cia a Oe a

aaa

oT ae

rig ste nie nn

oa a Ce BS

Be. bl

8

eRe a" BE” PI

See

‘JUST SOCIETY’ TAKES DIVE. At year’s end Prime Minister Trudeau’s
“Just Society” looked pretty sick with the consumer price index rising to
a new high, and the announcement that mortgage rates will rise to 9%,

Canadian Communists
expel Caron, Boylan

The Central Executive Committee of the Communist Party of
Canada issued the follgwing statements on December 20 dealing with
two members of ine Central Committee, Charles Caron of
Vancouver, and Charles Boylan from Toronto:

Statement on C. Caron

The Central Executive
Committee of the Communist
Party of Canada has endorsed
the action of the British
Columbia convention of this
party in expelling from its ranks
Charles Caron who had been a
member of our Central Com-
mittee, and the ‘Vancouver
organizer of the party.

On the eve of the B.C. conven-
tion, Caron joined with a few
others in announcing his
desertion from the party, and his
intent to form a group in
opposition to the party.

This action came as_ the
culmination of a lengthy period
in which he had been engaged in
organized activity in opposition
to the program and policies of
the party.

Caron knew that he would face
criticism from his fellow
members for factional conduct
within the party. He chose to quit
rather than to come openly and
frankly before those. who had
elected him to office and either
defend himself or admit his
mistakes.

“The ‘‘alternative” he speaks
of can only be an attempt to
mount an attack against the Com-

Three expelled
by B.C. Party

The Provincial Executive
of the B.C. Communist Party
announced last week that
three former members of the
Vancouver City Committee
had been expelled from the
party for deserting their trust
and joining an anti-party
group.

The three are Ann Boylan,
Les MacDonald and Maxine
Schnee. Elected at the last
city convention to the Van-
couver Committee, the three
left their posts without notice
or resignation, and joined in
a public’statement attacking
the Communist Party.

munist Party and the principles

of peace, progress and socialism
for which it stands, and to thus
serve only the cause of the
enemies of the working class in
this country.

Statement on C. Boylan

Charles Boylan, up to last
week-end the editor of Scan
magazine, has deserted from the
ranks of the Communist Party
of Canada of whose Central Com-
mittee he was a member, and
has joined with a handful of
others in British Columbia in a
public attack upon _ this
organization.

Boylan had had many differ-
ences with the party for some
time. Great efforts were made to
conduct patient discussions with
him on these matters. He has
chosen however to reject these
efforts and to join in the
formation of a group in
opposition to the party.

Thus, he is contributing to the
fragmentation and weakening of
the left and progressive forces of
this country, when what is most
urgently needed is the greater
unity of the left to fight for
peace, democracy and far
reaching social change in our
country. His actions can thus
serve only the enemies of
progress.

The unprincipled nature of his
action is revealed in the fact that
he removed without authori-
zation from Toronto to
Vancouver the files and account
books of the Scan Publishing
Company. This property
included a substantial sum of
money and the mailing plates of
the magazine.

The Communist Party is a
voluntary organization which
respects the right of persons to
withdraw from membership,
but in these circumstances we
cannot allow Charles Boylan to
be left under any misunder-
standing as to our condemnation
of his action.

Therefore the Central
Executive Committee has
expelled him from the ranks of
the party.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE — JANUARY 3, 1969 — Page 12

SIX MONTHS OF ‘JUST SOCIETY’

Taxes, interest, living
costs up - so are profits

Six months after Pierre Elliott
Trudeau was elected to office
finds Canadians facing a New
Year with some grim economic
prospects. The ‘‘Just Society,”
which was supposed to be
ushered in with the victory of
Trudeaumania on June 27 last,
has produced the following:

e A sharp rise in the cost of

living ;
e Arise in income tax for low
income groups with the

prospect of more to come;
e The highest interest rate in
our history;
e Sharply
ployment;
e Increased pressure to
freeze worker’s wages, while
profitszoom skyward. —_-"
As we entered the New Year,
Ottawa announced that the
consumer price index last
November was 4.4 percent
higher than a year earlier. The
wage gains won by Canadian
workers during 1968 were all but
wiped out (and more in some
cases) by inflated prices
imposed on the public by the
large monopolies who have
encountered no restrictions on
their profit-gouging by the newly-
elected Liberal government.
Working people and the
general public face 1969 with no
sign that there will be any letup
in the upward trend in the cost of
living. This confronts labor with
the inevitable necessity of
seeking substantial wage
increases in the coming months.
Another New Year’s gift for
the Canadian people was the two
percent increase in income tax
which became effective on
January ist. Misnamed the
‘social development tax,’’ the
limit of $120 to be collected under
this new tax, puts the burden on
lower income groups and allows
those with bigger incomes to

rising unem

escape paying their share based .

on ability to pay.

This may not be the end of tax
increases Canadians will have to
pay in 1969. In a recent speech
before the Liberal Business
Men’s Club in Toronto, Finance
Minister Edgar Benson indicated
that the Trudeau government
may seek to impose new taxes to
“balance the budget’’ rather
than continue with the policy of
“deficit financing.”

Judging from his last budget,
Benson can be expected to try to
balance the budget by heaping
new taxes on the public while
allowing the big corporations,
and those in high income groups,
to escape paying their fair share
of federal taxes.

The New Year also finds a
rapid rise in unemployment

U.S. takeover

of forest firm

A U.S. forest company took
over another chunk of B.C. forest
lands recently when it was
announced that the Triangle
Pacific Forest Products Corp.,
of Great Neck, N.Y. has bought
out the Tubafor Stud Mills Ltd.,
of Quesnel. The B.C. company
was granted a forest
management licence some time
ago and produced about 50
million board feet annually. The
price was not disclosec.

among Canadians, with tens of
thousands of youth also entering
the labor market and being
unable to find jobs. Even at the
peak of summer economic
activity more than five percent
of the labor force was out of
work. Cancellation of the winter
works program under Trudeau’s
“Just Society’’ has added
sharply to winter unemploy-
ment.

What makes the unem-
ployment picture even darker is
that the Federal government is
deliberately fostering unem-
ployment as a means of ‘‘cooling
off the economy’’. The theory is
that the way to fight inflationary
pressures is to reduce the
purchasing power of the people
— what better way to do that
than to create a large pool of
unemployed who have ‘no
incomes and therefore cannot
purchase goods?

This policy is being pursued
despite the fact that a year end
economic revue from Ottawa
showed that our gross national
product rose by only 4.5. percent,
and an admission by leading
economists that the country’s
productive facilities are
operating well below its limit.

The policy of attempting to
create ‘“‘limited unemploy-
ment’? seems to have led to
runaway unemployment, which
in 1969 could well see a further
deterioration in our economic
‘situation.

The policy of creating a large
pool of unemployed is also
backed by the big corporations
who hope that large scale
unemployment will put a damper
on unions seeking substantial
wage increases in the coming
year. As long as they can
maintain their high level of
profits through inflated prices
and new equipment, the monopo-
lies welcome unemployment.

In a New Year’s message the
president of the Canadian Labor
Congress, Donald MacDonald,

yh StL im — a |

accused the government of
maintaining ‘‘comparativ®
silence’’ in the face of a serio)
unempioyment situation.
Another New Year’s gift, W&
the announcement held to thé
very last days of the old yeal
that National Housing A€
mortage interest rates will g0 up
after January Ist a record high
of 938 percent. . a
Coming at a time when housifb
is widely recognized as being on
of the country’s most critical
problems, this new interest ralé)
strikes a death blow to the few
who still hoped to be able to buy
a home. It is also an indication®
the government’s attitud®
toward the upcoming report ®
the Task Force on Housing. —_
With the government allowiNk
the highest interest rates
housing mortgages in thé
country’s history, it’s not likelY
that any large scale measure?
are being anticipated to reliev’
the critical housing shortage.
Last, but no least, recelll
statements by Finance Ministe!
Benson and Labor Ministél
Bryce Mackasey indicate thal
the Trudeau government intend
early in the new year to mount®
drive to impose unofficial wag!
guidelines on the trade unid!)
movement of about six percent
This is being coupled with sig®
that the provinces and thé
federal government plan to adop!
a “tougher” attitude to labor #
new legislation such as B.C.*
Bill 33, which would impos!
restrictions on the right @
strike, or take away that righ!
completely. H
All in all, 1969 under Prim?
Minister Trudeau’s “Just
Society”, shapes up as a year
which big business and 1”
government will try to impos
“belt-tightening” measures
the people, and in which shat)
struggles by labor and the peop!é
can be expected for a large)

_ share of our national wealth {0

the working people. A

“YOU'VE BEEN
SHORT- CHANGING:
ME, BUB!