the agi THC Plan

It was a legal strike under Oi

Picketing “wii strike, under Ontario tahour tay

have nae M88 legal. ‘Then «why should the vourt Wamuned picketing ?

ig 'Y should the company have been allowed to year

eens

use the wake when picketing was balined by the

court TO BRING IN STRIKEBREAKERS ¢ Ontario Labour law is supposed to he impartial ia

disputes between management and labour.

labour dispute, it is in effect taking the side of management!

This is not fair play. This is not British justice.

This is what the 25 trade union members and hundred of others -- were protesting when they marched from the city hall in Peterborough to the TU.CO plant. It was a peaceful march. 1 was a peaceful demonstration against an rxjas! law.

Their right to protest, the fact that it was a peace- ful demonstration, was\attested to by the Attorney General of Ontario Arthur Wishart when he said in the Ontario Legislature on February 24th of this

WOULD YOU GO TO JAIL TO PROTECT YOUR RIGHTS?

25 men did!

. there hax been no violence in the assembly ot Peterborough. 1 have been in constant fouch with the Crown Attorney. the Sherif. ond the Chief of Police ot Peterborough, through the officials of my department. When the court issues an er paris injuncting iny and 1 have the assurance of al of theae responsible

persona that the picketing ond actions have been orderly. Thera is no law preventing lainful assembly, and it would be a shocking commentary on our community if we aa contemplated that suck assemblies should restricted.”

tT 1S A SHOCKING COMMENTARY THAT. AS A RESULT OF THIS ORDERLY DEMONS- TRATION, 25 RESPECTED CITIZENS OF PETERBOROUGH WERE CHARGED BY THE SAME ATTORNEY GENERAI. WITH CON- TEMPT OF COURT AND JAILED

Labour is protesting the tragic injustice of court injunctions in lahour disputes. Our demand is that they be done away with just as they have been in almost every other civilized country in the democra- tie world,

Tabour is asking that every citizen who believes in the right of {ree association and assembly join us in our protest.

You can do this by writing to your member of parliament at Ottawa, and your member of the Ontario legislature at Queen's Park, Toronto

This statement is published in the public intrreat by the

ONTARIO FEDERATION OF LABOUR 33 Cecil Street, Toronto #

’ pelicy

1a

, {

i iP a 1h

: ee the eve of the Ontario Eation of Labor convention 3 ful é | produ Page advertisement (re ' persion Whig-Standard, ap- 7 peauing for support of the 25 Ade unionists who were jailed F 4 result of the Peterborough i vonstration against injunc- ns in the Tilco strike.

pes bles of the dramatic ap- del Were signed by all the OFL gates to the convention and "warded to the jailed unionists.

tee cting the convention the “Sates heard an appeal by Te Sarginson, of Steelworkers | gal 5009 in Peterborough, ;Peaking on behalf of all 25 se Who went to jail. He was © of 20 of the unionists re- after serving a 15-day

Sarginson thanked the labor «2vement for its support and “4 those who sent cards, tele-

Ms and letters.of encourage- eae to us in jail,” but called Deh the delegates not to forget © Other five of our brothers

‘ F Na Still have a month and a (| “al to serve.”

his statement Sarginson

‘Is th

Ced above) appeared in the

“Some words have a new or different meaning to those of us who were involved in this ‘situa- tion. Some examples are: law, lawful assembly, government ‘spending and efficiéncy, jail, free speech, jail rules.

“We think of Reesor Siding in 1960, where six unionists were shot and killed. Result: five men who killed were fined $100 each, while the union men were fined thousands of dollars for unlawful assembly.

“In 1966 a peaceful demon- stration did not prevent any one from entering or leaving a plant, there was no violence or arrest by local or provincial police. At- torney-General. Wishart took ac- tion. Result: nine days in court; five sentenced to two months, 21 sentenced to 15 days; one suspended.

y

“In| Vancouver oné unionist received a six-month sentence;

‘two men three months and one

two months; 13 fined from $100 to $500 each.

“We ask you, is this justice? Are our laws fair?

“We feel that the ultimate answer to labor's problems and

is justice?

the deterioration of civil rights lies In political action.

“The government has now promised a royal commission re labor legislation. This is an old method of pouring a little oil on troubled waters, to calm it. We suggest it is up to the labor movement to mount the winds of truth and have waves of pub- lic conscience cleanse our tar- nished rocks of civil rights leg- islation.

“We suggest that the present government of Ontario, due to being in power for so long and with such a lopsided majority, have reverted from servants of the people to masters of the people.

“This is most disheartening to 15 of the 25, who are war veterans.

“This fight against dictator- ship and freedom is not new to these men.

“Personally, I am more con- vinced today that our cause. is just and right than I was last Feb. 22 and 23 when I took part in that peaceful demonstration In Peterborough, and we shall wear our badges of honor proudly.”

Political action

Moves

ahead

at OFL parley

By RAE MURPHY

HILE the debate around in- junctions was the centre- piece of the Ontario Fede-

ration of Labor convention, the advanced’ during the three-day meeting ranged be- yond this crucial point. As a whole the convention was a re- flection of some rather impor-

tant advances of the labor move--

ment in Ontario as well as an

indication of a continuing weak-. ness in the participation of. the.

rank and file in policy decisions, especially those of a non-econo- mic character.

“Apathy is still very much a part of the overall picture. This was evident in the small’ num- ber of resolutions submitted to the convention, and the rather perfunctory discussions that de- veloped from the floor during much of the debates:

No real threat to the leader- ship establishment developed at the convention. Slightly less than 300 votes -separated the lowest elected vice-president on the leadership slate and the top vote received by anybody not on the slate.

It is.wrong, of course, to read too much into such a vote, but it does to a large extent reflect policy divisions within the OFL.

The results of the election in-

dicate that a large body of the

labor movement is either satis- fied with its present leadership, or really doesn’t give a damn.

The vote-also reflected the mech- ©

anical exclusion of much of the left and the self-perpetuating nature of a well-encrusted es- tablishment and its full entour-: age of pork-choppers. who al- ways have and always will at- tend such conventions — as long as the status remains the Status and the quo the quo.

This is not to take away from the fact that many of the posi- tions of the leadership have ad- vanced over the past period, to reflect more accurately the up- swing in the movement. This may be a hesitant procedure and, after observing some of the dis- cussions especially in the in- junction fight, one wonders sometimes if the big wheels are more afraid of the fight against injunctions than they are of in- junctions) but there can be no mistaking the advances.

In his speech to the conven- tion OFL President David Archer advanced a keynote for labor that few people could dis-

_pute. His remarks were clear

and to the point, and at times rather moving.

“There is one injunction — just one — I wish I had the power to enforce,” he said, “and that is one banning the right (if you can call it a right) of any nation to use the weapons of war to destroy any other nation — even in the name of freedom and democracy. Such action,

November 25, 1966—PACIFIC TRIBUNE—Page 5

nothing short of genocide, {is just a mockery of freedom and democracy. What we are wit- nessing today on the interna- tional scene is not the honest bargaining in good faith that we expect even at the bargaining table, and for which in a way the United Nations was set up. What we are witnessing is the cold-blooded application of the age old maxim that ‘might is right.’ This is what is camouflag- ing the power struggle today.”

The key aspect of Archer's speech dealt with the necessity of political action on the part of — labor. This concept ran like a thread through the whole con- vention. At one point in the dis- cussion Harold Thayer, of the Machinists, said that “100 per- cent of this convention is de- voted to political issues.” The link between the issues facing the working class and trade union movement today and the necessity of solving these prob- lems through political action was certainly hammered home.

It may be that the lily was gilded on this questions, and there is also grounds for the opinion that some of the en- thusiasm for political action was manufactured in order to get the heat off the demands for extra-parliamentary action by the.labor movement. There was a whole host of statements such as, “None of our problems can be solved in the streets” or “The NDP is the political party that can do the job for us.”

One delegate stated that he didn’t care about mass demon- Strations at Queen’s Park, and that he would be satisfied with, “only 67 people at Queen’s Park, if they were there on a more or less permanent basis.”

The counterposing of politi- cal action to mass action: to force progress today got a little ridiculous at times. Archer in his opening speech reached back to 1946 and the struggle for a national health scheme in Bri- tain to illustrate the “courage” of the then Labor government. A discussion on a more recent example of the “courageous” Labor government in Britain would have’ been more to the point perhaps and would have provided a more balanced dis- Cussion on political and legis- lative action. Be that as it may, the convention indicated a posi- tion on. political action that can once and for all move the work- ers from a state described by one delegate as “fighting the boss 364 days of the year, and voting for him on the 365th.”

Given the time, place and cir- cumstance of the labor move- ment in Ontario this convention did much to strengthen the role — of labor in the community at large, but perhaps even of great- er importance it opened doors for both unity and struggle over policy in its own ranks.