EDITORIAL

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Issue in ‘recovery’ is jobs

_ The bottom line of economic recovery is
Jobs. Consumer spending rapidly dries up
when millions of workers’ incomes are re-
stricted or non-existent. That seems quite
elementary. It also seems obvious that wage
Controls, restraints or freezes contribute in
a devastating way to that process.

__ These basic truths have been stated

hundreds of times by the Communist Party
of Canada and are understood by many in
€ labor movement.

|, Still, monopoly’s economists tell us that

“tecovery” is turtling its way forward, and
their evidence is expanding profits. The
fact remains that not profits, not even infla-
Hon, certainly not wage controls, but jobs

are what “recovery” is all about. (That is

taking into account the limited extent to
Which the capitalist system can ever recover
Tom its ills.)

Now, Statistics Canada has discovered
that jobs and income go together with con-

- Sumer spending; and that wage restraints

choke off spending. Statscan, as a matter of
fact was rather miffed with one of its offi-
“als, Philip Cross, chief of its current eco-
Nomic analysis section, for telling the
Media about a report on this before the
Teport was released...
Cross quoted “worrisome” indications
that economic recovery is actually being
‘trangled by restricted incomes of workers,

Victims of wage restraint programs. Labor

™Mcome as a whole grew by only 3 per cent

from April 1982 to April 1983, Statscan
reveals, while the cost of living for the
period rose 6.6 per cent.

Paradoxically, according to Cross and
the overdue report, without increased con-
sumer spending the. economists’ “re-
covery” will whither and die. Yet, both
Tory and Liberal governmenis see re-

straints as an ideal tool for transferring -

more of the income of the poor, to the rich,
and widening the gap between them.

Noting that capitalist economists had
foreseen “recovery” accompanied by high
unemployment, William Kashtan, leader
of the Communist Party of Canada, in a
report to his party’s central committee last
May, demanded: “What kind of recovery is
that? :

“There can be no real recovery without a
policy of full employment,” he said. “Jobs
and job security are the central priority
issues ... Unemployment is monopoly’s
weapon to attack the working class all down
the line.”

While the reactionary Socred govern-
ment of B.C. has become the infamous
example, other provinces and the federal
authorities take similar stands. The fight
being put up by workers across the country
should be fuelled by the hypocrisy of the
corporate ruling class which tightens the
stranglehold of wage restraints while its
statistics department confirms the very slo-
gans of the working class.

U.S. blackmail takes over

Canada’s hawkish minister of external

affairs, Allan MacEachen, said at a high-

€vel meeting on foreign policy in Val Mo-
"in, Quebec, that Canada should play a
Sreater role for world peace and nuclear
‘Sarmament.

But when it came to voicing an indepen-
€nt Canadian policy for those ends,

acEachen\ prostrated himself and
Canada before the U.S. Pentagon’s de-

Mand for Cruise testing — or else.

‘I don’t think I heard anything that
foul cause me to change my thinking or
Commendation to the government,” said
acEachen, concerning the Cruise tests.
€ didn’t hear the hundreds of thousands
a have marched, sent telegrams, written
€rs, spoken on phone-in programs!
Is it that the Liberals want to prove their
hie dience to Washington before the To-
.. . Brian Mulroney offers them the whole
Ntry, lock, stock and barrel?

hk? U.S. big guns at Val Morin openly
Teatened Canada with blackmail and

Pious words

pi No One believes the protests of Philip-
Mes dictator Ferdinand Marcos that his
Rome was not involved in the murder of
Tmer Senator Benigno Aquino at Manila

‘rport last week.

A spokesman for the so-called “moder-
the Position”, Aquino was taken from
sh, aitcraft by Philippines army troops and
ise In front of hundreds of people. His
foe ’ was his intention to run against the
“lator in elections scheduled for 1987.

. Neither do White House statements call-
ae € murder “a cowardly and despicable
“have any ring of honesty about them.

worse if it refused the Cruise. Said James

eeu

Central America and economic assistance

— to the Third World.” ¢

And if Canada chooses independent
policies?

Gene Rostow, Reagan’s former arms
control director, said he prefers “a
relationship of partners with Canada...
than one of being a protectorate in which
we (USA) have the responsibility and no
one else shares it.”

What did MacEachen say to those brazen
threats? Well, said he, “... as long as
Canada remained ... supportive basically
of the western position (Reagan’s position
— Ed.)... there was great room for in-

fluence ...” :
Some position! Some influence! Some

capitulation!

and murder

The U.S. has been pivotal in Philippines
politics for decades. It has fully backed the
Marcos dictatorship, feeling secure for its
vast military and economic interests there.
U.S. Secretary of State George Shultz vis-
ited Marcos last year and, despite the re:
cent murder, Reagan has confirmed his in-
tention to visit Manila in November.
He'll get back to business as usual after
the appropriate indignant phrases have

‘been uttered. Aquino’s brutal execution,

however, may just ignite the smoldering
national resistance to another U.S.-backed
regime which today stands internationally

discredited.

Flashbacks

25 years 50 years

TO DIE
FOR $1.95

As the Tribune went to
press, it was reported a stay of
execution may be granted
Jimmy Wilson, sentenced to
death in Alabama after he was
convicted of robbing a white
-woman of $1.95. .

An all-white jury and judge
had rejected Wilson’s
straightforward denial of the
robbery charge, and accepted
the wild tale told by the
woman about assault, even
though this was not the
charge brought against
Wilson.

The story about the stay of
execution indicates wide pro-
tests are being heard even in
white supremist-governed
Alabama. The Tribune urges

its readers to continue to send .

messages demanding
Wilson’s reprieve.

Tribune,

September 1, 1958

AKA

MEN USED
AS BEASTS

MONTREAL — All work
in the forced labor “relief”
camp at Valcartier is done by
manpower. There are 1,400
men in this camp whe receive,
18 cents a day constructing a
road.

Materials for the 11 mile
road is mixed by hand on
boards and spread on the
road; it is then gone over with
a 600-lb. roller drawn by six
men.

After a day, a larger roller
weighing five tons is pushed
over the road pulled by 25
men on level ground and 50
men on hills. The work is so
hard men work in 3 hour
shifts. Pensioners are told
they can either come to: this

camp or be cut off relief. the

camp is operated by the
Department of Defence. -

The Worker,

September 2, 1933

Thar’s gold in them thar profit figures. While governments scurry
to squeeze more taxes out of working people, Dome Mines Ltd.,
Toronto had an after-tax profit for the first half of 1983, of
$25,226,000, up from $13,603,000 in the same period in 1982.

Editor — SEAN GRIFFIN
Assistant Editor — DAN KEETON
Business and Circulation Manager — PAT O'CONNOR

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PACIFIC TRIBUNE—SEPTEMBER 2, 1983—Page 3

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