© YOU KNOW THAT
AWKER- is

About 75 people picketed Hawker Siddley’s Toronto head office recently
carrying these signs to Protest work being done for the U.S. war in Vietnam.

By JAMES BEYNON

The Canadian people have been

betrayed.

“We are not going to repeat past
mistakes. It is the determined policy

of the present Government that -

Canada is in the shipbuilding
business for good. The navy and the
Merchant Marine that you made are
going to be maintained and
expanded. The ships you built will
carry Canada’s trade to the end of
the world, creating employment and
opportunity for Canadian workers.”’

This was stated by Ian A.
Mackenzie the Minister of Veteran’s
Affairs in the Liberal government of
1945. Yet what has happened with the
Liberals, the Conservatives, and now
again the Liberals in power?

Canada has no deep sea Merchant
Fleet. The Liberals allowed the
disbanding of this fleet, allowed the
registering of these ships under
“runaway flags” outside of Canada,
in countries where the rates of profit
and exploitation of labor are higher.

A fine legacy they have left
Canada: no. Merchant Marine, a
dying shipbuilding industry —
Canadian seamen without ships and
Canadian workers without jobs;
higher profits for the shipping
monopolies.

Now the Canadian people are being
blackmailed. Because we lack a
Merchant Marine, the shipping
monopolies and their Shipping
Conferences force some of the
highest rates in the world on
Canadian exports and imports.

Canada has vast market
Possibilities in the area of the now
developing Asian, African and
socialist countires. Yet most of these
countries will not purchase the
amount of products from Canada
they would like or need because of
the high freight rates imposed by the
Shipping Conferences on goods to
and from the ports of Canada.

In the 1963 report for the B.C.
government by Dr. Wm. Hughes,
then Associate Professor of
Commerce and _ Business
Administration at U.B.C., brought
out these facts to prove that Canada
is being victimized by the shipping
monopolies: :
SANUARY 2¢

ON MERCHANT MARINE

Canada betrayed —
now blackmailed

968-—PACIFIC TRIB

‘@ Frozen fish per long ton costs
$125.47 to travel 7,078 miles
Vancouver to Malaya, while from
Liverpool to Malaya some 8,211

miles it costs $80.71, thus it costs |

36% more to ship a distance of 14%
less.

@ It costs 41% more to ship canned
meat from Vancouver to Manila than
Buenos Aires to Manila although we
are 43% closer in distance.

.@ It is 54% costlier to ship
fertilizer from Vancouver to
Singapore than Antwerp to
Singapore, yet Vancouver is 1,200
miles closer.

@ Vancouver is over 1,100 miles
closer to Malaya than Liverpool yet
the freight rates from Vancouver is
$4.31 per long ton of newsprint higher
than from Liverpool.

These figures are from 1963
Statistics, but they illustrate the
discrimination brought about by
increased freight rates. The two
largest increases came under sharp
criticism as unwarranted.

The Canadian people are in
desperate need of a deep-sea
Merchant Marine, a fleet owned by
the Canadian people, built by
Canadian workers and manned by
Canadian seamen. Though a
government owned shipping line
would bring outraged cries from ship
owners and monopolists, who would
like a subsidized privately owned
fleet where the taxpayers would help
them become richer.

This nationally owned fleet of fast
freighters, for bulk and general
cargoes would run in competition
with the ships of the Conference
Lines. With lower non-monopoly
freight rates Canadian exports would
be considerably reduced in price and
find markets much easier which
would help to remedy our deficit in
the balance of payments and the
portion attributable to ocean
shipping. This portion has’ been on
the increase since the destruction of
the Canadian Merchant Marine. The
lower freight rates which a Canadian
_Merchant Marine would make
possible would mean cheaper
imports and exports for the Canadian
people. =
UNE—Page 12

LABOR SCENE:

Coast IWA getting set

for new wa

Membership wage and contract
conferences will be very much on tap
during February by the International
Woodworkers of America to consider
proposals for a new Coast wage
contract for 1968.

Already a number of IWA logger’s
locals have had preliminary
discussions on demands to be
presented which would include
reduction of the work week, travel
Costs, extended health and welfare
benefits, etc. The wage demands of
the Coast Region of the IWA will not
be definitely announced until they
have been dealt with by the IWA
Regional Wages and Contract
Conference scheduled to meet
February 23-24 in Vancouver. In

Preparation for this conference the

big Vancouver Local 1-217 is slated to
meet February 4 to consider wage
and other demands for a new Coast
contract. :

In their preliminary discussions on

a new contract the logger’s locals ”

have topped the list of their demands
with a 50-cent-per-hour hike ina one-
year contract. Local 1-71 of the IWA
which covers over 4,000 loggers on
the B.C. Coast spent an all-day
session on January 5 discussing their
Local’s program for 1968
negotiations.

With the exception of winning a
satisfactory settlement with Celgar
Ltd. at Castlegar, which brings IWA
employees of that operation up to
wage parity with their Coast
membership, the long IWA strike in
the B.C. Southern Interior is still
deadlocked, with the Interior
operators’ ultimatum to the union to
accept the Munroe Commission
terms of settlement by February 1,
“or else’, and the IWA’s flat
rejection of such an ultimatum —
coupled with its offers to resume
collective bargaining any time the
Southern lumber operators are so
minded.

The Munroe Commission wage
recommendations, far below the
wage parity levels of Coast rates,
were forced upon the workers in a
number of Northern Interior
operations, with the promise that if
the Southern Interior IWA won

VIETNAM FILM
TO BOOST AID

“The Threatening Sky,” made
in Vietnam by the famous Dutch
film producer Joris Ivens, with
an introduction by Bertrand
Russell, will be shown Sunday,
Feb. 4 at 8 p.m. at 339 West
Pender Street (top floor).

The film portrays a nation at
war — an entire generation that
has never known peace. It shows
the ordinary people of Vietnam,
working and fighting together.

Commentary, in English, is by
Lindsay Anderson, a British film
director. Two other short films of
life in Vietnam will also be
shown.

B.C. Peace Council is
Sponsoring this showing in
response to a call by the World
Council of Peace to
commemorate the Vietnam
Lunar Year Tet by a week of
solidarity with the heroic people
of Vietnam and a stepping up of
material aid of all kinds.

Admission is free, but a
collection willbe taken for
medical-aid to Vietnam: -

Parity rates, these would
automatically apply to the North
also. But contrary to the bosses
hopes that terminating the strike in
the Northern Inerior would end the
IWA strike in the South, it has had
the opposite effect.

The Southern Negotiation
Committee of the IWA has described
the operators offer as “blackmail”
and leaves the IWA with no other
alternative than continue the Strike.
It was hoped in many Interior
communities that the IWA-Celgar
Ltd. settlement would set the pattern
for an early termination of the long
dispute.

*e*

One of the highlights at the recent
United Fishermen and Allied
Workers Union convention in
Vancouver was the impressive
contributions from attending
delegates of the newly-established
Atlantic Coast locals.

Since the Maritimes organizing
campaign conducted by the UFAWU
started some nine months ago, eight
locals of the UFAWU have been set
up in key Nova Scotia fishing
centers. These include Louisburg,
Mulgrave, Canso, Lunenburg,
Shelburne, Lockport and Yarmouth.
An Atlantic Coast Council of five
members has also been organized to
co-ordinate the work of Nova Scotia
fishermen and shoreworkers, with

HARRY BELAFONTE and Barbara
Streisand headed a cast of show
business stars in a giant concert in;
New York last week to raise money to
help anti-Viet war did in
the coming U.S. elections. Others
taking part included Tony- Randall,
Robert Ryan, Eli Wallach, Alan Arkin
and composer-conductor Leonard
Bernstein. Actor Paul Newman and
his wife, Joanna Woodward hosted a
after the « rt.

P

ge contract

Victoria dinner

to aid Vietnam

VICTORIA — St. Andrew’s
Cathederal here is sponsoring a
symbolic dinner of rice and tea on
Saturday, Jan. 27 in support of
the local branch of the Canadian
Aid for Vietnam Civilians.

To be held at Pendray Hall of
the Metropolitan United Church
at Quadra and Johnson Starting at
7 p.m., those presiding at the
event will be Monsignor
O’Connell of St. Andrew’s
Cathedral, who will be assisted
by Rev. Laura Butler of the
Metropolitan United Church.

B.C. union organizers Ted Foort and
Jim Allen named as ex-officio
members of the Atlantic Council.

Guest speakers from the
Maritimes addressing the UFAWU
23rd Annual Convention were J. K.
Bell, secretary of the Marine
Workers Federation, Gordon Smith,
president of Halifax Labor Council
and vice-president, Nova Scotia
Federation of Labor. The president
of the Nova Scotia Canadian Seafood
Workers Union, Roy Keefe, and Rev.
Canon M. French, also addressed the
UFAWU convention.

In his address to the convention
Canon Smith thanked the UFAWU
for bringing trade union organization
to fishermen in the Maritimes, and
strongly supported the labor
movement’s overall objectives in
Canada.

Defending the best interests of
their membership, United
Fishermen leaders Steve Stavenes
and Homer Stevens are serving one
year in prison on an alleged
contempt of court charges arising
out of a vicious exparte injunction
order. {

For forging the signatures of
fellow union officers and robbing his
union funds to the tune of $9,359
John Zastre, business agent of the
Amalgamated Clothing Workers
of America got a mere nine
months for his brand of “service.”

The trial magistrate said there had
been a lot of testimonials in support
of Zastre’s fine reputation and
character. The whole labor
movement of British Columbia and
beyond stands solid. behind the
sterling character of the Fishermen
leaders, but that didn’t even get
them a brief amnesty to be home
with their families during
Christmas.

Police hounding of
hippies must stop

This week a large group of young
people — commonly known as
hippies — picketed the Vancouver
police station in protest against the
constant harassment by city police.

In utter frustration these young

people didn’t know any other way to
bring this matter before the public.

No matter what you may think
about the way they dress or speak or
the way they think, the hippies are
entitled to their civil rights. The

disgraceful hounding of this group by ”

our city police must stop.
Infringement of their rights is an
attack on the rights of all citizens.

The PT this week interviewed a
number of hippies:on the issue_and

the stories they telliof police abuse .

are a disgrace to the city. Often”
stopped on the street, insulted with
epithets such as “long-haired
freaks,” the police force their way
into hotel rooms without warrants,
and after they are evicted by hotel
owners are picked up on vagrancy
charges. These are only some of
the abuses of which the hippies are
complaining.

Certainly in a civilized community

_ such actions by the police cannot be

tolerated. If Vancouver’s dictatorial
mayor Tom Campbell and the police
commission want to shut their eyes
to these police tactics then the public
most oppose them and demand an
end to this constant harassement
which is driving these young people
toa point of desperation. 5