YEAR END REVIEW i | 1971 year of fight-back — on a score of fronts — By MABEL RICHARDS 1971 was a beautiful year — for Canadian corporations. Their profits ran 20 percent higher ina nine month period than in 1970; $1.79 billion, to be exact, before taxes. -In the same period other important phases of the economy also showed a rise. They were the unemployment figures and the cost of consumer goods. So all was well with General Motors and MacMillan-Bloedel in Bennett-Trudeauland, but not so well for the jobless Joe and the housewife who had to spread two dollars to make five. One things was definite. While company stockholders spent their untaxed gains on holidays to the Bahamas, organized labor, the unemployed, and the housewife were coming up with some answers. Number one was that the whole idea behind the wage-price freeze was a farce and number two, it is impossible to support both Canadian and American monopoly profiteers and have anything left over for the working people. The statement from the world Organization of Economic Development to the effect that Wage rates in Canada lagged behind advances in production and profits by some three years merely confirmed what they already knew. They decided to fight back against the Big Lie and the Big Profit. WINTER This decision was expressed in a variety of ways. Early in January organized labor began the struggle against the lock- spittle governments which allow all-time high corporation profits, unemployment, and outrageous living costs to exist side by side. Hydro bus drivers hit the bricks early in January. Unions mobilized to get thousands out to a demonstration against unemployment in Victoria. And jobs were needed. There were more than 740,000 unemployed in Canada; almost one in ten was without work in B.C. The Tenants Council also lobbied the Legislature during the winter months, demanding some protection for the renter; ‘ that rent increases be limited to the rise in the cost of living, ete The bus drivers and the team- sters were ordered back to work by the Bennett government. That move had its aftermath People from all walks of life ex- pressed their opposition to the American invasion of Laos and Cambodia through telegrams, resolutions and _ petitions. Unions, thousands of students and others began a campaign against the American scheme to bring oil by tanker from Alaska down the west coast. In March the B.C. Federation of Labor sent out a call for a special parley on Bennett’s use of Bill 33. ‘‘The Federation is not going to sit by and see the trade union movement emasculated in this province,’ said the executive. The next large group to descend on the Legislature were the pensioners. They demanded _ more hospital beds for extended care, assistance in meeting municipal taxes, and city bus -passes among other items. Teachers across the province were hotly protesting the B.C. government's pension bill. They had a pension fund of $177 million but any number of them received inadequate retirement funds. In a precedent-setting move, tenants in Wall and Redekop apartments withheld their rents, demanding the owners negotiate with them as a group on new increases. SPRING A number of lovely Indo- chinese women journeyed to Van- couver to meet with U.S. and Canadian women at a four day conference, and left everyone with a feeling of warm comrade- ship. In April the Four Seasons project hit the headlines. Hundreds of incensed citizens swarmed to city hall, protesting the council okay for construc- tion of highrises at the entrance to Stanley Park. The project is still stalled, (but keep an eye on what may be cooking behind the scenes. ) Pacific Tribune, April 16: “Two announcements coming only a few days apart indicate that Ottawa’s economic policies are leading the country to a new wave of monopoly profiteering and sky-rocketing consumer prices. All of this while unem- ployment continues to hover around the 800,000 mark.”’ Truer words were never Said. As the spring waned and summer came on in all its glory, that is where it was at. Profits up, prices up, unemployment up. SUMMER On the battle front in late May were the following: Woodfibre employees, struggling to keep their homes in’ the pulptown; Burnaby anti-pollutionists, opposing further expansion of Standard Oil Refineries; high school students, petitioning against further U.S. takeovers of Canadian industries; citizens for ‘rapid transit, holding meetings, educating, pamphlet- eering; and pulp workers, who gave a sharp NO in reply to the industry which put out feelers to get them to subsidize the poor little rich outfits during ‘“‘poor market conditions.” B.C. labor was backing the fight of the UFAWU in Nova Seotia to get the trawlermen organized. On the west coast fishermen had to fight U.S. take- overs of their boats within Cana- dian waters. Amchitka. B.C.’ites started the fight against that monstrous development many months ago and kept it up without letdown until the bomb went off in November. A number of lessons and great united front action came out of that particular U.S. action. B.C. Telephones, who raised their rates in 1971, also had record profits. The Moran Dam hit the head- lines again. Just looking, said -W.A.C. Bennett. But the fisher- men, some federal politicians and environmentalists know Mr. Bennett. They are on the watch. AUTUMN The Gastown police riots startled the country the first week in August. as did Nixon's announcement of a 10 percent surtax on imported goods. The riots ended in a number of people hurt: scores more angry and disillusioned by the unbridled police terrorism, and in the end an investigation which so far has not been acted upon so far as recommendations are con cerned. The Trib demanded in a lead editorial that parliament be called to adopt new policies to give some protection against the U.S. economic offensive. It urged that markets in socialist countries and other devel- opment nations be found to offset the nation’s dependence on U.S. and Japan. Marking B. C.’s Centennial Year and the 50th Anniversary of the Communist Party of Canada, a series of articles in the P.T. and other Communist periodicals pointed out the heroic beginnings of the: labor and Communist movements in the province and the great strides made in the past 50 years. Sandringham hospital strikers in Victoria, members of CUPE, kept up the staunch fight they had been staging for nearly 11 months. Island fallers fighting back against new demands for increased production for Mac- Millan-Bloedel’s stockholders have been saying fuddle-duddle you! for several mouths, because the company is demand- ing as much-as a 50 percent increase in their work load without being prepared to pay for it. And B.C. fruit growers faced the worst crisis in their history. They urged some action from the two levels of gov- ment. Alderman Harry Rankin said the Bennett-work scheme where the people subsidize employers to hire help would do more harm than good. So far few have found work under the scheme. Premier Kosygin’s call for peace and trade when he visited Vancouver found a __ solid response from workers. The IWA called for a policy of trade with all countries as_ did delegates to the B.C. Federation of Labor convention later. That convention drafted some note- worthy plans for fighting back against U.S. domination and government policies in B.C. and Canada. All summer and fall the people on welfare fought back against their meagre existence by demonstrations in welfare offices and at city hall. So 1971 goes out and 1972 comes in with a big year of struggles ahead. Two hundred thousand workers will be in negotiations this year with a number of the corporations whose profits were given at the beginning of this story. 1972 will be a year of decision. More power to our elbows, more food on our tables! Skol, everyone! BIG SUBSIDIES 10 ; BUSINESS BOC f ? ORGANIZED LABOR took the lead early in January of 1971 to protest rising unemployment and put forward alternatives when some 2,000 people rallied at the Legislative buildings on opening day. Neither the provincial nor the federal government has done anything to cope with the jobless crisis, and they can expect more protests such as the one shown above. New $250, 000 target aim of Vietnam Aid The Canadian Aid for Vietnam Civilians have set a new target of $250,000 for aid to the war- stricken people of all of Indo- china. Of this amount $155,193 -has been collected and sent to Vietnam civilians. The fall and winter bulletin of the CAVC says ‘‘As this is written, hundreds of the most sophisticated machines of war in history are hovering over the bamboo villages of Indochina, waging a new. kind of mechanized warfare even as U.S. ground troops are being withdrawn.” Headquarters of the CAVC are in Vancouver, but support for the Indochinese people has come from across Canada in the way of dollars for medicines, NEW YEARS GREETINGS To All Readers of THE PACIFIC TRIBUNE & Our Wish That Every Person will get a New Reader for our Paper from among _ their friends. Kw k FRASER VALLEY CLUB medical supplies, and thousands of items of knit goods, clothing, eye glasses, etc. From June Ist to October 20th, for instance, the Children’s Committee sent, in two separate shipments, some 29 crates of materials. A steady stream of supplies has gone out of the Vancouver headquarters since. 1966 and carried by Soviet ships to Vietnam. The $155,193 collected to date has been augmented by a similar amount of goods and supplies sent by the Children’s Committee of the CAVC. Artificial limbs for amputee children, quinine, anti-biotics, vitamins, powdered milk and knitted and sewn garments, as well as bedding are urgently needed. You can help in this great work by sending your dona- tions to Canadian Aid for Vietnam Civilians, P.O. Box _ 2543, Vancouver 3, B.C. Beaver Transfer Moving Packing Storage 790 Powell St. Phone 254-371] Classified advertising BUSINESS PERSONALS HALLS FOR RENT DRY CLEANING & LAUNDRY Also Coin-op LAUNDERETTE 2633 Commercial Dr. 879-9956 UKRAINIAN CANADIAN CULTURAL CENTRE - 805 East Pender St., Vancouver 4. Available for banquets, . wed- dings, meetings. Phone 254- 3436. REGENT TAILORS LTD.- Custom Tailors and Ready-to- Wear, 324 W. Hastings St. MU 1-8456 of 4441 E. Hastings - CY 8-2030. See Henry Kankin for personal service. Get anew reader! RUSSIAN PEOPLE’S HOME Available for meetings, banquets and weddings at reasonable rates. 600 Campbell Ave. 254-3430. CLINTON HALL, 2605 Eas: Pender. Available for banquets, meetings, weddings, etc. Phone 253-7414. PACIFIC TRIBUNE—FRIDAY, DECEMBER 31, 1971—PAGE 11