COMMUNISTS DISCUSS
POLICY FOR PRAIRIES

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70 enthusiastic dele-

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4 eres Prairie agriculture
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: ommunist Party
See y William Beech-
Fader, YS Saskatchewan

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Onger the —

gates from Manitoba, Saskatche-
wan and Alberta had gathered
to participate in the first con-
ference of this kind ever held
by any political party in the
West. They included farm lead-
ers, rural municipal councillors,
an alderman and trustee from
Winnipeg, men and women from
the farms and cities of the
prairies. Together they hammer-
ed out proposals that would, as

integration and contract farm-
ing — the other side of the
same coin, as it were.

“The price for new farm
machinery and parts is a mono-
poly price, that is, the farmer
is charged a price which allows
the monopolies to make super
profits. (This is one of the big
problems of the cooperative
movement, which buys its sup-
plies from monopoly or a mono-
poly-controlled market).

“When the prices of agricul-
tural products do go up, farm
machinery -prices are jacked up
almost simultaneously. But when
agricultural prices drop, the
selling prices of farm machinery
do not.”

According to a Manitoba
Farm .Union Brief, said Beech-
ing, prices on farm implements
have increased by more than
175 percent since 1952, and
some replacement parts cost 345
percent more than in 1949,

Other developments discussed
in the report include the enor-
mous increase in agricultural
production, the seizure by mono-
polies of the dominating position
in agriculture through vertical
integration, the drive of mono-
poly to get the small farmer off
the land, and the depth of rural
poverty.

Beeching projected the popu-
larizing of the Communist Pro-
gram for agriculture which had
been adopted at the party’s last
convention in May. and cam-
paigning around its proposals.

“We call for new goals to be
set for. agriculture,” he said.
“They have been put into our
program. What is needed is for
us to begin to take part in pub-
lic campaign for the realization
of that program.” :

The lively discussion and ex-
change on this report included
a contribution by Dan Sharun,
Farm Union of Alberta: director
from Innisfree, who brought two
bearings to the conference. They
were both the same. One which
wholesaled.:at 9814. cents sold
in the-store for $1.55, a 35 per-
cent profit; the other at an imple-
ment dealer’s only a few blocks

away; with the same: wholesale

price;»retailed- at $5.50. \ “Is it

the slogan of the conference’
for .

said, “develop the West
Canada.” :
““The problem of the West is
not creeping socialism but gal-
loping capitalism,” Alderman
Joe Zuken ‘of Winnipeg com-
mented in the discussion and
Currie’s report amply demon
strated this.
-“The western provinces,”
Currie points out, “are a prime

Farmers against monopoly

any wonder,” said Sharun, “why
farmers are poor?”

Another delegate, Neil Sten-
berg. from Thorhild, Alberta,
described the prices and repairs
on farm machinery as one of the
“worst con games in history.”

The conference unanimously
agreed to support of the Farm-
ers Unions in their efforts to
secure a parity price for farm
production, by a non-buying ac-
tion of durable goods. “We will
do everything possible,” the re-
solution said, “to help farmers
achieve a standard of living
which would give them equality
of opportunity to participate
fully ‘in the life of our country
and reap the full benefits of
their labor.”

_The conference sent a_ tele-
gram to Hon. J. J. Greene, fede-
ral minister of agriculture, call-
ing for: the nationalization of
the farm implements industry;
federal assistance to establish
a publicly-owned, prairie based
farm implements manufacturing

. industry; freezing of prices on

farm machinery and parts, with
no further increase unless cause
can be shown before a govern-
ment board; action by the gov-
ernment to reduce present pri-
ces. The wire also called on
Greene to support the efforts of
farm organizations to have the
price of wheat at $2.50 a bushel.

target of U.S. monopolies in
their quest for raw materials.
Besides gas, oil and fresh water
American monopoly wants. the
cheap hydro power that the de-
velopment of the Nelson River
system will make available.”
“He charged that the govern-
ments of the three provinces
were bent on delivering the na-
tural resources to the American
interests at the expense of the
future needs of Canada. .
Among examples cited in the
report was the lease of the Al-
berta tar sands at 25 cents an
acre, one quarter of what is
usually charged, mainly to U.S.-
controlled firms. He pointed out

that there has been a drop in:

the prairies’ share of manufac-
turing since the end of the war
from 9.6 percent to 8.5 percent.
“In spite of the urgent need
to develop manufacturing in-
dustries,” Currie said, “there
was over one billion dollars in-
vested on the prairies in pri-
mary industries including raw
material extraction in 1966,
while a mere $140 million was
invested in manufacturing.”
~*It would be folly,’ Currie
continued, “for the working
people of the West to be hood-
winked into believing that
middle-sized capitalist interests
in the West, who appear to be
reflected in Westbank, will for a
moment solve the basic prob-
lem of economic growth on the
prairies. These interests, be-
cause of the limited capital at
their disposal, cannot alter the
basic direction of the economic
growth of the prairies and they
will not because their main con-
cern is profits—not the welfare
of the people of the West.”
Currie pointed to the fact
that the West is on the thresh-
old of important changes in po-
litical alignment. “Unless a
genuine program of develop-
ment can be made an effective
element in prairie politics,” he
said, “disillusionment will en-

An all-Canadian

William Kashtan, leader of
the Communist Party, was in
Edmonton last weekend to at-
tend the Prairie Conference of
the party being held there. —

-. Addressing the delegates from
the three provinces, he spoke
of the» need to develop a
correct, precise combination of

the issues, so that “when we ~

pose the question and help to
stimulate and develop the. fight
for Canadian independence and
when we speak of independence

-for our country; we speak of real
independence for Canada.”

- “\WWe-are not here concerned

with strengthening Canadian :
monopoly. at. the expense: of

American: monopoly,” said: Kash-

tan. “Our policies are aimed at
strengthening the people at the
expense of monopoly, both
Canadian and American.

“Here we posed a question
for the prairies, but it is not
only a prairie question, it is an
all-Canadian question—how. we
can come to grips with the
weakening of American control
over the Canadian economy in
decisive sectors of the country,
bearing in-mind: that doing so
will lead toa weakening: of the
position of monopoly: -in. Can-
ada.” :

He ‘spoke: of the. fight. for
nationalization as .one -of~ the
most significant aspects of the
struggle to «weaken’ monopoly

PHYLLIS CLARKE, Tribune
staff member, is on a
three-week tour of the
prairie provinces. On this
page and Page 10 are the
first of a series of news
reports and feature arti-
cles she will be sending
from the West.

able the agents of monopoly:
capital to strengthen their posi-
tions. The forces of the far right
are on the move. They would be
in a position to become a na-
tional force with a western base
if no clear labor-farmer alterna-
-tive were to emerge in the next
period.”

‘A program for industrializa-
tion of the West was advanced
including: :

e A multi-billion program of
development to be shared on a
50-50 basis between the federal
and provincial governments.

e This program to begin with
the integration of the water re-
sources of the three prairie
provinces with’ those of British
Columbia and Ontario.

e Along with this, an inte-
grated hydro power grid linking
the West with B.C. and the rest
of the country.

e Large-scale development of
the petro-chemical, plastics and
steel industries.

e A vast extension eastward
of an all-Canadian route of gar
and oil pipe lines.

The program also called for
the widespread use of crown
corporations and other forms of
public ownership to guarantee
the independent development of
the economy. In addition a pol-
icy of trade with the world, the
finding: of new markets for an
expanding prairie agricultural-
industrial economy, was _ pro-
jected.

A new Canadian constitution
was also proposed both to re-
solve the question of relations
between French and _ English
Canada and to provide for
much-needed tax reform.

The conference, in addition
to adopting the report, agreed
to launch a postcard campaign
in the three provinces on the
issue of development of the
water resources for the prdiries
and for Canada.

problem

control and proposed that what
should be fought for is the na-
tionalization of the natural re-
sources. of the country.

He spoke of the need of link-
ing these economic demands to
the political activity on the
prairies that will particularly
be seen in the pending provin-
cial. elections in Saskatchewan
and Alberta, leading to set-
backs for Thatcher and Man-
ning.

Kashtan called on the dele-
gates to assist ‘in strengthening
the fight against the -war in
Vietnam in. Canada pointing out
that’ this was’ the overriding

- question facing all -humanity

todar’.

March 31, 1967—PACIFIC TRIBUNE—Page 3