| | | | } Transit Coalition before legislative committee | © VIETNAM: Communist | _ The fight against B.C. Hydro’s Imposition of transit fare increases and service cut backs switched Scenes today from bus stops where . Protesting riders had been paying the 15 cent fare increase by Promissory note to the crown Corporation’s committee of the B.C. legislature in session at the Vancouver Hotel. embers of the Coalition Against Fare Hikes and Service Cuts sat in at the public gallery of € legislative committee as it Pointed questions p The Coalition had Wednesday presented 24 detailed questions to committee chairman Elwood Veitch to be answered by Hydro officials. Coalition spokesmen David Schreck and Bruce Eriksen told Veitch in a letter that transit fares should be approved in a similar manner to other public utility rates - allowing for public intervention for or against with access to all pertinent records. The questions directed to Hydro probed the crown corporation’s use user pay policy towards transit, asking the crown corporation to justify its stand that transportation must be paid for by riders rather than out of general revenues as with other utilites. Most of the questions, however, were directed at finding out the- real costs of the transit system in light of -information that a good part of Hydro’s transit deficit was artificially self imposed in order to justify cutbacks in the system. One question, for example, asked Hydro to justify its charging itself about three times as much for electricity to run trolley busses as it charges industrial users. Another: question asked how many management and executive staff are costed out to the transit division and at what cost. And another asked how much of the corporation’s annual costs are due to depreciation write offs. Veitch wouldn’t give the Coalition any assurances that its 1 HL 06 A Ll. 1) LLL RL A) || A 1 eee ut to B.C. Hydro questions would be put to Hydro for answers, although the Tribue learned that some NDP members of the committee had agreed to pose the questions if necessary. A representative of each of the about 12 groups making up the Coalition was to be on hand to view the proceedings. (Last week the Tribune incorrectly named the Coalition ‘‘Coalition Against Fare Increases”’ which is an anarchist group, having nothing to do with the Coalition Against Fare Hikes and Service Cuts.) “Teviewed B.C. Hydro’s operations. ; leader William | is interviewed | Party } Kashtan on his recent visit to socialist. Vietnam, page acne sormenma ore comments on Chairman | Hua’s latest foreign | / Policy initiatives and the | ‘China card” in the hand } - U.S. imperialism, page | } © CUBA: A Canadian back from the World Youth Festival reports on some of the successes of the Cuban revolution that he viewed, page 6. STOP THE CULTURE Federal government cuts at the National Film Board and | @ THE ARTS: | the CBC are threatening | the future of Canadian \ culture, page 10. | National Ward system vote A clear cut question, for or against a full ward system, will be put to Vancouver voters in a special plebiscite November 15 in conjunction with the Vancouver civic election. In a surprising vote, Vancouver city council voted six to five Tuesday evening to approve a motion by COPE alderman Harry Rankin-to word a plebiscite on the ward system. “Are you in favor of electing alderman to city council: a, at large; or b, by areas.” Rankin’s motion passed after Council voted eight to three to defeat a clumsily worded plebiscite ‘Are you in favor of |set for Vancouver some form of ward system”, moved by TEAM alderman Don Bellamy. Later, Bellamy admitted his motion to be ‘‘dumb’’. About thirty-two speakers ap- peared before council and all but two of them urged the defeat of Bellamy’s motion as unclear and confusing and the phrasing of a. question similar to that moved by Rankin and formulated earlier this year by the Area Representation ~ Electors Alliance (AREA). After the defeat of Bellamy’s motion, TEAM alderman May Brown attempted to amend Rankin’s motion to include an See COPE page 12 CP presses jobs plan as unemployed climb A demand for action to expand the economy, to improve and extend social services and to in- stitute democratic tax reform to take the load off working people and shift it onto the corporations was reiterated this week by the Communist Party following reports by Statistics Canada that the unemployment rate had climbed again during the month of August. “What is needed now, economic policies which have proved to be bankrupt over and over again, are new policies to attack unemployment instead of the unemployed,” the CP said. It also called for united action to defeat the federal government’s proposed changes to unem- ployment insurance and stressed that UI should be improved to provide benefits equalling 80 _ in place os percent of wages for the duration of unemployment. August statistics released by StatsCan showed that the unem- ployment rate was up alarmingly in this province, giving added edge to a recent report issued by the National Council on Welfare which charged that official figures grossly understate the actual jobless situation. Declaring that ‘‘the true extent of unemployment is even worse than the official figures indicate’, the Council, which advises the federal welfare department, stated, ‘“‘More Canadians have been out of work than in any comparable period in the last 40 years (and) rates of unem- ployment that would have been unthinkable only a few years ago have now become commonplace.”’ x COPE’s Harry Rankin was the architect of the plebiscite on the ward system that will go to Vancouver voters November 15. Rankin analyzes the shifting political scene in Vancouver in his column on ~ page 2. See also story below. —Sean Griffin photo_ COPE monitoring civic scene on a daily basis As public attention focused on the Vancouver civic election campaign this week, the Com- mittee of Progressive Electors (COPE) emerged from a weekend policy conference and a general executive board meeting Monday with a decision to “monitor on a daily basis’ the developing political scene leading up to its nomination meeting. With a strengthened COPE. Strike closing in on Gen. Somoza With an arrogant General Anastasio Somoza hanging onto power only by the flagging strength of his U.S. trained Guard, Nicaragu remained gripped by a general strike which has grown in recent weeks to include local businessmen and even the influential Chamber f Commerce. : Begun three weeks ago, the general strike has been estimated to be some 80 to 90 percent ef- fective, involving workers, peasants, shopowners’ and businessmen. Their main demand is the resignation of dictator General Somoza whose family, which dominates the economy of the small Central American country, has ruled for four decades, most recently with the aid ef the CIA and the Pentagon. Although the latest strike is the second in less than a year, it was sparked this time by the oc- cupation three weeks ago of the National Palace by the Sandonista Front for the Liberation of Nicaragua (FSLN). .The mass support given. the See STRIKE page 11 organization throughout Van- couver and a splintering of right wing forces, prospects for further advances by COPE and the reform forces in Vancouver appear to be better than ever before. COPE could call its nominating meeting at any time, but it is waiting for the full political picture to fill out. Mayor Jack Volrich has left a badly shaken TEAM organization and alligned with the NPA, while former right wing mayor Bill Rathie has announced he will oppose Volrich as an in- dependent. If the new Vancouver Independent Association also nominated a mayoralty candidate, together with TEAM’s candidate, there could be at least four right wing candidates vying for the mayoralty. COPE has strong mayoralty candidates in president Bruce Yorke who received 14 percent of the vote in 1976, and former VRB manager David Schreck. The See ELECTION page 12