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week of their strike for a one year agreement and a COLA clause.

Ironworkers at Weldco tron Works in Vancouver are in the second -

of his own venomous hate

By ALD. HARRY RANKIN

Sun columnist Doug Collins
suffers from two political diseases,
either of which could be terminal,
politically, that is. One is a
malignantly inflated ego; the other
is a venomous misanthropic hate.

But his ego-nurtured political
slanders are not just scattered
around indiscriminately, even
though they cover a wide range of
the political spectrum. You’ve
noticed, I’m sure, that he never
attacks the real establishment, the
corporate giants: who control our
country, province and city.

Collins’ venom is reserved for
the other end of the economic and
political scale. Trade unions and
human rights groups, “‘reds” and
the socialist countries are his
favorite targets. Any person or
group that opposes the establish-
ment, that fights for even mild

- reforms is a potential target for
Collins’ venom.

—Fred Wilson photo

Vancouver CP wants amendments
to Urban Transit Authority Act

The Vancouver City Committee
of the Communist Party this week
blasted the new Urban Transit
Authority Act and called for major
changes in it before the new transit
system is set up.

The new Urban Transit
Authority will remove the
responsibility for public transit in
Greater Vancouver and in Victoria
from B.C. Hydro and force
municipalities around the province
to help pay the costs of transit
deficits through increased taxes
and surcharges on Hydro bills. The
government has so far refused to
spell out how much it will con-

tribute to transit under the new

system.

“Bill 19 has just been passed,”
the CP said in a statement July 4,
“But already it is in need of
amendment.”

The statement called on all those
concerned with public transit to
join in the demands that:

e The provincial government
commit itself to pay all transit
deficits in urban areas and
guarantee that no transportation
costs will be added to consumer or

property taxes.

e The new Urban _ Transit.

Authority be democratized making
it responsible to regional govern-
ments and ensuring representation
on its responsible boards from
municipal governments, labor and
community organizations.

e The responsibilities of the new
Authority be expanded to include
main arterial roads and major new
developments such as light rapid
transit.

The CP charged that the removal
of responsibility for transit from
Hydro to the new authority was not
to improve transit, but to “dump
the annual deficit on to the
municipalities.”

“The obvious strategy of the
Socreds,”’ it said, ‘‘Is to play off the
demands of citizens in urban
centres for improved mass tran-
sportation systems against their
concern over rising taxes. Under
the new scheme, improved public
transit will be conditional on in-
creased property taxes, gas taxes
and Hydro bills, imposed by
municipal governments. It is a
grand scheme to completely
scuttle the demand for efficient

mass public transportation in

Bo

By not laying out a financial
formula, the provincial govern-
ment is attempting “to make
transportation a political football it
can kick around each year as a
pressure play on municipal
councils,’’ it continued,
“Municipalities will be at the
government’s bidding, lest it dump
more transportation costs upon
them.”’

The CP was also sharply critical
of the centralized control that the
provincial government will
maintain over transit by retaining
the right of appointing members of
the Authority. _

“Bill 19 reflects the contempt of
the Socred government for public
transit,’ the CP said, ‘‘As with
education and other vital social
services, it intends to pay less and
less towards transportation costs
from the revenues that it collects
from B.C.’s rich natural resources
and from taxes on the giant
multinational corporations. It is
one more reason why the people of
B.C. should turf out this rotten
government.”

PEOPLE AND ISSUES

He acts as the journalistic and
political hatchetman for the ultra-
right and is welcomed and en-
couraged by those who want to
push our society in the direction of
a police state, who see the arms
race and a nice ‘‘clean” nuclear
war with the neytron bomb*as a
desirable. and profitaBle alter-
native to detente, who bolster and
defend the white Christian
civilization menaced by black
hordes.

There was a time when Collins
flirted with reform movements.
Even doing a bit of muck-raking,
and even having a nodding
acquaintance with the left in
politics. But apparently he saw no

future for himself in that direction .

and so verred off to the political

right where his ambitions were

quickly realized.

When Collins attacks prime
minister Trudeau as a ‘“‘socialist”
he does so because he and those
who employ him feel that Trudeau
hasn’t gone far enough to the right,
that the Trudeau government
should refuse for instance, even to
trade with Cuba, China or the
Soviet Union.

It is no accident, of course, that
the bigots, racist and right wing
reactionaries of all descriptions,

‘the lunatic fascist fringe of our

society, rush to Collins’ defence
whenever he’s attacked. They look
on him as one of theirown. Iam
reminded of several other in-
dividuals who made red-baiting a

. profession and ended up in the ash

can of history.

There was the secretary of
defense, James Forrestal, who,
like Collins, saw a ‘‘red’’ under
every bed. That he was insane
while holding his high post in the
United States administration was
well known, but the President and
his fellow cabinet members did not
see this as any reason for
removing him. One day in 1949
Forrestal did (or thought he did)
see a ‘“‘red’’ under his hotel bed,

rushed to the window in terror and .

leapt out. That was the end of this
American Cold War hero.

Last but not least, there was the
U.S. demagogue senator Joe
McCarthy who took a page from
Hitler’s book and produced an
Americanized version of Nazism.
Backed and financed by the big

corporations, and with the whole

media placed at his disposal, this

notorious witch-hunter and master
of character assassination laun-

ched a campaign against the trade —

unions, against the civil liberty
groups, against the Jews, against

the academics, hurling Communist —

charges right and left. And he did
have a large measure of success
for awhile during the early fifties.
Strikes, peace, racial equality —
all these became subversive and
un-American while he wa.s in his
hey-day. Meanwhile the profits of

the corporations grew at an_ull -

precedented rate and the U.S.
military industrial complex took
over the role of policeman of the

world. That’s what McCarthyism

was all about.
But to get back to Collins.

Collins is no Senator McCarthy,

nor even, in my opinion, a good

investigative reporter. But he has

been given, through a column if
the Sun, an opportunity to affect

the thinking of thousands and in-
fect them with his anti-social

views.

What Collins writes can’t be —

separated from the views of those
who employ him. The Sun is part of
the corporate establishment of this

city and province. The big i- —
dustrialists and bankers are —
represented on its board of —
directors. They pay him to write

what he does. If they disagreed
with his right-wing political

slanders, with his hate propaganda —

and attacks on groups such as the
East Indians, they could tell him to
cool it, or they could fire him. But
Collins continues to write. ;

The question must be asked; Has

the Vancouver Sun any moral right
to use its monopolistic position 12
the press to propagate su

divisive hate propaganda? I have
no objection to the corporate —

controlled press bringing discredit
on itself, but I do object to having
its private views inflicted on people

Collins will be the victim —

just because it has this monopoly

on the media.

I rather think that the Collins

type of reporter and those who
back him are trying to resurrect a?
era that has passed, that
Canadians at this stage in thell
history will not -accept @4

recurrence of McCarthyism and all
its attendant evils. Canadians, the —
vast majority of them, do believe
in democratic liberties an

equality, despite the Collins’ or the
Vancouver Sun. :

i tycoons on St. James, Bay and Howe Streets were still
gloating over the declaration. of the Royal Commission
on Corporate Concentrations that ‘“‘big business is
beautiful,” when the weekly journal of big business, the
Financial Post, last week listed its annual ratings of the 300
top corporations in Canada.

Indeed, if big business is beautiful, the corporations will
find plenty of flattering material in the Post’s ratings. “The
300,” as they are affectionately dubbed, are bigger and
more concentrated than ever.

The Post breaks down its ratings into the top 200 in-—

dustrials, the top 20 mining and petroleum producers, the
top 40 financial companies, the top 30 merchandisers and
the top 10 real estate companies.

The top 200 industrials increased sales this year by 11.6
percent to $109.1 billion from $94.1 billion last year. The
increased sales of course translated into increased profits
and the combined earnings of the top 200 rose also by 11.6
percent to $4.8 billion.

Still the most beautiful of all the industrials is General
Motors which sold over $6 billion worth of products in
Canada last year. Second is Ford Motor Company, followed
by Imperial Oil, Canadian Pacific, Bell Canada, Alcan,
Chrysler, Massey Ferguson, Shell and Gulf.

B.C.’s ranking beauty queen is MacMillian Bloedel,
checking in at number 14 with $1.7 billion in sales. West-
coast Transmission is number 31 andB.C. Forest Products
is number 53. as

Ranked by assets, the financial companies outshine
their competitors. Of all the industrials, the CPR has the
most assets — about $7.3 billion. The smallest of the five

largest chartered banks, Toronto-Dominion, has $19 billion,

in assets. The biggest, the Royal Bank, has a staggering
$34.4 billion in assets. (By way of comparison, the federal
government’s budget for 1976-1977 was $36.5 billion).
This year’s Post ratings indicate that beauty has an in-
creasingly foreign complexion in Canada. Of the top 200
industrials, 71 are wholly owned by foreign parent com-
panies. Another 42 are owned 50 percent or more by
foreigners and a further 27 have significant degrees of
foreign ownership which could constitute control. Of the
top 10, only the CPR and Massey Ferguson could be con-

' sidered Canadian companies.

As for concentration, the top 100 industrials accounted for
87.5 percent of the sales and 86.4 percent of the earnings of
the top 200.

Accompanying the ratings in the Post is a feature excerpt
from the Royal Commission on Corporate Concentration to
re-assure the corporate beholders that big business really is
beautiful.

There is also an editorial which notes the “‘commanding
presence of the large corporations in Canada’s commercial
life and in the life of every Canadian” and argues that these
corporations should be told to disclose more information
about themselves. Apparently, when the Post was com-
piling its ratings, it found that it could not gain information
about the actual holdings and subsidiaries of corporations,
interlocking directorships, salaries of senior management,
ownership of land and resources, tax payments, or even

about policies on employment conditions, environmental .

protection and so on. ’
While we can only agree with this modest demand, for
increased corporate disclosure, that little bit of make-up

will hardly be able to cover up the rather ugly picture ober

corporate concentration developing in Canada.

For when the shapely figures of “The 300” are measured
alongside those of the masses of Canadians with 8.5 percent
plus unemployment 9 percent plus
creases being held at 6 percent, it’s doubtful that most
Canadians would appreciate the beauty of it all.

On the contrary, the Adonis like image that the Royal
Commission and its tycoon friends have of corpora

concentration in this country, is looking more and more —

obese, ever fattening itself at public expense.
* * *

Nese of growing fat at public expense, there was a2

inflation and wage in-

item in this column last week which although it waS

correct in spirit was obviously out of whack with the facts:

The source of the confusion was a typographical erro!

which had us complaining over the meagre $45,000 in taxeS

that Westcoast Transmission paid last year, after earning

$53 in profits. As you might have guessed, Westcoast

Transmission actually earned $53 million in profits.

Editor — SEAN GRIFFIN
Business and Circulation Manager — PAT O'CONNOR

Published weekly at Suite 101 — 1416 Commercial Drive,
Vancouver,,B.C. VSL 3X9 Phone 251-1186

Subscription Rate: Canada, $8.00 one year; $4.50 for six months?
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