Tn. 2 4k aden ae le

aay

4

INJUNCTIONS — KEY ISSUE

The B.C. Fed convention—AND AFTER

By LABOR CTTEE., COMMUNIST PARTY.

T understand the conflict .

over injunctions waged at the .B.C, Federation of Labor Con- vention this year, between, for want of a better name, the Fed- eration ‘‘establishment’’ on the one hand, and the progressive ‘delegates .on the other, one must journey back in time to the Can- adian Labor Congress conven- tion in April of this year.

It was there that the now famous

’ Winnipeg Resolution on injunc-

tions was conceived. Conceived albeit, only after the original Tesolution put before the as- Sembled delegates by the reso- lutions committee was roundly condemned by many speakers and eventually referred back tocom- ‘mittee with instructions to pro- duce a policy of action,

The motion to refer back was a slap in the face for Congress Officialdom, and reflected in some measure the willingness and determination of labor to fight,

The subsequent resolution, Produced after much laboring, in the dying hours of the conven- tion, called on the movement to wage strong militant action when- ever and wherever ex-parte in- junctions were issued, Armed with this kind of directive, the delegates made their way home- Ward, those in the West to be faced. with Lenkurt Electric and those to the East with Tilco Plastics,

Labor, probably at that mo- ment was beginning to move into One of those classic confronta- tions with management, and the big business controlled state ap- Paratus — with sails trimmed and the semblance of genuine unity and a sympathetic public Slowly starting to grasp the in- iquity of injunctions, and all the indications of a massive cam- Paign followed by an equally im- pressive victory,

However, something happened to mar the happy ending, The CLC cailed a special conference on injunctions in September with representation restricted to two delegates per National or Inter- National union (two for all of the UAW, IWA, USWM, etc.) At this Conference in Ottawa, keynote Speakers were lawyers John Os- ler and David Lewis.

They did their best to present to the conference what was in fact a new “line” in the struggle against injunctions, A new line that was duly picked up by the Press and scattered across the land, that there were other ways to Skin the cat than the Winnipeg Resolution way,

“NEW LINE”

_ The brake was being cautiously applied to the policy of mass militant action, in favor of legal ‘diplomacy, and “room at the top” Manoeuvring, with some refer-

~€nces made to Harold Wilson’s

dilemma thrown in for good mea- sure,

The new line wasn’t too popu- lar, €ven with that conference,

and President Claude Jodoin felt:

obliged to remind the homeward

A new line which said >

oe

trekking delegates that the Win- nipeg Resolution, still stood and was still Congress policy. These remarks were not picked up. by the press, and certainly weren’t scattered very far,

In B.C. the new line from Congress found tangible form in the decision by the Federation not to appeal the conviction of the ‘tfour,’’ but only the sentence Thus admitting guilt, and recog- nizing the validity of injunctions to be issued, and simply pleading for a little less prison time. Most important of all perhaps, literally sinking the grass roots campaign that had begun to de- velop around the convictions,

wal

_seeaitvereomeniseinatitomsesactseinon the

in Congress and Federation, and legal profession.

ACTION BLOCKED

The Sunday meeting prior to the BCFL convention saw both Tom Berger and Donald Mac- Donald, CLC secretary, given the opportunity for a talk fest on the ‘‘new line,’’ which produced to some degree, the desired affect of deadening the “let’s get some- thing done’’ feeling of the dele- gates,

The composite resolution on injunctions when it hit the floor on Tuesday, came out flat-footed against any demonstrationsat the courthouse, as serving no useful

B.C. FED. DELEGATES AT COURT HOUSE. Photo shows some of the hundreds of delegates to the convention marching around the courthouse to protest the jail- ing of union leaders and the use of injunctions in labor disputes. The need for more militant action by labor is urged in the article on this page to defeat injunc-

tions and win freedom for the imprisoned union leaders.

The decision to adopt this strategy was taken shortly after a regular meeting of the Vancou- ver Labor Council which set forth a six-point program in line with the Winnipeg Resolution and, called for the appeal of the con- victions. This program was to be placed before a special meeting of the BCFL Executive Board on the following Friday by VLC President Ed Sims,

However, any discussion by then was purely academic, for Federation lawyer Tom Berger had on Thursday already announ- ced: ‘Sentence only to be ap- pealed,” facing the policy-making executive on Friday with a fait accompli, and leaving only Sims, and Rod Doran, President of the Prince Rupert Labor Council still opting for the VLC six-point program of “fight all the way.” The Marine Workers thereupon in line with VLC and CLC policy appealed the conviction of Jeff

Power,

The stage then was Set for the BCFL convention, with injunc- tions as the prime issue, and with the B.C, Appeal Court judges co-operating very nicely by ar- ranging to have the cases heard on the Thursday during con- vention week.

A demonstration around the courthouse seemed to be a natural — after all the IWA Regional convention had already set an excellent precedent at the time of the final sentencing in October by adjourning their con- vention to the courthouse, But even this elementary form of

mass action was by now unac-—

ceptable to the “new line” people

- union fashion,

—Fisherman photo

purpose, Strange sentiments for

_the labor movement, which was -nurtured on demonstrations, as

Staley, Moore, Alton and the rest of them know full well, particularly in B.C.

The resolution was certainly at odds with the movement in On- tario, where at the time of the “demonstrate or not to demon- strate,” issue was being debated in the Bayshore, they were marching through the streets of Peterborough to the skirl of the pipes, appealing convictions to the Supreme Court of Canada, and launching a mass public peti- tion, In general, following the Winnipeg Resolution and re- sponding in a principaled trade And in the pro- cess, incidentally, acting rather in the way that the rest of the country had come to expect of B>C.

In the debate, “establishment?” speakers came out against dem- onstrations per se, “Stupid,’’ said Geo, Johnstone, usually one of the first on the line in recent years, Predictably the election of an NDP government was posed as the only answer to change the law, Forgetting somehow that ex-parte injunctions are not granted according to law, but rather at the discretion of judges, the next provincial election is five years away, and electing an NDP government is no guarantee that labor laws will be changed, not without a mass support movement below, A lesson some British unionists must be learning fast these days!

There was also a job done to

disinherit the “adhoc” committee _

Scere

of Carol- Ann Power, particularly by Ray Haynes, both publicly and

’ privately, on the basis of red

baiting, Pat O’Neal carried this part of the debate well, hinting at “red herrings” and dubious politics involved, After the events of the last week exposing his connections with the RCMP, the role he played at the con- vention is understandable,

The noxious part of the resu- lution dealing with “no demon- strations” was duly referred back, after speakers called for mass militant action,

It was then reproduced, this time with a demonstration, but Wednesday not Thursday, which was a further example of howfar down the road to appeasement the leadership were willing to go.

Syd Thompson at this point, expressing the distasteful way in which the “establishment’’ were willing to sabotage a Thurs- day demonstration, said that he

wasn’t going to be the one to be:

accused of leading a split and would settle for Wednesday, His words expressed well the feeling of the moment, and laid bare the intrigues of a weak leadership,

By coming out strongly against a demonstration on the day of appeals, because it might be con- strued “as intimidation of the Courts,” the Judge was given a beautiful weapon, and when dis- persing the demonstration led by Power’s daughter on Thursday, was able to use the same words as Haynes without changing a syntax,

The demonstration of delegates however did take place on the Wednesday, and the subsequent news coverage was able to convey labor’s story tothe people, better than all the cap-in-hand meetings with the Cabinet could ever do.

NEED LABOR UNITY

There is the need now for all B.C. labor to unite to carry out some of the good action proposals adopted by the convention, These include the lobbying of MLAs against injunctions; telegrams and communications to the At- torney-General against the use of injunctions and imprisonment of unionists; a meeting with the Cabinet; the call to unions to hold special meetings on the in- junction issue; wide distribution of a pamphlet on injunctions; raising the $2.00 per member contribution to the Defence Fund and the convening of meetings of church, civil liberties and other interested groups,

Resolutions of a controversial nature which in past conventions had been a dreary procession of “non-concurrence,” this year were generally looked on with “favor.” A recognition of the

- change of mood, but alsoa change

of tactics, for it is one thing to accept new policies, but quite another to carry them out, and promises made on the floor of the convention hall are not neces- sarily promises kept in the following months, Any criticism from the left thereafter for not carrying out convention decisions is immediately presented as an attack on the NDP as such, or carried to its most vulgar con-

clusion, ‘‘any vote against Ray

Haynes is a vote against the

_trades councils, and local unions,

Resolutions dealing with bring- ing all unions outside the CLC back in, were as usual left until after elections, and to the last hours of the convention, This is one debate that the present type of leadership aren’t going to touch with a barge pole, for all their exultations of unity and democracy,

Progressive delegates should also realize that when the words “provided they abide by the CLC Constitution” are added to the unity resolution, that is the kiss of death, for as long as Com- munists are proscribed, then the path of unity will remain barred,

DEMOCRACY

An interesting paradox exists among some Federation officials in their good public statements on the inequality of the electoral system, where Socreds can get less than 50 percent of the popular vote and still get a majority of seats, In the Federation elec- tions however, the same people insist on 100 percent fidelity to their chosen slate, and succeed, with a well-oiled machine that would make Mr, Bennett iook like a piker, ;

When C, Stewart can get 43 percent of the convention vote, expressing a 60-40 balance of power, yet still can find no place on the 16-man council, or other

‘progressives too, then it is very

obvious that new changes in basic thinking are necessary for some,

Without the International Long- shore & Warehousemen’s Union nothing moves out of the port of Vancouver, or in, this organiza- tion recognized far and wide as one of the most responsible, astute and militant. This union singly challenged injunctions more than any other, to the point of sending 10 of their men to jail over them, Yet Roy Smith, Longshore President, and Fed- eration executive aspirant, went down to defeat before the ‘‘es- tablishment’s” machine,

FIGHT INJUNCTIONS

Meanwhile, several church groups recently issued a state- ment on the use of injunctions in labor disputes, a heartening sign, and a response to the call of the VLC and to all interested bodies to protest their use,

Meanwhile, the four are still in Thurston camp, and the threat of almost certain prison sen- — tence, plus criminal records await anyone courageous enough to challenge the next injunction when it arrives, and arrive it — will, whether in the building trades, shipyards, steelworkers — or what have you,

And challenged it will be, for in spite of the inertia-stricken leadership of the BCFL, who ap- pear reluctant to take up the

cudgels on behalf of, not only Ff

the labor movement, but the © people, there are many who are willing, : cee

The implementation of the resolutions and policies passed in convention will depend inlarge — measure on how they are picked up by labor councils, building

PACI