Vietnam,

victory appears possible’.

still come back for more’?

at the same store for $20,00,

nothing!

one!

EDITORIAL
‘At a loss to know’!

A Associated Press (AP) story current in last week’s com-
mercial newspapers reports Washington in a sweat, It
appears that the war hawks just ‘cannot understand’ how it
is that in South Vietnam, with all the “massive firepower”
half-a-million U.S. troops throw at them daily, that the South
Vietnamese and their ‘Viet Cong’ doesn’t justfoldup and admit
defeat? The AP correspondent doesn’t even mention North

‘Concern’ is said to be very high in U.S, war headquarters .
in Saigon over the ability of the South Vietnamese and their
NLF ‘to maintain their morale and high fighting spirits’ — and
oh, so dolefully, that ‘until these can be broken no military

Even U.S. ‘pacification’ of the South Vietnam countryside
is now admitted to be ‘more elusive’ than ever before, And
to top it all U.S, General William C. Westmoreland, in charge
of shovelling GI’s into Washington’s Vietnam meat-grinder,
is quoted as saying that he ‘is at a loss to know’ how the South
Vietnamese can suffer such losses, engage inbattles they know
they will be ‘mercilessly hammered by shellandbomb... and

If the General hasn’t learned by this time it merely proves ©
the futility of talking morality to a professional killer, In all
likelihood enlightenment will come too late tohim and his kind,
just as it did for their predecessors at Nuremberg,

Prices in orbit
onsumer prices in Canada hit an all-time high in July,
this despite the millions of indignant sounding words
used up by a parliamentary commission set up to look into
this growing problem, plus a 52-page interim report by the
Economic Council of Canada (ECC) on the how and wherefore
of the prices gouge in the area of ‘food, clothing and shelter’,
not to mention all the other essentials of modern living.

All the big chain store monopolists got in a lot of statistical
data at the prices hearings or ‘marginal’ profits, advertising
costs, packaging, etc, and ad infinitum, Enough to bowl the
average citizen over much more effectively than a carton of
LSD or a pipeful of ‘pot’, But nothing came ‘down’,

There’s no point pitching ‘statistics’ at a housewife who
already knows from hard experience that she can carry home
what she gets in meat and groceries at her local store for
$30.00 with the same ease that less than a year ago She got

Nor is there much point in idly speculating ‘what the govern-
ment can, or will do about it’, To that the answer is, precisely

Only the housewife and her family have the answer to that

Most Citizens agree—

Tom
McEWEN

hether we like it or not, the

times and events in our
changing world compel a reas-
sessment of old ideas and atti-
tudes, What was good ideas in
grandfather’s day (and many were
good), no longer hold good in
today’s world. But a lot of them
still stick with us like a sweaty
shirt on a hot day.

One of these old ideas — let
us call it an illusion, was our
simple belief inthe ‘co-operative’
movement as an auxiliary in the
struggle for Socialism, first
learned from the classical liter-
ature of the Robert Owen (1771-
1858) period, sometimes re-
ferred to as the “Rochdale Pio-
neers” era.

The basic underlying idea or
‘principle’ of the Rochdale Pio-
neers and those who followed
their example was simple and to
the point; that groups of workers
and/or farmers would band them-
selves together to make or pur-
chase many of the necessities of
life in bulk, retail such commo-
dities to each other at cost,
thereby cutting out all ‘ middle-

man’ rakeoffs and profiteering. ©

Thus whatever profits might ac-

crue from the ‘co-operative’ ven-
ture, the co-operative producer,
consumer or supporter would be
the sole beneficiary.

Many good and sincere people
harbored the illusion that growth
of the co-operative idea could
eventually put Capitalism out of
business — peacefully and pain-
lessly? Others even held to the
idea (and some still do) that the
‘co-op’ could replace the trade
union and that the latter would be
no longer required,

Capitalist exploitation however
is not so easily wished away,
as the Rochdale Pioneers andthe
many who followed their example
have found from bitter experi-
ence, At a given stage in its de-
velopment the co-operative takes

_On more and more the charac- -

teristics of Big Business — and
eventually is governed, not by
the co-operative “principles” of
its founders, but by the rules
and ethics of Big Business,

It is from that angle that some
re-assessment of our early en-
thusiasm about co-operatives
now ‘becomes necessary. Co-

- operative “principles” were, and

«go's August? 5)i1267—PACIFIC TRIBUNE—Poge 2

An over-all plan needet

By Ald. Harry Rankin

A ¢ity planner’s life is not a
happy one.

This is an obvious conclusion
from -the fact that five of Van-
couver’s 17 planners have re-
signed and left.

What’s the trouble?

The planners are frustrated,
and this is hardiy surprising.
City Council continually over-
rides and disregards their rec-
ommendations, In doing soCoun-
cil often amends, breaks or at
least bends city regulations, such
as zoning by-laws. Council makes

its decisions on a day to day
basis, often under the pressure
of influential groups such as real
estate promoters and private de-
velopers who want special con-
cessions: And so, the best laid
plans of city planners go by the
board,

Blame {dr this situation has
been put on Commissioner Ger-
ald. Sutton Brown and on a lack
of direct communication between
planners and Council, This bears
looking into. but I think the trou~-
ble goes much deeper,

The real problem, I believe, is
that Vancouver has no overall
plan for city development to guide

From New Statesman

still are very worthy ones, but
in our changing world with its
changing standards of values,
these would seem in many cases
to have become of less value
than the paper they are printed
on;

The recent strike of the United
Fisherman and Allied Workers
Union’ (UFAWU) in Prince Ru-
pert well illustrates the point,

There a ‘Co-operative’, built
by working fishermen, shore-
workers and others, far from
being an ally of the UFAWU
struggle to win a higher measure
of life for working fishermen
in a hazardous occupation, be-
came, according to all reports,
the most inveterate and rabid
anti-UFAWU organization in that
Northern fishing center, Even
after the UFAWU had terminated
the strike, this ‘Co-op’ set out
to demonstrate that it could vic-
timize and discriminate against
striking workers with the best of
the organized monopoly fish
packers,

Thus when we speak today of
the ‘principles’ on which the co-
operative movement was found-
ed, is best to speak of these in
the ‘past tense’, or to para-
phrase the old radio announcer’s
“any resemblance between these
and reality is purely coinci-
dental”,

In the July edition if IWA
‘Local 1-80 Bulletin’ is a re-
vealing editorial on the attitude
of Credit Unions with respect to
Union wage negotiations covering
their employees, ;

bee

DROPOUTS

Entitled “Paper Principles”
this editorial quotes IWA Re-
gional President Jack Moore as
stating: — “It is with great dis-
appointment and chagrin that we
in the Labour movement find
ourselyes in a position_of having
to publicly declare the co-opera-
tive movement — which we have
supported for so many years —
not to be better — and indeed in
many cases worse than the hard-
headed, tight-fisted management
we deal with in private enter-
prise”,

The editorial also quotes from
a letter forwarded to the Canadi-
an Labor Congress by President
Moore in which he states: —
“If the Co-operative and Credit
Union movements in Western
Canada continue their anti-union
activities, then the Western Ca-
nadian Regional Council of the
IWA will publicly disassociate
itself from any participation in
or encouragement of any of our
members to join, . .and we urge
the Canadian Labour Congress

and direct Council's actlo™
a result city growth 1s erty
and haphazard, and too oft
directions that are contrat
the best interests of te

We badly need 2 carefl
thought out overall plan *
velopment for the City of
esouver, Its main features
include; cae
e — It should be long rane’
a period of 15-20 years: i
e — A solution to the ct
housing shortage; with §
emphasis on public low cost
ing and slum clearances
@— A low cost rapid
system.

e — Careful defining of 7
be preserved “or industrl
commervial de yelopmesl;
meni, ete.

e- Selection of areas for
and playgrounds +0 ensuing
development witi expanding
lation, C
e — Cleaning up Falsé ,
transforming it into 2 Pat
reational and resideatt é
e — A tunnel linking 2
with the Nocti Shores

that CO"

My suggestion is ee
: instruc!

should immediately
City Planning Deparime!
pare such a plan‘and
directly to Council.

After consideration by Hi
cil, the plan should pethes
of public discussion 1 ‘n
ment for one year.

Then, after adoption, #
be strictly adnered
Counril, No major 428
from ihe pian should bem
taken without approval by
tarouch a refergadin pa :

Nature has provide a ve
of the most beaultifulaam
tings in the world. Its we
do the rest,

and their Federation ‘
in the four wester ©
to follow suit”.

One hundred and mi?
ago the Rochdale ee
those co-operators pnold
after them fought r
co-operative ideale a
grand efforts Wem’ 9 fie
a Capitalist onslavé
for that ideal.

+00
Today many of er
tives’ have pecome® r
guided and administer ini
Business rules
dedicated to fish ait
thing they were 1 onde
ated to suecor and a

Yes, some old ide? jas
taking a beatiné the give
‘Co-operatives’ w ti ad of
ority to profits ing few ™
ciples will shatter © ial
and smear. those
in workingclass
ten by Cor-0P®
stayed loyal
prineiples:

- West Coast edition,

Editor-—TOM McEWEN

Tri

Associate Editor—

Published weekly at Ford Bidg., Mezzanine No. 3
Vancouver 4, B.C. Phone 685-5288.

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