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Goal for °67—Peace
he staff of the Pacific Tribune extends seasonal

T greetings to all its many readers and supporters,
and wish all a joyous Yuletide and a New Year of peace
and progress,

While we hail the New Year of 1967 as the Centennial
year of Canada’s official birth, and the great technological
and cultural advances our two-nation people have achieved
since Confederation of 1867, the most urgent and unresolved
problem still before us — and the peoples of the world, is
that of achieving “Peace on Earth”,

In this, our country and people can playa great role — much
greater than hitherto, For far too long we have permitted
Successive governments to subordinate the independence and
sovereign interests of Canada to that of American ‘financial
and industrial magnates, This in turn has weakened and stifled

- the strong voice of Canada as a champion of peace and friendship
with all nations, irrespective of differing social systems or
ideologies,

The year just drawing to a close has shown the “winds of
change” sweeping across Canada, stronger than ever before,

The rising tempo of struggle in the ranks of labor for a
more equitable share of the vast wealth produced; a new
challenge in the ranks of Canada’s youth, demanding assurance
of its heritage, now. The reawakening of French-Canada to
a place of sovereign equality in a two-nation state in which
it was and is the original founder. And not least perhaps,
major setbacks to powerful foreign and home-grown monopoly
in its attempts to smash the efforts of organized labor, not
only to win a fuller pay-envelope, but a vested since to the
benefits of a new technological age.

And, as if to top these sweeping changes, strong voices
arising in powerful business and government circles against
selling Canada short to U.S. industry and finance; for Canada
to determine the conduct and management ofits own household,
free from U.S, domination or interference.

All together, a happy augury, if the struggle is continued
and intensified, for a 1967 in which the Canadian people will
march as one man, into the frontline battle for universal
peace; for trade and mutual goodwill with all nations and
peoples, and for the centuries-old ideal of brotherhood,

equality and freedom,

With such a perspective for 1967 and the united will to
carry it forward, then indeed we can say to all our readers —
and to the working people of factory and farm who have built
this Canad* — a very Merry Christmas, anda Happy Centennial
New Year.

ee |
Mc EWEN

long about this time of

the USSR, to the effect that the

: year sundry literati ofone
- sort or another provide us with
their “considered” views on
events of the year just ended, and
what may be expected from the
New Year getting under way.
All in all such varied “anal-
ysis”,
can serve as “light reading” for
the long January nights. Having
digested all these pearls ofhind-
sight and foresight, the reader
will probably find himself (or
herself) in the same fix, so well
defined by the great Persian poet,
- Omar Khayyam in his immortal
- Rubaiyat:

_ Myself when young did eagerly
frequent
Doctor and Saint, and heard
great Argument
About it and about; but ever-
more
Came out by the same Door
as in I went.

While the year 1966 saw
agreement” by the U.S.A, and

if not taken too seriously. _

Moon be declared a nuclear-free
zone, and duly approved by the
UN, it must be noted the U.S,
aggression in Vietnam with its un-
speakable horrors, has steadily
escalated. So also has official
U.S, ability to win top honors in
any national or international liars
club greatly escalated.

Just last week U.S. bombing of
residential areas of Hanoi were
“explained” away by Messrs LBJ,
McNamara and Rusk. They hadn’t
bombed Hanoi’s residential areas
at all at all, That was all “Viet
Cong propaganda’’, What happen-
ed was as plain as the nose on
your face, *Yo’ all. should know
that Hanoi was simply shooting
missiles up in the air and these
were dropping down upon them-
selves,”

However, there’s a point which
might be emphasized for a 1967
objective. If agreement can be
reached in 1966 to declare the

Harry Rankin, alderman-elect
for the City of Vancouver said
in a post election statement last
Friday that “the large vote I
received indicates that voters
want a change in a progressive
direction,”

“My program received wide
support,” he said,
emphasized tax relief for home-
owners; a public low-rental hous-
ing program; _ protection for
tenants against excessive rents
and unfair practices; a low-fare,
rapid transit system to relieve
traffic congestion; a genuine ward
system and an end to the neglect
of the east side of Vancouver.”

The popular alderman-elect,
who is to be sworn in at a cere-
mony at City Hall along with the
new mayor and council on Janu-

ary 4, said: “The job now is to.

get council action on these issues,
I was elected for this purpose
and this is what I propose todo,”
He expressed his thanks “to all
who voted for me and tothe many
hundreds of supporters who cam-
paigned so tirelessly to ensure
my election,”

Reflecting the widespread
pressure in ‘the city for a more

Moon a peaceful nuclear-free
zone, without any hullabaloo about
“policing” or “inspection” to see
that the terms of this agreement
are duly adhered to — why not a
similar agreement for this good
Earth and its peoples?

Just imagine what such an
agreement applied to Terra
Firma early in 1967 could ac-
complish, almost overnight,

It could hammer millions of
tons of dealth-dealing armaments
“into plow-shares” and untold
billions of wasted dollars into
food, clothing and shelter for so-
called “under-privileged” and
privileged peoples alike in every
corner of the world,

The “population explosionists”
of 1966 could consign their pro-
fundities to the incinerator and
develop a new look for 1967,
A “look” which would encompass
in its range new universities,
schools, hospitals, homes, ade-
quate incomes for the aged and
the handicapped, vast new areas
of food production (instead of
destroying the earth with poi-
sonous chemicals as in Vietnam),

Millions of men could be re-
leased from the vocation of mass
murder and war, to that of peace-
ful pursuits and production, War
pacts such as NATO, NORAD,
etc., could be abolished, and Man
could at long last set his feet

“because it -

democratic and representative
system based on wards, mayor-
elect William Campbell proposed
last weekend that the city adopta
“mini-ward” plan which came
under immediate fire from East
End voters and community
leaders,

Campbell’s plan called for the
city to be divided up into 10
districts with one alderman ap-
pointed to each to check out
complaints andproblems, He said
aldermen might be appointed to
districts other than where they
live or where their support lies,

Commenting on the plan, alder-
man-elect Rankin said his district
had already been chosen for him
by the people that elected him,

“T’t] take the area between Cambie
and Boundary Road and the other
nine can split the rest up among
themselves,” he said.

“It doesn’t go far enough,”
said East End community leaders
about the Campbell plan, They

made it clear that what they :

‘ want is a system under which
aldermen would not only look
after specific areas but also be
elected from them,

Retiring Ald, Bob Williams,
MLA for Vancouver East, said

een e%e"

firmly upon the true path to his
“Manifest Destiny.”

“Utopian”, we heaf some self-
styled “realist’’ groan, Well, if
two of the world’s greatest powers
can agree that the threatening
Sword of (a nuclear) Damocles”
be removed from the Moon —

why not the same down here, |

where the escalating menace of
a nuclear holocaust is starkly
real?

For the millions in all the coun-
tries of Latin America, Africa,
Asia, in Harold Wilson’s*Eastof
Suez” and in Black America, all
our chatter about a “Merry
Christmas and a Happy New
Year” doesn’t mean very much,
nor do “buoyant” forecasts for’
1967 — unless we begin in a
serious way to cancel out the evil
legacy carried forward from 1966
and the decades preceeding it,

City voters want new
policies says Rankin

NO PT
NEXT WEEK

In keeping with the prac-
tise of other years, the PT
will not publish next week
— the week between Christ-
mas and New Years, We will
return to our regular weekly
publication the first week in
January,

The PT staff join in wish-
ing all our readers the very
best wishes for 1967, May it
be a year in which our readers
will help build our circulation
so that we can contribute more
than ever before to the fight
for peace, security and a new
just social order,

Campbell’s plan “is a pretty |

Milquetoast solution.” “It’s just
not adequate,” He advocated a
system in which part of the coun-

cil would be elected directlyfrom _

wards and the rest on an at-
large basis. The whole council
is now elected on a city-wide
basis,

Bill Douglas, secretary of the
Grandview Ratepayers Associa-
tion said “imposition from the
top has no place in a democratic:
society.” He said Campbell’s plan
would not impose real respon-—
sibility on aldermen because the
unsatisfied voters of an area
would not be able to turn out
their representative,

Jim Cork, president of the
Cassiar Ratepayers, saidhe sees
little hope for aldermen develop-
ing interest in the East End
problems because inthe past they
have failed to do so, “I can see
Harry Rankin getting chosen to
represent Point Grey and Earle
Adams representing the East
End,” he said,

The Moon, ah yes, we won’t
bomb them or ourselves into sub-
mission or extinction from there.
We now have something of an
agreement to that effect,

But down here, by gad Sir, if
they are not our own white-skin-
ned “kith and kin”, we’ll blast
them into kingdom come should
they continue protesting and re-
fusing to accept our “Western”
standards of weights and mea-
sures — designed to dole out
Democracy, Justice and Equali-
ty on an old and well-tested
horse-and-rabbit pie recipe —
one horse, one rabbit.

To all readers, fans and critics
of this column, a joyful Yuletide
and a reasonably happy 1967 —
and let’s forecast a big job for —
the New Year — to bring the

’ Moon agreement— downto Earth.

Editor—TOM McEWEN

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December 23, 1966—PACIFIC TRIBUNE-