. 4 TTT t BL ee 1) By WILLIAM KASHTAN Ben that the Federal-Provin- ere ference of Prime Minis- cing eer all the big guns are wee Tained on the working with ay trade union movement Wage a aim of torpedoing the ion ie of over one mil- _ The Globe and Mail comment- y NB editorially on the results of ain merence declared that its hs ue was in its “psycho- aoe effect.” No doubt that One of its purposes, but it Wi ; i" act the main one. Its main | trom ; Was to ‘get agreement | tents he Provincial Govern- On the necessity of slow- in 3 io the economy, stimula- A Social unemployment, curtailing Services and pressuring the unione ; 3 unions in the public service 80 1) man ds Slow on their wage de- for .712nd thereby set the tone other industries, i aims et agreement on these v Goy ~ COck. » port tee try to win public sup- La Its policies, the Trudeau ment has spread the and-bull story that unless _ the : ae nolicustetity and. anti-inflation ! ie Wy 4 0 th very amen IS agreed to, unemploy- + Setioy will become even more than it is. However as hag Shs knows, unemployment Percent oY reached over 6.1 Ven hi Of the labor force and is times er in Quebec, the Mari- is hishens British Columbia. It Deo, nt of all amongst young down xy -USing construction is Conterero it is proposed by the ——e, Of Prime Ministers “ae i aaa ta min 1 QUEOOUGGUEUEAAUEDEAEGOUOLONAENANOEOEOEREUOUOEN:UGUOEOEOEREEOEOEOUOGUOGEOOUGEUGGOGEDEOUDEUEUEGEDEUEGEGUDEGUEUOLUSOCUCUCUEOEOUDUOEOEUEOEUUUGUEUUOSOUGUGEQEOUOULEUEECOUEUOOQEGEOULESOUOCUEOEQCEOURUOEOESOGOUGGCOEONOUSOCOEOEUSOOCOEOESOEOEOOCOEOCOOEOOE WORKERS’ FIGHT-BACK to undertake an economy drive on health’ care, education and welfare. This calculated policy points up the fact that Government policy is aimed at bringing on a mini-recession which could, if events in the-U.S.A. and in other capitalist countries are any indi- cations, take on a more serious character. In any case the purpose of government policy is to shake out the economy, eliminate small businesses, weaken the trade unions, rationalize indus- try and improve monopoly’s competitive position in the struggle for markets. The key target here is. the trade union movement which so far has refused to listen to the siren song of monopoly. . This has been the purpose of the exercise starting with the meeting of the Prices and In- comes Commission and 250 rep- resentatives of monopoly, as it has been a major purpose of the meeting of Prime Ministers. The aim here is to make the workers and their trade unions the villains of inflation and ris- ing prices, to isolate them from democratic public opinion, at the same time creating the im- pression that everyone has agreed to restraints except the trade union movement. ‘ The fact is that monopoly agreed to nothing except that its profits rate should be kept as high as possible. The fact is that interest rates are not going down, nor are taxes and rents. Productivity continues to rise. In these circumstances, when prices rose by nearly five per- cent last year, to call upon workers to exercise restraint is to ask them to accept wage cuts. The fact is that inflation has been a form of wage cutting, covered up by the illusion that additional dollars means more purchasing power when in real- ity it has meant standing still for the majority of workers. For any leader of the trade union movement to go along with the Trudeau policy is to betray the interests of working people and those they have been called upon to lead. Some trade union leaders may think it smart tactics to accept wage re- straints with tongue in cheek. However, by so doing they in fact open the door to mono- poly’s offensive on the living standards and rights of working people. Now is not the time. to capitulate or retreat before the pressures of monopoly and its governments. Now is the time to unite all the forces of the trade union movement, and alongside its just demands, advance an al- ternative policy to Trudeau’s austerity “anti-inflation’’ pro- gram. — CLC CONVENTION It is obvious that wages and incomes policy will be a central question at the coming Conven- tion of the Canadian Labor Con- gress. Working ‘people will ex- pect it to come forward with a GM's tough wages policy By WILLIAM ALLAN Gene he tal Motors Corporation, Worlg re°St Corporation in the ter 4, a Made it clear in a let- Sides S ‘stockholders that be- } lion ene after taxes $1.7 bil- to pocllars for 1969, it’s going Aut, \t0Ugh with the United 400,009 Orkers and its over for, ._ “2ion members in talks New contract. Roche ‘op brass, chairman James Cole, tae President Edward “Salary, pet? Taked in $750,000 in of stock ~iuses, profits on sales the ; In 1969) pointed out to Wage Dloye roosts of the 400,000 em- Bains ;, “ceeded productivity ‘Sdeegy 1 Tecent years (read tion na and this is why infla- -Theregy Prevalent in America. far ag ce the target in 1970 as “digher laho Concerned is that to feet costs must be tied Up) °"r productivity (speed- é Gu Dargai ee Wants to place on the thar, ‘able in 1970 demands time ge METS won't take any Compan OF engage in strikes, The the efi, Says, “This has cut into With Sa of plant operations - facty, Olctable effects on manu- ee Costs,” eral hard, Public line of Gen- sag claws, towards the UAW i 4long mien of war that goes the mon h Other preparations Making to rolies generally are - five Million a down on over . Nionists seekin _ 197, Sntracts, higher wages in : GM, - Card in ae Chrysler’s big hole ; nem 970 situation is mas- “We hag, oyment that they big hand in creating. PPy stockholders that’ Close to 200,000 workers are on short work weeks, with 25,000 at least laid off until the 1971 car rolls off next September. Layoffs in the 114 million auto industry, are expected, according to UAW leaders, to go far past these figures, up into the half - million class by May. That’s when the UAW comes to the bargaining table with the Big 3 (GM, Ford, Chrysler). GM press agents now are passing the word to newsmen that Reuther can’t possibly ask — for a pension of $500 a month, 30 years seniority and out of the shops. They also say he can’t ask for a $5 an hour minimum wage (present wage is $3.84 an hour), or tying wages to gov- ernment indexes of cost of living raises with no cap on the amount, like the present one of eight cents a year on a three year con- tract. But the rank and file workers down in the auto shops and un- employment exchange lines are ; not buying this “poor-mouthing” of the corporation’s flak mer- — chants. The thousands now filing for unemployment compensation are getting an average of $50 a week. Most of them don’t get any Supplemental Unemploy- ment Benefits (SUB). The youn- ger workers now getting the lay- off slips want SUB extended to all regardless of how much time or seniority a worker has. There are $350 million dollars in the SUB funds now. Polls by the union of workers in the union show this to be forging into the number one demand, with early retirement at 60 with $500 a month, or 30 years senior- ity as the second demand. The older workers fear depression and want out instead of a layoff. There are over $3 billion in the pension funds, contributed by workers. The interest alone could retire thousands at $500 a month, even at 55 years of age and less than 30 years seniority, if the UAW leaders will battle on these issues; So far, Reuther has kept his demands to himself. The provocative declarations of GM top officials demanding more speedup, no strikes, no ab- senteeism, and tying any wage increases to higher productivity, are a challenge to the UAW. The three months strike of General Electric workers could be a pat- tern also in auto before a victory ‘can be won. The target for the UAW will be picked at the April conven- tion of the United Auto Workers in Atlantic City. There also the demands will be presented for 3,000 delegates, representing 114 million members. Meanwhile the sister. union in the Alliance for Labor Action (ALA), the Teamsters with 2.6 million members, is starting to negotiate for 450,000 over the road drivers. They seek a $4 an hour package over three years to bring them up to $8 an hour. That’s some pace for the other 4¥, million U.S. unionists to fol- low, especially if the Teamsters get a big piece of that demand. It’s clear that the layoffs in. the auto industry are part of the “anti-inflation” program of Pre- sident Nixon, with the aim of preparing the way for his ad- ministration to introduce wage freezes and controls as the pro- fits of the auto companies con- tinue te mount. Set the sights for sharp struggle clear cut position of policy, one that is unalterably opposed to wage restraints, to the austerity program of the Trudeau Govern- ment, one that is directed to as- ‘suring that the national income is redistributed not in favor of monopoly, but in the interests of those who produce the real wealth of the country. Much will .depend upon an aroused rank and file whether such a policy will be forthcom- ing. To leave it to some leaders is to leave it to those who would like nothing better than to make deals with the employers behind the backs of the workers. It should be fairly clear that this year’s negotiations will be much more difficult. The Tru- deau Government has given the signal to monopoly to act tough. Moreover, because of mono- poly’s difficulties in being able to pass on wage increases through inflationary price rises, it will fight more viciously. than ever to prevent its rate of profit going down. To overcome that difficulty will require the maxi- mum of coordination and sup- port by all unions to each other. It will require joint consulta- tions and joint bargaining in in- dustries where more than one union exists. The workers need to work out their own strategy to defeat the strategy of mono- poly and governments. CAPITALISM FAILS Underneath the austerity and anti-inflation policies of the Tru- deau Government lies the fact The preparations for ‘the founding convention of a young Communist organization which will take place in Toronto on March 28, 29 are well under way. Clubs have been organized in major Canadian cities and the new organization has laid plans for publishing a newspaper. Charles ~McFadden, national youth secretary of the Commu- nist Party, is presently on tour of western Canada, meeting with the clubs of the new organiza- tion in preparation for the con- vention. ene Young Communist League is being organized on the basis of Marxism-Leninism and rooted among the working class youth of the country. The 1970’s will be a decade of rising - struggles in which the youth will play a big role. Our dim is to ‘win a whole generation of young people for the fight for socialism,” he said. . The new organization held a UOOTERCUUEROUEOREDOOUEODIIUUCUIS that state monopoly capitalism is unable to overcome the inher- ent instability of capitalist econ- omy. Economic regulation can- not overcome anarchy of pro- duction arising from private ownership of the means of pro- duction. So-called planning bas- ed on private profit and mono- poly control of the economy is unable to pursue policies of sus- tained economic growth, rising standards and stable prices. To achieve stable prices, which it is unable to do, it is compelled to bring on unemployment and in the end, in the name of com- bating inflation, it may bring on an inflationary recession. Basically state monopoly poli- cies lead in one direction — to make the poor poorer, the rich richer and monopoly stronger. This is the nature of the beast. Radically new policies are re- quired to change that situation and they cannot be achieved through negotiations alone. They need to be buttressed by politi- cal action directed to modify and change state monopoly pol- icy. Until working people grasp this they will constantly be fac- ed with conducting a defensive struggle instead of going over to the offensive. The left in the trade union movement, including the Com- munists, have the responsibility of bringing that consciousness and understanding to the work- ing class, all the more so be- cause we are entering a period of sharpening struggle. highly successful meeting of its provincial leaders in Toronto in December and drafted a mani- festo and. draft constitution. “The clubs have been discusing these documents and raising funds to finance the convention. We are particularly pleased about the response of the Com- munist Party in supporting our drive for funds. This expression of support is a vivid demon- stration of the close working re- lations we wish to establish and develop with the Communist Party. Our members look upon the Communist Party’ as the most: advanced, best organized and only scientifically based party of the working class,” said McFadden. Plans for the convention in- clude a big banquet and dance on Saturday March 28. The in- itiating Committee has asked all supporters in the Toronto area to reserve this date and to watch the Tribune for details. INFORMATION BULLETIN — No. 1-2, and 3 Gustav Husak sums up the results in Czechoslovakia at th end of 1969 of the efforts to pull the country out of its crisis. ; The French Communist Party issues a communique on the revisionism of Roger Garaudy as expressed in his new book “The Great Turning Point of Socialism.” Further articles and statements deal with the situation i Central America, Mexico and Panama; Bolivia, Chile and Mak Get copies of the Bulletin (10 cents) from Pro 487 Adelaide St. West, Toronto 2B. Free with eo World Marxist Review ($3.50 a year). PACIFIC TRIBUNE—FEBRUARY 27, 1970—Page 5 rises SY ¢ bg ideeer Apa OM EA SOI PAG