=

}

PRESSURE RISES

U.S. pushing Nato
into Viet debacle

The United States, feeling its
heavy losses to the national
liberation movement of South
Vietnam and its utter isolation
onthe world stage for its entire
Vitétnam policy, is desperately
trying to force NATO into an
active part in its Asian debacle,

fhe request for NATO sup-
port was formally made by
Secretary of State Dean Rusk
last Tuesday at the treaty or-
ganization’s annual council of
ministers, this year being held
in Paris,

Although the official request
was cloaked as a plea to send
**doctors, engineers and teach-
ers’’ to South Vietnam, practi-
cally no one can be found who
doesn’t believe that troops would
soon follow,

Lest there be any doubts on
that score, Rusk went out of his
way to remind the NATO coun-
tries’ ministers that ‘‘there is
room for more troops in South
Vietnam,’’ according to Canadian
Press, ——

Canada’s Foreign Minister
Paul Martin reportedly endorsed
the statements made by Rusk,
declaring that ‘threats to peace’’
outside the NATO area inevitably
tend to involve its members,

The danger thus arises that
the Pearson government would
use the cover of a NATO agree-
ment to do something which pub-
lic pressure has thus far pre-
vented it from doing—sending
Canadian boys into Vietnam,

On the éve of the opening
session of the ministerial coun-
cil, it was announced from Paris
that a committee had been set

“up to discuss wider sharing of

nuclear arms by all NATO coun-
tries,. This was undoubtedly a
concession to West Germany,

The committee, which is to

ately, will be named after U.S,
Defence Secretary McNamara—
and a more infamous name for
such a group would be difficult
to find, :

The formation of the commit-
tee means that France is not
opposed to it in principle. Up
until now, French President De
Gaulle has maintained a stance
of being opposed to NATO nu-
clear integration but it would
now seem that sufficient pres-
ssures have swept his views
aside,

For the people of Canadathese
latest developments should serve
to underline once again the in-
herent dangers of belonging to a
war-oriented organization like
NATO, Sending more troopg inw
Vietnam and giving Wese Ger-
mans nuclear arms will do
nothing for the cause of world
peace,

i Blitz (Bombay)
Peace and aid for. Vietnam.

To the contrary, such moves
are all designed to undermine
any genuine attempts at reliev-
ing tensions in the world and
beginning the arduous business
of starting to institute some mea-
sure of disarmament,

Sooner or later, Canadians will
have to make a choice in this re-
gard; whether to continue along
the path of building added tensions
and threats to peace, or break
with the past and adopt an in-

start its work almost immedi-~ dependent attitude,

a6

- #—Reidford, Globe and Mail

RATE OF EXPLOITATION INCREASES

Real wages of Canadian.
workers not keeping up |
with rising productivity —

- By EGBERT

The federal-provincial conference on poverty in Canada, held last week, should help
open up the eyes of many who think of our nation as a land of milk and honey where
_ everybody shares equally in one of the highest standards of living in the entire world.

The Dominion Bureau of Sta-
tistics presented the conference
some shocking facts, offering
conclusive proof that an all out
war on poverty in Canada can no
longer be considered as anything
but mandatory. Some examples:

@ More than one million Cana-
dians are ‘functionally illiter-
ate,’’

@ The talents of two-thirds of
our country’s academically gift-
ed people are not being used
fully, :

@There is a clear need for
300,000 homes for~low income
families, :

@ Many persons live on less than
$75 per month

One could go on and on, It

could be pointed out, for exam-='

ple, that the Cost of Living In-
dex jumped to an all time high
in November: 140.2 as compared

-to thé previous high of 139.5,
which was recorded in July of
this year,

This represents an increase of
4.3 points since November of last
year, equivalent to a 3,2 percent
boost in living costs. Economists
are generally agreed thatif price
gains go over 1,5 to 2 percent a
year, the danger of inflation is
present,

The Cost of Living Index is
based upon 1949 prices equalling
100 and elsewhere on this page
we have some interesting com-
parisons in terms of 1949 dol-
lars, When these comparisons
are taken along with the points
made above, it becomes obvious
that the rate of exploitation of
the Canadian working class is
increasing sharply,

Let us examine how well wages
have managed (or not managed)
to keep pace with rising living
costs and, more importantly, in-
creased productivity,

Cy

The year 1956 is a natural
dividing point in the economic
development of Canada, In that
year, which was the peak year
of the 1954-1957 cycle, per
capita output in Canada reached
a peak,

After 1956 there were several
years of comparative crisis and
stagnation, such that even in
1961, five years later, average
per capita real income in Ca-
nada was 3 percent lower than
in 1956,

It is interesting that during
this five year period, in spite
of the fall in per capita produc-
tion and real income, the trade
union movement succeeded in
raising wages slightly faster
than the cost of living, with the
result that in 1961 the average
weekly real wage (which means
it is measured in 1949 dollars)
was 9 percent higher than in
1956,

During the 1960s, this trend:

i

has reversed itself,

Since 1961 the Gross National
Product had increased (up to
mid-1965) by 36 percent, When
this is corrected for the rise in
prices and for the growth in
population, the GNP per person
increased by 17.1 percent dur-
ing the period,

However, average real wages
increased by only 7 percent. This
is in spite of the fact that in the
past two years, the dollar amount
of wage increases has been un=
usually high,

There has been a considerable-
shift in the emphasis of collec-
tive bargaining demands and set-

tlements during the past 10 :

years. In the 1950s there be-
gan to be a trend to bargaining
over ‘‘supplementary unemploy-
ment benefit’’ and severence pay
of various kinds, together with
increased statutory holidays and
vacations, :

Since 1960, there has been in=
creasing emphasis on demands
that are designed to provide
some answers to automation,
These have been concerned
mainly with notifications oftech-
nological changes, re-training
programs and job guarantees,
In 1965, however, partly due to
the impact of the Canada Pension
Plan, there has been a special
emphasis on bargaining for pen-
sion plans,

As far as can be determined
from official figures, wages
have more than kept pace with
the cost of living, but have in
the past five years slipped con-
siderably behind increasing pro-
ductivity.

The economic security of the
workers has been considerably
improved, insofar as it lies with-
in the power of collective bar-
gaining to do so, through the
medium of prepaid medical

plans, pension plans, lay-off

provisions, etc,

However, it has become in-.
creasingly obvious that no satis-
factory solution to the automation
problem is possible within the
scope of collective bargaining,
since this cannot provide for the
younger generation of workers
who are not covered by seniority
arrangements or who are not
even employed,

In viewing the table showing
productivity and wages on this
page, it should be noted that
from 1963 to 1964, the GNP in-
creased by 8.8 percent and from
the second quarter of 1964 to the
same period in 1965, it increas-
ed by 9 percent, These are re-
cord rates of increase.

The approximate measure of
productivity is the GNP per per-
son in constant dollars, This in-
creased by 4.6 percent from 1963
to 1964 and by 4.1 percent from
the second quarter of 1964 to the
second quarter of 1965.

However, during the same
periods real wages rose only
2.4 percent and 1.7 percent res-=
pectively, showing that labor was |
receiving only about half the
benefit of its increased produc-
tivity. ;

Can anyone seriously argue
that the rate of exploitation of the
Canadian working class has not
increased, and very recently?

Gross National Product
_ in current dollars

(millions)
1956 Prijs e 2 90;5B5
10d ee 37,420
1963 oe 43,180
W964 sree a 7,003"
1964 (2nd Quarter) 46,684
1965 (2nd Quarter) 50,948

GNP per Person Weekly Woges in
in constant 1957: Manufacturing

dollars — in constant 1949
dollars —
$1,984 $52.70
1,924 57.47
* 2,074 59.61
2,167 61.14
2,164 60.29
2,253 61.31

December 17, 1965—PACIFIC TRIBUNE—Page 12