BEAT IT, YOU WORTHLESS OLD BUM! NO HA NDOUTS/ Get started on merchan marine, says union head “The important thing is that we get started on building the damn thing.” This was the comment of Walt Jacobs, secretary treasurer of the Marine Workers and Boilermakers Union, commenting on the long-awaited Darling report on a merchant marine, tabled in Parliament last Thursday. The marine workers union has conducted a national campaign for many years to have Canada restore a merchant marine fleet which- was scuttled after World War 2. The union has often pointed out that although Canada is one of the world’s major trading nations, it is totally dependent on foreign shipping to get its goods to world markets. The union’s campaign has been supported by the Canadian Labor Congress, by labor federations, and many Canadian organizations. Pointing out that Canada’s present shipping policy is in a state of “‘helplessness and indecision”’ with no clearcut single federal authority in charge of shipping Modify hospital plan By ALD. HARRY RANKIN The British Columbia Medical Centre, an agency of the provincial government that administers seven hospitals in the province, has an ambitious plan to expand Shaughnessy. Hospital. Shaughnessy, on Oak Street bet- ween 33rd and King Edward, was recently taken over by the province from the _ federal government. For years it served as a veteran’s hospital, but the need for this is diminishing and the hospital today is under-used. The term ‘expansion’? as used by the provincial government is actually a misnomer. What is proposed is the tearing down of all the buildings on this four acre site and their replacement by a huge new complex that will more than double the number of acute care beds, from the present 510 to 1200. It would become another huge General Hospital. Arguments cited in favor of the “expansion” include that it will relieve the congestion at the Vancouver General Hospital and stimulate the shopping centre at Oakridge, as well as the com- mercial area on Cambie and 4ist Avenue. I can’t buy either of these as sufficient reason for such a costly undertaking. First of all, I don’t think we need another gargantuan complex such as the Vancouver General Hospital. One is enough. I suspect that the whole plan to centralize so many facilities at Shaughnessy is. just to satisfy the whims of some doctors who are in the position of being able to dictate hospital development in this province. Secondly, I think it’s wrong to tear down all the buildings that presently comprise Shaughnessy Hospital. Some of them, just 30-35 years old, are in perfectly good shape, and can be remodelled and used for many years to come. Third, the construction of such a massive new Shaughnessy Hospital would change the entire nature of the whole area. In no time at all new medical buildings would be going up for the doctors who will be associated with Shaughnessy, just as on Broadway West, near the General Hospital. Next, scores of commercial businesses will move in and then the traffic problems will begin. The promoters of the expansion scheme admit that automobile traffic will be increased by 516 percent, that 180-340 doctors will want new offices near the hospital © and that there will be a great demand for housing in the area for nurses and other hospital staff. My proposal is that the new Shaughnessy Hospital should be a much more modest development, and that some of the present buildings be utilized and not torn down. As for the proposal that the children’s hospital be incorporated into Shaughnessy, I don’t think this is necessary. I think hospital authorities should accept the in- vitation of the medical faculty at U.B.C. to*move the children’s hospital out there. The plan can’t go ahead without the site being rezoned by City Council. That rezoning should be withheld until the Board of the B.C. Medical Centre is prepared to sit down with Council and discuss some modifications. policy, the report by H. J. Darling is said to recommend that Canada’ move toward creation of a Canadian flag ocean fleet to maintain its interests in in- ternational world trade and to promote development of Canada’s ports and natural resources. The report points out that there is a growing danger that control of all deep-sea shipping is falling into the hands of a small group of . companies and that this could pose difficulties for Canadian trade. Darling also points out in his report that Canada’s “hands-off policy” towards international shipping ‘“‘is close to becoming a unique case among the world’s main trading nations.” However, the report appears to fall short of an outright recom- mendation for re-establishment of a merchant marine fleet, but it does suggest that gradual steps be taken to phase in Canadian flag shipping, starting with the designation “of a foreign shipping line as a ‘‘national”’ line. Jacobs told the Tribune that his union had not yet, received a copy of the report, but he says Darling seems to be holding back on fully proposing a merchant marine, “however, the important thing is that we get started with the damn thing and get into the shipbuilding business.”’ Jacobs said the idea in the report that Canada should specialize in building types of vessels required for Canada’s trade in which Canada would become a world leader, is ‘one we have advocated a long time.’’ The report says it would appear a logical choice for the shipbuilding industry to. specialize in the main types of Arctic bulk carriers required for Canadian coasting and in- ternational trade. Jacobs voiced some criticism of the proposal in the Darling report that ‘‘where practicable’’ Canadian shipyards should build | vessels for any domestic merchant | marine, but only if they are | capable of building at a similar or | ~ lower price than foreign yards. Jacobs said that the building of — ships in Canadian shipyards would — provide much needed stimulation — to the Canadian economy and — would provide employment not | — only in shipyards but throughout | the economy. He said the union has — advocated a federal subsidy for — shipbuilding where necessary. “Tt would be crazy to build ships for Canada in foreign providing jobs and economic development in other countries when we need it in Canada,” he said. FIGHTING FOR ECONOMIC SECURITY — Union Train Admission: COME TO C.O.P.E.’S FOLK SONG NIGHT — Bargain at Half the Price Saturday, February 15 - 8:30 pm at the MASONIC HALL 1795 E. 1st Ave. Refreshments $2.50 $2.00 Senior Citizens yards, | TOM .. U.S. Watergate upheaval is ended, but much of the corruption it churned out has still to go through a specially designed “‘investigation”’ screen. This includes its Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), the Federal Bureau of In- vestigation (FBI) and similar stooling and provocation agencies. : However, since the majority of the personnel on these “investigation” bodies, like the Reagans, Rockefellers et al, are themselves active proponents of the very organizations they are supposed to investigate, it is not likely that the war provocations, espionage, racism, anti- Communism and union baiting, will be eliminated from their daily functions, since all that and more is the prime reason for the existence of such outfits! One of the reasons given for such “investigations” is of course that the CIA, the FBI and kindred outfits have been spying on American citizens; bugging senators, House representatives, politicians of all sorts, whether in House corridors, hotel backrooms, convention assemblies, or the. alleged “‘privacy”’ of the nation’s bedrooms. Similar spying, bugging, the organization of violence and war, by the CIA-FBI, whether it be in Chile, Vietnam or elsewhere, will be regarded as strictly taboo by these alleged “‘investigators’’ on the pretentious excuse that such would endanger “national security”, the ultimate 3 excuse that has been made so often to close the lid when PACIFIC TRIBUNE—FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 1975—Page 2 AN “too much threatened to come out. Perhaps we in Canada, filled with the illusion of our own virtue, hold to the idea that only in the U.S. could such charades be staged. No way! We too have our bugging experts, our RCMP — stool pigeon provocateurs, and espionage departments. They also have their “‘ear out,” whether it be in the corridors of Parliament, the posh hotel backroom, or our fellow-Canadian’s bedroom. We’ve even tried our hand at this Judas business (with RCMP assistance) : bugging our fellow Canadians “‘in convention assembled’ in the struggle for Canadian trade union autonomy. And while Prime Minister Pierre Elliot Trudeau deplores ‘‘invading the nation’s bedrooms,” he is not backward in accepting the information and advice of the uniformed Peeping Toms who do this bottom-level job. Thus in our own “virtuous” Liberal or Tory Establish-' ment we have all the makings of a Watergate plus all the corruption and moral pollution which flows from such hearings. And we also find it most convenient, should the necessity arise to allay public opinion, to select our ‘“‘in- vestigators” on the premise that they will be “‘in- vestigating”’ themselves, thus assuring a good all-round whitewash, rather than any concern for the opinion of the overloaded taxpayer. Since in most bourgeois Establishments it has always been open season on anything and everything pertaining to Communism, the author of this column has spent many thousands of hours reading the literary products of known and unknown stool pigeons. First because he considered it a communist duty to do so, and secondly to know to what lengths this Judas conglomeration and its Establishment paymasters would go in an effort to eliminate an historical class contender. Such reading material falls in | two main categories: the highly psychopathic, hysterical _ type and the more calculated semi-factual but highly “slanted’”’ type. I have just concluded one of the latter; 4 | reading a bit belated, but eminently worthwhile. The book, Soldiers of the International by one William _ 4 Rodney, a teacher of history of Royal Roads Military | College in Victoria, is unique in its class. From its bibliography it is a work that had been widel researched, made possible by an unstated but un doubtedly substantial Canada Council grant. Of the seve interviews listed, five are well known Communist renegades in their country of activity. Of the hundreds of reports, resolutions, theses, etc., not a few have thei! origin in the concoctions of the trained RCMP stoolie. The “heroes” of Soldiers of the International, if such they may be termed, are mainly those who deserted of were expelled from the Party to find a temporary home if) the camp of counter-revolutionary Trotskyism. All others in this “history of the Communist Party of Canada, 1919 1929, were content to remain the dupes of ‘‘Stalinism’’ OF under the complete domination of the Comintern (Com” munist International). In its consistent bias against the literary legacy left by Tim Buck to the Canadian working class on its march t0 an independent and socialist Canada, the Rodney co tribution to “history” falls flat. It has many good and worthwhile features, but political history isn’t one of them. : , Thinking of Canada’s defence, against any alleged | enemy, we can only hope that its defence manual is 4— shade moreaccurate than its historical studies. If not, it’S” going to bea bit tough and highly costly — for the natives: