ieee niejecta

4

puter analysis has proved what
readers never doubted.

‘Plagiarism’
lie refuted

A charge originated by anti-
Soviet writer Alexander Solzhenit-
syn that Nobel Prize-winning Soviet
novelist Mikhail Sholokov

_“‘plagiarized’’ his world famous

novel ‘‘And Quiet Flows the Don’’
has been completely repudiated by
the report of an_ investigation
published last month in the
prestigious U.S. journal Scientific
American.

In 1974, Solzhenitsyn, then still
in the USSR had claimed that he
had ‘“‘proof’’ that the Don novel
had been largely written by an anti-
Soviet Cossack, Feodor D. Krukov
who had died in 1920.

But computer analysis has now
established beyond dispute that
Sholokov is indeed the author of
the renowned novel — a fact which
few readers ever questioned.

The February issue of Scientific

American carried a report on the in--
vestigation carried out at the:

University of Oslo by Geir Kjetsaa,
a professor of Russian literature,
and her Norwwegian and Swedish
co-workers.

Using computer analysis, they
compared the Don work to the un-
disputed works of Krukov and
Sholokov and concluded ‘‘une-
quivocally’’ that Krukov could not
have been the author and that the
undisputed writings of Sholokov
were ‘‘remarkably like the author
of the Quiet Don.”’

=
MIKHAIL SHOLOKOV...com-.

= ECONOMIC FACTS

New book on the NDP gov't reviewed

Few insights in ‘the 1200

According to authors Lorne
Kavic and Garry Brian Nixon, on
the night of December 11, 1975,
when the computers first predicted

defeat for the NDP government, -

premier Dave Barrett ‘‘slipped
almost unnoticed into the
bathroom, reappearing some five
minutes later . . . dapper in a check-
ed grey suit, pale blue shirt, dark
blue striped tie — all carefully non-
political colors. ‘Okay,’ he said,
=et’s g0°.”” :

Kavic and Nixon’s recent book,
The 1200 Days: A Shattered
Dream, doesn’t have many such
melodramatic scenes; but this one
seems to sum up the book itself. For
all its 260-pages, it can’t seem to
capture the political drama that
marked the election of the first
NDP government in British Colum-
bia. And as analysis, it lacks
political substance.

Not that an analysis of the NDP
government’s term of office
wotuldn’t be valuable and timely —
particularly with Bennett’s political
antics looking more and more like
pre-election posturing and with the
NDP, bolstered by the popularity
polls, hoping to end the Socreds’
term as abruptly as its own term was
ended three and a half years ago.
But in leaning heavily on newspaper
accounts, and attempting to sum up

-political positions with one line

comments from ‘“‘insiders’’ inter-
views, Kavic and Nixon have pro-
duced something that is more like a
Time magazine wrap-up story than
the ‘‘major study’’ it proports to
be.

A key shortcoming is evident
from the beginning. The authors
look back to previous elections,
during the W.A.C. Bennett regime
and even before, but strangely pay
almost no attention to the stormy
political events that preceded the
1972 election and had a large part in
determining the outcome. The re-
sounding campaign against the
Mediation Commission,

and the

THE 1200 DAYS: A SHATTERED
DREAM. Dave Barrett and the NDP in
B.C. 1972-75. By Lorne Kavic and Garry
Brian Nixon. Kaen Publishers, 1978,
paper, $5.95.

demonstrations by construction
unions whose offices were raided
during the summer of 1972 are pass-
ed over in a couple of paragraphs.
And the unprecedented political ac-
tion of teachers, spearheaded by the
B.C. Teachers’ Federation and its
Political Action Committee,
doesn’t even rate a mention. In-
stead, The 1200 Days chalks up the
debating points scored by the two
contending leaders — in this case,
W.A.C. Bennett and Dave Barrett.

After the election, there was a
dramatic upsurge in political action
and debate throughout the province
—but that isn’t fully reflected in
The 1200 Days. The lobbies to the
Legislature by the B.C. Federation
of Labor, by fishermen and tenants
seeking the enactment of long
awaited legislation; the campaigns
by private insurance to sink
Autoplan; these are only seen as.a
shadowy backdrop to the
Legislative debates and inner
caucus meetings on which the
authors have concentrated much of
the book. Even the issues and in-
cidents — the welfare overrun, the
egg marketing board dispute,
various labor disputes — are those
which the media found important at
the time.- The larger politics are
often lost.

Perhaps more basic is the failure

’ of Kavic and Nixon to see that the

NDP government was a different
kind of government — or at least
was perceived to be by the big
business community and the press
which reflected its views. The U.S.
financial magazine Barron’s which
called Barrett the ‘‘Allende of the
North”’ grossly overstated the case
but the comment nevertheless in-
dicated the corporate approach to
Barrett’s administration. The

7

J.

TENANTS, FISHERMEN’S LOBBIES, 1974 . . . their action does

figure in Kavic, Nixon book.

economic sabotage initiated by the
mining companies following the in-
troduction of the Mineral Royalties
Act and the near hysterical
stampede against the Land Com-
mission Act were among the many
ways that approach took shape in
action.

And just as Kavic and Nixon give
virtually no role to big business in
the defeat of the government, so
they underestimate the role of the
press in shaping public opposition
to the government. In fact, they
have used press reports, virtually
uncritically, as the main source
material and their own commentary
often reflects the prevailing bias.

The two do concede at one point
that Barrett faced a ‘‘hostile press”’
but scarcely two paragraphs later
suggest that the government should
have ‘‘chosen to present its policies
as reformist but business-like; as
programs any responsible govern-
ment would have implemented’’ —
as if the Employers’ Council would
have looked more charitably on the
NDP or the press carried more

—Sean Griffin pi

favorable reports if the presentatilt

were different. d

And whatever the image Bart
and the caucus chose to present,
would still have faced the fact t
trade unionists, teachers, tena
and others had looked to
government that they had helped!
elect to legislate on their behalf
but had been disillusioned into in
tion and even opposition as hous!
policies never materialized
labor legislation was shaped mé
by political expediency than prim
ple.

To their’ credit, the authors
The 1200 Days have explored
some detail the NDP record, outh
ing the
miscalculations — and the not
considerable achievements, whit
still bear testimony to the NDP
brief three years in government. Bi
their research will have to wait foj
more comprehensive study befo
those 1200 days — which changg
B.C. politics dramatically —
fully understood. 7

—Sean Grif

shortcomings, {

7

By Emil Bjarnason and David Fairey

With record profits in 1978 and continued healthy earn-
ings predicted for 1979 B.C.’s largest employer is now
entering a new round of negotiations with the wood-
workers’ unions for a new collective agreement. The
dominance, and power of this corporation, MacMillan
Bloedel Ltd., is often lost sight of in the economic and
political struggles of workers in this province.

In January of this year, during a struggle for control of
MacMillan Bloedel, and for control of Eastern Canadian
forest and building products conglomerate Domtar, when
Canadian Pacific Investments made a bid to buy majority
interest in MacMillan Bloedel, B.C. premier Bill Bennett in-
tervened with his declaration that ‘‘B.C. is not for sale.’’
Bennett’s reaction was curious in light of a Social Credit
government history which allowed two thirds of the B.C.
economy to be controlled by outsiders.

Rumor has it in the financial press that certain sectional
interests in the MacMillan Bloedel board of directors phon-
ed Bennett and prodded him into action for fear of losing
their traditional power base. The group most likely wanting
government intervention would have been those associated
with control over the H. R. MacMillan estate, now merged

~ with the H.R. MacMillan estate, now. merged with that of

the Southam family interests through Gordon Southam and
James Norman Hyland of Pacific Press, J.V. Clyne and
W.J. VanDusen, and the husband of Virginia Bloedel, C.B.
Wright of Seattle.

Calvert Knudsen, president of MacMillan Bloedel, the in-
volvement of B.C.’s forest giant in a new wave of corporate

mergers and takeovers is attributable in large part to the.

Bryce Commission Report (Royal Commission on Cor-
porate Concentration) which gave a green light to increased
corporate concentration.

The Bryce Commission found that in terms of both ag-
gregate economic concentration and industrial concentra-
tion, corporate concentration is higher in Canada than
elsewhere. However, it concluded that large size and
monopolization seemed necessary for Canada to compete
in international markets, and for this reason the Commis-
sion favored increased corporate concentration in ‘Canada,
or at least no reduction its present high level.

Some 34 research ‘studies into: corporate concentration

’ were conducted for the Commission, one of which was The

Existence and Exercise of Corporate Power: A Case Study

MacBlo--a bastion
of corporate power

of MacMillan Bloedel Ltd., by Richard Schwindt of Simon
Fraser University.

It is well known that MacMillan Bloedel is B.C.’s largest
company in terms of sales and number of employees; that it
is the largest enterprise in the Canadian forest products in-
dustry; and that it ranks as 20th among the 100 largest non-
financial Canadian companies. The Schwindt study also
reveals the following facts about MacMillan Bloedel:

@ It is both transnational and multinational, operating
in every province except Newfoundland and Prince Edward
Island and in 16 countries around the world.

@ It ranks high among the 300 largest industrial cor-
porations in the world outside the U.S.

@ It is the 12th largest pulp and paper company in the
world in terms of assets ($1.4 billion) and employees (over
23,000 — 16,000 in B.C.). In assets it is seven times larger
than the combined assets of the next seven largest forest in-
dustry companies in B.C. .

@ In timber rights MacMillan Bloedel has control of 31
percent of the total coastal region timber, with its closest
competition having 10 percent. The study concluded that
the scaled economies of the level of timber harvesting does
not justify the extent of MacMillan Bloedel control over
timber rights.

@ In lumber production, MacMillan Bloedel produces
30 percent of coastal lumber Output, and while it does not
dominate the markets to which it ships it does have a strong
position in the Australian lumber market.

@ In plywood production, it is the third largest pro-
ducer in Canada and along with.Weldwood of Canada it
dominates plywood production in B.C. With two other
producers, the four companies virtually control the entire
Canadian softwood plywood market.

@ In pulp, MacMillan Bloedel has 13 percent of B.C.
pulp milling capacity and ranks second only to Canadian
Forest Products which has 14 percent. It also has a signifi-
cant portion of the American pulp market. ,

@ In newsprint production it controls 65 percent of

mechanical pulp milling capacity in B.C. and with 12.5 p er
cent of national capacity is Canada’s largest producer
With 38 percent of Western North American newsprint
production, MacMillan Bloedel acts as a price leader and
holds 30 percent of the Western US. market and 60 percent
of the Western Canadian market. As further demonstration
of its international market power, MacMillan Bloedel also
controls between 22 and 50 percent of the newsprint market
in Pakistan, Ecuador, Taiwan, El Salvador and Singapore:
The company charges five percent less for newsprint in thé
Vancouver area than it does 40 miles south in the U.S. Ac
cording to Schwindt, ‘‘The price differential is not explai
ed by transport costs but in actuality is a gesture of good
will and political prudence.”’ ;

@ In fine paper, although with only four percent of na
tional capacity, MacMillan Bloedel controls 60 percent of
the B.C. market. Interestingly, Domtar, in which Mac
Millan Bloedel has just acquired 18.9 percent, is the larges!
manufacturer of fine paper in Canada with one third of na
tional capacity.

@ In linerboard production MacMillan Bloedel supplies
32 percent of the B.C. market and 43 percent of the market
in the four western provinces.

e@ In packaging, the company controls 38 percent of the
corrigated container market in B.C. and has a strong,
dominant position in the three other western provinces.

Other sources of corporate research show that the board)
of directors of MacMillan Bloedel is one of the dozen or so)
most highly concentrated boards of the industrial and

:

,

finance capitalist elite in Canada: Six of the 18 directors are)

among Canada’s top 100 bank directors, linking it directly}
with the Royal Bank, The Commerce Bank and the Bank of
Nova Scotia. CP Investments, the conglomerate investment
arm of Canada’s largest multinational, Canadian Pacific
Ltd., has a 13.4 percent holding in MacMillan Bloedel, and
is the single largest stock holder. Along with CP president
Ian Sinclair there are a total of four directors interlocked
with either CP, CPI or CPI subsidiaries. The past president
of MacMillan Bloedell, Dennis Timmis, was also a director
OL GR: .

Of the 16 directors and two honorary directors on the
MacMillan Bloedel board, 10 are residents of B.C., three)
are residents of Ontario, two are résidents of Quebec, two

are residents of the U.S. and one is resident of England —

hardly your exemplary B.C. owned and controlled corpora |

tion.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—MARCH 30, 1979— Page 10