Ra er aes + } - decays Farmers get squeezed as prices keep soaring ed W. C. BEECHING ie es — Agricultural. Min- ugene Whelan, typically arrogant and reactionary, aoolicly called for even a etail food prices at the : Convention of the Cana- dian ; reeenth eration of Agriculture It’s yen ame that farmers Our cau oct & better deal in af satiety and economy,” he Gas € last thing farmers in ae eee is a freeze on food woul = even piace: Ss a ah piRelan is a cunning man, tion. ths ey to create the impres- ake ceed prices are high the high e farmers are getting ae €r price that the cus- not Pays, Something he does act i : ually believe himself. It fae Way of trying to def big monopoly friends, ae er farm price, "° 2gument that Past fe Were depressed this ed years, not because the : ze less efficient, but must ae ais high prices he that ne +o monopoly for all Net Serious Problems Proportin ‘Ome for farmers, as a clined Pn Of gross income, de- 27% in To 41% to 1959 to of “the Aes a clear expression s ce of the monopoly epreciag Tating expenses and : n charges increased Where? pween 1959 and 1971 increased ae Cash receipts only riod. ‘Re hae) for the same vee ized net income for less ih 1970 and 1971 was 9-69 average, Productit ity, nomena Eset Oof faced }, of os serious problems between armers is the fact 66 and 197] : , the 15%, tron farms declined by a 2 to 366,128; on th ber of those living Petiog. fre Ts, for the same 565, m 1,960,365 to 1,489,- Sa s eee Profit Rise by oputrast, profits in- © ON the 1979 is 200% average 109 gay Was 20% © for banks, nufacturing, and €rchandizing. Ompany of Can- Oakville, Sis - 4 for m ada Moto trot of $ $75,809 9g e000.000 compared a year earlier. Dominion Stores Limited of To- ronto, for the 39 weeks ending on December 16th showed a profit of $6,091,000 compared to $5,827,000 for the same period a year earlier. This striking rise in profits is the real cause of high retail prices. Between 1961 and 1971, the Canadian food bill increased by $4 billion, while realized net farm income, during the same period rose by $660 million, or 16% of the rise in the cost of food. And Mr. Whelan promises more of the same.- Tables posted at the recent National Farmers Union conven- tion in December show us the picture of profiteering. Packer’s Retailer’s price price Cottage roll .98 1.49 Dinner ham 1.28 1.69 Port butt 61 85 Pork chops 99 1.29 Pork hocks 34 45 Picnic shoulder .53 75 Top sirloin .96 1.69 Short ribs 44 68 Blade steak 66 1.19 Beef liver A7 75 (It must be remembered that these prices are those prevailing last. November, and _ today’s prices are much higher.) t * * What is involved in the sale of a grade A2 Heifer to the packer? Weight 927 pounds; price 32 cents per pound. Truckage, yard- age, and selling costs 1.5 cents per pound, Return to the farmer $282.75. The packer’s processing is as follows: The hide, 60 pounds $30.00 2 sides,.each 255 lbs. @ 64.5 cents 328.95 1 liver, 8 lbs. @ 58¢ 4.64 1 heart, 6 Ibs. @ 46¢ 2.76 2 kidney 5 Ibs. @ 35¢ 1.75 Total 594 lbs. $368.10 333 lbs. of head, entrails, hooves, are all processed and added. The meat is in the hands of the packers for an average of 7 days. The retailer gets: Purchase price from the packer $327.68 Selling price to consumer 426.12 | Profit 98.44 It is usually in the hands of the chain anywhere from 1 to 6 days; the chain expects to gross a profit of between 19 and 21% after trim and shrinkage. 1 Rhegst 3 THE MONEY CRISIS By EMILE BJARNASON The first of three articles As the capitalist world is struck once again by monetary crisis, the ordinary citizen can only wonder, what is the nature and cause of this crisis, where is it leading, can it bring back the chaos and misery of the pre-war depressions? Monetary crisis strikes suddenly, though not without warning, since the basic causes are visible, even though the timing and locale cannot be precisely foreseen. In a matter of hours, billions of dollars (or francs, or pounds) are presented at the banks for con- version into supposedly stronger currencies. When this ‘happens, either the monetary authorities whose currency is being demanded support the existing exchange rate structure by accepting as many dollars as are offered, and letting them pile’up in their vaults, or they let supply and demand drive down the exchange value of the dollar. There are two reasons why they are reluc- tant to choose the former course. First is that they thereby pay a high price for an asset of dubious value. In the latest crisis, for in- stance, West Germany acquired six billion dollars immediately before Nixon devalued the dollar by ten percent. That is to say, specul- ators made $600,000,000 profit at the expense of West Germany’s treasury. Japan -suffered the same misfortune on a smaller scale. The second reason for reluctance is that the Ger- man marks issued to pay for the dollars are a potentially inflation-ry addition to Germany’s already excessive money supply. But unwelcome as these consequences may be, the alternative is worse. For, since the dollar, as international reserve currency, is the basis of the capitalist world monetary sys- tem, no imperialist country is anxious to un- dermine it. Moreover the fall in the value of the dollar makes German exports less compe- titivé with American goods. West Germany’s action proved futile, as similar steps taken by the leading countries, Minister Bert Hohol in a Calgary interview reported by the Ed- Gees or collectively, have been in pre- Its cause and effect dollars, except between governments. The right to convert, it was hoped that their incen- ceding monetary crises. The dollar had to be devalued anyway. The trading position of Ger- many and Japan was damaged just the same. And. the U.S. dollar sustained another blow against its unique position in the world system. : What triggers the sudden runs on the dol- lar? In the nineteen-sixties, when the position of the dollar was based on its convertibility into gold, a run on the dollar was caused by the growing (correct) conviction that the U.S. was losing its ability to pay off in gold. Large holders of dollars, anticipating a rise in the price of gold, were anxious to convert paper into gold before the price rise occurred. News of a large conversion by one holder of dollars —a European government, for example, was enough to start a run. _ The first step in seeking to cure the situa- tion, five years ago, was to “close the gold window,” i.e. to refuse to exchange gold for latter could be browbeaten into holding the line. With private dollar holders denied the tive to dump dollars would disappear. But although denied the right to convert unwanted dollars into gold, speculators could and did still seek conversion. If not into gold, then into marks, francs, yen or whatever cur- rency seemed more valuable at the time. The periodic runs on the dollar continued and increased in scale. In 1971, more drastic remedies were tried. Gold convertibility (even in transactions be- tween governments) were ended. “Drastic measures were taken to improve the balance of trade, thereby bringing home some of the foreign dollar accumulations that were pro- ducing the trouble; price and wage controls were adopted on the theory that a lower rate of inflation in the United States would restore confidence in the value of its money. _ As the 1973 crisis has demonstrated, the measures were ineffective. They could not work because théy were based on a false analysis of the situation. Nothing in “Nixono- mics” was directed to the real causes of this crisis, eo Juggle labor law for By CHARLES LUTZ EDMONTON — A proposed. said. amendment to Alberta’s Labor hs z t ently hinted by Labor (eader —— an de ricter Bere NDP MLA — provincial economy,” Hohol had New lone Alberta Grant Notley charged during the weekend oil giants “ridiculous.” “That would be a denial of the basic rights of the Democratic story. ° According to the same story, Great Canadian Oil Sands peti- Labor Act,” quoted the Journal monton Jourhal has provoked angry comments in labor and left circles here. : The amendment would extend the time interval between union certification applications. Em- ployees may now seek to decer- tify their union, or a rival union may seek to win certification, between the llth and 12th month of the life of a contract. Labor sources here speculate that a new law pushed for by oil sands interests would forbid all union organization drives be- fore a collective agreement had been in effect for at least 24 months. This, they feel, would protect the so-called employee “associations” from organiza- tion a drive by genuine trade union organizations. Although a subsequent Jour- nal story had Bert Hohol claim- ing “wrong interpretation,” a Canadian Tribune telephone call to the Minister’s office had earlier brought confirmation from his top staff. A project the size of the oil sands development “should be protected for the sake of the the whole civil rights move- ment,” the Communist leader said in a phone interview. Reg Basken, president of the Alberta Federation of Labor, said Bert Hohol’s statement is convention held by his party that Bert Hohol has been violat- ing the Province’s new Bill of Rights. “This is a blatant violation of the principle of freedom of association, and coming on the heels of the Slave Lake inci- dent (1), one can only conclude that the Lougheed government has declared open season on its own bill of rights,” Notley said in a Journal story. Bill Tuomi, provincial leader, Communist. Party of Canada, commented that Hohol’s state- ment seems to indicate the Lougheed government has now launched an offensive against organized labour and aims to drive unionism out of the pro- vince, to declare new industries open shop camps. ‘Tt is a violation of human rights, although there is some- thing very specific in it: the Lougheed government is very political in this that it attacks labor. If it can get away with an attack on labor it can get away with an attack on anybody; if it weakens labor it can weaken the whole civil rights move- ment,” the Communist leader said in a phone interview. Reg Basken, President of the Alberta Federation of Labor, - said Bert Hohol’s statement is PACIFIC TRIBUNE—FRIDAY, MARCH 9, 1973—PAGE 9 tioned the government last Oc- tober for a three-year respite from attempts by the Oil, Chem- ical and Atomic Workers to replace an employee association as the 600 workers’ bargaining agent. : (1). Slave Lake incident: The incident culminated Feb. 1 and 2 when Attorney-General Merv Leitch and Al Adair, minister without portfolio in charge of northern development admitted it was a mistake to have asked the RCMP to investigate the backgrounds of. three Slave Lake men. The three men, Floyd Griesbach, 56, of Wabasca, Bruce Thomas, 24, Slave Lake, and Al Burger, 32, had been re- ported as “being critical” of local administrators and as hav- ing “outlined the negative things that were happening” in the Slave Lake area, PRAGUE—The Skoda Works in Pilzen has been producing cane sugar mills for the last. 40 years. One has been working in Pakistan since 1932; 65 of these mills are operating today on several continents. The largest refinery so far made by Skoda was delivered to Cuba several! years ago.