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==PEOPLE AND ISSUES

f or those who have taken even a
cursory look at the federal gov-
ernment stand on foreign policy, a
few events of recent weeks would
have provided an ominous study in
contrasts — and duplicity.

The most recent example was
seen this week. Only a matter of
days ago the minister of immigra-_
tion, Bud Cullen, stated that he
could not intervene in the case of
Chilean refugee Galindo Madrid —
thus virtually assuring that the im-
migration department deportation
order would be carried out. In On-
tario, two other Chilean refugees
face deportation as ‘‘security
risks.’’ But then, suddenly, we see a
U.S. representative of the racist Ku
Klux Klan appearing in Vancouver
and openly soliciting members over
a radio show. From the immigra-
tion department or the minister?
Not a murmur.

And another example. We noted
some weeks ago that the federal
government had applied one stand-
ard to Vietnam by ‘‘reviewing”’ its
agreements with that country be-
cause of Vietnam’s actions in Cam-
bodia but had not initiated any such
review of agreements with China
despite the Chinese invasion of
Vietnam. As it turns out, the April
21 edition of The Financial Post
gave an insight into the reasons for
that decision. The interests of
business, it seems, fitted neatly into
the cold war policy of enmity to-
wards Vietnam and the socialist
world.

The Post reported that, as China
began negotiating international

credit, the Canadian Imperial Bank
of Commerce was first into the ac-
tion with a US$100 million loan

in the labor

MAY DAY GREETINGS
to our friends and supporters

while the Midland and Internation-
al Bank, owned 26 per cent by the
Toronto Dominion Bank has put
up an additional US$175 million.

Elsewhere in the same issue, the
Post invites business executives to
its huge two-day seminar on busi-
ness with China where some 20-odd
people are to outline how compan-
ies can compete for the trade.
Among them will be representatives
of the government’s Consumer and
Corporate Affairs department, the
Export Development Bank and the
first secretary of the Canadian em-
bassy in China.

* * *

' or those who have seen the film

Norma Rae, the justice of the
struggle of Southern textile workers
against the J. P. Stevens company
and the boycott initiated by the
Amalgamated Clothing and Textile
Workers will be self evident. And
Canadians can take an active part in
the boycott campaign since the
ACTWU has initiated a post card

campaign, aimed°at Eaton’s stores,”
which have promoted Stevens’ pro- °

ducts. Bundles of the cards, for
those organizations and individuals
who can get them out are available
from the Amalgamated Clothing
Workers, Room 501 - 198 East
Hastings St., Vancouver, B.C. V6B
1H2.
* * *

Ithough putting out a weekly ed-

ition is taxing enough on the
small staff of the Tribune, putting
out a 16-page May Day issue often
falls just short of madness. It may
have gone over the edge this week
were it not for the assistance of Jan-
ice Harris who came on staff for
several days this week and last.

movement

DOWNTOWN EASTSIDE RESIDENTS ASSOC.
‘Working for a better community’

Socreds bear brunt of attack
in first provincial debate

The ‘‘anti-youth, anti-people’’
policies of the Socred government
were the subject of attack by Com-
munists, New Democrats and about
250 people who turned out to the
first all-candidates meeting of the
provincial election in Vancouver,
last Tr ursday in a meeting spon-
sored by the Downtown Eastside
Residents Association at the Fisher-
men’s Hall.

Communist party provincial
leader Maurice Rush, a candidate in
the Vancouver Centre constituency
where DERA is based, came closest
to the mark with the low income au-
dience when he blasted the ‘‘de-
ceptive welfare increases’’ brought
in by the Socreds which he said,
represents an increase of 30 cents
per day in disposable income for ex-
penses other than shelter.

Rush said that with an inflation
rate of 16 to 18 per cent for food,
clothing and rents ‘‘the Socreds

have actually given less than
before.”’ :

The Communist leader called for
implementation of the United Way
report which proposed an immedi-
ate increase in social assistance rates
of 35 to 45 per cent, and for all
social assistance rates to be tied to
the cost of living.

Rush and running mate in Van-
couver Centre, Miguel Figueroa,
also called for a $30 million housing
program for the Downtown
Eastside to upgrade housing condi-
tions. The increased rates and a
housing program could be funded
from the $280 million surplus ac-
crued by the Socreds, and from a
windfall profits tax imposed on cor-
porations, Rush said, pointing out
that MacMillan Bloedel earned $50
million in 1978 due to the devalued
Canadian dollar.

Figueroa emphasized ‘‘jobs as
the priority issue’ in the election
noting that the ‘‘forest industry is

working at near capacity, yet there
is a growing army of unemployed.
This proves that there is something
fundamentally wrong with our
economy.”’

NDP incumbents in Vancouver
Centre, Emery Barnes and Gary
Lauk, pointed their criticisms at the
Socreds as well with Barnes citing

massive increases in the cost of liv-

ing affecting primarily individuals

and small business. ‘“The Socreds”

accuse the NDP of being welfare or-
iented,’’ he said, ‘‘but how many
‘large conglomerates are welfare
citizens depending on big tax sub-
sidies from this government.

The two Socred candidates who
turned up for the meeting, Vancou-
ver East candidate Bernie Smith,
and Vancouver Centre candidate
Desmond Kimmett were received

politely, for the most part. When

asked about the Socred record,
Kimmett replied that he was new to
politics, and didn’t have one.

Who's who

By ALD. HARRY RANKIN

Let’s be clear on who wants what
and why the controversy over the
proposed $163 million multiplex
(including a 60,000 seat stadium) at
the PNE.

The business groups backing this
proposal are, first of all, the profes-
sional ‘‘sports’’ promoters — rac-
ing, football, hockey and with them
are associated groups like Playland.

These private business groups
control. the PNE. They’ve been
making a mint through the use of
subsidized public facilities, leased
to them at far below cost and sub-

sidized by the people who: have to ~
_ pay High admission and parking

fees to get into:the PNE. But they
are never satisfied. Now they want a
$163 million complex, built with
public funds, for them to use for
next to nothing in the way of rent or
lease. They’re practically slobbering
at the prospects of the additional
profits they could make from such a
multiplex.

Backing them also, of course, are
the firms who hope to get the con-
tracts for all the building construc-
tion that would be required.

The political forces behind this
multiplex are the mayor and the
NPA locally, and the provincial
government. Both groups have
always been closely tied in with the
professional sports promoters.

Those who will lose out if the
multiplex is constructed at the PNE
are (a) the residents of the surroun-
ding area because the traffic con-
gestion engendered by a multiplex
that could attract as many as 75,000
to 100,000 people on any given
night would be nothing less than.
horrendous, and (b) all the citizens
of Vancouver whose tax money will
be used to subsidize the multiplex
with the building of new entrances
and exits from he freeway, water

behind stadium moves

and sewer lines, police and fire pro-
tection, and so on. This will cost the
city some tens of millions of dollars
and all of it will come out of our
pockets.

A second proposal being bandied
about is that the new stadium and
sports complex should be built on
the CPR property on the North
Shore of False Creek. It isn’t dif-
ficult to see who would profit from
this and who is behind it — the
CPR, of course, through Marathon
Realty, the real estate arm of the
CPR. A sports stadium and
multiplex would give the CPR just
what it needs to get this area going
— and sale of the necessary land to
the multiplex at highly inflated
prices, the boost in value to the sur-
rounding land, all of which is own-
ed by the CPR, and the beginning
of a spurt of development that
would enable the CPR to speed up
its plans to turn the whole North
Shore of False Creek into a.
commercial-residential area with a
density higher even than the West
End. e

Downtown business interests are
also interested in this site, because
of its proximity to downtown which
would aid business there.

The political interests behind this
proposal are mainly the Liberal
Party and the federal government.
That’s why Ottawa has been turn-
ing a deaf ear to Swangard’s pleas
for public federal funds to build the
multiplex at the PNE. And
Ottawa’s help is decisive.

So-at the moment the controversy
over where the multiplex and the
sports stadium are to be located is
between two powerful business
groups, backed respectively by the
NPA and Social Credit on the one
hand, and the Liberal Party and
federal government on the other.

None of them, city council, the

provincial government or Ottawa,
have ever asked the citizens what

they want. Nor are they interested —

in what would be good for the long
term development of the city or the
surrounding area. They are political
marionettes, with business interests
pulling the strings that make them
jump.
There is an alternative, one that
would be good for the citizens and
for the whole Lower Mainland. An
alternative site is the Burnaby Lake

area in Burnaby. This area is large,
it is unoccupied, it is flat, it would
be easily accessible for rapid transit —

from both east and west. It would
avoid the traffic congestion that —
would come with having it at either
False Creek or the PNE. The cost of
construction in this area would be
much less too, if only because the
land is much cheaper, and easier to”
assemble. :

This is the alternative that COPE

is campaigning for and that is

meeting with increasing citizen sup-
port.,

COURTENAY >

May Day
-Celebration

Speakers
Buffet

Dance

MAY 5, 7 p.m.

Grantham Hall (Island
Hgwy., across from Tsolum
school.)

Admission $6, OAP $3
Proceeds to Tribune drive

May Day
Greetings
to all
our friends

and
supporters!

*

Surrey

Alternative
Movement

On May Day, 1979

UNITE TO DEFEND

LABOR’S RIGHTS

—LOCAL 4 LADNER
United Fishermen and Allied Workers Union

MAY DAY GREETINGS
TO OUR FRIENDS IN THE
LABOR MOVEMENT

Join in the fight for civic
democracy in Vancouver!

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—APRIL 27, 1979— Page 2

_ Ske ee ale