25 years ago...

FINANCE MINISTER
SHOWN AS A LIAR |

OTTAWA — The govern-
ment’s own National Employ-
ment Service department as
much as called Finance Minister
Abbott a liar last week.

Five days after the minister
disputed a delegation’s use of an
over 500,000 jobless estimate,
NES released the total number
of job-seekers in Canada on
January 21 as 524,000. This was
two weeks before the minister
spoke and does not include per-
sons who do not register.

NES also said 777,000 were
on short time (under 35 hours
per week), laid off “temporarily”
and actively seeking jobs at NES
offices.

The Tribune,
Feb. 22, 1954

Profiteer of the week:

‘50 years ago...
200,000 BRITISH
READY TO STRIKE
LONDON — A strike of

200,000 textile workers in Eng- -

land seems imminent as the mas-
ter spinners proceed with plans
to extend the working hours of
the Lancashire cotton spinners,
60,000 in number, without extra
pay for overtime:

The employers demands that
the spinners clean the machin-
ery after the regular work day is
done, thus increasing consider-
ably the present work day of 48
hours.

The Spinners Amalgamation
(their trade union) announces
that it has “resolved on deter-
mined opposition”. A strike of
the spinners would rapidly
spread through the whole indus-
try involving the weaving and
other sections. The Worker,

Feb. 16, 1929

Despite the strike against Inco Ltd., in Sud-
bury, the corporation came up with a profit
figure for the year ended Dec. 31, 1978, of
$77,800,000 (U.S. dollars). It was down from
$99,900,000 a year earlier, but indicative of
Inco’s exploitation of foreign holdings, and
use of its stockpile, is a $10.1-million profit in
the final quarter of 1978 compared with $4.6-
million in Oct.-Dec. 1977.

Figures used are from the company’s financial statements.

Editor — SEAN GRIFFIN
Associate Editor — FRED WILSON
Business and Circulation Manager — PAT O'CONNOR

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EDITORIAL
COMMENT

The Task Force and unity

Canadians have been handed a large
plateful by the. Pepin-Robarts Task
Force on Canadian Unity. The Task
Force gives recognition to the crisis of
confederation, but shows its inadequacy
by not coming to grips with the basic
requirements of a solution to the crisis.

One of its obvious features is its strong
pitch for more powers to the provinces at
the expense of central government, and
of uniform standards and opportunities
across the country. On the other hand it
speaks of “a new Canadian Con-
stitution,” rather than a patch-up job —
something no political party except the
Communist Party has had the vision to

propose up to date. The Task Force of-)

fers a strong hint of being an attempt by
one section of the ruling class to adapt
Canada’s capitalist system to the realities
of today. But it is willing only to shift, not
to give up, the privileged place of the
corporate elite. — :

It is interesting to study the 152-page
report in contrast:to the- Communist
Party thesis — For a Democratic Solution
to the Crisis of Confederation — issued
in February’ 1977. This Marxist docu-
ment, proposes a constituent assembly to
draw up. a new made-in-Canada Con-
stitution, asserts the right of French
Canada to self-determination, up to and
including secession (while the Com-
munists themselves fight for a united
two-nation state) and gains validity with
the passage of time.

A striking contrast appears, for exam-

ple, between the Communist proposal
for abolition of the Senate and election
instead of a House of Nationalities,
balancing out the representation of the
two nations in conjunction with the pre-
sent House of Commons, and the Task
Force preference for a Council of the
Federation — which sounds suspiciously
like a permanent lobby for the provincial

_ parties’ in power. Even its call for 60

more Commons members on some sort
-of proportional representation, hints at
tightening a two-party system.

Insofar as the Task Force favors a new
Constitution, insofar as it recognizes _
French Canada’s’ right to self-deter-
mination (although it backs away from
this through inadequate recom-
mendations) it should be used to advance
the fight for genuine and full solutions to
the constitutional crisis. In the case of
Native peoples, unfortunately, the Task
Force avoids so logical a proposal as that
of local self-government, which is part of
the Communist Party program.

The report mirrors the contradictory
aims and pressures facing monopoly
capitalism today, which it tries to resolve
while avoiding a democratic restructur-
ing of the state and the economy.

There should be no illusions among
the working-class and democratic
movements as to the basic direction of
the report and recommendations. With-
out the democratic restructuring of the
state and economy, the crisis will not be
resolved.

Flagrant misuse of funds

The federal government announced
Feb. 1 that it will give $235-million to
corporations in the forest products
industry to upgrade production
facilities, create new stocks of wood, and
provide pollution abatement equipment.

Is this because the forest industries are
on the verge of bankruptcy? Far from it.
Profits in 1978 for the 11 biggest forest
monopolies (pulp, paper, lumber, and
related chemical) jumped by 86.2% over
1977. (In the third quarter, in fact, the
year-over-year increase in profit was
117%!) Total after-tax profits for the 11

in 1978 were $491-million, up from,

1977’s $263.8-million:

This being the case, how is it that the
monopoly corporations have not them-
selves taken the responsibility for up-
grading facilities, introducing pollution
abatement equipment, and reforesting
the cut areas?

And now the capitalist government in
Ottawa is engaging in a flagrant misuse
of public funds, robbing family allow-
ances, unemployment insurance, health
and municipal funding to enrich the
forest corporations. .

These same monopolies that scream in
protest against government “inter-
ference” and whose media defend some
now-mythical free enterprise system,
these same corporations actually want
the kind of government “interference”
which lifts $235-million from the people
of Canada and hands it to them.

Was there ever a better argument for
public ownership now? Under public

ownership, and democratic, not tycoon
control, not only lumber and paper
workers, but the people of Canada could
reap'the benefits of their natural riches.
Instead of paying for neglect by
monopoly corporations, while they
amass fortunes and desecrate the coun-
try, publicly-owned and democratically-
controlled forest industries could indeed
get government aid to ensure that
Canada competes in world markets. But
the returns on such investment would go
to buoy up the social requirements of all
the working people.

These facts of life are proven by
phenomenal rate of industrial growth in
socialist countries. They, are a. con-.
demnation of the federal gang-up with
the corporations against the majority of
Canadians. Nor is Ottawa alone; the On-
tario Tories, notorious for cutbacks in
social fields, are“ giving handouts~ to
monopolies like Abitibi and Domtar.
British Columbia’s Social Credit premier
is manoeuvring in top secrecy with the
massive MacMillan Bloedel empire.

There is no longer a tenable argument
for allowing this theft of our country’s
wealth, and the destruction of lives and
ecology. In the approaching election
there is every reason to dump the big
business parties, procurers for the cor-
porate elite.

There is every reason for workers to
fight for their own interests and the in-
terests of Canada as one. The two are
inseparable.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—FEBRUARY 16, 1979—Page 3