By MAURICE RUSH

While thousands of woodworkers in B.C. are jobless and facing one of the bleakest winters in history, the huge MacMillan Bloedel em- pire is exporting hundreds of millions of dollars abroad to acquire and establish forest in- dustries in other countries where it can realize super profits.

This situation came to light with recent disclosures that the B.C.- based forest company has entered into a joint venture with Brascan (formerly Brazilian Traction and

Light Co.), to establish an in-

tegrated forest products complex in Brazil. The project will include development of an extensive pine and eucalyptus forest.

The total investment MacMillan Bloedel will pour into the Brazilian venture has not been revealed but it is certain to run into hundreds of millions of dollars. This operation is part of the rapid expansion of MacMillan Bloedel into one of the world’s major multinational Corporations in the wood and packaging industry. It also recently announced new acquisitions in Scotland. (See PT Jan.. 24). MB has also acquired extensive holdings in France, the Netherlands and southern U.S.A.

Using the vast profits it has accumulated from exploition of B.C.’s_ woodworkers and the province’s forest resources, most of them Crown-owned, the timber giant has extended its investments abroad to maintain high profit levels and to be less dependent on the economic situation in B.C. Foreign investments, particularly in low wage areas, enables greater exploitation of labor by the com- pany. It has built and acquired extensive processing plants abroad while holding down processing in BiOn. toxaraw:- “and -semi- manufactured products.

In extending its world-wide

connections, MB has joined with

Some of the world’s largest multi- National corporations and has become, along with them, a major exploiter of less developed coun- tries and a force promoting reactionary political regimes abroad.

Some months ago, before an-

esses ee

Mac Blo exports millions of dollars while B.C. woodworkers without jobs

nouncement of its Brazilian ven- ture, MB announced it has joined with the notoriously reactionary U.S. United Fruit Company in a venture in the southern U.S. for packaging fruit from the US. company’s extensive holdings in the banana republics.

MacMillan Bloedel has joined with other major Canadian cor- porations in pouring hundreds of millions of dollars into Brazil to take advantage of the extremely backward conditions imposed on Brazilian workers by the ruling military dictatorship, and to acquire maximum profits from super-exploitation of Brazilian workers whose wages are one- twentieth of those of Canadian workers.

Included among the major Canadian corporations taking part in the rape of Brazilian resources and labor are such well known companies as Inco, Falconbridge, Noranda, Alcan, Brascan and MacMillan Bloedel. So extensive have Canadian capital investments become in Latin America that Canadian-based firms hold the single largest foreign investment position in .at least three Latin American countries. MacMillan Bloedel is sharing these big business ventures which the reactionary military dictatorships in Latin America have opened up for foreign investment.

The conditions in Brazil which are attracting foreign companies such as MB were recently revealed in a magazine article published in Toronto called This Magazine, and were aired in a recent CBC mor- ning radio program. This article points out that because of right- wing political regimes, Brazil has maintained one of the lowest wage scales of any partially in- dustrialized Third World country. These are the kind of conditions MB likes.

Labor costs in Brazil account for as little as eight per cent of total production costs, while in North America the equivalent figure is between 20 and 40 per cent. ‘In the past 10 years Says the article, ‘‘the

real wages of the Brazilian-

un

There's more than

coffee in Brazil

-there's super

profits for Mac Blo

workers and peasants have declined by almost 50 per cent.”

The article also points out that the military dictatorship ruling Brazil-has cut back ‘spending on social services from four per cent of the budget to one per cent despite an infant mortality rate which has risen steadily and is now in excess of 88 per thousand live births. Life expectancy averages only 35 years (about half of Canada’s), and over half the population over 20 years of age is affected by tuberculosis.

In the dash to make Brazil into a super-profit producing economy attracting foreign capital, safety conditions and pollution controls are unheard of. According to of- ficial figures, in Sao Paulo alone

Ci i

7,600 workers have been killed and 130,000 injured in the past two years — and the real figures are said to be much higher.

It is conditions such as this which have encouraged large corporate investment by Canadian com- panies in Brazil, including Mac- Millan Bloedel. Canadian govern- ment policy is aimed at en- couraging export of Canadian capital to Brazil, providing government-operated agencies to extend credits as well as scientific surveys of Brazil to Canadian companies to encourage their investment in Brazil with ‘its fascist-type regime.

The magazine article quoted above -points out that the head of Brascan in Brazil, with whom MB has entered into its joint venture, is an admitted fascist by the name of Antonio Gallotti. Named Brazil’s “Man of the Year’ in 1973 by Brazil’s leading magazine, Gallotti publicly admitted that he was a fascist. In an article carried in the magazine he said he opted for fascism because of his. hatred of Communism and the working class. This is MacMillan Bloedel’s new partner in Brazil!

B.C. woodworkers should know

these facts about the largest forest company in the province which has grown rich from exploiting B.C. workers and resources. Now it is using that wealth to export capital to exploit workers abroad in their search for super profits. By ex- porting capital to develop industry in other countries MB is exporting jobs which should be’ made available to B.C. workers by ex- panding processing and ‘manufacturing in B.C. If we had a ‘government in Ottawa worth its salt it would put a halt to the out- pouring of Canadian capital and force its investment in Canada for Canadian development. Par- ticularly since that capital, although owned by a handful of capitalists, is the product of the labor and resources of Canada.

Leading spokesmen for MB in recent years — such as J. V. Clyne and Robert Bonner — have made

many speeches and written many~

articles defending the U.S. takeover of Canadian industry on the grounds that Canada doesn’t have enough capital to develop its own industries. Yet all the time their company has been exporting hundreds of millions of dollars abroad to countries where they expect to make bigger profits than their investment would bring in Canada. That’s capitalism for you. If anything was néeded to prove the anti-national character of big business and its callous disregard for Canada’s interests, it’s the hypocritical attitude of the heads of MB.

One thing is clear as a result of the recent revelations of MB’s foreign investments: this company has become ‘a major exploiter of foreign workers and one of the economic pillars of reactionary profascist regimes such as the bloody dictatorship in Brazil.

There is a popular song which says, ‘‘There’s an awful lot of coffee in Brazil... .’’ There’s also an awful lot of super-profits to be made in Brazil, and MB wants to be in on the kill — and to hell with B.C.’s woodworkers who need jobs but who see the wealth created by their labor funnelled off to other. countries instead of being used to create thousands of new jobs in B.C.’s forest and processing in- dustries.

HAVE

"RENEWED YOUR SUB YET?

CANRON WORKER WRITES:

‘Production first, then- safety’ to blame for high accident rate

As a worker at Canron, I would like to say a couple of things con- cerning your article ‘‘Canron Worker Killed” which appeared in the Pacific Tribune on Friday, February 7, 1975. What I have to Say reflects solely my own opinions and observations.

Your paper was the only one that I've seen that seriously attempted to present an aécount of the events Connected with Tony’s (Anton Zindarcic) death, but for the sake

of accuracy I believe that more

Information is needed.

You state that ‘‘after a discussion between the union of- ficials and the men, a threatened) Walkout was averted.”’ Tony was killed at around 3:45 p.m. on Thursday, January 30. The day Shift was leaving work when we

first learned about the accident.

What happened with the afternoon and graveyard shifts I do not know. On Friday there was a great deal of discussion on the day shift con- cerning what action, if any was

that many of the lads

needed. » : An unofficial and imprompu

meeting was held at lunch to discuss the possibility of a sym- pathetic walkout. Several lads arrived at the meeting already dressed to go home. We learned in the Shipping Dept. had booked off at Se aeinning of the shift. (We heard that the entire Dept. had

WRITE TO THE PT

The PT is grateful to the worker in Canron who took the trouble to write us the above letter. We are anxious to carry more letters and articles from workers on the job who have many problems to alr. We are happy to make the columns of the PT available for that pur-

se.

With the first issue in March will be adding a sixth page of B.C. news which will give us more space for such stories. So please write.

booked off, but I am not certain that this is correct.)

It was decided at the meeting that each worker would follow the dictates of his own conscience as to what action to take. Several brothers believed that the day of

the funeral was the proper time to”

book off, but a large percentage (it is impossible for me to know the exact number) believed that it was

not right to continue on the job as if

nothing had happened, and they booked off at noon.

On Friday, February 7, the day of the funeral, approximately half of the day shift booked off. The funeral was also attended by brothers from the other two shifts.

The “high accident rate at Canron’” that you speak of is primarily a result of the com- pany’s practice of “production first, then safety”. The workers at Canron know that to allow the company to carry on with this philosophy would be a fatal

‘mistake.

“Jones, you've been changing that tool 20 minutes... Grogan, that’s your second trip to the men’s room... Berger, who gave you permission to leave your machine?”

begiZ eae

ee ae

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 14, 1975—Page 3