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= week U.S. President ‘‘Tricky-Dicky’’ Nixon made
his annual “‘State of the Nation’’ report to Congress. As
the New York Daily World and other U.S. news media, which
follow a policy of sticking to realities described it, the Nixon
oration was little nore than a diahrrea of ‘“‘overblown
rhetoric’’.

No one today in the U.S. and/or Canada, aside from that
much - touted “silent majority’ who are alleged to be
supporting Nixon’s war of genocide in Vietnam, paralleled by
an unprecedented violence and oppression upon American
citizens at home, and against Black Americans in particular,
would care to argue that the “‘state of the nation”’ is anything
but damn bad to put it mildly.

Of course as far as the big monopolists, the financial
royalists, the super - profiteers or the all - powerful military -
industrial jungle of man - eating tigers are concerned, the
“state of the nation” is very good, and on their behalf the
Nixon - Agnew escalators plan to keep it that way. About the
only thing Nixon promised the American people in his address
to Congress was more club - swinging gun-toting police, and
bigger if not better jails, for the preservation and extention of
a lawless form of “‘law and order’’. All under the pretext of
conducting a “‘war on crime’’.

That line of ‘‘overblown rhetoric’’ is quite familiar to
Canadian ears also, since it serves our Establishment
(regardless of partisan labels), who predicate their concept of
“democracy” upon conformity, coercion, and violence.

There is scarcely a day passes in which letters, press
releases, appeals, etc., for financial aid, clothing, etc., does not
hit my desk from all over the USA; Kentucky, Tennesee,
Alabama, Georgia, The Deep South, up to New York, New
Jersey, Chicago, Boston, out to California. These appeals
express a common, uniform language — the need for aid and
solidarity with countless thousands of unknown Americans,
Black and White, suffering under the iron heel of a veritable
police state.

From organizations like the ‘‘Southern Conference Educa-
tional Fund’? (SCEF), heriocally defending courageous
Americans like the Allan and Margaret McSurely family,
persecuted before U.S. racist courts because they seek to
defend their fellow Americans against a like ruthless terror.
People seeking to make the “‘State of the Nation” what it
should be—and not what Nixon’s ‘“‘overblown rhetoric’’ says it
is.

And the young Black Panther Party in many U.S. centres—
their names are legion— and so are their murdered dead. Often
it looks to the outsider as if a war of genocide was being waged
by the Nixon - Agnew - Wallace Establishment upon their own
people. To these appeals have now been added the courageous
and steadfast voices of Morton and Helen Sobel, who have also
traversed this cruel and brutal path laid out by American
reaction to preserve the status quo of Mammon.

There was a time when working men used to say at seeing
some fellow human in sore distress: ‘‘There, but for the grace
of a kind providence, go I’’. That kind of ‘‘sympathy’’ no
longer fits this age. Better to say: “‘There, but for the magni-
ficent valor of my American brothers and sisters, could be my
fate also”’— and if we remain silent and aloof, it could yet be.

We too in Canada have stili more than a full complement
of U.S. Nixon - Agnew bootlickers in our respective Trudeau -
Bennett ‘‘establishments’’, ready and willing to swallow
Nixon’s “‘State of the Nation”’ guff, and use it as a blueprint in
their own drive towards a neofascist state, in which their
concept of ‘‘democracy”’ is also geared to conformity and
coercion— and if they so choose, violence against the people. It
is only one short step from robbing the people of their heritage
— to clobbing their protests into silence.

So don’t blush or turn aside when someone passes the hat
for the defense of Black or White Americans against oppres-
sion and worse. Remember what one of America’s great
fighting sons, Mike Quinn once said about that hat ....
‘““Some men put in their lives’’. Many have already done so, and
help is needed to see that no more do.

“The State of the Nation’? overblown rhetoric — or grim
reality?

WCB NEEDS SHAKEUP

Injured Indian worker

gets runaround by Board

By ALD. HARRY RANKIN

A working man injured in an in-
dustrial accident can really get
the runaround in this con-
scienceless, | bureaucratic-rid-
den society of ours.

An Indian sawmill worker put
his case in my hands the other
day. He had worked in a Prince
George sawmill for six years.
His job as an edger paid as much
as $40 a day with overtime. The
speed-up in the mill is terrific —
the men were pushed to produce
100,000 feet of lumber per shift,
far beyond the safety point of
production.

This worker, several months
before his accident, asked that
his edger be fixed. (A edger
trims off the bark). He also
spoke to his union safety com-
mittee. But nothing was done.
The result? He ended up with
three fingers and a thumb badly
mangled.

As an industrial worker he is
covered by compensation. He
received $160 shortly after the
accident, which was for a period
of 10 days. After that the cheques
came at such irregular intervals
that he had to apply for welfare.

He has a wife and five small
children. Welfare pays him $325
a month and collects his com-
pensation cheques in payment.
What these cheques amount to he
has never been told. Out of this
$325 he pays $150 rent a month
for a three bedroom house,
leaving him $175 a month with
which he is supposed to feed and
clothe his family and send his
children to school. His gas
heating bills are astronomical,
which is not surprising in 40
degrees below zero weather.

Early this month the Com-
pensation Board sent him a plane
ticket to come to Vancouver for
physiotherapy treatments. And
what are these treatments?
Weaving a mat to restore finger
dexterity! To bring him all the
way here to do some weaving
that could just as well be done in
Prince George seems nothing
short of preposterous.

In Vancouver he was supposed
to get $10 a day for the first
seven days with this amount then
being reduced to $7 a day. He
received $40 when he arrived and
then no more cheques came. So
he had to get meal tickets from
Social Welfare.

Throne Speech fails B.C. needs

Cont.d from pg. 1 municipalities

quate school finance formula, 4rer,” Morgan warned.
and forced referendums on

tied
whatever Victoria chooses to serious shortcoming

appears no

“Without doubt the most
in the

classify as ‘unauthorized school
expenditures’, are apparently
to be continued,”’ he said.

“Also, despite blunt criticism
of present municipal tax collec-
tions by their own retiring
Deputy Minister, J. E. Brown, as
being ‘outdated, inefficient, and
ineonvenient’ — a new deal for
British Columbia’s hard-pressed

Throne Speech is its failure to
project any change in the govern-
ment’s attitude to the massive
plunder of B.C.’s resources

“Premier Bennett’s attempt
to tell us that B.C. doesn’t have
enough money to provide
adequate facilities and standards
of education, hospitals, needed

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—JANUARY 30, 1970—Page 2

housing, decent pensions and
welfare provisions in face of the
massive giveaways to foreign
and Canadian monopoly inter
ests!”

“These are the things that are
lacking in the Throne Speech
projections,’ he concluded.
“These are the things for which
mass public pressure needs to be
exerted if any meaningful
change is to come and the best
interests of British Columbians
are to be served..’

You can imagine
frustrated and fed up he feels
after this kind of a runaround.
Unfortunately his case isn’t an

exception. This sort of treat-
ment is being handed out to
working men and women all the
time. And if they happen to be
Indian they get even worse treat
ment.

There are a few questions that
need to be asked and answered.

Why isn’t safety being
enforced in this sawmill? Why
aren’t government safety

inspectors on the job? How is it
that they haven’t laid a charge of

how |

criminal negligence against this
mill owner?

And why can’t the Compensa-
tion Board handle a case like this
one efficiently and with a little
human consideration for the
welfare of the injured person?
Can’t it even get cheques out on
time? I’m sure the top officials
of the Board receive their
cheques right on schedule.

To force an injured working
man to go on welfare when he is
entitled to compensation is an
insult and an indignity. If this is
the way the Board handles com-
pensation cases, it’s due for a
shaking up.

“AT LEAST AIR POLLUTION GAVE US JOBS-

By ALD. JIM DAILLY

Burnaby Lake is dying. Birds,
fish and plants in, on and around
the lake are being killed. There
used to be fish in the lake. Now
they are gone. Dead ducks are
being picked up now. Dangerous
poisonous pollutants from
nearby industries have been
steadily accumulating in the
water. Burnaby Lake is rapidly
becoming another Lake Erie.

Whether or not the lake can
still be saved I’m not sure. But I
certainly am going to do my best
to save it. Burnaby Lake should
be a_ wildlife sanctuary
surrounded by a park where
people can gather in the peaceful
atmosphere of nature away
from the noise, hub-bub; traffic,
strains and tensions of daily life.

Last month, I showed Burnaby
Municipal Council a dozen
sample bottles of. water
collected in the creeks and
drainage ditches leading into the
lake and from the lake itself. Not
one of them was clear or clean.
One had a film of oil at least half
an inch thick. The smell of
another was just as strong as
solvent or kereosene.

The oil and other pollutants
originated with trucking and
heavy equipment cleaning firms

WE’RE NOW SEEING-EYE poGs.”*

‘Save Burnaby Lake

around the lake. I proposed that
Council suspend their licenses
until the situation is cleared up.
Council, however, took no action,
pending a further report on the
subject.

Two weeks ago, I toured the
creeks and drainage ditches
around Burnaby Lake with our
Municipal Health Officer, Mr.

Armson. He is hopeful that the —

firms responsible’ for the
pollution will do something about
it soon. I’m not so optimistic.

I feel very strongly that
Burnaby Lake must be. saved.
We owe this to ourselves and our
children. It will only be saved if
the citizens raise their voices
loud and clear. The polluted
ditches and creeks leading into
the lake can be cleaned out. The
firms responsible for pollution
can be ordered to end their
harmful and_ irresponsible
practices. Couneil can act. It
must act before it is too late.

Perhaps we should form 4
“Save Burnaby Lake Com-
mittee’. What do you think? Let
me know if you are willing to act
on such a committee. My phone
number is 298-8958 or you call
write to me at home — 5821

Highfield Dr., Burnaby 2, or at

the municipal Hall

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