y Remember the days when we dreamed of getting the wages we are going broke on now? ” FLASHBACKS FROM THE COMMUNIST PRESS 25 years ago... ‘BEWITCHING BED JACKET — CORAL’ News dispatch from Korea: “This armored column today took a little hamlet north of Anyang. ..anapalm raid hit the village three days ago . . . the in- habitants were caught and killed and kept in the exact posture they held when the napalm struck — a man about to getona bicycle, 50 boys,and girls playing in an orphanage ... “A housewife, strangely un- marked, was holding in her hand a page torn from a Sears- Roebuck catalogue crayoned at mail order number 3-811-294 for a $2.98 ‘bewitching bed jac- ket — coral’” Are we all becoming har- dened to the degeneration of » warfare into barbarism? What the effects will be on ourselves is something we might con- template. =, : Tribune, March 26, 1951 50 years ago... BRITISH JEWEL Profits averaging 90%. Wages averaging $60. per year. Women and children in the mills. Gov- ernment alcohol and opium joints in the mill areas. Government-policed women for sale in iron cages. These are some of the beauties of India, “brightest jewel in the Imperial diadem”, as reported by British labor men returning from there. They found mills with 400% di- vidends. Profits are eight times the wage bill. Women and girls get 90 cents a four-day week; young boys 55 cents. Fines are frequent, money-lenders live on bankrupt workers and charge 300%. Half the capital is British and management is wholly British. This is the jewel in the crown of British imperialism. : Worker, March 13, 1926 Profiicer of the week: Speaking of the Anti-inflation Board, did you hear the one about Steinberg’s Ltd.? Well, in 24 weeks ended Jan. 10 they made a tax- free profit of $12,237,000, up 105% from $4,631,000 in the same period a year earlier. That was despite a strike in December in Montreal. Miracle Mart Stores, part of the Steinberg stable, doubled its profit, Cartier Sugar Ltd. took “normal” profits, and the Ivanhoe real estate companies, also Stein-- berg’s, really made it the kind of anti- . inflationing that gets you right here, right? — Figures used are from the company’s financial statements. * show. | { | i if PRICES UP— AND MORE TO COME A Anti-inflation Board chairman, Jean-Luc Pepin, warned Mar. 10 prices may surge in the next few months as businessmen discover what they are entitled to under pay and price controls! At the same time the capitalist press was ecstatic over the fact that the cost-of-living index was only up to 145.6 in February compared to the 1971 base of 100. A new increase of 0.3% for February brought the 12-month jump to 9.1%. Put another way, the 1971 dollar is now worth 69 cents by government figuring. While wages are being slashed, housing, fuel, insurance and other basic needs are pushing the cost-of-living up, reports Pepin made his prediction of another price spurt following k Soeemneet scrapping of a plan to tax export profits. ay PACIFIC TRIBUNE—MARCH 26, 1976—Page 4 EIDIMORIAL COMIMIENT AIB is political weapon aimed at labor movemen The labor movement is demonstrating today the power of its unity, its solidarity, its will to battle that anti-labor monstrosi- ty, the so-called Anti-Inflation Board (ATB).S: . Evidence of labor’s increased political maturity strikes fear into the minds of the ruling class — the monopoly corpo- - rations, their governments and _ their union-hating press, radio.and TV. That the fight-back pays off was evi- dent when the AIB changed its mind, for example, about the University of To- ronto library workers (Canadian Union of Public Employees), and approved an additional 3.98% pay increase — fora . total of 16.48%, although still below the union’s demands. They would never have done that unless challenged. It is clear that workers will have to step up the fight against the AIB dictatorship, which abolishes trade union bargaining rights, and systematically drives down ' living standards. It will take intense pressure. on the AIB to make it keep its hands off negotiated settlements; but as the Cana- dian Labor Congress emphasizes, the overriding task of the labor movement is to Seine government to withdraw the iniquitous wage-cutting law. Apologists plead that if only the Anti- Inflation Act were made fairer to labor, it would be all right. How can an Act, con- ceived as a weapon against labor, be made fair to labor? It was devised by the enemies of labor, those who run the system that exploits ‘workers, to shift the cost of the present deep economic and political crisis onto the working people. Such a scheme can never be made fair! The government must be forced to withdraw the Anti-Inflation Act. That is the only answer. And that will be done, not because monopoly capitalism de- cides to play fair with the working class, -but because labor’s mass solidarity, fuel- led by outrage, convinces the govern- ment that further assaults on working people will bring bigger and increasingly militant responses. New Constitution. needed Moves to repatriate to Canada the British North America Act-— Canada’s Constitution, now residing in England — should be welcomed by all democratic Canadians. . Not all motives for favoring, or for opposing repatriation are. the same. ere are too generous amounts of hypocrisy, chauvinism, and just plain re- gional greed involved. There are those who argue for settling all differences among provinces before taking the risk of entrusting Canadians with their own Constitution, knowing such a debate could go on for years, while vested in- terests exploited-the present divisions. There are also genuine fears for the pro- tection of French Canada’s interests. Communists, who recognize and de- fend the two-nation nature of Canada, call for a new Constitution, as stated in the 1971 Party Program — The Road to Socialism in a a: “For many years now the Communist Party has put for- ‘ _ sions to mitigate regional inequality of Is it simply a fight against the Liberal | Government, faithful servant of the cor- porations? Is it just an economic battle against the bosses, who rob workers right | at the point of production, and again as | consumers? : é The truth is that workers are called | upon to wage a battle for life against the | political system of the Canadian and multi-national corporations. The charade of Liberal-Tory squabbles only | fogs the real aim, the beheading of labor’s promis struggle against state-— monopoly capitalism as a system. No- routine grievance procedure is going to_ stay the executioner’s axe. : History proves that monopoly | capitalism, unable to serve its masters” and fill the needs of the majority of the | people at the same time, uses first the | overnment, parliament, the press, then the police, the courts, prisons, and even | the army to try to enforce its decrees. | Immense tasks are on the horizon for workers and their organizations in plan- ning and directing Canadian society. On their shoulders will fall the responsibility for establishing an alternative to state- | monopoly capitalism, a system with rele- vance to achieving stable prices and liv- ing standards, jobs, homes, education, cultural and ethical norms, and a enuine international role for Canada, in cooperation with workers around the world, in muzzling the arms pushers. Along with its own strength, labor can win the ee of other anti-monopoly sections of society, and welcome them }- into a vast anti-monopoly front, with one | of its aims to send fighters for workers’ interests to parliament. As working people in their thousands _ demonstrate on Parliament Hill and ac- ross the country, stating their immediate |. and long range policies, the signs are | evident of the need for the working class | and all working people to participate” deeply in the running of this country, and to wrest it from the ruinous policies the monopoly profiteers. ward the proposal of a freely-negotiated new confederal pact between the two nas} tions, a new Canadian Constitution, | — based on the voluntary, equal partner: | ship of the two nations in a bi-national, sovereign and democratic state, as being | the best sovereignty solution in the in-| terests of the working people of both} — nations.” : x A new Constitution would arantee the democratic rights of all Canadians | through.a genuine Bill of Rights, provi | opportunity and living standards, and | control of the corporations who contri-_ bute to such inequality. In these days of growing attacks oD | labor and the democratic majority by powerful knots of the corporate elite, 4 | new Constitution to ensure the inviola- | bility of the rights of all Canadians, in the widest sense, as the rightful “owners” of Canada, is urgently needed.