| By W. C. BEECHING ‘4, farmer has been rediscovered in ection. He has become the im-. ht Man, wooed by Tories and Lib- ‘he parties of monopoly—as the be tell him of all the “wonder- 4, 08s they’ve done for him, and }, Mes tell him of all the ‘“‘wonder- q mene they’re going to do if the fi will only vote for them. toy abo propaganda runs like a ‘yp, ‘otead through their entire cam- 7 iRoined at splitting the workers Py mets, and recognizing the anti- J by Poly potential of labor-farmer P y: The fact that the B.C. longshore- reed to load ships with grain “ort during the recent strike is The Mentioned, not even by the NDP. ky; attack on the working class is 4, With the drive of big business ‘%,, " of the small farmers and turn Ay '8 farmers completely over to the 4, Mercies of monopoly, It has & Overtones of the Right, and Rist: c® “justify” anti-democratic 5 ation, bk _ Minster Trudeau and Tory bt Stanfield were out West during | “ber, consolidating their reserves. A SICK ECONOMY ' tor Liberals are asking the farmers Poet all about the LIFT (Lower My. 'Y For Tomorrow) program, asked the farmers to grow grass Of wheat. Just look at the €levators and unfilled orders for hey i they say today. Two years ago “€d the air over the praries with ck Planes as the government fd to see that the farmer wasn’t & on his contract not to grow (shades of the Prime Minister’s fring about “cheating on unem- €nt insurance!”). ee were the days when the Unit- €s had jerked the floor out from the International Wheat Agree- ginning a market war which kt Son, | },, listen to Otto Lang, you’d swear } “er never had it better, despite Sowing number of ghost towns © growing distance between 4, There is a continued migration ine from Saskatchewan, result- an absolute loss of population. June the Saskatoon Star- , .X published an article under the ly. @fairie Economy Healthy In “A , f Ort of way,” expressing concern i Prices for farm products not a production costs. While there * .©0 an upturn in retail sales, as iyrticle claims, there are many Y stores in the main cities of Sas- fwan to testify to the growing , UPtcy of the small businessman. Fi, osing down of small concerns , | »ing off of workers goes on. |, SRABBED BY MONOPOLY Would be wrong to say that there fe [th €n no economic improvement, 7,, © fact remains that, while there Mcrease in gross income, much Bes to pay off debts, or to go ‘Tinto debt in order to shift from yt My.2 Cattle or hogs, or simply to pay of fy “tly rising operating costs. In ti, Vords, whatever gain there may ecuickly grabbed by the financial We and the monopoly concerns. — = " thy @tmers ‘continue to be forced yy and as a result of the policies s, © by the old-line parties. There 92393 fewer farms in 1971 than ii 6, The number of wheat farms Vo from 71,413 to 33,646—a de- of 37,767! of fy then Agricultural Minister H. A. 1 has the nerve to say that he bow where people get the idea the Seventies’. was government No, indeed, he said, our policy Save the family farm! ulture in the Seventies” was eo government’s report “Agricul-~ the new “big farm” policy adopted by the Liberal Government at Ottawa with Tory approval designed to speed up the removal of the socalled non- productive farmers, and encourage large-scale farm operations in the sole interests of the giant monopolies. The monopolies make more profits selling big machinery than small, the produce of giant farms rather than small ones, ’ so the watchword is: Expand Or Get Out! THOSE WHEAT SALES “You’ve never let me forget what I once said: ‘Why should I sell your wheat?’ I only ask you not to forget that we have sold your wheat; sold more of it and to more countries than any previous government in Canadian history.” So said Prime Minister Tru- deau to a meeting of 2,500 at Swift Current. Speaking about the market in China, he said, “If this means my ministers and I have to travel abroad to sell your grain, we'll go, and we’ll go despite carping criticism from opposition sources.” Well and good, but the truth is that thousands of farmers could have stayed on the farms had Trudeau and his “Joyal” Tory opposition” heeded the Communist Party, which has been in- sisting for years that there are markets ings, urging the farmers to gow all that they can. Then, after the election is over, the new minister of agriculture, or the minister of trade and commerce, claims that Canada has “huge, unman- ageable surpluses” and that the far- mers have grown too much, and all the “learned talk” about diversification is trotted out by the government’s hired “experts.” The fact is that up to now the gov- ernment. hasn’t gone after markets beczuse of U.S. domination in the capi- talist world markets. The focus has been on marketing boards and supply management; the use of controls and restrictions to get farmers to cut back on production, and to reduce the num- ber of farmers. Prairie agriculture has been particu- larly vulnerable, because it, more than any other part of Canada, depends on the export market. Grain makes up 63% of the agricultural export market, and most grain is produced in the West. In the long run, the policies followed by the parties of monopoly—the Lib- erals and Tories—make things worse as the farmers, the workers, the youth and the unemployed have found out. POVERTY LEVEL The growing monopoly exploitation of the farmers means that the border- line of $10,000 between poverty and a William Beeching (left), Sas- katchewan leader of the Communist Party of Canada is federal candi- date in Regina-East and an authori- tative spokesman on prairie and farm matters. Neil Stenberg, a na- tive of Alberta's Thorhild district, and Communist candidate in Vegre- ville, as an active farmer and vicee. president of the Thorhild National — Farmers’ Union local, knows first hand, and campaigns on, the needs . of farm families. for all that our farmers can produce, and that what is required is vigorous new selling policies based on friend- ship and mutual interest with all countries. The fact is that the production of grains and fodders by the Soviet Union and the United States is so huge that just a 10% decline in a given year can use up all our surpluses. The need for wider trade policies remains urgent. CHANGE IS NEEDED Because of the economic crisis of world capitalism, Trudeau and his min- isters show signs of recognizing that the international policies hitherto fol- lowed by the Canadian capitalist class, enunciated at the height of the Cold War, must be changed. The stability of socialism, in contrast to the shaky po- sition of capitalism beset with one monetary crisis after nother, increas- ingly determines the direction of world events. But, a warning! In almost every election campaign since the end of the Second World War, government spokesmen — both Liberal and Tory — have appeared on the hust- decent living is already too low. Gen- erally it has’ been considered that a farmer kept near one half of his gross sales. But the latest statistics indicate that a more accurate figure today would be a net of $3,000 and less — putting him well within the poverty category. This is confirmed hy the Agricul- tural Economics Research Council which states that not only has the number of farmers fallen, but that the average income for those left has also fallen by 16%, allowing for inflation. Income in Saskatchewan lags behind Canada as a whole by more than $400 annually. Of all those filing income tax returns, 68% filed on less than $5,000 a year annual income. The average an- nual income of farmers and fishermen in Saskatchewan in 1969 totalled $4,457, compared to an average for Canada of $5,102. As a consequence of high monopoly exploitation, a- higher price for farm products is actively being discussed in this election. Stanfield is trying to make hay with all sorts of promises about raising the prices of all grains. Actually, what is needed is a higher charges increased by 90.3%o. nually. Since 1961, the prices for agricultural products received by the farmers hee risen by 35%. Total farm cash receipts increased on the average by 55.6% between 1966 and 1971. However, during that time, operating and depreciation During the 1960's total net income as a proportion of total gross income stood at 46%. For the years 1969, 1970, 1971 it declined to 37%. ~~ The number of farms in Canada declined betwoen 1966 and 1971: by another 65,009, to 365,352 farms. Of these, 266,903 sold less than $10,000 gross an-— Although the proportion of farmers selling-an annual gross of $10,000 and: less declined from 80%) of all the farmers to 69%, it was at the expense of forcing several hundred thousand more people off the land, creating more ghost towns, and the bankruptcy of an increasing number of small business concerns. — i} MUTANUANEQGUOOARETEREAULLEREEEEEREEEEUEEUEUDREEEOUEEEREEOUOUEUEREEQUGUOEO000000000U0000000000SEEUEEQECCCUOUEOQUSQCCUUEUEQUUCUUEEETERCUEEUEUUCOGROOOUOUNUEDEORO EEO UEEOEEOUOEECEUEEEECEU EEE EEEEEEE ESE OE ECE eS Save farms from monopolies! an 4 UITTTTTTTTTTTTITITTTTT TTT Ce ccc ET income for farmers. They need it for the same reason that workers need more wages, that is, because the price of everything they buy is going up. BANKRUPT POLICIES The economic policies pursued by the capitalist class have failed all along and have worked against the farmers and the workers. Unemployment, infla- tion and profiteering go hand-in-hand. The government spends and_ lends mainly for the benefit of monopoly, and sends the bill to the working class and farmers to pay. As soon as the workers or farmers get a bit of ex- tra cash—through higher wages or higher prices for the products they sell—the monopolies raise the price of everything to more ‘than “soak up” all the extra money. (Proof? Rising pro- fits. for the few and lower incomes for the many, plus unemployment). That’s precisely why the two-price system for wheat hasn’t solved the problem of the farmers. although, as some say, it’s better than a kick in the teeth. : The farmers need a program which answers their needs, which are the needs of Canada. The capitalists pur- sue policies of integration with the USA, the national interests of Canada are betrayed to U.S. monopolies in an economic process which makes Cana- dian monopolists partners in the U.S. monopoly exploitation of our country. DEVELOP FARMING In contrast the Communist Party puts forward the need to develop agri- culture’s full potential as a policy in the interests of both the workers and farmers of our country. Today we are importing eggs from Hong Kong, but- ter from New Zealand and Australia, and vegetables, fruit and many other farm products from the U.S. In reality there is an opportunity and a need for more farmers in Canada, a need to ex- pand and diversify. Such a program saves the family farm, and widens em- ‘ployment opportunities for workers. The h st Party states that the issue for the farmers in the election is the fight for new policies which would keep the farmers on the land, control monopoly profits to give farmers their rightful income, policies which would expand agricultural production and . markets, and offer real opportunities in agriculture to young Canadians. Such policies would halt—and reverse—the present trends which destroy agricul- ture and concentrate production and population in several main industrial centres, solely in the interests of mon- opoly. These are reforms with a revo- luticnary content, because they begin to challenge the power of monopoly. To make this possible the farmer needs a program to develop coopera- tive forms of farming, and policies to curb the big monopolies, including na- tionalization. : NDP PROGRAM David Lewis unveiled the NDP farm program when he was campaigning in Saskatchewan. : It differs from the program of the big monopolies, it recognizes some of the issues, but it fails to tackle the question of curbing big monopoly power, of labor-farmer unity, and link- ing the questions of markets for Cana- dian agriculture with new trade rela- tions with socialist countries, the new- ly developing countries, etc. It falls ‘short of understanding the need for a program which calls for. the full, all- rounded development of Canadian 1¢ri culture, including the growing * ; 5 ducts which we now import on. iuge scale from outside of Canada. In this election, the workers and far- mers should strengthen their unity to compel a turn to the Left in farm poli- - cies as in the direction of Canada’s “politics as’a ‘whole: =~» psctiiaeeeties Me PACIFIC TRIBUNE—FRIDAY, OCTOBER 13, 1972——PAGE 9