een) |e

The long awaited World Peace
| Congress — Conference on
_ Multinationals opens next weekend
in Toronto with delegates from 20
different countries attending the
meeting at the University of
Toronto’s Medical Sciences
Building.
In a statement from the Con-
| ference’s organizing committee
the terms of reference for the
_ discussion was described as the
| ~ “awesome concentration of
| €conomic political and military
_ Power in the hands of the multi-
national corporations.”
__ “This conference,” it read, “‘is
aimed at untangling in definitive
| Way the many myths that have
__§rown up around the phenomena of
_ the trans global operations of these
-Multi-national corporations.. We
' Want to place particular emphasis
__ Upon discovering and-exposing the
_ tivities of these corporations
_ that lead to war. We want to stress
€ impact of the multi-nationals
on. sovereignty and economic
~ Independence.\We want to show
__ how the lives of all the people are
“affected by the decisions of
Multinationals regarding  in-
_ Yestment, markets, labor forces
and resource development.”
_ A number of ‘delegates at the
_ onference will be from British
| Columbia. These will include Bert
Ogden who is being sent by the
Nanaimo Labor Council, Lillian
oney from the Victoria Peace
Council and a representative of the
B.C. Peace Council. Noted marxist
_ €conomist Emil Bjarnason will
| Present one of the papers to the
_ Conference, entitled ‘‘The
Conomics of the Multinationals.”’
A group of three leading
members of the World Peace
Congress will tour Canada this
Week previous to the conference. It
Will include Karen Talbot, the
orth American representative to
the WPC, Jean Schaeffer of the
WPC’s Presidential Committee
and a member of the Social Council
of the Government of France, and
aja Ali, an executive member
of India’s ruling Congress Party.
The three will arrive in Van-
“ouver this Thursday and attend a
I lic reception in their honor at
Sa P.m., Thursday, November 6
the Unitarian Church.
N hen the conference opens on
may ember 14 it will discuss
Multinationals under three main
Wordings and in ~- several
& tyeshops. Main topies cover the
oie “Multinationals and the
anyon economic crisis,’
Ultinationals and national in-
oS Ndence”’ and ‘Multinationals
_ ~~ threat to peace and detente.”
0 addition to those from Canada
f the United States delegations
the packed from Algeria, Iraq,
Cub SSR, Mongolia, Hungary,
wa, Venezuela, Costa Rica, Chile

. ee a

The World Conference on Multinationals (see story below) meeting in
Toronto will examine the awesome economic, political and military
power in the hands of the multinational corporations. Graphic above
shows an artists conception of U.S. Coca-Cola imperialism.

Multi-nationals viewed
at Toronto conference

exiles, India, Bangladesh, Sri
Lanka, France, Federal Republic
of Germany, Mozambique, Guinea
Bissau and Madagascar.

Among the non-governmental
organizations. that will be
represented are the World
Federation of Trade Unions,
OPEC, the African National
Congress of South Africa and
others. :

Among the non-governmental
organizations that will -be
represented are the World
Federation of Trade Unions,
OPEC, the African National
Congress of South. Africa and
others.

Canadian delegates to the
conference will include a number
of trade unionists from labor
councils and unions such as the
Steelworkers, | United. © Auto
Workers .and United. Electrical
Workers. The CLC will. be
represented as well.

“There is an alternative to the
domination of our lives by these
multinationals,”’ the statement of
the organizing committee said,
““Wesee this conference not only as
a forum for discussion, not only as
an-opportunity to add to our un-
derstanding of how multinationals
operate, but above all this world
conference must lay the basis for a
concrete planned action on a world
scale by the peace forces of the
world as an opening step in a
campaign to counter the awesome
power of these multinational
corporations.”

S

Rankin’s
Law

scuttles rent controls

The recommendations to the
provincial government on landlord
and tenant legislation have been
rejected by the organized tenant
movement as steps which ‘‘if
adopted, would emasculate the
already weak control of rent in-
are system that now exists in

The proposals were contained in
the: report: . of. «the ~°‘‘In-
terdepartmental Study Team on
Housing and Rents’’ released last
week by the attorney general.
Although still at the proposal
stage, the report received the tacit
approval of attorney-general Alec

- MacDonald.

“That is a landlord report,”
asserted British Columbia Tenant
Organization president Bruce
Yorke in an interview with the
Tribune, ‘‘there is barely a thing
about it which is supportable.”

According to Yorke the
proposals would in effect set a
minimum allowable rent increase
of at least 8 per cent, and more
likely in the 12 per cent range, but
which Jeaves “the maximum rent
increase an open question.”

“The report appears to favor
control,’ Yorke said, ‘‘But it is so
full of exemptions, special cases,
considerations for landlords and
more, that if it were adopted
landlords would rub their hands in
glee.

“For all practical purposes it
scuttles any effective control
program from the point of view of

tenants, in favor of landlords and

their market economy profits. The
NDP was elected on a promise to
prevent just this.”

Yorke charged that.the govern-
ment ordered the original and well
prepared brief of the study team.to
be re-written with the result that
the report released by MacDonald
is a ‘gross distortion of the original
report and represents only the
personal prejudices of its members
who picked and chose what they
wanted-from the original sources
and deliberately suppressed vital
hard information.”

“The. public doesn’t. know “it,”
Yorke said, “but the original
report was presented to the at-
torney general, the premier and
the cabinet simultaneously with
the submission of the study team’s
amended ‘‘version.”

“So far the government has
refused to release the original,
basic and thoroughly documented
report. We demand its release so
that everyone can judge it against
the wholesale butchering it sub-

Name

Specia

With a $6.00 sub you can receive RANKIN’S LAW at
~ ‘the reduced price of $6.00 (reg. $7.95).

of the Team who did no research
whatsoever — all they did was a re-
write job!”’

The original report, he said,
stated that one third of existing
rents are illegal, that enforcement
provisions “are inadequate, and
that there is no need for any rent
increase beyond 6.4 per cent. It
went even further to say that the
entire administration should be
revamped with authority tran-
sferred to a new Rent Review
Commission that would have full
time landlord and _ tenant
representatives.

But the original report was re-

written to include proposals and
loopholes entirely contrary: to the
spirit of the first document.

Yorke outlined five major
loopholes which will have the effect
of mass exemptions from any
controls at all, even before the
“rent increase formula’”’ is ap-
plied. : aes

The first of these is to set a basic
anniversary date of January 1976.
“This ‘condones the widespread
illegal rents in existence at the

present,” Yorke commented, «“‘It:

makes a mockery of the law, un-
dermines the base of the system,
and: legitimatizes. illegal rents.’’

Secondly, the report -proposes
that any municipality could
exempt itself from the controls.
simply through the passing of a by-
law in council. Reactionary
municipal councils in Surrey,
Delta and Coquitlam would jump
at the opportunity.

Then, all rents which are greater -

than $35¢ are to be exempt.
Presently those rents over $500
were exempt. ‘

new

construction is free from control
for five years the Study Team
wants that period extended to
seven years.

“When the proposed rent in-
crease ‘formula’ is applied to the
rest,’ Yorke said, “the loopholes
become yawning chasms.” The
rent incréase formula would
guarantee 3.5 per cent more for
landlords for supposed increasing
operating costs and another
guaranteed 2.9 per cent for sup-
posedly increasing municipal
taxes. On top of that landlords
would get an additional 1.6 per cent
for “protection” against inflation
with that figure increasing on a one
to one ratio with each percentage
point increase in inflation over 8

- per cent. In other words, a 12 per

cent increase would mean an
additional 5.6 per cent for lan-
dlords. . ;

“The gravy train doesn’t stop

. there though,”’ he stressed, “Any

landlord can get more than the 3.5
per cent for operating costs simply
by showing that he incurred
greater costs. :

‘‘Add to that another gift where a
landlord could show that even with
all the loopholes his rents are still
below the community average for
comparable premises he can have
all the rents brought forward. In

‘short, all below average rents can

be brought up to the average. This
could be at least half of all existing
rents. :

“The terrible bias of the-
recommendations is best shown in
that there ‘is no mechanism for
tenants to apply for lower rent
increases where operating cost
increases are below 3.5 per cent, or
where the resulting rents are
higher than the community
average. This speaks volumes for
the so-called: impartiality of those
who put their names to the
réport!””

All of the other aspects of the
report, -Yorke said, are equally
weighted in the landlords’ favor.
They include a lack of a: penalty
provision for violations of the law,
a proposal that the time period for
rent increases be reduced from
three months to two months, that —
there be no posting of rents and no
common anniversary dates, that
administration should remain a
legal one in the hands of the at-
torney general rather than a social
administration under the housing
department and that only token
representation to be given to
tenants in administrative bodies.

Please send:

Rankin’s Law fee. (Enclose $12.00)
Conscience for Canada Ee (Enclose $9.95)
Forge Glows Red cl (Enclose $8.95)

To: Mez. 3, 193 E. Hastings, Van., B.C.

a i cet

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—NOVEMBER 7, 1975—Page 3 _

Renew your sub or buy a new one and we will send you
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