‘Fill ‘Er Up, Sir?’

25 years ago...

OTTAWA PUTTING
BOOTS TO LABOR
‘A special session of the House
of Commons; a conference of all
the main trade union centres
and independent unions and a
_ three-level conference of munic-
‘ipal, provincial and federal au-
thorities are among the de-
mands now being vigorously
pressed by labor to meet the
threat of a new wave of
unemployment.

Fed up with the buck-passing
of Ottawa, the City of Toronto,
has officially called on Ontario
Premier Leslie Frost to convene
a provincial-municipal parley on
the problem.

Ottawa has turned down a de-
legation on unemployment
from Toronto which was to have
been made of Board of Control
members and leading officers of
the CCL and TLC Councils.

Tribune,
Sept. 13, 1954

FLASHBACKS FROM |
THE COMMUNIST PRESS

50 years ago...

CAMPAIGN AGAINST
POLICE TERROR

TORONTO — On Fri., Aug.
30, the Toronto police con-
fiscated a whole issue of The
Worker. An unbroken front of
the forces of reaction has been
formed to smash the right of the
working class to free speech and
assemblage. The capitalist press
is demanding mass deporta-
tions, long term imprisonments,
and violent assault upon meet-
ings and demonstrations. One
Toronto printer’ is already
under arrest, charged with sedi-
tion, for printing a leaflet, cal-
ling on the workers to struggle
against police terrorism. In pre-
paring for imperialist war and in
putting through their speedup
schemes in the shops the bosses
fear anyone who exposes their
schemes.

The Worker
Sept. 21, 1929

Profiteer of the week:

tune.

Canada Safeway Ltd., the corner grocer
with 278 stores, managed, despite giving you
bargains on practically everything, to rake ina
profit of better than $1-million a week after
expenses and taxes. Profit for the 24 weeks
ended June 16 was $25,052,000. So don’t think
of those few cents added on each week’s
shopping as chicken feed; it’s a bloody for-

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 $10 one yr.; $6.00 for six months;
All other countries, $12 one year.

Second class mail registration number 1560

PACIFIC TRIBUNE— SEPTEMBER 14, 1979—Page 4

IDITORILAIL
COMIMIEIN TL

Stop racist police killings

The police killing of Albert Johnson
in Toronto, August 26, has aroused not
only widespread horror, but widespread
and angry cries for a stop to police
racism and police murder.

This eighth killing by police in a year, a
violent episode in which two police
kicked in the door of a family home and
later coolly shot to kill despite the pleas
of Johnson’s wife and children, has
hardened determination to put the

lice under democratic control once
and for all. That determination has
spread far beyond the Jamaican and
wider Black communities who know
very well the police harassment Johnson
suffered before his death — on some
kind.of charge of causing a disturbance.
When a cop pulls his gun he, by himself,
passes the death sentence.

Police Chief Adamson’s invitation to
the Ontario Provincial Police to investi-
gate will not do. The days of the
whitewash and the gentle reprimand
are over.

The people are demanding, and must
get without any trickery, a provincial
Board of Inquiry. It must be made up of
civilians whose credentials inspire the
respect and confidence of the visible
minorities and the citizenry at large.
The board must have jurisdiction to
investigate all evidence and to make
recommendations — publicly.

The diversity of the organizations
expressing concern does not divide
them but is leading to concensus. It is
expressed at least in part by recommen-
dations made Sept. 4 by Toronto City

No sell-out

The Clark Tories have begun leading

Canada down the shameful road of -

complete sell-out to the corporate
monopolies. Petrocan is today symbolic
—and around it must rage the battle for
the country.

Energy Minister
announcement Sept. 5 that Petrocan will
be destroyed by the Tories marks a turn-

ing point: either we'll be led all the way —

down to complete subservience to the
monopolies who, in the final analysis put
Clark into power by promoting mass de-

~sertion from the Liberals; or, the

fightback of the people of Canada will
have to reach the necessary ferocity to
force the Tory sell-out artists to change
their plans.

The government has appointed four
corporation leaders to decide the
method of dumping the profitable part
of Petrocan into waiting corporate arms,
while the unprofitable part — inter-
national negotiations, frontier explora-
tion and development of the tar sands —
is paid for by the taxpayer.

There are ‘several clear-cut demands
which need to ring across this land:

e Stop the sellout of Petrocan; stop
the sellout of Canadian sovereignty. Ex-
tend the activities of Petrocan.

e Block the price rise on domestic oil
sales. cs

of Petrocan

Hnatyshyn’s .

Council’s legislation committee. It
urged Council to press the province for
a judicial review of police use of
firearms and investigation of Metro}
Toronto Police race relations, recruit-}
ment and training.

A proper clean-up demands abolition |
of the Metro Police Commission and the |
police complaint bureau, to be replaced |
by a genuine citizens’ bureau, represen: |
tative of organized labor, the visible}
minorities and democratic organiations.

Metro Toronto, to control its ow
police, must acquire. the right (now}
guarded by the province) to appoint all |
members of a new Police Commission.

But there is one essential without

which the fight against racist’ crimes is >
weakened, and that is a clear under- |
standing of racism’s place in the political |
system we live in. The roots of racism, |
like the roots of class war against the |
working people, go right to the heart

monopoly capitalism. It is found in the |
police, in the courts, in the prisons and |
in the conspiracy to deprive workers in |
general, but minorities more harshly, of |
good jobs, good homes, good food, |
good education, and a rising standard |
of health, culture and community. In}
the capitalist system racism is in-}
stitutionalized. It is part of the system.

That does not mean it cannot be

fought. It must be. It does not mean |
either that capitalism can be reformed |
into a society of equal opportunity. Bul |
in the fight to end rasicm, vast numbers |
of people see the fundamental changes
needed to create such a society. }

e Develop a Canada-wide energy |
policy; put resources under. publi@
ownership and democratic control as 4
base for building Canada, and ending thé |
domination and profiteering of the Can
dian and multi-national oil corporation

Hands off Petrocan! should be seen 4
the first round in the battle to save
those public bodies endangered by th
Clark axe men. »

Canada needs organized public pro-
test commanding the government t
save Petrocan and expand its role. Th
Clark Tories must be taught a lesso®
right now or privatization will rob Cana
dians of any vestige of influence 0
their future. Nor should the province
rights facade fool us. Multi-nationals lik
robbing Canada by way of the provine
— it’s easier.

Waiting for a parliamentary vote ®
confidence is not enough. It remains #
be seen whether New Democrats and
Liberals will vote for each other’s m!
tions, because it’s said: No one wat
another election. And there’s some trut
in that.

But the need for massive public
sure on Liberals, the NDP and Torieé:
urgent. Resolutions and protests hit
the Clark Cabinet like hailstones 15
fitting start for the campaign to stop
sellout of Petrocan — stop (however it
gift-wrapped) the sellout of Canada. _