Millions in dire want

Poverty is no myth in Canada

By WILLIAM BEECHING

The existence of widespread
poverty in Canada contradicts
all claims of an affluent society.
It is now accepted that poverty
is much wider than had been
thought, embracing almost one-
third of the nation.

The scale of poverty is forc-
ing governments to pay some
attention to it—at least to the
extent of talking about it, and
laying in some planks for the
next federal election. There
should be no illusions as to
what the Trudeau Government
will do about it, however.

Poverty is a direct result of
the capitalist exploitation of the
working population. Most work-
ers would suffer a much worse
life were it not for the trade
union movement.

Advance Programs

The development of a public
discussion around the problem
of poverty affords an opportu-
nity to the people’s organiza-
tions, and in particular the trade
unions, to advance the struggle
for anti-poverty programs.

A program to overcome pov-
erty involves the fight for a vast
program of socially-needed con-
struction — housing, hospitals,
schools, more recreational faci-
lities——the reduction of the
work week, expansion of edu-
cation and re-education, rural
and urban reconstruction and
development, the development
of Canada’s energy and water
resources, and so on.

It must be the right of every
Canadian to have an education,
a well-paid job, and to live in
adequate, modern housing, and
to enjoy fruitful leisure time.

Against the Monopolies

An anti-poverty campaign is
essentially anti-monopoly _ in
its content. It must include
what is called ‘“welfarism,”
which places. social responsibil-
ity on the governments, but it
must not stop at that. The fight
for money to be spent on deve-
lopment programs to overcome
poverty is essentially in direct
conflict with the present policy
of spending huge sums on war
preparations.

All evidence clearly indicates

that the most massive poverty
exists in the cities of Canada. A
brief from the Economic Coun-
cil of Canada said, “The greater
part of your total poverty is
urban ... a good half of it is
west of the Ottawa River, and
. .. most poor families are head-
ed by men under 65. A particu-
larly striking fact is that most
poor families have heads in the
current labor force.”
Poverty on Farms

The most poverty-stricken of
all are the Native Peoples, the
Women and youth, and a large
proportion of the farm popula-
tion. Each one requires a special
study.

A larger proportion of the
farm population are victims of

poverty than the urban, al-
though greater numbers are in-
volved in the cities. Various
measures have been used to
describe who is or is not poverty
stricken. These statistics have
confirmed that the average rural
family has an income, on the
average, 40% below that of the
urban family.

In 1966, 55% of all farms
were estimated to have sold an
annual gross of $5,000 of farm
products. These farms only ac-
counted for 14% of total agri-
cultural production, and had a

total value of sales equal only-

to the top 6,000 of the largest
farms.

The small farm sector em-
braced 75% of all the farms in
Quebec and the Atlantic pro-
vinces. About 62% of the poor
are found in metropolitan areas,
and about 38% in rural. How-
ever, 45.9% of all rural families
are poor compared with about
26% of all urban families.

What does it mean in life?
The Canadian Council on Rural
Development gives the 1961-64
average difference between rural
and urban incomes, broken down
by provinces: °

Farm income in proportion to
urban income in:

Prince EdwardIsland 33%

Nova Scotia 27%
Quebec 41%
Ontario 60%
Manitoba 49%
Saskatchewan 74%
Alberta 66%
British Columbia 68%
All Canada average 49%

However, it must be remem-
bered that for wheat farmers on
the prairies, there has beén a de-
cline of 50% in their incomes.

Infant mortality rates “are
higher in rural areas. Hospital
beds and the ratio of doctors to
population is lower.

Less Opportunity

“Rural people earn less than
ing conditions are in a dire state
in comparison with urban con-
ditions,” says the Council.

“Rural people earns less than
city people. They have less
chance of employment. When
employed, they are more likely
to be underemployed. Their gen-
eral level of living is much low-
er. The health and educational
facilities available to them are
not of the same standard as
those available to urban people.
Their housing tends to be older
and more crowded and the level
of domestic comfort and amen-
ity they enjoy is far lower tnan
it is for urban dwellers.”

THANKS FROM RUMANIA

W. Kashtan, General Secre-
tary of the Communist Party
of Canada, has received the
following. telegram from Bu-
charest: .

We thank you sincerely for
the feelings of solidarity you
expressed in connection with
the floods that took place in
our country.

—Central Committee

Rumanian Communist Party.

Foreign policy ‘alters’
but remains the same

By WILLIAM KASHTAN

“The mountain labored and
produced a mouse”—this seems
to be the sum total of the sub-
stance of the Government's
White Paper on Foreign Policy,
which took two years to pre-
pare. Typical Trudeaumania, it
creates the illusion of change
without changing anything.

The White Paper reflects in
part the efforts of Canadian
monopoly to strengthen its
trading positions in different
parts of the world, such as in
the Pacific rim, Latin America
and parts of Africa, and to free
itself, to some degree, from too
much dependence on the U.S.A.

However, its basic orientation,
including that of continued
membership in the NATO mili-
tary alliance, is not changed.
True enough, it is sugar coated
by the idea that it could be
transformed into something
other than a military alliance,
but this. cannot hide the fact
that continued membership in
NATO undermines Canada’s in-
dependence, not to speak of its
security.

The pretense of a more inde-
pendent position by Canada in

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—FRIDAY, JULY 3, 1970—Page 6

foreign affairs is further expos-
ed by the White Paper’s silence
on Canada’s membership in

-NORAD, the military junta in

Greece, U.S. military aggression
in Indochina and in the Middle
East, its silence on European
security, the arms race, recogni-
tion of the German Democratic
Republic, the Democratic Re-
public of Vietnam, the Democra-
tic Republic of North Korea.

Thus, where a truly indepen-
dent Canadian foreign policy
could have meaning, there is
complete acquiescence with
U.S. imperialist policy.

The truth is that a genuinely
independent foreign policy still
has to be won. Neither Tru-
deau’s imagery nor Sharp’s chi-
canery can hide this basic fact
and its relationship to the strug-
gle for Canadian independence.

The White Paper is an apolo-
gia to continue the present
course, which can only do harm
to Canada’s security and inde-
pendence, and to world peace.
It should be opposed by demo-
cratic public opinion as totally
inadequate to serve the real in-
terests of Canada and the Cana-
dian people.

Civil guardsman Le Thi Tha, in the Democratic Republic of Vi

’

nam, 68-year-old anti-aircraft gunner, from the fishermen’s villog?

West Berlin students protesting the
by the Chamber of Deputies, permitting the arming
machine guns and hand grenades.

Seven three-week-old wolves in one lair is the result of
search of huntsmen in the Moscow region. The cubs W!
to zoos of the country.

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‘hand grenade law’ po
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