A demand throughout the world.

25 years ago...

YOUTH ASKS STIFFENED

‘COMIC’ BOOKS CODE

Stiffer sections in the Criminal
Code to bar circulation of illust-
rations “which glorify war, vio-
lence, brutality and which bring
other races into hatred and con-
tempt” were recommended in a
submission of the National Fed-
eration of Labor Youth to the
_ House of Commons Special

Committee on Bill 93. “The
NFLY challenged Bill 93’s new
provisions which “contradict
ideals of democratic freedom
which Canadian youth have
been taught to respect.”

One such provision, which the
NFLY charged, meant to give
the government “a free hand in
the conduct of its foreign af-
fairs was military conscrip-
fon. The government would
make it a crime for young people
to Oppose its enactment should
Ottawa yield to growing de-
mands for sucha policy from the
US. Tribune,

Mar. 30, 1953

_ FLASHBACKS FROM ~
THE COMMUNIST PRESS

50 years ago...

HOLLINGER GUILTY ~
OF MINING DISASTER
The jury in the Hollinger min-
ing disaster enquiry on February
10 returned a verdict placing di-

‘rect responsibility for the disas-

ter on the Hollinger Corpora-
tion, the verdict reads as follows:

“We, the jury assembled, find
that Lindsay, Kampula, Gardez
(over whose bodies the inquest
was held) and others came to
their deaths between the morn-
ing of Friday, Feb, 10 and Mon-
day, Feb. 13, 1928 at the Hol-
linger mine from carbon
monoxide poisoning due to the
fire in stope 55a.

“That fire was due to gross
negligence on the part of the
Hollinger management and its
operating executives. We re-
commend that the mines be
cleaned up and more mine in-
spectors be appointed.

The Worker,
April 7, 1928.

THE ELECT IONS
COMING VE SO
THERES PIERRE,

BOWING AWD
SCRAPING BEFONE
THE WALL STREET

($1 G-SHOTS

ITS DISGUSTING !
IF | WERE PM,
THINGS Wovulp

BE DIFFERENT

I'D GRoveL
EVEN LOWER

EIDITTORULAIL,
COMIMIEINT

Labor’s many-sided fight

The convention of the Canadian
Labor Congress (Quebec City, April 3-7)
easily qualifies as Canadian labor’s most

. influential gathering. The _ policies

adopted by the 2,600 delegates can have
a serious bearing on the lives of working
people for years to come. Indeed, the
decisions of Quebec can affect the shape
of Canada’s policies both domestic and
foreign.

But to have such effects the decisions
must be battled out on a day-to-day basis,
as labor veterans well know.

In greeting the CLC convention, the
Tribune particularly applauds instances
of collectivity around fresh concepts cal-
culated to carry the labor movement
forward, unhampered by unprincipled
right-wing obstruction. The corpora-
tions, their governments, and _ their
apologists, whose policies led and still
lead, to mass unemployment and stagna-
tion, are the problem. Labor has to be the
solution!

A redistribution of the country’s in-
come — curbing monopoly profits,
freezing the export of capital, nationaliz-
ing profit-grabbing resource indus-
tries and U.S. multi-nationals — will
provide the money for Canada-building
projects. Tax cuts on $20,000 incomes

Selling out

For how long cana prime minister and
his minister of finance get away with
empty bluffing? That’s all that Trudeau
is offering the working people of Cana-
da; and Chretien is capable of nothing

-more than irrelevant smart remarks.

On the other hand, Trudeau, who
longs to be “prime minister of all the
corporations,” (to hell with the people!
— as Chretien says: the poor will just
have to’ live with high food prices) —
Trudeau has made his peace with U.S.
blue chip corporate power. He did his
circus act before the black-tie opulence
of New York’s Economic Club and prom-
ised to sell out every last Canadian to the
U.S. bankers and masters of the multi-
nationals.

Trudeau went to New York to buy his
election from the corporate monopolies:
further penetration of Canada’s
economy is welcome, there'll be no inter-
ference with U.S. takeovers, Canada
made “a too rapid pursuit of equity” so
social benefits will continue to be slashed
to guarantee rising profits.

How many behind-the-scenes prom-
ises were made such as preference for
U.S. aircraft companies in the “delibera-
tions” over spending billions on bom-
bers, one cannot say.

In the face of a stepped-up attack on
labor, with Tory Joe Clark angrily bleat-
ing for more private sector control,
strengthening of labor solidarity is cru-

cial, and a powerful fightback is called °

for.

It is regrettable that in labor’s hour of
need for unity, the retiring president of
the Canadian Labor Congress could give

and no taxes on $15,000 or under, a
minimum wage of $4.50 and unem-
ployment insurance at 90% of earnings
all can boost purchasing power.

Such concerns as extending democ-
racy and protecting trade union bargain-
ings rights touch the heart of such a con-
vention.

But so does peace, so does the global
tide of opposition to the inhuman neut-
ron bomb which deserves resounding
denunciation everywhere on earth!

And so does the basic requirement for
Canadian unity with all its ramifications
for economic health, the growing strug-
gle for independence from strangula-
tion by the USA: the need to recognize
and fight for the right of self-deter-
mination for French Canada. This does
not mean separation. The solution of a
united, two-nation, state offers a stable
future for all Canadians.

On these and many more topics the
powerful voice of the CLC convention
will echo in the days ahead — well into’
the. election campaign.

What true friends of labor call for is
unity, solidarity and courageous strug-
gles to make Canada prosperous and in-
dependent, while guaranteeing rising
standards of life for the working people.

to the USA

no bolder leadership than to say that
those who exploit the lives out of workers
for the sake of profit and power “are like
us.” The fact that every lever of the rul-
ing class is being used to move politics to
the right, to get tough with workers, will
not “affect the trade union movement,”
in Morris’ opinion.

A more courageous and far-seeing
stand than that will be needed if workers
in Canada are to go forward despite the
maneuvers of Trudeau, Clark and their
board room manipulators on both sides
of the border. The very real danger to
Canadian democracy and to all the rights
won by labor over the years won’t go
away. It has to be fought.

Wages are down

Statistics Canada figures never seem to
err on the side of the workers. Take the
count of 1,007,000 unemployed. It’s an
utter condemnation of the system but 1.5
million jobless would be closer to the
truth. Now about wages — Statscan says
they’re down from December to January
by. 1.4%. It shows the bosses’ and gov-
ernments’ arguments are false and it also
understates the case for thousands who
don’t earn the “seasonally adjusted” so-
called average of $255.60 a week.

Apart from those working in agricul-
ture, fishing and trapping, education
and public administration, who are not
covered in these statistics, the “averages”
in various sectors might surprise some
“average” workers: $173,82 in service
jobs; $368.25 in construction; $342.06 in
forestry; and $272.59 in manufacturing.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—APRIL 7, 1978—Page 3