| NEWS ITEM: GDR WORKERS’ HOLIDAYS EXTENDED TO A MINIMUM OF ONE MONTH EACH YEAR.

25 years ago... WHY REJECT A CANADIAN FLAG?

There isn’t another country in the world that does not possess its own distinctive national flag. There isn’t another country in the world that does not have its own truly national day.

But on Dec. 4 Prime Minister

St. Laurent gave every Canadian

a slap in the face and rejected

requests for a Canadian flag and

_ for the designation of July 1 as Canada Day.

It can be asserted the majority

of Canadians are in favor of both

a flag and a national day. And they are right.

4d 18°76

50 years ago...

IRISH POOR STARVE,

_ SLEEPING ON RAGS

DUBLIN — “Within the nar- row confines of one room 12x 12 I found 14 people living and sleeping,” writes a Xerry Board of Health officer. “There was no window and no bed.

“During the last six months,” he continues, “over 4,000 per- sons received the average weekly allowance of home relief — two shillings. Their existence is no- thing more than protracted starvation. Children lack nourishment and in almost every family, there are either imbeciles, cripples or consump- tives. Piles of filthy rags often serve as night cover, animals live

Tribune, in the rooms...” The Worker, Dec. 14, 1953 Dec. 15, 1928 Profiteer of the week:

together

Hey! We can stop worrying about the Royal Bank. They won’t have to sell the family home after all. Came out with a nice tax-free profit of $233,901,649 for the year ended Oct. 31. Put with -$168,822,347 it proves once more that a sys- tem that’s good for big business certainly is.

the previous year’s

Figures used are from the company’s financial statements.

Editor — SEAN GRIFFIN Associate Editor — FRED WILSON Business and Circulation Manager — PAT O’CONNOR

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PACIFIC TRIBUNE—DECEMBER 20, 1978—Page 4

EDITORIAL COMMENT

Taking a class position

Has there ever been a more shocking example, than now, of corporation . profits being piled high at a direct cost _ to working people of their living stan- dards?

With this, come attacks on civil and trade union rights, increased militariza-. tion, aud the calling to action by big business of its right-wing labor move- ment agents: -

The corporations, in collusion with | Liberal, Tory and.Socred governments, have systematically amassed dangerous power, while they systematically rob the. working people — of living standards and rights. And they try vainly. to rob them also of their dignity as workers.

The working class, and the Com- munists, are accused of inventing: an imaginary class struggle. This lie is handed out as a sleeping potion for workers, while the same people, from ~ their board rooms, Cabinet huddles and’ publishing suites viciously carry on that class struggle each and every day.

What has their system done for them, and what has it done for us — the work- ing class? We’ve experienced wage con- trols, rollbacks of crucial needs, strike-

_ breaking, court injunctions, class, sex

and age barriers to unemployment in- . surance, double persecution of women and young people, slashed educational and cultural opportunities, hardships for pensioners and for the ever more numerous poor.

But look at the corporate elite, the concensus of all the system’s own sur- veys points to catapulting profits while life is devalued for more and more working people. Statistics Canada re- ports third-quarter profits at an annual rate of increase of 22.8%. Another sur- vey says profits are up over 31.9% over 1977’s third quarter.

Nuclear war

Limited nuclear war — a monstrous fantasy of the Pentagon — is, according to a New York Times writer, quietly being installed as a pivotal part of the USA’s nuclear strategy.

The- writer interprets recent Carter moves as endorsement of this policy di- rection, and says “some suggest” such a “war with Moscow ... could go on for

-weeks or even months,” undoubtedly

employing the neutron weapon. What nonsense! The probability of “limited” nuclear war becoming all-out nuclear war is so great that any bets made would never be collected.

For Canadians, the cold fact is that this country is locked into the Pentagon- bossed NATO military pact, and is sub- ject to the U.S. military under the North American Air Defence agreement (NORAD). Several questions arise: Is Canada ‘a party to this “limited nuclear war” insanity? Is NATO? Was it discus- sed when U.S. Foreign Secretary Vance was here? When will the Trudeau gov- ernment declare unequivocally its op- position to the manufacture and de- ployment of the neutron bomb?

The correlation of events these days

reflects the struggle between the forces —

of peace and those of war, between the

'$193.5-million,

_ directors!) dropped from 57.5%

Canada had, at the end of October, to

- mouths while spending $2.3-billion of

Bell Canada’s nine-month profit 0 $260.6-million, for example, is marg} nally ahead of Imperial Oil, Canadial Pacific and Alcan Aluminum. Annual” bank profits resemble an emperor hoard: Royal $233.9-millior Montreal — $193.5-million,. Imperial - _Nova~ - Scotia $153.8-million, Toronto-Dominion $129-million, and so on.

At the ‘same time, labor income share of Gross National Product. (an there are a lot more workers than ban

1977’s third quarter to 56.1% toda} Forty-two of the largest corporations

profits of $2.7-billion for this year. An that is $2.7-billion worth of anti-labo: anti-people clout. .

The wealthy and powerful corpera- tions have gone beyond democratic con trol in this country. As owners of th resources and the means of production, purchasers of workers’ labor powely they try to dictate all facets of life. It this virtual dictatorship which must Dé ended, with these monopolies place under public ownership and democra control. = ;

But rather than curb their powe Joe Clark's cries for privatization wou increase them. Clark’s program is calc lated class struggle. The challenge workers is to take class struggle as se ously as'does the Tory leader. Only th way can the working class play proper role in the country it built a operates, gain mastery of its own li _and living standards, and put controls on the anti-democratic power of t monopoly corporations and their poli

has no limit

forces for democratic rights and tho: for their curtailment, because they get the way of bleeding society for the a race. ; i

Almost as news broke of Washingto) “limited nuclear war” plans, Engla witnessed an international seminar “Alternatives to Arms Production which showed the benefits of peace pr’ duction far outweighing any so-calle¢ “benefits” of war production.

At nearly the same moment Ottawa allowed the price of bread to take a bi jump, the-connection being: is it to bé guns or bread? Bread is not only a rea and central staple in Canada, but a sym bolic one. By taking it out of people:

fighter planes, tossing millions to NATO and NORAD, and increasing the $4.}° billion annual military budget, Canadian Government invites cries 0 fraud. It will take more than anothé “disarmament speech” to convinc€ many. See Ottawa should state publicly its opp ition to the neutron bomb, and the “ ‘mited nuclear war” trap, and prove it support for disarmament and detente D) preparing for: withdrawal from_ “NATO and NORAD war.pacts.

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