MASSIVE AID TO VIETNAM. A pact signed between the Democratic
Republic of Vietnam and the Soviet Union provides that the USSR will
greatly increase its aid to North Vietnam during 1969. Economic aid
will be stepped up along with sophisticated weapons and other combat
defense material. :

14.”

be.

weeks.

NLF speakers delayed,
city rally postponed

Dr. A. M. Inglis, chairman of the Canadian Aid for Vietnam
Civilians, announced last weekend that “due to unforseen
circumstances the visit of the two Vietnamese from the National
Front of Liberation of South Vietnam to Canada has been delayed
and therefore it will be necessary to postpone the public meeting
that was to be held at the Exhibition Gardens Tuesday, January

The Canadian Aid for Vietnam Civilians said that notice of
the meeting at a later date will be advertised in the daily press.
The Committee is now awaiting word when the new date will

Dr. Inglis said that the two NLF representatives, Hoang Bich
Son and Huynh Van Ba did not obtain visas early enough to be
here for the scheduled rally and are expected here in about two

Mine regulations farce

Cont'd from pg. 1
Cominco Ltd.; and Dr. James
Hatter, ‘director of fish and
wildlife for the department of
recreation and conservation.

As will be seen from the above
personel, the committee was
composed of three
representatives of the mining
companies and three
government officials. No public
bodies were permitted
representation. It would take
only one government official to
side with the three
representatives from the mining
industry for mining monopolies
to be able to write ‘“‘their own
ticket’’.

Although labor has by and
large not yet taken up the fight to
save B.C.’s mining industry,
some protest has come from
groups such as the B.C. Wildlife
Federation. Commenting on the
government committee the
Federation said:

“One of the mining industry
representatives on the
Committee: is also the Canadian
manager of Kaiser Coal Limited
(which is the company with the
contract to provide $650 million
worth of coal from land in the
Crowsnest area to Japanese steel
interests). Requests from
conservation . organizations to
have an independent
conservationist as a counterpoint
to representatives of private
industry on the Committee were
turned down by the minister of
mines.

“We find it incredible that the
non-Canadian company with a

direct vested interest in the kind
of regulations that will be
produced should be sitting on a
B.C. government committee
advising our provincial
government, when the minister
of mines has not only stated that
representatives of responsible
public -British Columbia
organizations could not be added

to the committee, but that the .

terms of reference of the
committee do not even allow a
delegation from those groups to
appear before the committee.”’
The nature of the government
committee, the shocking lack of
democracy in denying the public
a voice in the deliberations of the
committee, and packing it with
representatives of the industry
that have a vested interest in the

legislation, underlines what the.

Pacific Tribune has often
charged: That the Socred
government is a tool of the big
monopolies and is scuttling
democracy in order to ensure
that policies are adopted to serve
the interests of the big foreign
corporations exploiting our
province.

The present
committee and its
recommendations should be
scrapped from the outset. In its
place the provincial government
must be pressed to set up a
legislative committee to hold a
public enquiry, open to all
interested groups and citizens, to
consider iron-clad regulations
which would protect the province
from unscrupulous mining pro
moters.

government

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—JANUARY 17, 1969—Page 12

BILL 33 FIGHT

Moore’s stand condemned,
united labor action urged

“The attempt to challenge the
policy of the B.C. Federation of
Labor to fight the institution of
compulsory arbitration
embodied in Bill 33, adopted
unanimously in convention only
two months ago, is a great
disservice to the membership of
the IWA, no less than to the rest
of the labor movement,’’ Nigel
Morgan, Provincial Leader of
the Communist Party, told the
PT ina statement this week.

“Tt represents a treacherous
act with all the problems the
labor movement faces today — a
further step in collaborationist
tendencies which the Socred
administration is exploiting to
maintain its power to sell out our
resources, cut back urgently
needed social expenditures, and
hold the line for big business.

“If Jack Moore was really
concerned about strengthening
labor’s position in the struggle
against the socred’s anti-labor
policies he would have raised his
criticism within the councils of
labor instead of sounding off to
the boss-press in a way that can
only serve to torpedo labor unity,
and bring comfort to the
architects of the most vicious
anti-labor law yet enacted on this
continent.

“Make no mistake about it,
Bill 33 and its creature, the so-
called Mediation Commission,
will control everything in labor-
management relations, and
particularly wages and working
conditions unless labor takes a
united and determined stand,’
he said. ‘‘The very existence of
compulsory arbitration as the
ultimate solvent cannot but
impair normal bargaining
procedures.

“This Social Credit law vests
the Mediation Commission with
authority to determine the
amount of wage increases and
whether a strike may or may not
continue — or even occur. Both

.unanimously

unions and their individual
members can be subjected to
extremely heavy penalties for
infractions of its orders.

“Such measures of state
intervention and regulation,’’ he
said, ‘‘are aimed at enmeshing
the working class within the
confines of state monopoly
capitalism and making trade
unions an integral part of the
establishment.

“In pursuit of this aim the
monopolies and their
representatives in government
alternate the carrot and billy-
club in order to surface and
stimulate class collaborationist

tendencies among top layels v
the trade union leadership. 4

“The only way to counter SU
efforts is to strengthen the flé
for democracy, co-ordinalll”
and the greatest possible ul!
all down the line — stat
within the IWA itself —
demonstrate to the governme
that labor is not going to ac
compulsory arbitration and !
reassure every trade union
this province that a united la
movement (including th
powerful woodworkers’ wv
will come to the defense of
first union that comes ¥
attack under Bill 33,” Moré
concluded.

LABOR SCENE:

B.C. Fed rejects

a

Moore statemen

B.C. Federation of Labor
(BCFL) executive members this
week speedily rejected the
statement of Jack Moore,
Regional president of the
International Woodworkers of
America (IWA), that B.C. trade
unions should comply with the
requests of the government’s
Mediation Commission (Bill 33)
for all data or hearings relating
to collective agreements, etc.

Moore, also a member of the
BCFL executive body, issued his
statement to the daily press
without prior consultation with
BCFL colleagues or his own
union.

At the recent annual
convention of the BCFL of two
months ago, over 600 delegates
representing B.C. unions,
reaffirmed its
adopted policy of boycotting any
hearings or other forms of
cooperation with this Mediation
Commission, and also to come
to the aid of the first union in
B.C. which came under attack by
the Bill 33 mediation tribunal.

Moore proposed that BCFL
affiliates should now ‘“‘be
allowed’’ to come before the
commission if they so desired,
then hold a ‘‘secret ballot’’ of
their membership on the
commission’s recommendations,
if any.

In rejecting Moore’s
unprincipled proposals, the
BCFL leading body take the
position that Moore’s action is a
matter for his own union to deal
with, and that the BCFL
convention decisions must stand.

Numerous union leaders have
already branded Moore’s
proposals as “‘treason to labor”’
equalling that of three former
B.C. trade union ‘‘leaders’’
(Baskin, Sims and Stewart) who
accepted high-salaried positions
on Bennett’s anti-union
compulsory arbitration body. A
prominent IWA member told the
PT ‘Moore is probably fishing
for a high-paid government job
himself’’.

On the other hand the
Federation’s side-stepping of

‘Moore’s challenge to its anti-Bill

33 policy be referring it to the
IWA to deal with first, and in the

absence of the militant ty!
struggle rank-and-file U pf
desire to see the BCFL mm,
against Bill 33 and FA
compulsory arbitratl
machinery, the Federal!
ducking of Moore’s defect
from BCFL policy is see?)
many unionists as “a
passing cowardly retreat,
especially since it is hig:
unlikely that the IWA %
support its regional preside
about-face on this vital
confronting labor.

to Trudeau

A newly formed Vancoll.
organization describing itsell ®
the ‘‘Unemployed CitiZ®,
Welfare Improvement Cou?
with headquarters a
Raymur Ave., Vancouvel —
B.C., last week forwardeé
lengthy letter to Prime Mims
Pierre. Trudeau, outlining
serious conditions facing ™*
of B.C.’s jobless workers, and
the same time expressing 5”
criticism of Trudéé
government policies as ©,
affect the people of Canada, ®
especially workers and othel>
the low and fixed income gro

The Council’s letter to |
Prime Minister states in P*.
“The plight of the unempl0
and others on welfare,
pensions, on low and *”
incomes is appalling. They ©.
now suffering more than W.
these inadequate rates were
fixed due to the rapid rise 19
cost of living. These rates ™
be brought into line with the ®
of living. . . aa

“The halting of the Wi
Works Program was unc f
for. It should have contif,
until a better program rep!”

“ite Millions can. be haga

acquired for destruction — W’,
damn little is used for health®
welfare of the citizens who Y.
the country, pay taxes, and f
with their lives to defend it. -.

The letter to the pry
minister is signed by
Hamilton, for the Unempl
Council.