MMCHELL SHARP-IN : AUG.30/75 DOWN WAGE-LEVELC IT COuLd “INFLUENCE EVENTC IN THE PRI SECTOR... PROFITS oe. FLASHBACKS THE COMMUNIST PRESS 50 years ago... LARGE SUMS TO SMASH STRIKE The thousand or more troops which were sent to Nova Scotia to intimidate the miners into ac- cepting a reduction in their star- vation wages have finished their job and are being sent out of the province. The occupation of Cape Breton by the troops has cost the govern- ment from June 12 to August 8 the sum of $325,000 according to defense department figures. This is at the rate of $4,224 per day plus the cost of transportation. The government, while unable to provide relief for starving un- employed workers and their fami- lies, spends money prodigally to club the workers into submis- sion and drive them deeper into poverty and degradation in order that greater profits can be reap- sd. The Worker, September 5, 1925 25 years ago... STEP BY STEP INTO THE SWAMP Tim Buck put his finger on prime minister St. Laurent’s tac- tic to involve Canada neck-deep in the quagmire of Yankee im- perialist war when he exposed the Liberal “step by step” trick- ery- First, Canadian destroyers to Korea; then an RCAF transport squadron; a pledge that. there would be no ground troops sent. Then, without consulting parlia- ment or the people, the cabinet decision, under Yankee pressure, for a Special Korea Brigade of 5,000 men, now boosted to 9,000. This is the “step by step” des- cent into the quagmire that the St. Laurent-Drew-Coldwell-Low war coalition at Ottawa is mak- ing under the compulsion of Wall Street’s imperialist drive to domi- nate the world. The Tribune, September 11, 1950 “The Board of Education requires me to give you some basic informa- tion on sex, reproduction and other disgusting filth.’ PACIFIC TRIBUNE—SEPTEMBER 5, 1975—Page 4 Edttorial Comment... Economists offer more of same Capitalism’s economists usually do their best to cajole workers into sup- porting the system even while that sys- tem is plotting permanent unemploy- ment, a wage freeze and cut-backs in the working people’s living. But some- times they blurt out truths. B. V. Gestrin, vice-president econo- mics division of the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, says the recession is not over because: a) there is little economic meaning to the miniscule im- provement in the Gross National Pro- duct (up by 0.3% in the second quarter of 1975, after nine months of no growth); b) in all, “there will be zero growth in 1975;” c) inflation, which is now 11% worse than a year ago, “will keep a lid on this so-called recovery;” d) a complete return to economic health will take several years, with an- other recession a probability sometime in 1977 or 1978. That’s not the Communist Party speaking. The Communist Party says there are ways to mitigate the crisis by concentrating on major issues — jobs, housing, trade with the more stable socialist world. . At the root lies the need to put re- sources, transport, and other key areas of the economy under public ownership and democratic control, so that wealth created by Canadian workers can be channelled into building Canada’s fu- ture. Ian Macdonald, president of York Venceremos! Two years ago, on Sept. 11, 1973, Chilean democracy was set upon by the Pinochet fascists, propped up and and financed by the United States Central Intelligence Agency and U.S.-based multi-national corporations. Together this clique murdered the elected president, Salvador Allende, and plunged Chile into the cruellest dic- tatorship imaginable. There, harass- ment, arrest, torture, murder are the lot of workers, artists democrats, Com- munists — all who defend the dignity of man. This brutal gang of cut-throats did to death Chile’s hero-poet, Pablo Neru- da and defiled his home and belongings. They smashed the sensitive hands of singer-guitarist Victor Jara, then machine-gunned him to death. This is the measure of the worth of these maggots in human dress who are beloved of the capitalist class around the world, whom the Canadian govern- ment rushed to embrace. Today, mil- lions in dollars and arms pour in to bolster the butchers, including aid from the hypocritical leadership of China. We say with decent men and women ~ everywhere, none of us can cease to battle for Chilean democracy until the battle is won. We sing with that defiant throng who marched in Neruda’s fune- ral procession under the snouts of fas- cist machine-guns. We join with all Chilean patriots, with Communist leader Luis Corvalan (whose release from the dungeon must be won!), with millions throughout the world for whom the fight to free Chile is our fight. Together in solidarity — we will win! high unemployment.” labor would help ensure that the inve® | _ tigation now set up under the C0?) University (Toronto) notes that “Bt rope and Japan haven’t even begun fl) fight their inflation problems. Col) sequently, our export market can’t pl@) up for at least another couple of years: | Stable, reliable trade would mea jobs for Canadians at a time when 7.27 of the workforce is jobless (abou! 800,000). But, yet another expert, Arthur J Smith, president of the Conferent) Board of Canada, warns “that once wl employment reaches very high levé it does not tend to move down rapit once general business conditions 1 prove.” Smith predicts unemployme? at 7.5% by year’s end, and at least tha!) level through 1976! by So, despite the Royal Bank’s econ?) mic Trendicator creeping a point or i j higher, and some public relations wo?) — for the system predicting an uptull) McGill University economics “s i =f 5a J. C. Weldon, has to say: “These so-called early indicators at F baloney . . . I think we are in for ar : other two years of high inflation a?) The cries of big business and its pol) ticians for a wage freeze once more % cupy large newspaper articles, af serve as a warning that, far from beilé dead, the wage-freeze vision of capitalists is getting powerful prom?) tion. The monopoly corporations, includ ing multi-nationals, who dictate gov) ernment policy, also try to dictate pe) manent large-scale unemployment, wage-freeze in the midst of soaring 3 prices, and inevitable cut-backs Dy workers’ living standards. With such weapons of intimidatio®) the powers of capitalism would s00”) attempt to weaken or break the lab0| movement. Older workers have sé] this deadly game played before. F The trend is obvious enough and dangerous enough to warrant all-ol’) strengthening of labor unity for jo i trade union rights and, at the hear 1 4 it, effective, class conscious po action. Bell wringing public ho In a fitting response to Bell Canada’) latest obscene call for $28-million ‘ie rate increases (and its angry cut-bae” in service when the Canadian Tram port Commission pared that sum to $1” | million), the 60,000-member Civil Ser, vice Association of Ontario urg' Premier Davis to set up a royal col” mission to investigate. CSAO President Charles Darrow said in his letter that “the province government must. be prepared to at and to stop at nothing short of nation# lization, if necessary, to ensure tha Ontario residents have the telepho!®| service they expect.” j It’s a statement thousands of victit® of Bell’s consistent gouging can hea f ily applaud. Support from the rest . sumer and Commercial Relations partment, does a thorough job.