EDITORIAL ‘Clean launch’ — dirty deal While the Canadian Labor Congress, during its four-day convention, was speaking out strongly against Canada-U.,S. free trade as an enormous threat to Canadian jobs U.S. President Reagan was laying down the law, U.S. style, for the Mulroney govern- ment and all free traders. In a letter to Robert Packwood, the Republican chairman of the U.S. Senate finance committee (the committee which, in a 10-10 tie vote, decided not to prevent Reagan from going ahead with his free trade plan), the president made it clear that the goal is to get everything the U.S. wants while retaining the right to. scuttle Canadian jobs, industries, culture and social programs. The kinds of industries that would go down the drain have been often enumerated, but any remaining segments of an independent economy would be hit by the U.S. demand for increased access for U.S. com- panies to federal and provincial government con- tracts. Besides, the Canadian government would be forced to withdraw subsidies and support to industries — thereby wrecking programs designed to correct regional disparity. Moreover, the U.S. free trade promoters want firm control over provincial governments as well as over the Tory sell-out artists in Ottawa. : Opposition members in the House of Commons, on April 28, drew from the government side the con- fession that in the free trade “negotiations” which it is pushing for, everything will be on the table. The Tories may yet revert to claims to the contrary. They have before, after baring themselves and admitting that everything is for sale. But at least no one in Canada should be fooled one more time. Take countervailing duties, whereby the U.S. loads Bar nuclear-armed ships. When five U.S. nuclear-capable warships nosed into Vancouver harbor on the eve of the Centennial Peace Festival they made waves which will be a long ~The vessels came at the Canadian Navy’s invitation © with the acquiescence and endorsation of the Tory government in Ottawa. It was wrong on several counts — and potentially hazardous. : The impudent display of U.S. military power hap- pened as Vancouverites and visitors began a nine-day peace festival in a city which has officialy declared itself a nuclear weapons-free zone, and in spite of sound arguments against it. The intrusion was not lost on the peace movement which urged Vancouver-Centre Conservative MP Pat Carney (energy minister) to use her clout to have the military “show more concern for the people of Van- couver.” . a The Mulroney government, which likes to style ’ - itself as being peace-oriented, is weak on deeds to back up the claim. The most dz nning evidence came in the House of Commons from External Affairs Minister Joe Clark. On April 23, Clark was confronted with duties on to imported products from Canada its offi- _ Cials consider are unfairly subsidized. Many subsidies are in place to balance opportunities and standards of - living in various parts of Canada, and to help in competing with non-union, low-wage areas of the world. The U.S. aim would be to upset whatever economic and social balances Canada has thus far achieved. Reagan’s letter to Packwood advocates “a ‘clean launch’ basis” for free trade talks. He explains this Star Wars language as meaning the U.S. wants “everything on the table when negotiations begin and to start without preconditions on either side.” Canada’s free trade negotiator, Simon Reisman, seconded the motion in a CTV interview April 23. “Both sides should be willing to talk about all those things. that the other side wishes to talk about,” he said. “In other words, everything is on the table.” -Both sides would be equal, except that the U.S. would be more equal than Canada. Hence, the Rea- gan letter gives the assurance that it is Reagan’s inten- tion to “continue to retain full access to multilaterally sanctioned U.S. trade remedies.” That is translated to mean countervailing duties on such Canadian pro- ducts as fish, lumber, probably specialty steel, and other products. Did the Canadian Tory. government rise up and deny any such possibility? External Affairs Minister Joe Clark responded that countervailing action “is a negotiable question.” The government is caught deeply involved in a venture which, however much it may serve the policies of Reagan, is an insidious threat to Canadian jobs, Canadian workers and the Canadian people as a whole. ; information from New Democratic MP Jim Fulton (Skeena, B.C.), who reported: “A recent United States freedom of information lawsuit revealed that since 1965, there have been 630 accidents involving nuclear weapons held aboard U.S. naval vessels visiting the ports of Hawaii.” — Fulton asked Clark to release any similar figures relating to Canadian ports in view of the Canadian policy not to allow nuclear weapons in our country. The Canadian government has a policy, Clark rep- lied, “of not publicizing information regarding the possible transit of nuclear materials on the vessels of our allies.” That won’t do. What about the policy of no nuclear arms in Canada? Is that overridden by U.S. military expedience? If Tory policy is not to ask about nuclear . weapons entering our ports the policy needs changing. Either that, or nuclear-capable ships should be barred, not least to remove the danger of an accident involving nuclear weapons. Once again it is shown that Canada needs policies independent of the U.S. military-industrial complex — policies of peace and disarmament at home and in its foreign relations. ; markets and other subsidiaries, are wholesale/retail fo0° And that activity netted them an after tax profit for ju weeks ended March 22, of $11.3-billion, compared with lion a year ago. One more blockbuster. IRIBUNE Editor — SEAN GRIFFIN Assistant Editor — DAN KEETON Business & Circulation Manager — MIKE PRONIU Graphics — ANGELA KENYON Published weekly at 2681 East Hastings Street - Vancouver, B.C. V5K 1Z5 ; Phone (604) 251-1186 3 : Subscription Rate: Canada 616 one year; $10 six month Foreign — $25 one year; ; Second class mail registration number 1560 ‘Ss ‘Wrong gender’ given the city Boyd Pyper, Victoria, writes: This letter Letters U.S, media is, single-minde?@ Michael Haines, Prince George, Your paper is really a breath of fresh a am an American who now lives 12. wishes to raise two points. The first is over the use of what I and others consider the unecessary use of sexist pronouns for inan- imate objects. The last example that I saw was in the April 2 story of Vancouver’s Walk for Peace (“‘Eyes of the world on city peace events,” Tribune April 2, 1986). In the first paragraph you refer to Vancouver as “she”. Vancouver is a city, which is at best, androgenous and at worst, inani- mate. Therefore the word “‘it” would have sufficed. The other issue is that, as a new sub- scriber, I am disappointed by some of the content. I fully understand that the Trib- une is a labor weekly, but more coverage of other people’s struggles. in labor, social and political fields is needed. ~ Tom Morris’ column is not adequate to the need. What is needed is a further sup- plement to your labor coverage on inter- national affairs. Material on the crises in Latin America, labor in Europe, Southern Africa is needed to give the Tribune a com- plete flavor of working class struggle. Occasional articles on the Philippines and response from Valle-Garay are just not enough, P.S. it’s a damn fine paper, otherwise! . (We stand corrected — the use of “she” in reference to Vancouver was an archaism, dating from a-time when cities, countries, ships were referred to by the feminine pronoun. From now on, it will be “it” — Ed.) ' : Sanctions much better message Robert D. Smith, Vancouver, writes: Since I have waited for a reply for over five months, it seems that Joe Clark isn’t about to respond to my demand that the South African ambassador to Canada be imme- diately expelled from our country. According to material I had received previously from the Department of Exter- nal Affairs, the Mulroney government’s stated excuse of maintaining diplomatic ties with the Botha regime in South Africa is for the purpose of “communicating its abhorrence of the system of apartheid.” However, I pointed out the fallacy of this premise in my letter by reminding Clark that Babb is only Botha’s mouthpiece in. this country, a smooth-talking propagan- dist for apartheid. Surely the Mulroney Tories could far more effectively communicate their alleged abhorrence of such an undemocratic, inhumane form of government by impos- ing total economic sanctions against _ South Africa and by cutting diplomatic ties with that country. in the future. : ada. I am amazed at the single-mim opinion that the American peoP from the U.S. press. I guess they di learn anything from Vietnam. I am sorry to say that red opinions — “that if you don’t like! go back to where you came from,” — exist in the U.S. The U.S. has a violent} and a large part of its economy is d€P ent on the military industrial comP Unfortunately the U.S. economy S afford peace. In my opinion, the U. not a democracy any more. The ©? and senate are only window dressite the real power is in the executive D and in the lobby and special 1 groups that can buy off the congress and senators. I have no solutions !0 problems — I only hope the world vives the Rambo-Reagan administl@ and that more peaceful leaders will pre 4 e PACIFIC TRIBUNE, MAY 7, 1986