oo long a sacrifice, makes a stone of the heart. . .

So wrote the Irish poet, William Butler Yates in his

tribute to the immortal memory of those Sons of Erin who gave

their lives for Irish freedom in the historic Easter Rebellion in

Dublin in the year 1916. For the poet Yates and the Irish author

and playwright Sean O’Casey it was “enough to know their
dreams— and our dead.” :

It is now 52-years since that fateful Easter Sunday when a
pitifully small band of Irish Volunteers marched down a Dublin
street, took over the Dublin Post Office, and from a window-
balcony of that historic building, in the name of the Provisional
Government of the Irish Republic, proclaimed the birth of the
Republic as “‘a Sovereign Independent State’’.

This historic declaration reads in part;

“We declare the right of the people of Ireland to the
ownership of Ireland, and to the unfettered control of Irish
destinies, to be sovereign and indefeasible. The long usurpation
of the right by a foreign people and government has not
extinguished the right, nor can it ever be extinguished except
by the destruction of the Irish people.

“In every generation the Irish people have asserted their
right to national freedom and sovereignty; six times during the
past three hundred years they have asserted it in arms.
Standing on the fundamental right and again asserting it in
arms in the face of the world, we hereby proclaim the Irish
Republic as a Sovereign Independent State, and we pledge our
lives and the lives of our comrades-in-arms to the cause of its
freedom, of its welfare, and of its exaltation among the
nations’’.

The illustrious names, on behalf of the Provisional
Government are appended to this declaration. They are —
Thomas J. Clarke, Sean MacDiarmada, Thomas MacDonagh,
P.J. Pearse, Eamonn Ceannt, James Connolly, and Joseph
Plunkett.

Their effort was drowned in blood by the firing squads and
hangmen of British imperialism, but the Republic of Ireland
lived, still lives, and will live, because, as a stirring rebel song
puts it, — ‘“Born into Slavery— they were Freedom’s Sons”’.

“Divide and Rule’’ has long been a cardinal strategem of
all imperialisms hell-bent on sucking the life-blood of a people.
Playing up religious or racist differences have invariably
turned the trick in favor of a parasitic imperialism, so in
Ireland it has been to pit Catholic against Protestant and vice
versa.

In that division, both, as Irishmen, could readily be robbed
of their sweat, toil and heritage — and upon occasion robbed of
their very lives as the present tragic toll of Irish lives steadily
confirms. When British imperialism gets out of Ireland, which
it ultimately must, this so-called Catholic-Protestant double-
bitted bigotry, prejudice and ignorance, will disappear almost
over-night, since the prime reason for fostering it will have
also disappeared. .

The other prime stratagem of the imperialist ghouls in this
“divide and rule’’ game is to divide a nation or people. Thus we
have a North and South Korea, a North and South Vietnam, and
East and West Germany, the Republic of Ireland and Ulster,
ad infinitum as nauseum.

Before Ulster, nearly a century ago, British imperialism
was tinkering around with a made-in-New Westminster ‘‘Home
Rule’ for Ireland, but a fanatical ‘‘Orange’”’ protestantism
howled that would be tantamount to “‘Rome Rule’”’ for Ireland,
and thréatened to ‘‘take up arms”’ if the scheme went ahead.
That of course made it easier for ‘‘Mother England” to top off’
her ‘‘divide-and-rule”’ gimmickry with the creation of Ulster,
its ‘‘parliament”’ and constitution, now suspended and turned
over to a one-man civil servant, to attempt to cure the evils and
ills of three centuries of British exploitation, misrule, tyranny,
excessive torture and death. .<

There’s nothing. especially ‘‘new’’ about British
imperialism suspending the parliament of Ulster and its
constitution, just as there’s nothing especially new about U.S.
imperalism setting up ‘‘new’’ puppet governments and phoney
constitutions in Asia, Latin America or elsewhere, where its
“interests” are threatened — or likely to be threatened by a
long-suffering people. But Ireland is not a ‘‘banana’’ republic,
nor is its heroic sons and daughters over-awed by the ‘“‘noble

Sid Shelton is the new presi-
dent of the Committee: of
Progressive Electors (COPE).
Others elected to the 13 member
executive at the organization’s
annual meeting at the Grand-
view Community Centre on
March 28 were: Bob Gregory,

vice president; Margaret
Chunn, secretary; Dennis
Rankin, treasurer; Ben

Swankey, publicity director;
Bruce Yorke, Cliff Worthington,
Jeff Power, Jean Sheils, Ruth
Smith, James Cork, Chris
Shelton and Frank Kennedy.
Plans were made for a gala
birthday party for COPE alder-
man Harry Rankin, to be held at

the Canadian Legion Hall, 2205.

Commercial on Friday, May
5th.

The meeting by resolution
expressed its disappointment at
the refusal. of the Vancouver
Area NDP leadership to join an
“electoral coalition of all
progressive reform groups
aimed at electing an adminis-
tration to City Hall genuinely
representative of and respon-
Sive to the electors.”” The main
beneficiaries of the NDP ‘‘go-it-
alone’ policy, it declared, will
be ‘“‘the NPA and TEAM and
their big business and real esate
backers.”

In the absence of such a coali-
tion, the meeting decided that

COPE will field a ‘‘strong slate_
URUOUOUGOULOUSCROGUCUNORUCOOULCGUCURCURECOCUGUROUROUOOLOGHOURUUOUROCNO UU CUCOREORORNGEOOUOOE

COPE repeats call
‘for civic alliance

of candidates’. However it was
agreed that COPE will continue
its efforts. to bring together ‘‘all
reform groups

The meeting set up com-
mittees to;draft an election
platform centering around the
issues of public transit, a ward
system, tenant needs and
housing, taxes and assessments,
and an end to-concessions and
subsidies to real _ estate
promoters.

An election headquarters will

be opened in April and COPE _

Area Committees established
to work on community issues.
Committees were also selected
to prepare COPE’s booth at this
year’s PNE.

Alderman Harry Rankin,
addressing the meeting,
expressed confidence that
COPE will make a further
“break-through in this election
in view of the declining support
for the NPA and the waffling on
issues by TEAM aldermen,”’

who are, he said ‘‘little more -

than a swinging NPA.”’

“Even three COPE aldermen
on Council will make a tremen-
dous difference,’ said Rankin,
‘their influence will be far
greater than their number on
Council because their program
coincides with the needs of and

has the backing of the people.”’

> =

BMRA
I 4 i NG

>

Shines Sen.e.s

BN OPFIRE |

“Sure, | knew the rich were getting richer and the poor were getting |
poorer — but | thought I was one of the rich ones.”

By ALD. HARRY RANKIN
In my opinion the Municipal

lord’? who comes in striped pants and frock coat and sauve

talk, as a cloak for his real intention — to exploit and kill at
will. :

“In this supreme hour the Irish must, by its valor and
discipline and by the readiness of its children to sacrifice
themselves for the common good, prove itself worthy of the
august destiny to which it is called.”

Three centuries of unceasing struggle have confirmed it.
Easter Sunday of 1916 was but another ‘‘dress rehearsal’. The
events of today herald the culmination of a United Ireland,
sovereign and independent; an Ireland in which Catholic,
Protestant and non-believer can live in peace and happiness
together, freed from the ghouls of a foreign imperialism.

Hail to the heroes and martyrs of Easter Sunday. The
Republic they died for is now aborning.

_ PAOIICTRIBUNE FRIDAY, APRIL, 1872 7PAGE 2

Labor Relations Bureau, which
was engaged to negotiate a new
collective agreement with civic
employees on behalf of City
Council, is quite wrong in refus-
ing to continue talks with the
unions involved.

What it is doing by this action
is to force a confrontation and
show-down. It is forcing the
unions to go on strike because
they have no alternative. But
the fact remains that every
dispute has to be finally settled
at the bargaining table at some
stage, whether it is before,
during or after a strike. So why

‘Renew talks

force a strike if one can be
avoided?

Who will benefit from a strike?
The city won’t. The public won't.
The unions don’t want to strike.
And once a strike gets under-
Way, view-points harden,
feelings become bitter and a
compromise becomes much
more difficult.

The Municipal Labor Re-
lations Bureau says it has made
its “‘final’’ offer to the union.
That is hard to believe. In labor-
Management disputes, such
“final” offers are rarely final, If
they were, disputes would never
be settled!

I think the MLRB should agree

City NDP’s ||
‘s0-it-alone’ ||
helps NPA

The following statement W#
adopted by the Committee
Progressive Electors (COPE
at its annual meeting, March’

* KOK

The decision of the Vancouve :
Area NDP to enter a full slate?
candidates in this year’s civ
election will be disappointing :
all those who have worked ine
coalition of all progress!’
reform groups aimed at elect
an administration to City B®”
that will be genuinely repr
sentative of and responsive

porters share our 4isaf
pointment at this ‘go-it-aloné
policy which places par
advantage above the ové
good.

The immediate beneficiatié
of the NDP decision will be ©
NPA and TEAM and their Db
business and real estate backers
They will be able to contimvt
their domination as long 45’
reform forces are divided.

COPE has advocated and i
will continue to advocate su¢

which we are prepared to join?
any time. In its a ng
however, we will field a SH,
slate of candidates undel.
banner of COPE. To this end
have launched a campaig? ‘a
new members and elec
funds. The response, espe“ ”
from trade unions and od
munity groups, has beet m {0
encouraging. We expen
make some gains in the Dect
ber civic elections.

for

We have not given up, a
ever, in our endeavors to brine”
gether all reform grouPe:
COPE, NDP, public
backers, anti-pollution grown
old age pensioners, 3°
groups, the poor and the ¥ de
ployed, tenants and the ahi
unions — under one banner ie
united behind one slate of fet
dates and around a common We ut
mum program. That, 12 an
opinion, is the only real 8"
antee of victory at the polls.

in)
Eighteen unions represetlie
50,000 members in the | ir
struction industry ha spit’
contracts with employers “ve
on March 31. The unions vers
charged that CLRA (emP" = tp
group) have made no atte’ oft
bargain in good faith, aM

trying to force a lockout.

With civic unions

nid
to come back to the bargain
table. It must be prepay nal”
compromise on its ot be
offer, just as the unions mY
realistic and also comprom”
Let’s get both parties 18 ses
once more. If the MLRB Tl’ ity
to do so I think Vancouvel “1d
Council should intervene anit
instruct them to do so. We dB
have the tail wagging t e ind
we can’t have the MLRB
the city and civic worker
unnecessary conflict. 40!
The alternative is to sit?” to
a limb, waiting for the U"' iyal
strike and face the prospe® nay
at any.time all city servic@
be closed down indefinitely:

ind