CONTINUED FROM PAGE 4
UNITED STAND
Since the two big companies are under foreign control, the issue is not only human rights versus property rights. The right of Canadians as against giant foreign corporations, the rights of the Native Indians, the rights of small independent producers as opposed to a vertically integrated monopoly, are all part of the same struggle.
The economic future of every working fisherman is at stake. Skilful presentations, glowing promises, quick changes, may lull some into complacency. Others may be divided and ruled by the simple means of provoking gear conflict. Obviously, any indecision or disunity will only hasten the process of eliminating those fishermen considered by the minister and the two big companies as "inefficient" or a barrier to greater profits.
United and determined action by all fishermen can change the entire program. UFAWU locals have strongly opposed Davis' policy as well as his method of introducing it. This coming week the union's annual convention will discuss the policy further. Despite the fact that some other industry organizations seem virtually to have been neutralized by recent manoeuvres, there remains a strong undercurrent of resistance. And the full impact of all phases of the Davis plan has yet to be felt.
Today the degree of unity depends upon how many fishermen realize what may happen tomorrow. Tomorrow the ability to fight will be determined by the number of fishermen affected by what will already have happened. The time to resist is before all the shackles have been imposed.
In any event, the UFAWU, acting in the best interests of all working fishermen, must do everything within its power to defeat the plan which phases out the rights and livelihood of fishermen in the interests of foreign monopolies.
BOOKS
Cardinal Indicts New Indian Policy
THE UNJUST SOCIETY, by Harold Cardinal; Hurtig, Edmonton, $2.75.
Reviewed by BEN SWANKEY
WE have had many books written in this country by non-Indians describing the history and culture of Canadian Indians. But now for the first time we have one by an Indian telling it as it is today and how the Indian people feel about the shameful discrimination to which they are subjected.
Harold Cardinal, the 24 year old leader of the Indian Association of Alberta is representative of the new, young, militant and articulate leadership emerging in Native Indian organizations across the country today.
Cardinal's book was written, I am sure, to shock non-Indians out of their indifference and ignorance (and their prejudices, too) about the Native people and how they live and feel. The book does that effectively. Cardinal is frank, hard hitting, critical and often bitter.
The church is attacked for its failure to provide any worthwhile education in church controlled schools, for its opposition to formation of independent Native organizations and for working hand in glove with government agencies against the Native people.
The Indian Act is regarded by the Native people as a "restrictive, repressive and discriminatory piece of legislation."
The federal government's new Indian policy which would place Indian affairs under the jurisdiction of the provinces is bitterly condemned by Cardinal.
It "offers nothing better than cultural genocide," he charges; it is a "thinly disguised program of extermination through assimilation," in which Indians would be "required to become brown white men or whitewashed brown men." It is a policy "obviously geared to doing away eventually with our reserves." Cardinal serves notice that "we will not walk this path." ★ ★ ★ HE TRACES THE LONG and difficult road followed by Indians in their efforts to build their own organizations and achieve unity.
A central theme of his book is that the Native people must have the right to control then-own affairs.
"Our people want the right to set their own goals," he emphasizes, "determine their own
priorities, create and stimulate their own opportunities and development."
Those priorities are listed by Cardinal and at the top of the list is the demand that Indian treaty rights be lived up to by government and Indian land claims settled.
Throughout his book he attacks not only the white government in Ottawa, but all of white society and all white men in general. "Our people believe very little the white man says, even today," he asserts.
Such feelings are understandable in view of the treatment of the Native peoples by a white government and a profit motivated society controlled by white corporate interests. But it does ignore some basic facts. ★ * * FIRST OF ALL, OUR Society is a class society, dominated by big corporations. They control not only the economy of our country, but also its politics, including governments and most political parties.
These corporations are plundering our natural resources, exploiting labor and getting rich at the expense of the rest of the population. They are responsible for the poverty of the Native people and for the discrimination practised against them by the society they control.
Secondly, there are forces within our white society, found mainly in the working class, who have always fought for equality and social justice for the Native people. These forces include socialists and communists who as a matter of principle believe and practice the solidarity of all peoples regardless of their race or nationality.
They include also important sections of the trade union movement. The United Fishermen and Allied Workers Union, for example, has always been in the forefront of the fight for Native rights.
The Indian, Metis and Eskimo people, who number only half a million, need allies in tneir struggle for equality. In fact, they cannot win without them. Those allies are here — in the labor movement.
It is to be hoped that Harold Cardinal and his colleagues will take this fact into consideration when planning and carrying through their struggles to win equality in Canadian society.
The Unjust Society is a book well worth reading. It should help to spur progressive Canadians to step up their support to the Native people in their struggle to right historic wrongs and regain their rightful place in their own land.
THE FISHERMAN — MARCH 6, 1970
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