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LABOR FRONT

BY WILLIAM KASHTAN

_ Steel's Director William Mahoney seems to have started
a new fad with his declaration at the Steel policy conference
that “strikes are obsolete’. True enough, he claimed since
that his remarks were misinterpreted, but a careful reading
of what he actually said leaves no doubt that this was in fact
the main burden of his remarks. ;

Interestingly enough, Tommy Douglas, national leader
of the New Democratic Party, came at it
another way when he addressed the CLC
convention. He declared then that in his
view “strikes are becoming increasingly un-
satisfactory” and then to clear up what he
meant by these remarks the Canadian Press
reports him as stating in Calgary on May
ist that “strikes are an obsolete weapon.
The role of labor has changed over the
years and strikes no longer serve the pur-
pose for which they were initiated.”

To top it off C. H. Millard, one time director of the Steel
union in Canada; added his views to the same question in an

interview with the press in Vancouver in which he declared ~

that “strikes in many cases really don’t solve problems.”
* * ES

At the other end of the line, N. R. Crump, chairman and
president of the CPR put in his two cents worth with the de-
claration that “there is an increasing belief that labor disputes
involving a service in industry should not be tolerated.”

Thus from various angles a studied effort is being made to
downgrade militant action by the workers.

What are the reasons given by Mahoney for advancing
this “new look” at labor’s wage and strike policy? According
to him it is the “increasing difficulties of conducting an effec-
tive and successful strike under the present economic condi-
tions and under existing legislation. The improved standard of
living and costly medical, hospital and ‘insurance benefits’
which most of our members now enjoy,” he said, “as well as
the increased cost of living, make strikes extremely expensive.
When we add to this the massive unemployment and other
incentives to legal strike-breaking, strikes have become ex-
tremely difficult. Until the political rules of the game are
changed, the cards appear to be stacked against successful
striking. We must renew our efforts and give a great deal
more thought to our search for alternative measures.”

Mahoney didn’t spell out what these ‘alternative meas-
ures” were. But the reasons given for declaring strikes obso-
lete hold no water whatsoever.

No one denies that monopoly uses ‘its economic and
political power to attack labor. But that is not a particu-
larly new phenomenon. No one denies the fact that unem-
ployment is used as a “hunger weapon” to break strikes. But
that too is not particularly new. Mahoney may not know it
but in the difficult conditions of the “dirty thirties”, the
workers. organized, the workers struck and the workers
won-their strikes. And this has likewise been the case in
the post war period

* * *

Mahoney ought to know these facts quite well. What
then motivates him in his views? What motivates Douglas
and Millard as well as some other trade union leaders? -_-

Part of it has to do with the federal elections and the
“jmage” which right wing trade union leaders and some
leaders of the New Democratic Party are trying to create
about that party. Part of it is a calculated effort at playing
down the economic struggle and playing up the political
struggle. But to compartmentalize them instead of uniting
them and thereby helping the workers understand the
need for united action on the economic as well as the
political arena, is to make a parody of independent labor
political action. .

Part of it has to do with the miserable performance of
the right wing in some strikes in the steel industry and
their failure to give effective assistance to those on strike.
Mahoney was looking for a scapegoat and found it in the
declaration that ‘strikes are obsolete.”’

Implicit in such an approach is an acceptance of wage
freezing and arbitration. This approach will obviously be
welcomed by monopoly which has been clamoring for wage
freezes and for sacrifices by the workers in face of sharpen-
ing competition within the capitalist world market, of which
the devaluation of the dollar is a reflection. “It fits in with
the concept of government regulation of wages based on
national productivity, another variation of wage freezing
which is now the policy of the Kennedy Administration.

* * *

This is not the kind of wage and hours policy the work-
ers need and it is good that some Steel locals have condemn-
ed this “new look” on strikes as enunciated by Mahoney.

Workers do not take strike action lightly. They are not
addicts of adventurist policies. They know the cost of strikes
to themselves and their families. But they also know that
once the strike weapon is given up the employers will gouge
them, undermine their living standards, destroy their un-
ions. That is why they are not likely to buy Mahoney's Pig
in a poke.

However, his remarks and those of other right wing
leaders should serve as a warning that unless the rank and
file unites around militant policies, it might be taken to the
‘cleaners.

GUNS DRAWN. Montreal provincial police-
men are shown with guns drawn to keep
200 Teamster strikers at bay while the
transport company attempts fo run scab
trucks from the garage. Despite Steel head

ATTENTION BROTHER MAHONEY

picket line.

Mahoney’s declaration that “strikes |
solete’” the transport company boss!
tinue to reject compromise prop
ing the teamsters to hold firm

oe

Communists step up campaig

Communist Party cam-
paigning in the Federal elec-
tion got underway in earnest
this week, with three public
rallies addressed by National
Leader Leslie Morris and the
Party’s three candidates in
B.C. Distribution of leaflets
also got a start with an esti-
mated 43,000 pieces of print-
ed materials having been
moved to date. ~

In Vancouver-East a big
truck float advertising the
Communist position on the
Columbia River issue took to
the streets, as supporters of
Communist candidate Tom
McEwen distributed leaflets
on the sidewalks calling for
a public hearing for General
McNaughton and an all-Cana-
dian power grid. Vancouver-
East Constituency announced
opening of Campaign Com-
mittee Rooms at 2173 Dundas
(corner of Dundas and Tem-

Health

Cont'd from page 7

people organized by the old
line parties and supported by
rightist organizations in the
province, and it must be de-
feated! \

The resignation of Walter
Erb will not fool the people.

parties, in using the doctors
and medicare plan as scape-
goats, were able to rally con-
siderable opposition should
be a lesson to the government.

The government should
have taken the people into its
confidence. Instead of rush-
ing legislation through the
House, it would have been
much better to hold public
meetings explaining details
of the plan so that any mis-
understandings could have
been cleared up.

The government’s failure
to find sources of income
other than a regressive sales
tax created much resentment
of which the Liberals took
advantage. 3

Above all, the whole fight
shows up the need for the
greatest unity of all progres-
sive forces in the fight
against reaction.

TEA AND BAZAAR
A tea and bazaar to assist
Native Indians while in Van-
couver will be held Sat., May
26, 2 to 5 p.m. at the YWCA,
Dunsmuir and Burrard.
Proceeds will go towards
an Indian centre.

pleton), Phone AL 3-9733.

Thursday night. Vancouver-
East election workers will
meet in Clinton Hall for. leaf-
let distribution; and Vancou-
»ver South in the Polish Hall,
Victoria Drive.

Last Saturday afternoon
Comox-Alberni election work-
ers met at Parksville Com-

munity Hall, where Nigel
Morgan, B.C. leader of the
Communist Party, reported

on the recent National Com-
mittee meeting and plans for
the campaign of Communist
candidate Mark Mosher were
completed.
VOTERS LIST

Preliminary lists of electors
are now completed and posted
on telephone poles in each
polling division. Qualified to

vote are Canadian

subjects, 21 years of
or before election
dent in Canada for ©
and in the constitue™
registered on the day
was issued calling
tion. :
Applications to b
the list of elector
made on Form 17 @

of the individual, a”
tion (Form 16) to rem
name appearing 0?
liminary list that is
erly qualified can be
the Court of Revis o
sits on the 9th, 10th?
day before Polling fs
your candidate if y
included.

Island workers robt :
charges Mark Mos!"

Communist candidate Mark Mosher, speaking i
the Courtenay Elks Hall and Alberni’s Eric Graf H@
out at Tory and Liberal foreign and trade policie
are robbing workers of this riding of jobs and securit

Reviewing the grave effects of Britain joining :
pean Common Market and denouncing devaluation
adian dollar, Mosher, who is the CP standard bearer i

Alberni, declared:

: “Neither of the old line parti i s!
The fact that the old line the problems of working ge Se

“We've got to find alternative markets, and I wil!
bring to Island wocdworkers, fishermen and all Can
dustries the same advantages the prairie farmers got |
sale of 400 million bushels: of wheat to the People’s

of China,” he pledged.

NO COLD WAR AT COLD NORTH POLE. This pb
is liable to make Dr. Adenauer livid with rage. It
flags of the GDR, Soviet Union, United States and
slovakia at the Soviet Polar station at Mirny wh

of these four countries are cooperating in scientifi
Despite all this, “Der Alte’ continues to insist that *
Democratic Republic does not exist.

_ May 18, 1962—

PACIFIC TRIBL