“Tt was an overwhelming
experience, a tremendous
feeling of solidarity and
friendship.”

Those were the first com-
ments of Canadian delegates to
the 11th World Youth Festival
as the first of 45 people who
attended from this province
began arriving back from
Havana, Cuba, site of the 1978
Festival.

returned, several members of
the preparatory committee
along with other returning
delegates, called a press con-
ference Wednesday to convey
their impressions and to outline
plans for campaigns that
festival participants will
launch.

Although not all the 45 had yet

Unfortunately, the studied
silence which the press in this
province and elsewhere in
Canada maintained throughout
the Festival was barely broken
at Wednesday’s press con-
ference. Only a handful of
reporters, none of them from
the television stations of
Vancouver’s two daily
newspapers, turned out.

‘And yet here we have one of
the major events of the year, an
event of world. significance,
dedicated to international peace
and friendship,” declared Colin
Snell who joined with several
other delegates in deploring the
lack of coverage given the
Havana Festival. Snell was
delegated by the Vancouver and

District Labor Council to take
part in the event.

But if the 11th Festival was
scarcly noticed in the media, it
had a profound impact on the
Canadians who joined some
20,000 accredited delegates
from every continent.

“The highlight for me was the
tremendous solidarity and the
friendship of the Cuban
people,’’ Snell emphasized.
Throughout the capital city,
thousands of Cubans gave up
their vacations and free time to
provide assistance and services
for foreign delegates.

Pre-school teacher Joyce
Chong told reporters that, a
year ago, she “‘knew nothing of

‘the world youth festival.

see AID pg. 7

‘Tremendous’ say 11th Festival delegates

Festival delegates Colin Snell (right) and Sue Radosevic talk to
reporters at Wednesday's press conference.

ia

ai

Hiroshima |
Day marked

ume 100 people gathered in a
Uent vigil and listened to B.C.
€deration of Labor president
forge Johnston and Coalition
member Irene McAllister as the
Hoc Coalition for Disarmament
Marked the 33rd anniversary of the
Ae of Hiroshima and
Saki in i

night Vancouver Friday

“Tt is important that we have
eamered here tonight,” Johnston
a the brief rally, ‘‘in order that

© can reiterate our revulsion at
the holocaust which took place in
August, 1945.

It’s sad that complete disar-
ee is still so far away — but it
; not so far away that your
Ommittee should become

Scouraged,”’ the federation
President noted, in commending
ns work and its plans
Mittee ish a permanent com
Ae McAllister, who attended
Dis UN Special Session on
armament as an observer for
© Coalition, urged people to
ae the decisions of the UN
Sion and to take part in “a

vorldwide mobilization for sur-
Val,

NO MORE HIROSHIMAS

\\

a> §

Fare hike sparks
protest campaign

The bus fare hikes annouced by
B.C. Hydro July 29 came under fire
from_both the Committee of
Progressive Electors and the
Vancouver city committee of the
Communist Party and actions have
been planned to fight the in-
creases, the second in less than two
years.

Transit users in both Vancouver
and Victoria will face increases
ranging from 43 to 67 percent if the
new rate structure goes into effect
as scheduled Sept. 5. The adult fare
would rise to 50 cents — double the
rate two years ago — and would
put B.C. fares second only to
Toronto in cost.

Alderman Harry Rankin of the
Committee of Progressive Elec-
tors, which led the campaign
against higher fares two years ago,
announced that he would present a
notice of motion before Vancouver

city council calling on council to
oppose the fare increases. The
notice is expected to be presented
Aug. 15.

COPE is also preparing a
petition calling for the government
to rescind the increases and also
plans a demonstration. although.a
date had not been set at Tribune
press time.

In a statement issued last week,
the city committee of the Com-
munist Party called on premier
Bennett to take action to rescind
the increases which, it said,
“represent another step to shift the
increased burden of public ser-
vices onto working people and the
unemployed, those least able to
afford it.”’

Miguel Figueroa, city organizer
for the Communist Party, noted
that the increases would worsen

see PETITION pg. 2

AFL-CIO brass denies
demand for autonomy

By MIKE PHILLIPS

TORONTO — U.S. ‘‘labor
mandarins’” have unveiled what
AFL-CIO headquarters’ has
arrogantly determined is an
adequate structure for Canada’s
400,000 members of building trades
unions.

The structure, a new Canadian
executive board representing the
15 international building trades
unions operating in Canada which
are affiliated to the 4.5-million
member AFL-CIO Building and
Construction Trades Department,
was revealed at the department’s
first Canadian convention, held
July 17 and 18 in Toronto.

The structure imposed on
building trades unions falls far
short of the minimum guidelines
for Canadian autonomy adopted by
the Canadian Labor Congress and
is a complete denial of the growing

————

e BANK WORKERS: As
SORWUC calls off its
bank campaign, the
future of several hun-
dred bank workers is at
stake — as it is for
many more thousands
in unorganized banks
across the country,
page 8.

demand voiced by Canadian
building trades workers for an
autonomous Canadian structure
responsive, and responsible to the
general membership.

see BUILDING pg. 8

e DEMOCRATIC YEMEN:
this Middle East coun-
try is at the centre of
Arab politics — and the :
target of imperialist a

ie destabilization, page 6. ;

S

ss I want to leave you with a
ee of hope,” she said, “‘We
mae make it clear that disar-
"ament is a first priority, that the
et to life is the most basic
uman right.”

Members and supporters of the Ad Hoc Coalition for Disarmament
stand in silent vigil (top) in commemoration of Hiroshima Day. The
rally outside Vancouver's courthouse heard B.C. Federation of
Labor president George Johnston (centre) and Irene McAllister,
observer at the UN Disarmament Session, call for renewed dction

for disarmament. —Sean Griffin photos