al UNEMPLOY THEUNEMPLOYERS Vote for a change! VAS +S. 79 om Hear at the Communist Party election rally 8:00 P.M. Roxanne Room BILTMORE HOTEL 12 Ave. & Kingsway Vancouver WED. MAY 15. BILL KASHTAN leader, Communist Party peace. paign. Get the maximum value for your dollars — contribute to - THE COMMUNIST PARTY FEDERAL ELECTION FUND! The members and supporters of the Communist Party need your help in the federal election campaign to fight for full employment without inflation, a democratic solution to the crisis of Confederation and for world The Communist Party needs your financial assistance to bring its policies to the Canadian public. Contribu- tions to political parties enjoy income tax refunds; a $100 donation results in a $75 income tax refund. For a net donation of $25, the Communist Party gets $100 to carry its program to Canada in the federal election cam- ° Donate to the Communist Party federal election cam- paign. It is the very, best investment you can make for the future. : Please indicate if you want an of- ficial receipt for income tax rebate purposes. Send all donations to Communist Party Federal Elec- tion Fund — 408 Ford Building, COMMUREST PARTY OF CANADA 193 East Hastings, Vancouver PANT) COMMURESTE DU CANADA V6A 1N7. Published by the authority of the official agent, Communist Party of Canada ao —ae PACIFIC TRIBUNE—MAY 11, 1979—Page 2 Kitsilano citizens record victory on spray program | By ALD. HARRY RANKIN City council on May 2 reaffirmed its decision to cut the library budget by $52,000 by reducing library hours by three hours a week. It was a mean, pennypinching act, typical of this council which is always ready to save money by cut- ting services to people while giving huge subsidies to private business interests. It’s the community that will be hardest hit by this act’ — the stud- ents, the pre-schoolers, the senior citizens, all those who patronize our libraries during the non-rush hours. I can’t think of a community fa- cility that provides so much service to so many people. The Vancouver Public Library is one of the best in Canada. It has one of the best rec- ords for providing services at low cost. There were all sorts of options open to the council to cut costs in other directions (although let me add that I see no reason whatsoever why the library budget should be cut), but it’s significant that this council chose to cut the hours. This council is almost paranoid when it comes to people. It distrusts, fears and dislikes people; in its view the only role for council is to provide the opportunity for business inter- ests to increase their profits. The motion to reconsider the cut in the library budget lost 5-4. Alder- man Gerard was on holiday, alder- man Boyce left the room for the vote, while alderman Mike Har- court supported the cut. I can’t help wonder. what his supporters in the trade union movement and the NDP think of his stand on this issue. * % * The citizens of Kitsilano won a victory on May 2, when they pres- sured city council to turn down the plan of the federal department of agriculture to spray a 44-block area with carbaryl (Sevin) to stop the in- festation of the gypsy moth. Those who opposed the spraying ’ presented a strong body of evidence showing that despite all the claims to the contrary by government offi- cials, carbaryl is a potential danger to health, is a potential cause of cancer, is potentially harmful to humans and domestic animals. The ‘‘feds’’ even went so far as to suggest that if we didn’t spray Kit- silano with carbaryl, the U.S. would put a ban on the shipments of lumber from B.C. In welcoming this victory and in congratulating the citizens of Kit- silano and the many protest groups, it is also well to bear in mind that the victory was helped by the cur- rent election campaigns (politicians don’t like to commit themselves to unpopular causes) and the fact that it wasn’t an issue where developers were concerned. On any issue af- fecting what the developer wants, * this council has so far not backed | down. I was particularly interested in a newsletter originating with Dow Chemicals distributed by the protest groups, one of the firms that man- ufactures carbaryl as well as many other poisonous chemicals. The manufacturers of poisonous chemicals (they experimented in Vietnam with them and used them to kill all living things in the areas: sprayed) are worried about their public image and the increasing public opposition to the use of dangerous chemicals. They warn in their newsletter that it is-necessary to launch, ‘‘a campaign against ‘po- litical’ environmentalists.’’ By.“‘po- litical environmentalists’’ they mean any body of citizens that is opposed to. the use of their chemicals. .* . ; They make the following signifi- cant statement: ‘The emphasis will be on involv- ing government pesticide control authorities in refuting charges re- sulting from ‘political’ environ- mentalists.”’ What they are actually saying is that since their own advocacy of the use of chemicals will be suspect be- cause they make huge profits from these chemicals, (they sell $170 mil- Probably few Canadians to-~ day remember that only a generation ago, Canada held third place in the world with respect both to the size of its merchant fleet and its ship- building industry. In that period also, Canada was a creditor na- tion with consistently favourable balance of payments. Today, by contrast, our ship- building industry has been reduced to a few yards mainly engaged in repair work, our deepsea fleet is virtually non- existent, and we are burdened with an enormous annual balance of payments deficit, which has to be met every year by foreign borrowing. Canada emerged from. World War II with a government- Owned merchant marine numbering several hundred deepsea ships, all of which had been built in Canada, and which were operating profitably, not- withstanding the outstanding wages and conditions negotiated by the Canadian Seamen’s Union. However, the government of the day, which was prepared to operate a publicly owned fleet for the purposes of war had no intention of continuing such an enterprise indefinitely in peacetime. The fleet was put on the auction block and, under the direction of the Canadian Maritime Commission, chaired by J. V. Clyne, was sold to private enterprise at a small frac- tion of its worth. The buyers then proceeded to dispose of the ships, in some cases by outright sale, in others by simply transferring the ships to foreign registry. In any event, the fleet was disposed of and the Cana- dian merchant marine ceased to exist. Today, a Canadian-owned merchant marine is again mak- ing its appearance, but under vastly different circumstances. A recent article in ‘‘Seaport and the Shipping World’’ by K. G. Friffin, summarizes the facts. It seems that from virtually nothing a few years ago, the Canadian-owned deep sea fleet. has grown to 6,800,000 tons, not counting the Great Lakes fleet of 2.3 millions, and the coastal ser- vice. Although even that tonnage would leave us in sixteenth place among the world’s shipowners, it vastly overstates the real.situa- tion ‘as’ far’ as the interests of 7 ECONOMIC FACTS— By Emil Bjarnason and David Fairey The runaway fleet — on Canada's coast — tion, Liberia, Singapore and the | a lion worth of pesticides annually) ¢ they must get government offici to front for them. mt That is exactly what happened il) this gypsy moth spray program. — 5 One of the public relation , spokesmen for these chemical math ufacturing companies testifying | ¢ cently before a royal commissi0h ; looking into the use of pesticid t and herbicides, told the comms) ¢ sioners: iF. “I am anon-technical bullshita™ UiSiaea Sr Need more be said? 5 1! AJ c i ¢ I j / s s t I a Canada are concerned. The } { truth of the matter is that the | s Canadian fleet is a runaway | f¢ fleet. Only 12 percent of the total (805,000 tons) is registered } jj in Canada. The Canadian | ¢! owners of the other six million | 4 tons have registered them, as tO | g 39 percent in the United |, Kingdom and Bermuda, as to 28 | [ n t percent in Liberia, and 20 per-— cent in Singapore. The fact that © they are foreign-registered means that they provide no jobs for Canadian seamen, and that their revenues and profits g0 mainly to countries in which — they are registered. Huge vessels | bearing the names Calgary, Kamloops, J. V. Clyne, N. R. | Crump, and so on are for all practical purposes foreign. | Moreover, when we were the third seagoing power, our entire fleet was Canadian-built, and our shipyards proudly claimed the world’s lowest shipbuilding - costs. By contrasts, the new | Canadian-owned fleet is a foreign creation. Only ten per-— gent of the tonnage is Canadian built, while 67 percent was built in Japan, and the other twenty- | three percent in a wide range of countries. RO ansgmg = Y ae a ae i ee ee ee ee It is of interest to note who are the people who have established this ‘‘flag of convenience’’ fleet. Most important is the CPR, which has always occupied 4 leading role in the Canadian | merchant shipping. It accounts for 31 percent of the fleet, all of it registered in either the United | Kingdom or Bermuda. Next is Papachristidis Maritime, a com- | pany which owes its existence to the giveaway of the government- owned fleet|. in 1950. Papachristidis accounts for 30 percent of the total. Its ships are registered under a variety of | | foreign flags including Liberia, | | Singapore, UK and New Zealand. Third in importance is | — Federal Commerce and Naviga- | AR ee ee ee Nee Steer en, Pre Cees & United Kingdom. Historically, turning over the fleet to private enterprise meant, in practice turning it over to | foreign registry. The present | — huge fleet yields no benefits for Canadian employment, for Canadian shipbuilding and very | little for the Canadian balance of payments. Bringing it under © Canadian registry and Canadian control could produce enormous benefits for the Canadian economy... S