Two main c
remain unsolved

TORONTO — The results of the
May 24 federal by-elections — five
in Quebec and one in Prince Ed-
Ward Island — are being misread,
said the leader of the Communist
Party of Canada, William
Kashtan, in a telephone interview
May 25.

“There’s an effort,’’. he said,
“to misread the results, particu-
larly in Quebec, and to suggest that
it is a defeat for separation and a
victory for the status quo. This
Would be a wrong conclusion to
draw. The results do not appear to
_ indicate support for the status

quo.’’

In the voting, the Liberals held
the four seats they had held be-
fore; Socred Gilles Caouette took
the seat held by his late father,
Real Caouette, and in an upset in
PEI, the Liberals won a seat from
the Conservatives.

‘French Canadian voters

Voted in the main in support of the
tight to national _ self-

determination, that is, the right to
change the present relationship
between Quebec and English-
speaking Canada,” Kashtan said.

In May of last year the Quebec
City Convention of the Canadian
Labor Congress adopted an ac-
_ tion program calling for one or
- more general work stoppages.
The prime strategic objective, the
priority task for which a complete
Membership mobilization was
Called for, was to get rid of wage
controls and to restore free and
unfettered collective bargaining.
October 14, 1976 was the first step
on that strategic road. The re-
sponse fully justified the continu-
ation on this course of struggle
until the government saw fit to
Temove controls.

However, Joseph Morris and
others in leadership positions of
the CLC now appear to have en-
tered upon a course of action dif-
ferent from the mandate given
them by the May 1977 conven-
tion. By doing so, the Morris
leadership has embarked upon a
dangerous class collaborationist
path, the consequences of which
it warned against in its own Labor

Manifesto with respect to certain.

_aspects of labor’s role in the post-
control period.

“It is important to note this and to
draw conclusions from it.”

He said that ‘‘a second feature
was a considerable increase in the
vote for the Communist Party of
Canada. Over 2,000 voters signi-
fied their support for the Com-
munist Party’s proposals to
achieve a democratic solution to
the crisis of confederation and the
economic crisis which has
brought on mass unemployment
and continued inflation.”’

The Communist vote, varying
considerably with the character of
the riding was: Sam Walsh in
Verdun — 80; Herve Fuyet,
Louis-Hebert —- 1,024; Claude
Demers, Terrebonne — 260;
Jeannette Walsh, Langelier —
154; Guy Desautels, Temis-
camingue — 536.

“This increase in votes,”
‘Kashtan said, ‘‘is a significant de-
velopment considering the almost
complete blackout of the Com-
munist Party in the election cam-
paign.

“There may be other lessons to
be drawn from: the elections and
these will be examined by the

Instead of giving continued and
consistent leadership to a mass
campaign: for unconditional re-
moval of wage controls and for
the full restoration of collective
bargaining on a free and unfet-
tered basis, the Morris leadership
of the CLC has embarked upon
private and behind-closed-doors
talks with the Trudeau govern-
ment and big business about con-
ditions for de-control, and tripar- .
tism in the post-centrol period.

What this means is abandon-
ment of the struggle, and its re-
placement by secret negotiations
based upon the concept of ‘‘social
partnership’, rather than the
class struggle reality.

ok ok

By April 22, Prime Minister
Trudeau announced his pleasure
with what he termed ‘‘extremely
positive”’ initial talks with corpo-
rate executives and CLC leaders.
A few days later, the press an-
nounced a ‘‘meeting of minds on
the economy’s future’’ between
big business and labor. The item
in question referred to a discus-

‘sion about a still unpublished

Whither the CLC?

Communist Party in the next few
days,”’ he added.

“The results have not brought
an end to the economic crisis or
the crisis of confederation, and
the :struggle to resolve these
crises, and to do so in the interests
of the national rights of French
Canadians is bound to grow,”’ the
Communist leader said.

‘‘The Communist Party of
Canada will continue its efforts to

bring its position to the working

people, particularly in the light of
a possible federal election this fall
or next spring,”’ he said.

Prime Minister Trudeau, ques-
tioned about the elections,
claimed that he had felt no pres-
sure for a general election, and
said he felt none now. Tory op-
position leader, Joseph Clark, re-
gretted the loss of the riding of
Malpeque, PEI, held by Tories
since 1951, but did not think his
head was on the block as a result.

‘*We have a lot of work to do,”
observed New Democratic Party’
leader Ed Broadbent, whose can-
didates made’a poor showing in all
but one of the ridings.

government green discussion
paper on wage controls and post-
controls.

CLC President Morris was
quoted by the press as saying he
was ready to consider all options
‘“‘even those my head tells me not
to’’. ;
‘There are some people who
expect us to wipe out two cen-
turies of conflict between labor
and business overnight,’’ Morris
was quoted as saying. ““But we
are dealing with serious problems
and we_have to take our time.”
(emphasis added)

Editorializing on ‘‘Inflation’s
new lease of Life’’ on May 3, the
Globe and Mail repeated the
above quotation from Joseph
Morris, and added: ‘All very
true. But the situation — a situa-
tion which requires beating in-
flation in order that unemploy-
ment may be beaten — will allow
only so much time, if those now
living are to benefit.”” (emphasis
added)

There is cynicism here, along
with pressure to get the CLC to
commit itself to a course of com-

MINE CLOSURE
CHOPS 100
MANITOUAGE — The Clo-
sure May 13, after the 4 o’clock
shift of the Willroy Gold Mines
here, which has taken gold from
this northern Ontario community
for over 30 years, will see 100
workers and their families with-
out a means to earn a living or any

» job prospects.

Having skimmed off the best of
the workers’ lives, Willroy de-
cided to pull out when the gold
veins thinned taking their gold
bricks with them. Not a word of
help or even concern has yet been:
expressed by Ontario’s Tory
government over the closure
which threatens to destroy this
workers’ town.

CNTU SUPPORTS

1 HOUR SERVICE

MONTREAL — Delegates to
the annual meeting of the Confed-

: eration of National Trade Unions

(CNTU) May 22, authorized the.
organization’sexecutive to organize
with other Quebec labor bodies a
symbolic one-hour general strike
for Oct. 14, the second anniversary
of the federal government’s intro-
duction of wage controls, and one
year after the successful Canada-
wide day of protest organized by
the 2.3 million member Canadian
Labor Congress.

CUPW CHARGES

INTERFERENCE

OTTAWA — The Canadian
Union of Postal Workers,
(CUPW), May 20 filed a com-
plaint with the Public Service
Staff Relations Board charging
the employer with interfering with
the union’s right to communicate
with its members on Post Office
premises, despite the employer’s
insistence on distributing its
propaganda to the workers con-
cerning the negotiations during
working hours.

Negotiations will resume,
CUPW vice-president J.C. Parrot
said, when the employer recog-
nizes the democratic right of as-

sociation and of the union to in-
form its members about negotia-
tion developments. ‘‘Even if the
Treasury Board is the employer’,
Parrot said, ‘‘it is not above
the law.

BELL OPERATORS

CONTINUE STRIKE

TORONTO — Members of the
8,500 strong Communications
Union of Canada began voting
May 24 on a tentative agreement
signed May 16 with Bell Canada.
Reaction to the contract was one of
strong rejection as operators in
Montreal, Quebec City, Toronto
and Thunder Bay were off the job
last week protesting the two year
pact. In Montreal the rejection
vote was 1,006 to 273, while Thun-
der Bay turned the settlement
down by a 70% margin. The results:
of the vote in Toronto, where over
100 operators are striking, were to
be released May 27.

UE-WESTINGHOUSE
REACH PACT

HAMILTON — Members of
Locat 504 United Electrical
workers union (UE) ratified a
proposed agreement May 16 with |
Westinghouse Ltd., successfully
moving the multi-national from its
original 5% offer. The workers
agreed to a one year contract with
an across-the-board increase of
6.25% and a triggered COLA
which would add 10 cents an hour
to the wage rate when the cost of
living index reaches 8.25%. The
union also made progress in its
efforts to eliminate wage differen-
tials based on sex, including the
securing of equal starting rates for
men and women. The workers hit
the bricks May 5.

MILLIONS JOIN
FRENCH STRIKE:

PARIS — More than 5 million
workers closed down the entire
country of France May 24as all of
the country’s labor centres united
to protest the government’s wage
control program.

plete surrender to big business
and government so that they can
solve the crisis of state-monopoly
capitalism at labor’s expense.

In the meantime, controls con-
tinue and free collective bargain-
ing remains in limbo, while
Trudeau confidently proclaims it
would be folly to lift controls be-
fore the next federal election, ex-
pected in 1978.

* * *

It is on this background that
one must assess the meaning of
the agreement between CLC
President Morris and Labor
Minister John Munro by which

‘the federal government will pro-

vide $10-million over a period of

five years for union leadership
training.

It is most unlikely that the fed-
eral government and big business
are interested in funding the cost
of training future leaders of the
workers to organize to fight
exploitation by monopoly capital
and its state power.

The more likely thing is to
curry favors from right-wing labor
leaders, and in that way under-
mine the unity and independence
of the trade union movement.

Perhaps this is the time for the
CLC-affiliated membership to
speak up on the question of a re-
turn to the 1976 CLC Convention
mandate.

WHAT DID “ov THANK
OF THE ONTATO ELecTIN

TN. peGaTe

TORS ,

ys

RENEN D005,
eat THE WAY
AND STE

PnING ACT, AND sh
yb ae av\Ous is

PHENS NDP
(TH

GLASSES JUST

| Ttov CAT (T WAS
pAVUs TVCELED

foucy | THOUGHT | WAS
in WATCHING THE
GaNnG
_ Sri

RUT THEN AGAIN

X

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—JUNE 3, 1977—Page 5