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‘Ulira-left’ distorts labor issues

The November convention of the
B.C. Federation of Labor
demonstrated, among other things,
that the responsible left plays a
principled and constructive role in
the labor movement. In contrast, it
demonstrated the disruptive role of
the irresponsible left, often referred
to as the ultra left. :

As an.example of the disruptive
role of the irresponsible left, there
is the leaflet given to delegates by
representatives of the ‘‘CPL Postal
Caucus, Vancouver Local,”’ a small
group of members of the so-called
Canadian Party of Labor employed
in the Vancouver post office.

The provocative headline reads:
“NDP-CLC: Traitors in our
ranks.’” Thus, in one, stupid
headline, the major trade union
centre in Canada, with some
2,300,000 members is branded as
being no more than traitors,
without exception. Similarly, the
NDP, which includes among its
members and supporters thousands
of militant trade unionists, is placed
in the same classification.

The sub-head makes this sectar-
ian statement: ‘‘NDP-CLC attack
the working class.’’

While the top leadership of the
Canadian Labor Congress deserves
to be criticized for its negative role
in the postal strike — as it was by
the Federation convention — it
must also be said that the leadership

_ Of the Federation gave excellent

Support to the postal workers and
was prepared to continue this if
they maintained their defiance of
the back-to-work legislation.
There is no mention of the role of
the Federation leadership in this

Taxes hiked

Continued from page 1

“Now school boards will be
forced to aborb this 1.93 mill in-
crease by cutting their final budgets
or passing on another tax increase
to local taxpayers.’’

She noted that McGeer’s an-
houncement would increase
pressure by right wing groups to
reduce educational services as a
means of cutting costs.

B.C. Teachers’ Federation
president Pat Brady commented,
“The government is continuing its
pattern of forcing school boards to
raise an ever-increasing proportion
of school costs from local tax-
payers, when it should’be doing the
opposite. ’’. ;

Last week, the BCTF presented
the outline of its Fairtax proposals
to the provincial government
calling for a reduction in the mill
rate to 39 mills; an increase in the
homeowner grant to $350 for those
under 65 and $520 for those over

spiteful leaflet, because that would
have contradicted the blunt
statement that the CLC was made
up of ‘‘traitors in our ranks.’?
Acknowledging the difference
between the role of the Federation
leadership and that of the top
leadership of the CLC would have
opened the question of dif-
ferentiations that arise in the fight
for policy and in the class struggle.
It also would have opened the
question of building alliances, both
at the bottom (among the member-
ship) and at the top, that is, with
leaders enjoying wide support.
Obviously the CPL does not favor
such a flexible policy of alliances.
Another example of the distorted
logic of the CPL can be found in

LABOR
COMMENT

BY JACK PHILLIPS

this statement: ‘‘The rank and filé
support among other workers
which was developing during the
strike shows that the class
recognizes that CUPW, not the
CLC is the leadership.”’ In short,
these sectarians are projecting the
idea that CUPW, and not the CLC,
must lead the trade union
movement as a whole in the fight
for shorter hours and control over
automation. .

While CUPW has played an
important role in the fight-back
against the attacks on living
standards and trade union rights, it
is not the only union in that
category. Here, in Vancouver, the
workers employed by the Van-
couver Sun and Province are
engaged in a major conflict over
job security and the effects of
technological change.

In Sudbury, 11,500 workers are
engaged in a bitter dispute with the
International Nickel Company of
Canada, a giant multinatIonal
corporation which has invested
millions of dollars in low-wage
countries (including money from
federal government subsidies) while
laying off thousands of Canadian
workers. Many other examples
could be cited. Obviously, there has
to be a stepped-up fight to compel
the CLC leadership to play its
proper role in support of these
struggles and in developing an over-
all, forward-looking strategy, or

. else be replaced.

Those in the CPL group, who
openly describe themselves as
Communists, have nothing in
common with the responsible left in
the labor movement and oppose the
Communist Party of Canada,
which provides the most advanced

and most consistent articulation of
constructive left policies in -the
labor movement.

For example, the CPL leaflet
closes with this gem: ‘‘McDermott
(president of the CLC) is right in
one thing. This fight leads
inevitably to a_ general strike.
‘Communists are prepared to bring
this government and all govern-
ments down, to seize power and
establish a workers’ state that
would serve our interests, not the
bosses.’’

This infantile placing of the issue
of socialist revolution is an assist to
McDermott and the other right
wing leaders of the CLC and the
NDP who falsely claim that if they
had supported the CUPW in
defiance of Parliament, it would
automatically have led to a general
strike which, they say, would have
been disastrous for the labor
movement.

Jean Claude Parrot, the leader of
CUPW, made it very clear when he
addressed the Federation con-
vention, that his union had never
called for a general strike.
However, it expected the kind of
support from the CLC leadership
that it received from the leaders of
the B.C. Federation of Labor. If
such support had been given, the
CUPW strike could have been won.

In my opinion, if at some point
down the line after receiving such
support, a general strike appeared
necessary and there was broad
support for that action, it could
then have been seriously con-
sidered. But general strikes can’t be
launched every time a few
irresponsible leftists want to take a
shortcut and make a big bang.

According to Gerry van Houten,
writing in the March-April 1978
issue of Communist Viewpoint, the
CPL grew out of the student
movement and there are no more
than 40 or 50 members now, most
of them in Toronto and Vancouver.
It was founded in 1968 as a Maoist
organization, but has since moved
away from being identified with
China’s policies, claiming instead
that Albania is the only socialist
country in the world.

In 1974, three of its four
members in the Toronto local of
CUPW rose to office on a wave of
membership discontent. However,
these offices were lost in the 1978
election as a result of sectarianism
and adventurism. The Vancouver
leaflet which I summarized reflects
the same sectarianism and ad-

- venturism.

Another leaflet was distributed to
the Federation delegate by the so-

called ‘‘Revolutionary Postal
Workers (Vancouver Local of
CUPW).”

The headline is very radical-
sounding: ‘‘Revolutionary politics

Ul changes

Continued from page 1

by the Unemployment Insurance
Commission to pay back -the
Overpayments. The error was the
result of an unemployment
Statistics that was supposedly too
high being punched into Ottawa
computers thus increasing the
length of time claimenats could
receive benefits.

But as unionists have pointed
out, the unemployed _ statistics
grossly understate the reality of
unemployment and, in any event,
attempts by the commission to
recover the money impose great
hardship. :

The B.C. Federation of Labor’s
unemployed committee ran ads
earlier this week urging all workers,

union and non-union alike, who .

had received letters from the
commission demanding return. of
the overpayment, to contact the
Federation. A representative appeal
Is to be launched and will be
pursued through to Supreme court
if necessary.

The United Fishermen and Allied
workers Union, several of whose
members were affected by the
error, had earlier appealed to the
commission and was initially
successful in having some cases
dropped or reduced.

The Nova Scotia Federation of:
Labor together with the Halifax-

Dartmouth Labor Council has also -

initiated appeals against the
commission’s Payback demand...

The overpayment issues has
focussed public attention on the
hardship faced by the unemployed,
thousands of whom will face
greater difficulty if the proposed UI
amendments go through. i

The changes announced earlier
this year by Cullen would increase
the “‘entrance’’ requirments for
unemployment insurance for those
coming into the labor force or who
were absent for long periods; they
would reduce benefits for all
claimants; and would disentitle

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—DECEMBER 8, 1978—Page 8

could be in by Xmas

thousands of seasonal workers.

Reports throughout the trade
union movement have indicated
that the government may be moving
to ram the amendments through the
House before the Christmas recess,
expected Dec. 23. :

Jim Thomas, whose motion to
demand CLC action’ was.
unanimously endorsed, warned that
the entire labor movement would
have to move quickly to prevent the
amendments from going through.

The labor council also urged
unionists and unemployed to turn
out in force at a forum on the UI
amendments slated to be held at

Simon Fraser University at 2 p.m. -

Dec. 8. Conservative MP John
Fraser and Liberal MP Art Lee,

both members of the Commons —

standing committee on employment
and immigration, were to be among
several panelists. Colin snell,
chairman of the council’s unem-
ployed committee, was also
scheduled to address the forum.

is the only way forward!” the basic
message is this: ‘In order to escape
from their condition as wage slaves
the workers must break out of the
narrow confines of bourgeois trade
union politics and launch mass
revolutionary struggles to make the
rich pay for the crisis. Only through
the revolutionary overthrow of the
decadent and moribund capitalist
class to ensure a bright future and
for itself and the rest of the op-
pressed people.’’ There is no
Suggestion of intermediate stages
and winning allies in order to
isolate the main enemy, monopoly
capital. To these political freaks,
that constitutes retreat from the
goal of revolution.

We are told, ‘‘The revisionists of
the sham Communist Party, the
reactionary trade union bigwigs and
certain. opportunists call on the

workers to participate in the
election frauds. ... .”
Those who initiate petition

campaigns and initiate motions of
support are called opportunists,

fifth columnists and ‘‘agents of the .

bourgeoisie.”” They are also
condemned for their displays of
“‘mass support,’’ such as
demonstrations, rallies and mass
picket lines. What do these so-
called revolutionary leaders .ad-
vocate in place of the action they
condemn? They call for ‘‘one
revolutionary struggle after another
in preparation for the historic
struggle -to overthrow the im-
Perialist-dominated monopoly
capitalist system, and build genuine
independence, democracy and
socialism in Canada.”

In short, holding rallies and

- collecting signatures to compel the

federal government to withdraw the
proposed cuts in unemployment
insurance payments is opportunism
and revisionism, irrespective of the
level of political understanding of
the people.

These so-called radicals would
make revolution the way we make a
cup of instant coffee, by pouring
hot water on the coffee crystals and
stirring it up with a spoon.

~ leaders of the CLC and the N

The Communist Pa
Canada, while carrying on
matic critique of capitalism
advancing the socialist altern
strives to correctly com
propaganda for the socialist al
the party with the pursuit of 2
policy around immediate and il
mediate goals — in short, ¢
bining propaganda in favo)
program and ultimate aims wit
task of mobilizing the wo
people for the struggle today.”

While the sectarian group’
named: are always squ
among themselves and wit
sectarian groups of a similar
they have one thing in con
They are bitter enemies 0
socialism where it has |
established, particularly in
Soviet Union, and they_
dedicated enemies of the €
munist Party of Canada, th
genuine political party
program to establish sociali
our country.

In this pathological hatred
are united with the very right

they curse so profusely, and
the capitalist political parties ‘
state machinery for whose OV
throw they never cease to call,
respective of the occasion.

Fisheries
Continued from page 1

The UFAWU earlier called”
the federal government to ‘‘p
the strongest possible conti
plan to support fishery claims”
urged that the plan involve:
¢ Fisheries measures includi
barring U.S. fishermen from us
the inside passage
Washington to Alaska;
e Appropriate adjustments
the areas of trade and commer
e A ‘statement to the wo
community to enlist global suppé
(as Iceland did in asserting
fishery rights);
e An end to ‘‘confidentialit
fishery talks..

STE UAE PAH

Skagway port looms

Continued from page 1
“Skagway is in the U.S. and not
subject to inquiries like the West
Coast Oil Ports Inquiry.’’

Phillips said that the newly
formed Foothills Oil Pipeline
Company was applying to both the
U.S. secretary of the interior and to
Canada’s National Energy Baord
for quick approval of the $1 billion

- project.

Arnie Thomlinson, intervenor
for the UFAWU at the WCOPI and

.the recent NEB hearings on. oil

supply and demand, told the
Tribune Wednesday that the
Skagway proposal had been in the
works for nearly a year. It may
actually be in competition with the
Kitimat project, but there is a
possibility that the two consortiums
are acting in concert to stampede
the federal government . into
reversing its position on the Kitimat
port, he said. ~

As it stands now the Kitimat.

verre Ei wel cats Bi
So

“are very dangerous, Thomlin:

‘PACIFIC

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project will not likely get fede
approval “‘until there is an electiC
and a conservative government
Thomlinson said, ‘‘That is wi
KPL is counting on.’’ If Libe
MP’s in B.C. switched th
positions and endorsed a west coi
oil vort they would be ‘“‘sealii
their own doom,”’ he said.

The waters approaching Skagv

said, and up till now it has not bet
considered a very serious prop Os
for an oil port. a

_ It will likely take a large pub
outcry to force an inquiry into
Skagway project, he said, but
dangers of an oil port at Skagwa
should not be underestimated. T
fact that Skagway is a U.S. port ca
not be an excuse for it to esca
public scrunity, he added, as bo!
Port Angeles and Cherry Point, twé
other sites studied by the Thomli
son Inquiry, were also U.S. por