ee left wing By FRED WILSON Five-year plan and sport Last week a voter turnout of barely 20% defeated the five-year plan in Vancouver. Not only did $10 million worth of housing go down the drain, but so did an amazing portion of Van- couver’s recreational capacity. For when the 10,000 or so people who use Vancouver parks every week find their season cut short again this year because the pitch has turned to.a sea of mud... And when the sunbathers and swimmers find Kitsilano pool and John Hendry Park’s Trout Lake shut down by the health board next _ summer because the water has turned to a Sea of sewage... When the real effect of the vote becomes felt some explanations will be called for from those NPA and TEAM. aldermen’ who sabotaged the plan. Of course it is nosecret that what happened was that the city council was debated, lobbied and em- barrassed into supporting the five- year plan even though Harry Rankin had succeeded in winning the $10 million portion for housing. Unable to defeat that proposal, the mayor and his cohorts decided to zip their lips, avoid mentioning the plan at all, and scuttle the housing proposal by scuttling the plan as a whole. . Is the thought of people living in houses—or even apartments—so abhorrent to these councillors that they would pull the rug from a $60 million plan just to get rid of $10 million worth of housing? That would be reason enough for the _ TEAM-NPA group. But it is more than the houses. That was made clear by the conclusions which mayor Phillips and Jack Volrich reached in the finance committee when they were reported to have said that the result of the vote proves that the public is not only opposed to public housing, but also wants severe cuts in parks and recreation spending. Phillips and Volrich are distorting the facts. No such public sentiment exists. But then, for these people, if their first hate is a house, the second is a park. What else could one conclude ~ from the experience of the five- year plan? The proposals of the parks board were modest to the extreme. Only one major capital expenditure was called for, with the majority of the $25.6 million to be spent on upgrading existing facilities before they rot out of existence. : _ “We are extremely concerned,” Tom Walker of the B.C. Sports Federation confided, ‘‘the Parks Board budget has been cut by $10 million. This plan was just to maintain existing facilities.”’ The people at the Sports Federation are noticeably upset by the result of the vote. They can see better than most the mess that sports facilities in the city are in. Two hundred junior soccer teams, 80 senior soccer teams, 110 field hockey teams and another 110 rugby teams, not to mention football, baseball, cricket, field lacrosse and other teams use Vancouver parks playing fields every week. In most cases there is aten foot by twelve foot field house that 40 people will cram into to change and shower — that is if the rain season hasn’t closed the park yet. In the plan $13 million was slated for park redevelopment which included the installation of two artificial turfs‘ with lights, which could relieve much of the pressure on existing fields. In addition the plan would have provided for the conversion of the gld airplane hangars down at Jericho Park into public indoor sports centres. One of the hangars would have been made into tennis courts and another one — already used for indoor track — would have been improved to make it an all purpose centre. A reasonable proposition, and inexpensive. It would have cost only $1 million, but . to have built similar facilities now would have meant a $12 million price tag. : As for the one big project, a community ice rink in the east end, one couldn’t be blamed for getting a bit frustrated and angry over the continuous stalling. After all, it was years ago the last time a five- year plan was approved by a referendum vote and at that time we voted for five ice rinks. Then the Parks Board started to reassess its priorities, discovered that inflation did exist, all with the result that we still haven’t any ice rinks. No doubt the fact that this ice rink was proposed for Hastings East — where it is needed the most — was a little hard to swallow for some of the west side aldermen. Tom Walker would like to see the vote taken again with the housing and recreation items separated. It certainly is not a _ principled question. But the lesson should be learned that housing and recreation go hand in hand. Those who put people’s need first will support both and those who place profit first will oppose both. Let’s hope that this lesson is not wasted on those involved in amateur sport in Vancouver. 3355 W. Broadway. HAVE YOU GOT ROOM FOR ONE MORE? _Your Community Resources Board needs foster homes in Vancouver for children of all ages. (0 - 19 yrs.) BE A PARENT FOR A WHILE Foster Parent Meetings will be held: 7:30 p.m. Monday, October 27th at 1720 Grant St. 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, October 28th at 2094 W. 43rd Ave., and at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, October 30th at 150 Robson St. (For more information, call your Community Resources Board, or 733-8111.) PACIFIC TRIBUNE—OCTOBER 17, 1975—Page 10 ‘prevailing in the schools, _textbooks Education: a new victim: of Chile’s fascist junta The fascist junta appears to be firmly bent on _ destroying everything that could be called an achievement of the Chilean people. As part of its policy to cause Chile’s downfall, the junta has begun the complete destruction of the educational system ‘from the elementary level upwards. Soon after fascism in Chile became entrenched in power, elementary education was shaken to its very roots by the coup. A report drawn up by the In- ternational Trade Union Federation of Education states that immediately after the 1973 coup, the junta dismissed 40 per cent of elementary and in- termediate . teachers, and now, after two years of a fascist regime, the ‘‘weeding out” of teachers continues. Moreover, the junta ordered a new teacher wage scale to be put into effect, which placed teachers among the lowest paid state em- ployees. This measure compelled many teachers to quit their jobs and find other type of employment that would provide higher wages with which to meet Chile’s con- stantly rising cost of living. Elementary and _ intermediate textbooks, most of “which were published prior to the Popular Unity Government, were banned. In order to avoid misun- derstandings, teachers don’t even dare use the authorized textbooks. The junta has also outlawed all kinds of professional associations, the Trade Union of Educational Workers, and other institutions related to education. The power of decision in all learning institutions lies in the hands of a fascist military. The militarization of education has been heavily im- posed. Much can be said with regard to the role of the military inquisitors in the schools. Among their other tasks, these petty inquisitors supervise the studies program, make sure that there is no con- nection with political activities, and serve as centres to receive accusations against students, parents and teachers. In addition to the situation the fascists drafted a document which, under the title of Educational Standards, points out that between 40 and 45 per cent of the total number of students do not meet the requirements to continue their education, and must, therefore, be classified as “‘underachievers’”’ or “retarded’’ students. What the junta doesn’t mention is, for example, what the Financial Times exposed coneerning the situation in Chilean schools. Ac- cording to this British daily, children often faint in the classrooms because of un- dernourishment, and a teacher in one of Santiago’s lower-income neighborhoods complained that the students were assimilating very little because they were hungry. It is also a fact that the new and educational programs are not drawn up by a qualified technical staff. On March 25 of this year it was disclosed that the school curricula had been drawn up by a group of Navy School officers; and the fascist Minister of Education, rear Ad- miral Hugo Castro Jimenez, stressed in very clear terms that he did not accept criticism or participation of persons other. than those on his personal staff. Several weeks after. that disclosure, the UPI news agency reported that the Center for — Teachers’ Higher Learning, under the Ministry of Education, had announced its acceptance of the technical services of the notorious U.S. Peace Corps for the training ° of elementary and intermediate school teachers and, to this*end, an agreement was signed with the United States. It is obvious that Peace Corps members are worthy of the trust of the fascist Minister of Education. According to an official an- nouncement issued at the begin- ning of this year, 60,000 out of 100,000 intermediate school graduates were unable to start in the universities because of limited enrollment. For these 60,000 young men and women, the junta, in keeping with the above-mentioned educational standards, has the following future in mind: “With regard to professional and technical learning, the prescribed policy will be one of qualitative and quantitative expansion to insure the labor force necessary for the country’s development. This is why, this kind of education must be conducted within a limited period, that is, without the goal of further higher education. The transfer of students from professional and technical schools to the university should be exceptional and solely promoted in certain well-definet cases.” 4 ‘There is only one possible planation for the fascist regim attitude, namely that the fascist don’t have the slightest interest 1 increasing educational expenses On the contrary, they need lots cheap labor for the plan surrender of Chile to multinationals, especially th that are U.S.-owned. Even with this terrible situati the facts are far from beiné complete and from conveying th whole disastrous picture education and the sciences Chile. When the junta is over thrown, much. more time thal fascism has employed in wreck the educational edifice will be required to reconstruct 1 Nevertheless, it will be recol structed .and sooner rather tha later Chilean children, youn people and those who wish further their education for the go0! of society will be once more able @ | study in Chile’s educational i | stitutions. Chile struggles to this end. from Granm th i Some hope for the future of its committee, For a Canadian Viewpoint, was voiced by the Canadian Authors Association following a meeting earlier this month with provincial education minister Eileen Dailly. The committee, formed: in September, 1974 as a co-operative effort between the B.C. Teachers Federation and the Canadian Authors Association, was established in order to encourage more Canadian publishing for use in schools. The committee solicited manuscripts from authors and submitted them, on a selective basis, to the curriculum depart- ment in Victoria for endorsement. Recommendation from _ the department, it was hoped, would facilitate acceptance of the works - by publishers. However, Authors Association national executive members Betty Millway and Harold Griffin sought the meeting with Dailly after the committee had complained of lack of support from the education department and the failure to obtain publication of any sub- mitted works. A brief presented at the meeting noted that although some manuscripts submitted to the department had been subsequently endorsed, none had yet been ac- cepted for publication, largely because of purchasing policies ° schools which look mainly * American lists for their selectio® Nevertheless, ‘‘Mrs. Daill made it clear that she shares 0! concern for increasing Cana content in school. books,” Millway said following th meeting. Millway stressed that the m& effective way for the department = encourage Canadian content woul be to assure Canadian and, 7 particular, B.C. publishers orders for books that meet sch® vat needs. ‘‘The problem,” she add@') “Gs to find a way of doing this © line with decentralized purchas practices.” The Authors Association suggest that the educat department initiate a policy giving each school library, at senior secondary level at least complete shelf of all B.C. book F print — history, biography, poe’) and fiction — which meet liter standards. ‘‘This would acqu high school students with the wé of writers in their own provi? and give publishers anot outlet,’ they said. ’ _ Dailly has also agreed to sider a grant in the next dep: mental budget to enable Canadian Viewpoint commit promote its work in solic manuscripts and to C0 secretarial and reading expe?