Re he i

‘Restore rights’, CUPW calls

FOR CUPWI
AND FOR
ALL WORKER)

Lloyd Ingram, president of the Vancouver local of the Canadian Union of Postal Workers, and executive
member Phyllis Webb march with picketers outside the downtown Vancouver post office as CUPW
opened its national campaign Wednesday.

— Sean Griffin photo

World peace conference urges
final ban on nuclear weapons

By MARGRIT PITTMAN

BERLIN, GDR — Five hundred
delegates from 97 countries called
for an “‘unconditional and final ban
on all nuclear weapons’ in a
message to the world’s nuclear
powers last week.

This. call came from the World
Peace Council which concluded the
largest international meeting in its
history here February 5.

Among those attending were
representatives of many organiza-
tions not affiliated with the World
Peace Council but carrying great
weight in the fight for peace.
Among them are the Netherlands
Committee against the Neutron
Bomb, which got virtually half that
country’s adult population to sign a
protest petition, and the Japanese
movement for disarmament.

‘In view of the tragedy of
Hiroshima and Nagasaki, it is an
urgent necessity to protect humani-
ty forever from this danger by ac-
complishing the unconditional and
final ban on all nuclear weapons,”’
said the message to the governments

of the United States, the Soviet
Union, Great Britain, France and
China.

The special session of the WPC
had earlier agreed to hold
worldwide demonstrations on the

anniversaries of the Hiroshima and
Nagasaki atomic explosions,
August 6.and 9.
Though the delegates represented
a broad spectrum of political views,
see PEACE pg. 12

CP presses government
for curb on food prices

The’ Communist Party this week
demanded that the federal govern-
ment adopt legislation to roll back
prices on essential foodstuffs and
commodities and urged: consumers
to organize protests against price in-
creases.

The statement by the party’s cen-
tral executive in Toronto was in
response to news that beef prices

will rise by another 18 cents per.

pound while supermarkets and food
companies are recording record
high profits.

‘“‘Why is the government silent

about it?”’ the CP asked, ‘‘Both the
Liberal and the Tory parties sup-
port controls on workers, but when
it comes to the corporations and the
supermarkets, they say ‘we can do
nothing.’ It is clear whose side they
are on.”’

“Tt is time to stop this rip-off,”
the statement said, calling for ‘‘con-
sumer action on a mass scale’’ with
the formation of committees
wherever possible to stop price in-
creases and press for rollbacks in
the price of food and other essential
commodities.

Postal workers in centres across
the country demonstrated their de-
mand Wednesday for the restora-
tion of the rights taken away from
them by strikebreaking legislation
passed by the Trudeau government
last October.

Demonstrations by Canadian
Union of Postal Workers members
and supporters took place in cities
across: Canada including a mass
picket of more than 500 outside the
Parliament Buildings in Ottawa led
by CUPW national president Jean-
Claude Parrot.

In Vancouver, trade union
leaders, including Vancouver and
District Labor Council president
Syd Thompson joined CUPW
members as they marched around
the main downtown post office.
Pickets were also sent to the consti-
tuency offices of several members
of Parliament who had voted for
the strikebreaking legislation in-
cluding Vancouver Kingsway
Liberal MP Simma Holt and Van-
couver South Tory MP John
Fraser.

“‘Today marks the first stage of
the national campaign of the Cana-
dian Union of Postal Workers to
win back the rights that were so
ruthlessly taken away from us

see MP pg. 12

Review of
Bill C-14
demanded

B.C. Federation of Labor presi-
dent Jim Kinnaird last week wired
employment minister Bud Cullen
demanding that he ‘‘take whatever
steps necessary to review im-
mediately the impact’’ of changes
to the Uneniployment Insurance
Act which ‘‘have imposed addi-
tional suffering on those workers
affected by the change.”’

Despite wide opposition, the
Liberal government passed* the
amendments last December 22 in-
creasing the entrance requirements
for a UI claim. A quarter of a
million people were affected by the
amendments.

‘“‘We must bring to your im-
mediate attention our concern that
the recent amendment to the
Unemployment Insurance Act
which requires that 20 hours must
be worked with a single employer to
secure a week of insured employ-
ment is totally unfair and ine-
quitable,’” Kinnaird stated in his
telegram. He added that many af-
filiates had expressed ‘“‘grave con-
cern that their members’ employ-
ment is not insurable.”’

“T understand the minister has
said that he’ll review the decision to
cut off 250,000 unemployed Cana-
dians because of changes to the
Unemployment Insurance Act if it
appears to him that too many peo-
ple are suffering, he said, emphasiz-
ing, ‘‘Hopefully this telegram will
help the minister to decide that a
review is necessary —
immediately.””

Earlier, the Federation announc-
ed that Laborers Local 602 member
Bill Dennison had been appointed
as unemployment committee co-
ordinator to head up the campaign
against unemployment outlined by

the Federation’s convention last .

November.

IRAN: The Communist
Tudeh Party backs the
call for Islamic revolu-
tionary councils as the
popular movement in
Iran sweeps the Bakhtiar
government from power,
page 11.

TELEVISION: Commer-
cial television is 32
years old, but it has yet
to grow out of the
stereotyped images of
blacks and other minori-
ties which continue to
dominate the networks,
page 6.

e

@ BIGOTRY: That is facie

alderman Harry Rankin
sees Vancouver city
council's decision to kill
Shelagh Day’s equal op-
portunities program,
page 2.

@ INDIANS: A new and
important study of the

labor history of B.C.
Native Indians explodes
popular myths and
shows their contribution
to the building of B.C.—
as workers, page 10.

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