Photo shows a unit of Cuban women’s militia drilling near

Santa Clara.

Cuban Communist leader
greets Canadian support

By LESLIE MORRIS
HAVANA—“Cuba si — Yanquis no” is the slogan
of Cuba — and of the 8th national assembly of the Popular
Secialist Party which opened here last week.

Over 200 delegates and rev-
resentatives of 35 fraternal

parties including China,
France, Czechoslovakia, Hun-
gary, Bulgaria, Italy, Spain,

the U.S.A., Canada and almost
every Latin-American country,
heard-a report by Blas Roca,
secretary of the party, in which
he .called for unreserved and
complete support for the re-
volutionary government head-
ed by Fidel Castro.

Delegates. include members
of the July 26 Army, armed
militiamen and women, work-
ers from the sugar mills which
Castro has nationalized, and
the cooperative farms which
are growing in number.

Roca called for devoted work
by Cuban Communists to car-
ry to higher levels the recon-
struction of Cuba, its indus-
trialization and economic and
social advance contained in the
program of the Castro govern-
ment.

High enthusiasm close an-
alysis and sharp determination
to bring the Cuban anti-im-
perialist revolution to” com-
plete success and warnings
against sectarian mistakes
characterize the discussion at
the assembly.

A report on the party’s pro-
gram which has been widely
discussed and now incorporates
the lessons of the defeat of the
Batista tyranny on Jan. 1, 1959,
and the destruction of the ap-
paratus of that dictatorship,
was given by Anibel Escalante,
and with Roca’s report it con-
stitutes a clear line of party
policy.

Referring to Canada,
Roca said:

“Like the peoples of Latin
America, Canada suffers from
eppression by American im-

Blas

| perialism, which penetrated its

economy, interferes with its
foreign trade, uses its territory
for military purposes and has
yoked Canada into its advent-
urist line of war and arma-
ments — all of which has
brought peril and humiliation
to the Canadian people.

“We appreciate the solidar-
ity which the workers and the
people of Canada have shown
up to now, but, we hope that
it will grow in volume and
importance.

“The weaker American im-
perialism becomes, the strong-
er becomes the cause of world
peace. The’ Cuban revolution
is also in the interests of the
Canadian people.”

President Toure, of the Re-
public of Guinea, sent greet-
ings to the assembly.

Delegates responded with a
five-minute ovation to the
cabled greetings from the Com-
munist Party of the Soviet
Union.

The new Cuban ambassador
to the U.S.S.R., Commandant
Cholon, visited the assembly
and was cheered.

Leslie Morris, fraternal dele-
gate from the Communist
Party of Canada, in his greet-
ings to the assembly told the
delegates:

“The Cuban _ revolution
means that the world-historic
change from imperialist rule
to the rule of the people, has
entered the Western Hemis-
phere. This has happened at a
time when imperialism is be-
ing broken as a world system
and the forces of peace, democ-
racy and socialism are stronger
than the forces of war, reaction
and colonial oppression. It is
a favorable time for great peo-
ple’s victories.

B.C. needs public power
to break grip of B.CE.

The time has come to put an end to the domination of British Columbia’s pol-
itical and economic life by one monopoly, the B.C. Electric.

The threads by which this
monopoly maintains its
stranglehold on the economy
are too numerous to cite in
detail. They include the dom-
ination of the university and
innumerable cultural and so-
cial organizations by B.C.E.
personnel, the _ penetration
through interlocking | director-
ates and mutual financial ties
of numerous other industries
besides power, gas and transit,
the infamous Wennergren con-
nection, the domination of
Vancouver City Council, and
last but not least the open
and unashamed - partnership
between the B.C.E. and the
Social Credit government.

Migrants from other prov-
inces are continually shocked
by the outrageous electric
rates paid by consumers in
British Columbia. One _ ex-
ample will serve to show this:
In Vancouver, residential con-
sumers pay $9.64 for 300 kilo-
watt hours of electricity per
month.

The same amount of elec-
tricity bought from the pub-
licly owned Winnipeg Hydro
costs $4.07.

In Regina, which has no ac-
cess to hydro-electric power
sources, the publicly owned
power utility charges $6.85.

In our own province, the
municipally owned system in
Nelson charges $6.92.

B.C. Electric spokesmen
glibly explain their high rates
by saying that they have to
subsidize the transit system
(which itself charges the high-
est fares in Canada). The an-
swer to this is obvious from
a glance at the B.C. Electric’s
Operating statement. If we

“The events in Cuba — right
on the doorstep of Americar
imperialism — are of world
importance and an example of
how a relatively small coun-
try can stand up to and defeat
an imperialist giant.

“We must establish demo-
cratic relationships between
Canada and Cuba, for the mut-
ual interests of our people in
common anti-imperialist strug-
gle, against Yankee imperial-
ism, for peaceful coexistence,
for disarmament and the pre-
vention of thermo-nuclear war-
fare, for trade on terms of
equality, the rmoval of im-
perialist super-profits and the
independence of our countries
from the American finance-
capitalist grip which has dis-
torted the economics of our
two countries held back their

industrial development and
violated their national sov-
ereignty.” posed

Pe 7

add together the operating
revenues and expenses of all
B.C.E. operations, including
transit, this is the result:
Total revenue

(1959) 2 Se $98,300,000
Operating costs... 39,800,000
Depreciation -— ---- 13,700,000
Interest, profits

and: taxXese. =: — 44,800,000

In short, after the account-
ants have performed all their
tricks to short change the tax
authorities and hoodwink the
public, there still stands out
for all to read, nearly forty-
five million dollars a year of
profits and taxes on profits as
the price of letting a profit-
gouging monopoly maintain
control of our electric utility.

At the moment, British Col-
umbia is on the threshold of
enormous developments in the

|

field of electric power. In the
relatively near future, the re- ©
sources of the ‘Columbia and °
the Peace rivers will each add
to our power potential some-
thing like the equivalent of
all .the existing generating
capacity of our province.

Both developments can pro-
duce low rates for residential
consumers and abundant
cheap energy for industry. Or
either or both of them can be-
come adjuncts to the profit-
making octopus of the B.C.
Electric. ~

The Social Credit govern-
ment is fully: committed to the
latter objective. In this elec-
tion the Communist Party is
out to defeat the government’s
objective, and win cheap power
through public ownership.

or

=

Yorke exposes Socred
education tax claim

BY BRUCE YORKE

Education Minister Peter-
son in a recent spech in North
Vancouver made the perfectly
wonderful claim that educa-
tion taxes had dropped 40%
since 1952 if one took into ac-
count the home-owner — grant.
What nonsense!

According to the Depart-
ment of Education Annual Re-

ports $52.1 millions were
spent on education in the
province in 1952 and $88.3

millions in 1958. Simple divi-
sion shows that the per capita
cost of education rose in this
period from $43.60 to $56.90.

This is a 30% increase, not a
40% drop!

Furthermore, this is the
only meaningful figure. Any
other figure is pure juggling

“school” tax. But it is also
true. that homeowners pay
taxes in general to the provin-
cial government from which
it contributes to the total cost

of education. To say that -
school taxes are only those
that are paid directly to the
school district is meaningless.

Equally meaningless is the
idea that one can subtract off.
the homeowner grant. Anyone
who stops to think about it
must realize that the home
owner grant is possible only
because other provincial taxes

have increased. Specifically

ithe one that affects homeown-

ers is the sales tax, which has
increased in per capita terms
from $26.10 in 1952 to $51.90
in 1958. This is over three
timess greater than the corres:

with the facts. True, the local lponding per capita homeow™

homeowner pays a

direct ‘er grant.

PROTEST U.S. BASE IN ONTARIO |

Communist Party committees all over Ontario aré
preparing to take part in a mass demonstration at
North Bay on Sept. 3 against the Bomare missile base-

The Metro Toronto section of the Communist Party
announced that plans are underway for large numbers
to take part in the trek to the northern town. Floats
are being prepared which will move through Toronto
streets before leaving for North Bay.

A distribution of a leaflet headed “No Bomar¢
Death Bases” will be distributed in 25,000 copies.

—

September 2, 1960—PACIFIC TRIBUNE—Pas® 2