ecording to Chinese cultural lore, the year of 1972 is

A also ‘‘the year of the rat’’. It therefore becomes,
almost prophetically so, a fitting year for U.S. imperialism’s
top rodent to pay a visit to that country, and to achieve, among
other things, a ‘“‘meeting of minds.”’

At the termination of this alleged ‘‘journey for peace’,
what this meeting-of-minds consisted of is not too clearly
spelled out in the official communique adopted by ‘‘both
sides.”’

A very common trait in the life and habits of all imperialist
rodents. Only now, several weeks after the event, are the
salient pieces nibbled at beginning to take shape, to show up
in clearer perspective. In the months ahead these will take ona
much more sinister and greater clarity.

Should the American people, in the role of the nation’s
official rat-catcher, fail to catch up with this all-devouring
rodent come the November presidential elections in these
United States, this ‘‘meeting-of-minds’’ will become very, very
much clearer, illuminated in perhaps the blinding flash of
nuclear bomb explosions. Then it will be too late to deal
effectively with this rodent plague. So much for this ‘‘journey
for peace’ and its ‘‘meeting-of-minds”’ climax.

The greatest catastrophe that could befall the American
people, we here in Canada, or for that matter the world, would
be to swallow the gigantic illusion that a voracious imperialist
rodent can be transformed into a ‘“‘peace”’ dove at the wave of
some magic wand, that decades of imperialist conspiracies,
provocations, hostile actions and hate against the Peoples
Republic of China, can be erased almost overnight . :
: For the larger plan of “‘using’’ China in its conspiracies
against the Soviet Union, the lesser plan of maintaining the
puppet regime of Chiang Kia-shek against the Peoples
Republic of China has been tossed aside like a worn-out dirty
shirt, as have the billions of U.S. dollars extracted from the
U.S. taxpayer to perpetuate its ‘‘two Chinas”’ fantasy.

Now, Chiang’s Taiwan regime, like an old and well-used
whore, is cast aside for the greater possibilities of fomenting
division and strife in the Socialist sector of the world, of
providing ‘‘moral”’ and material aid to the anti-Soviet course in ©
a whole number of countries where Maoist gangs, linked with
Nixon’s CIA, have scored a number of temporary victories.

This ‘“‘meeting-of-minds’’ must therefore be assayed
against the back-ground of the actions, rather than upon the
word (or “‘thoughts’’) of Maoism.

They must be weighed against the hard facts of reality, viz
that in the emergence of the new state of Bangladesh from
West Pakistan bloody aggression, U.S. imperialism and
Chinese Maoism were on the same side, without any “‘meeting-
of-minds”’ having surfaced. . :

They were also on the same side when Biafran reaction
sought to carve up Nigeria and hand over its vast oil resources
to the U.S. oil tycoons. We in Canada didn’t see that then,
because of our “‘emotional’’ binge for the sick and wounded and
hungry of Biafra. We wept at the suffering of women and
children and old men, and our emotions blinded us to yet
another ‘“‘meeting-of-minds’”’ between U.S. war profiteers and
Maoist running dogs; between an imperialist ‘‘Paper Tiger”’
and a pack of yapping pseudo ‘‘Marxists,’’ better known as
Maoists.

Nor is it accidental that while Nixon’s B-52’s rain death
and destruction almost hourly upon North and South Vietnam,
and upon the peoples of Laos and Cambodia (with an especially
heavy bombing orchestration during the Nixon ‘‘journey for
peace’) Maoist opposition and obstruction to Soviet aid to
Vietnam, crossing Chinese -territory en route was literally
halted, thus making the delivery of such aid to the heroic
people of Vietnam immeasurably more difficult.

Hence this ‘‘meeting-of-minds” was not unheralded or
unanticipated. It made good pre-election copy for ‘Tricky
Dick’’ with the media playing it up to the full, much as though
Nix was the first he-man ever to ‘“‘discover’’ China or meet its
people face-to-face. True, Nix didn’t ‘‘save face’’ as the
Chinese say, but in his ‘“‘meeting-of-minds”’ seances, he made a
lot of ‘‘face’’ in hopes of ‘‘swinging”’ a re-election— and finding
anew ‘‘ally”’ against the Socialist world!

Verily, verily, ‘‘the year of the rat.’’

FOR ALL YOUR TRAVEL NEEDS

: Contact:

GLOBE TOURS

2679 E. Hastings St., Vancouver 6, B.C.
Ed Polowy, Manager
253-1221 254-2313

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—FRIDAY, MARC

ema cytes he ae &

ag 19 PL TaNeROIouTSS 2

‘ el si0EY EGOS

SOCREDS STARVE SCHOOLS

Support city schoo! referendull
to keep up education standafty

By ALD. HARRY RANKIN

On Wednesday, March 29, Van-
couver property owners will vote
on a school board referendum
seeking approval for the expendi-
ture of an additional $961,316
for this year’a budget, over and
above the 108 percent limit estab-
lished by the provincial govern-
ment. A 60 percent majority of
those voting is required for
approval.

The school board has already
adopted a budget for its “Basic

. Education Program’’ for 1972 in

the sum of $52,872,383. This is an
operating fund, not a fund for.
new construction. Under Provin-
cial legislation the school board
is permitted to levy taxes which,
together with the provincial
grant, will amount to $51,911,067.
It is the balance of $961,316 for
which authority is now sought
from property owners. —

On a property worth $20,000,
the additional tax, if the refer-
endum is approved, would be
$5.10.

If the referendum passes,
educational standards will be
maintained at 1971 levels.

If the referendum is defeated,
educational standards will deter-
iorate. There will be less atten-
tion to individual students, 116
fewer teachers will be hired,
class rooms will be larger,
classes may have to be can-
celled whenever teachers are
sick and building maintenance
will be reduced.

No one likes to see his taxes go
up. But it seems we have little
alternative if we want to see

North Shore majority reject
Socred anti-education policy

The closeness of the vote on
school referendum on the North
Shore last Thursday shows that
most people are not being taken-
in by the Socred government’s
anti-education campaign. At the
same time it reveals that many
homeowners are concerned
about the rising tax load on
homes, and some have fallen for
the Socred government’s cam-
paign that “education costs are
to blame.’

_ The facts are that education
costs have been a declining
factor in the provincial budget,
taking less now out of provincial

revenues than it did a few years
ago. The Socred government is
social
services to the people. At the
same time it is failing to raise
funds by adequately taxing
our
natural resources. In fact pro-
vincial revenues from resources

cutting back on all

monopolies exploiting

have been declining.

Supporters of the Socred
government on the North Shore,

educational

standards main-

tained.

and other reactionary elements,

whipped up a vicious campaign
referendums,

North Van-
couver. The aim of the cam-
paign was to stampede voters
into rejecting the referendums:
one for $2.1 million for new
and
another for $815,688 to meet the
difference between what the
Socred government allowed and

against both

particularly in

school construction,

If the provincial government
would pay a greater share of
educational costs, there would
be no need for any increase in
taxes for educational purposes.
But the cold reality is that the
government is starving educa-
tion while it spends generously
on ports, highways, railways
and dams to make our natural
resources readily available to
foreign interests without cost to
them.

Whether B.C. voters favor
continuation of such a policy is

the needs to maintain education
standards. '
Along with the campaign to
win overwhelming rejection of
the referendums placed by the
school board, went a campaign
against the board itself, whose
chairman is Dorothy Lynas,
who has been an outstanding
fighter on the North Shore for
educational needs and the
children. Right wing elements
hoped that such rejection of the
referendum would force the

WHY IS NIXON COMING TO
CANADA? That will be the sub-
ject of a mass rally to be
addressed by William Kashtan,

Canadian Communist Party
leader, in Vancouver on Sunday,
April 9. Hall to be announced.

\

~ we don’t have to pay the stea

something they can decide
the next provincial elect
held, which will apparet
soon. In the meantime, ©
want to see our children get
best possible education, We")
have to foot the bill ourselV@iy
would therefore urge you 10 ™
in favor of the referendum.

But at the same time 1! Wy
also urge that you keep UP ai
pressure to compel the Bm
vincial government to set 4
more funds for education S°™

increasing costs by incre® i
taxes on our homes. 7

resignation of the board ia
This whole scheme back’ jl my
While the two referendum i
not quite get enough ve ave
pass, (since a 60 percent © ip th
able vote is necessary,) ! i the Se
was close enough, wit et
majority favoring the 7g)
endums, that it can only ™ |
sidered a defeat for the 1 de
tionary anti-education fOr i) Sp
Although failure to win th
percent vote required w! of
serious problems for the
tional system in Nort
couver, ‘i e A
Commenting on the ree" ii! $
the vote, Dorothy Lyn ‘ol

“The closeness of the iit

shows confidence in out a ‘f
and our. program. yi 8
chairman of the North at Te
couver school board said! ith! F
large number of people aioe x
real interest in edu ite a
people with young chi of
can’t vote because they if
own property, yet 58 pea -
the eligible voters voted Weel |
58.5 percent of owner’ fi),
voted for the $815,688 git)
endum and 57.9 percent VO jt)
the $2.1 million const” |.

referendum.

(

j

There has been a stal i
increase in apartment dw
and tenants with families
North Shore, but these hay
disenfranchised by the » jj
government and right win
leaders ,