;

 & is justly proud.

[itor DAY 1952 witnesses a

new high in trade union mem
ership in Canada, a fact of
Which ever class conscious work-
Communists
‘afe particularly proud of the

Ԥrowth of the trade unions be-
“Mise that growth started when -

Sections of the trade union move-
Ment adopted the policies advo-
fated by the Communists.
Twenty five years ago our par-
ty stood alone in Canada in its
advocacy of industrial unionism,
€ pointed out that trade union-
ism could not give the workers
Of Canada even potential eco-
~homic power until the workers
in the great mass production in-
dustries were organized. At that

time the auto, steel, electrical,

Dackinghouse, textile, hardrock

‘Mining, lumber, agricultural im-

Dlements and other great indus-

' ties were completely, brazenly

and aggressively open shop.
Pointing out that the workers in
those industries could be organ-
ized only in industrial unions,
the Communists advocated, in
4ll sphere of trade union activi-
ty, acceptance of the organiza-
_ tional principles of the ‘industrial

 UWionism,

* The top officials of the trade
Unions fought against ithe idea.
hey expelled members, includ-

ing the writer, for advocating it.

But they couldn’t prevent it be-
Cause it had become necessary
and, eventually the necessity for
industrial unionism overwhelm-

_ €d their opposition; the million-

Strong trade union movement of
today is very largely a result of
that.

Passing the million, mark in

_®embership +is no excuse for

Complacency however, The work-
£ class will not, cannot stop

the fight to extend and strength-
-&n its trade union movement un-

UL every industry is organized
ama every town is a union town.
he first million members was
the hardest to get. Today mili-
tant trade unionists can realis-
tically set their sights on the
aim of two million members in

the trade unions of Canada. with-~

in the next five years, and three

Dillion members by the end of
_ this decade. The fight for such
 4N objective is an essential part

of a consistent struggle for work-
ing class advance.

Consistent struggle to extend
trade union organization is in-
dispensable because the relative-
Y favorable conditions of the

' Past few years are coming to
- their end,

This has been a mo-
fentous stage in the growth of
the Canadian labor movement,
he carefully worded warning
8iven to United States big busi-
ness by Roger Babson two weeks

880, that the ‘boom’ can be

Counted upon to last only an-

Other six months, indicate that

this Labor Day may also mark

€ approaeh of another, more
ifficult stage. This very seri-
°Us prospect should impel every

~ S

LOCI EEE EEC LD De Sh ha

member of the organized labor
movement to examine carefully
the opportunities, as well as the
problems, confronting Canadian
workers and to support, each
according to his circumstances,
action to protect their interests.

The ‘war preparations boom”’
has maintained the rate of capi-
taltal expansion in Canada until

now, with a rising level of em-'

ployment until recently. Work-
ers, traditionally, welcome such
conditions. An expanding vol-
ume of employment is the sole
eondition which mitigates the
enawing fear of unemployment
and want that besets the work-
ers in capitalist countries. It has
been natural, that Canadian
workers should welcome the ex-
pansion of employment and re-
egret now the change which is
reversing the trend’to fewer jobs
instead of more.

What Canadian Sore need
imperatively to recognize on this
Labor, Day, is the manner in
which, during the past five years,
their jobs have been made de-
pendant upon the interests, even
the whims of United States own~
ers, whose aims in Canada can
only worsen the situation and
the conditions of the working
class and of our country as a
whole. :

The governments and the cap-
italist press and radio seek to
delude the people into believing
that the intensified drive to prove
and secure control of natural

resources in Canada, with the

accompanying increase of raw
material, production, has been a
truly Canadian development.
They lie. That is not a Cana-
dian development.
process by which United States
mon@polies are securing owner-
ship of the priceless and irre-
placeable natural resources of

-our country with the double aim

of securing for themselves cheap
raw materials and sources of
hydro-electrical’ power against
future needs and, simultaneous-
ly, by sewing up ownership /of
our country’s raw materials, to
prevent the development of great
modern basic steel and finished
goods manufacturing industries
in Canada.

Pursuing that aim United
States steel interests have seized

“monopoly control of every one

of the great deposits of. high
grade iron ore that have been
discovered so dramatically in
Canada during the past few
years. _Our country’s proven re-
serves of high grade iron ore
are now so vast that they could
provide ore for the production
of fifty million tons of steel per
year in Canada and still export
to other countries all that. they

‘are prepared to buy and trans-

port.. But instead, the growing
ore production at Steep Rock,

Simcoe, Marmora, Ungava, Lab- |

rador, éte., which could and
should be the basis of a vast

‘That is the -

PRN UU LULUL OT UCT UML TLIO ICE OIC TOOL IC IC UCIE ODI ICICI IL ICID UU ILHL UL UD UDELL Lub bh Ub ita

The challenge

of

" ENIES et

Labor Day

TOME MU CUE LULL tL LL nbd

and lasting all-round develop-
ment of Canada’s economy is be-
ing turned into exactly its oppo-
site. United States monopoly of
those pricesless reserves is being
used to prevent the proper all-
round development of Canada’s
economy, Even Stelco which
dominates Canada’s modest steel
industry is. forced to carry on its
search for iron ore in) Northern
Ontario, in remote areas from
its furnaces, while United States
steel interests, aided by the On-
tario government, secured con-
trol of an enormous reserve of
rich iron ore right by the shore
of Lake Erie, less than fifty
miles from Hamilton. The be-
trayal of our country by the plan-
ned alienation of her iron ore
resources to prevent the devel-
opment of a great Canadian steel
industry is duplicated in every
sphere of the national economy

“and, indeed, in every sphere of

national policy, domestic and
foreign.

The working olass is profound-
ly affected by the results of that
policy, It is a policy of making
more and more Canadians un-
skilled workers, employed in
the production of raw materials
and construction connected with

raw material production. It is

a policy of reducing the propor-
tion of Canadians who find car-
eers in the skilled trades, the
professions, the arts and science.
It is a policy of systematically
reducing Canada’s participation
in shaping the trade policies of
the “ster ling bloc’’ countries, the
market upon which Canada’s
economic development was bas-
ed until recently, of isolating
Canada from the vast markets of
the socialist third of the world.
It is aimed deliberately to make
Canada economically dependent
upon and, therefore, politically
subservient to the United States.
e Daatie Hie

The Labor-Progressive party
alone has opposed that policy of
national suicide now being press-
ed by the St.!Laurent govern-
ment. Our party warned Can-
adian workers and urged united
action to reverse the policy when
the St, Laurent government re-
vealed its intention in 1947 to
reduce Canada to economic and
political dependence upon the
United States; our party alone
has worked consistently to
arouse Canadians to the menace
of this betrayal and the need for
action to halt it. No other poli-
tical party opposed the-St. Laur-
ent policy. The approaching end
of the boom and the catastrophic
effects that will have upon the
working ‘class confronts the
working class as a whole, and
particularly the trade unions,
with the impelling need to unite
in action to protect the workers
against the results of anti-Can-
adian policies.

A central problem confronting
the Canadian labor movement is

By TIM BUCK

that of how to either compel the
presently ruling officialdom of
the national trade union centres
to pursue policies based upon
the needs and ‘interests of the
workers or to change those of-
ficials. -

The two national trade union
centres have ceased to even make
a pretence at leading the labor
movement. When the workers
were confronted with the up-
swing of prices as a direct re-
sult of the imperialist war drive
and its accompanying inflation
the executive officers of both
the Trades and Labor Congress
and the Canadian. Congress of

“Labor tried to divert. the trade

unions from fighting for wage
increases to maintain the work-
ers’ purchasing power by focus-
ihg their attention upon, the com-
pletely phoney idea that the St.
Laurent government would est-
ablish price controls. By this
trick the top officials of the two

~ national centres, assisted by the

CCF, managed to confuse the
workers ‘for two years to the
great satisfaction of the employ-
ers. Only the Labor-Progressive
party pointed out to the work-
ers that capitalist governments
don’t establish price controls to
protect the workers against the
capitalists. Only the Labor-Pro-
gressive party advised the work-
ers to ‘‘Beat the Price Increases
by Winning Wage Increases!”
Only since the workers took our
advice have they started to re-
cover their purchasing power. |

During the annual convention

. of the Trades and Labor Con-

gress at Winnipeg, its executive
officers literally grovelled hefore
the employers. Bengough’s presi-
dential address, the keynote of
tlie convention, did not even
pretend to give a lead to the
trade union movement for ad-
vance to win gains from the

TEU RUBBLE

HEEB ENEBE

EEE

bosses, Its emphasis placed Ben-
gough in company with Maurice
Duplessis and George Drew, two
outstanding spokesmen of the
worst anti-labor interests in Can-
ada,

The two most publicized feat-
ures of the convention were: a)
president ‘Bengough’s attempt to
associate himself with the most
reactionary circles in Canada and
the United States by his support
for the proposal to outlaw the
proud historic idea of working
class leadership of the nation in
abolishing the exploitation of
man by man, and, b) the squeals
from some of the bosses’ lapdogs
in that convention when the fed-
eral minister of labor, cynically,
took Bengough’s words at their
face value and ‘translated them
into terms of economic action.
Well might the capitalist press
gloat that those two features
were the highlights of tke con-
vention. For the bosses they
were. But for the working class,
for Canadian trade unionists,
‘they were the low points of the
convention and many workers
marvelled at how low the mem-
bership of Canada’s trade unions
can allow their officers to go,

It is time for militant trade
unionists to revive some elements:
of the rank and file action by
which they revitalized the trade

union movement during the
1930’s. It is time for the de--

velopment of grass roots unity
to make the trade unions now
the great force for Canadian pro-
gress that ultimately they must
become. This is the challenge
of Laber Day 1952. If the chal-
lenge is accepted, the servila
obeisance to reaction which mar-
red the 77th convention at Win-

nipeg can be made a turning.

point and the beginning of a new
advance for the organized labor
movement,

int

1868 labor contract

HE following is an excerpt

from an agreement of work
exacted by the Hudson’s Bay Co,
from a laborer and runner. The
contract was signed June 1,
1868: .

“He shall divide the whole of
his time and labour in their
service, and for theiy sole bene-
fit, and that he will do his duty
as much, and perform all such
work and service by day or by

‘night, for the said company, and

he shall be required to do, and
obey all orders which he shall
receive from the Governors of
the company in North America

and that he will, with courage

and fidelity in his said station,
defend the property of the Com-
pany and their Factories and
Settlements, and will not absent

’ himself from the said service,
nor engage or be concerned in
any trade or employment what-
soever, except for the benefit of

. the said Company, and accord-

ing to their orders, and that all
goods obtained by barter with
the Indians or otherwise, which
shall come into’ his hands or
possession shall be held by him
for the Company only, and shall
be duly delivered to the Gover-
nors or other officers without
any waste, spoil, or injury there-
to, and in case of any wilful
neglect or default herein, he
shall make to the Company all
such loss or damage, to be de-
ducted out of his wages.

“He shall receive from the’
said Company the rate of thirty

pounds sterling per annum.”

PTT TY ee SEVEN ENBIEN

PACIFIC TRIBUNE — AUGUST 29, 1952 — PAGE 9