a Sai

Montreal report

Tale of

two immigrants

By ALAIN PATRIE

Two article in the Montreal
Gazette recently, although they
appeared ,in the same issue,
were not related—in fact, one
was printed on page 2, the other
deep in the financial section.
One, written by Chris Allan,
was titled, “Mike would cut out
if he only could,” while “Why
one Canadian contemplates sell-
ing out” was by John Meyer,
the editor of this Southam
monopoly paper.

Allan writes about a Greek
immigrant who came to Canada
in 1963. He resides in a Greek
community of Montreal where
some of the more lurid episodes
of capitalism transpire. Pool
parlors and bookie joints rub
elbows with schools and church-
es. The brick walls bear chalked
slogans condemning the fascist
government in Athens.

Mike says if he had the
tickets he would return to
Greece.

He goes on to describe his
adventures in his adopted land.

“I can’t find what is required
to live as a man. I can’t even
provide the necessities.”

He is in his 30’s. He has a
wife and five children. He is a
carpenter by trade. With unem-
ployment in construction he
works as a delivery man for $60
a week for a minimum of 65°
hours and usually 70-75 hours.
He exhibits his income tax form
for 1970. It shows a total salary
of $2,949.48.

“How can I support seven
people on that?” ;
Meyer writes about A. K.
Velan, president of Velan En-.
gineering Ltd. Mr. Velan came
to Canada in 1949 from Czecho-
slovakia, where he. was born.
He was educated in Brno at an
engineering school and thanks
to family and background was
busy operating as manager of a
Bren gun factory during the
Nazi occupation of his ‘country.
After the war he managed two

Cubans confident

engineering firms, but in 1948
the workers’ government of
Czechoslovakia advised Mr. Ve-
lan his factories were to be na-
tionalized. This caused our hero
to flee his country and come to
Canada with his wife.

Today his Montreal company
is the largest Canadian manu-
facturer of valves, etc. Current
sales run to about $16 million.
Potential sales over a four-year
period are projected at $40 mil-
lion. His firm employs 500 men
and has the potential to employ
1,500.

Recently Mr. Velan sent an
irate letter to Prime Minister
Trudeau suggesting that he was
seriously considering selling his
interests to U.S. buyers. Among
Canadian capitalists this has be-
come the national sport.

Mr. Velan waxes bitter over
his adopted land’s policies.

“Because of Benson’s unpeg-
ging of the dollar my company
has lost $800,000 on sales of $12
million to the U.S.” (Since the
U.S. pays in American money
he has lost out on the premium
of 8% or so which used to
exist.) ;

His bitterness knows no
bounds. He is prepared to sell
out.

Mike the Greek reviews his
past six years of struggle. When
you work 12 hours a day, he
explains, it’s hard to attend Eng-
lish classes — that’s why his
English is poor.

“I don’t go to movies or
restaurants,” he cries out. “Look
at my clothes!”

He explains how his salary
has remained the same for
years but his rent has risen to
$140 from an original $55 for a
third-floor walk-up. The 18-cent
bus tickets are now 35 cents
and milk that cost 25 cents is
now 31 cents.

He’s afraid to ask for a raise
because the boss would put him
out on the street in a minute.
There are other immigrants who
would work for $35 a week, as

Workers set harvest goal

By PAUL R. EMERSON

HAVANA — During the first
months of 1971, Cuba’s “Year
of Productivity”, workers are
meeting to set production goals.
A total of 522 work centers had
already held meetings last Janu-
ary.

More than 1,500 such centers,
altogether, will be included in
the plan this year, the Cuban
Ministry of Labor announced.

Both worker and management
representatives took part in the
top-level organizational meeting
at Havana called by the minis-
try, along with national and
provincial government leaders.

The quiet bustle that begins
daily before sunrise in this city
of 1,750,000 people, one-fourth
the total population of Cuba,
belies stories in U.S. news-
papers about islanders “in a
grim mood” facing the 1971
sugar harvest, or about the new
year in Cuba beginning “in an
atmosphere of maximum aus-
terity.”

Even a visitor of a few days
in Havana is struck by the calm
yet purposeful demeanor of the
warm Cuban people nowadays.

The contrast is particularly

striking for one who visited
Cuba previously in the 1930s,
when the big depression was on
and the U.S.-sugar monopolies
that owned this country had
consigned the population to
starvation.

The New York Times and
other U.S. papers print stories
about the lack of milk and meat
in Cuba today, neglecting to
mention that before the triumph
of the Revolution milk and meat
were virtuall non-existent for
the Cuban working class. Now
every Cuban child under seven
is assured of milk daily, and
each Cuban family is assured
of its weekly ration of meat.

As the burgeoning new Cu-
ban cattle industry continues
to expand, there will be more
meat on the table, and milk will
be for adolescents and grown-
ups as well as children.

To make these plans come
true, the Cuban people are or-
ganizing production. This means
organizing the workers, first of
all Cuba’s labor unions are he-
ing revitalized, and where none
exist, new unions are being
organized vertically to embrace
entire industries.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—FRIDAY, APRIL 23, 1971—PAGE 12
é ma EE OS JIA TAU shin; JIS

they are so desperate. There
just are no jobs.

Mr. Velan is a disgruntled
Canadian citizen who wants the
government to compensate his
unexpected hardship. He wants
Ottawa to completely reimburse
his $800,000 loss. Ottawa has re-
fused so far. They say he must
prove danger of bankruptcy and
then they shall do it.

Mike hesitates to go on unem-
ployment relief. “If I lose my
job it will take three months
before I get an unemployment
insurance cheque, What do I

feed my family on during that.

time?”

Mr. Velan not only vocifer-
ously demands restoration of
expected profits, he also wants
Ottawa to offer him “constitu-
tional protection for the terri-
torial integrity of Canada” — a
firm assurance that Quebec
won’t be allowed to separate.

Mike doesn’t know what to
demand. It’s such a big country,
it would seem that there should
be so many jobs in this land of
plentys...<

Mr. Velan wails about suc-
cession duties which reduce the
incentives for his children to
carry on “the family business.”
He complains about the absence
of protection for employers
from “unreasonable strikes.” He
rails against taxes!

‘Up in Mile End, where Mike
lives there is a report of a father
who is unemployed because of
a fall sustained. The mother
awoke Christmas morning to
find her arms and legs paralyz-
ed, the result of a severe infec-
tion caused by badly decayed
teeth. She hadn’t been able to
visit a dentist and still cannot
afford to, so now her intestines
are decaying. She cannot attord
medication prescribed on her
release from hospital since the
family exists on a $200 a month
welfare cheque. The children of
this home are frightened and
pale, the mother is partly para-
lyzed and decaying, the father
is nervous and depressed. Yet
there still is the spark of
strength—the house is spotless,
with great pains the mother still
sews for the children...

This is a tale of two immi-
grants. Mike represents hun-
dreds of thousands of Cana-
dians. His condition is their
condition, his complaints are

, urgent, moral and justified.

Mr. Velan_ represents the
closed-circle oligarchy of big
business, hardheaded and hard-
hearted, whose complaints are
motivated by distorted values,
whose enormous profits are in-
flated by exploitation of others
and whose condition is beyond
the wildest dreams of the ordin-
ary working stiff.

i

Lunar "earth"

given to France

PARIS—French scientists have
been provided with samples of
lunar ground brought to earth
by the Soviet automatic station
Luna-16.

In agreement between the
USSR Academy of Sciences and
the National Space Research
Centre of France, these samples
of lunar material are to be
studied at French laboratories.

Side by side with Soviet
scientists, the lunar rock receiv-
ed with the help of the Luna-16
station, is also being studied at
laboratories of the academies of
sciences of socialist countries.

having “fun”

some parts of Canada.

It’s sient to be naked aha fon in the sun—yes, but this
in polluted, infected waters. The photo is from
Rico, but it could. be duplicated in a number of countries, !

bo

incl

Pentagon spends cal
to ‘sell’ war policies

NEW YORK—The frightening
extent and quality of the mas-
sive propaganda program of the
Pentagon was exposed in a
special CBS report, ‘‘The Selling
of the Pentagon.”

The one-hour documentary re-
vealed that millions and millions
of taxpayers’ dollars are spent
each year as the Department of

Defense lays down a “propa-
ganda barrage” wherein vio-
lence (is) made _ glamorous,

expensive weapons advertised
as if they were automobiles,
biased opinions presented as
straight facts.”

The report stated that ‘‘ac-
cording to the Pentagon, it will
spend $30-million this year on
public affairs.” This, CBS sug-
gests, “may only be the tip of
the public relations iceberg”
and quotes a “still unpublished”
report for the prestigious 20th
Century Fund” which estimates
the real total to be $190-million,
or $44-million more than the
combined news budgets of ABC,
CBS and NBC.

CBS News spent 10 months
investigating the charge that
Pentagon public relations funds
are used not merely to inform
but to convince and persuade
the public on the vital issues of
war and peace.

What they found was a propa-
ganda setup of staggering and
alarming proportions and. design:

e A team of colonels touring
the country to lecture on foreign
policy in spite of an Army regu-
lation stating: “personnel should
not speak on the foreign policy
implications of U.S. involvement
in Vietnam.”

e War shows and weapons
display, each costing millions of
dollars, staged for the public
and invited guests.

e News films that were stag-
ed, manipulation of the news,
millions and millions of dollars
worth of films that go far be-
yond and are in many instances
in conflict with the govern-

ae
gives to such sympat th

ment’s announced foreleg
icy. In addition to thes if
and fictional films pres® y
factual ones there is av of
set-up that feeds regula
ganda to the weekly ant
newspapers, television a
stations. i

Over the years the © if
who specialize in foreigh F x0!
have traveled——at eal
expense — to 163 vole |
spoken to 180,000 ree
question and answel of
they promote Americ,
ence in Southeast AS!

The Army exhibit oe !
phasizing power) has an
239 cities in 46 states i,
been seen by over taxol
people. The cost to t
$906,000 a year.

How children are Fi C
alized was shown in
a Green Berets unl of
how people kill peopl® i
audience of about 4 “ey> W
children in New Jers° nel |
the Berets finished | 7 wt
the children had theif
imitating them.

One of the Army's
tions is the war ‘
fire power is display®’
an estimated $2- -millio
instance, The public ®
guests are invited 10
dozens are presente eam “g
ent bases all over thé i,

After the one filmed aly

wh

some of the weapOM> — uso iy
ed over to the childre? ee Ao
can get the heft and ¥
genuine article.” i )
Over 300 films @

made by the pentagon 4 sd

of $12-million. ee ‘
tion to the help t

wood producers aS Jone
During the 1960’ s, 4
million Americans
gon motion pictures 5 net
lic gatherings viewes nb
at least 35 commercia tot i
cational television § aft
presented them ie sits
their public bron ie a

wel ae