A question of the utmost gravity is beginning to weigh

heavily upon the minds of millions of Americans and
Canadians alike. Nor is it confined to this hemisphere alone.
Peoples of other lands and nations living in a capitalist form of
society sense the fear of this awesome and threatening
recurrent nightmare.

The question may be posed thus: Must the totality of
human effort, suffering and sacrifice to free the world from
the menace and horror of Hitler fascism, become nothing more
than an interlude for a revival and a renewal of this horror a
quarter of a century later?

A great deal of evidence points in that direction today.
Democracy — this is, ‘‘government of, by and for the people’ is
just about as dead as Hitler and his Nazi criminals wished it to
be. The firm resolves implicit in the Potsdam Agreement, with
its “extirpation of Naziism, root and branch” (Churchill) has
not only been shattered by the Western imperialist powers,
(signatories of Potsdam), but the spokesmen and leaders of
these same Western powers today have themselves nurtured
the cult of fascism to the point where it now becomes an
inseperable part of their own mental baggage!

True, we still have elections; that is, we still have a free
choice to choose between Liberal; Tory, Socred, or some
hybrid caricature of the three; but the Establishments which
result (after elections) couldn’t care less about what the
people think, do; or say. Big monopoly still dictates policy — as
the Krupps, Stinnes’ Thyssens, etc., did in Hitler’s day — in
their own interests and against the interests of the people.

Vietnam — and the persecution of dissenting Americans,
black and white, as individuals and organizations, is a classical
example of how little a multi-billionaire Establishment gives a
hoot in hell for the wishes of the people, and how the
democratic processes are replaced by autocratic rule and
dictum.

It would be premature as yet to describe the Nixon
Establishment as fascist, although many thousands of
Americans do. But it would be equally wrong to ignore the fact
that the fascist disease is already deep-rooted in the body
politic of its military-industrial complex!

How fares it with us in Canada? Since the Trudeau
Establishment came to power on the crest of a great illusion
(charisma), parliament, the elected representatives of the
people has been reduced to a state of less moment than a ladies
Aid discourse on home cooking. Where citizens delegations
presenting their grievances at the foot of the Throne seeking
redress are not lulled to inaction by Trudeau’s wordy hogwash,
they are dismissed with insult and violence.

It would be premature as yet to describe the Trudeau
Establishment as ‘“‘fascist,”’ but equally wrong to ignore the
fact (demonstrated on many occasions) that Pierre Elliot
Trudeau possesses all the characteristic ingredients of that
baleful anti-democratic philosophy.

His unleashing of a reign of military and police terror
against the people of Quebec by invoking the War Measures
Act to quell an insarrection where none existed, had all the
earmarks of a Hitlerite ‘‘brownshirt’’ mob turned loose against
the people — people who had then— and have now many deep-
rooted and legitimate grievances crying out for redress. To
these Trudeau and his Liberal henchmen, assisted by Tory,
Socred and others of varied political coloring, replied with
insult, slander and the mailed fist.

’ At home in B.C. a Socred regime has ably demonstrated,
times without number, that it doesn’t give one tinker’s damn
what the electorate may say or think.

Unlike Der Kaiser of World War 1 that ‘‘Gott mit Uns,”’ or
Hitler of World War II who brought that up-to-date by referring
often to ‘Me Und Gott,” the high priest of Socredia in B.C.
goes these two one better by claiming a direct hot-line plug-in
with the Almighty.

Certainly it would be in error to dub Socredia in B.C. as
fascist at this stage — but certainly not an error to assess and
warn of the dangers inherent; otherwise we may wake up one
morning to discover — as the German people did in 1933, and

the world in 1939, that the assessment and the warning came
too late?

BETHUNE

MARXIST
CLASSROOM

WOMEN IN TODAY’S WORLD

Mona Morgan

VANCOUVER LABOUR TEMPLE

Hall 10 - 307 w. Broadway

SUNDAY — APRIL 25—8 P.M.

Sponsored by B.C. Prov. Educ. Comm. — Communist Party

By ALD. HARRY RANKIN

The rent strike currently being
conducted by Wall & Redekop
tenants is only one symptom of a
deep-going conflict developing in
our society between tenants and
landlords. Involved are some
fundamental questions, includ-
ing the acute housing shortage,
unrestricted profiteering in
rents, and granting to tenants
-the legal right to have some say
in how much they pay and what
they get for their money.

Our housing shortage is arti-
ficial and is being deliberately
maintained. There is absolutely
nothing, I repeat — absolutely
nothing, to prevent the building
of low rental housing.on a large
scale. Nothing, that is, except
the pressure of real estate-land-
lord interests on City Council,
the provincial and the federal
governments. We have the
money, we have the skilled men,
we have the materials, but we
haven’t a government with
enough guts to stand up to the
real estate interests and start
building housing for people at
rents they can afford. This
situation won’t change until the
pressure of the people is greater
than that of the real estate-
landlord interests.

What the Wall and Redekop
tenants are asking really isn’t
much. They haven’t asked for
rent controls as falsely alleged
by landlords and the daily press.
They have only asked for the
right to negotiate the big
increase Wall & Redekop is
trying to force down their
throats. But this arrogant
landlord refuses to even talk to
the tenant organization. It
wants the tenants to come hat in
hand, one at a time.

The problem could and should
be handled by the Rental
Accommodation Grievance
Board established by City
Council some time ago. The
trouble is, though, that we have
big landlords on Council who

have vested interest in the '

question; in addition it is quite
clear that the whole Council is
under the domination of real
estate-landlord interests and is
scared to death to give the
Rental Grievance Board the
authority to look into rent
increases to see whether or not
they are justified. That is why all
Council members opposed my
motion to refer the Wall &
Redekop dispute to the Board.
What landlord-real estate in-
terests and our present Council
refuse to recognize is that well
over half of Vancouver citizens
are now tenants. Their rights
can’t be denied forever.
Landlords continue to act as
though this were the 18th or 19th
century when people had no
rights — when education was the

May Day Issue

This week’s issue is 16 pages. It
contains a special four-page
supplement on the 24th
Congress of the Communist Party
of the Soviet Union.

Next week we will publish our
special May Day edition. It will
also be 16 pages and will be in
color. It will carry many features
which you and your friends will
want to read and keep.

Send your order for the May
Day edition to the PT office by

_ Tuesday, April 27.

privilege of the wealthy, when
unions and strikes were banned,
when child labor was rampant.
Times have changed but our land-
lords haven’t.

If Wall & Redekop keeps the
lid on its 1500 tenants now, it
will boil over on some other
issue. The demand of the
majority of citizens for some
legal say over how much they
pay and for what, can’t be
indefinitely denied by a small

minority of wealthy real
interests whose only cone
maximum profits.
Tenants are organizing @
coming to Council 1?
greater numbers. Theil
and requests will be gral
they step up the pressure
from the beginning they
had my full support 4
continue to have it.
opinion, they deserve the
hearted support of all cil

The daily press in Vancouver
receives big revenue from real
estate corporations. This is
obvious from the news blackout
and biased reporting of the
current tenants rent strike at
Wall and Redekop apartments.

During the past week press
stories have featured the
statements of Wall and
Redekop’s hired public relations
firms, while ignoring statements
made in reply by the tenants
representatives.

O’Brien Advertising agency
put out a story in the Sun that
only twenty-five tenants still
withhold rent; the facts are that
last week 168 W. & R. tenants
were withholding rents. Another
fact is that vacancies in W. & R.
apartments in April have
reached 10 percent against the

Johs main need

A brief press release issued by
the B.C. Federation of Citizens
Associations which held their
first rally at Paradise Valley
recently, states the main need of
the low income groups they
represent is employment.

‘‘However,’’ the association
said, ‘‘if the present structure of
our society cannot make pro-
vision for this, then the BCFCA
will apply pressure with the
support of its groups on the B.C.
government.”’ The alternative
to employment must be a
guaranteed flexible income.

The purpose of the conference
was the consolidation of all
people who are adversely
affected by poverty, the release
said, and their objectives are to
exchange information and facili-
tate communications with and
about low income groups; to also
encourage the formation of low
income groups in communities
where they do not exist, and to
strengthen and unite the voice of
low income groups in B.C around
agreed-upon issues.

Mailing address for the
BCFCA is 1625 West 8th Ave.,

city-wide average of 2
vacancy.

Public support for the
tenants is spread
Vancouver Labor Coun
given the strike thel! ‘
and have pledged not
accommodation in any
ment owned by ;
millionaire real estalé
The Burnaby-Willingd%,
Constituency Asso@ ©
backing the strike fe
doubt, every harrassed 5
the Greater Vancouvel

The organized tena
mapped out a camper
action: They are calling
meeting for April 221” “2
Temple, and they are
a boycott campaign ne
of window-size “stra

called for April 24. 0
issue a leaflet at leas
week to keep tenants
informed, and to on
news blackout in el
They will also F
Sanches for block ore
with the first one sch ne!
April 26, at 8 p.m. 1” rg
room of the Fisherme? ats
The Vancouver Te™ | fy
cil stresses that supP® port
striking tenants is SUPP of
major overhaulidé |;
housing situation 1” oa
and public pressure
city council to take ie
tructive action wil! 13
this most urgent soc!4

fic
“They eall us the 4 ne
That's a laugh! WE

e
a ‘foree’ unless W

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