TAG DAY IN VICTORIA

TRAIL MAYOR HITS WAR

B.C. centres protest Vietnam war

The moratorium movement in B.C. to end the Vietnam war spread last weekend
to many large centres outside Vancouver, adding new breadth to the campaign.

In Vancouver — The trade
unions got into the campaign ina
big way with a large adver-
tisement in both daily papers
signed by unions representing
tens of thousands of B.C.
workers. Included among these
were the B.C. Federation of
Labor, Vancouver and District
Labor Council and unions repre-
senting the marine workers,
carpenters, retail clerks, elec-
trical workers, woodworkers,
tailors, civic workers, bakers,
ailway and oil workers.

The advertisement was also
signed by many individual trade
unionists who contributed to the
ad. The public was called upon
to, ‘Write your member of
parliament, or the prime
minister’s office, protesting
Canada’s continued supply of
war material to the Allied forces
in Vietnam.”

Also in Vancouver, about 70
people joined a ‘‘silent vigil” last
Saturday at the Court House
fountain to protest the war. Signs
reading, ‘‘Vietnam Peace
Now!” were carried by the
protestors, as others gave out a
leaflet to the public quoting
many prominent people who
condemned U.S. atrocities, and
called for U.S. troop withdrawal
and an end to Canadian com
plicity.

The vigil was sponsored by the

Memorial for

My Lai victims
A special memorial meeting to
commemorate the victims of the
My lai massacre has been
announced by the newly-formed
Vietnam Moratorium Committee.
it will be held at the Unitarian
Church , 949 W. 49th Ave. on Dec.

23 at 8 p.m.

The committee is also
Sponsoring a daily vigil starting

_ Monday, Dec. 22 from nodn to

2 p.m. at the corner of Georgia
and Granville. Ten thousand post '
cards addressed to Prime Minister
Trudeau and President Nixon will
be passed out to the public.

a

Vancouver Peace Action
League, comprised of the Fellow-
ship of Reconciliation, Voice of
ee

VICTORIA, B.C.: This capital
city marked Vietnam moratorium
day last Saturday with a tag day
sponsored by the Voice of Women
which raised $1,122 to help buy
artificial limbs for amputee
children in Vietnam. The city
council granted permission for the
tag day, which was the first held
on Vancouver Island.

A public meeting also heard
Wilf Allen, YMCA representative
who recently returned from South
Vietnam, condemn U.S. action in
Vietnam. :
RR Pt i

Women, Religious Society of
Friends (Quakers), B.C. Peace
Council, Women’s International

League for Peace and Freedom, -

and Canadian Campaign for
Nuclear Disarmament. Other
peace actions saw thousands of
leaflets handed out on city
streets calling for an end to the
war.

In Trail— Mayor F. E. De Vito
played a prominent part in a
peace parade and rally which
was the first of its-kind held in
the Kootenays. About 200
citizens joined the march despite
bad weather, to parade through
city streets to the cenotaph to
hold a public rally.

Addressing the rally, Mayor
De Vito said the Vietnam war is
a lost cause which no longer has
validity in view of the
“sickening, senseless and
insane suffering the war has
caused.”” He warned of the
dangers of nuclear war and said,
“the longer the Vietnam war
continues the more irrational
and dangerous will U.S. actions
become.

Rev. G. Hermanson urged

_citizens to write their members

of Parliament protesting the
war. Al Warrington,
representing Local 480 of the
United Steel Workers of
America, branded U.S. action in

PROTEST MARCH IN TRAIL. About 200 people took part in the smelter
city to protest the Vietnam war. Photo shows marchers on way to
cenotaph where they heard Mayor F. E. De Vito call for an end to the

war.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—DECEMBER 19, 1969—Page 12

- Canadian

Vietnam as ‘‘genocide,’’ and
chastized the U.S. labor
movement for its stand.
However, he welcomed the fact
that ‘‘there were signs labor is
finally coming to its senses.”’
Rev. Will Morrison said, ‘‘each
of us feels a responsibility and
urgency to create an awareness
in our community to make our
neighbors aware and concerned
for peace.’’ Gary Camozzi,
president of the student body at
Selkirk College and Ross Fraser,
dean of students, also spoke
against the war.
_ A resolution was adopted by
the rally calling on the Canadian
government to urge the U.S. to
withdraw from Vietnam and to
end arms shipments. The United
Church opened its annex to serv
coffee to the marchers. i
The Trail protest was
sponsored by the Ad Hoc
Moratorium Committee which
represented the Selkirk College
“Student Council, Executive,
Local 480 USWA and the local’s
Ladies’ Auxiliary; Mayor F. E.
De Vito, Dr. Endicott, M.D.;
Ross Fraser, Dean of Students,
Selkirk College; R. Keiver,

president, Nelson-Trail Labor
Council; Randolph Harding,
M.P.; Rev. G. Hermanson;

Castlegar and Rossland - Trail
Young New Democrats.

In Nanaimo — A march was
held from the Arena to the
cenotaph at which a silent vigil
was held. The protestors then
marched to City Hall where a
protest rally was held. A leaflet
was widely distributed con-
demning atrocities in Vietnam
by the U.S. and calling for with-
drawl. of all U.S. troops from
Vietnam.

season.

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socialist Canada.

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Vital wage parley
called by B.C. Fed.

“The special one-day co-ordination conference called by the B.C.
Federarion of Labor on December 18 is an event of vital importance

to organized labor.

The chief aim and purpose of
this conference will be to
consider the unification of
objectives, trategy and con-
certed action of organized labor
in order to meet the attacks now
being mounted by the Employers
Council of B.C. in their attempts
to smash the wage and working
conditions of all labor.

Unions. called to _ this
conference by the BCFL, whose
wage contracts will open early in.
1970, are the International Wood-

workers of America,
International Pulp and Sulphite
Workers, United Papermakers,
United Steelworkers, and -the
Union of Public
Employees.

The threat of- Bill 33 with its
compulsory arbitration
provision, coupled with
Employer Council and govern-
ment threats of a wage ‘‘freeze”’
and worsening conditions
present labor with the urgent

necessity of greater unity and co- ~
ordination to meet the big wage ~
~ will be closely watched.

struggles ahead.

* negotiations,

The Canadian Union of Public
Employees (CUPE) this week
released their wage and other
demands which they hope to
write into a new 1970 contract
with the municipalities of
Vancouver, Burnaby, Richmond,

North Vancouver and New
Westminster.
Key wage demands put

forward by CUPE include a 2
percent wage increase in a one-
year contract, protected by an
additional escalator wage
increase of a three quarters of
one percent for each-point the
Consumer Price Index rises. In
the view of union spokesmen
such an escalator boost will safe-
guard the basic wage gains from
being immediately eroded by
prices and other living cost
increases, taxes, etc.

First on the 1970 wage nego-
tiations firing line, with many
other big unions’ soon opening
similar negotiations, CUPE
and particularly
on a multimunicipal basis
through the media of the MLRB,

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The Pacific Tribune extends warmest holiday greetings
to all our readers and friends.

At this time of year, when the message of ‘'Peace on
Earth” is to the forefront, let us rededicate ourselves anew
to greater efforts to bring about the speediest end to the
U.S. war in Vietnam, and to halt Canada’s ‘complicity in
that war which is so out of keeping with the spirit of the

Let us also rededicate ourselves to make the new decade

of the 70’s glow with labor's progress towards a better life
and equality for all, and for a bright new future in a —

- and other

—EDITOR AND STAFF

BENNETT

Cont'd from pg. 1

Monopoly pressures are
mounting for just such a scheme
to get rid of family allowances ,

government housing, medicare ~

and cost-sharing with the
provinces. Present
arrangements need: improving
but that will never come from
breaking down of national
standards and having a hodge
podge of provincial plans.

The only solution to the
present impasse is that of a
redistribution of the national
income in favor of those who

_ producethe wealth and who have -

a right to a larger share of it.
Instead of straight - jacketing
labor, we need an excess profits
tax; instead of juggling social
security jurisdiction, we need to
extend and bring security and
welfare allowances in line with
the reality of today’s living
costs. “

The problem of poverty is
largely the problem of low wages
and the inadequacy of pensions
vital . social
expenditures. We need a_ $2.50
per hour minimum wage.as the
geginning for establishment of a
guaranteed weekly minimum
and a genuineguaranteed annual
income as a right of every
Canadian. These are the things
the vast majority of Canadians:
want and can get if they unite to
fight for them.

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