they

a as government, instead of providing _ protection
an He seamen, provides armed police detachments to
ipping companies who have violated the laws. But

Orst of all, the St. Laurent-Chevrier government uses
ate ee eet owned Canadian National Steamships
88 the battering ram against Canadian sailors.

The St, Laurent government therefore becomes a

sth 5 : is
tribebreaking agency which uses violence and terror |

eee unarmed Canadian seamen. It was from gov-
a Ryasowned ships that government-recruited thugs and
ie erers fired at Halifax seamen in Halifax harbor
Lae The hands of Louis St. Laurent’s colleague,
ck me Chevrier, have shed the blood of Canadian sailors
Aittoe er to destroy one of the finest rank-and-file-led
an ns inthe country and_ to boost the profits of the
: aoe companies, most of, which are in the hands of
€ign capitalists.

adj The struggle of the Canadian seamen and of Can-

lan labor has therefore become primarily a struggle

eee the present federal government. It is Chevrier

ane © emerges as the main enemy of the CSU and of

a anized labor. It is the entire federal cabinet that is

an Ponsible for the bloody war now directed against the
€n who sail the Canadian ships. It is the government
at can end this brutal anti-labor war.

Age The government of St. Laurent must therefore be
mpelled, by public pressure, to end this war on Can:

a : i :
lan workers and sign a contract with the only union:

That anadian sailors: ‘the. Canadian Seamen's Union.
in all aS the logic of the present struggle which is raging
nan Canadian seaports and which is extended to the
"Jor ports of the world. :

e
age Prime Minister St. Laurent is now on a ‘western
ur to rally support to his government and his Liberal
oa He will undoubtedly want to sidestep the blood-
Ming acts for which his cabinet colleagues are re-
*Ponsible. Labor and all people of western Canada
a a the inescapable task and duty to
te struggle and the strikebreaking role of the gov-
e ee to the forefront wherever the prime minister
akes his appearance. a BAe
with The cry to halt government strikebreaking, to ee
Bit ae EOE must, rise from @ million throats pole
iss the west. “This is the democratic way | for a people
ce make known its wishes to its prime minister.

you do. _ That's equality!”

force the sea--

must continue in a rising crescendo until the strike-
breaking role of the government is dropped and a
national contract with the CSU arrived at.

But it isn’t only the prime minister who is on tour:
other members of his cabinet are also touring the country-
side in preparation for the forthcoming federal election.
The public outcry against the shooting of sailors, against
government scabbery and against government aid to pre-
datory shipping interests, must also be made heard
whereyer a member of the cabinet makes his appearance.

Nor is it sufficient to make the indignation of the
public known to the PM and to members of his cabinet.
Every member of parliament must feel the pressure of
his constituents for immediate action to end the gov-
ernment war against Canadian sailors and for the speed-
iest conclusion of an agreement between the shipping.
companies and the CSU and, in the first place, between
the government-owned Canadian National Steamships and
the union that represented, until now, every sailor on
every ship of that government-owned line.

This is a matter of urgency! This is the prime
task confronting all organized workers, all labor organ-
izations and all democratic-minded people. ;

Trick in old-age

pension proposal
By BRUCE MICKLEBURGH

—TORONTO

«

ANIADA’S senior citizens—most of whom live in

poverty—-were recently made the beneficiaries of a
pre-election “impression” by Prime Minister St. Laurent
that thé present $30 federal contribution to old-age
pensions is likely to be increased. But St. Laurent im-
mediately explained that his real plan—as distinct from
his “impression’—is for a contributory old-age pension
scheme (like the unemployement insurance set-up) with-
out means tests. He called “for public opinion to bring
pressure to bear on the political parties provincially and
federally to bring about this contributory scheme.”

And-he unwittiig made it clear that his “impression”
of the need for pension inceases was dictated by fieeting
political expediency when he declared, “The more satisfied
people were with the non-contributory scheme, the less
pressure there would be for the contributory scheme
without the means test.” i

The trick in St. Laurent’s contributory scheme is
already being explained in hundreds of homes by can-
vassers in Toronto-Trinity constituency, where LPP
candidate Tim Buck is spearheading a drive for old-
age pensions of $60 a month for all those over 65.

“Compulsory contributions to such a pension fund
would amount to an extra tax—a double tax,’ they are
explaining. — ;

“That is because the care of our senior citizens is.

a social responsibility which the government should
meet out of general revenue. Our income taxes al-
ready pay part of the present bill. We'd be paying
twice with separate contributions.” :

St; Laurent’s argument that the contributory scheme
is democratic because all contribute and all get benefits
will meet scant support in homes where LPP canvassers
have explained: “So democratic, yes. Charles Dunning,

director of 25 companies with total assets of $51 billion

will pay about as much—and get about as much as
Those who say, “Where's the money coming from for
‘the non-contributory scheme?” are getting such answers
as this: ; : ; .
“Tt would cost $437 million more a year to pay
$80 to everybody shown by the 1941 census to be 65
or over. We’re already spending $434 million on military

preparations we don’t need. The money’s there alright.

“But if we have to pay into a contributory scheme
you can bet our other taxes won't go down. The gov-
ernment will just divert the money formerly spent on

pensions into “even more military equipment. And we'll
all be poorer than ever.” — : :

‘ ‘ .

THE NATION By TIM BUCK

Selling Canada
to Uncle Sam

i P. TAYLOR, president of Canadian Brewing
e Corporation and other concerns with . assets
totalling $500,000,000 has, according to the Financial Post,
returned from a trip overseas with some strong convic-
One of thése, is the belief that Canada should
the United States. He
because he is “concerned

tions.
form an economic union with
says he advocates such a2 thing
about Canada and her future.”

Last Saturday, Rt. Hon. Vincent Massey, Chancellor
of Toronto University, said that economic unity between
Canada and the United States meant political unity—in
other words, Canada would become politically dependent
upon the United \States—the tail of the Wall Street
dog! Hon. Douglas Abbott—the federal minister of
figance—has already joined the sinister anti-Canadian
chorus by openly advocating that we specialize in ship-
ping our raw materials to the United States, where it
would be manufactured and then sold back to us at a
handsome profit. Abbott—and he speaks for the St.
Laurent government—advocates a policy which would
turn Canada into a second India—a colonial province of
the United States in which Canadians would be hewers
‘of wood and drawers of water for Yankee dividend
clippers! 4 :

Yet these are the men—the Abbotts, the St. Laurents
—the Drews and the big business interests—who wrap
themselves in the flag and shout about defending Can-
ada’s independence. While at the same time a North
Atlantic suicide pact is signed which permits American
army Officers, airforce colonels and naval commanders
to go anywhere in Canada and not only set up Yankee
military bases, but inspect and investigate any Canadian
military establishment or war plant.

What does all this mean ,to Canada, to our nation?
e : '

A little ‘over 100 years ago there existed a smail
group of business men and politicians called the Family
Compact. They had different names but they worked
together and secured a strangle hold on the life of this
country. For their own greedy purposes they .sold out
Canada’s true interests. You will recall how William
Lyon Mackenzie fought this villainous Family Compact
and for his efforts he was called a radical, a revolution- —
ary—a foreign agent! His printing press was thrown
into Toronto Bay—and he was outlawed. _

Today, I charge that there is a new Family Compact
at work. As in Mackenzie’s day though its members
have different names, their purpose is one and the same
—and that is to subversively stab Canadian independence
in the back with a Wall Street knife. and turn this
country into a colony of the land which made lynching
notorious. « 3

The Labor-Progressive Party is the only Canadian
political party which has come out openly and exposed
this plot "against our country. We have exposed and

. will continue to expose the domination of our land by
American big business and their Canadian junior part-
ners. This domination now reaches into every phase of
our life. ‘Two weeks ago, highly respected Canadian
citizens attending a distinguished cultural convention in
New York were taken from the Banquet Hall by the
FBI (the American Gestapo) and deported from the
United States without any reason or excuse being given.
If that can be done to one Canadian citizen it can be
done to all. Are we Canadians to be treated as they
treat Negroes in the southern states, while our govern-
ment at Ottawa doesn’t dare raise its voice in protest?

The timg has come for real Canadians not only to
speak up against Yankee domination of our land, but
against the Family Compact which acts as tHe fifth
column for Wall Street and which is taking step after’
step to place us in the claws of the American eagle.*

Not only is it our duty as Canadians to fight for
and guard our independence as a nation, but in so ©
doing, we are actually defending our standard of living.
For example, in Trinity riding, for which I have been
nominated as candidate in the coming federal election,
there stands the Massey Harris plant which gives em-
ployment to thousands of workers. If the plans of the
new Family Compact are put across and Canada be-
comes an economic colony of the United States, how

. long do you thing the gigantic American Harvester Cor-
poration would permit Massey Harris to function and
compete in world markets? What would happen to
those thousands ef workers in Trinity? The fate of
Massey Harris would be the fate of all Canadian industry, ‘
if economic unity betweefl Canada and the United
States becomes a reality. ;

_@ Text of a broadcast given over station
CKEY, Toronto.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE — APRIL 22, 1949 — PAGE @

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