GREAT NEWS FOR CANADIANS WE'VE TURNED THE CORNER. —Carless in UE News for end to U.S. war Cont'd from pg. 1 Free Angela Davis committee from California. The message, which brought loud applause, expressed solidarity from her prison cell with the struggle to end the Indochina war. Popular U.S. folk singer and _ song writer Malvena Reynolds ~ sang a number of her songs to the delight of her audience, who contributed $1,200 in a collection towards expenses, with proceeds over expenses going towards medical aid. In 25 years there has not beena Single day of peace in Vietnam, said Madame Phan Minh Hien, delegate of the Women’s Union for the Liberation of South Vietnam, at Friday’s session of the large peace conference held last week at U.B.C. Some 500 women from Canada and the United States took part in the day’s proceedings which were chaired by Voice of Women and Women Strike for Peace delegates. In turn the South Vietnamese, North Vietnamese and Laotian women spoke of what was happening to the people of their country due: to the war, and in turn each made a plea for unity of peace forces in America to demand the military be out of Indochina by the end of 1971. More than 400 women from the U.S.A. were in Vancouver for the conference, and many Cana- dians took part —some from Toronto, and others from the prairies as well as B.C. ‘‘The U.S. Third World women, Women Strike for Peace, and Womens Liberation groups came from New Mexico, Arizona, Montana, Washington, Utah, California, and other states in the south-west. On Friday evening a cultural program was presented in which a group of talented Black people from Washington _ state performed African and American dances to the delight of the audience and Chinese children, and young women of Chinese and Japanese extraction Sang a moving song. Other items included a satirical poem “‘Speak White!’’, read by a _French-Canadian girl, and songs, written by herself, by a young Californian. On-Friday afternoon the Chicanos from California sang songs of the farm workers of the South-West. Huelga! Laotian delegate Khemphet Pholsena said Nixon was gambling recklessly in Laos. The Laotian people had inflicted thousands of casualties on the invaders, as well as shooting down 50 American planes in less than a month, and many heéli- - copters. The puppet troops backed by American planes had successed in driving into Laos only 50 miles in a month and now their armies, badly beaten up, were scurrying in retreat. There are 300,000 Americans still in Indochina, said North Vietnamese delegate Vo Thi The. Dealing with failures of Nixons ‘‘Vietnamization’’ policies, she said they will never be realized on the battlefield. American youth will continue to die vainly in Indochina, she warned. And she concluded ‘‘To demand the withdrawal of these men is for you an act of patriotism if you love your country. The Vietnamese alone can defend their country; the Americans alone must defend the honor of the U.S.A.!”’ BETHUNE MARXIST CLASSROOM WOMEN IN TODAY’S WORLD Mona Morgan WESTMINSTER — Royal Towers Hotel (Fraser Room) SUNDAY —APRIL 18 — 8 P.M. Sponsored by B.C. Prov. Educ. Ctiee., Communist Party PACIFIC TRIBUNE—THURSDAY, APRIL 8, 1971—PAGE 12 | Kaiser pollution oka with provincial gov't Kaiser Resources open pit coal mine operations in the Kootenays are dumping millions of gallons of effluent into surrounding rivers and Socred government officials say nothing can be done about it because there is no legislation to stop them. This is the shocking fact that came to light in the last few days when it was disclosed that in the -last six weeks, since mid- February, more than three million gallons of highly pollu- tant materials from the mine operations have poured into Elk River and Michel Creek. LABOR Cont'd from pg. 1 Council and the VLC will take the matter up with Delta Muni- cipal council. Secretary Paddy Neale read a letter received by the VLC from an official in the External Affairs department regarding the Vietnam war. In answer toa protest from the labor council on the sale of Canadian-manufac- tured arms to the U.S., and the urgency of complete withdrawal from Indochina by US forces, the official said Canada was an “ally” of the USA, and they did not know (and he inferred ‘or care’) where Canadian arms were used. Mr. Sharpe, the minister of the department, agrees with US plans for with- drawal said the official letter. Jack Phillips, CUPE, pointed out the way for withdrawal from Vietnam did not lie through Cambodia and Laos, but rather was in the opposite direction where the troops could board ‘ships for home. Applause greeted his remark. A letter from COPE vice- president Bruce Yorke requested a meeting to plan a conference to get something moving on rapid transit, built around the slogan Rapid Transit now — Freeways Never! The request was sent to the Metro Advisory Council of the VLC for further action. There will be further action on the Four Seasons complex. according to reports made at the meeting. A committee made up of representatives from organizations opposed to the project at the entrance to Stanley Park has been set up to carry the fight further, possibly in the legal field, and in a demand for a plebiscite. Several delegates spoke hotly on the sell- out by the Federal government in issuing a lease for the developers to go ahead. The parks board and the school board have come out for a plebis - cite on the issue, and the demand is growing amongst all sections of the people. The issue “ will come up at the April 27 meeting of city council, and strong attendance was urged by the union men who spoke. An omnibus bill which is being piloted through the federal house includes a section dealing with Superannuation for postal workers which is being protested by the Letter Carriers. Lumped in with other motions dealing with pollution, etc., the section will be sneaked through unless it _ 1s stopped, said Bob Hamilton. The huge U.S. operation, now busy tearing the Kootenays apart to get coal for export to Japan, admits the pollution is due to mismanagement and poor planning. Kaiser Industries has never applied for a pollution permit for its major plants which are causing the pollution, and have refused to give out any infor- mation to experts named by the Kootenay Regional District, representing the munici- palities, to look into the serious problem. Deeply concerned about ecologi - cal effects on the whole Kootenay area, the Regional District wrote William Venables, director of the govern - ment’s pollution control branch, last November. The letter expressed concern, and asked why Kaiser was allowed 07) effluent contrary to the P Control Act, since the © had no permits. a The letter asked: “If sm nesses cannot operate having a permit, the q how can Kaiser?”’ Altht months ous have pas Regional District has received a reply from” Tuesday the chairm government pollutio board explained that nothing. the board can d the Kaiser pollution P because ‘‘the govell approach has been approach rather than action.” Meanwhile, public f running high against the failure of the gové! act. By A RAILROADER The current problems on the railways of this country — in particular the B.C. area run quite deep. To understand present militancy and obvious bitterness will require a little analyzing. One of the main changes over the past twenty years has been automation with all that entails. Along with this has been a change of management attitude to a system of professional business techniques and personnel, also with what that entails. The net result of all this has been the gradual erosion of a once proud and respected labor man of the community. The deep phsychological effect is immeasurable, of course, but instead of trying to combat it, it appears that the companies and government don’t even recog- nize it, or at best feel it is not their responsibility. On the other side things are not all that rosy either. The running of trains entails many crafts, each one being represented by a different union. This in itself is not a bad thing but it hasn’t helped due to the nature of the job and also because the union officers have not pressed for a policy of unity within their own unions, let alone with the other unions involved. They have also traded off sections of their past agree- ments for pay raises that have hardly kept up with inflation, let alone improved the lot of the labor man involved. For example, an engineman in road service, in order to make his maximum wages, has to spend. approximately 237 hours away from his home a month (a trainmen 266 hours). To this could be added the time he hangs around waiting for a call to go to work and travel, ete., which would bring his time devoted to the railways up to a possible 275 hours or more. Up until the book-off on March 24 on the CNR side, there wére 68 slow orders between Boston Bar and Port Mann— 114 miles. What does this mean and why? It means that a train weighing - “used to make it much ost ‘by the rank and -Railroaders lo not a happy o anything up to 13,000 # 4 be speeded up and slow to as much as 10 Mt sometimes stopped, 4 of 68 times. Quite ofte? more, due to the me other trains and pickine setting out of cars. The why of the que simply that the mane has shown complete 1 tence in maintaining ©) in keeping with the nU weight of the trains thé running. The fact }§ track maintenance recently been greatly. and that they are noW units which are indep® the track itself; 4% | system on paper, bul @™ story in practice. i Again on the C is piece of track apP ~ 80 miles long startiN® of east that in the last ! had many accidents ' large loss of life that known as ‘Death C@ the ‘Scenic Frase! awl The cost to the gave equipment alone coul of excuse given: (305 engineering difficult, jp It should be pointed ® have put man and the moon; to protect L job and his family fr? git? of hardships should e 1" just a matter of prior In the last few 7. companies have § harrassment to th z they have employe th problems one afte! with the position bec? "ft strained at each ©? is so that the morale ~ lower and lower... This analysis © 47 complete but it does of the main reas? 92 national unrest and noe the local frustrall aj have resulted in a N€ and labor-strugglé file shown. great Tres ie responsibility up tO) 4 It is a great PH a cannot -be said forts sides, ie. managem™ government.