‘Milk prices, minimum
wage top YCL issues

Shane Parkhill, 21-year-old
Central organizer for the Young
Communist League, arrived in
B.C. last week as the first stop in a
Cross country organizing tour.

Parkhill is scheduled to spend 10
days in B.C. before leaving for
Calgary and other Prairie points
€n route back to Toronto.

In an interview this week,
Parkhill told the Tribune that the
Purpose of the tour is to deal with
Organizational matters within the
League and to promote the three
Major campaigns that the YCL is
Currently sponsoring.

The first of these campaigns is
One against the continuing in-
Creases in the price of milk.

Parkhill pointed to this campaign.

8S a unique contribution of the
League in the battle against in-
“lation. ‘‘There are problems with
Inflation generally,” he said, “‘but
We thought we would focus on a
Single aspect. Milk is'a staple food
nd particularly important to the
rowth and development of young
People.”

Parkhill said that ~milk is
_ °“Coming a luxury item for many

young families and that all sorts of
anadians were switching from
Whole milk and butter to lower

ot

priced substitutes such as
powdered milk and margarine.

“The real problem is a process of
concentration in the dairy in-
dustry,’’ Parkhill said. “The large
dairy monopolies are wielding
increasing power to the extent that
they can fix their own prices.”

The federal government subsidy
“thas done little or nothing to offset
this process,” he said. According
to Parkhill, the five cent per quart
federal subsidy that has been in
effect since October of 1973 has
benefited mainly processing
companies. The consumer and the
farmer, he said, get only one cent
while the processor gets three
cents. He added that the subsidy is
presently being phased out and will
be completely removed this
March.

“We can expect still further
price increases,” he stated. ‘‘The
YCL is using the dairy industry to
show how the monopolization of the
economy is the main cause of in-
flation today.” :

A second major YCL campaign,
that Parkhill termed of ‘urgent
importance for young people”
centres around the question of
minimum wages.

“Most provinces in Canada have

ee aw

—Sean Griffin photo

lower minimum wages for young

people than for adult workers,”’ he
said. ‘‘For example, in B.C., a
person 18 or over cannot be paid
less than $2.50 per hour. But a
person under 18 can be paid a
minimum of $2.10 per hour. This of
course is just a form of
discrimination since in most cases
they do the same work as adults
but for a substantially lower wage.
Young people are exploited as
cheap labor.”’

The YCL organizer said that for
the most part, younger workers
who work for a lower wagé are
employed by large corporations
such as McDonald’s Hamburgers,
corporations that make huge
profits.

“The YCL intends to wage a
long-term campaign on this issue,”’
he stressed. ‘‘Because it is here
that discrimination against young
people in capitalist society is ob-
vious.”

The third YCL campaign that
Parkhill noted is not one that is a
League campaign alone. Rather
the YCL is a participant in an
initiating committee that will
launch the campaign to secure
Canadian aid and solidarity for the
construction of a children’s school
in a liberated zone of South Viet-
nam. °

The campaign is a world wide
one, he said, sponsored by the
World Federation of Democratic
Youth, and will in some ways be
similar to the campaign of a few
years ago to build a children’s
hospital in North Vietnam.

The school will be a technical
school with a capacity for 1,500
students, but because of continuing
danger of military attack, it will be
built in two sections to avoid a high
concentration of students.

“‘Weare very confident about the
YCL’s growth in the near future,”
Parkhill said pointing to recent
successes in the current recruiting

drive to gain 100 new members

across the country. “There is a
new mood growing among young
people, they are questioning the
status quo and searching for an-
swers. The YCL has some of those
answers.”

COALIN B.C.

British Columbia has more coal
reserves than any other province
in Canada. A recent survey showed
that the province has about 75
billion tons of coal, most of which is
suitable for generation of elec-

Shane Parkhill, central organizer for the Young Communist League, IN tricity and gasification.
“©. this week as part of a national tour.

‘Support democratic
forces in Portugal ’

“Canadians have a respon-
sibility to help the democratic
forces in Portugal eliminate the
remnants of fascism and to
establish a democratic society in
accordance with the wishes of its
people,”’ PT editor Maurice Rush

‘told the Bethune seminar in
- Vancouver’s AUUC Hall

in a
lecture last Wednesday.
“Democracy in Portugal needs
the international support of
progressive people all over the
world to block the U.S. and other
reactionary forces _ from
pressuring Portugal to abandon its

present course toward building a-

democratic society.

“There are still powerful
reactionary forces inside Portugal
who are counting on support from
imperialist and monopoly circles
to create an internal crisis in the
country, divide the progressive
forces, and justify attempts at
turning back the clock,”’ said Rush.
' Pointing to serious economic
difficulties faced by the new
Portuguese government, Rush said
that Canada should extend long-
term credits without strings at-
tached and expand its trade with
Portugal. ‘‘Nor should Canadians
allow their government to join with
the U.S. and other imperialist
states in plots aimed -at un-
dermining and_ destroying
democracy in Portugal,” said
Rush.

Pointing to the events on April
25, 1974 in Portugal, which saw the
overthrow of the 48-year-old fascist
dictatorship, and the events in
Greece a few weeks later which
saw the toppling of the military
dictatorship in Greece, Rush said
these two events indicate the new
relationship of world forces which
favor the forces of peace,
democracy and socialism in the
world, and against the forces of
imperialism and reaction.

“Who would have thought it
possible a few months ago,” he
asked, ‘‘that these two military
dictatorships — one with an empire
in Africa dating back 500 years —
would collapse so quickly and with
so little violence and bloodshed?
“The turnover which came with
almost no violence, and saw the
door open to democratic progress,
shows how advanced the processes
toward fundamental change in the
world are becoming.”

Rush said despite the outward
appearance of strength by reac-
tionary dictatorships such as
Portugal, Greece, Chile, Spain,
etc., they are made particularly
vulnerable today by the con-
tradictions in the imperialist
camp, and the growing strength of
the forces for democracy, in-
dependence and socialism.

He said all the contradictions
afflicting the imperialist world
assumed sharp proportions in
Portugal with the attempt of the
fascist dictatorship to continue its
colonial war in Africa despite the
growing revolt in the colonies, the
economic crisis at home, mass
desertions from the army, and the

rising demand from the population
for an end to the colonial war and
the fascist dictatorship.

“Portugal reached the point of
crisis in which the majority of
Portuguese, including large
numbers in the armed forces,
decided the time had come to act
since they could no longer continue
to live in the old way. The fact that
the decisive role in the overthrow
of the dictatorship was played by
the Movement of Armed Forces,
an organization of anti-fascist
officers and men, showed that the
main pillar of the dictatorship, the
army, had eroded and that large
numbers of men in the ranks of the
services’ no longer supported the
old policies and wanted a fun-
damental change.”

“The most significant change
that has taken place since April 25
in Portugal has been the growing
unity of the Movement of the Ar-
med Forces and the democratic
forces, including the Communist
Party, trade unions and other
democratic organizations. The
continued unity of these forces is
the surest guarantee of success in
carrying through the program of
democratization going on in
Portugal,”’ said Rush.

Pointing to the fact that the

economy of Portugal is still
dominated by seven multinational
corporations mainly based in the
U.S., Britain, Belgium and West
Germany, Rush said _ these
monopolies pose a constant threat
to democracy in Portugal.
“Ultimately, to ensure unimpeded
advance in Portugal, the
democratic forces will have to take
anti-monopoly measures to take
away the power of _ these
monopolies.

Reaction in Portugal today holds
very weak political positions, but
very powerful economic
positions,’’ he said, and pointed to
the warnings issued by the Por-
tuguese Communist Party that
these monopolies will manoeuvre
to aggravate economic problems
and attempt to block democracy
and open the door once again to a
right wing dictatorship.

Rush said Portugal is un-
dergoing a national democratic
revolution which will establish the
right of choice to the Portuguese
people, and open the door to ad-
vance toward socialist solutions to
fundamental problems facing the
people. ‘‘The leading role of the
working class and the Communist
Party in Portugal — together with
the alliance with the anti-fascist
armed forces movement — are the
surest guarantee that reactionary
plots will be defeated and_ that
Portugal will continue along the
path of democratization and
fundamental change.”’

The Bethune classes are con-
tinuing in Vancouver and New
Westminster. Vancouver classes
are held each Wednesday at 8 p.m.
at the AUUC Hall, 805 E. Pender,
and each Sunday at 7:30 p.m. at
Douglas College in New West-
minster.

VALENTINE’S DAY FILM FESTIVAL
FEATURING 3 SOVIET FILMS

Depicting — Culture, Sports
and Environment Protection in USSR

also Selected Comedy Shorts

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 14 - 7:30 pm

LADNER FISHERMAN'S CO-OP HALL
Spons. Surrey YCL

For Information Phone
946-9902 — 946-6188

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 1975—Paae 3

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