Lie ek viva V)\ ‘ ~ Ng } Ah. e ANW TN N\A TRIBUNE PHOTOS — SEAN GRIFFIN Concert in QE echoes solidarity with Chile The walls of the Queen Elizabeth Playhouse in Vancouver echoed to the words of “‘Venceremos’’ Sun- day as the audience at the concert in solidarity with Chile rose to their feet to join Chilean artist Serpico — Fernando Navarro — in singing the’ militant anthem of Popular’ Unity. Serpico,-a former recording ar- tist in Chile and now living in Win- nipeg, was one of three artists and groups on stage at the concert, sponsored by the B.C. Federation of Labor in conjunction with Canadians for Democracy in Chile. It marked the seventh an- niversary -of the fascist coup in Chile. ; A striking contribution to .the program was. made by the Native dance troupe Children of Taikayo, made up of grandnieces and-grand- nephews of Chief Dan George and directed by his son, Leonard George. SAE The Chilean group Puelche, also based. in Winnipeg wound up the concert with a powerful set, drawn from among the songs. of the Chilean New Song Movement which blends South American folk political movement. ‘ The three singers — Armando Nahuelpan, Pasquale Nahuelpan, Nicholas Nahuelpan — were twice brought back for encores. John Harker, director of the In- ternational Affairs department of the Canadian Labor Congress, was to have addressed the concert but was assigned only days before to go to Bolivia as the Congress represen- tative. His speech was delivered by her assistant Bruce Gillies. Gillies echoed the last words of Salvador Allende which urged his supporters not to forget that “broad avenues will again open up for men worthy of building a new society.” But in the seven years since the coup, he said Chile has become a “prison packaged for export. “We must stop the assassina- tions, the kidnappings, the dirty ‘tricks,”’ he said. “We have to stop them in Chile, through helping and encouraging the courage of the Chilean people, and we have to stop them abroad. : “We have to stop this evil cancer of military despotism from engulf- ing Latin America and its oppress- ed peoples.” - premier Sunday, Oct. 5 at 8 p.m. on Channel 10 (cablevision) for viewers in Vancouver, Bur- naby, Richmond and North Van- couver. “Labor Journal ’ will be a mon- thly news magazine show appear- ing every fourth Sunday on Chan- nel 10. : Hosted by Fred Wilson and Margaret Pawlik, the opening Labor Journal will probe the unemployment crisis in B.C: with feature reports on the forest and fishing industry, interviews with labor economists and a_ panel discussion of union activists. appealed for people with an interest in the trade union movement. to work on its labor program “‘Union Made.”’ Union Made is an hour-long program broadcast every Wednes- _ day on Co-Op Radio 102.7 FM at 8 p.m., aimed at giving sympathetic Union Made needs help : Vanocuver Co-Op Radio has: coverage to news and issues in the labor movement. No experience is necessary, says program director Vinny Mohr. Co- Op Radio will provide the training. Anyone interested in volunteering to work on the Union Made show can contact Vinny Mohr: at 684-8494, PACIFIC TRIBUNE—SEPT. 19, 1980—Page 10 group, Puelche. TOP LEFT: Former Chilean recordin Native dance troupe Children of Ta g artist Serpico opens the concert program: BOTTOM LE ikayo performing Eagle dance. ABOVE: The aie Tamahnous Theatre’s current production of Dario Fo’s We Won't Pay, We Won't Pay playing at the Vancouver East Cultural Centre dramatizes a series of con- sumer boycotts to protest spiralling inflation in Italy in the early ’70s. The play, set in Milan, is based! on several funny episodes involving Giovanni (Glen Thompson), his wife Antonia (Suzie Payne) and their neighbours, Luigi (Ed Astley) and Margherita (Sue Astley). It opens with Antonia arriving home, bubbling with excitement, her arms overflowing with groceries. She explains to her friend Margherita that the women of the neighbourhood has spontaneously risen up against the local super- market and demanded to pay what they felt the food was worth. Some paid, some walked out without paying at all, but all went home loaded down with all the food they could carry. They were assisted by local factory workers, who came to protect them from the police. Thetwo women are ecstatic until they realize that Antonia’s hus- band will come home, discover the -loot and demand to know where it came from — and therein lies the conflict of the play. Giovanni is a Communist, one who believes in the pride of the working class, in honesty, in paying ’ for what he eats. Basically the comedy revolves around devious schemes to hide the food from Giovanni, which range from hiding it under the bed to an- nouncing that Margherita is seven - months pregnant (with boxes of -with the rice and pasta). é Despite exemplary perfor-. mances, particularly by Suzie Payne as Antonia, the play quickly turns sour as we realize that the enemy of the people is not the multinational corporations who extract the profits from food sales, but the Communist who doesn’t - believe that theft willbring about the demise of capitalism. 2 Giovanni, alternately parodied as Groucho Marx and the husband ‘*church warden complex,”” opposes spontaneous _action as “‘playing into the hands of - paralleled with Brecht,’’ Fo makes the reactionaries.” There is no representation of the capitalist class, and virtually no reference to them. . And Fo, the playwright touted » as a Marxist, makes no reference to organized working class action asa mean to challenging the system. = Proclaimed by Tamahnous as a’ playwright whose ‘“‘stature can be no effort to veil his primary object Suzie Payne of slandering. and attacking the Tamahnous T Communist Party of Italy. . Unlike Brecht, who never shied from criticism, but at the same time never failed to identify the primary enemy as well as their tools of op- pression, Fo even fails in his efforts to expose the role of the Roman ‘Catholic church. A few well-aimed cracks are made about the subjuga- tion of women, -mostly at the Vatican’s position on birth control, but they pale when in comparison with such Brecht plays as St. Joan of the Stockyards and the Cauca- sian Chalk Circle. One must also wonder at the. reasons Tamahnous decided to. present this play in Vancouver. with rising prices, one ‘would assume that it was presented. not only as a means of understanding what happened in Italy, but to clarify our own fight against infla- - tion. But it has no relevance to the Canadian situation. Without iden- tifying the enemy ina fight, how do you decidde on how to fight back? 4 Don't pay for this play is The anarchists, whose yon ‘handed out as part of the pro ould would have us believe we ful fight back by not paying”. amount of our bus fare, ba oo ing in the back of movie theal™ shoplifting. - ; With the same juvenile meni ty, the play ends with the ranks munist, Giovanni leaving thet of the “assholes” (as all Hig munists are characte nator | joining with the others in calling” armed insurrection. - ‘ . Yet nobody is to lead or OTF this insurrection. We are left Tei the impression that one of a nist. ‘targets will be the revi “assholes,” but it will be from taneous, moving 004, neighbourhood to neighbour oe factory to factory, and 4 jus ly produce a humane ane @ ‘society. Sgt _pot -Our advice is: “Don’t pay = for this play. ee n Deal and Janice Harts en as Antonia and Sue Astley as Margherita in The heatre’s production of We Won't Pay, We Won't Pay!