— ie = ~~ ES eS Friday, May 23, 1975 eSiBUNE —Sean Griffin photo Delegates voting in the opening session of the provincial convention of € New Democratic Party at UBC last weekend. (See story, page 12). CITY LABOR TELLS CLC Ss the Canadian Labor Congress eee last week to the Turner es Uuntary restraint proposals left a Y door open for a possible future sideration of such restraints, ,icouver labor made it clear q @sday night that it wants the Sor closed — unconditionally. Delegates to the Vancouver and IStrict labor council were DERA calls rent protest Members and supporters of the °wntown Eastside Residents Association will gather .at the C RA headquarters, 616 East ordova at 9 a.m. Monday May 26 tice. demonstration outside the ‘ices of the Rent Review Com- Mission. DERA called the demonstration wee membership meeting last fr ek following weeks of Be ating attempts to get the ™Mmission — appointed by the Provincial government to oversee emt limitation legislation — to act on what it called “ridiculous rent increases.” a Most landlords in the downtown i re have ignored the rent increase Mitation and are charging illegal acreases of up to 130%,” DERA d ted in announcing Monday’s €monstration. 1 downtown eastside residents ave been urged to attend. Tansportation will be made Available from the DERA adquarters. responding to a letter from CLC president Joe Morris outlining the Congress program and stating “that no program (of voluntary restraint) can be considered ac- ceptable unless it includes the following positive measures.” The positive measures com- prised a nine-point program in- cluding rent regulation, curbs on land speculation, tax reform to benefit those on lower incomes, regulation of oil and gas prices and policies for full enjoyment. The. Congress letter noted that the CLC program in response to Turner’s call had been drafted on the basis of a meeting of 75 union leaders, representing 90% of the organized work force. A council motion introduced by the executive called on delegates to “reiterate their unequivocal op- position to any form of wage restraints” and urged the CLC “‘to have no further dialogue with the government on this issue.” Fishermen’s delegate George Hewison echoed the warning that the CLC position “left the door open’’ to some future consideration of wage restraint. He also criticized the press reports which had followed the meeting of union representatives for misleading reporting which had left the impression that the trade union movement might be receptive to wage restraint. He added that there was pressure from big business and from the federal government to force the Congress to accept some form of regulation and told DELEGATION IN CITY The U.S. trade embargo ordered last week against South Vietnam and Cambodia is designed to prevent other countries from doing business with the newly-liberated countries, and is a violation of Article 12 of the 1973 Paris agreement. This was the charge made last weekend by a _ Vietnamese delegation visiting Vancouver. “Our beloved Ho Chi Minh once stated that when Vietnam is in peace he would visit every country to thank the people for their sup- port of the Vietnamese struggle. And now we realize that testament.” The words of Vo Than Phat expressed the purpose behind an extraordinary visit to Vancouver by four top ranking Vietnamese officials, two from the Democratic Republic of Vietnam and two from the Provisional Revolutionary Government. delegates: ‘‘We’ve got to put pressure on the Congress to ensure that it opposes wage control. “We've also got to raise the question as to who is responsible for inflation,” he said, ‘‘and put the See RESTRAINT pg. 12 | RESTORE! Phat, advisor to the PRG delegation in Paris, his colleague, Do Chi Duong, a member of the PRG press core in Paris, along with two women from North Vietnam, Phan Thi An, head of the Vietnam Women’s Union and Duong Thi Thoa, editor of the Vietnam Workers Party’s philosophical journal, were in Canada to attend a symposium on Asian affairs at McGill University in Montreal. After the Montreal symposium the four flew to Van- couver where they held a press conference and spoke to a meeting of B.C. and American peace workers at Vancouver’s Fisher- men’s Hall. Speaking to the press conference Phat outlined the position of the PRG in South Vietnam and related some of the tremendous changes which have already taken place in the aftermath of liberation: “Two months ago we had a puppet regime in Saigon,” he said, ‘now we are completely free from neo-colonialism. This is a fun- damental fact.”’ Phat said the program of the new government ‘‘is to build an in- dependent, democratic, peaceful and prosperous South Vietnam and progress toward the reunification of Vietnam. In the economic, cultural and social fields we have tremendous tasks to do. In brief, we must heal the wounds of war.” “In international affairs,” he said, ‘‘we will carry out a policy of “political , . RESTO opt , Dolitiz non-alignment. We will accept economic and technical aid from any country so long as there are no political strings attached.” Already assistance for recon- struction has come from all the socialist countries and from some capitalist countries including See VIETNAMESE, pg. 3 ‘Cambodian action illegal’ An international law expert said last week that the Cambodian seizure of the freighter Mayaguez was not an act of piracy and that President Gerald Ford may have acted illegally in using force to free the ship and crew. Jordan Paust, an associate professor at the University of’ Houston, who is a recognized ex- pert on these matters, said ‘‘the Cambodian seizure was not an act of piracy because 12 miles around the island puts the incident well within the coastal territory. “If we are going to use force to resolve conflicts of jurisdiction when a vessel is involved, it’s a very ‘serious matter,’ he said, pointing out that the U.S. has been criticized internationally for having acted illegally. “oe teens ne release : —Sean Griffin photo More than 70° people came out Saturday despite the rain to demonstrate outside the Chilean consulate in North Vancouver with Elspeth Gardiner, (left), president, and John Radosevic, (second from left), secretary of the Canadians for Democracy in Chile, protesting the fascist rule in Chile and demanding the release of political prisoners.