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“"PEACE’ IS WHEN NOBODY‘S SHOOTING. A ‘JUST PEACE’

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1S WHEN OUR SIDE GETS WHAT IT WANTS.”

| SIDELIGHTS |

They sang O Canada

One evening during the Great
Depression a group of: farmers
Sat around in an old, single-
storied prairie farmhouse, dis-
cussing the plight of a neigh-
bor. His farm was to be sold by
the sheriff in a few days’ time.
What could they do to stop it?

They- decided to ask the
Farmers Unity League in Saska-
toon. The answer soon came.
It was brief, “We don’t know
what to do to stop a sheriff’s
sale. Do what you can, and let
us know how you made out.
Whatever you do, stop it.”

On the eve of the sale they
gathered again to discuss the
“answer.” All sorts of schemes
were proposed and discarded.
Finally the mother said, “Why
don’t we just go there and sing
O Canada?” They looked at each
other. Would it work? They re-
solved to find out.

“What am I bid,” began the
sheriff. Weakly at first, the
farm mother began to sing. The
crowd joined in, The result was
more enthusiastic than musical. .
Every time a bid was asked, the
crowd sang O Canada. The first
sheriff's sale was stopped. The
sheriff left with the RCMP.

After that all sorts of meth-
ods were devised. Sometimes
agreement was reached to re-
fuse to bid more than a few
cents on any item up for sale,
and it was a daring farmer in-
deed who broke the rule. Occa-
sionally the young people would
drive the herd “over the hills”
during the night so that the sale
had to be postponed.

Stopping sheriff's sales was
combined with the fight for
more relief (now known as so-
cial aid) and for cash relief. In

those days you took what you
got, usually a large number of
insults and a somewhat smaller
quantity of foodstuffs. Unem-
ployment insurance was un-
known. People went to “relief
offices” set up for the purpose,
where they were “issued” quan-
tities of dry beans, flour, tea
and other assorted hard tack,
and denim overalls, cotton
dresses, and the like, when it
was “proven” that clothing was
needed. The Robin Hood Flour
sign was common on the home-
made underwear gracing the
clotheslines.

Struggle changed things.

One example. A town clerk
stood on the front steps of the
town offices heaping insults and
abuse on some farmers who had
dared to ask for “more.” “Lazy
bums, expecting the taxpayers
to feed you. Where do you think
the money’s to come from to
give you all those things?” the
clerk shouted, his face red.

The men were abashed, and
began to edge away. Not so the
women. It took them to change
things. The turn, you might say,
was a qualitative leap. One
charged forward, screaming that
her children needed quite a lot
more. She was joined by the
others.

They drove that clerk into
the reeve’s office and right up
onto the reeve’s desk. There he
stood for a moment. When the
women had his pants hauled off,
he quickly surrendered. And
that was the day at least some
farm children got a little more
of what they needed. And the
town clerk got at least a part
of what he deserved, too.

Editor—MAURICE RUSH
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Unt AY

Labor's fight hack

The Trudeau administration propos-

es to cut living standards by imposing
a 6% lid on all wage increases for 1970,
and a 4% lid in 1971.

The proposal got the imimediate

backing of businessmen, who call for.

its enforcement. What’s the use of
holding -an unloaded gun at labor’s
head, they ask.

As always, the solution to the evils
of capitalist recession —or crisis — is
for the capitalists to demand new sac-
rifices of the working people. The capi-
talists impose new burdens and new
taxes on them, restrict wages and liv-
ing standards, they combine this with
an all-out attack on the trade unions.

The workers are blamed for every-
thing. They are consuming too much,
aren’t working hard enough, aren’t
productive enough — therefore there
is inflation, therefore there is a na-
tional emergency, therefore there is a
need for austerity — but only for the
workers.

The big money bags are lined up to
put over the crusade for austerity,
while they enjoy a veritable bonanza.
The latest news is that almost all the
$18,000-a-year Ontario Tory MLA’s
have highly paid jobs on the side.

The organized labor movement is
fighting back. The postal workers have
been chosen by the federal administra-
tion as the test for the government’s
policy and, in that sense, the success of
the postmen will be for the good of all
working people.

Workers understand that Trudeau’s

proposals would freeze the economic
and social inequalities prevalent in

Canadian life. Low-income Canadians ©

are a substantial enon in Canadian
society. In 1967, 54% of those who paid
federal income taxes had incomes
under $5,000. All of them need a big
wage increase.

Where have all the claims gone about
a new kind of capitalism about the eco-
nomic miracles, the magic control, the
role of permanent and controlled infla-
tion, the effects of the ever-extending
marvels of modern science and tech-
nology? They haven’t rejuvenated
capitalism.

The postmen’s refusal to go along
with the wage ceiling proposals should
be supported by all Canadians,

Wheat can he sold

_ The recent sales of wheat to Brazil
and the Middle East, though small, are

sufficient proof that government policy .

is wrong—the more so when what Otto
Lang had to say is examined. He said
about the Brazilian sale, “As has been
the case with other sales we have an-
nounced recently, it would not have
been possible without the revised and
expanded credit facilities which the
government has made available to im-
prove the competitive position of Cana-
dian wheat in developing countries.”
That’s a point we have been making
for a long time. Where could the
money come from to expand such cre-
dit? What about the nearly two billion

adequate medical services — of
“many whose lives could have

HERE P EERE iid! GIEARES Sidshaad

The bosses attack wages

dollars Canada spends on war? That
money, diverted, would make it pos
sible to sell, on credit, almost all the
wheat in stock at $2 a bushel, to gen@
rate a boom in transportation, chemi —
als, machinery, repair parts, petroleum ©
products and what have you. Canad@

woud go from unemployment t0 ‘
shortage of labor. The prairies would
be transformed from a disaster ant
to an area of prosperity. Despair would
be replaced by hope. 1

Needless suffering

A cut-back in hospital spending ei,
been ordered. How many more peoPt
will either needlessly die, or suffer; “
be rendered incapacitated, as a rest’
of this aspect of the Trudeau auster)
program? ——

The working people can tell of mally

thousands of tragedies caused by nee

peel!
saved. : a.
Two examples of this in recent tim@
are two old people suffering from on
cer, who couldn’t get the care nee’ —
until they took drastic action. to
In one case the family threatened 5
call an ambulance and deliver the P®
tient as an emergency, with the press As
and radio called. The threat product”
a bed and an operation that save 1a
life. In the other case, the patient afte
a long wait walked into the hospil@
with friends and demanded a bed 4”
immediate care. a
The latest government proposals are”
designed to worsen the situation. B®
tafis
a’

pitals are overcrowded. Hospitals §
are overworked and, as a result, he
tients are neglected. Neglect is not
worst result. The art of healing is 2”
used properly. :
On the prairies there is talk of a
ing rural hospitals, with nothing ~
take their place. re,
All of this stands in stark contradl At
tion to modern possibilities. The rH
trast with the socialist countries is th
money is spent for people’s needs,
to line the pockets of the monopolies —

yi

£ |

Metro Toronto’s Social be
Committee has asked employable ui it
fare recipients to work to pay for t d ;
drugs, glasses and dentures they ne@”
‘It is claimed there are 17,000 employe
able people on social aid without JO"
in Toronto. ae
This proposal will lower the ai
ards of health and well-being of ese
people. Those of us old enough to ?
member the Great Depression. re
that this device was used at that Bie 4
There was a gradual easing of the i j
employed into low-paid part-time JO-"
which undercut those employed, 2 4
duced wages, and benefited the cal
talists. Business is only too happy he

take advantage of the plight of t
unemployed. ; hy
That in itself is enough evidence ¥ 1
the working class as a whole an ace
ig

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eaecheaal

trade union movement in the first
must be involved in organizing the vt
employed, and in making its Wels
felt in civic politics,

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