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By JOHN WEIR

My heart aches for the Bleeding Brotherhood (as Mel Colby dub-
bed them), especially after reading the heart-rendering top page 1
Story in The Financial Post headed “How business tightens its belt
to ease squeeze”.

- “Canadian companies are squeezing their nickels as tightly as

‘they ever have,” the article begins; and you know how they have

always squeezed. those nickels until it hurt (hurt us, that is).
“Throughout the economy, companies are reacting to tight
Money, rising labor costs and soft markets by riding herd on costs,
by not hiring, and by putting off major capital projects,” the paper
fontinues the harrowing tale of woe.
Sobbing with sympathy, I thought of how those selfish workers
didn’t make any real sacrifices, only some slight gesture, such as

‘having only one meat ball for lunch or letting the kids run around

barefoot, and yet beefed, while the companies — uncomplaining
Victims of austerity — bravely rode herd on costs (that means they
Cut wages and benefits to employees), courageously refused to hire

', (and in the generosity of their big hearts even fired right and left)

and put off major capital projects (even closing down the plants
already there).
- How can one remain unmoved in face of such sacrifice?
aq One employer, likely typical of many,” the story goes on,
finds subcontractors are hungry. He’s using them rather than hir-
Ig people to deal with any modest production surges and to pro-
tect himself against labor stoppages.”

That employer — and he’s typical, mind you — doesn’t want to
be a union-buster and scabherder, he only wants to feed hungry

Subcontractors; he’s just so filled with the milk of human kindness

t it’s running out of his ears.
“Other companies,” we're informed, “are trying to automate,

Where such spending brings a fast return.”

_ Now what could be more noble and unselfish? They'll automate
8nd then the workers can have all the time to themselves to do
itever they wish 24 hours a day, seven days a week all year
Bless you, bless you, kind companies and corporations! You have
Testored our faith in human nature. In this cruel century you have

age high the banner of humanity. Now we can all lie down and
le,

* * *

The perpetuation of the Catholic separate school system in Can-
ada is a relic of feudalism unworthy of a modern civilized country.
t IS part of our legacy from a deal made two centuries ago by the

Titish Crown with the Roman: Catholic hierachy of Quebec to
S€cure the allegiance of the newly conquered colony. The Canadian
People have already ended some of those leftovers from a previous
age and undoubtedly will soon also finish the democratic task of
ompletely separating the school from the church. No democrat

help but support that. :
. But it is the height of hypocricy to perpetuate the separate
Eto! system on the one hand (and even seek to extend it to
. Condary schools), and at the same time to deprive children in the
€parate schools of equal opportunities in education.

% The nettle should be firmly grasped, Ontario.
i *

* *

mrte reason why the Catholic Church monopoly in certain fields
endured so long is that it was viewed by most French Canadian
le as a bulwark for the protection of at least some of their
national rights, such as language, from the Anglo-chauvinists. Re-
aa to establish French-language secular highschools in such lo-
lities as Sturgeon Falls, Ontario, can play only into the hands
turn-the-clock-back Roman Catholic Church hierachy.

ais * *

Re Member of Parliament Harold Winch spent three days (“at
Alb. Own expense,” the press hastens to point out) at the Suffield,
it’s €rta research centre for chemical and germ warfare (he says
aoe. “to defend Canadian servicemen and the civilian popula-
to Pent chemical and germ warfare weapons”, again according
it t at press) and not only gave it a clean bill of health but boosted
an fe the skies. He said he went “into every lab in every building
found nothing but defense type chemicals and germs .. .

oe not ready to underwrite that. First of all, testimony from
ical T sources is to the contrary. Secondly, only the U.S. uses chem-
ou: Weapons — and uses them for aggression in Vietnam — and
* overnment, military and research is working hand in hand

the Pentagon. And lastly, we wouldn’t take Mr. Winch’s

for it anyway in view of his longtime “cold war” record.

* * *

=G are reminded by an item in New Age that among the testi-
Y On the Pentagon approach to these questions—and is the
hot adian military mind so different?—is that of Dr. George Wald,
Clos American biologist and 1967 Nobel Prize Winner, who dis-
i. €d that the U.S. army had asked him to help in producing a
oy nical to make people blind. He refused, but was asked,
Suldn’t you rather blind them than kill’?
onal Said, “the weapons would be used to blind and then
Weapons will be used to kill”.
tet Called on American scientists to stop working on “the
“che Ology of death and destruction”, and assailed America’s
iia chamber of horrors’—napalm, nerve gas, chemical and
Bical weapons, defoliants.
* * *

og didn’t really expect them to, but we waited to see if any
han the Toronto dailies would at least chide the fascist Edmund
Ray and “ethnic”-hatemongers for attacking Canadian people’s
yerings, Nothing so far, but more encouragement to them.

Saskatchewan farmers angry

Bullied, bulldozed too lon

REGINA — “Politicians can
hear a ballot drop into a box a
thousand miles away,” militant
National Farm Union president
Roy Atkinson told an estimated
8,000 farmers and supporters at
the second and largest of three
provincial rallies called on the
prairies by the NFU.

Regina’s mayor, H. H. P. Bak-
ers, (NDP MLA) greeted the
meeting, stating that he was
glad to see the farmers there
fighting for their rights. He said
that all the wheat farmers can
grow is needed in a hungry
world. Mayor Baker called upon
Premier Thatcher to close the
provincial legislature and lead
the farmers and their supporters
in a trek to Ottawa.

Saskatchewan’s premier, Ross
Thatcher, also spoke to the
meeting, claiming that he was
sincerely interested in the farm-
ers’ problems. Roy Atkinson,
however, claimed “the premier
has been bullying and bulldoz-
ing the people around the pro-
vince too long.”

Thatcher blamed - Ottawa’s
failure to bring in a two-price
‘system for wheat for the cur-
rent wheat glut. He said Ottawa
had not consulted him about
operation LIFT (Ottawa’s
scheme to retire wheat acreage)
but that he was of the opinion
that it was one of the better of
half a dozen rotten solutions.
He said that people wondered
why the production of food
should be curtailed in a hungry
world. :

Bill Gilbey, president of the
Saskatchewan Federation of La-
bor, stated that labor fully sup-
ported the farmers in their fight
to place the sale of all grain
under the Canadian Wheat
Board. Labor’s interests depend
on the well-being of the farm-
ers, he said, and they should

Jhls spictare wos. typical of:sheny Sermatin Mostenn Kansan tan

fall, and much of the grain still remains in the fields. The small pile
is flax, the black one rapeseed, and the two others are wheat. There
would be no recession in the West if the farmer could be paid for
his labor involved in such production. :

control their products all the
way from the farm to the con-
sumer. “If you get the right guy
(the government) by the right
arm and start to twist, call us

and we will twist the left arm,” -

he said.

Roy Atkinson asked Thatcher
if he had changed his mind
about opposing the NFU’s pro-
posal to stop wheat from going
over the provincial boundaries,
and about opposing the NFU
proposal that all feed grain be
put under the Canadian Wheat
Board. Amid shouts and boos
from the audience, Thatcher
answered no to both questions,
claiming that feed grain in the
open market wasn’t the cause
of the present difficutlies of the
wheat farmers. —

Atkinson called on Thatcher
to oppose the bill which would
give the cattlemen’s association
a -check-off on cattle (Thatcher
is a big rancher). The premier
refused, stating he hoped that

the check-off would go through.

Evelyn Potter, women’s pres-
ident of the NFU, claimed ‘that
governments, big. business and
the news media were all trying
to divide the farmers. The only
hope for farmers was if they got
together — the farmers of both

Eastern and Western Canada —

and fought as a body, through
their own organization, for their
future.

One of the prominent slogans
was Operation Lift will lift the
farmers off the land.

Jack McCloy, regional direc-
tor of the NFU in Saskatchewan
said, “We are not going to be
slaves of industry. We are not
going to stand idly by and watch
the disintegration of rural com-
munities. We are going to Insist
farmers get paid for their prod-
ucts. We are not going to accept
a role as second class citizens
in this country.”

The farmers will be heard
from again.

WINNIPEG—More than 2,500
Manitoba farmers rallied here in
support of the campaign by the
National Farmers Union against
the federal government’s wheat
acreage reduction plan, and for
the orderly marketing of all
grains through the Canadian
Wheat Board. :

They cheered the officers of
their union who hit out sharply
at the corporate and financial
complexes and at the agro-busi-
nesses which make profits on
the surpluses the farmers pro-
duce while the farmers them-
selves go broke and are driven
off the land. They booed the
names of Prime Minister Tru-
deau and his agricultural minis-
ter for, in the words of NFU
vice-president Walter Miller,
“not giving a damn what hap-
pens to us.”

A huge banner on the stage
of the Civic Auditorium listed
the seven demands of the Farm-
ers Union which included: full
control of feed grains by the
Wheat Board; rescind the wheat
acreage reduction scheme; pay
us the $385 million the govern-
ment owes us; and meaningful
negotiations with the NFU.

The. farmers had come from
many parts of the province

bearing their home-made but
hard-hitting placards and ban-
ners which proclaimed: Don’t
Reduce Acres, Feed the Hungry;
Wanted — A Long Term Farm
Policy; Farmers Are Broke.
Why?; We Won’t Accept Serf-
dom in the 70’s; Never Have So
Few Stolen So Much From So
Many; Send Wheat, Not Guns to
Vietnam; In U.S.A.—Nixon, Bob
Hope, In Canada—Trudeau, No
Hope.

This was the biggest meeting
of farmers in this province in
decades and they left no doubt
that they were in a fighting
mood. They responded with
cheers and sustained applause
when NFU women’s president
Evelyn Potter declared, “We
have been colonized, exploited
and oppressed and are getting
fed up... in a country as afflu-
ent as Canada the rich are get-
ting richer and the poor are get-
ting poorer . . . something is
wrong with this corrupt system
and we are set to change it.”

And for the first time since
the Hungry 30’s the farmers
paraded down the streets of
Winnipeg bearing their banners
and placards and singing “Soli-
darity forever, the Union makes
us strong.” Interrupting the

stream of Saturday afternoon
traffic they made their way down
Portage and Main streets to the
Wheat Board Building where
NFU President Roy Atkinson
pledged the support of the union
membership for the orderly mar-
keting system represented by
the Canadian Wheat Board. He
presented the Chairman of the
Board, Mr. MacNamara with a
pitchfork to drive off the
“wolves who are fattening at
the expense of the blood, sweat
and toil of the farmers and’ who
are bent on destroying the
Wheat Board.”

“The parade then returned to
the Civic Auditorium to hear
Walter Miller and Roy Atkinson
sum up the lessons of the day.
“This has just been a warm-up
session. We have a positive pro-
gram of action which we intend
to take to the membership,” they
declared. “The chips are down.
Power only respects power .. .
We are racing against time. The
work of building the power of
the farmers, united together in
the NFU, must be speeded up.”

The meeting concluded with a
standing ovation for President
Roy Atkinson and with cheers
for the Farmers Union.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—APRIL 17, 1970—Page 9