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EDITORIAL

Finance Minister Michael Wilson’s speech in
Toronto offered some clues to the thinking of the
Tory government as it clearly signalled its intent to
preoccupy itself with winning the next election, not
dealing with the country’s problems.

It should be remembered Mulroney spent the
month of September, not in Parliament where
: action could be taken, but on the hustings. The

__ Tory braintrust (and public opinion polls) told him

his image was tarnished. His Tories were slipping
fast as the public began to see through his smoke
and mirrors to the real right-wing, pro-U.S. agenda
he speaks for.

And so Mulroney hijacked Parliament, shutting
it down for an extra month while directing his
people to get out there and sell, sell, sell. We saw
him everywhere pumping hands, beaming at fall
fairs, grinning at hockey games — everywhere, that

_is, but at the helm of government.

smoothie Don Mazankowski. Gone is Sinclair
Stevens and a host of Tory embarrassments. We’re
to believe we have a born-again government.

Wilson’s speech, therefore, is part of this process
of damage control and image-polishing.

Suddenly we see his lips move and from some-
where comes an unexpected “concern” for the
underprivileged and disadvantaged of this land.
Slyly hidden is Tory policy to axe social programs

Gone is velcro lips Erik Neilsen, arrived is-

Lots of image-building
but no new policies seen

and other perks totalling almost $40 billion — to
the corporate hogs.

The jobless rate remains extremely high — well
over one million people are still unemployed, many
have just given up and dropped off any StatsCan
lists. Youth are looking forward to a long, cold and
empty winter.

The free trade odyssey goes on; like a lemming
racing to the brink, Mulroney shrugs off U.S. warn-
ings, punitive measures, and barges ahead ignoring
a growing country-wide opposition to the eco-
nomic, political and cultural sellout his policies
represent.

Under the Tories, military spending is up; we’ve
locked into Reagan’s Star Wars via the NORAD
pact; Canada’s voice at the UN is little more than a
“me too” for the State Department.

The list could go on: regional disparity widens,
corruption, and porkbarreling reach scandalous
new heights, the corporation/government _anti-

union offensive continues, the crisis in agriculture, °

transportation, education, health care, pensions,
culture continues unabated. Two years of Toryism
have been an unqualified disaster for Canadians.
More: there’s no indication in Wilson’s speech of
any program to get on the road to economic expan-
sion and job creation. By tying Canada even more
closely to the faltering U.S. economy with its escal-
ating military spending, Mulroney’s policies spell

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TRIBUNE

: Assistant Editor — DAN KEETON
Business & Circulation Manager — MIKE PRONIUK —

Published weekly at 2681 East Hastings Street

Editor — SEAN GRIFFIN

Graphics — ANGELA KENYON

Vancouver, B.C. V5K 1Z5
Phone (604) 251-1186

and universality.
But what else do we see?

The deficit is up, not down as promised, due to
massive Tory giveaways — grants, tax deferrals

continued crisis.

The labor and democratic forces have a big job
ahead in the fight to stop the sellout agenda of the
Conservative majority at Ottawa.

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that reminds British Columbians of
the past record of Socred leader and B.C.
Premier, Bill Vander Zalm. And it says
sor’~thing for its content that, while a
media-orchestrated love-in tries to make
voters forget about the man who initiated
cutbacks in education and welfare, the
new booklet by labor historian and ana-
lyst Ben Swankey has already sold out
most of the initial 5,000 copies.

That’s a pretty good record, considering
the expose of the Richmond millionaire
and entrepreneur is barely two weeks off
the presses. The only regretful note to
sound is that the message in The Two Faces
of Vander Zalm isn’t being carried in-other
sources and spread around the province.

Swankey, who has authored such per-
ceptive works as The Fraser Institute — a
previous success which ran in two

_ editions — and The Tory Budget, an anal-

_ ysis of the Mulroney government’s first

_ year in office, encapsules in 15 magazine-
size pages the past history of Vander
Zalm, his present posture as a politician of
moderation, and the program organized
labor and socialists have for hauling B.C.
out of the economic crisis exacerbated by
four years of Socred “restraint.”

In examining Vander Zalm’s not-so-

distant past, Swankey cites newspapers,

| magazines and other sources to recall the
premier’s statements and actions when he
was minister of human resources, educa-
tion minister and mayoral candidate
opposing Mayor Mike Harcourt in the
1984 Vancouver civic election. What
emerges is a picture that belies the premi-
er’s current conciliatory stance. It shows a
died-in-the-wool redneck whom, if he’s
successful in the Oct. 22 election, will soon
revert to type.

“Any government headed by Vander
| Zalm will be to the right even of the Ben-
nett government. Let there be no illusions
about that,” Swankey warns after provid-
ing the proof: the former human resources
minister’s comments about handing shov-
els to welfare recipients to his more recent

‘0 date, it’s the only publication around -

People and Issues

aa RN EST

pronouncements opposing the peace initi-
atives of Vancouver city council.

But Two Faces goes further than simply
listing Vander Zalm’s reactionary utteran-
ces and actions. Swankey also puts for-
ward several demands for change, that
labor and other anti-Socred forces can
make during the election campaign. These
include nationalization of key forest
industries, restoring cutbacks made to
education and declaring B.C. nuclear-
weapons free.

As the author notes in the concluding
chapters, the reforms advocated “are not
socialism. They can all be carried out
within a modified capitalist system ... It
will take the combined efforts of all reform
groups — political, labor, church and
community to defeat corporate control
and win reforms. 2

“Reforms cannot be won by trying to be
everyone’s friend, friends of the Estab-
lishment and friends of labor and the
people. We all have to take sides and rec-
ognize that a struggle lies ahead,’ Swan-
key writes.

Those comments probably explain why
The Two Faces of Vander Zalm has
proven so popular. And we’re certain that,
in offering readers a fresh perspective on

the upcoming election, the book will soon

find success with its second printing.
Copies of Two Faces, published by the

’ Centre for Socialist Education, can be

ordered for $2 a piece — the price dimin-
ishes with bulk orders — from the
People’s Co-op Bookstore, 1391 Com-
mercial Dr., Vancouver, VSL 3X5. The

phone number is 253-6442.
; ep ae

A province as rich in labor history and
traditions as is B.C. is bound to have
many intriguing stories about union
organizing and the socialist and commu-
nist movements. And in assessing the life
of Bill Faliboga, we'd be remiss if we didn’t

include this one. ;

The anecdote goes like this: Communist
Party member and lifelong International
Woodworkers activist Ernie Knott, hav-
ing helped in the successful organizing of
the Jordan River logging camp on Van-
couver Island in 1952, was elected camp
chairman. In carrying out his duties as the
leading union member, Ernie made the
rounds of the various bunkhouses, and
included raising donations for the Pacific
Tribune in his activities.

Ernie was used to getting a positive
response from the woodworkers, usually
in the form of one or two hard-earned
dollars. But when he hit the fallers’ bunk-
house, Ernie received one of the more
pleasant shocks of his life when a faller
handed over a donation of $25. That
faller, he later learned, was Bill.

As Ernie remarked, $25 in the 1950s
showed commitment: it was considerably
in excess then of a faller’s daily wage.

Such anecdotes help point out the char-
acter and fibre of progressive “old timers”
such as Bill, who died in Vernon Aug. 12
after an illness. In his senior years he was
knownas the janitor of the Ukrainian Hall
in Vancouver — until ‘he left in 1983 —
but his life shows a history of jobs and
skills that most of us haven’t duplicated.

Born April 14, 1905, in the Chernivtzy
portion of the Ukraine — then under
Romanian control — Bill emigrated to
Canada in 1925. He spent the first seven
years as a farm hand in Alberta before
moving to Le Pas, Manitoba, in 1932 and
taking up farming on his own behalf.

Subsequent years saw Bill move to
Hamilton, Ont., where he acquired the
trade of electrical welder, and where the
joined the Canadian Army in 1943 and
saw duty in Canda, Britain and continen- .
tal Europe until he was discharged in 1946.

After that, Bill was a prospector and
miner in northern Ontario, a miner in

~ the Ukrainian Hall on Sept. 21.

_ suffered more than two decades of priso

Uranium City, Sask., and finally a wood--
worker in British Columbia. In 1933 he } }
joined the Ukrainian Labor-Farmer | |
Temple Association — the forerunner Of |
the Association of United Ukrainian
Canadians — and at some point (no one
is certain when) he joined the Communist
Party, retaining his membership until his }
death. :

A memorial service for Bill was heldin |

* * *

a is name is not as universally knownas b
that of Nelson Mandela. But, as with | :
the famed leader of the African National |
Congress who has been incarcerated for » F

the past 25 years, Dennis Goldberg has also |

for his active opposition to South Africa’
racist system known as apartheid.
Along with Mandela, Goldberg was
tried in the “Rivona Trial” in Pretoria
Supreme Court and sentenced for his
activities. Goldberg is now free and is of
tour informing others of the anlr
apartheid struggle. “ie
Through the efforts of the International |}
Defence and Aid Fund for Souther |
Africa — in co-operation with the ANC }
and the local Anti-Apartheid Network —
Goldberg will be speaking in Vancouver.
He’ll offer a first-hand account of the hor
rors of apartheid at the Robson Squat
Media Centre on Tuesday, Oct. 7, begit-
ning at 7:30 p.m. re
A) ese P
ome readers last week unfortunately | |
did not receive all the news from the!
copy of the Sept. 24 issue of the Tribune.
We know this because we received qui
few calls informing us that various pagt
of the issue were inked over and were
indecipherable. ‘i
We’re told some copies that shoul
have been discarded inadvertently goti
the bundles. We caught some before they
went out, but unfortunately not all |
them. Anyone who received such a cop’
can phone us for a replacement.

4 e PACIFIC TRIBUNE, OCTOBER 1, 1986