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NDP will oppose legislation—King

Hoist Forest Act, conference urges

Representatives of environ-
Mmentalists, foresters, truck
loggers and labor met in Victoria
June 13 and unanimously
demanded the hoisting of B.C.’s
Proposed Forest Act, Bill 14, to the
next session of the legislature.

The conference was called by the
Ad Hoc Coalition for Responsible
Forest Legislation and drew about
35 delegates to the Empress Hotel,
Including NDP forest critic Bill
King.

King told the conference that the
NDP will oppose the Forest Act
unless major changes are made

Protest seen
over survey

While demanding budget re-
Straint throughout the public
School system, education minister
Pat McGeer has proposed to make
$80,000 available to a U.S.-initiated
Survey on private schools which
has already aroused the ire of five
of the province’s school districts

for its lack of confidentiality and

its provocative questions.

The survey, aimed at teachers,
students and parents, is. being
funded primarily by the Washing-
ton, D.C.-based National Institute
of Education and purports to study
the consequences of funding inde-
pendent schools. :

It was prompted by lobbyists in
the U.S. who are seeking passage
of tax credit bills which would
Make public funds available to

Private schools. And the Educa-

tional Research Institute of B.C.,

_ Which is conducting the survey in

this province in conjunction with
Simon Fraser University, has
Teceived support in its bid for the
$80,000 from deputy education
Minister Jim Carter, the architect
of this province’s Independent
Schools Support Act, and from

education minister McGeer
himself.
But school boards in four

districts — Burnaby, Coquitlam,
Greater Victoria and Prince
George — have already refused to
Participate in the survey while
trustees in a fifth district, Vancou-
ver, have thrown their par-
ticipation into doubt after seeing
the questionnaires being used by
the research institute. A final
decision by the Vancouver School
Board ‘is expected at a meeting
June 19,

“a he survey has been seen as
loaded’”’ so as to achieve the. de-
Sired results — evidence of public

See SURVEY'S pg. 11

Soweto rally

A rally to mark the second an-
fiversary of the Soweto massacre
'n South Africa will be held today:
at 4:30 p.m. at Vancouver’s court-

Ouse, Georgia St. and Howe St.

Speakers at the rally will include

-C. Federation of Labor president
George Johnston, NDP MLA Em-
‘ry Barnes, Vancouver alderman
try Rankin, and B.C. Student
deration representative Punam

Sla. A high school representa-
Ve will also speak.

and that the NDP legislative
caucus would call for the hoisting
of the legislation until a special
session in the fall.

Numerous delegates to the
emergency conference made
reference to Socred forest
minister Tom Waterland’s pledge
last fall that the legislation would
be publicly debated before it
passed the legislature.

The Communist
Party's Forest
Management
Plan for B.C;

see pgs. 6-7

In a Vancouver Province story
October 6, 1977, Waterland was
quoted in a speech to the annual
meeting of the Canadian Institute
of Forestry as saying:

BREWERY WARVERS
LACHL 300

Workers at Labatt’s, Molson’s and Columbia Breweries remained
locked out this week following action earlier this month by the as
yet unaccredited Brewery Labor Relations Association. Here,
Brewery Workers at Labatt’s plant in New Westminster man picket
lines. (See story). — Sean Griffin photo

‘‘You’re probably wondering if
you will get a chance to see this
legislation and comment on it
before it is approved by the
legislature. The answer is yes.
Debate in the house will be with-
held for a period of two to three
months.”

Waterland has now indicated
that the government intends to
pass the legislation at the present
session of the legislature before the
end of June without any time for
public study or discussion of the
Act.

The demand to hoist the legisla-

tion was supported again this week
by Communist Party leader
Maurice Rush, who has repeatedly
called on Waterland to live up to
his pledge and allow public dis-
cussion of the Act.

“Haste would be harmful to
B.C.,’’ Rush said, ‘“‘The new
legislation is so far reaching that if
allowed to pass in its. present form
it will ensure monopoly control

over the forest resources of the.

province for many generations to
come. It will set a pattern of forest
management which would be ex-
tremely detrimental to the in-
terests of the people of B.C.”

Employer group
forced lock out
on brewery union

About 1,200 brewery workers re-
mained locked out of their jobs this
week. in a dispute: precipitated by
the giant brewery companies to
force workers into a new relation-
ship with an accredited employer
organization.

The Brewery Employers’ Labor
Relations Association — although
not yet accredited by the Labor
Relations Board — locked out
members of the Brewery and Soft
Drink Workers Union, Local 300
last week at Carlings, Labatts,
Molson’s and Columbia breweries.

The pretext for the lockout was a
strike by 200 brewery workers at
Vancouver’s  Carling-O’Keefe
brewery who struck Carlings May
26 for contract demands and to
oppose Carlings’ membership in
the accredited employers’
association. =

An agreement at the Carlings
brewery was reportedly close last
week when the breweries moved to
generalize the dispute by locking
out all workers in the industry.

The breweries generalized the
dispute in an attempt to force in-
dustry-wide bargaining in order to
use the massive economic clout of
the industry to push down wages
and conditions, but the Brewery

Monday, June 19, marks the 40th =
anniversary of Bloody Sunday, :
when the RCMP, in a dawn raid,
teargassed and clubbed the single
unemployed who had occupied the
Vancouver Post Office to ja"
dramatize the plight of the jobless. ls
After the raid, Steve Brodie, who
had led the 1938 occupation of the .
Post Office, remained unconscious
in hospital for 24 hours. f

Brodie heads the list of a number
of speakers at a commemoration
rally to be held at the old Vancou-
ver Post Office site at Hastings and
Granville in Vancouver on Sunday,
June 18 at 11 a.m.

A speaker from the B.C.
Federation of Labor is also
scheduled to address the rally,
organized by the Labor Memorial
Committee.

Bloody Sunday anniversary marked |

% - il
site ened

at a
tert.

“Maa:

of the Post Office.

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June 19, 1938: RCMP ciub unemployed as tear gas drives them out

—Vancouver Public Library photo

Workers have insisted on main-
taining separate negotiations with
each: brewery. :

The giant Labbatt’s
which controls 55 per cent of the
beer market in B.C. is also strongly
supportive of the general lockout in
order to maintain its corner on the
market.

In a protest against the com-
pany’s strongarm tactics, workers
at Labatt’s brewery in New West-
minster have “sat in’ in the
brewery since the lockout began
June 8.

“They’re trying to ram their
system of bargaining down our
throats and we’re just not swallow-

See BREWERY page 12

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e VIETNAM: Canada once }
produced war materials |
for export to Vietnam; |
now Vietnamese rugs, |
furniture and handicrafts |
are being imported to |
Canada, page 10. I

| e NATO: Communist Party |
leader William Kashtan
looks at some of NATO’s |
recent actions in light of
the United Nations ses- |
sion on disarmament and
the fight for peace, page
9;

e STEEL: A glaring con-
trast: it took a 138 day |
strike for Hamilton
steelworkers to win con- |
ditions that are basic for
their counterparts in |
Hungary, pages 4-5. —