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Labor council submission shows:

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Tiere Stein space inte PV As nathan

MAURICE RUSH...
eq er,

named as new Communist Party provincial

Parley lauds Morgan’s
32 years of leadership

P Cont'd from pg. 1
arty, he was leader of the Young
Tmunist League in the late

S and has held many leading

Posts in the party. During World

ar Two he served overseas and
Was taken prisoner of war. He is
Well-known in the working class
and democratic movement in B.C.
and is a member of the party’s
Central committee.

h became associate editor of
the Pacific Tribune in February,
960 and on Tom McEwen’s
retirement as editor, he succeeded

m March, 1970.

Speaking to the provincial
mninittee meeting, retiring party
©ader Nigel Morgan stressed that

change of leadership was being
Made at a time when the party in
a 1S more united than ever
a und its politicies and leader-
ee Members of the provincial
: ™Mmittee lauded the major
°ntributions made by Morgan
pee the 32 years in which he
Cupied the leadership post.
Statement unanimously

Adopted by the committee said:

acceding to the request of

_ Nigel Morgan that he be released

eee ath reasons from the heavy
Seong of provincial leader and
Conary, the B.C. provincial
Mmittee of the Communist
enn, °xPresses, on behalf of the
eke membership, its deep ap-
, lation for his valuable con-
on over the 32 years during
Ich he held the leading post in
© party in B.C.
B Coming into leadership of the

C. party at the end of World War’

ed 1945, Nigel Morgan led the
a. during the difficult and
Tmy years of the cold war when

‘ty effort was made by its
ees to isolate and destroy the
de ty’s influence in the labor and

Mocratic movements of the
ple.

Thanks to his energetic and
ra leadership, which was
: ays marked by a high sense of

Volutionary optimism, Nigel

dee played a key role in

eouhg these attacks on the
sta ty. His devotion and humanism
ee as an example for all party
weneers and for the young

3 ration of Communist leaders

WV coming forward in the party.
Wi € provincial committee also

Shes to express its appreciation
nvtona Morgan, who shared with

‘Sel the difficulties, problems and

r

“Uecesses of those years, and who

NIGEL MORGAN ... honored
by CP provincial committee.

in her own right, contributed many
valuable services to the party in
the many posts she held. We look
forward to her continued activity
in the party and working class
movement.

“In naming Nigel Morgan to the
post of provincial chairman the
B.C. provincial committee is
certain that he will be able to
continue to give the party and
working class movement the
benefit of his valuable services and
experiences for many years to
come.

“Im appreciation of his years of
devoted service as leader and
secretary of the B.C. party, and to
give the provincial party mem-
bership an opportunity to share in
expressing. its appreciation, the
provincial committee resolves to
honor Nigel Morgan at a banquet to
be held in conjunction with the
provincial convention in February,
1978. j

Speaking at the conclusion of the
meeting, Morgan said he was not
retiring from politics and that he
intended to play as large a part in
the party and working class
movement as his health would
permit. Expressing his thanks for
the cooperation he had received
from the provincial committee and

_membership throughout his years

as party leader, Morgan said that
with political conditions becoming
more favorable for the party’s
work he looked forward to the
growth of the party’s influence and
membership in the period ahead
under the leadership of the
provincial committee and its new
provincial leader. and secretary.

95 percent of food market -

The following material is based
on the Vancouver and District
Labor Council’s submission to the
provincial government’s select
standing committee on agriculture
and food costs, September 19 in
Vancouver. Prepared by the Trade
Union .Research Bureau, the
council’s study is in two sections:
production and marketing; and
processing, distribution and
retailing — from which the article
below is drawn. Next week the
Tribune will summarize the sec-
tion on production and-marketing
which features an extensive study
of marketing boards and their
operations in B.C.

Paes See 2

“Yes everything is higher, it’s

sure outrageous; everything is
higher, except my daddy’s
wages.”’

The lyrics of the old children’s
song has added relevance in
Canada as the country enters the
third year of the anti-inflation
boardand so-called wage and price
controls.

Everything is higher. July of this
year recorded a 2.1 percent in-
crease in the consumer price index
— the largest jump in the cost of
living since July, 1975, when the
country was supposed to be at the
height of the inflationary crisis.

But what the kid’s song couldn’t
explain is that what is most higher
is the most necessary of all — food.
Over the first six months of this
year, food costs in Canada have
soared by 10 percent.

It’s ascandal. There is little hope
at present, though, that the AIB or
the federal or any provincial
govenment will do anything about
it.

West of the Rockies, the picture
is not quite as bad. Food costs have
gone up here by only 6.6 percent in.
the first six months of 1977, and the
provincial government has
established a special committee to
tour the province and investigate
all phases of the food industry to
uncover the real reasons for high
food costs.

If labor and consumers were
skeptical of the ‘sincerity of the
government, there was good
reason for it. After all, a tin of B.C.
sockeye in October, 1976 sold for
$1.36 in Hamilton, Ontario and for
$1.52 in Vancouver. On top of that,
there is a $2 per pound difference
between the price paid to the
fisherman and the cost to the
consumer for B.C. salmon.

The discrepancies make the
provincial government’s food price
committee’s decision to classify all
food company information on
operating costs, profitability,
pricing decision, etc. as ‘“‘con-
fidential’’ more than a little
suspect.

And the same _ provincial
government that established the
committee to explain high food
prices, just months before had sold
Swan Valley Foods, one of the
province’s biggest frozen
vegetable producers, to a US.
multinational corporation.

The government then sat by and
watched the closure of Queen
Charlotte fisheries, the province’s
largest fish cannery outside the

grip of the ‘‘big two” in the fishing, §

industry — B.C. Packers and
Canadian Fishing Company.

The latest move by a govern-
ment concerned with food is to plan
more dams on the Peace River that
will flood large sections of some of
the best agricultural land in the
province. are
_ The actions of the government
underscored the crisis in the food

industry. Without a policy or
direction, small producers are
going broke and consumers .are
going hungry. The only benefac-
tors of the mess are the cause of.
‘much of the problem — the giant
retail food chains. And these are
precisely those who the provincial
government has taken such pains
to protect behind a veil of ‘“‘con-
fidentiality”. They have: even
promised to destroy after the
inquiry any factual material they
may be given in “‘confidence.”’

The retail food chains are the
nub of the problem in the food
industry. That is a fact well known
and admitted to by study after
study into the food business. Even
Eugene Whelan, federal minister
of agriculture, knows it. “...
Increase competition,’’ Whelan
exclaimed to the Financial Post
April 23 of this year, “Are you
kidding? Seven leading chains in
Canada control the price of food in
Canada more than anybody else.
These people, those other than the
agricultural producer, get 60 cents
out of every dollar . . . Who the hell
are they kidding.”

The top six chains in Canada sell
77 percent of the food marketed
through chain stores, which, of
course, is just about all of it. In
British Columbia the top six
control 95 percent of the market.

It hardly takes a study to figure
out which of the chains dominate in
B.C. Out of 196 chain stores,
Safeway has 93 or 48 percent.
Weston’s Kelly Douglas has 47 or 24
percent under the names Super-
Valu, Shop Easy and Economart.
Kelly Douglas has another 461
stores associated with it under the
same names plus Red and White

and Lucky Dollar. The remainder
of the chain stores in B.C. are
Overwaitea’s 47 stores and
Woodwards dozen stores.

Among the convenience stores,
Mac’s Milk (Silverwood In-
dustries) dominates. They own 58
of the 77 stores in the province.

The market is sewn up tight.
Weston’s Kelly Douglas was the
only large scale wholesaler/-
retailer that survived the invasion
of the U.S. owned Safeway during
the 1960s. Today Kelly Douglas
ranks second behind MacMillan
Bloedel in total sales in B.C. with a
billion dollar business in western
Canada. ‘

Without a doubt the principal
cause of high food costs in B.C. is
the concentration and market
powers of the large corporate food
processors wholesalers and
retailers.

What can be done?

Combines legislation can be used
to break up the processing and
retailing. monopolies. Where the
rules aren’t tough enough,
pressure will have to be brought to
bear for more effective anti-
combines legislation.

The federal and provincial
governments can get into the food
business at the processing and
distribution levels to ensure
greater competition. Retail outlets
in highly concentrated markets
should be nationalized.

The question for the ministers of
corporate and consumer affairs in
Ottawa and Victoria is why haven’t
they already moved against the
two retail food giants in B.C.?

Undoubtedly, the answer to that
question would also: be “con-
fidential.”’

The 19th YCL central convention was held last weekend in
Toronto. Top: Daniel Pacquet, national committee member of
the League des Jeunesses Communistes du Quebec, speaks
while Toronto's Dan Heap and Surrey's Steve Gidora look on.
Bottom: YCL central executive member Anna Larsen speaks with
a portion of the B.C. delegation in the foreground. Janice Harris
and Barbara Stevens are at the front table. | —Fred Weir photos

. PACIFIC TRIBUNE—OCTOBER 7, 1977—Page'3

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