ee

FEATURES =

By DAVE WERLIN
hat the Canadian Labor Con-
gress chose Peace and Unity as
i. the theme of this year’s conven-
ie both a welcome and historic de-
Pment. Hopefully this indicates a
vement by our central trade union
a toward joining the growing or-
oe peace movement, and playing a
is Tal Tole within it. The dangerous
€S we live in demand it!
a e Reagan Administration’s recent
one military strike at Libya, its
ee We of the nuclear stakes through
testi ars, and its continued nuclear
Ing underlines the fragility of world
Peace,
ate heightened fear of a nuclear
aa aust gives new grounds for labor’s
Ns eed involvement in the fight for
ae activities of the White House’s
a yled ‘‘World Sheriff’ not only
ri atens human survival, but also
ngs far-reaching economic, social
dist Political consequences. Vast
ae are occurring in our western
ain Omies as the arms build-up con-
While tremendous sums of money
oan services to people are
wa omer U.S. President Eisenhower
aneee first to warn of the
4 Pee dustrial complex.’’ This de-
rod 10n of the link between the arms-
Pore wing of the transnational cor-
Ons, the Pentagon and the U.S.
fe ation, united in their quest for
fee pepcits, «for rolling back the fron-
ing i free enterprise and maintain-
sonata s hegemony over herallies,
Worl S to the source of the danger to
d peace.
4 a hide the strategy of the Military
a Strial Complex, the Soviet threat
aa Whipped up. Today this colossal
«© IS joined by yet another, the
Eooal attack on terrorism.’’ The
ia oping countries in general, and
: aragua and Libya in particular, are
ang eet of this latest game of smoke
Mirrors.
eecind this attack is the attempt to
Ubjugate developing countries, to
4ke them safe for U.S. investment.
roll be campaigns to fight terrorism,
“By: ack communism, or fight the
ilk il Empire” help to justify a $300-
On arms budget, and shelling out
tWel Per hammer or $7,000.00 for a
Ve-cup coffee maker. Cost plus

teary contracts, granted under stric-

S

i 5 ake security secrecy, guarantee

Sen nationals an average return on
: al of 25 per cent as opposed to 12.5

Thon in civilian production.

= €re is no doubt that part of the
8an strategy for the massive arms

Da\(berta Federation of Labor President

© Werlin recently shared the speak-
an q?latform with Bishop Remi De Roo
Coy John Kenneth Galbraith at Van-

"en's giant Peace Week celebration.

_Labor and the fight for

build-up, Star Wars, and ‘‘first strike”’
capability is the hope of compelling the
Soviet Union to follow suit, thus slow-
ing Soviet economic growth rates. But
while the Soviet economy will no doubt
be hindered by increased arms spend-
ing, the socialist economy with no pri-
vate profit motive will never undergo
the same disruption as will be the case
in the U.S. (and in.Canada by asso-
ciation).

The obvious danger of the latest
round ofarms build-ups is the increasing
danger of a minor conflict escalating to
a major crisis from which there could be
no retreat, or the danger of a nuclear
war by accident, human or otherwise.

The birth of the Canadian Peace Al-
liance is an important response to the
growing war danger, linking as it does,
broad sections of the Canadian people.
But the Canadian peace movement is
still not broad or powerful enough to
turn the Canadian government from its
path of slavish support for Reagan’s
adventurism.

The active participation of Canada’s
trade union movement is now vitally
needed, for the trade unions are the

largest organized expression of the ~

Canadian people.

They possess resources that others
do not. It is the trade union component
of the End the Arms Race Committee in
Vancouver which has provided the nu-

cleus for the largest peace demonstra-
tions in Canada, and turned Vancouver
into the Peace capital of the country.
That process needs to be duplicated
elsewhere. That’s what ‘‘Peace and
Unity means.”

United to battle the TNCs

By MIKE PHILLIPS

t’s always been an axiom of the labor
J mevemen that capital doesn’t re-

spect national boundaries. Trans-
national corporations (TNCs) invest
their money wherever the biggest profit
can be made. People’s jobs, their com-
munities, a secure future for their chil-
dren don’t figure inthe corporate bottom
line.

At the same time, unconditional, in-
ternational solidarity in the tradition of
‘an injury to one is an injury to all,’’ has
been a basic feature of the union
movement from the very beginning.
Canadian workers have a proud record
of supporting labor around the world.

According to the South African trade
union movement, Canadian unionists
through the efforts of the SACTU Soli-
darity Committee and others have con-
tributed more material aid in the past
year than any union organization in the
rest of the capitalist world.

We’ ve answered the call from Chile,
Argentina, El Salvador, the Middle
East, Nicaragua ... with money, by
establishing solidarity committees,
supporting resolutions at our union and
central labor conventions, and in
Nicaragua’s case, we've organized
work brigades to help rebuild the
country.

Yet this fine record of largely grass
roots initiatives is not often reflected by
action from the Canadian Labor Con-
gress leadership. Delegates pass good
resolutions at conventions but local ac-
tivists and CLC affiliates remain frus-
trated by an ‘‘accountability gap’ be-
tween good congress policy and the
lack of implementation by the leaders
and staff of the CLC.

The CLC’s international affairs de-
partment is currently under fire for
warping congress policy to cold war
aims. Nicaragua and South Africa are
two areas critics mention when they
accuse the staff of letting their right
wing politics determine how CLC pol-
icy is applied.

In both cases the staffs efforts are
aimed at isolating the left, class struggle
type unions if possible, and promoting
‘‘moderate’’, class partnership organ-
izations, International Confederation
of Free Trade Unions-style.

In Nicaragua the CLC shuns the

mainstream labor centre, the CST be-
cause of its links with the World Fed-
eration of Trade Unions, and favors
instead a tiny splinter union called
CUS. An ICFTU affiliate, it is regarded
by most Nicaraguans as a fifth column
for the contras.

In South Africa the aim is to isolate
the underground South African Con-
gress of Trade Unions on the grounds
that it has no visible presence inside the
country. SACTU supporters reject
such a notion which in effect is a de-
mand by the CLC for SACTU to iden-
tify its forces working undercover to
revive the trade union movement under
conditions of harsh repression.

This policy also ignores the fact that
the recently formed Confederation of
South African Trade Unions has de-
clared total support for, and unity of
purpose with SACTU, and recognizes
its international solidarity role.

The class partnership bias of many
within the congress leadership and staff
stands in the way of precisely the kind
of trade union unity needed on a world
scale to combat the transnationals.
Since 1983 the WFTU has been nurtur-
ing a process of united action among
unions regardless of international af-
filiation within the framework of the
TNCs.

The process is under way in Europe,
where the unions from common TNCs-
are meeting to map out strategies for
dealing with their employers.

In addition to strengthening their bat-
tles with the corporations on bargain-
ing, and health and safety questions,
plant closures and other issues, the
committees in such TNCs as Eastman
Kodak, SKF, IBM, Ford, Renault and
others are confronting the trans-
nationals with the unions’ demands for
a voice in strategic investment planning
to create jobs, by ensuring investment
in new technology, research and
development, and new production
facilities.

The committees also turn out to be
good instruments for pressing govern-
ments to curb the TNC’s power.

This kind of global united action is
also urgently needed in the fight for
peace. There’s hardly a single trans-
national that isn’t deeply involved in
the escalating arms race because of the

TRIBUNE PHOTO — MIKE PHILLIPS

spectacular profits to be made out of
government war budgets and military
contracts.

United actions such as the Interna-
tional Day of Trade Union Action for
Peace, Sept. 1, have already grown in
breadth joining workers from east and
west in common projects and demonst-
rations.

A good place for Canadians to begin
joining in this unity process is to open
our doors to trade union exchanges
with delegations from the socialist
countries. It’s interesting to note that
1985 recorded the largest number ever
of such exchanges, signalling that the
time is ripe for our central labor bodies
to resume normal relations with the
trade union federations of the socialist
countries. °

In fact, the B.C. Federation of Labor
is making such a call in a resolution
comingbeforethe CLCconvention. Well
worth supporting, the resolution speaks
to the best Canadian traditions of work-
ing class solidarity and to a deepening
understanding of the need for united
action by the trade unionists of the
world to pull humanity from the brink
of nuclear destruction.

Mike Phillips is the Tribune’ s labor re-
porter and a member of the Southern On-
tario Newspaper Guild.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE, APRIL 30, 1986 e 15