The Canadian Labor Congress
Executive Council came to a
momentous decision last week
to undo a grevious wrong which
has crippled and weakened or-
ganized labor ever since the
birth of the cold war over 25
years ago.-The admission into
affiliation of the United Elec-
trical, Radio and Machine Work-
ers, and the B.C.-based United
Fishermen and Allied Workers,
signifies much more than the
re-admission into the house of
labor of two left-led and pro-
gressive trade union organiza-
tions. It signalizes a turning
point in policy orientation that
is long overdue, and reflecting
basic changes in the relation-
ship of class forces, both in
Canada and the world arena of
class struggle.

It has always been the his-
toric role of Communists to
unite the leftward-oriented forc-
es in our society, and to bring
class and ‘political conscious-
ness to uncommitted working
people as a means of strengthen-
ing the trade unions and the
labor movement. After the de-
feat of fascism in the Second
World War it was above all the
Communists, working in clos-
est harmony with a broad-based
spectrum of other leftwing forc-
es within organized labor, which
gave the substance and leader-
ship to the great postwar bat-
tles of the working class to im-
prove its economic position re-
lative to the capitalist class and
the big monopolies, who utilized
~the no-strike commitment of
labor during the  anti-fascist
war to enrich themselves at the
expense of the workers.

Built Industrial Unions

It was the great battle for
trade union unity, led by the
Communists and other leftward-
oriented forces, which prior to
the Second Warld» War built
strong industrial unions in mass
production industries in both
the United States and Canada.
It was this which formed the
broad base for the Congress of
Industrial Organization (CIO),
and which the American Federa-
tion of Labor saw fit to expel
from its ranks in the late
Thirties on the very eve of the
Second World War.

It was the CIO and the left-
ward-oriented’ forces in the
trade unions of North America
which participated in and sup-
ported world trade union unity
which found its concrete ex-
pression in the formation of the
World Federation of Trade
Unions (WFTU). The postwar
conferences: which brought this
about were under joint British:
Soviet trade union sponsorship.
The wartime alliance with the
Soviet Union which made vic-
tory over the fascist axis pow-
ers possible, also laid the basis
for world-wide trade union co-
operation and unity.

It was the American Federa-
tion of Labor (AFL) and the ex-
treme right wing in the North
America trade union movement
which made mmon cause
with United States imperialism
to mount a _ counter-offensive
against the anti-fascist wartime
alliance on the basis of anti-
Sovietism and anti-Communism.
The result of this was a disas-
trous cold war, the chief aim
of which was to make the trade
‘unions into pliable instruments
for the implementation of U.S.
imperialist policy and aims

Wilsy0]:#ye5\\l9 Welcome and overdue,

BY BRUCE MAGNUSON

sanity

returns to CLC

throughout the world. The re-
sult of this policy was a devas-
tating internecine witch-hunt,
expulsions, strike-breaking and
fragmentation of unions, all in

the name of the anti-commu-
nism.

Turning Point

When the AFL/CIO came to-
gether in the middle Fifties, it
was on a weakened cold war
ideological base of social re-
formism and class partnership
concepts. In Canada this found
its expression in the merger of
the old Trades and Labor Con-
gress of Canada with the Cana-
dian Congress of Labor into the
Canadian Labor Congress with
anti-Communism inscribed in
its constitution.

But after 20 years of cold war
and the struggle against it with-
in the ranks of labor, the Toron-
to CLC Convention in 1968 sig-
nalized that a turning point was

approaching. It adopted a more ~

progressive orientation in in-
ternational _ policy,
moved to do away with the an-
ti-Communist clause in its con-
stitution. :

By the time of the Edmonton
Convention in 1970, the grow-
ing demand ‘for all-inclusive
labor unity made itself felt in
over 80 resolutions on this is-
sue alone. The right-wing op-
ponents of labor unity did their
level best to resist by means of
intensified red-baiting. In the
eyes of President MacDonald
the demand for unity of labor
at that time presented itself as
a Communist conspiracy.

At the May Convention in
Ottawa this year; ‘and following
a growing conflict between
labor, on the one hand, and em-
ployers supported by govern-
ments, on the other hand; the
delegates to the Ninth Biennial
Convention simply refused to
vote against resolutions which
called for all-inclussive labor
unity to fight the bosses and
their government.

Debated Foreign Control

For the first time, a CLC Con-
vention debated foreign owner-
ship and control of the Cana-
dian economy, alongside issues
of economic policy and labor’s
rights. A Policy Statement on
Organization presented to the
Convention showed that the
membership in terms of a per-
centage of the Canadian labor
force stood exactly at the same
point as it did when the Con-
gress was founded in 1956. The
cold war policy of anti-Com-
munism had brought only stag-
nation and decline to the
power and prestige of organ-
ized labor. Experience showed
that a change in orientation was
urgently required in the trade
union movement.

This fact was also clear from
other results. For example, to

Fight closures with

‘Delegates to the Toronto La-
bor Council voted last week to
demand that the federal govern-
ment impose a 100% tariff duty
on goods imported by the Gen-
eral Fire Proofing Company. The
delegates took the action be-
cause the firm, with its head-
quarters. in Youngstown, Ohio,
has decided to begin phasing out
its branch plant in Ontario.

The company said that its

and also.

begin with, the right-wing lead-
ership of organized labor failed
miserably in its efforts to com-
pletely destroy unions under
left and Communist leadership.

When this did not produce

results, they tried to force these -™

unions to surrender their juris-
dictions and join with other
unions already affiliated, as the
price of entry into the CLC.
This was a policy aimed at liqui-
dation of these unions in a more
sophisticated way. That too has
failed.

That is how we have finally
arrived at the long overdue and
most welcome realization of the
need for saner policies at atime
when the corporate structures
of monopoly and governments
have declared open season for

an all-out war on organized .

labor in this country.
All Organized Labor

Itis a clear victory for policies
of union democracy and equal-
ity of rights within the trade
union movement, where second
class membership and discrimi-
nation of any kind ought never
to have been. in the first place,
and must never be allowed to
arise again.

The unity must now be ex-
tended to embrace all of organ-
ized labor, to put an end to
internecine warfare and sense-
less jurisdicitional quarrels. Any
restructuring required in such a
process must be undertaken on
an equitable, voluntary and de-
mocratic basis.

Moreover, and to’ facilitate
planned and adequately financed
organizational campaigns _ to
bring the unorganized millions
into the house of labor, Cana-
dian labor must assert its auto-
nomy and lay the basis for an
independent and sovereign Can-
adian trade union movement.
Such a movement needs to main-
tain the closest fraternal rela-
tions and solidarity with trade
unions of every nation, working
for world-wide labor unity.

Only in this way can-the trade’

union movement fulfill its role
as an effective instrument of
the working class in its strug-
gle to defeat the attacks of in-
ternational monopolies, narrow
down still further the power of
monopoly and the scope of ex-
ploitation of man by man, and
finally putting an end to such
exploitation entirely in a future
society of peace, democracy and
socialism.

The program for the struggle
to achieve this result requires
both short- and long-term ob-
jectives, as well as all-sided and
varied forms of struggle involy-
ing economic, social and politi-
cal aims.

Finally, only a_ leadership
firmly committed to the inter-
ests of the working class and
unity will inspire the confidence
needed for victory.

shutdown will be completed by
March 3, 1973 and after the shut-
down they will continue to mar-
ket a full line of furniture prod-
ucts in Canada.

Although the U.S. Disc pro-
gram was not mentioned in the
Executive Board statement, sev-
eral delegates were quick to
point out that this was the cause
of the loss of another 200 Cana-
dian jobs.

faces demos

WINNIPEG — A demonstra-
tion was organized by the Black
Action Movement, the Manito-
ba Association for World Deve-

lopment, the Manitoba Peace
Council, the Student Christian
Movement, the Young Commu-
nist League and the Zimbabwe
Anti-Apartheid League to pro-
test against the speech by South
African journalist Ivor Benson.

While Mr. Benson spoke, at
the Mariborough Hotel in sup-
port of the racist Apartheid
policies of South Africa, 100
picketers paraded in front of
the hotel carrying signs reading
End. Fascism in South Africa,
The World Hates Apartheid and
Boycott All South African
Goods.

The Mariborough apperance
was the third made by Benson
in Winnipeg. In his two previous
appearances on the university
campuses he met with heckling
and jeering that all but prevent-

22 countries, meeting in Mos-
cow at the beginning of Decem-
ber, called upon all lawyers,
striving for the speediest term-
ination of the war in Indochina,
to raise their voices in support
of immediate signing of the
agreement between the U.S.
and Vietnamese sides.

Indochina was prominent in
the discussion of the 55 Bureau
members of the. International
Association of Democratic Law-
yers, who met here for three
days.

Many of them stressed in
their speeches that the history
of founding this association, the
initiators of which participated

in condemning the crimes of’

fascism at the Nuremberg trial,
makes it incumbent upon its
members to use their weapon—

tariffs?

Joe Grabek, of the Ironwork-
ers, said that
does not go far enough. The
ease with which companies can
do this sort of thing arose from
the fact that the CLC and the
OFL did very little when the
precedent was set with the clos-
ing of the Toronto Dunlop plant.
Now, because of the inaction,
the chickens are coming home
to roost.” :

MOSCOW — Lawyers from the legal weapon—to fight pres-

“The statement.

in Winnipeg

ed him from speaking. At the
University of Manitoba, the tone
of the meeting» was set when
Shyrlee Williams, president of
the Black Action Movement,
urged the audience to move
their chairs away from the stage
to “give this man an empty hall
to look at.”

According to the Winnipeg
Free Press, “the meeting was
brought to a sloppy close by the
simple expedient of turning off.
the microphones.”

At the Mariborough speech,
many. of the demonstrators .who
had planned. to attend were dis-
couraged at the door by an un-
advertised $1 admission charge.
A spokesman for the Canadian.
League of Rights, the body spon-
soring Mr. Benson’s visit to
Winnipeg, said that it “was just
on oversight” that the admis-
sion charge wasn’t mentioned
in the advertising for the meet-
ing.

: rd
-3 *

ent day crimes against human-
ity.

Doris Walker Robertson, ad-
vocate from San Francisco,
vice-president of the. IADL,
stressed that dragging out of
the Vietnam talks is having a.
grave effect on the fate of poli-
tical prisoners in South Viet-
nam. She said that with the pur-
pose of familiarizing itself with
the condition of political prison-
ers the IADL started arranging
trips of American lawyers to
South Vietnam.

“As: lawyers,” she said, “we
must demand that justice should
be administered in Indochina.
People of Indochina have every.
right to demand the appropriate
compensation of their logses.”’

The association bureau, by
resolution, instructed its secre-
tariat to arrange a trip of the
Commission of American Law-
yers to South Vietnam to study
the conditions of political pri-
soners, and after that an inter-
national lawyers’ conference
should be convened on this
problem.

The British National Institute
of Industrial Psychology is to
investigate the extent to which
stress at work contributes to
mental illness, which is now
estimated to be losing industry.
some 50 million working days a
year.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—FRIDAY, DECEMBER 22, 1972—PAGE 5

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