met by call to up rates Socred human_resources Minister Bill Vander Zalm ven- Shoreworkers in Vancouver manned picket lines to support st Won better than 10 percent increases for UFAWU members. WotR Eng eo a tured into Vancouver’s downtown “eastside last Friday to open a new human resources building and was Met by about 200 protesters who demanded that he raise GAIN F_ rates to liveable levels. Vander Zalm was met on the Steps of the new human resources building on Hastings St. by Downtown Eastside Residents’ Ssociation president Bruce Eriksen. Eriksen told the minister that the $175 per month currently Teceived by single men on GAIN is tally inadequate and falls far | below the poverty line established by the Senate committee on ™ poverty.” Eriksen also called on Vander th to implement section eight of mas GAIN act, passed by the egislature but not proclaimed, aes ties GAIN rates to the cost of ving; Vander Zalm smiled and ac- cepted the letter from DERA but [un * would not make any com- mitment that he would do anything to assist GAIN recipients. An older. member of DERA Presented Vander Zalm with a Specially prepared invitation to join residents of the downtown €astside to beg for your supper at the Harbor Light Mission.” If you are unable to attend this Evening, there will be a similar 8athering every evening this Month and every day this year,” the invitation said, “Come eat what we are forced to eat. . . or tter still, increase our welfare Cheques so we can eat properly.” Tribune takes Summer break With this issue of the Tribune, Publication will cease for two Weeks. The shutdown is by senutated by staff holidays. and = 4 Corresponding shutdown of the ‘~€anadian Tribune which provides 4 Section of our paper each week. a blication will resume August » 1978, but in the interim our ice wi ; oa be open for business as Bill Vander Zalm was met building last Friday WELFARE BUM >: ae riking tendermen in four-day strike that Fred Wilson photo “4 . = on the steps of his new Human resources by DERA president Bruce Eriksen who led 200 protesters in demanding an increase in GAIN rates. Fred Wilson photo Soviet court convicts CIA agent Shcharansky CIA agent Anatoly Shcharansky was convicted of treason in a Moscow court last week and sentenced to 13 years im- prisonment. The conviction of Sh- charansky has shattered an im- portant section of CIA activity in the Soviet Union and has sparked a massive propaganda campaign by the capitalist countries against the -conviction. During the course of the trial it was proven that Shcharansky had gathered information on 1,300 Soviet citizens which held military and other state secrets. Sh- charansky also collected in- formation on the locations of defense industry enterprises and on the management officials at the enterprises. Correspondence between Sh- charansky and CIA operatives was offered as evidence during the trial. The correspondence in- structed Shcharansky to gather information on individuals who had been refused exist visas because of previous employment in security positions. Shcharansky was also a key figure in the ‘‘Helsinki monitoring group,” a small group established by the CIA in order to provide the western media with. ‘‘dissidents”’ for propaganda use. : Shcharansky has posed as a Jewish nationalist, but most political observers have noted that the obviously ° orchestrated propaganda campaign in the western media and Shcharansky’s clear ties to the CIA has un- dermined his “dissident” image. UFAWU wins ‘pacesetting’ new contract In a pacesetting agreement for B.C. workers, the United Fishermen and Allied Workers Union successfully completed a four day strike Wednesday by winning the best wage increase of any major industry in B.C. since the end of the wage control program. Voting on the new agreement was still being completed as the Tribune went to press but there CUPW threatens was little doubt of its acceptance by tendermen and shoreworkers whose militancy and unity had forced a one year package set- tlement of better than 10 percent, and had forced the fishing com- panies to back off their demands which precipitated the strike. “Our membership should rightfully be proud,” UFAWU secretary treasurer George See MILITANCY page 8 Local P.O. strike While negotiations in Ottawa enter a crucial stage and the prospect of a country wide postal strike loom large, local post office officials in Vancouver have taken provocative and unilateral actions which threaten to force a strike in Vancouver. At a special meeting of the - Vancouver local of the Canadian Union of Postal Workers Monday, postal workers voted 76 percent to back up the local executive against local management, up to and in- cluding a strike when the CUPW is in a legal strike position. The tense situation at the Van- couver post office is a result of the refusal of management to assure the union that no disciplinary measures will be taken against union officers and shop stewards flowing out of a sit-in protest last week over a dispute concerning shift start times. CUPW spokesman Lloyd Ingram told the Vancouver and District Labor Council at its regular meeting Tuesday that ‘‘all steps “necessary” would be taken to protect union members against individual reprisals from management. Union activists have been subjected to reprisals from management in similar disputes elsewhere in Canada, he said, and the union would not proceed any further in negotiating local grievances until it had assurance that no reprisals would be taken against any individual union members. Ingram said that union officers might already be under suspension had it not been for a telegram to the post office’s western regional manager from the Vancouver Labor Council advising against reprisals and stressing that the labor movement would be behind the CUPW. The dispute over shift start times began in May when post office management unilateraly declared that the Graveyard shift’s start~ time would be moved back to 10:00 p.m. from the present 11:30 p.m. The postal workers concerned were to a man opposed to the move, but local management refused to offer any explanation for the change. Last Thursday the graveyard shift ‘“‘sat in” at the post office to press their demand for a meeting to discuss the issue. The day shift Friday morning also refused to work until the meeting took place. Finally local management agreed to discuss the matter, but would not give any assurances that no reprisals would be taken. icine § o SOCIALIZED MEDICINE: | _ The system of socialized | medicine in the USSR is: the most extensive | medical system in the world, and its free. A | look inside the system, pages 4, 5. b ‘ a - = . fo GINGER GOODWIN: | | - Murdered by a CPR policeman sixty years ago this week, his death was a catalyst for | Canada’s first general strike, page 7. & t