tanadian people need resources policy to. .. ONTROL BLOCKADE AGAINST CUBA WEAKENING HAVANA — It has been officially announced that the govern- ments of the Republic of Cuba and Bahama Islands have agreed to establish diplomatic relations on an ambassadorial level. The two governments are manent representatives at th to appoint as ambassadors their per- e United Nations. The Bahama Islands is the tenth country of the Western hemisphere to have diplomatic relations with Cuba since that country’s revolution. : - BOGOTA — The House of Representatives of Colombia’s Con- Bress has called on the government to immediately restore diplo- Matic relations with Cuba. In a statement issued by parliamentarians in this country, it is Stated that anti-Cuban sanctions do not correspond to the changing Conditions in the world and con tradict principles on which the foreign policy of Colombia is based. Still no job security for rail workers By RICHARD ORLANDINI TORONTO—“It is the worst job security report I’ve ever Seen,’ one disgruntled railway worker told the Tribune shortly after the release of the Supple- mentary Award by Emmett Hall. When Parliament ordered the “railway -workers back to work ‘from their rotating strike in Sept. 1973, Emmett Hall was to Produce a report dealing with the job security issue for freight handlers and wharf employees ‘as well as the issue of contract- ing out on the Canadian rail- ways. The second report follow- ed the Jan. 16, 1974 Award which set the monetary and | some of the fringe benefits in the "contract for 1973-74. The second report, issued Dec. Continued on page 10 farme By WILLIAM ROSS: - “WINNIPEG—Delegates to this year’s convention of the National Farmers Union demonstrated a high level of anti-monopoly con- sciousness. They showed deter- | mination to develop greater mass | pressure upon governments to bring about changes in farm po- licies. : It was evident that the ex- Periences of the past few years OUR TORONTO—“Stage-managed” price increases to the oil monopolies is one “solution” arrived at by the federal and Alberta governments in their current resources tug-of-war. This, and the fact that, as usual, the consumer is the one who pays, was in- cluded in the comments by William Kashtan, leader of the Party of Canada, in discussing a series of well-grounded proposals for dealing with Canada’s energy resources. Charging “the Liberal Government in Ottawa and the Conservative Lougheed Government in Alberta” with saddling the Canadian people with an oil and gas price increase, he said pointedly : “Thanks to these governments the price of heating homes and apartments, the cost of running industry, transpor- Communist people. have produced a high degree of unity among NFU members in terms of policy, and a heighten- ed militancy. A substantial eft’ has begun to crystalize within the organization. : The 600 delegates attending the five day convention included _a large proportion of youth and women and these played a pro- minent, role in the debates and deliberations. : 5 discuss politics an The convention’s theme was, ‘The Politics of Food. In his open- ing address Roy Atkinson, NFU president, set the tone when he pointed out that, at a time when the dollars-and-cents prices for agricultural products at the farm level are at the highest level, industry and the federal govern- ment, hostile to the farmers, have moved in for the kill. Cat- tlemen find themselves facing d food economic disaster or bankruptcy. Fertilizer has gone up by $60 to $70 per ton. Costs of baler twine rose from $7.30 in 1973 to $24 and recently to $36. Interest rates to 12%. “The free market no longer exists,” Atkinson said. “The market is managed and manipu- lated. There is no room for the free market operating. within the corporate and private inte- grated planning system of inter- national, multi-national corpora- tions — General Motors, Cargill Grain, Ralston Purina, Exxon Oil. “No longer can we depend on the free market to dispense equity and justice either be- tween ourselves, our neighbors or the world community,” he told the delegates, “because the basic drive in the market eco- nomy, and of those interests operating in the market econo- my, is self-interest based on maximized profits for their own use or abuse.” _ Public Ownership , The convention’s Consolidated Policy Statement called upon federal and provincial govern- ments to restrict the corporate industrial entry into the primary production of food. It demanded a similar restriction, to prevent non-farm and foreign investment in and ownership of farm lands. Public ownership of large firms Continued on page 10 PACIFIC TRIBUNE—FRIDAY, DECEMBER 20, 1974—Page 5 a I eR — —_ eas ee — a iia arta tation and cars will go up. By how much? Premier Lougheed states that in the spring prices will rise from $6.50 a barrel of oil to ‘a fair market value’-— whatever that is. And Finance Minister Turner congratulates him! “The multi-national oil corporations will be the beneficiaries of this decision while the victims will be the Canadian “This entire operation was stage managed’ from beginning to end.” How Much Oil? Kashtan referred to “the sud- den ‘discovery’ that Canada may only have six years of reserves cf oil. Only yesterday the Cana- dian people were told there were billions of barrels of such re- serves,” he said. ““What is behind this ‘numbers game’? If Canada is really in danger of a relatively” early depletion of its reserves, what is being done about those who misled the Canadian people into believing the opposite?” The Communist leader chal- lenged the right of the oil cor- porations. “These resources,” he said, “are too precious and vital to be left to Liberal and Tory gcvernments and to their patrons — the multi-national corpora- tions. They should be publicly owned and developed so as to serve Canada’s real interests. “There is no question that un- der the BNA Act natural re- sources, including energy, belong to the provinces,” he acknowl- edged. “In fact, however, as Ca- nadians ought to know, they are increasingly owned by the multi- national corporations who ex- ploit them for their own benefit and their private profit. Take These Steps Two principles should be ap- plied, he said: “These resources should benefit the people of every province, wherever re- Continued on page 10 12% Consumer - prices for November were up 12°%/) over the same month last year. With a jump. of 1.19) over October, Can- ada's inflation rate even surpassed the 11.9%/, in the USA. Food prices led the upward spiral again with a 15.7%, rise from a year ago, (milk up 8.6%, sugar, 11.6°/, and fresh vegetables, 11.9%/,). Other contributors to inflation were housing, up 10.2% in a year, clothing, up 9.3°/) and health and personal care — 10.4°/. Recreation, education and reading rose by 11.7%. Unemployment rose by 0.15, over October and ‘stood at ‘5.5%/) higher than a year ago.