Se none |

QUEBEC SCENE

Will French Canada reflect changes in work

‘Quebec Federation of Labor
Confederation of Nation
Unions, the Catholic #%
Union, the student 018
tions, the now divid xe
small socialist groups 1
New Democratic Party,
ti Socialiste du Quebe¢,
munist Party, together
mocratic and socialist naut

Canada’s economy, and stressed
that a program of independent
economic development directed
against the power of the mono-
polies is of immediate, acute im-
portance in French Canada.

“Some 40 percent of the un-
employed of Canada are in
French Canada. Nowhere has
the distortion of our economy
into a producer of raw materials
or semi-processed goods for the

nous’ is so closely linked with
the struggle against monopoly
domination. Each of these
streams of revolutionary strug-
gle reinforces the other.

“Under very heavy pressure
from the people the Quebec gov-
ernment has worked out an eco-
nomic program which has the
declared purpose of eliminating”
unemployment and developing -
Quebec as a really modern in-
dustrial land. The nationalizing
of the largest hydro-electric
companies was the key to this
program, and for that matter of
any program of planning for in-
dustrial development. For with-
out the control of power, there
is no control whatsover.

mon. inspiration,” Walsh con-
tinued.

“Most especially the young
people are openly declaring that
national emancipation is impos-
sible without social emancipa-
tion. Many young nationalists
actively participate in the peace
movements. They are losing
faith in the bourgeois and petty
bourgeois nationalists who seek
for every means to satisfy the

How are the changes in the
world reflected in French Can-
ada? How is monopoly capital
developing its attacks on the
people of Quebec? What is the
significance of the 1:ational libe-
ration movement in Quebec?
What sections of the people of
French Canada are moving into
struggle against monopoly capi-
tal, against U.S. and Anglo-
Canadian control?

These questions as well a3
others of key importance were
examined by the Ouebec con-
vention of the Communist Party

of Canada, held a fortnight ago
in Montreal.

Purpose of the convention was
not only to examine problems
but to evolve a plan of action
for Communists to play a more
effective role in the mass move-
ments of the people to change
the political, economic and social
conditions in French Canada in
the interests of the people.

“The struggle for national self-
determination in French Canada
is growing ever deeper and is
developing more and more revo-
lutionary social significance,”
said Sam Walsh. in his keynote
address for the CPC’s provincial
committee.. 2

“Even though Canada is an
advanced capitalist country, the
struggle for national liberation
of the French Canadian people

_ is now part of the great world-
wide struggle of the oppressed
peoples for self-determination; a
struggle that has still to be won
in the Americas and for which

socialist Cuba is now the com-

wi

tional coalition could ie
a minimum program =
political action to put forwat
alternative to the bourgee
cies of the Lesage one ve
and the reactionary a? 0 al
gogic Union Nationale.
coalition of this breadth ‘
fer the people of Quebet
democratic alternative ©—
present time.” :
To bring such a coalition
being requires in the *
unity in the ranks of th
ist groups, Walsh stress©
in turn requires “frank aM
less discussion among ©.
cialist and labor forces”
out seeking narrow patl
vantage.”

SAM WALSH, Quebec secretary
of the Communist Party, calls for
a democratic, left-bloc coalition
as a genuine, progressive alterna-
tive to the Lesage regime.

“But the method of financing
this undertaking, by means of
high interest foreign loans,
means that the people will pay
‘for it in higher taxes and in for-
eign control .. .”

national aspirations except the
fundamentally important ones:
the unequivocal right to self-
determination and the nationali-
zation of the great monopolies
whose profits could supply the
capital for the industrialization
of Quebec and the vast social
and educational reforms that are
the subject of the slogans of
every demonstration and strike
_in French Canada. =
“Hence the struggle for the
emancipation of French Canada
leads directly into the struggle
for socialism, and is linked to
the struggle for peace and Can-
adian independence as well.”

Walsh went on to discuss the
fight against U.S. domination of

/

U.S. been more marked than
here. :

“The standard of living is low-
er in Quebec than the average
in English Canada, and the cost
of living is higher.

Walsh analysed the role of
the Lesage government and con-
cluded that its objectives are
now becoming apparent—the de-
velopment of Quebec as an ad-
vanced state-monopoly capitalist
province of Canada. “In pursuing _
this objective it is prepared to
sacrifice the national interest as
well as the interests of the work-’
ers, the farmers, the students,
the teachers, the women.”

“The long, reactionary regime
of the Union Nationale under
Duplessis was so cynical and
corrupt, that it used nationalist
sentiment as a cover for the
crudest sellout of our natural
resources in the direct interests
of favored monopolists, U.S. and
Canadian, to the detriment of
the development of industry and
education as a whole.

“Tt is for this reason that the
struggle to become ‘maitres chez

Although today there is no
genuine progressive alternative
to the Lesage government, there
could be, Walsh said. —

“What is needed is.a left-bloc;
a democratic coalition of the

the trustees on workin8
deal out, it is now / ;
realize that as long ®
unacceptable to ee
union movement, !
possibly work. ;

This may explain
: concludes its editor
: stating “in the light

3 On the
labor front

SIU deal may not come off

¢

By WILLIAM KASHTAN

HEN Hal Banks was re-
moved as president of
the SIU in Canada and

the proposal made that he be
replaced by Leonard Mc-
Laughlin, this column point-
ed out that it meant a deal
had been made between the
- government trustees and Paul
Hall of the SIU of North
America — presumably with
the blessings of the Canadian
and U.S. governments, George
Meany of the AFL-CIO and
some officers of the Canadian
trade union movement. The
deal — Banks was to be
traded for peace on the
waterfront.
What was clear to most
people has now been under-

written by the Globe and —

Mail which, in an editorial
entitled “Change of Course,”
‘states that “the first major
step toward cleaning up the
‘SIU in Canada was taken in
March when the trustees re-
moved Harold C. Banks from
the presidency. The trustees

then pursued their second

objective by making a deal
with Mr. Paul Hall, the U.S.
president of the SIU, which
was intended to prevent him
declaring a war of revenge
on Canadian shipping.

Part of the price of this
peace, announced in a joint
statement last month, was
that: “immediate steps will
be taken to restore the SIU
of Canada to the constitu-
tional control of its mem-
bers. Constitutional provi-
sions for the succession to
the presidency of the SIU in
Canada will be implemented
as a first step in restoring
membership control.”

What the trustees, _ the
government and Hall over-
looked was the feeling of
Canadian trade _ unionists,
who saw in this deal capitu-
lation to U.S. pressures and
a retreat from the autonomy
and sovereignty of the Can-
adian trade union movement.

A large number of dele-
gates went to the 5th Con-

stitutional Convention of the
Canadian Labor Congress
with blood in their eyes, de-
termined
deal and the CLC officers for
having remained silent about
it.

The CLC _ officers, con-
scious of this sentiment, were
compelled to issue a supple-

mentary statement during
the early part of the con-
vention in which they de-
clared that “it (the CLC) was
not a party to the agreement,
nor is the Congress bound in
any way by its provisions. It

was an understanding be-

tween SIU President Hall and
the Trustees alone, and its
shortcomings are also fully
recognized. In so far as the
integration of the member-
ship of affiliates of the Con-
gress with other unions is
concerned, the Congress po-
sition is that no integration
will be acceptable which in-
volves transfer of a single
member to an unaffiliated or-
ganization.” — ane

to condemn the.

This supplementary state-
ment helped to clarify CLC
policy but it did not appease
or satisfy the delegates.

For this reason Executive
President Dodge was com-
pelled to state, during the
debate on the officers’ report
when it touched upon the
maritimes crisis, that “we
‘will never be content and
will never accept into the
CLC a union that has as its
officers the kind of people
who are now officers of that
organization” (the SIU).

Charles Millard, the labor
man on the trusteeship was
present during that debate.
He left when the debate con-
cluded, if not a happier, per-
haps a wiser man, <

It should have been clear
to him then that the trade
union movement was not
prepared to buy this deal.
The Globe and Mail has like-
wise come around to this po-
sition. Having commended

ada. Indeed, they ma

developments, the | e
must surely reconsid :
wisdom of allowing *
Laughlin to assume the
sidency of the SIU

d tho

dy be having secon

for whereas the 4!

installed officially al {
‘dent and there is SU”
for a change.”

Yes, there is still ti

a change, but it must
in which the rank and.
the seamen are involV’
in which there is c09P”
by all seamen’s unio
ticularly in negotiati”
the shipowners, one i?
the groundwork is
for a federation of *

unions, based on
policies, with democt
autonomy fully assure
Let us hope tha th!

_ ter of the trustees W2?’
be called “the deal Ww?”
not come off.”

_

ae

May 15, 1964—PACIFIC TRIBUNE