\

* viiortniiimetn 1‘ NOT our T0 roan suomcr

By MARY BOYD ; Joseph D. Collins. a young

American who spent years'

working in and researching the Third World. told a 10 Days for World Development . workshop numbering ninety people that if there is hunger in the‘world it’s. not because of a scarcity of food. “If people are not feeding themselves it‘s because obstacles are in their way,” he said. He described the main obstacle as an export orientated agricultural

system dominated by large \

land ' holders and

agribusiness. He noted that v

the problem lies not only in

the number of acres of land '

going into boosting exports. “All ' the agricultural research. all the Extension services. building of dams, roads. everything is focused on that and .there is nothing for folks who would be growing basic food crops.”

Other problems connected with export of food from the Third World are the trends away from communal-use of land in countries like.Africa', to privatized uses by the powerful. and the need to import fertilizer, processing

machinery, wrapping cellophane I type of machinery, everything

which caters to the demands of that market; All of this costs more money which ensures continued depen- dency. ' - :

Mr. Collins stated that countries like Canada are

also characterized by in. ;_

creasing? concentrated control over agricultural resources. He described the source of control as "large processing food companies, vertically integrated. which are beginning to look at all

the world as their potential'

farm. Companies like Del Monte. based in San Fran- cisco, come buying up local canneries, in- order to really put them out of business. to destroy competition and then instead of buying the vegetables and fruits to'Can from the local farmers as those canneries had almost exclusiVely done. Del Monte is operating with the idea that there’s a global farm out there and you bring produce, in from where you are able to exploit, to get the cheapest possible labour,

where there are no labour unions or where the government elite is willing to sell the labour of its people at

Wages less than they could

possibly support themselves

on. ’ ' ' '

‘jThis- gldbal farm." he said. “is being linked up to a global supermarket. The

extension of the large agribusiness . or food processing firm into the

World. looking for the global lal‘m. goes totally with this fact that’in so many un- . derdeveloped countries the resources that can grow 1600' fire being controlled. by eWer and fewer people who , as we were pointing out, find lhfil their interest is to fglfntajte htheir production

.ar t . . market.” e high paying _ msmmr‘v ,

I“ this global super; market, only ten percent of ;.e population of a country :lke India can spend" the “me typed: money .as th I

/ industry employment. In the .

. food resources

into Canada _

Therefore. most of the. food ' will go_.to the richer coun- .

tries)

Mr. Collins said “The - increasingly undemocratic control of food resources in a country like Canada links up beautifully with the gin- cr'easingly undemocratic control of resources in so many ‘c0untries of the world. It links up beautifully for the people who become the food monopolizers.” He warned that the Social impact Of this even in our own country is “lower income for farmers, fewer farms, more unem- ployment, less processing

moral sense. the important thing is that we are becoming increasingly dependent on the vagueness of undemocratic societies keeping undemocratic centrol over our food and in- other countries.” » Hunger is not then, the result of scarcity. It is related to the control over food growing resources. What can we do? Mr. Collins

“Talwari' bids thlrty cents-an hour. .

The Cadre, Friday Aprilrl_, 1977 page ii

9

h ' ’ ‘J , W e r e I s I t .

Where'is the Third World? In Senegal, Bangladesh, Cape Breton or the North:West Territories? «

OXFAM-CANADA is a private, non-profit organization that asks this sort of question often.

If funds development projects both in Canada and in its main areas of concentration — Southern Africa, the .Caribbean, the Latin American An'dean region, the area of East India and Bangladesh, and Native Peoples (including Canada). The aim of these projects is to combat

underdevelopment by creating or assisting local self-help projects.

ll)! COLLINS stated that there is a demanding agenda ahead.

“We must see that all common interest is me more broad based. more democratic control of food resource in our country and that our government. our tax money, our name is not being used, our buying power is not being used, to create more undemocratic control of food resources in other countries."

Canadians who watch TV or read newspapers know what the results, of underdevelopment look like — poverty, malnutrition, disease, illiteracy, unemployment, unhealthy and unsafe housing, complete vulnerability in times of natural disaster. But few people have been encouraged to determine 'what the causes of these problems are. r The basic causes of underdevelopment are complex, but one ' " thing is certain: they have a lot to do with the way the richer countries like Canada control the world’s trade and resources. Oxfam-Canada - helping people help themselves. It’s not a slogan. ’ Anyone interested in making a donation or working with the local committee can contact Mike Menard or Eleanor MacLean at: Oxfam-Canada, 1539 Birmingham Street, Halifax or phone 42248338.

‘ ‘-v-—>

\ .Dolh

twentyeflve from Hong Kong?"

b0 you CARE 'ABO

UT THE REST OF THE WORLD?

Well, so does the Dalhousie International, a monthly supplement to the Dalhousie Gazette.

-Ddlhousie

Our purpose is to help people to understand some of the differences and problems which-exist in the world.

if you know something about the world, your part of the world, be that here or

all sources, in the form of articles, letters, poems, graphics, etc.

Contributions may be

political, cultural, satirical, etc._

University,

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‘Vergge Canadian. ' “39,; H ‘ * ..

.,-‘\ .

elsewhere, please contribute.

'We invite contributions from.

Tax man

[to treat Co

tony.

as corporation

BY JOHN SCHMIDT

The case stems from a nearly

‘ calagarV C‘srresponden" 'forgotten fact about the Canada In-

CALGARY: The federal in- come 18X department has un- loosed a new tactic at Can- ada's Hutterites after losing a long-drawn-out court battle against an orthodox sect.

The tax men now plan to make a levy on the earnings of all colonies as corporations starting with the current taxation year.

This will mean colony earnings

' will be taxed the same as large corporations or trusts. which is at the rate of 46'per cent of their earn- ings. _

Farmers taxed as individuals pay on a graduated scale from zero to about 30 per cent based on earnings. In the cases where farms have been incorporated they can qualify for lower taxrunder small-business reg- ulations as they pass the earnings on ‘to the v owners for taxation pur- poses.

The Hutterites will not be able to qualify as a small business as they do not pass their earnings to indi— viduals. The individuals have taken vows .of poverty and all earnings they contributed go to the common treasury under the Biblical commu- nity of the goods.

The Hutterite leaders have not determined whether they can; live with the new taxation base. It could send them either back to the courts or the poorhouse.

As primary producers they cannot pass on their costs as do secondary processing businesses which pay corporate taxes. -

As one Hutterite leader said: “The wider society has tried with every means at their disposal to dislodge us and our way of life. It

, may be the income tax department that will finally do the trickl’

The Supreme Court of Canada made a ruling last year to the effect that 400 individuals in the Darius- leut sect of the Hutterites were not taxable because they had taken vows of poverty.

TAX MEN TURN AROUN D

The tax men have now turned around and are reassessing the col- onies as corporations. Their reason- ing is if the courts won‘t allow them to tax the Dariusleut group as indi- viduals. they will tax the colonies

themselves.

come Tax Act. The act was passed in 1917 as a temporary measure to raise money to' finance the First World War.

As one of a number of groups of pacifists invited into Canada bythe government to settle the country, the Hutterites refused to pay any form of tax to finance wars. They didn’t pay any income tax until 1960 as they sat in an unchallenged state as a religious institution. At that time the income tax assessors chal- lenged them.

There are three sects of Hut- terites, ,viz., the Dariusleut, Lehrer- leut and Schmiedenleut.

The former are orthodox brethren AGREED TO PAY

The three made an agreement with Ottawa in that year to pay income tax on an individual basis, it being assumed that the profits of the colonies were to be divided among the members for the tax calculation and each would have a personal ex- emption.

There were certain advantages to this system as all expenses, includ- ing depreciation, were allowed into the calculation.

However, in 1966 the Dariusleut objected to having to pay Canada Pension Plan contributions as no individual earned any money and they said they didn’t need the pen- sion as the colony looks after its own from the cradle to the grave.

The Dariusleut operate on a cash basis, without even allowing for de- preciation on their farms. Thus they are bein hard hit by runaway infla- tion. r y hired an Edmonton law- yer, John Matheson, to take their case to court. Taxes were withheld .from 1966 to 1976 during the litiga- tion.

When Matheson won the case last year the Dariusleut didn’t have to pay any taxes and the income tax people were ordered to refund :3 million paid between 1960 and 1966.

The payments were delayed while the revenue department nigglcd over whether to make out the refund cheques plus interest to individuals or the colonies. ,

Having lost the court case to the one sect, the Ottawa taxation asses- sors say the taxation agreement

with all the sects is null and void.

rare mess aspen? on FAhMlNG. March to, 1911