aa

Continued from page 5
paign in the mass media on the
question of wage policy,’ the
workers in the trade union
movement need to oppose any
measures that would undermine
trade union rights, including the
right to strike. If anything, what
is required today is an enlarge-
ment of the rights of the work-
ing people,” Kashtan added.

He charged the government |
with still operating “on the basis
of ‘what is good for monopoly
is good for Canada’, and this is
a major defect in the Speech.

“What is evident,” he said,
“is that people’s movements will
be required to press for new po-
licies directed to strengthening
Canadian independence, achiev-
ing full employment, and rising
standards.”

corporations.

Restore milk subsidies

TORONTO-—In a letter to Prime Minister Trudeau, William
Kashtan, leader of the Communist Party of Canada, urged
the Liberal Government to restore the subsidy on milk and
to take a completely new look at subsidies on essentials.

- The text of the letter, copies of which went also to Ed Broad-
bent, house leader of the New Democratic Party, and Robert
Stanfield, Conservative leader, read as follows:

We urge your Government to reconsider its decision
regarding the elimination of the subsidy on milk. In our
view this is a retrograde step, one which will create addi-

_ tional difficulties for working people and more particularly
for the children of working people. In our view, rather than
eliminating the’ subsidy, measures ought-to be taken to sub-
sidize food, rent, as well as clothing and shoes for children,
the aim being thereby to bring down prices on these essen-

tials which make up a major portion of the income of
working people, the pensioners and the poor.

In short we are for subsidies which bring prices down, not
the kind of subsidies which add to the profits of the

We believe that the Government ought to undertake a
_ Program to make milk available to children free,
_ school system and in other ways which are convenient. This

_ would be money well spent, directed to maintain the health
of the children of this country.

through the

MONTREAL — For the first
time in years a serious challenge
is being offered the one-man rule

_ of Mayor Drapeau in the city of

Montreal. At its second congress .

held this year (the first was in
May) the Montreal Citizen’s
Movement September 21 fielded
_ 14 candidates for councillor and

postponed final decision on the
maycralty candidate to a later
congress to be held not later
than October 15.

What could have been an ad-
mission of defeat for the MCM,
was turned, by the determina-
tion of the executive and general
council and of all delegates pre-
sent, into an upsurge of enthu-

-siasm for the democratic and
popular principles and aims of
the movement. No mayoralty
candidate did not discourage the
MCM, but led to the accenting
of the grass-roots character of
the movement and to a collec-
tion of $2,260 from those pre-
sent, to carry on the work in
_ completing the roster of candi-
dates for council, to find an
acceptable and competent candi-
date for mayor, and to build the
movement in the districts.

The week before, the Cote des
Neiges section of the MCM, one
of the longest-established and
most active section of the new
party in Montreal, placed two
candidates for councillor in no-
mination: Nick auf der Maur and
Sylvia Kissin.

_ “Both candidates, elected by
secret ballot, were endorsed by
_ an overwhelming majority. Can-
didate Nick auf der Maur is a

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—FRIDAY, OCTOBER 4, 1974—Page 10

widely known TV, radio’ and
newspaper personality, one of
the founding editors of the ma-
gazine Last Post. Sylvia Kissin
is a young lawyer, at present
teaching law at Sir George Wil-

_liams University.

In their five-minute accept-
ance speeches the candidates
Nick auf der Maur and Sylvia
Kissin stressed the importance
of cracking the secret politics
which dominate Montreal city
hall, where councillors are de-
nied the right to have their of-
fices; where the budget is not
publicly audited, although. Mont-
real has the sixth largest gov-
ernment budget in Canada. -

Also there are no committees,
either elected or appointed to
take responsibility for the vari-
ous departments of city admin-
istration, such as parks, public
works, etc.—with one exception,
the Committee on Street Names;
where one cannot discover
whether money budgeted for
One or another department goes
there or finds its way instead
into some of thé mayor’s “big
spectaculars” like Expo or the

~ 1976 Olympics. This situation

must be changed, the candidates
stressed. :

They stressed also the grass-
roots and democratic character
of MCM, which has been build-
ing for over a year now in the
localities on a community or-
ganization basis throughout
Montreal.

Some points” in the MCM
program are:

@ Democracy .. . at last. The

Embodied in Constitution

GDR a socialist society

Continued from page 5
seeable future, a new passage in
the GDR constitution declares:
“The further raising of the
material and cultural living
standards of the people, on the
basis of a high rate of develop-
ment of socialist production,
scientific-technical progress and
the growth of labor productivity
is the outstanding task of the
developed socialist society.”

The amended constitution,
which comes into effect on Octo-
ber 7, the 25th Anniversary ° of
the GDR, also grants young

" people the right to sit in parlia-
- ment as full fledged members

at 18 years of age. It declares
that integration in the socialist
community of states is official
GDR pclicy and reaffirms the
GDR’s support for peaceful co-
existence between countries
with different social systems, for
people struggling for freedom
and national independence, for
collective security in Europe.

It continues to prohibit rac-
ism and chauvinism of every
kind. It also covers new ground
with more precise definitions of
functions and relations between
parliament, Council of Ministers
and State Council.

Party secretary Honecker de-
clared: “as the fundamental law
cf our society and state, the
constitution must express the
new qualitative progress in the
shaping of developed socialist
society in our country, and at
the same time reflectthe laws of
the forward march of the GDR
towards a communist future.”

There was a good deal of posi-
tive interest shown around the
world in the GDR’s constitu-
tional changes, but ultras in the

MCM will take Montreal’s ad-
ministration out of the back
rooms and into public view. Citi-
zens will be kept informed and
their participation and interest
welcomed. Elected councillors
will be responsible to commun-
ity-based citizen’s councils.

© Housing: renovation rather
than demolition: The MCM will
build new housing as is required

_to meet the needs of Montreal-

ers . . . Decent housing is every-
one’s right. Speculation, which
turns this right into a commo-
dity to be used for the profit of
a few, will be gradually elimin-

ated through the creation of -

municipally - owned landbanks,
the encouragement of coopera-
tive and public housing.

© Transportation: The empha-
sis will be on providing a clean,
dependable and inexpensive
means of public transport, rather
than more expressways.

_Free public transport for se-
nior citizens.

® Recreation: The recreation —

budget will be distributed — ac-
cording to the size of each dis-
trict and the needs of its citizens.
“Man and His World” will be-
come a Cultural and recreational
centre for the free use of Mont-
real citizens, °

At present Montreal ranks
rock _bottom on this continent
and. in western Europe for its
a space. The latest statistics
are, lor green space acreage per
1,000 citizens: Moniveat Sra
the loss of 25 parks ‘between
1967 and 1972—2- London, Eng-
land and Rome—2.2: New. York

— 2.6; Toronto — Saks: Detroit —

FRG and their prototypes else-
where continued to act true to
form. Ignaring the historical
significance — and clear poli-
tical and moral victories — re-
flected in the revised constitu-
tion, they seized upon one single
issue: the fact that the amend-
ed constitution says nothing
about combining the two Ger-
many into one.

This dead cat was also flayed
by the FRG’s Foreign Minister,
Genscher before the UN As-
sembly in New York when he
talked irrelevently about a re-
united, “non-existent Germany.
He was answered on the spot by
acting GDR Foreign Minister
Oskar Fischer, who pointed out
what everyone in the diploma-
tic world knows: there are two
German states proceeding along
diametrically opposed lines of
national development in confor-
mity with international law.

Those who pounced’ upon
this question, already regulated

»by treaties between the GDR

and FRG themselves, were also
answered by GDR Prime Minis-
ter Horst Sindermann. At an
international press conference
here, he pointed out that the
only -possible relations that
could exist between the FRG and
GDR were “relations of peaceful
co-existence, along the same
lines as relations the GDR has

with other capitalist countries.”’

But whatever the ultras may

“pretend among themselves, on

October 7 the people of. the
GDR will not! only be celebrating
its 25th Anniversary, but the
first year of its constitutionally
defined existence as the German
socialist society dreamed of and
predicted by Marx and Engels.

3.7; Paris 4.5; Philadelphia—4.7;
Cleveland and San Francisco—
5.1; Baltimore and St. Louis—
6.3; Washington—9.9; Cincinnati
—10.1.

In its recently issued brochure,
A City for People, on sale for
50¢ at the congress and avail-
able at the MCM headquarters,
1276 Derion St., the basic aims
and principles of the MCM are
set forth in detail in 44 pages.
In essence they are stated to be:

“In contrast to ~Drapeau’s
grandiose policies, we propose a
thoroughgoing social reform.”

“In contrast to Drapeau’s
autocracy, we propose the real
exercise of democracy by all the
citizens.”

“In contrast to Drapeau’s
abuses, we propose administra-
tive efficiency and honesty.”

“We refuse to have our city
destroyed in order to promote
the interests of a privileged
class.”

“We demand: :

—That the government put the
city in the hands of the entire
population

—That Montreal cease to be a
city for Drapeau

—That Montreal be a city for
us, the people of Montreal.”
Montreal readers are asked to

_ send in to 1276 Dorion Street

$2.00 membership along with
any donation they may like to
make toward the opening cam-
paign for the city elections this
year, November 10. The ad-
dresses of local offices in the dis-
trict will ‘be published later. For
information on these, phone:
526-2824.

Indians ask
~ for justice,
receive clubs

OTTAWA — The RCMP ®
Squad, backed by soldiers
the Canadian Forces honor
succeeded in preventing
demonstrators from & j
Parliament in a club-swie
melee which resulted in
rests and more than 20 i.

The demonstrators, incl
women and children, had |
ed on Parliament Hill 400-8 ;
determined to confront j
ernment with their demant
better living conditions:
had come as far as Ba
lumbia as part of a cat Me f
to publicize Indian ent Re)
Louis Cameron, leadet =
caravan told reporters pa
lence on the Hill was oe
ly provoked by the me 4!
had premeditatedly attace™
demonstrators.

“We're against viole
Cameron, “the violence o
housing, poverty, the ghé
violence that robs us
pride and our dignity. ~
the government as a mo! a
to the reservation and §
violence.there,” he urge? 3

Chief Justice Laskin, wi
just ~ concluded ee ding. f
‘Speech inside the bu 4 es

eS
a. o

nce,

of

ing Canadians to Beet! “gf
was greeted with drum
d the

jeers as he reviewe
“The RCMP has the i
bayonets and the tear garr
Cameron, “We had oe
a sheet of paper Wl
mands.

At Tribune press ti” 4
demands. had still not a
ceived by Indian Ate
ter Buchanan. A spoke
the Minister claims ood
waited in his office “a 8 20
of the afternoon” for Ho |
committee of Indians. oa uts
wall of police and troops @
could tell “committee
from others only
would know. <

‘ ly
The daily press happi

ed that a group of ‘con
Party of Canada (Marx _
ists)” attached themselv®
demonstration. Smallpov"
real disease, malnutritio®
holism and land ro he
among the legacies le gett!
dian people: by white ae
Now the, Maoists have ~~

ded. oe ore oo en

Joint rallies
free Viet jallé!

' To
TORONTO — The a
Anti-Draft Program a? of!
Magazine — are co-sponey,
demonstration for the ~ 6
Concern”. They will
City Hall on Sat., om 1p
noon, join up with a Me,
held by the Committee ia
South Pieoamee rol
soners and march tO — 4
consulate. They will the?
and rejoin the vigil.

The demonstration will Cl
three demands: 1. Fre?
Vietnamese Political iB
2. End all aid to Lon |
Thieu; 3. Universal, un®
nal amnesty to all U.
sisters.

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