: By ALAIN PATRIE a € the last of the French Pons? RObert Bourassa, the Jontler_ of aSt fo ; Quebec, remembers e ’ aa and learns nothing. ged A Quebec city, a be- ith his Ocrat, taking counsel ding Ministers and then fy ‘and he advice of his Oquette fe sheriff, Jerome Dadeq ie sends helicopters mrying Provincial police an off across the province in 0 t to smash every attempt e w . $ in pone people to ex- 3 at itis u in nprecedent- iS devel of working-class f si days and would have Sr the eta if it was not in G Uberats” blows of the t se, A MS ta be axiomatic for Held ‘Pperg Political power to q TOmul ‘iD ee Batio: isn, arrogance and ab- heay Liberal B0v Sa round ernment’s iron down first with the N of Biil 19, a vicious J MOVES the €gislation which re- i Tight to strike and e ), Neotia B0vernment to set- ( “Ver; os the ‘tbh’ of autocracy i : Ve b TY this makes of collec- potas atk. It is ae With 2: It is a pening town i those tt Tains an Mock, tions by decree. What Another uns and democracy! RO emment oY dealt by the Ng the nits delight at dis- V the; cnt attempt to de- «The ovOns by the judicia- (Do co th the yUmS lashed out at ( Sats “imo and provincial ng havoc with ated fines and ' Wreaki °Usly ing nat Measted —— Where the t. Lawrence the town of €s on the North- tow Be iton, Nn truly shod hen ; The earth reddens fang © Ja ‘€ shopping for lies in the ‘Quebec n : re astituting organ- meet ve ardy group in Of the DB to qin cK they held iNeargg cuebec SCuss the action eir leaders and Cy : “tla . vernment which ar a unions. ci peating in describ- -§ Tupelo, “ti Salvo of this labor Common Front held wing tel the oY 4 elegram wa Be, CFL 4, 7, the officers of Femier Robert lo? Ont Q ebec, m 0 ber, Teo? Federation of "dant, Presenting 700,000 stron, ners, Protests in trageliling Possible terms Uced by your '‘Ncompatible Thousands accom severe jail penalties. The three Common Front leaders. were sentenced to one year in prison. A righteous glow seemed to spread through the Establish- ment as it viewed the shambles it had created. A general strike smashed, injunctions issued like machinegun bullets, labor’s lead- ers in prison, unions burdened with infiated fines, democracy trampled in the dust, collective bargaining dishonored and all settlements by decree. What could labor do? The Quebec working class was not only reeling from the concerted drive to smash it but More than 2,000 men, fired by mass indignation, boiled out of the Palais des Sports arena and scattered through the town. Some went directly to city hall and_ police headquarters to de- monstrate their feelings. Others took over the radio station CKCN and__ broadcast these words: “The workers’ commit- tee of Sept-Iles asks all shop- keepers, service station owners and other business men to close. Parents, keep your children at home; there will be no school tomorrow.” Never since the year 1919 had Canada heard such declarations. The airport at Sept-Iles was in the hands of the workers. No plane could land or take off. The road was barricaded by scoop- ing out great gullies of earth with bulldozers and the town was effectively sealed off. Quebec provincial police had to be brought in by helicopters 24 hours later when the full ex- tent of the activities became known. And even as the helicop- ters landed they had to take off, again as home-made bombs ex: ploded _ their fiery contents nearby. The Mayor of Sept-Iles was quoted as saying that the only action which could restore order was the immediate release of the three jailed union leaders. Five hundred miles to the southwest of Sept-lles, indig- nant workers in the town of St. pany the leaders of the Common Front on their way to prison. as well continued to suffer from the continuous blows of pover- ty. It must be underlined that even while living costs sky- rocketed, wages remained either frozen or even reduced in re- lative terms. Imposed against this back- drop was another picture for Quebec business. It is projected that for manufacturing income, after tax, profit should increase this year by $360 million. All this is helped by the reduction in the maximum rate of tax | from 49 to 40 percent. Thus it was that last week a meeting was held in Sept-Iles by Jerome, the gateway to the Laurentians and the heart of unemployed Quebec, seized the radio station CKJL for almost two days. They broadcast news items which truthfully explain- ed the labor situation and then played music of their own choice. The music was revolu- tionary. In the eastern part of Quebec the town of Thetford Mines was aralyzed by a general strike. In the towns of Murdochville and Gagnon further up river an estimated 7,000 workers walked off their jobs for 24 hours in protest against the jailing of union leaders. In Montreal and Three peat , ts and harbors were a Se aawh by a wildcat strike which included Jongshoremen and even pilots. In the Metropolis itself every ublishing newspaper was shut down solidly for 24 hours. Not a printed sheet could be had in Montreal. : se er a special meeting Of its ine anal; the Quebec Federation of Labor said it ap- proved all protest actions and walkouts. It said the goal ve retraction of Bill 19 and genera amnesty for those who were jailed. p i the Mon- Acting on calls from : treal Council of the Confedera nal Trade Unions : tio tion of Na Michel Chartran fe and its leader some 2,000 unionized workers which set about closing down the entire town as a concrete demonstration of how they felt about the government’s actions towards labor. Not so incredibly, the same emotions surged in the breasts of organized workers through- out the province. Thetford Mines launched a general strike; in St. Jerome the strikers seized the radio station and: broadcast explanations for its side of the struggle, They condemned Bill 19 and the boundless persecu- . tion of labor by the Quebec Liberals. In Montreal every the entire construction industry in Montreal ground to a halt. Tools were gathered up at the construction sites and workers headed for home. Nothing was built in the city for two days. There were scattered reports of schools closing in the sub- urbs. All the blue collar munici- pal workers of Montreal, rang- ing from garbage collection to road maintenance, went on strike. Hospitals closed as many of the workers went out on stu- dy sessions. At the Notre Dame hospital riot squad police charg- ed into the corridors to evict 300 striking employees. An eerie sensation crept into the public as more and more reports came in concerning the incredible responses by the workers of Quebec. A mood of elation and gaiety character- ized mass meetings in Montreal and elsewhere. Militancy _be- came contagious, At the Paul Sauve arena in Montreal there was nothing but talk of a gen- eral strike. As the crisis mounted, news about the split in the Quebec cabinet was announced. This was quickly followed by the re- moval of Jean Paul L’Allier as civil service minister to be replaced by Jean Cornoyer, minister of labor. An astounding and struggle- filled week had come to pass in Quebec. newspaper was closed down for one day. Wildcat strikes ap- peared in schools and construc- tion. The ports of Three Rivers and Montreal closed for a day. The city’s blue collar workers went on strike. By now the not so complacent Liberal cabinet was feeling the heat of the workers’ wrath. It would be naive to divorce the threatened resignations from the cabinet of Castonguay, the social service minister, and L’Allier, the minister of civil service from the labor unrest. Admittedly the crisis was compounded. On the one hand, Trudeau’s government in Ot- tawa had dealt a severe blow to Claude Castonguay’s plans for welfare in Quebec. One must recall the Castonguay-Nepveu report which declared once and for all that Quebec’s unique destiny must be low incomes. Note: what Dominique Clift of the Montreal Star says: “While social aid benefits are too low for those who receive them, their levels are beginning to outstrip what the economy is able to pay in wages. A sub- stantial proportion of workers in this province with three or, . four children, find that their take home pay is lower than what they might be able to draw in the form of social aid. For purely economic reasons many are driven to quit their jobs in order to become eligible for so- cial aid payments . . . Because of the relative low wages paid in Quebec, the situation is close to becoming unmanageable.” On the other hand, Jean-Paul L’Allier complained _ bitterly about his “delicate negotiation” regarding salaries. How could L’Allier in good faith insist on public service wages remaining lower than welfare payments? Again the Star: “One reason Quebec wants to avoid basic welfare payments getting too high is the fear that they might make it more practical for some people to accept welfare than to work for low wages.” The tumult now resounding about the government’s smug ears is taking its toll. The crisis and the cracks once foretold are now appearing. Like Nixon, the Bourassa government has boxed itself into a cul-de-sac. The only weapon is “law and order.” A law which is issued by a short- sighted client court, and order administered by an = arrogant minister of justice who packs a pistol. There can be no prospect for improvement for Quebec work- ers other than through their own struggles. Significantly, one of the most recent mass meetings held in Montreal heard resolutions from the employees of Steinberg’s and Marche Union, Quebec Fed- eration of Labor locals, calling for the immediate implementa- tion of plans to organize a new political party of labor in Quebec. < The struggles are continuing. The workers demand a minimum weekly salary of $100, the pros- pect of new jobs, the elimina- tion of Bill 19 and the release from prison_of all labor leaders. At the current rate of in- crease, world population in the ae 2000 will exceed 6,000 mil- on. PACIFIC TRIBUNE " FRIDAY, MAY 19,1972 “PAGES