York parley reportback

‘Peace at eleventh hou .

“The fact that nuclear power and
nuclear weapons are loose in the
world is the greatest danger we
face. If we resolve that, we’ll have
time to work out our other
problems. If we don’t and stumble
into nuclear war, it could be the
end of us and all our problems. . .”

So said U.S: Senator Alan
Cranston, former chairman of the
United Nations subcommittee of
the members of Congress for
Peace Through Law, in a recent
interview with the editor of
Transition, a bi-monthly
publication of the Institute of
World Order, Inc. It is this urgent
concern which led to an In-
ternational Forum to end the Arms
Race, which recently met in York,
England.

Canada was represented by 20

The Vancouver Ad Hoc Com-
mittee for a World Disarmament
Conference, which sponsored the
B.C. delegates, announced this

week that a public meeting will be~

held on Monday, May 10, at 8 p.m.
at First United Church, Gore and
Hastings, to hear a report back
from delegates to the York parley.

Addressing the York conference,
Nobel Peace Prize laureate,
Phillip Noel Baker stated that
there are no technical obstacles to
disarmament which cannot be
solved by the scientists who now
spend their time on weapons
research. He also emphasized that
the dangers of the arms race are a
far greater threat to mankind than
the perils from which they are
supposed to protect us.

The York parley adopted a

declaration on the major pea
issues of our time, which said:

“The delegates to the York
ternational Forum of 1976 —
Disarmament recognize that
continuing arms race, with
impending production of ever m
terrible weapons, represents
unprecedented threat to the
vival of humanity. Yet the power®)
science to promote human welfal
with the improvement in
ternational relations offers
opportunity for universal progre>)
and happiness not known before)
We areat the eleventh hour and tl
choice must be made.

“From differing standpoints ™
many organizations taking part)
the International Forum hav4
arrived at a common convicti0
concerning the desperate urgen®) —

“Sure kids, | know you're hungry, but us military fellers gotta keep up our strength
to protect ya!’

delegates, four of them from B.C.
The B.C. representatives were
Rev. Robert Burrows, of the
United Church; Dr. James Foulks,
University of B.C.; C. P. (Paddy)
Neale, Vancouver Labor Council;
and Ben Metcalfe, freelance
broadcaster and journalist.

World peace stressed
in CPSU May Day call

It also urged a struggle “for development, for creation in the
committee of the Communist ending the arms race, for tran- country of a reliable foundation of
Party of the Soviet Union, issuing _ Sition to reduction of stockpiles of the democratic system, for social
its traditional call for May Day, @rmaments, to disarmament.”

“has urged the peoples of the
European countries‘to “press ‘Who are selflessly upholding their the fraternal socialist countries

MOSCOW (Tass) — The central

It greeted the Cyprus people

progress.”’ _
It sent greetings to the peoples of

persistently for complete im- independence against imperialist and to the peoples who broke the

_ plementation of the final act of the encroachments,”’ and it demanded shackles of colonialism, and it ALBERT R. PARSONS, of tolerated, under-aged people 2
European Conference, for all- ‘Withdrawal of all foreign troops called for strengthening ‘‘a Haymarket Square fame, was one being served, gambling on Pt
leaders of the Chicago tables in pubs is common,

round development of peaceful from the territory of Cyprus” and powerfulunion ofthe revolutionary of the

cooperation in Europe.”’

The central committee sent 4 territorial integrity.

greetings to the working people of

forms of mutually advantageous sequences. of
cooperation between states with aggression.
different social systems, so that

banned forever.”

|: the Hungry Thirties the jobless, or the ‘great. un-
washed”’ as the elite of society used to dub us, were not
bothered with inflation, high prices and all the rest.of the

great ripoffs of the 70s. The reason was simple and thus.

easily grasped. We were broke, stony broke. It was seven
days a week including Sundays. There was nothing to rip

off.
So the existing Establishment at municipal, provincial

and federal levels, aside from becoming expert buck-
passers had to assess whatever other values we might
possess that might be turned to good profit . . . for the
bosses. -

They discovered for instance that a man named Karl
Marx had long ago unearthed all the subtleties and deceits
of their exploiting and thieving system, and among other
things come up with the idea that a great standing army of
unemployed is essential to keeping those with a job in line.
This standing army is presumed to keep the lad who has a
job fairly ‘“reasonable”’ as to rates of wages, working
hours, conditions of work, and not too saucy as to trade
union membership. In short, to keep him permanently
docile, an eager and willing slave. Thus while the jobless
of the Hungry Thirties found every factory gate and door
well placarded with ‘no help wanted” signs, the bosses
were not backward in reminding their own workers that
there were “plenty more where you came from?”

Of course every one was full of “‘sympathy”’ for the
jobless delegations. Vancouver’s mayor Gerry McGeer
(of the same vintage as a later “sell your car” ICBC
McGeer), when he wasn’t getting set to read the Riot Act

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—APRIL 30, 1976—Page 2

the

for respecting Cyprus’ sovereignty forces — the world socialist movement for the eight hour day generally unsanitary condit
system, the international working out of which May Day was born. are widely prevalent. When ®
The central committee also class movement, the fighters for Together with seven other leaders, drunks finally leave, the mugg®
all countries. It called on the called for ‘stepping up the efforts national and social liberation of Parsons was arrested. He and three go to work. All of this is in di
peoples of the world to struggle _ in the struggle to establish a just Peoples.”
“for the deepening of the and durable peace for all states
relaxation of international ten- and peoples of the Middle East,for | “L0ng live proletarian in- monument in their memory was Board.
sions, for manifesting it in specific complete liquidation of the con- ‘ernationalism, a proven and erected by Chicago workingmen’s
Israeli powerful instrument of the in- organizations. At the base of the regulations being enforced?
ternational working class. May monument
It sent ‘“‘warm greetings to the unity and cohesion of the Com- words of one of the labor martyrs, instructed not to lay cha
non-use of force should become a___- working people and democrats of munists of the whole world’ August Spies: “There will come a against beer parlor owners |
law of international relations and Portugal, who are waging selfless Strengthen the unshakable basis of time when our silence will be managers or against bartend@
that nuclear weapon should be struggle against the forces of Marxism-Leninism and more powerful than the voices and waiters. They have bee
reaction, for free and independent _Proletarian internationalism.”

The call concluded:

oe

to the boys, just fairly oozed “‘sympathy’’ with their
demands for something to eat and a job, declared their
plight disgraceful, intolerable and so on, but after all
“gentlemen” this is a matter for the provincial govern-
ment to to settle.

So the boys would hie to Victoria to see premier Duff
Pattullo. It wasn’t so easy since the Gulf of Georgia got in
the way, but they managed it somehow, only to come
away with another large gob of “sympathy,’’ nothing
eatable, but well, what can we do? This is the respon-
sibility of the federal government” intoned the
irrepressible Duff, “‘so I would suggest you take your case
there.’ Nothing of inflation in the dialogue save hot air,
with the buck-passers monotonously repeating them-
selves at every stage.

Wetook the local buck-passers at their word and went to
Ottawa, culminating in the great On-to-Ottawa trek, a
never-to-be-forgotten page in the annals of Canadian
labor. There were no protestations of sympathy there, but
plenty of the other stuff which make diehard Establish-
ments, old or new a repetition of the same . . . only
worse. The right of exploitation, root-hog-or-cie.
Doublecross, deceit, police brutality, threats, the whole
gamut of the tricks and deceptions of old and more
modern Establishments. ‘‘Not a five-cent piece’”’ for the
unemployed quoth the spook addict and racist Mackenzie

’ King, while a corporation lawyer cum prime minister Iron

Heel Bennett vowed “‘never to put our people on the dole,
nor pay them a premium for idleness.”” They were both
precursors to the Trudeau-Jean Luc-Pepin AIB in cutting
back wages but letting the big monopolies, especially the
food chains, go forward unscathed in their prices robbery.

There is asort of nostalgia manifesting itself these days
in comparing the Depression of the Hungry 30s with the
crisis depression of today. Some things in life are
changing, some remain much the same. The plight of the

others were hanged in one of the violation of the law and
worst frameups in U.S. history. A regulations of the Liquor Con

are carved the last

you strangle today.”” See RANKIN, pg. 16

of an end to the arms race Wry
rapid progress toward general a™
complete disarmament. ‘

“We demand the conclusid)

See YORK, pg. 16

‘Enforce ci
liquor laws’|

By ALD. HARRY RANKIN |

The enforcement of liquor 1a
or rather their lack of
forcement, is going from ba
worse in the downtown eas
area. Liquor laws in most of the
beer parlors in the area are bell
ignored, abused and violated wi
comparative immunity by
owners and operators. Beer
being overserved, drunks 4!)
being served, violence by drunks}

How come? Why aren’t t!

The police, it appears, have

million or more unemployed are the same today as th
were in the Hungry ’30s; both are deprived of the right ¢
labor, to earn a livelihood. We still have a social syste?
known as capitalism, and as long as we have that,
‘sacred’ and vested right of exploitation of man by
will prevail, breeding other and greater crises. From
illusion that ‘“‘government is responsible to the people”
now have it arrogating to itself the role of ‘‘masters of
people,”’ with an AIB as its latest baton of mastery!

To be sure we have modern governments that h
become more sophisticated in the decades between ©
depression of the Hungry 30s and gouge-as-you-ple
monopolies of today. While Establishments give out with
high-falutin gibberish about a ‘‘new”’ or “‘just”’ societ.
is neither — nor was it ever. Their “‘just’”’ society me#
nothing more or less than that the class privilege ©
rooking the people at both ends of the production #
distribution line remains undisturbed. And don’t for
we have the sophisticated weapons, plus the men to
them, should occasion warrant.

Hence the similarities in capitalist crisis are mW,
more real than the differences, but it is a nice acade
point, to ‘‘come out the same door as in you went.”

RIBUN

Editor - MAURICE RUSH
Assistant Editor SEAN GRIFFIN ©
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