NEWSNAY Dreteitenemed bs 1A e Tomes. S:nilarate “Listen Clark, you've got to stop flying around screaming ‘this is a job for Superman.’ There AREN'T any jobs.” FLASHBACKS FROM THE COMMUNIST PRESS 50 years ago... ‘THIRD DEGREE’ FOR ‘MINERS’ SPOKESMAN A little while ago elections for a check weighman was to take place at Atlas Mines. Louie McDonald was one of the candi- dates. The bosses threatened to close the mine in order to scare the workers against voting for ” Louie. The miners, true to their class interests, elected McDonald: But here we have the worst BE it. On the evening of the election. results the Provincial Police sought out McDonald and hauled him off to the station for a dose of the “third degree”. The: Provincial Police are open and unashamed of their aid to the mine bosses. The workers of 25 years'ago... SOCIALIST VERSUS CAPITALIST FARMING For the first’ trme’in history, prices that farmers get for their products is rising, while the price for consumer goods, in- cluding food, is going down. That is happening in the Soviet Union where in two or three years agriculture will reach new heights never before seen in human history. Farmers will get more, at the same time as indust- rial workers will pay less. In Canada — just the oppo- site. The cost-of living went up in August largely because bread and pork and eggs rose in price, while the price of wheat, hogs and eggs to the farmer went down. Socialist agriculture and Canada must have their anyon capitalist agriculture! this outrage. Tribune oe ine steer October 19, 1953 October 20, 1928 _Profiteer of the week: if you haven’t noticed the prices of wieners, sausages, and other meat and dairy products dropping lately, part of the reason may be. seen in an example of profits in the industry. Schneider Corp., Kitchener, Ontario, for example made a tax-free profit of $4,400,000 in the 40 weeks ended Aug. 5 this year. The same period last year netted them $3,418,000 Figures used are from the company's financial statements. Editor — SEAN GRIFFIN Associate Editor — FRED WILSON Business and Circulation Manager — PAT O'CONNOR Published weekly at Suite 101 — 1416 Commercial Drive, Vancouver, B.C. V5L 3X9 Phone 251-1186 Subscription Rate: Canada, $8.00 one year; $4.50 for six months; All other countries, $10.00 one year Second class mail registration number 1560 PACIFIC TRIBUNE—October 20, 1978—Page 4 EIDIMTOMIALL COMIMUENT! Shift civic cost burden | One central question common to municipal elections across the country is: Where is the money to come from for the scores of demands on eraieral gov- ernment? Clearly the money has to come from where it is — from the senior govern- ments with broad taxation powers, and from profit-making commercial and i in- dustrial enterprises, which utilize civic services on a vast scale, but pay relatively little. While the big business media can find an answer only in stopping the hiring of civic workers, cutting back services to the working people, and ending the filling of potholes, it’s not so hard to see what's really wrong. Senior governments and the giant . corporations they tax — or refuse to tax — and not homeowners and tenants, should be paying for education and other fundamental needs of com- munities from which these “big broth- ers” extract profit and taxes. In brief: taxes on profit-making entities need to be increased, taxes on family homes re-— duced, and strict rent control enacted. A home, for a working-class family is some- thing to be lived in, not a piece of mer- chandise that is bought and sold for Pe fit. The Majority of entrenched “civic fathers” represent the corporate elite. ‘All the more fitting then, the unifying — effect of reform and progressive elector groups in many communities, putting their weight behind candidates for civic — office who will fight on behalf of workers ; and all low-income voters. The civic crises over sai housiies : education, civic renewal and democracy; — health, welfare, quality of life — all these © have either been let go to seed or their costs heaped onto those least able to pay: - Pressure on senior governments, not — least by municipal politicians, can com- pela change. The i increasing number of supporters of reform groups who reject the old Liberal-Tory big business machine politicians, and demand a better deal for workers, pensioners, sole support pa rents and the unemployed, are in a con- stantly better position to elect their can- didates. Such candidates, whose pro- grams are being reported regularly in — this paper, deserve the full support of all _ working people. The Saskatchewan vote | Saskatchewan voters in the October 18 - provincial election face critical decisions — for'themselves and other Canadians. _A central question is: who owns the re- sources, the people as a whole, or the boards of directors of the multi-national corporations? The New Democratic Party has not yet fully faced up to the necessity for public ownership and democratic control of re- sources (including energy) which is in the public interest, and is the position of ' the Communist Party. The NDP has only nibbled at the question. The policies of the two old parties — Tories and Liberals — however, are cause for serious alarm. The Tories under businessman Richard Collver, admit they would “privatize” everything possible, and put the workers and far- mers more firmly in the clutches of the corporations. The Tories have pledged to big business to slash welfare prog- rams, cut back medicare, and fire civil service workers not dedicated to monopoly policy. The ousting of the NDP government in Manitoba by the Sterling Lyon Tories, with their program of labor restraints and cutbacks serves as an example. Although the big business media give the Tories the edge in their chances of defeating the Blakeney NDP govern- ment, the Liberals have come up with a program that conventional observers call the most right-wing policy proposals made in Saskatchewan in a decade. The truth is they hark back to the 30s; they include Liberal leader Ted Malone's call for a return to the open shop, and a crusade against trade unions. A vote for either of these parties of the multi-nationals invites retrogression and an assault on living standards. What is needed is to move politics to the left, and to step up the fight for public ownership of resources — potash, oil, gas, uranium. -monopolies, the railways, the What is needed for farmers is markets, and programs to permit the full use of their skills and labor, instead of squeez- ing them between the imple rtilizer, and mortgage and loan companies. United farmer-labor action could — repel the efforts of monopoly c apie : to impose on the province one of its par- _ ties. Such a united fight would challenge those parties’ basic precepts of private appropriation of resources, of profit be- — fore human needs, of sell-outs to. the | multi-nationals. Such a fight needs un- — . stinting NDP participation. ‘The Communist Party of Canada :. campaigning in Regina Centre, urges Saskatchewan workers and farmers tO | hold the line — prevent either Liberals ~ or Tories from becoming the gover’ :. ment. Living, costs Well, there’s good news, bad news and worse news. First the good news. The — 12-month inflation rate on consumef goods as of September was a mere 8. 67 : that’s down from August’s 9.4%. Why? - Because Canadian fresh fruit and vegeta-. bles came in, as opposed to higher-priced — U.S. imports. All items other than food in the September statistics rose 0.7%. Now the bad news: it won’t last. Con- sumers’ Association of Canada presi- dent, Yvonne. Miles sees prices sky- rocketting as winter creeps up, imports — are. pushed (some supermarkets push them year round) and the dollar staggers along at 85 cents U.S. | Now the worse news. Soon now Statis- _ tics Canada is going to- ‘‘adjust’’ its © method of measuring inflation. It will — base itself on its conviction, for example, — that we are really spending less of oul — budget on food in 1978 than we did iD — 1967. If you believe that you can believe — Statistics Canada.