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FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 4, 1966
VOL. 27, NO. 5

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$1 million pledge is
victory for McKnight

The mounting battle to reclaim
hature and rid B,C, of air, water
and all forms of pollution is
Yapidly becoming a provice- wide
issue, At the moment, thecentre
of that struggle is in the com-
munity of the twin Albernis and
all eyes are focused on events
unfolding there,

Labor activist George Mc-
Knight of the Alberni valley, who
is rolling up his sleeves and just
beginning to fight, has already
won a partial victory inhis battle
to rid the valley of pollution.

Two days after more than 300
People had packed a meeting at
Nordly Center which McKnight
had- co-sponsored, a spokesman

for MacMillan Bloedel & Powell

River Co, announced the mon-
Opoly will spend more than a
Million dollars this year to try
to remedy the pollution problem.

“The company is determined to
beat this problem if it.is tech-
hologically possible,” the com-
Pany spokesman is rer-rted to
have said,

He neglected to mention, how-
ever, how much the company had
been prepared to spend. BEFORE
McKnight mounted his strong
Campaign,

In speaking to the meeting and

kicking off a campaign aimed
at obtaining 5,000 signatures on
a petition to Victoria, McKnight
stated:

“The situation here in the
valley is absolutely disgraceful,
When a woman can’t walk down
the street without getting her hair
full of soot; when she can’t walk
to the shopping centre in her
newly cleaned coat without getting
it so dirty it has to be cleaned
again; when we breathe in this
type of fallout and soot, when we
know that the valley leads in
respiratory ailments, when we’re
faced with the situation we are

- now, it’s time for action.”

GEORGE McKNIGHT

‘Speed peace fight’

Calling for an “acceleration of
the fight for peace in Vietnam,”
the B.C, Peace Council said in
a Statement this week that “the
Killing has started again” and
that there is a great danger of
the conflict spreading.

: The statement calls for the
Sreatest pressure on our gov-
ernment at Ottawa to urge the
U.S, to end the war on the basis
of the Geneva Agreements,” Let-
ters to the Prime Minister and
local MPs are urged,

It was also announced this week
that cars carrying signs with 2
Valentine message to President
Johnson urging his government to
bring peace in Vietnam, will
tour Vancouver streets on Sat-
Urday, February 12, The dem-
ONstration is being initiated by
the co-ordinating committee for
the various peace groups in the
Lower Mainland,

The B.C, Peace Council is
distributing a leaflet on the same
day and will also send telegrams
from its office to Prime Minister
Pearson from 11 a.m, onward
appealing for strong determined
Canadian action to end the war
in Vietnam.

It has appealed for leaflet dis-
tributors for February 12th ana
for those willing to sign tele-
grams to come to the Council’s
office at 339 W. Pender St.

A giant “March for peace in
Vietnam” is being planned by
students from UBC on Saturday,
March 26, The National Co-
ordinating Committee in the U.S,
is planning nation-wide demon-
strations for that date and have
asked that similar demonstra~

tions be held throughout the —

world,

liam Kashtan,

LBJ’s new peace swindle:
a mask for more bombing

The latest peace swindle by the goverment of the United States — taking
its Vietnam aggression to the Security Council of the United Nations—is nothing
but a mask and cover for the resumption of illegal bombings of the Democratic

Republic of Vietnam.

In a statement this week Wil-
national leader
of the Communist Party, charged
that:

«The decision of the Johnson
Administration to renew its air
attacks on the Democratic Re-
public of Vietnam and to escal-
ate the war exposes the shame and
hypocrisy of its so-called peace
offensive,

“All the conditions existed and
still exist for ending the war ex-
cept one — the unwillingness of
the United States Government to
accept and abide by the 1954 Gen-
eva~Agreements, to sit down and
negotiate with the real repre-
sentatives of the South Vietnam

‘people — the National Liberation

Front — and to recognize the
inalienable right of the Vietna-
mese people to their independ-
ence, sovereignty and territorial]
unity.

*This the United States Gov-
ernment has refused to do,

“*As a result mankind now faces
the threat of ever escalating war
with..all its..terrible conse-
quences, This calculated drift
to world nuclear war must be
stopped before it is too late,

“Instead of whitewashing U.S,
policy, the Canadian Government
has a responsibility to world
peace and the security of Canada
and our people to disassociate
itself from it and to insist that
the United States Government
abide by the 1954 Geneva Agree-
ments.”

Speaking .at a meeting of the
B.C, Peace Council Monday night,
PT associate editor Maurice
Rush, who recently returned from
North Vietnam, charged that the
United States proved its insin-
cerity in taking the Vietnam issue
to the United Nations by renewing
bombings in North Vietnam and
by excluding the National Liber-
ation Front from its resolution,

“The U.S. knows that the United
Nations is in no position to bring
about peace in Vietnam and their
leading spokesmen have said so
publicly in the last few weeks.
The only body which is represent-
ative of the countries involved
are those who took part in the

ew

a

Peace

Cartoonist Dave Alavoine of the defunct Vancouver Times drew the above cartoon
last year .But it was never more appropriate than this week, when Prime Minister
Pearson and External Affairs Minister Martin both expressed “regrets” at resump-
sion of the bombing of North Vietnam while endorsing U.S. aggression.

Geneva conference,” said Rush,

He pointed out that it was the
U.S. who was to blame for the
fact that the U.N, does not include
China and North Vietnam as
members,

Rush said that the U.S. is now
recklessly endangering the U.N,
in its drive to use every forum
to push for the kind of peace in
Vietnam that will leave the U.S,
with a “presence’’ in South Viet-
nam,

The only way peace can. be
brought to Vietnam is by the
U.S. agreeing to a settlement
in accord with the Geneva Agree-
ment, he said. :

“Every time the U.S. took a
new step to escalate the war in
Vietnam it has always been ac-
companied by a “peace” move to
soften the reaction of world pub-
lic opinion and in an attempt to
prove America’a ‘desire for
peace,’

Aid to

Vietnam

A Canadian Aid for Vietnam
Civilians Committee has been
formed in Vancouver, All con-
tributions which have been re=
ceived in the PT offices to date
will now be forwarded to the
committee,

For details, see Page Three,

“The appeal to the U.N, Se-
curity Council is the latest prop-
aganda gimmick worked out by.
Johnson and hisadvisers to cover
up not only the renewal of bomb=-
ings but also the large-scale
plans now in an advanced stage
for a sharp escalation of the

. war.” said Rush,

He pointed out that if the U.S,
was so anxious for the U.N, to
act in Vietnam it should have
brought its charge of “aggres-
sion from the North’? before the
Security Council over two years
ago instead of taking unilateral
military action.

The reason it didn’t then, Rush
added, was that there was no
foundation for such a charge and
the U.S, leaders knew it,

Rush said that the excuse given
by President Johnson for re-
newing the illegal bombings of
North Vietnam on the eve of
taking the issue to the U.N, does
not hold water, The main reason
given was that unless bombing
was renewed moreAmerican
boys would die,

“If he was really interested in
saving the lives of the American
boys the best way he could do
that would be to stop the inter-
vention in South Vietnam and
bring the boys back home,” said
Rush,

Drive

Launched by LBJ

PEACE THROUGH BOMBS? For

once, the PT can agree with the
headline writers of the Vancouver

“peace” moves in their January
31 edition.

RA

$ U.S. Resumes Bombing
fciy "sspond ote teas & Of North Viet Nam

DAG POs aed