We Posh ae

A hot political summer ahead

By PHYLLIS ROSNER

ROME

Italy has a new government,
of sorts, but the crisis which
followed the May general elec-
tion will not thus be ended. On
the contrary, we can expect a
hot political summer.

For the Centre-Left parties—
Christian Democrats, Socialists
and Social Democrats now join-
ed together with the United So-
cialist Party, and the Republicans
—those election results were a
big blow. They had hoped to see
a fall in the vote of the Left,
but they must have been bitterly
disappointed.

The real fall came in the vote
of the United Socialist Party, the
P.S.U., whose poll ‘sunk by a
quarter. That of the Left oppo-
sition, on the other hand, rose
once again. Between them the
Communists and Left-wing So-
cialists polled over ten million

~ votes, or over 30 percent of the

total.

Trying to ignore the will of
the people, the Christian -Demo-
crats immediately set about try-
ing to reform a Centre-Left
coalition. So far they have failed
as, for the time being, the majo-
rity of the P.S.U. leadership is
holding out.

'The man who has formed the
new caretaker government is
Christian Democrat Senator Gio-
vanne Leone, commonly known
as the “baby-sitter,” because he
is always called upon by the
Right in times of crisis.

Five years ago he formed a
government during a political
crisis. He was fished out again
by the Christian Democrats to
stand as Presidential candidate
in 1964; and he has now been
brought to the fore to form a
caretaker government to give
time for further horse-trading
and pressure on the P.S.U. to
re-enter the government.

The aim is a caretaker Christ-
ian Democratic government of

the Right of this party, and to
keep this shaky construction in

_ power until the P.S.L. is due to

hold its congress.

alf dewhurst

After 72 days of strike, Mas-
sey-Ferguson workers won a pay
increase ranging from 67 to 97
cents per hour, forcing the com-
pany to come within eight cents
an hour of U.S. workers’ pay.
The union says that the wage
gap was closed by 40 cents an
hour.

Company Officials dispute this
claim, asserting there was no
move towards parity at all. The
company’s reaction is not sur-
prising for they had made the
wage parity demand a do-or-die
issue. .

It ‘would be useful to recall
Massey-Ferguson’s threat on the
eve of the strike, when they
wrote their employees that “The
results of wage parity would be
unavoidable. Within two months
of wage parity settlement we
would have to announce the first
phase-out of operations in Can-
ada.”

The scandalous attitude tow-
ards Canada on the part of this
big corporation enjoying the
benefits of a free trade agree-
ment between this country and

The C.D. and the Right wing
of the P.S.U. hope that, by then,
they can reverse the majority
vote in the leadership, of the
United Socialist Party to remain
outside the government.

Five years of constant conces-
sions to the Christian Democrats,
of cutting down on the original
government programme, five
years of a constant move to the
Right—this is the story of the
P.S.U. The price paid was bitter,
as election results underline.

About 60 percent of the pre--
sent P.S.U. leadership has held
out against forming a new Cen-
tre-Left coalition, not because
they are against this type of gov-
ernment but because they are
seeking better ‘conditions for
seeking it than have hitherto
been offered.

The Left, about 15 percent,
argues it would be better for the '
party to go into opposition and
establish new relations with the
Communists, etc.

The ministerial wing, headed
by party chairman Pietro Nenni,
representing about 25 percent,
wants the P.S.U. in the govern-
ment no matter what the cost.

In fact, the ministerial group
wants the government to fall so
that it can argue with their
P.S.U. colleagues that there is
no possible alternative but to
enter a Centre-Left government
once again. :

Their plans, however, com-
pletely ignore the situation in
the country. Many sections of
the population are seething with
unrest—the university students
and numerous important catego-
ries of industrial workers.

There are the pensioners, land-
workers faced with still greater
difficulties following the Com-
mon Market agreement on stan-
dardization of prices for certain
products, and many other cate-
gories. :

For all these groups the five
years of Centre-Left govern-
ment has brought no real or

far-reaching improvements. They
want a change in policy and are
prepared to fight for it, as recent

demonstrations have shown.

The manoeuvres and behind-
the-scenes negotiations between
the Centre-Left parties have
been sharply attacked by both
the Communists and the Left-
Wing Socialists.

Addressing his central com-
mittee, Communist Party secre-
tary Luigi Longo pointed out
that the election results were a
defeat for the P.S.U., for the
Centre-Left and its policy.

“This coalition has therefore
neither the political nor moral
authority to govern the country,
also because its various compo-
nents cannot even agree among
themselves on an _ acceptable
government,” he said.

A Leone government would
be a waste of time for Italy.
Such a government would be im-
potent. And precisely because of
its impotence it would constant-
ly be tempted to use police me-
thods and thus exacerbate al-
ready existing social tensions.

The elections showed that the
broad mass of the people desired
new political solutions. This was
why all Left forces, both lay and
Catholic, must unite.

“Irrespective of the differences
we Communists still have with
many of the socialist groups op-
posed to a continuation of the
Centre-Left, the Party must con-
tinue to develop fraternal links
in order to study together the
possibilities of collaboration, be
it only on certain issues,” Longo
urged.

The Italian Communists were
fighting for a socialist society
for a progressive socialist de-
mocracy for a young and mod-
ern type of socialism prepared
to receive ideas and support
from various forces within a
pluralist society.

For the Left-wing Socialists
Dario Valori observed, “‘We have
underlined our firm opposition
to any government which behind
the cover of being a caretaker
government in fact represents a
move to elude the pressing prob-
lems of the country.

—Morning Star

Place ‘
Ft. William-Port Arthur
Sault Ste Marie
Timmins

Sudbury

Ottawa -
Kingston”
Peterborough
Windsor

London

Hamilton

St. Catharines

PUBLIC HEARINGS SCHEDULE
Schedule of Public Hearings of the Select Committee of
‘the Legislature at the Report of the Ontario Committee on
Taxation (Smith Committee Report)
Date

July 29
July 30
July 31

August
August

August .

August
August
August
August
August

Time

9.30
9.30
9.30
9.30
9:30
9.30
9.30
9.30
9.30
9.30
9.30

a.m.
a.m.
a.m.
a.m.
a.m.
a.m.
a.m.
a.m.
a.m.
a.m.
a.m.

“My feet were killing me.”

Massey-Ferguson

and wage parity —

~ PACIFIC TRIBUNE—JULY 12, 1968—Page 4

the U.S.A., was tactically un-
derscored by the federal and On-
tario governments. Proof of
their attitude is the fact that
neither of these governments ut-
tered one word of public pro-
test against Massey-Ferguson’s
arrogant threat.

The company advanced this
line of closure from the very
commencement of negotiations.
It was taken up and trumpeted
far and wide by the big news
media. Editorial writers for the
dailies, some economists and
other apologists for a low-wage
Canadian economy, subordinat-
ed to the U.S. trusts, turned
wage parity into a dirty phrase.

Consequently, one of the big
gains of the M-F strike has to be
the winning of the clause in the
agreement for the continuation
by the company of their Cana-
dian operations for the period
of the contract.

This clause has significance
for almost all industries subsidi-
ary to U.S. parent companies.
For the battle for wage parity
has only opened up and, whether
it be under the banner of parity
or not, it will not be won in any

one single round. A good case in
point is that of the settlements
with the Big Three in auto.
Canadian auto workers are still
‘behind those in the U.S. if the
seven percent discount in the
Canadian dollar is taken into ac-
count. There can be no doubt
that this disparity will come to
the fore in the next round of
contract talks.

It can be safely assumed that
the question of production costs
vis a vis Canada and the U.S.A.
will be trotted out at almost
every set of negotiations where
wage parity comes to the fore.
And these alleged differences
will be used in the same black-
guard fashion as Massey-Fer-
guson used them. There will be
similar threats of closure, mov-
ing to the U.S. and so on. For
industry in Canada, much of
which is U.S. controlled or own-
ed, wants to keep this country
, as a low wage area for the pur-
pose of reaping exorbitant
super-profits. Therefore, they
will fight the concept of wage
parity with the U.S. industrial
heartland by every possible
“means.

For these companies, and
their economic experts, “costs
of production” translate into
worker productivity. And they
use their own yardstick to inter-
pret productivity figures to
serve their ends. The labor

“movement needs, of course, to

examine such figures from the
workers’ point of view.

In this connection the U.E.
Research Bulletin for July, 1968
publishes an interesting study.
A chart on the annual change in
real output per man-hour shows
that productivity increases at a
faster pace in Canada than in
the U.S.A. In the 15 year period
from 1953-1967, real output per
man-hour in manufacturing in-
creased by 72.3 percent in Can-
ada to 51.0 percent in the U.S.A.
The annual increase was 3.7 per-
cent and 2.8 percent respec-
tively.

Massey-Ferguson not only
agreed to include. the clause in
the new agreement to continue
operations in Canada but now
projects the possibility of a
period of expansion in Canada.
This projection is made even
though the strike closed the

wage gap between U.S. and —
Canadian employees by 40 cents —
an hour. Which, of course, only

goes to prove the union’s con-
tention that this company can —
pay wage parity in full. It goes —
further than that, through, it —
proves also that the company —
knows it can pay parity and
continue to make a handsome ~
profit. Otherwise there would be —
no consideration of expansion.

In a short 30 months the Ma
sey-Fergusson contract will bi
up for renewal. The Big Three
auto agreements expire before
then. The United Auto Workers
can put this intervening period
to good use by developing a big —
public campaign to win federal
and provincial legislation to for-
bid the closure, or removal from —
Canada, of manufacturing plants —
in order to escape the payment
of just and equitable wages to

their employees.

The winning of such legisla-
tion is a project worthy of the

support

movement. Legislation of this
nature would be good for every
worker. And it would be good
for Canada. cag

of the whole

%,

NG

A

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