Friday, June 20, 1975

PACIFIC

sateen

—Sean Griffin photo

Jean Swanson and Bruce Eriksen of DERA stand outside Victoria
Rooms in Vancouver: after a successful bid Monday to force the
landlord to reduce proposed 118 percent rent increases to 23 percent.

hile an investigator for the rentalsman’s office stated that residents
Were tenants and thus came under the Landlord and Tenant Act,
thousands of other downtown residents still remain outside the

Protection of the Act.

Emerging jubilantly from
Sunday and Monday’s regional and
municipal elections with more than
one-third of the popular vote,
Italy’s Communist Party swept to
first place in the country’s main
industrial centres.

Rome, long dominated by the
ruling Christian Democrats,
elected a majority of Communist
members as did Milan, the in-
dustrial heartland of northern
Italy, and Turin, the auto
production centre.

The Party held its position in all

‘its previous strongholds including

Bologna where a Communist local
government has for several years
captured world attention with its
innovative housing program.
Thousands of Communist Party

Labor council protests
Burnaby staff layoffs

The decision by Burnaby

Municipal council to cut. municipal
Staff 3

lt in direct proportion to wage

Mcreases granted under the terms
: the new agreement sparked a
€legram of protest from delegates
© the Vancouver and District
bor Council meeting Tuesday
Night.
ae the bidding of alderman Vic
USiak, Burnaby council had
Voted 6 to 2 Monday to cut some 50
.° 70 workers from municipal staff
qorder to reduce wage costs to the
ame level as they would have
b n had an increase of only 15%
fen granted instead of the
Negotiated 21%.
Do derman | Brian Gunn and
Teen Lawson were opposed to

ee, Move while mayor Tom Con-

Slable was not present at the

Meeting.

- This is simply another form of

dey pulsory arbitration,” CUPE
gate Dave Werlin told the
Suncil. “It’s an act of retribution

*8ainst the workers by -an anti- -

abor Municipal council.”
ad © added that the municipal
folleestration would probably
ae the lead of Surrey council
Sub Teplace the laid-off workers by
Contracting out some of the
hormally done b ublic
*Mployees. x wash
Delegates voted unanimously to
* a telegram to Burnaby
oe urging it to reconsider its
ion ici
Stage to cut back on municipal
dey Sewhere in council business,
mates voted to endorse the
Ssage sent by the B.C.

see BURNABY pg. 12

Press drive winds up
with record $47,500

The 1975 financial drive ended last Saturday in an overwhelming
success. Our readers and supporters raised $47,500 to maintain our

operations for another year.

We wish to express our gratitude and congratulations to the many
hundreds of people all over British Columbia who contributed and

worked for our drive.

It has been said many times that this is your paper. The results of
this drive prove conclusively that our readers understand this. They
have maintained their newspaper since its beginning, 40 years ago,

and they will continue to do so.

Most gratifying of all, the results of our drive show that we are living,
up to the fine traditions of the working class press in B.C. and of the
tremendous responsibilities today’s movement demands.

See page 11 fora summary of how we didit.

members and supporters thronged
the streets Monday and Tuesday as
the party swelled its vote to within
two percentage points of the
Christian Democrats who have
dominated Italian politics for three
decades. The Christian Democrats
dropped nearly three per cent from
their position in the 1970 elections.

Some 21 million Italians voted in
the municipal and regional elec-
tions including hundreds of
thousands of. new voters, en-
franchised by the drop in the age of
majority from 21 to 18.

The young voters, comprising a
large section of the unemployed in
crisis-ridden Italy, figured largely
in the substantial gains for the
Communist Party.

Although only affecting local

administrations, the election
results have considerable im-
plications for the national
government in Italy which has
stumbled from crisis to crisis for
the last three decades, and has put
together shaky coalitions in an
effort to keep the Communists out.

In a report issued by the
European Economic Community
last week, Italy was shown to have
the greatest number of unem-
ployed of any EEC country — over
1.1 million — and had also suffered
a severe decline in industrial
production. :

In April, production fell 9.8 per
cent bringing the total decline
since January 1 to nearly 15 per
cent. The crisis found expression in
a 22 per cent increase in prices
while wages and real purchasing
power had only crept up _in-
finitesimally.

Many commentators chalked the
Communist election gains up to a
“protest vote’ but the over-
whelming mandate given the
Communists in the main industrial
centres clearly indicated a solid
working class base.

Communist Party membership
has also been going up steadily in
recent months with membership in

TWO-DAY PROTEST OVER PRICE CUTS

Salmon trollers tie up

B.C. salmon trollers are fishing
this week, but only after a two-day
protest strike on the part of the
Pacific Trollers Association wrung
some minimal concessions from
the Fisheries Association.

In an unprecedented action the
500 boats of the anti-union PTA tied
up to protest a belligerent com-
pany position to cut prices for
spring and coho salmon. :

United Fishermen and Allied
Workers Union trollers and a
number of unorganized trollers
supported the PTA tieup.

UFAWU business agent George
Hewison warned delegates to the
Vancouver and District Labor
Council that the fish monopolies’
attack on fishermen, tendermen
and shoreworkers alike makes “‘a
major industry wide confrontation
seem imminent.”

The PTA tieup is seen as
especially significant in revealing
the widespread militancy among
fishermen against the price cuts.
The PTA officials, however, still
stress that their talks with the
companies are like those between

businessmen, not employers and
employees. In spite of repeated
appeals from the UFAWU for a
meeting to plan strike action, the
PTA elected to return to the fishing
grounds.

The fish monopolies have offered
trollers only 60c per Ib. this year as
opposed to 73c per Ib. last year.
Hewison told the VLC that with
massive retail price increases
fishermen are barely receiving
25% of the values they produce.

“We are not closing the door on

See FISHERMEN pg. 12

February standing at 1,657,815.
Party general secretary Enrico
Berlinguer noted the basis of the
mandate and told the crowd of
supporters outside the election
headquarters, ‘‘the vote indicates
the will of the people for a change
of policies, methods and direction
in the life of the country.”
Berlinguer stated earlier this
year that the policy of the party
See ITALY pg. 12

Council votes
10M program

In adramatic six to five vote last
Tuesday Vancouver city council
bent before public pressure and
elected to triple the allotment for
public housing in the city’s five-
year plan to $10 million.

With NPA split 2 for and 2
against and TEAM likewise
neutralized 3 for and 3 against,
COPE alderman Harry Rankin
cast the deciding vote for the
housing program.

The first five-year plan included
only $3 million for housing and was
defeated by the electorate in
December’s ballot. The council
resolution will more than triple the
housing portion of the plan in a
sized down five-year plan to be put
to a plebiscite next October.

City council’s housing committee
recommended the $10 million
figure after considerable pressure
from Bruce Eriksen and the
Downtown Eastside Residents
Association. With both Eriksen and
Bruce Yorke, president of COPE,
on hand at the council meeting to
present briefs in favor of the $10
million, pressure was maintained.

Both COPE and DERA told the
council that they would actively
campaign against the passage of
whatever money bylaw that is
proposed unless it contained the
$10 million figure for housing.

In response to the proposal of
some right wing aldermen to have
a separate plebiscite vote over the
housing, the COPE brief promised
“whatever political and legal
means available to prevent the
sectioning of the bylaw.”

“In our view it must be’ con-
sidered as a whole,’’ Yorke said.

Crucial
resources

issues

page 3

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