FLASHBACKS FROM THE COMMUNIST PRESS 50 years ago... BRITISH COLUMBIA MOVES FOR A‘C.L.P. VANCOUVER — After many moons of travail and agitation there appears on the immediate horizon, the prospects of a pro- vincial section of the Canadian Labor Party. : The provincial executive of the Dominion Trades Congress has awakened from its sleep and issued a call for a conference of all Labor organizations in this city on April 29. In the call to’ this conference the officials stress the need for political ac- tion by organized Labor but seem to regard political action as nothing more than the stuf- fing of ballot boxes. The main thing however is that the con- ference has been called and that all sections of the Labor move- ment will be represented. If all goes well there is every prospect of a strong, active provincial sec- tion of the C.L.P. in British Co- lumbia within the next few wecks. The Worker, April 12, 1924 - 25 years ago... COMMUNISTS LED ALL IN FRENCH VOTE PARIS—The Communist Party of France led all other parties in the popular vote received in the recent cantonal elections, , the conservative Paris paper, Le Monde, has admitted. The admis- sion, significant in the light .of the press attempts to read a Communist setback into the re- sults, declared: “The Communist Party was ahead of all others as far as the number of votes are concerned, and the Minister of Interior does not deny it.” Writing in Humanité, Etienne Fajon notes that the Commun- ists polled 1,689,764 votes in these cantonal elections, in which only half the cantons were in- volved. The working class strong- hold of Paris and other indus- trial centers were not included. Nevertheless, the Communists received an increase of 154,570 votes over their vote in the same cantons in Sept. 1945. Tribune, April 11, 1949 Profiteer of the week: months, Rather than offer an individual award this week, we take you on a tour among some of the sky-scrapers of the profit world. In each case profits are after taxes, are for 12 and are shown dollars: Brascan Ltd. — 104.0; MacMillan Bloedel Ltd. — 81.7; Rio Algom Mines Ltd. — 52.1; Domtar Ltd. — 40.6; Abitibi Paper Co. — 30.6; Pancanadian Petroleum Ltd. — — 24.3; Anglo-Canadian Telephone Co. — 19.2; — Hudson's Bay. Co. — 17.7; Cana- dian International Power Co. — 15.5. Re- markable that this is invisible to the govern- ment when it searches for inflation causes. in millions of Editor — MAURICE RUSH Published weekly at Ford Bildg., Mezzanine No. 3, 193 E. Hastings St., Vancouver 4, B.C. Phone 685-5288. Business & Circulation Manager, FRED WILSON Subscription Rate: Canada, $6.00 one year; $3.50 for six months _ North and South America and Commonwealth countries, $7.00 : : _ All other countries, $8.00 one year é = North and South America and Commonwealth countries, $7.00 one year Second class mail registration number 1560. SESESE SS teiteiteneeeeinaseteseces: . SO Stop monopoly’s rough-shod ridé) The heavy hand of monopoly is being felt in every part of Canada, from the biggest urban centres to the smallest villages. Month after month, the Es spiral on everything needed by workin people has continued steeply upward. Bosses have fought to hold wages down while declaring the sky the limit for. profits. Many skirmishes have been won by the working-class and democratic move- ments including the trade unions, for wages and cost-of-living allowances, against the arbitrary boosting of prices of food, housing, heating and transpor- _tation.. The fact that the Steel Company of Canada had to -admit wages were lagging behind prices, and instituted a $6-a-week wage increase not due till August, begins to show the unten- ability of the positions of the mono- polies who are on an uncontrolled profiteering binge. Stelco failed to make comparisons with profits, of course. It is clear that we are in the thick of a raging battle — the lines shifting back and forth, as monopoly strives to defeat the working people’s efforts to maintain their standards of living, and the working class beginning to rally around it huge sections of public opinion, presses back with wage de- mands, with insistence on a roll-back of prices, with condemnation of the $2.1-billion-and-rising military budget. The real estate sharks are practically minting their own money, with a free hand to gouge the very life earnings out of their victims for decades ahead. Blair Jackson, executive vice-president of the Canadian Real Estate Associa- tion (with strong ties across the bor- NATO—25 years later “Subversive communism allied to Soviet might” intoned Louis St. Laurent in the House of Commons on March 28, 1949. One month later, 185 members voted to involve Canada in the North Atlan- tic Treaty Organization without one dissenting vote. That. was 25 years ago. Throughout these crucial years for peace, Canadians were part of a U.S.- led military ring of steel and nuclear weapons encircling the socialist world. The. participating nations squandered $1,700-billion to promote the cold war myth of impending Soviet attack. Twenty-five years of military provo- cation and stupendous waste, one would think, would be enough. The developing trends to detente and co- operation should result in related mili- - tary reduction. But the opposite is the case—NATO costs are rising as in the military spending by NATO countries —up 30%. in the past three years. The U.S. alone plans to boost its arms budget by $700-million in 1975. West German troops training at Camp Shilo, Manitoba as part Of a 10-year NATO agreement involving 5,000 troops is’ a reminder that the Cold War is alive and well in the Pentagon and in the minds of Canada’s military. * (retroactive to Jan. 1), amoum at being hamstrung by the me the strength to see the job 4 der) blames the average inde home owner for the inhuman SP tion in houses. They’re all greé indicates. f The Canadian Chamber of 0 merce also cries: Stop thief! oop supporting corporations rob the P at record rates, it goes on t i sive, demanding of the friendl : government a clamp-down on “ | spending, and prolongation : year’s scandalous cut in © taxes from 49% to 40%. The tax cuts for the big pro brought in by the Liberals las pointed out by New Democrat leader David Lewis, to betwee million and $700-million saving: the monopolies. Unfortunate ye Lewis does not suggest that the is of Canada can do anything 4 other than wait for another cha vote NDP.