WORLD SCENE |

CYPRUS COMMUNISTS ELECT NINE

NICOSIA — The-Communist Party elected all nine candidates it entered in the vote for the House of Representatives and will hold the balance of power in the 35-seat Parliament. This was the first election since the island gained independence from Britain 10

years ago.

EIRE CABINET MINISTER VISITS BELFAST DUBLIN — Eire’s Foreign Minister Patrick Hillery secretly visit- ed Belfast in British-occupied Northern Ireland and talked with people in the Lower Falls Road area where British troops are ter- rorizing the population. The death toll during the past week was 12 dead and hundreds wounded. New demonstrations are expected this weekend.

PRICES REDUCED IN SOVIET UNION MOSCOW — The USSR has lowered retail prices on television sets, men’s, women’s and children’s hosiery, shirts, and synthetic detergents, starting July 1, an announcement from the State Price Committee of the USSR Council of Ministers stated: At the same time, the Committee announced that it was raising the price on brandy and champagne.

NEW ‘BIAFRA’ PLOT IN SUDAN :

KHARTOUM — Faruq Osman, member of the Revolutionary Council of the Democratic Republic of the Sudan, said this week: “We know about the plots hatched against us by Western and American circles to try to create a new Biafra in the southern Sudan.” Osman said the Sudanese government was well-informed about these foreign subversive activities and was prepared to deal with them.

In regard to the feudal revolt staged on Abba Island at the end of March this year. Osman said the reactionaries planned to seize control of more than 30 towns by armed revolt, to arrest govern- ment leaders and liquidate the Sudanese revolution. The revolt was crushed, and Osman reported that the government has recently released 88 suspects who were questioned in connection with the plot. Osman confirmed that several members of the Moslam Bro- therhood had been arrested, including the leader, Taufiq Taha.

ESTONIA LEADS WORLD IN ELECTRIC POWER TALLINN — Soviet Estonia leads the world in the per capita production of electric power. It has a population of 1.5 million and produces 10 billion kilowatt hours of electricity per year. These figures were released after the inauguration this week of a-new, 1.6 million KWH thermal power station on the Gulf of Finland.

WFTU BACKS SPANISH WORKERS COMMISSIONS

PRAGUE — A joint meeting of the World Federation of Trade- Unions’ Secretariat and a delegation from the Spanish “workers commissions” took place here recently. (Spain’s “‘workers commis- sions” are illegal trade unions, which are playing an increasingly active role in Spanish politics in defense of the working class.) The Spanish delegation gave a report on present-day working class struggles in Spain and thanked the WFTU for its “unconditional moral and material aid.”

The WFTU Secretariat noted that representatives of the entire world trade union movement had presented a resolution in support of Spanish workers to the General Conference of the International Labor Organization. It said this provided the grounds for a WFTU effort to develop a unified international working class movement of solidarity with Spanish workers.

IRISH LEADERS CONDEMN U.S. AGGRESSION

LONDON — Over 100 prominent -public figures in Ireland have sent an appeal to the government of the Irish Republic in which they condemn U.S. aggression in, Southeast Asia and call on the government to support their demand that U.S. troops should with- draw from Vietnam. Among those who signed the appeal are lead- ers of the Communist Party and Labor Party of Ireiand; the Irish Congress of Trade Unions, the president of the Academy of Scienc- es and other public figures.

U.S. PENETRATION IN COMMON MARKET ECONOMIES

BONN — American monopolies are actively penetrating into the economy of the Common Market countries. The newspaper Rhein- Asche Post says that capital investments of American firms into the economy of those countries is now estimated at 150 billion marks (about $37.5 billion). Allocating huge sums, the U.S. thus holds under its control from 7 to 25% of industry in some Common Market countries.

U.S. CUTS OFF FOOD TO HONG KONG

HONG KONG — On June 30 the U.S. cut off “Food for Peace’”’ .

shipments to the British crown colony of Hong Kong. Since.1953, when the food aid started, more than $40 million in U.S. “surplus” foods have been sent to this 398 square mile colony of four million people. The food comes under U.S. Public Law 480, which says that “surplus” U.S. commodities owned by the government can be sold —not given away—to friendly foreign governments for “soft” cur- rency, i.e., Hong Kong dollars, Laotian kip, Indian rupees, etc. Half of these local funds can be returned to the buying government in the form of a U.S. loan, and some of the local currency can be used for “U.S. government agency: expenses” in the country in- volved.

One U.S. government agency in particular became notorious for financing its worldwide espionage by means of these PL 480 funds. The matter came before the parliament of India at one time when it was charged that three Indian newspapers had been bought with PL 480 rupees, apparently a way to make the starving pay for their destruction.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—FRIDAY, JULY 10, 1970—Page 6

cP tells Gov't:

Change rail policy

An immediate public inquiry into the Canadian railway pas- senger service is demanded by the Communist Party in a let- ter to W. J. Pickersgill, Chair- man of the Canadian Transpor- tation Commission, and the Hon. Donald Jamieson, Minister of Transport. Don Currie, Central organizer of the party accuses the “big railways with the con- nivance of the Federal Govern- ment” of “taking the public for a ride—a very expensive ride.”

The CPR and the CNR deli- berately worsen passenger ser- vice on the railways and then blackmail the public by demand- ing to be subsidized for the alleged losses they incur due to loss of passenger revenue, the letter continues. Imagine what would happen to any railway worker if he deliberately per- formed badly and then demand- ed more money to maintain this level of bad work.

The decision by the Federal Government to subsidize the operation of the CPR’s. trans- continental passenger train the “Canadian” is a scandal in light of the CPR’s enormous subsi- dies from the Canadian people past and present and its high rate of profit today from its combined operations. In light of

its favored treatment the CPR’

could run the passenger service at a loss and pay for the losses out of its profitable operations

as a method of repaying the peo- .

ple of this country for the huge subsidies and gifts it has re- ceived. _ The claims by the railways that they cannot run passenger service profitably are suspect in light of the discrepancies shown in the past between CNR and CPR figures and government figures in computing variable cost and overhead. Abet Con Game

By agreeing to the railway companies demand that public transportation shoud be based on the “profit-first and the pub-’ lic-be-damned” principle, the Government has aided and abet- ted the con game of the Rail- ways.

The CPR is in clear violation of the agreements of 1880 and

CPR.

1881 which clearly defined the CPR as an instrument of na- tional policy—not as a simple money making proposition.

There is an urgent need to expand the railway passenger service between big urban cen- tres, to expand commuter ser- vice, as an attraction to the tourist industry, to unite thé country and all of its far-flung areas. The decision as to whe- ther or not this should be done cannot be left up to the railway companies.

The Canadian people will wholeheartedly support an im- provement in railway transpor- tation service. This was proven in the years 1963-1965. The rea- sons for the Government and Railways abandoning this poli- cy was that a higher rate of pro- fit could be secured by shifting more railway operations to haul- ing freight and such high reve- nue items as raw materials:

What’s good for the CNR bondholders and the CPR board of directors is not always good for Canada. The extra service required by the resources in- dustry can always be provided without sacrificing passenger service ...

The CPR should be national- ized and an expanded, integra- ted transportation industry de- veloped based on the interests of the country as a whole and not the profit margins of the

To Expand Services Short of nationalization we call upon the government to immediately undertake a public investigation into the scandal- ous state of affairs in railway passenger service. The aim of such an inquiry should be to expand, improve and reduce the cost of present passenger ser- vice. . Secondly such an inquiry should require the railways to do what every worker and small businessman is compelled to do by the Government—to open up the books of the CPR and the CNR and let the public judge the claims of the CPR public re- lations department that it can- not operate passenger service at a profit. :

Youth collecting names

The Toronto YCL posters are_

out—“The right to a good job is a must—Fight for it!’ Thurs- day night was the first night planned for postering and the Norman Bethune Club of the Young Communist League ral- lied its forces and its paste buckets and took off for the night. It was great fun and the response to the poster was good.

A man walking by looked at the poster and said, “that’s a good poster, stick a couple more up here.” Another man said “a good poster” and he handed Jan a silver ring and said, “It is for the cause.”

The posters are good. We should be proud of them and plan to saturate the city with them. So far the Norman Beth- nue Club is out ahead in the area of postering but we hear by the

grapevine that the other clubs”

are planning to go out days next week. The Norman Bethune Club is also going out next Wed- nesday night. Lets get with it —let’s saturate this city.

The above is taken from Metro Bulletin, the Toronto YCL’s new mimeographed paper. In another item Fred Weir, the ed- itor, tells how he and three other YCL members one morn- ing “hit” the Manpower Center at Dundas and Jarvis Streets.

“While Karen and Susan pas- sed out our unemployment leaf- let to Manpower-goers, Zoya and I collected five pages of signa- tures on the petition.” He writes. We also engaged in sev- eral fruitful discussions with passers-by on unemployment problems and the Indochina war.

“While we were there two other groups passed through each distributing their own un- employment leaflet. These were the Ontario Unemployed Youth

Committee and a coalition of

the Just Society, Welfare and-

Workers’ Rights groups.”

The Toronto YCL is also pre- paring T shirts to sell at the Labor Festival.

bargain collectively was a serious blow when the Thi er Government on June 307.4 ed the total construction My try of Saskatchewan unde | provisions of an amended”) expanded Essential SetY'a) Emergency Act. Known % q- 2, this act was made law! in order to force the Corporation strikers ba 4 their jobs and to accept Com, sory arbitration from 4 which it is also compuls0” j the chairman to be a judg one of the courts of thé ince. It was used again against the hospital emt on strike in Prince. force them back to work #7 fully low rates of pay. The Thatcher Gove of first interfered in the ™ negotiation process goins tween the plumbers, Pi and electricians unions collective bargaining W advanced and_ differencé ih maining to be settled be bs imal. The unions had 28°” return to work under we : of the old agreement 4 tinue negotiations. The

‘ment thwarted any settler sl

by blackmailing the empl® threatening to to refus iu contracts to firms that ® oo) ted a wage settlement in si" : of a government proc ceiling of 6%! eo Ot In this way the strike plumbers and electricia™ prolonged and made ™ upon which the ‘tet made its move to bring ih thousands of Saskat¢eM® id workers within the ~ ae shadows of the. hated is, 2, undermining the M8 yi strike and free collecti¥’ gaining. e terms | amended Act which pla construction industry W’ scope specifically names A struction unions, but i! ney General admitted it W a include the industria that are suppliers oF turers of building ™ og such as_ brickyards, i plants, sawmills, jumbel wood or steel plants. The workers of yi ’ are to be the guine? (4% experiments at compultty | liue of collective bargalt él The Thatcher GOV, MH crawls in the wake of et YF deau anti-labor, anti-far™ anti-consumer policies: The battle in Saskate now joined. The deb@ over. The action must © Labor has to fight this jon attack against its ful ge! 4 trade union rights of D4? jp) and strike. The farmef® chi and all citizens WP? | tot!) freedom must join wit? © acti) a broad united front © 4 resistance to this bra croachment on our right

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