CRIME IN THE STREETS WOULD YO) PLEASE CONSIDER STOPPING BEING SO GREEDY ° NEWS ITEM: The consumer price index last year took its biggest jump since 1951, says The Dominion Bureau of Statistics, Durin 1968 the index went up 4.1 per cent to reach 158 points. The calculating base of 100 is based on 1949 prices. At the same time corporate profits rose in Canada by 15 per cent. i on al Ra Prige Peri Peet LABOR SCENE: VLC urges NATO pullout, hits Socred cool welcome Housing, the Hellyer task force burlesque, high interest rates and taxes, NATO, and the insulting attitude of the Bennett government towards labor in the presentation of its annual brief to the cabinet this week: all were subjects of lively dis- cussion at this week's session of the Vancouver and District Labor Council (VLC). A VLC executive recom- mendation reiterating VLC policy urging Canada to get out of NATO and NORAD forthwith, and apply the billions of dollars now being spent through mem- bership in these war pacts to housing, hospital, education, and other pressing needs. The VLC executive recom- mendation, unanimously approved by the delegate body, also ‘‘welcomed’’ the stand on NATO taken by Postmaster Gen- eral Eric Kierans. Such a break now could place Canada in the world forefront as a powerful voice for peace. ‘Prime Minister Trudeau wants a nationwide opinion on the issue of NATO and Norad,”’ Tenants fight eviction, urge city, Victoria act Vancouver tenants took to the picket line Tuesday night at 2575 — Spruce Street to fight eviction proceedings launched on the advice of the Greater Van- couver Apartment Owners Assoc., against tenants who are attempting to negotiate rents and rental conditions, Tenants at the apartment on Spruce Street have tried for three months to negotiate the terms of a proposed $10 a month hike. For some tenants this would be the third increase in 16 months. But negotiations have been refused, instead eviction proceedings have now taken place. A release issued by the Vancouver Tenants Council said that ‘‘the landlords hope that this action will sufficiently intimidate tenants from their efforts to secure equitable condi- tions . . . But they are mistaken. The tenants are fighting back and are calling on public opinion for support.” To show their determination to secure a just settlement, all the tenants concerned have re- fused to pay the increase for the past three months. They have urged instead that negotiations take place. The landlords reply was to launch court action against Ray Sourisseau and his wife Linda. Sourisseau is spokesman for the tenants, and is second vice-president of: the Vancouver Tenants Council. The reply of the tenants came Tuesday night when 32 of them, armed with placards reading: “Needed: Tenants Rights,” ‘‘Landlady Refuses to Negotiate,’’ etc., picketed the apartment block. The Vancouver Tenants Coun- cil said Tuesday that the land- lord’s action was taken under the archaic Landlord and Tenants Act, which invariably supports the landlord’s ‘‘property rights’’. Under it the landlord is not required by law to give any reason whatsoever for an eviction action. Meeting this week the Vancouver Tenants Council decided to send a letter to City Council demanding that the Land- -lord and Tenants Rental Regula- tions Committee be reconvened and bring down a report no later than April 1. The Council also wrote Attorney General Peterson some weeks ago asking for permission to make _ repre- sentation for amendments to the Landlord and Tenants Act, and for abolition of the Distress Act which allows landlords to take action against tenants outside at PUBLIC MEETING “STOP THE PLUNDER of B.C.’s MINERAL RESOURCES” Hear MAURICE RUSH - Associate Editor, Pacific Tribune SUNDAY - FEBRUARY 16th — 8 P.M. “THE INN’ — 1528 COOK ST., VICTORIA, B.C. Everyone Welcome DIIADY J 10A0_ Dane 19 the law. No reply has been received. The Tenants Council have decided to organize a lobby to Victoria. The Tenants Council have also launched a petition campaign requesting City Council to enact a Charter of Tenants Rights. history. SCHOOL CRISIS Cont'd. from pg. 1 couver), the only alternative is to cut back, or publicize the inten- tion to include the ‘‘non- shareable’ in the budget, explaining that if by March written protests have been re- ceived from 100 taxpayers the budget will have to be submitted to referendum. 4 And if by chance it should carry (by the required 60% majority) the full ‘‘nonshare- able’’ is then chargeable to local ratepayers. Such an arrange- ment results, of course, in a further shift in financial responsi- bility to the local taxpayers, and the proportion borne by the Provincial government (which has the real tax sources - income and resources) is _ further reduced. What is needed is a powerful campaign to compel the Bennett government to sit up and take notice. Massive public pressure around the PTA’s delegation to Victoria February. 12; United action by all School Boards, Municipal and city councils, the School Trustees Association, the Teachers Federation, PTAs, trade unions and other com- munity organizations, to win a better deal. Such united action would either win relief or bring down the Bennett government. stated a postal union delegate, “so let’s give him one now by demanding we get out of NATO and put the billions thus saved for the needs of our own people.” - Delegate Wm. Stewart (Ma- rine Workers) re-stated the fact that Canada as yet “has no merchant marine, yet we are building two escort destroyers at a cost of $37 million each as part of this NATO pact to escort somebody else with our des- troyers, which will likely be obsolete long before they are completed. We can end this kind of stupidity by getting out of NATO and NORAD now.” The Hellyer task force report on housing was denounced by VLC delegates as a sheer fraud upon the Canadian people. Nick Podvinikoff (Carpenters), said “one is at a loss to understand how a report of this kind could ever be written— with two funda- mental questions totally omit- ted; exorbitant interest rates and the high speculative prices of land.”’ Other delegates from unions in the construction industry pointed out that many of these homes now being built ‘‘are just boxes thrown together,’ which will have collapsed long before the 40 years are up, so that by the time a homeowner has managed to pay for his home (if ever), it will be pretty much of a wreck. Reporting on the B.C. Fed- eration of Labor brief presented to the cabinet by secretary Ray Haynes and other officers of the BCFL, Paddy Neale, VLC secre- tary stated that in this year’s ‘annual junket to Victoria’ the cold reception given by Premier Bennett was the ‘‘worst ever’’. The BCFL brief dealt primarily with Bill 33: and the need of drastic changes to make it acceptable to labor. Neale described the BCFL brief as being ‘‘very good’. A delegate pointed out that “we have the fullest confidence in the BCFL in its ability to write excellent letters and briefs to the government,” but not to mount an all-out fight against Bill 33 as it should have done. Andy Brogan (Marine Workers) stated this was possibly ‘‘the best we could do .. . it was no doubt a lovely brief as Brother Neale has said, so good indeed that Bennett didn’t even listen. Obviously we need more than briefs to make them listen.”’ During their safari to Victoria the BCFL official delegation plan to lobby all opposition MLA’s for support to have basic changes made in Bill 33, espec- ially those sections providing for compulsory arbitration in union- management contract negotia- tions. Meantime, the BCFL will continue its policy of affiliate union nonco-operation with the government’s Mediation Com- mission set up under Bill 33 authority. The 24th annual convention of the United Fishermen and Allied Workers Union (UFAWU) with some 140 delegates in attend- ance, four of these from Canada’s Atlantic coast region, is now in session. Many issues of vital im- portance to the fishing industry on the West Coast, such as fishing licensing (as now proposed by the Federal Fish- eries Dept), conservation of fisheries, wild life, pollution etc., will come before delegates to the UFAWU convention. The Pacific Tribune hopes to be able to feature a full report on the deliberation and decisions of this important convention in next week's edition. Get out of NATO says peace body The B.C. Peace Council, in a letter to Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau on January 29, urges him to withdraw Canada from the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Charging that continued membership poses grave dangers to Canadian security, the letter points out that as a member of NATO, Canada is inevitably dominated by the United States, and would find it hard to disassociate herself from any military ventures initiated by the U.S. Furthermore, the letter emphasises, partnership with West Germany in NATO can make us accomplices in a neo- Nazi war to end all. The Council also urges Prime Minister Trudeau to take advantage of the 20th anniversary of the Treaty this year to invoke Article 13 of the North Atlantic Treaty, from N Issued by The COMMUNIST PARTY OF CANADA WITHDRAWE ATO!