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iS GES

About 75 people gathered at the cemetery in Cumberland July 30 to mark the 60th anniversary of the
murder of union leader and Socialist Ginger Goodwin who was shot July 26, 1918 by special police of-
ficer Dan Campbell. A rally and the laying of a commemorative wreath (right) marked the event,
organized by the Young Communist League.

_ —Rene Bilodeau photos

Petition on fare hike set

Continued from pg. 1

the traffic situation in the city, a
charge borne out by the experience
of earlier increases. Use of public
transit decreased by as much as 15
percent when previous fare hikes
were imposed.

“This regressive step moves in
the opposite direction of what is
needed, namely a low-cost, ef-
ficient public transit system that
will encourage people to use public
transit instead of cars,” he said.

Figueroa charged that the an-
nounced rate hike “is one of
several political maneuvers by
which the provincial government is
seeking to force local
municipalities to accept Bill 19, a
bill which has the long term ob-
jective of placing the whole burden
of public transit costs onto the
people, while B.C. Hydro main-
tains control over profitable hydro
and natural gas services.

“The profits from hydro and

natural gas services should be used
to subsidize a cheap public transit
system,’’ he said.

“Tf the super-low rates now given

giant industrial users were in-
creased to fair levels, there would
be more than sufficient funds to
keep transit fares low.”

New blow aimed
at rapid transit

By HARRY RANKIN
Every move the provincial
government makes on public
transit reinforces my conviction

that it is out to scuttle not only |

rapid transit, but all public transit.

The latest evidence is the big
boost in. bus fares announced
recently by Robert Bonner, the
government-appointed head of
B.C. Hydro. On Sept. 5, fares for
adults will go up from 35 cents to 50
cents (a 43 percent increase),
students fares will be boosted from
15 cents to 25 cents (a 67 percent
increase) and children’s fares will
be boosted from 10 cents to 15 cents
(a 50 percent increase). ~

When premier Bennett put
Robert Bonner in charge of B.C.
Hydro (and public transit) he knew
what he was doing. Putting Bonner
in charge of public transit is like
putting a shark in a fish hatchery.

Under Bonner’s leadership the
transit section of B.C. Hydro ran
up a huge deficit, bus fares in-
creased (this is the second in-
crease in recent months) and bus
service was reduced. By way of

CP names Stevens in byelection

United Fishermen and Allied
Workers’ Union trustee Homer
Stevens has been nominated to
contest the byelection in Burnaby-
Richmond-Delta for the Com-
munist Party.

The Burnaby Richmond riding is
one of several ridings across the
country slated for a byelection to
be held October 16 unless a general
federal election intervenes.
Although the riding is to be
changed through redistribution,
the byelection will be based on the
present boundaries.

In accepting the nomination,
Stevens blasted the policies of the
two old-line parties which have
created mass unemployment and
continuing inflation. He called for

the creation, of a Canadian
Development Fund to assist in the
development of secondary in-
dustry, the creation of a merchant
marine and extensive housing:
construction. :

Stevens stressed the party’s call
for the resource industries to be
brought under public ownership
and democratic control.

The former union president also
blasted the government’s arms
budget allocations and emphasized
the need to curtail arms spending
‘fas Canada’s contribution to world
peace’’ and to provide funds for
economic development.

“T call on progressive-minded
people in Burnaby-Richmond-
Delta to vote Communist — vote
Homer Stevens on Oct. 16.”

HOMER STEVENS... nomi-
nated in Burnaby-Richmond-
Delta.

contrast, Edmonton, Regina and
Winnipeg, where there are
municipality-owned transit
systems, have lower fares than
Vancouver, far better bus service
and not nearly the deficits. This is
the result of having public transit
administered by bodies that
recognize that public transit is an
essential service that should be
kept at a high level and improv
(Edmonton already has rapid
transit). In this province, the intent
seems to be to run it into the
ground.

B.C. Hydro paved the way for
Bennett’s scheme to slough off the
losing transit system on the

municipalities and make the

citizens of Vancouver and Victoria
pick up the deficit.

To accomplish this premier
Bennett passed his Transit
Authority Act, under which B.C.
Hydro’s bus service section will be
turned over to transit commissions
appointed by Bennett, with the
added provision that these transit
commissions will levy local taxes
to cover both the deficits and
operating costs of public transit
including rapid transit. Premier
Bennett, his cabinet and his hat-
chet man Bonner, know damn well
that citizens at this time of
economic uncertainty, are not
prepared to accept a huge increase
in taxes of one kind or another to
cover the costs of public transit
and particularly rapid transit. So
rapid transit goes out of the win-
dow.

The next move will be to built
more freeways instead of rapid
transit. That’s what this govern-
ment of General Motors and Im-
perial Oil with its car dealer
cabinet is really after.

If enough of a public protest can
be mounted, I think the govern-

_ ment can still be forced to back off

its policy of scuttling public
transit. After all, next year is likely
to be election year in this province
and in politics everything is sub-
ject to change.

PEOPLE AND ISSUES:

ince its establishment a few years ago, the Vancouver-
based Fraser Institute appears to have set itself the
dubious task of putting an intellectual veneer on some of the
most unabashedly profit-oriented causes known to man. It
began its publishing program back in the early ’70’s with a

collection of essays inveighing against the evils of rent:

control and since that time it has put out a number of books
including one by U.S. economist Milton Friedman, the
architect of Israel’s crippling austerity measures and,
more recently, the economic advisor to the fascist junta in
Chile. The latest effort is entitled Unemployment In-
surance: Global Evidence of Its Effects on Unemployment.

Strangely enough, although the Tribune has usually
received review copies. of the Institute’s books, this time
they sent us only the cover along with a lengthy press
release containing a synopsis of the book. But that was bad
enough. The various contributors — all participants at a

recent conference in Vancouver — claim to have ‘“‘proof’’’

that unemployment insurance programs actually induce
unemployment, and the more liberal the insurance scheme,
the more the inducement effect is felt. The idea is hardly a
new one, having been around since unemployment in-

surance programs were first fought for, but the Fraser.

Institute is determined that such notions will be given a
facade of scientific respectability.

Two of the book’s contributors do, however, go beyond the
bounds of credibility and economic decency to assert that in
Britain,” . . . the million-man armies of the unemployed of
the late twenties and the late thirties were, for the most
part, volunteer armies.” Another writer looks favorably to
the situation in Ireland before unemployment insurance

was improved in 1971 when workers were forced to leave .

the country if they were without a job.

The Fraser Institute’s editors have naturally added their
own conclusions to the study but there’s one question that
they’ve scrupulously avoided. How is it that despite the
tightening of this country’s UIC program, the rate of
unemployment has continued to climb alarmingly — and, in
fact, is far above what it was in the period following the 1971
improvements to the program?

We might leave it at that were it not for the fact that the

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—AUGUST 11, 1978—Page 2

Institute’s recommendations — for tighter regulation of
unemployment insurance and the suggestion that, govern-
ments should discard the unemployment rate as a measure
of the state of the economy — are not far from present
federal government policy.

In fact, without some stiff opposition from the labor
movement, working people might find themselves facing an
almost inaccessible unemployment insurance program —
based on blueprints provided by such business interests as

are represented by the Fraser Institute.
* * *

eaders will notice elsewhere on this page the an-
announcement by the Communist Party of the
nomination of Homer Stevens — an announcement which
makes even more astounding the remarks by University of
B.C. history lecturer Keith Ralston who decided to take pot
shots at Homer in the course of reviewing the recent book

on the Nova Scotia fishermen’s strike for the bulletin issued

by the Committee of Canadian Labor History.

Apart from twisting the policies of the United Fishermen
and Allied Workers’ Union in order to echo the same kind of
criticism that employers have often heaped on the union,
Ralston had this little bit of rumor-mongering tucked into
his review: “‘... Homer is back fishing, no longer the
president (dumped, it’s said, by the smooth Party ap-
paratchiks now in control)...” :

Homer immediately sent a reply both to the editor of the
labor history bulletin and to the Fisherman which published
it two weeks ago. Among his other comments, Homer had
this to say:

“As for my retirement, Ralston stoops to his old role
when he thought of himself as some kind of Communist
Party member — the kind who is looking for hidden secrets,
skeltons in the closet and gossip. : ;

‘ “T don’t know what an ‘apparatchik’ is. I do know that
Ralston has now used up his last resource — red-baiting. I
can only chuckle at the spectacle of Ralston trying to hide
the red underwear he once wore.

“My decision to return to fishing and voluntary union
field work after 31 years was not made by someone else.”
And finally, in response to Ralston’s barely-veiled

suggestion that the Nova Scotia fishermen were ‘‘used’”’ by
the UFAWU in the course of the bitter strike, Homer
declared:

““Go down and ask the fishermen and their families in the
three strike areas. I was there right after the CLC con-
vention last April. The greatest thing was to witness the
growth of human dignity among the members who led the
strike. They know what they fought for was not in vain . . -

“It was a glorious chapter of labor history, made by
working people, not by academics sitting in judgement

upon them.”’
Be * x

hose who recall the comments in these columns in the
previous issue, noting the corporate objections to the
National Energy Board’s ruling on Westcoast Tran-
smission, will be happy to know that the NEB has gone

through some contortions trying to keep the lid on the whole

affair.

Provincial Communist Party leader Maurice Rush who
had earlier voiced the party’s opposition to the tax con-
cessions and rate increases sought by Westcoast, received 4
whole sheaf of telegrams from the NEB, each one altering
the message set down in previous wires.

But after first declaring that Phase II of the hearings —
scheduled to consider Westcoast’s application for rate
increases — would not be postponed despite the furore, the
NEB finally backed off. The final telegram — which has not
yet been contradicted — stated that the hearings would be
adjourned ‘‘sine die’ — indefinitely.

— IRIBUNE

-Editor — SEAN GRIFFIN
Business and Circulation Manager — PAT O'CONNOR

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