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Left-centre unity aim
set by COPE parley

The Committee of Progressive
Electors has set itself the objective
of forging left-centre unity in
Vancouver civic politics that will
offset the new right wing coalition
of TEAM and the NPA.

“Our job is to form a left-centre
coalition both inside city council
and outside,”
Harry Rankin declared to the 250
COPE members that jammed last
Sunday’s annua! meeting in east
Vancouver’s Britannia Complex.

Although TEAM as a whole has
shifted to the right, Rankin
described aldermen Brown and
Gibson as “somewhere in the
middle ground”’.

If left to operate in a vacuum,
Harcourt and Marzari will ‘follow
the path of least resistance,” he
said. ‘‘But given the public
pressure of a full gallery they will
coalesce with the COPE position.”

To this point there has been no
formal unity on the reform side of
council, the COPE alderman said,
but the issues before council are
forcing a common approach.

COPE alderman ,

Cuba:

The major issues that will come
before council in the next months
will determine the future of two
important areas of Vancouver,
Rankin told the meeting.

“If the NPA and the developers
have their way Grandview
Woodlands will be pulverized,”
Rankin warned.

The only way to preserve the
community for families is through
‘“‘down-zoning’”’ to prevent the
demolition of family  ac-
commodation to make way for one
bedroom and studio developments,
he argued, otherwise ‘‘three
quarters of the people presently
living here will be boosted out.”

The other area of Vancouver
whose future hangs in the balance
of city council decisions is the

‘ waterfront.

“The decisions that we make
now,’’ Rankin declared, ‘‘will
decide the future of the waterfront
in our lifetime and in our children’s
lifetime.”

Four or five large developers are

See COPE, pg. 11

Socreds launch attack
on workers compensation

By ALD. HARRY RANKIN
If you want to get an in-depth

look at the shennanigans that have |

been going on with regard to the
Workers’ Compensation Board as
well as an outline on the various
forces operating behind the scenes,
there are two documents you
should read. One is the January,
1977 “Report On The Organization
Of The Workers’ Compensation
Board of B.C.”’, by Terence G.
Ison, who was chairman of the
board from June 1, 1973 to January
26, 1976. The other is the sub-
mission of the B.C. Federation of
Labor to the minister of labor on
February. 17 titled ‘‘Worker’s
Health’.

You will be enlightened and I
think you will be shocked too.

As soon as the Social Credit
government was elected in
December, 1975, the big cor-
porations, linked together in the
Employers Council
launched a campaign of pressure
and lobbying to undermine the
whole’ principle on which the
Workers’ Compensation Board is
founded and on which it had been
operating with increasing success
under the chairmanship of Terence
Ison.

The employers demanded that:

e They should have a say or even
control over the Board, how it

BRUCE YORKE...
re-elected president of COPE

ofa B.C

spends its money, what claims
should be accepted, etc.

e Costs should be slashed right
and left, regardless of the need to
compensate injured workers, so
that the employers would have to
contribute less to the fund.

e The list of compensable in-
juries should be kept down and new
ones (such as compensation for
deadly fumes that destroy health
over a period of years) should not
be added.

eA roll-back of the reforms
introduced in 1978.

e All advertising about the need
for safety must emphasize that
workers alone are responsible for
accidents and that under no cir-

cumstances should it ever be said .

that the employers are responsible
in any way, even when they use
deadly chemicals and other sub-
stances dangerous to the health of
workers.

e There must be prosecutions of
employers under the Act for
violating Workers Compensation
Board safety regulations. (Until
1973 there had not been a single
case of prosecution of employers)!

e@ Only management should have
the right to say what is safe and
unsafe. The chairman, Terence
Tyson wouldn’t go along with these
demands. He took the position that
the Compensation Act, ‘‘was
deliberately designed and passed
by the legislature to provide
protection and benefits for...
workers, small employers and
independent operators’’. Fur-

’ thermore, he recognized that

“occupational health and safety
inevitably involves some conflict of
interests’, between workers and
employers.

He was summarily fired, without
any reason being given and without
any advance notice, by the
provincial government.

At the same time the govern-
ment appointed a management
consultant firm, P.S. Ross and
Company, to make an inquiry into
the functioning of the board. The
“inquiry” that was made did not

socialist island in the sun.

- party was paying off its electiol

‘howit will operate — for the peopl?

even include a discussion with thé
chairman of the board, little or 10
investigation into how claimanls
felt about the functioning of thé
board, nor did it include col
sultation with organized labor. Yo!
can guess what its repotl
recommended — it went right
down the line with what the em
ployers had demanded.
Meanwhile the leaderless board,
(it was without a chairman for 4
year), began to operate as if it
were already under employé!
control, delaying and refusing oné
claim after another. By
I don’t know if the Social Cred

debts to the corporations or if
was just acting the way #
millionaire cabinet could be e&
pected to act, but in any case it has
followed a policy of deliberately
and systematically undermininé
the reforms that had been i
troduced in the years that Ison wa
chairman and the NDP was
office in Victoria.

A couple of weeks ago thé
government appointed a new boa
and a new chairman. Time will té

it is supposed to protect, or for thé
big corporations who are il
terested only in saving money, a
safety be damned. si

One thing is for sure. With thy
government in office, workers wil!
have to fight to protect every
reform that has been introduce
because the pressure is on to un
dermine the whole concept of thé
Workers’ Compensation Act and
this government regards privalé
profit as sacred above everythin®é)
else. -

The B.C. Federation of Labdl
has demanded that the gover”
ment recognize a worker’s right
not to work in an unsafe 0
unhealthy job and that the labo!
code be amended to protect
workers from employer inspire
civil and criminal charges fo!
protecting their right to life. Thes®
are demands that every fal!
minded person will support.

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By MAURICE RUSH

hen Christopher Columbus first saw Cuba he wrote in

his diary: “This is the most beautiful land that eyes
have seen.” Having just returned from a two-week visit
with my wife to this socialist island in the sun I can say
amen to that.

Tens of thousands of Canadian tourists are finding that
out for themselves each year as plane load after plane
load of Canadians arrive at busy Havana airport heading
for one or another of the many beautiful resort and beach
areas as well as the historic cities of this land of
everlasting summer. Without sounding like a tourist
brochure, let me say that Canadians are finding a new and
reasonably-priced tourist mecca in this Caribbean island
where everything possible is done to ensure a happy visit
by the Cuban people.

Not only are tourists ensured a wonderful holiday, but
those that want to take advantage of tours offered can see
for themselves many of the socialist undertakings by the
Cuban people which are transforming this land and tur-
ning it intoa shining example of what socialism can do for
a country which previously was known for its intense
poverty, illiteracy, corruption and oppression.

Cuba has come a long way since the handful of Cuban
revolutionaries headed by Fidel Castro landed from the
small vessel Granma in December, 1956 to launch a
struggle which saw the overthrow of the hated Batista
regime and the establishment of the first socialist
republic in the western hemisphere. But it still has a long
way to go, as leading members of the Cuban government
and Communist Party told us in the idscussions we had
with them during our two-week stay. :

It was my good fortune to visit Cuba not only for a rest
but also to meet some of the Cuban leaders and to get a
better insight into some of fhe problems this Island faces.
It’s amazing that they made the remarkable progress
they have, faced by the many difficulties they had to
overcome.

> BACIFIC TRIBUNESMARCH,"19742Pabe'2

The world knows of the tremendous pressure put on
Cuba by U.S. imperialism in its attempt to prevent the
Cuban people from taking the road of independence and
socialism. That pressure continues unrelentingly to this
day. The U.S. wages war on Cuba in other than military
ways. It keeps up constant economic and _ political
pressure. The CIA is very active attempting to sabotage
the socialist gains of the people. Not long ago, we were

told, the CIA introduced an infection (swine flu) among °

the Island’s pigs which required the slaughter of one
million animals before it was checked. This was a serious
blow to the Island’s food supplies. For obvious reasons,
the U.S. rulers are determined to isolate Cuba because
they fear the impact Cuba’s example will have on the
Latin American people and indeed on their own people.

But I’m convinced after visiting Cuba that the U.S.
policy of hostility and opposition to Cuba will collapse as
did their policy in Vietnam. I saw the same determination
among Cubans to defeat U.S. imperialism and follow their
own path as I witnessed among the people of Vietnam
when I visited that country ten years ago. No matter how
small the country, even the most powerful imperialist
nation cannot overcome a people who are determined to
build a new life for themselves.

The most inspiring thing we saw in Cuba was the at-
tention being given by the government to the needs of the
young. We visited two schools, and a huge pioneer camp
near Havana, where we saw the care which is being given
to the health and education of the new generation, which is
Cuba’s future. Despite the serious economic difficulties
Cuba faces, it does not economize when it comes to the
care of its children and youth. It provides them with the
best it can. Ihave visited pioneer camps in other socialist
countries, but I must say the facilities being developed
here are amongst the most spectacular I have ever seen.

Significantly they call it ‘International Pioneers
Camp” because they hope some day to have children
come from all over the world to join Cuban children in
enjoying this beautiful land.

We were also able to visit one of the very large new |
housing projects on the outskirts of Havana called
“‘Alamar”’ where volunteer workers, through an ingenious ©
scheme of socialist construction, are building a new city of .
beautiful apartments which will have all the amenities of |
life for a community of 160,000 people. Workers from all
parts of the Island and from all industries have come here
to build this project while their fellow workers back home
undertake to fulfill their quota of work while they put in
time building this socialist city. This was only one of many
housing projects we saw going on wherever we went in -
Cuba.

I could go on writing pages about the innovative and
imaginative projects launched by the Cuban people to
solve their problems and build socialism in a land which
lacks vital resources for a modern economy. They lack
power, oil, coal and other resources. But, as the Cuban
leaders we met repeated many times, thanks to the
generous support of the Soviet Union and the socialist
countries, and the friendship of people in Canada and
around the world, they will overcome their difficulties.

I cannot end this column without a personal note: The
many wonderful people my wife and I met in Cuba have
left us with an everlasting love for the people in this land
of everlasting summer and of socialism. We have come
home with memories which will warm us during many
cold winters ahead. We look forward to returning again,
and again. -

~~ JIRIBUNE

Editor —- MAURICE RUSH
Assistant Editor SEAN GRIFFIN
Business and Circulation Manager — FRED WILSON

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