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“Stop complaining. If | didn't have my profits, you wouldn't have your job!”

‘Recognize GDR’
Society wires PM

Prime Minister Trudeau and external affairs Mitchell Sharp
were urged to recognize the German Democratic Republic in a
telegram sent to them by the Canada - GDR Society on Sunday, Oct.

19.

The members and friends of
the society met at the Peretz
School in Vancouver to celebrate
the 20th anniversary of the
founding of the German
Democratic Republic.

The wire. unanimously
endorsed at the gathering urged
that Canada also support
membership of the GDR to the
United Nations, and said, ‘‘The
German Democratic Republic
ranks among the ten most
industrialised countries in the
world today. It has carried out
the Potsdam agreements as

stipulated by the allied powers at °

the end of the second world war,
and makes no territorial claims
against other countries, and it
adheres to the principles laid
down in the Charter of the
United Nations including . the
principle of peaceful coexistence
between states - principles for
which Canadians shed their
blood during the second world
war.

“It is absurd’’, continued the
telegram, ‘“‘that 24 years after
the end of World War II and 20
years after the founding of the
German Democratic Republic
Canada should support the
claims of the Federal Republic

| - in great numbers.

Wide supp

Tickets for the giant “End the War in Vietnam” rally, at which Dr. Benjamin Spock
and two representatives of the Provisional Revolutionary Government of South Vietnam
will speak in Vancouver's Queen Elizabeth Theatre, are selling rapidly.

A member of the sponsoring committee for the rally, which is being held on
Wednesday, Nov. 5 at 8 p.m., told the PT that the tickets are in great demand and that
half the tickets are already out. She urged that those who want to attend should hurry to
get their tickets, which are $1.00.

The rally is attracting a great deal of attention and will likely be one of the largest
peace rally’s ever held in the city. Members of the sponsoring committee told the PT that
great interest in the rally has been shown by young people, who have been buying tickets

of Germany ffor_ sole
representation for both
Germanys.”

The wire, signed by E. Crist,
president of the Canada - GDR
Society, closed by saying, ‘‘We
believe that failure to recognize
the German Democratic
Republic. will put additional
strains on the already fragile
structure of peace in the world
and that it will do Canada great
harm.” :

‘Sincere Thanks’

The Vancouver Committee of
the Communist Party. received
the following message from the
North Vietnamese delegation in
Paris in response to a message
of condolences on the death of Ho
Chi Minh, sent from a public

~memorial meeting:

“The General Delegation of
the Government of the
Democratic Republic of
Vietnam in France, profoundly
touched by the expressions of
sympathy which you sent at the
time of the death of the
President of the Democratic
Republic of Vietnam,. Ho Chi

Minh, begs you to accept this —

expression of our deepest
gratitude and sincere thanks.”’

Speaking with Dr. Spock will be Mr. Huynh Van Ba, Charge ‘d’ Affaires in Havana,
and Mr. Le Psuong from the Vietnamese Embassy in Stockholm, Sweden. Net proceeds
from the rally will go to the Canadian Aid for Vietnam Civilians.

Tickets are available at the Co-Op Bookstore, 341 W. Pender St., or from Mrs. S.
Young, 1768 West 11th Ave., Vancouver 9, Tel. 733-9018.

TTT TT

Vital issues face labor |
at B.C. Fed convention |

The 14th annual Convention of the British Columbia Federation of Labor (BCFL), ‘
scheduled to open its sessions in Vancouver on November 3, confronts the deleg®™
body representing its multi-union membership of some 140,000 with a number of very 3

deep-going basic questions affecting all labor in B.C.

Among these will be the
necessity of a thorough-going
review of BCFL stewardship in
respect to the extent and
effectiveness of its opposition to
Bill 33 (compulsory arbitration) ;
a unanimously pledged struggle
adopted at it’s 13th convention
one year ago and which, in the
opinion of a majority of BCFL
rank-and-file unionists, never
really got off the ground, either

in the interim period nor during ~

the August 27 provincial election
campaign.

In this review also, and

especially related to the election -

campaign, the almost total
absence of any _ independent
political action by the BCFL and
its affiliate unions, other than
through the media of a right-
wing NDP-BCFL. leadership,
which sought to avoid political
“embarassment” by keeping
labor quiet — on the hustings, in
the union hall, and on the picket
line.

The final election results, ‘with
it’s dissapointing results for the

-NDP in terms of losses, must of

itself compel a frank review,
however limited, of NDP-Labor
relationships.

On this, a lengthy editorial in
the current issue of the Lumber
Worker, organ of the B.C.
Region of the IWA was
compelled to observe that, “If
the NDP now turns its back-on
the trade unions, they invite
political disaster .. .”’ Such a
move would indeed spell disaster
— for the NDP, and for not a few
of its supporters in the top

echelons of organized labor. Nor ~

would it assist in the least in
helping labor and/or the NDP to
determine how to overcome
‘‘what went wrong’’. in ‘the
election campaign.

Such problems can only be
solved by a realistic evaluation
of the issues facing organized
labor.

WAGE STRUGGLES

Looming up for 1970 are big
wage struggles and the
termination of many union wage
contracts. Substantial wage
increases are needed to meet
steadily rising living costs.

The Trudeau government’s so-
called ‘‘austerity”’ program with
its economic ‘‘guidelines’’ is

over-all policy arrived at

primarily designed to head off
wage and salary increases. This
on top of a mounting attack on
labor standards by government-
monopoly agencies. The
formation of the B.C. Employers
Council and similar bodies,
geared to anti-labor activities,
and loudly calling for federal
legislation ‘“‘similar to Bill 33”
merely indicates what lies
ahead.

It is noteworthy that while the
Trudeau government committee
is ostensibly ‘‘inquiring”’ into the

causes of inflaticn, and
promoting an ‘‘austerity’’
atmosphere, it has already

advanced its ‘‘guidelines’’ on
wages. C.L.C. President Donald
McDonald, in a radio broadcast
has described this procedure as
“putting the cart before the
horse? 7
The BCFL convention will
undoubtedly be faced with the
need of challenging this federal
“‘austerity’’ wage obstruction,
- by mapping out strategy for the
big wage struggles of its affiliate
unions, by the creation of much
greater coordination and unity in
all its ranks.

UNITY VITAL

Other questions, equally grave
in their longer-range
perspectives face the BCFL 14th
annual gathering. Inter-union
questions involving centralized
jurisdiction and authority;
which body is to direct the rising
cycle of economic and political
struggle a centralized
authority with an unanimous
mandate from its affiliate body,
or one or more of its subordinate
affiliates? Much of the unity so
often talked about in labor’s
ranks, depends to a major extent
on a viable resolving of this
problem.

While the BCFL does not and
cannot determine the wage
demands of its affiliates, it does
have the responsibility by
majority decision of its
conventions, of providing the
maximum unity and coordinated
activity in support of these wage
demands. This can only be
achieved by all affiliates
adhering strictly to BCFL
policies between conventions.

At its 13th Annual Convention
the BCFL, as part of the struggle
against Bill 33, approved a
complete boycott of the Bill 33
Mediation Commission, by all
affiliated unions engaged in
wage struggles, and for the
BCFL to ‘“‘come to the aid of the
first union under attack by Bill
Soe

The Oil, Chemical and Atomic
Workers Union, now in its fourth
month of strike action against
six major B.C. oil distributing
firms, is now in violation of
BCFL’s mediation commission
ban, having spent nearly two
weeks of ‘‘hearings’’ before that
body, in opposition to BCFL
policy re Bill 33.

Thus if there is going to be any
measure of all-inclusive labor
unity, adherence to policy and
recognition of a duly elected
leading authority must be
adhered to, and any changes in

Sn
See See

-bring the whole

. exploitation.

_—
collectively, rather that by
individual affiliates. be
Nor can the fact now Ai
‘ignored that the continued lee
Bill 33 with its Mlé
complimentary court os
injunctions, exparte OF one
against the right of wage eae i
to withhold their labor power
support of collective bargaining;
now assumes — in fact mi
election results, 4 or a
menace to organized labor t A
ever before —a menace that ¢
only be effectively met PY “fl
maximum of labor amity A
mutual agreement, instead
the opposite.

POLITICAL ACTION

Perhaps it may be argued ae
one of the glaring failures of a |
BCFL, a failure forcefully t
forth in the issue Of a
Lumberworker referred t0 ™ of
the almost total absence
independent political actio® hut
only on a year-round basis:
most evident during the AUE™
27 election campaign. ;

Obviously the absence of al
trade union independent pole a
action, and most especially #
election campaign, contri oe
greatly to NDP losses, and mm ne)
it more easily possible 10) 1,
Socred forces and Benn@ 4
inject the spurious slog), |
“socialism vs. free-enterprs | |
thus scoring a_ victory
trickery that would have ; :
impossible had labor cond cal 7
its own independent pole 4:
action campaign on all 1S al! q
while at the same time 81,
strengthening its support ® ae
NDP. That omission has act
valuable lessons for the :

convention. !

Moreover the fact that aN ‘ce
right-wing leadership ti
greatly in short-cireul”
labor’s independent
action, does not excuse, #©
or mitigate such a Se
omission.

FEA (0
In view of the foregoiie> jy a
which much more COW i) —
added, it is clear the delegay on
the 14th annual BCFL conve)
are going to have a busy We"

To map out strategy whi a hor -

movement into the fight

employer attacks upon labo!
the people;

: e

To strengtlien its ties with u

NDP — as a challenge ' ing
forces of Socred reaction ee

an assurance of future vict®

To replace the Tri
“austerity” program will
indicating a greater meas” og
prosperity and social advan
for’ labor and the P®
generally;

a

To halt the squandering or }

vast portion of the nav’ ADE
wealth through NATO, NOM %
and other war treaties: aS

To greatly widen Jabot
participation in the strug
peace and an end to
aggression in Vietnam, 2°.
as in other world areas St!"
for freedom from oppressio®

ries: ~