BUSINESS ASKS GOVERNMENT 0 CURB TRADE UNIONS

Crisis needs swilt labor action |

Canadian labor is in no mood to wait obediently while big business and big business governments chop away at past wage gains and every other kind of gain won by workers.

Last week, three prominent labor

y leaders told this paper that unemploy-

(NEL , os NE ee J PRO

_ FLASHBACKS FROM THE COMMUNIST PRESS

50 years ago... 100% STRIKE MUST BE MINER’S ANSWER

With the appointment by J. Murdock of a “representative” to the conciliation board to investi- gate the dispute between Besco and the miners of District 26, dhe

men are again brought face to’

face with the alternative of capi- talist “justice” or working class power.

Ever since Besco, with the co- operation of Lewis’ appointee succeeded in putting across the Montreal “agreement” in the face of an overwhelming vote against it, the idea of a heavy wage cut this spring has been at the back of all their propaganda and activities.

It’s the old story of human rights and welfare against profits. Following the announced _ wage cuts came the threat that all but two of Cape Breton’s mines would close for the winter months. ;

The Worker, Jan, 31,.1925

25 years ago... FIGHT RAILS CUTS LPP LEAFLET URGES

SASKATOON — In a leaflet is- sued to railway workers on the prairies, the Saskatchewan LPP warns that “service cuts on the CNR is part of a plot to bring about amalgamation with the pri- vately-owned CPR in the interests of further super profits; for the

latter monopoly.”

It calls on the workers to re- vive movements like the Joint Councils of the thirties which did such a great job in the battles against those days..:

“Now is the first time for all local divisions and units to begin to fight unitedly against the ser- vice cuts,” the leaflet urges. “This fight will also strengthen the battle for the 40-hour week.”

Tribune, Jan. 30) 1950

Profiteer of the week:

RS FACIIC IFT

7 > West Coast edition, Canadian Trib

Ses : SOS SSS SES x Editor — MAURICE RUSH

Interprovincial Steel and Pipe Corp. Ltd., Regina, corralled. a lovely $5,552,000 profit in a mere three months ended Nov. 30, 1974. How's that for skewering the suckers? In the same period in 1973 they grabbed $2,189,000, so 1974 saw an admirable jump of 153%. Somewhat better than the 20-odd per cent governments are railroading (1) through for their employees. But, there’s the hard and heavy druggery shareholders have of endorsing those quarterly cheques carrying a $1.20 rip-off per share instead of last year’s (ugh) 62 cents.

PS

Published weekly at Ford Bldg., Mezzanine No. 3,193 E. Hastings St., ~+" Vancouver 4, B.C. Phone 685-8108 Business & Circulation Manager, FRED WILSON Subscription Rate: Canada, $6.00 one year; $3.50 for six months; North and South America and Commonwealth countries, $7.00 All other countries, $8.00 one year Second class mail registration number 1560

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—FRIDAY, JANUARY 31, 1975—Page 4

the amalgamators in ~

ment is heading upward from the pres- ent 6.1%; that layoffs created by capi- talism’s slumpfiation crisis are being

Syncrude’s fixed game

The power play against the people of Canada by big oil — or the Syncrude poker game, as it has come to be known — aims at creating a limitless fountain of profit for the oil corporations, from a resource that rightfully belongs to the Canadian people.

Wielding accumulated profits like a big stick, the consortium partners de- mand of the governments who have played their game in the past, not only that they hand over Canada’s resources birthright, but that the public purse be opened to them to the extent of one billion dollars, or they’ll sabotage the Athabasca Tar Sands project. At this writing they had not even condescendéed to extend their Jan. 31 deadline, al- though both Ottawa and Edmonton had made appeals. ee ;

What price do the oil monopolies de- mand for keeping Syncrude alive? A billion dollars of public money (unless they boost it again). They demand tax

exemptions, and union-busting rights

— a government guarantee of “no labor strife.” They want the right to flood the market at whim, whatever the energy output elsewhere. They demand _top- notch world prices when they sell Cana- dians their own oil. Consumers are being conditioned to accept sky-roket- ing oil prices.

What of the economy? What of the consumer? What of the orderly develop- ment of Canadian energy needs?

Rather. than commit public funds to a poker game bossed by Imperial Oil, Gulf, and Cities Service, government backing should go to a federal-provin- cial energy development corporation for the Tar Sands, which would free. this massive development from monopoly control, to develop the Sands according to the requirements of the country. .

Such a development could allow for investment, but not ownership, and pay off in oil for export at world prices after Canadian needs were served.

- Within the framework of (a) a crown petroleum corporation which would put an end to U.S. ownership and control, with its political leverage, and (b) na- tionalization of resources within prov- incial jurisdictions, all facilities and:as- sets used to develop, extract, process and distribute energy in Canada should be taken out of the blackmailer’s and put to work for the Canadian people.

’ But it is a fact of life that govern- ments long committed to those very monopolies will take such actions to save the Canadian-economy only when public protest and pressure becomes un- bearable. :

The Tar Sands: development must be

freed from monopoly’s strangle hold -

from the be-all of profiteering, and must be moved ahead in the sovereign inter-

_est of Canada.

’ ment policy.

‘net ministers:

‘sole purpose is to cajole or frighten la-

tile,”

working-class is ready to show its met-

‘indicators that labor will not allow it-

- inflation, anti- recession measures —)

‘on the west bank of the Jordan River: |

' who berate UNESCO for its refusal t0

used, to intimidate those still working, and that a strengthened labor organl- | zation is needed to compel new govern-

On the eve of government-labor talks” in Ottawa, in which the government. said it hoped to find solutions to the} crisis, United: Steelworkers’ national director, William Mahoney, added his veto to any idea of wage restraint, the) main ingredient so far in the govern- ment recipe for prosperity stew. =

Mahoney hit the nail on-the head when he warned smooth-talking cabi-

“Those of us with major responsi-| bility... . for catchup bargaining can- | not afford to become. involved in end- less and pointless conferences whose

bor into counselling a course of action that. could only prove: foolish and.fu- |

He could have added the need for all- labor unity in a battle with government | and employers for wages, employment, | and a roll-back of prices. _ .

Ottawa can be forced, when the

tle, to take steps to lessen the burden | of inflation on the working people. and to create socially necessary jobs. With- in the crisis of the system, over which | © capitalist governments have not got ul- timate control, they have room, just the same, to shift the burden of the crisis off the workers.

The re-establishment of the Common Front in Quebec; the adoption by gov-. ernment workers everywhere of the right-to-strike demand (because the strike is the most effective weapon workers have) ; the widespread deman for compensation for inflation, as well | as a rising standard of life, are clear)

self tobe sacrificed to recession or de- pression. :

But time counts. The obligation is on this new session of parliament to adovt policies of full employment, and anti-|

measures such as are outlined in the Communist Party’s program to cope with the crisis. a

The Trudeau: Government’s reluct- ance to act on behalf of the working’ people. has to be challenged. The Cana- dian Labor Congress should play an active part. : es

‘The labor movement, firmly united | and organized for mass action is the one force that can challenge the do-|. nothing government and-compel the) needed legislation. Conditions are not setting better, they are.getting worse The time for such united mass action 18: here. :

ey. s e .

Oil for the occupiers

So the government of Israel, which has stolen millions of dollars worth of oil from Sinai wells belonging to Egypt |

has now laid claim to oil it says is be neath the occupied Jordanian territory

It is in defence of such “rights” that reactionary bleeding hearts like Judy Lamarsh huckster the Zionist line 1” Canada. The cohwebbed intellectuals

finance Israeli thievery, might conside! whether their ethics embrace banditry as a state policy?