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By WILLIAM BEECHING

REGINA — The Saskatche-
wan Regional Meeting (District 6)
of the National Farmers Union
(July 15-16) refiected the effects of
the economic crisis gripping the
entire capitalist world today. All
of the sharp contradictions and
the instability in the main trends
of economic growth find an ex-
pression in the problems that the
farmers face, as the farmers have
been plunged from $5 wheat and a
seemingly unlimited market for it,
to wheat selling for less than $3 a
bushel and on quota once again.

The penetration of the effects
of the crisis in the social, political
and ideological spheres of
capitalism, were discussed, in one
form or another, including the
rapid depopulation and decay of
rural areas, the struggle against
inland terminals, the growth of
pollution, noise and insecurity in
modern-day living, against rail
line abandonment and all the rest
of it.

Looking for Leadership

Above all else, it was ciear that
the instability of the economy has
made itself felt in every rural
corner of Saskatchewan, and
farmers are groping for answers
and looking for leadership.

While the price the farmers get
for their products have fallen
drastically, input costs, which lit-
erally went up by leaps and
bounds when the selling price of
wheat went up, have not fallen.
That’s par. for the- course under
monopoly capitalism.

The struggle for a bigger share
of the world export wheat market
is sharpening. In a desperate ef-
fort to avoid a grain price war,
renewed efforts have been made
by Canada and the United States
to seek a new International Wheat
Agreement, and Alberta’s pre-
mier Lougheed has called for a re-
view of Canadian wheat market-
ing strategy.

Whether or not Lougheed dis-
agrees with the fact that Ameri-
can diplomacy deliberately uses
food as a weapon to extend its
spheres and influences, he does
claim that what are called the
“good sales’’ of the Canadian
Wheat Board this year were due
to drastic price cuts which under-
cut U.S. prices. But Lougheed
claims that Canada has been out-
hustled in international grain
markets by the USA and Au-
stralia, despite Canada’s price-
cutting tactics.

A Food Shortage

The U.S. share in world grain
exports amounts to 50%. It is
geared to certain inadequacies in
agricultural production in some
countries. Some American of-
ficials talk about themselves as
being the ‘‘Arabs of the food in-
dustry”” likening their ability to
produce an abundance of agricul-
tural products to the oil producing
capacity of the countries of the
Middle East. There is no similar-
ity at all, but that’s the way they
talk.

A food shortage has developed
in developing countries since the
mid-fifties. European countries
(including the USSR and its Asian
part), North America, Australia
and New Zealand, comprising
about 28.7% of the world’s popu-
lation, produce about 57.3% of
the world’s food (37.5% of veget-
ables and 69.2% of animal pro-
ducts), 80% of the world’s wheat,
and 60% of the world’s corn.

4

This imbalance in production,
mainly arising from social and
economic factors, is likely to per-
sist for quite a long time. It is a
challenge to countries like
Canada to plan ahead, to seek
new markets, and to plan the in-
crease of both the variety and
quantity of food production in
Canada.

Part of that is the fact that de-
veloping countries urgently need
the knowhow and technology of
the advanced industrial countries,
a challenge which, if Canada ac-
cepts it, could end all present un-
employment and bring expanding
markets for Canadian farmers.

Challenge to Canada

But the government of Canada
regards farmers only as pawns in
this game, despite the minister of
agriculture’s pious and sloppily
sentimental utterances made
while shouldering thousands of
farmers out of agricultural pro-
duction.

This fact of the world market is
Canada’s challenge. It is Cana-
da’s opportunity to approach
those countries of Africa, Asia
and Latin America who don’t
want to become dependent upon
the USA, for new relations based
on mutual advantage both for
Canada and them. It could im-
prove Canada’s balance-of-
payments, strengthen the interna-
tional value of the dollar, while
bringing a degree of growth and
health to Canada’s ailing agricul-
tural economy.

The problem is one of establish-
ing stable, long-term relations,
rather than adopting ‘‘food aid’’
programs which are simply a form
of camouflaged dumping.

In order to develop’ new
policies which would adequately
cope with new world reality, all
vestiges of the policies elaborated
in the Cold War need cleaning out
in favor of policies based on
peaceful co-existence and coop-
eration with the countries of
socialism.

In the new conditions of to-
day’s world, it is the only course
that can hope to succeed. It is an
integral part of long-term planning
which the growing internationali-
zation of production and com-
merce demands. There is no'pre-
tense here that the problem of
starvation and malnutrition can
be resolved without sweeping so-
cial and economic changes in
many of the countries concerned.
But theré is room to expand inter-
national markets and exchange
right now.

Collective Cooperation

Planning and cooperation bet-
ween nations is a pressing ques-
tion, an integral part of the strug-
gle for detente. The fact of territo-
rial production in Canada needs
careful attention, and calls upon
the government to seek new ways
of collective cooperation with
other countries in the world. The
fact is that, with the scientific and
technological revolution and the
remarkable changes which have
taken place during the past 30-odd
years, countries can no longer
speak of being able to reap na-
ture’s harvest alone and in isola-
tion from each other.

Unfortunately — and it is a
matter of serious concern to
everyone — it must be said that
the farm union convention
scarcely even approached dealing
with the substance of these most
pressing problems, regardless of

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—AUGUST 19, 1977—Page 4

the fact that farmers are driven to
desperation by the situation
created through monopoly
exploitation and what capitalist
economists like to call ‘‘soft
prices’’ for their products.
Several panels at the NFU
meeting did deal with some of the

big and pressing questions facing {

farmers currently. There was a
Grain Handling and Transporta-
tion panel. Another panel dealt
with the problems of Drainage,
Flooding and Water, and another
with Livestock Marketing.

The Land Study Committee
Report, delivered by Evelyn Pot-
ter, contained no recommenda-
tions. Ms. Potter said that the
NFU. was disappointed in the
small attendance at and the few-

ness of the submissions made to |

hearings sponsored by the NFU
since April of 1976. She said 279
submissions had been made in all.
The NFU, she said, had agreed
that the land question is a ques-
tion which must be approached
with caution. She reported that
most briefs emphasized preserva-
tion of the family farm, imposing
limits to farm size, the develop-
ment of production cooperatives,
and expressed worry about the
decline in rural populations.
Land as a Resource

She said. that, while most
people want to own their own
land, there are changes taking
place in people’s thinking and the
general consensus was that the
preservation of prime agricultural
land must take precedence over
all other claims on land. Most.of
those who responded were of the
opinion that land should not be
regarded as acommodity, but as a
resource.

Once again this question gives
emphasis to the inescapable and
pressing need for both long-term
and short-term planning, and for
important measures to be taken
against extravagance and the

rapacious exploitation of natural
resources. An American scientist
has calculated that, in all of North
America, the growth of urbaniza-
tion has eaten into arable land by
10%, into meadows and pastures

- by 17%, into forestry by 37% and
into other land by 34%.

A panel on uranium develop-
ment in Saskatchewan featured
two speakers. One painted a
glowing picture of the suposedly
endless streams of dollars which
would flow into Saskatchewan’s
economy if development took
place. The other dealt with the
hazards — some of them very real
— predicting the possibility of a
horrendous and sudden end to all
of us if we allow its development
and, in essence, opting for no
growth in that direction, if any.at
all.

Saskatchewan farmers have been plunged from $5 a b
wheat to $3 a bushel with quotas imposed once again.

MN

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Both speakers were elitists —
and elitism in Canada’s North is
another variant of racism.

The Energy Problem

The question wasn’t posed —
nor did anyone attempt to answer ~

it — what can and must be done

during the next 50 or 60 years to |

solve the energy problem, and

what must be done right now to |

bring the big multi-national oil
producers under democratic con-
trol to put a stop to, their pro-
fiteering out of the energy crisis.
The Resolutions Committee
had planned to bring in a resolu-
tion calling for no development of
uranium for the next five years. It
finally brought in a substitute re-
solution calling for no develop-
ment until al safeguards to pro-
tect human life and property had
been dealt with adequately.

BELGRADE, (APN) — The
preparatory stage of a meeting be-
tween the representatives of 35
countries — participants in the
Helsinki Conference on Security
and Cooperation in Europe —
concluded here. As a result of
seven-week strenuous talks, an
agreement has been reached on
the date, duration, agenda and
other organizational and _pro-
cedural terms of convening the
main meeting of the representa-
tives of these countries, to be held
in Belgrade this fall.

In spite of the pessimistic fore-
casts of some Western press cir-
cles, the participants have, on the
whole, coped with the task they
were entrusted with. As a result
of the unanimous approval of a
jointly elaborated ‘‘scenario’’ of
the forthcoming meeting, the idea
of the continuity of conferences
on security and cooperation in
Europe acquires realistic out-
lines.

Two different approaches
stood out prominently from the
very beginning of discussions: the
delegations of some Western
states — NATO members —tried
to frame an agenda that, instead of
discussing the key problems of
European security, would turn

ey.

Planning meetings for the Belgrade Conference this fall have con-

cluded with agreement on date, duration and agenda for the meeting.

Belgrade-2 into an arena of prop-
aganda bickering, mainly on the
subject of imaginary ‘‘violations
of human rights”’ in the socialist
countries.

The Soviet Union and other
socialist countries as well as neut-
ral and non-aligned countries of
Europe, sticking to the provisions
of the Final Act of the Helsinki
Conference, insisted on an
agenda to further deepen detente
in Europe.

Overcoming one obstacle after

another, the participants in the
preparatory meeting approached
this goal with each passing week.
At the finish of Belgrade-1 it be-
came clear that good will and
political realism must triumph
after all.

Opening on Oct. 4, the main
Belgrade meeting will last till Dec.
22. If the need arises, it will re-
sume its work after the Christmas
holidays in the middle of January,
1978 and will continue not later
than the middle of February.

ushel for their |