CLC pledges fight against Tory agenda Continued from page 1 little more than a marketplace where the ultimate goal is profit maximization” and sees “working people as nothing more than a cost of production whose main purpose in life is to increase the wealth and power of the minority,” the paper stated. It warned that the conservative agenda “has never been clearly expressed as a total program. It has been carefully hidden and released as a series of seemingly unrelated policies and programs ...” Those policies include the trade deal, anti-labour legislation, regressive taxation policies, weakened health and environmen- tal legislation, erosion of universal pro- grams such as medicare and old age security, and backward policies towards women. The labour movement has been success- ful in opposing some of the Tory govern- ment’s proposals, the paper said, citing the defeat of the Forget Commission recom- mendations to gut unemployment insu- rance and the rebuff given Canada Post’s strikebreaking plans. But the labour movement now faces “‘the next and crucial stage for Canada’s eco- nomic and political future.” And that means challenging the Canada-U.S. trade ‘deal and promoting labour’s alternative program, it said. The paper laid out the framework for that alternative program, advocating in- creased public investment and regional development programs, regulation of for- eign investment and the corporate sector, a revamped tax system to effect income redis- tribution, expanded public. services and increased multilateral trade. “We have an obligation to ourselves and to the future of this country to counter the free trade propaganda of the right and to put our alternative vision before the Cana- dian public,” it said. It emphasized that the achievement of that goal “will require a continued mobili- zation of the Canadian people” and pledged the CLC, federations and labour councils to: © Continue to carry the message to every local, community and region of Canada that the Mulroney trade deal ... privatiza- tion and deregulation are a fundamental attack on the kind of Canada we have “ today; ® Continue to mobilize against contr- acting-out and privatization; reach out to Canadi- ans with CLC program. JACK NICHOL... © Conduct schools, seminars and con- ferences on the right wing agenda and labour’s program; ® Step up the commitment to coalition building with outside groups. The paper emphasized that all levels of the labour movement “are expected to form and participate in’ parallel coalitions” and pointed to. the need “to develop broadly- based programs and policies which a wide range of progressive organizations and individuals can unite in building a popular movement for social change.” The paper offered few specific sugges- tions for stepping up the campaign against Alberta Fed tackles free trade By DAVE WALLIS EDMONTON — The fight for Canada, peace and against the corporate attack topped the agenda of the Alberta Federa- tion of Labour’s 32nd annual convention April 28-May 1. Under the slogan of “Albertans for Can- adian Sovereignty, Peace and_ social justice — No to free trade!” federation president Dave Werlin opened the four-day meeting with a scathing attack on Tory governments and’ their neo-conservative agendas of free trade, deregulation, privati- zation, mass unemployment, social service cuts, growing poverty and environmental destruction. He accused Prime Minister Brian Mulro- _ ney and his Tory government of trying to surrender Canada to the U.S. trafsnation- als. While Mulroney and U.S. president Ronald Reagan are unanimous in backing the corporate agenda for a U.S. takeover of this country, Werlin noted, they can’t agree to proposals to curb acid rain and to protect the environment because it is an issue on which big business does not want to see any government action. “The U.S. wants to own and control our resources, Our energy, and our water. In fact, they want to control the people of Canada,” the AFL leader told the delegates. Werlin accused Mulroney of abandoning the mandate Canadians gave his govern- ment in 1984 and instead pursuing a corpo- ‘rate agenda that has free trade as its centrepiece. “No matter whether they pass (the free trade deal) or not, we are never going to give up the fight for our country,” the AFL president declared. He roasted Premier Don Getty’s Tory government for its plans to dismantle Alberta’s Workers’ Compensation Board and for the government’s proposed new Employment Standards and Labour Rela- tions codes, which he charged have been introduced so the province’s workers ‘“‘can compete with the $4 per hour you get for driving a Greyhound bus in the southern. US? Werlin warned Getty’s Tories that the new labour code — which outlaws solidar- ity and secondary picketing as well as * - 6 Pacific Tribune, May 11, 1988 boycotts — will not lead to labour peace but to an open defiance. “We will not go down on our knees and accept it,” he declared. Delegates later unanimously endorsed a resolution demanding withdrawal of the proposed legislation, and backed it up with a march on the Legislature by more than 500 convention delegates, ‘ DAVE WERLIN ... AFL won't accept new labour code changes. The convention considered and adopted four key policy papers dealing with free trade, peace and disarmament, environ- mental protection, and occupational health and safety. At the heart of the free trade paper were calls for the elaboration of labour’s alterna- tive economic program and a promise to help build a “massive coalition” against free trade. That alternative program described in the paper would subordinate trade policy to an “interventionist economic policy” or- iented on job creation; economic diversifi- cation, (especially in the manufacturing sector), to reduce exports of raw- and semi- processed resources and dependence on the American market: expansion of the public sector to enhance the Canadian market: development of an east-west, all-Canada power grid; and the revitalization of agricul- ture. The paper also committed the federation to supporting the Pro-Canada Network’s June 12 national day of protest against free trade; to win rank-and-file support for labour’s alternative economic program; and to actively back the NDP in the next federal election. ; Canadian Labour Congress executive vice-president Nancy Riche described free trade to the delegates as a front for a neo-~ conservative agenda and the American, market-run economy the Tories and their corporate friends want to bring into Can- ada. . “Free trade is only part of the plot that includes cuts in social programs; the elimi- nation of public sector jobs; tax breaks for the corporations; and the weakening of union power,” Riche said. Big business, she said, wants ‘‘a compliant labour force and to cut back wages.” Eliminating the world’s massive stock- piles of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons and their delivery systems, the pol- icy paper on peace and disarmament stressed, “‘is the single most critical task fac- ing the world today.” The paper described the conversion of armaments production to socially-useful purposes with no loss in jobs a key strategy for demilitarization. The policy called for the governments of Canada and Alberta to declare their territories nuclear weapons- free zones and urged “support (for) the con- - cept of a national defence policy — based on the principle of adequacy to ensure that Canada’s legitimate needs are met without fueling the arms race. “We must extricate ourselves from American military programs based upon nuclear deterrence and international inter- vention,” the AFL policy stated, adding that Canadians “must question Canada’s participation in NORAD — the American defence system which is based on the out- moded and incredulous concept of a win- nable nuclear war.” TRIBUNE PHOTOS — SEAN GRIFFIN BARBARA CAMERON ... CLC should play more activist role in coalitions. : the trade deal, pointing instead to the impending federal election as the decisive factor in determining the future of the coun try. The Congress has increasingly moved 1 anti-free trade campaign into the election arena in anticipation of the Tory gover ment dropping the writ. The policy pape itself noted that the issues it raised “will be resolved only in a federal election.” 4 But the Mulroney government has until next year to call a vote and is widely expected to push the legislation implement ing the trade deal through Parliament before any election. Pes And the labour movement can’t wait for an election to be called — it has to mounta country-wide campaign immediately, the convention was told. Several delegates called on the Congress leadership to develop some new ideas an to play a much more active co-ordinating role in building coalitions against the trade deal. ie “We know where we stand on free trade, we know what’s in the deal,” Alberta Fed- eration of Labour president Dave Werlin told delegates. “What we need to talk about” here is how we’re going to mobilize the membership to fight it.” Anne Harvey, president of the Office and Technical Workers local which is fighting privatization at B.C. Hydro, added that the labour movement ‘needs strategies t0 defeat free trade and privatization . . . at the local level and at the national level.” United Fishermen and Allied Workers — Union president Jack Nichol urged unionists - to “take this program of action and reach out to Canadians until there is a groundswell of opinion that says, no we are not going t0 sacrifice our country, our ideals, our heri- tage to a free trade agreement. “We've got to do that so decisively,” he emphasized, “that no Mulroney will ever again rear his head and try to change the direction of this country.” United Electrical Workers delegate Bat- bara Cameron told the convention that the | labour movement should “lead the way” in co-ordinating the campaign by trade uni0;, nists, women’s groups, church organiza- tions and other groups against the trade deal. > She cited the June 12 Day of Action against free trade planned by the Pro- Canada Network, pointing out that, so far, _ the labour movement has not played a major role in publicizing the event or mobil- izing its members to take part. But if the CLC were to take the lead, it could be an important demonstration, she said. _ “We have to create a sense of momentum in every town, in every centre across this country against the trade deal,” she said. “Our futures depend on fighting this trade deal,” CUPE delegate Judy D’Arcy told delegates, “‘and we don’t have a minute to lose.” Still expected to come before the conven- tion are a number of resolutions submitted - by local unions and labour councils calling for a day of protest or a Canada-wide work — stoppage against the trade deal.