EDITORIAL

Development — who gains?

The Canada Development Corpora-
tion (CDC) has been getting a lot of at-
tention of late from the professional
profiteers, including Toronto’s Tory
Globe and Mail. The Globe’s annoyance
at federal efforts to establish a say in the
corporation, of which it owns 49% of the
shares were predictable.

What is the CDC? It was established by
act of parliament in 1971 “to develop
and maintain strong Canadian-
controlled and -managed corporations.”
with a 21-person board of directors. This
is not nationalization, the focus is on the
private sector. It does go with
“Canadianization”, however. And that is
interference with multi-national corpo-
ration “rights”.

CDC’s holdings in 1978-79 included
petrochemicals, mining, oil and gas,
health care, and venture capital. For
example, Polysar, wholly owned by CDC,
owns along with CDC 60% of Petrosar
Ltd. CDC Oil and Gas Ltd., is 100%
CDC-owned. Connlab Holdings is 100%
owned and is in the health care and

harmaceuticals sector. Other holdings
include three venture capital companies
having 26 businesses.

Those who cry out against govern-
ment participation in business want Ot-

tawa to sell out its share to Burns Fry

Ltd., of Toronto, a firm eager to get it

into corporate hands.

While the government has apparently
backtracked from its pressure to get
Maurice Strong, its representative, into
the CDC chairman’s job, it was and js
perfectly logical and fitting for the
government to want such representa-
tion. Not that this gives the people of
Canada much of a voice in CDC affairs,
but the link is worth preserving between
elected representatives, the electorate,
and the resources and facilities financed
by the government at public expense.

‘The corporate elite argues that the
CDC was set up in the first place to de-
velop Canadian entities for the private
sector. But in the 10 years that have pass-
ed, we've seen how the mighty monopoly
giants have come begging at the public
treasury for handouts. If it is legitimate
for the taxpayer to prop vast empires like
Ford, Chrysler, the forest industries, et-
cetera, if monopoly capitalism can argue
that the government should be involved

on the giving end, then it is more than ‘

legitimate that the elected representa-
tives of Canadians have a substantial say
in the operations of the Canada
Development Corporation.

Need tough combines law

The man who publicly exposed a
$12-billion ripoff of the public by major
oil companies in Canada, was fired from
his job this month, amid charges of a
government attempt to pacify big busi-
ness. Robert Bertrand was also responsi-
ble for charging the Thomson and
Southam newspaper chains under the
Combines Investigation Act.

Explanations of his ill health and that
job changes are routine, may be prova-
ble, but they will hardly convince the
public that these were not a mere con-
venience tor the Department of Con-

sumer and Corporate Affairs, and the ~

Cabinet, to silence him.

While he held the positions of assistant
deputy minister in charge of the compet-
ition bureau and director of research
and investigation under the Combines
Investigation Act, Bertrand produced

the seven-volume report which exposed
the oil multi-nationals’ price-fixing at
consumers’ expense.

Ottawa had been scheduled to intro-
duce changes to tighten up the com-
bines legislation this fall, under Ber-
trand’s urging. These are changes bit-
terly opposed by the monopolies. Now
that Bertrand has been removed to ap-
pease big business, what is to become of
his recommendations?

Canadian workers and consumers as a
whole who are suffering the financial
and social blows of galloping monopoli-
zation of the economy, should demand
that Ottawa stand up to the multi-
nationals, and the bulging Canadian
monopolies, who want combines legisla-
tion weakened. Such weakening is the
road to bigger and richer ripoffs of the
consuming public.

Autoworkers’ alternative

A fresh approach to the problems of
Canada’s auto industry is embodied in a
remarkable program just off the-press:
An Alternative for Canadian
workers. It consists of a major set of pro-
posals by the Communist Party of
Canada to preserve and expand auto
jobs, to free Canadian auto from the
multi-nationals, and to co-ordinate the
economic sectors which flow into and out
of the auto industry.

It’s an exciting concept of the direction
auto in Canada must go if it is to cease
being the victim of the U.S. mult-

nationals.
PACIFIC TRIBUNE—MAY 29, 1981—Page 4

Auto-_

Its clear, four-part outline leads from
the current economic crisis. with auto
layoffs rampant, toward a Canadian car,
shows auto’s ties with the rest of the
economy, and calls for the mobilization
needed to realize changes.

Here isa challenge to corporate power
and to current state policy, a call for pub-

lic ownership as essential to solving the -

problems of the industry in Canada. An
Alternative for Canadian Autoworkers,
whose broad outlines appear elsewhere
in this issue, deserves widest distribution
and discussion in the labor movement.

Flashbacks |

NEW TRIAL URGE
FOR SOBELL

President Eisenhower was
urged in a letter signed by 61
prominent Americans to either
ask the attorney general to con-
sent to a new trial for Morton
Sobell or himself t6 grant a par-
don or commutation of the 30-
year sentence Sobell is now serv-
ing in Alcatraz prison on a
trumped up “atom spy” charge.

Among the signatories were
scientists, writers and other
outstanding individuals such as
radio commentator Elmer
Davis, Nobel prize-winning
scientists Dr. Harold Urey and
Dr. Linus Pauling, Dorothy Day,
editor of the Catholic worker,
and Lewis Mumford, author.

A legal motion was also filed in
the U.S. supreme court last week
asking for a new trial based on
the perjured evidence given by
two of the chief witnesses at So-
bell’s trial.
The Tribune,
May 28, 1956

OYMENT
Psveosane yeaa

. CNRAND
RACE HATRED

EDMONTON — The “divide _

and rule” policy has now been
officially launched by our
government through the CNR.
The rail company has sent word
to its departments that has re-

sulted in discrimination against .

foreign born workers. ~
For instance two German
workers who reported back for

their summer jobs at CN golf |

courses were told by the fore-

man that he was instructed to —

employ only Canadians and
Britishers. A Dutch laborer with
one of the highest seniorities in
the yards was fired after a three
week sick leave because he didn’t
report his illness personally. He
had phoned three times instead.

The boss is not interested in —

whether his workers come from

Greenland or Canada. He is in- ©

terested only in their efficiency.
But some Canadians like to

think that the present misery is —
caused by “too many immi- —
grants” and this false idea must —
be exploited by the bosses to the ~

utmost.

Profiteer of the week __

Real wages may be taking a beating, but just to prove that the
system is working for those who run it, ImascoLtd., Montreal hada
neat after-tax profit of $89,550,000 for the year ended March 31/81.
That’s up from $68-million the year before, and comes from Imas-
co’s ownership of various food, drug and tobacco distributors.

Editor — SEAN GRIFFIN
’ Associate Editor — FRED WILSON
Business and Circulation Manager — PAT O'CONNOR

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The Worker, ©
May 30, 1931 —