Who won the war on poverty? Once upon a time, 1965 to be exact, the Liberal Party then campaigning for election announced ra “War on Poverty.” Now three years later the war is over, and from all signs, the poor lost. In the intervening years all the indexes which would have a bearing on the needs of Canadians show that the problem has increased. There is more unemployment now, the consumers price index has climbed to record levels and with each succeeding government budget the average Canadian has been straight-armed with tax ' Hlect worker MP's-Kashtan f William Kashtan, leader of the Communist Party, "4 addressing the nomination meeting in Hamilton : pet, asked, “What worker in his sane mind would e ae the president of Steleo, of Westinghouse, of Fire- 4 stone, or any other company for that matter, as head of his union?” : He continued: “To ask the question is to answer it. f d yet, when it comes to elections the representatives of these corporations are still too often elected to rep- resent constituencies which in their majority are com- Violence erupted once again on the U.S. political scene this week when an assassin’s bullet ended the life of Sen- Se tel ae a a ‘Mine their policies? ; erupt at any time. - _“These problems cannot be | nored or be merely tinkered with, except at our peril. 3 Is is truly a time for deci- s!0n, a time for real, not sham change, “We are now told that things | Will be different because new faces are leading the Liberal and Conservative parties. True en- ough, we have some new faces to lead these parties but where are the new policies? Are Tru- deaumania and Stanfield the ew policies the country needs? We think not. To leave it to the ‘Old line parties who have been ‘in Power since 1867 would be disastrous. _ “The fact is that under Con- S€rvative and Liberal adminis- | trations alike, U.S. domination few in extent and scope. It is ‘hot the Canadian people who are selling Canada piece by pl€ce to U.S. interests. It is mo- nopoly in Canada which is doing that while Liberal and Conser- , Vative governments either facili- tate this process or turn their eyes the other way. The Can- adian people have always had confidence in Canada. The same Cannot be said of the Liberal and Conservative parties who haven’t even the courage to act 4 the limited proposals of the Watkins Commission that U.S. “companies be subject to Can- -adian law. “These policies must be changed before it is too late. _ Our ability to maintain our in- dependence and sovereignty, to plan and expand the economy, to maintain full ‘employment and rising living standards depends on whether Canadian control is established over all sectors of the economy. You can’t have Canadian control over the eco- nomy without nationalizing U.S. companies in Canada and plac- ing them under Canadian law. You can’t have Canadian con- trol over the economy without ' nationalizing our great natural _| resources and making them work in the interests of the Canadian people. To pretend otherwise is to mislead the Can- adian people. We also need change with re- spect to the manageme’:: of the economic policies of our coun- try. Today we are confronted with an economic slowdown, rising unemployment and clos- ing down of plants in different parts of the country, and this in conditions when there is so much which needs to be done to build the country, eliminate re- ‘Posed of workers by hand and by brain. R It is time to change this state of affairs. In fact ‘his 1s what the elections are all about. Who will deter- mine policy for the country? The majority of the Cana- an people or a small minority who have the Liberal and Conservative parties in their pockets and deter- Canada today is sitting on a voleano which could gional inequalities and poverty and ensure decent housing for all Canadians. “This ‘stop and go’ govern- ment policy should be thrown out of the window and replaced by policies which can assure full employment, rising living standards and stable prices. “Prime Minister Trudeau ex- cuses himself by saying the gov- ernment will not load additional taxes on the people. But this misrepresents the question. The problem is not to load more taxes on the Canadian people who are already overburdened but. rather to undertake a thorough going reform of the taxation system and to begin taxing those corporations which have gone scot free for far too long. The mining and insurance companies should be compelled to pay their way. “What is involved here is de- mocracy. Democracy is not limi- ted to merely voting on June 25, important as that is, de- mocracy means participation, control, administration and the power of decision. If it doesn’t mean that it means very little. With that in mind, do workers have any rights when it comes to moving a plant, closing it down, introducing new machin- ery? Have they any rights over investment policy? They have none. In these fields manage- ment rights reign supreme. “We need laws which instead of favoring monopoly as they do today, advance the national and public interest. No compa- ny should be allowed to close down or move without showing cause. No corporation ‘should be permitted to raise prices with- out showing cause. Moreover, the Freedman report on techno- logical change, rather than gathering dust, should be im- plemented. “Over-riding almost every- thing else is the need to work out a new basis for uniting the country. The old basis expressed in the British North American Act perpetuated inequality and an unequal status for the French Canadian people. It expressed and expresses a form of national oppression of the French Can- adian nation and cannot serve as a basis for genuine Canadian unity. “The national aspirations of the French Canadian people can- not be satisfied by gimmicks, or by sophistry. They can only be satisfied by recognizing the ex- istence of that nation and work- ACIFIC TRIBUNE —JUNE 7, 1968—Page 3 ; > 3 cei) ey > Tae) he gts: fo ~ Balle GAL STARE SNSAS aator Robert Kennedy. The world was shocked not only at the death of the young Senator, but at the violence which pervades all aspects of American life. ing out an equal and voluntary relationship with it. “Neither will the French Can- adian people allow themselves to be short-changed by those who speak with two voices, one for English Canada and the other for French Canada. But this is exactly what the Con- servatives are doing. Mr. Fari- bault speaks of two nations but ends up by denying the exist- ence of the French Canadian nation. “Nor is special status or par- ticular status the answer. The answer lies in equal status, in a voluntary, equal partnership be- tween the English and French Canadian people. It lies in re- cognizing the sovereign rights of Quebec where the French Canadian nation resides. It is on such a basis that a new Con- federation must be hammered out as the basis for a truly. unit- ed Canada. “Prime Minister Trudeau re- cently called for a_ re-assess- ment of foreign policy and this is to be welcomed. But when one looks into the question, that he actually proposes is that Canada go from the frying pan into. the fire, towards greater economic and military continen- talism and further integration in the U.S. war machine. “Joining the Organization of American States won’t give Can- ada greater independence. All it will do is make Canada a pawn of U.S. interests in Latin. America, where the people are struggling for their independ- ence and freedom. A two China policy too, fits in with the aims of U.S. policy. Maintaining mem- bership in NORAD means mak- ing Canada an expendable force for U.S. imperialist interests. “What Canada needs is not a re-assessment but a genuine © eign policy which change in for would free it from the shackles of the past; free it from the sterility of the cold war and re- flect the reality of a changing world. ' “Canada should wipe clean the shameful role the Govern- ment is playing in Vietnam where it continues to act as front man for U.S. policy, asso- ciates itself with it and sells arms to the U.S.A. for use against the Vietnamese people. “Canada should withdraw from NORAD and NATO, re- cognize and establish diploma- tic ‘relations with China, the German Democratic Republic, North Korea and the Democra- tic Republic of Vietnam. Canada should undertake a vast ex- change of i:u ith all the so- hikes. High rents, combined with the absolutely impossible housing crisis, has made urban living a horror for any worker with a young family. _ One of the minor, but perhaps most illustra- tive signs that the “War on poverty” is over is in the sputtering and wheezing debacle of the Company of Young Canadians. It was a Liberal gimmick to begin with. A gimmick that had more than an extra touch of cynicism and cruelty, in that it was designed to appear as an expression of social activism for a section of young Canadians who wanted to do something meaningful for their own coun- try and for their people.- The Company never could get off the ground. Anything CYC volunteers tried to tackle meant government, their hydra-headed bureacracy, or the vested interests of a community. Whether it was work with the Indians on the prairies, the hippies in Yorkville or the young unemployed . in the urban core, the story was all the same. To do anything, even the slightest, the CYC got in the Establishment’s way and was bother- some. _ The existence of the CYC, would never by itself constitute much of a threat to the existing order of things. But it was irksome just the same. - So much for the Company of Young Cana- dians. So much for the “War on Poverty” and other slogans of elections past. This time we hear that even the emaciated medicare program tell us that we already have too much of this “free stuff.” .. No wonder the Trudeau bandwagon already appears a little ticky-tacky as it lurches from time to time against reality. There is even less reason today to follow Robert Stanfield. than we _ were supposed to have in “following John” way back in 1958. We have all been there and back. Both old-line parties have created the problem. Their slogans and gimmicks of past elections stand as a testimony to their political and moral bankruptcy. _ Canada needs a new society. Not a Trudeau just the same society. We have had enough of that Liberal “free stuff.” a head-on collision with one or another level of — would be junked by the Tories and the Liberals . cialist and newly liberated “The reasons these parties countries. The arms program want a majority government are should be drastically reduced. “Prime Minister Trudeau called the elections for one rea- son only—to win a majority government — something the Canadian people have denied the Liberals in previous elections. “Based on past performance however a majority Liberal or Conservative Government would not be in the interest of the peo- ple. All we would get is more of what now exists, greater U.S. domination and monopoly con- trol of the economic and politi- cal life of the country, rising prices, increased taxes, a con- tinued housing crisis, and a wage freeze to boot. exactly the reasons why it should be denied them. “We are in this election be- cause we are the party advocat- ing fundamental change, the party of Canadian socialism which alone can ensure peace for Canada and security for the Canadian people. “We say it is time to break the political monopoly held by the old line parties. In fact with- out it there can be no meaning- ful advance for the Canadian people. This is why we call for the election of a large group of progressives including Commu-. nists to Parliament on June 25,”