Tenants score victory, _
plan organization push

A founding convention to launch a Vancouver >
Tenants Council has been announced by the Tenants :
Organization Committee for Wednesday, November 13 MH H
at the Royal Canadian Legion Hall, New Veterans Will h OU sing
Branch, 1335 Burrard St., commencing at 8 p.m. This

“I'm glad you’ve got first refusal on a house, you've
also got first refusal on a mortgage!”

was announced by the Committee’s secretary Bruce

- EDITORIAL

We too are losers

R ichard M. Nixon, Republican candidate for U.S.
president, has won his long-coveted ambition — that
of becoming U.S. President, with over the required 270
Electoral College votes needed to confirm his victory.

Better known to millions of Americans and to millions
outside the U.S. as “Tricky Dicky” Nixon, his victory can only
be interpreted as a victory for extreme right wing reaction.
The real losers in this presidential election campaign are not
the bumbling Democrat vice-president Hubert Humphrey in
the Johnson war administration or the Alabama racist George
Wallace, but the American people.

It is they who have lost the election, and for them and the
outside world the portents of that loss by the election of

Richard Nixon is much greater and graver than can be fully
assayed at this moment.

_Among the millions of column inches that have been
written since this weird and dangerous presidential campaign
began, one brief descriptive sentence from Washington stands
out summing up the whole: ‘‘On Tuesday 120 million eligible
voters can march to the polls to try to restore reason to the
madness that envelopes the United States.”’

These millions marched alright, but not in sufficient unison
to end this madness. So the madness remains — compounded
by the election of Richard Nixon, who now dons the mantle of
the “democratic’’ LBJ, and pledges a harder ‘‘get tough-big
stick” policy to bring all to heel, Americans included, who do
not willingly pay homage or bow down to the “‘superiority”’ of
U.S. arms, coercion, bluster and violence; a manifold
assurance to progressive America that they indeed did lose this
vital election, and for which the Johnson administration,
together with losing candidate vice-president Humphrey must
bear the full responsibility. ‘

3 The Nixon victory should be regarded by all discerning
Canadians as a grave warning, pointing up the urgent need of
cutting-back on a lot of Canada’s ‘‘close ties” with U.S.
economy, finance, industry, and above all in so-called
“defense” commitments. Otherwise, the policies on such
grave issues as war and peace, already well elaborated by
president-elect Nixon, may engulf Canadians in repressive

ventures at home and abroad in which Canada should have nor
wants no part whatsoever.

: It may well be said that not only the American people lost
this election, but the democratic and peace-loving peoples of
the whole world lost by the election of arch-republican
reactionary Richard Nixon. Clearly, world respect for the U.S.
as reflected in the Johnson administration, which has been
reduced to zero, will not be enhanced by the election of Nixon.
Quite the contrary.

It is for this reason, and in the interests of peace and
survival, why Canadians should take. a long hard look at this
political calamity, and trim our ties accordingly.

n, Cana
ee

Editor—TOM McEWEN Associate Editor—MAURICE RUSH
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“PASSSSSEESS

; PACIFIC TRIBUNE —NOVEMBER 86; 1968—Page 2 i

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dian Tribune

‘Yorke in a statement this week.

The convention will adopt a
constitution for the new body
including a statement of its aims
and objectives. Officers will be
elected and a program of

_ activity mapped out. All tenants
who have paid the $2.000 yearly
membership fee to the
Vancouver Tenants Organization
Committee will be able to
participate in the proceedings of
the convention.

The Committee has launched a
membership drive in
preparation for the convention.
All interested tenants who wish
to join and participate in the
convention are asked to mail a
$2.00 cheque or money order to
the Committee’s new office at
Room 203 - 535 West Georgia St.

The Tenants Organization
Committee also reported this
week that the negotiations at the
Rosemont Apartments have
been successfully concluded. The
Rosemont tenants were the first
in Vancouver to take strike
action by refusing to pay
increased rents.

As a result of the tenants
militant stand negotiations with
the landlord led to an agreement
under which tenants got virtually
everything they asked for.
Terms of the agreement, the

first entered into jointly by’

organized tenants and a landlord
in Vancouver, agreed to the
following:

The landlord must henceforth
give three months’ notice of rent
increases; the landlord
guarantees that there will be no

further rent increases before:

Dec. 1, 1969; the landlord must
place the $25 damage and
cleaning deposit in a fund to
accumulate interest for the
tenant after six months’
occupancy. - :
The agreement also provided
that the tenant can disagree with
any deduction from deposit when
vacating and get third-party
arbitration; further, that there
will be an inspection and
inventory of a suite before and
after tenants’ occupancy. .
The landlord of the Rosemont
Apartment refused to sign a
legal contract drawn up by the
tenants’ association, which
would have been an agreement
between her and the tenants as a
collective group. However, the
tenants sent a single letter
signed by all of them to the
landlord accepting the signed
‘offer’? she sent to each
individual tenant.
Commenting on the
settlement, Bruce Yorke,
Tenants Committee secretary,
said that, ‘“‘It would be better if it
was a signed contract but it’s:
still a pretty big step forward.”

Yorke said that by tenants
forming associations in their
blocks it would be possible to
extend the Rosemont settlement:
to hundreds of other apartments.

The Tenants Organization.
Committee will present a brief:
to the Federal Task Force on
Housing at the Vancouver Art
Gallery on Friday, November 8
at 8 p.m. Tenants have been
urged to attend the public
hearing to back their committee.

marked at

An anniversary banquet
celebrating the establishment of
the first socialist state was held
Sunday afternoon at the
Dreamland Hall in New West-
minster, and was attended by a
near capacity crowd of 150
people.

The event opened with the
singing of ‘‘O Canada” —
followed by a minutes silence for
Charles Stewart, who passed
away earlier this year.

Following a smorgasborg
banquet, Hal Griffin, editor of
“The Fisherman’ gave an
historical account of the birth of
socialism in the Soviet Union,
the many sacrifices made since
in their. aid to other countries,
and in their struggle for self-
determination. He traced the
recent events in Czechoslo-
vakia, where the Soviet Union
and other members of the
Warsaw Pact -came to the
defence of socialism in that
country. .

The chairman, Harry Ball,
introduced five members of the
Soviet Ship ‘“‘Movukhta”’ docked
in’ Vancouver, who came by
invitation of the Committee.

as pow tern e
SAY ATE PVA TAS OS

Socialist anniversary
Valley fete

The ships captain, Captain A.
Konstantinov, spoke briefly and
brought greetings from his
people and the crew among
them, one woman received an
ovation from the crowd. Later in
the program, two murals, done
by the children present, ranging
in age from 4 to 12 years, were
presented to the captain as an
extension of friendship from our
children to theirs. . :
An appeal by Dr. Lindsay for
the Canadian Aid to Vietnam
Children followed and the col-
lection amounted to $185. which
was turned over to the C.A.V.C.
in Charles Stewart’s memory,
bringing the total contributed for
his Memorial Fund to $715. -

The day was rounded out with
a musical program which
included the Vancouver group —
Ukranian dancers, violin selec-
tions by the Mackie boys, folk
songs by the ‘‘Surrey Seven,”
and finishing up with several
numbers by Tommy Hawkin.
Mrs. Mary Oran and her
daughter Judy played piano selec-

‘tions while thé crowd’ was

arriving.
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Task Force
hear needy?

By ALD. HARRY RANKIN

A lot of well prepared briefs
will be presented to the federal
Task Force on Housing and
Urban Development when it
holds public hearings in Vale
couver this week. But will the
people who need low rental
housing the most be heard? I’m
referring to the people on social
welfare, the unemployed,
divorced or separated mothers
who are ‘raising their children,
old age pensioners, and all lower

‘income groups.

In my brief to the Task Force
I’m including this letter from 4
native Indian mother, as 22
example of the conditions under
which some people live. Here it
is — it speaks for itself:

“Letter from a native Indian
mother, Aug.-1967.

“We sure need a place badly.
Our children, four of them, went
through a lot of hardships last
winter. They’ve been sick off and
on because it was so cold in here,
and the walls just pour with
water because of the dampness.
The gas line is just hay wired UP
by an unqualified man. The city
inspector left a red tag on the
pipes. Right now I have to usé
force to turn the burners 0D.
There are also mice and snails 10
here which run around in broad
daylight. ie

a

The Task Force on Housing
will hold its hearings in the Art
Gallery, 1145 W. Georgia St.»
Thursday and Friday, Nov. 7-8.
The Thursday session starts at
2:30 p.m. There will be tw®
sessions on Friday: at 10 a.m.
and at 8 p.m.

——

“There is no proper hot water,
I have to heat it up on the gas
burners. I seems as though I’m
heating water all day long, which
I am. And the hot water tank 1s
old and rusty and drips on the
floor which gives a strong odor.
And the bath room is so dirty
looking. We painted it once but
the dirt comes right through. I
don’t use the bath tub at all,
because the dirt and rust is right
in it, its just impossible to clean.

“One corner of the front room
is ready to give way in the floor.

“Our family doctor wrote 4
letter to them, (Raymur Housing
Project) because our children
were always sick and had some
skin irritation last winter. It
just seems impossible to try to
keep the place clean and also the
children, It just makes a person
give up trying to live in a place
like this. ae

“We have one small bedroom
and we have four children ages 6,
5, 3and.16 months.” patie
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