WORLD SCENE |

CYPRUS COMMUNISTS ELECT NINE

NICOSIA — The-Communist Party elected all nine candidates it
entered in the vote for the House of Representatives and will hold
the balance of power in the 35-seat Parliament. This was the first
election since the island gained independence from Britain 10

years ago.

EIRE CABINET MINISTER VISITS BELFAST
DUBLIN — Eire’s Foreign Minister Patrick Hillery secretly visit-
ed Belfast in British-occupied Northern Ireland and talked with
people in the Lower Falls Road area where British troops are ter-
rorizing the population. The death toll during the past week was
12 dead and hundreds wounded. New demonstrations are expected
this weekend.

PRICES REDUCED IN SOVIET UNION
MOSCOW — The USSR has lowered retail prices on television
sets, men’s, women’s and children’s hosiery, shirts, and synthetic
detergents, starting July 1, an announcement from the State
Price Committee of the USSR Council of Ministers stated: At the
same time, the Committee announced that it was raising the
price on brandy and champagne.

NEW ‘BIAFRA’ PLOT IN SUDAN :

KHARTOUM — Faruq Osman, member of the Revolutionary
Council of the Democratic Republic of the Sudan, said this week:
“We know about the plots hatched against us by Western and
American circles to try to create a new Biafra in the southern
Sudan.” Osman said the Sudanese government was well-informed
about these foreign subversive activities and was prepared to deal
with them.

In regard to the feudal revolt staged on Abba Island at the end
of March this year. Osman said the reactionaries planned to seize
control of more than 30 towns by armed revolt, to arrest govern-
ment leaders and liquidate the Sudanese revolution. The revolt was
crushed, and Osman reported that the government has recently
released 88 suspects who were questioned in connection with the
plot. Osman confirmed that several members of the Moslam Bro-
therhood had been arrested, including the leader, Taufiq Taha.

ESTONIA LEADS WORLD IN ELECTRIC POWER
TALLINN — Soviet Estonia leads the world in the per capita
production of electric power. It has a population of 1.5 million and
produces 10 billion kilowatt hours of electricity per year. These
figures were released after the inauguration this week of a-new,
1.6 million KWH thermal power station on the Gulf of Finland.

WFTU BACKS SPANISH WORKERS COMMISSIONS

PRAGUE — A joint meeting of the World Federation of Trade-
Unions’ Secretariat and a delegation from the Spanish “workers
commissions” took place here recently. (Spain’s “‘workers commis-
sions” are illegal trade unions, which are playing an increasingly
active role in Spanish politics in defense of the working class.)
The Spanish delegation gave a report on present-day working class
struggles in Spain and thanked the WFTU for its “unconditional
moral and material aid.”

The WFTU Secretariat noted that representatives of the entire
world trade union movement had presented a resolution in support
of Spanish workers to the General Conference of the International
Labor Organization. It said this provided the grounds for a WFTU
effort to develop a unified international working class movement
of solidarity with Spanish workers.

IRISH LEADERS CONDEMN U.S. AGGRESSION

LONDON — Over 100 prominent -public figures in Ireland have
sent an appeal to the government of the Irish Republic in which
they condemn U.S. aggression in, Southeast Asia and call on the
government to support their demand that U.S. troops should with-
draw from Vietnam. Among those who signed the appeal are lead-
ers of the Communist Party and Labor Party of Ireiand; the Irish
Congress of Trade Unions, the president of the Academy of Scienc-
es and other public figures.

U.S. PENETRATION IN COMMON MARKET ECONOMIES

BONN — American monopolies are actively penetrating into the
economy of the Common Market countries. The newspaper Rhein-
Asche Post says that capital investments of American firms into the
economy of those countries is now estimated at 150 billion marks
(about $37.5 billion). Allocating huge sums, the U.S. thus holds
under its control from 7 to 25% of industry in some Common
Market countries.

U.S. CUTS OFF FOOD TO HONG KONG

HONG KONG — On June 30 the U.S. cut off “Food for Peace’”’ .

shipments to the British crown colony of Hong Kong. Since.1953,
when the food aid started, more than $40 million in U.S. “surplus”
foods have been sent to this 398 square mile colony of four million
people. The food comes under U.S. Public Law 480, which says that
“surplus” U.S. commodities owned by the government can be sold
—not given away—to friendly foreign governments for “soft” cur-
rency, i.e., Hong Kong dollars, Laotian kip, Indian rupees, etc. Half
of these local funds can be returned to the buying government in
the form of a U.S. loan, and some of the local currency can be
used for “U.S. government agency: expenses” in the country in-
volved.

One U.S. government agency in particular became notorious for
financing its worldwide espionage by means of these PL 480 funds.
The matter came before the parliament of India at one time when
it was charged that three Indian newspapers had been bought with
PL 480 rupees, apparently a way to make the starving pay for their
destruction.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—FRIDAY, JULY 10, 1970—Page 6

cP tells Gov't:

Change rail policy

An immediate public inquiry
into the Canadian railway pas-
senger service is demanded by
the Communist Party in a let-
ter to W. J. Pickersgill, Chair-
man of the Canadian Transpor-
tation Commission, and the Hon.
Donald Jamieson, Minister of
Transport. Don Currie, Central
organizer of the party accuses
the “big railways with the con-
nivance of the Federal Govern-
ment” of “taking the public for
a ride—a very expensive ride.”

The CPR and the CNR deli-
berately worsen passenger ser-
vice on the railways and then
blackmail the public by demand-
ing to be subsidized for the
alleged losses they incur due to
loss of passenger revenue, the
letter continues. Imagine what
would happen to any railway
worker if he deliberately per-
formed badly and then demand-
ed more money to maintain this
level of bad work.

The decision by the Federal
Government to subsidize the
operation of the CPR’s. trans-
continental passenger train the
“Canadian” is a scandal in light
of the CPR’s enormous subsi-
dies from the Canadian people
past and present and its high
rate of profit today from its
combined operations. In light of

its favored treatment the CPR’

could run the passenger service
at a loss and pay for the losses
out of its profitable operations

as a method of repaying the peo- .

ple of this country for the huge
subsidies and gifts it has re-
ceived.
_ The claims by the railways
that they cannot run passenger
service profitably are suspect in
light of the discrepancies shown
in the past between CNR and
CPR figures and government
figures in computing variable
cost and overhead.
Abet Con Game

By agreeing to the railway
companies demand that public
transportation shoud be based
on the “profit-first and the pub-’
lic-be-damned” principle, the
Government has aided and abet-
ted the con game of the Rail-
ways.

The CPR is in clear violation
of the agreements of 1880 and

CPR.

1881 which clearly defined the
CPR as an instrument of na-
tional policy—not as a simple
money making proposition.

There is an urgent need to
expand the railway passenger
service between big urban cen-
tres, to expand commuter ser-
vice, as an attraction to the
tourist industry, to unite thé
country and all of its far-flung
areas. The decision as to whe-
ther or not this should be done
cannot be left up to the railway
companies.

The Canadian people will
wholeheartedly support an im-
provement in railway transpor-
tation service. This was proven
in the years 1963-1965. The rea-
sons for the Government and
Railways abandoning this poli-
cy was that a higher rate of pro-
fit could be secured by shifting
more railway operations to haul-
ing freight and such high reve-
nue items as raw materials:

What’s good for the CNR
bondholders and the CPR board
of directors is not always good
for Canada. The extra service
required by the resources in-
dustry can always be provided
without sacrificing passenger
service ...

The CPR should be national-
ized and an expanded, integra-
ted transportation industry de-
veloped based on the interests
of the country as a whole and
not the profit margins of the

To Expand Services
Short of nationalization we
call upon the government to
immediately undertake a public
investigation into the scandal-
ous state of affairs in railway
passenger service. The aim of
such an inquiry should be to
expand, improve and reduce the
cost of present passenger ser-
vice.
. Secondly such an inquiry
should require the railways to
do what every worker and small
businessman is compelled to do
by the Government—to open up
the books of the CPR and the
CNR and let the public judge
the claims of the CPR public re-
lations department that it can-
not operate passenger service
at a profit. :

Youth collecting names

The Toronto YCL posters are_

out—“The right to a good job is
a must—Fight for it!’ Thurs-
day night was the first night
planned for postering and the
Norman Bethune Club of the
Young Communist League ral-
lied its forces and its paste
buckets and took off for the
night. It was great fun and the
response to the poster was good.

A man walking by looked at
the poster and said, “that’s a
good poster, stick a couple more
up here.” Another man said “a
good poster” and he handed Jan
a silver ring and said, “It is for
the cause.”

The posters are good. We
should be proud of them and
plan to saturate the city with
them. So far the Norman Beth-
nue Club is out ahead in the area
of postering but we hear by the

grapevine that the other clubs”

are planning to go out days next
week. The Norman Bethune
Club is also going out next Wed-
nesday night. Lets get with it
—let’s saturate this city.

The above is taken from Metro
Bulletin, the Toronto YCL’s
new mimeographed paper. In
another item Fred Weir, the ed-
itor, tells how he and three
other YCL members one morn-
ing “hit” the Manpower Center
at Dundas and Jarvis Streets.

“While Karen and Susan pas-
sed out our unemployment leaf-
let to Manpower-goers, Zoya and
I collected five pages of signa-
tures on the petition.” He
writes. We also engaged in sev-
eral fruitful discussions with
passers-by on unemployment
problems and the Indochina war.

“While we were there two
other groups passed through
each distributing their own un-
employment leaflet. These were
the Ontario Unemployed Youth

Committee and a coalition of

the Just Society, Welfare and-

Workers’ Rights groups.”

The Toronto YCL is also pre-
paring T shirts to sell at the
Labor Festival.

bargain collectively was
a serious blow when the Thi
er Government on June 307.4
ed the total construction My
try of Saskatchewan unde |
provisions of an amended”)
expanded Essential SetY'a)
Emergency Act. Known % q-
2, this act was made law!
in order to force the
Corporation strikers ba 4
their jobs and to accept Com,
sory arbitration from 4
which it is also compuls0” j
the chairman to be a judg
one of the courts of thé
ince. It was used again
against the hospital emt
on strike in Prince.
force them back to work #7
fully low rates of pay.
The Thatcher Gove of
first interfered in the ™
negotiation process goins
tween the plumbers, Pi
and electricians unions
collective bargaining W
advanced and_ differencé ih
maining to be settled be bs
imal. The unions had 28°”
return to work under we :
of the old agreement 4
tinue negotiations. The

‘ment thwarted any settler sl

by blackmailing the empl®
threatening to to refus iu
contracts to firms that ® oo)
ted a wage settlement in si" :
of a government proc
ceiling of 6%! eo Ot
In this way the strike
plumbers and electricia™
prolonged and made ™
upon which the ‘tet
made its move to bring ih
thousands of Saskat¢eM® id
workers within the ~ ae
shadows of the. hated is,
2, undermining the M8 yi
strike and free collecti¥’
gaining. e terms |
amended Act which pla
construction industry W’
scope specifically names A
struction unions, but i!
ney General admitted it W a
include the industria
that are suppliers oF
turers of building ™ og
such as_ brickyards, i
plants, sawmills, jumbel
wood or steel plants.
The workers of yi ’
are to be the guine? (4%
experiments at compultty |
liue of collective bargalt él
The Thatcher GOV, MH
crawls in the wake of et YF
deau anti-labor, anti-far™
anti-consumer policies:
The battle in Saskate
now joined. The deb@
over. The action must ©
Labor has to fight this jon
attack against its ful ge! 4
trade union rights of D4? jp)
and strike. The farmef® chi
and all citizens WP? | tot!)
freedom must join wit? © acti)
a broad united front © 4
resistance to this bra
croachment on our right

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