Bigger protests promised

@ Continued from page 5

Mr. Gray let it be known that
he was receiying the delegation
as a matter of courtesy on be-
half of Prime Minister’ Trudeau.
The delegation raised as_ its
main point, a demand to “Roll
Back Prices,” pointing out that
every concession given by the
Government was paid for by our
tax dollar, and that nothing was
done about super profits.

Nothing has been done to con-
trol the super profits enjoyed
through the vertical integration
in the food industry, where
monopoly controls the increas-
ing profits in each step from
the ground up through growing
food, processing, packaging, re-
tailing. Spokesmen told him they
did not need a Prices Review
Board just to investigate and
point out unjustifiable price in-
creases — we want to know
what the government will do
about it.

No Further Statement

Mr. Gray said food prices
were part of total Government
policy, and that his department
had a limited jurisdiction —
breaches of the Combines In-
vestigation Act, and misleading
and false advertising.

When pressed for an answer
as to what the Government is
going to do about unjustified
price increases, and \to roll. back
prices, Mr. Gray stated that in-
flation was a world-wide prob-
lem, that he could make no fur-
ther statement, and that any
new Government policy would
have to be brought into the
house and debated on the floor.

Mr. Ross of the UE pointed
out the serious position of
retirees. He worked all his life
and helped to build up this coun-

try; now his four children are
all working and paying taxes.
His total income including com-
pany pension is $250 a month
and he just cannot manage to
live on it.

Rhoda Shore pointed. out that
very often the husband reaches
retirement and the wife is un-
der 65 and they have to live on
a single pension. Even at the
increased rate of $179, how can
pensioners pay the rent and eat
too? Linda Hepburn pointed out
the plight of families on- wel-
fare, and that something had to
be done about them. Mrs. Geli-
nas warned that this winter
there woud be serious malnutri-
tion and many deaths from star-
vation. _ :

Initiate Activities
The delegation then reported

back to the demonstrators, Mrs. -

Magnuson in English, and Mrs.
Gelinas in French. Maggie Biz-
zel, co-ordinator of the demon-
stration and secretary of the
Coalition to Roll Back Prices,
addressed the assembly and
said, “this wonderful turn-out
today proves people are willing
to do things,” and urged people
to go back to their organiza-
tions and localities and initiate
activities and draw in people.
The following are some com-
ments of a few of the people
who were demonstrating out-
side the Parliament Buildings:
—Eric Blythe, UE Local 541
Guelph — “Local 541 agrees
with the aims of the Coalition
to Roll Back Prices. The rea-
son for high prices is nothing
more nor nothing less than pro-
fit-gouging by big business.”
—Al]. Peters, UE Local 521
Leaside, National Staff — “De-
monstration is worthwhile but I

USSR- Canada delegation

first to visit Toronto

TORONTO — A Soviet dele-
gation of five women and 14
men from the Union of Friend-
ship Societies of the USSR is
touring Canada, exchanging
views and seeing the landmarks
of Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto,
Regina and Vancouver.

Headed by Igor Zabrodin,
general-secretary of the USSR-
Canada Society in the Soviet
Union, who has welcomed many
Canadians to Moscow, the group
were guests at a banquet and
dance at Toronto’s Town and

Left successful
in French vote

PARIS — France’s left wing
chalked up further successes at
the Sept. 30 weekend in the sec-
ond and final round of local gov-
ernment elections.

With 423 seats won, the Soci-
alist Party remained the biggest
single political party at local
council level. The Communist
Party notched 213 successes.

The Socialists and Commu-
nists increased their representa-
tion by 123 and 73 seats res-
pectively, while the Gaullists
won only 45 new places.

The Communist and Socialist
coalition now has 717 represen-
tatives for the seats contested.

Against them are 379 “inde-
pendent” councillors, many of *
whom will support the’ right,

Country Inn on October 12. A
highlight of the evening was
the performance for them by a
youthful dance group from the
Indian Brotherhood.

A number of the Soviet visit-
ors spoke greetings to the large
audience and presented memen-
tos of their republics to the co-
chairmen, Professor Kenneth
May, president of the Canada-
USSR Association and Exec-
utive Director Michael Lucas.

Ikbajachan Tchtachadzajeva,
deputy minister of education in
her republic, Uzbekistan; Day-
nis Golbergis, a leading Latvian
editor; Yendelj Maydma, deputy
minister of forestry in Estonia,
among others, expressed their
satisfaction at their visit to
Canada. They and others—Men-
andr Petrov, vice-chairman of
Minsk (Byelorussia) Civil Avia-
tion; B. M. Vartapetjan, Com-
munist’ Party secretary _ in
Armenia — expressed the ideals
for which the friendship as-
sociations stand, more exchang-
es of visitors, understanding,
peaceful co-existence.

The Soviet visitors are all
specialists in their own fields—
from auto worker Veniamin
Karpov of Moscow, to Nina
Chomjanova, candidate of geo-
graphical sciences at the Siber-
ian Energy Institute; and all
were eager to discuss their spe-
cialties with Canadians, as well
as to get a broader picture of
Canadian life.

This is the first delegation
sent’ by the USSR-Canada So-
ciety but both sides agreed it
would not be the last.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—FRIDAY, OCTOBER 19, 1973—-PAGE 10

a grammes eS
sa meee 3

am disappointed that so few
labor unions were represented.
The turnout is small and prob-
ably won’t be very effective: be-
cause the government refuses
to take any action. Their at-
titude is to let the companies
charge what the traffic will,bear.
Beryl Plumptre is a $40,000-a-
year apologist for the food
chains.”

—Olive Holmes, Guelph, mo-
ther of seven children, living on
Mother’s Allowance — “Freez-
ing prices at their present level
is useless. People can’t afford to
eat. Prices must be rolled back.

Many women in my situation ©

lack the confidence and are
afraid to speak out.”
—Hamilton UE Auxilliary
Demands: Roll Back Food Prices.
High prices are now affecting
the staple foods. We are picket-
ing food stores and sent a tele-
gram to Beryl Plumpre asking
her to come to Hamilton to a
meeting.
Getting Rolling
—Bill Woodbeck, UE Local
524 Peterborough — “This de-
monstration brings our demands
to the attention of the Govern-
ment. We are just starting to
get rolling. With the NDP work-
ing. with the Liberals — the
working people will have to do
something.” :
—Joe Kuzler, UE retired, Wel-
land — “Prices are too high for
pensioners. Prices must be
rolled back and pensions raised.”
—Doria Milstein, Sarah Min-
des, Jewish Golden Age Asso-
ciation, Montreal — “65% of
people over 65 are receiving the
full government supplement.
They are going hungry. Most
pensioners worked when there
were no company pension plans.
Those who had large families
were never able to put anything
away for their old age.

Continue the Fight

—Anna Pashka, Congress of
Canadian Women — “The peo-
ple who took part in the de-
monstration were very sincere
in their desire to curb the ris-
ing prices, and to end monopo-
lies, and expressed their inten-
tion to continue the fight until
the government does something
about the situation. It was good
to see the young people and
trade unions coming into the
struggle. to Roll Back Prices.
We were sorry not to be able
to talk with the MPs, but they
were unavailable.

—Lyn Rak housewife, Osha-
wa — “This demonstration may
not be as large as it should be
—but those of us here are angry
— we are tired of being told,
‘The consumer can keep her
food bills down if she shops
wisely.’ We are tired of being
told that high food prices are
caused by ‘world food short-
ages. We want government
action to’ roll back unjustified
price increases, to prosecute
those profit-gouging food corpo-
rations who care not for the
,needs of the working people of
this country.”

—Edith Gallagher, widow,
mother of six children, St. Cath-
arines — “The government must
force prices down. I can’t afford
to feed and clothe my children.”

Demonstrators wound up the
Day of Protest more convinced
than ever that masses of peo-
ple must be brought into the
fight against prices. From the
trade unions, the churches, and
dozens of other organizations
the forces must be found to fin-
ally force the government to
roll back prices.

"Picket line successful

while Star Forum flops

TORONTO — The audience
who went to the Toronto Star
Forum Oct. 16. to hear a panel
on “What sholild we do about
the high cost of food?” were
met by an informational picket
line of the Coalition to Roll
Back Prices. The 25 picketers
carried signs reading: “Mrs.
Plumptre, we’ve had enough!”
and “Prosecute the profiteers.”
They distributed leaflets calling
on Mrs. Plumptre to begin some
real action on rising food prices.
The picket line was a success—
the Star Forum flopped.

The highly touted panel con-
sisted of Beryl Plumptre, chair-
man of the Food Prices Review
Board; Keith Leckie, managing
director, Meat Packers’ Council
of Canada; Gordon Hill, presi-
dent, Ontario Federation of Ag-
riculture; Thomas Bolton, presi-

dent, Dominion Stores Ltd.; and z

Mrs. Helen Anderson, co-chair-
woman, National Research Com-
mittee, Consumers Association
of Canada.

: Not Guilty

The Forum opened with each
panelist apologizing for the high
cost of foods and making a plea
of “not guilty” to the charges
of being responsible for the ris-
ing costs.

One of the few panelists to
comment on the theme, ‘What
should we do about the high
cost of food?” was Mrs. Ander-
son of the Consumers’ Associa-
tion, and her contribution con-
sisted only of dragging out the
well-worn idea that consumers
must buy more wisely.

Bolton of Dominion, while
denying any guilt for high prices,
tried to use the Forum as a

Communists urge Andras to
extend date for immigrants

TORONTO — In a letter to
Robert Andras, minister of citi-
zenship and immigration, Wil-
liam. Kashtan, leader of the
Communist Party of Canada,
has urged the minister to ex-
tend the period during which
those lacking legal status as re-
sidents of Canada, may come
forward to apply for landed im-
migrant status. The original

Mrs. Allende -

® Continued from page 5

feel that this is only a transitory
nightmare and tragedy. We have
suffered a very deep wound but
not a defeat.”

In reply to another question
as to what the Canadian people
can do to help in defense of the
victims of the junta, the answer
was to “hold more rallies like
this, register your protest and
most. important open the doors
of the Canadian embassy to the
large numbers of people seeking
asylum.”

The meeting was also address-
ed by John Foster of Toronto, a
journalist who had spent some
time in Chile under the auspices
of the United Church. He traced
the achievements of the Popular
Unity Government headed by
President Allende as well as the
economic sabotage and obstruc-
tion both by Chilean and U.S.
monopoly interests which pre-
pared the ground for the military
coup.

‘finishing a close second.

sandwich-board advertisement |
for Dominion Stores Ltd. He |
came to the meeting complet
with charts depicting “How y% |
get a better buy at Dominion ~
and continually prattled abou |
‘Dominion, the store that will
not be knowingly undersold.” a |

Mrs. Plumptre,  maintaifl
that her board was doing evely’ }
thing it could to stop the pritt
rise. Ignoring the corporatid
she went after the consume
and said, “While we are 40 p
the studies, its up to the co™ |
sumer to shop with greatel |
care.”

Price Rigging ‘i

Questions and the discussi0
following the panelists’ openine
remarks appeared to be 4 if
test among the panelists t0 a
who could talk the longest
out answering- the question. A

Plumptre won with Boll®

Members of the Coalition 4
Roll Back Prices asked ss }
about Dominion’s role in ae
rigging throughout the f on |
chain and what the Dominio?
Store Ltd. role was in the af
gus Corporation Ltd. Bolton *
swered that the corporate str
ture was so large that he wast
familiar. with all of it but ©
Argus. was a holding compan’ |
that controlled much of the 150 |
minion operations. Argus 4 te
holds a considerable portion
the Massey-Ferguson farm
chinery industry.

If those present at the Pore
learned anything it was tha and
line of monopoly spokesmen 10s
their friend Beryl Plumptré ead
not changed, and gives. n0 L |
to rolling back prices.

|

deadline was midnight, octobe ;
15.

In his letter, Mr.
pointed out that: “Long io j
ing and justified fear of dis.
inatory practices in thé
migration Department, 48
people seeking citizensh!P
landed immigrant status, gi)
have held many so-called wire i
immigrants from regist
during your recent camp@ en nat

“Results would indicate
such is the case,” the lettel 4
tinues, “and that an exter
of time would be justified
with a clear statement °
ernment intentions as tO OQ
on this important issue f° “of
future. Such a_ statemem jy
policy and intention ma pall
you on the Government's Lan
to Parliament would dO ™ jg
to dispel fear and anxiety i.
the- minds of those now ie t
country but who are rele |
to come forward to registel ict
are convinced,” the Comm nat
leader’s letter concludes; Ke it
humane considerations Mind
imperative that you rec ee
such action be taken at OMY gj
addition, many long-time no! :
dents of Canada are St
granted Canadian
This highly undemocrati
tion should be rectified tie |
further delay. .

Kashi! |

sae

—

——————__ of th?
About half the territory 2 ag
Soviet Union is in the
frost area, its thickness |; th ‘

_ing several hundred y@

northern parts. es