\ %

Own our own beer!

. | na telegram to Labor Minister Peterson last week’s

regional convention of the IWA accused the brewery beer barons of “wilfully absenting their negotiators from the area’”’, and urged that the government compel. the brewers to make their top negotiators available for union- management talks, with a view to ending the current brewery strike.

The Bartenders’ Union in a similar message went a step further and called upon the government to “take over” the brewing industry; a demand meriting wide pub- lic support since it could be productive of a double-barel- led public benefit; the restoration of a public service, and the termination of the domination and “slush fund” cor- ruption by a powerful brewing monopoly in the affairs of government and industry.

These two important union demands, to compel the resumption of negotiations as prescribed under the labor laws of B.C., or to ‘take over” the brewing industry, cor- respond to the best interests of the people, and working people in particular. Hundreds of workers have already been deprived of their jobs and livelihood because of the contemptuous attitude, silence and unconcern of the beer magnates. Seemingly it suits their sinister purposes and conspiracies, the Beer Barons take the position of“ the union and the public be damned.”

To that monopoly evil there is only one lasting solu- tion; public ownership of the brewing industry.

Yukon ‘Robin Hood’

= | would like to think that had I been in Grant’s posi- tion I would have had the courage to do what he

did,” declared trial Judge John Parker when sentencing

Yukon Territory Indian Agent, William E. Grant.

Bill Grant’s crime, that he had exceeded,:the federal government’s “authorized” $45,000 for Indian needs by an- other $25,000, upping the total'to $70,000. Indian Agent Grant spent the total amount, “authorized” and un-auth- orized, trying to improve the wretched housing, “welfare’’ relief and other long-neglected needs of the Native Indian people in the Whitehorse area.

Regarding Mr. Justice Parker’s sentence of $50 or one day in jail as too “light”, the “Crown” appealed the case. A B.C. Appeal Court found Mr. Grant had “exceeded his authority” and upped the fine ante considerably. White- horse citizens promptly picked up the tab and re-named Bill Grant the “Robin Hood of the North”; a striking commentary on how a judge, a wide strata of the public, and all-too-few “Robin Hood” Grants view the govern- ment of Canada’s penny-pinching policies and maladmin- istration of Indian affairs.

With $1.6-billion down the arms drain annually, the

- government’s action against Bill Grant can only be seen as

a vindictive act—against a dispossessed Indian people, and against men like Grant who place a higher value on human dignity and wellbeing than upon their own job sinecures.

What this country needs is more “Robin Hoods” of the Bill Grant stature. bes

e e Editorial note opular wrestling star ‘‘Whipper' Billy Watson is leaving the wrest- ling game to become a politician — a Tory politician. Nominated Tory candi- date in a Toronto riding, the ‘“Whip” has outlined his initial bout on the hust- ings in a recent TV interview: ‘‘To stop

Communism.” In their yearnings for the ‘‘emolu-

ments of office’' both Tories and liberals are not beckward at picking up candidate timber possessing a measure of fame or notoriety in sport circles, if, in their opportunist calcula- tions, such notoriety aids in winning an- other seat. All other considerations are

So the “Whip” garbed in a new Tory coldwar toge, with his mental muscles ion all flexed up, is out ‘‘to stop Com- munism. ~ :

Tom McEWEN

By DAVID DENT “unemployed miners in Kentucky: hat Tom McEwen’s column he has made an audience in the

(July 16) implied was (1)that East aware of some of the prob- Phil Ochs is insignificant, (2) lems of Mexican workers in Cali-

that Ochs and the tendency he fornia: he has given voice to

fe)

Gifts for the children of Vietnam

close resemblance to the Phil saying that the songs of another Ochs I interviewed. generation were “much too func- tional,” What he said was that they were more functional, that it was a different era and that the songs reflected this,

McEwen says, “We'll readily concede he’s probably a good singer, strums the guitar nicely, and, upon occasion, composes a

—Eccles, Br. Worker

reflects are not progressive feelings against American im- phenomena, (3) that the Canadian Tribune should never have pub- lished the interview,

The first of these contentions is simply not true, Unfortunate though it may be, Phil Ochs has an audience bigger than that of the Canadian Tribune, Pacific Tribune and U.S, Worker put to- gether, This audience listens to what he says—about labor unions, Vietnam, civil rights, underpaid Mexican workers, ete,

Politically he stdnds- some- where between the rampant indi- vidualism of Bob Dylan and the views of a singer like Tom Pax- ton, who believes the system must be changed at the base, As a result he is probably closer to the mass of young Americans in revolt than either of the others,

In reply to the second point, that Ochs is not a progressive phenomenom, He has sung for . striking students at Berkeley and

perialism: he has called on the American labor movement to carry on its old—and somewhat lost, radical tradition by playing a greater role in the civil rights struggle,

I see the Tribune as trying to put across and fight for acertain point of view, It would be unable to do this if it did not take into account contrary arguments and opinions, You cannot refute something whose existence you do not recognize,

I also see the Tribune as try- ing to give a picture ofthe world, and especially the Left, as it really is, It would be impossible to give a valid picture of North American protest while ignoring someone like Phil Ochs,

There are other aspects of Tom McEwen’s column which I would like to criticize, above all

the fact the Phil Ochs whom he’

attacks does not bear a very

song with some social content it it.” But the interview specifi- cally mentions the fact that he writes his own songs, and that he almost never sings one with- out political content,

Tom McEwen complains that “the portrait literally reeks with ‘Tl’ instead of ‘we,’ * Of course it does. We only interviewed one folksinger and asked him to an- swer questions about what he thought, not what he thought the protest movement or folksingers in general thought,

Tom McEwen claims, “Of all the myriad political parties that abound on our hemisphere, Ochs singles out the Communist Party of the USA to lavish his egotisti- cal and ignorant spleen upon,” He did no such thing, As the interview makes quite clear, it was after he had mentioned the fact that the Left in the Thirties was “Party (capital P, Commun- ist) orientated and thus so were folksingers, that Iasked him what he thought of the *Party’s role in the Thirties.” I would have been very surprised if he had told me-about the Communist Party of Trinidad or even of Canada,

Tom McEwen accuses Ochs of

The column says that Phil Ochs’ “portrait” looks “pretty sickly” beside Joe Hill, Phil Ochs is 24, He would have to be a superman to do what Joe Hill

‘did, The difference which Phil

Ochs was underlining was one brought about by changing tech- nology and changing conditions,

Worth Quoting

London, England. A toy guilletiné imported from Canada has arov i the ire of British newspaper colum Henry Fielding. The guillotine is pot of a range of plastic models which in: cludes Frankenstein and Dracula dolls and was exhibited earlier this yea Britain at a toy fair sponsored by Ontario government. a

Fielding says the guillotine co complete with a model victim. Fi ing comments: ‘‘You lay the poor’ tim on the platform, pull lever, blade descends and veila, anot aristocrat loses his head. The ma is waiting don’t you think for a d0 yourself electric chair and a mix- own styrchnine kit?”’

—PRESS JOURNAL, August, 1965

Supt. D. Clark on Latrine Patrol. Mr. Clark questioned workers using the washroom facilities during a ing hours. Brother Larry Easton, who was challenged by Clark, explained that he was there for a legitimal® and natural reason. Assuming 9 for which he had no qualification Mr. Clark advised Larry he sho¥ control himself until he was of lunch period.

—UE GUIDE, ; July-August edition, 19

*

Western and, particularly Frenc! sources ... tend to confirm Chinese view that the Yanks hav@ deed been “‘trapped like rats” in the jungles of Vietnam. According to both Washington and London are ai well aware of the suicidal Amerie predicament, and that was the motive behind Premier Wilson's successful bid for a Commonwee— peace mission.

French circles are openly predicting a complete American rout in Vie pos to be followed by a Wall Street ¢™

CEYLON TRIBUNE, July 17,"

gressive force in AmeriCae Phil Ochs said about a sone | wrote: It was written to be stop Johnson from stoppiné ~

(Communism in Vietnam).

* Oe Ok

e ~ (Editor's note: David pent, th

author of “Portrait of a prote He Singer” in a letter to the edi took strong exception to the B@ ors comments on his “Porth in the July 16 edition,

since Mr, Dent's letter © exceeded PT editorial stipul4 he on the length of letters

Phil Ochs did not sneer at the into consideration Mr. pe aly past history of folk singing as later complaint tha j ‘Tom McEwen claims, He men- seems fair to me to engage es tioned the undeniable fact that polemic with a column 21 ine dS most songs used to be written by long in a letter of 300 poard amateurs, Obviously this made long,” the PT Editorial a difference,

The Communist Party is not space, His own letter, @ Be: the only progressive force in the ated by himself to his own world: it is not the only pro- fied length, appears above.

editor for publication, and mats

t *it har

wo

tatu

have accorded Mr, Dent the Ss

7g of “guest columnist ppret

ily eee = Fre 6

‘Canada, $5.00 one year; $2.75 for six months. North and Sou

Editor — TOM McEWEN Associate Editor — MAURICE RUSH Circulation Manager — JERRY SHACK Published weekly at - Ford Bldg., Mezzanine No. 3, 193 E. Hastings St. Phone 685-5288 Subscription Rates:

th Americe

and Commonwealth countries, $6.00 one year. All other countries: 7" |, one year. Authorized as second class mail by the Port Office Dep? ; Ottawa, and for payment of postage in cash.

e—Pag?

September 24, 1965—PACIFIC TRIBUN