4 + 3 a a4 3 25 years ago... PRESSMEN WIN 8 CENT RAISE TORONTO — Nine hundred pressmen in 70 shops have wona wage increase of 8 cents an hour, five cents of it retroactive to Oct. 16 and seven cents for pensions. The original demand by the pressmen_was for 25 cents. Under the two-year contract, the basic rate for commercial pressmen will be $83.20 for a 40-hour week. The agreement makes more difficult the Toronto Typog- raphical Union negotiations for a 45-cents an hour increase to win $92 a week for 37'/2zhours. Typos had earlier rejected a higher offer than that accepted by pressmen. Bookbinders.. are seeking a 25-cent package increase and a 50 years ago... CANADIAN WOMEN GREET USSR WOMEN A cable of greeting on Inter- national Women’s Day was sent to. Soviet women by the Cana- dian Federation of Women’s Labor Leagues: * * { * “To the working and peasant women of the Soviet Union! “The working women in Canada organized in the WLLM send you heartfelt greetings and congratulations on successes in building socialism in the USSR. “Our special pledge for Inter- national Women’s Day 1929 is to support wholeheartedly your ef- forts to keep intact that greatest of all achievements — the Soviet Union. “This pledge will be read at all our meetings March 8 for 37'/2zhour week. . endorsement.” Tribune, The Worker, March 15, 1954 March 9, 1929 Profiteer of the week: Despite gavernment and corporation inves- tigations they have been unable to find any- one making a profit out of food. But Loblaw Cos. Ltd. had an after-tax profit for 1978, of $18,698,000, that’s $5.5-million more than a year earlier, but then who begrudges them } that? Oh yes, there was also an extraordinary gain (not on sales) of $6,875,000, making the total a tidy $25,573,000. Figures used are from the company’s financial statements. Editor — SEAN GRIFFIN Associate Editor — FRED WILSON Business and Circulation Manager — PAT O'CONNOR Published weekly at Suite 101 — 1416 Commercial Drive, Vancouver, B.C. V5L 3X9 Phone 251-1186 Subscription Rate: Canada $10 one year; $6.00 for six months; All other countries, $12 one year. Second class mail registration number 1560 PACIFIC TRIBUNE—MARCH 16, 1979—Page 4 EDITORIAL COMMENT Speak up against aggressor The carnage in Vietnam, conducted by the ruling circles of China, has been condemned by governments, organi- zations, political parties and individuals all over the world. In Canada, the peace movement, labor councils, trade unions, the Communist Party and men and women from diverse organizations have spoken out. The variety of forms of pro- test warn of the threat to world peace in China’s aggression, and pledge help for ‘the long-victimized Vietnamese people. In light of the plentiful evidence of China’s guilt, decent Canadians are ask- ing: Where is the New Democratic Party? Where is the Canadian Labor Congress? Haven't they, in the past, taken a stand against wars of aggression? Haven’t they at some time pretended to a place among defenders of human rights? How is it that the NDP-CLC silence on China’s slaughter of its neighbors, serves to condone the Carter line of the big lie about “two invasions”. That smoke- screen is being blown away by a cyclone of evidence. The heirs of Mao have in fact launched an unprovoked genocidal war. Having invaded Vietnam and indis- criminately attacked civilians, the Chinese now brag of having killed or wounded 10,000 Vietnamese. What does it take for-the Canadian Government, or the apparently unani- mous parliament to utter so much as a complaint to Canada’s Peking trading partner? Or did Canada sell its principles as well as its wheat? Has tripartism gone so far that Trudeau, Clark, Broadbent and McDermott are comfortable in the same bed? Workers and electors might ask. The despicable silence suggests just that. There is a difference between being naive or weak-kneed, and being cun- ning. The Chinese ruling circles, who claim -most of southeast Asia, want battle- tested troops for greater “adventures”, and it matters not to them how many thousands of Chinese youth, or how many neighboring peoples are sacrificed in the process. . U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Richard Holbrooke was more honest than his Canadian counterparts when confronted with Chinese propaganda. “I _ am not prepared to callit a withdrawal. It may be only redeployment,” he said. The silent accomplices of Peking’s ag- gression, who dwell in high places in Canada, need to be bombarded with pro- tests, and called to account for their si- lence. Pipe gas across Canada Prime Minister Trudeau’s discussion _ of energy problems with U.S. President Carter on March 3, looks like a blend of continentialism and electioneering. Perhaps by sheer coincidence the PM’s visit came just four days after the Feb. 28 release of the National Energy Board’s report, and its “discovery” of an extra two trillion cubic feet of natural gas available for shipment to the USA. With this, the total surplus, says the NEB, is 3.4 trillion. In 1977 they warned us we faced shortages in Canada by 1983. But political winds change. Trudeau, on the verge of a fateful election, pressed Carter to speed up the USA’s approval and financing of its share of the Alaska Highway gas pipe-' line. The line, condemned in this paper from the outset more than 18 months ago, is designed to carry Alaska gas over Canadian territory to benefit the USA, but as a surprise extra, to drain off Canadian resources as. well. Back in August 1977, the Communist Party clearly stated its opposition to this pipeline, which, among other things, ig- nored Native lands claims, urging — No Pipeline Now! The estimated cost then was $4.33-billion — now it’s $5.77- billion, “still with no real benefits accru- ing to Canada and her people.” - There are undoubtedly benefits in the form of profits for outfits like Pan- Alberta Gas, who want to prebuild the lower part of the proposed line from Alaska, and turn as much as possible of that “surplus” two trillion cubic feet into profit dollars. © For the election-conscious Trudeau, added export income, and U.S. action on what the Liberals want us to consider a major job creator, are attractive. Without going into the somewhat re- lated oil manipulations, suffice it to say | that cooperation to bail the USA out of energy difficulties of its own making, is cooperation with U.S. foreign policy which includes taking.Middle East oil by force if the White House, the Pentagon and NATO decide it’s in their interests. _ Who is going to assure the Venezuelans, Mexicans and Canadians (!) that force will be used only in the Middle East for | _that purpose? The prime minister may also have in mind the preference for trading off western Canada. natural gas for east- coast oil from the U.S.-controlled multi-nationals, rather than extend the gas pipeline to Quebec and the Maritimes. Such continentalism, such) north-to-south sell-out, is in complete’ disregard of Canadian unity and security of supply. It is in such circumstances that the policies of the Communist Party, which does not have to kow-tow to big business, becomes more urgent. ‘In a Feb. 16 statement the Communist Party stated that the government and _ parliament “should undertake to extend the natural gas pipeline from Alberta right through | to the Maritimes.” In accordance with its long-standing policy, the Communist} Party also declared itself in favor of “all sources of energy (being) nationalized under democratic control.” That is the kind of policy which bene- fits Canada and its people, the kind of policy which merits the widest support, in contrast to the vote-catching efforts of the Liberals and Tories. Selling out Canada by way of her energy resources, or by any other route, cannot be tolerated.