SPEAKING

FLASHBACKS FROM
THE COMMUNIST PRESS

50 years ago...
TO SQUEEZE CO-OP
FRUIT GROWERS

Victoria, B.C. — The big fruit
packing concerns are trying to
hogtie the co-operative movement
in the fruit growing districts of
British Columbia by having the
provincial legislature pass an act
which will force small growers
to sell to an association but does
not require the association to pur-
chase fruit from small growers.

The bill is being fought by the
Labor members in the house and
largely through their efforts an
amendment was made to the
original bill which prevented the
association's growers for breaches
of contract from taking action
against the small growers prior
to the passing of the present act.

* * *

Five years ago Gompers select-
ed his own grave in Tarrytown,
choosing one a few steps away
from Carnegie and Rockefeller,
mass murderers of laborers. In
death they were not divided.’

The Worker,
Jan. 10, 1925

25 years ago...
30 DAYS IN JAIL
On a single day in Toronto 23
jobless men were arrested and
sentenced to a $10 fine or 30 days
in jail for the “crime” of having

no place to sleep. They had no.

means of paying such a fine. With
all hostels jammed to the doors,
the overflow of unemployed. are
seeking refuge in CPR coaches
laid-up in the railway yards. Po-
lice raids are being made nightly
and the homeless jailed on tres-
passing charges.

Civic officials who last week at-
tempted to divert public attention
from the crisis by charging that
an unemployed organization was
led by Communist “cells” have to
admit that the number of home-
less men in the city is creating a
serious problem which _necessi-
tates special police squads to
round them up for the purpose of
jailing.

The new Union of Unemployed
Workers condemns the police ac-
tion, demanded the men be given
accommodation and jobs.

Tribune,
Jan. 10, 1950

Profiteer of the week:

SOS

Pa

PSS

; West C

SSeS SESE

t edition, Canadi

acific Tribune

Remember Brinco? It controls Abitibi As-
bestos Mining, Churchill Falls (Labrador)
Corp. Ltd., etc. On the books it made a
modest profit increase in this year’s first
nine months,
$4,106,200 to $5,1€6,C00. Actually its profit,
Jan. to Sept. was $92,750,000 but pretend
you don’t notice because this is what's
known in accounting as an extraordinary
gain. They made more than $87-million by
selling some shares. (That's profit, not re-
venue.) Then a tax credit of $434,000. But
that doesn’t count because it doesn’t hap-
pen every year. How about your tax credits?

over last years. Up from

Tribune:

Editor — MAURICE RUSH
Published weekly at Ford Bldg., Mezzanine No. 3, 193 E. Hastings St.,
Vancouver 4, B.C. Phone 685-8108
Business & Circulation Manager, FRED WILSON
Subscription Rate: Canada, $6.00 one year; $3.50 for six months;

North and South America and C

wealth

ies, $7.00

All other countries, $8.00 one year
Second class mail registration number 1560

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—FRIDAY, JANUARY 10, 1975—Page 4

Edctorial Comment...
Jobs lost to U.S. interference

Intolerable interference is how Trade
Minister Alastair Gillespie described
the blocking by the U.S. parent com-
pany of a $500,000 sale of office furni-
ture to Cuba from Canada by the Cole
division of Litton Business Equipment
Ltd. in Toronto.

The U.S. Government’s Trading with
the Enemy Act has interfered in Can-
ada before, delaying a deal for a
$12-million sale of locomotives to Cuba.
The outcry on that occasion won a one-
time victory. But with office furniture,
we’re back to square one! And a pend-
ing $2-million sale to Cuba of typewrit-

Franchise for spying

Invasion of privacy, which has been
developed to a fine art in the USA, has
not been overlooked by the ruling pow-
ers in Canada either. Such privacy in-
vasion is not only resented by large

numbers of people: it has long been*

known to be a political weapon used
against the working class, the trade
unions, people’s organizations and the
Left, by the imperialist state.

In the wake of Watergate, Canada’s
Parliament passed The Protection of
Private Act Jan. 14. 1974, effective June
3C, 1974. With the U.S. example of spy
agencies pawing through the lives of
organizations and. individuals, Cana-
dians in general could welcome passage
of Bill C-176.

Criminal offences under the Act in-
clude unauthorized interception of pri-

-vate communications, unauthorized pos-

session of devices “primarily useful for
surreptitious interception of private
communications,” and unauthorized
disclosure of intercepted private com-
munications. :

If all that is for unauthorized spy-
ing, what about that which is authoriz-
ed? Well, there is Canadian National
Telecommunications which provides
telephone, telegraph, and other services,
and holds a license (send applications
to the Commissioner of the Royal Cana-
dian Mounted Police) to tear up the
Privacy Act “in the course of its busi-
ness.”

The company and its representatives
(!) may buv, possess, or distribute such
devices and may intercept private com-
munications anywhere. anytime, under
the heading of controlling the service.

CN emplovees are cautioned. by seni-
or Officials, that thev must not use the
information gained from spying, unless
authorized!

Protection of privacy becomes a joke
when it’s left to the tender mercies of
reactionarv outfits like the RCMP and
Canadian National. They are the very
peovle workers need protection against.
We've heard a great outcry in the capi-

talist press recently, particularly in
Ontario, about measures that should be
- taken to crush so-called “illegal” strikes.

With the whole anti-labor claque on
such a hinge, how great a jumn is it
to see this as a case for spving on
unions for the purnose of givine evi-
dence in civil or. criminal proceedings,
as authorized by CN?

They have the equipment and the
government okay and you can bet
they'll use it in the class struggle.

ers by IBM Canada Ltd. appears also
to be suspect. j

Can anyone imagine the reverse situ- —
ation, the U.S. Government pleading ~
with Ottawa for permission to trade
with a country it recognizes, but which

‘Canada does not, such as the German ~

Democratic Republic? The idea is ludi-—

crous, and so would be Canada’s plead- —
ing with Washington over Cuba, if it
were not so typical of the doormat ~
stance taken by the Canadian Govern-
ment in its U.S. relations. q

Increased, diversified trade is one
urgent means of altering the no-growth ~
feature of our economy. Trade with the —
stable socialist world can lead to jobs —
for Canadians, even if it can’t cure the ©
fatal ailments of the capitalist system. —

Such trade and jobs are threatened —
not only by the few cases which reach ©
public attention. How many Canadian ©
subsidiaries of U.S. corporations have —
unwritten laws prohibiting trade with
Cuba even coming up for considera-_
tion? 4

Vice-president Ronald Booth of the
Montreal subsidiary of the New York-
based. Radio Corporation of America
(RCA), told a Toronto Star pollster:
“Trading with Cuba would ‘vut~ the ©
Americans on our board of: directors —
in an untenable position. since they have ~
to trv to comply with the laws of both —
countries.” The unspoken conclusion — ~
avoid trade with Cuba at the Canadian —
workers’ expense. F

The struggle for Canadian indepen-
dence thus becomes a practical matter,
and a fight to stop the Trudeau Govern-

~ ment’s compliance in undermining it. _

The working class, in the first place,
is obligated to demand legislation to __
bring U.S. cornorations under Cana-

dian law to conform to Canadian trade —

interests. Companies which fail to com- |
ply, should, under the law, be taken |
over and operated as Crown Corpora- ©
tions. — ool

Kissinger’s threats

Henry Kissinger has made it clear
once more that the United States would
attempt the military seizure.of Arab
oil fields if the U.S. deemed it neces-
sary. a

Coupled with Israel’s nuclear threat
against her Arab neighbors, and U.S.
Defence Secretarv Schlesinger’s recent:
defence of NATO’s 7,000-weapon nu-
clear stockpile in Europe “because the
Soviet threat has grown in Europe,” it
adds up to dangerous adventurism.

It is far from the first time in his-
tory that imperialism has played with»
the idea of war in hones of preventing
a headlong plunge into a political and
economic morass. ;

Alert peace forces have recently
sounded the alarm that world peace is
far from secure, and have called for an-
intensified campaien to bridle nuclear
blackmailers like Kissinger, and his sil-
ent partner, Ford. .

Canadians should appreciate also the

‘ real possibility that, before risking nu- .

clear war over the Middle East, the’
U.S. military might well choose to
knock over an apparently easier target
—Canada’s oil resources. Does anyone
imagine Kissinger would have qualms”
about that? a