3 QUEBEC TODAY Liberals, PQ turn right By SAM WALSH _\the polarization of votes lost “Wi the Liberals in the recent Neral elections towards the fit (mainly to the NDP) and Wards the Right (mainly to ® Conservatives) did not take “fice in. Quebec. Here the only ~™W tendency was the rapid Mwth of the Right. (Social his tendency was only a re- Mtion of currents which are Shing both the Liberal Party “MM the Parti Quebecois to- “Pitds the Right. ‘The effects of these pressures Rte felt considerably before }® federal elections. Police State Law ‘The National Assembly (Que- y provincial legislature) in 8 dying hours of the last ses- on, adopted unanimously (that With the support of the PQ 1. Mbers) the notorious Cho- p Hette Law, Law 51. This law ws searches and seizures of ; (Cuments without a warrant , fanted by a judge when a Sliceman considers that such “tions are directed against anized crime, terrorism. OF “bversion. : The law gives no definition i any of these three categories “Pleaving all this, evidently, to » | judgment of the police. t. ls there a better definition of n | Police state? oe hat is more alarming 1S Mat among all the French- ‘Nguage papers in Quebec, only ~ (© Communist paper Combat ; | Sed its voice against this in- bh jitous law from the very be- Mion movement was silent, or most suggested a citizens mmittee to check on the ac- B iWities of the police enquiry _ Be ssion set up by the law. @| Fightback Begins inally, several months later, lyscope, paper of the Engin- ais ing students at the Univer- eg of Montreal, shortly after *Nool opening, started a cam- (ign of information and con- ’fmnation of this law, followed, t last, by the Civil Rights “ague under a new leadership. \ PQ’ member of the National sembly, Robert Burns, speak- & before the students of this Migineering _ school, recently I Pye as an excuse for having 4\%ted for this law the following ‘|Marisaic explanation: the PQ nanted to keep its distance Om terrorism and subversion. d\ He admitted-that it was an efor, but to date nothing indi- y sites that the PQ will ask the e tional Assembly to withdraw nls anti-democratic law. | Even the labor movement has ot yet begun a real campaign ; f Strike this law from the sta- ite books. Liss anti-Strike Act d so it was with the emer- si vines law to break the strike |, the Hydro-Quebec employees, ye ice again adopted unanimous- { by the National Assembly. US law was introduced im- id Nediately after the Superior ders — a sentence which ks with bourgeois revan- ism because of the courage of these three trade unions lead- ers in calling on strikers to re- fuse to surrender before injunc- tions which would oblige them to break their own legal strike. — During the debate preceding the adoption of the recent emer- gency legislation, Mr. Jean Cournoyer, Minister of Labor, clearly stated that the Bourassa government wants to abolish the right to strike in the pub- lic service. “The permanent withdrawal of the right to strike should be accompanied by an adequate substitute,” said Mr. Cournoyer. (Last spring the writer participated at Vaudreuil in a sort of debate with Mr. Marcel Leger, PQ member or the National Assembly; it should be stated that Mr. Leger ex- pressed identical sentiments to those of \Mr. Cournoyer.) Attack on Welfare Further, the social workers of Quebec have just condemned tne “insensitivity” of the gov- ernment with respect to welfare recipients. In particular, the spokesman of the Corporation of Social Workers of Quebec, Suzanne Blais-Grenier, branded the elimination by Mr. Caston- guay of special dietetic allow- ances as “inhuman”. “For two years we’ve waited patiently for Mr. Castonguay’s promised humanization but it never came,” she said. Although the minimum wage in Quebec is $1.65 an hour, “these people are expected to live on anything from 75 cents to $1.50 a day.” But during the recent conven- tion of the Liberal Party of Straight talk about Canadian "By JIM TESTER President, Local 598, Mine, Mill and Smelter Workers The fight for Canada is a many-sided fight, not the least of .which is the struggle of working people for a decent life. The real wealth of any nation is in its resources and in its people. A healthy and secure working class means a healthy and secure nation. Now that we have our new contract settled, we can take a breather and look around and see what is going on in our country and in the labor move- ment. We can see how we fit into the whole picture.. I have before me three clip- ings from newspapers. One is dated Oct. 21 and tells about the aluminum workers at Kitimat voting to be represented by the Canadian Aluminum, Smelter and Allied Workers Union, after ' being in the Steelworkers for the last 16 years. The second clipping is dated October 22. It has Canadian Steelworker president William Mahoney saying that the deci- sion of the Alcan’ workers to leave his union for a Canadian union is “a clear warning. . . of the growth of a new and insi- dious form of company union- ism.” The third newspaper clipping is an editorial by Kent Rowley. He is seemingly puzzled and angry about Local 598’s_ with- drawal from the CCU. (Council of Canadian Unions). Quebec, the same Mr. Caston- guay was obliged to defend his government against delegates and resolutions which had ac- cused it of being too “generous” to welfare recipients,- and. de- manded that they be forced to find a job. This, despite the fact that unemployment in Quebec remains at higher than 200,000 levels and that the level of wel- fare recipients officially consi- dered employable does not ex- ceed 2%. Nationalist’ Position And so it went also with the children of immigrants coming from non-English-speaking coun- tries, from whom the Liberal convention wanted to remove the right to English-language education, thus reinforcing the privileges of the English-speak- ing minority. The fact that this resolution was strongly sSup- ported by the Young Liberals removes nothing from its dis- criminatory and right-wing character, hidden under the banner of nationalism. It is clear that the PQ can in no way be relied upon as a veh- icule for the strong sentiments in Quebec wanting to move politics to the Left, which is essential for the very survival of our remaining democratic rights, not to speak of making progress. The labor movement marks time in the accomplishment of its essential historic task, the formation of a mass federated party of labor, at the peril not only of its own interests, but of democracy in Quebec. Let’s tie things together. The “break-away” or “raid” at Kiti- mat was organized by the CCU. In Kent Rowley’s eyes that is sufficient to make it legitimate. But from what some CCU lead-' ers tried to involve our union in, I am more than a little sus- picious. I want more informa- tion before giving an opinion, or patting anyone on the back. . ‘But I do know this: Rowley’s pretended ignorance of our reasons for disaffiliation from the CCU, was a dishonest sham. Ever since the CCU was formed he tried to get our union involv- ed in raiding workers from in- ternational unions, particularly the Steelworkers. The straw that broke the camel’s back was right at the time we were preparing for negotiations. He wanted us to pick up and expand the ma- chinery he had set up for “diberation” at Thompson, Trail and Kitimat. He said “You've got the money, why don’t you spend it.” : Now that doesn’t appear in the CCU minute books. It is what is known as’ “back-door” stuff. But it is just as real as what appears in the record. Our union executive and our members fully understood the consequences. They voted unani- mously to disaffiliate from the CCU. They certainly did not want to be the ones to start another fratricidal, inter-union war such as we saw here in As Canadians wrestle with such problems of the greatest concern for our future as the U.S. grab for our energy re- sources and the underdevelop- ment of vast areas of Canada, it is useful to look at how they’re going about it .in our neighbor country to the north: For example, Leonid Shei- man,-head of technical depart- ment of the Hydro Project In- stitute, reports that the first turbine of still another large power station in Soviet Central Asia, the Nurek started giving electricity on Nov. 15. This one is located on the Vakhsh River and its rated capacity is 2,700,- 000 kw.; which is six times as much as was generated in all Russia before the Revolution. Though its capacity is only half of that of the Siberian power giants, the Nurek station will eclipse Grand Coulee sta- tion, the USA’s biggest. Its fill dam, which -has risen from the canyon depth to more than 300 metres, is one of the high- est in the world. More than a- Sudbury 10 years ago. We know what a dirty, bitter business that was! But Rowley was not satisfied. In the middle of July, when we were in the thick of negotia- tions, he secretly circulated a leafiet at Falconbridge calling for a debate on the CCU. He de- manded a platform to present his views. He wanted a division of our members on that ques- tion. It was an attack on our leadership. = At a large special membership meeting July 27, the leaflet was read. It was unanimously de- cided “‘to bar Kent Rowley from any further entrance to our halls.” I have known Kent Rowley for a good many years. As a former International Vice-Presi- dent of the textile workers’ union, he got a dirty deal, as did the textile workers in Can- ada. He has an axe to grind, But as far as I am concerned he is not going to do it at the expense of Sudbury workers. Our members and our union have a record that is second to none in giving financial and other aid to unions that are in a fight with the boss. Fishermen, auto workers, store clerks, min- ers, electrical workers, craft unions, yes, textile workers have gladly accepted our fraternal assistance. There were never any “strings,” never any deals. That’s what we know as labor unity. BROAS--S52! | 938ma790(598) News, Sudbury)? PACIFIC TRIBUNE—FRIDAY, DECEMBER 1, 1972—PAGE9 = Power to build, not sell. kilometre wide, it doesn’t fear the severe earthquakes that occur in that area. In the USSR energy resources are developed to exploit the natural resources and indus- trialize the regions. In Siberia, Kazakhstan and the Far East, for -example, where large power stations have already been erected, elec- tricity helps to prceduce steel, machine-tools and TV sets. The Nurek station generates power for the South-Tajik group of enterprises: the Regar aluminium plant, the Yavan electrochemical plant and others. All parts of the country help industrialize and develop less advanced areas. For example every one of the 15 Soviet re- publics has .contributed to the construction of the Nurek sta- tion. The Ukraine supplied 360- ton cranes, Byelorussia provid- ed tip-up lorries, the Urals gave hydrogenerators, 200 designing and research institutes took ‘part in the solution of the sta- tion’s technical problems. unions Last year, Hamilton workers, particularly steelworkers from Local 1005, strengthened the picket lines of the embattled strikers of Kent Rowley’s own union at Texpack in Brantford: Without that help their strike was doomed, and Kent was glad to get it. In Sudbury we have learned a -few things from the past. We are convinced that the moves to break the unity and militancy of Sudbury workers, following the strike in 1958, was conceived and: executed by people in high places in the corporate and poli- tical offices of this country and the U.S. Only the companies got anything from that raid. No worker gained a thing. Anti-communism never put a nickel in a worker’s pocket. Neither will anti-Americanism. — Flag-waving is not enough. What “counts is how we work for true unity of Canadian workers, in their own interests. J am convinced that sooner or later unions in Canada will be run for and by Canadians. The facts of life dictate it. At this stage it is impossible to say how this will come to pass. There is. more than one road. Circumstances and experi- ence will determine that best way. Each union must choose its own course in its own time. For our part, we must ‘conti- nue to play our small role, with principle and honor.