Inflation protest in Japan. Photo shows a

| >

demonstration in Tokyo

“ttlier this month to protest the 25.8 percent cost-of-living rise in the

St year.

aq B.C. peace parley adopts

6-point action program

Cont'd from pg. 1

made to the fight for peace. He
urged Canadians to press the
federal’ government to end its
involvement in NATO.

Delegates to the conference
adopted a six-point program for
peace action in the coming year
after hearing a panel of speakers
outline the growing prospects for
peace in the year ahead as well as
the dangers which face Canada.
and the world.

Outlined in the report by John
Beeching, chairman of the B.C.
Peace Council, the six-point
program called on peace workers
to undertake activity around the
following:

e Step up work to gain support
for the Peace Charter issued by the
Canadian Peace Congress, and to
win many more endorsations for
the Charter.

e Continue to solicit signatures
on the petition sponsored by the
Peace Action League which calls
for the removal of nuclear weapons
from Canada and for Canadian
withdrawal from NATO and
Norad.

e To consider the sending of a
delegation to the Legislature in
Victoria during the spring session
to present the Charter and to take
up with MLAs a number of peace
issues including the removal of
nuclear warheads from Comox.

e Continue support for the

Myths about socialism taught
in university, professor says -

By BARRY DEAN

Many students know very little
> Out socialism or the Communist
‘arty because of the myths taught

Universities and perpetuated by
Ne media, University of Calgary

tory professor David Whitefield

a meeting of students at

B.C. last Friday.
ywnitefield, a member of the
‘Niversity of Calgary faculty for
“ht years, was also a candidate

Calgary Centre for the Com-
nist Party in the 1974 federal

€ction. Recently he contested a

hool board seat for the Com-

Nunist Party chalking up an im-
€ssive 8,000 votes.

a had been invited to U.B.C. by
€ history department to conduct
Veral seminars.

4 Whitefield pointed out that many
ludents today are ignorant of the

—

role played by the Communist
Party and the principles it stands
for — largely because of the myths
that have been built up about it.
“We believe that inflation,
unemployment and the housing
crisis do not have to happen,” he
told the meeting. ‘‘We believe that
the misery of the working class is
not necessary to advance to
socialism. By fighting for their

democratic rights they will learn to ~

organize to defend and advance
their interests.”

Pointing to one familiar myth of
Communists as “foreign
agitators’, Whitefield said that
Communists have not imported a
i9th century doctrine to plot
secretly to undermine the social
and economic conditions of the
people. “‘It is the capitalist system
itself which creates those con-

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ditions and gives rise to
organizations that defend the in-
terests of the working class,” he
said.

Commenting on the current
economic crisis, he emphasized
that the federal government’s
policy of subsidies to big business
as a supposed method of expanding
industry and keeping employment
up was no solution.

He pointed out that the major oil
companies are now threatening to
halt further exploration and lay off
thousands of workers because of
the federal government decision to
tax the companies on 25% of their
income. Previously they paid on
only 8% of income and they are
trying to force the government to
back down by threatening drastic
cutbacks.

It is just that drive of big
business for increased profit that is
the cause of our economic
problems to days, Whitefield
declared, and added, “‘we don’t
need socialist reasons to
nationalize industry — premier
Lougheed took over Pacific
Western Airlines.

“Tf we don’t nationalize the oil
industry, what will happen in 10
years to the thousands of workers
employed in the oil fields and
refineries?’ he asked. ‘‘What will
happen to our democratic rights
and our standard of living?”

He emphasized as well the im-
portance to the Communist Party
of peace. ‘‘Peace is a necessary
condition for the continued
existence of the human race,” he
said, ‘‘and detente is a necessary
condition for the social advance
and strengthening of progressive
forces in the world.

“We in the Communist Party
support the fight for peace and
believe that it is of the greatest
importance that the Canadian
people work actively for peace and
detente in the world.”

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campaign to free _ political
prisoners, particularly those in
Chile and South Vietnam; and
demand that the Canadian
government recognize the
Provisional Revolutionary
Government of South Vietnam and
establish diplomatic relations with
it.

e Do everything possible to
mobolize wide support for the U.N.
security council resolution No. 242
on the Middle East.

e Call on the Canadian
government to support the call for
an international conference to
settle the problems of Cyprus on
the basis of independence and
sovereignty for the people of
Cyprus.

Beeching said in his report that
the successes of the peace
movement have been impressive
and that there is a new climate of
confidence that peaceful
coexistence between states is not
only possible by necessary. ‘‘But,”’
he warned, ‘‘the dangers are still
with us’’ as he pointed to ‘‘flash-
points” like the Middle East, the
continuation of the Thieu regime in
South Vietnam and the continuing
war there, and the military dic-
tatorship in Chile.

The conference adopted plans to
extend the work of the B.C. Peace
Council and reorganized its work in
keeping with the formation of
peace committees in centres
outside of Vancouver.

Delegates attended the parley
from. Vancouver, Victoria,
Nanaimo, Surrey as well as from
many fraternal, ethnic and

women’s auxiliaries of trade
unions. In addition to Lawrence of
the Vancouver Labor Council, The
New Westminster Labor Council
sent Rod Doran, chairman of its
legislative committee, as a
delegate.

In his remarks to the parley,
Doran read from a_ recent
Canadian Labor Congress
statement which said that peace is
the most important problem of this
generation. He urged greater
participation of trade unionists in
the fight for peace.

The parley adopted a number of
action resolutions in its final
session. One of these pointed to the
critical situation in the Middle
East and called on the Canadian
government to actively support the
UN in reaching a political set-
tlement.

Another resolution called on the
federal government to recognize
the German Democratic Republic
and establish diplomatic relations.
A resolution on Chile called on the
Canadian government to cease all
trade with Chile and to cut off
loans; to facilitate the entry into
Canada of refugees from Chile and
grant landed immigrant status to
those already here.

A resolution on NATO and Norad
said that military blocs are a
contradiction in this period’ and
that Canada should withdraw from
NATO completely and refuse to
renew the Norad agreement when
it expires in May, 1975.

The parley reelected John
Beeching as provincial chairman
of the B.C. Peace Council.

landlords be cited.

fire-prevention measures.

urged in the verdict.

City coroner's jury blames
landlords in fire deaths

Finding that a significant factor in the deaths of three men ina
skidroad fire at the Georgia Rooms, 207 East Georgia on Oct. 31
was the failure of the owners and operators to comply with the
Vancouver city fire law, a coroner’s jury recommended that the

The jury referred specifically to sections of the bylaw requiring
either the installation of a sprinkler systems or closed stairwells as

The verdict recommended that ‘“‘the appropriate authorities
consider the possibility of the occurrence of criminal neglect in this
case and in particular by the owners and operators of this
building.” Stringent and immediate enforcement of the bylaw was

ERte

PSE

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—FRIDAY, DECEMBER 6, 1974—Page 3