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THURSDAY, DECEMBER 31, 1970

The challenge of ‘71

With this final issue of the Pacific Tribune for 1970
the Pacific Tribune enters its 36th year of publication as
B.C.’s fighting labor weekly.

The coming year — 1971 — will call on us to meet
many new challenges. These new challenges will face all
labor and progressive people. Foremost among these will
be the struggle for jobs.

But no less important will be the challenge we face in
the fight to preserve peace, defend democracy, end
destruction of our environment by the monopolies, and
stop the giveaway of our province to foreign interests.

Standing above all these is the challenge to move
forward in 1971 to winning of peace and security in a
socialist Canada.

In 1971, B.C. will mark its 100th anniversary since
entering Confederation. The New Year will also mark the
50th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party
of Canada which will also be widely celebrated by
working people.

One hundred years ago labor in B.C. played an
important role in blocking annexation of the province by
the U.S. and in helping create a united Canada from “sea
to sea.” Today labor again faces the task of stopping the
sellout of our country to Yankee carpetbaggers and
uniting French and English Canada in a true brotherhood
of equal peoples.

The Pacific Tribune renews its pledge to be in the
forefront of the struggles of the people for a better life.
We thank our many supporters who helped us throughout
1970, and we look forward to your continued support in
OZ Ae

LOG EXPORTS UP

THOUSANDS
OF JOBS

EXPORTED

By MAURICE RUSH

Tens of thousands of jobs are being exported through B.C. ports in the form of
raw logs and unprocessed minerals while the province suffers the worst
unemployment in Canada, with the official jobless total standing at 76,000 — or 8.6

percent of the labor force.

While thousands of
woodworkers in B.C. are jobless
the Socred government has
allowed raw log exports to take
place up the end of October
which if processed in B.C. could
have provided more than
2,450,000 man-days of work.

Up to the end of October a total
of 247,107,000 board feet of logs
had been exported from B.C. —
mostly to Japan — compared
with a total of 76,157,000 in the
same. period in 1969. This is
about 3 times the normal rate.

The late Chief Justice Gordon
Sloan in his famous report on
forestry some years ago pointed
out that if one man-day of work
produced 1,000 board feet of logs,
that same 1,000 board feet of logs

if processed into paper, sanitary ~

products and other manufac-
tured goods, could provide any-
where from 10 to 14 man-days of
work.

Using an average figure of ten
man-days of work for every 1,000
board feet of raw logs gives us
the figure of nearly two and a
half million man-days of work
lost to B.C. workers.

Donald Stainsby, business
writer for the Vancouver Sun,
said in an article December 16
that ‘‘Logs are wanted (in
Japan) rather than finished
lumber because they are
cheaper and processing them
provides work for Japanese
mills.”’

The irony of this statement is
to be seen in the fact that while
thousands of jobs are provided in
Japan from B.C. logs, layoffs in
B.C.’s forest industry is reaching
an all time high. Recently the
U.S.-owned Rayonier Corpora-
tion announced a layoff for 480 of
its employees. IWA local 217 in
Vancouver reports that 2,000 of
its 7,000 members are without
jobs. IWA local 71 reports that

3,000 of its 4,000 members are

out of work.

Some of the companies
profiting handsomely from the
export of raw logs are U.S.
owned companies who don’t give
a damn whether B.C. workers
have jobs or not so long as their
rate of profit continues to climb.

What makes the export of logs
even more damnable is that
most of the raw logs being
exported come from Crown
lands which are supposed to

belong to the people. Seventy
four percent of exported logs —
or 181,239,000 board feet — are
from Crown granted lands.

Thus logs, which are supposed
to be owned by the people, are
exported in raw form to deny the
working people of the province
jobs which the processing of
their own natural resource
should provide. Instead it
provides profits for the few and
jobs and economic advantages
for other countries.

Another aspect of this insane
resource policy is the mass
unemployment among building
trades workers. Added to the
thousands of jobless wood-
workers are the thousands of
carpenters, plumbers, electri-
cians, etc., who are also without
work. The Vancouver carpen-
ters local alone has 600 mem-
bers without jobs.

See RESOURCE, pg. 12

Events in Poland

“See page 5-