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University of Waterloo Waterloo, Ontario volume 14, number 34 friday, march 29, 1974
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sbudents nave some wei-g ht
or losses are made, they will be carried through to the next budget\ The operation is not intended to fund any other area of the I’university. To. administer the pub operation there will be an advisory board, with representation from the campus centre board and the federation of students. There will also be representation from faculty and staff associations. The operation of the food services outlet was also discussed at . Last Friday at -a luncheon the meeting. This pub will be organized by the professors and operated wholly by the university students of the Urban and but also on a break-even basis. Planning School to Special event ’ licences will be Regional review the new curriculum, the available, but only if> the admajority of the students attending ministration is given six months their concern over the notice before the event, and a voiced twenty-five dollar deposit is put on useless content and cpoor teaching the date. This money will be \ quality of a required Social Surrefunded only if the date is not veys Techniques course, and demanded that something be done. cancelled or if another group uses Following this, several students the night allocated. All of these plans are just thatorganized a steering committee to draw up a petition. They asked the plans. Everything depends completely upon the university’s students and professors attending to help in the wording of the ability to procure a permanent petition and suggest solutions to licence from the provincial government within the next few the problem. A meeting was organized for the following months. It may be a dry fall yet. -susan johnson Tuesday to discuss the situation further. The professor of the course D M Crapo -and forty of the sixty-five enrolled in the course attended this discussion. Dave Ellis,- a third year planning student was spokesperson for the steering committee. He read the petition aloud and summarized the situation. He said that he had talked to the Planning School who said that they were “extremely - sympathetic to the situation and
D e&S d ickers, _ ,Aard i,,,Rirks’ enterprise and will be responsible Two powerful bodies met recently to decide the fate of that to Deeks as the director of administrative services. Money and infamous permanent pub we have initial equipment will be provided -been hearing about lately. Federation entertainment co- by the university and the cost of ordinator Art Ram and university any such investment will be recovered through the- operation administrator Bill Deeks worked out the details of the operations for of the pub-in the prices charged. the pub to inhabit the campus _ Also, the federation will be centre, if the university does ever permitted to invest any money get a licence. they wish _into any particualr There had been some concern ‘enhancement’ that they feel will about who was to pay for what, and be necessary to the pub. Any then who was to provide the work suggestion will have to be apto run the pub, and receive any proved by the university or profits that might be derived from regulatory body. the operation. Plans are for the operation to be For the moment agreement has break-even ; in the it that the pub’will be handled by a completely event that, by accident, .any profits separate unit of the food services
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One of the perennial problems facing Integrated Studies students is the question of how structured their unstructured course should be. At oni. of the regular Operations Council meetings, I ’ Larry Kendal, a resource person for the faculty discusses a set of motions that he presented to the council. The motions dealt with the authority that should be delegated to the year end reviey committee, and what form the year end reviews Ishould take. Year end reviews are the only requirement for integrated Studies students, since most of their work is non course oriented. Therefore, the amount of structuring of the year end reviews is an indication of the amount of ~ A structur’ing of the course in general.
admitted that the course had been a failure”. It appears that the school was the cause of the problem in the first place since they had given Crapo little if any time to prepare his lectures and labs. Crapo said that it had been “the most taxing- course he had ever taught.” The students demanded that there be no final exam. Crapo had said earlier the final would be similar to the midterm. The midterm had been extremely difficult and marks had to be scaled up considerably. The exam’s questions demanded excessive detail of which the students felt incapable of memorizing. Crapo felt that the deletion of the final %xam $ould jeopardize certain students who had worked on the course. He also added that it would be the easy way out for both the students and himself and that the final portion of the course would not be covered -by any testing methods. The students-pointed out that the regular labs‘in the later portion of the course had covered this material. Ellis assured Crapo that alternatives to dropping the final had been considered but rejected in the general meeting last Friday. He asked for a show of hands in support of the student’s request and almost all supported the motion, and the meeting was adjourned. It appears then that Crapo‘and the planning department are willing to consider students demands and they may begin to take a harder look at the course for next -year. -mike
,
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gordon
Stop press: BULLETIN A special -meeting of the McMaster university senate held yesterday resulted in a series of three motions to be presented to that body in closed session in the near future. The meeting, called to discuss the demands of French students following a student general meeting last week, was attended by twelve campus security officers and three thousand students. The motions to be presented at the next meeting will : 1) ask that the senate take a stand on student parity; 2) call for the dismissed professors being granted tenure ; and 3) request an interim report, from the president’s committee on campus security. Observers
believe that a general student strike is not now likely with the school year about to end.
. A .
Somewhere along the line orders got mixed up and the arena questionnaire was sent to some of the wrong people last week. The administration htis had to declare the ballot void since it was -mailed to pax& .time students as well as .all. fulltime students. But never’ fear, new ballots will be coming to YOU shortly and YOU will still get your chance to make the . big decision.
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The Cam-pus Centre Board would- like ’ Students,- Staif,+ and< Faculty to Submit designs fir eight panels to be placed inth-e / , Cam~pus Centre Great Hall. I /Four of the panels are 20 ft long, andfour are 17.5 feet lo’ng, all-l are 2: ft 9 in high. The fina. work Can be -painted ’ ,panels, painted canvas mounted on .framing, sculptured panel or\\ any’ other appropriate medium. When submissions (on drawing- paper or’art board not mor,e than twenty i.nches by thirty) are rebeived .a winner will be sel’ected by the Works of Art Committee and the Campus Centre Board The wlinner will have his-her choice of a& -cepting $100.00 and letting the board find someone to carry-Out the design 6r / they can elect to build the panels themselves for a f&e of $800.00. , ’ Drawings are to be submitted I anony\mousl$ Details are available from ‘MarIrene Miles, secretary of the works of art committee, ‘at ext.. 2488.. Contest l deadline is April 30th, 1974.
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29, 1974
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I , -T.wtiterloo
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Condiders ., Land,- Use Charge d’ L
Last Tuesday evening, Waterloo council held a public meeting to consider changing the use of lands in the vicinity of the Conestoga Parkway and King Street north in Waterloo from residential use to commercial use, in order that a major shopping plaza be located there. Although the public meeting was I held for the purposes “of providing information and obtaining the participation and co-operation of all citizens in determining the solution of problems”, the meeting was in fact more of a required formality, since council had previously accepted Amendment No. 7 which deals with this matter. -- However, since the amendment was passed before the implementa tion of regional government on January 1,1973, the Plans Administration Branch of the provincial government required that the new council readopt the amendment. Amendment No; 7 is an amendment to the Official Plan of the City of Waterloo, which would allow for a major shopping centre of approximately 580,000 square feet of leasable land on a site of approximately 65 acres to be - located in the northeast quadrant of the Conestoga Parkway and King street north in Waterloo. . The firm proposing the shopping centre is Select Properties Ltd., who are the beneficiary owners of approximately 85 acres in that area. At the meeting Select Properties made an impressive presentation of their project, using no less than five “experts” who all testified to the soundness of the project. Included among these experts was a planner who claimed to have done an “impact study” which was unique in On‘tario and which was based on “the most scientific methodology known”. What the study concluded was that the shopping centre project would have “minimal impact” on existing commercial facilities, including the downtown core area. The i most scientific methodology was not discussed by Select, however copies of the report were given to councillors at the beginning of the meeting. Ron March,, Waterloo architect, who had seen a draft copy of the report, questioned Select on the omission of at least one of the tables that was in the draft report. One table in particular that was omitted indicated that the new shopping plaza would result in - fewer trips being made to downtown stores. Select, however, passed the accusation off with a vague counter statement and the issue was dropped. The impact study also indicated that in the next two decades, the population of the KitchenerWaterloo area would increase by 100,000 persons, and that by the year 1990 the population would increase by 265,000. Select coneluded then that it was not a matter of whether or not a shopping plaza will be built ‘but that it was a question of where that plaza will be built. Select suggested that if Waterloo refused the shopping centre, then it would be built
elsewhere, out of Waterloo, and that Waterloo would then lose an important sales potential. One ‘Waterloo alderman supported the plaza proposal, stating that while Waterloo had twentyfive percent of the population of this area, it only accounted for fifteen percentof the total sales in the Kitchener-Waterloo area. This plaza he argued is needed in order to increase that sales percentage. i. The plaza project itself consists of three phases of development. The first phase would include 300,000 square feet of leasable floor space, with 30,000 square feet of public, area and a further 10,000 with a decision one way or the square feet of peripheral area. A other on Select’s application. At the meeting, Cambridge Develop car dealershipand gas bar would ments, a firm which also applied to occupy this area. The main mall build a plaza in North Waterloo, would. eventually include two department stores and about 130 but -was turned down in favour of the Select proposal, announced mall stores. that it had in partnership with Phase two would add an adSimpson Sears bought land in the ditional 200,000 square feet of north Waterloo area with the inleasable area and would be tention of building a major plaza. completed in five to seven years -randy hannigan after phase one is completed. Phase three would then add another 80,000 square feet of leasable area plus an additional 9Q,OOO square feet of office space located in a separate building. The first stage would be operable by 1976, if the plans are approved. In addition to the mall area, the project has plans for five acres to be devoted to a hotel and three acres would be parking facilities, four acres would be devoted to parkland and three acres would be parking facilities. Although most of the statements from the audience questioned the The federation of students will soundness of the project from a add three dollars to its compulsory activity fees next year if the social point of view, specifically the taking over of farmlands and students’ council ratifies, this passed the increase in traffic volume, as Sunday, the “resolutions” well as the problem of whether the by last weekend’s “federation retreat”. plaza is really needed at this time, the attitude of most of the council This is the first increase since members was that this project 1965. 1 would be part of the natural The “federation retreat” was growth of the that area. Only one attended by no less than ten alderperson, Jane Mew-hinney, people, out of which five were opposed the project on the grounds voting council members (the remainder being that it was being built on non-voting agricultural land. This battle to councillors : board chairpersons and faculty society represensave the agricultural land, however, seems to be lost since the tatives). The lack of student housing was whole area of farmland has been designated as residential in the recognized and discussed, and now the federation and the societies official plan of the city. “are committed to resolving the Under questioning, Select adhousing crisis”. mitted that the plaza would To help resolve significantly increase the value of- the crisis the federation is supsurrounding lands and that porting an OFY project entitled developers would be drawn to that ‘ ‘Housing ‘74”. No doubt this area because of accessability to _project will alleviate somewhat the plaza. The plaza would be an the inadequate living conditions students have to endure in order to effective catalyst to growth in the northern end of Waterloo. consume the so called “higher This plaza issue will not be given *-education”. a final approval by Waterloo “Involvement of the member-council, since both the region and ship of the federation of students” was considered essential by the the Ontario Municipal Board will participants of the “federation have hearings to discuss the retreat” and thus resolution project. The next step to be taken number four calls for the fedeto oppose the building of this plaza, if Waterloo council approves it ration and the societies to “place appropriate emphasis and make would be to write to the OMB available appropriate resources registering opposition to the towards fostering a greater degree. project. If there is enough opof involvement of the memposition then the OMB would likely bership”. have another public hearing, The “federation _retreat” felt before they make their decision. The plaza issue in North there was a “lack of proper representation at the Waterloo, however, will not die student
AREA OF LAND USE CHANGE - RESIDENTIAL COMMERCIAL - SHOWN
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administration level”. Translated, -this means the federation and the societies will strive for parity (i.e. equality in decision making by faculty members and students) on the university senate, the board of governors and also on the departmental level. To accomplish this task the federation and the societies ’ will “strike a standing committee with the goal of investigating and -implementing policies that will lead to parity”. The “standing committee” will supposedly be responsible to the students’ council. Other resolutions, “passed” at last weekend’s retreat were: the need for course -critiques financed by the federation and societies, next fall’s orientation geared “to stimulate increased awareness and subsequent involvement of first year students” and finally the appointment or election of student representation to administration ‘advisory boards (i.e. ice arena, campus centre boards etc.. . ) by the federation and societies.
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Task-. Force --Set Up
In response to a demonstrated need over the last several years, the Social Planning Council of. Kitchener-Waterloo has initiated a Transportation Needs Task Force. This task force is studying the concerns about transportation problems and needs for the handicapped, for the elderly, for the volunteer and for those on fixed or low incomes. The inquiry will not only attempt to consolidate an assessment of the current arrangements and developments of special transportation needs, -john morris but will also devise recommended __ solutions and take action to implement those solutions through the appropriate community channels. The concern for’ the needs of special transportation arises from the understanding that transsportation is often an integral factor in the scope of a person’s social and personal life in the community. Several submissions to the task force from- persons involved with the needs of certain \ specialized groups document this need. They indicated that often WOLFVILLE, NOVA SCOTIA. just a weekly shopping trip for the aged can improve bmorale to a (CUP)--A student boycott of classes and faculty pressure at great extent. ~Acadia University has led to a The enquiry also hopes to act as capitulation of the university’s a tool to educate the public to the board of governors. Originally the needs of the disabled or aged person. It is only when the general BOG had turned down a faculty association request that they hold public is made aware of these a special -meeting ,to investigate needs that there is a chance for the the firing of music professor .public to exert pressure on the Robert McCarthy. various agencies that could be involved in implementing the In response to this, the Canadian Association of University Teachneeded changes. ers threatened to form an inThe task force has already had vestigating committee and unione public meeting and another is j versity professors across the , planned for April 4, and will be held at Cameron Heights country protested the actions of the administration. Supporting the Collegiate on Charles Street and position of the CAUT the Acadia will begin at 8 : 00 pm in room F338. studc 1 ‘s boycotted classes on The task force is inviting subMarl::; 18 and 19. Their demand for missions from any individuals a hearing was almost totally supincluding students, staff and ported by all the students with less faculty from the university in \ than five per cent of the student order that any information that body attending classes on these people have can be included in the two/days. The next day the BOG study of the task force. agreed to hold the special meeting. -randy hannigan
BOG Gives 1-n
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from students about the legality of attendance rules, locker searches, censorship of the press, teachers assaulting students, suspensions, etc. His replies were later criticized as being slow, nebulous, and marked by oblique analogies. To the question of student rights, he answered, “School law shouldn’t be so precise that it hamstrings you for years to come.” Following in the vein set throughout the conference by the concern for fostering personal development, one student caught Bornhold off-guard with an observation on his personal style. Blind-folded Claire McAlister commented on Bornhold’s changes in voice-slightly higher pitch when generally talking, lower when discussing regulations. Most comments,by the students following the session carried a note of concern for tenuousness if not absence of student “rights”. Towards the end of EDUCON one participant summarized her impressions with the statement that “. . .if we can’t control our schools, we have no control over our future”. This was similar to another’s sentiment that “. . .our actions in school are being manipulated and controlled by others”. Nonetheless, no particular direction for change seemed to dominate the mood of the conference. The final session stressed the importance of some degree of personal growth preceding political action. There was also a reaffirmation of the view that a general awareness of the broad environment school should preceed dealing with specific issues. One unresolved point that emerged somewhat as a basis for polarity among the participants during EDUCON surrounds the relative priorities to each other of political awareness and social activity. It seems likely that future Educons will have to deal with this question. I
Highschool rebels confer \
All last week fifty-five high school students from around the province gathered for EDUCON ‘74.~ With a little help on the administrative end from the federation of students, they, had gotten together during their spring break for a series of seminars and workshops. The conference was organized by the Ontario Secondary School Student Union IOSSSU). The OSSSU developed out of a body that was originally set up .by the provincial government. Follo+ng the conspicuous public remonstrations of high school students in 1968 as a result of the lengthening of the school year, the government decided it would be worthwhile to . maintain some degree of- direct contact with the student body. To this end, the Ministry of Education established the Ontario Secondary School Committee composed of students. The Ministry also’ sponsored an annual provincial interscholastic conference. for students for several years running. Within the last couple of years the students became increasingly concerned with their role: They decided to breakaway from the Ministry and rename the “Committee” as the “Union”, and to hold an annual EDUCON. With EDUCON the students hoped to promote the development of a critical personal awareness of the educational environment. This awareness would come from broadened and enlarged perceptions of high schools and themselves. OSSSU hopes each year that the impact of its conference willeffect some change in the thinking of those participating. This hope reflects a basic view of the OSSSU that to learn is to change and that education is a process of change,. In the conference, stress was laid on the interaction between the learners and their environment as a critical aspect of “change”. As much as “change” was seen in terms of increased personal awareness, an operating princi@e of the conference was that such an increased awareness would in turn heighten political consciousness. In design I the conference incorporated group’ discussions, seminars, workshops, media presentations, and sensory deprivation experiments. Several unusual techniques were employed to develop self awareness. One technique was blindfolding individuals for hours throughout the conference. Blind-folded students subsequently were assisted in getting to and from the sessions. The technique was used to increase awareness of the surrounding environment through means of less used methods. It led II -to a growth of sensitivity to body la.nguage and touch communications by virtue of dependeney on unblind-folded guides. UW math students Bert and Mary Lynne Rutledge coordinated a day-long session of SIMSOC. With the game SIMSOC, the students participated in a “simulated society”, wherein . - ..L/-s_
unequal distribution of political power, economic disparity, and various social tensions are dynamically modelled. Two days of workshops on group dynamics were conducted by Noel Bennett-Adler of the Ministry of Education. These sessions involved leadership training, techniques of listening, getting group consensus, observation, and interaction with others. Another topic .for several discussions centred on the relation of general awareness in high school and the school media. Effective use of newspapers, posters and radio was the the focal point. One session was held for entertainment and the issue of band contracts. During the workshop put on by Betty and Joe Recchia, co-ordination of social events was dealt with. A representative-of ‘OSSTF led a discussion on the importance of recognizing the role of teachers in the educational process. During the talk questions were raised about the recent teachers’ strike. One of the most important areas of the conference was Students’ rights, and what it means to be a student. Specific aspects of this area was discipline, suspensions and expulsions, freedom of the press, searching of student lockers, religious practice, attendance and student files and records. This broad field has -, remained a primary concern of the OSSSU. Here is an excerpt from a 4-page hand-out from the conference : -“It is clear that students are second-class citizens under educational legislation. The authority of the principal is so poorly defined that he .can, and usually does, interpret it to the extent that he violates the human rights of students. “The so-called “rights” and “privileges” we do have, such as the ‘right’ to write your own note if you are 18, or smoke in a specified area are mere tokenisms and only exist because of students’ general lack of freedom in the first place. Even the ‘right to attend school’ is not a true freedom because attendance for those under 16' is compulsory. “We find this same theme running through all areas of school life. Clubs must usually have a teacher advisor. Most student councils do not control their own funds. Hand-holding, circulating petitions, speaking in the‘ halls, wearing arm bands and even getting a drink of water have all been halted by principals at oneI time or another.” (Next week’s chevron will carry an article on Bill 277, “An Act Respecting the Rights of Students” sponsored by Cassidy, NDP) A high water mark of the conference was a verbal confrontation between Bob Bornhold, Regional Office of the Ministry of Education, and some of the students. Mr. Bornhold was speaking on “changing systems” and growth in schools of the credit system. Questions came quickly
--shane
roberts
and aiison Stirling
Profs to 1create union Student enrolment is “slipping somewhat” said Greg Bennett, the vice-chairperson of OCUFA (Ontario Confederation of Universities Faculty Association) at last Monday’s annual faculty association meeting. ’ Bennett’s profound statement was made to back up the need of faculty associations across the province to unionize in order to defend their membership’s interests. A substantial- decrease in university enrolment will of course necessitate a contraction in university expenditures, the bulk of which is mostly committed to pay for the salaries-of the teaching staff (the average salary for a tenured professor is $25,000 per year). In other words there will- be a reduction of teaching staff if indeed enrolment does “slip somewhat” and this reduction will mean the firing of faculty memhers. Bennett predicts that in two to three years there will be a major “revision of the provincial operating grants formula” to universities and he feels the
revision will entail a reduction in the universities’ budgets, and for this reason he feels faculty associations must unionize. The forty professors present at the meeting’did not take Bennett’s words too strongly because none of them had any questions to ask. This lack of questions was just as well for Bennett had “to take -a limousine and go back to Ottawa”. After Bennett’s hasty departure the membership voted in Mike McDonald as president 6f the association for the next year. McDonald is one of the authors of the new “tenure policy” of the university which is currently being examined by faculty. . Last on the agenda was a discussion of the above revised tenure policy and Carl Gall, a mechanical engineering professor attacked the proposed ntenure policy as providing little protection to tenured staff .- He maintained that “unless there is good will on the part of the administration the document will mean nothing”, and he-- went further to accuse both Jack Ord and McDonald (both tenure policy committee members) of assisting the administration in finding a convenient way to get rid ‘of faculty members. To Gall’s accusation Ord asserted that tenure does not mean a right to continual employment ’ ’ . He further suggested the need for making a new policy on tenure which would allow the university to fire somebody without having to prove him incompetent. Ord feels the proposed tenure policy would allow for such a flexibility and still protect the professors by “laying out a procedure”. The argument then degenerated into a series of accusations between Ord and Gall, leaving everyone else to contemplate the irrelevancy of the whole tenure issue. The real issue is not whether or not there will continue to-- be tenure but whether students will want to’ continue to consume an education which denies them the basic right. to partake in its formulation. “
-john
morris
Students poisoned CALGARY (CUP)--“Students are being exposed to undesirable conditions in food and it’s only a matter of time before there are outbreaks of food poisoning,” said Michael Stiles when speaking about the food services available at Calgary university. Stiles, a food microbiologist at the University of Alberta, ate in the Calgary university cafeteria just before joining in a panel discussion of “Is Our Food Safe?” Later in an interview he admitted that the food he had experienced in Calgary was “pretty atrocious” and pointed out that the food was all cold by the time he
5
ate it. To keep food safe from dangerous bacterial levels it must ‘be kept either below 40 degrees _ or , above 140 degrees. Also, the salads were left out too long, and the soup had been left long enough to have dried on the side of its container and to have developed a skin on top. The gravy was also cold. All these are foods susceptible to high bacteria formations. Stiles was surprised by the low quality of food available, because he believed the facilities to be good and blamed the present conditions at the university on bad management. However, manager of food services, Barrie Griffths said that he was confident that the food served in the cafeteria was “fresh and prepared to proper production standard”. The only reason that food was cold when eaten was that it gets cold while people stand in line to pay for it.
Uncle Ben loses fight
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EDMONTON (CUP)-‘Uncle’ Ben Ginter, B.C. beer baron, has lost another round in his long fight with the International Brewery Workers (IBW). On -March 19 the Alberta Supreme Court overturned an earlier decision against the union and upheld the certification of local 250 of the IBW as the recognized union at Uncle Ben’s brewery in Red Deer. The dispute started 18 months ago when 35 men at the Red Deer plant were fired for joining the’ IBW. A favourable court’ decision allowed Ginter to reopen the brewery last fall using workers who were in the Teamsters Union. It was recently disclosed that Ginter has had business dealings involving large sums of money with Senator Ed Lawson, the highest Teamster official in Canada. According to Barry Chivers, legal counsel for local 250, the contract between Ginter and the Teamsters is invalidated by the. court’s decision. Not all of the legal actions arising from the dispute are settled, however. Suits have been filed by the Teamsters against the Alberta Federation of Labor, the Calgary Labor Council, and employees of the Alberta Brewers Agents, all of which instituted a boycott of Uncle Ben’s products. And the .Alberta Board of Industrial Relations has yet to decide on financial compensation for the workers illegally fired by Gin&r. The situation is complicated by a merger between the IBW and the Teamsters Union in the U.S. last fall. Most Canadian IBW locals, including those in Alberta, stayed out of the merger and intend to -. remain autonomous.
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friday,
the chevron
march-
29, 1974
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BBC World Report highlites the . difficulties of consultation and the slow progress to European unity.
Monday April 1st 13:30 Music with Brian Chadwick 16:30 Ford Hall Forum-Judith Crist discuss& ‘Much Ado About Porngraphy’ I 18:30 Funky Soul with John Williams 21:30 H-HELP Conference 23:00 Music
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- grande river cable _-
Friday March 29th 10130 Music with Dave horn ^ 13:30 Music with Bruce Arpstrong A 16:30’ Ford Hall Forum Herman Kahn, Defense Analyst discusses “Prospects for Mankind” 18:30 Music with John Robertson 21:30 Shawn Phillips live in j Spectacle-Produced by CHOM-Fm 23:00 Music with Ian Layfield Saturday March 30th 13:30 Music with Dennis Lunnow 16 : 3Q ‘Festival of Religion-Part Four Produced by Bill Culp 17:30 Boogie with John Hess 18:30 The Bod And the, Bard 21:30 Big Band and Djxieland with Steve Hammil 23:00 The Mutant Hour
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Sunday March 31st 12:OO Musique with Sillion Gardait 13:30 Music with Donna Rogers 16: 30 Soviet Press Review 16 :45 Belgian Press Review rt 17 : 00 Guitar -Player Magazine Presents: *
17:30 Special Report on the Economic State qf Belgium 18:00 Perth County Conspiracy at Massey Hall 18:30 Live Coverage of the second meeting of the 1974197 5‘ Federation of Student’s Council 21:30 Women and- Sexuality produced by Linda Lounsberry, Flora Conroy & Susan Johnson 22: 15 Federation Report produced by Andrew Telegdi 23:00 Music with Greg Bewsh *Belgian Press Review looks at the Common Market Policy toward the Arab Countries and the growing rift with the U.S., some faults in the British electoral system, the change in the Bi-itish government, the problems facing the Brandt government and the coalition government in Israel. *Guitar Player Magazine presents Duane Allman, John McLaughlin, Jde Maphis, Herb Ellis, Joe Pass, Fred McDowell, Wes Montgomery and a 1960 -interview of Wes Montgomery in which Ralph G!eason asks Wes
Wednesday March 3 13:30 Music with Dean Put-ves 16: 30 Soviet Press Review 16: 45 Belgium Press Review 17 : 00 Federation Report produced by Bill Culp 18:30 Music with Gerry Forwell Al bum Review 21% The Phantom Anriouncer 23:00 Music with Al Anderson
.. Tuesday April 2 13:30 Music with Lorn Goldblum 16 : 30 Confederation of Naitonal Trade Unions part Ill produced by Bill Culp 17 :45 The Arts in Belgium * 18:00 BBC World Report* 18: 15 The Rest of the News 18:30 Music with Ted Szepielewicz 21: 30 Shawn. Phillips Live en Spectacle . 23:00 Jazz with Baruch Zone *An interview with Willi Claes, Belgian’s 35 year-old Minister of Economic Affairs, and also a very popular pianist and compbser. A profile of Marie Gevers-Belgian’s most- beloved writ&-. e Last year the United States proclaimed The Year of Europe, and Dr. Kissinger’proposed to seal America’s relationship with Europe in a new Atlantic Charter. But now the transatlantic climate is one of rancour and disillusion. Dr. Kissinger has gone so far as to question the* legitimacy of most European‘ governments and President Nixon has accused the nine natiQns of the European Community of ganging up on America. No Idnger, he has warned the Europeans can they rely on the American defence shield while flouting the United States in matters of economic and foreign policy. France stands accused of mischief-making, and the other Western European nations of weakness and indecision. This
Thursday April 4th 1%30 Music with Jim Morris 16:30 Special Report 18:00 BBC Worlg Report ’ 18:15 Rest of the News* 18:30 Music with Ivan Zendel 20:00 ,Live- Coverage of the Transportation Task Force Meeting_ 22 :00 Guitar Player Magazine Presents (See Sunday for details) 22: 30 Project Echo produced by Alan Cohen 23:00 Music with Brian O’Neil <*This week the Rest of the News looks at four topics: 1) Martin Sostre: Prisoner 79969 Martin Sostre is serving a 30 year sentence for assualt and the sale of narcotics.? He was arrested following the 1967 “long hot summer” in Buffalo. In the mid ‘60’s’ Sostre sold political literature’ in his Afro-Asian bookstore, which became a community centre for Buffalo’s black ghetto. In 1973 the state’s chief witness admitted testifying falsely at Sostre’s trial. NevertheleSs, 11 months later Martin Sostre is still in prison, awaiting a new ruling in his case. This programme includes interviews with Sostre, Sharon Fisher of the Defense Committee and lawyer Heywood Burns. 2) Clark Squire Sentenced On Monday March llth, the three week trial of
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alleged Black Liberation Army member Clark Squire ended when the jury found him guilty of the murder of a New Jersey policeman. On Friday March 15th Judge John Buckman sentenced him to life plus 24-30 years. At his sentencing Squire addressed the %ourtroom, saying that the BLA does exist and why. Henry Davidson reports from New York. 3) In’! St. Paul, Minnesota, last week, attorneys for the Wounded Knee Defense Committee filed two new motions for dismissal of the charges against Dennis Banks and Russell Means. Cindy Carp reports from St. Paul. 4) Boston Chile-Greece Demonstration Three hundred people attended a rally to protest U.S: support for the military regimes in Chile and Greece. Stateme‘nts from a Greek student and Edward Boorstein, former economic advisor to both Premier Castro of Cuba and President Allende of Chile. *The Transportation Task Force of the Social Planning Council of Kitchener-Waterloo is holding a public meeting at Cameron Heights Collegiate to give individuals and organizations the. opportunity -to present information, views and iecommendations in regard to special transportation needs and problems of the disabled, the elderly, the individual and family on low and fixed incbmes, the volunteer community worker, and the student and special transportation concerns. The Task -*Force is also concerned about how transportation affe\cts people’s access to community services. The Task Force hopes to for’mulate plans and recommendations ‘to the appropriate governmental and nongovernmental bodies to insure the most effective transportat ion arrangements to serve these special groups in oirr community.
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Highrise and Superprofits, by Graham ‘Barker, Jennifer Penney, and Wally SeccombC, with an introduction by Leo Johnson.. I
A political-economicdevelopment industry crisis. ’
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Primary Sources. 1860-1930 by Russell Himn, Warriyn
29, 1974
friday,
march
the chevron
29, 1974
s Letter of protest The University of Toronto has threatened to expel some students who were part of a group which prevented Edward Banfield from’ speaking there last week. We feel that the protestors were completely justified and insist that all charges be dropped. Professor Banfield has clearly expressed his views in his books The Unheavenly City and The M&al Basis) of a Backward Society, both required reading in courses at U. of T. In the first book Banfield blames poverty and slums in the U.S. on the degraded and pathological culture of the “lower class” who, he explains, are mainly Black. He says that the typical lower class individual finds slum conditions attractive and, for example, “enjoys the freedom to beat one’s wife and lie drunk in the gutter”. In the second book, Banfield blames the poverty of Southern Indians on their alleged backwardness and amorality. For more information on Banfield we would refer the reader to the first of, our articles which appeared recently in the Varsity. The real question, as we see it, is whether or not anyone has. the right to propagate racism and prejudice without limit. We think not. Academic freedom does not protect ,libel or assault, with which racism has more in common than with scientific inquiry. Free speech for Banfield could lead to the implementation of schemes of his such as to send to “a penal village or work .camp” anyone who in the court’s opinion has a high probability of committing a crime .A We support those who are stopping Banfield before it is too late.
5000. Yet the reporting of such major events is in no way proportional. After one major game this year, there was a small inconspicuous five line write up, while the intramural coverage consisted of well over a full page. To top it all off, no one would ever have guessed that the basketball warriors had won the OUAA championship this year for the first time in the school’s history, if the chevron were one’s only source of information. The write up for this championship tournament win consisted of a picture of the a&Canadian team, with the caption under the picture mentioning that the warriors were OUAA winners this year. Although approximately fifty or so loyal fans could and did find all the time and money to make the trip to Ottawa for the final game, I’m sure that the approximately 3000 loyal fans who couldn’t make the trip would have at least liked to have read how their warriors had won the tournament, in their school newspaper. Instead the intramurals, who get anywhere from 0 to 5 fans to their events received another full page of coverage. I think that at least equal coverage should be given. I would like to point out that I am not attacking the writers who cover the events, in as much as they are limited by whomever at the chevron to the amount of space they can have. When queried, they have responded time and again that they can’t get any space and that indeed, their articles are hacked up and spewed out to’fit the space that they do have available . For some reason the chevron, week after week, wants to spend pages and pages on material irrelevant to the campus while major campus events are given secondary status and coverage.
make the paper more campus oriented, instead of a vehicle for some outsider’s view on the British election or some such event. One positive suggestion that I would like to make is that the chevron might make a practice of some of the other major universities. That is to produce special issues solely concerning the major teams and their players for the promotion of the sports and the interest .of the readers. A disaepointed
.
reader
’ Campus pizza defended
The On-Campus Pizza Outlet recently received some unfounded and unproved criticism from a former employee. sWe have worked at the Pizza Palace with Dave Boxwell for three years, two . years at the Campus Outlet, and we must protest the fallacies which were put forth by Mr. Burosch,. U. of W. policy requires the Outlet to use as many U. of W. students as possible, and unfortunately j there are some among us who wouldn’t be too happy working anywhere where real work was required. The operation of this outlet is carefully supervised by a local Pizza Company which has served this, area for fifteen years and the quality- of its product, conduct of its personnel (Mr. Boxwell included) and excellent service are second to none. We are sure that Mr. Burosch and his
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Fake’ Chinese I would like to say a few words on the second-program given by a group of five ‘Chinese’ in the latter half of International Night. The musical instruments of this ‘Fews Band’ were-all western. The clothes that the band and the singer wore were western. The. third song was even in English!! There is nothing in it which deserves to be called Chinese. Even the first two Chinese jazz songs are not typically Chinese. They can only be heard now in the nightclubs of Hong Kong and Taiwan. The purpose of the evening-to give an opportunity for the various groups on campus to introduce to others what their ,own cultures are like- was ‘defeated by this >group. I felt so ashamed and angry to find myself among the audience watching this ‘performance’ which Ldared portray themselves as representing China. There are a handful of Chinese students on campus who can play beautiful’ Chinese pieces with Chinese instruments. There are also a fair number of Chinese students who can sing Chinese songs from various parts of China. We do not need to import this nightclub singer all the way from London to sing us an English song and I sincerely hope that the audience would ,not go home with a misconception that ‘this is something Chinese. A Chinese
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Spectator
Dennis Higgs . William Wadge Math Patrick R. Brown History
An unhappy fan ,
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Now that the major varsity sports season is over, I would like to comment _ on the coverage that was given to the Warrior basketball team this past season, not only because I was sincerely disappointed in it, but also because it was indicative of how other major sports were also treated by our campus paper, and that is -inadequately. Correct me if I’m wrong, but basketball at least as far as fan participation goes, is one of the major events, week after week, on this campus. At every home game this year there were at-least between 2000 and 3000 fans, and some of the games even as many as 4000-
For a random example, I picked up the March 15 issue and found the1 following. There was one half page on an abortion conference in Montreal, two pages on the British elections and two pages on the Symposium of African Peoples, while the hockey warriors who had just beaten Calgary for the Western Canadian championship received only half a page coverage. If the chevron would spend more time and space covering the sporting events, which are after all one of the main socializing vehicles for probably a majority of the student population it would help itself by attracting the eyes of the sporting student and also help the sports concerned by promoting them through great write-ups, which I know / the reporters are anxious and capable of producing provided they are given the space that they require. What we need is a change of policy by’ the powers that be at the chevron to
group of friends are unhappy with many facets of student services, but certainly the Campus Pizza>outlet is known as an excellent’ service to the student body and the management has a reputation of dealing fairly and honestly with those employees who put a little effort into . their work. Those people who quit after one or two nights of work, or those who pick up their first pay cheque and then _ never show up for work again and leave the outlet short staffed without notice, are the types of people who complain the most and make unfounded criticisms based on a very limited observation of the campus outlet operation. We believe therefore that Mr. Burosch should, not be so hasty, to make such> harsh judgements since he worked all of two nights at the Outlet, and has at least eight to ten years experience less than Mr. Dave Boxwellin the Pizza business. \
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Sue Biggs Mary Biggs
Response to SLA
\
I enjoyed reading Ms. Johnson’s unbiased presentation of the realities behind the Hearst-S.L.A. confrontation in your March 8 edition. I am in complete agreement with all of the S .L.A. goals, particularly number twelve. Why should poor rapists and- misunderstood murderers be imprisoned for crimes which are really the fault of our oppressive society ? In the future this j article will be representative, in my mind, of the astuteness -and unique intelligence of the Chevron staff. Loyally your, 4
Engimering
R. W. Curtis [SYS.DES.]
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friday,
the chevron
Canada: oiling the - 1 1-- - American machine In this, the second article in a three part series, focusing on the ‘energy crisis’, Terry Moore discusses’??anada’s role as a source of raw materials, within the AmericanEmpire. The third article, to appear nest Friday, will look at consumption within advanced capitalist economies, as well as, possible sources of alternative -energy supply. The idea- of a Continental Energy Policy was thrust into public view in December of 1969, when, as Gordon Cleveland of Last Post puts it’, .. .Joe Greene, (at that time the Minister of Energy, Mines and Resources), practically handed Canada’s oil, gas, and water to the US on a golden platter.’ Speaking at ‘the Canadian Embassy in Washington on December 4th, 1969, Greene described a meeting he had just completed with the US Secretary of the Interior, Walter J. Hickel. Apparently Hickel had raised the question of a continental energy scheme, and Greene described his own reaction as follows ; . . .‘the more I think and talk of the larger suggestion the more I think, well, this is a great opportunity for Canada!’ -Referring to Hickel’s suggestion as, ‘extremely interesting’, Greene theorized that the integration of the energy markets of the two countries would lead to the most economical utilization of basic resources. Blandly hating that, ‘...(T)he lower the energy costs are, the better off are Canadians’, Greene responded positively to the notion put forward by reporters that this approach to “resource planning’ would lead to a substantial economic integration of Canada and the United States. Back home in the colony, the reaction to Greene’s statements created something of a controversy, and The Great Continental Energy Debate was on. Greene-had inadvertently blown the lid off of what may turn out to be the most important political and economic deals ever considered by the two countries. Suddenly a major issue was created out of something that the Canadian media had largelyignored for many years, and of which the Canadian people substantially consequently, were unaware. Regardless . of the underlying motivations of the Canadian government to assist with the integration of Canadian energy resources into the American industrial machine, the long range designs of the American government cannot be escaped. Richard Nixon, early in his first term as US president created a cabinet-level committee, chaired by the then Secretary of Labour, George Shultz, to assess the economic and political ramifications of future American energy requirements. The position of Canada within the US world-view has never been stated more clearly than in the subsequent report issued by the committee ‘Schultz commonly known as the Report .’ ‘The pre-eminent position of the United States in the world depends in large part on the uninterrupted flow of oil and its products to its armed forces and civilian economy’. . . .and the majority report goes on to say. . . ’ (1)n our judgement, Canadian and Mexican oil is nearly as secure militarily as our own although complete realization of these security benefits will require fully understood and harmonized energy policies .’
Accordingly the report recommends that.. . ‘ (T) he United-States, should work diligently with Canada, to reach a continental energy policy that assures our mutual security. Such a policy should cover energy broadly, and should deal with not only oil but natural gas, coal, hydro-electric and nuclear sources. Pending agreement on such a policy, which might take several years to negotiate, Canada and the United States should develop an effective mech?nism to permit an orderly growth of imports of oil and natural gas from Canada.’ (emphasis added) _ The fact that over eighty percent of the promising potentially energybearin’g acreage in the Canadian north and offshore the Atlantic provinces, has already been leased to predominantly American multinational corporations for $1 per acre, makes one wonder in whose interests Canada is being governed. In the late fifties and early sixties, the international oil price structure began to. experience fundamental changes. Intense international competition was developing with the penetration of 20-30 smaller international companies into the market. Many of the newcomers were American controlled but others such as the Japanese Arabian Oil Company and Ente Nazionali Idrocarburi (ENI) -of Italy were entirely foreign-owned
operations. In the face of this increased a competition, the artifically high prices which had been established and maintained by the American international oil industry, began to waver. The US domestic market, with its protective wall of import quotas and high tariffs however, was shielded to a large degree from the downward pressure on international prices. The ‘centre of grgvity’ or profitability of the highly intecated oil industry therefore shifted to the United States from foreign markets. Consequently, inside the United States an intense struggle between domestic and international oil interests began to develop. The US majors, in 1969, controlled only about one-third of domestic oil and gas reserves, whereas internationally they controlled between 160 and 70 per cent of non-communist sources of supply. The Borden Commission in Canada,
studying the international oil market in the late 1950’s found -that the overwhelming majority of the net earnings of th.e ‘majors’ came from foreign operations. However, the 1969 Chase Manhattan Bank study of the 29 leading US oil firms;- found that the entire net earnings increase of this group since 1959 came from domestic operations, and accounted for fully 75 per cent of their profits by 1969. In the US,--the oil and gas producing southwest and the domestic energy industry based there, became locked in a battle with the consuming industrialized northeast, with its desire for cheaper foreign energy. The large international energy corporations would have been only too happy to supply the northeast with foreign reserves and thereby break into the domestic market. The ensuing political turmoil and-the fabrication of a world-wide energy ‘crisis’ reflects the political infighting two distinct sectors of the - between American bourgeoisie. In the previous article, Nixon’s ind debtedness to the ‘cowboy capitalists’ of the Southern Rim and particularly the domestic. oil interests among them, was o~tiined. The attempts by the eastern ‘liberal establishment’, through Senators Kennedy and Muskie among others, to get rid of the oil import quotas
or failing that, to win approval for the construction of a duty-free super-port off the coast of Machiasport, Maine, are indicative of the opposing interests of the northeast tq those of the constituency Nixon represents. Facing increased pressure from the majors while at the same time having to deal with popular domestic hostility, in the form of the environmentalmovement, and its concomitant legal harassments, caused the US domestic oil intesests to search desperately ‘for an answer, which would, of course, allow it to maintain its privileged position. The creation of the ‘energy crisis’ with President Nixon’s willing assistance, formulated part one of a long term strategy. -Part two encompasses the search for economically feasible sources of supply in the face - of depleting domestic reserves that are exploitable within the present price structure. Canada, the friendly neighbour to the .north of that ‘invisible border’ already
march
29, 1974
sleeps with the elephant. With a continuous stream of Canadian politicians, in the tradition of Joey Greene and Donald MacDonald, running off to Washington with the governments collective - skirt lifted high, what, as Gordon Cleveland laments,, can possibly prevent the proposal of marriage? A similar battle ‘has taken place in Canada between independent petroleum interests and the international majors. However, in Canada, the international interests are more powerful than the independents (both are still mostly American controlled), and the National Oil Policy, such as it is, formulated in 1961. reflects this reality. The independents fought hard for a pipeline from Alberta to Montreal, however, as we all know the pipeline delivers western crude only as far east as Sarnia, Ontario. _ The 1961 policy divided Canada into two parts-west of the Ottawa Valleyto be served by domestic oil and east of the Ottawa Valley-to be served by imported foreign oil. The independents were placed at an economic disadvantage by this policy because the Western Canadian market was not large enough, by itself to support maximally profitable operations. To minimally compensate the independent oil interests and their government in Edmonton, the federal government agreed to push for larger markets for -Alberta oil and gas in the US market. As a result of all this Canada was left vulnerable to fluctuations of both international prices and supply, as well as US domestic import quotas, favourable to the domestic oil industry. The seeds of Western political dissatisfaction which have recently developed into open conflict, between the Western provinces on one hand, and Ontario and the federal government on the other, reflects as much as does the US internal conflict, the differences between two’ distinct sectors of the ‘Canadian’ economic establishment. When viewed from within &his cpntext, the much heralded ‘spill-over’ effects of the ‘energy crisis’ on Canada begin to make more sense. Melville Watkins, in an article entitled ‘Resources and Underdevelopment’, points out that Canada, as an economic colony of the United States, cannot generate its own solutions to its own problems such as regional economic disparity. Indeed if we continue to operate within the capitalist framework with its concomitant continental market mentality, we will not even be able to generate our own problems. Contemporary marxist writer Andre Gunder Frank has described the very nature of capitalist economic organization as a process that creates both development and underdevelopment simultaneously. Similarly, economists Paul Baran and Paul Sweezy have characterized the capitalist world as fostering an accumulation of economic and. pplitical upower in the ‘metropolis’ while at the same time ensuring a subordinate role for the people of the ‘hinterland’. , In Canada we see this reflected in the overdevelopment and concentration of wealth as well as pollution in about seven major population centres ‘across the country. In the country as an economic unit. Ontario is the seat of manufacturing, impotiing raw materials and staples such as food from the hinterland, and exporting processed goods. Ontario and British Columbia are the wealthiest provinces in the dominion, the other parts of the country largely made up of underdevloped farming and fishing communities and regional centres that can hardly maintain their -own populations. The relationship ‘between Canada and the United States is a ‘metropolis‘hinterland’ arrangement as well with Canada supplying raw materials to the US industrial machine and acting as -a market for its finished products. To the extent that Canada does have a very small secondary manufacturing industrial base, it is due primarily to
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concessions extracted from the Americans in return for guaranteed supplies of raw materials rather than the product of an aggressive industrial strategy. _ Eric-Kierans, a former liberal cabinet minister, and well known economist has documented the net out-flow of profits and jobs from Canada to the US in a study of the mining industry he undertook on behalf of the government of Manitoba. Finding that 85.3 per cent of the net profits accrued to the operators of the leases for the exploitation of Canadian reserves Kierans went on to warn: ‘If . . surpluses are not retained, then the people become progressively poorer as their resources are depleted and sometime assets are not replaced. . . ’ (R)esource rich nations that continuahy yield up their value of their wealth in return for the labour employed in its exploitation will never be more than resource countries. They lose the opportunity to form their own capital, capital which will enable them to break out of that very reliance on their resource base and reduce thier dependence on foreign investment. When a nation or province can generate capital out bf its own resources and retain it, it will be less dependent on others.’ Federal and provincial governments, through their various spokesmen have
resources, can be understood, in their proper sense. The $8 billion MacKenzie Valley pipeline is just one of a number of major resource projects currently being planned for the 1970’s. An oil pipeline of comparable dollar value to the gas pipeline is also in the works for the MacKenzie Corridor. The James Bay Project involving the expenditure of at least $6 billion and the flooding of a land mass twice the size of England has already commenced. i ~ Massive water diversions for hydroelectric projects are scheduled for northern Ontario and Manitoba-the latter one of the largest single diversions ever undertaken on this continent. The high Arctic is being%urveyedfoF -oil and gas reserves by a consortium of oil companies, with the possibility of a pipeline down either side of James Bay. __ _---- --. Large scale exploration istaking place off the coasts of the Atlantic provinces and all sorts of wild schemes are being proposed for the ‘accelerated development’ of the Athabaska Oil Sands. The resource development -corporations involved in these extraordinary projects are either American based multinational corporations or subsidiaries of US domestic oil interests. The market for the energy to be produced these developments is in the United States. American industry needs
plorationresulting
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in a ‘10 trillion cubic foot increasein provincial reserves.’ However, after prices were increased the companies dropped all references to new reserves and- began to scare the hell out of Premier Davis of Ontario, with expressions of concern over an energy shortage that might occur if the MacKenzie pipeline should be delayed. The poIitiking that has and is taking place around the MacKenzie ValIey gas pipeline is, highly instructive in that it gives us a relatively rare insight into the interrelationship of government and industry in the direct interest of the. latter. / The stated purpose of The National Energy Board of Canada is to secure and ensure adequate reserves of energy resources for Canadian consumptive needs now and in the future. The Board holds hearings on licence applications by private energy corporations and has the power to grant or refuse such applications. Only those licences approved by the Board are referred to the federal cabinet which has the final authority in such matters. Supposedly the NEB has the means to conduct independent audits and surveys of proven reserves in order to establish meaningful criteria upon which to base its decisions. However, as Eric Kierans points out. - . ‘it is standard federal practice to, create new institutions in response to popular demand and then to HIGH-ARCTIC
ATHABASKA TAR
JAMES BAY DEVELOPMENT
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REFINERIES A_ND SUPERPORTS
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consistently denied the existence ‘of any sort of ‘continental resource policy’. However the existance of a formal agreement with the United States is not necessary as an informal one already exists. The following passage taken from a report by Pierre L. Bourgault to the Science Council of Canada, betrays the real interests of those who would have us believe that they are defenders of the Canadian independence: “We are the world% largest producer of nickel, but are net importers of stainless steel and manufactured nickel products _ . . we are the world’s second largest producer of aluminum, but we import it in its more sophisticated forms such as.. . precision aluminium parts for use in aircraft; we are the world’s largest exporter of pulp and paper, but we import much of our fine paper and virtually alI of the highly sophisticated paper, such as backing for photographic film; ‘we are one of the world’s principle sources of platinum, but it is exported for refining and processing and reimported in finished forms; we are large exporters of natural gas and petroleum but we, are net importers ’ of petrochemicals; and although we are the world’s foremost exporter of raw asbestos fibres we are net importers of manufactured asbestos products .” Once Canada’s role as a dependent. resource exporter to the American empire is appreciated the recent events surrounding the ‘energy crisis’, meluding the proliferation of m&sive programs to ‘develop’ Canada’s frontier
the gas, oil, and hydroelectric power now and Canadian reserves can be profitably exploited at current market prices. ’ The momentous decisions, some of which have already been made (the Columbia River Project) years ago, to. commit Canada’s energy resources to the continental market will effectively predetermine the economic and political future of this country. Once the Americans become dependent on energy supplies flowing through pipelines or their ‘vehicles’, for which they have contributed billions cf dollars, a decision to fundamentally undermine the arrangement would be equivalent to ‘an act of war’. The fundamental assumption upon which the e&onomic and political decisions, to enter into massive energy exportation programs with the ,United States, are based, is that Canada has virtually inexhaustible resources and therefore enormous surpluses to sell. However, as is the situation in the United States>,the Canadian govemment , provincial governments, and their various ‘regulatory agencies’ are almost entirely dependent on the’ statistics given to them by the very people they are supposed to keep an eye on, the energy corporations. While US based divisions of oil companies have been busy underestimating US domestic reserves as part of their “energy crisis” strategy; their Canadian subsidiaries have been doing exactly the opposite. While lobbying for high gas prices, for example, .in Alberta recently the industry claimed that higher prices would stimulate ex-
have the Treasury Board limit their finances .’ The Prime Minister of Canada told the House of Commons last December that, ‘the government believes that it would be in the public interest to facilitate early construction (of thegaspipeline) by any, means which do not require the lowering of environmental standards or the neglect of the Indian rights and interests.’ The. National Energy Board is supposed to be the ‘public’ body that decides which applications are ‘in the interest’ and a statement of 1 public support for an application which didn’t come before the Board until last week, is an obvious attempt to put pressure on the Board to make the ‘right’ decision. However, whathas really got Kierans worried is not the rubberstamp role of government boards, but rather the apparently wide-spread belief echoed by the Prime Minister in the same December speech, to the effect that, ‘(E)normous quantities of gas are available to be transported from the Far North. . In an earlier submission to the NEB, on behalf of the same corporations that are now involved in the Canadian Gas Arctic group that plans to build the MacKenzie pipeline, the Canadian Petroleum Institute estimated total potential Canadian reserves to be 724.8 trilIion cubic ) feet (TCF). _ The ap@cations pending at that time amounted to a request to export 8.9 TCF and the Board alIowed ‘6.3 TCF in its final judgement. . At the same time, the Board recommended the additional exports of
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66.3 TCF on the grounds that it estimated total Canadian proven at 54.0 TCF and total reserves foreseeable Canadian requirements at 35.6 TCF plus outstanding export contracts of 12.0 TCF, leaving a surplus to Canadian and export requirements of 6.4 TCF. This was cutting it pretty close but as Kierans explains it, ‘ . . . the Board then went on to say that the historical gross additions to reserves had averaged 3.5 TCF per year and this could be projected into the future.” The Cabinet approved the applications but were not told that the Board’s figures were based entirely on the estimate provided by the same companies that were applying for the export licences, in the first place. And now, a few years after these applications were approved, the NEB has found itself having to turn down <renewal requests on the grounds that Canada no longer has a surplus of gas and that we are not reaching the industry projected discovery rate of 3.5 TCF per year. Indeed the Alberta Energy Resources Conservation Board was forced to revise estimates of existing established Alberta reserves downward by 2.4 TCF, at the end of 1972. The vast, enormous gas available for export from the far north, that Trudeau was talking about as late as last december, to date has amounted to only about 7 TCF of-proven reserves! And/ what is the industry talking about at the present time?- Well, lnow they are busy justifying the pipeline down the MacKenzie Valley Corridor by arguing that Canadians ‘need that pipeline because we wiII be short of gas by 1979! And. we wiII if we ,continue to export our rapidly ,depleting resources at the current rate. . The MacKenzie Valley pipeline is, as Kierans points out, essentially a scheme by which Ca&d&ns wiII help to finance with their savings a pipeline costing approximately $8 billion that will transport Alaskan gas to American consumers. With proven gas reserves in Alaska estimated at 32 TCF and Canadian Delta gas at 7 TCF, fully 82 per cent of ‘the gas flowing through the ‘pipeline will be Americanand 18 per cent will be ‘Canadian. Section 17 of the act‘which created the NEB, allows the, Board to ‘review, rescind, change, alter or vary’ any decision made by it. Clearly it is in the national interest to bring a halt to the massive resource ‘sellouts’ which’ will compromise the futures of generations of Canadians by integrating them and their country ever more thoroughly into the American empire. However, rejection of any further americanization of Canada implies a commitment to an independent economic and political course of action, designed to retain the surplus wealth created by Canadians. The affinity of Canadian political leaders heave ’ -demonstrated in the past and continue _ to show at the present time for large scale resource developments that are almost entirely in the interest of the United States, does not harbour welI for the cfuture’. Fundamental decisions are about to be made which wi.lI decide the future course of Canadian society. To proceed with the planned resource developments wilI lead to almost total economic and political integration with -the United States. The resultant influx of foreign _ capital into the country will cause an appreciation of the dollar, higher interest rates, even greater inflation and more unemployment. The environmental destruction which will result from The James Bay Project and The MacKenzie Valley pipeline in particular, will ‘muse disruption, of the traditional way of life of the native peoples and foist a wage .economy upon them.. , 1‘ -And m,the:end for-‘their pains, .~’ Canadians wilI.continue to be ‘hewers of . wood and drawers of water’, their ” country an effective hinterland at the service of the great American . Metropolis.
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Pub with Stringband. 9-l evening campus centre pub area. Free.
in
TUESDAY Paralegal Assistance offers free nonprofessional legal advice. 2-5 pm, CC 106 or phone 885-0840. FRIDAY Baha’i fireside. Everyone 7:30 pm. HUM 248.
welcome.
lxthus coffee house in its second season of free admission, coffee, speech, and love. 9-12 in the ML coffee shop: j Pub with David Bradstreet. 9-l evening in campus centre pub area. Eckankar-lecture on the ancient science of soul travel. Free. 8pm cc 113
Federation Flicks-Gangbusters No. 12. Steelyard Blues with Jane Fonda, Don Sutherland & Keep’em Flying; Abbot and Costello. 8pm AL 116. SATURDAY Pub with David Bradstreet. 9-l evening in campus centre pub area. Federation Flicks-Gangbusters No. 12. Steelyard Blues with Jane Fonda and Don Sutherland. Keep’em Flying with Abbot and Costello. 8pm AL.116
SUNDAY
.
Paralegal Assistance-final meeting of term, to discuss the future operation of organization. 7:30pm. CC 135. Federation Flicks--Gangbusters No. 12. Steelyard Blues with Jane Fonda and Don Sutherland. Keep’em Flying with Abbot and Costello. 8pm AL116. MONDAY Pa&legal Assistance offers free nonprofessional advice. 7-10 pm. CC 106 or phone 885-0840.
Exhibition of drawings and prints by Peter McLay. Open 2-5 pm amd 7-10 pm. Faculty Club.
The China Story. One fourth of humanity by Edgar Snow. 8pm Renison rm 43. ,
Contract Bridge. Partnerships arranged. Free coffee. 7:30 135.
Gay Liberation has special events. For more information call ext 2372 or drop into the office. CC 217C.
Sale of works by fine arts Hum 3rd floor.
Kitchener Public Library _Jazz Club. Topic: Stan Kenton and Maynard Ferguson by Bob Putchard. 8pm. Kitchener Public Library. Sale of works by fine arts Hum 3rd floor. ’
can bepm. CC students.
Meeting of the Morgentaler Defense Committee. 7:30 pm. AL 207. Pub with Stringband. campus centre. Free.
students.
9-l
pm
in
WEDNESDAY Paralegal Assistance professional advice. or phone 885-0840.
offers free non2-5 pm. CC 106
Sale of works by fine arts Hum 3rd floor.
students.
Free introductory lecture scendental meditation, welcome. 8pm IMC 2065.
on traneveryone
Amateur Radio club meeting. New members always welcome. 4: 30 pm E2-2355. Zionism and Arab Revolution Speaker: Al Cappe. 8 pm AL 209. Sponsored by the Young Socialists. Pub,featuring Stringband. campus centre. Free.
9-l
pm in
THURSDAY Preparatory lecture on Transcendental Meditation. 8pm MC 2065. Transportation Needs Task Force of the Social Planning Council of KW public meeting. Task force is inviting information and recommendations regarding special transportation needs of elderly, handicapped ; persons on low or fixed incomes, volunteers and community workers and students. For more info 5787430. 8pm. Cameron Heights Collegiate Rm F-338, Kitchener. Celebration of tie holy euchartst. 7 :45 am chapel, renison college Paralegal assistance professional advice. or phone 885-0840.
offers free non7-10pm. CC 106
Federation Flicks. Bride of Frankenstein and Play It As It Lays with Tuesday Weld and Anthony Perkins. 8pm ALlriG. Pubwith Stringband again tonight. 9-l in the evening. Free in the campus centre pub area. A whole new outlook on you and the universe! Come and discover how you fit into God’s perfect plan Christian Science informal group testimony meeting. 7:30 pm SSC 301. Life drawing class. Everyone welcome. 25 cents. Sponsored by the Fine Arts Guild. 7pm Hum 386.
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Sale of works by fine arts Hum 3rd floor.
students.
Classified
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Will write essays to order, Social Sciences and Humanities, GuaranteedB. Phone Ian, 743-5682: FOR SALE 1971 Honda 450, helmets, rainsuit, $950. Phone Glen, 884-8241. Konica S2 automatic 35mm rangefiner camera with case, battery. Excellent condition. Only $65. 885-0656. Austin Mini shop manual, all .models, half price at $7.50. Phone Keith at 884-6844.
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Emilpass student flights Euror>e. car rentals. tour;, akd hostels.
Also:
AOSC/44 Association
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St. George of Student
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to Europe international
and within ID cards.
Street, Toronto . Councils
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Typist swivel chair, typewriter tables, office chairs, oakchairs, small metal desk, oak stool, oak hat stand. Phone 653-1787.
Prices
MGB sportscar for rent for summer. Also new colour and ‘a black and white TV. Ext 3621 or 3963. Total expertise in all areas of knowledge. Don’t let those nagging problems get you down-love is not the answer. Instead, try KnowltAIl Consultants, the dependable people you can depend on to be depended upon. Phone 743-5682 for immediate help. Guitar-Les finish--only case-$400.
Paul deluxe-sunburst six months old-with Steve 7445129.
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Dial .‘M’ for, Monopoly Bell telephone
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Bell Canada’s governmental watchdog seems to spend . most of its time Electric, Bell’s snoozing. . . Northern wholly-owned subsidiary is, like its parent, a de facto monopoly; Unlike Bell, however,’ it is virtually free of even nominal government regulation. On these pages, Robert Chodos and Drummond ’ Burgess reveal how this situation came about, ,and how it fits North American into the larger framework. The article is reprinted from Last Post, and the graphics are by Tony Jenkins.
The grey, nondescript, vaguely modern head office of Northern Electric on Montreal’s Dor-“ Chester Boulevard is a strange venue for American wheeler-dealer John Cunningham Lobb. Pushed off to the periphery of the city’s downtown business core, the building seems to symbolize a company’ that is staid, old-fashioned and far removed from the centre of action in t*he skyscrapers a few blocks down the street. And the symbolism was apt for the old paternalistic Bell Canada subsidiary in the summer of 1971. So when John Lobb was moved in to administer the company as president in June of that year, everyone knew that Bell Canada wanted something to happen. Northern’s executives began to worry about their jobs and nervously assured themselves they had done all they could; financial analysts began to speculate about a company whose existence had scarcely seemed worthy of their time; the business pages of the newspapers suddenly found space for interviews and think-pieces. For the new American boss had quite a record. As executive vice-president of the multinational
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conglomerate International Telephone and Telegraph,, he had worked closely with ITT chief Harold Geneen, a man not given to letting anyone, even governments foreign or domestic, stand in the way of his takeovers (Last Post, Vol. 3, Not 4). Lobb had also plied his trade with Chicago financier J. Patrick Lannan, with California’s Norton Simon, who owns Hunt’s Foods and Canada Dry, with the Crucible Steel division of Colt Industries, and with the arcane world of Wall Street investment banking. Northern’s nervous managers did not have long to wait. Within days of moving in, Lobb ordered all Northern divisions to switch to the standing orders he had used at ITT and elsewhere. In booklet form, and titled “Increase Profits by Cutting Sales”, the orders were simple-but bad news for executives trained to think in terms of service, tradition and job !protection down the line. As Lobb explained in his covering letter, “at Crucible Steel we reduced the grades of tool steel from 108 to 34 over a two-year period. Sales in that division dropped 18 per cent, But because we were so much more efficient, profits increased 15 per cent. . . After_two years we were able to cut prices and get 20 per cent more of the total market at a larger profitbecause of efficiency. Obviously Northern can do the same as ITT’s telecommunications divisionincrease profits by eliminating unprofitable sales.” The idea, Lobb explained, had worked for ITT in 32 nations and 183 divisions. Much of this was to be accomplished by cutting’ out products, closing assembly lines, selling ‘factories and getting rid of inventory. But the booklet pointedly noted that this also meant getting rid of people: “Overhead is caused by people, who tend to multiply faster as profits
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drop. Production cutbacks must be accompanied by lay-offs at every level.” It emphasized that “until management makes it emphatically clear that we are in business only to make a profit, no aFtion will result .” And it goes on to say that “under the threat of closing plants down, or at least substantial lay-offs, we get the drive needed for the future. And usually from within the division itself we can find people who can carry out the program. I believe that adversity is healthy because it forces action not taken in good times .” ‘Ihe booklet is as near being a’! bible of pure capitalism as one is likely to -find these days, and Lobb expresses amazement that over the past 20 years he has found so much fuzzy thinking on this subject in his travels through the industrialized world. But there had been no fuzzy thinking at ITT, there had been no fuzzy thinking at Crucible Steel, and there was going to be no more fuzzy thinking at Northern Electric or the axe was going to swing, at manager and worker alike. (At least one top Northern executive would have no trouble adjusting to the ways of ITT, for Ewart Orville Bridges, who had been Executive VicePresident for ITT Latin America Inc. and VicePresident of ITT Telecommunications, had *already signed on at Northern by the time Lobb moved into the executive suite.) But of course there was going to be more to the new order than cutbacks. The John Lobbs of this world don’t waste their time in dull, snow-bound countries trying to make a few mpre bucks for Bell Canada by cutting out an unprofitable telephone model. And everyone knew back in 1971 that a man used to New York, London-and Paris wasn’t coming in to let Northern settle for Montreal and Toronto. Lobb had never been bashful about telling
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people what he was good at: “I was brought up at IT&T. I was responsible for 20 acquisitions”. SO the rumours began to fly that Bell Canada had ordered Northern to get out on -its own, get as far away as possible . from the restrictions of operating in one country, and go multinational, with an especially big pitch for the U.S. market. And the rumours were right. On October 19, 1971_ Lobb sent his chief subordinates his objectives for 1971-72. Some main points: “Plan products and systems for complete -North American Continental salability”, and ‘ ‘Design for all, North America, including Trans -Canada, wherever practical”, and “Create corporate co-ordinate all marketing organization . ,-. to marketing in U.S. and Canada.” In the U.S., sales offices were to be set up, U.S. subsidiaries were to be acquired, assembly operations were to get -under way. In March 1972 Lobb explained in the Northern News that Canada was small potatoes in a world of giants like the U.S., the European Common Market, Russia and Japan. It was time to get out of the playpen and into a bed where there was some action. “ On February 18 1972,” wrote Lobb, “Eric Kierans, former Minister of Communications, recommended that Canadian companies should move into the U.S. and buy into American companies. We thoroughly agree with this, and have -been studying possible acquisitions for a number of months. It is the only really fast way to break into a vast new market.” * In Lobb’s view “we will sell wherever there is a market. The biggest market, the lowest tariff is to be found in the U.S. Our entire product line is designed for North American network. . . There are- more telephone lines -in New York or California alone than in Africa, South East Asia and the Middle East combined. If you want exports, do you go to the biggest, closest, most profitable market? Of course.” There might have seemed to be a problem in continentalizing Northern. Bell Canada and Northern had once been owned by American Telephone and Telegraph (AT&T-no relation to ITT) a’nd Western Electric in the U.S., and the companies were still kissin’ cousins. But there was a natural solution. As a result of an involved legal hassle with the IJ .S. government, Western Electric is restrained from selling to companies‘ not under AT&T’s wing. And these “independents” are 17 per cent of the U.S. market, and hence more than twice the size of the Canadian market. Since AT&T and Western couldn’t try to pick off these substantial leftovers themselves, their kissin’ cousin up north might as well come down and see what it , could do. Lobb has now had two and a half years to begin carrying out his orders, -and the results, if not earth-shattering, are at least impressive. Continued expansion at the same rate will, by L980 or 1985, make Northern a full-scale multinational, with its Canadian operation probably becoming something of an afterthought.. An overall subsidiary called Northern Telecom has been established in the U.S.‘with head office in Boston to m&ufacture and market telecommunications equipment. It already operates a telephone assembly plant at Port Huron, Michigan, and is expanding it. New plants are being built at Butner, North Carolina and Mountain View, California to produce electronic switching systems and private branch exchanges. Sales offices have been set up in New York, Florida, Texas, Illinois and California, Northeast Electronics Corporation in New Hampshire has been bought out and money is being pumped in to to expand its manufacture of transmission test equipment and automatic testing systems. Further abroad, Northern owns a plant in Turkey that makes switching equipment, power supplies and switchboards and telephone sets. Last year it set up a manufacturing plant in the European Common Market, choosing Ireland because of the tempting concessions offered by that country’s government. As well,’ it has concluded a licensing agreement with .Britain’s large Plessey group. And it has cracked part of the market for domestic satellites in the U.S.
But while all the fascinating acquisitions and - expansions abroad were taking place, things were not looking quite as rosy back in Canada from the viewpoint of Northern’s employees. John Lobb’s philosophy does not include letting people stand in the way of higher profits, and as his directives made clear after he was brought in to shake up Northern, people, as well as unprofitable products, were going to get chopped. He had been brought in not to continue but to end the old Northern paternalism that stressed the idea of
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one, big, happy family with job protection and promotion from the ranks. In September 1972, during the last federal election campaign, NDP leader David Lewis charged that Northern had, during the previous year and a half, laid off 4,826 workers. Northern replied blandly that “the figures he quotes are accurate, but they have been public information for some time”, At the same time, Lewis said, Northern had received $26 million in government grants, supposedly to create jobs. Workers in Quebec and Ontario were the hardest hit by the layoffs. A joint protest by locals of the United the Communications Electrical, Workers, Workers and the United Auto Workers charged that, in the case of the 25 percent of all nonsupervisory employees for whom they were speaking, employment had been cut back 35 percent in 16 months. <They noted that this was happening at the same time that Northern was launching its big expansion to set up plantsaud jobs-in the United States and charged the company with exporting Canadian jobs. As-an example of the new Northern’s spirit, the unions pointed to the intriguing example of the company’s Kingston plant. In 1970, Northern was given a $500,000 grant by the Ontario government for a factory that would create 820 jobs in two years. When the Ontario Trade and Development Minister of the time, Stanley Randall, was asked why a giant like BellNorthern needed forgivable loans, he replied: “What are you going to do-give it to a guy who makes yo-yo strings? When the two years were up, the’job total had never got past 200, and layoffs elsewhere were proceeding apace. Yo-yo strings might have been better for Kingston after all. But John Lobb had never claimed that he was in business to make jobs. He had developed his reputation as a “bottom-line man”-aspecialist in getting a good result in the last row of the financial statement, the. profit-and-loss row. And the bottom line was doing very well indeed. In 1970 Northern’s profit had been $4 million. During Lobb’s first year on the job, it jumped to almost $13 million; in 1972 it reached $20 million; and it was $20 million during the ‘-first nine months of 1973. If the Lobb strategy paid off in future years, even these figures would look small. Although its easy to talk about putting profits before people, and about putting multinational expansion before Canadian jobs, it is not always possible to control the consequences. Workers do, belong to unions, and unions do go on strike to protect their interests, and in the spring and early summer of last year a rash of walkouts swept Northern plants, adding up to what Lobb called “the most expensive strike in Northern history .” ‘l’he strike strengthened the determination of Northern’s president to shake the company loose from its old foundations and, as far as possible, to shake it loose from Canada itself. In two letters to his Division Presidents as the strike drew to a close, Lobb outlined his plans. In the first letter, on July 9, he spent most of his time discussing what might seem to be a normal and proper role for managemen&better co-operation with-labour. But he ehded on an \ / ominous note: “Even if everything discussed here is done and done well, we cannot again be faced with the problem of complete loss of production, regar- dless of how hard we work at improving labour relations. Just as God is on the side of heavy artillery, good labour relations are improved by a strong company program of diversification of production. “We have already started planning a massive program of decentralization of factories across Canada, much more subcontracting, and a stepped up program of having plenty of production in Europe and the United States in case of future problems. In the meantime, start working at your job of creating the best labour force in North America.” Already, the heavy artillery was taking steps to make sure it had God on its side. In a second letter, Lobb informed his division presidents that “in addition to the normal analysis of priorities of capital investment, we have a new one: labour relations. We will hereafter place great emphasis on the labour climate before we invest new capital. With this criterion, it is necessary to look at each new location as a desirable or undesirable citrfor investment .” Lobb noted that there was a strike at London, Ontario every three years. His conclusion: “Absolutely on the bottom of the list for any future capital.” In the case of Kingston, where Northern had once got that forgivable loan for jobs it never created, the verdict was just as
harsh:, “Plant should be sold if a buyer could be found.” He was a little more hopeful about -Belleville, but not much, concluding: “Main markets outside Canada, no capital should be spent here .” . Turning to Quebec, Lobb ‘declared that the company’s decision to expand in Montreal had been ungratefully greeted by a strike, and that there was a strong chance of in&eased union militancy. The result: “Every effort must be made to hold capital to absolute minimum.” From now on, ‘the company was ordered to decentralize across Canada wherever there was a better, i.e. more submissive, labour climate. Factories in problem areas should be “put together with baling wire and gradually phased out.” Plants were not to be planned for a life of more than ‘20 years, and should preferably be leased. They should be low-cost and utilitarian. “In a bad labour climate,” Lobb ordered, “capital should pay off in 24 months after tax (emphasis in original). If not don’t ask for it. In acceptable labour climate, 3 to 4 years. If capital can’t be recovered in that time, it is better to take advantage-of record short term yields available in the money market. We are in the fastest growing big-industry in the world. There are lots of places to put capital. The Directors will decide on the basis of the most favourable return, best labour climate, best market potential.” This was an extraordinary decision. Not that anyone would want to predict that it was beyond the skills of a man with John Lobb’s past record. In some earlier times to have visions of profits, after tax, on that scale might have been called megalomania, but such returns are within the reach of the hot money boys of the 1970s. And if the pursuit of money in ever ascending spirals had lost contact with the pursuit of first-rate products to provide essential service, who any longer cared? And so John Lobb’s plans to turn Northern into a miniature ITT had intensified with the company going multinational beca_use that’s where the markets and the money were. Staid, tradition-minded Northern was joining the big time, using fly-by-night factories, held together with baling wire and staffed with easily replaceable labour to make the fast bucks roll in. Northern Electric’s multinational ambitions are extraordinary enough in themselves. But theyare even more extraordinary when they are viewed in the context of the widespread and powerful corporate web of which Northern forms a part. Northern’s parent, Bell Canada, is the largest corporation in the country. Until a recent decision to sell shares to the public, Northern was wholly owned by Bell; when the share offering has been taken up, Bell will still hold 90 per cent. Now Bell is not a company like others. Its position in this country and its relationship with the government in Ottawa are approximated by
Although it is easy to talk about putting profits before people, and about putting multinational exp&asion before Canadian jobs, it is not always possible to cantrol the consequences. Workers do belong to unions, and unions do go on strike to protect their interests, and in the spring and early summer of last year, a rash ‘of ‘walkouts in northern plants added up to “the most expensive strike in.- Northern’s history”. those of only one other. corporation-the Canadian Pacific Railway. It is that strange hybrid ,of modern capitalism, the regulated corporation, depending for its annual profit ($181 million in 1973) on its ability to convince the government’s regulatory body, ‘the Canadian Transport Commission, that it should be allowed to charge Zhe rates it wants and continue to receive the return on investment to which it has become accustomed. The Bell rate hearings, virtually an annual event in the last five years or so, have become a Canadian ritual comparable to the Grey Cup, the Quebec Winter Carnival or vacations in Miami. Every year a patch of Bell lawyers and executives goes up to Ottawa and argues that the company to carry out it construction program and maintain its high standard of service, it will need a rate increase. The governments of Ontario and Quebec, the provinces in which Bell operates, generally argue against it, as do an assortment of private citizens brave enough to take on the giant. The CTC then deliberates and. ends \up ‘granting Bell most if not all of what it wants. ’ It is only-rarely that Bell faces-any difficulty at
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all with this procedure. current series of rate ca about a third of what 1 that it could improve j its flagging subsidiary hiring of Lobb and th thern followed soon a suggest they were a d More recently, the review a 1973 CTC det request and postponed while it studied the rn: the substance of the C’ down an increase in hc charges. The 1974 application distinguish it from Ap year, has attracted mc interest, perhaps a sigr the repeated rate incre citizen interventions 1 stream: a hundred ar thirteen interventions i Public Interest Law, Nader-style group challengedwithout SC even hear another Bell the last increase. One of the main issue Bell rate hearings is the telephone company anI year, the Quebec gover: Bell customers may be operations of Northern practice of treating the subsidiary as separate ( each other should be rej corporation is a curious more curious still: it i with a large unregulat The Bell-Northern CC gone unchallenged. In Northern’s competitor field, Industrial Wire plication with the Bc missioners, predecessor Bell’s ownership of No of Bell’s charter. Indu section of the Compan Special Act company fi other company unless do so by its act of incor Act company. The relevant sectic corporation says shall. . .have power an any arrangements wit1 possessing as proprietc or telephonic communic communication by me; become a shareholder i The usual vagueness here by the circumstanc in 1880, before the tele begun to take shape. Wire, the purpose of restrict Bell to the teleI same time allow Bell to in its hands. In other that Bell should be allo another telephone corny telephonic communicat more than a pair of .otherwise Bell could s( company, even a totalk it would be allowed to 01 Which, with North1 happened. Back in Manufacturing, one of t to Northern Electric telephone line consist running from the Nor%1 to‘ Bell’s head office. 1 president of Bell v challenge came up and I of Lboth Bell and Nort BTC: “The location of thi: changed from time, 1 facilities. For some ye; been located between Belmont Street in MC manufacturing premis Company Limited on Sl Our records show that cable between these tagged as the proper Company Limited,” The cable was own exchanges to which tht owned by Bell. The val long, was approxin
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> 0.000005 per cent of Northern’s total assets. Northern owned no other telephone lines. But. the BTC ruled, in a January 1964 judgement, that the 19,000 feet of wire constituted a “line of telephonic communication” under the meaning of the act of incorporation, and that Bell’s ownership of Northern was hence legal. Furious, Industrial Wire and Cable tried to appeal to the Supreme Court, which refused to hear the case. An appeal to the cabinet was also rejected . In 1967, Bell came before parliament to have its charter amended. The amendments it requested would not only have buttressed the shaky legal foundation of its ownership of Northern, but would also have permitted Bell’s direct entry into i i.
[n 1969, in the first of the es, the CTC granted only lell requested, suggesting s income by sprucing up Northern Electric. The drastic changes in Nor,er this; some observers rect result. government decided to sion to grant a Bell rate approval for three months. ter. It eventually upheld ‘C decision, but it turned ne telephone installation . dubbed Application B to blication A approved last re than the usual public of growing resentment of Lses. The usual trickle of 1s grown to a fair-sized 1 ten as compared with 1973. And the Centre for , Montreal-based, .Ralph )f maverick lawyers, :cess- the CTC’s right to application so soon after
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telephone line ‘has been f ’ course, as have the rs now, however, it has lur company’s plant at ltreal and the principal s of Northern Electric earer Street, in Montreal. there are two wires in a oints which have been y of Northern Electricsd by Bell. The private line was connected were meof the wire, 19,000 feet ’ stely $l,OOO-roughly -.
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practice,. the government commissions, both in Canada and in the United States, often become apologists for the companies they are supposed to be policing. But the. relationship between Bell Canada and Northern, or between AT&T and Western, adds a further twist. Northern, for instance, is virtually the sole supplier of equipment to Bell Canada; -although Northern spokesmen claim that-the company is subject to stiff competition in selling its products to Bell, the amount of equipment that Bell actually buys from other companies is, understandably, small. like Bell, is effectively a Thus Northern, monopoly in its field. Unlike Bell, Northern is not subject to regulation. The rates Bell can charge its customers at least have to be approved by the CTC. The prices Northern can charge Bell and its other customers do not. At best, the CTC sometimes shows an avuncular interest in the way -Northern .is being run; under the present arrangement, there is little -more it can do. The backbone of a virtually guaranteed and unregulated $300-million-a-year business with Bell gives Northern a substantial competitive -head start in any other activity it might undertake. In his 1971 book The Telecommunications Industry: Integration vs. Competition, Manley Irwin, now with the U.S. government’s AT&T _ task force in Washington, argued that the ,
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EXCAL'l0uR ? fields quite unrelated to operating telephones. There were strenuous objections, from Industrial Wire and Cable and other sources, and the Commons transport and communications committee eventually amended the bill to take out some of the most objectionable clauses. Bell was permitted to enter the more’ general field of telecommunications, but was restricted in its ownership of manufacturing companies .- The revised charter prohibited it from owning any manuTacturing company except one that was “a subsidiary of the Company on the date on which this Act comes into -force.” The exception was significant - it meant that the -ownership of Northern was within the law. Beyond the question of whether Bell is allowed to own Northern is the question of whether it should be allowed to own it. The effects of ownership“by a telephone operating company of a manufacturing subsidiary have gone largely unexamined in Canada; but have received much more attention in the United States, a country with a more substantial-tradition of trust-busting and anti-monopoly sentiment. Western Electric in the U.S. maintains much the same relationship with its parent, the American Telephone and Telegraph Corporation (the holding company for the U.S. Bell system), as does Northern with Bell Canada-although Western has had more restrictions placed on it than has Northern. The
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disadvantages of “vertical integration” between a telephone operating company and its manufacturing supplier far outweigh the advantages claimed for it. In a jointly-written chapter, Irwin and Bill Melody, a Canadian now teaching at the University of Pennsylvania, say that “vertical integration of a public utility seems to extend all the defects of utility regulation into the equipment market with no obvious compensating advantages. “It tends to create monopoly power in an unregulated market; it tends to weaken the effectiveness of regulation in the service market;it provides the -firm with an enormous array of strategies for counteracting the intended effects of regulatory policies that conflict with the firm’s objectives. But integration --does 1 more: it disrupts, not to say perverts, the incentives of the captive supplier. The supplier assumes the stance of a public utility, endowed neither with the accountability of a franchise monopolist nor the accountab\ility of a firm exposed to direct competition .” Irwin favours requiring AT&T to get rid of its interest in Western, (and, by implication, forcing Bell Canada to get rid of its interest in Northern). Back in 1949, that was also the view of the Truman administration in the United States. It filed an antitrust suit that would have forced AT&T to divest itself of Western and broken Western up into three separate competing companies. The case dragged on for years. Lt was finally settled out of court with a-consent decree on January. 25, 1956, leaving AT&T’s ownership of Western intact. By this time the presidency had passed from Truman to Eisenhower and the government’s zeal in combating the forces of monopoly had waned. The- consent decree was a landmark in American antitrust policy and its effects are still being felt. For years afterward it was the subject of Congressional hearings and reports in which evidence of AT&T influence was produced and the justice department and especially AttorneyGeneral Herbert Brownell came in for severe criticism for their leniency. More recently it has served -as a useful point of comparison for the forbearance of the 1971 decision, made after presidential intervention of a suspect nature, to allow Lobb’s old company, ITT,-to proceed with its takeover of the Hartford Insurance company. The main thing AT&T was required to do as a result of the consent decree was to free thousands of patents and license them without royalties to competitors; this’ was intended to loosen the company’s control of telephone technology. It was also restricted to the communications field, and Western was correspondingly restricted to manufacturing for that field. ’ However the wider effect of that consent decree was to make Western pretty well exclusively the manufacturer for AT&T. Even close observers of the U.S. telephone industry are not sure whether this was a negotiated item between the justice department and AT&T that was never made public or whether AT&T made the decision on its own after gauging how --the climate had been changed by the consent decree. At any rate, in 1957, Western sold a 34-percent interest in Northern Electric to Bell Canada, bringing- Bell Canada’s share of Northern to/90 percent and reducing Western’s share to 10 percent; this last chunk was gradually transferred to Bell Canada until it was sole owner. Even more important for Northern, Western released the stranglehold it had had on that company’s technology. Up until the late 195Os, Northern was almost exclusively a Canadian manufacturer for designs produced by Western in the United States. According to former Northern president V .O. Marquez, the consent decree “effectively throttled the flow of design, technological know-how and IIcomponents ‘-from Western Electric in the U.S. to Northern Electric in Canada. Northern, without! warning, faced a crisis that many Canadian companies could face at any time: to survive we had to produce our own designs, introduce our own products, -develop our own technology. It was a costly trauma from ’ which we have not yet completely recovered. “‘Because Canadian industry had notdeveloped a demand for men with the new skills we needed, we had to import many of our scientists, engineers and designers. We soon learned. . . that the costs of design and innovation were such that we could no longer survive on the domestic market alone but, with our first steps-- into the world marketplace, we began to face undreamed of problems .” As we have seen, Northern’s steps into the world marketplace _were to be largely in the
relationship between the Canadian complex and its American counterpart involves more than analogy; we will get to that a little further on.i The theory of regulated utilities goes like this: certain fields of economic endeavour, such as running railways, airlines or telephone systems, are natural monopolies or near-monopolies, Now since monopoly, even in strict capitalist terms, is an ugly word, it is deemed wise that something be done about companies operating in these fields (short of nationalizing them, if at all possible). So these companies are allowed to operate as monopolies, but under regulation: a government commission keeps a sharp eye on them to make sure that the public interest is protected. At least that is what happens in theory. In
3 that gets brought up at. relationship between the Northern Electric.’ This ment has suggested that ndirectly subsidizing the Electric, and that Bell’s parent company and the ntities with no relation to cted. For if the regulated hybrid, Bell is something a regulated corporation d subsidiary. nnection has not always the early 1960s one of in the wire and cable and Cable, filed an apud of Transport Comof the CTC, arguing that thern violated the terms trial-wire pointed to a :s Act which prohibits a )m owning shares in any specifically authorized to loration. Bell is a Special 1 of Bell’s act of inhat “the Company I authority to enter into any person or company *, any line of telegraphic tion, or any power to use ns of telephone. . .or to L any such corporation.” If legalese is compounded ! that the act was written Ihone industry had even But, argued Industrial he clause was clear: to . lone business; and at the consolidate that business vords, the clause meant red to own shares only in my. The phrase “Line of !on” clearly referred to elephone wires, it said; 1 a pair of wires to any unrelated one, and then n shares in it. m, is essentially what 1890s Northern the ie predecessor companies bought from Bell a lg of a pair of wires, ern Manufacturing plant ,obert Scrivener, a vicehen Industrial Wire’s 3w chairman of the board lern, testified before the
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direction of the independent market in the United States. This was another result of the consent decree. Before the decree, and for some years afterward, Western was a supplier to the independents; however, it gradually got rid of its operations in that area. As with the sale of Northern, the consent decree contained nothing explicit dictating such a move, but directly or indirectly it had some effect. There is/one more factor in Northern’s expansion into the U.S. independent market, and that is the implicit blessing of AT&T. We have described AT&T and Bell Canada as kissin’ ’ cousins, but that perhaps understates the in-, timacy of the family relationship. Actual AT&T ownership of Bell Canada is in the neighbourhood of two percent, having declined from many times1 that figure. Bell Canada spokesmen &y to pooh-pooh any close connections between their con$any and AT&T, implying that people who presume to say anything about’ the telephone industry should know better. In fact some of the people who are most emphatic in saying that Bell Canada is effectively controlled by AT&T are people who know very well indeed. “It almost looks as if Bell Canada is getting its marching orders from AT&T,” says Bill Melody ’ of the University of Pennsylvania’s Annenberg School of Communications. “The relationship is. so close that it would be no different if AT&T owned Bell Canada 100 per cent.” One Ottawa civil servant whose position brings him into contact with Bell Canada says that when the president of AT&T gives a speech of any significance that is not for public consumption, Bell Canada is provided with a copy of it if there is not actually a. Bell Canada representative present while the speech is being made. He adds that this “goes deeper than simple working relationships .” G.D. Zimmerman, then president of Industrial Wire and Cable, testified on the same theme back on November 16,1967: “If we reduce our concept of what is Canadiancontrolled to share ownership, I think we are missing the hard core of what makes an economic enterprise such as BellNorthern or Industrial Wire or Phillips Cables ‘or anything operate. Bell Telephone has statistically a 95 per cent Canadian share ownership but the concentration of power in the AT&T holding in Bell is completely adequate, for practical purposes, to control that’company if they wish to exercise it. “Their t hold on the technical expertise, the licensing -agreements, the Bell standards, give them an absolutely controlled position. As to the manufacturing philosophy, when they are going to bring in a product, these companies are interlocked at so many levels of design, manufacture and finance that I think we are departing from the harsh realities of the business w.orld to say that this is a separate Canadiancontrolled and -run company. I for one do not buyit .I’ Melody suggests that if Northern really wanted to develop a market for itself it could come down to Washington and testify before the Federal Communications Commission that the AT&T Market in the United Statesshould be opened up to competition. He made that , suggestion to some Northern executives once; _ their reaction, he says, was one of “horror.” As a loyal member of the family, Northern wasn’t going to do anything to displease Grandma. -According to the Ottawa civil servant ‘quoted - above, Northern, Western and ITT operate as a cartel, with ITT (i-n its telephone operations although not of course in its diverse other interests) agreeing to stay out of North America, with Western confined to the AT&T market in the United States, and Northern operating in * Canada and having a free rein in the American independent market. He adds that the close ties’ “‘-between AT&T and Bell Canada extend in lesser degree to all telephone companies in North I America, that there is in fact a continental approach to running telephone sysytems, dominated by AT&T. One area where AT&T thinking has prevailed is the telephone. industry’s unique pricing policy. ,It is an accepted business truth that the more of your product you sell the lower the price at which you sell each individual unit; “economies of scale” is one of the catch-phrases of our time. Not in the telephone business. Telephone c companies in Canada and the United States determine their rates for a city or town by the number oftelephones in the local calling area; the greater number of telephones, the higher the rates. Thus Bell was recently able to hike rates in Toronto when that city became the first in Canada to have more than two million telephones.
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The company has even resorted to gerrymandering local calling areas and promoting free installation of extension phones to increase the number of telephones. This policy, first developed by the Bell system, is now equally firmly entrenched in the rate structures of non-Bell companies, including the provincially-owned telephone companies on the prairies. _-Ironically, the area in which Bell Canada hab been most independent is the one in which has historically been Canadian dependence deepest: research and development. Be& Northern Research (owned 51-percent directly by Bell Canada and 49-percent by Northern), develops products independently from Bell Labs in the U.S. and can boast some major successes, notably the SP-1 switching system. BNR also refused to share Bell Labs’ enthusiasm for development of the picturephone: with potenql sales of picturephones still extremely limited, it looks as if BNR may have been correct. “There’s much more independence shown in Bell-Northern’ research than in Bell Canada itself,” says our ‘Ottawa civil servant. On the whole, however, it is a harmonious picture, with Bell and non-Bell companies and _ governments in Canada and the United States acting in cancer%. Although Bell influence with public bodies has ensured-regulatory and judicial favour in both countries over the years, the telephone industry has never developed quite the freewheeling style in its relations with government that characterizes the newer giants such as ITT. “Old, conservative, Republican money,” is the way one observer describes the ownership of AT&T. A comfortable, rather creaky industry, its
New developments in. communications technology suggest opportunities for the company that make the mundane provision of telephone service look uninteresting by comparison. . . Bell has already bJown one such opportunity by not getting into cable television when it had the chance; it will pot t want to blow others in the future. profits rising slowly but steadily, its modest but not inconsiderable return on investment virtually guaranteed. ‘Or at least that’s the way it has been up until now. But vast changes are taking place in the communications industry of which the shake-up of Northern Electric is .only a small part. Early in this century, as the various electronic modes of communication developed, a series of corporate decisions and antitrust cases in‘ the United States restricted each company in the field to one mode. Western Union had the telegraph; AT&T built its near-monopoly of the telephone business; companies such as RCA developed radio and later television. .. But in the fifties and sixties the divisions between these different modes of communication began to break down. The new communications satellites could carry telephone, telegraph, radio and television messages, not to mention such things as computer signals. Furthermore, they involved space technology that had been developed by the Pentagon, ‘NASA and the aircraft companies. All of a sudden communications was a very crowded field, and also a very lucrative one. It was no longer either ,feasible or profitable for AT&T to stick to its cosy little monopoly of the telephoneindustry. Its logical field for expansion was one where it would-for the first time in two generations - face competition. ’ AT&T,-with Congressional help, was first off the mark with its Telstar communications satellite in 1962, but that didn’t/prevent Hughes Aircraft from getting its superior Syncom system into space. The U.S. Federal Communications Commission has now licensed five separate satellite systems. So far Canada has not gone in for competing communications systems, although it could still do so in future, particularly given the traditional Canadian tendency to do whatever is being done south of the border. The Canadian government’s telecommunicati’ons satellite program, Telesat , functions as a common carrier for the carriers, instead of allowing the, private companies to operate their own systems. Nevertheless, the advent of satellites and other new developments in communications technology have serious implications for Bell Canada. First, it means that the company has to recognize the possibility -of a competitive situation in the not too distant future. Second, it suggests opportunities for the company that
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’ make the mundane provision of telephone service look uninteresting by comparison; this underlay Be!sins’ is t ence on redefining itself as a “ telecommunications” company during its charter revision hearings in 1967 and 1968. Bell has already blown one such .opportunity by not getting into cable television when it still had the chance> it will not want to blow others in the future. Third, it opens up new possibilities on. the manufacturing side and makes Northern Electric a more valuable property than ever. Northern has received subcontracts from Hughes Aircraft for parts for the Canadian Telesat system; it also has orders for equipment for American telecommunications satellite systems. It is hard to say how important this will be to Northern as compared with its conventional telephone business, but it is clear that Bell has been intensely interested, in Northern over the last few years, perhaps more so than in the operating company itself. Bell relishes the reputation that its stock has as a “widows’ and orphans’ ” investment; to the extent that that reputation reflects reality, the company’s emphasis on Northern means that the . widows and orphans are getting a raw deal. A large part of Bell’s profits are being poured back into investment in Northern, to the detriment of the investors’ dividends; the small investor could probably do better by putting his money elsewhere. For the large investors-some of Canada’s major financial institutions, as well as AT&T-the ones who can afford to look at the big picture, it is of course a different matter. Northern’s decision to go public is significant in this regard. On the one hand, it provides a new method of raising capital for Northern as an alternative to the interminable Bell rate increases, which will surely have to come to an end at some point. On the other hand, it provides a means by which the manufacturing subsidiary will be protected if some gutsier government than the present one ever decides to nationalize Bell Canada. 1 Nationalization may \seem a remote possibility, but the position of regulated companies such as Bell is always a tricky one. Bell has been so successful at maintaining its position at least partly because it has managed to play off the federal government against the provinces: the telephone industry is one of those areas where authority is divided between the two levels of government to the detriment of consumers and the benefit of companies operating in the field. Bell Canada, which has the central Canadian market, is federally regulated, while telephone companies in most of Western Canada are provincially owned. If the federal government took over Bell, w,hat would the provinces think? Would the governments of Ontario and Quebec ever get together to do it? But if difficulties of this nature were worked out, nationalization might come under serious consideration. It has been suggested that if the circumstances were right, Bell might not be too upset at such a development, so long as it were able to keep Northern. Close observers of the telephone industry., such as our Ottawa civil servant, say that there is a certain internal logic to Bell’s rate increases; any government that was seriously interested in preventing further increases would have to move in the direction of , nationalization. If that happened, Bell would simply spin off Northern by selling its shares directly to the people who currently own Bell, and unload the operating company onto the government. All this is, of course, in the realm of possibility. But it is in the realm of reality that despite Bell’s compliance with the Canadian Transport Commission’s suggestion of a few years back that it get Northern moving, the phone company’s appetite for more revenues has not been satisfied. .‘Growth, higher profits and rate increases all have their own momentum. Bell will continue to need more money to keep stoking the fires. John Lobb’s strategy for Northern is having two seemingly contradictory effects. On the one hand public bodies are providingin the form of forgivable loans, federal policies designed to help Canadian multinationals, and CTC-approved Bell rate increases -much of the fuel for Northern’s expansion. On the other hand the course which Lobb is taking Northern is , bringing the entire Bell complex further outside the control pf effective public regulation. Current government policy allows these two things to happen simultaneously. The . telecommunications giants have taken some large steps in their own interests in the last few years. Public policy has a long way to go to catch up.
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One-bedroom apartment, summer term, fully furnished, $135 monthly, 17 Amos Ave. Apt. 2 744-3407. Townhouse to sublet May to Sept. 1974. 3-bedroom, beside plaza, swimming’pool. 510G Albert St. or call 884-6222. Rent negotiable. HOUSING AVAILABLE 4-bedroom townhouse-comple~ely furnished. Lakeshore Village. Will accommodate 4 or 5. $220. Call Brian, Vince, 884-8384. Sublet: May to Sept.,‘ partially furnished house near downtown Kitchener. 20-25 minutes to campus, 10 minutes to market. Rent negotiable, cheap. 125 Water St. N., 744-7665. Sublet May-August. partiallyfurn%hed.
Two-bedroom apt. Greenbriar, $195
monthly.
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Comfortably furnished one bedroom apartment with balcony, available May 1. Close to universities. $140. 745-8364. 3-room apt. available after April 1. No lease, renewable monthly. $90 mont’hly includes utilities. Fully furnished. 174 Moore Ave. S., Apt. 7, Waterloo. Call 744-7474, Bruce Ebanks, after 5-pm.
Whenyou~et 0Ur engineerm cr ree wherewilli t .g3 you? Will it take you from door to door for an opening? Searching for a to practice all that you’ve learned? We have openings. And we need your talents. With your degree you can-join the Canadian Forces as a Lieutenant. From then on your experience and q’ualifications can take you just about anywhere. You’ll work with some of the most sophisticated equipment in the-world. We offer you security, advancement, travel, a satisfying and fulfilling life where you can not only practice your skills, but do something worthwhile with them. .I- It all depends upon what you want to do with your degree. We have an answer. Think about it then talk to a Canadian Forces Recruiting Officer, or write for more information y to Box 8989, Ottawa, Canada. looking chance
GET INVOLVED WITH THE CANADIAN ARMED FORCES.
Former co-op student has 3-bedroom house toshare in Ottawa (Bank and Walkley) on good bus \route. $85 monthly and share food. Write to Jane Fordham,, 1258 Foxbar Ave., Ottawa. Large one-bedroom fully furnished apartment May-September. Utilities, utensils included. $120 _ monthly. Phone 884-4506. Two bedroom Apartment ( April-Sept) Hazel St. 2 minutes from ?arkdale Plaza, rent negotiable. 884-2644. Singles-summer term. Fully insulated, paneled. Fluorescent lighting over built-in desk. Private- bath and entrance in clean quiet private home. Fridge, but no cooking. 5 minute walk to either university. $12 weekly. 884-3629, Mrs.. Dorscht, 204 Lester St., Waterloo. 3-bedroom townhouse, $160 monthly. May-Sept. 1% bath, basement, dryer. 884-8588. Lakeshore Village.
UNIVERSITt
2 large double rooms available May 1, full use of home, equipment, and outdoor pool. Phone Mrs. Wright, 885- 1664. Wanted: persons to share room in llroom house -downtown Toronto, approx. $85 monthly. Call 924-8051 after 6 pm.,
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Available 1940 till end of third Reich, lease only. No phonies. Call W.R. Hearst, care of any radio station. Full room and board, single $425, double $325. Why pay more? Room only also available. 5 minutes walk from campus. Phone Waterloo Co-op Residence 884-3670. Rent MaySept., completely broadloomed, refrigerators,
5-bedroom townhouse r furnished (fully cable, dishwasher, 1% pool) $250. 743-8947.
Fully furnished townhouse available. E10 143 Columbia closest to U. swimming pool. May-Sept. Call 8850094.
Apartment to sublet May to Sept. Waterloo Towers, Apt. 101. Largest apartment in building, 5 minutes from campus. 884-8032.
Townhouse to sublet-4 bedrooms, pool, near Parkdale Plaza, rent $185 or negotiable. 885-0837.
Townhouse to sublet-3 or 4 bedrooms, partially furnished, broadloom, swimming pool, 15 minutes walk to campus. $210 monthly negotiable. 885-0936.
Apartments available, one bedroom $135 per month; two bedrooms $155 per month. 5 minutes walk to campus, includes all utilities, cable TV. Phone Waterloo co-op Residence, 884-3670.
May to Sept. single or double room for rent. Excellent kitchen and -washing facilities, close to university, male onlv. 884-1381. Mansion to let, California. Expensively decorated, exotic animals, guard dogs and trained security personnel.
DE MONTREAL
-FRENCH WHERE FRENCH IS AT HOME f!COLE FRANCAISE D’CTE 1974 JULY 2nd - AUGUST 9th
Try us. Townhouse suitable for 4-6 people. Available May to Sept. Next to Parkdale (beer, liquor, groceries) and short walk to U of W. Broadloom, all appliances, pool. Phone 884-6644 or 5081 Albert St. anytime. Room and board for 2 students coming to Port Hope in May. Ten minute walk to Cosmos Chemlac. $30 a week. Write to Ron Russell, 398 Wellington St., Port Hope, 8Ont. Phone 416-885-6645. Large two bedroom apartment. Five minutes from university. Rent $211 but negotaible. Phone 884-6953.
LEARN
Two bedroom partially furnished apartment, May to Sept. Utilities, parking, included. Laundry, phone, broadloom in living room, $153 per month. Call evenings 744-0852. WANTED . Automatic Datsun or Toyota, 1970 or newer. Call 745-0980.
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In the largest French-speaking university on the continent, you learn FRENCH where FRENCH is at home. METHODS: The latest audio-visual methods are used with beginners; advanced students work in seminars. ADVANCED LEVEL: Special attention is given to Englishspeaking French teachers, to students of French literature and to people wishing to know more about Quebec. LIVING ACCOMODATIONS: Rooms are available for men and women in student’s residences. -r_ hlVITIES: French-Canadian life is discovered through folksinging evenings, theatre visits, excursions into the typical Quebec countryside and sightseeing walks through historic ord Montreal. Facilities for sports activities. BWSARIES AVAILABLE: L’lJniversit6 de -Mont&al has been selected as a participating institution in the FederalProvincial bursar-y program for Canadian students who wish to learn French as a second language. Booklet on request: SERVICE D’EDUCATION PERMANENTE C.P. 6128, Montreal 101, Quebec, CANADA
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Late model sports car, European or domestic model, convertible preferred. Must have low mileage. Will pay cash. Phone 578-1973. Plush two-million dollar hockey arena, all facilities, including parking. Stadia, colossi, circuses. etc. definitely not acceptable-must be bona fide arena. Will finance over 15 -long years. Call Burt M., 885-1211. Babysitters! Anyone wishing to have his or her name placed on the Grad Club babysitting list to do. babysitting please call 885-1211 ext 3803 for more information. TYPING Essays typed 40 cents per page, pickup and delivery at small cost if desired. 744-8660.
Will do typing ( Lakeshore 3466.
Village) 884-
Typing theses, essays, etc. done in my home. Phone 742-9619. Efficient typing of essays. Mrs. McLean. 578-5951. In prior to Wednesday, ready Friday. Will do typing of -essays and theses in my home. Please call Mrs. McKee at 578-2243.
It may be years before you decide to buy a diamond. But why wait to look. A fine diamond is such a beauty to behold. With d.ancing fire, blazing reflections. Diamond browsing can. be beautiful. Should you want to learn something about diamonds, we’ll be teacher. But if you just want to browse, we’ll just be quiet.
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Waitresses and waiters for summer term full time job in Stratford. Call for appointment for interview. l271-1340.
Typing done at home. Brand new IBM Selectric typewriter. Charge of 40 cents per page. Please call 884-69113 anytime.
:IFPOU’RE NOT READY TO BUY JUST COME IN AND BilOWSE
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Typists! Anyone wishjng to have his or her name placed on the Grad Club typing list to type essays or theses please call 885-1211 ext 3803 for further information. ~ PERSONAL Pregnant and distressed? Birthright 579-3990. Pregnancy tests, medical and legal aid, housing, clothing, complete confidence. I sit by the sea, waiting-for my sailor to come home. 0, tyrant tides, why keep’st thou us apart? Good elbow - jobs, call Bim-Bim, Federatibn of Students. English graduate will proof read essays, termpapers or books for all faculties. Reasonable rates, Please phone 699-4082 or write Box 138, St. Clements, Ont. Contact Holiday Ranch for skidoing and horse-drawn sleigh-riding. Call 664-26 16.
continued
on page 12
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friday,
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march
29, 1974
pirak studio PARKDALE PH-ARMACY ’ 884-3860 -- IN PARKDALE PLAZA I
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I?~ToT~GRAPHER Graduation Portrait Pricis Special Package Offer. c
350 King St. W., Kitchener, Ont., Phone 742-5363 Your choice of Package Offers.
No. 1 - l-- 8 x 10 Mounted 3 - 5 x 7 Mounted $25.50
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No. , 2 - 26 --48 xx 105 Mounted Mounted $28.00 No.3 - 2 - 8 x 10 Mounted 3 -5 x 7.Mounted $32.00 4 - 4 x 5 Mounted Black and White available.
TONIGHT & TOMORROW NIGHT MARCH 29 & 30th-8 p.m. ~ CAUCASIAN CHALK CIRCLE by Bertok Brecht directed by Gordon McDougall Humanities Theatre Admission $1.25, students 75 cents Central Box Office ext. 2126
MON. APRIL l-11:30 a.m. STEPHEN HULL-Pianist-Playing Music
irhawratgbn ‘--,four: design , ORK TERIVI STUDENTS S
NG TERM (1974)
at
RESIDENCE
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, ST JEROME’S COLLEGE ,\
have 20 sin&e roo& available at > Less than regular session rates i $4Z5 lnclude~ Meals Monday to Friday 3 -\
MR. ELLiS EARL BROWN Director t# Residence dence Bldg.
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ter hours: 884-3003
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Theatre of the ArtsFree Admission il Creative Arts Board, .Students.
Ragtime
Federation
of
friday,
march
29, 1974
March 8 was established as International Women’s Day in 1910 at the second International Conference of Socialist Working Women in Copenhagen. The conference decided that every year, around the world, women should celebrate a women’s dayunder the slogan “The vote for women will unite our strength in the struggle for socialism!” Since then, March has been marked by women with mass demonstrations and meetings to ‘fight for their demands. Around the world--on March 8, International Women’s was Day celebrated. Women looked back at the history of women’s struggles . and remembered our heroic foremothers who fought so tirelessly for the emancipation of our sex against hostile governments. Little has been written about the history of the feminist movement in Canada. Most information has to be gleaned from newspapers dusty with age or from interviews with women whose memories are rapidly fading. The women’s rights movement was born in the late 1800s. Women revolted against their traditional status and awoke from years of passivity. The growing industrialization of Canada in the second half of the century introduced important changes in women’s role. With the concentration and centralization of production in large-scale industries, work previously done in the home /began to be transferred to the factories. Cheap industrial _ products undercut handicraft products -made in the home. Deprived of this source of income, many women were forced to look for work in industry. As well, low wages compelled women to work to contribute to the maintenance of their families. From 1860 to 1868, the number of occupations women could enter doubled, and by 1891, one of every eight workers was a women. Industrialization also led to increased leisure time among middle class women, who no longer had the same domestic burdens. Frustrated by their lack of productive roles, these women tried to escape their enforced isolation in the home. Seeking creative activities, women formed many women’s clubs in the late 1800’s. The increased education received by middle class women stirred in some of them the desire to enter the professions. But they were met with incredible barriers. It was only after years of fighting that women were accepted in these fields. It was these middle class and professional women who were the leadership of the women’s rightsmovement. Many women first chaIlenged their role .after being involved in the reform movements of the day. Industrialization created tremendous social problems in the cities -overcrowding, inadequate sanitation and the brutal exploitation of labour. Reform and protest movements sought to correct those conditions. Because of their increased leisure time, middle class women were able to devote themselves to these reform movements. But these women .became frustrated by their lack of political power and the legislator’s - indifference to their demands. The emptiness of middle class life raised questions about women’s domestic role. At the same time, the
the
increased number-of women workers cut across the myth _ of ‘the, helpless, defenseless female and the ideology that women’s only functions could be domestic ones. and guardianship Equal property rights, equal job opportunities and pay, equal political rights and access to higher education were the demands of the early feminists. But the right to vote increasingly became the focus of the emanmovement for the women’s cipation. : It was the most blatant example of women’s social inferiority - a burning reminder that women were considered incapable of guiding human affairs. Women felt that without the right to vote, their other rights would continue to be ignored. I .
and the monotony and despair of everyday life. Drink devoured _their wages and led to intense misery for their wives and children. ,The temperance movement was an attempt to deal with this problem. The WCTU women believed that as long as they lacked the vote, they would be unable to obtain temperance legislation. The organizing skills they learned in the temperance movement were very valuable in the struggle for women’s rights. It was only after 1909 that the Canadian suffrage movement began to receive mass support. Compared with Britain and the U.S., the feminist movement in Canada was less militant. Canada lacked a strong radical tradition and the dispersed ,-population made organizing more difficult. Still, mass petition campaigns were carried throughout the country:By 1912 Toronto had eight suffrage clubs, and in Ontario there were groups in London, Woodstock, Ingersoll, Aurora, Midland, Newmarket, Peterborough and Kingston. In 1914 a referendum was held in Toronto on the question of women’s suffrage. Five hundred women were on duty on voting day, and the women had previously canvassed the wards. Women won an overwhelming victory-26,288. voted in favour of suffrage, -while only
The demand for the vote-challenged the Victorian myth of womanhood that the sole duty’ of woman was to marry, bring happiness to her husband and raise a family. Women declared they no longer wished to be beautiful mindless bodies, mere pieces of furniture in men’s houses and breeding machines for the race. Canada’s first women’s rights organizatioh was founded in Torontoin 1876 by Dr. Emily Howard Stowe under the inauspicious name of the Toronto’s Women’s Literary Club. It was only a few years later that they dared proclaim it openly as a ‘women’s suffrage organization . In the following years, suffrage groups sprang up across the . country. In 1898, Canada’s only suffrage newspaper, Frega, began publication. This newspaper was published by members of Manitoba’s Icelandic community who were ardent supporters of votes for women. The main campaigners in the early years f for women’s suffrage were members of the Women’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU). The’ WCTU was one of the reform groups formed in response to a social problem introduced with industrialization. Alcoholism had become a serious problem _ in the working class as men were driven to drink by terrible working conditions
12,575 voted against. In the next few years, 33 referenda were held in Ontario. alone and 160 city councils petitioned thelegislature for women’sright to vote. Numerous other campaigns were held, from “mock parliaments” that ridiculed laws banning women from politics, to suffrage booths at stampedes and’ county fairs; from mass delegations to , governments, to phone-in campaigns. In Winnipeg ’ in 1914, women made a hundred banners demanding women’s suffrage which they hung on streetcars.. The suffrage movement received the support of the labour movement. The right of women to vote was not just a “middle class- issue” of no ‘interest to working class women. An increase in women’s political power, and with it laws proclaiming the equality of women in employment and wages, could only benefit working women.- Long hours of work often barred working class women from active participation in-the women’s movement, but there were- a number of working women’s groups in Canadian cities. In 1908, the American Federation of Labour convention in Toronto unanimously adopted a motion calling for women’s suffrage “amidst tumultuous applause.” Labour groups were regular members 0-f women’s delegations to the government. In Western Canada, the movement
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received widespread support in rural areas. Many farm organizations activeIy campaigned for women’s suffrage. The international women’s suffrage movement was a constant inspiration to Canadian suffragists. Newspapers of the day were crammed with news of the English and American suffragists,. Prominent leaders like Barbara Wiley and Emmeline Pankhurst toured Canada speaking to mass meetings, and Canadian suffragists joined U.S. \ marches and belonged to the International Women’s Suffrage Alliance. Absurd arguments were advanced to deny women the vote. Women were told that politics would degrade them, that the vote would destroy the home’s harmony and disqualify women for motherhood. They were even told that the excitement of elections would undermine their constitutions and unbalance them. These arguments were only a thin disguise for business interests. Business men feared that the enactment of temperance legislation, factory reforms and higher wages for working women would lower their profits. / Unfortunately, in arguing against their opponents, suffragists often adapted to backward prejudices and myths. Some claimed, for example, that t giving women the vote would introduce , a higher morality into politics and that the influence of motherly love on government wouldlead to the elimination of war and poverty. Most suffragists didn’t question women’s role in the family and home. At times they used racist arguments to back their demand for t.he vote-arguing that the votes of Canadian women were need -d to counteract the .“foreign” vote. A ese arguments undermined rather than aided the early feminists’ goals. The mass support for women’s suffrage eventually forced the government to --give women the vote-first in Manitoba in 1916, later that year in Alberta and Saskatchewan, and in 1917 in Ontario and British Columbia. The Maritime provinces, where the suffrage movement was less active and vocal, all extended the vote to women by 1925. In Quebec, where the Catholic church was a powerful opponent, women didn’t win the right to vote until 1940. The federal’ franchise was extended to all Canadian women in 1920.’ Shortly after winning the vote, the women’s movement began to decline. This parallelled an overall decline in radical activity and social protest in North America. Before its demise the first feminist movement had won many gains for women by increasing their opportunities in Canada’s social, political and economic life. -But the movement left the foundations of women’s oppression untouched. Few of the early feminists understood how women would be liberated. Many had illusions that women’s suffrage would usher in a‘ new era of women’s equality being achieved by legislative acts. They did not challenge the fundamental institutions of women’s oppressionmarriage and the family. . I But these limitations must be understood in the historical context. There were then widescale illusions among social protest groups about the progressive capacities of capitalism. The family institution was surrounded by a greater mystique, and a rigid puritanism forbade discussion of sexuality. The women’s movement today owes much to the early feminists and builds on their achievements. Jean Blewett, a Canadian suffragist, wrote “I’d like to think that this is the women’s century, the women’s day.” With its clearer understanding of the oppressive nature of the family and the need for fundamental social change, today’s feminist movement can pose real solutions to the age old problem of women’s oppression. -katie curtin from the Young Socialist
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friday,
the chevron
march
29,
1974
7’ ENrD . I of -a Dialogue (in South Africa) /’ -by PAC. Free PeapIe of Guinea-Bissau-by SkedeMGuinea i
--
__
presented by -’ I I k Federation of Students UW D&elopment Education (K-W Overseas Aid)
-
at The Picture Show 6 Princess St. W. ,
Sunday April 7th 915 pm $1.25 General $1.00 Student
proceeds in support . c,an Liberation . Movementsr
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7
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followed x by a Panel of:
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Cedric Grant, Prof. Political Science uw Barbra McLean; Knox Pres. Church , t Bill Sparks, CUSO-RVl, ZAMBIA Assan’ Makarova, ZIMBABWE Carl Sulliman-Outreach q Emmanua I Church I bra ham Foftina-Sieira-Leone
friday,
march
29, 1974
the
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Movies ffom 12:OO’Midriight ‘till 6:AM .
W.C. Fields: Marx Brothers: W.C. Fields: ,Marx Brothers:
International,House ,l ihe Fisherman and the Fish Coconuts My . Li’ttle- Chickadee with mae Nest ~ Duck Soup t
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wee ,Goncert m t ie Campus Centre. Great Hall. \f . , m
n
with
it .Carsal .
“,
starthg\at.8:30
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Campus Centre Pub I ‘\
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., .The’Stfing Band
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IMPORT
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friday,
march
29, 1974
GRhDUATloN PORTRAITS-
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FROM $JO - / N.0 INCONVENIENT PACKAGE DEALS Phone 742-0914 Kitchener, 119 King W. (Opposite Lyric Theatre)
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friday,
march
the chevron
29, 1974
Ruth Berlau who also collaborated Brecht on The Days of the Commune,
- kindness .‘and a kick
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The play The Good Woman of Setzuan now playing at the St. Lawrence Centre in Toronto, until April 13, was written by Bertolt Brecht .between 1938 and 1940. It is often thought that Brecht’s plays are too doctrinaire and encumbered with the millstone of producing political propaganda. This is possibly true up to a certain point, however by 1937, Brecht had lost the illusion that he could change the course of history by powerful sermonizing on stage, and returned to a more lyrical and poetical type of playwriting. His social goals remain the same, it is his concept of communication through theatre that was ‘drastically revived. Thus by the time we have The Good Woman of Setzuan, we have a playwrite who is not only more mature but also has transtended his aggressive and caricatured approach. It is most interesting and significa& that his play was produced at a period in German history that was so bad that political pamphleteering was totally futile. War was imminent, and the alliance between the Nazis and Stalin had been signed, a situation that had most certainly dampened the spirit of even the most ardent German Communist. Because Brecht had chosen to revolve his play around a heroine, he sought the assistance of two women. The collaborators were: Margarete Steffin who also co-authored Fear and Misery of the Third Reich, and The Trial of Lucullus and Arturo Uni; and the Danish actress
with and
play is the depth~,of characterization. The _ black and white caricatures of good and evil are done away with and everyone is The Caucasian Chalk Circle. shown as a good and bad person. Shen Te , The Good Woman of Setzuan or if “The Good Soul of is a woman with a kind and loving heart, translated directly when she offers help she is drowned by a Setzuan” is a parable play set in modern IChina. Three gods come down to earth flood of people who would tear iher down, not through vindictiveness, but because looking for a really good person. Their there are so many who- need help. And .mission is of utmost importance because unless they can find one,the world will not thus only by ruthless conniving is she able be-allowed to exist. As they are weary to set herself in a position ‘where she can from their fruitless search they enter the comfortably care for herself and her un,town of Setzuan and come across Wang, a borne child. water seller, who they ask to find+ them The wealthy barber is vicious and shelter. corrupt yet he offers money to Shen Te, so After a useless search only Shen Te, the that she might continue to do good and charitable works, as well as his empty prostitute, offers them a place to. rest, and store-houses so that. the poor might have she even sends away a customer in order shelter. The poor themselves, are shown to to accommodate them. In the morning the be inconsiderate parasites, who are gods reward her with a gift of money. oppressed and ,exploited . Shen Te takes the money and buys a downtrodden, small tobacco shop but as soon as it is The contradictions within the personalities and L situations of the discovered that the kindly Shen Te has money a swarm of human parasites characters of the play bring home the descend on her. To protect herself she absurdity of looking on “morality” as an takes on the personality and disguise of a abstract principle. Rather the play deals ruthless ..male cousin, Shui Ta, who with the problem of trying to live a life. ruthlessly drives the spongers away. The performances handed in by each and every actor within the cast is exShen Te meets, saves from suicide and cellent . Certainly professional and smooth falls in love with an unemployed airman, but most importantly believable. This is Yang Sun, and they soon decide to get one play that is worth while making married. But when Yang is alone with oneself available for, to go see. Shui Ta, he boasts that he is only after Shen Te’s money in order to bribe himself -mel rotman into a job as a mail pilot, and that he is not going to marry Shen Te. After having lost her fiance, about to lose her shop, she learns that she is pregnant! ‘6 Shen Te resumes. the disguise of Shui Ta, claims herself to be away on a long journey and ruthlessly sets about to restore her fortune. A tobacco factory is started and her ex-fiance, Yang soon The National Dream and becomes foreman as a result of his astute The last Spike. ability in exploiting the employees and by Pierre Berton, making. them work harder. McClelland & Stewart Wang, the water seller, whom the three 3974, $4.95 gods had asked to keep them informed on the fortunes of the one and only good It isn’t often in Canadian literature that person they had encountered, is worried a publisher is tempted to reveal his about Shen Te’s long absence. Shui Ta is sales figures. (Rat Jelly had a printing and suspected of having murdered Shen Te sale of 1000 copies.) In the case of Mcand is soon arrested. The gods themselves Clelland and Stewart the obvious ’ exappear as the judges of the trial’ where ception is Pierre Berton whose total sales Shui Ta reveals himself to be Shen Te in in Canada have exceeded six million disguise. dollars. And with the publication of the The ineffectual gods are relieved that new combined paperback edition of The the good person they found is still alive. National Dream ’ and The Last Spike the When Shen Te points out that it is only by figure is expected to rise to seven million ruthlessness and greed that she could ever dollars this year. ’ hope to provide for herself and her unborn Jack McClelland, the “Honest Ed” of child, they avoid the issue. Their response bookland in this country, has just sent out is that she will manage and with that they a first run of 150,000 copies of Berton’s float to heaven satisfied in the knowledge two books, coincided with the March 3rd that they have found one good soul. All launching of the CBC series The National the while, the epilogue insisting that a Dream. The &part series, is based on world where good cannot exist, ought these two best-selling volumes. Berton, in the preface, outlines what he to be changed. has done. This book contains about half One of the more brilliant aspects of this
Berton’.s ’ dream
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the material appearing in the original editions . . . “ In the present work we’ve concentrated on the main story of the building of the railroad and dispensed with’ many side issues which, though interesting as social history, are not essential to the tale. This has meant pruning the original four hundred thousand words to a manageable two hundred thousand, as well as eliminating the examples, anecdotes. ‘In addition to a readable text on a paper, two grades abovenewsprint, there are 96 pages of fine glossy colour photographs by Michael Reichmann of the CBC series, taker) duri,ng the filming. The book cannot fail. It is a compact, readable, interesting, reasonably at,tractive package deal. It is on sale in drugstores, shopping plazas. and grocery stores as part of McClelland’s attempt to reach the public apart from bookshelves. His project is a welcome move after all of those harlequin romances and cheapie copies of Henry James. Apart from his interest in making money, McClelland has once more made history a commodity th_at the rest of us should have and can afford. All in all, Berton sure makes -Donald Creighton and Ramsey Cook appear dull. Surely our historians need this kind of competition. -dare
macculloch
Short, - ( r sports _ Saturday, the Waterloo Warrior Rugby team defeated a team from Ryerson 31 to 0. The Ryerson team is a new side and was reinforced with some players from the Toronto Barbarians and a former Waterloo player, Glenn Stein. Last year Glenn played for Ontario who are the defending Canadian champions. In spite of the treacherous footing the Waterloo backs ran very well and if the players can get some club experience in their hometowns this summer the Warriors will be very strong in the fall. Scoring tries for. Waterloo were, Mitch Hammer (strum-half) up the middle, Frank Ziniser (2nd row) on a push-over, and Peter McCartney (wing), Dave Dyer(wing), and Ben Peca (outsidecenter) who all broke away along the sidelines. Gary Smith was kicking accurately as he converted 4 ofthe 5 tries and also scored 3 points on a penalty kick. This year the, club awards went to Mike Westlake in recognition of his contribution to the club and to Paul Pitkanen ,’ as the most improved player. Paul had not played before but by the end of the season . was on the varsity side. The award for the most valuable player went to Ken Brown. There will be a club meeting Monday, April 1, at the Grad Club and will start at 8:00 pm. Those who would like to get on the summer playing list for entry into 7Aside tournaments should plan to attend or call Roger Downer at 3226. -ken
brown
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friday,
the chevron
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Charloke’s Web
NOTICE STUDENTS INTENDING TO GRADUATE
PA_SOLINl, PIER PAOLO
Pig Pen ’ April
FRANK ZAPPA
2-7
ARLO, GUTHRIE-
pm
SPRING 1974’
Students expecting to graduate at the Spring I Convocation May 23, May 24, May 25, 1974 must submit /an “Intention to Graduate” form. The forms can be Iobtained from the Office of the Registrar, Student ,Services Building, or from the departmental offices. If you submitted a form earlier in the year for the Spring 1974 Convocation, you need not submit a new form.
i
200 Motels 7:04
CQNVOCATION
HANAH BARBER
Alice’s Restaurant , MIDNIGHTS MARCH 29 II-30 REEFER MADNESS “Reefer Madness’ is one of those movies of the 1930’s that has to be funny, if for no other reason than its overdrawn melodrama and the way people looked back then. One whiff of the wretched weed will make you 1. rape a girl, 2. run over a pedestrian, 3. shoot an acquaintance, and 4. go insane. There is something very frightening about this film-that a state or a church or a society would go to such lengths to overstate, distort and fabricate lies to achieve its own ends, as the 1936 society in this film did.
Alive ,April
1 8:00
FromWarnerBros.
STARTS TO-NIGHT
Variety
La Club Foot
pm
National
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I Film Theatre
In order to provide better programming and enable more membersto attend the screenings, we have decided to change the NFT from a weekly to a monthly screening, and change the time to one Sunday evening per month at 7:00 pm. Further information and advertisingwill be out later this month.
Although
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march
29,
the -chevron
1974
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Diversities in ’ literature l
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In the penultimate of a series of colloquiums given by members of the English department, Professor MacRae tackled the problem of Eutopia, Pantopia or Dystopia in The Deserter by Douglas LePan. This imposing title, the speaker was quick to point out, simply involved the novelist’s use of setting in his The Deserter. Should this aspect of the novel prove notable, the corollary question of its success must be raised. It , was to these issues that Professor MacRae directed his attention. The Deserter is the story of an officer who deserts, unaccopntably, just after Armistice Day. Th6 setting is London, 1945. However, the -author, with varying degrees of subtle suggestion, causes us of time and to question these “facts” place by the introduction of jarring ’ disparities: As examples of these, the .’ speaker cited the use of the exotic word “plaza”, to describe what the English would call a “square”. He contends that while this would, arouse no attentidn Were the locale in question a shopping mall in Mississauga, here it strikes a discordant note. As well, the houses in the novel are reminiscent of the traveler’s view of the eaves of Belgium, and fail to evoke anything of the London fog. The sense of confusion extends to the temporal setting, with several events accruing to. what followed the Korean War, or the “‘war to end all wars” than to World War II. Convinced of a peculiar element of temporal and spatial ambiguity, MacRae had taken the opportunity of a meeting with the Toronto writer to question his intentions. LePan’s response, evincing neither vehement denial nor enthusiastic affirmation, was interpreted as tacit, if non-commital agreement. The success of the uncovered experiment remained to be. evaluated. Such an appraisal is, however, v&y difficult to m*e, for it is intrinsically involved with reader’s response, nev‘er a standard, indisputable thing. Because none of the audience had read the novel, there could be no comparison of diffetient responses, and the discussion moved to hypothetical questions. On the basis of MacRae’s description, all felt vicarioubly that LePan’s experitient was interesting, but only minimally successful. The novelist’?. obvious attempt to create _ an “everyman”. character in Randy, a soldier in various places and in various times, and to make a statemeqt through his desertion on the senselessn&s of war, was limited. through the confines of-its scope. Might h& have achieved a more striking result had he cast the deserter I into a truly pan-globic city, with a’far more developed sense of temporal ambiguity? It was agreed that this might have invited empathetic absorption. As the novel stands, the basic London-Bruxelles dichotomy tends rather to create a distancing attention to detail. Its technique fails through being too modest, obtrusively. And, as one learned me?ber of the audience pointed out, the experimental aspect would be I)largely lost on a reader of the twenty-first century, to .whom such details will no doubt be meaningless.
In the last in this series, the title, “Sex, Death and’ Cannibalism in the Aklavida” kept early arrivals guessing what aspect had attracted the others. The air of good-humoured speculation was somewhat deflated when Professor Hultin, the theme’s exponent, explained that his talk would involve none of these. ,It was, he said, instead concerned with a specific problem of translation inherent in the text. This, peculiar to Northern Germanic literatures, has its basis in author’s “word-games”-the use of words of various meanings and connotations, all or most of which the reader was expected to *bear in mind in his reading. Unfortunately, the translator is forced to choose one of these, to the exclusion of the others. Before elaborating on this problem, however, the speaker gave a summary of the plot of his text. Though brief, this seemed for the time to satiate any prurient interests, especially in the areas of death and cannibalism. A sample scene might be noted. A mother watches, transfixed, as her besotted dinner guests regale _ themselves with the prepared parts of her young children. This gut-churning smorgasbord is part on her husband’s of her revenge treacherous betrayal ad foul murder of her brother. Those familiar with Shakespeare’s Pericles will note a faint similarity. However, the intent here is not one of gratuitous sensationalism, as Shakespeare’s early work may seem. It serves to show the force of a code in which honour and blood-kinship are more important than mere human sentiments. Nothing in the Aklavida is without point-, stylistically as well as thematically. Professor Hultin noted, in this regard, that although the work antedated by many centuries Vinsauf’s thirteenth century tract on style, its author seems tacitly cognizant of the late .writer’s dictates, especially those concerned with the adiisability of succinctness. Of course, this makes the problem of translation still more acute, for when much is said in few words much wfl be lost if these are rendered amiss. Cited as examples ‘of problematic words were “ar”, “val” and “bun”. Among other things, “htin” can be translated as “bear” and as the “the race of the huns.” Yet, while both of these are applicable in context, only one can be incorporated into the translation. An analgous difficulty confronts one who would render Juliet’s speech, punning on the homonyms “I”, “aye” and “eye”, into German. The impossibility of the task has reduced as eminent a translator as Schlegel to the expedient of a literal translation. The adage that something is always lost in translation is forever borne. Professor Hultin’s talk left. all who heard it with something to think about. Whatever the initiai attraction, it served to sharpen consciousness .of stylistic matters. Though the problems raised are ultimately insoluble, a healthy regard for what is inimitable in original texts comes of a realization that it can only be approximated in another language. There may even have been a few intrepid souls whd, attracted by the themes of
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the Aklavida, left resolved to tackle it in its original form. This colloquium closed a series remarkable in the diversity of the scope of its topics, ranging from the image of women in R4~mantic litemture, tntbefar different concerns in this epic. w hopes, with Professor North, its organ&r, that a similar series, d&lving into still more areas related b-English literature drawing on the knowledge of other experts and attra&ng even more interested individuals, can be real&d in the near future. J. sa?beide!r
More bland than blue The new Bobby *Blue Bland album is unfortunately more bland than blue. It seems that the once great blues s&er has taken the B.B. King route towards big band commer&lism You could say that this new sound is catchy but if you’ve ever appreciated blues you can% help feeling that‘the ad&io~ of strings and horns so-hat detracts hrn the vibrations you feel from good blues, The &bum & more of a Motown swinging sound than anything-else especially with the background assistance offered by Ginger Blake, Julia Tillman and Maxine Willard. The born section is fairly simplistic even tin the point of sounding like Chicago at times and that’s not a compliment. Many numbers lack any real vitality, they just sort of go along. Whenever Bobby displays ’ some emqtion in his singing, usually when accompanied by a good blues guitar, the album is certainly worth k&ni@ to. Unfortunately, that happen23 only occasionally other than the two tracks on side one entitled, “This Time I”m Gone for Good” and “It% Not the Spotligk~~ Apart from these two numbers there is little else other than the inside cotier which is at le&st worth looking at. However from reliable reports I ‘
under&md that Bobby Blue Bland is still dynamic on stage. His California Album, I assume is somewhat less interesting than his live perfoxixkkes. Today, High Tomorrow I see that it’s real One man% meat’s another man’s sorrow Do you know how it feels To be dead drunk on the floor To get up and ask for more Tobelyinginthedark cryingJohn Mart&s third album Inside Opt is an album that shows abundant originalits among recent aIbums which have been somewhat disappointing and q&it&e. Mm is English and as always English musicians and compobs display a more sensitive and flowing quality in their arrangements, something which many North American gi-oups seem to lack. The music intertwines beautifully with Maxtyn’s unique voice which undergoes a number of changes throughout the albti. c Martyn has an uucamy ability to makehis acoustic&ctricguitar capture notes seldom heard from today’s repertoire of gu&aSsG and musicians. The alby flows smoothly al&g without any notic&ble gaps in its rhythm. Like many English music%@ Mkrtyn ammges his iudividual compositions in harmonious juxtaposition which results in one uninterrupted flow of musti rather than ten or twelve individual tracks haphazardly pieced together. There is a wide variety of musical teclmiques,and instruments which offer a fuller and more engaging sound thaq the standard drum-piano-guitqr groups. Strings, horns and moog combine with superb percussion to lend this album a sensitive floating texture. The first track of the album entitled Fine Lines ‘is indicative of Mart&s oCgina&y. He also has several accomplished _musicians accompanying him in&ding Stwie winwood of Traffic. If you enjoy this album you should give a listen to John Martyn’s earlier albums, especially Solid Air. Thank you John Martyn for something. new and I+efkeshiug. V&e Cbetcuti LOW
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the chevron
friday,
29, 1974 \
Newspaper analysis of the recent election in Britain has concentrated on the major parties and the ridalry between them. In this article John Joisce takes a look at an aspect of the election that has been ignored by the, press-the rise of the nationalist I$ovements in Wales and Scotland and the problems that these groups will have to face if their influence is to grow.
Britain, and British politics, are too often taken to be a homogeneous whole: the politics of Westminster attract most popular and journalistic attention. This is no doubt a function of a highly centralized state where only one body has legislative power. However, it is at the marginswhere the-holes in the system are most obvious, and the punch most painfully felt- that there is a more glaring and greater need to find-a ‘new way’. (The disenchantment and - frustrations of Britain’s economic decline have contributed in no small way to the much vaunted ‘Liberal revival’ in England. -L nley seek no ‘new way’ at ah- they are merely untainted by office for 50 years: a sufficient attraction in - itself in England’s worsening economic situation.) The tottering economic structure, characterised by ‘stagflation’ and a growing and increasingly inefficient bureaucracy in London meansthat the peripheries play a decreasing role in the political, and hence, economic process. . Wales, Scotland and Ulster are not only those areas furthest from the centre, they are also the most sparsely populated. In addition, they are among the oldest industrial zones. Little of the wealth generated there in the past two centuries is to be found -locally. And though these regions continue to provide England with much of the raw materials so essential for her economy, it will be here at the margins that Sritain’s economic decline first becomes acute. The inexorable draw of the- industrial heartland of the Midlands and southeast England will continue apace with - Britain’s membership in the European Economic Community: the process is a vicious circle in as far as depopulation at the margins results in loss of jobs- and purchasing power which leads to depopulation. But with Britain’s failing economic performance there is no reversing the trend. ‘l’he oti’ gas discoveries in the-North and Celtic Seas appear only too apparently --as a repetition of the English ,’ - . exploitation of the propertied classes’ Welsh and Scats. Worsewithout a change in the economic order, thesereserves will be squandered in England, and elsewhere, with nothing to show for it. At least Welsh and Scottish coal had built an industrial core, even if most of the benefits had accrued to the English bourgeoisie - there is no indication that the newly found raw materials will do anything more than delay_ Britain’s decline by a decade. The rise of the nationalist parties in Wales and Scotland may be attributed largely to these three factors: Britain’s economic decline, the desire to see Welsh and Scottish wealth used for the benefit of the Welsh and Scottish peoples, and the loss of confidence in the English parties to achieve such an end. It is one thing to help out a poor neighbor: it is another to see him grow rich on one’s own poverty. These movements presently are working within the existing framework, but it will be only a matter of time before it will become obvious to the ‘Celtic fringe’ that they cannot-continue within the present system and hope to secure their goals. As Britain continues to slip in the economic stakes, the option of the (‘Liberal revival’ in England will be seen to be the chimera it is. In the meantime, while the English working class is buffered from coming face to face with the realities of the situation, its counterparts in Wales and Scotland must take the brunt of the economic decline.
march
At present these latter are assessing the possibilities of nationalism as a means of dissociating themselves from the drain of ‘poor England’. These efforts are doomed to fail because they do notgrasp the essentials of power. In Wales, for example, , nationalism is .. a ‘peace’ movement, but there are those in the party who are fully cognizant that eventually the time will come when the only way ‘to throw the conqueror out’ is by violence. Even were Wales capable of achieving ‘independence’ by the consitutional method, it would be no more -independent than any other of England’s ex-colonies, Canada included. Not because the English ruling class would be able effectively to strangle that independence, but because the class that they represent would ensure Wales had little room for manoeuvre. Wales and Scotland may perhaps lead the way-as they did with the rise of the Labour Party-but unless the English working class is party to any fundamental change, there will be little hope of achieving *anything more than a marginal redistribution of wealth and income. Following the February 28 general election in the UK, we are presented with an interesting political balance unknown in that country since 1929. The outgoing Tory government received 39.1% of the vote and won 296 seats in the House of 635, while 5the major opposition party, Labour, won 301 seats but with only 38.3 % pf the vote; a quarter of a million less votes. Further, the Liberal Party, with nearly 29% of the vote, wound up with a mere 14 seats. Neither is this all. - For the first time since the First World War, the regions of the country(ies) began to show a measure of in- dependence. This is indicated not only-by the overwhelming majority of seats in Ulster (11 out of 12) being won by the reactionary United Ulster Unionists who appear to be more interested in rewinning the Battle of the Boyne of 1690-but also, and for the first time, the nationalist parties in Scotland and Wales winning seats at a general
election: the SNP won 7 and PlaidCymru 2. The results of the election will be examined for some time. Psephologists will be able to play with their figures to their hearts’ content. But what is of importance is not so much the results of the election of February 2&h, but what has been occurring in Britain for a long time and is only now begin,ning to emerge. Heath went to the country on an issue of ‘firm government’: he wanted a renewed mandate so that he could show. the striking miners that he, and through him the great British people, ran the country. That he failed to get that mandate is not so much a lack of the fascistic tendencies of the British peoples, but the failure of the politcal process to meet the demands placed upon it. Heath is an incompetent bully: he had pushed Britain into the EEC: incurred increasing expenses on a useless defence scheme: indulged himself with glamour projects such as the Concorde and the Channel tunnel: amassed the largest overseas debt in the history of the country: allowed inflation- to reach double figures while there continued a redistribution of wealth from the poor and property-less to . the rich and propertied; and continued a policy of confrontation with the unions-one which even the business community found difficult to accept. On the other hand, Wilson’s period at 10 Downing Street from October ‘64 to June ‘70 was only too well remembered by the electorate: he had bid and failed to get into Europe: had allowed railways and pits to be closed, thereby killing communities: placed foreign liabilities over domestic responsibilities: had shown support-for Johnson in Viet Nam: had cut off free milk in secondary schools; and had reimposed prescription charges in the National Health Service (an issue on which he himself had resigned from Atlee’s government in 1949). In the light of the incompetence of government which these two men epitomized over the past ten years, what
is surprising is not that a minority government emerged for the first time in 45 years but that one nearly did not. - Labour were a mere 17 seats short of a majority, the Tories 22. Had either party. been able to bridge-this shortfallwhich they could have done with very few extra votes-the ponderous system of a majority party in the House of Commons but with a minority of votes in the country would have continued largely unquestioned. By a fluke this did not happen. (It is not a question of ‘the British people’ deciding against ‘the extremes’presumably most of the people who voted for Labour and Tory voted for them because they wanted that party in power i.e. well over half of the country wanted one party as government. One voter cannot vote for a deadlock-and the -electorate comprises 38 million individual voters). As a result, the political position in the House of Commons came nearer to a represen’ tation of opinion in the country than it has done all this century, even if not by much, and we are left with a ‘deadlock’ by the merest chance. I said above that the political process appears to have failed to meet the demands placed upon it. The statement , is so obvious it hardly needs making; I repeat it because, despite this result, there appears to be little recognition of it in Britain, apart from demands for electoral reform via proportional representation, particularly from the Liberals. This is not so much the problem and I do not wish to discuss that here. What I wish to pursue here is the position of one of the parties with which I had considerable contact while in Britain for the election, namely, Plaid. Cymru (pronounced Plyde Cumrie) the Welsh nationalist party. I went to Britain as a skeptic of nationalism. My feelings were that it represented something of a narrowminded approach, based on the past, glorification of a heritage which has little relevance today; one that ignores the , problems of people today and tends to forget the hardships and squalor of those who made the heritage what it now appears. In short, nationalism was xenophobic and reactionary. Plaid Cymru had had its origins as an intellectual , middle-class, culture and language elite that had been on the fringes of political activity for 50 years. If this was still to be the case I could not see much chxnge occurring in the election. The political economy of Wales is structurally very similar to Canada’s. Both are dominated by foreign capital, both are poorer than the countries they . supply, ,_both have abundant raw materials, both provide second holiday homes for non-residents, both suffer of inferioritywhich is in part satisfied by excelling in one sport over their dominators - hockey and rugby. They are typical of the ‘dependency syndrome’. But in two respects Wales is different from Canada: unlike Canada, Wales has little or no pretentions to ,achieve a bourgeios class; and Wales has no-separate elected Chamber to consider Welsh matters. These differences are fundamental in Plaid’s activities and its political aspirations. The measure of the Welsh political bias may be gained from the fact that never has the country elected a majority of Tory members -yet has had only 13 years of Labour rule. Though it is not correct to say that Labour equals socialist, at least Labour is the party for whom the Welsh have voted overwhelmingly in the past 60 years, as the -nearest approximation to the socialist desires of the majority of the country. The _ shortcomings of the political system are beginning to be realized in Wales, even if the results:hardly indicate this. With a Tory government for 3 ‘/z years, one would have imagined the socialist-oriented country would greet an election as an opportunity for wholeheartedly rejecting Tory policies. However there was ‘a ‘swing to. the
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Tories of 2.1 percent’ while Labour lost 3 seats and failed to capture a newly created fourth in Cardiff. One seat was lost as a result of a 20 percent swing. Why? This must be a problem to which Labour stategists are turningthough not with much consternation, one may imagine, as Labour still holds 26 of Wales’ 36 seats. The Labour party in Wales is the party of the establishment: Labour holds most of the county and borough council seats and has done for 50 years. Corruption is known to be prevalent; intimidation at election time is not new or unusual. Further, the memories of the Welsh people are not as short as perhaps Transport House might like to think. In a country with a chronically higher unemployment level than Englandusually twice as high-the Labour government, during its 6 years of rule, 1 closed 48 pits and put 38,000 miners out of work. This was to capitalize on the cheap oil from abroad, despite warnings of the intrinsic dangers of such a policy from the miners themselves and Plaid Cymru. We now see the wisdom of such a policy. Similarly, the Labour government in Westminster carried through much of the Tory policy on the railways with the result that the country is denuded of people in many areas. Sheep in Merioneth, Montgomery, Brecknockshire and Radnorshire are seen to >the near exclusion of people; Cardiganshire has a smaller population today than it did 100 years ago. These factors, among many others, have disillusioned the Welsh voters. At the moment, this disillusionment is one that has not turned into a stampede. The Welsh voter is as confused as any. Plaid Cymru hopes to capitalize on this confusion. d Plaid ‘Cymru is- an exciting party. It attracts young supporters in the way that the Labour party did between the wars. Because Labour is the established party it is now caught,up and satisfied in its own success, unable to adjust to the new world, keeping increasingly to the method it has used so long. It is tired, inefficient, and very undynamic. In contrast, Plaid is a party with some-where to go. There is a sense of enthusiasm, of ‘urgency, surrounding all those who are associated with it. Plaid can be nothing else than a socialist party as it has emerged from a ./socialist country. Even so, there are several contradictions within it. Its cry for a Welsh assembly is not that of conservatives harking back to Owen Glynwr or Prince Llewellyn. It is based on sound economic theory which is refelcted in thePlaid’s slogan ‘Wealthy Wales or Poor British’. The Welsh are those who feel most acutely Britain’s slide from the foremost economic producer in Europe in 1945 to that of 14th in 1973. Wealthy Wales has more coal, water, space, gas, electricity, and almost certainly oil than she needs for her own use. The argument that Wales is too small to go it alone no longer holds weight not only because there are numerous other countries with small populations e.g. Norway, who are, not penalized by their size, but * also because Whitehall itself has shown in a study that it takes $325,000,000 a year more out in taxes than is spent there-and this from one of the poorest regions of the U.K. Plaid won two seats in rural’or semi_ rural Wales, yet failed -to make much impact on what may be regarded as the heart of socialist Wales, the valleys, where one would imagine Plaid would attract the most sympathy. This reflects the basic ,problem of the% party. In rural Wales, Welsh is spoken more often than not. In the valleys, it is rarely heard. In rural Wales, ‘ Welshness’ is ! apparent. The Anglicized valleys speak for themselves. But in rural Wales, the old ways, the traditional, the conservative hill farmer have little or no truck for ‘socialism” i.e ‘nationalization of land’, ‘collectivism’, ‘unions’. In South Wales, non-socialist thought Es heresy: Plaid Cymru tries to be both
Welsh to the farmers and socialist to the miners. In its present composition it cannot be both. The Plaid is caught on the horns of the dilemma of its own political misfortune. The Welsh language is both its .strenFth and its weakness. It is its strength as it appeals to the rural Welsh in maintaining the Welsh culture that would otherwise have long disappeared following the unification with the country of England in 16th century. It helps to show the ‘separateness’ of the Welsh as a ‘people’ in their own right. It is its weakness as only about 25 percent of Welsh speak it and this frightens the monoglot English-speaking. Were the ‘donkey vote’ to listen , to Plaid’s arguments these difficulties would be overcome as they would be seen to be an intrinsic part in Plaid’s case for a separate Wales. The language cannot survive because there are no jobs, because decisions affecting the ! Welsh people are taken by people who do not live in Wales, are not Welsh, and do not understand Welsh problems. The party varies from the traditional Welsh liberalism,, through hardline culture and language conservatives to ardent socialists. For the moment these differences are buried by mutual agreement to achieve the greater aiman independent Wales. Because of the overwhelming proletarian nature of the country one would imagine that the nonsocialist elements would lose out. However, unless Wales becomes independent - or achieves a high degree of autonomy-within the next ‘five, or at the most, ten years, all will be losers. Indeed as the urgency of the matter becomes more apparent, we can expect to see a further demonstration of the inability of the ‘democratic process’ to meet the demands of the people. The justice of their cause is so apparent to the members that the continued rejection of Plaid at the polls will un-doubtedly result in violence. Why, then, given the above, did Wales register a drop in the overall support for Plaid? Who knows what’ motivates voters in particular behaviour, but as one Plaid agent told me: ‘We have to wait for a generation to_ die out’ before they can make an impact. In this he is undoubtedly correct. Inertia, corruption, and plain intimidation are sufficient to prevent the donkey vote changing political horses. But of course it is not as simple as this. Wales is a complex country. In the valleys, the miners’ strike was obviously not an issue, but the memory of Labour’s closure of the pits still hurts. There is more disillusionment today than in 1970, and though the miners are prepared to support Labour it is a qualified support and Labour stands on trial. The young voters are not as prepared parents’ voting behaviour to adopt perhaps as unthinkingly as before. Ik was in the valleys’ that Plaid had its hardest nut to crack-and failed. No doubt miners are unprepared to change to another party when there is the kind of confrontation with the Tory govemment as obtained at the time of this ,election. Plaid’s successes were in the traditionally Liberal areas where Labour has held the seats since the war. There, the anti-union, anti-Labour vote went to the party with the best chance of unseating the incumbent Labour member. In Merioneth and , Caernarvon&ire, Plaid had come second in 1970 to Labour. As an expression of a protest vote, Plaid may expect to achieve some modification of ‘Westminster’s policies. As to whether it will ever achieve a constitutional transformation within the present system remains in doubt. I write this not as an indication that Plaid is the means to ‘salvation’ in Wales. Their / hopes of an independent socialist country are about as good as Czechoslovakia’s in August 1968. It is only meant to showthat there is more to British politics than Tories slugging it out with Labour while the Liberals cry in a corner.
27
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STAN LEY Continuing
the adventures
by Murray
Bale
of the Great
Palaeolithic
Hero
PUNCH
member: association published Content is OMices are ~ university,
Canadian university press (CUP) and Ontario weekly newspaper (OWNA). The chevron is typeset by dumont press graphi-x and by the federation of students, incorporated, university of Waterloo. the responsibility of the chevron staff, independent of the federation. located in the campus centre; phone (519) 885-1660,885-1661 or local 2331.
here we are dear students with the second last issue before it all ends and we hope you enjoy it because if you do not we apologize and are sorry, staffers this week: julie Walden, jan narveson, linda loundsberry, me1 rotperson, doris Wilson, vince checuti, ken brown, mark nusca, tully, Chris htighes, darnel coote, randy hannigan, shane roberts & alison Stirling & annette, rod hay his bags ready to go, Susan johnson with many bright ideas, nick savage, sue Scott, nancy greaves, paul mamelka, mike gordon, terry feature writing moore with dave robertson & dog, brian switzperson hope you get well margie Wolfe, reid glenn, dave assman, dave college, neil dunning, and the ducks at dumont, jm. \
packing
IN LAST WEEK’S EPISODE, WE SAW PAUL HIT BY A GOD-GUIDED BULLET FROM THE COUNTER-INSURGENT GUNS OF THE CHURCH MILITANT, WHILE ELSEWHERE THE BATTLE F.OR DOMINATION OF THE BLOOD-STEEPED COUNTRYSIDE SEEMED TO BE SWINGING’IN FAVOUR OF COMRADE GREGQRY AND HIS KREMLIN DUPES. AT FIRST, ITSEEMED ASTHOUGH PAUL DIDN’T HAVE A PRAYER. THEN...
Paul the Rebel .
I
WOW!-1 MUST HAVEBEEN OUT OF MY MIND.---WHAT’S HAPPEbiING ? 1
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_. THE EXEhlONS
THE PEOPLE’S LlBERATlON ARMY RADl6S A PLEA FOR VOLUNTEERS TO HELP THEM WIN THE WAR AGAINST IMPERIALISTIC AGGRESSION.
BEGIN!
.
. GIVING IN TO TRAITOROUS POLITICIANS APPLYING PRESSURES AND THE DEMANDS OF ENLISTED PERSONNEL TO DESTROY AUTHORITY - THE ARMY SOON BECOMES. HELPLESS TO CONTROL ITS MEN -AND SO IT COLLAPSES.
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BUT THE LAND DEVASTATED.
THE CAPITALISTS ARE DESTROYED. HOMEOWNERS. . . THOSE WHO OWN ANYTHING OF VALUE.. . LIKE A CAR, BECOME AN ENEMY OF THE STATE.
HAS BEEN
2,
THIS 6 WHERE‘WE
GET OUR
REWARDSFOROUR PART IN
COMRADE PAUL, YOU WERE A TO Ya-R OW N COUNT!tY HOW COULDYOU EXPECT US TO TRUST YOU NOW ? - YOU ARE A REVOLUTIONIST,PERHAPS YOU
TRAITOR
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BEENBETRA~ED!jfj:
PAUL (THE REVOLUTIONIST) TAKEN FOR JUDGMENT.
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“AND WHOSOEVER WAS NOT FOUND WRITTEN IN THE. BOOK OF LIFE WAS INTO THE LAKE OF FIRE.” Revelation
CAST 20:
15
REVOLT
AGAINST
OUR