25 years ago...

PEACE IS IN

OUR REACH
A great hope has been born.
verybody now sees that agree-
ment is possible. The slaughter
can be ended. The cold war

"Stopped. In this hour we sol-

€mnly call upon the peoples to
mand of their government
that they negotiate and agree.
It is for us all to support every
Move — from. whatsoever gov-
€mnment it may come — to solve
Isputes by peaceful means. It is
Or us to frustrate the efforts of
those who prevent or delay
agreement.
€ace is within our reach. It is
Or us to win it. — Text of the
Appeal of the World Peace
Ouncil adopted at Budapest
Meeting June 12-20.
Tribune,
August 24, 1953

FLASHBACK

& . E F 4 0 rs

ate

50 years ago...

SACCO, VANZETTI
ANNIVERSARY

The workers throughout the
world will commemorate the
murder of Sacco and Vanzetti.
August 22 is the anniversary of
the brutal act of class justice that
stirred the workers and all lovers
of liberty throughout the world.
On this anniversary the work-
ers must rally in their thousands
and honor our dead who under
the most terrible anguish, stood
erect and firm for the interests
of the working class. The work-
ers must defend all our class war
prisoners who are incarcerated

in capitalist dungeons.
The Worker
August 25, 1928

A CONCISE HISTORY
OF CANADIAN IM MISiATiO
Ap Oe (a4 :

. ovT
waTarieR YOUR TG

Af

EDITORIAL.
COMMENT

~ One more Ma Bell rip-off

For the seventh time in seven years Ma
Bell has been permitted to increase our
phone rates. On Aug. 10 the Canadian
Radio-Television and Telecommunica-

tions Commission allowed Bell Tele- -

phone just over 60% of the $399-million
in extra annual revenue it had asked for.
For phone users in Ontario, Quebec
and the eastern Arctic this means a 5%
hike in monthly residential rates, a 10%
hike in business rates and a 9.7% jump in
long distance costs. Bell had asked for a
whopping 20%, 28% and 9.7% rate in-
crease respectively. In addition, Bell re-
ceived authority from the CRTC to in-
crease home and business extension
rates. aoe
Bell used the time-honored (and very
effective) ploy of pleading it needed a
higher return on investment to attract
more investment capital. It asked for be-
tween 13.5 and 14.5% per year and the
CRTC gave it 12% for 1979. This latest
gift from all of us will increase the giant
monopoly’s revenue from domestic ser-

vices next year to a lip-smacking $2.8-
billion.

As far back as 1965, in a brief to the”

Canadian Board of Transport Commis-
sioners which was reviewing the opera-
tions of Bell, the Communist Party made
several major points which bear repeat-
ing today.

It called for a public review of all Bell’s
operations, rates and practices — includ-
ing those of its subsidiaries. It asked that
this wide-ranging public examination
look into the question of whether Cana-
da’s best interests would not be served by
the nationalization of Bell Telephone
and. its subsidiaries (including the lucra-
tive Northern Telecom). ~

Most certainly the chronology since
these points were made would em-
phasize the need for such an inquiry to-
day. Bell’s gouging of the public, made
possible by its monopoly position and the
acquiescence of the CRTC, urgently
need looking into and changing.

Smash hit by world youth

The 11th World Youth Festival in
Havana, Cuba just concluded was a
smash hit. It was the most representative
ever in the 31-year history of the Festival
movement and the first to take place in
the Western Hemisphere.

Two hundted and forty young Cana-
dians participated together with some
20,000 other young people from 145

_lands. In total they represented 2,000
organizations and held many viewpoints
which were brought together in an at-
mosphere of friendship and concern for
the future.

The theme: For Anti-Imperialist Sol-
idarity, Peace and Friendship,
epitomized the crucial questions before
today’s young generation and, indeed,
before the world. The fact that the beaut-
iful capital of Havana in socialist Cuba
was the host city testifies to the forward
march of history in an epoch when im-
perialism and the warmakers are increas;
ingly on the defensive.

The total commitment the Cuban

people and government made to ensure
the maximum conditions existed for this
tremendous event does honor to the
Cuban revolution. It clearly re-
emphasizes Cuba’s unyielding support
for the slogan and aims of the Festival
and its determination to carry them into

life.

Undoubtedly the Canadian delegation
will tell its story in hundreds of places to
thousands of people. For most the ex-
perience will be unforgetable and the
opportunities they had to meet and join
in friendship with other youth never
forgotten.

Predictably the mass media in Canada
gave little and begrudging coverage to
the Festival. Some attacked, most ig-
nored it. But despite their refusal to let
millions know what was taking place in
Cuba, the ideals and accomplishments of
the 11th Festival shall be conveyed.
There are 240 young Canadians to en-
sure this happens.

A cold wind from Regina

The recent Premier’s conference in
Regina and its unanimous rejection of
Trudeau’s efforts to juggle the constitu-
tion raises some interesting points.
Without holding any brief for the prime
minister’s non-solutions to the crisis of
confederation, the unified, stringent
reaction by the provincial premiers was
revealing.

Shown starkly is the determination by
provincial governments not to permit

“any interference with their authority to
continue making their private deals with
monopoly. Since key sectors of natural
resources, labor and education fall
under provincial jurisdiction, the pre-
miers reacted quickly against what they
considered a weakening of their “right”
to continue the give-away to multi-
nationals.

It is important to cut through the
smokescreen and restate some basic
points the Communist Party has been
advocating vigorously. In its program
The Road to Socialism in Cited. it says

in part: “For many years now the Com-.

munist Party has put forward the pro-
posal of a freely-negotiated new confed-
eral pact between the two nations, a new
Canadian constitution, based on the vol-
untary, equal partnership of the two na-
tions in a bi-national, sovereign and
democratic state, as being the best
sovereignty solution in’ the interests of
the working people of both nations.”
The Communist Party’s program
should be studied carefully in these times
of federal-provincial juggling for it pro-
vides a clear alternative to the present
crisis and antics of government.
PACIFIC TRIBUNE—AUGUST 25, 1978—Page 3

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