No matter what -
they call us---

TES

Farmers plan action
to counter Ottawa

By WILLIAM BEECHING

WINNIPEG — In a bold scath-
ing counter-offensive against
extreme reaction, NFU presi-
dent Roy Atkinson publicly de-
nounced red-baiting as harmful
to the farmers’ cause. He was
re-elected as national president
of the National Farmers Union
in a two-way contest with Wal-
ter Miller of Ontario.

“Many farmers are confused,
they vacillate, they wait to see
what will happen,” Atkinson
said. “That is our challenge as
confusion reigns supreme. This
state of mind among the people
is aided and abetted by’ the old
game of divide and conquer.
And when nothing else seems
available to split up the peas-
ants, they tell them, or at least
infer, the union is infiltrated by
Communists, or their leaders are
duped by Communists, or at
least socialists.”

During the past few years, he
said, materials have been circu-
lated all over the country try-
ing to link the NFU with a
“Communist plot.”

“They are calling us subver-
sives,” he said.

He told the delegates that the
impetus “for this campaign
comes from Communist-haters
—‘“people who are stupid.” He
named. the Canadian Intel-
ligence Service, Pat Walsh, and
John Schmidt of the Calgary
Herald, as the main source of
the anti-communist campaign

_against the farm union.

“If you are wondering why
I’m doing this, it’s to air the
subject,” he said,:“‘because oxy-
gen is good for decay.”

He went on to charge that
the aim of anti-communism is
to get “farmers all up-tight
about some bogey .man. It’s the
neatest trick of the age.”

Fearless Challenge

“Poverty makes revolutions.
The people who benefit from
your hand work are outfits that
own this kind of hotel (the con-
vention took place in Winnipeg
Inn, owned by George Richard-
son and Sons Ltd.) and the peo-
ple who serve them,” he
charged. “We are going to take
them on,” he said.

‘If you go the wrong route,”
he warned, “we will pay for it.
We must do things on the basis
of understanding, not fear.”

Such a fearless challenge to
the professional anti-commu-
nists has been heard but rarely
in union and. left-of-centre poli-
tical circles. In discerning the
weakening, anti-working people
content of anti-communism, Mr.
Atkinson has done a signal ser-
vice to all Canadian working

people and has thereby strength-

ened the cause he champions.
In his opening address, Mr.

Atkinson pointed. to the enor-.

mous growth-in the: productive: -
PACIFIC TRIBUNE—FRIDAY, DECEMBER 17, 1971—PAGE 4 |

' which

capacity of farmers, and point-
ed out that the costs of produc-
tion “continued to skyrocket
between 1963 and 1971 by 72%,
represented an annual
climb of 7.2%, while farm
prices on the other hand re-
mained constant or declined.”

The “experts” project a de-
cline in prairie farm net income
in 1972 from $621 million to
$500 million. For non-prairie
agriculture ‘the picture is even
more devastating,’ he said.
“Realized net income is forecast
to drop by 30% in 1971 to $547
million and to decline still fur-
ther to $527 million in 1972, the
lowest level since 1956.”

Super Exploitation

After giving figures depicting
the overwhelming stocks of
foodstuffs on hand in Canada,
he said, “This then is the suc-
cess story of the Canadian far-
mer’s production capability: In-
creased production, high qual-
ity, rising costs of production,
low realized net income, and
poverty.

“Economic policy in Canada
is designed to create forces
which lead to the super explo-

® Continued on page 9

Ht | aah en ey

Bengali refugees returning
as bloody Yahya rule reels
despite. Nixon-Mao backing

sentatives to institute a cease-fire that ¥
would place a “UN police force” on the
border and leave the population at the
mercy of the Pakistani military wa5
vetoed by the Soviet Union, which has
consistently urged an immediate end #0
the bloodshed by a peaceful political
settlement that would respect the leg!

timate rights and interests of thé
people.

As this issue went to press, Indian
troops and Bangladesh liberation forces
had taken over practically the whole of
East Pakistan and had ringed the capi-
tal, Dacca, and masses of the ten million
refugees that had fled to India began

returning to their homes,

In the United Nations the manoeuver
of the United States and Chinese repre-

Wa
“Wlyy,

——Ap
YW

deli

8° AGGRESSORS / ”

British unions rally for Vietnam

By MIKE AMBROSE

LONDON — Delegates repre-
senting over 2,500,000 workers
in Britain have decided to re-
activate the campaign against
the war in Vietnam. A union
conference on Vietnam put for-
ward calls for the British recog-
nition of the Democratic Repub-
lic of Vietnam and for British
support for a world trade union
conference on Vietnam.

Miners’ general secretary
Lawrence Daly warned _ that,
while the U.S. was _ escalating
the war, “we have de-escalated
the campaign.”

Transport workers’ leader Sid
Easton reminded delegates that
the situation was reminiscent of
the 1930’s, when there was also
mass unemployment and where
fascist involvement in Spain had
preceded the world war.

British Campaign for Peace in
Vietnam secretary Jack Askins
asked delegates to make sure
that .in 1972 Indochina was on
the Trades Union Congress

. Agenda. With the problems of

unemployment, Northern Ire-
land, and the Industrial Rela-
tions Act, Vietnam had tended
to be pushed into the political
background.

Constructional engineers gen-
eral secretary Eddie Marsden
said he was “sick of successions
of British foreign secretaries
grovelling to the U.S., especially
those Labor politicians who have
shamed the name: of the British

labor movement.”

London printworker Mike
Hicks, a member of the execu-
tive committee of the Commun-
ist Party, said that if the mass
media was lying about what was
happening in Britain, who could
tell what lies it was telling
about events in Vietnam, 10,000
miles away. He emphasized that
the British people were suffering
from the economic consequences
of the Vietnam war and had a
direct interest in ending it.

Gilbert Julius of the CGT,

. France’s largest trade union or-

ganization, urged token British
support for the mass demonstra-
tion in Paris on Dec. 18 and for

the international conference’ in.

Versailles in February.

A further call. for internation-
al trade union action against the

Scottish miners’ executive member William McDougal (left) speak-

war came from Bertil Svahn-
stron of Sweden.

Car worker Jeff Robinson said
that the billions spent -on the
war in Vietnam had led to the
world-wide economic recession.

There was prolonged applause
for Lai Van Ngoc, a Vietnamese
journalist, who read a message
of support from the Vietnamese
delegation to the Paris peace
talks.

The conference unanimously
supported a seven-point proposal
calling for action to win British
recognition of the Democratic
Republic of Vietnam, support
for a world trade union confer-
ence, support for a petition to
be delivered to. Washington and
for support of the visit of the
Vietnamese trade unionists early
in the New Year.

ing at the trade union conference on Vietnam in London.

ate’ cessation. of military OP&

Prime Minister Indira Gandht
told the UN that Indian troops
would be withdrawn as soon 4§
the Pakistani army in Dact#
surrendered and was transpol
ed back to West Pakistan.

Would the outwardly attrac
tive calls to end military opel
tions between India and Pakis:
tan and to withdraw armé
forces to the territories of thel
states mean the cessation of thé
bloodshed in the Indian sub
continent? APN commentator
I. Plyshevsky asks. “Not at all.
There were no hostilities b&
tween India and Pakistan
April, May, June, etc. until D&
cember, but blood flowed gen&
rously in East Pakistan. Many
thousands of East Pakistanis
died, while some 10 million
save their lives fled to Indiab®
cause of the mass terror 4!
lawlessness that prevailed f
East Pakistan. To limit onesel
to the call for ‘early,’ ‘immedi

rations is equivalent to door
ing new thousands of be,
Pakistanis to destruction. a”
new millions to flee from t

of the military actions, but
immediate cessation
bloodshed, as suggested in uy
draft resolution of the Sovié
Union which was turned dows
by the veto of the delegation ©
the People’s Republic of China

The U.S. draft resolutio?
provided for stationing on
Indian-Pakistani frontier of 4
military observers, What would
the adoption of this point meat
No less and no more than sae
ing the Pakistani military ®
ministration an opportunity ~—
continue with impunity its
ror against its political oppo
ents—the overwhelming maj”
ity of the East Pakistani }
bitants.

“The government of India

the

more than once appealed to the
Pakistani leaders to cease
repression and normalize in

situation in East Pakistan
order to enable the refugees
return to their land,” Pra¥
political observer V. Mayevsky
wrote. “But the government.
Pakistan took no action to briné
about a political settlement
East Pakistan, while it con
tinued the repression of the P®
pulation there and stepped UF
military preparations agaif®
India. In East Pakistan the t-
sistance to terror was mow,
ing and guerilla groups at05
A government of Banglade
was formed. The _ situatl® ‘
sharpened due to the fact ne
Pakistani troops, as official
stated by the government és
India, attacked India from th
territory of West Pakistan.
““India’ appealed to oth© |
@ Continued on page |