Auto workers in van

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all decisions to. challenge the wage restraint policies of Nixon and Trudeau and the anti-labor offensive of the giant auto com- panies, the UAW convention missed out on some _ issues. Canadian Tribune correspond- ent Willianm Allan reported from Atlantic City that, “Once again the biggest issues inside the plants were evaded, such as speedup and discrimination, especially affecting black work- ers.”

The convention accepted its resolutions committee decision not to consider the resolution submitted by» UAW-Ford Local 707 of Oakville, Ontario calling for deletion of the anti-commu- nist clause from the union’s constitution. This position was taken in spite of the fact the UAW Canadian region had fav- ored deletion of the clause.

The Canadian Tribune asked Bruce Magnuson, labor secre- tary of the Communist Party of Canada, to comment on the significance of the UAW con- vention decision not to act on this matter. “I think this is out of line,” Magnuson said, “with the general policy adopted by the convention. I have no rea- son to believe the Canadian UAW membership will retreat from its already adopted posi- tion which is that these consti- tutional provisions will not be applied in Canada. Nor do I have reason to believe the UAW International Executive Board has any intention of doing so.”

When asked whether the deci- sion not to consider removal of the anti- communist clause stands in contrast to the overall positive character of the con- vention’s decisions, the CPC labor secretary declared: “Very definitely. The general deci- sions taken and the policy posi- tion of the UAW convention were on the whole-of a progres- sive character.”

“I think,” he .~ continued, “that this capitulation to ef-

UE applies

e continued from page 5

lation at vast profit and waste- ful military spending, and not wage increases won by workers, were listed by the convention as the root cause of inflation.

Canadian complicity in Viet- nam, through the supplying of military hardware and other equipment to the American mili- tary in its war of aggression against the Vietnamese people, was soundly criticized by the delegates. The UE charged that “while it is a welcome fact that the main trade union organiza- tions in Canada are on record as opposing U.S. aggression in Vietnam, there is yet too little action on the part of trade union leadership to encourage and in- volve the trade union member- ship in action for peace.”

The peace resolution adopted by the UE convention was sharply critical of the top lead- ership of the AFL-CIO in the U.S. who, the resolution states, “openly support this criminal war, with all the consequences of runaway inflation, increased poverty and the denial of decent housing-and medical aid to mil- lions of people.” It demanded that the federal government call for the immediate withdrawal of U.S. armed forces from Viet- nam, stop supplying equipment,

forts to isolate communists from the trade union movement is futile. It is the reflection of the general atmosphere promot- ed by American imperialism and as yet not adequately chal- lenged by the trade union move- ment on this continent.”

WILL BE REFLECTED

The Tribune asked Mr. Mag- nuson if the UAW convention decisions will be reflected in the Canadian Labor Congress con- vention next month in Edmon- ton. “Very much so,” he stated. “T think they will have a pro- found influenced in the Cana- dian trade union movement, ex- pressed particularly in the con- tribution of delegates from the UAW to the CLC convention.”

Earlier, Jim Bridgewood, one of Local 707 Oakville UAW -de- legates to the forthcoming CLC convention, who had won re- instatement on his local’s ex- ecutive after removal on the grounds of his membership in the Communist Party of Cana- da, issued a statement: “The decision reached at the Atlan- tic City convention not to delete the anti-communist clause from their constitution reflects rem- nants of the North American McCarthyism, where the mere mention of the word ‘commu- nism’ is enough to silence large sections of democratic expres- sion. When you look at the years of witch-hunting, perse- cution and terrorism conducted by the boss class in North

America against democratic ad- -

vance’ in the trade union move- ment, it is small wonder that this fear remains . . . The can- cer of anti-communism is being recognized in most parts of the world for what it is, a tool of capitalism to divide the work- ing class. The North American working class is coming quickly to this realization. When this happens, the red bogey will be thrown on the garbage dump where it belongs. Then all workers will be united in the real fight against the boss.”

to join CLC and insist that the Vietnamese

people be allowed to determine their own affairs.

The convention stressed the need for comprehensive changes to Ontario labor laws and de- manded a shorter work week to offset growing unemployment. Delegates heard Ross Russell, UE director of organization, de- clare, “Now is the time to re- new the call for the shorter work week and to work to pop- ularize and achieve it ... To succeed will require the mobil- ization of the unemployed and the employed. To offset the. ef- fects of mass layoffs and unem- ployment, the shorter. work week with maintenance of take- home pay represents one of the “major challenges facing the en- tire trade union movement.”

Changes in labor legislation to outlaw the use of injunctions and strikebreakers in labor dis- putes were called for by the UE convention, as well as guaran- tees of the full right of labor to strike and picket, including use of the secondary boycott.

The delegates unanimously re- elected the executive officers of the union: C. S. Jackson, presi- dent; George Harris, secretary- treasurer; Jean Paré, vice-presi- dent and Ross Russell, director of organization.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—MAY 1, 1970—Page 8

Dunlop doomed?

Fight for plant's life

A call for massive. demon- strations against unemployment to be “directed against both federal and Ontario govern- ments” was made by Professor Melville Watkins, New Demo- cratic Party federal executive member, at a meeting of over 400 Dunlop’ workers, their families and friends held in To- ronto’s Woodgreen Community

Centre directly opposite the Dunlop Canada plant.

Management of the _ plant owned by Dunlop-Pirelli, de-

scribed by Watkins as the 54th largest corporation in the world, has announced it is to shut down permanently on May 1 and 600 workers, many with 30 and more years of their lives spent working in that plant, are fighting for federal and Ontario government action to keep it in operation.

Professor Watkins told the meeting, organized by Local 132 of the United Rubber Work- ers Union, “In such a situation, where the decisions of owners and managements supersede the rights and interests of workers, of whole peoples and countries, we cannot rely on the govern- ments. We ourselves have to organize and demonstrate to force these governments to do something.”

Phil Japp, president of Local

132 who has worked 25 years in the plant, put it bluntly:

“A worker who has worked 30 years in a plant (and there are many of them here at Dun- lop) deserves more than a kick in the ass as the reward for all his labor.”

He reported that in only a few days of canvassing over 15,000 signatures had been ob- tained for a petition demanding the Dunlop plant be kept open.

The son of a long-time Dun- lop worker. called for further all-out campaigning for petition signatures, and asked for sup- port of a 24-hour continuing picket to start that night out- side the Dunlop plant.

In none of the speeches at the meeting, neither by the pre- sident and other executive members of Local 132, nor by Professor Watkins and two NDP federal and Ontario sit- ting members, was there any suggestion that the — Dunlop workers, with the support of the labor movement as a whole, should “stay on their jobs and fight . . . refuse to be evicted from your _livelihood!’”—such action indicated by the April

- 11-12 Ontario Provincial Con-

vention of the Communist Party of Canada in its resolution de-

.. nouncing the widespread plant

closures in Ontario.

AUUC-WBA

MANITOBA

JUBILEE CONCERT

WINNIPEG—The joint Mant: | toba Centenary festival commit tee of the Association of United Ukrainian Canadians and Work ers Benevolent Association } celebrating the 100th birthday % the province with song, must and dance in the Centennial | Concert Hall here on May 3.

It was to Manitoba that the bulk of Ukrainian immigrants came in the early years of te settlement of the “men in sheeP: skin coats” on the prairies, 2” the festival is organized as # tribute to them and the othe! pioneers. Special tribute is to 7 paid to the real founder 0 Manitoba, Louis Riel with acto! Bruno Gerussi portraying Rié in the performance. Pr

Altogether 200 performers will take part in the colourful con cert with groups from Edmo? ton, Calgary, Regina and Thut

der Bay joining the Winnipe, choir, orchestra and Veselka dancers.

1870 MANITOBA CENTENNIAL [979

CITE SOVIET ECONOMIC GAINS

e continued from page 5

_to overcome the distinctions be- tween classes and social groups, for which it is necessary, Lenin emphasizes, to abolish the dis- tinction between town and country, as well as the distinc- tion between manual workers and brain workers.”

Lenin always regarded nation- al and international tasks of the socialist state in their indivisible unity..He characterized the per- iod of history that started after the October Revolution as tran- sition from capitalism to social- ism. :

“However contradictory the picture of the world is today, its main feature, its cardinal, de- cisive trend of development are such as was forseen by Lenin,” said Brezhnev. “However much the components of the contem- porary world differ from each other, each of them leads to and will ultimately arrive at com- munism.”

Later Brezhnev said: “The world revolutionary process is developing inexorably. On the basis of the irrefutable facts of the 20th century history it be- comes obvious that the struggle between the two world systems will ultimately end with the tri- umph of communism on a glo- bal scale.”

The meeting in the Kremlin was only one of thousands. of celebrations taking place in al- most all countries of the world. Hundreds of millions of people regard Lenin as the symbol of struggle for peace, freedom and social progress.

On the eve of the Moscow celebrations data was released on the performance of Soviet in- dustry in the first quarter of this year, the final year of the current Five-Year plan, com- pared to the same period last year, outuput increased by 8.9 percent against the planned 6.3.

Productivity rosé by 7.9. per- cent.

“A Pravda editorial notes that the creative work of the people is building a powerful material and technical base for communism and _ convincingly demonstrates the enormous ad- vantage of a planned economy. The editorial says, in part:

“Our country now leads the world in the output of iron ore, steel pipes, trunk diesel and electric locomotives, cement, pre-cast ferroconcrete, woollen fabrics, sugar, milk, etc. Prac- tically starting from scratch, we created anew such key branch- es of industry as metallurgy, power engineering, modern chemistry, machine-building and instrument-making. Tsarist Rus- sia smelted a maximum of 4.3 millions tons of steel annually; this year the figure will be 115 million. In 1903 the country’s power plants generated a little over 2,000 million kilowatt- hours of electricity. This year they will produce 740,000 mil- lion kwh.

“Our agriculture is being mechanized at a swift pace. It now has available about two million tractors and about six hundred thousand combine har- vesters. Supplies to the country- side of yield-raising mineral fer- tilizers grow year after year. Industrialization has allowed the

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country to- solve ’ the enormous task of converting the miliiom of small farms: to. collectivé farming. In a historically sh! period the U.S.S.R. has becom, the world’s biggest agricultul producer.

Honor CCW leaders

Telegrams from the soviet Women’s Committee informe Hilda Murray, national pre dent of the Congress of Cant dian Women, and CCW P# president Helen Hale that by bs cision of the Supreme Soviet - the U.S.S.R. they had both be awarded the Lenin Centenall Jubilee Medal.

” 4 “We heartly greet you, a message read, “and wish vie

further successes in your Nn activity in the name of pear’ democracy and social prot for the happiness of women #”

children on all our planet,

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