BY JOE YATES  
VANCOUVER, British Columbia--The U.S. Commerce Department has announced its intention to impose a 29 percent duty on softwood lumber from Canada in May. Forestry and related companies laid off about 21,000 people in British Columbia (B.C.) and Quebec last fall when Washington initially imposed duties on Canadian forest products.

According to Harvey Arcand, the national executive treasurer of the International Woodworkers of America (IWA), another 15,000 to 20,000 union members could be laid off if the duty is imposed. This would devastate the union’s 35,000 members in B.C.

About 35 percent of lumber used in building homes in the United States comes from Canada. The value of the trade is $10 billion dollars in Canadian money. A full 75 percent of the exports come from British Columbia and Quebec.

The big U.S. companies that dominate logging and lumber operations, along with their political representatives in Washington, are charging the Canadian government with unfairly subsidizing logging operations. For example, Montana senator Max Baucus, chairman of the Senate finance committee, denounced what he called B.C.’s "Soviet-style system," adding, "Free trade must be a two-way street to be viable and the United States is tired of being taken advantage of by Canada’s forestry policy."

In Canada, the government charges companies "stumpage fees" for trees cut on crown (state) land. Critics say the fees are so low that they amount to a subsidy, giving the capitalist operations in Canada an unfair advantage over their rivals in the United States.

Representatives of different political parties in Canada have reacted more or less sharply to the threatened duty. International Trade Minister Pierre Pettigrew called the decision "obscene." Prime Minister Jean Chrétien complained, "It is not useful at all. We have a free trade agreement with them." One reason for caution from representatives of the Canadian government is the fact that Canada has a $96 billion trade surplus with the United States.

The federal government in Ottawa is taking its case through procedures established under the North American Free Trade Agreement and in the World Trade Organization. The government says it will offer an aid program to companies and workers involving retraining, work sharing, more research funds, and promoting sales in China. Government spokespeople say that no new money will be made available for these programs.

The rightist Canadian Alliance echoed a demand put forward by some of the companies calling for the federal government to cover the cost of the duties imposed on the companies.

B.C. forest minister Michael De Jong called the U.S. "a hostile foreign power." Joy McPhail, the leader of the New Democratic Party in British Columbia, called for aid to the forest companies. She also proposed that the federal government use the fact that a proposed natural gas pipeline from Alaska to the U.S. mainland must go through Canada as a means of applying pressure. The New Democratic Party is a social democratic party with ties to the unions.

The IWA is urging the Canadian government to retaliate by imposing a tariff on any logs exported to the U.S. followed by duties on oil, gas and hydroelectric exports. "Either they want to trade with us or they don’t," union official Harvey Arcand said. "So far they are telling us that they don’t."

The Canadian government’s strong support for Washington’s occupation of Afghanistan has not prevented the softwood trade war. This has led to some bitter reactions.

The Province, one of Vancouver’s two dailies, featured on article on April 2 entitled, "Son risks life fighting terrorism while dad loses softwood work." The story is about Peter Beckhurst, who is stationed with the Canadian Army near Khandahar in Afghanistan. His father, Ray, recently lost his job working as a machinist in the softwood industry. "My son is risking his life for George Bush and Bush is paying me back by doing nothing about solving the lumber situation," Ray Beckhurst told the paper.  
 
Inter-imperialist conflicts
Michel Prairie, a leader of the Communist League from Quebec, said in an interview that the layoffs and economic hardships working people face, the increasing trade conflicts between the imperialist powers, and the U.S.-led military assaults in Afghanistan and elsewhere are all a result of the crisis of capitalism. Washington is using its economic and military might to try to extend U.S. imperialism’s domination of the world and deal blows to its imperialist "allies."

"Washington and Ottawa both seek to draw working people in their respective countries into nationalist support for capitalist companies in each country, whether it be in steel, forestry, or other industries," Prairie said, "while we point to a common fight by workers in both countries against our common exploiters.

"Communists in the United States are campaigning to demand the U.S. government end all tariffs and other obstacles to trade and travel erected by the U.S. rulers," he said. This includes the elimination of all ‘anti-dumping,’ ‘fair labor,’ ‘environmental protection,’ and other trade weapons wielded with often devastating consequences by the U.S. government under the banner of ‘free trade.’ Class-conscious workers should make the same demands of the government in Canada, which uses similar trade weapons against semicolonial countries and imperialist competitors around the world."  
 
Burial of four soldiers
The burial of four soldiers from the Third Battalion, Princess Patricia’s Light Infantry, killed by a bomb dropped on them by a U.S. warplane in Afghanistan, highlights the stakes for working people, Prairie said. "The capitalist rulers of Canada are dragging us into war against our brothers and sisters around the world to fight and die for the interests of our class enemies. At the same time workers and farmers are squeezed by the austerity drive spearheaded by the provincial governments, the workings of the capitalist system, and the results of the interimperialist conflicts."

Prairie said that big sections of the capitalist class in Canada are willing to bow down to Washington’s tariffs to protect other export products. "Ottawa’s promises of ‘retaining’ laid off workers are a sham," he said. "Instead, the government must launch a massive public works program to ensure jobs at a union scale; shorten the workweek with no cut in pay to spread the available work around; and to raise the minimum wage."

The ongoing working-class protests in British Columbia and elsewhere in the country--and the upcoming action in Vancouver May 25--against the rulers’ anti-labor drive, he said, "are an example of the kind of determined fight needed to advance the interests of the working class today. Along this road we can unify workers and farmers and chart a road to put in power a government of workers and farmers, a revolutionary battle that our brothers and sisters in the United States will surely want to emulate."  
 
 
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