Wo oe RLD PROTEST DEMANDS FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 12, 1971 - @ e GET OUT OF LAOS Saigon, U.S. invasion — You ng Lao Aigon-y etnam. —Tass photo tan soldiers of the People’s Liberation Army are shown here guarding their territory before the South Eas * Invasion was launched. The U.S. and its puppets have now spread the Vietnam war throughout OUNtries of e on the pretext that the way to get U.S. troops out is to get them into all the neighboring Bennett budget soaks poor to make the rich richer By NIGEL MORGAN It to se another “Soak the Poor Which Bahe Rich Richer’ budget doubles eer Bennett (who the se Minister of Finance in Wn i 9overnment) brought White he gee: and took © Bae a little bit here Teal hicry little bit there, the budget erlight of the 1971-72 Cohen that it upped person- aS taxes on people as pk fuels, cigarettes € did soe by $40 million. Teturn ¢ at while the people’s 0 their natural re- licenses. © all royalties, "eservac Special] privileges and less thay, umPage, etc., netted income n half the government's licences rom our motor vehicles SS q : ‘Nother. nd fines of one sort or 0 . fer come in the coming ineg ie from all resources million— wp; estimated at $156.7 Tesoy 1th expenditures on ions budgeted at $88.7 Million’ Caving a net of $68 ~ “0vernment revenue Motor Vehicles is listed as Million, While the budget is up $135.2 million from the previous fiscal year including an unexpected $39 million more from Ottawa ($11 million for vocational training and $28 million speed-up income tax rebates,) and Premier Bennett boasts of a $125 million surplus, little has been done to meet the jobs crisis or ease the financial strains on municipal and school administrations. Homeowner grants are to be raised $10 a year to $170. Another $20 million is to be placed in the home acquisition grant fund. A five million injection is to be given the crop insurance stabili- zation fund. Interest from a $25 million per- petual fund is to be assigned to drug, alcohol and smoking preventive education. And, while the municipal share of welfare costs are to be cut from 20 to 15 percent — that reduction will only have meaning to the extent government policies halt the rapidly growing costs of rising unemployment. Welfare costs have more than doubled in the last four years, and Vancouver, for example, today has a larger number, though not percentage, of jobless than at height of the depression. Notably, while no action is indicated in the case of exhorbitant doctors fees (listed in last spring’s press) and $495.4 - million is listed for health and social services, in the field of education where school district after school district is in crisis, the government has only added $14 million to this $404 million item. Natural and typical reaction of Big Business came from Vancouver Board of Trade president, Bill Hamilton, who declared: ‘‘The old~. boy (Bennett) has done a pretty good job. If the government is going to increase its spending the money has to come from some- where.” Since it has been charged to the consumers, bearing most heavily on the little people as all sales taxes do— instead of being taken out of the resources indus- See BUDGET, pg. 12 spreads $.E. Asia war The massive invasion of Laos by Saigon and U:S. military forces ordered by President Nixon in open violation of the 1962 Geneva Agreement on Laos has shocked world public opinion. In the wake of this latest aggression, which has spread the war to all of Indochina and threatens a wider war in Asia, a rising storm of protest is sweeping Canada, the U.S. and the world, denouncing the action of the U.S. and its puppets. Indicating that the end of escalation in Southeast Asia is not yet over was the statement issued by South Vietnam puppet vice premier Ky Wednesday when he warned that Saigon forces may invade North Vietnam “‘‘to destroy arms supplies.” Summing up world reaction was the statement of UN secretary-General U Thant who described the invasion as ‘‘one more deplorable episode in the long history of the barbarous war in Indochina.”’:The action was also roundly condemned by the Soviet Union, China and France, where giant demon- strations are planned this week. Canada, who is a member of the International Control Com- mission set up at the Geneva con- ference to prevent violations of Laotian neutrality, limited itself to a statement requesting a meeting of the commission to discuss ‘‘complaints of violations of the neutrality of Laos by whatever foreign forces.’’ Once again Canada is playing the U.S. game in Indo- china. Instead of a forthright denunciation of the U.S., Canada wants to hold an investi- gation. Many groups in B.C. reacted quickly to the new U.S. aggres- sion. Following the Vancouver Labor Council’s condemnation of the action last Tuesday, a group of twenty trade unionists Saturday sent a wire to Nixon saying: ‘‘We trade unionists protest the escalation of the war —— Protest rally Ald. Harry Rankin and Homer Stevens, president of the UFAWU, will speak at a public meeting to protest the invasion of Laos and the expansion of the Vietnam war. The meeting, sponsored by the Committee of Concerned Trade Unionists, will be held on Thur. Feb. 18 at 8 p.m. in the Iron- workers Hall, 2415 Columbia St. (Columbia and 8th Ave. E.). i a i A a ta in South East Asia. We demand an end to the aggression and withdrawal of all armed forces immediately.”” The Vancouver CUPE local also condemned the invasion. (See story on pg. 12). Last Sunday one hundred and fifty people at a public meeting of the Communist Party in the Swedish Hall protested the invasion. A resolution demanded the immediate cessation of hostilities and the See LAOS, pg. 12 WHERE DOES LABOR GO NOW IN FIGHT FOR JOBS? —See pg. 3 ee t 1 ' | .