Cominco

mediately.

finds new
in racist South Africa

Cominco Ltd., announced recently that it is joining with the
Union Corporation of South Africa to start construction of a zinc-
lead mine in northwestern Spain. The huge project is to start im-:

Cominco president Gerald H.D. Hobbs said Cominco will provide ’
or guarantee 47.5 percent of the $43 million project. Cominco’s
South African partner will provide the remainder of the capital.

The CPR-owned mining company follows ‘in the footsteps of
another major B.C. corporation — MacMillan Bloedel — in
acquiring world wide holdings and exporting capital on a large
scale to buy up or start new industries in low-pay areas where the
possibilities exist for more extensive exploitation of labor.

The fact that the United Nations has denounced racist South
Africa and world opinion has condemned the giant South African
corporations which support the apartheid policy, makes no dif-
ference to Cominco. Profit is profit.

The ominous feature of this latest announcement is that
Canadian workers are producing profits out of Canadian resources
for a company which is using those profits to uphold and strengthen
the most notorious racist regime in the world.

partner

House opens Nov. I

The NDP government an-

' nounced last Saturday that the fall

session of the B.C. legislature will

convene on November 1. The an-

nouncement came from provincial
secretary Ernie Hall.

It is expected that the session
will be a short one, and will last
anywhere from two to 10 days.
Main purpose of the sitting is to
deal with property taxation
measures. Severad
“housekeeping” bills may also be
introduced.

Premier Dave Barrett said
recently that no controversial
legislation will be introduced by
the NDP government.

Despite the government’s in-
tention to make the session a short
one, it seems quite likely that the
mass layoffs in the woodworking
industry in B.C., as well as the
projected shutdown of Britannia
Mine by the Anaconda company,
will be aired during the House
debate.

Fight to save library

What should be done with the old
library, known as Carnegie
Library, at the corner of Main and
Hastings?

This interesting landmark,
which is part of the history of
Vancouver, now stand sidle and
neglected. But it could be a
thriving centre asia health, human
resources and recreation centre,

suggestions from the public for the
use of. the building. ‘“‘We certainly
don’t want to see it turned over to -
private interests and torn down for
another office building,” one
downtown resident told the PT.

If you have any suggestions send
them to Carnegie Library —
Future Use, 616 E. Cordova St.

according to the Downtown
Eastside Resident’s Association,
who have launched a_ petition
campaign to save the building for
community use.

-Organizers of the petition say
that 800 people have already signed
it and more are signing every day.
It’s actually a race to saving the
historic edifice. The DERA
revealed recently that the city was
intending to sell or lease the
building. ;

The DERA

is asking for

e’ve had it all before, the pages of familiar pictures,
Woe screeds from the media’s top sob-sisters and so
forth, all based on the general premise that the people

have a very short memory, and hence will not detect
another dose of the same pablum.

The announcement, in the midst of union wage
negotiations, that the Anaconda Copper Company at
Britannia Beach is closing down for good, throwing some
300 or more hark-rock miners and their families out of a
livelihood and turning their homes and community into a
ghost town struck like a thunderclap.

The explanations put forward by this “free en-
terprise” monopoly are to the effect that the “profits from
the copper market” are no longer sufficient to meet
operating costs; that ‘labor costs’? are now prohibitive,
and that this far-reaching reptilian momopoly has no
other choice than announce its obituary for Britannia
Beach in the columns of a ‘“‘free enterprise” media.

Like a “‘good Samaritan,’’ Anaconda has agreed that
the miners can stay in their “ghost town’? company
houses until they get ready to move, but move they must
and will.

About a decade ago the Anaconda Copper Co. at
Britannia Beach pulled a similar “closing down” stunt,
aimed than at-a dual target — a drastic cut in-miners’
wages, and/or to force a handsome subsidy out of the B.C.

IDAY, OCTOBER 18, 1974—Page 2

EXCHANGE

\

STOCK.

"1 WANT YOU TO-KNOW THAT THOUSANDS
OF PEOPLE WORKED NARD
MILLIONS [*

FOR MY

Tax feforin should ait
to lift load off h

By ALD. HARRY RANKIN |

Homeowners could be faced with
enormous increases in taxes next
year. It all depends on how and
when the provincial government
implements the new Assessment
Act and the Assessment Authority
of B.C. Act, both passed at the last
session of the legislature.

The New Assessment Act .

provided that in future,
assessments on property and
improvements in B.C., will be
based on 100 percent of actual
value. Until now taxes for school
purposes in Vancouver, for
example, have been based on only
41 percent of market value today,
but in practice the assessments of
industrial and commercial
properties have usually been far
below their actual value with the
result that they do not pay their
fair share of taxes.

If your taxes next year
were based on the new assessed
values and if no changes were
made in the mill rate, your taxes
could double or worse.

The matter is supposed to be
decided at the fall session of the
legislature. It, in turn, is to hear a
report of a property tax study
committee headed by Carl Liden,
MLA, which is currently holding
public hearings. It has been ob-
vious for some time that the
committee cannot possibly com-

Rally proceeds
to aid Chile

Phil Rankin, chairman of
Canadians for Democracy in Chile,
announced last week that the
proceeds from the September 8th
meeting at Vancouver’s Templeton
High School have been sent to Chile
Democratica, headquarters of the
Chilean resistance movement in
Rome.

The total amount sent was $600
which consisted of proceeds of the
rally after expenses of $130.80; a
donation of $100 from the United
Brotherhood of Carpenters and
Joiners Local 452, Vancouver; a
donation of $55 from the B.C.
Committee of the Communist
Party; and a donation of $24.20

from the Canadians for
Demo

es

for nearly

substantial subsidy to sweet
Profits, but allegedly to “
becoming the ‘ghost town”
it then. No wonder hardware m
plaudits for “saving a town”

pense?

Now we are at it again; the s.
the same sob sister pablum,
warrant, brought up to date
Association of B.C., who have
heaven about the NDP Bill 31
of the excess profits of minin

of B.C,

In the long histor
mining towns this

a terrible

“

government of the day. By
miners’ union, (then the Min
Anaconda’s wa

the determination of; the
e, Mill and Smelter) the -
ge cutting binge was effectively blocked, ~
but a give-away Socred regime under which B.C. suffered
a quarter of a century, came across with a
en Anaconda’s greed for
Save” Britannia Beach from
this monopoly had planned for
erchant Bennett got a lot of
— at the taxpayer’s ex-

ame titillating pictures,
the same death-of-a-town
, in part by the Mining
and are screaming to high
which demands a mite more
g Corporations for the people

y of U.S. and Canadian hard-rock
“free enterprise”’ monopoly has played

} role in anti-union persecution, exploitation,
pillage and cold-blooded

”

-fascist junta illegally

omes_

ae ee ee.

Re

plete its report in time for the
legislative session.

Premier Barrett in his current
public speaking tour of the interior
has assured his audiences that the
tax reform will not be im-
plemented if the committee’s
report is not ready and if it appears
that tax increases will be too great.

We cannot anticipate what the
committee will report or what the
government has in mind by way of
further tax reform. But we do need
assurance from the government
that next year’s taxes on homes
will not continue to spiral upward
as they have in past years. The
legislature can ensure that taxes
on homes will not be increased in
1975. oe

Basing assessments on actual
market value is sound in principle.

-But whether or not it is good for

homeowners depends on how it is
implemented.

If and when the government
implements its tax reform

- sufficient.

mining
there, but take it.

legislation ul
companied by specific
carry out its election ple a fr
school taxes will be remov a
homeowners within five va

Any basic tax reform ™
include the provision that ae
homes should be limited
services directly related
such as water, sewers,
collection,
protection. Revenues ne
general purposes other
should come either from
commercial ae
properties’ or from nae
provincial government 8!"
both.

: uld be
it sho steps

tax

to ho!
gar
an

eded

police

indus

and rea

T

Renew your
PT sub today

: ore
seized power, one of its first acts was to re
Anaconda holdings to its alleged ‘‘owners”’. Bee ga
for Anaconda’s financial backing to the fascist F

Thus Anaconda is all one python, whether i he
its tail be in Britannia Beach, and its rape 0 5 is
resources and exploitation of hard-rock miner io?
obstructed by international boundaries or pigme d pro!
skins. It’s “alpha and omega” are profits an vet
alone, and the happy community of today can ii met!
a “ghost town’”’ tomorrow if its profits are dé

The NDP Barrett government is now face a
job saving Britannia Beach, not the slippery.
Bennett Socred regime did by handing over cole
of thousands of dollars of the taxpayers’ wee
ruthless profit-mad copperhead, but by a direct P
government takeover. No compensation or su Hf
kind to Anaconda. Just a short and curt “get 8 :
what the Anaconda sprung on the Britann
miners, while going through the ‘good faith’ ae
of collective bargaining. Just a direct takeove
any financial or political strings attached; to
Britannia Beach for the miners and their fo
community — not for the continued profi
Anaconda Copper Company.

And don’t let the yowls of the mining operator
deter quick action. It is in their nature to yowl, Ve 4
as Anaconda has done, they pocket fat profits
labor and resources of others. ae

No commiseration or hand-outs for the fj
monopoly. Just read back on how the Benné
regime “saved” Britannia Beach — and take

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