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RANKIN HITS PHILLIPS

‘Mayor demeans office’

By ALD. HARRY RANKIN

Mayor Art Phillips, who has in
effect retired from civic politics
but ‘still warms a chair in the
mayor’s office, wants the Com-
munity Resource Boards made an
issue in the current provincial
election campaign. The Resource
Boards should be abolished, he
says, adding that they are un-
democratic because too few people
vote in the elections for the board.
And he complains that they are
made up of “‘little politicians” who
frequently appear before City
Council on delegations.

I very much suspect that it is this
last point that irks our mayor. It is
true that Resource Boards have
sent delegations to Council. One of
the issues that attracted them was
the city’s policy of allowing
demolition of older residences,
usually inhabited by people on low
income, to make way for new
expensive developments. Some of
them gave. the mayor a hard time
at public hearings for his bias in
favor of the developers. For this,

“The successful socialist
revolution in the Soviet Union was
the great divide in human history
and has transformed the world in
58 years,” Tribune editor Maurice
Rush told two anniversary
celebrations. last weekend.
Speaking to 150 people Friday
night in the Russian People’s
Home in Vancouver and about 250
people at a banquet in New
_ Westminster Saturday night, Rush
- Said that the experience of the
Soviet Union and other socialist
countries demonstrates that the
working people can govern a
country better than the capitalists.

Pointing out that competition

__ between the two social systems —

eapitalism and socialism —
_ dominates world politics today, he

compared what is happening in
capitalist countries now in deep
crisis, and the socialist countries
which are forging ahead at a rapid
pace.

“The socialist way of life is
_ proving superior to the capitalist
way of living,”’ said Rush, as he

pointed out that in all capitalist .

countries, including Canada,
capitalist governments are calling

on the people to accept lower living ,
standards and tighten their belts.

“In the Socialist countries the
people are moving in the opposite
direction. There plans are drawn
up and being implemented to
provide increasing material gains

each year. ‘Living standards are

advancing rapidly each year while
capitalist countries sink deeper
into crisis and inflation robs the
people of their earnings.”

Rush said that in the socialist
countries, where the workers are
in power and they own the means
of production, the aim of society is
to satisfy the material needs of
society. In the capitalist countries
the main aim of governments and
the owners of industry is profit.
“Only when they can make profits
acceptable to them will the
capitalists run their industries
regardless of the effect this has on
society,”’ said Rush.

Pointing to the vast changes
which have taken place in the
world since November 7, 1917, the
Tribune editor pointed out that the
Soviet Union has given aid and

support to every peoples struggling

Mark Soviet anniversary

for independence and freedom
“Its support has helped hundreds
of millions of people throw off the
yoke of colonialism, and at the
same time the people of the Soviet
Union have given tremendous aid
to help the people of Eastern
Europe, Vietnam and Cuba to build
socialism.”

’ Contrasting the “‘bogus
socialism” of B.C. Premier Dave
Barrett with real socialism, Rush
said taking over a few companies
to prevent them going bankrupt is
not socialism. He said socialism is
a system of society in which the
working class takes over state
power and in which the main
means of production become social
property. ‘‘Only the Communist
Party stands for the socialist
transformation of Canadian life,”’
said Rush.

Chairing the Vancouver rally
was Communist Party provincial
organizer Jack Phillips. In New
Westminster veteran labor and
Communist leader Harold Prit-
chett was master of ceremonies.
The cultural programs at both
events featured prominent labor
song and dance groups.

‘ ing in Toronto Nov. 14

the mayor wants the boards
liquidated.

Since I have served on Council
social service committees for nine
years now, I think I am qualified
by experience, much more than the
mayor, to evaluate the delivery of
social services to the people of
Vancouver.

I was a member of the Council’s
Social Service Committee when the
Honorable Phil Gaglardi was still
minister of Social Services in the
Social Credit government. Those
were the days of humiliating line-
ups for cheques, interviews con-
ducted in semi-public surroun-
dings, endless interrogations and

- endless bureaucratic mishandling

of people.

After Norman Levi was ap-
pointed as the NDP’s minister of
Human Resources he appointed
me (with the consent of the mayor)

-and Rosemary Brown, MLA, to co-

chair public hearings on the in-
tegration of social services. We
hada real hodge-podge of services
at the time, distributed by a large
number of agencies, many of
which could not adjust or be ad-
justed to the complexities of a
modern urban society. We had
three main problems to tackle —
integration, decentralization and
rationalization of services.

We set about to integrate the
services and overcome the

Emil Bjarnason, noted Marxist
economist and head of Trade
Union Research in Vancouver will
present a special paper on ‘’The
Economics of the Multinationals’
at the World Peace Congress Con-
ference on Multinationals, open-

duplications of service that had —
developed over the years. That ha
now been accomplished ad
ministratively.

The decentralization was ac-
complished by the election of ©
Community Resource Boards
Nine have been elected and five —
more will be elected by the end of
this month. That will complete the —
decentralization process.

The process of rationalizing of
services will go on for several
years yet before it is complete; It —
is a long, complex process that
involves many disappointments
and frustrations for all concerned —
because we are dealing with —
human beings in difficult cir-
cumstances. f

When you look at the whole
picture since the Gaglardi days,
you can’t help but see that the
changes have been a little short of
remarkable. Just ask any old age ~
pensioner, any handicapped
person, any recipient of social —
services. The changes made under
the present government have been
beneficial ones for the people who
receive social services. :

When a person today applies for
welfare, an old age pension,
mincome, services for the han-
dicapped or any other of many
services, he or she can go to a
neighborhood office where the
whole package is delivered. The —
offices are clean, the staff works
under better conditions, the ser-~
vices have been humanized.

- Community Resource Boards
are not nor will they ever be the
answer to society’s ills. They can _
and do, however, where they are
composed of willing and competent
people who genuinely want to serve
people, perform a useful function.

What should be pointed out, and —
what most people don’t know is
that, not one dollar is paid out to
any elected member who sits on a
resource board. They perform
their public services free of charge
and on their own time.

When Mayor Phillips con-_
temptuously labels these people as
“little politicians”’ he demeans his
public office. If anyone has
decreased in stature to become a
“little politician” it is the mayor
himself. Now that he has an-
nounced his retirement half way
through his elected term of office
he should have the good grace to
spare us any further gems of un-
wisdom

TOM
McEWEN

L poe dime-collecting custodians of “pay-as-you-go”
toilets in public washrooms throughout B.C. have been
siezed with a bad attack of the cramps. Not because of any
deficiency in their respective bowel movements, but

simply by having a source of easy revenue shut off. |
__ NDP Health Minister Dennis Cocke just recently struck
a valiant blow for health, elementary human rights, and

indeed for socialism when he introduced an Act which’

_ provided for the immediate removal of all cash-collecting
_ locking devices on “‘nature relieving” cubicles in public
‘Reactions to the Cocke laxative are mixed; the man-on-
_ the-street happy with the thought that he can now
“relieve’’ himself without having to pay tribute, or wait
impatiently for the one-and-only “‘free”’ cubicle in a line of
“locked out’’ ones, to get with it.

Similarly with the ‘“‘man-in-the-can’’, relaxed and
philosophical by this sudden change of events, regarding

the Actas “‘a friend in need is a friend indeed,” no longer

penalized for an elementary function when Mother Nature
applies the urge. The same holds good for Mr. & Mrs. John
Q. Public, minus sex discriminations, bias or monetary
expenditures, and which in these piping times of high
profits and inflationary ripoffs, ‘‘a dime saved is a dime
earned.”’

Hence it follows that if “the greatest good to the
greatest “number is a cardinal principle of socialism,

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—NOVEMBER 14, 1975—Page 2 _

cee

then Health Minister Cocke has scored a signal victory on
all three counts.

On the other hand, the dime collectors, corporate,
company or individual, are not too happy anent the Cocke
Act. Some vent their disapproval with noisy comments
anent a “dirty’’ public, with emphasis on the female of the
species being “‘worse’”’ than the male. Others harp on
higher janitorial costs to keep the washroom. normally
“clean,’’ (about as clean as the area of Hastings and Main
on a Monday morning), while others again argue that the
drug traffic “‘bummery”’ and the like will take over and
“mess up”’ the washrooms, etc. and etc.

Then an enterprising MP put a number of pointed
questions on the Parliamentary Order Paper, directed to

the Hon. C.M. Drury, minister of state for science and

technology. :

It would appear that the National Research Council
(NRC) of which he is the leading light, has been assigned
the job of observing and timing the public’s use of
washroom facilities across Canada. We are informed that
such NRC “studies” are less than half completed, and
have already cost the taxpayer some $80,000 bucks. Just
what the total will cost when this Trudeau snoop
bureaucracy completes its ‘‘studies’”’ is anyone’s guess,
including the Hon.(?) Mr. Drury’s.

What the act of “‘relieving Nature,” be it liquids or
solids, has to do with the ‘‘advancement of science and
technology” is beyond the range of our comprehension,
but there it is in all the solemnity and decorum of
Parliament.

These questions directed at NRC “observations and
timing” of John Q. Public ‘‘evacuating”’ at leisure as he
contemplates the times, prompts a few questions of our
own:

e Will the stop-watch timekeeper assigned by the NRC
to keep John under surveillance while he responds to the

call of Nature — or in other extra-curricular duties he
may attend to while on public washroom premises, which
takes precedence in the ‘“‘studies’’ — the “‘time”’ required,
or the extras?

e Will the NDP Cocke act ending the lockout on_
available toilet facilities, make it easier or more difficult
for the NCR ‘“‘observations,’”’ in terms of cost and/or
harrassment of the public?

o By what standards of equation does the Hon. Mr.
Drury and his NRC relate the elementary business of
“relieving Nature,” other than the flimsy excuse of
requiring ‘basic information on washroom use. . . for the
development of satisfactory building standards.”
Satisfactory to whom? Couldn’t this be left to the ar-
chitectural, engineering and other builders of Canada

‘ without an NRC high-priced snoop brigade ‘‘observing”

how much time and space the nation needs to crap?.

Better look out in there John. While NDP Cocke has —
pried the locks off, there’s a guy behing your cubicle
putting a stop-watch on you. By way of acknowledgement
you could do your thing with a hefty ‘‘wind breaker” and
should you feel like protesting to’ Ottawa, a bit of “re-_
cycled’’ washroom paper, well seasoned, will be quite
appropriate.

FiBONE

Editor - MAURICE RUSH
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