igitive bargaining, lead to further
mo!’Mployment, and further de-
d Wess the living standards of the
narking class.”
7 peer this position to all of
Bil ae political parties includ-
esWVhi ; NDP,” Kashtan said.
tive ik party had the foresight to
15 ogra Tough the government’s
tio’ m and advance a democra-
fe, Sashtan was also critical: of
feats in federal NDP leader
tichy, LOadbent’s speech to the
stip wich were delivered by On-
fey 0 NDP leader Stephen
thie is, that the NDP would sup-
iM hich, Wage control program
it ~' VAS fairly administered.

igh Workers should ask the NDP
It means when it advances
it een of equality of sacri-
efi He the communist leader
ro. “The only way to real equal-
re nt to take the means of pro-
d ti on from monopoly,
teh"Onalize the basic industries,
h Brace the working class in
ee of the commanding
ts of the economy.”

te Monopoly is in the.saddle in
, ay. he said, ‘‘and the
ato ae to change the situation
| and eventually get rid of

rt Opoly.. ”’ He declared that the
) PO in effect tied the
) lan working class to the

I} .
co ttro]s Program in the mistaken

Tee

a

belief this would solve the
economic crisis facing Canada
today.

“The only controls workers
should support are controls over
monopoly, controls over prices
and profits, rent, land specula-
tion, and the oil corporations,”
Kashtan said. ‘‘Monopoly power
must be curbed and the democra-
tic rights of the workers extended
all down the line.”

Warning Canadian workers not
to get caught in big business gov-
ernments’ inflation shell-game,

Kashtan urged, ‘don’t be de-:

luded! Policies of full employ-
ment and higher wages and livings
standards, for the working people
can only be achieved providing
monopoly is curbed.”

“You don’t have to have in-
flation! The government’s pro-
monopoly anti-inflation policies
are not an acceptable solution to

the people of Canada,”’ he said.
Kashtan concluded by calling

-on those who wanted to see the

implementation of such a democ-
ratic alternative to the crisis
policies of monopoly, to join the
Communist Party and hasten the
day when a democratic, anti-
monopoly, anti-imperialist coali-
tion can come into being.-He went
on to say that part of the battle
for it is to win the trade union
movement for policies of class
struggle, to build left-communist
unity in every union in Canada
and continue the struggle against
Bill C-73 in whatever forms most
suitable.

He also urged all progressives
and friends of the Communist
Party to read and subscribe to the
Canadian Tribuné — ‘“‘an indis-
pensible aid for strengthening the
fight for true independence and a
socialist Canada.’

Protest day in

By DON CURRIE
REGINA — The Day of Pro-
test in Saskatchewan was a good,
representative demonstration,
embracing wide numbers of
workers. It involved many
thousands of workers directly,
plus the fact that around 28,000

4

19 eg

$ be k - <0 a?

' - The a 0)
. Yourself. Top photo April 27 of 20,000. Botton photo Oct. 14

* TRIBUNE PHOTOS

dia “counted” 5,000. Both photos taken from same spot.

workers stayed off the job, indi-

cating that the labor movement is ©

learning now to organize and fight
with more advanced positions.
The demonstration was a step
in the direction of labor asserting
its leadership on political ques-
tions, and it is clear that labor’s
aims are the most representative
of the what working people

desire.
The next steps for the labor

movement in the struggle against
wage controls involve a higher
level of political action around the
points in labor’s manifesto.

John McLeod, Saskatchewan
Federation of Labor vice presi-
dent, speaking to a crowd of
about 1,500 in the Saskatchewan
Legislature declared labor’s op-
position to Bill C-73, which he
characterized as wage controls
only, and declared labor’s solidar-
ity with the farmers who, he said,
are being forced into bankruptcy
by government policies.

McLeod declared that the aim

_ of the Trudeau government in

introducing Bill C-73 was to
weaken the organized trade union
movement. ‘‘We are prepared to
fight,” he declared. ““We didn’t
ask for ‘this fight, but we won’t
back down.”’

McLeod asked who could the
labor movement trust. He pointed

‘ out that the Blakeney government

had been elected in 1971, and re-
elected in 1975, because the New
Democratic Party said that it be-
lieved in free collective bargain-
ing. He said that the Blakeney
government’s participation in
“this phony plan’’ has shaken the
faith of the workers in the NDP.

“‘Mr Blakeney,”’ he said, “‘you
are attacking the workers. You
are participating in a fraud. We
demand an end to it. We did not
cause inflation. We call for a pro-
gram to benefit the people.” He
then outlined a 12-point program
put forward by the Saskatchewan
Federation of Labor, which calls
for a roll-back of prices, a housing
program, lower interest rates,
higher pensions, controls over
energy and land prices, among
other things. ;

Doug Lavallee, a spokesman

TRIBUNE PHOTO —TOM MORRIS

PHOTO —EDYA WEIR

Toronto demonstrator sends this message to Premier Davis.

Sskatchewan

from CUPE, said that low-paid
workers in Saskatchewan, par-
ticularly hospital workers, had
been hit hard by wage controls.
He told the demonstration about
the bitter struggles of Saskatche-
wan hospital workers, who won a
gain in wages from the hospital
boards, only to have it rolled back
by the Saskatchewan NDP gov-
ernment.

He said, ‘‘Blakeney says he is
doing ‘this for the benefit of the
people of Saskatchewan. But
there was only one roll-back of
prices in Saskatechewan, and that
was when a Saskatoon golf club
had a fee increase of $3.00 rolled
back to $2.50. Can we believe a
government which said no wage
controls and then imposed them?
Can we really believe that they
will lift them in three years as
Trudeau says? No damn way.”

Between 1,000 and 1,500 then
marched well over a mile in the
freezing, gale-force winds, gust-
ing up to 75 miles an hour, which
blew out windows, blew over
trees and poles, and filled the air

You don't have to be old to feel the effects of Bill’C-73.

with dust, to the Bank of Canada
building in the heart of downtown
Regina. There, Wes Norheim,
Canadian Labor Congress repre-
sentative, addressed the meeting.

Norheim said that it was ap-
propriate that the meeting was
taking place in front of the Bank
of Canada, because the money
the Bank of Canada controls or
has access to, could be used to
overcome unemployment and to
build up Canada. He said that the
federal government had under-
estimated the working people of
Canada who would force the gov-
emment to retreat on its anti-
labor program.

Homer Beach, an Ernfold
farmer, spoke as an individual
farmer, emphasizing that he was
not speaking on behalf of the Na-
tional Farmers Union, of which
he is a member. He discussed the
problems of the low prices paid to
farmers and the high prices
charged the consumer. The NFU
kept a low profile on the Day of
Protest, and did not officially take
part.

ar

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—NOVEMBER 5, 1976—Page 7