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Own our own beer!

. | na telegram to Labor Minister Peterson last week’s

regional convention of the IWA accused the brewery
beer barons of “wilfully absenting their negotiators from
the area’”’, and urged that the government compel. the
brewers to make their top negotiators available for union-
management talks, with a view to ending the current
brewery strike.

The Bartenders’ Union in a similar message went a
step further and called upon the government to “take
over” the brewing industry; a demand meriting wide pub-
lic support since it could be productive of a double-barel-
led public benefit; the restoration of a public service, and
the termination of the domination and “slush fund” cor-
ruption by a powerful brewing monopoly in the affairs of
government and industry.

These two important union demands, to compel the
resumption of negotiations as prescribed under the labor
laws of B.C., or to ‘take over” the brewing industry, cor-
respond to the best interests of the people, and working
people in particular. Hundreds of workers have already
been deprived of their jobs and livelihood because of the
contemptuous attitude, silence and unconcern of the beer
magnates. Seemingly it suits their sinister purposes and
conspiracies, the Beer Barons take the position of“ the
union and the public be damned.”

To that monopoly evil there is only one lasting solu-
tion; public ownership of the brewing industry.

Yukon ‘Robin Hood’

= | would like to think that had I been in Grant’s posi-
tion I would have had the courage to do what he

did,” declared trial Judge John Parker when sentencing

Yukon Territory Indian Agent, William E. Grant.

Bill Grant’s crime, that he had exceeded,:the federal
government’s “authorized” $45,000 for Indian needs by an-
other $25,000, upping the total'to $70,000. Indian Agent
Grant spent the total amount, “authorized” and un-auth-
orized, trying to improve the wretched housing, “welfare’’
relief and other long-neglected needs of the Native Indian
people in the Whitehorse area.

Regarding Mr. Justice Parker’s sentence of $50 or one
day in jail as too “light”, the “Crown” appealed the case.
A B.C. Appeal Court found Mr. Grant had “exceeded his
authority” and upped the fine ante considerably. White-
horse citizens promptly picked up the tab and re-named
Bill Grant the “Robin Hood of the North”; a striking
commentary on how a judge, a wide strata of the public,
and all-too-few “Robin Hood” Grants view the govern-
ment of Canada’s penny-pinching policies and maladmin-
istration of Indian affairs.

With $1.6-billion down the arms drain annually, the

- government’s action against Bill Grant can only be seen as

a vindictive act—against a dispossessed Indian people, and
against men like Grant who place a higher value on human
dignity and wellbeing than upon their own job sinecures.

What this country needs is more “Robin Hoods” of
the Bill Grant stature. bes

e e
Editorial note
opular wrestling star ‘‘Whipper'
Billy Watson is leaving the wrest-
ling game to become a politician — a
Tory politician. Nominated Tory candi-
date in a Toronto riding, the ‘“Whip”
has outlined his initial bout on the hust-
ings in a recent TV interview: ‘‘To stop

Communism.”
In their yearnings for the ‘‘emolu-

ments of office’' both Tories and
liberals are not beckward at picking
up candidate timber possessing a
measure of fame or notoriety in sport
circles, if, in their opportunist calcula-
tions, such notoriety aids in winning an-
other seat. All other considerations are

So the “Whip” garbed in a new Tory
coldwar toge, with his mental muscles ion
all flexed up, is out ‘‘to stop Com-
munism. ~ :

Tom
McEWEN

By DAVID DENT “unemployed miners in Kentucky:
hat Tom McEwen’s column he has made an audience in the

(July 16) implied was (1)that East aware of some of the prob-
Phil Ochs is insignificant, (2) lems of Mexican workers in Cali-

that Ochs and the tendency he fornia: he has given voice to

fe)

Gifts for the children of Vietnam

close resemblance to the Phil saying that the songs of another
Ochs I interviewed. generation were “much too func-
tional,” What he said was that
they were more functional, that
it was a different era and that
the songs reflected this,

McEwen says, “We'll readily
concede he’s probably a good
singer, strums the guitar nicely,
and, upon occasion, composes a

—Eccles, Br. Worker

reflects are not progressive feelings against American im-
phenomena, (3) that the Canadian
Tribune should never have pub-
lished the interview,

The first of these contentions
is simply not true, Unfortunate
though it may be, Phil Ochs has
an audience bigger than that of
the Canadian Tribune, Pacific
Tribune and U.S, Worker put to-
gether, This audience listens to
what he says—about labor unions,
Vietnam, civil rights, underpaid
Mexican workers, ete,

Politically he stdnds- some-
where between the rampant indi-
vidualism of Bob Dylan and the
views of a singer like Tom Pax-
ton, who believes the system
must be changed at the base, As
a result he is probably closer to
the mass of young Americans in
revolt than either of the others,

In reply to the second point,
that Ochs is not a progressive
phenomenom, He has sung for .
striking students at Berkeley and

perialism: he has called on the
American labor movement to
carry on its old—and somewhat
lost, radical tradition by playing
a greater role in the civil rights
struggle,

I see the Tribune as trying to
put across and fight for acertain
point of view, It would be unable
to do this if it did not take into
account contrary arguments and
opinions, You cannot refute
something whose existence you
do not recognize,

I also see the Tribune as try-
ing to give a picture ofthe world,
and especially the Left, as it
really is, It would be impossible
to give a valid picture of North
American protest while ignoring
someone like Phil Ochs,

There are other aspects of
Tom McEwen’s column which I
would like to criticize, above all

the fact the Phil Ochs whom he’

attacks does not bear a very

song with some social content it
it.” But the interview specifi-
cally mentions the fact that he
writes his own songs, and that
he almost never sings one with-
out political content,

Tom McEwen complains that
“the portrait literally reeks with
‘Tl’ instead of ‘we,’ * Of course it
does. We only interviewed one
folksinger and asked him to an-
swer questions about what he
thought, not what he thought the
protest movement or folksingers
in general thought,

Tom McEwen claims, “Of all
the myriad political parties that
abound on our hemisphere, Ochs
singles out the Communist Party
of the USA to lavish his egotisti-
cal and ignorant spleen upon,”
He did no such thing, As the
interview makes quite clear, it
was after he had mentioned the
fact that the Left in the Thirties
was “Party (capital P, Commun-
ist) orientated and thus so were
folksingers, that Iasked him what
he thought of the *Party’s role
in the Thirties.” I would have
been very surprised if he had
told me-about the Communist
Party of Trinidad or even of
Canada,

Tom McEwen accuses Ochs of

The column says that Phil
Ochs’ “portrait” looks “pretty
sickly” beside Joe Hill, Phil
Ochs is 24, He would have to be
a superman to do what Joe Hill

‘did, The difference which Phil

Ochs was underlining was one
brought about by changing tech-
nology and changing conditions,

Worth
Quoting

London, England. A toy guilletiné
imported from Canada has arov i
the ire of British newspaper colum
Henry Fielding. The guillotine is pot
of a range of plastic models which in:
cludes Frankenstein and Dracula dolls
and was exhibited earlier this yea
Britain at a toy fair sponsored by
Ontario government. a

Fielding says the guillotine co
complete with a model victim. Fi
ing comments: ‘‘You lay the poor’
tim on the platform, pull lever,
blade descends and veila, anot
aristocrat loses his head. The ma
is waiting don’t you think for a d0
yourself electric chair and a mix-
own styrchnine kit?”’

—PRESS JOURNAL, August, 1965

Supt. D. Clark on Latrine Patrol.
Mr. Clark questioned workers using
the washroom facilities during a
ing hours. Brother Larry Easton, who
was challenged by Clark, explained
that he was there for a legitimal®
and natural reason. Assuming 9
for which he had no qualification
Mr. Clark advised Larry he sho¥
control himself until he was of
lunch period.

—UE GUIDE, ;
July-August edition, 19

*

Western and, particularly Frenc!
sources ... tend to confirm
Chinese view that the Yanks hav@
deed been “‘trapped like rats” in the
jungles of Vietnam. According to
both Washington and London are ai
well aware of the suicidal Amerie
predicament, and that was the
motive behind Premier Wilson's
successful bid for a Commonwee—
peace mission.

French circles are openly predicting
a complete American rout in Vie pos
to be followed by a Wall Street ¢™

CEYLON TRIBUNE, July 17,"

gressive force in AmeriCae
Phil Ochs said about a sone |
wrote: It was written to be
stop Johnson from stoppiné ~

(Communism in Vietnam).

* Oe Ok

e
~ (Editor's note: David pent, th

author of “Portrait of a prote He
Singer” in a letter to the edi
took strong exception to the B@
ors comments on his “Porth
in the July 16 edition,

since Mr, Dent's letter ©
exceeded PT editorial stipul4 he
on the length of letters

Phil Ochs did not sneer at the into consideration Mr. pe aly
past history of folk singing as later complaint tha j
‘Tom McEwen claims, He men- seems fair to me to engage es
tioned the undeniable fact that polemic with a column 21 ine dS
most songs used to be written by long in a letter of 300 poard
amateurs, Obviously this made long,” the PT Editorial
a difference,

The Communist Party is not space, His own letter, @ Be:
the only progressive force in the ated by himself to his own
world: it is not the only pro- fied length, appears above.

editor for publication, and mats

t *it har

wo

tatu

have accorded Mr, Dent the Ss

7g
of “guest columnist ppret

ily eee = Fre 6

‘Canada, $5.00 one year; $2.75 for six months. North and Sou

Editor — TOM McEWEN
Associate Editor — MAURICE RUSH
Circulation Manager — JERRY SHACK
Published weekly at
- Ford Bldg., Mezzanine No. 3, 193 E. Hastings St.
Phone 685-5288
Subscription Rates:

th Americe

and Commonwealth countries, $6.00 one year. All other countries: 7" |,
one year. Authorized as second class mail by the Port Office Dep? ;
Ottawa, and for payment of postage in cash.

e—Pag?

September 24, 1965—PACIFIC TRIBUN