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Active issues discussed
in Czechoslovak unions

By JACK PHILLIPS _

PRAGUE — A great deal of debate
has been generated about the role of
trade unions in a socialist economy as a
result of recent events in Poland.

Socialism’s enemies have tried to latch
on to the problems which have erupted in
Poland to spread the lie that trade unions
and workers have no rights in the
socialist world.

In a speech to last April’s 16th Con-
gress of the Communist Party of Czecho-
slovakia, the country’s top trade union
leader, Karl Hoffman gave a very clear
picture of the extensive rights and the
special role ‘trade unions have under
socialism.

Hoffman, the president of the seven-
million-member Revolutionary Trade
Union Movement, (RTUM), Czecho-
slovakia’s equivalent of the Canadian
Labor Congress, made it known that the
RTUM would continue to exercise its
rights under socialism to their fullest
extent.

He said the RTUM proceeds on the
basis that under socialism trade unions
must never cease to exert efforts aimed
at winning the workers’ confidence. To
achieve this goal he laid down four deci-
sive conditions.

First, trade unions must unswervingly
defend and advance the interests of
working people. They must protect,
encourage and promote the power of the

working class, consolidate socialist —

society and strengthen its socialist
character. This entails systematic con-
cern with the promotion of economic
growth and the fulfillment of the overall
economic plan.

Living Conditions

Secondly, unions must exert unceas-
ing efforts to ensure the growth of the
national income and its distribution, to
resolve all basic problems and aspects of
production, to provide good working and
living conditions for the working people

and to safeguard their social and material
security.

Thirdly, socialist trade unions must
show the- maximum initiative in the
dfence of the immediate rights, real
needs and interests specific to groups of
workers, workers’ collectives and indi-
viduals. The control function of the
unions must be intensified in respect to
all working, living and social problems.

Fourthly, the unions must react with
greater consistency to any violation of
labor law, to bureaucratic practices,
formalism and delayed action.

This wasn’t said in opposition to the
Communist Party, but fully in line with
the principles, emphasized at the recent
party congress. It is not a question of
fighting for new fundamental rights.
Rather it is a question of utilizing existing
rights to a greater degree. In that connec-
tion Hoffman had some enlightening
things to say at the congress.

“On no account should we underrate
the experience that a great many workers
judge the activities of the trade unions
primarily in terms of practical utility, that
is, the impact unions have on their daily
lives and working conditions’’, he said.

‘* They assess the success of the trade
union’s work according to the extent to
which trade union involvement helps
them solve their problems and cope with
their difficulties and grievances. They
are sensitive to the reaction on the part of
trade union bodies toward their com-
ments, complaints, critical views and
suggestions.

“Sometimes even seemingly minor
problems and marginal issues shape the
outlook and attitudes of thousands of
workers’, Hoffman observed.

Spells Out Standards

He singled: out a number of issues
demanding “‘critical scrutiny”’ including:
improvement of labor safety; elimination
of strenous manual work; and, the spell-
ing out of standards for the social aspects
of investment schemes, with specific

session of its central council in Prague.

reference to industrial premises and their
operation, current trends in overtime
work and the incidence of occupational
diseases.

**No less important’’, Hoffman said,
‘*are problems concerning the protection
of the natural environment in certain re-
gions and localities of the Republic,
further planned development of enter-
prise-based social policies and the role of
collective agreements in specific areas of
problem solving.”’

Hoffman didn’t pull any punches in his
speech, when he referred to the impact of
the Polish events among Czechoslova
union members. ‘‘Recent events and
developments in the trade union move-
ment of the Polish People’s Republic
have brought into sharp focus the prob-
lem of socialist trade unions’’, he said.

“The trade union situation in the —

Polish People’s Republic has given rise
to a wide-ranging discussion among our

workers .who. still vividly -recall the-°-

crisis-ridden years of Czechoslovakia
and the attempt of counter-revolutionary
forces to make trade unions oppose the
interests of the working class and the
entire working people, to make them
work against the Communist Party and
against socialism .

He served notice ‘that greater utiliza-

Karl Hoffman, leader of the Czechoslovak Revolutionary Trade Union Movement addre

certain improvements have been mae

tion must be made of existing and ex
sive trade union rights and. power
that greater attention must be paid to!
education of trade union bodies and T¢
resentatives, who for a variety of
sons, ‘‘do not consistently protect t
workers’ rights and interests, tolef
incorrect ‘action and let themselves |
discouraged from the fulfillment of th
primary duties.”

Significantly, Hoffman also called
action to change the attitudes of
bodies of state administration and
nomic bodies toward unions. q

“Obviously’’, he said, “‘not all re
resentatives have grasped the fact th
the voice of the trade unions is the vo¥
of the working class, a voice that has!
be listened to, that a systematic monit®
ing of the critical comments and sugg®
tions of class — loyal-socialist tr
unions is an essential aspect of social
SEMOGTECY, j

- However, ‘Hoffman-revedled 1 t:
criticism had been sharply raised by'
highest bodies of the trade union mo’
ment and that extensive discussions fl
been held between government bodi
economic management and the tr
unions at every level of administrati@
from the districts tothe centre, and #

of Postal Workers’ paper CUPW.

Labor Congress.

economic production;

A call for a Coalition of Economic Reform was issued
in the November-December issue of the Canadian Union

Under the signature of André J. Beauchamp CUPW
editor and first vice-president of the union, a
Program, Long and Short Term”’ was advanced as a first
priority for labor as the centre of such a coalition. .

“‘Without doubt’, Beauchamp argues, ‘‘the creation =
of.a ‘progressive coalition’ which would advocate the
interests of workers, would be considerably more dif-
ficult than building a temporary alliance against high
interest rates. But in the long term it is this type of
coalition which is necessary if labor’s policies and
analysis are to be placed in the forefront.

‘*High interest rates’’, he continues, ‘‘are not such a
basic eqpnomic problem, they are a symptom of which
more profound structural and political problems. Un-
fortunately, the present coalition on high interest rates is
too politically diverse to agree on the measures which
are necessary to stimulate economic growth, and elimi-
nate our dependency of the U.S. economy, with the
result that the issue was not raised by the Canadian

**A-new coalition, created to advocate workers’ solu-
tions to the present economic crisis would enable the
CLC to promote such a program which could stress
policies for economic growth and independence.”’

Beauchamp places the question of unemployment on
the top of the list and puts forward a long and short term
program for coming to grips with the economic crisis.

The long term program in CUPW calls for:

e the development of an industrial strategy based on

_ public ownership, to guarantee balanced and consistent

“New

be planned.

3 “ Labor in action
William Stewart

e placing of all resource industries and the financial
sector under public ownership;

e the creation of a universal, integrated pension sys-
tem which could be used to patriate the Canadian
economy and develop secondary industry.

The short term program calls for a new budget to
stimulate the economy; a major job-creating investment
program; a massive program of public housing construc-
tion; immediate price controls on all necessities; a roll-
back on energy prices; reduced interest rates and ex-
change controls; improved pensions for the elderly and
rapid expansion of public services.

In summary Beauchamp points again to the immediate
need for the CLC to work to build a Canada-wide coali-
tion at a local, provincial and national level and promote
its new Program for Economic Reform.

Protests could begin at local labor council levels, esca-
late to provincial levels and, as the mo
another even bigger mass demonstration i

He suggests that the See of such a program al-
ready exist in CLC policy but need to be separated out
and clearly specified and updated in line with the long
and short term proposals put forward by CUPW.
Lastly, Beauchamp suggests that after sinking our

CUPW calls for economic reform coalition

roots at a local level and after yet another mass
demonstration at Parliament Hill, if the government sti
does not heed the demands of such a coalition, industrial
action — a general strike of some duration — be con:

sidered.

cated.

ntum builds,

If one were to look for a weakness in the CUPW
initiative it could be found in the failure to mention’
question of peace, détente and: dis. :
program, either from the economic poirit of view of arms
costs, or the bigger question of the threat posed to all
mankind by thermonuclear war. One might also considet |
whether or not the program tends to place the question o! -
a “working class’’ program and ‘‘working class’’ needs
in too narrow a framework so as to preclude the breadth’
of the alliances necessary and possible to win a progres
sive alternative economic program along the lines advo- |

Such observations, however, could miss the main |
thrust of the program and its potential impact on the
labor movement. The initiative of the Postal Workers |
Union, in projecting the concept of ‘‘A New Coalition for |
Economic Reform, and putting forward a program _
such a coalition, cannot be overestimated. }

Moreover, the CLC cannot take offence at the mannef
in which the proposals are put forward and the proieon
tions for follow-up in the,CLC after Nov. 21. They are |
bound to attract considerable attention and support in” |
Ottawa could the labor movement which is looking collectively for a
post-Nov. 21 strategy. |

It.can also help to serve to focus attention on the |
coming CLC convention as a focal point for the |
development of such a strategy. q

For the second time in recent months we doff oul j
collective caps to CUPW.

rj

nt “in th

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—JAN. 29, 1982—Page 6