s . > w RAs : Sas . iat 3 a Tim, Ross and Leah Hewison with their father George occupied cen couver's International Women’s Day meeting Sunday as they led the 200 strong au- & tre stage at Van- * dience in song (left), La Ligue de Femme president Laurette Sloan told the mee that the struggle for equality \is the same across Canada, “essentially economic —Fred Wilson pho Children's rights focus of IWD meeting: “Without the right to live, all other rights are meaningless,’’! stressed Laurette Sloan to Van- couver’s International Women’s Day celebration Sunday at the PNE, “*That is why in International Year of the Child we have placed our strongest emphasis on the child’s right to be brought up in a spirit of peace and universal brotherhood.’’ Sloan was the feature speaker to Congress of Canadian Women’s IWD meeting at the B.C. Building and together with speakers Hannah Polowy, Shirley Hawes, Margaret Mitchell and Betty Griffin used the event to touch on the issues of women’s liberation, labor rights, peace and international solidarity. It was the children, however, that took centre stage at IWD with per- formances by the Association of United Ukrainian Canadians children’s dance group and songs from Tim, Ross and Leah Hewison and with all of the speakers taking time to comment on the issues of International Year of the Child. “The United Nations has asked us not to look at the children in the third world and underdeveloped countries, but to look at- your own children,’” B.C. Commissioner for the Year of the Child Hannah Polowy told the meeting. None of the rights of children outlined in the United Nations ap- peal are guaranteed in Canada, she said, and many are badly lacking. “The right to love and be cared would seem basic,’’ she said, ‘‘But an average of 75 cases of child abuse are registered in our Van- couver hospitals each week.’’ Polowy went on to list a lack of nutrition, expecially among low in- come children, a lack of equal op- portunity for education, especially for those with special needs and for Native children, and a lack of recreational and play facilities. “The Year of the Child is not a year for discussion,”’ she said, ‘‘It is a year for political action — a year to become advocates for our children’s needs.”’ Laurette Sloan, president of La Ligue de Femme du Quebec, delivered a wide ranging speech about women’s rights around the world and in Canada. Before leav- ing Quebec she participated in the’ International Women’s Day - celebration in Montreal which saw 9,000 women and men march in the Streets. Quebec premier Rene Levesque sent a special greeting to the demonstration, one of more than 50 IWD events in towns and cities throughout Quebec. Sloan reported that she had A travesty of everything Pat O’Connor, Vancouver, writes; The Late Great Planet Earth is a poor quality propgagan- da film. Science fiction it’s not. The producers hope to lull their au- dience into the belief that deman- ding a better life, and a more just society is an exercise in futility. We are told pollution, over-population, the arms build-up, are all inevitable. Nothing is mentioned of the multi- national corporations and_ their governments which profit by such human misery. Peoples who are struggling for their national rights, or those that have achieved them, are but pawns in an international conspiracy to control Jerusalem, that will culminate in a nuclear holocaust that will wipe out the human race. Man’s achievements and scien- tific endeavors are said only to lead to destruction. The most humanitarian leaders will become power hungry dictators. Viewers are led to believe that God has pro- phesied the end of the world in our life time. In actual fact, those who have produced the film are hiding behind the Bible to justify the racism and aggression of the Israeli government. They say God has given the Israeli government the divine right to seize Arab lands and deny the Palestinian people basic - human rights. You can do something about this by, first, not paying to see such trash, or if you were unlucky, tell others of your misfortune including the theatre management. ORSON WELLES... narrates “poor quality propaganda film.” PACIFIC TRIBUNE—MARCH 16, 1979—Page 10 returned two weeks before from a conference in Berlin to mark the 100th anniversary of the publication of Auguste Bebel’s ‘‘Women and. Socialism.’’ There were delegates from 85 countries, she said, ‘‘and each brought testimony about the situation of women in their country.”’ In Latin America ‘‘it is real torture for women who have children,’’ Sloan said, ‘‘Two thirds of the women who give birth do so without medical assistance, and there is no‘social assistance either. There, 90 percent of women are still illiterate.’? In. Canada, Sloan said, unemployment is at 9.1 percent, but for women the rate is 18 per- cent. In Quebec, a full 70 percent of those working at the minimum wage are women, and the ratio of women among those earning below the minimum wage is likely higher. _ The struggle for women’s equali- ty in Canada is still ‘‘essentially economic’’ Sloan said, but at the same time called for ‘‘a fight for all sided equality for women as an in- tegral part of the struggle of the labor and democratic movement.”’ In contrast, Sloan cited the achievements of women in the Soviet Union where their socialist system has made ‘‘child care a social priority and education free.’’ The Soviet delegate to the Berlin conference reported that 781 out of every 1,000 workers in the Soviet Union today have university or technical education, she said, and 59 percent of those receiving education are women. NDP federal candidate in Va ¥ couver East Margaret Mitchell toh the meeting that her party ‘‘is dee ly committed to the improvementt the status of women in Canada.”"4J The response of the Libel government to women’s rights ii been to cut training programs fi women, and eliminate dire ’ _ assistance for women’s program}, she said. \o The federal arms budget was iV theme of Communist Party fedei,te candidate for Burnaby Be Ww Griffin’s contribution. ‘‘The moa lucrative super market of all is w one used by the arms deal, bribe @ o tists who have gone on a wild shoh, ping spree . . . and when they armi th at the cash register they just sau ‘Charge it to the Canadil \ people,’ ’’ she declared. a Every adult resident of B.C. has’ recently received a letter from premier Bennett, offering him five free shares of the B.C. Resources Investment Corpora- tion. The assets of the Corporation consist of 80 percent of the shares of Canadian Cellulose Co., 100 percent of Plateau Mills and Kootenay Forest Products and 10 percent of Westcoast Transmission plus some oil and gas lands. These assets are said to be worth $151,000,000. At an optimistic estimate, the annual profits might total $15,000,000. Assuming that all citizens ac- of these comes to 12,000,000. But in addition, each citizen is offered the right to buy 5,000 ad- ditional shares at prices reduced below underlying value. If only one citizen in 1,000 buys the minimum of 100 shares required for registration and voting rights, the total outstanding shares will rise to about 15,000,000 and the profit per share will be diluted to about $1.00. At the 1978 rate of divi- dend payout, shareholders could expect dividends of about 35 cents per share, or a total in- come of $1.75 from their five shares. That assumes, however, that the profits will be the same as in the past. But BCRIC will now have the additional bookkeeping cost of dealing with 2% million shareholders. For example, it will have cost about a quarter million dollars just to send out Bennett’s letter. It has been con- firmed that dealers fees for handling share applications will cept their free shares, the total’ Free shares - another gift to big business be $5.00 per application or a total of $12,000,000 if every one applies. ECONOMIC FACTS By Emil Bjarnason and David Fairey No shareholder will be permit- ted to register his shares unless he holds 100 shares or more. That means that the vast majori- ty of shareholders will not havea company vote, and will not receive company reports or ‘notices of dividends. That raises the interesting” question how the owner of five shares will collect his dividend. Since his shares will not be registered, BCRIC will have no knowledge of his ownership of the shares and no means of sen- ding him the dividend. If a system is devised for presenting. share certificates at a bank and receiving the dividend, how much will the banks have to charge to pay, record and ac- count for each $1.75 dividend? By the time BCRIC has absorbed that cost and reduced its profit and dividend accordingly, what will the dividend amount to? 50 cents? Two bits? Zilch? Obviously, Bennett isn’t ex- pecting to pay any dividend to the recipients of the free shares. He is taking it for granted that long before there is any question of dividend payments, the reci- pients will have sold them to people. interested in. ac-: cumulating large blocks of shares as an investment. Bennett is offering to sell up to 5,000 shares to any individual at $6 a share. That puts a ceiling a on the market price of the ba shares. That means that by the 2 time all 12 million shares have been sold, a relatively small - number of investors -will have gained ownership of $150 million worth of net assets for $72 million. Although, there is a limit AL of one percent of outstanding shares that may be held by one individual, fifty such individuals could have voting control of the company. “Actually, the situation is worse than that. A corporation can own one percent of the voting shares and a_ pension fund three percent. Suppose that Corporation X has 20 direc- tors and three pension plans _ (many corporations have separate plans for hourly, salaried and executive employees); it could hold 30 per- cent of the voting shares and ef- fective control of the company. Bennett’s boondoggle is not original. After the war, the Volkswagen works was owned by the West German govern- ment, and for many years was one of that government’s most profitable enterprises. At the behest, of the private automobile companies, Ludwig Erhardt gave Volkswagen to the people of Germany in a free share | distribution. Within about a year, VW was owned and con- trolled by the private automobile industry — just as BCRIC will be. Bennett is making a gift, sure enough. But the gift is worthless in the hands of the initial reci- pients. The ultimate beneficiary will be the private capitalists who will buy, at fire sale prices, the resources belonging to the people of B.C.