_ BELOW MINIMUM STANDARDS

One out of three live
in poverty in Canada

LMOST one and a quarter
A million families in Canada
—nearly one oul of three—earn
a total family income below the
level required for a minimum
standard of living.

This fact is revealed in an ar-
ticle in the February issue of
Labor Facts, entitled ‘Poverty in
Canada,” and based on figures
of the Dominion Bureau of Statis-
tics for 1959.

The DBS figures are for non-
farm. families and. Labor Fects
has taken for its average stand-
ards. in judging poverty _ total
family incomes below $3,500 a
year for an average family of
four. and below $2,000 for couples
65 years and over,

In arriving at these figures the
monthly digest used a compro-
mise between estimates made by
welfare agencies, such as the To-
ronto Welfare Council and the
Montreal Diet Dispensary,’ and
those by labor organizations bas-
ed on U.S. figures priced in major
Canadian cities. eos

DRAMATIC FIGURES
Labor Facts notes that its
“minimum standards’’ are for

“spendable”’ income, after deduc-
tions, while the DBS figures are
based on gross family income.
While the over-all figures for
Canada as a whole are startling,
states»Labor Facts, the regional
statistics are more dramatic.

In the Atlantic provinces 59 per-
cent. of families ‘receive below
the standard minjmum while the
percentage for Quebec is 37. The
figute for the prairie provinces
is 34 percent, for British Colum-

bia 28 percent and for Ontario
23 percent.
The monthly labor b ulletin

points out that among the elder-
ly, poverty-level incomes are par-
~ ticularly common with 40 percent
of families whose head is over
65 years receiving. less than ‘$2,-
000 per year. This assumes the
families are couples with no chil-
dren to support and the $2,000
minimum figure is based on fig-
ures of the Ontario Welfare Coun-
Clas

LESS THAN $2,000.

The increase in the old age
pension from $55 to $65 since
1959 undoubtedly reduced these
figures to some extent, but still
left the problem essentially in-
tact. -

In answer to the argument that
most very-low income families
are in the small towns and vil-
lages, Labor Facts cites DBS data
for metropolitan areas (30,000
and over) showing the number
of below-minimum family — in-
comes in this category amounts
to 32 percent.

For the metropolitan areas a
minimum family income of $3,50C
in the Atlantic provinces and $4,-
000 elsewhere was used.- ‘

Labor Facts states that its esti-
mates of minimum family income
required may. be open to ques
tion and criticism, but assert:
that the general conclusions de
rived from the figures it cites
should not be open to. serious
challenge.

In both Canada and the U.S.
the share of total family income
among the low income families
is proportionately much less thar
the share for higher income
brackets, and this disproportior
has been growing during the
1950’s, according to the AFL-CIO.

In 1959 in Canada the families
in the lowest income brackets
(under $3,500 a year) accounted
for 43 percent of all families and
received 18 per cent of total fami-
ly income, while families in the
top income brackets ($10,000 and
over) accounted for five percent
of all families and received 17
percent-of all family income.

In the same year in the U.S.
low-income families (under $4,-
000) accounted for 20 percent of
all families and received seven
percent of total family income,
while families in the top brack-
ets ($25,000 plus) accounted for
two percent of all families and
received 11 percent of total fam-
ily income.

‘HUMAN SUFFERING

The figures cited, says Labor
Facts, are merely cold, imperson-_
al ‘statistics, which tell nothing

The startling figures in this article, taken from Labor Facts,

reveals the existence of widespread poveriy among the Can-
adian people. Hardest hit are tens of thousands of Native In-
dian people, such as the Manitoba Indian family shown above.
They subsist largely on a diet of bannock bread (flour, baking

powder and water) with lard.

of the human suffering, physical
and mental, or the toll in human
dignity and self-respect the fig-
ures conceal.

“What the figures do tell us,

, however, is that it is completely

false to claim that poverty is an
individual problem, _ resulting
from physical, mental or emo-
tional defects.

“The figures indicate that the
widespread existence of poverty,
in the most literal sense of the
word, is more closely associated
with social defects, such as mas-
sive and chronic unemployment,
inadequate social security, espe-
cially regarding old age pensions
and medical care, and hopelessly
backward. minimum wage legis-
lation.”’

Rift in Bonn exposes policy crisis

By MAX REICH
PT Correspondent

A the beginning of March, a
thaw brought relief to shiv-
ering Europe from the severest
winter in a century. No relief
has come in the political weather
of Bonn, capital of West Ger-
many.

“Sharp winds are blowing into
the face of the Christian Demo-
crats’’ (Adenauer’s party), writes
Die Welt, spokesman for the
“tough”. group of German mono-
bolists.

For months, West German pro-
oe paganda pro
phesied — in-
creasing dif-
ficulties for
East Ger-
many, and
the collapse
of its econ-
omy, be-
cause “So-’
we cialism can’t
work.’’ By contrast, there was
the “economic miracle” of West
Germany, ‘bastion of the free
world.”
But if you test the Bonn fore-

casts with performance, you find

that reality must eventually as-
Sert itself. Experts as the West
Germans are at propaganda, they
Cannot forever becloud the facts
of life. :

Here are the contrasting re-
Ports coming cut of East Ger-
Many and West Germany:

IMPRESSED

The big event in the German
Democratic Republic is the Leip-

4g Trade Fair with exhibitors.

from 63 countries and half a mil-
lion visitors from over 80 coun-
tries.

“Undoubtedly,” writes Le Fi-
garo of Paris, “Leipzig is one
of the most prominent trade cen-
tres of the heart of the country
‘that does not exist.’ Representa-

‘tives of capitalist states, peoples’

democracies and the young Afri-
can states will again conduct dis-
cussions, compare technology and
conclude agreements.”

Even the West German press,
in spite of West Germany’s boy-
cott of the fair, is impressed.

The major European newspapers, —

including the Financial Times
of London, carry stories similar
to the one of Figaro.

Products from the GDR are
not only meeting world stand-
ards, but are beginning to com-
pete in determining these stand
ards.

REVERSES

The press in West Germany,
- meanwhile, is filled with reports
about economic and political re-
verses. Vice Chancellor Ludwig
Erhard, credited with the West
German “economic miracle”’, has
released a report on the econo-
mic situation, with a forecast of
hard times to come. “

In the West German political
sphere it looks even worse. Here,
the smouldering crisis has erup-
ted into a public quarrel between
Erhard and Adenauer, the two
top leaders of the Christian De-
mocratic Party and government.

This is not a mere clash of

onalities. Nor is it merely a .

pers

battle over who succeecs Ade-

nauer, who will be forced to re-
tire by the fall of this year des-
pite his own desire to stay.

The rift; which acording to
West German press has assumed
“suicidal proportions”, reflects
the fact that politically, West
German monopoly has been led
into a blind alley and is desper-
ately searching for a way out. .

SOMETHNG WRONG

Die Welt describes the present
political scene as “political stag-
nation, reverses in foreign policy
and general uncertainty.”

Sebastian Haffner, its leading
political analyst, writes: “‘Some-
thing decisive has gone wrong,
and one cannot continue in the
same old way.’ Only yesterday,
Haffner, an outspoken anti-Com-
munist, was one of the advocates
of the old way.

What has gone wrong?

—Eric Lipinsky in Pravda

“Angel” of peace

~

The answers are simple. The
policies connected with the names
of Adenauer and Strauss are
bankrupt. Strauss has fallen.
Adenauer is being forced to go.
He and his stalwarts-are battling
to retain policy that- cannot be
coninued. Ky
. Today, this analysis is not pnly
given by Communists. One can
hardly believe seeing statements
like the following by Sebastian
Haffner: :

“On Aug. 13, 1961,"" — (the day
the wall was built around West
Berlin to safeguard the borders
of the GDR) — “the policy of
the CDU (Adenauer’s party) col-
lapsed. It had aimed at bullying
a united Germany out of Russia
through an alliance with the U.S.
or with ‘the West’. . .

“Since then, with every day
that passes, it has become clear-
er that the continuation of this

“policy, which has failed and be-

come senseless, can only make
the partitioin of Germany deeper
and more painful...

“Today, every child can see that
West Germany took the wrong
turn. in 1955, that the policy of
the American alliance against
Russia has literally led us to a
wall, and whoever still wants to
pursue this policy today is bang-
ing his head against a wall...
It is high time the lessons from
the defeat of Aug. 13, 1961, are
understood and a new policy in-

_ augurated.”

RENEW DREAM

In 1955 Adenauer threw in his
lot with U.S. imperialism to re-
new the twice-defeated dream of
German monopoly to become the
decisive power in Europe. To

April 11, 1963—PACIFIC TRIBUN

;

achieve this, a two-pronged at-
tack was necesary.

The attack externally was to
“Yoll back’’ socialism, forcefully
incorporate the GDR into West
Germany, and “‘revise’’ the post
World War II borders in the
east. German militarism and the
German army were revived.

The second attack was against
the ‘‘enemy within’ — all those
who could oppose and become
rallying points against the trend
toward a new war. The Com-
munist Party was outlawed. Hun-
dreds of anti-fascist and anti-war
organizations were proscribed.
Hundreds of thousands of West
German citizens all ‘“nonconfor-
mists”, were intimidated by
threats of court action.

The weak democratic institu-
tions of West Germany gradually
became empty shells.

DECISIVE CHANGES :

But while German monopoly
planned and plotted, decisive
shifts took place in the world.
Imperialism declined and the so-
cialist camp gained strength. The
initiative in world affairs slipped
out of the hands of imperialism
and was taken over by the camp
of socalism and peace.

The West German government
refused to recognize these chan-
ges which made the realization
of its ‘‘plans’” more futile every
day — until it was hit by the
events of Aug. 13, 1961, which
blocked the way to the “rolling

‘back of socialism” and the in-

corporation of the GDR into the

. West.

CLUMSY MOVES
In October, 1962, the West Ger-
See REICH, pg. 10

a