JANUARY 18, 1935
40 years ago our
paper was born -

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Above is the front page of the first issue of the ‘B.C. Workers

| News,” published on January 18, 1935 — exactly 40 years ago this

Saturday. It marked the launching of the first weekly Communist
Paper in B.C. which has published continuously for 40 years, except
for one brief interval in 1940 when authorities forcibly shut us down.

Along the way the name was changed to meet changing con-
ditions and needs, and it finally became the ‘Pacific Tribune.” But
while the name was often changed, the basic outlook of the paper
has never changed. It remained true to its working class outlook
and Marxist-Leninist viewpoint.

Nor have we stopped for one moment our militant championing
of the needs and interests of B.C.’s working people. We have during

~ the whole of that 40-year proud tradition never ceased being the

responsible and militant spokesman for B.C. labor.

In 1975 we will face new challenges. Issues of great importance
Confront the people of B.C. this year. The fight for full employment,

' against the rising cost of living, for union contracts to protect

Workers against inflation, for decent housing, to defeat the big
business drive in B.C., for peace and detente — all these will place
added responsibilities on the Pacific Tribune.

__ Tomeet the big challenge in 1975 the editorial board decided that

i our 40th anniversary year we should ask our readers to join with
Us in expanding the size of our B.C. pages. We want to add a sixth
B.C. page which will give us additional space to devote to the big
issues this year. We intend to start publication of six B.C. pages
Instead of the present five by the end of February.

This will cost more money. We will also need more funds to pay
‘Tising printing costs and to eliminate a large part of our debt. To do

| this the PT editorial board will ask our readers and supporters in

the April-May financial campaign to give us the money to do the

_ job. We will aim to raise more than we have ever raised before —

because the times demand it. Details for our major financial drive
are now being worked out and will be released prior to the drive.

Along with this, committees are at work to organize special
cultural events which will mark the 40th birthday of the PT in a big
Way. Information about these events will be published in due
Course. Watch for them.

This is our appeal to readers and supporters: Join with us in
making 1975 a year of advance for labor and.a year in which labor’s
Only weekly paper will roll up major gains in size, content and
circulation. We know we can count on your support.

SURV

FRIDAY, JANUARY 17, 1975

EY

EXPOSE

Tribune

VOL. 37, No. 3 -
EEE
SS SS SS

Chicken price
ripoff in B.C.

A seven-province survey
released by: the prices review
board in Ottawa on Monday
showing the price gap for chickens
between producer, wholesaler, and
consumer, indicates that the B.C.
public are the victims of a prices
ripoff when they go shopping.

The survey showed that B.C.
consumers paid more for broiler
chickens in 1974 at the super-
markets than other Canadians,
despite the fact that the province
had one of the lowest wholesale
price levels in the country.

Broiler producers in B.C.
received 35.8 cents a pound
compared to the national average
of 33.9 cents, which is not a big

. Spread. Where the main gap ap-
pears is in the wholesale price and
the price the consumer pays at the
supermarket.

The wholesale price level was
61.2 cents a pound in B.C. But

between the wholesale price and.

the consumer price in this province
there is a 25 cent a pound spread..
Consumers pay 86.2 cents a pound
in B.C. for broiler chickens. That’s
amuch larger spread than exists in
any of the other provinces included
in. the survey. The national
average for. broiler chickens to
consumers was 77.8 cents a pound.
The national average price spread
between the wholesale price and
retail price is 18.3 cents a pound —
almost seven cents a pound less
than in B.C.

-The food prices review board
says there is a “relatively large
average price spread in B.C.” but

it offers no explanation as: to the
reason for this. Nor does it offer
any course of action to deal with
the scandalous situation.

The explanation is clear:
supermarkets are ripping off

. consumers on chicken prices just

as they are on fish, meat, sugar
and other commodities. Before
Christmas the United Fishermen

Between producer, wholesaler and
in chicken prices.

and Allied Workers Union
disclosed a similar prices spread in
fish products.

Cost of living figures released
this week for December showing
another sharp rise in food prices
makes it essential that public
action be stepped up to stop the
prices-profiteering gouge by the
food monopolies.

consumer a vast price spread exists

Barrett

“The Barrett government is on
the right track in its efforts to up
the export price of natural gas to
the United States”, Nigel Morgan,.
provincial leader of the Com-
munist Party stated Wednesday.
“Big U.S. monopolies have been
dictating terms and fattening like
leeches off our resources and labor
for too long.”

“The people of this province are
certainly entitled to a much better
return on their natural resources,
and by allocating a good part of the
additional revenue to B.C.’s
financially hard-pressed
municipalities the NDP govern-
ment will be killing two birds with
one stone,’”’ Morgan declared.

“However, bringing the export
price to a more realistic and
competitive level with other
energy sources is only the

- beginning,’’ he said,

“Canada needs, and the NDP
government should press for ef-
fective measures to restore our
irreplaceable energy resources to

the Canadian people. Successive
Liberal, Tory and Socred govern-
ments, federally and provincially,
by kow-towing to the multi-
national corporations, have sold
the interests of the people of
British Columbia and Canada
short. The Communist Party
believes we need above all else a
fully-integrated energy policy
based on democratic control and
public ownership.”

“The Communist Party has
advocated and urged the NDP to
bring the entire B.C. natural gas
system from the wellhead to the
distributive system under public-
ownership, and thus put an end to
blackmail by the big U.S. trusts
like El Paso, which controls
Westcoast Transmission pipeline
and operates the delivery system
between the gas fields and local
distributors,” Morgan charged.

“We don’t know yet what the
terms of the compromise worked
out in Ottawa are, but we urge
Premier Barrett to stick to the

gas plan backed

essentially correct proposals he
advanced last week,” Morgan
concluded.

The Barrett plan for upping gas
prices to the U.S., and sharing the
proceeds between the federal,
provincial and municipal govern-
ment’s, was made public at a press
conference January 10.

The crisis in B.C.’s natural gas
industry was brought on by the
federal government’s new budget
and income tax provisions which
could push the B.C. Petroleum
Corporation (owned by B.C.) out of
the picture and cut off revenues to
the province, forcing up the price
gas producing companies would
receive.

END GUNBOAT —
DIPLOMACY!
—Pg. 5