ee ee

| The Yankee gale

pone 20 miles northwest of
arlottetown is the fishing vil-
€€ of North Rustico. Here and
“ eer Prince Edward Island
stil rcoast communities people

tell stories about the mon-

: ‘itous Yankee Gale that swept

i°Gulf of St. Lawrence in 1851,
Stroying an American fishing

a a and taking 200 lives, in-
: ing those of Canadian fish-

ae. Some of them are buried
ie © cemetery at North Rus-

It is therefore altogether fit-
6 that the Charlottetown

7 Festival, now in its eighth sea-

Should present a new,

80n,
‘ginal musical based on this

| atic event. The result is
| sade, with book and lyrics by
Mic lur Samuels and music by

hel Conte, both Montrealers
loca ve, however, moved the
© to Cap Dore on the Gaspe
ce and turned the villagers
shre French-Canadians — a
= Wd inspiration, for it illus-
& the common bond of all
dians who try to wrest a

‘ li
Wing from the oceans.

Pallade is the story of a wo-
and Whose man was lost at sea
love Who, years later, falls in

» With .a mysterious new-

| pier, really the ghost of a

American drowned dur-

ing
pie long-ago storm. But

Tomance dominates the
cmative, also reflected is the
€mporary village life of

hardship, superstition, simple
pleasures, conflicts, fears and
occasional fun.

An impressive artistic team
has staged this smoothly-flow-
ing folk operetta. Alan Lund,
who directed the production as
a whole, as well as its dances,
guides an exceptionally-colorful
company of singers-actors-danc-
ers, whose talents have been co-
ordinated to marvelous effect.
Edward Kotanen’s imaginative
maritime settings, Gary Cras-
well’s sensitive lighting, Frances
Dafoe’s bright costumes and
the lively musical direction by
John Fenwick and J. Fen Wat-
kin combine to produce the
theatre magic of the evening.

Outstanding characterizations
in the large stage company are
those of Roma Hearn as the
lonely woman, Brian McKay as
her ghostly lover, Dennis That-
cher as her happily-stewed fa-
ther and Douglas Chamberlain
as the mute handyman.

Of the 23 musical numbers,
ranging from folk to jazz to a
very melodious rock, I especial-
ly liked He Was Mine, Epatant,
People Like Me and the Yankee
Gale, which was highlighted by
a magnificent storm.

Canadian theatre has received
a beautiful new stage work for
its repertoire. It ought to be
seen across the country.

—Martin Stone.

Boating safety hints
for summer vacations

ae Summer vacations upon

Tran © Canadian Department of

Safe aig passes along these

ating reminders from the
ada Safety Council:

to: Council states it is illegal

@
Operate over-powered craft;

e
a" water skiers without a
Person in the boat to ob-

serve and relay the skiers’ sig-

nals to the operator; —
‘e operate boats without ap-

proved life-jackets or cushions.

for every person aboard;

e@ operate an inboard ‘boat
without a Class B’ (carbon di-
oxide - dry chemical) fire extin-
guisher; ;

e Buzz other boats and swim-
mers.

By LUIS SERRANO

Asturias’ main wealth, is coal.
Deep underground, Asturian col-
liers, the vanguard of the Span-
ish working class, are working
eight, 10 or often 12 hours a
day. They are not only working,
but also fighting for the right
to a better life. Indicative of this
are recent strikes.

This time, the decision of the
Franco regime tq fire 1,800
miners of the Hunosa State
Company served as a signal to
mass actions. “The decision of

the Madrid authorities,” states | -

Informacion Espanola, Spanish
emigree newspaper published in
Brussels, “testifies to the mono-
polies’ extreme unwillingness to
solve the problems of the Astu-
rian working class living in the
darkness of the dictatorship for
more than thrée. decades.”

As in former times, the cur-
rent strikes in Asturias are held
on the initiative of the Workers’
Commissions which are popular
in Spain and which are so often
mentioned in reports from Spain
when strikes, demonstrations, or
other mass actions of the demo-
cratic opposition take place.

Workers’ Commissions, creat-
ed vis-a-vis official trade unions
— Sindicatos Verticales — came
into existence in the spring of
1962. It was then that over half
a million people took part in
strikes which broke out in Astu-
rias and spread over to other
Spanish cities, The workers op-
posed their compulsory enlisting
in the Sindicatos Verticales con-
trolled by the authorities. They
wanted free democratic trade
unions independent of the gov-
ernment.

The decade of the Workers’
Commissions has convincingly
shown that they are a model, an
embryo of a new working-class
democracy in production, ex-
pressing the aspirations of the
popular masses. According to
rough estimates, the Commis-
sions have some half a million
of the Spanish working people
in their ranks today.

Workers’ Commissions exist
at practically all large and me-
dium-size enterprises. They have
their own clandestine press
with the central organ, Lucha
Obrera (Workers’ Struggle).
Apart from that, 58 workers’
newspapers came into existence
in various. industrial areas of

Class nature of Tory economic plan

By JOHN WILLIAMSON

tig °NDON — The sudden deci-
float tp, the Tory Government to
Under € pound — a devaluation
tized h different name—drama-
Tory ¢ € vicious class nature of
e rc strategy, exposed
Of capi coility and further crisis
ly¢ Pitalism and raised sharp-
Dle .-7eMace to the British peo-
Market entry to the Common

a © direct effect of the float-
Steep und is. already seen in
‘oun price increases and
Crea, Eestents of further in-
and j iN gas and electric rates

ther gous and rail fares. A fur-
ticteg b aluation is freely pre-

is Yy the end of the year.
Pound ; latest crisis of the
Oerati.s CUSed above all by the
National Of the giant multi-
Can and firms (mainly Ameri-
thei, British), able to switch
finds frvestments and liquid
Other ee One country to an-
omic 4 a thus dictate their eco-
y the ae to governments.
rritig Hong put it bluntly, re-
dire”, 0 the “rapid growth of
tineny ““VeStments on the Con-
,. Motivated by the
at Of joining the feirop=
Vestm Munity.” British private
€nt abroad this year is

double the rate of last year.

All this reveals not only the
continued decline of British im-
perialism’s old bases, but the
ruthless competition of the sup-
posed family of partners in the
Common Market and of the
USA. The Common Market is
clearly revealed as an arena for
sharpened monopoly capitalist
rivalry. .

As the “currency agreements
and “solutions” collapse one
after another, the Tory govern-
ment has the brazen audacity to
charge that wage increases are
the cause of inflation and the
floating of the pound, Prime
Minister Heath impudently asks
the TUC leaders, after months
of attack, to now cooperate fully
with the hated Industrial Rela-
tions Act—which the dockers
and railwaymen have already
challenged and defeated in strug-
gle.

In contrast to the waverings
of the right-wing TUC leaders,
with their latest proposals about
TUC-employer concilliation ma-
chinery to avoid strikes, and
their capitulation to the Indus-
trial Relations Court decisions,
the bulk of the trade’ union
movement, and especially the
rank and file, are determined to
continue the all-out fight for

wage increases, shorter hours
and job security, regardless of
the Act and its court—with no
return to sell-out income poli-
cies and productivity deals.
Scottish miners’ union Presi-
dent Mick McGahey, at the na-
tional convention of the miners’
union sounded the note that re-
flects rank and file sentiment,
when he said: “The only reason

that TUC leaders should go to

Downing St. is with an eviction
order’—referring to the meet-
ing of the TUC General Council
members with Heath.

McGahey also said, “Trade
Union Congress leaders are not
entitled to depart from Congress
policy . . . Instead of the TUC.
considering Tory requests, the
General Council should be mo-
bilizing the movement for mass
action against’ the Tories and
making clear to Harold Wilson
also—no nonsense like ‘In Place
of Strike’’”—a reference to
Wilson’s anti-union legislation
he was forced to withdraw.

The Confederation of Engin-
eering and Shipbuilding Unions
resolved to step up united ac-
tion for their wage demands.
The engineering workers at this
conference voted overwelm-
ingly for total opposition to the
Act, and President Hugh Scan-

lon made a powerful plea for
mass resistance-to the Act.

The victory of the dockers
against ‘their arrest under the
Act and against the container-
ization policy of the employers
has given an impetus to the
movement against future at-
tacks. A delegate conference of
450 Scottish trade unionists
called for a National Day of in-
dustrial action and recall of the
Luc: :

Following the wage increase
victories of the miners ‘and rail-
waymen and the successful rank
and file dockers’ defiance of the

Industrial Relations Court, the.

Upper Clyde Shipyard workers
have also won a victory, with

all four yards to be kept open—

three of them in a new compa-
ny with Government financial
support and the fourth by pur-
case by an American company.

The threat of 8,000 -steel

workers being sacked, most of
them in Scotland, brought a
Times headline “Scots Steelman
Show ‘Upper Clyde’ Spirit,” as
it reported the preparations for

‘a big fight-back. Significantly,

this article ended by saying:
“The determination and _ bitter-

ness are certainly here, but they

have still got to find themselves
a Jimmy Reid to lead it.”

The Asturian miner—his hopes are bound up with struggle...

Spanish workers strike hack —

Spain over the past two years
alone. Financed by the members:
of underground trade unions;
these papers bring the word of
truth to the people.

The newspaper Asamblea Ob-
rera (Workers’ Assembly) is the
organ of the Commission of the
SEAT Barcelona Auto Works.
Its circulation considerably ex-
ceeds other Spanish — under-
ground editions. At. the time of
last year’s winter strikes of
24,000 workers of the SEAT
firm, their papet played an im-
portant role in the organization,
cohesion and coordination - of
the struggle.

Besides, scores of daily news-
papers published by Workers’
Commissions of various indus-
tries are issued as: well. The
most popular among them are:
Forja (Hardening), a paper of
metal workers, Carril (Rails),
railwaymen’s paper, Construc-
cion (Construction), a paper of
Madrid building workers, to
mention but a few. Very popular
among the workers is Boletin
Informativo, a newspaper of the
foreign committee of the Gene-
ral Coordination Centre of the
Spanish Workers’ Commissions,
published in Paris.

Hundreds of newspapers, leaf-
lets and bulletins, published by
the most active members of the
Workers’ Commissions, who
have to hide from the police,
play an important role in the
organization and revolutionary
education of new detachments
of the Spanish working class.
The scale of recent actions in
Spain, in Asturias ‘ particularly,
shows that the Workers’ Com-
missions have become truly
class organizations of the Span-
ish proletariat and that their
newspapers organize and direct
the class struggle.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—FRIDAY, JULY 21, 1972—PAGE 5