ga

" 4 oe a

Lift
LOCK-OUT
On -

SCHOOLS

A favorite passtime of the capitalist: media these days is to blame the school shortage in B.C. on the building
trades unions. Over the past years, in every dispute involving a lockout by the employers or strikes, the unions

ave urged that school construction go ahead, This is shown in the above photo taken in 1966. It shows a
Carpenters picket line urging that the employers lockout on school construction be lifted. Again this year
building trades workers made the same proposal, each time having it turned down by the contractors and
Socred government.

CANADA'S ALTERNATIVE:

‘One million new jobs
or million unemployed’

The demand put forward by
the Communist Party for one
million new jobs is necessary.
Hither we have one million new
jobs or one million unemployed
Canadians!

William Kashtan, national
Secretary of the party in Canada,
made this unarguable point to
Some 300 people in the Swedish
Hall on Sunday evening, where
he opened a national tour in the
Campaign for one million new
Jobs.

The capitalist system can only
Operate as a stop and go system,
he told his audience. Inflation,
unemployment and depressions
are built into its very nature.

He stressed that workers must
dig seriously into the nature of
the system and strive to bring
about a change. He called for
labor leaders, particularly the
Canadian Congress of Labor, to
take the lead in the battles of the
Working class. The first demand

_ Should be that Americans get out
of Vietnam because U.S. policies
Were creating inflation not only
in Canada but in all sections of
the capitalist world,bringing
hardship to working people.

The strength of a united labor
movement has been shown in

Mr. Gaglardi— |
Where Are You?

R.C. Worthington, treasurer-
despatcher of Local 452,
Carpenters Union, in a letter to
the press states there are at
least 1,000 carpenters and ap-
Prentices unemployed in the
lower mainland. some with no
Unemployment insurance, a few
On welfare.

Jeff Power, president of the
‘local Marine and Boilermakers
‘Union wrote to Mr. Gaglardi last
Week, informing him his union
-has 201 registered unemployed
Welders. In addition, every
Week some 200-300 able and
willing young people have been
registering for work, some of
Whom have welder training.

The Hon. Phil Gaglardi has
10,000 job openings. some for
Welders. He says.

But neither Worthington nor
Power have had the courtesy of a
reply from the minister in
charge of the “welfare” of the
People.

acme esteem

. resources

this summer’s successful battle

to defeat the arbitrary wage -

guidelines laid cc wn by the
Trudeau government. Labor has
also demonstrated its
dissatisfaction with its role in
technological change, as well as
its share of the national wealth.

Their struggle has opened the
door to a stronger fight to
reverse government-big busi-
ness policies of repression.

Dealing with the demand for
the creation of new jobs,
Kashtan said low cost housing is
a priority demand. Low cost and
public housing within the means
of the average Canadian would
create an unestimable diff-
erence to the woodworking
industry — just one of the
resulting benefits.

Secondly, Kashtan said, we
must demand a redistribution
of the national income through
tax reform. Today the system
penalizes working people, young
people and older people.

We must demand secondary
industry through a new natural
resources policy, which will in
turn create a stable basis for
economic independence.

We cannot allow our energy
such as gas,
electricity, oil and water to be
bargained away to the U.S.A. We
must develop these resources for
ourselves.

We have two paths to follow:
intercontinental development
or true national development.
The Communists say we will
only be secure if we follow the
latter course.

Where is the money, one may
ask. Kashtan pointed out that
Canadian investors have 6 billion
dollars in New York looking for
‘‘good investments’. The
previous Manitoba Tory
government gave Swiss business
interests 91 million dollars for
the Churchill Falls pulp mill
development at The Pas.

The Nova Scotia and federal
governments gave away $120
million to underwrite a heavy
water plant which is still not
functioning and which was once
in the hands of a private
company. The Nova Scotia
government has also donated €
million dollars to the “poor”
IBM corporation. He also
mentioned the military expendi-
tures of the federal government

ee

which amount to some $1.8
billions over a three year period,
and the waste that such expendi-
tures have turned up in past
years.

There IS money, Kashtan
charged, and it is time to tell the
government we will not tolerate
further unemployment.

Dealing with the international
situation, the national secretary
said this’past year has brought
many bright spots. Amongst
them is the growing
determination and successful
attempts to cut imperialist
control of their economy on the
part of many South American
and new African states.

The signing of the treaty
between the USSR and West
Germany heralded the defeat of
the cold warriors in the latter
country. Conditions now exist for
the recognition of the German
Democratic Republic, and he
urged that we demand that
Canada do so.

He said conditions existed for
a political settlement of the
Middle East crisis with the 90
day cease-fire, but Israel had not
been prepared to accept the
conditions. But the Arab Libera-
tion movement which is pledged
to the destruction of the state of
Israel is wrong, he said, for no
state can be allowed to be
“destroyed.”

McKnight hits
tax inequities

Alderman George McKnight, well known labor repre-
sentative on the Port Alberni city council, circulated
a submission to delegates to the Union of B.C. Muni-
cipalities convention in Penticton last week which sharply
criticized standards of assessment for tax purposes on the

municipal level.

McKnight took issue with
formulas which bring about,
in effect, one assessment
rate for industry and another
for the ordinary taxpayer and
small business.

In his brief, McKnight
proposed that the UBCM fight
for changes to establish the
principle of equity, real
equity which could only be
achieved when all classi-
fications of property are
evaluated and assessed upon
the same formula.

“That formula should be
the one that is now used for
industrial assessment, that is
that all our buildings should
be evaluated according to the
cost of construction or
replacement, with allowance
for improvements. or
additions and allowance for
depreciation as is the case for
industry.”

“People’s homes are not a
source of production, they are
only a place to live. Factories
and mills on the other hand
are places where value is
created and from which
wealth is accumulated. In
addition to this, municipal
taxation is a deductable
expense for industry or
business as is not the case for
the home owner.

= . Fluctuations in
market value do not
necessarily benefit a home
owner even if they increase
several times over because
any benefit he gets is used up
if he buys another. What is
important is that the portion
of the total taxation which he
is forced to pay should not

increase out of proportion to.

what is paid by. others in the
community...

“That is what is happening
now due to the operation of
two methods of assessment
being used within the same
municipalities...”

McKnight also took issue
with a resolution dealing with
taxation on industrial
machinery. He pointed out
that under Section 2 of the
Municipal Act, industrial
machinery was excluded
from general and debt rate
taxation, although subject to
municipal hospital and
education tax. ~

There is no reason, he said,

why the giants of industry
should enjoy any exemption
from municipal taxation for
their many millions worth of
machinery and fixtures while
the ordinary home owner
must assume ever heavier
costs which bear no relation
whatever to the services
which the municipality
provides to his home.

“This is a concession which
a servile government has
made to the big industrialists
at the expense of the
ordinary homeowner and
results in increasing inequity
in taxation in favor of the
wealthy at the expense of the
poor.” s

“Related to this are the
sections which presently
empowers council to levy a
tax to a maximum of 10 mills
upon the taxable value of the
above mentioned machinery
and fixtures. This is provided,
however, that city council
‘also levy a similar ‘‘business
tax’’ upon the commercial
sector... =

This tax is based upon up to
a maximum of 10 percent of
the annual rental value of
business premises, and both
sectors must be taxed at the
same portion, of the
maximum, ten mills and 10
percent, for example.

Business property,
McKnight points out, is
already subject to the full
measure of taxation on both
land and improvements and
this business tax is simply a
second tax upon the same
property. In the industrial
sector this is not the case. At
any rate, the amount of tax
levied against business under
this heading is simply passed
on to the consumer, home
owner and ordinary citizen
who already bears too great a
burden of municipal taxation.

Alderman McKnight puts
forward concrete changes to
these inequities in his brief.

He says: ‘‘While the above
proposals will be unpopular in
some quarters,’ it is my
considered opinion the crisis
in municipal financing will
not be overcome until these
measures and others of a
similar nature are adopted.”’

GEN. KY SAYS HE WILL ATTEND A RIGHT-WING EXTREMIST RALLY To

Wo

ENN

&WIN OVER 7? U.S. PUBLIC OPINION To HIS SIDE
PRON

UH fy

I HAVE A
WINNING
PERSONALITY