Labor and people's unity needed |The 4 le’s eee for labor and peo- Tiiminig >, (° defeat the Tory aa MN at Queen’s Park eeec Mson, Ont ‘red by Bruce Mag- m 4 Munist “On of ‘ nd, the f i. ABnuso Mt n : ) “tment of Peesented an in- Me Robarts govern- 4“. os it with: © tliet for es to provide tax re- F tes, ‘Pressed municipal- “ing fail ing Crisis, * to solve the hous- ang , failure to f 0 Curb profiteers it, M4, feet the consumers. ? enforce <9 Cope with, and f Yent 8ulations to pre- Q° Dollution Of air and p linceg ae to promote bal- i? ntane erowth in. all with po ae deal ef- Pbieme Wwe t0 cope with the g) chy lo ees from the new onniva automation. inden’ With big busi- Collective ye and. destroy q € bargaining, and Workers of their i! “g Of assembly. their free- Bio Patines atmerg f vi : Ppratect work- Om the -encroach- j Ment j m five the °nopoly which de- § “nce Ab, ave € industrial pro- : eer ‘sion A plowed back into ‘ Mdus : Ae ingete etlerprises, and com- 1) Be _ h ey of labor in © teo.® With Inued to [ Shno) Physi te grow OBicg) C4! Speed But io Changes. up and Is} t Pockact four petits from all this ‘oy l$. of AM its Way into the 4 lvinntS€ hi . average citizen faye’ the ya Net Standard of e! “alle 4 rig at one would ly oo afl at © expect. The so- t “thelistrit is most The g rbut st uneven- Mon “NOmie ,. at $00 much of the pel roms 80 to swell of, *Voreg tS and to enrich i & ew nomic See the summit r ie Seventy-one delegates gathered in Toronto last weekend at the Ontario convention of the Commu- nist Party heard an indictment of the Robarts gov- ernment and discussed what can and must be done by the people to rid the province of the Tory regime. “The urgent need of govern- ment action to curb monopoly profiteering and to project_poli- cies that will raise the living standards are evident from the existence of extensive poverty, even in this rich province of Ontario. “In 1965, the Ontario Federa- tion of Labor produced a book- Jet setting out facts about pov- erty in Ontario. It was shown that over one million people, or 19 percent of the population, Jive in poverty. Another 11 per- cent, or 700,000, live in destitu- tion. If the field is extended to include people living in priva- tion, which means want of com- forts or necessities of life that the average person enjoys and expects, some two million citi- zens of Ontario, or one-third of the people come under one or another of these categories mentioned. “Such injustices and indignity inflicted upon so many human sorbed by the province. Robert Nixon, the Liberal leader, pro- mises to take over this amount if he is elected premier of Ont- ario. But he has not stated how he proposes to do this, and it has been suggested that the Liberals are thinking about a substantial increase in the sales tax, which the Tories hiked by 66.66 percent only last year. This would give with one hand and take it back with the other. It would leave the burden on the low and medium income groups. “The New Democratic Party have been more specific in pro- posing a phased-out program by assuming five percent of edu- cation costs each year over the next five years, paid for out of new sources of revenue such as income from resources and cor- porations. The essence of the NDP proposal is to evade the real issue of the need to tax the incomes of the wealthy. The “Slum landlords must be ex- propriated. Many old buildings can be renovated rather than simply tearing them down. Fed- eral and provincial taxes on building materials has to be done away with and the benefits passed on to those who buy or rent homes... . “By failing to act on labor’s demand for an end to the use of injunctions in labor-manage- ment disputes, the Robarts ad- ministration has come down on the side of management and against labor. By appointing a Commission of Inquiry into all aspects of labor-management relations in this province, the government has evaded facing up to its responsibilities .. . “The problems of _labor- management relations in our present-day society cannot be separated from the fundamental changes brought about as a re- sult of technological change. The problems of job security, THE COMMUNIST PARTY'S SLOGANS IN COMING ONTARIO ELECTIONS: For Security and Better Living—Turn Left! Defeat the Parties of Bay Street! Strengthen Labor's Voice at Queen's Park! beings in this rich province which is literally bursting at the seams with accumulated wealth, is a most striking condemna- tion of the inequities and in- adequacies of our economic and social system .. “The financial crisis of our municipalities today threatens the destruction of democratic local governments, and bureau- cratic edicts are taking the place of the democratic process. “Regional or buffer govern- ments of the kind we have in Metro Toronto is not the an- swer. Instead of lowering taxes in the individual municipalities Metro has increased them. The debt has increased three times over in 10 years, along with in- terest payments. This year there is a big battle over payment for new schools that are needed, hospitals that cost millions, not to speak of the terrible housing shortage that drives rents sky- high. And the taxes will go up again by a substantial amount... “Ontario municipalities are demanding at least 80 percent of education costs to be ab- attempt to pussyfoot on this basic issue of tax reform is po- litical opportunism. “Our party has for years pointed to the real alternative, which is to reform the tax structure on the basis of ability to pay. This would mean a heavier tax on the rich, the speculators and the profiteers, including a tax on capital gains .. “Our party proposes a crash program to meet housing needs now. We propose that subsi- dized low rental housing be in- tegrated within the general pro- vision of housing to eliminate the sense of social stigma that has come to be attached to pub- lic housing as a result of wrong policies of segregating low rent- al housing projects. Instead of subsidizing the housing unit as such, the subsidy should go to the family occupying the dwel- ling. “Urban renewal projects have to guarantee housing to those living in the area without extra cost. There should be close con- sultation with people involved. the matter of mutual consulta- tion and respect for human rights, makes it essential that labor has a voice in all decisions affecting conditions of work. But more than that, that labor extend this to the area of eco- nomic planning. “The present Tory adminis- tration can be defeated. In our opinion neither one or the other of the two capitalist parties— Tories and Liberals—will pro- vide security for the masses of the working people. The two parties are tied to monopoly, while the big corporate and fin- ancial moguls of Bay Street and Wall Street pay their bills. “The key to the defeat of the old parties in the coming elec- tion campaign is unity of the Left around an alternative poli- cy and platform that will rally ‘all those political forces who are opposed to big business and Ws polcies.-. “The growing radicalization and militancy that we see deve- loping in and around the econo- mic struggles, can be extended to political action. The crystal- hzation of such political action to defeat the Tories in Ontario will represent a turn to the left in Canadian politics. The possi- bilities for such a turn to the left is inherent in growing electoral support for the New Democra- tic Party and in the considerable gains made by our own party in the recent municipal elections across Canada. “This trend, which is still evi- dent and in fact growing, could conceivably give the NDP enough seats to form a govern- ment in this province after the forthcoming election. That is, in fact, the meaning behind the NDP slogan of ‘67 in 67! Our party sees this result as some- thing that will have to be work- ed for in a serious way in order to be achieved. “As far as our party is con- cerned we will certainly do what we can to facilitate the coming into being of such an al- ternative to the old capitalist parties in Ontario . ; “The real alternative in this 1967 election in Ontario is'a stronger and more united left based on unity of Communists and NDP supporters, trade unionists, farmers, middle class and professional people, inde- pendent businessmen and all who oppose the big monopoly interests. Such unity must. be anchored firmly on a working class foundation. : : “The next step forward must come through continued. public campaigning all across Ontario, with public discussion to gain a better understanding of labor’s aims. This, combined with pick- eting, meetings, demonstrations, mass lobbying of governments and a wide solidarity movement in support of every strike ac- tion, plus political action on labor’s -behalf, is the road to victory for labor and for a new and wider democracy in Can- ada... “The fact that the electoral support of the NDP has been growing is no guarantee that the NDP alone can win a majority of seats. In fact, the most likely way an NDP majority can be elected is if the Left forces unite on issues, and give criti- cal support to NDP candidates in proportion to their commit- ment to the common aims and objectives. Surrender to the proddings of bourgeois politi- cians, and their counter-posing of labor to the public, will only do harm to the NDP. “Our own platform will be distributed as widely as we can manage, as our contribution to the discussion and development of a common program of the left forces in the province. “Once we have decided to run in a constituency, we shal] con- centrate our efforts there with the view to breaking through on the electoral front in provincial politics once more.” The convention adopted a statement on the electoral poli- cy and platform and a plan for election campaigning. Bruce Magnuson was con- firmed as the party’s provincial leader and an Ontario commit- tee of 15 was elected. March 23, 1967—PACIFIC TRIBUNE—Page 7