Labor echoes call Action on CLC plan
most pressing need

_ to free Chileans

Delegates to the Vancouver and District labor Council added their
voices to the demand for the release of Chilean political prisoners as
the world solidarity movement focussed its attention on September 30,
ae of International Solidarity with Disappeared Prisoners in

ile.

The labor council voted unanimously Tuesday to demand that the
Chilean military junta “restore and safeguard, without delay, basic
human rights and fundamental freedoms.” ;

The council resolution, which also called on Pinochet to release all
information about the ‘“disappeared”’ prisoners in Chile; echoed that
adopted by the 31st general assembly of the United Nations and by the
UN Commission on human rights which met in Geneva.

The council motion was one of several actions being taken by
organizations throughout the world to coincide with the September 30
Pay of Soldarity.

The date marks the end of the 90-day deadline which Chilean dic-
tator Augusto Dinochet set on the release of information about the
whereabouts of some “disappeared”’ prisoners to their relatives.

Pinochet was compelled to set the deadline on the release of in-
formation following the hunger strike by 28 women and two men last
June who occupied the UN building in Santiago, Chile.

With the attention of the world riveted on them, they refused to leave
the building, demanding that Pinochet release information about the
2,500 ‘‘disappeared”’ prisoners, many of whom had been missing since
the fascist coup in 1973.

The agreement exacted from the junta as a result of the hunger
strike was of major significancesince it marked the first time that the
Chilean authorities acknowledged that political prisoners were being

held, many of them secretly.

Technology lacking

in oil spill cleanup

Cont'd from pg. 1 :
authority vested in the inquiry.

“There should be no ratification
of that agreement and the Oil Ports
Inquiry should be allowed to
conclude its study and make its
recommendations,” he said.

The UFAWU president, speaking
to a meeting of the Vancouver and
District Labor Council also warned
that despite the glib assurances
given by the Environmental
Protection Service that it can deal
with a major oil spill, such a spill
on the coast would have disastrous
consequences.

How is it that the EPS claims it
can clean up a massive oil spill
when it took 15 hours to get cleanup
operations underway following the
relatively minor spill on the Fraser
earlier this month? Nichol asked.

Although federal agencies were
informed of the Fraser spill at 11
p.m., cleanup operations were not
begun until after noon on the
following day. Moreover, that spill
only involved some 10,000 gallons
— less than 1/1000 of the capacity

of such tankers as the Arco Juneau
which is now carrying Alska crude
to the Cherry Point refinery.

The supertankers proposed for
any oil port on the Canadian or U.S.
west coast would have a capacity
far in excess of even the Arco
Juneau.

‘When the Environmental
Protection Service says that it can
clean up a major oil spill on this
coast — we say nonsense,”’ Nichol
declared.

‘Don’t be snowed,’ he told
delegates tothe labor council, “‘that
the Environmmental Protection
Service, the federal government or
the government of the United
States has the ability or the
technology to clean up a major
spill — because they don’t.”

One of the crucial questions
before the West Coast Oil Ports
Inquiry involves the enormous
technological difficulties . that
would face cleanup crews in
dealing with a major spill on this
coast.

Rally backs VRB

Cont'd from pg. 1
could resign,” the Province
editorial suggested.

The Save the VRB Joint Com-
mittee traveled to Victoria on
Wednesday to sit in the legislative
gallery_and show support to
Rosemary Brown’s filibuster.

Other speakers at the Tuesday
speech marathon _ included
Reverend Peter Davison and Elgin
Ruddell, spokesmen for the Save
the VRB Joint Committee, Clive
Lytle. president of Vancouver
Burrard NDP, VRB chairman Ron
Fenwick and board members
Darlene Marzari and David Pratt,
alderman Marguerite Ford and
COPE’s Bruce Yorke.

Communist Party spokesman
Fred Wilson told the gathering that
the VRB may temporarily die, but
the movement that had fought to
save it will not.

Wilson called on VRB supporters
to continue fighting on behalf of
social service-recipients, if not for
the VRB, for an increase in social
assistance rates to liveable levels.

“Lets not lose our vision in the
microcosm of Bill 65,’’ he said. ‘‘It
will be passed at great cost to the

government. And their loss is our’

gain.”’

As the Vancouver speech day
wound down in the afternoon,
Rosemary Brown continued her
fight in the Legislature. Sources in
the human resouces critic’s office
report she is equipped with enough
material to speak for 100 hours.

But regardless of how long
Brown holds the floor in the
legislature, her words, as those of
the giant movement behind the
VRB, will ring out long after and in
the next election.

On August 24, there was an ar-
ticle in a Vancouver newspaper
which stated that the B.C.
Federation of Labor had drawn up
a document on tripartism, among
other things. The reporter com-
mented that the urgency of the
opposition to controls made it
impossible to implement tripar-
tism. The article further claimed
that the Federation document
argued there would have to be a

_ “full partnership” for labor to

make tripartism work, but it was
not possible at present. As to the
political thrust of the Federation
position, it was described in this
fashion: “The paper decries
‘Liberal corporatism’ and em-
phasizes labor has to keep pushing
for democratic socialism through
the New Democratic Party.”

I refer to that article for two
reasons. Firstly, because it ap-
pears that the writer was briefed
by a Federation officer. Secondly,
because it is reliably reported that
the executive of the Federation
intends to present the document,
which deals extensively with
unemployment, to the Federation
convention opening in Penticton on
October 31. It is likely that the
campaign against unemployment
will be a major component of the
officers’ report and the highlight of
the convention.

The August meeting of the CLC
executive council and represen-
tatives of affilates took a firm
stand that the federal government
should put first things first by
attacking unemployment.
Provincial federations of labor
were given the responsibility of
organizing and co-ordinating the
campaign against unemployment
in their respective provinces, with
emphasis on the key organizational
role of labor councils.

However, while it appears that
the B.C. Federation of Labor will
take no action before November,
the Ontario Federation is already
moving into action. It is organizing

six regional unemployment forums |

across the province. These
meetings will be used to help the
Federation prepare a postition on
unemployment at its convention
in late November. As reported in
the Tribune of September 16, the
Ontario conferences will be open to
‘‘concerned community

organizations, municipal govern-

ment leaders and the unem-
ployed.”

It is significant that the Toronto
conference will run for two days.
The first day will hear presen-
tations from affiliates and. the
second will hear community
organizations and municipal
leaders.

Such conferences in this
province would serve a very useful
purpose. They would involve af-
filates and community
organizations, and would lay the
basis for broad community -ac-
tions. In the Vancouver area, the
Vancouver and New Westminster
labor councils could pool their
resources, like the labor councils in
Metro Toronto, to hold a Greater
Vancouver conference. This would
be logical, because it is reported
that approximately half the
unemployed in B.C. are to be found
in this metropolitan area.

The CLC program to meet the
current situation was as follows:

o Calls on the federal govern-
ment to deleare a one-month
moratorium on income

that $15,000 per year, followed by a
five percent permanent tax
reduction for these same people,
plus a $50 per monthincrease in old
age security pensions;

tax |
collection for people earning less —

6 Calls for $1 billion public in-
vestment program to create jobs
by: a) building low-cost affordable
housing; b) subsidization of in-
sulation in housing ands public
buildings to reduce energy costs,
and;

© Public investment in improved
storage and transporation of food

LABOR
COMMENT

BY JACK PHILLIPS

products to reduce incidence of
spoilage and lower the cost of food
to the consumer.

Further, the CLC proposed the
following long-term policies:

® That the federal government
work toward a medium-term
economic policy which would bring
about drastic changes in the
dir ection of private investment and
public expenditures;

Reiterates its demand for the
proposed Council for Social and
Economic Planning to ensure that
investments satisfy Canadian
needs;

e@ Such an agency is needed to
formulate a much needed national
industrial strategy in the areas of
secondary manufacturing, energy,
manpower, transportation,
housing and land use in order to
combat unemployment.

A recent statement by the
central executive committee of the
Communist Party of Canada
welcomed the CLC position, bu!
added the following comment: —

“The weakeness of the
position resides in its failure to pt!
the blame for the crisis where it
belongs, on monoploy, thereby
continuing to foster social
democratic and reformist illusion"
that basic solutions can
achieved without challenging the

structure of state-monop0'Y
capitalism.” ;
The key task now for unio?

members is the fight for i
plementation of the CLC policy 4%
program in local unions, labo
councils and —rovinelé
federations. ‘There neea. to be ?
struggle for co-ordinated mass
actions on a local, provincial 4”
federal basis.

The left has a special role to pl4!
in this struggle. It should advant
the concept of a -democra
alternative, based on united, m@
action by the trade unions,
NDP and the Communist Party:
Such an alternative should have #
its political objectives the curbill
of monopoly, the fundament
restructuring of our economy 2
the election of left and progressi¥é
spokesmen to parliament to for
an anti-monopoly governmel”
That government could open t f
door to socialism. Socialism woul
mean a planned economy and
permanent elimination of unel™
ployment.

Food chains blamed

Cont'd from pg, 1

retailing in B.C., the labor brief
points out that this monopoly
control has become an_ in-
surmountable barrier to entry by
other food outlets to provide
competition of any significance.

Hitting out at the practice by
Safeway and Super Valu called
“over-storing” the BCFL said that
in most parts of the province,
except for a few good locations
controlled by Super Valu or
Woodward’s, Safeway controls the
choice locations, particularly in
major shopping centres.

“A potential entrant into the
retailing field would be hard
pressed to find good locations. Nor
could a new independent or chain
hope to compete in the city wide or
even province wide advertising
benefits enjoyed by Safeway, and
to a lesser extent Super Valu.”’

The brief also points out that a
prospective competitor would have
great difficulty obtaining supplies.
“Wholesale distribution. is con-
trolled by MacDonald’s Con-

solidated for Safeway, by Kelly:

Douglas (Weston) for their own
Super Valu stores: . . There are no
other wholesale outlets of any
significant size and no food
manufacturing company of any
size that can have its product
marketed effectively in B.C.

without the patronage of one a
those two, or in a much smal
way through Woodward's.”

Showing how competition 4
eliminated in food prices, the bf
says that other food stores 0
effectively barred from entry in
the B.C. market. “It is signific#
that even the huge Dominion ch@
was forced to retreat after find”
the barriers to entry into the Bi
market too great,” the brief °
serves.

Lashing out at the practice ©
costly packaging and expens!
advertising the labor brief S#
that “more and more elabora
and seductive packaging gin
micks are being introduced er
year as an alternative to pric
competition.”

Pointing out that in 1974, s
cording to a Food Prices Reve
Board survey, 62 major
processors in Canada spent al
$100 million in advertising th 4
year, the brief points out that
similar study in the U.S. show "
that 20 cents out of each $4
dollar is spent for advertisiné:

Among the proposals contall”,
in the brief is the one which uré if
thorough study into food price
B.C. by an independent © af
mission, including labor

consumer representation.

ove!

ene ee

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