TORONTO — Metro’s trade Monists spoke out forcefully, Pt. 6, against the brutal police | SUpport of the Canadian Labor ‘Congress boycott of Chile, being launched with a protest week, Sept. 9-16. Delegates to the Labor Council Metro Toronto, (LCMT) voted Vverwhelmingly to endorse an pauatve board statement calling _@ the Ontario Government to ‘“Slablish an independent Civilian Review Board staffed with its °Wn investigators to probe: com- / Plaints against police; Poli teplacement of the appointed g ' Ce Commission with another | €cted from among the members | Sf the Metro Toronto Council; ’ | _ © the Ontario Solicitor General ‘an independent inquiry into Methods of the Metro police; id ® and, an independent public quiry into the use of weapons by ie Police to find if itjis necessary a ; It seems unbelievable a 80vernment would want to sell Canada and at the same time invest in Chrysler. Is it ble that we are ruled by who do not care about National interest?’’ Toronto Globe and Mail » letter to Editor Sept. 7, 1979 Itis now becoming obvious to nm Te and more people that the as Tory minority government is a commited to the rule of big ae than were the Liberals, a. °ven more so. Clearly the Rte: from one capitalist party & eer at Ottawa is not the “Une €r to get rid of inflation, Other oyment and a multitude of | Probl ills in’ our country. The ~€ms we face are rooted in So-called ‘free’ enterprise sys- Prnte which is neither free nor a digits: On the contrary, it is ma tatorship whose aims are Natio, um profits for the multi- With nal corporations and to hell _,\ the national interest. tear it isthe same in all - advan Ustrial and technologically They Ced capitalist countries. Doligiee!! suffer from the same legg ae Monopoly in more or tively Same way and to a rela- The gteater or lesser extent. lems all seek to solve their prob- ing = the expense of the work- and “nae because their economic -Vate ou2! system is based on pri- finds j S of production, which xploig Main characteristic in the oe lation of man by man. Ail Swedish Cooks Tour ; S Comes to mind when dees? about a five member Xecutinn led by Julien Major, Canadias ESE ima of the Cites r Congress, who ta Ping to Sweden this month Working ak to study quality of - Qual life experiments at the Stockport Working Life Centre in oe Im.. Those going include of a Toronto man and in ~ the hiring, training, technique and and OWnership of land, resources for all officers to carry weapons at all times. The statement came as a result of the Aug. 26 killing of Jamaican immigrant Albert Johnson, in front of his family at home by Metro police officers. It noted that Johnson and the eight other people killed by police in the city this year have all been from the working class. Also noted were the ‘excessively high number of claims of racial harassment and abuse of which the police are ac- cused by Metro's visible minori- ties ...’’ and pointed out, ‘‘trade unionists also have been the sub- ject of police abuse, especially on picket lines.’ ~ Blasting the Sept. 6 statement by Tory Solicitor-General Roy McMurtry that police refusal to cooperate with an independent. civilian Review Board would make the creation of such a board useless, the council observed, ‘‘as the chief law enforcement of- ‘ficer in the province, it is his | James MacDonald, director of social and community programs, Larry Wagg, education director, Mary Eady, women’s bureau director, and Ronald. Lang, _re- search and legislative director. The federal Department of Labor is listed as contributor of $22,000 toward the cost of travel and living expenses for the two- week trip, which may also include visits. to Norway and Denmark. Some Labor Department officials are speculating on a change of course in Congress policy, by means ofan extended practice of tri-partism. The Swedish Work Life Centre is funded by govern- ment through a payroll tax and jointly administered by trade union and employer committees. Such a cooks tour through the Scandinavian bourgeois establishment can at best produce a lesson in how to avoid the real- ity of the class struggle by unpnin- cipled capitulation to employers on their terms. : Sweden has the same inflation, joblessness, rising interest, rents and taxes as we have. Big com- panies, like SKF, Volvo, Saab- Scania, L.M. Ericsson, Bofors, Husquama and many others, are exporting capital abroad like Canadian and U.S. multi- nationals, Municipalities are fac- ing impossible odds, railways are being closed down, agriculture is in a deepening crisis and regional disparity is growing. Real Socialist Alternative International exchanges are es- sential, educational and contri- bute always to better under- standing between peoples. But they ought to include a more ac- tive intercourse between trade unions of the capitalist world and countries of real socialism in the socialist world, where the exploitation of man by man has long since been abolished and the working people exercise political and state power. : Tory plan — profits before people’s needs _ urges citizen control of police responsibility to ensure that the police in fact cooperate with a Civilian Review Board and pro- vide them with all the information and documents which they re- quire to conduct a full investiga- tion.” Paperworkers’ delegate and Toronto alderman Dan Heap stressed the public campaign for an investigation into the Johnson death wasn’t directed at the membership of the police force, but for the force’s top manage- “ment. ‘‘Our criticism is directed at the management of the police force in Metro, notiat the rank and file. We’re not concerned with a few so-called ‘bad apples’ but with the bad apples at the top’’, he said. The growing movement from the Black community and its al- lies would certainly welcome the participation of the labor move- ment in the campaign for an inde- pendent investigation, he said. Joe Grabek of the Ironworkers said the eight police killings didn’t The USSR and other socialist” countries are building their economies on the basis of scienti- fically sound plans and are de- veloping without crisis, recession. and unemployment. Education at all levels is free in the USSR. Medical care is also free. It does not effect peoples’ incomes. - Pensions are paid out of the state budget: there are no deduc- tions from wages or contributions: to social insurance funds in the USSR. The Soviet Union has the lowest pensionable age in the world: 60 years for men and 55 for women. Miners, textile workers and workers in the chemical industry, and others, are entitled to a pension five to ten.years ear- lier. Miners in the USSR have a universal 30-hour work-week. Cash incomes of the Soviet people are continually growing. This takes place on the back- ground of stable prices of basic - commodities and paid services. This year more’than 95% of food- stuffs and more than 90% of other goods are sold in Soviet shops at 1970 prices. The prices of meat and milk have not increased since 1962 and the charges for gas, elec- tricity, telephone, hot water and public transport have not changed since 1948. On top of all this, 80% of Soviet dwellers are given flats for te- nancy free: housing construction is allocated out of the state budget. Soviet people know they will always have a job, that their chil- dren can acquire an education and that they will not have to pay any- thing if they fall ill, no matter how serious the treatment may be. Real socialism is the eventual and only alternative to our system of exploitation. It is something every Canadian working man and woman ought to study diligently and be thoroughly informed ab- out. : > Metro Labor Council has circulated a list of “hot” items from Chile to its affiliates backing the CLC’s Chile boycott week. come as a surprise to him. *‘And, I won’t be surprised to hear if there are anymore’ ’, he said. **As the downturn in the economy gets worse’ the struggles between the workers and their bosses gets sharper. The police represent the elite in this country and the only. way we can have any control over them is to have an elected police - commission responsible to the people of this city.”’ He urged the council to make a . financial donation to help the fam- ily get through the difficult period caused by Albert Johnson’s death. Council president Sam Fox concluded the debate pledging “‘any way this executive board can aid the community in this matter, we will do so.”” In other business the council unanimously endorsed a call from the Canadian Labor Congress for a boycott campaign of the fascist Chilean junta. The Sept. . 9-16 week of protest had for its slogan: *‘Nothing from the junta, nothing to the junta.” _ It was also agreed to call on all affiliates to join the boycott, and that boycott materials outlining the products which have been de- clared ‘‘hot’’ would be circulated to Metro’s trade union com- munity. A representative from CUT, the Chilean labor centre in exile, outlined the range of .activities being undertaken throughout the campaign in Canada and around the world. , . Council delegates also heard from United Farmworkers presi- dent Caesar Chavez announcing the new boycott against U.S. ice- berg lettuce as part of the union’s fight to win decent wages and working conditions for U.S. farm workers in the lettuce industry. Council pledged its support. UE fights anti-union. tricks at Polybottle TORONTO — The newly- organized United Electrical workers (UE) members at Poly- bottle Ltd., are fighting every dir- ty, anti-union trick in the book for the right to be unionized and to have a decent first agreement. On strike against the company since Aug. 24 are some 200 newly-organized UE members. They are asking for and are going to need all the help they can get from Metro’s organized labor movement and its friends to en- sure Polybottle is unsuccessful in denying them their basic trade union and democratic nights. Charges have been filed by the UE with the Ontario Labor Rela- tions Board accusing the com- pany of failing to negotiate in good faith. In addition to firing one of the leaders of the union organiz- ing campaign, Polybottle management has also tried to ' pressure the workers to abandon the union through other ways. The fired worker was _ later. reinstated with full back pay. . Captive meetings were held by the company, with the workers on each shift threatened and bribed to abandon the union. ‘*‘Mysteriously,’’ the company was able to come up with an 8% wage hike for all the employees. When this wasn’t enough the company had the forelady openly pleading with the workers to vote against the union in the represen- tation vote, and even had the pro- duction manager threaten the workers with a plant closure if they voted union. : The main leaders of the union drive were transferred to a smal- . ler annex of the plant at a different location under pain of being fired. In spite of this, the workers still voted 100 to 47 for the union following the quick two-week sign-up campaign. Bargaining began with the company claiming there waS no problem with union security then refusing to agree that all workers should pay union dues. Polybottle refused to negotiate, and when vacations had been. taken and a “‘no board’’ report issued from the Labor Ministry opening the 16-day settle or strike period, it was Aug. 3. The UE _ tried to arrange further meetings with the company in last ditch ef- forts to settle on an agreement. When the UE informed Poly- bottle the company’s suggestion for a bargaining meeting on Sept. 27 was too far away, the company responded by saying it was refus- ing to meet at all. Even at this point, the workers, though they had taken a strike vote, were still prepared to see ifa mediator could bring the com- pany to an agreement. Polybottle answered by completely refusing _ to talk to the workers, so the UE members hit the bricks, Aug. 24. UE Organization Director Art Jenkyn charges the company is out to break the union and he has called on other UE locals to sup- port the Polybottle workers with solidarity messages and help on the picket lines. ‘‘We have to demonstrate that these workers aren't alone in their struggle for the basic right to negotiate a union contract’’, he said. PACIFIC TRIBUNE— SEPTEMBER 21, 1979—Page 9 i H i ;