I Referendum bY George
set for february
A. Martin
?he chevron
I .
-
This issue qf the chevron is th& last summer kW? before the azqust the sfiecial .. 20th editionmailed out to all underp-idGate .fht year students.
University of Waterloo students will go to the polls in february 1972 for what amounts to a vote of confidence in the federation of students. This was made official last week when Rick Page, federation president, announced that a compulsory student fees referendum will be held on campus february 23, 1972. Page had promised a referendum in an announcement in june. A’ fee of 22 dollars per year is presently collected from each student to support federation programs and staff. A vote to abolish the compulsory fee would most certainly mean the end of the federation also. Carl Sulliman, vice-president of the federation, told the chevron that a negative vote would also mean the end of student voice in activities and university programs. Sulliman stated, “Students are involved on advisory levels and as such their contribution is termed ‘input’. ‘This is no longer satisfactory. What is required is an authentic partnership of faculty, staff and students.” “There must be student voting rnembers on both board and senate to indicate a true partnership, something the federation of students has been and will continue to actualize.” He termed the present structure a monolithic myth. “The senate has an empire that they‘re protecting at all costs right now and that empire is making decisions on this campus and students are not particinating in that de&ion-mak{ng,” hk saik ’ “The referendum on fees is really aasking whether the students want federation . “I believe strongly in a federation, a student directed
23 organization.” The university “would support University president Burt the services it saw fit,” he said. Matthews told the chevron that the He would still want to deal with engineering society and the some central groups within the federation had apparently worked student body in the event of a out a solution. to the long-standing negative vote. question and that he is pleased Page’s announcement said that with the implications of the anin accordance wit,h federation bynounced referendum. law number 22, section three, the “This is a student problem,” he results of the referendum would be said.“1 will abide by the results binding,providing that no less than and advise that the board of ten percent of the federation ’ members take part in the voting. governors does the same.“. Matthews said that the Less than that would demonuniversity would not be able to strate satisfaction with the statusprovide the services of the quo. federation without “changing the According to the federation sources of some funds.” announcement, the referendum
Money by Ceejay
and
Eider
special- to the chevron
CALI, COLUMBIA - Teams from north and south america and the caribean begin competition this weekend in the quadi-annular get-together called the‘ panamerican games. In this sixth attempt to unite athletes from countries in and, around the american continents, all is not well in Cali, Columbia, site of the games. As the games open with its pomp, glamour and smiling wishes of goodwill, the city’s police force, augmented by soldiers from the nation’s army, will be present to ensure that happiness prevails. The - city’s entrepreneurs, however, have no complaints and in fact welcome the games to their town. In honour of the sixth pan american games, hotel and restaurant owners have raised prices 20 - 25 percent.
shall be worded as follows: “The 22 dollar per year student activity fee presently collected by the university of Waterloo and administered by the federation of students, university of Waterloo? shall remain compulsory, or “The 22 dollar per year student activity fee presently collected by the university of Waterloo and administered by the federation of students, university of Waterloo, shall be voluntary.” Sulliman said the federation “does not have any plans for a mass brainwashing campaign. We will simply point out the reasons why the federation holds validity.”
ames c
The ruling, party in Columbia is traditional, right wing conservative and won the last election by a very narrow margin over the socialist group led by a former guerilla leader and his daughter. Throughout Columbia, poverty is evident with 50 percent of the population unemployed and the average worker’s wage less than $200 each year. Because of an insane1.y high cost of education, one-half the country’s people are illiterate. Tuberculosis and other diseases have reached endemic proportions. Agrarian reform attempts by the government have proved ineffective and city migration continues with the predictable result of housing shortages in urban areas. The students are one of the largest groups to show discontent but the soldiers are on guard to keep the few expected demonstrations out of sight.
Che Guevara is openly popular among a population where the socialist thought is beginning to predominate, and the -celebration of Castro’s ninth year in office in nearby Cuba adds emotional impetus to present trends. The basis of student unrest is the irrelevance of the recent purchase of French fighter planes and the squandering of much needed funds to host the games: The government, to keep up their image in world sport, are taking every precaution, including the employment of of troops, to quell any student demonstrations. One student has been killed this year while demonstrating against the ruling government. While the political undertow is strong and necessary, all seems calm on the surface. During the summer months no one works hard in the midday sun and the universities are all closed, so the only ones taking a beating in Cali , Columbia are the tourists. I
’
Time What
is it worth
to be able faster For
the
you
rest
do now?
have
valuable
Check
3 times
of your
may
life
this
skill
us & Compare Ask
about
money
_
to you
to read
than
you
It would nice to report a Cinsongwriter tin the loosest sense of This is most evident on the gawdderella story on the part of a the term >, may well someday turn awful title song, a heavy-handed into a capable musician and struggling young local group, but attempt at a country-flavored talkIt is simply too early to along that just never makes it. Perth County Green (not to be performer. tell. confused with the Gonspiracy of The musical backing is It is probably to the group’s the almost-same name) is as inadequate and, after you’ve given detriment that a record came so disappointing as the Creamcheeze up all hope Bill’s trying to put over easily and so soon; if Billy settles Goodtime Band is in person. a spoof on us, +his sincerity drags which has been for more of what he’s doing now This group, the cut the rest of the way down to instead of trying to grow, we’ll . bland mediocrity. trying to form since last december, never know what he could’ve done. would be an amusing but avoidable There are suggestions that he is diversion if it weren’t for the Because he shows flashes of referring to ‘marijuana’, all you promise despite his uneveness thought of all the serious hippies out there, but the prepBut he - and, to a much greater musicians around Ontario - and school-level approach to the song Canada - who haven’t been able to extent, the rest of the members leaves that in doubt. have a lot of dues to pay before get a recording contract yet. An amateurish stab at boug they can mature into either the Creamcheeze got one in a matter Kershaw’s ‘Louisiana Man falls kinds of musicians individually or flat and short and makes you yearn of months. The reason for this is a puzzle 1 the group that is worthy of cutting for more of that homegrown stuff, and must be blamed on either a a record. however bad it may be. The young Indications are that Billy, just tone-deaf recording company rep group is simply too immature to do or considerable pull somewhere by 21, could well turn into an in- all the raunchy material they teresting solo performer. As it is, someone. It cannot rest on the aspire to. he is mostly held back by the group’s talent, unfortunately. Imagine the Partridge Family lightweight backing of his group This is not to say that the Band, doing Folsom Prison Blues, and and the fact that he takes himselfor at least parts of it, doesn’t have you’re’ close. and his material-much too talent. The rest of the cuts just aren’t seriously. Billy Kell, the Band’s leader-worth talking about.
is Money ir
our
back
Prices
written
guarantee
Time
is Passing
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Now
Phone
The Rapid Reading
j
’
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576-7880
$10. 576-5918 Mike.
FOR SALE 1968 250 cc Triumph,6500 Phone Jim 579-6313.
mi., Extras,
or ext. 2752. Ask for
TYPING All typing done efficiently and promptly. Mrs. Marion Wright 7451111 during office hours; 745-1534 evenings.
1970 Volkswagon immaculate condition. $1700 or best offer, call 5787290. DER~ KEEPERS”
Classified ads are accepted between 9 and 5 in the chevron office. See Charlotte. Rates are 50 cents for the first fifteen words and five cents each per extra word. Deadline is tuesday afternoons by 3 pm.
700 - 910 1968 vinyl Ovals, 7152
Buick G.S. 350, 2 door hard top, roof, Hurst 4 speed, New Wide 28,000 miles, Best offer. 578(after 6).
HOUSING-AVAILABLE Double or single room for male students private kitchen and bathroom facilities, parking, separate entrance. 91 Blythwood Waterloo 7441528.
1958 MGA no safety check, best offer. 21” b-w TV $50. Black kitchen table
Two bedroom ,apartment available august 1 or September 1. Silverbirch road in Waterloo, all utilities paid. Phone days 7451108; evenings 7441033. Two bedroom apts. for rent students only available Sept. 1, 197’1, children and pets welcome, Waterloo CO-op residences Inc., 280 Philip 578-2580, 578-4843. n
LOST
Black Leather Wallet in AL116 on friday july 23. Please call Ron 5786442.
This week on campus is a free column for the announcement of meetings, special seminars or speakers, social events and. other happenings on campus-student, faculty or staff. See the chevron secretary or call extension 3443. Deadline is tuesday afternoons by 3 p.m. _ . CONTINUOUS SAT. & SUN. 130 - 330 - 530 - 730 - 930 MATINEE
MON. TUE. WED. AT 2 PM.
TODAY
SUNDAY
THURSDAY
Federation flicks sponsored by federation of students. 8 pm AL 116.
International documentary film show. In aid of East Pakistan Refugees (Arab, Armenian and Indian Films) Adults $1.00 Children free. Tickets available at door. 2:00 pm AL116.
Federation federation 116.
MONDAY
Federation flicks sponsored by fereration of students. 8:00 pm AL 116.
SATURDAY
_I
Twelve hours of conversation and beer with Whiplash. Sponsored by federation of students. 12 noon campus center.
DEAN
JONES
-
SANDY
DUNCAN
-
JOE
Free monday night movie - I Vitellone by Fellini. 9:00 pm great hall campus center.
Federation flicks sponsored by federation of students. 8 pm AL 116.
FLYNN
Five hour pub dance with band Walrus. Sponsored by federation of students. 7:00 pm in campus center pub area.
WE RENT
2 SHOWINGS NIGHTLY AT 7 AND
9 PM.
refrigerators (beer)? black & white television colour television beds chests desks lounger-chairs etc.
.2ND WEEK:ON% UUOUS FRIDAY TO SUNDAY FROM 130 PM. FROM 7 PM. IN. Tl JE. CONTINUOUS
Gords China Kitchen &
SATURDAY
6
AUGUST 7
10
Five hour pub dance with Spot farm. Sponsored by the federation of students 7:00 pm in the campus center. FRIDAY AUGUST
13
Twelve Hours of conversation and beer with Whiplash. Sponsored by the federation of students. 12 noon in the campus centre. SATURDAY AUGUST
House of Furniture 46 King St. North Waterloo - 596-5440 DULT
118
the
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students to:
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receive chevron,
the university
14
Twelve hours of conversation and beer with Whlplash sponsored by federation of students. 12 noon campus ten ter.
:
ENTERTAINMENT A
2
federation
Twelve hours of conversation and beer with Whiplash. Sponsored by the federation of students. 12 noon in the campus center. TUESDAY AUGUST
May Ling’s Gift & Poster Shop The one stop everything store Fungifts for fun folk
You name it we probably have it (we sell used and new articles also)
FRIDAY AUGUST
Federation of students flicks 8:00 pm AL 116.
TUESDAY
-
flicks sponsored by of students. 8:00 pm AL .
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Waterloo,
during
off-campus Waterloo,
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Non-students:
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LE MANS by Steve
lzma
the chevron
Well, for a long time, Steve McQueen has wanted to make a realistic racing movie. Even “Grand Prix”, with its huge amounts of promotion, money, and ingenious photographic improvisations resulted in shots. of cars that were merely putt-putters in comparison to the formula one racing cars that John Frankenheimer atempted to have portrayed on the screen. If “Le Mans” succeeds in anything, it succeeds in showing real racing cars at real, on-the-limit-of-control speeds. However, this is not to say _that (, these scenes are a perfect representation of racing. What is realism, anyway? Jean-Luc Godard shot celluoid realism all to hell in his recent cowboys and Indians movie, showing that actors and film-makers present only personal interpretations of reality in their efforts. Yet, if the makers of “Le Mans” were trying to express a particular point about auto-racing, it came across vaguely. The film could almost have been a documentary on racing at Le Mans, as most of the footage was taken at the actual race, but the addition of an incredibly weak and unclear fictional -plot detracted critically from that sort of effectiveness. On the surface, the plot dealt with personal difficulties between McQueen, an American racing , driver, and the wife of another driver whose death was linked, in some obscure way, to McQueen’s tactics as a racing driver. The plot does, however, cause an important question to be asked of MC-Queen: “Why do you need to go faster than other men? Why do you need to beat them in a race?‘? The movie fails to define the origins of a racing driver’s competitive urges, but it does show how these urges can be dangerously intensified by the co-erciohs and hero-worshipping of the press and spectators. spectators. Nevertheless, the extremes of a driver’s reactions to this situation are ridiculous in the film : McQueen drives constantly with squinting and tense eyes, whereas a driver must be totally relaxed to be in control of a car at that speed; and McQueen and a rival are seen bumping each other at close to 200 mph, an action which no sane driver would attempt. The scenes of the spectatorsbeing crammed into the area of the track and exploited by all sorts of tourist side-attractions pointout too honestly how much of
, a drag it is to be anywhere at a race other than in the driver’s seat. But, -then, the racing scenes are lacking in one important aspect. It is like looking at a painting without seeing or appreciating the artist manipulating the brush, or like hear&g music without being able to watch -ihe musician perform: this racing film shows the product of the driver’s skill, but nowhere is
THE HUNTING byMartin Ahrens
the skill itself evident. The movie is effective only in giving the audience a feeling of being driven. Thus it liourishes many myths about driving habits that could prove to be dangerous when misinterpreted by unskilled drivers. So, if you see the movie, watch out for other drivers when you leave.
PARTY
three bodies lying there. Early impressions: Brant is the the chevron . . The hunting party has lots of kind of guy you might meet in the blood and fights and sex. Its also a - executive suite. He has all the film worth seeing. social graces, he is cordial to his Frank and Dot and their band of wife, geneyous with his friends, outlaws kidnap Melissa, wife of sadistic in bed and generally well Brant Ruger, the richest rancher protected by his social veneer and in Ruger county. Frank is tough extensive wealth. and dangerous, but he wants Melissa is a stifled wife. She someone to teach him to read. He dislikes having sex with her steals Melissa, like any other husband, she is unable to exchange object, just after her husband has any real feeling with him, but she left on a hunting trip with a few of is really a strong character trying his business friends. Melissa ob-’ to develop interests of her own. jects to being expropriated but Frank starts out as a brutal gradually grows to apprec’iate authoritarian who treats other Frank as a human being. He isn’t people, particularly women, as just a clumsy authoritarian, but a objects to be manipulated for his living person who protects her own ends. Frank’s image changes from the other men, loves her, and through the film. First, he wants to eventually sacrifices his position of read and is willing to endure the authority for her. ridicule of his companions in order Meanwhile Brant Ruger has to reach this goal. Second, he been staging an orgy on his private shows a sensitivity for Melissa as a train. When he hears of his wife’s person when the other men want to capture, he proposes that they hunt attack her. Third, he makes love men instead of buffalo. His friends with her not at her. Fourth, he is agree since their guns are ac- willing to sacrifice his position of curate at twice the range of the authority in order to protect outlaws’. Melissa. In a series of raids they The film’s principal value lies in systematically destroy all their the simple fact that the bad (guy prey, saving Frank and Melissa for turns out to be the stalwart last. In one of these raids Brant upholder of the establishment. sees Melissa escaping with Frank; Brant reveals himself as a man in he learns that she does not want to a privileged position who is be rescued. From this point he reduced to the role of a brutal goes on alone. animal when that position is After he has killed all the other challenged. The film implies that outlaws, Frank and Melissa decide this is a typical situation when to try to cross the desert to ordinary men are given exCalifornia. They start out with one traordinary power. Brant’s horse, which dies, and then campaign to pursue the outlaws is stumble on foot as far as they can. not coloured with the artificial At this point, in the middle of the whitewash that movies have traditionally prescribed for heroes desert they turn and see Brant staggering into view. He raises his who take the law, into their own gun and shoots; Frank drops to his hands. Rather it is the action of a man of power whose power is knees; he shoots again and hits Frank again; he shoots again and challenged ; one of his possessions Melissa drops to the ground. Then has been taken from him by the he staggers up close and sits on the lawless (read alienated)element in sand in front of Frank; Frank is society. This attitude is fully watching him and this seems to revealed when he continues to bother Brant. A look of pursue and kill the lovers to the hopelessness goes across Bramt’s point that it costs him his own life. face; then he shoots Frank dead. His life became identical with the Brarit drops on his back on the social role he had grown accustomed to playing. sand-and the last scene shows the
Federation president Rick Page models his new engheehg tee shirt for chevron photopapher. It ‘s the beginnings of his attempt fo,get more engineering voice on campus.
Evaluation by Barry
cQming
Brown
The federation of students will be offering evaluations of professors of first year courses to freshmen in arts, science and phys-ed, this fall. The math an-d - engineering societies already publish anti-calendars. The federation is basing its evaluations on a “professional critique questionaire”, distributed to first year classes last spring. Because the courses.and the people who teach them constantly change, course evaluations could not very effectively be made. Professor evaluations should be helpful to first year students, enabling them to switch out of course sections to others if the critique suggests that he would not be compatible with a particular prof, or if he would not benefit from his particular teaching style.
that was distributed, freshmen may not be able to get much information about a prof’s ability to convey his course material, and information regarding his actual style of teaching may not be very clear. However, he should have considerable information regarding his attitude toward students and his flexibility. How the data derived from such questions as: “Do you feel that university courses are necessary for a good education”, “Do you feel that the tutorial leaders are compatible with the professor”, and “Does he make a point of giving himself . 3” will be useful to the freshgz:e*is not certain. More questions aimed at determining teaching style and how the students rate his effectiveness n~ight provide freshmen more accurate data onto want the information they are likely
Information regarding the form the final resume- will take is not available. Hopefully it will include a compilation of scores on such areas as effectiveness, responsiveness to problems, fairness, and general attitudes toward students. It should include a description of his usual teaching style, the structuredness of the classes, and his flexibility in altering course and class plans should it appear appropriate to do so. Judging from the questionaire
Such evaluations can be very useful, not only to students, but also in helping profs improve their effectiveness as teachers. Some dangers that will hopefully be avoided are criticizing a new and insecure prof so harshly that he becomes very defensive and refuses to alter his style. Care should also be taken to avoid making a prof feel so comfortable by a good rating that he becomes resistant to experimentation that may lower it.
the chevron
friday
‘30 july
1971.
(12:
Xl)’ ‘X’S
Rucksacks
Honda . .. . . a...
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Early
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f-ball
Warrior football fans will not have to wait long after arriving on campus before seeing their favourite team in action. The first home game will be played on Saturday ’ 18 September against Western. Preceeding this home opener, the Waterloo squad will face the lancers in Windsor on the 11th.
SPORTS 64
18
The people ‘s Pascual Guerrero Stadizcm in Cali, Columbia, one to be used for this year’s pan american games. Story page 1.
Sq
742-07 12
NEW LEAGUE One of the reasons for the early start, is the new league in which the warriors will operate. The OQAA has been replaced by the Ontario universities athletic association. The OUAA came into existence when the Quebec universities decided to restrict all team competitions to games within their own province. The OUAA is divided into two sections for football with two
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case of the warriors, the team faced will be Queen’s University in Kingston on 25 September. The university of Waterloo warriors will operate in a division along with Western and Windsor. Each of these teams will play a home-and-home series against each other. Each team will also play one game against each other team in the section. In order to prepare for league competition, the warriors will open camp on 28 august.
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4
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J
schedule this season will be two night games at Seagram stadium. Heading the returning warriors will be halfback and pass receiver Rick Wiedenhoft. Obvious in his absence will be running back Gord McLelland who won the most valuable player award during his freshman year and proved. invaluable in punt returns last season. Defensive tackle Brian Westel, Mike Chevers a defensive end and Stu Koch, linebacker, are a few of the familiar faces which will be present when training camp opens. Greg Schmaltz, an all star defensive tackle from the Toronto area and Chris D’Arcy a Lawrence Park quarterback lead the list of newcomers.
B-BALL TRIP The basketballers have lined up an invaluable trip during the Christmas break. The tour will take the warrior squad to the southern united states for games in Alabama, Louisiana and Tennessee. Both head coach Don McCrae and athletic director agree that the experience will be tremendous for the team. In regular league play, the OUAA western division will see some new -schools. Western, Windsor, McMaster, Lutheran and Brock will be the competition for the warriors in their division. Heading the warrior returning list is three time OQAA scoring champion Jaan Laaniste. Head coach McCrae was quick to point out that the players returning from last year’s squad will have to struggle to retain their spots on the team.
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The average person does not know that it requires approximately 104 thousand copies of the chevron to fill the normal bedroom. . . .did you know that you grow taller in the spring and fatter in the fall? The student population of Italy’s universities rose by 68,000 during the last academic year. Do you realize that a million dollars when stacked in ten dollar bills only makes a pile two and hall feet high. If all the cars used in formula 1 racing during the years 1959 through 1971 inclusive, were lined up in single file-along the equator, it is proven fact that they would all try to pass each other. Did you know that if all the codfish caught off the newfoundland coast during the last season were laid end to end across the Sahara desert, boywould it stink! Vegetable, flower and fruit crops in Britain, not counting potatoes, will have a farm market value this year of $542 million. Believe it or not, one acre of young and growing woodland yields four tons of oxygen a year-enough to satisfy the needs of 12.5 people. Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels together wrote 487 articles for the new york tribune between 1851 and 1861. It is a well documented fact that queen isabella enjoyed hunting wild boars. The chevron’s department of trivia is pleased to present the nostalgic _ question of the week. The category this time round is: sidekicks. Name in respective order the sidekick of the following: El Kabong, The lone ranger, Yogi Bear, Quick Draw McGraw, Roy Rogers(also the name of the jeep), Wild Bill Hickock,..Batman, Superman, the Cisco kid, Louis Riel, Don Quixote and Alex Smith. First totally correct entry received will be justly rewarded with the paper’s highest award...money(in piastres)-
Summer /’ ball The intramural recreational league began with a flourish of enthusiasm which prevailed to the end. Teams finishing on top are listed.
comes
to- climax...
SLOW PITCH suffrajocks-
Gail
Macpherson,
Jane Liddel, Pauline Daling, Joyce Bridge, Ada Steele, Barb Wilson, Sandy Gordon, Lorraine Molloy, Pat Binnersly, Sandy Knipsel.
SOFTBALL math societyPaul Witzel, Steve Brown, Tom Edwards, Mike Brent Carter, Phil Conroy, Richards, Terry Keys, Paul Bell, John Head, Jim King, Gil Sampson, Tim Hicks, Tom Jinkerson.
TOUCH FOOTBALL societyTom Edwards, Walt Filden, John Head, Brent Carter,Phil Richards, Terry Keys, Gil Sampson, Tim Hicks, Tom Jinkerson, Jim King.
math
BASKETBALL societyMike Chevers, Brent Rotondo, Peter Dallas, Fred Flood, Ken Bonnar, Don Edwards, Curt Bolton, Dave Shalof, Doug Bell, Jaan Lanniste, Rick Weidenhoft,. Ryan Tripp.
math
BALL HOCKEY 2B- Paul Sperl, John Skelding, Terry Redvers, Brian Low Dennis Carter, Jini McDonald, Don Graham, Dennis Farwell.
kineseology
friday
30 july
1971 1 ‘.
(12:ll) J’
I,-
1
Ir
e-
he ising tide of 0
0
0
yment unde
or 10 reasons why you can’t find a job
by Cy Gonick’
WAl7fiESs
ARE NOW more people out of work than at any other time in Canadian history. Unemployment will not reach the catastrophic proportions it did in the 1930’s - 25 percent of the labour force, but close to a million Canadians are out of work, through no choice of their own: 6’77,000 officially unemployed as of february, 1971 - 100,000 unemployed who are in manpower training coures - and over 100,000 who have recently left the labour force or never entered because of the obvious lack of jobs. Nor does this take into account the hundreds of thousands permanently unemployed - the native people and many of the residents of the LIaritimes, the Gaspe and other marginal and depressed regions. The basic irrationality of capitalism as an economic system is forced upon us as a fact of life. Why irrational? Because this economic system, not national disaster or primitive technology, deprives men and women of basic economic security. Except for one or two years during the korean war, Canada has never been tvithout substantial unemployment in the post W’W II period - a period of unprecedented “prosperity”. Unemployment rises sporadically to 6 - 7 - 8 - 9 10 percent of the labour force, and it is always higher in certain weak regions. but it is also important to note that unemployment is a. permanent, continuing and universal feature of capitalism. IN A RATIONALLY ordered economy, the amount of output produced and the amount of labour performed would depend on the available productive capacity, the specific needs and wants of society, and the preference of people regarding work and leisure. In a capitalist economy production and the consequent demand for labourdepend not on the needs of people, but on the profit of producers, and profit has a -tendency to fluctuate widely from year to year. TO UNDERSTAND the instability of the capitalist economy, consider first the situation of the business sector. Each year businesses pay out wages and salaries to employees, rent and interest to other capitalists and dividends to their ’ -shareholders. What remains is held as undistributed profits and depreciation allowances. The totality of this flow of money is called national income. Where do they get these revenues from? From their sales of goods and services to consumers, to other’ businesses and to governments. If they take in 100 billion dollars of sales a year they disburse 100 billion dollars in wages, salaries, profits, etc. But if the total demand for goods and
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services decline and sales drop off they will find that they have excess supplies that they cannot sell at current prices. Production is in excess of sales; supply exceeds demand. Inventories pile up. They cannot sustain the same level of production and employment. It is not profitable to do so. Labour is cut, so is output. Disbursement of wages, salaries. dividends, etc., necessarily decline; national income drops. Output falls, labour is unemployed and capital underutilized - not because the real need for basic goods is less - but because it is temporarily unprofitable to produce the previous level of output -and employ the previous number of workers. The downturn continues until something causes total spending to rise again. Consumption expenditure is very stable. The volatile and undependable sector of. the economy is investment. . . . . .sales of new equipment, plant and machinery, office buildings, housing, inventories and the like. Investment in a capitalist economy is necessarily speculative. Each business has to estimate, in isolation one from the other, the prospect”of .its future growth and its prospect of profiting from an investment in new equipment or a new plant. Whether or not it actually earns the expected rate of return depends on .what happens to prices and cost in the years ahead, whether or not a new technological breakthrough renders its newly purchased equipment obsolete. It also depends on the decisions of rival companies - how much they expand; it depends on the possibility of consumers changing their tastes and in the case of raw materials, on depletion and the discovery of alternate sources, also on the opening up of foreign markets and tariff changes. In short, investment in a capitalist economy is a leap of faith. To some extent, modern research methods have reduced the risk. Nevertheless, investment spending remains highly unreliable, uncorrelated and unrelated to real needs. With no comprehensive coordination of investment plans by the various enterprises or by governments, investment decisions are based solely on expected profits, and this, ultimately, is guess work
years of economic stagnation; low incomes per capita and high rates of unemployment. With the large amount of excess capacity built up in the mid 1950’s, less new investment spending could be justified in subsequent years. The resulting drop in business revenues forced a cut-back of production and jobs.
That is why investment spending is so volatile. Sometimes the guesses are wrong. Excess capacity inevitably shows itself as a result of the over-exuberance of businessmen during periods of presperity. Production is then cut and future investment plans shelved with consequent effects on output and unemployment. 4
BECAUSE
OF THE
PARTICULaAR
structure of the Canadian economy, investment in Canada -has an unusual rhythm. Canada is a resources satellite of the USA. Investment booms invariably mirror the demand for resources by the USA, and because of the special economics of the resource industries, investment occurs in clusters. To increase productive capacity in the resource industries by small amounts is not efficient. If expansion is to occur, there are economies to be gained by large expansion in capacity. And this also requires accompanying large public expenditures in transportation and power. Capacity is, therefore, built up much beyond current demand, resulting in years of under-utilization and a resulting drag on future investment spending. The investment boom of the mid 1950’s illustrates the point. As indicated by the figures below, 1957 and 1958 saw a vast expansion of capacity in the resources industry, reflecting the growing US need for Canadian resources. These years also saw large public expenditures on the St. Lawrence seaway in order to ship iron from Labrador to the USA. By the late 1950’s the post WW II - korean war economic boom had petered out in both Canada and the USA and the slow-down of the economy aggravated the effects of the large amount of excess capacity that was being built up in Canada’s resources sector. Investment spending fell off from 1957 and did not begin to expand again until after 1961. The years in between were
1
APPROXIMATE PERCENTAGE INCREASE IN CAPACITY IN TWO-YEAR PERIOD 1957 and 1958 Commodity Percent Increase
Newsprint Woodpulp Aluminum Nickel Copper Asbestos Iron Ore Petroeum Crude Petrolearn Refined Cement Iron and Steel Electric Power
15 15 16
9 15 13
26 60 22 25 15
25
Source: Wm. C. Hood, “The Demand for Labour”, in Proceedings of the Special Committee of the Senate on Manpower and Employment No.2.
The pattern seems to be repeating itself now. During the investment boom of the mid 1950’s, investment accounted for an amazing 26 percent plus of gross national product. During the years of stagnation it fell off to between 21-23 percent of GNP. During the mid 1960’s another investment boom, again centered in the resources sector, public utility and also manufacturing, caused investment spending-to rise to 24-25 percent of GNP. The boom was undoubtedly connected to the escalation of the Vietnam war and the resulting resource requirements, military equipment and other related goods. Only a vast, immediate and continued expansion of output could have justified such a large increase in capacity. This was not forthcoming. The present deterioration of profit expectations is partly a result of this over-extension. Some of the pertinent investment figures are listed below CAPITAL EXPENDITURE Average Annual Rate of Growth Mining& Petroleum 1961 - 1966 18.02 1966 - 1970 0.06
. Utilities s12.6
-0.7
Manufacturing 21.0
2.7
Trudeau...
.
vestment spending in mining almost )led in the three years between 1964 1966. Since 1966 it has been virtually nan t. Investment spending in utilities by more than 50 percent in the same od, and since then has risen much e-modestly. Investment spending in ufacturing, which almost doubled reed 1964 and 1966, has risen much e modestly since then. If government ding and housing construction had leld up after 1966, the present downwould have occured a few years ler. Four years have now passed since nvestment boom of the mid 1960’s. A years more will probably pass before and catches up with the capacity built luring those years. The intervening s will probably be years of slower Jth and high unemployment. second feature of the unusual sndence of the Canadian economy on resources section is its limited The ibilities for job creation. drces industries are great consumers pital. To create one new job in any of resources industries requires much 3 capital investment than would be for manufacturing. the pulp and paper industry 100,000 r investment is usually required to te one new job. In the mining- in-ies it runs as high as 250,000 dollar ;tment,per job. In the oil ilidustry only t 10 percent of the total revenue goes rds wages, and the tax intake from oil uction is notoriously low because of
depletion allowances and other tax concessions. The goal of sustained employment is probably unattainable with this kind of dependance on capital-. intensive resource industries. Along with the export of raw materials goes the export of jobs. For every job created in Canada to extract raw materials, several jobs are being created in the industrialized countries. The burden of this unbalanced economic situation gets more severe as the size of the labour force increases. Connected with the heavy reliance on resources development is also the seasonal character of much work in Canada. Canada has more seasonal, unemployment than most countries in the world. This seasonal unemployment is discounted in the determination of unemployment rates, but it is unemployment nevertheless and its impact on the unemployed differs little from cydical unemployment. NO DOUBT THE SATELLITE structure of the economy, with its 5 h&y emphasis on resources, explains why Canadian booms and busts are usually more severe and longer in duration than those of the USA and other mature industrial nations. Certain economic forces that are uniquely Canadian, such as the large wheat sales to the USSR and China, and government policies that occasionally deviate from those of Washington, as well as Canada’s far greater dependence on raw material production, means that the Canadian economy is not a perfect mirror image of the american economy. Nevertheless, it remains senseless to talk of the Canadian economy except in the con text of economic conditions in the USA. The Canadian economy has been all but incorporated into the american economy. Unemployment in Canada is part of north american unemployment. The most direct connecti is resources. A large US demand for Canadian resources supports a booming export trade and spons0r.s sporadic bursts of investment spending. A slow-down in exports to the US or the build-up of excess capacity in the resources industry are among the causes of virtually every major Canadian downturn. A second connection is in manufacturing where most production originates in branch-plants of american companies. It is widely suspected that during recession years american parent
companies, under pressure to preserve production in american jobs, contract branch-plants and lay off Canadian labour. The second Annual Review of the Economic Council of Canada released in december, 1965, is most explicit about the incorporation of Canada into the United States economy. “The peaks and troughs of business fiuctuations in Canada have rarely diverged by as much as three months from the corresponding turning points in the US economy.”
The mechanisms by which business conditions in the US are transferred to Canada are also revealed in this report.
-
“...Over the post war period, exports of Canadian goods to the United States and imports of goods from that country have been equivalent, respectively, to one-quarter and one-third of all goods prod‘uction in Canada. There is also extended interconnections between business concerns across the border, while close links between financial markets and institutions are reflected in flows of both short-time and long-term capital in interest rate and stock market changes. At the same time, the Canadian economy has demonstrated a strong sensitivity to price development in the United States, along with a persistent tendency for similar trends in costs and profits.”
What triggered the american recession was a decision in july, 1969, to level off and then cut US. military spending. Defence and aircraft contracts have been dropping steadily since then. What caused the Nixon administration to undertake a large cutback was the concern over inflation and resulting balance of payments problems and the urgent demands for more domestic programs. Credit restraints and high interest rates had a considerable impact on US- housing construction. Since Canadian interest rates are always set at about a point higher than US rates, housing construction here also slapkened off at the same time. IT WOULD BE WRONG to insist that nothing has changed in the conduct of capitalist economies over recent decades. Prior to WW II, western governments resigned themselves to periodic depressions. They stood by helplessly as economic downturns brought massive unemployment and catastrophic declines in living standards. At the end of the war, parliament passed the employment act, accepting full responsibility for full employment and declaring it a primary goal of government. Since then, with varying dF&rees of enthusiasm, the federal govc,,nment has actively in-
6
tervened to reduce the degree of decline in the economy during periods of recession. Like all western governments, it has followed the lessons and presciptions of the british economist, John Maynard Keynes, who wrote that periodic unerhploiment was inherent in capitalism, but ihe-effect could be ameliorated by active govern‘ment intervention. This is done by varying government .spending and tajt rates, and the supply of money and interest rates. In par titular , during economic downturns brought about by a decline in total spending, appropriate keynesian policy would be some combination of increasing government spending, reducing tax rates (leaving consumers with more purchasing power and reducing the cost of business) and increasing the supply of credit, while reducing the rate of interest, Prior to World War II it would have been impossible to effectively practice keynesian policy because the size of the, public sector (the goveTnment’s budget) was too small. The Americans tried to apply keynesian prescriptions during the Great -Depression. It underlay the New Deal effort. But it failed, by and large because the public sector was too small (24 percent of GNP when Franklin Delano Roosevelt took office). Manipulation of the federal budget could have little impact on the stalled economy. But the size of government expenditure and its share in . the total economy rose spectacularly during World War II. It fell back after the war, but its place in the economy was much greater than before the war, and over the past two decades it has gradually increased as a portion of GNP. This gives the government a real lever in the economy. In the mid 1920’s total ‘Canadian government expenditures on goods and services stood at 9 percent; it now exceeds 20 percent. Total government expenditures which stood at 12 per cent during the 1920’s, stand today at about 35’ percent of GNP. This includes the 20 percent expenditures on goods and services as well as “transfer payments” taxesAransferred from one section of the population and shifted to others. Most social security programs fall into this latter category. The importance of the size of the public sector may be seen from the fact that in the 20’s business investment was far larger than government spending.Business investment accounted for 20-25 percent of GNP while, as we have seen, government spending accounts for 35 percent. The larger the public sector, the greater is the impact of any change in government spending and tax policy. Moreover, the large public sector cushions the shock of a. fall in investment. It‘places the floor of economic activity at a far higher level than during the 20’s and 30’s. The catastrophic drop in incomes and i, uhemployment that occured dtiring the Great Depression is unlikely to reoccur today. Even without deliberate decisions of gdvernment to intervene to affect the level of national income, the large public sector assures a certain amount. of stability automatically. As incomes drop during a recession, for example, transfer payments in the form of unemployment insurance, welfiare, etc., rise to bolster purchasing power, and taxes collected fall off. This is the primary reason why consumption spending remains fairly steady even though wage and salary payments fall during periods of modest unemployment. Another factor stabilizing the ,economy has been the relative growth of the service sector, which responds only sluggishly to the ups and downs in the general economy. The fact that public spending in the, United States is mostly connected with the l
continued
on page 8
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30 july- 1971
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preparation for war is, of course,’ unfortunate. That this has profound implications for the economic and social destiny of America goes without saying. In Canada and west Europe a far smaller proportion of government spending is allot ted for arms production. Whatever are the long-term implications, the shortterm effects are the same - major government support and even sponsorship of key industries in the economy, providing a large profitable outlet for investment dollars. That the economy is considerably more stable now compared to before WW II is easily revealed by the shorter length of economic contraction during recession and the greater length of economic expansion. In the post-war period there have been three full cycles with the low points coming in 1953-54, 1957-58 and 1960-61. The business expansion which began in 1961 and extended until the end of 1969 is the longest uninterrupted expansion in history. Comparisons with modern previous periods are as follows: Period
1873-1.896 1919-1938 1946-1969
.
Contractions No. Av. Duration
6 -1 :I
24 23 12
Expansions No. Av. Duration
7.I 4 4
’ 26 36 51
Before WW II, major depressions occurred about once every two decades, involving severe and protracted declines in economic activity, extremely high rates of unemployment and a large slack in the utilization of productive capacity. A major depression has been avoided by both Canada and the U.S. since WW II, thereby greatly cutting down on the average severity and average duration of economic declines. On the other hand, the recovery after the ‘57 recession was incomplete, involving large amounts of unemployed even at the peak stages of the expansion. The large size of th‘e public sector, t.he “ automatic stabilizers” and the deliberate effort of government to intervene to reduce the impact of business decisions on unemployment nevertheless functions in the same unplanned private enterprise system. Disastrous depressions may be a thing of the past. But these solutions have brought about a new disease, chronic inflation. TEMPORARY DOSES of massive unemployment and the threat of massive unemployment have played a useful role in a capitalist economy. It puts labour “in its place”. During an economic boom, trade unions are in a strong position to make demands for large wage increases. Businesses are eager to maintain their market share and anxious to avoid a strike. During the early stages of a boom, lvhile there is still some unused capacity, productivity increases are large enough to absorb increased wages without increasing labour costs, and profit margins can be preserved without raising prices. As the boom proceeds, businesses have to pass the wage increases on to the consumer to protect their profit margins. Very often, these price increases exceed the increases in labour costs, as they did in the mid 1960’s. The inflationary process may begin in a few industries which have experienced large increases in demand. Business naturally raises prices ‘to take advantage of the situation, thereby reaping higher profits. There may still be excess capacity in other industries and some amount of unemployment in the economy. But since
7
other industries would have to lower their prices to offset the price increases in the accelerating industries, there will be a general rise in the average price level. Bottlenecks are bound to appear in the rapidly expanding sectors. Labour costs and material’ costs rise sharply. Prices of certain products therefore rise. Each business passes its cost increases onto others. An upward push is imparted to the general price level. AS the boom expands, bottlenecks appear in inore and more industries. With a general Shortage of labour and material, the inflation becomes general. As higher wages are eaten away by the increased cost of living, workers become more militant in their wage demands. The increased wages infringe on profit margins. To pro tee t their profit margins, businesses increase prices still more. The process feeds upon itself. The function that economic depressions have mstorically performed is to kill off the inflation. At the height of the inflation, labour is usually able to increase its share of the national income as businesses find themselves unable to pass on all of their cost increases to consumers. Th-e depression is needed to establish the old division of income. But because .of the inflexibilities in the economy today, the inflationary process does not die easy. For example, though unemployment began to rise in early 1970, wages were still reacting to the accelerated price increases and low unemployment of the past few years. And as much as they are able to, businesses pass these on as price increases. To bring the inflation to an end in a monopoly economy requires a prolonged period of economic stagnation and massive unemployment. This point was being approached in february and march of 1971 when, under the thrf at of company bankruptcy and permanent lay offs, unions were willing to accept contracts that offered no wage increases or actual cuts in wages. The most notable instances were Massey Ferguson (very modest increases) and Dunlop and Acme Screw and Gear, all of Ontario, but many other less noted instances occured in most provinces across the country. To cite one such example, 25 employees of the Penner Highway Service of Manitoba agreed to go along with a wage freeze after being threatened with bankruptcy. In this instance the federal conciliation board recommended wage increases of $2.00 to $2.25 an hour. But the workers buckled under company pressure. The struggle over wages is in reality’ a struggle over the distribution of income between workers and employers - labour and capital. High rates of employment favour the labouring classes. Its. share of total income tends to rise. Businesses attempt to recover their share by raising prices. Modern capitalism, then, features permanent unemployment and permanent inflation. The inevitable build-up of excess capacity leads to unemployment. The inevitable build-up of inflationary forces leads to price increases. A high political cost is attached to both, and governments are forever adjusting from one situation to another. WHY IS INFLATION a problem? That governments have been unconcerned about the helpless victims of inflation - old age pensioners, welfare recipients and people working at the minimum wages - is evident by their refusal to make frequent adjustments in pensions, welfare allowances and
8
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minimum wages to compensate for the squeeze on their miserable incomes. No, Ottawa’s concern lies elsewhere. It lies with the banking interests and other inoney lenders who lose when the real value of their loans is diminished by inflation. It is also concerned for business interests in general which find it increasingly difficult to pass higher costs on to consumers during the late stages of the boom. Finally, Ottawa is terribly concerned about the welfare of our exporters. If the price of Canadian goods rises faster than those of other countries, export trade is retarded, and foreign producers have easier access to Canadian markets. Trudeau has been obsessed with inflation. He is far more concerned about it than president Nixon. ‘This is mainly because of the colonial structure of the Canadian economy, far more dependent on international trade for its welfare than is the USA and other industrial nations. UNEMPLOYMENT REMAINS a permanent feature of capitalist economies. Nevertheless, the large public sector and ‘government determination to keep unemployment within limits necessarily make inflation a permanent affliction as well. When it reaches 4 percent, 5 percent, 6 percent a year, business and banking pressure on government becomes unbearable and some action is necessary to bring it down to acceptable limits. The action taken has been called by some “planned recession”: a delibrate attempt by government to throw people out of work, thereby cutting their purchasing power and scaring those who manage to hold their jobs enough to undercut union militancy. The means used is large increases in taxes, reduced growth in government spending, higher interest rates and tighter credit. The optimal strategy is not to bring the economy to a grinding halt, but to ease into a situation of gradually increased unemployment - to 5 percent or 6 percent of the labour force just enough to eliminate the strategic bottlenecks and to discourage union demands. The inflationary thrust would be halted and, within 12 to 18 months the ‘economy would have recovered to its previous level, stimulated by the need to replace run-down inventories and used-up equipment. -_ Whether or not things willwork out so smoothly depends on underlying circumstances. If large amounts of excess capacity have not been built up in the boom period, then chances are fairly good that the economic downturn will be short-lived. But so will the dampening effect on inflation. As the economy achieves rates of employment, inflationary pressures are soon re-established. If, on the other hand, there has been a build-up of excess capacity in important sectors, this will act as a drag on the economy and the recovery could take 3 or 4 years before the’unemployment rate falls back to the “normal” 4 percent. The latter appearsto be the situation today. The proionged “prosperity”, beginning in 1961, and subject only to a temporary slowdown in 1966-67, has apparently built up capacity beyond the point that can be profitably, used. If this is the case, then Canada will have unemployment rates varying between 5-7 percent until 1974-75 There are two other methods to stem inflation, which do not involve rising unemployment. One is wage-price controls, such as were used during WW II, involving not only the setting of prices and wages but also, necessarily, government
9
determination of what will be produced and how it will be distributed. This-would be a giant step towards central planning, totally unacceptable to business except in war time. Moreover, unless it is made permanent, price-wage control cannot solve the continuing problem of inflation - because it leaves untouched the underlying economic forces which set it in motion. It is useful only in a situation where inflation is caused by temporary events, for example, a war. It does not touch the chronic tendency toward inflation that accompanies high unemployment. The second approach is wage-price guidelines that sets upper limits in wage increases and lays down rules for price changes. It requires voluntary cooperation mixed with various forms of government pressure. This approach has been widely used in west European countries and recently in Canada. It has never worked, in part because inevitably it involves formulas which tie the working class to its existing share of the national income. It amounts to a severe restriction on the workers’ right to win as much as they are able to win. For this reason it has never been acceptable to the trade union movement. THERE IS NO WORKABLE solution to chronic inflation that does not involve mass unemployment. The Nixon administration realized this in the summer of 1969 and took steps to engineer a recession. The Trudeau administration toyed with wage-price guidelines but, rightly assuming that they would not work, simultaneously ’ curbed expansionary forces by traditional methods. The difference between Nixon and Trudeau is that Trudeau is a logician and carries things through to their logical conclusion. He pulled in the reins far more than Nixon was willing to do. Nixon proved to be more pragmatic. He felt he had to avoid another summer of black rioting and more bombings in major urban centers. Forced unemployment through excessively restrictive government policy would only add to his domestic problems. Trudeau was willing to chance similar uprisings in Canada. His policies were bound to add.to the underlying ferment in Quebec. At the time the war measures act was invoked the unemployment rate in Quebec was approaching 10 percent. Many critics of the government are now coming forward with a severe condemnation of the Trudeau administration ; they offer the usual sort of solutions to solve the unemployment: lower taxes and increased government spending. Many of these are the same critics of the government’s anti-inflationary program. Only twelve months ago they ‘were urging the government to take even firmer steps to halt inflation. It should come as no surprise that they do not see the connection between the solutions they advocated 12 months ago and the problems that exist today. That a more vigorous expanionist policy would help create more jobs is undeniable. What is also undeniable is that in due time it would also recreate the inflation problem. This is the new cycle in modern capitalism : massive inflation replaced by massive unemployment, replaced by massive inflation. As ever before, it GC11~ r,;ost oppressed among the people who are :equired to make the sacrifices necessary to solve the problems of the most privileged.
10
high
Cy Gonick is managing editor magazine Canadian Dimension
of
the
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Address letters to feedback, the chevron, U of W. Be concise. The chevron reserves the right to shorten letters. Letters must be typed on a 32 character line. F of legal reasons, letters must hn *ry,.,t.#u cinnnA with rnllrcp I/par anA nhnnp Ub ..,&I, ““U,YY ,“Y’ “#,%a ‘:“.number. A pseudonym will be printed if you have a good ’ reason.
a Chicago-Sun Times (30 march> view. Why should faculty need “Exclusive on-the-spot of more time with the books? Surely slaughter in “East Pakistan.” two weeks is plenty. Besides, IDjeopardy blues e New Statesman (16 april 71) faculty should know how to read “Blood of Bangla Desh” faster than students anyhow. Or When you use the facilities in the How do they “taste” Javaid? perhaps we must adopt these physical education complex (i.e. Bitter? Okay, take the views of the changes to make the most out of an basketball, towels, etc..) you risk already strained library budget. the loss of your I.D. card. On the four MP’s of England who visited “east Pakistan” recently-they We should be realistic and limit the door at the entrance to the men’s locker room is sign which warns all dared not even recommend the circulation-time of the precious refugees to go back to “East few books we have. If so, I would users to lock up their valuables under the present suggest certain economies might since the “management” is not Pakistan” They all talk be made in other- areas_ of the responsible for the loss or theft and circumstances! nonsense, don’t they Javaid? library budget to free more money yet the rules you must follow to use “Donation for Pakistan”-these the facilities require you to leave for book purchases. For example, words bother you much Javaid? I am willing to forego my weekly your I.D. card in a bdx out in the Do you feel that this “bunch” of copy of the “Library open. In plain sight of everyone. Acquisitions What sheer and utter stupidity! words bring your-pride down to List” (although my kids will If so, you are wrong-the dearly miss all that paper to draw When your card is stolen it cost earth? world opinion has already made you 3 dollars to replace it and until on.). But then there may be a broader, pride go below you do its “‘tough luck” if you your so-called flow more philosphical point at issue: happen to want a towel etc.. In an that ! An ever-increasing (which is estimated to reach 10 since we are all partners in the attempt to see if a better arrangement was possible I atmillion at a current rate within a learning enterprise, why artificially distinguish between tempted to see or talk to the few months, whereas the India-and student borrowing facilities and equipment manager Canada association printed it as 8 faculty million) of human beings is privileges? After all, don’t we all or the director of athletics. Each flooding India from “east have to pay the same price for new attempt was foiled by secretaries is they who need aid books at the bookstore? This who stated that the person in Pa.kistan”-it Are should be seen as just another question refused to talk about the for sheer existence on earth. they Indians or Pakistanis, small step toward full subject. I quote one such secretary “rules are rules, its too bad.” Javaid? equalization. In the absence of any The representatives of the stated reasons for the changes, I No one would think of leaving a will accept this one and eagerly credit card laying around and yet people of the east-wing of Pakistan ( 167 out of the 169 elected) and await forth-coming stages in the in the isolated world of the men’s almost the entire population of the equalization process - all duly tote room this is the rule! I contend the east- recommended that if a stolen I.D. card is ill-fated land renamed and cornfirmed by Banglathe appropriate committees and missused it is the University that is wing as Bangla-Desh. in the dic- promulgated during the hot, liable. An investigation of this Desh is non-existent practice should be made and as tionary of Mr. Yahya Khan but not dreary summer months. well, an inquiry into the attitude of in the minds of these 75 million BRIAN HENDLEY supposedly student-oriented ad- people waiting for justice. Associate Professor of Philosophy If Pakistan cannot create an ministrators in the department of ‘which these athle,tics. It is my opinion that any atmosphere clarified Pakistanis can rely upon, if letter administrator who openly refuses cannot save her own to talk to any student shbuld be Pakistan citizens from her own butchers, Would you be kind enough to fired. what makes you build a castle of clarify FRED HETZEL to your readers that my grad pride, Javaid? letter to Jim Cook was not five SIJBHA$IS SAMANTA pages of compaints nor did Mr. Cook mean to infer that it was. Dept. of Man. Sci. Bangla Desh lives I write in a very large hand, my personal note paper is small and I feel what Mr. Iqbal needs is a “Reconsidered” the contents of the letter would not little clarification of the situationhave harmed anyone concerned. in a friendly manner, I have Reconsidered Rather, I itemized many changes suggested in the letter addressed requested in procedures You must be kidding! “Freedom and to him, certain aspects he ought to (23 juIy,1971) equipment by Dr: Andrew which I know before making any such Reconsidered” unhesitantly complied with, concomments. must have been taken from some US weekly that %was sidering that one request could not I would remain thankful to you if southern in 1954. I really can’t be met for budget reasons until you please bring-out this letter in printed july 1, 1971. believe that the article was serious your next edition of the chevron-I I am returning to health services journalism. believe this will wipe out certain confusions created by by Mr. It was to be considered as as general duty nurse accepting all period. Iqbal,among the readers of the anything other than a pun, then I shifts for a probationary This is an arrangement igreed would like to know who “gave chevron. upon between personnel and SUBHASIS SAMANTA power to Russian Communism that myself. grad man. sci. America had tolstop later”. Also, PHYLLIS LIVINGSTON the answers to the other questions posed by the journalist; he seemed Kitchener, Ont. Dear Javaid, t Please - strain your eyes once have some important information RIDE WANTED more on the emotional note you left for historians. Desperately want ride out west, am RON KUNKLE for the chevron (9 july) to confuse willing to share gas and driving for trip the ‘ignorant’ people with baseless to Alberta. Call 579-6798, Eleanor. statements. Boy, did we take that article I would like you, Javaid, to re- seriously, Ron. About as seriously examine the facts on the nightas we took your letter.-Letitor mare of human-butchery in “East Pakistan”. Well, why read Library leaning “exaggerated views of India”those don’t play the same tune you on the faculty? like, right Javaid? Take your time and analyze impartially the facts According to the latest edition of brought to the world by the The Library Newsletter, big following newspapers of in- changes are in store for faculty ternational reputation - now don’f: regarding “loan policieS for cirblame all of them ! culating materials.” The most important of these is that faculty l the New York Times (28 march 71) “Sticks and spears against will now be subject to the same tanks in East Pakistan.” two-week loan period that students These changes were l the Guardian (31 mar&h 71) “A are. “recommended by the university massacre in Pakistan.” library committee and subl Time (3 may 71) “Dacca, city sequently confirmed by the of the dead.” executive council.” At l the Australian (14 april 71) university the risk of showing disrespect for “The agony of Bangla Desh.” 9 the Sun, Baltimore (i-30 march, the judgments of the two such planned august bodies, may I ask for some ii-4 april 71) i) “Yahya attack on East Pakistan” ii) reasons for the changes? “Pakistan is exterminating the They may have considered the matter from a practical point of Bengalees”
Talkin’
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From abrogated responsibility to existential despair? by Frederick
.
D. Kemp
The 9-l vote by Kitchener city council appro\.ing the 15 million dollar OxleaEatons “development” in downtown Ki tchener underlines once again the shortsighted stupidity and lack of concern for the majority on the part of our politicians, the secretive and elitist nature of the way in which they made their decisions, the self-serving complicity of our local media (the Record, CKCO, etc.), the sham and hypocracy of council’s stated desire for “full public discussion,” the suicidal race for profits and “progress,” and the pervasive insanity of our society. Does anyone really think that what this conlmunity needs is another department store, another office building, another parking garage? If so, then I can only hope that those people are insensitive enough to ignore what is happening right now to our air and our water and our land, and to what vote-grubbing politicians urefer to as our “quality of life” when they feel an election comming up. Does anyone really believe that the people of this community need another place to spend inflation-depleted money for shoddy merchandise, appliances engineered to wear out in a year, clothes that go out of style in a month, food that is stuffed with preservatives and chemicals and hormones, and all the thousands of other worthless, overpriced, overpackaged products which the advertisers tell us we need to servive in this “modern” world? If ~6, then we should begin entertaining serious doubts about whether any of us will survive the 70’s. Does anyone really believe that another parking garage, bringing more and more cars with their noise and pollution, will ?ejuvenate the downtown area for three generations”? If so, then God help us all.
Change in society How long can we continue to ignore the fact that this society has got to change, and it’s got to start changing right now? It may already be too late, given th? quality of our “leadership.” According to the Waterloo area local government review of february 1970, this area is in for tremendous population growth - we will have well over half-a-million persons in lYYl...twenty years away. Cur water supplies, to mention only one problem, “will not be adequate to meet the continued rapid growth that is expected.” Local government, moreover, “is not rneeting the problems in control of water pollution.” And anyone who reags our fine local paper, the Record, knows how city council treats our own local polluters - give them som-e more time, test their arsenic output once more, let thern make several more promises, hold off court action, maybe fine them a couple of hundred bucks. This incredible paragraph was actually nestled between two stories telling how the development was going to go ahead despite the protests (29 june) : “Aldermen Cardillo, ‘llemaire and Stoner felt that the firm ‘31 X tihose chromium output was ‘rnore than 60 times the maximum allowedI) should be given six more months to clean up in view of council’s earlier willingness to grant extentions to another company.” Look at the average family income in Kitchener - 5905 dollars, according to the Review. That means that about half the families in this town get along on about 500 dollars per month, before taxe? probably a little less than 400 dollars per month take home. Now think about the high rents in this town, and the high rates
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of interest charged on mortages. That makes it a little easier to understand the glee of landlords, mortgage companies and finance companieg. Add food and clothing prices, all rising consistently on the price index, and it is a little easier to understand why merchaqts “hail proposed development.” Their profits will continue to rise, Chargex will continue to get 18 percent annual interest on their “loans,” the newspapers and TV stations will get more advertising (more profits), and everybody will do just fine. Except for the families, the people who are supposedly “served” by all this.
Aldermen safe The city council obviously doesn’t give a damn. They’ve got their fine houses, their big cars and cottages, their steak dinners and vacations to all aver the world. They can continue to run things, having been elected by the people. Well, 27.1 percent of the eligible voters voted voted in the last election, so the councilmen are pretty safe. When you’ve been serving the business and financial community so well, when thk media are more than happy to -play along, and when most of the people couldn’t be bothered to vote, you can be pretty confident. It’s worked for the politicians before, and they figure it’ll work in the future. The K-W Record deserves special consideration for its role in this whole farce. Aside from their self-initiated censorship, they show only too clearly how a self-interested newspaper can manipulate ‘and sha’pe public opinion by their choice of sources, relative allocation of space, and implicit and explicit editorials. Look at how many column inches were devoted to lauding the development, justifying it in any and all terms, quoting everybody and his brother about how wonderful everything is and how the people are being well-treated. We didn’t publesh the- story, explains the Record in an editorial, because protecting land values was “more important than one news story.” Damn right it was more important than one news story! But don’t look in the Record for the counter-arguments and objections, at least not in time to do anything about it. Don’t look for the reasons that impelled people to protest this decision. Those people are ignored or treated as disrupters by the Record in its continuing committment to. . . the Record. You should also read their editorial the night before the Oxlea-Eatons story broke. They were very happy that the New York Times was f’ighting the Pentagon in its attempts to publish those secret documents on Vietnam. The Record is all for an unbiased and “free” press - but not for the people of this town.
Young protesters Interestingly, the Record seemed to be impressed by the fact that some of the protestors were young (that fact is mentioned four times in that monday’s lead story). Indeed, that’s about all this “news”paper says about them, which is not iurprising. But it does deserve some comment. ‘The median age in Canada in 1966 was 25.4 years, and that figure has been steadily decreasing. This decrease has been accompanied by an increase in the indifference and downright hostility with which the young are treated by many -institutions in this society. They are insulted by welfare regulations
and officials. Their educational system remains authoritarian, repressive, and backward, having only recently reinstituted the strap. Their living arrangements are declared illegal, their rock concerts are banned, police harassment is common. All their attempts to live within this system and to create alternatives to its inhumane aspects, are distorted and destroyed by the politicians and through the media. And yet it is the young people who are going to have to live in this town and this country and this world, and no one seems to understand that. We’re all gonna die, folks, and they’re gonna live on. Young f’riens of mine, living on a farm near here, were told by their doctor not to drink the lt’ater, not to brush their teeth in it, not to wash their dishes or clothes in it. Do you really think that our kids will rush happily off to their fine ‘new Eatons store to buy some new time-release deodorant or a new electric toothbrush or chinchilla coat when the air is foul with exhaust fumes, when there’s no water to drink, when the whole city is so crowded that life is hectic and anxious and confused? Or will they chose some of the other roads which are now being tried by many? Will they drop out of school and society, and go live on live on a farm with their friends? Plenty of them are, right now. Will they find -out they’ve been lied to about marijuana and LSD, and decide to try a little speed? Plenty of them are, right now. Or will they look around and see what’s happening, and decide to fight? Because if they do decide to fight, they can legitimately say that they are fightng in self-defence.
Stakes too high A $ociety that cares only about money and security and status and social approval has to force its-kids to fit into the same old molds ihat it understands, and more and more of them are saying that it’s not worth what it costs, that they’re simply not gonna play those games anymore. We can only guess what will happen when they decide that, indeed, the stakes are too high, and it’s time to Sight. There is a revolution coming in North America, folks, and if anybody thinks it can be stopped by cops and politicians and department stores and profits, they are dead wrong. This revolution is not being caused by the hippies, the radicals, the young. It’s being caused by the very forces that we once thought were going to be our salvation - by science and technology and affluence and bureaucracy and education. We are too rich as a society, and our wealth and bigness is trapping us, folks, and if we continue to let the power-brokers run our lives, we simply will not survive. .Our children, some of them, will survive, under progressively more miserable conditions. And they will hate us for what we’ve done. And we will deserve that hate, in spades. Because we are letting a few rich and powerful men sell us down the river for a pile of money which we won’t even see. Our city council, and our media people, and the rest of the social-political-business elite-they’ll be safe for awhile on their houses and offices, they can have water shipped in for them and their families, they can take their-cars and airplanes to nlore comfortable surroundings. They can buy peace and quiet and security, so why should they worry? Go drive along Westgate Walk in Waterloo and the other
places where these worthies live. It’s not a conspiracy; it’s not nameless and faceless forces driving us to environmental and social and economic disaster. It’s men and women right here and now, who have the power to make these decisions, arid who are making those decisions, the people be damned!
Lesson in reality This is bitter, because I’m bitter. You see, I’m from Amerika, and this sort of thing is the rule down there. You get used to it. But I’ve been in Canada for over 3 years, and I was beginning to have hopehope in the country, hope in the people. The war measures act was my first lesson in reality, and it’s very interesting that the Quebec government is getting a flat zero conviction rate on its seditious conspiracy charges. But that was far away, and we don’t believe in police states, do we. . . ? But then along comes our very own enlightened, progressive city council. It meets behind closed doors for months and Inonths in full secrecy, and then presents the people it is supposed to serve with 2n accomplished fact, glossed over by a public meeting that lasted about five hours. Five hours! It agrees to sell for one lnillion dollars land that was appraised at a figure $100,000 higher over a year ago, and that the architect of City Hall says is worth two million dollars. It agrees to pay 6.50 dollars a square foot for office space, for t’ifteen years, when Waterloo’s council is renting for 3.50 dollars, and the school board is renting for 4.00 dollars. It is, tinbelieveably, going to pay 276,000 dollars a year for 30 years for a parking garage which will benefit the downtown stores at the expense of the taxpayer. Indeed, all this money will be coming from the taxpayer, with literally nothing coming in return. Who will benefit? An interesting statistic from the Cart& commission recently appeared in our own K-W Record (5 may 71) : “...70 percent of the tax load is borne by people earning less than 7,000 dollars a ‘year,” while’ “many great and well-to-do companies don’t pay any taxes at all.” Why?
Radical change necessary Now that my bitterness has subsided just a little, I’d like to sincerely thank all those concerned - city council, the media barons, the developers, all the other wheeler-dealers - for their unintended help There are many people in North America calling for the overthrow of a system which encourages-indeed, requires-this kind of .hypocritical and insensitive double-dealing. The job of convincing people that radical change is necessary is made much easier when those in power behave in so obvious and blatant a way. They have prpvided us with ample evidence of what is wrong. And maybe someday the rest of us can regain some control over our own lives and our own communities, and get on with what”s right. There aren’t many answers around right now, because they’ve never let us have much practice in making our decisions, but when we’ve left them and their decisions behind, we - or our kids will do OK. They’ve shown us what not to do. I’ve tried to avoid slogans but would like to close with ‘power to the people of Kitchener-Waterloo.’ Frederick psychology
D. Kemp is a professor of at the university of Waterloo
I How? how could he ever get free? how long was it now? a week, a month...he couldn’t remember. his tired eyes wandered for the millionth time around the cell...he knew every inch of it, by now. the four bare walls stared back at him... the moth, the trickling drops of water...he remembered he had counted ten of them in a minute... the small cracks in the stones...the smell of old, of dampness, the smell of human sweat...the smell of urine... yes, he had killed. now he was going to spend the rest of his life in that cell. there were moments now when he doubted his sanity, he could feel his mind slip away for moments and -he would feel completely lost...lost... he had to get out! but how? society could have his body...they probably had a ’ right to it...but not his mind. no one knew why he had killed... that was a private question .between himself and the dead man... nadia...to -love till your life becomes a dream.... not even to her he could tell. the man...he had tryed to corrupt him...to make him someone else...he would have destroyed nadia’s love...her green eyes...her long blond hair that would sail in the wind as she ran through the pines in the fore?t... i ,to escape...to see nadia once more...to tell her that his love would last in eternity... he was loosing his mind...they would not let him out. he had to get out... but how? ... .....a dim, cold ray of sunshine crept in the cell from the little window, high above the smell . of urine and death. _ the guard opened the door...he lay dead...the trace of blood, from his slashed wrists...the sharp cut in the wall still covered with blood... “let’s
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Floor plan for new psychology building shows basement pad students and families when not engaged in experiments.
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member: Canadian university press (CUP) and underground press syndicate (UPS), subscriber: liberation news ser.vice (LNS), and chevron international news service (GINS), the chevron is a newsfeature tabloid published offset fifty-two times a yeaL ( 1971-72) by the federation of students, incorporated, university of Waterloo. Content is the responsibility of the chevron staff, independent of the federation and the university administration. Offices in the campus center; phone (519) 578-7070 or university local 3443; telex 0295-748. summer circulation: 8,500 Alex Smith, editor With this issue of the chevron we come to the end of regularly scheduled papers for the summer. . We’ll be back shortly on the 20th of august to put out an extra large chevron which will be mailed out to all incoming first year undergrads. It promises to contain articles on education, services and just about anything frosh would want to know, and even some stuff that YouId interest non-frosh. . . While the medical school was a big thing a few months ago, it appears as though it will not be built here. Informed scources told the chevron that the government plans to locate the school either at Laurentian university in Sudbury or at Lakehead in Thunder Bay. Well so much for the “prestige” at Waterloo.. . While the concerts that the federation of students have been running on la piazza del campus center have been successful for those that choose to attend, complaints were heard from ,the summer workers of pollution probe. Readings were taken of the noise level (or music if you wish) and meter levels of 105 decibpls were recorded. Any reading over 80 requires that some sound-deadening material cover the ears to prevent damage, while readings of 120 or over can cause permanent damage within 5 minutes to exposed ears. . . While Kitchener is having its problems with the urban renewal committee it looks like the campus urban renewal committee is demolishing the older derelict buildings such as the south campus hall, the jockbuilding and the campus center to name a few.. . The chief twit should be back by the time you read this with tales of his cavorting escapades in the lands of South America. Maybe you’ll get back to more ‘cultured’ masthed material, but at least we can say the peasants ruled - even though it was only for three issues.. . Nasdrovia y ya mushim eets. production editor: Al Lukachko coordinators: Steve lzma (photo), Mel Rotman (entertainment) Dennis McGann (sports), Rod Hickman & rats (features) It seems that there is no one around. Must be the exams, but: a few people were around to put out this paper: barry brown, martin ahrens, george and deanna kaufman, tom put-fly, george a. martin, lorraine molloy, brute batchler, tom edwards, p.auI speri and ceejay eisler. For George- you didn’t think that I could get anything libelous in did you.WeII how about if every one knew you wear purple
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by rienzi crus; purdy, the chevron