Welfare in a mess Poverty, and hunger not ended by riot sticks By Alderman HARRY RANKIN Committee of The administration of welfare in Vancouver is in a state of crisis on two counts. The first is financial— welfare costs are far in excess of budge- tary allotments. The second cause of the crisis is direct interference in the city’s administration of welfare by rehabilitation minister Phil Gagliardi. Welfare costs in Vancouver, and in all of B.C. for that matter, are sky-rocketting. The basic cause is rising unemployment. This, in turn, is due to policies of senior governments. Prime minister Trudeau’s austerity pro- gram (which doesn’t seem to have cut into his holiday-travel activities) is aimed at increas- ing unemployment on the spur- more people out of work who cannot afford to buy goods, this will help to combat inflation. A much more effective method would be to end subsidies and tax concessions to wealthy corpora- tions, and to cut wasteful defence expenditures. Premier Bennett is contributing to unem- ployment by encouraging the export of our valuable natural resources such as mineral ores, lumber and coal to foreign countries.- If these were processed at home it would build new industries and provide thousands of new jobs. At present Ottawa pays 950 percent of welfare costs, the provincial government 30 percent, and the municipalities the remaining 20 percent. Since ious grounds that if we have n one of his stop-over orations at Ocean Falls during his Western tour, Prime Minister Pierre Elliot Trudeau ‘‘blamed’’ Labor for continuing inflation, the rising high-cost-of-living, unemployment etc. No one in their right mind could or should have expected M. Trudeau to say anything else. Such ‘‘explanations’’ are the quintessence of his social status, of his monopoly class allegiance. M. Trudeau is reputed to be a person of substantial wealth, a millionaire in fact, and intends to remain in that ae position by political hook or crook — primarily the atter! In his off-the-cuff moments M. Trudeau affects a ‘man-of-the- people’ role, spicy language, hippie affectations and all. When _ however te dons the position of ‘statesman’, guiding the nation’s destinies his role is that of a calculating and cold- blooded monopolist, determined on seeing to it that the working ‘hewers of wood and drawers of water’’ remain that way and blasting them nation-wide when they seek a fairer share of the vast wealth their labours create. Thus it could scdrely be expected that on this, as on previous occasions and on similar issues where the people versus monopoly are concerned, M. Trudeau would have said anything else. Who else to blame if not the workers — the common people? Next time M. Trudeau visits Merrie England (at the ‘taxpayers expense of course) he should look up a Cockney docker and have that worthy citizen sing for him (in his best Cockney) an old English workingclass song. Then he would learn that the blame he throws at working ‘people was : Pie a ridiculed, and spurned by workers long before he was orn. “It’s the syme the ’ole world over, It’s the poor as get the blime; It’s the rich as gets the gra(i)vy, - Ain’t it all a bloomin’ shyme.”’ But we as a people insist on learning things the hard way: that the Trudeauomania we inhaled in our majority not so long ago was and is very much like taking a short ‘‘trip on pot.”* The soothing results are very temporary, but the hangover stays, something like Bennett’s recent ‘saving B.C. from a non- existent socialism,’ Socred goof balls. But the people swallowed them by the thousands, and are now wondering, particularly the thousands of workers compelled to take strike action for a decent wage, or deprived of their livelihood by lockouts and mass unemployment, just what in hell they were ‘“‘saved”’ from? . : Certainly not empty or near empty pay envelopes, or the degradation of welfare aid as administered by Herr Gaglardi! A lot of changes will yet have to take place before M. Trudeau and his kind begin to admit that it is they who are to blame; who are wholly and fully responsible for the mess this country and this world (their world) is in, economically, politically, peace-wise and every otherwise. When they reach that stage it will indicate that the sheeping giant of Labor has come fully awake! : senior governments are respon- PACIFIC TRIBUNE—FRIDAY, AUGUST 21, 1970—PAGE 2 - Progressive Electors sible for policies that add to our welfare rolls, they should foot more of the bill. In my opinion the province’s share should be increased to 40 percent, leaving 10 percent for the munici- palities, as it was previously. Council is asking the provin- cial government for an additional grant to offset a recent’ bill received from Vic- toria for $221,660,.00, and to take care of any further welfare costs this year. So far our request is falling on deaf ears. If this continues, I think Council should send a mass citizens’ dele- gation, including represen- tatives from all concerned com- munity groups. The administration of welfare in our city is also in a crisis. Two months ago the head of the welfare department retired. Council set up a committee, of which I am a member, to recom- mend a successor. We did so after screening a large number of applicants. Then the Hon. Phil Gagliardi stepped into the picture. He made it clear that he didn’t approve of the com- mittee’s choice. Mayor Campbell backed him up, even rushing to the press to tell the world that he had asked the FBI and RCMP for reports on the applicant. Nothing subversive or otherwise could be found, how- ever, to smear the applicants. The real reason for the rejection of the applicant recom- mended to Council by its own committee was revealed in a story in the Vancouver Sun by John Griffiths on August 15. It reported that Ernie Broome and other aldermen voted against the applicant ‘‘because they felt it would lead to an expansion of services’ The Hon. Phil Gagliardi regards unemployed who are forced to apply for welfare as ‘“‘deadbeats.’’ Mayor Campbell calls them ‘‘bums.’’ Both of them (and now a majority of our NPA-dominated Council) insist that welfare costs be cut even though unemployment is rising. They want a welfare adminis- trator who will be a yes-man for Gagliardi but tough on the unemployed. If the philosophy of Gagliardi and Campbell, which isn’t far removed from the ultra-reac- tionary views of governor Wallace of Alabama and Governor Reagan of California, is to prevail, we're heading for serious trouble. Poverty, hunger and want can't be solved by riot sticks, tear gas or guns. We need new policies that will create more jobs. In the meantime it is the responsibility of society to take care of all citizens made destitute by government policies which favor the wealthy and discriminate against the ordinary citizen. Problems confronting the unemployed will be discussed at a public rally at the Court House on Wednesday, August 26th at 12 noon. The gathering is spon- sored by the Unemploved Citizens Welfare Improvement Council and the Action Com- mittee for Unemployed Youth. Up from ‘Hungry 30's’ Union backs Youth — not starvation wages Rates of pay suggested by the Kitsilano Area Resources Council for youth engaged in a proposed employment program were objected to by the Executive Board, Local 1004 Van- couver Civic Employees Union, in their reply to the Council’s request for support for the scheme from organized labor. The union’s executive board said that while they shared the concern of the Resources Council for the unemployed, particularly among youth, they could not accept the concept of a make-work program at the substandard $.75 to $1.25 rates A float will carry a message The P.N.E. Parade this Saturday won’t be all hoopla and U.S. Army Bands. There will be at least one float that will carry a message of some meaning to the watching crowds. B.C. Peace Council is entering a car decorated with blue and white flowers and carrying a replica of the globe showing war-torn Indochina and supported by four hands. A banner will carry the message PEACE IS IN YOUR HANDS. The Council also announces it is stepping up activity around the OUTNOW petition which demands the immed- iate withdrawal of all U.S. troops from Indochina. Council members and supporters have already obtained some 8,000 signa- tures on the: Stockholm Appeal and they have every intention of surpassing this record. Volunteers who can spare an hour or so are asked to telephone the Council at 685- 9958 between the hours of 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. each day. In many areas of B.C. the OUTNOW petition is receiving a very receptive | response from people in all walks of life. and the final ‘tally is expected to surpass all previous efforts to win peace. proposed as a solution to the problem. ‘Such rates of pay, evel though based on an educational rather than a production orienta- tion, are contrary to labor's consistent struggle to establish much higher minimum wage legislation,’’ the executive board said. : The Kitsilano Area Resources Council is a citizen group which also includes some interested social workers working in the area. The idea of the youth employment scheme was stimulated by the growing number of Kitsilano young people who are at loose ends, the Council said. Specific projects would be selected from those suggested by people and organl- zations in the community. Suggested projects included building tot-lots, miniparks, and carrying out landscaping improvements on boulevards and other public areas; building erosion control works along waterfront; renovation of old buildings to be used for youth hostels, etc. The Council said that renumeration would probably have to be well below the mini mum hourly wage perhaps in the "75 cent to $1.25 range, which, it maintained, would be consistent with the training rather than production orientation of the programme. 2 CUPE’s executive board said that a scheme to undertake projects which would not other- wise be done, for the express purpose of rehabilitating youns people reflects a condescending attitude to people who are enter- ing the labor market at a time -when unemployment is at 4 serious level. é “This problem is not of thelr making, but is a deliberate policy of the federal govern: ment to slow down the economy and to crate unemployment in 4 so-called anti-inflation drive, the CUPE statement said. “It is not, it seems to us, the - youth who need to be rehabili- tated. It is the federal govern- ment which needs to adjust its. policies and its course of action. *-What is required is 4 See Youth, Pg. 8