NAZI BONFIRE

B
A

Farm program would
complement Land Act

By ALD. HARRY RANKIN
What happens to farm lands and
to farmers in the lower mainland
should be of concern also to urban
dwellers. Many of us have been so

busy with city living that we’ve:

forgotten what the smell of cow-
manure is like.

The provincial government in-
structed the Greater Vancouver
Regional District, (GVRD), to
prepare a by-law concerning
proposed land reserves in. the
District, under the terms of the
Land Commission Act. As part of
this preparation of a, by-law, the
GVRD organized a series of public
meetings in the district last month
followed by a formal public hear-
ing in Delta, on September 26th.

As a member of the GVRD
Board representing Vancouver, I
attended the public meeting in
Cloverdale on September 18th and
the public hearing. It was an oppor-
tunity to gain an insight into the
problems of farmers first-hand.
They were both angry and disturb-
ed.

Many among them blamed the
NDP government for the dif-
ficulties they are facing. I stated
that I was in full support of the

general approach of the govern-.

ment in its effort to preserve farm
lands, and that the problems the
farmers face today are the result of

Protest recognition of junta

A delegation from the newly-
formed ‘Canadians for Democracy
in Chile’ will go to Victoria on
Wednesday, October 10 to call on
the provincial government to con-
demn the Federal government's
recognition of the military junta.

In a letter sent to Premier Dave
Barrett, following the meeting last
Friday night in the Grandview
Community Centre at which the
committee was formally set up,
Phil Rankin, chairman of the com-
mittee, said:

“We as. Canadians are appalled
and disgusted by the Federal
government’s rationale that such
recognition does not mean that the

Federal government supports the’

en

see
SESS

5

lords

When our touring friends visited a number of music es-
tablishments in England in search of that record, the
proprietors, looking as though Guy Fawkes had just come
into the shop, muttered to themselves sotto voce, “ah, a
couple of Paddys.”’ So it was back to Ireland for the song,
where singing is not yet prohibited!

It is a beautiful song, with the finest of Irish lyrics and
with a challenging air. Its theme is freedom for the hun-
dreds of Irishmen thrown into hurriedly-built concentra-
tion camps set up by British reaction. Men torn from their
wiveS and children and families in the dead of night, held
without charge or trial or other democratic pretense, other
than that some of them may have looked like a “couple of
Paddys” to their uniformed persecutors. In the concentra-
tion camp severe beatings and other forms of cruel torture

were and are their daily lot.

This rallying protest song is sponsored by the Irish Civil
Liberties Association, and the chorus highlights the objec-

tive:—

Tom
McEWEN

t is a very popular song, so popular that in all

Merrie England its recording, sales and dis-

tribution have been banned by order of Tory prime
minister Edward Heath and his cabinet clique of noble

repressive policies of the fascist
junta.”

Charging that recognition
legitimizes the suppression and
murder of Chilean democrats by
recognizing the military junta as
the legitimate authority in Chile,
the letter points out that it took
Canada 25 years to recognize the
People’s Republic of China and to
this day does not recognize the
German Democratic Republic or
the People’s Republic of Korea.

The delegation will also call on
the B.C. government to urge Ot-
tawa to grant political asylum to
those Chileans desiring it, and
facilitate their exit to a country of
their choice.

The committee will join with
other similar groups across Canada
in a campaign against Canadian
recognition of the junta and will
rally public opinion to demand
release of political prisoners in
Chile.

The committee is awaiting a rep-
ly from Senora Hortensia Allende,
wife of the murdered Chilean
president, on a request to speak at
a mass rally in Vancouver.

The public is invited to par-
ticipate in the delegation. Those
able to leave for Victoria should be
on the 8 a.m. ferry next Wednesday
at Tsawwassen. There is no bus
service available for that sailing. A
meeting of those taking part will be
held on the ferry.

“Armoured cars and tanks and guns

Came to take away our Sons;
Every man must stand behind
The Man behind the wire!
Heath and his Tory ruling caste don’t like the ‘Man
behind the wire,”’ but then what segment of that monopoly-

dominated imperialist tribe does?

release:

But as a truly great U.S. president once said of his own
country, ‘‘No nation can long survive, half slave and half
free.’ And heroic Vietnam has fully demonstrated its un-
breakable will to survive and live in freedom.

The tragedy of Chile, the murder of the Salvador
Allende government, planned and directed by U.S. im-
perialism with its all-powerful monopoly ITT-CIA agencies,
is the best proof to date (if such is needed) that to all such
powers it doesn’t amount to a tinkers damn whether a
Marxist government is democratically elected by the ma-
jority will of the people or not; the end justifies the means
of getting rid of it, and the military coup or armed counter-
revolution, call it what you will, becomes the modus
operandi
’ “SESS Re

PACIFIC TRIBUNE — FRIDAY, OCTOBER 5, 1973 — PAGE 2

The people of Vietnam threw off the yoke of U.S. im-
perialist oppression — at a terrible cost in blood, suffering
and death, but they have triumphed over all such op-
pressors because of their universal determination to live in
freedom.

In parts of South Vietnam under the thraldom of
Yankee imperialism, there are still concentration camps;
places of torture and death, made-in-the-USA tiger cages to
hold alleged “‘incorrigibles” until a kindly death brings

20 years of Social Credit neglect.
The main question is: What are we
going to do now?

All of us who live in the cities
would like to see open green belts
preserved. But this can’t be done at
the expense of the farmer. The
government has to do one of two
things: either buy the land from
the farmers and keep it as open
public land, or make it possible for
the farmer to make a decent living
on the land.

Farmers in the Lower Mainland
face some real problems. In the
process of urbanization, they've
been treated as second or third
class citizens. Freeways and
railway tracks have cut up their
farms; power lines make some
farms look like obstacle courses.
Farm lands have become run-off
areas for surplus water from urban
developments. Adequate irrigation
and diking are lacking. Access
roads for hauling loads and market
roads are serious problems.

The GVRD estimates that we
still have approximately 81,000
acres of good agricultural land in
the district, and the hearings clear-
ly demonstrated that we have a
very capable group of farmers who
want to remain farmers. It is the
responsibility of the provincial
government to see that they are
able to remain and make a good
living.

Some of the measures that I see
as necessary are:

e The building of farm access
roads, including large enough un-
derpasses so they can get from
one field to another with large
equipment.

e Proper drainage facilities in-
cluding larger culverts.

e The construction of irrigation
systems where required.

e End the practice of B.C. Hydro
arrogantly running its power
lines across valuable farm lands
without any consideration as to
the consequences for the farmer.

¢ The provison of adequate diking
facilities including the. establish-
ment of a proper diking authori-
ty by the provincial government.

e An end to the indiscriminate
practice of building freeways
through farm lands. It is obvious

uniform; the violence of guns and clubs, concentra

have been in other areas and that
the emphasis from now on
should be on a good system of
public rapid transit to move peo
ple, instead of more freeways to
move more cars.

: Finally, and most important, the
farmer needs reasonable —
assurance of a stable market at
prices that will guarantee him 4
living in keeping up with the
times. This involves tarriffs
prevent U.S. farm produce being
dumped on the B.C. market just
when the produce of ou!
farmers strawberries, onions;
spuds etc. is in season. The
provincial government could also
give consideration to setting UP
an agency that will buy produce

direct from the farmer and thet

sell it direct to the public for 2

reasonable price.

The farmer today is not the
beneficiary of the high price
food. Nor can he in any way be
blamed for these high prices. The
farmers’ returns are relatively 1oW
— the big money is being made bY
the middlemen, the packing plants,
processing plants, chain stores an
so on who profiteer at both the ¢*
pense of the farmer and the com
sumer.

The very small farm presents @
problem too. One farmer who has@
10 acre patch in Delta explained 1
the hearing that under existiné
municipal by-laws he could havé
either two pigs or 499 chicken:
Now of course he can’t make a lI”
ing from that. This is not @
workable farm and such a farme!
should be bought out by the provi’
cial government and the 1a?
preserved as open space.

You may be surprised to learn
that Bowen Island also has some
good farm land that could, an
think should be preserved to gf
farm produce -

In conclusion, let me emphasié
my conviction that the ims
farm land we have in Britis”
Columbia should be preserved.
should not be dependent ‘a
another country for our [00
supplies. Secondly we need ony
breathing spaces between oul
cities, farms and urban area
farmers and city dwellers ar
mutually interdependent.

tion

camps, terror and death against the people and ©
chosen government. Hitler didn’t invent these weapons:

merely perfected them for his imperialist prototy
follow when their vaunted “democracy” became
obstacle to their class interests.

Concentration camps and mass killing are NOW es
“order of the day”’ in Chile, while all imperialist count
including Canada, are now recognizing, or getting *
recognize the new Chilean Murder-Incorporated ™!

junta.

pes

w the,

set
italy

And now we hear that the federal government, throus?
external affairs minister Mitchell Sharp has recognize iof
Chilean military dictatorship. His momentary hes! all
was not concerned with the death of democracy in
the wanton murder of President Salvador Allende an
dreds of his supporters but concerned instead with of
suring that the whole of Chile was within the iron or pe
the fascist junta — or as Sharp put it “to ensure tha

chile
d hu’
i‘

new government is in full control.”

wir

; eae ntel
Thus the Irish ‘‘man behind the wire” has a? i ry
national counterpart, since concentration camps, mo

way

his hysterical War Measures Act. walds
With the Irish people or wherever new Buchel”, ine
raise their ugly edifice never forget the ‘“‘man

behind