oT aT te Tae n |

Excess profits
in beef pricing

' -By WILLIAM ROSS

An Alberta rancher has charg-
ed the large grocery chains with
gouging the consumer through
exhorbitant mark ups on beef.
Mr. Jim Wilfley, owner of Lake-
side Feeders Ltd., 120 miles east
of Calgary claims that a survey
in June this year showed that
the large chains were making a
53 percent markup on their buy-
ing price. The price paid to pro-
ducers for live cattle dropped
to 27¢ a pound from 35¢ during
the last three months but the

price at the retail level has not:

dropped.

The charge by Mr. Wilfley
confirms one of the conclusions
arrived at by the Royal Com-
mission on Consumer Problems
and Inflation, which in their

1968 study of prices in the:

prairie provinces pointed out
that:

“. .. it is clear the grocery
trade on the Prairies is mak-
ing excess profits. For un-
incorporated - grocery stores
operating profifs are 21.0 per-
cent above the Canadian av-
erage. As a percentage of net
worth, operating profits before
taxes on the Prairies are 31.3
percent higher for unincorpor-

ated enterprises and 77.8 per-_

cent higher for incorporated
enterprises .than they are in
all Canada. Thus, there is no
question that profits on the
average are. higher on the
Prairies than elsewhere in
Canada...”
‘*.. . The excess profits which
are earned on the Prairies are
due to monopoly power. The
dominant position of the large
firms permits them to set
prices and profit- margins
above what would prevail in
& more competitive market.”
Reports of Commissions on
consumer prices, are nothing
new. There have been four Royal
Commissions set up since 1934
whose reports are gathering
dust in government archives.
During the recent Manitoba
election campaign,
promised that they would enact
“Consumer Protection Legisla-
tion to give the consumer an
even break”..But when it was
introduced in the House it prov-
ed to be the identical bill pre-
pared by the previous Tory gov-
ernment. The Bill deals in the
main with various aspects of

A press release from the Can-
ada Department of Labor raises
the question of why housework
is unpaid, and in so doing poses
the question: of the need to
recognize the value of work per-
formed by women in the home.
The release says in part:

Man-found a way to overcome

‘obstacles facing him when he
swas trying to walk on the moon;
why can’t he overcome the ob-
stacles facing him in trying to
measure the value of the ser-
vices provided in his own home?

Services, that is, in terms of
domestic activities which, if
paid for, would be calculated as
an economic product of the
country. In an address entitled

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—OCTOBER 3, 1969—Page 8

.

the NDP ~

. costs of borrowing and credit

purchases but has nothing in it
on price controls. Part 9 of the
Bill stipulates that:

“The proposed legislation pro-
vides for the establishment of
a Consumer Bureau in the
Department of Consumer and
Corporate Affairs to adminis-
ter the provisions of the
legislation, including the lic-
ensing and the bonding of
direct sellers and collection
agencies. The Bureau will be
responsible for investigating
complaints or breaches of the
requirements of the legisla-
tion and for providing infor-
mation to the public that will
assist the consumer to be-
come -better informed and
more knowledgeable in to-
day’s complex retail market
place.”

But this leaves the consumer
exactly where he and she is to-
day—at the mercy of the food
monopolies while increasing
food costs send the cost of liv-
ing to record heights. There is
no need to make the consumer
“better informed and more
knowledgeable.” The consumer
is fully aware as to what soar-
ing prices do to the family bud-
get. What the consumer is de-
manding is government action
to do something about it.

In presenting the Consumer
Protection Legislation to the
House, the Minister of Consum-
er Affairs had stated that setting
up a Price Review Board was a
very “complex” problem and re-
quires “further study”. In the
meantime Manitoba consumers
are being victimized by the food
monopolies who are charging
all that the market can bear.

As Manitoba Leader of the
Communist Party of Canada I
stated in a letter to the provin-
cial Minister of Consumer Af-
fairs:

“It is precisely this situation
which reveals the inadequacy
of the provincial government’s
consumer protection legisla-
tion. What is missing is a
Prices Review Board with
powers to curb artificially-
maintained high prices and
exhorbitant profits. Price con-
trols fall within provincial
jurisdiction and your govern-
ment must act to protect the
consumer from the greedy
food monopolies.”

Services — the

“Housework
Orphan in Economic Reckon-

ing,” before the Engineers’
Wives Association (Sept. 23) at
the National Arts Centre, Can-
ada Labor Department Women’s
Bureau director Sylva Gelber
says it can be done.

Miss Sylva Gelber outlined ef-
forts made by economists over
a period of half a century to de-
vise some formula for measur-
ing the value in monetary terms
of the unpaid domestic services
provided by members of a fam-
ily. She quoted paradoxical situ-
ations which can and do arise
because the same services pro-
vided -for payment disappear
from the national product when
provided without payment.

”

wn
s

On September 3 the news-
paper Rude Pravo published an
interview given by Vasil Bilak,
Member of the Presidium of the
Central Committee of the
Czechoslovak Communist Party.
The Canadian Tribute proposes
to publish excerpts from that
interview in several parts.

The assertion that our allies
were not in agreement with the
rectification of mistakes is,’ in
my opinion, a downright lie
which some persons tried with
the help of the press, radio and
television to make the honest
citizens of our country believe.
In the first place, things were
presented so as to make it ap-
pear that the fraternal parties of
the socialist countries wanted to
interfere in our internal affairs,
and secandly, that they objected
to the healthy process that had
begun in our country under the
leadership of the Czechoslovak

Communist Party . . . Today it.

seems incredible that even our
own leadership did not resol-
utely refute these contentions...

Every socialist country, and
particularly the Soviet Union,
sincerely wishes to see its so-
cialist allies flourish, to make
successful headway, both eco-
nomically and politically.

Although the socialist coun-
tries differ from one another in
national traits, specific features
... they are united by common

international interests,. a com- ‘

mon ideology and objectives,
and the success of one country
is the success of all, and on the
other hand, none of them can
be neutral and indifferent if
any of their allies is threatened
by danger of any kind...

Not a single party body at the
time was given objective in-
formation about the Dresden
talks ... it began the day after

The Sherwood co-op in Regina
is struck. The strike reflects the
fact that the co-operative move-
ment on the praries faces seri-
ous economic difficulties from
a worsening prairie economy, in-
creased chain store monopoly
competition, and unfriendly pro-
vincial and federal governments.

In an effort to resolve these
problems the co-op has attempt-
ed to lay the burden on the
shoulders of its staff and, right-
ly so, the workers are fighting
for their rights. The solution to
the problems of the co-op can-
not, of course, be found by de-
pressing the living standards of
its workers.

The Retail, Wholesale and De-
partment Store Union demands
that the agreements it has
reached with chain stores be ap-
plied to all co-op employees. The
union claims that the Saskatoon
and Moose Jaw co-ops have
given increases equal to the
Regina chain store settlements
to all their employees, i.e., those
working not only in the food
store, but also those in the cafe-
teria, department store, service
station, lumber yard, and bulk
petroleum department.

Computed on an hourly basis

this, claims the union, is more -

than the Regina Sherwood co-op
has offered non-food employees

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| Analyzes Czech events

A. Novotny resigned . . . that
fact in itself, of course, had no-
thing to do with the holding of
the meeting. Our allies were al-
ready disquieted, for the fact
that such an important step as

the removal of the President of

the Republic could be taken
without preliminary discussion
by the Central Committee of the
party, an omission which ...
was a violation of the basic
principles of personnel policy,
showed that the Czechoslovak
Communist Party was losing
control over things. However,
this in no way means that the
removal of A. Novotny was a
mistake .. .

(At Dresden) it was emphas-
ized that every Communist
Party has the right to determine
its own line of policy, but at the
same time, if it wished to be a

Marxist-Leninist party, it should:

not forget that we are not alone
on this planet . . . As a matter
of fact, that applies to any poli-
tical party in power, and not
only to the Communist Party.
The vital interests of socialism
reguire co-ordination of action
with allies. The common enemy
of the socialist world—imperial-

-ism—is not sleeping.

Comrade Brezhnev took: an
extremely principled position ...
He stressed that they had no
Objections to the change in the
leadership in our party and gov-
ernment... For a long time they
had not reacted to the many
non-Marxist and anti-Commun-
ist statements and anti-Soviet
symptoms that had beeun to ap-
pear, because they believed that
they were of a temporary nature
. .. What they could not under-
stand, however, and neither did
most of the Communists in
Czechoslovakia, was how it
came about that in.the Czecho-
slovak Communist Party and the

over the next two years. In addi-
tion, the union claims that the
fringe benefits in Saskatoon and
Moose Jaw co-op agreements
are very similar, in fact identi-
cal in most cases, to those bene-
fits that the Regina Sherwood
co-op management is insisting
on deleting. 3

An unofficial membership
meeting. of co-op members was
called, at which between 300
and 350 members showed up.

In the public call for the un-
official membership meeting, a
number of questions were posed,
such as “Is the solvency of the
co-op being threatened by -man-
agement’s use of loss leaders,
extravagant’ advertisements and
costly use of imported strike-
breakers during the present
strike?” “Is it management’s in-

tention to close out the depart- ,

ment store—always a big money
loser—after the strike and then
blame the union now on strike
for the action?” “Is it manage-
ment’s intention to destroy the
union . . . as a means of main-
taining a competitive position
with chain stores?”

The special membership meet-
ing censured the co-op board of
directors for its handling of the
strike, calling upon the co-op
board to negotiate and settle the
strike immediately. _

Czechoslovak Socialist ReP

_lion in advertising in foU

the process of democratiZa oY
was allegedly taking place °
now, as if there had bee
democracy up till then. -* iv
could not understand the ©”
gence between our words
our deeds, for on the one a
we stressed that we wishee
strengthen the leading
the Party, and, on the 4
hand, we allowed it to be’)
ated . . . The Soviet coma)
could not understand how ‘at |
could allow the army, thé §
ity service, the peoples’ ™
our foreign policy and OF 44
est allies to be villified, We
on the other hand, the boul
republic, Masaryk, et»
glorified .. . :
Comrade Brezhnev also
.. . that if the Czechos™
Communist Party did 10° i
steps to rectify the it
Czechoslovakia would fit tion
self in a very difficult post iy
- - They asked how it came 7
that even members of thé vob
ral Committee . . . were mes
statements for the boule,
press against the party
socialism .. . te
They warned us that oe
revolution does not st# ot
with terror, but with demo, 4)
with pseudo-socialist P4 )
about freedom, with # 2 st
to undermine the army, ie te)
urity service, the law COU |
|

prosecuting authorities,
confusion, uncertainty,
mine discipline and 110 —
honest people. wie
Terror is the next ste? ti |
counter-revolution. takes se, |
preparing to seize POW i),
chooses the forms of § jg of |
bloody and bloodless—it actif |
ning, and unless we take yo
against it, it will ultimat jen
tate the methods of struer. aa)
—new 1 |;

:

Another resolution called of |
the board to convene ae
meeting of the mempe re

order to discuss the st

The problems existing
tween the workers and be
camé out at the mem
meeting. One farmer,
been a co-op board mem jf)
21 years, intimated that |
strikers weren’t being
the farmer members bi
most cases, were thé 4
buyers. Another propos’ (4
ers withdraw. Anothel .g
member took the floor 14
that the co-op had spent

= 2.

Kn, #
Pa.

although it had only i
yearly sales by $4,000.

Dr. Dallas Smythe, of the
versity of Saskatchewa” t
board member, stated hea y
cially the co-op in Saskat@
is in a steadily worsening
tion. As at January, stand
said, sales are at 4 in
with debt and interest ©
ing. :

It is unfortunate that ®
nomic pressures on the P
mount, the workers am
who took joint actions 4
the co-operative move™ eed
now divided. Unity is ™ ic
solve the serious econo

_lems they both face.