ABCDE.. GHIUK... MNOP..RSTUV Real victims The following is a poignant letter from a brave farm woman who lives on a quarter section farm and works in town in order to survive. Her husband died six months ago. Although she is no longer young, she expresses in her letter the indomitable spirit of the working people. Think what it would mean to her if she lost her job as a result of Trudeau’s austerity program! Here is the letter: Dear Elsie and Bill: Sure would have liked to see you folks this summer. It’s six months today. I really don’t know where the time has gone. There just isn’t enough hours in the day. I work every day from 4 p.m. to midnight at the plant, but more often it’s any time from 1 a.m. to 4 a.m. before we quit. We’ve often worked the clock around. My son is my handyman. He put the crop in and took it off. We had about 4,000 bushels of barley, and now we cannot get a permit to sell. It will’ eome eventually. There were lots of debts: left—between $1,500 and $2,000, and only $150 in the bank. All there was in the estate was this one-quarter of land, and DEBTS. But we’ll-make it. We’ve made a dint in it already and when the barley can be sold that should pretty well clear it up. My son is finishing his grade XII. That gang at the Dutch farm have pigs out there. He waters them and watches them and gets every fourth pig. It’s ‘yelelereserecetereseresereestesmetrecscecerersreresererececereteretetetetetetete “RECITE The ABC! - But REMEMBER— NO INCITEMENT 10 VIOLENCE! of violence something to keep them inter- ested. The weather has been. real nice up to now. It’s quite an is- sue to pick up the loose ends of someone else’s life, but it can be done. I hope we can all get to- gether for Christmas. The kids are all very good to me. I’d have been lost if it hadn’t been for them, but Ari is sure a good old stick for his age. We have the three cows, but don’t milk them. We’re going to sell the calves. So with it all I hope we have our feet on level ground. I’m sure glad I have my job, and very thankful at my age to be able to hold my end up. BOARE CF DIRECTGa2S § “Gentlemen, we're serine a business crisis. Our profits have returned to normal!” asctyratatetetatetatetetatetetatetetatetetatetatetctatetatatetetatetatetetatete® etatataseececereseretateteta*ata*stetatetetatenecetetstetstetetate eretaceratets Editor —MAURICE RUSH Published weekly at Ford Bldg., Mezzanine No. 3, 193 E. Hastings St., Vancouver 4, B.C. Phone 685-5288. Circulation Manager, ERNIE CRIST Subscription Rate: Canada, $5.00 one year; $2.75 for six months. North and South America and Commonwealth countries, $6.00 one yeor. All other countries, $7.00 one year mber 1560 Defeat Bill C-18] Unfortunately only one MP, David MacDonald, bravely stood up in the House of Commons to register the only opposition to Bill C-181, The Public Order Temporary Measures Act. On its second reading he had supported the War Measures Act when 16 out of the 20 NDP MPs opposed it, but said that he had now changed his mind. At that moment in history, he repre- sented the democratic will of the Cana- ‘dian people — including the wishes of those Canadians whose desires and best interests were represented earlier by the 16 NDP MPs when they stood against the War Measures Act. He sensed the grave danger to Cana- dian democracy in this latest Trudeau manoeuvre. The Establishment needs this new re- pressive legislation, not to control the FLQ, but to move against the social and economic aspirations of French Can- ada — as well as against the interests of all Canadian working people. The new measure perpetuates -the military occupation of Quebec. The government is declaring its intention to continue to frustrate the national aspirations of the French Canadian people. It is obvious to any serious thinking person that the Establishment intends . to continue its repressions instead of taking measures to overcome unemploy- ment, poverty, bad housing, markets and inadequate educational and medi- cal services. The Prime Minister says imnocent people have nothing to fear. He means that if the five million Canadians who endure poverty act to eliminate it he will judge them guilty. Terrorism, says the Prime Minister, is the use of violence to break the law. Unfortunately there are no laws to protect people from the violence of poverty*:and- unemployment. Violence begets violence. 3 However, the forces for democracy and progress. are still all-powerful. They have compelled the Prime Minis- ter to twist and turn—to adopt more devious ways. The new repressive legis- lation can be defeated if all Canadians exercise their democratic power — or- ganize, protest. People’s laws needed A judge sentenced a young man to 10 years for involuntary manslaughter. He said he had to do this because the law demands it, but that he would do everything he could to get the young - man’s early release. The judge pointed out that the accused was a victim of poverty who had been brutalized as a child by a drunken father. Such a situation is not so rare. What is rare is the outspoken sentiments of the judge who is, in his way, telling us that the capitalist system is to blame, not the victim. Indeed, he might have gone further than he did. There is, for instance, no law against poverty, no law that the boss shall pay more than the minimum wage. Only the struggles of the working class have pushed wages to where they are (and the Establishment is eyeing laws to put that under control). For women, the minimum wage becomes the max | mum, fixing the incomes of the major ity of women workers at well below the poverty level. | There are no laws against slum land } lords; no laws to punish those who al] low: people to die of neglect; no laws | to guarantee everyone a job; no laws to guarantee adequate standards education, medical care and recreation | The judge, compassionate and | | thoughtful at least in this instance, ha} left most of it unsaid. Such basic guar antees of rights are needed, because We live under capitalist law which is de) signed to protect private property an@) profits. The real thieves A Controller in Toronto is raising 4] great hullabaloo, alleging that some social welfare cases have been cheat | ing. He wants it stopped. Welfare] cases and costs have been soaring wit Trudeau’s unemployment policies. It’s all part of the hypocrisy of the} day—the attempt to divert people’s at tention away from real issues. The samé 1! Controller didn’t protest paying to sen@} 7,500 or 10,000 troops to occupy Que} bec. One could safely assume that opel” ation cost the Canadian taxpayers any” where from $150,000 to $250,000 dok lars a day at least — to catch 20 met who haven’t yet been found guilty. This} same Controller doesn’t protest the pro duction of planes which go from thé assembly line into mothballs by the De partment of National Defense. There are 900 cases of over ment,” says a Toronto welfare official, ranging from a very low sum up to 4 couple of thousand dollars in a period of 18 months. If an average of $500 15 struck for each, in that time, it doesn't | amount to $30 a month, and that doesn’t } amount .to one-tenth of the money spent per day on occupying Quebec. » A million jobs now The need to step up the campaign fot a million jobs, launched by the Commu: nist Party, is underlined by the latest } predictions of mass unemploymen which, it is claimed, come wintertime will be the gravest since the Hungry | Thirties. It means that the already five million | poverty stricken Canadians will hav@} their numbers augmented by anothe? three million. The development of new policies t0 widen trade and provide jobs has be come a priority question. Jobs for al can be provided at productive work, | trade union rates of pay, and-with 2] shorter work week, which would raisé the living standards of the majority} of working people. All of the natural resources, technical facilities and know- how, are here to accomplish those aims: Policies which will achieve them aré a necessity now. We need the planne development of our rich land to give full equality of opportunity to every boy and girl, and to give economic se curity to all Canadians every day of their lives. United action is needed now to wil > such comprehensive policies.