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Salesmen wanted

ees le be or not to be. . .” That is the question which has
been taxing the master minds of the Canadian Cham-
ber of Commerce in their recent Winnipeg convention, ac-
cording to Saturday Night, Toronto’s bellwether organ for
sychophantic liberals. “Private enterprise must be made pre-
sentable to the public. How best to do the job is the knotty
problem for the CMA. = : :
Clearly this development known as employer-employee
relations has dangers, and can become a vital frent in the
fight between capitalism and socialism. The struggles of
labor for decent wdges, higher living standards, shorter
working hours, a gréat all-round Share in the national in-
come, and voice in the conduct of industry, has got the

_ babbit men deeply agitated. . :

What to do about it? Two opinions emerged on the
question which bid fair to split the big boys’ convention.
One opinion, led by tycoon H. Grenville Smith of Canadian
Industries, acclaimed the right ef every individual freely
to follow the vocation of his choice regardless of meniber-
ship or non-membership in a union . . . union security is
a menace to freedom of the individual.”

Labor is well conversant with that chant. Laber also
remembers that the same “free enterprisérs’ who warble so
loudly about ‘freedom’ shipped téns of thousands of tons
of scrap-iron, copper, chemicals, timber—all the materials
of war—to Hitler, Hirohito.and Musseclini as late as 1939.
Labor also remembers that their first “‘pay-triotic’ act when
Canada declared war against the Axis powers was to go on
strike for a 100 percent increase in the government stipu-
lated rate of profit. New they want an open-shop-get-tough-
with-laber campaign to smash the unions and drive living
standards back to subsistence levels in order to give “private
enterprise’ a blood transfusion of higher profits. 5

,_ The other opinion was a ‘conciliatory’ one. Capital an
labor havé to live together, so why not live in peace? “The
casé for private enterprisé is sound, but it cannot be ‘sold’
by attacking the other fellow.” Why not win the proletariat
over to a fuller appreciation of their good fortune at being
alive in this best of all possible systems? Let the CMA
tell the workers all about it, mused Vice-President Mac-
kenzie of Labatts’ beer. The hard-boiled faction cut his pipe
dream short. “The idea is bad,” they barked, “because ...
any support of one side from the employer interests would
help the extremists (read ‘reds’) in the labor movement to
convince the moderates that the extreme point of view was
right.” :

The convention agreed to ‘sell’ private enterprise to the
Canadian people, but ‘how’ was left an open question. In
British Columbia the CMA metal mine operators and the
lumber barons with their Morrisons and the Templetons,
have already given fine demonstrations of Chamber of
Commerce salesmanship for a spurious article. Their tech-
Mique is borrowed from the files of the late Herr Goebbels.

- Danger signal

HE double-barreled tory victory in the Toronto-Park-

dale and Portage la Prairie byelections has set the politi-
cal weather cocks spinning. While the margin of votes which
won the two seats for the tories was not large, the byeleéc-
tions represent a trend which must cause alarm to all Cana-
dians concerned with the nation’s future—the danger of a
tory comeback, with a Col. Drew in the place of a Bennett,
flanked by a pro-fascist Duplessis.

In both ridings the CCF ran a poor third and, in Tor-
onto-Parkdale, the LPP a worse fourth. But those who ana-
lyze elections by the simple process of courting nosés, gen-
erally draw erroneous conclusions. It is reported that in the
Portage campaign, Premier Douglas, of Saskatchewan, took
time off to-reject the proferred support of the Manitoba LPP,
This is to be expected from the top leadership of the CCF,
who have one thing in common with the bourbons that they
“forget nothing and learn nothing.”

It is true that in the Parkdale byelection, and in the Pon-
tiac byelection of a month ago, the combined CCF and LPP
vote could not have defeated the representative of the old line
party, that is, if the analysis is reduced te a simple matha-
matical problem. But, Coldwell, Dougias and other CCF lJead-
€rs to the contrary, a united people’s movement, including the

trade unions, farmers, small business people, the CCF and the :

PACIFIC TRIBUNE — PAGE 4

Labor still faces b

T= rapid séries of strike settie-
j ménts im auto, rubber, elec-
trical ang metal industries seems
to bé bringing to a close the
first round of postwar strikes.
This, of course, is said with
full regard for the very impor-
tant lumber strike. Starting with
the massive Ford strike of 2
year ago, the present strike
movement is the first classical
test of strength between capital
and labor. Other tests are about
to mature, and one would be
making a grave error (as the

-pollyanna writers are doing) in

thinking that anything really
has been settled. Some reflection
on the present strike wave leads
to the following conclusions:

e A conscious union-busting at-

tempt was made by the big :

employers, who a year ago de-
liberately decided to sacrifice
production and consequent pro-
fits by holding back marketable
goods, stubbornly resisting wage
increases they could well afford
to pay, and provoking protracted
fights with unions they had been
compelled to recognize in war-
time. On the other hand, the
big new CIO unions, willingly
accepted this challenge and bold-
ly went after wage increases.
Thus, the class character of the
fight expresséd in its protracted
nature (Anaconda, 153 £2days,
Chrysler 123, etc.) the involve-
ment of the government and
the defeat of the Mitchell-Gor_
don 10-cent formula, the aéfeat

of police (state) attacks and

the widespread popularity of the
wage movement—was of 2 high
order, perhaps qualitatively high-
er than has yet been seen in
Canada,

\@| In every case (except the

Montreal brewery strike)
whole or partial labor victories
were won. Had it not been for
the execrable top leadership of
the steel strike with its vacilla-
tion and its shameful attempt
to open the Stelco picket line
at the climax of the struggle,

the victories would have been

much more substantial.

@ The partial wage gains that
were made, and which form-
ed the gist, wholly correctly, of
the unions’ drive, were equalled
by the victory of the principle
of trade unionism in the key
plants and industries of Can-
ada. Once more the words of
Marx are borne out, when al-
most a century ago he pointed
out that the money-conscious
bourgeoisie will mever under-
stand why workers will volun-
tarily Sacrifice wages in long
strikes in order to win a vic-
tory for the principle of work-
ing-class organizations.

@ This first postwar round al-

ready merges with the sec-
ond—the fight against a2 xhole-
Sale decrease in the standard of
living, which will be the intro-
duction to the coming cyclical
economic crisis.

@ In a number of industries

workers are telling stories

HAA TR

ig

LPP, small as the latter may bé in the scheme of things,
could not only have defeated the Liberals, who through
King are leading Canada into a morass of économic chaos
and worse, as a result of their imperialist intrigues and
policies, but could also have defeated the tories. Such a vic-
tory, of course, is only possible when emphasis is placed on
things the Canadian people have in common, and not upon
differences. ;

Whatever construction King and his liberal supporters,
or the tory chieftains place in the byelection results, there
is only one conclusion the common people can draw—that
it is now high time to begin the building of an anti-monopo-
list peoples’ movement to win Canada for social progress
and peace. The CCF cannot do it alone, far less can the LPP
or other sections of the labor or farm movement. The stern
logic of the byelection results is for the “left” to get to-
gether, and do it quickly, in order to forstall other and simi-
lar “victories” of tory reaction.

struggles

UD. HATA TAR By Lesl ie Meo rris

of the intensifying speed-up in
the factories, the squeezing Gut
of labor more and more produc-
tion per working day; is a fun-
damental law of capitalism. Re_
sistance to the process by werk-
ers is also a law, which operates
to the extent that workers are
organized. We shall hear more
of the speed-up. :

On top of the removal of pricé
controls (which will be acceler-
ated now that Truman has act
€d to quash them) the milk
price increase, the coming rise in
bread prices, the coming removal
of rent controls for which
would-be ltandlords are waiting,
the inevitable growth of the
black market, and the« speed-up
will quickly wipe out wage gains
and the workers will again be
confronted with the necessity of
battling monopoly. =

@ More and more workers

must get out of these moye-
ments an understanding: of the
laws of motion of capitalism:
Thus, they must grasp the fact
that no matter how substantial
is the wage gain in this or that
plant, that because the employ-

/ ers have €conomic and political

power because the profit system
leads to the speed-up of labor; 7
and because the system of capi-

_talism éspecially in its present

monopoly stage inevitably brings
degradation and lower living
standards te the masses, the
workers are always faced with
the necessity of fighting out
the class struge¢le.

e The lessons, then; are plain:

There can be no perspective
of increasing and passive well-
being, but only of speéd-up, the
subtlé wiping out of gains, and
the réproduction of class
struggle.

The unions must consolidate
their ranks. They must fight fer
unity, and, for united political
action.

And above all, the Marxist- ~
Leninist wing of the labor move- —
ment—the LPP—must be built |
The LPP is the barometer of the =
political maturity of the work
ing Class of Canada. That bara
meter must rise as the political
and industrial barometers of
Canadian capitalism fall, m=
dicating Stormy Weather.

HRIDAY, OCTOBER 25, 1946 | :