I have before me an election leaflet,
ed to voters in my constituency
(Burnaby-Willingdon), signed by provin-
ew Democratic Party leader Bob
Skelly. It is entitled “A New Beginning for
British Columbia.” Presumably, it has
N, Or will be distributed in other consti-
| tencies as well.
I would like to draw the attention of
Teaders, and particularly trade unionists,
10 on paragraph of this leaflet. It reads:
€can end the confrontation that has
| Stour economy thousands of jobs, shat-
tered consumer and investor confidence
and caused an epidemic of small business
kruptcies and mill closures.”
Just what exactly is meant by confron-
lation is not defined in the leaflet. We must
€refore fall back on how the term has
_. used by Bob Skelly on various occa-
Sions,
Ina Sept. 25, 1984 interview with the
'mes-Colonist in Victoria he stated that
eee NDP is Out to end the era of confronta-
| "onin B.C. politics, “There's no war if one
Side refuses to fight,” he said.
ar a his return from Australia in
ab Ober, 1985, he offered the so-called
) |<, UStralian Accord (an agreement between
__© ttade union movemnent and the Aus-
da ee Labor Party for voluntary wage
BR Rol) as a model to be followed in
ae.” and as an alternative to the “con-
“oye ton: policies of the, Social Credit

Suld like to see an accord as part of our
Xt election platform.”
Bob € can assume, therefore, that when
= Skelly speaks of confrontation, he
Sa Not only the kind provoked by the
: Credit government (expressed in
conf trations and rallies) but also the
rand Tontations arising between..unions
Str Plovers expressed sinithe form of
Kes and lockoutse\¥/ yetsen srt 0} En
Ky as Confrontation,-no matter how you
Lie Tpret it, Teally responsible for the eco-
| ables ills facing the province? Is it respon-
‘ise ; Or the loss of jobs, mill closures,
Bcc, oe consumer and investor confi-
es and small business bankruptcies as
' 88ested by Bob Skelly?
Bl te s Tontation didn’t cause any mills to
f | cl ott dn this: province: They. were
own “down.:by, the corporations that
| aca them either: because.of loss: of
| mili, €ts, poor prices, or because other
1 ernst the same industry are more mod-
, » Making old ones obsolete. The

Vetament. Two..months. later, on Dec.:
1985 the told the Vancouver Sun; “I.

|| Confrontation not the problem

decisions to close mills was made by the
employers and unions were not responsi-
ble. Or does Bob Skelly believe that if
unions had given substantial concessions
and accepted wage cuts, the mills would
not close?

I’m not sure just what Bob Skelly means
when he says that confrontation has “shat-
tered consumer confidence.” Does he
mean that consumers are saving their
money and buying less? If people are buy-
ing less it’s either because they haven’t the
money to buy more or because they are
being very careful where they spend and
spending as little as possible, because of
economic uncertainties. But confronta-
tion has nothing to do with it.

Has confrontation “shattered investor
confidence’’? There is no evidence to sug-
gest that anything that Premier Bennett
has done has adversely affected investors.
They just love his attacks on-unions and
his cuts in social programs. They love even
more the tax concessions the Socreds gave

Ben
Swankey

them —$1 billion’ in” the “last “budget
alone.

Furthermore, labor-employer confron-
tation (strikes and lockouts) have been
going on since B.C. became a province in
1871. They never stopped investments in
forestry, mining, fishing, and manufactur-
ing and they are not stopping it now.

What does Bob Skelly mean when he
says, thet. contfontation, ag cast OME,
economy, thousands, OLjQDS I arocice zoze9

Cuts in government staff, health and
education in B.C. have resulted in the loss
of thousands of jobs. But that wasn’t the
result of any confrontation. That was
simply government policy. In fact, the
only time the government was held up in
carrying through its policy was when it
was confronted by the entire Solidarity
movement.

_. The other and major place where jobs
have been lost is in private industry, where
layoffs have run into the hundreds of
thousands. That was the solution of the
employers to the problem of an economy

in decline. How can confrontation be
blamed for this?

The other possibility is that Bob Skelly
believes that if there were an absence of
conflict or confrontation between unions
and employers, thousands of jobs would
be saved. That is another way of saying
that if unions accepted drastic wage cuts
and made substantial concessions to their
employers, they would not lose their jobs.
Is this what Bob Skelly believes or advo-
cates?

The evidence indicates that he-is think-
ing along these lines. When he came back
from Australia in October, he also said:
“You can achieve restraint in wages by
voluntary agreement and from our point
of view that is better than the Bennett
program of ramming restraint down
labor’s throat.”

Wage restraint and wage controls are
bad.in principle because all they do is cut
living standards so employers can make
more profit. They don’t save any jobs.
Labor had its fill of wage control when it
was imposed by the Trudeau government
from 1975-78. For labor to agree to it
(under an NDP government presumably),
would not make it any better than it is now
when it is being rammed down labor’s
throat by a Socred government.

The whole problem with the “‘confron-
tation” issue generated by Bob Skelly is
that he is barking up the wrong tree. Con-
frontation is not the main problem that
faces the B.C. economy. The main prob-
lem is jobs, and the only way to produce
jobs is for the government to get into the
business of building secondary industry,
housing, and restore the cuts in health and
education and government services. Will
an NDP government do that? There is no
other way because the private sector cer-
tainly will not.

he, other, aspect,.of,Bab. Skelly’s, con-.

frontation,issue is that it lays.all-the blame..,.).

on the Bennett government, without
pointing out that the the Bennett Socred
cabinet is in fact the agency and servant of
the big corporations that run the economy
and politics of B.C. These are the real
source of our economic and political prob-
lems; they are the ones that need to be
challenged and muzzled and their control
over the economy curbed.

Recognition of this by Bob Skelly and
the NDP leadership would go a long way
towards rallying the labor movement and
all voters and ensuring the defeat of the
Bennett government in the next election.

artist — Brace Springsteen — whose
‘work has had=good=reason to be

any LAWA — The -New Democratic
‘and Tal Affairs Critic Pauline Jewett
emberg €nce Critic Derek Blackburn,
Teviewin of the parliamentary committee
NoRave® Canadian participation . in
made » COndemned the recommendation
tive ay ~l€ Committee and its Conserva-
H Sority fora five-year renewal of Can-

NORAD committee’s

adian participation in NORAD.

Calling the. committee’s recommenda-
tions “irresponsible,” Pauline Jewett said
“the Conservatives on the committee
simply ignored any testimony which dis-
agreed with their view that NORAD should
be automatically rubber-stamped for another
five years. Then they denied other parties

| WD events

‘] celeb. annual International Women’s Day march highlights a weekend of activities
} thro 2s IWD and the struggle for women’s equality in Canada this Friday

gh s

oat che ms unday.
V

va ve

| Sfoll

“treasurer Shirley Carr.

is in,

Do, ttainment are featured:

arch, followed by a rally, begins at 11 a.m. Saturday, March 8, at the
t Art Gallery steps on West Georgia St.

Owed by an “information day” at the Carnegie Centre, corner of Main and
The Bes Streets, beginning at 3 p.m. Daycare is provided.

Union vice-president Diane Wood, and Canadian Labor Congress

| featyy; eoday, March 9, the Congress of Canadian Women holds a banquet,
8 Suest speaker Jean Swanson of End Legislated Poverty. A slide show and

ci. pen at 5 p.m. at the Russian Hall, 600 Campbell Ave. in Vancouver.
Bs are $10, seniors and unemployed $8, children over eight, $4.

scheduled

stand hit

the democratic right to include their dissent-
ing opinions in the report,” she said.

The Committee’s recommendations also
ingored concerns raised by the secret remo-
val of the ABM clause in 1981 from the
agreement, that prevented Canada from
taking part in ballistic misile defence. In
addition to the removal of this clause,
NORAD was renamed to include aerospace
defence.

“Without safeguards like the ABM
clause in the agreement, without a much
shorter renewal time, NORAD could
become the Trojan Horse for slipping Star
Wars into Canada’s defences,” Jewett said.

Recommendations made to the com-
mittee by the NDP members and witnesses
called before the committee include:

@ The re-introduction of the ABM clause
into the agreement;

@ A two-year renewal to allow Canada
to assess changes in American strategy and
policies, such as Star Wars;

© Anend to the “two hats” system where-
by NORAD commander-in-chief Gen.
Robert Herres is also Commander of the
U.S. Unified Space command.

@ Full parliamentary consideration of
any NORAD agreement before it is signed.

Ruth Lowther, Vancouver, writes:
Reading the Feb. 25 issue of the Trib
has prompted me to write this letter.
Usually I begin reading the Tribune’s
Coming Events and labor sections at
the back, flip to the front to read
Vancouver affairs, then spend the
rest of the week digesting the middle
sections in bits and pieces. Today I
read the Feb. 26 issue all at once,
cover to cover, and I want to com-
pliment the Tribune staff for their
efforts.

The small article announcing
Harry Rankin’s mayoralty inten-
tions, and summing COPE’s growth
and 18-strong seating in Vancouv-
er’s present governments, is reason
enough to save this an an historic
issue. Elsewhere the Tribune is right
up to date and refreshingly positive
about events world-wide, national,
provincial, and local. There is a
good deal of humor sprinkled in
this paper or, if not humor, then
lasting optimism. Every article,
including the editorial, has a positive
finish.

For instance, on the Reviews
page, it is good to see an article
about a film somebody liked —
Down and Out in Beverly Hills;
about a book that was appreciated
— Contact; and about a rock-n-roll

hailed. These are articles that bring
out some good qualities of “‘west-
ern” culture, a feeling that progres-
sive things are trying to be done
before mass audiences.

Even a silly movie like Murphy’s
Romance gets a lovely tongue-in-
cheek, teasing style of rebuke. This
humorous, light-hearted style of
writing seems to be ing more
often in the Tribune. I look forward
to reading Kerry McCuaig, Tom
Morris, Harry Rankin of course,
and whoever does “People and
Issues.” The bit about the Socreds
sending Expo-hyped election letters
to the “Triburne Public Com-
pany” was hilarious. And only Tom
Morris could make me laugh at
murderous dictators!

Most significantly, nearly every
page has an item not only about
world peace, but on action happen-
ing for world peace. It is interesting
that,on a world peace feature page
there is a haunting cartoon accom-
panied by another that made me
burst out chuckling. Again, there is
light-hearted optimism underlining
articles that could be depressingly
foreboding, given to us instead with
an encouraging aftertaste.

The Tribune is quickly informa-
tive, entertaining, encouraging, and
uniting. It even looks good!

The Vancouver East Club had
posted an announcement on page 11
expressing sorrow for the loss of
John Pribanich. As a child in the
Yugoslav-Canadian community. I
was one of many children who
received his smile and respect, and
we would always count on him
being there. He represents the to me
the spirit of the kind of human fabric
that keeps making the Pacific Trib-
une.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE, MARCH 5, 1986 « 3