50 years ago... THE MENACE OF REACTION

That Sinister menace to. the Working class, the @Mufacturers’ Association, has ne in conclave. J. R. Shaw, the +. Ming President of this dan- *fous organization cast the sha- ow of forthcoming events in his ut Pening address. He complained creasing wages and decreas- Ours. He complained of the h Ora of social legislation. “It ae time the taxpayers took oo utcrest in the business of of iene: There is a shortage ed labor, Jeremiah wailed.

Mg ollyanna soon rises to the op o There is a silver lining. rady Aa Element has been longer. y disappearing and is no tr a serious factor. The ex- aa of the great Russian has enistic _experiment which = fen a tragic failure is. now

» €tc., etc.” Blissful Mr. Shaw.

The Worker, July 4, 1923 ee

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Canadian:

25 years ago...

JAILS OPENED

ROME — The Italian govern- ment of Premier Gaspari, whose election April 18 with U.S. aid was hailed as a triumph for de- mocracy, is now speeding the release of top fascists.

On June 20 it released Edmon- do Rossini, who boosted the Ital- ian labor front organization un- der - Dictator Benito Mussolini, and Luigi Federzone, -ex-president of Mussolini’s fascist senate. Both men were suddenly am- nestied from life sentences passed upon them after the Allied victory.

Forgiveness was also extended to Giuseppe Bottai, another lead-

ing fascist, who was never im- ”

prisoned because he managed to get out of the country. Bottai managed to enlist in the French Foreign Legion, in which he fought against colonial indepen- dence movements in Africa and Indo-China.

Tribune, July 3, 1948

- Worth quoting:

foiyvren | was a younger child than | am now, | did not know about

al Feusic, Folk music was for having a good time during the natu-

fo, «U'se of living, not at festivals and concerts (they were reserved

fo x ssical music’), but for housecleaning, organizing unions, or ®cial gatherings like hikes, picnics, car riding and rallies”.

—Patsy Margolin

West Coast edition, Canadian Tribune:

Publi Editor — MAURICE RUSH : ished weekly at Ford Bldg., Mezzanine No. 3, 193 E. Hastings St., Vancouver 4, B.C. Phone 685-5288. @ 5 _ Business & Circulation Manager, FRED WILSON Bane eption Rate: Canada, $5.00 one year; $3.00 or six months : and South America and Commonwealth countr:es, $6.00 one year. All other countries, $7.00 one year

Second class mail registration number 1560.

Wage struggle gathering steam

The defiance shown by the machin- ists in their fight against the airlines was an indication of things to come. They rejected the picayune offers and staged a series of militant rotating strikes that kept the company guessing as to where they would strike next. The tactic paid off and they won an increase that compensated, in part at least, for the rapid rise in prices and rents.

Other workers have been stimulated by the machinists’ victory and as a re- sult the wage movement across Canada is gathering steam.

It has been six months since the rail- workers have had a contract and the workers are losing what little patience they had with the stalling govern- mental bureaucracy. Their frustration with the long wait for a contract is compounded when one considers that there are railway workers who are earning only $2.62 per hour. That is

not a living wage and the railway workers know it. They are willing to defy the companies and the govern- ment to increase their. wages to a de- cent living scale. Nor is the struggle for higher wages confined to the transportation industry. The workers in the major auto plants

are showing increasing resistance to_

the slogan ‘Peace in ’73”.

While wages are not the sole issue in these contract negotiations, they are still a key issue, as the corporations, aided by their political parties, reach for maximum profits. Wages, directed to keep ahead of inflation, working con- ditions, and job security, those are the central issues in this year’s negotia- tions.

It is through unity and solidarit that the workers can best beat bac

the continuing employer-government

offensive.

For whom the Bell tolls

Canadian consumers have taken an- other slap in the face delivered by a federal government which claims to be concerned about rising costs. The an- nouncement of a telephone rate increase by Communications Minister Gerard Pelletier last week show once again how two-faced this government is — on the one side faking concern for the average wage earner who is bombarded by soaring living costs, on the other = allowing Ma Bell to bilk the pub- ic.

This is the fourth Bell increase in 42 months. The Company with its reputa- tion for arrogance kept true to form once again. In 1972 Bell Canada made a profit of $165,696,000! As if that col- lossal figure wasn’t enough, the tele- phone subscriber will now “pay an additional five cents a month on basic service bills and another five cents for other services.

On top of this, Bell Canada has still another and bigger rate application before the CTC which may be heard this fall which, if approved, will boost telephone rates again in 1974. What Bell is asking the CTC to approve is: a boost in telephone installation charges from the present $11 to $16.50; double local calls from payphones to 20 cents; add a 25 cent service charge for callers seeking information from the operator.

Opposition to last week’s increases was heavy and it did result in the gov- ernment partially backing down, hold-. ing off their agreement to the installa- tion charge increase. But they did per- mit the other increases. There is no reason to believe, unless heavy public pressure is applied, that this govern- ment will not once again cave in to Ma Bell.

The Communist Party opposes last week’s increases and is opposed to the new ones coming up in 1974. There can be no justification other than the sheer greed of this company, already making hundreds of millions each year, to ask for more. Ina telegram to Prime Minis- ter Trudeau last week, the Communist

. Party’s general secretary ealled for an

S$ FOAI---EXP

annulment of the increases and renew- ed the Party’s demand that Bell Can- ada be taken over and run asa publie utility.

Telephone service is too important to be left to private enterprise, which, with government collusion, strive for maximum profits — and gets them. The hundreds of millions of dollars should be plowed back into the telephone sys- tem, providing better and extended ser- vice at cost to Canadians.

\ Gauvin’s strange silence

The British London Observer has claimed that the CIA was directly in- volved in the 1967 coup in which the colonels took over power in Greece. The paper’s correspondent, Charles Foley, says that four out of the five top con- spirators were closely connected with the Greek Secret Service, the CIA and U.S. forces in the area.

He revealed that Greek head of state, Col. George Papadopoulos, was liaison man between the Greek Secret Service and the CIA from 1960 and is referred to as “the first CIA agent to become premier of a European country .. .”

For the last six years, jailings, tor- ture and a massive A hoe of civil rights have been daily occurances in Greece. Conditions are so bad that last week the U.S. Senate attached condi- tions to its $740 million foreign military bill because of what one Senator de- scribed as an “authoritarian regime.”

Democratic Canadians should take note that this country’s ambassador to that country is none other than Michel Gauvin—shifted out of that position to become leader of the Canadian truce team in Vietnam. Gauvin is expected to return to his embassy in Athens when the Canadian contingent leaves Viet- nam.

Interesting, isn’t it, that Gauvin made a lot of noise during his Vietnam assignment about “NFL truce. viola- tions” and became the darling of the U.S. in the process, but never had an unkind word to say from Athens about Greek fascism in action?

O YIUL YAGIST~ SVLEIRT SROKA

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