FLASHBACKS FROM THE COMMUNIST PRESS 50 years ago... COMPANY UNION APPROVES WAGE CUT The company “union” of the Rockefeller Colorado Fuel and Iron Company is used by the Management to again reduce wages. Officers of the “union” are again circulating a petition that the company reduce wages 15% “to meet competition” in its mine operations. . ° Last March wages were lower- ~ ed 20% with the approval of the State Industrial Commission — again because of so-called compe- tition. Later the company said that freight rates were unfair and the interstate commerce commis- sion adjusted rates to the com- pany’s satisfaction. But they are still not satisfied and, with their hand-picked “union” they will establish wage rates that will equal the low 1917 scale. The Worker, August 29, 1925 25 years ago :.. RIGHT-WING CAVES IN AND SELLS OUT With victory in their grasp and labor solidarity at its highest peak, the right-wing union offi- cials with the CCF top brass capitulated and gave in to com- pulsory arbitration ofthe rail strike and abjectly ordered their embittered members back to work. The Labor Progressive Party fought with all its strength to win the original demands of the workers — a 5-day, 40-hour week, same take-home pay, 7 and 10- cent hourly boosts, insisting these demands could have been won. When the shameful terms of the strikebreaking bill were ‘an- nounced, the LPP sent cables to Coldwell, Bengough, Conroy; Hall and Mosher urging a reversal of their capitulation. The Tribune, September 4, 1950. “Congratulations . . . congratulations... congratulations.” PACIFIC TRIBUNE—AUGUST 29, 1975—Page 4 Editorial Comment... Challenging the multi-nationals | Workers everywhere know to a great- er or lesser degree that the multi- national corporations are their enemy. There is a very special message for Ca- nadian labor in all of this. That these monopolistic giants reach around the capitalist world and use the energies of the working class on all continents to amass multi-billion dollar profit hordes is no secret. That they also amass horrendous political power is public knowledge. That they are aided by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and fascist regimes such as that in Chile is well documented. Canadian workers don’t have to be told that Canada is saddled, more than most countries, with these blood suck- ers, who not only drain off our natural resources. and national wealth, but usurp Canadian sovereignty. But Canadian workers, through their . ' Vietnam, Cyprus, Chile. the Middl Resources belong to the Canadian people Canada’s natural resources are right- fully the property of the Canadian peo- ple as a whole. Any other argument is draped with the cobwebs of the past. In the case of our limited energy re- sources — coal, oil, water, gas, elec- tricity, nuclear power — there’ is an even more urgent reason for public ownership, under a democratic form of control. Canada’s Energy Minister Donald MacDonald made this point clearer re- cently, without intending to. On Aug. 24 he witnessed U.S. President Ford’s opening of a dam complex in Libby, Montana, based on the sell-out of Can- ada’s Columbia River rights... But worse, while MacDonald pretend- ed his government now opposed their discredited continentalist energv policy, he was, in fact, looking for disguised ways to keen such a policy alive. And a continentalist policy means simply handing over evervthing the energy- greedy USA demands. » What Canada needs is an energy pol- icy for Canada. — = The vast majority of wage workers in this country. who produce the ener- gy, who are the consumers and tax- payers who fund it all, if one traces where the money comes from, have everything to gain from public owner- ship of both the resources and the pipe-: lines and railways that transvort it. Lower cost fuel would not be the onl benefit. A genuine energy policy to guarantee Canada’s independent industrial and technological development means jobs throughout the economy! But such a policy will be achieved only with mass pressure of the working people — those who have the most to gain. To make headway against big business and big business government, to bring akout an energy policy to serve the needs of Canada and Canadian workers, means opposing the policies of the oil, chemical. transport and related monopolies and their government spokesmen. It means putting forth and - defending genuine working-class poli- cies — including a Canada-wide energy policy. © p _ ed in during recent critical times. T unions, now have an opportunity — thi first of its kind in our history — tell the world about working condition lack of job security, the threats to de mocratic trade unions. and to li standards under the multi-nationals Canada. They can participate in ded sions about the multi-nationals. Canada is greatly honored, yet sho ders an immense responsibility, in host) ing a World Conference on- Mull Nationals which is non-governmen and draws its strength from maf. walks of life. a The conference was initiated by the World Peace Council because the mull nationals are not only the biggest “| profiteers, but exert tremendous pre sure against the liberation, sovereign) and development of countries aroun the world: : ; The terrible suffering and waste | East have been translated into incre) ed political power and profits for th multi-nationals. In Canada they_ hav! received huge hand-outs from capita: governments at the expense of working people; and social services 4 ‘being cut back to meet Ottawa’s scat dalous $2.5-billion annual military bu) et. Ei : Fittingly, the Conference on Muli) Nationals was set in motion in Canad) by the Canadian Peace Congress, a | affiliate of the World Peace Coun) which. in turn is a non-governmen f organization of the United Nations. Tit Conference is being organized by an Int) : tiating Committee of several organiz4 tions. — It is no exaggeration to say that lab? narticipation is crucial to a proper UF derstanding of what the multi-nation4 i mean to working people. There h# never been a better time for Canadié trade unionists to make their volc| heard in a struggle that unites the) with workers the world over. ‘ ; ‘This conference can be a landmark ‘ . the road to breaking the strangleht aI the multi-nationals now exert on t entire non-socialist world. + ] f @ e , Workers’ solidarity | Another wave of reactionary violent aimed at crushing Portuguese rev? if tionary gains, has been broken. It wo? | be the last. But millions of Portugue® . —among them members of the Port? 4 suese Communist Party. the Ar@ 4 Forces Movement, the trade unions, a millions of democratic-minded vel are dedicated to resisting the fasc® CIA attempts at counter-revolutiga The working people of Portugal nel serve the solidarity of workers ™) world over — and messages have on 333 ai: unionists in Portugal will not go bats to the jail cell and the torture me ai out in the past for the “illegality” ° organizing unions. ath Solidariy with them is a fitting @ for this Labor Day in Canada. : nel From the central labor bodies to a locals of countless unions, from a New Democratic Partv and all wot af ing-class and democratic organizatio”’| across Canada a salute to and solid? rity with the working people of Port’) pe ie a Watley alas Pegponsibility.