“t pledge allegiance to the fila
best deal.” ;

25 yeara ago...

IT MAY HAVE GONE
BETTER WITH COKE
ROME — On the road from
Rome to Milan- there
billboard which reads: “If
_ Christ had been handed a glass
, of Coca-Cola instead of a
sponge of vinegar while on the
Cross, he would have died a
happy death.” This is an exam-
ple of the new “Christian cul-
ture”ofthe USA. _
* KOK
MOSCOW — The Soviet
Union announced it was cutting
the prices of 137 types of con-
sumer goods from 10 to 22
percent — the fourth such gen-
eral price slash since 1947. In-
creased production and lower
costs made the cuts possible on a
wide variety of goods, from
bread to gasoline. Cost of living
will drop by roughly 10 percent.
© Tribune,
March 12, 1951

FLASHBACKS FROM
THE COMMUNIST PRESS

iS2

_ American

ig of the country that gives me the

50 years ago...

MEXICAN GOVERNMENT
OFFERS COMPENSATION |

MEXICO CITY — The Mex-
ican government invites Mexi-
cans to present claims against
the Pershing expedition in-the
state of Chihuahua.

The claims are divided into
two groups. The first is for
damages caused by troops in
fighting on Mexican property,
and-for claims-for forage taken.
The second are for damages
caused to Mexicans through the
authorities for
wounds or arrests, and for be-
ing obligated to lend their ser-

Vices. against their wishes with-

out payment.

Attention is specially called to
widows of Mexicans killed by
American troops during the
expedition.

Worker,
March 6, 1926

Profiteer of the week:

When you think of Canadian General Elec-
tric you probably think of household
appliances, but CGE gets a sizeable hunk of
its superprofits from military components.
The war profiteers, of course, are not subject
to restraints — only the wages of their work-
ers. That helps to explain how CGE grabbed
$36,232,000 profit for the year ended Dec. 31,
1975, a jump of 39% over 1974’s $26,043,000.

Figures used are trom the company's financial statements.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—MARCH 19, 1976—Page4

The fight to reclaim our oil...

Living standards are to take another
pounding as federal and provincial gev-
ernments censpire to boost oil and

' natural gas prices for the benefit of the

petroleum corporations.

Even while the energy ministers were
meeting in Ottawa it was predicted that
gasoline would jump seven cents a gallon
— heating and industrial fuel to rise
comparably. Instead of rolling back oil

rices, that advocate of the people, the
ederal government, plays at hol ing the

- increase to $2 a barrel, while Tory Al-

berta fights to soak Canadians the world
price — $12. What unconscionable con-
nivers! ;
What is needed is public ownership of
all oil and gas (as well as other resources),
along with the pipelines and railways to

“
d i isl
t ¢
é

As the federal government declared
war on another, 500,000 workers, depriv-
ing them of the benefits of collective bar-
gaining under the wage-cutting Anti-
Inflation Board (AIB), the plan’s ruin-
ous effect on Canadian life could be seen
on every front. Pome

As recently as March 3, three major
steel companies told AIB they are going
to raise prices by as mich as 9%. Hun-
dreds BE products will cost more as

profits soar. Fewer people will buy, and _

more layoffs will add to the 800,000
unemployed. (Some of the costs the cor-
porations blame for the present price in-
crease are expected later this year,
Stelco president N.J. Brown admitted!)

This upside-down “restraints” prog-
ram — restraming workers’ wages but
giving a green light to profiteers, has to

e ended. And no one but labor and the.
board democratic movements, Com-
munists and NDP members, linking mil-
lions of irate Canadians will do it.

The Anti-Inflation Board has never
been anything but a union-busting and
wage-cuttin ieee The Act must be
withdrawn! Monopoly profits and
poco antag must be Eosatt under con-
trol.

There is a way to tackle inflation!
Prohibit further price rises. Institute
price and rent controls. Subsidize essen-
tial foodstuffs. Prosecute the profiteers.

There is a way to tackle unemploy-
ment! Implement the 30-hour work
week at 40 hours’ pay. Build 400,000
housing units annually for low and
medium incomes. Extend trade with the
socialist countries, western Europe, La-
tin America etc.

There is a way to tackle economic
crisis! Democratic control and public
ownership of the U.S. branch plants and -

resources in Canada, the banks trust ~

companies and insurance companies.
Canada should decide its owmeconomic.
policies. Funds would be available for
vast independent economic develop-
ment in Canada.

This Communist Party three-point
program of last October acquires new
validity day by day. The CP also backs to
the full the Ganddian Labor Congress
i deen program.

he need is for a stepped-up cam-
paign by all working-class and democra-
tic organizations. It’s time to smash the
attempts of the monopoly system’ to
rind the people’s living standards into
ust. :

to robbery, the Canadian Government)

annually, plus inflation, and at the samé |
_ time denying Canadians needed monies |

transport it. Public ownership, under
democratic control, would end profiteer-
ing and make energy resources 4}
enuine source of development and jobs
or Canadians.

Maintenance of the two-price system is
crucial. Why should Canadians, because
it pleases the oil barons be forced to pa
world prices for their own oil, while mill-
ions of dollars are drained off in profits?

The Communist Party long ago prop-
osed public ownership under democratic
control, the two-price system; and it
firmly opposes any increase in oil prices
to Canadian users. It voices the demands
of Canadians in its call for a roll-back of
prices. That is a different matter than
the political opportunism of Douglas
Timbrell, Ontario’s energy minister,
who speaks for Ontario monopoly. in-
terests —— eager to fatten their own
profits, afraid of the oil monpolies — and.
pressing for one safe source of fuel,
while rejecting real public ownership
and control. :

Another Tory, Alberta’s energy minis-
ter Don Getty, says: “If you don’t like the
price, go somewhere else.” So Canadian
workers should clear out and leave it all
to the oil monopolies, according to this
insolent reactionary. .

“Oil and gas are simply too important,
too strategic to the Canadian economy as
well as to Canadian individuals to be left
entirely in the hands of private and
mostly foreign-owned companies,” the
big-business Toronto Star editorialized,|_
March 3. :

The Star editor’s motive is not. to
make points for public ownership of all
oil, all resources, and in the long run, tor
socialism, but protection of the non-oil
group of monopolies. 7

...¢ut arms billions

Nowhere in the economy are the rav-
ages of inflation worse, nowhere does the
price and profit spiral snatch away more
of working people’s earnings through
taxes’ than in reckless government
Squandering to enrich the arms
monopolies. 7

What better example than the out-
ees purchase by Canada of 18 U.S./
sub-chaser aircraft from the financially
and morally bereft Lockheed Corpora’} :
tion. A fighter plane in World War IJ
cost $54,000. An F-III, used by the USA
to slaughter the people of Vietnam, cost
$6,800,000. The i Lockheed Orions| |
now on order for Canada will cost tax-|
payers $52,000,000 each! To add insult

ckheed Corporation.

Canada is pouring $3-billion a year |
down the “defence” drain, raising it 12% |

lans to finance the deal for the corrupt |

for medicare.

While the miserable dollar patriots of | »
the Liberal and Tory parties vie at per-
version of democratic rights and free- |
doms, Canadian workers, by ene 3
their strength can use the present period |
to organize for the day when they will lay
down their own terms for Canada’s fu- | —
ture. And that day is no longer in thé
distant mists.

é