“Wake up, Ottawa! Social Credit has the answer to moving this country. . . and the paper work to prove it.”

Plat” FISHERMAN.

Rankin hits secret ballot plan —

By ALD. HARRY RANKIN

Cliff MacKay, a reporter for The Courier, inan article in the April 14 issue of the paper titled, ‘Have Some More, DERA, My Dear,”’ proposes that City Council should make its decisions not by a show of hands or by a recorded vote but by secret ballot. The proposal was apparently prompted by his anger and frustration at City Council’s decision to give DERA a grant to help carry on its activities. MacKay is confident that if the vote on DERA’s application had been conducted by a secret ballot, Council would have turned DERA down.

What he is actually suggesting is that the mayor and the majority of the aldermen would have publicly

spoken in favor of the grant at

council and then voted against it in secret ballot. That’s not saying much for the political honesty of TEAM and-NPA elected repre- sentatives, is it?

MacKay’s proposal of secret ballots in council whenever council is confronted by angry or insistent citizens and voters could be dismissed as simply a_ stupid suggestion if it weren’t for the fact that the paper for which he writes has a considerable circulation and MacKay himself is not without some influence at City Hall.

The proposal is the very antithe- sis of democracy on at least two counts.

One is the fact that the mayor

and aldermen must be accountable to the voters for their stand on all issues. If they are permitted to vote by secret ballot it means that the citizens of Vancouver have no way of knowing what -stand they take. It’s not much different: than conducting public city business in camera — in fact it’s even worse because even in camera decisions are made by a show of hands or a recorded vote and the records are there to be checked.

Secondly, voting by secret ballot in City Council would be an in- centive to political dishonesty. It would provide a ready-made op- portunity-for elected representa- tives who are inclinded to repre-

See RANKIN, pg. 18

DERA will picket

ministe Human resources minister Bill Vander Zalm will no doubt rather besomewhere else than at his posh home in North Surrey on July 1, because on that day protesters from all over B.C. will have amassed in front of the minister’s house. The demonstration is being organized by the Downtown Eastside Residents Association to personally ask Vander Zalm to spend the entire $100 million surplus in the department of human resources on the poor and needy in British Columbia. DERA spokesman Bruce Eriksen told the Tribune this week that the demonstration is in response to the April 21 an- nouncement that income assistance for single persons will be increased by a mere $15 per month. ‘‘That will leave $87 million that rightfully belongs to the needy in this province in Vander Zalm’s surplus kitty,” Eriksen said. DERA will be bringing to Vander Zalm the proposals that have been agreed to by the First United Church, the B.C. Association of

-Social Workers, the B.C. Coalition

of the Handicapped, the Vancouver Labor Council, Harry Rankin and the Vancouver city council com- mittee on social services, and a broad range of other organizations.

The proposals call for increasing the basic income assistance rate for singles and couples to $230 and $340 per month. Minimum handi- capped rates should be $284 per

month. - The DERA proposals call for all

income assistance to be tied to the Consumer Price Index and for a 100 percent shelter overage grant to be available to all on income assistance.

A further demand is for in- creased comfort allowances to people in institutions and extended care facilities.

“The $15 increase is like a penny tip to a waitress,’ Eriksen said,

July 1

“the increase is less than 10 per- —

cent over three years.”

“The latest announcement of s0-

called rate increases is typical of © the present government’s tactics. — First they make a big cut in ex- | penditure, in this case $100 million, | and they they throw a few crumbs —

back to the needy, in this case $13

million. Its two steps backwards, ©

then a fraction of a step forward, —

and we’re supposed to be grateful. —

Well we’re not!”

In addition to the $15 increase, Vander Zalm has ‘also increased rent overages to $40 and $50 for singles and couples. But as DERA points out, the subsidies are available to those who pay more than the $75 per month basic rent

allowance, and will be quickly —

gobbled up ‘by rent increases.

With two months to organize, the . demonstration already has the — support of a number of community ©

and anti-poverty organizations.

Thedemonstration has been set for | July 1 —1 p.m., at Vander Zalm’s © residence, 19003 - 88th Ave, Surrey. |

Peace delegates

leave for parley

The B.C. Peace Council an- nounced this week that five delegates will be leaving next Tuesday to attend the World Assembly for Builders of Peace meeting in Warsaw, Poland from May 6 to 11.

The five B.C. delegates are prominent in peace, trade union, civic and ethnic com- munity activities. They are: Bert Ogden of the United Fishermen and Allied Workers Union; Rosaleen Ross, B.C. Peace Council; Bruce Yorke,

leader; Vi Swann, Fraser Valley Peace Committee; and Walter Gawrycki, | leading member of the Federation of Russian Canadians.

ns of May Day live on in B.C.

prominent civic and tenants |

The traditio

By MAURICE RUSH

. a quiet Chicago cemetery, only a few steps from where the outstanding U.S. working class leader, William Z. Foster lies buried, there is a small monument built by the nickels and dimes of Chicago workers. On the base of that monument are carved these words:

“There will come a time when our silence will be more powerful than the voices you strangle today.”

They arethe prophetic words of August Spies, one of the Haymarket martyrs as he went to the gallows on Friday, November 11, 1887. The monument marks the last resting place of the martyrs of Haymarket and the struggle for the eight-hour day out of which labor’s international holiday — May Day — was born.

North American labor fathered the world’s greatest labor holiday which is today marked in more lands than any other holiday in the world. It is celebrated by people of all races, religions and nationalities. It has come to symbolize the profound hopes and dreams of labor and its struggle to end exploitation and to build a world in which labor will be master — a world free from want, a world of peace and plenty.

The ruling circles in the U.S. who violently resisted labor’s fight for the shorter work day, and who have been the organizers of many murders, assassinations and frame-ups of working people — including many in our day —laughed at the words of its martyred victim whom they sent to the gallows on that dark day in Chicago 90 years ago. They thought that after the violence they let loose against labor in its fight for the eight-hour day that the movement would never rise again.

How wrong they were? How prophetic the words of August Spies?

Today the voices of the working class all over the world are more powerful than ever. Already labor rules over a very large part of the world — in the socialist countries — where exploitation, want, and unemployment are no more. Where the principle aim of society is to satisfy the

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—APRIL 29, 1977—Page 2

noble goals of man to meet the growing requirements ofa full, secure and peaceful life.

The struggles of labor for a better life have always been met by the violence of big business. The martyrs of Haymarket are part of a long, and endless list of victims of capitalist exploitation and oppression. Every small gain labor fought for and won was paid for by many new names being added to the list of martyrs and victims of capitalist violence.

This is as true of Canada as it is of the U.S. In the struggle for the right of workers to organize and form unions Canadian labor lists many martyrs, imprisoned and injured. The list is legion. In B.C. we have had our Ginger Goodwins and Frank Rogers. In the fight for jobs and security, B.C. labor had its victims in the On-To- Ottawa trek, Bloody Sunday in Regina, the Post Office sitdown, the Battle of Ballantyne Pier, to mention only a few.

The capitalist class in North America have learned many things since Haymarket. But there is one thing they cannot change —their ruthless drive to amass ever bigger

_profits at the expense of workers. That’s where their violence stems from. It’s a part of the capitalist system.

Today they practice a new form of violence against working people: massive unemployment, cutting of living standards, increased speed-up at work; massive cuts in social services. Although these new measures are not as violent as the police provocation at Haymarket, or the hanging of its victims, they are nevertheless violence practised against working people.

The traditions of May Day have always found a warm response among working people in B.C. The militancy of B.C. labor, which goes back to the days when the Cariboo gold miners fought for responsible government and against annexation to the U.S., has been rekindled many times in the long history of this province. This militancy has always been accompanied by a strong class solidarity with their working class brothers in other lands. B.C. labor has always come to the aid of labor in other lands

~ IRIBUNE

fighting for their rights. It continues that tradition today | in its support of the struggle of labor in Chile, Southern — Africa, Cuba, and elsewhere. It lives on in the growing © solidarity of French and English Canadian workers in their common struggle for a better Canada. May Day has always been a part of the strong radical — tradition of B.C. labor. I recall in the Hungry Thirties | speaking at May Day rallies in Cumberland and Nanaimo, ~ where miners fought to have May Day declared an official © holiday. The massive May Day rallies in Vancouver in the — Thirties played a major role in mobilizing wide support ~ for the struggles of labor and the unemployed. i Today, again, Canadian labor is turning to May Day as a day on which to mobilize their forces for the bid struggles ahead. This is demonstrated by the fact that the | last convention of the Canadian Labor Congress called 02 © the federal and'provincial governments to declare May _ First a legal holiday. The traditions of May Day live on today in the hearts — and minds of working people, and are expressed not only: in attendance at May Day rallies, but in their thoughts and actions and in their everyday lives and struggles. The day — is not far off when popular action will win the demand of | the Canadian Labor Congress to officially have May Day — recognized as a legal holiday. |

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