LABOR SCENE

BY BRUCE MAGNUSON

Labor Minister John Munro
favors compulsory arbitration
when the “public interest” (?) is
‘involved. In reality, what Munro
talks about is the private inter-
ests of monopoly profiteers,
which includes such companies
as CN and CP Rail and subsidi-
ary interests.

After making use of Parlia-
ment for strike-breaking pur-
poses, the courts and the police
are now being mobilized to
prosecute railway workers who
protest against abrogating the
right to strike and the imposi-
tion of sub-standard wages.

Yet, who can live in these
days of high, monopoly-rigged
prices and inflation on a take-
home pay of $80 to $90 per
week? This is what the bulk of
the members of the Associated
Non-ops were paid, and for
which they sought a remedy
during nine months of fruitless
negotiations, at the end of which
the only alternative’ was to
strike.

Dictated by Employer

The politicians who vated to
break that strike have not lifted
a finger to protect rail-workers
or the rest of the public from
the unconscionable profit-goug-
ing by the monopolies. But they
were in a great hurry to get
railway workers back to work
for practically the same starva-
tion wages, not to mention the
great uncertainty of future jobs
and economic security. And
these workers are admittedly so
essential to our economy that
they must be forced back to
work by parliamentary edict,
breaking a legal strike, and us-
ing the power of the capitalist
state to impose a settlement dic-
tated by the employer.

The determined protest by
tens of thousands of railway
workers against this shameful
action has shaken the capitalist
politicians, but has aroused the
admiration of the public. Cana-
dians are not simpletons to be
manipulated by monopolies and
their political stooges. The usual
screams about “anarchy” and
the need for “law and order” do
not fool anyone. It is the usual
smoke-screen to cover up the
real attack on the legitimate

Legal strikebreaking
demands labor action

ASSOCIATED

CP RAL fF xoxor
(Se :

y ON STRIKE
CPR

public interest by the mono-
polies and profiteers.
Whole Labor Movement
And now, the second phase of
the attack on the workers. The

complete andi all-out mobiliza-
tion of the capitalist state, of

which parliament is but one. of,

the instruments, is now being
geared to suppress any and all
resistance.

It is to combat this hypocri-
tical attack upon the railway
workers that the whole labor
movement and its leaders must
now turn their undivided atten-
tion.

Had the leaders of the strik-
ing railway workers stood firm
to the end in defence of the
right to free -collective bargain-
ing .and the workers’ right to
strike, it is doubtful if a single
railway worker would have
submitted to the strike-breaking
edict of the capitalist politicians.

Only the failure to stand firm
on the part of the top leaders
and their rather easy capitula-
tion on the principled issue of
the right to strike, is responsible
for division and gradual dissipa-
tion of the railway workers’
power to resist the monopoly
and state assault on their funda-
mental rights.

Sun makes ‘apology‘for
usual yellow journalism

The Toronto Sun—right-wing
oriented — has offered an apo-
logy for saying in a photo cap-
tion that one of the men involv-
ed in a fracas at the Ottawa
demonstration of railway strik-
ers, was a-member of the Com-
munist Party of Canada.

The Communist Party, which
has supported the railway work-
ers from the beginning, protest-
ed to the Sun; and it in its own
way, made a correction.

“In Friday’s Sun,” runs a four-
paragraph piece in the Sept. 4
edition, “there was a front-page
picture of railway union demon-
strators on Parliament Hill. The
photo showed one main being
restrained by another. The cap-
tion read: Here, a member of
the Communist Party is grabbed
around the neck by a railway
man who didn’t appreciate his
support.’ ”

The piece admits: “This: is
wrong. The two men are, in fact,

brothers, and one was holding
the other from attacking a small
groups of Maoists who were
trying to identify with the
Strikers ... :

“The cutline also erred,” The |

Sun says further, “in suggesting
that it was the official Commun-
ist Party of Canada — Moscow

oriented — involved. In fact, it.

was the Communist. Party of
Canada (Marxist-Leninist)—that
is, self-styled Maoists,” whose
usurping of the name of a party
established in Canada more than
50 years ago, The Sun might
have added, is a deliberate at-
tempt to confuse — a ruse de-
lighted in by most of the capital-
ist press.

The Sun has explained that
the photo and caption were sup-
plied by Canadian Press, which
also. says much. “The Sun
apologizes for the error and any

embarrassment caused,” the pa-

per said.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE — FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 14, 1973 — PAGE 8

” RAILWAY UNION

~

eS

Fundamental Rights

The issue involved is one for
the whole trade union move-
ment. It must be stated that,
apart from abstract statements,
there has been no real effort by
the CLC, Provincial Federations,
or Labor Councils to mobilize
the rest of the trade - union
movement in active support of
the railway workers’’ just and
legitimate demands.

It is obvious that the trade
union movement cannot stand
idly by and allow a strike-break-
ing government and parliament
to prosecute railway workers for
a living wage and the fundamen-
tal right to strike.

To do so is treason ‘to the
cause of labor and a betrayal of
its basic democratic rights. It is
a betrayal of. the real public in-
terest in this country, which is
inseparable from the rights of
labor which creates all the
country’s: wealth.

Real Public Interest

It is to be hoped that the ap-
peal from railway workers in
B.C. to the trade union bodies
across this country will be met
with immediate and effective
response.

It is imperative that justice
be done in the railway workers’
legitimate case for higher wages
and job security. The right to
strike cannot be compromised
and it is not a subject for nego-
tiations with employers and
capitalist governments.

The heroic fight’ by the rail-
way workers has made that am-
ply clear. It must be further
buttressed by the official leader-
ship of the trade unions, and by
the NDP inside parliament. It
must be demonstrated by mass
support for the railway workers’
cause through every form of ac-
tion possible, including strikes
and other forms of public dem-
onstrations. *

Government and parliament
must be compelled to defend
the needs of working people of
this country by taking action
against the monopolies for price
gouging and profiteering. That
is the kind of action that cor-
responds with the real public
interest.

Siberian electric trains

The electrification of the east-
ern sectors of the _ Trans-
Siberian railroad — the largest
in the world — is nearing com-
pletion. It is 6,000 miles long

and connects Moscow with the -

Soviet Far East.

-Greenpeace

TORONTO — The _ Toronto
Labor Council last week called
on the Canadian Labor Congress
to make a strong protest to the
Trudeau government “stating
clearly that this (the govern-
ment’s most recent  anti-infla-
tion program) is: an empty ges-
ture that will do‘nothing to pro-
tect the public from greedy cor-
porations who up prices as
much as they can and as fast as
they can.”

The Executive Board state-
ment condemned the govern-
ment for providing increased
subsidies on wheat and milk.
“The Liberal government’s legi-
slation will act, at -best’’ the
statement said “tc: provide only
temporary relief. It has ignored
the real problem,” because,
“It will be the wage earner,
through his income tax who
will, in the end pay more than
his share .of this subsidy. Be-
cause of the tax rip-off given the
corporate welfare bums, they
will not be paying their fair
share of the subsidy. It will
simply put more profits in their
pockets at our expense.”

Condemn Increases

In view of the proposed rate
hikés by the Consumers Gas
and other-gas distributors, the
Council’s Consumer Affairs
Committee recommended advis-

ing the Ontario Energy Board q
that the council opposed th f
granting of any increase to tt |
natural gas distributors. It als |
recommended -that a publicly |

owned authority similar

tion and sale of natural gas

to |
Hydro take over the distribv |

the province and that the OM }

tario Federation of Labor |
advised of the position.

The committee also request
ed that the Canadian Lab?
Congress make a representatit
“To the National Energy B0#!

to refuse further rate increas’
Line

to the Trans-Canada Pipe Q
and to ask the Canadian 80
ernment to include natural 8?
prices in any price freeze,” 4
that the price increases 0 i
tural gas, gasoline and fuel
“be rolled back to the June
level as part of a Canadian ©
ergy policy to control natuf
gas prices at the well head: ‘
The recommendations of ‘
committee carried unanimous?
Following up their decision)
send a delegate to the Wor
Peace Congress meeting in M®
cow, October 25-31, the
utive board recommended
Fox, vice-president of the ©?
cil and a member of the Ke,
gamated Clothing wort

The recommendation was
dorsed by the council deles
—<

df

Sam
un

sibilities to this end.

cratic movement. - :

- Communist Party pledges
full support for Chile

TORONTO — In a pledge to rally Canadian democrati€
support for the government of Chile and against unlaw!¥
attacks on it, the Central Committee of the Communist Party
of Canada on Sept. 10, sent a letter signed by. Genera’
Secretary William Kashtan, to Luis Corvalan, general secre”
tary of the Communist Party of Chile. It reads:

We are following developments in your country closely.
note the way reaction and fascist groups are trying to
Chile in civil war, eliminate the gains achieved under the |
Allende government and restore the power of the lan

‘ eligarchy and of big business, indeed of all forces alig®
with ITT and other U.S. corporations.

We note too, the steady progress achieved by the Populat
Unity Government and the determined efforts of your pa
and the Chilean people to achieve profound democratic ane”
social change without civil war, using all constitutional

We are confident that your party and the working si
united behind the Allende Government, and backed by @ —
growing militant unity of the Chilean people, will suc
fully rebuff reaction and the drive to civil war, and act 95”
firm foundation for the forward advance of the entire dem? |

Rest assured of our solidarity and of our determination © —
rally widespread democratic support in Canada for
Popular Unity Government under President Allende.

We are with you in the effort to defeat reaction, prevel:
civil war, and fulfil the Popular Unity program which creq™
the conditions for the achievement of a socialist Chile.

engulf

pos. :

cess”

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ates:

We |.

Greenpeace group charges |
Ottawa protest spineless

VANCOUVER—Irving Stowe,
of the Greenpeace Foundation,
last week labelled as ‘‘a spineless
punch in the air,’ Canada’s offi-
cial protest to France over the
seizure of the Canadian ship
in international
waters.

The Greenpeace was grabbed
and its skipper beaten near Mu-
ruroa Atol, where French nuclear
tests have been conducted.

“France told New Zealand to
go to hell,” Stove said, “she has
told Australia to go to hell, and
now she is telling Canada to go
to hell.”

‘vidual against a foreig

The External Affairs Der
ment, miffed at the or nt 8
said the Canadian govel™™ er
under no obligation U?
tional or internationa
take up the action 9

SharP rest

Pe the

ment. However, Mr.
Geliver a “firm note °
to the French ambass4
department said. . lait
Captain McTaggart '§ ng of
ing $14,000 for the ram Ae
his vessel. The beatin8 ight d
tained. endangered the

7 jel:
one eye, he reported earlier

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