Freedom for the threeim-
-prisoned Quebec union
leaders and the fight for full
employment will be thecen-
tral theme of Vancouver's
May Day celebration to be
held at City Hall Square. Sun-
day, April 29 at 2 p.m.

A meeting of the May Day
Committee, to which many
organizations have been in-
vited to send representa-
tives, will be held Wednes-
day, April 18 at 7:30 p.m. in
the Boilermakers Hall, 1219
Nanaimo St., to complete
plans to make this the big-
gest May Day in years.

A press statement issued
this week by George Hew-
ison, secretary of the May
Day Committee, said, ‘This
year labor must gear itself
for the fight for full employ-
ment as wellastofree three
of our brothers imprisoned

Freedom for Quebec’s three trade union leaders — Yvon
Charbonneau, Marcel Pepin and Louis Laberge — will be one of
the central themes of Vancouver's May Day rally this year.

Free the Quebec Three
May Day rally feature

in Quebec. whose only crime
is fighting for justice for
their fellow workers in that
Province.”

‘With the mounting strug-
gle against anti-labor legis-
lation and the need to better
-understand what is taking
place in the French-Canadian
labor movement, the May
Day Committee has ex-
tended an invitation to broth-
er Jean Pare, gifted Quebec
labor leader and vice-presi-
dent of the United Electrical
Union to head up a list of
speakers this year.” said
Hewison.

The May Day committee is
appealing for funds to help de-
fray the costs of the rally and
to bring Pare to B.C. Con-
tributions can be sent to the
Vancouver May Day Com-
mittee. 1219 Nanaimo St..
Vancouver 6.

LABOR COMMENT

Cont'd from pg. 15

The professional opportunist
will do almost anything. includ
ing making unscrupulous deals
with the employers in order to
hang on toa well-paid position
in the labor movement. A good
number of them have left the
labor movement to go to work
for some of the biggest em-
ployers in the province, as
“labor relations experts.”
Opportunists can only be de-
feated on the basis of correct
policies and the mobilization of
the workers in support of such
policies. The more skilful the
opportunist. the more skilland
patience are required to expose
him.

3. Rejection of those who are
working to fragmentise or
maintain divisions in the labor
movement: I[t is an essential
principle in the trade union
movement that in unity there is
Strength. Those who divide the
labor movement because of
craft or industrial considera-
tions. on sectarian political
grounds or through secessionist
movements, irrespective of the
purity of their motives. doa dis-
service to the working class.

For example. noone questions
the motives of those honest work-
ers who have supported break-
away movements against the
internationals in B.C. But one
does not judge the correctness
of an action by the integrity of
workers who support it. The
fundamental question is *‘will

the action serve the long range
interest of the workers in-
volved and the class as a
whole?”

The historv of the trade union
movement in B.C. is replete with
the failure of secessionist
movements in which impatient
radicals vainly attempted to
set up a perfect trade union
movement through break-
aways. instead of working with-
in the established imperfect
trade unions. and fighting to win
the majority for progressive
policies. The rise and decline of
the One Big Union after World
War Oneisaclassicalexample
of the failure of secession.

In this period, there are many
new factors. because this is not
1919. However. we willdeal with
that aspect of the problem inan-
other Labor Comment.

Chain stores wring,

*

super profits from
high fish prices

By H.K. WARREN

As if the fabulous profits from
beef weren t enough. the retail
stores and the packing houses
are wringing similar profits
from fish.

It is particularly noticeable
during the meat boycott how
the price of fish jumped and how
some retail supermarket
outlets were really testing the
consumer public.

Halibut went up in price from
$1.29 per pound to $1.59 per
pound and at one downtown
retail outlet, the price was al-
ready $1.89.

There have been no halibut
landings yet this year and there
will be none until the coming
week so that any halibut in stock
is from last year’s landings. In

PROFITS

Cont'd from pg. |!

This boostin forestry profits
accounts for the scandalous in-
crease in lumber prices which
have pushed housing costs away
up out of the reach of the aver-
age income family.

The food industry is another
glaring example of profit-
eering. Of the 40 corporations.
Woodwards Stores is listed sec-
ond in terms of total sales. Dur-
ing the same period under re-
view— the last three months of
1972 compared with the pre-
vious three months — there was
a 71.9 percent jump in profits
for Woodwards after taxes.

B.C. Packers, which dom-
inates the fishing industry and
is part of the Weston food chain,
along with Super-Valu stores and
Kelly Douglas. showed a jump
in profits during the same per-
iod of 168.4 percent.

The pecentage increase in
profits during the three month
period for three major food
monopolies in B.C, was 33.9 per-
cent — small by comparison
with the forest industry. but
still more than twice the na-
tional profit average during
that period. That's why vour
food bills have gone up and are
still going up.

The high profits being made by
the food chains account for the
fact that food prices in Van-
couver are on the average eight
percent higher than Toronto or
Montreal and all other areas of
Canada. outside of the Mari-
time provinces.

Free political prisoners

The Vancouver Branchof the
International Committee to
Free South Vietnamese Poli-
tical Prisoners has urged the
public to send a flood of letters
to External Affairs Minister
Mitchell Sharp demanding free-
dom for the 200.000 political pris-
oners being held by the Thieu re-
gime.

Ina leaflet being distributed
by the Vancouver Committee.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—FRIDAY, APRIL 13, 1973—PAGE 16

listing a large number of names
of prisoners, it is pointed out
that the Paris Agreements
signed by all four nations onJan-
uary 27. 1973. state that the two
South Vietnamese parties will
“prohibit all acts of reprisal
and discrimination against ind1-
viduals or organizations that
have collaborated with one side
or the other .. | ensure the
democratic liberties of the peo-
ple. personal freedom.

addition, the last landings were
late in 1972 and at that time; the
prices were 50¢ per pound for
large, 68.3¢ for medium. The
very latest figure was in Sep-
tember 1972 when the price was
80.6¢ per pound — an all time
high.

The fisherman has to travel
Some 1500 miles from Van-
couver to get that price. From
B.C. Packers to the downtown
Store is only six short blocks—
but the price more than doubles
in the trip!

B.C. Packers is one of the
major suppliers of fish to Van-
couver’s retail outlets. It is
nation-wide with plants from
Newfoundland to the Queen
Charlotte Islands.

Both B.C. Packers and the re-

tail outlet, Super-Valu are part
of the gigantic Weston Empire.
At the top, Weston reaps the pro-
fits from both outlets— at the
Wholesale level from B.C.
Packers and at the retail level—
from Super-Valu.
. For ling cod, the price to the
fisherman as of early March
ranged from 22 to 30c per pound.
Yet all retail outlets were show-
ing prices of 79¢ per pound and
up.

White spring salmon was sell-
ing for $1.69 per pound and red
spring for $2.29 per pound. All
prices were taken from a
physical survey of both major
Supermarket outlets and from
independent fish stores. Friday
April 6, 1973. :

And there have been no wage
settlements in the fish packing
industry since June 1971 and
then the settlement was only 9°:

in the first year and 8‘7 inthe sec-

ond.

The retail Outlets a
packers cannot po, "4 the fish
wage increases fo. Oly Plead
ranging from 200 to Mar
Truly the fish S00cc .
try will be able ¢, “!"g inane
theme song to the Boa°Ptitie fey

tors for 1973 ~ Ral of Dire ec
Swag, Boys!" eS Cun "
* ok i

The beef indus
retail stores have y and
every argument eg, “Adleg

order to try and “eivap

meat prices. Spira|stity

costs, excessive ing we ee
demand, increa Con =
: S Sume!

feed: they've aj) umer

sented.

But the greatest
all is the one about
age.

Charles Grace

: y
dian Cattlemen‘s af
inadvertently fin; 9

Y S

argument — Peru, e that
Y. once

and for all.

The facts are,*>
recent article in © sai
Producer, ‘that . Ss West |
tion and beef S =
expanding at the mag, Plies
in the history of our ;-*Tapig

“Since 1969, the ¢ “dustry Pe
continued to grow 2 herd has
about eight percent 3 rate of ©

“Infactsorapid ha. Year” :
buildups of the bear® been the
herds around the ‘ breedin
unusually large , VOrig ther .
cows and heifers hayw™b

back from the mark =
So there it is. The =
sible beef shorta.~ Only,

ficially created _ S®& is ane
keep the prices wes Order to
Gracey advocates nN fact

restriction, to ma Ore cin
higher yet. Ke prigaea