aie

Mt SMITH
ITS TIME 10 GO...
GO GRACLIULY.

Although South Africa came under increasing international pressure,
the racist government Rhodesian premier lan Smith faced opposition
from its own party backers as white members of the ruling “Rhodesian
Front” (RF) demonstrated earlier this month in Salisbury demanding
that Smith accept a transition government to Black majority rule.

Throne speech hints

at further

Cont'd from pg. 1

It’s interesting that the person
chosen by the Socreds to lead off
the debate made resource
giveaways his main theme.
Esquimalt MLA Lyle Kahl called
* for B.C. to do more to share its
primary resources with countries
that need them. He said the
government would legislate
“positive steps’? to send out
primary resources to world
markets, and that the public should

support these steps.

Announcing that the Socred
government would continue to
support the federal anti-inflation
program, the throne speech is
loaded with references to workers
accepting “‘restraint in this crucial
year.’’ In words pointedly ad-
dressed to B.C.’s working people
and trade union movement, the
speech said ‘“‘my government
believes this province must pause
and let the rest of the world catch
up in terms of cost. If our people
can hold down their demands this
year and next, my government
believes there will be more
benefits for all in the years that
follow.”’

The speech was equally frank
and outspoken on its big business
orientation when it said that the
government ‘‘intends to provide
more opportunity to the private
sector this year and in the years
ahead.”

It’s almost certain, judging from
the ,throne speech, that labor
legislation will receive major
attention at this session. New labor
legislation to consolidate all
existing labor legislation into one
new code is promised. What this
means is not spelled out. But in
view of the Socred government’s
record this past year, it cannot be
good news for labor.

Although the government has
indicated it will not bring down
right-to-work legislation, labor

~ minister Allan Williams earlier in
the year said the government is
considering measures which would
interfere in the internal affairs of
unions, such as when strike votes
are to be taken and scrutinizing of
strike votes. Also during the year
the B.C. Labor Relations Board,

cutbacks

set up under the NDP government,
assumed a more punitive position
toward unions, imposing heavy
penalties and _ disciplinary
measures against workers, such as
it did in Kitimat.

The Employers Council of B.C.
and other major big business
bodies, have submitted briefs to
the government urging tougher
anti-labor legislation which would
restrict picketing even more, and
give the courts greater powers to
deal with labor disputes.

Two issues raised in the throne
speech which will arouse con-
siderable public opposition are the
proposal to ‘‘eventually’ provide
financial support for private and
independent schools, a measure
already protested by the president
of the B.C. Teachers Federation as
a step which would undermine the
public school system; and the plan
to build ‘secure facilities” for
juvenile delinquents. The latter
proposal has been criticized by
social workers as moving in the
wrong direction to tackle the
problem of juvenile delinquency.

There is also serious concern

about what the government intends |

to do with land use controls which
were set up under the NDP
government. The Socreds have
bitterly opposed the freeze on
agricultural land and have moved
in a number of areas to unfreeze
some of this land for real estate
promotions. Nor is it clear what the
throne speech meant with its
promise to extend the respon-
sibility of local government in
areas of community planning. This
could mean an attempt to’sneak in
some proposals of the Bawlf
Report to put restrictions on what
civic governments can do to
control real estate promotions
through zoning, land freezes, and
public facilities.

All in all, the throne speech in-
dicates that progressive and labor
forces in B.C. are faced with the
need for greater vigilance to
protect their interests, and to
mount effective pressure on the
present session of the legislature to
ensure that right wing programs
are defeated, and progressive

policies adopted which would

benefit the people of B.C.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—JANUARY 21, 1977—Page 12

- Saying

John Harper, secretary
treasurer of the Kamloops and
District Labor Council, has
charged the B.C. Government
Employees Union with trying to
“blackmail’’ the council. The
charge arose from an unsuccessful
attempt by the BCGEU to block the
election of one of its own members,
Terri Ash, to the office of president
of the council.

Ash was a delegate from the
labor council to the last November
convention of the B.C. Federation
of Labor. In accordance with the
position of the council she sup-
ported Len Guy and George
Johnston — and the leadership of
the BCGEU responded angrily.

On January 10, the day before
the council elections, the BCGEU
sent a telegram to Harper an-
nouncing the withdrawal of its nine
components affiliated to the
council because the incumbent
officers had not disqualified Ash
from seeking the presidency. The
telegram came two days after Al
Lowndes, a BCGEU represen-
tative, phoned Harper to inform
him that the BCGEU would pull out
if Ash, who had been nominated in
December, was allowed to run.

Interviewed January 10,
Lowndes told the Kamloops Sen-
tinel, ‘‘because Ms. Ash took a
stand contrary to the BCGEU’s
moderate position, she cannot be
allowed to speak for the union.

“As of this date, all of our
components are disaffiliated. Terri
Ash does not speak for the
BCGEU,” he declared.

If the term ‘‘moderate” as used
here is replaced by another phrase
which is the one really meant, it
becomes ‘right wing’’ which
makes the picture much clearer.

Ash is an active member of the
NDP — whichis one of the reasons
she was nominated. It was felt by
some that her election would help
to ease the strained relations
between the council and the NDP.
However, the report given to the
council by secretary Harper on
January 10 quoted Lowndes as
“this executive in Van-
couver was very upset that sister
Ash was running for president.”

Interviewed after her election,
Ash said: “Had they looked at it
rationally, they would have
realized that Ihadno choice. It was
not even my intention to an-
tagonize the union. The union
reacted in a very unfair manner.”

She added that the underlying
reason was the issue of “in-
dependence’’ for the trade union

77 Withdrawal of affiliates
undermining labor unity |

The withdrawal of the nine
BCGEU locals with 1,500 members
follows the pullout October 15 of
Local 1-417 of the International
Woodworkers of America wah
3,000 members.

The labor council officers Fes
sent a letter to the president of the
Canadian Labor Congress asking
for a ruling on the constitutionality

LABOR
COMMENT

BY JACK PHILLIPS

of the two withdrawals and the
election of Terri Ash.

This disruption in the labor
movement comes at a time when
some 300,000 organized workers
are scheduled to go into collective
bargaining. Among those involved
areimportant, trend-setting unions
in the retail food chains, con-
struction, smelting, the forest
mdustry, fishing, freight and
cartage and’ municipal and
government service. More than
half the total are in bargaining

‘un.ts containing 4,000 or more

workers.

In this critical situation, the B.C.
Federation of Labor~should call a
conference of the key unions and
assist them in working out a
‘coordinated bargaining strategy.
The throne speech last week un-_
derlined the necessity of just such
an approach when it called for

restraint beyond the react
guidelines.

A coordinated approach in this.
province would result in su
stantial gains for the workers an
could hasten the demise of t
wage control program.

Those leaders who refuse 1
accept the mandate of the
Federation convention are not
acting in the best interests of the
labor movement. The emerging
pattern seems to indicate chal
some are working openly to un:
dermine the Federation leadership _
—— making it impossible for that
leadership to perform its major
duties effectively.

The October 14 day of protest |
against wage controls proved that
labor united is a force that cannot
be ignored. Those who promote -
withdrawals from central labor
bodies as a means of showing —
opposition to the elected leadership —
are, whatever their declared in
tentions, rendering a valuable
service to the worst enemies of
organized labor. |

Those who are opposed to this
“destabilization” process — ani
they are the decisive majority —_
must speak out forcefully. It will
not help to try and sweep the issues »
under the rug. Instead of division
and disruption, there should be
unity of action around the vital
needs of the membership.

For the immediate future, thé
issue around which the mem
bership of the Federation affiliat {
can be united is the 1977 wage and
contract meeonahons.

Chile CP celebrates
55 years of struggle

Amid the political terror and
economic despair of fascism, the ,
underground Communist Party of
Chile celebrated its 55th an-
niversary on January 3.

While inside Chile the occasion
was observed quietly in the face of
an intense wave of repression that
has been unceasing since last
September, around the world the
CP anniversary was a day for
renewed international solidarity.

In Havana, Cuba huge crowds
turned out for a public solidarity
meeting in the auditorium of the
Gerardo Abreu factory. Com-
munist Party of Chile political

movement in relation to the NDP.

commission member Rodrigo

New forestry hearings
] oo ey Se ili ey
exercise in futility’
Victoria has announced that a five-man ‘committee appointed = the
provincial government will hold hearings during the next few months

in various B.C. centres to receive submissions on what should be done
about the recommen dations in the Pearse Royal Commission on

forestry.

The main drawback with these pencnes is that the committee has
laid down the rule that ‘‘all submissions must be directly related to the

recommendations of the Royal Commission report . .

issues will not be considered.”

. any extraneous

What the committee thinks “extraneous” is ite most important
issue involved in the Pearse report: that it failed to recommend action
to end the Tree Farm Licences and other giveaway provisions of the

_ present Forestry Act. By limiting submissions only to what is already
recommended in the report puts the hearings into a straight Jacket
from which very little good will come for the public.

The other thing wrong with the plan of the five-man cominittee is
that the committee does not include a single representative from labor
or the public. Certainly the International Woodworkers of America
should be an interested party in what happens in the forest industry.
The committee is made up entirely of officials from the government’s |

forestry department, plus a consulting forest: economist. Outside of

- providing a lucrative job for fi committee members the eau
: 1 tt :

Rojas was joined on the asso
by leaders of the Communist Party
of Cuba and by leaders of i!
Popular Unity parties. Pare
ticularly significant was in
presence of Oscar Garreton,
general secretary of MAPU an@
Hortensia Bussi Allende, widow 0!
President _Salvador Allende,
together with Laura Allende,
member of the Foreign Secretariat
of the Socialist Party. ee

Rojas, who himself was released
from the junta’s prisons through
international pressure, took the
occasion to greet the release of
Luis Corvalan, whom Rojas ter-
med ‘‘representative of the
militant history of the Chilean
party.

The Communist Party of a

was born in 1922 at the 4th
Congress of the Socialist Worke
Party of Chile held at Rancagua. It
was at that Congress that a
resolution was passed to change
the name to the Communist Party
and to transform the Workers
Party into a Marxist-Leninist —
organization. The founder and first
leader of the new party was Luis
Emilio Recabarren. Recabarren is -
also considered the father of the
Chilean trade union movement and
of the labor press.

From 1922 the party went
through a number of stages and
was declared illegal on a number
of occasions. It was the Communist
Party that first advanced the
conception of Popular Unity and
guided that strategy to the popular
victory of 1970.

There could be little festivities
inside Chile as 1977 began. Rather
a new round of price increases on
food and other necessities greeted
the new year.

7