Quebec unions chart anti-inflation battle FLASHBACKS FROM THE COMMUNIST PRESS 50 years ago... LETTER CARRIERS RESIST REDUCTION IN WAGES The howls for economy com- ing from the Manufacturers’ . Assn, the Chambers of Com- merce, Boards of Trade and every other organization of the bosses and directed against their servants in the Federal House, the provincial legislatures and municipal epuncils are bearing fruits, but not in form of cutting out the extravagances and high salaries in high places, but as usual by cutting the already low wages of thé workers. The letter carriers are the first to be at- tacked and are resisting this attempt to further reduce their meagre wages. (Maximum wage for letter car- riers was $100 a month.) The Worker, March 29, 1924 25 years ago... ATLANTIC ALLIANCE ‘DESPERATION PACT’ OTTAWA — At a public meet- ing held here last week —. des- pite attempts to prevent him from speaking — Tim Buck, na- tional LPP leader described the Atlantic Pact as “a pact of des- peration,” arising out of the in- exorable drive of history, which is at one of its. great turning points—the change from capital- ism to socialism. Victory of socialism, the defeat of impe- rialism over widening sections of the world, has thrown the power- ful capitalists of countries like the United States into a panic, said Mr. Buck . . . That is why they resort to the Atlantic Pact designed as something to arrest the decline of the profit-system through world-wide war against socialism. Canadian Tribune, March 28, 1949 Profiteer of the week: SS QoS SSS The Canadian one-cent piece is made of copper. Right? And it takes eight of them to buy a stamp, and you can’t use them in parking metres or newspaper boxes. But copper pipe, you may know, is a luxury. What we are leading up to is that for sheer impartiality, merits this week’s award. Impervious to dis- paragers, Falconbridge forged ahead and, from a picayune $9,276,000 net in 1972, end- ed 1973 with a clear profit of $27,592,000. - Pacific Tribune West Coast edition, Canadian Tribune- Falconbridge Copper Ltd. Editor — MAURICE RUSH Published weekly at Ford Bldg., Mezzanine No. 3, 193 E. Hastings St., Vancouver 4, B.C. Phone 685-5288. Business & Circulation Manager, FRED WILSON Subscription Rate: Canada, $6.00 one year; $3.50 for six months North and South America and Commonwealth countries, $7.00 All other countries, $8.00 one year North and South America and Commonwealth countries, $7.00 one year Second class mail registration number 1560. SSS SS SERERE SSS PACIFIC TRIBUNE—FRIDAY, MARCH 29, 1974—PAGE.4 ’ E leg ° 4 It’s time to single out the guilty It hardly seems credible, but it’s a fact: While inflation is running ram-, pant in Canada, the government, claim- ing to be impotent to deal with it, finds, strength to lash out at the victims, not the perpetrators. To flaunt its un- touchability, the government gives aid to the record-breaking profit orgy be- ing enjoyed by corporations who are at once Liberal and Tory patrons. Proof of the injustice against the multitude of ordinary wage earners is easy to find, except for government ‘ministers whose minds are already pro- grammed: anti-labor. In the last three months of 1978, profits of corporations in Canada rose 59.4%! Report on Business surveyed 288 companies they considered repre- sentative and found their profits jump- ed $1.31-billion in that three-month period. What worker’s wages went up 59.4% from October to December? In a court of law such evidence could not be ignored; but the Stanfields and Trudeaus psychopathically blot out its existence. For Finance Minister John Turner to dismiss the Canadian Labor Con- gress — speaking for 1.8 million work- ing Canadians plus their families — with his own contrived “statistics” is a slap in the face deserving the most determined response. He had better come up with a good answer not only for the 59.4% gouge 4 (A suffered in general by the people of Canada, but for the fact’ that 12 food processing companies jumped thelr” profits in that same period by 81.1%! And these crooks plead for cents more ~ on a loaf of bread! But when profits become excessive, John Turner will ride to the rescue. — The minister is guilty of public mis: chief in his hypocritcal statement, am he knows it, and all Canada knows it. In allowing the prices of basics like bread, milk, housing and heating to risé unchecked calls for a concerted battle by every organization of the victimizee ~ majority. Living standards are on the chopping block. One searches vainly in the. federal © parliament for a comprehensive pro gram to stop inflation, and roll ba prices. On the other hand the decisivé anti-inflation program published: by the Communist Party can serve as the ve hicle to free the Canadian people from the suffocating grasp of inflation. The CP invites Canadians every: where to make that program their own to take it to Parliament, and to insta it in the arsenal of the trade unions — who are on the battle line against 1° flation. th Excuses, platitudes and fancy speech: es have had their day. Only unity be- hind a genuine program of anti-infla-_ tion action can answer the outrageous three-month jump of 81% in food profit eering. a The mad rush to build James Bay Quebec Premier Robert Bourassa’s pet project, the James Bay Energy Cor- poration, has staggered into yet an- other crisis. His multi-million dollar scheme to sell energy to U.S. markets first ran into trouble in its planning stages when environmentalists protest- ed the damage that would be caused by bulldozing then flooding the environ- = fragile but massive water- shed. After pushing the entire environ- mental question aside, Bourassa , ran headlong into the anger of the native people in the area who don’t want their traditional hunting and fishing grounds destroyed. They sought injunctions against the project and eventually won a favorable negotiating position. Then, last week, with the construc- tion of the pone underway, workers at a tunnel diversionary site called LG-2, turned Bourassa’s money-makin paradise into a quagmire. A handful o workers, frustrated with the condi- tions in the camp; allegedly set fire to some of the living quarters and bull- dozed an electrical generating station. In its rush to provide.cheap energy to the Northeastern U.S., the govern- ment-hired contractors had the work- ers struggling 70 and 80-hour work weeks in sub-zero temperatures. Work- ers’ grievances were not dealt with and U.S. supervisory personnel further ag- gravated the situation by insisting that “Canadian and especially French Cana dian workers were not able to properly do the work.” By the wekend, the situation ai the site was reported as “quite calm,” bU in Quebec City things weren’t so quiet. Bourassa and his cronies were loudly ealiing for a provincial inauiry ™ the destruction they say will cause 4 six-week delay in his precious projec Any honest inquiry would put thé blame where it belongs—on Bourass@ s mad rush to get the project safely U4 der way. Unity between all concern? to re-open discussions about the proJje™ guaranteeing the Native people a vole to back their legitimate rights in the area and ensuring decent working co” ditions instead of a “ramming through at any cost” policy is clearly needed. ” Surfacing Any confusion that may have been left lying about when Canadian write? Margaret Atwood turned down an 0” — fer to visit the USSR because of the Solzhenitsyn affair is being cleared ¥ :. The confusion arose because Miss 4 by wood, who supposedly symbolizes hee country’s national aspirations, couldt" tell the difference between Solzhet? syn’s claims to defend his country 4” his obvious search for the fast buc® 4 Miss Atwood knows where the p buck is at too and, neatly putting het “national aspirations” aside, sold me latest book “Surfacing” to a pall, rs New York film makers. Come to thit” of it, “Surfacing” could be just the P& fect title.