EDITORIAL

NDP and labor's fightback

It is not news, but it’s a fact requiring
a stubborn fight, that workers face
terrible odds in the struggle for jobs,
living standards, and a clear perspective
for the future. It is undebatable that the
times we live in call for militant pro-
grams and actions by all who undertake
to represent workers.

The Liberal and Tory parties, hand-
maidens of the monopolies, while able
to seduce many workers at election time,
do the anti-labor dirty work of state-
monopoly capitalism, no matter what
they promise.

As for the New Democratic Party,
recent statements by its leaders let down
those workers on the left who vote NDP
and expect policies to match the press-
ing needs.

One searches for a sign that those
leaders are willing and prepared to fight
the exploiting system, to both extract
concessions now, and to bring about an
early fundamental change. Such signs
are not easy to find.

Monopoly capitalism is unquestion-
ably the main enemy of labor. How
then, can spokesmen claiming to repre-
sent workers advance political schemes
for merely patching up capitalism and
trying to make it the worker’s friend?

Workers, in their own interests, have
to evaluate a program such as that
enunciated by Ed Broadbent on Feb. 8.
Among other things, he wants multi-
“nationals, under threat of surcharges, to
do more manufacturing in Canada. No
disagreement with the aim. He wants to
tax banks more to fund housing. The
banks are getting richer, and there's a
crying need for low-cost housing.

What is missing is the means to
compel these changes. The central
means is nationalization under dem-
ocratic control. This was spelled out in
some detail at the recent Communist
Party convention. And again, mass pub-
lic pressure, seldom a priority with the
NDP leadership, is necessary to bring
about such nationalization — of re-
sources, of financial institutions, of U.S.
branch plants. Workers will want to
know why the NDP leader evades it
when labor bodies themselves are call-
ing for nationalization to give the
people, instead of the monopolies and
U.S. owners, the control of and benefits
from Canada’s wealth and production.

The position was further emphasized
when NDP Premier Allan Blakeney of
Saskatchewan revealed Feb. 18 that his
government was ready to invest in
Canadian Pacific Railways. It’s almost
beyond belief, when labor has been
demanding this parasite’s national-
ization for years, that a social democrat-
ic government wants to augment CP’s
profits. Left wingers must also be con-
cerned over the mild response of B.C.
NDP leader David Barrett to the
implementation of wage controls in the
province’s public sector.

Communists have sharp differences
with the NDP leadership on such ques-
tions. Yet, the Communist Party con-
vention extended once more the hand
of co-operation in the fight to defeat
monopoly’s assult on labor, because this
fight is cruicial as the recession deepens.

Unity around militant programs, and

re-evaluation of those programs that lag
are essential to working class victories.

Globe likes/ hates strikes

Why is it that Canada’s national news-
paper, the Globe and Mail, shows such
“inconsistency” in its attitude toward
strikes? :

On Sept. 1, 1980 the Globe said editor-
ially: “The strikers won .. . the right not
only to strike, to have a voice in deciding
wages, prices, social benefits, to present
legislation to parliament. . . but the right
to challenge the qualifications of factory
directors . ..”

The Globe editor leaves no question
that he is pleased, and adds with belish:
“It cannot fail to have political con-
sequences.”

On Feb. 24, 1982, however, the Globe
‘pointed out that “in the best of cir-
cumstances, a strike is an anguished bus-
iness in which someone certainly will suf-
fer. The strikers lose their income (often
more than they can hope to make up in
settlement); their employers may watch
irretrievable losses to the business, up to
and including total collapse; and the
public, deprived of a product or service,
must struggle along as best it can.”

That’s sad enough, but it goes on:
“Any general dissatisfaction with the
strike as a means of settling disputes
_ Sharpens to alarm when it touches some

- vital human concern ...”

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—MARCH 5, 1982—Page 4

Well, how to reconcile these contra-
dictory approaches to strikes?

It's easy enough. The first editorial
was about a strike against the socialist
government of Poland, led by anti-social-
ist elements ready to extend their ac-
tivities step by step to civil war. Civil war
was next on the agenda when martial law
nipped it.

The strike that brought the heavy la-
ment from the Globe is the strike of some
7,300 nurses in Alberta over wages and
work schedules. The government tried
to harass the nurses back to work with a
forced vote which seven-eighths of them
boycotted, preferring to hold their own
vote on the offer, which they rejected.

The big business media recognize very
well the difference between workers de-
fending themselves against the capitalist
system, and counter-revolutionaries try-
ing to incite workers against socialism. Its
sympathies lie with the counter-revo-
lutionaries.

The Thomson empire’s flagship has
nothing against workers, it suggests. It’s
just that the nurses in particular need “a
dispute settlement method that does not

“countenance a strike. It is simply too

dangerous.” .
How’s that for putting things in order
of magnitude?

Flashbacks

25 years ago...

U.S. MISSILES
OUT OF CONTROL

OTTAWA — Officials of the
defence department admitted
that U.S. airforce interceptors
armed with the new atomic roc-
ket weapons would in all proba-
bility fly over Canada. They
claimed however, that there was
“little danger” ~such a_ rocket
would be fired accidentally.

Defence Minister Campney
said Feb. 27 these weapons
would not be tested over Cana-
da. He said he had been in con-
sultation with U.S. authorities
and had been assured that safety
devices to prevent accidental
discharge were adequate.

But from Almagordo, New

Mexico, U.S. atomic weapons.

testing site, it was announced the
same day that a guided missile
had “roared out of control” and

its impact was unknown. When_

last seen it was headed towards

the Salt Lake City and possibly
the Canadian border.

Tribune,

March 4, 1957

Wonder why books and newspapers cost so much? Ask
Abitibi-Price inc., Toronto. They’re in newsprint, fine papers, build:
ing boards, etc. For 1981 their after-tax profit was $123,566,000 of;

after a little extraordinary loss of $4-million, $119,641,000. That's
Still a 30% increase over 1980's $83,753,000. / ee

Figures used are from the company’s financial statements.

Profiteer of the week

50 years ago...

FIVE GO DOWN IN
SEDITION FRAME-UP

‘MONTREAL — The ap
against conviction on sedit
charges against Fred Rose, -
Chalmers, P. Ritchie, Dave Kas
tan and T. Miller was dismisseé
Feb. 27. The five comrades a
already serving sentences of o8
year at hard labor. ‘

During the appeal it becam
obvious that the five worke®
were being framed by the
Montreal red squad. Even tht
crown prosecutor had admittet
that the meeting they addresseé
was orderly and in his argumet
to the court he found it vel)
difficult to articulate just whet)
the utterances were seditious:
Even the judges in the cas
ridiculed the police for malt
the arrests and manifeste?
considerable hesitancy in deat
ing with the case. ;

Efforts are being made
through the Canadian Labo!
Defence League to obtain pe™
mission to appeal the case to thé
Supreme Court of Canada.

% The Workeh
March 5, 195

Editor — SEAN GRIFFIN
Associate Editor — DAN KEETON
Business and Circulation Manager — PAT O'CONNOR

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