[= ll l | ON-TO-OTTAWA TREK LEADER WEE WHAT KIND OF HOUSING? Final decision nears on False Creek plans By ALD. HARRY RANKIN On June 11 City Council is scheduled to make a final decision on how 52 acres of 71.4 city-owned acres on the south shore of False - Creek will be redeveloped. That is to be followed later in the same month by a public hearing for rezoning this area from industrial use to comprehensive development use. Right now Council has before it three design concepts, prepared at a cost of $150,000 by three design teams. A public information report summarizing these concepts is available at City Hall and I would urge all interested individuals and groups to secure copies for study. These three concepts are supposed to be the basis for Council’s final decision next month. In- the meantime all interested — the public, the developers, etc. have been urged to make their views known to Council. In Council we have received detailed reports on these three concepts and as far as I’m con- cerned they are away out on Cloud Ron Liversedge mourned Ronald Liversedge, a leader of: the on-to-Ottawa trek and one of* the first Canadians to go to Spain in 1936 as a member of the MacKenzie-Papineau Battalion, passed away on May 1 at the age of 75 after a long period of ill health. Best known in recent years for his book on the on-to-Ottawa trek which sold out in its first edition and is now appearing in a reprint, Liversedge is one of the pioneer working class ,and Communist leaders in B.C. who leaves behind a rich heritage. A memorial service was held last Saturday at Boal Chapel in North Vancouver at which Maurice Rush, Hal Griffin and Len Norris paid warm tribute to the life and. memory of Ronald Liversedge. All three speakers had shared with him some phases of his activities which spanned more than 40 years in B.C. Born in Keighly, Yorkshire on April 12,-1899 into a working class family, ‘“‘Ronnie” as his friends and comrades affectionately called him, joined the British Army at the age of 16 during World War I and a year later was wounded at Ypres. He came to Canada in 1926 after having taken part in the British General Strike, and travelled across Canada looking for work. He arrived in B.C. in 1931 at the depth of the depression and en- tered the unemployed movement, rising in a short time. to become one of the acknowledged leaders of the jobless struggles which culminated in the on-to-Ottawa trek in 1935. One year later, democracy came under attack by the fascist legions of Hitler, Mussolini and General Franco. Heeding the call for help, Ronnie was one of the first to volunteer to fight in Spain. He was among the first Canadians to take up arms against fascism, a struggle which later was taken up by all progressive mankind and became a national cause for Canada. During- World War II he worked as a miner in Atlin and helped build the union among hard rock miners and later worked in the Vancouver shipyards. After the war he and his wife, Mildred, moved to Lake Cowichan where he worked in the woods. Despite failing health, he undertook the task of writing his book, ‘‘Recollections of the On-to- Ottawa Trek.” ‘Recalling Ronald Liversedge’s devotion to the Communist Party of which he was a member throughout his life, Maurice Rush said that no higher tribute can be paid to a man than to Say that all his life he-remained true to his ideals and the cause of a better life for his fellow man. Spanish. Rush said “his name, along with Art Evans; Steve Brodie and others, will always be remembered as among those Canadian Com- munists who refused to accept the degradation and suffering imposed by capitalism in the Hungry 30’s and set out to organize and teach men to stand up and fight for their dignity and rights.” Hal Griffin, who was closely associated with Liversedgé when he organized’thé hard rock miners at Atlin and in the aid to Spain campaign, lauded his contribution to the working class movement. Griffin praised Liversedge’s. book on the on-to-Ottawa trek as an important contribution to the “real struggles of working people’ in the Thirties. Lifelong friend and fellow ‘member of the Mac-Paps, Len Norris, recalled the human and leadership qualities of Liversedge in Spain as well as in the unem- ployment movements of the Thirties. Norris expressed the condolences of members of the ‘Mac-Paps, many of whom were in attendance. The speakers stand was draped with the banner of the MacKenzie-Papineau . Battalion. The PT joins with his many friends and comrades in extending condolences to his wife, Mildred, and to members of his family. in B.C. and in England Nine, out of this world, unreal and unrealistic. They bear little relationship to what the people of Vancouver really need at this point. =e All three concepts are primarily concerned with providing a style of life and a quality of housing that will put this area completely out of the reach of the ordinary citizen in the low or moderate income’ bracket. The emphasis is on low density, single family dwellings or smaller cooperative units. Only between 700 and 800 units are to be built in the whole area. My criticism of these concepts is not that they aren’t innovative, original or modern. They are all that and more, but they represent an elitist philosophy — the view that False Creek is somehow or other too good for the ordinary person and must be made a showplace for the edification of the planners, architects, developers and City Council. That may be all very nice, butit’s a luxury we can’t afford. " City Council plans to spend about $4 million on False Creek. I don’t think Council has any right to spend this money to satisfy a few at the expense of the many. My view about the development of False Creek is that ‘we’re wasting a lot.of money and time with all these fancy plans and concepts. The total bill for them must already be over $500,000 and we still haven’t decided anything. What the people of Vancouver need today is more housing for the . people in the low and moderate income groups. A substantial amount of this type of housing could and should be built in the False Creek area. The rest of the: area should be for parks and recreation for all citizens. And to keep down costs the city should be its own developer and contractor. I’m opposed to building any high priced so-called quality housing in the area. The well-to-do aren’t suffering from any housing Shortage. If they want something better or newer than they have now, they can go into the private market and buy it. City owned land should be used exclusively for the provision of housing and amenities for those who need them the most — the low and moderate income groups. I urge each of you to get a copy of these latest plans for False Creek, Study them, compare them to what Vancouver needs and then let Council know what you think. They Say they want citizen input — so give it to them. * Pavilion, Richmond tenant. elect M. De Wee Regular meeting of the niond Tenant’s Council ee the held last Wednesday, May 1 4 eh Sun Valley Terrace cons is elected Margaret De Wees @ ji president — replacing Dick “itd who had resigned as a res leaving the municipality. Male Wees, a tenant at Sun ¥ Terrace, has been an active ie leading member of the Tene.) Council executive for some hi Next regular meeting of the i organization has been calle Wednesday, May 29 at a Mrs. De Wees oy nounced. It will receive f at's report on the Richmond ye wp strike and proposals to § Fst efforts to protect members 28 to | unjustified increases an itd achieve collective barg4 rights. . pd Wednesday's meeting rece report from Sun Valley thas indicating that a settleme? pert been reached. with the Pi 0 managers; .H...A. Roberts ret | Tenants who have been 08 ¢ 4 strike for three months, re that a meeting has been ag qin? for Tuesday where rents he™ oy, | tenant’s trust account in the nel mond Credit Union will be sent” over to H. A. Roberts’ repre? of tive in exchange for a le pails undertaking to complete re and other tenant’s demam wall “Already painting is undet pee! drains in the parking lot . reopened, the contract !0° jd repairs has been !ets of management has shown 4 © oq more attentive attitude tenants moving in,” Mrs. reported. ih In the past 10 years lon” tf million people, more ge pane | population of Britain an - ove together, have been able ments into completely new apart the Soviet Union. TOM Weer a politician of the old-line vintage, Tory, Liberal, Socred or other “crosses the floor” of the House, he or she is presumed to have discarded the philosophy of the old party alma mater for that of the “new” opposing party. In this change of shirt ritual there are no strains upon such abstractions as principle, conscience or con- victions since none aré involved. ‘ True blue Tories, hard-core Grits, holier-than-thou Socreds, Johnny-come-lately ‘‘socialists’”’ — all have been known to participate in this ritual, without worrying about what those who may have elected them think. Their prime concern is that the new ram pasture they are headed for looks much more promising than the one they came from. Thus it may readily be assumed that their main motivation for‘ “crossing the floor’ is or was rank op- portunism — a common disease among all professional tub thumpers. At one time in the dim and distant past there may have been some slight marginal differences between the old- line parties of big business. Today there are none. Once it McEWEN — was “high tariffs versus “low tariffs”, ‘protection’ versus ‘‘free trade’’, “thonest”’ government versus ‘‘get-it- while-the-getting-is-good”’ dictum! All these alleged differences with the exception of the last have long since disappeared, if indeed they ever existed. In a changing world the concentration of big monopoly in its greed for ever-greater profits and gigantic “ripoffs”’ has seen to that, And the old-line politician who “crosses the floor” is not walking away from this mountainous source of political boodle, but on the con- trary hoping to get closer to it; to find portunities for a greater share in this monopoly swag. . ~~ Only the Communists, who Possess an-uncanny knack of - hitting the nail on the head, have been pointing out for decades that the “difference” between Tory and Liberal, Socred or other hothouse offshoots from this bipartisan scrub oak, are exactly nil — both.are the instruments of big business, both get and take their orders and “policies”’ from big business. elaborating on this Tweedledee, Tweedledum and Tweedledam and the prime source of political slush funds — and the resultant ripoffs when NDP leader Davie Lewis was filling 'his daily dozen of diapers. But little has changed save the size of the profit pot and the political chicanery to get in on the deal. Then there is another species of old-line political trickster who, much like the perennial “floor crosser’’, makes a lot of noise about the “right to vote as his con- Science dictates’’ as though conscience were something _ Constituents may think), or his search for neW greater op-: “he : e that “growed” out of nothing or nowhere, just ee fabled Topsy. Even allowing that such one t0 stricken political specimens had never got Tessas reading Fredrick Engels’ brilliant philosophica ch col his Anti-Duhring, he should'at least know tha ial bast science, like his paunch, has a very, very mate tind a His actions in “crossing the floor’? however, a be at a per “conscience diktat’’, (without concern 0 ite me” halls where the “emoluments of office” may yeh a attractive, all go to show that his ‘‘conscience”’ ; is, hasn’t been neglected. - ssid It would be in error to think however that Choe sim floor or this political cackle about “conscienct thet. means taking a walk from one allegience to wee whey occurs without the performer even leaving his § in pet that mythical entity called conscience comes they “yp their votes become a gross violation of all y the professed to believe in. This is well confirmed sellou® : “Black Fridays” and monstrous betrayals an ie by monopoly-state police terror and violence ¥ pist? blackened many long pages of labor and peop! ; like a deadly plague. to Oe But, orates the professional tub thumper «floo! Pai monopoly paymasters from any side of the Hoe wae and unruffled in that region where his “cons ions eer 7: Supposed to be located, ‘These are my opt just? | tlemen, if you don’t like them, I’ll change them! simple as that.