From blacksmith
to revolutionary

BY TOM McEWEN

Tom McEwen’s long-awaited autobiography, “The Forge Glows Red,”
is now available in B.C. This excellent book, which will be reviewed in
an early issue of the PT by Maurice Rush, sells for $3.95 paperback and
$8.95 cloth cover. It is available from the PT office and Co-op
Bookstore.

WIRE PR
Britannia miners urge
gov't to block closure

The Britannia Beach local of the
United Steel Workers of America
sent a telegram to Premier Dave
Barrett Monday urging his
government to pass an order in
council forcing Anaconda Canada
Ltd., to postpone closure of its
copper mine.

The union’s wire asked that the
order in council provide that the
mine be kept open until the
government has studied the
operation to see if a way can be

-found to keep it going.

About 300 miners face the loss of
a job and many families who have
lived at Britannia Beach for many
years will have to move if the
company acts on its.threat to close
down on November 1. ©

Anaconda Canada Ltd.,- an-
nounced early this month that its
headquarters in New York had
decided to shut the operation down.
The Union local announced at that
time that it won’t accept the
closure of Britannia Mine and that
it intended to fight it.

A similar attempt by the
Anaconda Mining Corporation of
New York to shut: down Britannia
Mine was made in 1964 and at that
time public protest stopped the
company from carrying out its
plans.

In response to an early request
by the union, the NDP government

THREE CANDIDATES NAMED

REAL contests Richmond

A newly formed civie group, the
Richmond Electors Action League
(REAL), is fielding two alder-
manic candidates and one school
board candidate in a campaign
that has already proven to be of
considerable importance for the
whole Fraser delta area.

In a nominating meeting last
week, REAL announced the

mayor Gil Blair, approved a
rezoning application for a 158-acre
block of agricultural land. despite
the opposition of residents; 9,000 of
whom had signed a petition against
the application.

The site — Riverside Industrial
complex — is slated for develop-
ment by what is reported to be a
West German company, New West
Developments. REAL pointed out
that already most of the river
frontage along the south arm of the
Fraser is zoned _ industrial and
further rezoning would spell the
end of agriculture along the river
as well as endanger the fishing
industry.

Much of what is left of the
agricultural land along the river is
presently being held by
speculators, apparently in an-
ticipation of more rezoning by
developer-dominated councils.

In voicing its opposition to the
rezoning, REAL emphasized its
own policy on development which,
it said, must meet two tests: one, it
must provide a needed and useful
service to the community and
second, it must be submitted to the

nomination of Margaret DeWees,

. Ba AS. & . vor _
ee Sa oe
MARGARET DEWEES

president of the Richmond Tenants
Council, and William Procopation,
organizer for the United Fisher-
men and Allied Workers Union for
Richmond council. Lorraine
Hocking, a nurse and mother of
four school children, will be on
REAL’s ticket for school board.

In launching the organization,
REAL stated that it wanted to
“give residents the opportunity to
elect representatives who will
respect their wishes and develop
the municipality in their real in-
terests.”’

The decisive issue of developers’
versus residents’ interests has
already emerged clearly in the
election campaign. Only recently,’ © as
Richmond council, headed by WILLIAM PROCOPATION

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—FRIDAY, OCTOBER 25, 1974—Page 12

seats

LORRAINE HOCKING

people of Richmond for discussion
and ratification before a decision is
made.

The group also outlined other
policies for the municipality in-
cluding rights for tenants and
support for the principle of non-
profit, public housing, a graduated
business tax based on size of
business, protection of the Fraser
River and the fishing industry and
planned community growth.

REAL also stressed the need for
municipal tax reform, according to
the principle that property be
taxed only for services to property.

In outlining her school board
program, Mrs. Hocking noted the
fovernment’s pledge to remove the
education tax from homeowners
and said that education should be
financed from the general revenue
of the province.

The school board policy also
includes:

0 Collective bargaining for
teachers on a local level.

© Reduced class size.

_ © Community use of schools and
increased community involvement
in the education process.

0 Pressure on both federal and
provincial governments to make
more money available for research
and development of Canadian
textbooks for schools. :

set up a committee to look into the
closure problem, but the com-
mittee has failed to take any ac-
tion, giving the excuse that it will
not be able to meet for at least a
week after the shutdown date
because of the absence from
Victoria of Mines Minister Leo
Nimsick.

It’s likely that the Britannia local
acted Monday be sending the wire
calling for an immediate order in
council because of the failure of the
government’s committee to take
any action. The union had earlier
asked that the government take
over the operation of the Anaconda
Mining Co.

Meanwhile, the steel workers
union said Anaconda has failed to
give any furm answer to the
union’s request that if the closure
goes ahead that the company will
pay severance pay to the 300
workers who will be thrown out of
work. According to the union, the
company has only agreed to a 21
percent increase in wages for
about 60 employees who be
required to remain on the job for a
short period of time to complete
closure of the mine.

The company made its an-
nouncement to close the mine after
many weeks’ of _ contract
negotiations with the union, which
were suddenly halted with the
order from New York to shutdown
on November 1.

The B.C. Communist Party said
in a statement following the
company’s announcement that if
the company is not prepared to
continue the operation it should be
taken over the provincial govern-
ment ‘‘to ensure that the jobs and
lives of the people of Britannia are
not simply disposed of by this giant
U.S. monopoly.

Another Anaconda operation in
B.C. is facing shutdown with
reports that the plant will be
moved to California, giving rise to
speculation that the shutdowns are
a result of policies decided by the
board of directors of the Anaconda
Mining Corporation in New York

RANKIN

Cont'd from pg, 2

citizen had a useful job at decent
wages, if every person had good
housing at a rent he can afford, if
we had adequate and _ healthy
sports, recreation and_ en-
tertainment facilities, then these
social problems would be much
less serious than they are today.

But these are not the sort of
answers that commissioners seek
or governments wish to act on.

Meanwhile the problem gets
worse. :

for corporate and profit ree
and have nothing to 4 all
whether the operations are He é
With layoffs spreading ra
B.C. as the economic situall?

the capitalist world worse

: . : te ceene ft.
Britannia Mine closure 1s 5™, “il

test case whether the prev
government will allow the ae
of massive unemploymel alt
winter or take action age etl
big corporations to compél rote
continue operations 0 P
workers’ livlihoods.

Mine profits
shoot upwaf

It’s not so long ago.that a
mining companies C4!
huge advertisements a
newspapers predicting do o
because of the NDP srl
ment’s Bill 31, the Mine
Royalties Act. But despilé a
new act, they are doing “ail
well indeed as recent P
figures show. thal
Cominco announced ike:
despite a three months pe
profits doubled in the first
months of this year. Las
Premier Dave Barrett 18 it

ine |p
and pointed to Brenda M st
near Peachland, which 2™7
doubled its profit in the

TENANTS

Cont'd. from P9- 1

igo
progress of the rent campale:
to report on the progress? |
campaign and to rally SUP
the convention. ord!
In addition to Yorke th | iyse
rally also, heard Brucé ih
report on the plight
thousands of lodgers nd
protection under the act, i oa
Pauline Hebert, of vn tio!
apartments tenants assoc at
Coquitlam. Hebert sa! real
association is the first be, 0
unit in British Colun' gi!
tenants and would be me® cuss My
landlords this week to dis, rot”
rebate of $15,000 in illeg4

0 of

PROFITS, PROF! uss
Dow Chemical in a ti!
announced recently ! é wh
quarter profits in 1974 WE spit?
percent over 1973 oer
prolonged strike. The A rep
Company of America
profits up 83 percent 10 yer f 4
S rep”

quarter of the year
Kaiser Industries in the ©
profits up 220 percent.

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six months of 1974. Pr

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