CANADA - : MOGCRONTO — Ina letter to Prime Minister Brian & ulroney, February 20, the Communist Party of __Jada’s central executive urged Mulroney and his 80Vernment to reject recent recommendations that it Tenew the North American Aerospace Defence pact aw the USA. The letter further requests that a anada declare Support for the Gorbachev pro- Bos on nuclear disarmament, and exert its in- “uence to have the U.S. government take up these Proposals, - (Copies of the letter went to Opposition leader, en. John Turner and to the leader of the New | Mocratic Party, Ed Broadbent.) as The full text of the Communist Party letter to the Prime Minister, follows: the © Communist Party of Canada calls on you and Hone tment you head to reject the recommenda- the ©8arding the NORAD agreement, submitted by 4 Standing committee on external affairs and na- tional defence, S¢ recommendations — to renew the NORAD ment and that Canada participate in the U.S. tegic Defence Architecture, Phase II (SDA Tae will, if implemented, endanger the very Wal of Canada and its people, and escalate the __ Trappers lobby Europe i MeELLOWKNIFE — A group of Indians and oh tr S Whose livelihood is in trapping, has left for aie to lobby against boycotting of Canadian 2D geno George Erasmus, co-chairman of the Indi- ous Survival International, accused European he animal rights groups of dishonesty in their aes : Canadians attend CPSU Congress TORONTO _ 1c ; The central office of the | Feb nunist Party of Canada announced on hen 20 that three members of its leadership will i a lelegates to the 27th Congress of the Com- aq 5 Party of the Soviet Union, which opens On Feb, 25, Wohose taking part in the Soviet congress are: witiam Kashtan, leader of the CPC; Samuel _ Nalsh, leader of the Parti communiste du comm and member of CPC central executive ia ittee; and Maurice Rush, leader of the rty in British Columbia and member of the Mulroney urged to reject ~ NORAD recommendation danger of a nuclear war catastrophe. We join with the great majority of Canadians who oppose all and any involvement of our country in the U.S. Star Wars program for the militarization of space. Star Wars and NORAD are inseparable in their interconnection. Renewal of NORAD will integrate Canada into the U.S. Star Wars program. In this way, our country will be made a partner in the United States first-strike nuclear war strategy. Canada will have no voice, no independent role in deciding questions of peace and war, life and death. Canada must withdraw from NORAD. Instead, there is a way ahead now open for Cana- da, for world peace and survival. It is in the interests of our country and people, of peace and survival that we urge you and the Canadian Government to de- clare support for the Soviet Union’s proposals for the total elimination of nuclear weapons and an end to the danger of nuclear war by the year 2000 and, specifically, that you call on the Government of the USA to join with the Soviet Union in a moratorium on nuclear weapons testing. Across Canada Invite 500,000 to protest gas prices MONTREAL — The National Committee for Lowering the Price of — Gas (gasoline) says it has collected 200,000 signatures calling for cuts in the sky-high prices since its founding three weeks ago. Chairman sumers’ December, and the multinationals.”’ consecutive months. Joseph Gilles, claiming backing by organizations such as the Con- Association of Canada and the Automobile Protection Association, says the signature goal is 500,000. He noted that crude oil prices are less than half what they were in “difference is now going into the profits of the The organization is calling for an immediate Six- cent-a-litre reduction at the pumps, another three-cent drop by March 31 and another two-cent cut if crude sells below $20 a barrel for two Clark notes Marcos vote abuses OTTAWA — After a silence of nearly two weeks, Canada’s external affairs minister, Joe Clark, acknowledged Feb. 19, that his office had received numberous reports of fraud and corruption in the Feb. 7 Philippine election. He gave as sources Canadian Embassy observers: in Manila, Canadian reporters covering the vote, and Senator Al Graham, who was part of an international monitoring agency. ‘The Canadian Government notes with concern that a number of respected Filipino organizations, including the Conference of Catholic Bishops, have denounced the elections as fraudulent,’’ Clark said. He urged a ‘‘peaceful resolution to the current situation’’. ik RIGHT-HAND MAN 2A ME \y ¥ i \ cS if Ve N xe) “i > \) “entral Committee of the CPC. YS See ge MONTON — The National f camps: Union (NFU) will be and | Pee for public support Nanciay v38 governments for John at for farmers. ; T, Alberta regional co- owner for the NFU said, in a 6 cial aia” “without a further 8 “id package, as high as na Alberta farmers could be the farming scene this Be Obes : ister OS Met with Alberta’s min- ‘to pre gticulture, Fjordbotten ori the NFU’s annual ef ent - that < an its brief the NFU noted Eyes 5 12.000 fatmers®are in Or moderate financial incomes Must rely on off-farm ee to make ends meet.” Ment tae the Alberta Govern- TUDtcieg _While total farm bank- Slight, ; 2. Canada declined tly in in Alberta in- Mt and the total amount in C tstanding to banks, the’ Tedit Corporation and the “velopment Corpora- dramatically.” SSE He stated that, ‘‘Net farm in- come in Alberta in 1984 amounted to $259.8-million, or just 7.3 per cent of gross income, well below the national average of 16.3 per cent. Alberta’s 1984 net farm in- come was the lowest recorded since 1971’’. : The NFU said that banks and government lending agencies alike must share the responsibility for realigning the massive farm debt. ‘‘Banks as well as govern- ment lending agencies have been more responsible in placing many farmers in their current debt crisis than farmers themselves,’’ Oberg said. He charged that ‘*Poor eco- nomic projections for market prices and invalid assumptions about interest rates made by the lending institution manager have contributed to many farmers’ financial difficulties.”’ Oberg said *‘Debt restructuring is absolutely essential if order is to be restored to the farm econ- omy.” The benefits of write- downs of principal amounts nion makes farmers Governments wait while over 8,000 Alberta farmers are sacrificed to their creditors. owed by financially distressed producers would far outweigh the costs, he said. ‘‘Nationally, it: would require forgiveness of $3.9-billion”’ to lower “outstanding farm debts to 60 per cent of equity’’. He emphasized that this is not unrealistic ‘‘out of a total farm debt of approximately $22-billion and to stabilize an industry with a capital value of about $125-bil- lion.”’ He said the write-down of - principal amounts should also be accompanied by a reduction in in- terest rates to no more than 6 per cent. The Alberta Government is faced with a simple but stark choice,’’ said Oberg. ‘‘With 25.6 per cent of the province’s farmers classified as being in ‘severe financial distress,’ the govern- ment must choose whether to sacrifice these 8,525 farmers to appease their creditors; or sup- port debt realignment action that could retain most of them as productive farmers.”’ He urged the Alberta Govern- ment to “‘abandon ‘conventional wisdom’ which leaves the pro- ducers to the vagaries of market forces over which they have no control. To allow this continuing economic violence to take such a toll on farmers is not only a mis- carriage of justice but an immoral act. Governments must not inde- finitely ignore the root causes of the farm finance crisis by treating only the symptoms. Serious pol- icy changes must be implemented if the family farm is to remain the primary food production unit in Canadian agriculture.’’ In commenting on Alberta Government policy to participate in the federal tripartite insurance scheme for cattle, hogs and sheep, Oberg said the program “will tend to force stabilization to lower levels over the long haul’’. PACIFIC TRIBUNE, FEBRUARY 26, 198607 _ ’ plight public He said, “‘It is designed to per- petuate poverty in the farm com- munity since it is perfectly at- tuned to the cheap food indus- trialization policies of the federal and provincial governments’’. He also stated that “This indus- trialization Strategy is closely linked to proposals for changes in the method of payment of the Crow benefit, deregulation in transportation and advocacy for the creation of a free trade _ relationship with the United — States.” “The trend towards large, in- dustrialized ‘super-farms’ is al- ready well under way,” Oberg said. On the largest farms 5 per cent of farmers now produce approximately 40 per cent of farm product sales, and the top 1 per cent produce about one-half of that amount. Politicians today need to ponder the course in ag- riculture on which we have al- ready been launched and evaluate its implications to assure that our’ transition into the future becomes” orderly and humane.” ;