VENTS of the last few weeks reveal the sharpness of
some of the problems raised by the draft resolution for
the fourth convention of the Labor-Progressive party. I
refer to events which have a special bearing on the Canadian

trade union movement.

1, The alarming,

They

Hitler-like
Labor Relations Board against the Canadian Seamen's

ares |

the Canada
Union.

decision of

2. The role of the official trade union leadership when
the threat of the use of the atom bomb appeared imminent.

3. Some developments on the wage-price-profit front.

These events show how fully
correct was the estimation and
warning of the third convention
of the Labor-Progressive party
two years ago. But these events
also show with painful clarity how
far the efforts of Communists and
other progressives fell short in
the effort to influence in a suf-
ficiently decisive manner the
course of the trade union move-
ment on a national scale. The
crisis in international and domes-
tic affairs will, therefore, place
a colossal responsibility upon this
LPP national convention—the re-
sponsibility for hammering out
eorrect and clear-cut answers to
all major problems which confront

the organized workers in our
country. :
‘The draft resolution, encom-

passing as it does every major
sphere of international and na-
tional affairs, could not but pre-
sent its estimations and proposals
on these problems in a very con-
densed form, The LPP convention
itself and its panels and commit-
tees. will have to elaborate these
points and provide the plenary
sessions, and through them the
LPP and the entire working class,
‘with a program of action to suc-
cessfully meet the critical issues
that, labor and the people of
Canada have to face in ithe im-
mediate period ahead.

1 The federal Labor Relations

Board decision of December
T, 1950, which disqualified the CSU
asa legitimate bargaining agency,
climaxes a development which
threatens the very life of trade
unionism in Canada.

It is of a piece with Hitlerite
labor regulation. It flagrantly re-
jects the right of workers to
‘choose their Own union. It at-
tempts to codify—utterly without
legislative authority—what this
government and the top circles of
labor bureaucracy have done un-
der cover against the seamen for
the last two years.

The board, which usurped the
powers of partiament, now estab-
lishes a precedent which if not
challenged and defeated, will en-
able monopoly capital to outlaw
any union which fights militantly
for its members and which dares
to oppose government policies af_
fecting the freedom and very life
of the Canadian people.

Even sections of the big busi-
mess press expressed fear lest this
Labor Relations Board decision
rip the thin veil of democracy
which‘the ruling class prefers to
maintain as a cover for its drive
to turn the trade unions into
government instruments for the
complete militarization of the
country.

The reactionary Toronto Globe
and Mail questions the legality of
the decision. The pro-St. Laurent
Toronto Star states editorially
that the board’s decision ‘is
said to be the first of its kind
for labor in Canada or the United
States.” It is, to speak plainly,

- worse than anything contained in,
or done under the provisions of,

the hated Taft-Hartley law which

is, at least officially, opposed and
fought by both the AFL and the
CIO in the US.

The Labor Relations Board was
compelled to admit that the ship_
ping company “has not submitted
evidence to support its -contention
that the respondent (CSU) no
longer represents the majority of
employees in the bargaining un-
ion, the application for revocation
in so far as it is based upon this
ground, fails.”

In other words, the CSU is ad-
mitted to be the unquestioned
bargaining agency of the crews
on the ships of Branch Lines Lim-
ieed, a line owned by the Simard
Brothers, notorious supporters of
the Liberal government and Que-
bee’s outstanding industrialists.
But despite this fact, the choice
of the seamen is ruled out on
completely unsubstantiated politi-
cal charges which are moreover
completely contrary to the pro-
visions of the federal Labor Act.

This fascist-like ruling further
emphasizes the dangerous trend
which reflects the government’s

_ drive towards war, its continued

offensive on the living conditions
and the rights of labor, and the
betrayal of labor's interests and
rights by the ruling circles of the
trade union bureaucracy who have
surrendered all working class in_
dependence and have become the
labor arm of the warmakers.

During the last two years we
saw the shameful collaboration
between union bureaucracy and
the government and shipping in-
terests to violate every principle
of union democracy and labor

‘legislation against the Canadian

seamen and their union. We saw
the government acting as a ruth-
less and murderous strike-breaker
against the seamen,

We saw !U.S. domination pene-
trate the trade union movement
through direct intervention of the
U.S. State Department, the USS.
heads of “international” unions
and their hirelings in this coun-
try. We saw the complete capitu-
lation of the leaderships of the
two Congresses to this foreign
dictation,

We saw the appointment of a
military man to head the min-
istry of labor, and we saw how

. the government broke the strike

of the railway workers. The
board’s decision against the sea-
men tops this alarming trend.

These attacks upon Canadian

workers and the Canadian labor

movement were carried through
step by step with the foreknow-
ledge and active support of lead-
ing trade union officials. The
“socialist”? A. R. Mosher (CCL)
and the “Liberal’’ J. A. D’Aoust
(TLC) both voted for the Labor
Relations Board ruling which the
capitalist Toronto Star calls “the
first of its kind for labor in Can-
ada and the U.S.”

At the 1950 conventions of
the union congresses the rul-
ing class completed its campaign

Striking Canadian seamen Pickens the U.S. consulate at Ottawa to protest American interference
in a Canadian labor dispute.

J. B. SALSBERG, MPP, discusses the Draft Resolution
of fhe forthcoming LPP national convention

Defend fabor’s rights

for the transformation of the
leading organs of Canadian trade
unionism into instruments for the
carrying through of its war poli-
cies,

.

To facilitate this, the leadership
undertook to smash every oppo-
sition to those plans within the
ranks of labor, even if it meant
the destruction of important un-
ions and the complete abrogation
of union democracy and self-
government of the unions.

The resolutions which the bur-
eaucratic machine forced through
the TLC and CCL conventions,
constitute the most uncritical and
unreserved éendorsation of the war
drive of U.S. imperialism. Hav-
ing surrendered so completely, the
official labor spokesmen found
themselves totally incapable of
€ven questioning President Tru-
man’s world-shaking announce-
ment about the use of the atom
bomb against the Korean and
Chinese people,

But if the Liberals and Tories
in the TLC gave consent to Tru-
man’s threats by their silence, the

‘right-wing CCF leaders of the
CCL found it necessary to give
more concrete evidence of their
continued support of the war-
makers,

The CCL Executive Council met
when the peoples of the world
were crying out against the atom
bomb maniacs, But the Moshers
and Conroys not only found it
unnecessary to join the peoples
of the world in the cry for peace,
but emphasized instead their ad-
herance to the war plans of im-
perialism by compelling George
Burt, the head of the UAW in
Canada, to repudiate his signature
on the Ban the Bomb petition,
which he had previously volun-
tarily given. SH iy hig

The official trade union leader-
ship thereby gave convincing evi-
dence ito the militarist war-
plotters in Washington and Par-
liament Hill that they are to be
counted on to support and defend
these dangerous plans within the
ranks of labor. By the same token
they have revealed themselves as
the betrayers of the overriding in-
terests of the working class and
the majority of mankind, who
seek to save the world from a

third world war.
@

The labor chiefs who have

completely surrendered to the
warmakers have quite naturally
also paved the way for the under-
mining of the economic conditions
of Canadian labor.

The most flagrant example of
this is to be found in the case of
the railway workers. While the
railway companies are making
their greatest profits, the railway-
men’s families are asked to reduce
their living standards, The de-
cision of Justice Kellock means
that railwaymen will have less
purchasing power than they had
three years ago.

The Canadian supporters - of
Reuther’s 5-year contract plan
continue to advocate this hog-
tying, straightjacketing scheme
which emanates from the war
orientation of Walter Reuther and
the heads of the billionaire auto
corporations. Only the resistance
of the militant rank and file of

Ford and other organized auto

plants deféated the 5-year scheme
thus far and extracted instead
substantial wage increases.

The right-wing leadership of
the coal miners in Nova Scotia
robs the miners and their fami-

lies of essentials of life as living

costs soar simultaneously . with
the profits of Dosco. The steel
union leadership raised the cry
for price controls and rejected
wage-demand policies, thus help-

ing the steel barons to increase |

their fantastic profits. Under the
pressure -of the
that leadership now
raises the wage issue On the eve
of threatening wage controls.

however,

While dividend payments, which
reflect only a portion of the
amassed profits, have reached diz_
sying heights, the real value of
the workers’ dollar—even in wide
organized areas, not to speak of
the majority who are unorgan-
izzed—is lower than it was # year
or two ago. .

rank-and-file,

But the full effect of the econ-
emic attacks upon the workers:
to make them pay for the mili-
tarization program and the main_
tenance of skyhigh profits, is yet
to be felt, Prices continue to rise;
the next session of parliament will
impose additional taxes upon the
people, and the Dominion-Pro-
vincial conferences plot new, “in-
direct” taxes on the she ‘and
salary earners.

These grave problems have been
dealt with in the draft resolution
and they will have to be grappled
with at the forthcoming LPP con_
vention, There we will have to
work out a political and economic
program which will help the pro-
gressive forces in, the whole
movement, the rank-and-file of
the unions, to hit back at the
enemy from without and within,
and to go forward to the accom-
plishment of the common objec-:
tive of labor—peace, the preser-

» vation and extension of democ-

racy, and unity to defend working
class rights and living standards.

* There is a powerful mass force
within the ranks of organized
labor waiting for such a program
and such leadership. There are
as never before, entire unions
which defend working class inde.
pendence and which desire to
pursue progressive policies. There
are limitless forces in the ranks
of all unions, regardless of their
leadership, who are seeking sound,
progressive, democratic leader-
ship. They are to be found among
the railway WOR Ss, the miners,
auto, steel, r ibher, and all other
industries an cupations, f

It will be our task to give con-
creteness to the general policies
contained in our draft resolution. _
This is the task of the LPP na-
tional convention and the sane
Be

PACIFIC TRIBUNE - — JANUARY 5, 1951 — PAGE 4