CLP ere Cees ere Pe
PCE L Ee PES FP

BENNETT GOV'T IN TROUBLE

UNITY NEEDED TO OUST SOCREDS

IN HAPPIER TIMES. Premier W.A.C. Bennett is shown congratulating
Commonwealth Trust president A.G, Duncan Crux in 1963 just before
company opened offices at 562 Burrard St. The Commonwealth fiasco
has shaken the Socred government. The close connection between free-
wheeling promoters and top Socred government officials has shocked
British Columbians.

LABOR SCENE:

BCFL brief calls for
an end to log exports

The Brief submitted to the
B.C. government's Select
Standing Committee on
Forestry and Fisheries by the
British Columbia Federation of
Labor (BCFL) on March 20
calling for a tight ban on the
export of logs from B.C. recon-
firmed what is already well
known: that the key issues
contained in all such briefs are
invariably **beyond the terms of
reference’ allowed such com-
mittees by the government in
office.

That established, the BCFL
was permitted to present its case
against log export. but advised
by Committee chairman James
Chabot (SC-Columbia_ River)
that those issues in the brief not
coming within the ‘‘terms of
reference’ were not open for
discussion.

On log export the BCFL brief
Stated:

“We recommend that steps be
instituted to ban the export of
high grade logs harvested on tree
farm licences and that a recom-
mendation be forwarded to the
federal government to impose a
similar ban on log exports
originating on Crown grants
while such logs are processed by
BC. manufacturing estab
lishments.”’

Jack MacKenzie, vice-presi-
dent of both the BCFL and the
International Woodworkers of
America (IWA) emphasized the
fact that because of the heavy
export of logs, mainly to Japan,
B.C. mills were forced to close
down because of a log shortage,
causing widespread unem-
ployment in the industry.
MacKenzie also expressed his
concern about timber firms now
stockpiling logs in order to be in
a position of filling Japanese
orders when the _ present
temporary export log ban ends in
September.

MacKenzie cited an instance
where high grade logs are being
cut in Manning Park and hauled
80 miles to Chilliwack where
they are being stored by Orion
Bowman Ltd.. obviously for
export. since that mill has been
shut down for some time for lack
of logs.

BCFL secretary Ray Haynes
who presented the brief to the
Committee cited an instance of
an Abbotsford door manufac-
turer who had great difficulty
obtaining sufficient cedar for his
operation. Ultimately he
imported a quantity from
California. only to find it bearing
the stamp ‘‘Hammond
Division’, a key lumber opera-
tion in B.C.

The BCFL brief also called for
the setting up of an ‘‘advisory
committee” attached to the
Department of Lands and
Forests on which all sections of
the community. including
organized labor would be repre-
sented.

Film showing
aids Vietnam

Five short films which
graphically portray the
heroic struggles of the people
of Vietnam will be shown
Sunday. April 6 at the Pender
Auditorium starting at 8 p.m.
under the auspices of the B.C.
Peace Council.

The B.C. Peace Council
wired Prime Minister
Trudeau before he left for
Washington. expressing
alarm at the new threat to
Canadian security and world
peace posed by the ABM
system. ‘We urge vou do
everything in your power to
see that this perilous project
is abandoned.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—MARCH 28, 1969—Page 12

By NIGEL MORGAN

The possibility is emerging today of ending 17 years of big business favoritism,
massive foreign giveaways, and corruption; of replacing the Bennett government
with one more responsive to the people’s needs — as British Columbia prepares for a
general Provincial election, now widely expected by early fall if not prior to the

summer vacation period.
B.C.*s Social Credit
administration has been losing
ground steadily as its arrogant,
anti-labor, pro-monopoly, anti-
Canadian position is more and
more exposed. No provincial
government across this country
has established such a notorious
record for foreign giveaways:
for starving local school and
municipal administrations. No
government has passed more
vicious anti-labor legislation. or
been nearly as outspoken in its
Support of criminal U-S.
aggression in Vietnam, and the
associated policies of
“continentalism™ in resource
utilization “‘custom’s union”

and other steps towards our econ-

omic and political absorption by
United States imperialism.

The Bennett government is in
trouble. In the last Provincial
election (1966) the NDP
increased its popular vote from
28 to 33.8°%. and its MLAs from
14 to 16 — winning most of the
ridings in the Lower Mainland
and emerging as the strongest
political force in the Greater
Vancouver area. It should be
noted that the advance by the
NDP was made with a generally
stronger anti-monopoly
program and abandonment of
the *'soft-sell’’ electoral policies

Since then the Socreds lost not
only their Vancouver South seat.
but five successive by-elections
And perhaps even more signifi-
cantly, lost heavily in  up-
country, rural votes where
provincial governments
(including this one) have tradi-
tionally had their main base. In
Revelstoke-Slocan, the heart of
the Columbia River dam country
for example. the Socred vote
dropped from 5,629 to 2.577
(from 40.7 to 26.67) in last
June's by-election

The fact that the Socreds lost
voting strength to the NDP and
Liberals in Caribou, North Van-
couver-Capilano, Oak Bay as
well as suffering such a
humiliating defeat in Burnaby-
Willingdon on top-of Vancouver
South, is undoubtedly not uncon-
nected with the Socreds’ decision
not to chance running out the full
5-year term of office.

FLUID SITUATION

The by-election results reflect
the rising storm of indignation
over Socred policies in a number
of key areas. Yet. the education
crisis. municipal fiscal
problems. hospital bed and
housing shortages. and
sharpening struggles arising
from Bill 33's straight-jacketing
of labor in face of sharply rising
living costs. interest rates and

taxes. is obviously bound to
worsen. And no one remembers
more vividly than Premier

Bennett how the sudden shift of
Liberal and Conservatives votes
in 1952 snatched possible victory
from the CCF and put the
Socreds in power. He doesn't
want that to happen in reverse
today. for that would mean the
end of Social Credit rule in B.C.

A fluid political situation is
developing in B.C. But the labor
and progressive forces cannot
take an NDP victory for granted
anymore than there was justifi-
cation for doing so in 1952 or
1937, when the people turned
against the old line parties of big
business. No more serious
mistake could be made today
than to underestimate the real
possibility that the next general
election could end up without any
one party having a workable
majority.

BLOCK LIBERALS

In spite of widespread
dissatisfaction with the Socred
resources, labor, education and
fiscal policies; and in spite of
rising resentment over the
successive Sommers. Gaglardi
and now. Commonwea'th Trust
scandals, it would be a s-rious
mistake to count the Bennett
administration down for the
count. Or to assume, as some
leading NDP spokesmen appear
to take for granted. that ouster
of the Bennett government
means necessarily an NDP
victory. The Liberal resurgence
in civic political and certain
trade union circles iz the wake of
Trudeaumania and _ dissatis-
faction with the ‘‘soft-sell” line
of right-wing social democratic
spokesmen of the NDP should
not be underestimated.

Increasing numbers of radical
and more. class-conscious
working people, who generally
support the NDP. are becoming
disillusioned with the failure of
the right wing legislative and
trade union spokesmen to really
fight Bill 33: to come out
consistently against the whole-
sale export of our resources and
job opportunities: to fight for
the repeal of the Sales Tax and
introduction of a new taxation
system based on “‘ability-to-
pay’ to shift the tax load from
the homeowner to industry

The fact that it was a member
of the NDP. Pen Baskin. who
broke ranks to cut in on a $40,000-
a-vear job on the Mediation Com-
mission (after he and other B.C.
Fed leaders had stated on a
public platform that ‘no self-
respecting trade unionist’ could
have any part of the Socred’s
compulsory arbitration setup)
is not overlooked. Nor is
Calder’s attack on the trade
union movement for what is
actually employer discrim-
ination against our
people. or that it was Ed Sims
and Charlie Stewart, Jr.. both of
whom claimed allegiance to the
NDP. who applied for jobs under
the Mediation Commission

Conservatism and lack of mili-
tant. fighting approach by right
wing spokesmen of the NDP to
the problems of the day,
particularly questions of class
struggle. presents a serious
hurdle which has to be over-
come. No less dangerous are the
ultraleft. Trotskvite activists
(operating within the NDP under

Native -

the deceptive guise of a
Socialist Caucus”’) urging them
to make the issue ‘socialism’ in
a most demogogic, negative way
divorced from reality. Such an
approach can only serve as a 5th
column, opening the door to a
rightist attack and divert
attention from and distort the
struggle for broad labor and
democratic unity.

We join with those NDP
members and supporters who
are critical of the right wing:
who are calling for a more deter-
mined and clear-cut stand
against foreign giveaways
against the legislative straight-
jacketing of labor; and for a
more working class partisan-
ship in the struggle for tax and
other popular reforms. These
are fhe things that could help in
bringing together the forces that
could effectively challenge the

Bennett administration's
reactionary big business
policies, replacing it with a

government responsive to the
needs of the vast majority of
British Columbians.

That such a program could be
decisive in helping oust the
Socreds in the next election was
demonstrated in the 1966 when
the more aggressive. anti-
monopoly stance on such issues
as the Columbia River, forest
policy. public ownership ete.
resulted in a marked gain by the
NDP.

BROAD ALLIANCE

B.C. needs a broad democratic
alliance of NDP, trade unionists.
Communists, ratepayers. pen
sioners. farmers. professional
and small business people
Nothing short of such a united,
democratic alternative can guar-

antee an end to the economic
and political life of this province
by the monopolies (foreign and
Canadian) and bring the
improved social and_ labor
legislation and tax reform we
need.

The Communist Party intends
to nominate candidates
wherever we can conduct an
effective campaign around our
program as an essential
component of the overall
Struggle for unity of the left and
for election of the largest
possible progressive bloc to the
Legislature. We will work for
the closest cooperation with the
NDP to achieve meaningful
reforms within the confines of
the present system. while
working within the emerging
democratic left socialist
currents to win workers for our
policies of class “struggle and
working class power for the
revolutionary transformation
of society

The growing radicalization
among significant sections of
workers. tenants, ratepavers.

and other community groups on
a wide range of issues indicates
conditions are ripening for a sub
stantial shift in polical relation
ships and important advances
when B.C.’s next election comes.

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