Travelling saleman

Repression Intensifies In Northern Ireland

BELFAST — Mass raids and house-to-house ‘“‘arms searches’’ continued in Northern Ireland on Monday, involving thou- sands of British Army troops and Northern Ireland police. An explosion wrecked the District Council offices at Castlederg, County Tyrone, and another blast knocked out a power sta- tion in Derry on Monday. The army-police searches in Roman Catholic ghetto areas in North-

Cont’d From P. 7

doctor and his nurse, perform-

. ing operations and ministering

to wounded humanity under -gunfire with a matchless devotion to duty— so they saw it.

Thus the “‘legend’”’ of Norman Bethune is no legned at all— but the grim reality of a great Cana- dian doctor who found his destiny in the crucible of a great human conflict; who measured up to the task demanded of him, who paid the supreme sacrifice for his effort, and created for Canada an “‘image”’ that will be hard— but not impossible for all Canadians of peace and goodwill to live up to, in the building of a néw ‘relationship between Canada and the People’s Republic of China.

Dr. Norman Bethune MD., member of the Communist Party of Canada, revolutionary and humanitarian, trail-blazer for others to follow.

To six or seven hundred million Chinese people. (even little children learn to lisp his name in their childish .vocabu- lary), first learning of the rocky path their people had to traverse to gain freedom and inde- pendence from imperialist exploitation, intervention, aggression and war, the name of Dr. Norman Bethune is ever on their lips — that, and the land he came from.

May all who follow him always enhance that ‘‘image’’, for peace and mutual fraternal goodwill between two great nations — Canada and the People’s Republic of China.

ern Ireland are supposedly for the purpose of tracking down the outlawed Irish Republican Army (IRA) or finding illegal weapons. But the searches last weekend degenerated into sheer destruction and pillage of the ghetto areas. Men, women and children in Cathollic areas were driven out of their homes at gun-point in the middle of the night and forced to stand for hours with their arms raised, while troops and police wrecked their homes. In Derry on Sunday, a new outbreak of rioting took place in the Bogside (Catholic ghetto) after a British Army truck ran down and killed Damien Harkin, age 9. A crowd gathered and burned the truck, and then hurled stones and Molotov cocktails at police armored cars sent in to break up the crowd. Some newsmen com- mented: that the Derry street- fighting, still going on, is ‘‘a re- play. of Watts.”

= ex

Labor Roundup

f hungry — keep waiting, if drowning — call Pk. Board

While members of city council questioned Walter Boyd, héad of the city’s welfare department, some 250 chanting unemployed, and welfare recipients on Tuesday waited impatiently on the doorstep of city hall for a definite answer to their brief demanding changes in the welfare set-up.

Under the broiling sun tempers became frayed as the crowd, most of them younger men and women, were kept away from the chambers by a half-dozen city police, with more hovering in the background. Rumors swept through the demonstration that a youth had his head cut open by a police stick. T.V. reports alleged he “fell”.

The crowd dispersed when Mike Crocker of the Unemployed Citizens Welfare Improvement Council, who had presented the brief, came out to report that council was still mulling the question.

The appearance at city hall was the culmination of a series of demonstrations staged at welfare offices throughout the city. Applicants for the measly $95 monthly allowance granted to single men have been known to wait as long as three days to have their applications approved. In the meantime they are hungry.

The UWCIC brief demanded that coffee and sandwiches be served to those forced to wait for long hours at the welfare office. Other demands are that cheques be calculated from the first day the client comes to apply; that welfare rates be increased immediately; that men in the single units be given the forms

which they can complete them- ©

selves.

. They want cash rather than food vouchers. One young man in the crowd said he lived in the far west end of the city and had to make the trip to the Alpine Cafe- teria three times a day to use the food vouchers. Many of them claimed the food was unsatis- factory at the welfare-desig- nated cafeteria.

There were young women with babies, and small children among the demonstrators. One of them said the welfare cheques

’ are totally inadequate to serve

Amchitka nuclear blast.

blast.

radioactive material.

Coalition.

Ban the Blast

A coalition of church and peace groups has sent a telegram to Prime Minister Trudeau urging the government to take every action within its power to impress upon the U.S. govern- ment the determined and united Canadian opposition to the

The group called the Canadian Coalition to Stop the Amchitka Nuclear Blast urged the prime minister to have External Affairs Minister Mitchell Sharp appear before a U.S. Senate subcommittee to voice Canada’s concern about the

The Amchitka blast is scheduled for October. Last week a strong earthquake shook the area of the Aleutian Islands where the detonation will take place.

The coalition claims the explosion could result in leakage of

To date, the Atomic Energy Commission in the US has refused to consider a cancellation of the so-called ‘‘test’’, although residents along the coast from Alaska to California have made their opposition known.

It is to be hoped the Canadian government will make a personal intervention in the matter as is requested by the

*PACIFIC TRIBUNE—FRIDAY, JULY 30, 1971—PAGE 8

herself and her small baby.

Walter Boyd told council members the hostel facilities provided by the* city were adequate to meet the need. A young man in the galleries said city-operated Pacific Hostel is shunned by most of the needy because it is run like a prison camp.

Boyd denied that more help was needed to process the growing number of applicants. He said the office was processing 100 applicants per day. The galleries booed. A man shouted, ‘‘Maybe, since we demonstrated’’!

As the demonstrators swept into city hall from Rainbow City Hall, a Youth Opportunities project nearby, they shouted in unison, ‘‘We Want Jobs, We Want Jobs’’, but the cry was taken over by ‘‘We* Want Campbell” as the minutes went by.

Their signs reflected the bitter- ness and frustration which’ is building up amongst hard-core unemployed and younger men who see no future, exemplified by a placard which read “‘Is your future lined with welfare vouchers?”’

The demonstration had value in that it called attention to the plight of Canadians who have nothing in sight but a $95 a month pittance. But if their ranks are not to be swelled by thousands more in Vancouver, something

more is definitely needed. * * :

Dave Werlin, secretary of CUPE, told a Parks Board meeting this week that the number of lifeguards at city pools and beaches are totally inadequate, and that they are not on duty long enough. He said guards were sent off duty in the evenings even though many swimmers were still in the water.

The budget for lifeguards has been cut $17,000 this year, and the number of guards on duty is hopelessly inadequate, the brief Stated.

Changes in Parks Board policy has meant there is a ban on overtime, a shorter work week, a shorter guarding time, and less independence for head guards. There are also several new and less experienced guards who need supervision, according to the union.

CUPE’s brief made recom- mendations to hire more person- nel; that entire areas used by swimmers be guarded; that hours be extended to provide guarding from 10 a.m. to 9:30 p.m.; that in future guards be hired earlier in the summer, and that a more extensive training program be undertaken to give new lifeguards a higher degree of proficiency.

The NPA-dominated Parks Board has made no definite commitment to comply with the request. In the meantime, the hot weather has brought the largest crowds in years to every pool and beach in the city.

* * *

A report from a Penticton man who works for the B.C. Parks branch says Premier Bennett’s boast of increased number of jobs in provincial

: E ras the parks is a joke so fa <a

Vernon-Osoyoos region } cerned. 18 There were only 12 new J? created, the employee rep and thus far the ‘‘new” ee which were to be created has”

materialized. :

He says Okanagan Vali newspapers were josie proclaiming this spring large numbers of students “Ks to be employed by the an branch. So far oné student ™ been employed.

Premier Bennett 14 be this spring that there wou! fot $15 million additional dollar al the parks project, 4 date hundreds of new men wou ife put to work. Another «good in B.C.”’ myth?

announced

* OK

Brewery Workers Local ed on strike at Labatts and we out at Molsons are fighting June 1 expiry date for ite contract they sign with

companies. te

The companies want the da set for December 31. . mber

A union delegate told me A of the Vancouver Labor CoN last week that the expiry was the main point at issue:

ee

Russ

Con’t from pg. 7

he guests for the concert. E Beryoska choir, an all-wor of group, also sang a numbet songs. i

was a song ‘‘Beautiful + the which was written by one sot younger members, Serge! koff. t “Tt is fitting to recall the a Russian contribution t0 ile early exploration and S€ ment of North America 4 thos? centennial event honoring ©. who came to this country immigrants fleeing Bs ip oppression,” said Hal Grif his address . . . “many of © were refugees of the 1905 T€ tion, and they came to 1a 2 the mining and logging came build the railroads, to WO” ie the waterfront and 0? xp fishing grounds, and whose © ie ience and understanding min : them pioneers in the for™ sive of trade unions and progres political parties. king “Or those who came SC™ ig land, as the Doukhobors car search of freedom to follow jand own way Of life, clearing t * pelt and making it fertile by iy? own sweat and muscle, ° find themselves betrays nds broken promises, ‘thelr fore’ foreclosed as they were m closed in the depression Ye" ar Griffin recalled that this Yije is the 400th anniversary °| jn first Russian settleme? ef America, coming to a ce sed the United States pure as Alaska. He concluded th@” ig modern technology conque’™ 4 Arctic and transforms mS a hysical barrier to a 0 pounder? between Canada : {0