AR id a ‘oom ANG ne ats,

IRATE CONSUMERS TELL MPs:
— ‘ROLL BACK HIGH PRICES’

By MARK SYDNEY

“Parliament will have to listen to our demands when we come on October 15,” 1
said Maggie Bizzell, chairman of the Coalition to Roll Back Prices, which has bag
called a demonstration that day as Commons: reopens. “They’re going to get an wee
earful and a lot of questions from angry people about why prices on food and
other commodities are rocketing out of sight for many working families, and fami-
lies on fixed incomes.”

— CP projects issues
in Quebec election

MONTREAL — Quebec’s Oc-
tober 29 election, called by Pre-
mier Robert Bourassa a year-
and-a-half before expiration of
his ‘terni, has about it an un-
Commonly large number of un-
Predictable factors. In Montreal
Itself there is hardly a riding
that has not been changed by
the re-drawing of the electoral
map, for example.

Sam Walsh, president of the
Parti Communiste du Quebec,
Points out that while a recent
Poll showed 40% of voters un-
decided, “pretty well normal for
Quebec” early in a campaign,
What would not be normal “is

that 40% remained: undecid-
€d ‘for very’ long’. . »

_ “All the parties of the opposi-
tion,” he said, “with the excep-
tion of the Union Nationale, are
80ing for government, that is,
€né Levesque is certain that
they (Parti Québecois) are go-
gto become the.minority gov-
‘mment in this. election cam-
Paign. The Créditistes are pre-
dicting that they’re going to be
4 Majority government . . .”

~ Party Standings at dissolu-
Yon were: ‘Liberals 70, Union

Parti Québecois 7, Independent
2, vacant 2..A new electoral
map to equalize numbers of vot-
ers has added two seats, making
a total of 110.
Communist Candidates

The Parti Communiste du
Quebec has announced three
candidates, Jeannette Walsh in
Mercier (Premier Bourassa’s
riding), Claude Demers in Pré-
vost, and Ginette Poirier in
Terrebonne. The PCQ’s 13-point
election program includes a call
for: “Action against influation
by legislating substantial price
reductions on the essentials of
life; by taxing excess profits of
the monopolies; by establishing
a Quebec Committee on Price
Revisions representative of

labor, the farmers and the con-:

sumers, with power to refuse
price increases, to cut prices
and to prosecute profiteers.”
Other points in the program
include, elimination of unem-
ployment through planned deve-
lopment; public ownership of
banks, monopolies in key indus-
tries and natural resources; a
guaranteed annual income of
$5,000; equal pay for women;
@ Continued on page 6

Nationale 16, Creditiste 11,
ne

@ Yutermna

News &

Us. backs South Africa in UN

UNITED NATIONS, N.Y. — The United States was
"ported fighting hard in an attempt to beat back efforts to
: allenge the credentials of the South African apartheid
“gime’s delegate to-the United Nations, as the UN Gen-
‘tal Assembly resumed its sessions on Friday.

Africg Sard Muller, the South
S Can regime's Foreign Minis-
a on Thursday was listed as
As in the speakers’ list to ad-
“ss.the General Assembly, but

before he could speak, the dele-
gete of Mauritius rose on a ques-
tion of procedure and challenged
Muller's credentials.

For a durable peace...

— roll back

October 15 has been designated by the Coalition to Roll Back Prices as a Day

of Protest against high prices, and will be highlighted by a demonstration and lob-
by on Parliament Hill. The Tribune talked to Maggie Bizzell about the Coalition
and its actions,

“Specifically for October 15, we’re going to present the major demands of the
Coalition just as Parliament reopens. Of course, our principal demand is our name

Continued Israeli occupation of Arab lands and its refusal
te recognize the legitimate rights of the Arab people of
Palestine, is the underlying cause of the present military
conflict in the Middle East.

End Mideast injustice

iT)

ry conflict.”

th

4nd went on:

. TORONTO—“The present dangerous situation
In the Middle East, arises from the refusal for the
Past six years of the Israeli Government, backed

y its patron, United States imperialism, to abide
by the United Nations Security Council Resolu-
tion Number 242, of 1967. ‘
It is this refusal which has brought on the mili-

That is the position. of the Communist Party of
anada, whose Central Executive Committee met
October 9 to review Middle East developments
arising from the renewed outbreak of hostilities.
“The question as to which side started the pre-
Sent conflict,” the Communist Party. stated, “is
Secondary to the fact that its underlying cause 1s
€ continued Israeli occupation of Arab lands and
Is refusal to recognize the legitimate rights of the
rab people of Palestine. :
. Until this is rectified the Middle East will con-
tinue to be a centre of conflict and of war. a threat
€ peace and security. of the world,” it warned

“That this basic injustice is not recognized by
the Israeli Government and its military is to be
seen in their statement that they intend to ‘teach
the Arabs a lesson’, by totally destroying their
armed forces and by continuing to occupy and
annex Arab territory.” : -

The answer, the Communist Party emphasized,
‘is not further annexation of the territory of the
Arab peoples, but the right to existence of all
countries and peoples in the Middle East, includ-
ing the legitimate rights of the Arab people of

Palestine, a concept enshrined in the 1967 UN
Security Council Resolution, Number 242.

“The present conflict must be ended by a cease
fire and by a just and durable peace settlement.”
“The Communist Party urged Canadians who
are dedicated to peace to “press the Canadian gov-
ernment to actively support and work for a cease-
fire based on the UN Resolution No. 242 which
calls for an Israeli pull-back to the armistice line

that existed before the six day war in 1967. This

@ Continued on page 10,

rices. But we’re not going to stop here; we'll tell Parliament how
this can be done. First, by prosecuting the profiteers immediately, and also by giv-

ing Mrs. Plumptre’s Prices Re-
view Board real powers to do
something about, all unwarrant-
ed price increases, instead of
simply reporting a hundred or
so isolated instances.

Want Answers

“We've asked for interviews
with . Prime Minister Trudeau,
opposition leader Stanfield, and
NDP leader David Lewis. And
we've also asked for a meeting
with Mrs. Plumptre herself.

“Our coalition has a lot of
questions, and we want answers.
For example, why profits go up
at the tremendous rate they do,
49% higher in the first six
months of this year than last,
while even their statistics show
that wages are lagging behind
prices, and nowhere near pro-
fits. People on our delegation,
working people for the most
part, will want to know how
this can be justified.”

The Tribune asked Mrs. Biz-
zell why the coalition is focus-
ing its Day of Protest on Ot-
tawa. “The last demonstration
we mounted,” she said, ‘was
rather small, and yet out of
that, the whole Coalition has
grown. People have really re-
sponded to the demands we put
forward there and the’ publicity
we received. Since then, the
Prime Minister has felt com-
pelled to send a personal 30-
page brief to people who signed
a petition .on food prices. And
Mrs. Plumptre and her Board
are talking about prosecuting
profiteers. All this has come
about from mass pressure, and
it is only through increased
mass pressure and organization
that the government will be
compelled to act.”

As Many as Possible

Plans for the demonstration
are still going on, Mrs. Bizzell
noted. The Coalition is attempt-

® Continued on page 10

“Ailot of angry people are go-
ing to be asking Parlament on
October 15 why wages have lag-
ged behind prices, and certainly
behind profits,” said Maggie Biz-
zell, chairman of the Coalition to
Roll Back Prices.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE — FRIDAY, OCTOBER 12, 1973 — PAGE 5