REFIN

SCHERRY POINT A@ANTS™
y WASHINGTON

More B.C. mills shut down

|
Us.
Dlants Controlled forest industry

faster a being closed down
an WAC Bennett can

Ting j
ua placements as part of
Ptogram Ind-to-Uncle Sam

. the

i‘ Nato est plant to get the axe
This. ¢W™mill on False Creek
oe is part of the
Which Wa le-Trethewey group
Forest 8s bought out by B.C.

—— Products in 1971. More

than 225 will lose their jobs when
Nalos closes in early July.

Who and what is B.C. Forest
Products? The B.C. is there as a
geographical point, not much

else, for the company is con-_

trolled by U.S. Scott Paper, and
a large part of its shares held by
Argus Corp., headed by E.P.
Taylor who lives in the tax-free

Bahamas.
During the past few months

What's behind new attack

Nn Teacher’s

B
Way MABEL RICHARDS
Sudden (eet now? Why the
that the pruicity for the charge
x tion ig Teachers Federa-

Megaliys llegedly “operating”

lion has hy, when the federa-
Sam Sin en operating in the

; Ner for 10 years?

Seen i
rbvio paver is, of course,
i ation ig th le Teachers Fed-
ae to the € Most vocal opposi-
saat = oo Credit govern-

rovin
80Vern f openly pereee the
‘ Wage Nt which has rabbeed
ets: Wy cictat on their mem-
ation fu ch has cut back on edu-

S to the detri
Which Ble. educas; etriment of
ation process;

a as
Whedeyiy uStantly harrassed,

]

ae Soci the federation.
"kin ee government
De tow. 5. i the only wa
aL foolign ett: They eke
Drs 0 th Charges in state-
Pequtent € Press before the
infor ction ag reacher’s
ven been

80Ve ed of t
Violg Ment he charges. The

Biving: the Soci Says teachers

ety’ «“
Chance 4. its 23,000 Sci by “not

Federation?

letter of it, and if not why are
they not being charged by the
attorney-general?

The B.C. Teacher’s Fed-
eration is organized into local
associations, each of which
elects delegates to each annual
meeting. There were 650 voting’
delegates at the 1971 annual
meeting.

To the impartial observer, this
would seem to be quite represent-
ative —about one voting dele-
gate for every 3.5 teachers in the
province. :

According to a daily press:
report, Attorney-General Peter-
son said ‘‘the fact that the BCTF
has apparently been ‘ignoring’
the Societies Act brings into
question and doubt all the
actions of the BCTF in recent
years.”

This includes (and is the main
target of the Attorney-General)
the resolution passed in April of
this year which solicited one
day’s salary from each teacher
in the province to fight Social
Credit education policies.

The latest reprehensible move
on the part of the Social Credit
government can only be labelled
a vindictive act, an act totally
inspired by political considera-
tions. Truly, the Socred gov-
ernment is running scared when
it must resort to such tactics!

wake of U.S. takeovers

Crown-Zellerbach announced it
would close down Ocean Falls,
putting 1,100 out of work; Wood-
fibre (part of International Tele-
phone and Telegraph) leaving
more hundreds out of work, is
phasing out its operations.

Crown Zellerbach’s Beaty
Laminated closed down in 1970;
half a dozen sawmills in the
Interior have been closed out

within the past two years by _

large companies who took them
over; the big plans for a forest
industry. complex in Bulkley
Valley initiated by Bowater
have turned into chaos and
poverty for the people in the
area. All in all it is a story of
conglomerate action to freeze
out the smaller outfits in a ruth-
less purge, while the livelihood
of thousands of people is dis-
missed with a shrug.

IWA spokesmen Say BC:
Forest Products is a case in
point. They bought out Catter-
mole solely for the timber
rights, and were not interested
in Nalos sawmill which came as
part of the ‘‘package”’ deal.
Some of the 225 workers in the
mill had been there for more
than 20 years.

The company is not closing the
plant because they are going
broke. In the first three months
of 1972 their profits were 250
percent higher than in the same
period last year.

Bennett’s Social Credit
government which can move SO
swiftly and decisively to force
workers back to the job has
never yet opened its collective
mouth to stop the wholesale
closing out of plants, mills and
other industries.

In Nova Scotia, England, and
even in the USA mass demon-
strations and protests have
brought a halt in some instances
to the closing out of plant
time has surely come to take
similar action in this province.

s. The-

The real lessons

of New Westminster

EDITORIAL

The tour by Premier Bennett i i

3 and his cabinet ha -
strated that there is growing opposition to nee
government throughout the province. oa

In many cities and towns i

i public demonstration

dbase epeups of people show .that there is e ae

ae a | to rid B.C. of the big business-dominated admini ,
ion which has plagued the province for 20 years. =

Despite Mr. Bennett’s i
: : c perpetual smile during th -
Ce — ae ae doubt that behind that srailetiiens
ncern that the tide is starting to run agai i :
. . ue
his government and that winds of change are 5 Penet aea

ee turn to the right by his government during recent
nths, with its attacks on education, social service

government employees and labor, has alienated wide sectio:
of the population. The sharpest attack of all has been di a
against the trade union movement =

It was therefore to be expected that when i
came to the Lower Mainland that Ghee gy ee
imminent threat of compulsory arbitration and a governme af
imposed wage freeze, would turn out in their hundred a
demonstrate against the government’s anti-labor policy ns

And so they did. Hundreds of unioni
; i ionists from man i
gathered at New Westminster last Wednesday with puieards
nang ee Ree to compulsory arbitration and the
mpose Bill 33. It was a peaceful dem ion
aimed to put labor’s case before the cabinet and the ae

Unfortunately, there were a handful

: among the rank
demonstrators who created a situation which has fee oo
upon by the Socreds and every reactionary in the province to
attack all labor. This element has given the boss a weapon
Be ae nse ae it has given the Socreds an issue with

curry public sympathy and c i

tour was turning out to be. me isiale a tas:

The actions of these elements do harm to labor’
rather than help it. The boss. and the Bor cient Sedo ree
brand of violence against labor. But labor-resorts to united
mass action to win their struggle, not individual acts of
violence which always act against labor’s cause. :

Irresponsible confrontationist tactics h

Or ave done much ha

to labor’s cause in the past, as it has to the peace aivenea
and every genuine movement of the people for social progress
Often the ruling circles themselves have gone out of their way
a ane a aseae: provoke that kind of situation so that they
could use it to their own advantage. This f i

labor’s struggle itself. Z Eee

Those who took part in the violen

; : ce last Wednesd
egies, se - Ses may have been) played right i

ands. Undoubtedly some sincere

oe eas - issues involved and may have movies
y the actions of the police. One observer said i i
hadn’t acted the way they did th eee
aarangaene. y they there probably would not have

-We have had sufficient evidence in

iffic recent months to
that often the actions of the police turn what would enone
have been a peaceful affair into a violent one. The Gasto
incident is one example of that. a3

If this is true, it points up the need for organi

,itp ganized labor to t
steps to control its demonstrations and not allow Meee
provocateurs or police-invoked provocation to turn workers:
from their goal— mass united action to win their just demands

Labor must learn the lesson of last Wednesday’
While labor cannot give up its right to peaceful as tate -
in support of its demands, it must organize itself to deal ith
provocations wherever they may come from, either ever
police action, police or bosses’ agents or misguided Ww “is
who allow themselves to be used by those who want to ee ey
violence and discredit labor’s struggle for a better life Seed

In conclusion, the PT must point out that t j
which contributed to the events last eae ae pe
violence being practised by the Socred government in its tives?
to impose slave labor on B.C.’s construction workers, ‘o
threats of imprisonment if they refuse to bend their knees :
the forced labor edict they passed last Wednesday. ‘

When a government turns to oppressive measures posta a
large section of the population as the Socred government i
doing, it invites the kind of thing that happened last Wed.
nesday. And if it happens they must take the major blame for it
and not try to find scapegoats.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—FRIDAY, JUNE 16, 1972—PAGE 3