nthe early hours of 1973 Tory Prime Minister Edward
: Heath of Britain signed the agreement which offi
cailly admitted his country into the Ruopean Common Market
(ECM). That agreement was also the official obituary of the
“‘Empire and Commonwealth,’’ upon which the sun was
alleged to ‘‘never set,’’ and where Britons ‘‘never never would
be slaves’’— as long as there were other peoples and nations to
enslave.

Thus after long decades of political bickering and wrang-
ling about who was to take in whose washing and at what price,
the old empire and commonwealth was finally and formally
declared kaput.

Britain’s entry into XCM heralds the finale of alot of other
institutions, casts a ‘‘shadow before”’ so to speak. All the
years of hullabaloo about ‘‘the most favoured nation’’,
“preferential treatment,’’ ‘‘protective tariff’’ and soon, will
now act in reverse under the ‘‘customs union’’ decrees of ECM.
Hither that or they will also be as dead as the proverbial Dodo.

The institution of Royalty, on which the British taxpayer
does not stand so much in awe as a few decades ago, is also
already well onits way to the nearest exit. The contradiction
within ECM will hasten the process. Unlike the Roman Empire
which hung on to some of its past glories even while on its
deathbed, the empire and commonwealth had nothing tohang
onto save a few tattered nostalgic remnants of an ageing

- generation of the Dief vintage. Requisat im pace.

The ‘‘Mother”’ country, widowed in her advancing years,
tossed into bed with a heterogenious spouse (ECM), has thus
ignominiously deserted her family; an offspring whichhas
noisily defined that independence status as ‘‘Daughter inmy
mother’s house, but Mistress in my own’. Sans ‘‘mother’’ they
must now seek new opportunities and new relationships— to
rook — and be rooked. Canada-US. relationships are a
classical example of ‘“empire’’ family rape and incest.

Already Canadians are being inundated with a deluge of
media-manufactured guff anent the “future” of ECM. These
brain-washed dopesters ‘‘see’’ in Britain’s entry to ECM the
emergence of an old pipe-dream, a United States of Europe.”’
They glibly skip over an inherent disease in capitalist
economy; its narrow sectional and private interests; its read-
iness to cut each other’s throats for an extra profit sou; its
anarchistic economy and its grabbing for markets within the
framework of that economy; its determination for maximum
profits, equalled only by its determination to pay the least to
those who produce all its wealth— the workingclass.

Like his higher-level fellow creature the leopard, the
moneygrubbing monopolist doesn’t ‘‘change his spots’’, only
his deceptive roles to match the times and conditions.

Under Socialism one can speak honestly and intelligently of a

bloc of great nations united in a political and economic entity

-for peace and the common good. To do so under capitalism, and
ECM is nothing if not capitalist, is merely self-deceptionona -

mass scale. :

Those who would acquaint themselves with the future
perspectives of ECM and its unwilling swallowing of our
‘Mother country”’. . will stick in its throat like an irritating
fishbone, should address themselves, not to the ‘‘optimistic”’
guff of bourgeois spellbinders, but to the brilliant Marxist
classis, The Eithteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte.

There they will find that while the bourgeois stage
changes and has changed many times since Marx penned that
devastating classic on bourgeois political chicanery, trickery,
doublecross and worse, that the actors and their interests
remain the same. . . avarice, greed, maximum profits and
ground rent. And ECMis loaded withjust suchcontradictions,
which Britain’s entry will not lessen, but accentuate.

Postscript: We are advised that the Trudeau government
(if it lasts that long) plans tobe ‘‘host at an Empire Common-
wealth conferencein Ottawa sometime this coming summer,
and that royalty has also been invited toattend. Aside froman
additional burden to the Canadian taxpayer, sucha gatherings
willbe unable to rise tothe heights or level of an Irish wake,
since the corpse will have been too long dead to sit up onits
rear end toacknowledge the toasts and plaudits of abygone
“glory’’. At best it will bea sickly tribute to Trudeau's° ‘great
leap’’. . . from charisma to ghostly seance.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—FRIDAY, JANUARY 12, 1973—PAGE 2

+.

FOR ALL YOUR TRAVEL NEEDS

Contact:

GLOBE TOURS

2679 E. Hastings St., Vancouver 6, B.C.

253-1221 254-2313

By ALD. HARRY RANKIN

Vancouver City Council has
received an appeal from 37
mayors of the Democratic
Republic of Vietnam asking us
to joininthe demand for anend
to U.S. bombings of North
Vietnam.

The appeal points out that the
centres of populationhavenow
become the strategic target of
U.S. bombers, that hospitals,
schools, churches, public
utilities, factories, ancient

“monuments, churches, pagodas,

works of national cultural,
stores—allare being levelled by
saturation bombing. Thousands
of men, women and children are
being killed.

Every type of bomb is being
used from explosive and blast
bombs to perforating and steel
pellet bombs. The B52’s carry 30
tons of bombs each. Theappeal
of the mayors labels the acts of
the Nixon administration as
crimes of ‘‘genocide, biocide
and ecocide’’ aimed at the
destruction of a whole society.

This cruel, vicious and sense-
less bombing has been con-
demned in the strongest words
by governments and people
throughout the world.

Nine prominent U.S. scien-
tists have called it ‘‘an
unprecedented orgy of killing
and destruction.” John Kenneth
Galbraith, president of the
American Economic Associa-
tion, called the action barbarous
and insane. The Seamen’s Union
of Australia imposed a boycott
of all U.S. shipping in protest.

Inourowncountry the House
of Commons has unanimously
adopted a motion which
‘deplores the recent large-scale
bombing in the Hanoi-Haiphong
area’’ and requests the govern-
ment of the U.S. to refrain from
a resumption of the aerial
bombardment of the Hanoi-
Haiphong area’. Weak asitis, it
isa decided improvement over
the disgraceful mealy-mouthed
statement by prime minister
Trudeau advising Canadians to
‘*keep our nose out.”’

In Toronto, 600 of the city’s
most prominent citizens from
every walk of life signed a large
ad which appearedinthe Globe
and Mail calling for anend tothe
killing and for a_ negotiated
peace.

At the 500 strong peace march
in Vancouver’ on Saturday,
January 6, George Johnston,
president of the 175,000 mem-
ber B.C. Federation of Labor
declared that the time for
“regrets’’ and ‘‘urging’’ is past
and that the time for ‘‘demand’”’
and ‘‘stop”’ is now here.

Last October presidential ad-
visor Henry Kissinger, speaking
for President Nixon, said that
‘peace is at hand”’, that the few
remaining points were “‘of a
technical or minor nature’
which could **be cleared up in
one or more _ negotiating
sessions with the North Viet-

_namese negotiators, lasting, I

would think no more than three
or four days’. You will remem-
ber, though. that the U.S. govern-
ment rejected every appeal and
demand of the North Viet-
namese negotiators that the
peace agreement be signed.

Now we know why. The Nixon
administration never had any
intention of signing a peace

e

woditiem Vietnam war says Rankin

agreement. Its October declara-
tions werea gigantichoax. The
credibility of the declarations
of the Nixon administration on
Vietnam which were almost zero
before October are less than that
figure today.

I have prepared a resolution
for City Council’s meeting on
January 9 proposing that
Vancouver jointhe world-wide
protest against the U.S. bomb-
ings and that we call for the
continuation of the negotiations
without any further bombing
and without any further escala-
tion until a peace settlement is
reached.

It has been obvious
everyone for a long time,
sure, (everyone that is ex
President Nixon and the Pt
gon) that this war canno
resolved by military mean
further escalation.

I feel that we cannot sit D
say nothing when the U.S. a
a policy of the syste
destruction of cities in Ne
Vietnam, just as Hitler didW
Coventry, Warsaw and Lid
the last war. Such crill
against humanity mustb
and if a world-wide pro
required, we must do our

efforts for civic unity —

In answer to the predictions of
the Vancouver Area Council of
the NDP, that COPE ‘‘was down
the drain,’ the Committee of
Progressive
nounced plans for activity in
1973 and expressed its deter-
mination to fight issues year-
round, not just at election time.

Publication of a monthly news-
letter is planned with the inten-
tion of providing information
onCOPE’s activities as wellas
information oncivic activities
in Council, Parks Board and
School Board. COPE also plans
to maintain an office through-
out the year and establisha re-
search department.

A membership drive is to be
launched to encompass many of
the people who participated in
the election campaign. In
addition; COPE committees

Electors an-,’

among the large ethnic g
have been proposed, to ta
the problems in these areas!
develop support for COPE.
in keeping with the incre@
support among several
unions, COPE commi
within various local union
being organized. ;

Unity of the reform force
again being emphasized }
COPE plans to continue ant
crease its efforts to esta
unity, with the NDP and ot
reform groups with a view to!
ning a united slate around!
program in the 1974 civic
tions.

To assess the civic ele
and to finalize plans for:
activities, COPE is holdill
membership meeting Sa
day, January 20from2to4p
at the Russian People’s Ho

ANNUAL BURNS SUPPEI

Saturday, January 20th
Fishermen’s Hall
138 E. Cordova St.
Supper 6:30 p.m. — Dance 9:00 p.m.

Admission $4.00 — Students $3.00
Pensioners

For tkts. phone 939-0245 or 936-4467