lived.

he financial drive of the Pacific Tribune which began

two months ago with an objective of $20,000, ended

last week with a splendid Victory banquet and a grand total of

$23,000 or more received; a magnificent achievement by the
working and progressive people of British Columbia.

To all who donated so generously to this column and its
author, my grateful thanks and appreciation. To all those old
veteran socialists and progressive people who, year after year
give their hard-earned dollars for the cause of a militant
working class press, who live and work in the remote towns
and hamlets of this banner province, and whose letters and
correspondence to myself provide much of the ideas and
inspirations, warm handshake and many thanks.

As the veteran Socialist writer, ‘‘Ol Bill’? Bennett once
said: “I am not the whole column even if I write it. The honor
belongs to the old-timers out in the sticks who give me most of

the ideas and encouragement to keep going.’’ And believe it or

not, it is still that way.

Another grand old veteran of many labor struggles and
workingclass journalism put it another way. Eugene ‘‘Gene’”’
V. Debs said: ‘The workingclass themselves must promote,
maintain and expand their own press. No one else can or will do
it for them.”’ The working people of B.C. for almost half-a-
century now, in their consistent and devoted support for the
Pacific Tribune and its predecessors, have given a brilliant
example of that truth stressed by Debs. And the mounting
totals received over the years also underscore an appreciation
of the role of a militant workingclass press in the daily and
mounting struggles for economic and social progress and
peace.

In much of the correspondence that comes to the desk of
this column is also included many weekly newspapers and
press clippings from the commercial press. Some of the latter
are “gems’’ showing a tinge of revolt on the part of an editor
against the pablum he or she must write in order to hold his job
and paycheque. Such “revolts” however are generally short

With many of the papers however, campus, Vietnam war
veterans, etc, or other and similar radical groupings, there is
just one essential quality missing, but a very important one; an
absense of the scientific and consistent ideology of Marxism-
Leninism, an absence which nullifies their “radicalism” or
“ultra-radicalism”’ and leads directly into the soggy swamp of
“left-wing” opportunism, confusion, adventurism and worse.

One often wonders and speculates on what a difference it
would make to mass unity and purpose and objective if all such
papers could only inject a little of the science of Marxism-
Leninism into their interpretation of movement, events and
objectives. Some of the official journals of the big
International unions suffer from this chronic ailment of
inconsistency by featuring progressive editorials and other
“feature” articles on the “economic front,” then pledging
“full support”’ to U.S. aggression and genocide in Vietnam, or
the “‘right’’ of Zionist-governed Israel to hold the lands of their
Arab neighbors, regardless of UN or other public opinion.

It is in this area that most of such papers excel, invariably
topping it off with their regular anti-Soviet screed. On the
latter topic some of these papers which lay claim to being
““Marxist”’ are more anti-Soviet than U.S. war hawks, which is
going some.

That is why it is vitally important, day in and day out, to
keep the issue of a greater and ever greater circulation of the
PT to the forefront. To make it a daily ready-to-hand weapon in
the struggle for social progress, peace and Socialism. The
spirit and elan shown in the-recent Victory campaign, and for
that matter all the campaigns of past years, shows it can be
done.

And in the present era in which we live, all the objective
factors for rapid social change are with us now. It is just a
n.atter of “getting with it,” of adjusting ourselves to the daily
thought that the “winning of men’s minds and hearts to a new
way of life’’ is part and parcel of the struggle for peace and
Socialism, via the Marxist-Leninist Socialist way.

With the PT as the key family journal and guide, the road
ahead becomes clearer — and easier to travel. It is a road to
the Future which we all seek!

A CIVIC HAZARD

Racetrack profits come

before safety measures

By ALD. HARRY RANKIN

Accidents can and do happen,
of course, but when the same
accident happens twice, it
deserves looking into. That’s the
case with the recent fire in the
horse barns at the Pacific
Exhibition racetrack.

One fire occurred there in
May, 1969. That time over 20
horses were either burned to
death or otherwise killed, and a
trainer died of a heart attack
while freeing the horses.

Another fire occurred on June
4, 1972, with some 30 horses
burned to death or killed.

The barns involved were
wooden structures. With the
stables filled with straw they
constituted an extremely
dangerous fire hazard. They
didn’t even have a sprinkler
system. The racetrack owners
know there should be one but
they’re too cheap to put one in.
The need for a sprinkler system
‘was made clear by the 1969 fire,
but as far as the racetrack
owners are concerned a
sprinkler system would cost
them money but when someone
else’s horses burn to death it
doesn’t cost them a cent.

The reasons given for not
enforcing the usual safety
measures including a sprinkler
system were that the barns did
not constitute a hazard to
humans! What are they waiting
for — for people as well as horses
to burn to death before it is
admitted that a sprinkler system
is a necessity?

In my opinion the racetrack
Owners are guilty of gross

negligence, of endangering not
only horses but humans too, and
of completely lacking in any
sense of responsibility. The city
and health authorities should lay
down the law to them — either
they take the necessary
measures to avoid fires or their
barns will be closed down. These
measures should include:

—replacing the wooden
structures with cement struc-
tures.

—the installation of a sprinkle
system.

—regular patrols by guards: fe

—provision of _ fires
sleeping quarters for the groom
and other staff.

ye
The racetrack owners @

making a lot of money a
these tracks. They can es
afford such measuley’
Vancouver cannot afford
irresponsibility any longer.

Where tax-$ goes,
who gets left out?

Establishment newspaper
editors, hot-liners, newspaper
columnists as well as old line
party politicians constantly
repeat the canard that wage
increases are breaking the
taxpayer’s back.

While municipal, provincial
and federal government
spokesmen mouth cliches about
holding the line on inflation
through a wage freeze, they are
handing out grants and tax
incentives right and left to big
business.

The national treasurer of
CUPE, Grace Hartman, put
these matters on the line in a
significant address to delegates
to the recent CUPE convention
in Prince George. She charged
that provincial and federal
governments had stepped up
their financial favors to industry

FOR ALL YOUR TRAVEL NEEDS ©

Contact:

GLOBE TOURS

2679 E. Hastings St., Vancouver 6, B.C.

253-1221

254-2313

SiLez

‘PACIFIC TRIBUNE—FRIDAY, JUNE 23, 197

ae Sh Sl PHT NIE a

SAS
—PAGE 2

OVER 500 CARPENTERS demonstrated Friday of last week before the
B.C. Mediation Commission offices in Vancouver to re-emphasize their
consistent opposition to that high-salaried Socred wrecking crew and
their attempts to foist compulsory arbitration upon B.C. Labor.
Carpenters’ slogans tell the full story — “No Return to work under
compulsion’, and ‘No contract, No work’. While the whole of B.C.

Labor has been adamantly opposed

inception, the Establishment and boss-oriented press in Eastern Canada

have been giving its personnel, origin and’
“incentive’’ to other provinces to create si

machinery.

aims a‘big build-up; an
milar anti-Union coercive

pois!

in recent years to oe less

where there is less an wil
revenues to pay their own ©
servants. tions |

She charged that corpora yet |
‘are paying a smaller and so ;
portion of the total tax revenyy
with the individual (a
facing ever larger gouges «ine
his paycheque because © 4,
government’s _ generosity
corporations.

She listed subsidies, 8
liberal depreciation allowa?
forgiveable loans, gover? and
research for industry” adit

$

rants:
ces:
t

se a4
underwriting of consumer ©

as means by.whichthe taxPy
dollar goes to benefit busines
and not the people. an 50
She adds that more fa isa
percent of a worker’s tax ?! det
result of regressive, int?
taxes, all of which gore
provincial and federal coffers, |
Who is benefitting 10 ia
revenues if not civic, PTOY ihe
and federal employees 2™

public generally? ihe

Noranda Mines does ~ ‘nha!
tune of $3,522,000 milliOM fis
subsidiary, Gaspe Coppe!
gets $3,627,000. :

an
National Sea Products; Fel
totalling $2,229,701. oa dss?
Ltd., $406,923. McCain ate.
Johns-Manville, ‘
Nickel, IBM — IBM???» ioe!
Carbide, Westinghous® jaye |
Company of Cana fro
received grants range is :
$126,000 to $6 million. TS ofl
a partial list. It 1S ays ae
partial mention of W's oss!
means by which Big Bu: of HP
benefitting at the expe”
taxpayer.

to this Commission since its 72°