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Pro sport on the line

iBy FRED WILSON
So three wins in a row make a
success story?

That would depend on whose
success you were concerned with.
Certainly, the money lenders and
patrons behind the BC Lions have
got to be pleased with the sudden
leap out of the basement in the
Canadian Football League. Its a
success story to the extent that the
sport pundits are predicting a
crowd of 30,000 paying customers
to watch the Lions play Montreal.

All of which leads to the question
on the minds of the businessmen of
professional sports: Does a winner
really make money?

Well . . . certainly winning is a
factor that will bring the fans out to
an important game. A team that
never wins is usually pretty poor
and even less entertaining. But it is
not the only, or even the most
important factor.

The Lions, for example, were
never short of fans or money, being
the richest club in the CFL, even
though we all knew that they were
a lousy football team. Why then,
they ask, did the team start the ’75
seasen with peanuts in the bank
and even less in the stands?

The answer to that question has
little to do with winning but a whole
lot to do with the future of
professional sport in Vancouver.

The fact is that the B.C. Lions
completely lost touch with the
people of the province. We were
razzle-dazzled with high cost
imports,-Eagle Keys and Jackie
Parker, steadily increasing ticket
prices and an ever increasing
arrogance, aloofness and eliteness
from the club owners.

Working people won’t have any
hero or set of heroes shoved down
their throats. No matter how much
money and slick advertising goes
behind a campaign, what will
count in the end is the involvement
of ordinary people in the decision
making and fortunes of the club.

Isn’t that what Jim Pattison
found with ‘“‘Vancouver’s own”
Blazers? Who asked for them in the
first place? The blazers bought ten
gallon hats and headed ‘for
Calgary, but its doubtful they will
get much further there.

The same kind of approach to
sport may result in the loss of our
professional soccer team. Even
though the Whitecaps didn’t draw
crowds in the tens of thousands —
they did alright considering

everything.

But it was not good enough for
the gentleman farmer of the sport
world — when he’s not busy
moving politics to the right — Herb
Capozzi. Herb decided the
Whitecaps needed some razzle-
dazzle as wellso he axed coach Jim
Easton and went after Bobby
Charleton.

While Easton was not a native
son, his policy was to build a first
class team out of Vancouver and
B.C. talent. The Whitecaps were a
rare treat for sport fans because of
the predominance of local talent.

If Capozzi had taken the time to
attend a Whitecap game he may
have noticed that the 7,000 faithful
who made it out had come to see
players that they knew — the best
players from organized soccer in
B.C. — play for a home crowd as a
truly home team.

But what have we got in store:
big names, big money, Madison
Avenue and of course big ticket
prices. Can you think of a better
way to destroy the Whitecaps?

All in the same vein of thinking

‘we could ask why the Canucks

have been the only really suc-
cessful pro club in B.C. over the
past few years.

In a very real sense it is because
people can still remember asking
for the Canucks, and, in fact,
fighting, petitioning and cam-
paigning to get an NHL franchise
in Vancouver. But as the Lions
could tell them, how soon people
forget these things once the
financial machines take over.

Pro sport is on the line in Van-
couver. If for no other reason than
having the highest food prices in
North America, the fans are not
rushing out to buy whatever is
shoved their way. Fancy public
relations work may stem the tide
but it will not stop it. Either
professional sport will become
responsive, and more, responsible
to the public, or it will die.

One of the first things that ought
to be done is the opening up» of
memberships to the public and a
decentralization of decision-
making powers in the supposedly

‘ publicly-owned B.C. Lions.

And who gave Capozzi and the
rest of them the right to own our
hockey and soccer teams? We pay
the shot at the ticket counter — is it
not a reasonable demand that our
teams be publicly owned.

We wouldn’t mind a losing team,
so long as it was ours.

Ly

Heavyweight champion Muhammed Ali took time out last week
from his training for his upcoming match with Joe Frazier to assist
the campaign on behalf of ex-boxer Rubin “Hurricane” Carter
presently serving a life sentence for murder. Carter’s consistent
contentién of his innocence got a new boost when the two main
prosecution witnesses admitted to presenting false evidence under

pressure from police.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—SEPTEMBER 19, 1975—Page 10

Cuba’s

By MANUEL LOPEZ OLIVA

Julito 26 was a cartoon character
who first appeared in the pages of
the mimeographed newspaper El
Cubano Libre in June 1958,
representing the rebel fighter. He
quickly became a permanent
feature in the humor supplement to
that publication, which first saw
the light of day in the Sierra
Maestra. His creator, Santiago
Armada (better. known as Chago
Armas), simply placed an olive
green uniform on some of the
figures he had drawn in Santiago
de Cuba. His participation in the
guerrilla struggle made possible
the existence of battlefield humor
that together with El] Loquito and
Pucho — characters representing
the civilian opposition to the
regime — constituted a way of
opposing the official propaganda.

In 1960 Chago wrote the following
about the origins of this character:
“T created Julito 26 accidentally
while writing the lyrics for a song:
to be performed by the Rebel
Quintet. This was in May 1958, at
the La Plata headquarters. The
title of the song was Bring on the
Offensive. On one side of the
paper I absentmindedly drew a
rebel — or, to put it more precisely,
a cartoon rebel soldier with a 26 on
his beret.”’

Thus it became possible to give a
humorous twist to the problems in
the rebel area and the marches
through the mountains — which
reflected the main features of the
epic struggle under way there. The
struggles of Julito 26 against Juan
Casquito (who represented the
soldiers of the dictatorship) con-
tributed to the demystification of
history through humor.

The drawing used for Julito 26 is
very similar to those of other
cartoon characters, and Julito
reflects the influence which those
characters had on Chago. His

; “Julito 26’:
humor for liberation

C thd

a»

LEFT: The original Julito 26 as it appeared in 1958. RIGHT: Julitd|

after the Cuban Revolution — “putting the lid on the bubbles BY
counter-revolutionary hopes and rumors.” 4

formal solutions were initially the
same as those of other characters;
a quick outline and a suggestive
spatial order in sequences.
However, the. situations them-
selves, which sprang from real
contingencies, took on a _ con-

tradictory aspect and unexpected ©

endings, reflecting a humoristic
art which brought to mind things
one had directly participated in.
This led to the birth of a new hero
who was also an antihero — that is,
a destruction of the prevailing
Yankee stereotype. Just as the
revolutionaries would seize the
enemy’s rifles and turn them into
instruments of revolutionary
struggle on the battlefield, Chago
used the impact of the comics to
serve the same struggle.

Julito also evolved; from a
dispersed, disorganized position,
he passed to conscious willingness
and finally became a type that

‘could assume responsibilities.

After the _ victory of the
revolutionary forces, Julito was
joined by Liborio, who symbolized
the people, and by the easily
identifiable bearded soldier. The

Julito-Liborio duo which Chaé
drew in the pages of the newspap
Revolucion was used to com

negative elements and countel

rumors, threats, opportunism 4

other .manifestations of C0
terrevolutionary filth whi
defending and upholding it
revolutionary measures am”
positions adopted in 1959 and 1

Then Julito appeared i?
framework that went beyond
limits of the comic strip, this i)
ina minor role. The female vers!
of Julito, called Julita Yarey, ?”|
made a brief appearance. 3

Julito. 26 disappeared whet, “|
Che Guevara put it in Socialist
and Man in Cuba, ‘With cleat
defined features, there now ary
peared in the history of the Cup
Revolution a personage wi |
would systematically repeat ite
the masses.” On October 2, 19)
Julito reappeared in the first 15
of Granma to announce a #
change, but, with the completio? dl
his historic role, he lives on only |
the history of Cuban grap)
humor. /

Impressions of the USSR

during Int‘l Women’s Year

Last month, Tribune contributor
Carey Robson spent three weeks in
the Soviet Union as part of a
delegation of youth and women,
travelling to Moscow as well as
centres in the Baltic countries.
Here, he writes his impressions on
the status of women in the U.S.S.R.

1975 is a very special year. It is
International Women’s Year,
proclaimed by the United Nations
with the aims of equality,
development and peace.

In the Soviet Union today,
women make up 51 per cent of the
work force. Seventy per cent of all
doctors, 60 per cent of all
economists, 50 per cent of all
lawyers and magistrates and 33
per cent of all engineers are
women. Women are employed and
accepted at places of learning on
an equal basis with men and the
principle of equal pay for work of
equal value is strictly observed.
Ninety per cent of all women who
can work are either working or
studying.

Twenty women’s magazines are
published monthly in the various
national languages of the U.S.S.R.
In addition, the publication Soviet
Woman appears in 12 foreign
languages and has a circulation of
two million copies per month.

A spokesman for another
magazines, Ukrainian Women,
stated that the magazine’s main
purpose is to encourage women to
participate actively in all aspects
of society and to understand their
role in society.

Abortions are considered a right
of women with the proviso that
they not be detrimental to the
women’s health.

Women have a very special place
in society because they bear the
children. In the interests of
safeguarding the health of mothers
and children, Soviet legislation
forbids employment of women in
certain kinds of harmful and heavy
work such as_ underground,
chemical, printing work and some
metallurgical industries.

Every Soviet woman, whether
she lives in town or country, has
the opportunity to bear her child in

a maternity home. Mothers are
given leave from work beginnile |
with the seventh month
pregnancy and lasting until the &
of the second month after the ch!
is born. They are entitled to a le"
of absence of one year with ee
employment position guarante®
Legislation is also being ©
sidered which would extend
post natal leave period from
months to four months with P4
Because women bring life !#
the world, peace, particula!,
during International Wome!
year, has. a very speci®

BRE s

STOREWIDE

GIGANTIC
REMOVAL SALE!

Hundreds of titles — including shop worn and
water-damaged stock.

Sale begins 9:00 a.m. Friday, Sept. 19
and continues to Saturday, Sept. 27.
PLEASE NOTE!! — On Oct. 1st we will open our new premises

at 353 West Pender Street, two doors west of our preset
location. We look forward to seeing you.

PEOPLE’S CO-OP BOOKSTORE

341 West Pender Street,
Vancouver 3, B.C.
685-5836

significance.
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