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Labor’s call:

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FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 8, 1968

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INTERIOR CIVIC WORKERS STRIKE. Kelowna civic workers are shown picketing outside city hall during recent
council meeting. The Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE), which represents civic workers in 13
Okanagan municipalities, charged recently that there is a deliberate plan to weaken or destroy CUPE in this
Grea. See full story on page 12.

After the bombing halt:
pull out all U.S. troops

The Central Executive of the Communist
Party of Canada last Friday issued the following
Statement on President Johnson’s order to halt
the bombing and bombardment of North
Vietnam:

“President Johnson’s decision to stop the
bombing of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam
is a tribute to the heroism of the Vietnamese
people backed by the moral and material support
of the socialist countries.

“World wide pressure and particularly the
growing mass opposition of democratic people in
the United States finally compelled him to take
that step. The step which could have been taken
much earlier thereby saving the lives of countless
Vietnamese victims of the bombing.

While the U.S. elections have much to do with
that decision the fact that President Johnson has
finally decided to stop the bombing opens up a
new phase of the struggle, that of compelling the
U.S. to withdraw from South Vietnam and
making it possible for the Vietnamese people to
determine their own destiny free from outside
interference.

“This struggle may well be a protracted one.
Its outcome will be determined not only by
negotiations in Paris and elsewhere but by the
ever growing pressure of public opinion in
Canada as throughout the world. Any lessening of
pressure by the peace forces of our country will
only help the hawks who are still trying to
manoeuvre out of an impasse they themselves
created.

“U.S. imperialism has suffered a severe
defeat. It must now be compelled to draw the
necessary conclusions, its complete withdrawal
from South Vietnam and South East Asia.”

In the U.S. the Communist Party hailed the
bombing halt as a victory for the peace forces. A
statement issued by the Party said: ‘“‘Now the
demand must register on Washington to
completely end the war and BRING OUR
TROOPS HOME BY CHRISTMAS!”

The National Liberation Front this week re-
leased a statement outlining a 5-point program
which it will present at the Paris talks.

VOL. 29, NO. 43

LL 33’

By TOM McEWEN

From the opening session of the B.C. Federation of
Labor convention, meeting in the Vancouver Hotel this
week, it became obvious that opposition to restrictive
labor legislation would dominate the proceedings. After
heated debate the 415 delegates representing 141,192
members, unanimously agreed ‘‘that all unions refuse to
comply with the Commission’s request’’ for copies of
collective agreements and other information.

In his opening address BCFL
president E.T. Staley indicated
that a great deal of attention
would be focussed upon labor’s
fight against. the Socred govern-
ment’s anti-labor Bill 33 and its
Mediation Commission,
designed to impose compulsory
arbitration upon B.C. labor and
infringe on the principle of free
collective bargaining.

In his address, the BCFL
president drew attention to a
number of royal commission
reports which, because of their
modestly progressive char-
acter, had been ignored by ‘“‘this
government’.

Vancouver’s Mayor Tom
Campbell in his shortest speech
on record, ‘‘welcomed the BCFL
convention delegates to
Vancouver and wished them luck
in their deliberations’. Other
than that Mayor Campbell said
nothing, probably because the
guest speaker to follow him was
the leader of the California
grape strikers, Farm Workers
Union secretary, Tony

NGUYEN THI BINH, 41 year old
woman leader of the National
Liberation Front, will head South
Vietnam’s NLF delegation to the
Paris peace talks.

Orendaine. (During the summer
Mayor Campbell had gone to
California to ‘‘investigate’’ the
grape strike and boycott for
himself).

Obviously under the guidance
of State Governor Ronald
Reagan and the powerful grape
monopoly growers, Mayor
Campbell had not met grape
workers like Tony Orendaine
who has to maintain his wife and
five children on a $1.40 a day, or
other Farm Workers Union
organizers, fighting for trade

union organization and free ~

collective bargaining on a
“salary”’ of four dollars a week,
the while ‘‘running the gauntlet”’
of monopoly police and the
Reagan Establishment to boot.
At the end of his stirring and
revealing address, Tony
Orendaine received a standing
ovation from the convention.

At the conclusion of his
address to the convention NDP
national leader, now a candidate
for Nanaimo-The Islands,
Douglas also received a standing
ovation from the delegate body.
Douglas centered his address
mainly around the recent Benson
budget and its disastrous effects
upon the economy, as well as
upon the tax burdens and rising
living costs on the lower income
brackets, meantime placing a
ceiling on the increased taxation
as it applies to the rich.

From the many resolutions
which have already come before
the convention, the high points
of debate have centered around
those dealing with Bill 33, the
issue of peace, housing,
education (costs and curricula)
trade union unity and building.
etc. -
In his opening address on the
issue of housing, president
Staley said, “it is difficult to
understand how a country can
afford to spend over one and one
half billion dollars on an absolete

See LABOR, pg. 12