TT TL ew FLASHBACKS FROM THE COMMUNIST PRESS 25 years ago... NEWSMEN OPPOSE BARRING COMMUNISTS A resolution opposing any change in the constitution of the American Newspaper Guild to bar Communists from member- ship has been unanimously en- dorsed by the Toronto News- paper Guild unit: It was described to all Guild locals, to the international executive board before its May meeting, and it instructs their delegates attending the Albany convention in June to support the stand of the Toronto local. The proposal to change the constitution, adopted at last year’s Guild convention, will be dealt with in a parley of news- paper reporters. The Toronto resolution points out that the Communist Party is “still recognized as a legitimate political party in both the United States and Canada” recommending that Article 2 “be left as originally proposed by the Guild’s founder, Heywood Broun”. ‘Tribune, May 16, 1955 50 years ago.... EIGHT SUDBURY WORKERS SENTENCED SUDBURY — Eight Com- munist leaders were given “sav- age sentences” in the local boss court for actively participating in the mass demonstration of Sudbury workers on May Day. Seven were sentenced to one month plus $25. fines and the eight T.A. Hill was sentenced to two months plus the fine. Their sentences are being appealed by the Canadian Labor Defence League. May Day this year witnessed the greatest mass demonstra- tion in the history of Sudbury, where more than a fourth of the population of this mining center turned out at the call of the Communist Party and lined up for a parade at Bell Park. All _tolled 18 demonstrators includ- ing three women were arrested. The other workers had their charges withdrawn. Worker, - May 24, 1930 Profiteer of the week: fuel prices. _ Guess who isn’t voting for social ownership of Canada’s resources and the means of transporting them. Transcanada Pipelines and its major shareholders. TP had a three- month after-tax profit of $23,736,000 for the period ended March 31. If the people of __ Canada owned that they could lower their own Figures used are from the company’s financial statements. Editor — SEAN GRIFFIN Associate Editor — FRED WILSON Business and Circulation Manager — PAT O'CONNOR Published weekly at Suite 101 — 1416 Commercial Drive, Vancouver, B.C. VSL 3X9. Phone 251-1186 Subscription Rate: Canada $10 one yr.; $6.00 for six months; All other countries, $12 one year. Second class mail registration number 1560 PACIFIC TRIBUNE—MAY 16, 1980—Page 4 IDLTORIAIL COMIWIEINT Downgrading Canadian TV Communications Minister Francis Fox’s offer to the big business Canadian Association of Broadcasters, April 29, was in the foul tradition of selling Canada’s soul for Yankee dollars — and for the enrichment of the corporate elite of Canada. Fox proposes to scrap the 60% Cana- dian content rule for television prog- ramming. It would mean that commer- cial stations — who reap huge advertis- ing profits by subjecting viewers to an endless harangue by nit-wit characters _— could choke the country with U.S. TV junk shows. Meanwhile, the Canadian Broadcast- ing Corporation, publicly-funded, but currently run as a pro-monopoly, pro- USA propaganda medium, instead of being raised to a legitimate vehicle for Canadian expression, for information, entertainment and education, would be downgraded to low-budget tokenism. It is the time-worn policy of capitalist governments to provide handouts to corporate power centres, and cutbacks ‘in public service, in this case the stub- born refusal to increase the «quantity, quality and breadth of Canadian prog- ramming. Like the auto handouts, this will mean fewer jobs for Canadians. Like the auto handouts it means a further loss of | Canadian sovereignty. But Fox’s incred- ible move has other insidious implica tions. ' Apart from the violence, pornog raphy and idiocy of U.S. TV fare, there is the hard core propaganda tugging — this country into a web of believing # the “right” of U.S. imperialism to blud- geon the world into its selected pattern, its distortion of human existence, and its outrageous hypocrisy. And to all of this Fox would open the floodgates. 7: Not only must the government be fought on this surrender of Canadiat sovereignty; it must be compelled 1 + introduce democratic control of the CBC, with guarantees of its service 10 the people of Canada, not to big bust ness and the multi-nationals. : The federal government has shown @ shocking willingness to tie Canada to the | USA, militarily, economically and ideologically — which commits this country to the U.S. policy of cold wat and shooting war, to save imperialism from the march of humanity. ; Fox can expect a host of Canadians t0 fight his move to saturate us with U.S. “culture and information” while neg- lecting to establish a genuine Canadian presence in television. Hysteria and hypocrisy The big business. media — _ gate- keepers of the mind as they’ve been called — have thrown themselves whole-heartedly into the current cold © war propaganda barrage. It is the blended sales pitch of CIA, Pentagon, U.S. State Department, Carter election campaign, and NATO, with Canadian reactionaries adding their own twists. The horse they all ride is anti-Sovietism. The monopoly newspapers have a role of their own in misrepresenting the labor movement, distorting all things. Soviet, and alternately maligning and soft-soaping the liberation movement. The aim is always the same, whatever the concoction — to whip up anti-Soviet hysteria, promote the U.S.-led arms build-up, and make cold war a perma- nent feature of imperialism’s era of demise. Hypocrisy too, is a weapon in their work, as The Star and The Globe and Mail of Toronto demonstrate. Having done everything in their power to warp their readers’ understanding of the affairs of Afghanistan, and on this single lie, having carried on a constant howl in. support of Carter’s plotted Olympic boycott, and his trade sanc- tions, these papers and their ilk warn against extremes! Having strained to destroy détente — the only alternative to world conflict, and having slandered the USSR in every field from sports to trade and scientific exchange, these misinformers express indignation when people they have been inciting to hatred, mindlessly act on that hatred. But they are indeed responsible. a An example was the recent action of 4 self-appointed censor who tried to in- timidate five employees into getting rid of their Soviet-made cars — Ladas — and barring them from the company parking lot. The papers gleefully re- ported this blow to Soviet esteem. Then both expressed righteous con- cern editorially. “We do not need such a return to the Cold War mentality. ..” clucked the Star. The trip from banning Ladas to “wholesale vilification of every- thing Soviet ... finishes too often in -.- war hysteria . . .” the Globe pontificated. — These papers make constant claims to being Canadian; one even calls itself Canada’s national newspaper. Why then do they not attack Canada’s real enemies — the purveyors of cold wat and military build-up at the expense of living standards? Why do they pour out vilification over an imagined threat from a fictitious enemy? = They do it because far from bein papers which speak in the interests 0 Canadians, they parrot the propaganda line of the USA. To do so they have to subordinate Canada’s interests and dis- tort reality. a Need it be pointed out that such organs of the U.S. military-industrial complex, and its minions in Canada, cannot be relied upon as a source either of information or analysis?