eee we) Labour The GST fight: keep the momentum going With estimates of over 2.2 million votes across Canada against the Goods and Service Tax, the Pro-Canada Net- work and the Canadian Labour Con- gress should be congratulated for a job well done. A pleasant thing for me, peddling bal- lots on the street, was people’s response to the tax. Outside the Eaton’s Centre in Toronto people voted with a certain vigour once they found out why you were there. The response of most when asked if they wanted to vote against the GST was, “damn right, you bet.” In Toronto, the Ontario Coalition for Social Justice had over 500 volunteers at sixty locations around the city collecting well over 50,000 votes. On the evening of May 9, in the Steel- workers Hall in Toronto, activists from the OCSJ and trade unions watched as § John MacLennan LABOUR IN ACTION the vote tally came in from all over Onta- rio. By the end of the night, there was an amazing total of over one million. While watching the results from the - workplace voting many trade union acti- vists remarked on how they could have got their members out on the issue. All spoke about the anger against Mulroney and the Tories. The significance of April 7 and 9 is that it represents the first time there has been joint action between the Pro- Canada Network and the CLC. Not that they didn’t all join in the fight against free trade, but this was the first time grassroots members of coalitions and labour councils in each province worked together on the same campaign. Co-operation bodes well for the Pro- Canada movement and must be seen as a first step in an escalating plan to defeat the neo-conservatives. It does, however, leave everyone wondering what to do next. One point that came up in conversa- tion at this meeting of the OCSJ was: what about a general work stéppage on the issue? That action was overwhelm- ingly adopted by the delegates to the last Ontario Federation of Labour. As one activist put it, you wouldn’t have had the April 7 and 9 if it wasn’t for that resolu- tion. The main point is that no action can be done in isolation. A general work stoppage, or day of protest, call it what you will, must be done in concert, or be part of the overall plans of the coalitions and in the first place, the Pro-Canada Network. A one-day strike needs a lot of groundwork and a lot of homework before its day and can’t be done on a labour go-it-alone basis. At this time the women’s movement is once again showing the way. Women who are active in the rape crisis centres and homes for battered women, victims of $1.6-million in federal cuts, are dem- onstrating initiative from coast to coast. They highlighted their issue, and gained national media coverage with occupa- tions of offices across Canada. They got arrested and won substantial community support. With one stroke of their budget cut- ting pen the Tories added a new level of grass roots activism, hammering home the connection between violence against women and the big business agenda. Ironically, latest estimates have it that the secretary of state is spending up to one-third of the $1.6 million cut to pro- tect their offices across Canada from such protesters. Next month the CLC will méet in Montreal, Quebec, and the estimated 3,000 delegates will debate a proposed action plan. No doubt the plan will include what the labour movement is going to do next in the anti-GST fight. May Day Greetings from Vancouver and District Labour Council 101 YEARS IN THE STRUGGLE FOR PEACE AND SOCIAL JUSTICE. Doug Evans President John Fitzpatrick Secretary-Treasurer ‘May Day greetings’ Serving workers in the telecommunications industry since 1949. 5261 Lane Street, Burnaby, 437-8601 L.S. (Larry) Armstrong Cathy Henderson President Secretary-Treasurer May Day Greetings With remembrance, respect and gratitude to our departed sisters and brothers in the union move- ment who paved the way for us all. Vion des Trev Canadian Paperworkers Union Region IV _ Campbell River, Courtenay and District Labour Council. Representing 5,000 working people in your community Extends May Day greetings to all workers in B.C. MAY DAY GREETINGS from af Carpenters Local 452 in its centennial year. kxted 100 [CARPENTERS-VANCOUVER, B.C.| 1890-1990 MAY DAY GREETINGS & SOLIDARITY —— WESTERN REGION— CANADIAN UNION OF POSTAL WORKERS Pacific Tribune, April 30, 1990 « 13