CLEANING UP OIL POLLUTION. Photo shows volunteer workers cleaning. up San Francisco Bay last year after a disaster. This week 20 miles of shoreline on the west coast of Vancouver Island was covered with oil from the grounded freighter Vanlene. Also this week the U.S. study on the proposed Trans-Alaska Pipeline was released which estimates that as a result of tankers hauling oil down the coastline from Valdez an estimated “average” annual loss of 140,000 barrels of oil is anticipated _as a result of tanker accidents on the B.C. coast. By MAURICE RUSH The Bennett government should he forced by public opinion to resign if for no other reason than the admissions made this week in the Legis- lature which showed that the Socred government has grossly betrayed the public’s trust in the Columbia River deal. It took a long time for the truth to come out about this scandal. But now it’s out. And it proves what the PT has been saying ever since the treaty was first discussed: That the deal was a sellout to the U.S. and that it would come back to haunt its sponsors. The amazing thing is that the Socred government acts so matter-of-fact about it — as if it was just another unimportant event. But it isn’t. It is probably the most costly giveaway in the history of our province. And the public is left to foot the bill. Here in a nutshell is what Premier Bennett and Resources Minister Wilfiston admitted: e That the public will have to foot the bill for $111 million on top of what B.C. is getting from the U.S. under the treaty just to complete the storage dams so that we can store the water to release it when the Americans need power south of the line. e That before B.C. gets a single killowatt of power from the whole Columbia system we will have to spend an additional $330 million to install the genera- tors at Mica Creek and build the transmission lines. e That the total bill which Q. public will have to pay through higher hydro bills and other means is a whopping $441 million Delegates to the Vancouver Labor Council’s Tuesday meet- ing wasted no words in labelling Chabot’s Bill 88. It is a hangman’s noose, and Chabot’s ultimatum to unions to ‘‘volun- tarily”’ eliminate clauses in their contracts to keep other workers, union or non-union, off con- struction sites is aimed not only at building trades but at all labor unions, delegates said. A carpenter, John Takasch, told the meeting there is little Bill 88 scab legislation Cont’d from pg. 1 which the government obviously has no intentions anymore of repealing, or even amending. Nor can it be separated from Bill 3, which hits at the teachers and education system; Bill 37, which limit public service wages and salary increases; Bill 48, which takes away the right of any politi- cal candidate to be identified as to party unless that party nomin- ates a minimum of 20 candidates; Bill 49, which gives the Minister of ‘‘Rehabili- tation” the right to determine not only eligibility and amount of social welfare, as well as what a municipality or city may contribute to welfare allow- ances; Bill 77, which grossly infringes on the traditionally-re- cognized rights of municipalities —all presently before the legis- lature. Premier Bennett and his ar- bitrary Socred majority have moved a long way in sub- stituting “‘Rule by cabinet” in their attempt to give the big monied interests a free hand. Strict wage and salary controls, but not a word about corporation profits, (now hitting an all-time peak); exhorbitant interests rates, inequitable and confis- catory taxes on homes and other glaring injustices. Bill 37 allows a 6% percent hoist on Premier Bennett’s $26,000-a-year salary, but in the name of “‘fighting inflation and helping the poor’’ the Socreds magnanimously grant a 6% percent increase in welfare rates (which haven’t been increased since the last election 1969), and 8¢ per day to our senior citizens. Enough is enough! There is hardly a section of the working and professional people who aren't angered and thoroughly fed-up with what the Bennett government has done at this Session. What is needed is a common front led by a united labor move- ment, drawing around itself the widest possible spectrum of all those disenchanted with the Bennett government and its big - business policies to initiate a mass, public, political cam- paign to reverse the present disastrous course immediately. And the teachers, govern- ment employees and trade union- ists don’t need any gratuitous advice from politicians about “getting off their rump to elect the NDP, when the next election comes around.’’ ‘‘Labor’’ politi- cians had better recognize the labor movement is faced with serious problems right today, and what is needed is unity, now to compel the government to back down — not further divisions and hard feelings. The next election will solve nothing (anymore than the last one did) unless we move now. We need a common program of demands that will cement a solid front now, more publicity materials; more mass rallies; more and bigger lobbies to the Legislature. It is out of such initiatives; out of unity in action against Bills 3, 37, 48, 49, 77, and 88 (our common concerns) that a viable alternative can be forged that will ensure the ousting of the anti-labor, anti-democratic, Bennett dictatorship and its replacement by a government that will put people’s needs before corporation profits, and start British Columbia on the road to progress again. PACIFIC TRIBUNE—FRIDAY, MARCH 24, 1972—PAGE 12 doubt the employers knew every clause in Bill 88 before it was brought into the legislature. ‘“‘We had plenty of hints from the CLRA bosses about the legis- lation coming down, and our negotiations bear out that employers were behind the legis- lation.” The conference of all affili- ates to the B.C. Federation of Labor, scheduled for Friday is vital to all unions, Bill Stewart, Marine Workers, said, in that it would give them the opportunity to discuss in camera the prob- lems which only unions them- selves can solve. IWA’s George Kowbell and Local 217 president Syd Thompson stressed how sharply involved in Bill 88’s ramifi- cations are the industrial unions as well as the craft. Thompson said the unions were quite capable of solving differences between them and they could expect that ‘‘chamber of hor- rors’”’ in Victoria to create more problems, rather than solve any- thing. John McKnight, Plumbers Unions, labelled Bill 88 and some of the other acts brought in by Social Credit as similar to the way Nazis in Germany went about getting rid of labor “problems.” ‘‘How long can we tolerate these violations of our basic rights?”’ George Nelson, Merchants Service Guild, described how Bill 88 would affect his union. A hot cargo policy is no good unless other unions have the right to support it, he said. Jack Phillips, CUPE, said never had there been a time when so large a section of the people have been hurt by reac- tionary legislation as at the present. He listed the bills brought in by the Social Credit government this year, and said it was a record even for them. He urged delegates to draw all facets of the fight-back against the reactionary legislation together; not to attempt to fight each bill separately. “I’m a longshoreman and I say there is nothing but friendship between the rank and file long- shoreman and the teamster, yet we are involved in injunctions over some issues. The employers are the ones who will not allow us to settle the questions that brought on the injunctions,”’ said a delegate. A letter from the Carpenters Union urged a mass rally — a peoples rally — which would include the many sections of society which have suffered at the hands of the Social Credit government. This would include organized labor, teachers, public service workers, people on welfare, senior citizens, etc. Nick Podovinikoff of the Car- penters Union pointed out there is little sense in political edu- cation funds and talk of defeat- ing the government until the basic groundwork is laid for assembling and uniting the great body of opposition to Social Credit. before we start getting atl) power for use in B.C. But that still isn’t the whl story. Underlying the whol Columbia River agreement W® a deliberate decision by toria and Ottawa to sell ™ river to the U.S. The treaty ™ effect denied the tremenddl hydro power of the rive! ® Canada’s use and sold the wa to the U.S. To justify this sellout at tht time Bennett claimed that price B.C, would get from U.S. would pay not only for all storage dams but also to ins® the generators at Mica. val result, he said, we would 8) | large block of power free— bs nothing is cheaper than freee told us in the provincial elect! that followed. As it turned out we got nothilé ive! free: We gave away 4 ee to the U.S. We are en ea out of the public purs | million to build the storage d and | for the benefit of the U.S: si now we have to find anothel "1 million to install generator Mica to get any power at all a even at that, we will only fi about 40 percent of the pote® ie because 60 percent of the Wa” of the Columbia at Mica 15 marked for the U.S. At the time the treaty We being considered experts iy ated that B.C. would los¢ | billion killowatt hours of &% tricity per year by the treaty, 1971 the total energy sold wot public in B.C. was 14.8 billy, That gives you a measure ® extent of the giveaway. Now are told by some officials us| we need the Moran dam be@ we are running short of © tricity! ¢ Has there ever been a me glaring betrayal of public 1 ‘| Other governments in Cal have been forced to resié® less. Such gross deserves the strongest reP tion by the public. iS j We will be paying fOuamy betrayal for generations ( come. The least benefit wri should get from this sad aff@ 44 to be rid of the corrupt efi! arrogant gang in Victoria wh has brought us to tis: aa : q Home bombe? ¢ As the PT went to press wer ceived word that a orf! exploded at the home of G&,, Legebokoff at 3316 Garde? 4 | at 2 a.m. Wednesday mo ef | Other homes adjoinin& "qe! also damaged by the blast: 4] full extent of the damage> ‘yo not known at press tim injuries were reported. int Legebokoff is a i, iel member of the Canadial » jay Friendship Committee 1" ie couver and is prominent 7 9s affairs of the Russian Pemvel Home, which was bombed Years Eve. ent So far the authorities hae i? come up with any resv gh) apprehending the crim the involved in the bombing ° tind hall. Police are investlé eb the latest outrate at koff’s home.