CANADIAN \
CADAN

CARLESS

REJECT SPLITTERS

Unity road to victory
in December election

By WILLIAM TURNER

Vancouver voters will be
casting their vote on December 9

<A_ in what shapes up to be one of the

ROAD BLOCK

Stop flooding
Skagit Valley

Ottawa and Victoria
to blame for sellout

Who gave away the Skagit
Valley?

Politicians, both federal and
Provincial, are trying to get out
from under but facts reveal they
are equally guilty. The federal
government in 1941 made the
first agreement with Seattle
Light Co., the B.C. provincial
government in 1947 ratified it;
the present provincial govern-
ment in 1967 made the final deal
which was to give is a picayune
$5.50 an acre per year for 6,300
acres of land which will be
flooded if the power company
raises its dam in Washington
State by 125 feet.

The big issue now, however, is
not who is responsible but how
Soon both levels of government
act to put a stop to any further
flooding of B.C. land.

Accessible land lakes in their
natural state for recreational
Purposes are becoming more
and more a rarity
Particularly those within reach
of heavily populated areas. The
attempt on the part of, Van-
couver-based public relations
men to sell the idea of the
flooded valley as a potential

“recreational development” is ”

ludicrous.

We are well acquainted a
the ‘‘recreational’’ facilities
which result from back-ups from
dams and other developments.
Even a steel-hulled barge would
find difficulty navigating
through dead trees and snags on
many such “‘lakes”’.

A spokesman for R.O.S.S., a
group which is fighting against
the flooding of the Skagit Valley,
Said recently the damming
provided only a bigger and better
reservoir, not a lake for
recreation. He pointed out that
half a dozen valleys in the Lower
Mainland have already been
flooded, and the Skagit is the last
One. ‘‘That’s why it is so
critical’, he warned.

Support for his group and for
others such as SPEC which are
engaged in the anti-flooding
protests, as well as mass action
through protests to members of
parliament and the provincial
legislature will be successful in
halting the deprivations.

The provincial and federal
governments do have the power

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project. They must act— NOW!

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Victoria cp
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The Victoria branch of the
Communist Party last week sent
a letter to Prime Minister
Trudeau. protesting the
suggestion that the U.S. could
move anti-ballistic missiles into
Canada’s north.

The letter quoted Defence
Minister Don MacDonald to the
effect that he, (MacDonald) had
no qualms about storage of U.S.
missiles on Canadian soil.

Ernie Knott, secretary of the
Victoria branch, wrote:
We emphatically reject such a
proposed anti-national policy.
We urge you to reconsider
because it is in contradiction to
Canada’s policy as a signatory of
the nuclear non-proliferation
treaty, and secondly, the placing
of U.S. nuclear weapons under
U.S. control on Canadian soil
further strengthens U.S.
military and political
domination of our country . . :
Thirdly. such a policy can only
serve to increase world tension,
prolong the cold. war,
threatens Canada’s safety and

i tseeurity.”

and

most crucial civic elections held
in many years. The choice that
faces the voter is whether
Vancouver will emerge with a
new progressive slate of
aldermen at City Hall or will
continue to be saddled with those
groups who represent monopoly
interests in this city.

A victory for the labor and
progressive forces could break
through the inaction that stands
in the way of adopting new
policies of reform to resolve the
vital issues confronting the tax
payer.

The main areas which are at
stake are Vancouver's school
and hospital financing,
increasing welfare costs, the
financing of a rapid transit
system, civic planning and
development, an equitable tax

- base for the home-owner.

With these and other issues
which will arise even after the
election, the taxpayer can no
longer accept the pat formula
pushed by monopoly that the
people must continue to pay the
shot through more taxes. The
spell of monopoly cast over our
city for decades can only be
challenged and broken through.
new policies based on unity.

A signal breakthrough against
the long entrenched positions
exercised by monopoly upon city
policy will be possible only to the
extent that the broadest forms
of unity can be realized around a
peoples movement of labor and
progressive forces.

It is unfortunate that the
situation that now prevails
places in jeopardy the extent to
which the broadest civic voters
movement can be mobilized to
elect progressive candidates to
City Hall. It had its origins in the
decision of the Vancouver Area
Council of the NDP to run civic
candidates under the party
banner in this year’s civic
election.

In view of the fact that COPE

‘led by Alderman Harry Rankin

had established a reputation
under a progressive .civic
program for many years, the
questionable position taken by
the NDP was allayed by the
announcement that it would
seek a form of unity with COPE.
The Provincial Council of the
NDP, fearful of what could
emerge on the basis of proposals
advanced by COPE leading to a
strengthening of the labor and
progressive vote, ruled against
the Vancouver Area Council’s
decision.

The pressure of the right -

wing policy that commands the
NDP was used to squeeze the
forced acceptance for official
policy to reject any form of unity
between the NDP and COPE,
although COPE had proposed
agreement on a joint slate of
candidates.

The shameful political
chicanery engaged in by the
leadership of the NDP by
opposing unity only serves to
strengthen reaction in this city
that is only too quick to grasp
any means to split and divide the
progressive vote. The right -
oriented leadership of the NDP
with its ‘‘no politics’ ‘‘no unity”
edict spiced with red-baiting

adds grist to the mill of the oppor-

tunist office - seekers and a

vociferous left - group of
Troskyists that dominate the
Vancouver Area Council of the
NDP.

The latter group in particular
constitue a major influence who,

-by pushing for NDP candidates,

have actually coalesced in an

anti-unity front with those who.

play a divisive role in civic
politics.

This disastrous policy has led
to wide repercussions amongst
those members of the NDP who
genuinely seek and support a

program of unity. It has brought
about the resignation of four
members of the Vancouver Area
Council who were prepared to
seek a mutual basis of unity with
COPE. This action of the NDP in
splitting the progressive vote
has moved many supporters of
the NDP into a realization that
the fight for unity must be
firmed up and projected in the
struggle around basic civic
issues.

The Vancouver Labor Council,
which has played ‘a significant
role in its attempts to bring
about unity of the progressive
and labor forces when it
endorsed the program of COPE

earlier this year, can become the

vehicle to rally the labor move-
ment to salvage unity and
repudiate the splitters of the
progressive vote.

It is to be hoped that the Labor
Council will’ undertake to urge.
the labor movement and all
trade - unionists to mobilize their
forces in the spirit of unity, to
become actively involved in the
civic election campaign on
behalf of those progressive
candidates who are pledged to a
program around which the
broadest forms of unity are
possible.

CELEBRATE :
OCTOBER SOCIALIST REVOLUTION

at the

Y.C.L.’ers BANQUET

SATURDAY - OCTOBER 24th - 6 P.M.
FISHERMEN‘S HALL
138 EAST CORDOVA ST.

Advance Tickets only $2.50 ea. Students (under 16) OAP’s &
Unemployed $2.00
(Note change of date!)

THE FASCIST GREEK JUNTA ANNOUNCED THE FORMATION OF A I3-MAN BOARD
OF ARVISORS TO HELP DICTATOR PAPADOPOULOS RULE THE COUNTRY

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