Editorial - Democracy for all The process of change captivating the world is by no means limited to eastern ie Europe. Last week was a political classroom providing example after example of humanity’s aspirations, strivings and struggles for a better life. The Namibian people’s long path toward independence culminating in SWAPO’s election victory, and Brazil’s first vote after 25 years of military rule, are two such / examples. There are, of course, others. And these should offer food for thought about how social change evolves. A rough comparison of how the superpowers react to this processes might prove enlightening. In eastern Europe, where long-lasting political issues are being decided, socio-economic structures being revamped and the will of the people addressed, the USSR’s role is to encourage, not restrict. Elsewhere, however, the process is different. - In El Salvador the U.S.-backed regime is wreaking havoc on civilians with aircraft and armour, as the 10-year war of liberation spreads into the capital itself. Washington’s response is to step up its support for the right-wing military and defend the bombing of San Salvador’s working class suburbs. End U.S. support, hold a free vote, and the FMLN would win. In Israeli-occupied West Bank and Gaza, another U.S.-financed ally last week held 1.7 million Palestinians under military curfew on the first anniversary of the new Palestinian state. Withdraw Israeli occupation, have a free vote, and the PLO would sweep to power. In Nicaragua, torn and weary from nine years of U.S.-backed contra war, vf exhausted by economic sabotage and boycott, the people endure still more U.S. & lat (lat CINE interference. Millions of dollars pour into opposition coffers (would the U.S. 7 S= - =. c Ys oe: |e atin bee C WARD |[- 3 =. orn KC S = permit this in its election?), the contras refuse to disarm, the OAS keeps the i ; ; H . EDITOR Published weekly at pressure up in the weeks before the national elections. End U.S. economic, Sean Griffin peat East Hecinae Seek political and military sabotage, let Nicaragua breathe, and then see whom the Vancouver, B.C., V5K 1Z5 people freely elect. j ASSOCIATE EDITOR Phone: (604) 251-1186 The USSR has pulled out of Afghanistan, publicly describing its military Dan Keeton Fax: om 251-4232 involvement as a mistake, yet the U.S., Pakistan and others keep fuelling the BUSINESS & CIRCULATION MANAGER SuneS Ee sates : : : : E : Peo 2 = anada: @ $20 one year @ $35 mujahedin war machine. In Cambodia, following Vietnam’s withdrawal, the Mike Proniuk two years @ Foreign $32 one year. killer Khmer Rouge, still recognized by the UN (with Canada’s support) again GRAPHICS Sitoniclakeanall one / attack from border sanctuaries. Have the U.S. and its allies end their interfer- A registration number 1560 ; ngela Kenyon ence. Let’s see who the Afghans and Cambodians elect in a free vote. g y Democracy, after all, should cut both ways. f that phone bill starts looking like your monthly mortgage in the not-too- distant future, you'll have the Tory government and its business friends to thank. It may cost you dearly to phone a friend across town, due to changes in the works for the way telephone service is regulated: changes which will allow direct interfer- ence in regulatory decisions by the federal cabinet. It’s all spelled out in one word: deregulation. A recent issue of the Financial Post notes that all telephone systems in Canada may come under the control of one agency, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission. There’s nothing wrong in that idea per se, except when one views what the Tories have in mind for the CRTC. The paper reports that Communications Minister Marcel Masse tabled a bill in the House last month that in changing the Railway Act, which stipulates that the three publicly owned telephone compan- ies in the Prairie provinces are regulated by provincial utilities agencies, will bring those companies under direct CRTC con- trol. Additional legislation expected by the end of this year will allow the CRTC to unilaterally decide that certain services in telecommunications can be deregulated. At the same time, the new legislation may give the government direct power to set policy at the CRTC. This is particularly ominous consider- ing the impending new application from CNCP Telecommunications, the telegram and telex company that with the aid of TV cable magnate Ted Rogers — who owns 40 per cent of the company — wants to set up competition with the established telephone companies’ long-distance servi- ces. The process is expected to take about 18 months. And that spells danger for household consumers, warns Sid Shniad, research director for the Telecommunications Work- ers Union. In an article in the October issue of On the Level, he writes: ““The danger is that if competitors capture a significant amount of toll (long-distance) revenue, the subsidy of local rates by toll rates, which constitutes the foundation of Canada’s system of telephone rates and services, will be undermined.” Shniad points toa 1988 impact study on the effects of competition in long-distance services headed by CRTC vice-chair Bud Sherman, which found that only one in 10 Canadians would be better off if competi- tion were introduced. And he observes that in the United States, years of deregu- lated telephone service has meant a decline in long-distance rates, but an overall astronomical climb in local phone rates, and additional charges for services that used to be included in monthly phone bills. Which makes for a compelling reason to organize against the deregulation schemes of the Tories and their corporate friends. ea rk he tide of changes sweeping the social- ist countries in Europe reveals a couple People and Issues of historical truths: that people have the power to move world events and that, at least in the case of the socialist govern- ments, leaders can recognize people’s demands and move to accommodate them. What is needed now is reciprocation in kind, says the umbrella peace organiza- tion, End the Arms Race. Frank Kennedy, president of the Vancouver-based EAR which represents more than 200 peace groups, puts it this way: “The opening of the Berlin Wall last week should dramatically illustrate to our government the power of people to bring about change. It’s time for the Canadian government to reallocate money and resources spent on Cold War politics and fund human needs.” For years the government has ignored public opinion and spent millions on armaments while cutting back on social programs, Kennedy notes. And this has yet to change in the West, given that nuclear-capable warships still visit Cana- dian harbours, Canada continues to allow the U.S. to test cruise missiles and other military hardware in our territories, and there are now low-level bomber test flights in B.C. and plans to expand test flights over Labrador with a NATO base, which Ottawa is actively seeking. That’s why EAR will be joining with the Alliance Against Low Level Flights in Brit- ish Columbia in a national day of protest called by the Canadian Peace Alliance this Tuesday, Nov. 28. There will be demon- strations across the country, and in Van- couver, one will take place at noon in front of Canada Place, the location of the minis- terial office of Associate Minister of Defence Mary Collins. * * eaders of last week’s review of John LeCarre’s spy novel Russia House might be intrigued to know that the novel is indeed being made into a film with Sean Connery in the lead and is currently being filmed in Moscow. And it turns out that Connery’s stay in Moscow has turned up one of the minor perils of perestroika that has left some people a little red-faced, so to speak. One of the results of the introduction of cost-accounting in the USSR is that blocks of rooms in the Communist Party’s big October hotel in Moscow are now being leased out to various organizations to boost revenues. Among recent residents were the representatives of MacDonald’s Canada — in Moscow for meetings on the forthcoming opening of their restaurants — and Sean Connery. But it seems that the Soviet film com- pany Mosfilm was using the opportunity to push up its own revenues and although it was paying the rate of 150 rubles a night for the rooms it leased from the hotel, it was in turn charging Connery the substan- tially larger sum of $420 U.S. a night. Now the rooms are nice but not that nice, and Connery complained — loudly enough that the incident was aired on the Soviet media. We understand a re-negotiation was arranged. _ 4e Pacific Tribune, November 27, 1989