8 r ‘ : Oe SBAAK FINANCIALLY | SUPPORTS OPPRESSIONE an SOUTH AFRIA SAAC PICKET... investments in apartheid. campaign pressed against chartered banks’ Bank campaign to call for account closures A cross-Canada campaign to pressure Canadian banks into withdrawing investments from South Africa has been set to begin March 21, the anniversary of the Sharpville Massacre. March 21 was declared a “National Day of Action” by 25 ‘anti-apartheid groups that met in Toronto last month to chart the campaign against the banks. Unions, churches and student organizations have been en- couraged to commit themselves by March 21 to withdraw their money from banks that invest in South Africa. The Bank of Montreal, the Royal Bank, the Canadian Im- perial Bank of Commerce and the Bank of Nova Scotia all have ex- tensive investments in South Africa. The Bank of Nova Scotia is the principle agent in Canada for the sale of Krugerrands, the South African gold coins. The Southern Africa Action Coalition, which will direct the campaign in British Columbia, is suggesting that monies be rein- vested in credit unions, trust ~ companies and smaller banks such as the Bank of British Columbia, which has no investments in South Africa. On March 21, supporters will be asked to withdraw bank accounts in a cross-country effort and ex- plain the withdrawal in a protest note to the bank manager and to prime minister Trudeau. PNE ‘pirates’ disregard mandate to serve people By ALD. HARRY RANKIN In a special report to council last month the city engineer, the director of planning and the city manager all voiced their concerns over the proposals now being considered by the board of the PNE for a vast renovation and expansion of its facilities. These include a new stadium, estimated to cost over $42 million; various additions costing $13 million which will include a lake, Coney Island types of so-called amusements, extending the annual fair from 17 days to between 85 to’ 100 days with attendance on some days reaching 160,000; replacing Brighton Pool with a pier and restaurant; increasing the fair attendance from one to three million; tearing down houses in the vicinity to provide more parking space; and building a hotel at the main entrace, the cost of which is not included in the over-all estimate of some $56 million. The concerns voiced by the director of planning and the city engineer include the traffic and parking problems that would be created by such an expansion and . the enormous increase in PNE crowds, the lack of community ° input into the plan, the lack of ‘consultation with the city con- cerning the proposed expansion and the whole question of what the functions of the PNE should be and what its priorities should be. Subsequently the matter was discussed in council’s Standing Committee on Planning and De- velopment which then reported to council. Council adopted its recom- mendations which were limited to advising the PNE board of directors that it would have to apply for a development,,permit and submit its proposals to a public hearing, that the PNE board be requested to consider im- provements to access facilities, and that the PNE board give consideration to what should be the ‘PEOPLE AND ISSUES functions of the PNE and whether or not some of its services should be located outside of the PNE grounds. To me that’s a pretty anaemic response to the PNE board of pirates. Just consider these facts for a moment. The PNE was set up to serve the people. The 1973 PNE Act of. In- corporation states: “The objects of the exhibition are, and it has power, to encourage and promote the development of agriculture and other industries of Canada, and to encourage and promote community development, including any matter or thing of a civic, regional, provincial, national, patriotic, scientific, cultural, ethnic, artistic, educa- tional, agricultural, social, recrea- tional, historical, or sporting nature or character, or any other object, except profit, that would be of benefit to people generally.” Note the emphasis on com- munity development, benefit to people and no profits. The PNE has not lived up to this key clause of the Act of In- corporation. : First of all the board of the PNE is a group of self-perpetuating private businessmen and not a public body responsible to or ac- countable to the public. Secondly it hasn’t shown any regard for the needs of the com- See CITY pg. 7 No layoffs for CUPE The Canadian Union of Public Employees Local 900 at Kamloops has concluded a_ collective agreement with the Kamloops. School District 24 that includes a clause guaranteeing no layoffs for CUPE workers with five years of seniority. The new, one-year agreement was reached January 23 after months of negotiating and con- siderable controversy in Kamloops over the job security clause. The contract prohibits layoffs of workers with five years or more service to the School District, but it does allow for firings, providing the employer can show -“‘good cause.” Kamloops mayor Mike Latta had campaigned against the settlement. calling the job security clause a ‘“‘dangerous’’ precedent. Latta stated that the job security provision would make ‘‘milk sops”’ out of school board employees and called on the provincial govern- ment to impose regional bargaining on school boards and municipal councils to “‘get tough” with the unions. In announcing the settlement last Monday, CUPE business agent Bill Ferguson called the mayor’s interpretation of the contract “completely and totally erroneous’’ and charged the mayor with attempting to ‘‘create hysteria.”’ January 24, the Kamloops Sentinel, the daily newspaper, joined the attack against the settlement, calling it “‘cradle to the grave socialism.” The editorial hoped the clause would: not ‘‘become standard — practice in union contracts,” but the CUPE contract has already set an important precedent for bargaining at a time of high unem- ployment and economic insecurity. The ‘‘tenure clause”’ is expected to be on the table when CUPE begins negotiations with Kamloops City and Cariboo College this year. Other aspects of the agreement calls for a review of ‘“‘all evidence of differential treatment of em- ployees by sex’’ and the guarantee- ing of access to employees’ per- sonal files kept by the school district. his column has in the past remarked upon some of the words of wisdom from Vancouver’s business com- munity, ably expressed by the Board of Trade’s weekly radio broadcasts, of which they regularly send us a copy. In particular, readers may recall the Board’s “reasoning’’ with regard to business investment in South Africa and other fascist countries. The Board rejected out of hand any sanction, boycott or other measures that would interfere with business, and then declared, ‘We question whether it (the government) has the right to determine what price tag is attached to our conscience — yours ana mine.” Perusing this week’s editorial comments from the Board on a matter closer to home — the closing of Mac Blo’s Vancouver Playwood plant and the layoff of 700 workers — we find the Board “‘reasoning”’ the matter in reverse. This time the question is: What amount of con- science should be used in making economic decisions? The Board has no trouble determining its conscience. Compare this with yours: “Public sympathy has been directed to those who are in imminent danger of being un- employed. . . But, and it is a real but, we should consider. where we would be if the economy were under the in- fluence and direction of emotions like sympathy. We have said it before; and repeat it again, the profit motive is the incentive for people to invest time and money in business. Companies like MacMillan Bloedel are not charitable organizations.” Of course the Board of Trade is hardly telling the Vancouver Plywood workers anything about the “charity” of Mac Blo; if the plans for closure are carried out they will be out of luck in September. But the Board does go on to offer some insights into the ‘‘profit motive” — the harbinger of good and plenty that also, it seems, is responsible for putting 700 men and women on the bricks. Business is like a garden, the Board opined, it needs to be pruned. If it is not. pruned, nature will take over and do away with the weak. Well, it is the same with “Man.” He “evolved through a process of natural selection, the survival of the fittest’? (or the “‘profit motive’). Man will do himself in, says the Board, if he ‘‘tries to outwit that PACIFIC TRIBUNE—FEBRUARY 3, 1978—Page 2 process by artificially propping up the non-productive. “In other words — without death, there can be no growth.” That seems to sum up the economics, and conscience, of. the business elite. We may ask: Who will be next to die in the interests of the ‘‘profit motive?” * * * carcely less callous but with rather more finesse in the Vielivery were the comments last month to the well- heeled members of the Canadian Club of Toronto by finance minister Jean Chretien. He seems to have been unaware of the number of plant closures in recent weeks and instead finds the blame for unemployment in a “higher participation rate.” If the jargon eludes you, what Chretien is telling us is that there are more people of working age trying to find jobs now than there were before. And he concludes: ‘‘In the next year unemployment will again depend to a considerable extent on the participation rate, especially among women and young people.”’ Even aecepting at face value Chretien’s statements, the fact remains: There is an enormous gap between the number of people, especially young people, in need of, and looking for work and the number of jobs that are available . —and that number is growing every day. No matter how you put it, that’s what unemployment is all about — and — Chretien’s speech merely serves to underscore the bankruptcy of government policies in dealing with it. * * * s its charade becomes more and more evident interna- tionally, U.S! president Jimmy Carter’s “human rights” campaign is also coming home to haunt him on his own domestic policies. And in the latest case, pressed by the Oregon Democratic Party’s state central committee, may go a long way towards correcting a longstanding injustice against a Tribune reader and supporter, Hamish McKay. ; : Some may remember from earlier stories in our pages that in 1960 McKay was deported from the U.S. where he had lived for several years for membership in an organization labelled by the U.S. government as ‘‘Com- munist-dominated.” Since that time, he has fought for the _ right to return freely to the U.S. and has been assisted by Oregon Congressman Mark Hatfield who has campaigned on his behalf. : Now in his 70’s, McKay has been granted special per- mission by U.S. immigration authorities to visit his-aging ‘mother, but his right to return permanently has always been denied. With the action by the Oregon committee, however, the U.S. administration may be compelled to change that ruling. “We agree with president Carter’s stance on human rights,” the Democratic Party committee resolved December 10. ‘‘Because of the primacy of such rights as freedom of speech, press and assembly, and the natural rights of immigration and emigration; and because of the national shame in the deportation of Hamish McKay whose crime, if any, lay in exercising First Amendment rights — we call on president Carter and vice-president Mondale and also our state and immigration departments to wipe out the mistakes of yesteryear by permitting McKay to freely return from exile in Canada.” The motion was endorsed unanimously both in the state committee and later in the central committee of the Democratic Party of Multonomah County where McKay lived before his deportation. The demand is also being pressed by the Methodist Church and other organizations. 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