The demonstration was initiated by the nearly three-million-member Canadian Labor Congress (CLC) to protest high interest rates for bank loans. It was also organized by the three major Quebec labor federations: the Quebec Federation of Labor (FTQ), the Confederation of National Trade Unions (CSN), and the Quebec Teachers Federation (CEQ). The New Democratic Party (Canada's labor party), and women's, farmers, senior citizens, and native organizations helped build the action….

Between 40,000 and 100,000 homeowners risk losing their homes before Christmas, according to a government study, because mortgage payments are too high to pay. Farmers are also losing their farms, and tenants are being hit by enormous increases in rent and face zero vacancy rates by 1983.  
 
December 3, 1956
Despite a number of significant victories against the witch hunt in recent months, there is plenty of evidence that it is still operating with destructive power against the labor movement and within the labor movement.

The Mine, Mill and Smelter Workers Union, for example, has just been hit with a union-busting indictment of 14 of its leaders. The union officials are charged with "conspiring" to file false Taft-Hartley non-Communist affidavits. Mine-Mill is still fighting off the attack initiated July 1955 under the notorious Humphrey-Butler Communist Control Act of 1954. The Department of Justice's 1955 attack on Mine-Mill came as a brazen assist to the employers during the strike against the copper corporations.

Another red-baiting anti-union attack is being cooked up against the Int'l Longshoremen's and Warehousemen's Union on the West Coast. The Senate Internal Security Committee this week opens hearings on "Communist activities" in the Hawaiian Islands. The anti-union nature of the investigation can be gleaned from the fact that 40 ILWU leaders have been subpoenaed.  
 
December 5, 1931
STAUNTON, Illinois — The campaign for the release of Tom Mooney has broken ground in the coal fields of Illinois. On the initiative of the St. Louis Branch of the Communist League of America (Opposition) and through the instrumentality of the St. Louis United Front Mooney Conference, the movement has got under way. Twenty-six delegates, from eight U.M.W.A. locals representing approximately 5000 miners, the Communist League of America (Opposition) and the Communist Party responded to the call of the Staunton Pardon Mooney Club and met in the Staunton Labor Temple….

After disposing of preliminaries, the conference buckled down to business. The conference elected its officers and committees then proceeded to a discussion on methods for the beginning of systematic mass activity for the release of Mooney….

The conference was a success from many points of view. The delegations were representative ones, and militancy was outstanding.  
 
 
Front page (for this issue) | Home | Text-version home