me a JUL HLL Lod le OE Sal Hl! ee |i an The Be oa a mae |e ——--~- -- a ‘a J soll 2B ee ase. ~~ reer. EDITORIAL Counting down to zero What final hurdle is preventing NATO from agreeing to the denuclearization of Europe? When President Ronald Reagan pulled defeat out of the jaws of a disarma- ment victory at Reykjavik, he did so (he says) because the Soviets linked the withdrawal of nuclear missiles from Europe to the cancellation of Star Wars. Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev jumped that barrier and agreed to separate _ the issues. Reagan still lingers at the starting line. During his first term in the White House, Reagan projected a “Zero Option” plan which would remove Warsaw Pact and U.S. missiles from Europe. The Soviets originally rejected the proposal because it did not take into considera- tion the French and British arsenals, nor submarine-based U.S. missiles. Again Gorbachev took a leap and agreed. But an intransigent Reagan refuses. to play by his own rules. Why are the Soviets so anxious to reach an agreement in Europe? A small area, already mutilated by two world wars, this land literally groans with the weight of military arsenals. Nine million troops face each other; by the end of next year 750 nuclear multiple war heads will be in place. In addition there are French and British nuclear missiles, and an unknown number of U.S. strategic warheads sitting off the coast of Europe on submarines. Europe is the powder- keg which could ignite a nuclear holocaust. So why the foot dragging from the West? The answer lies in anti- communism. Powerful right-wing forces, fueled by the superprofits of arms production, harbor a psychotic hatred which cannot bear the reality that socialism exists and will continue to exist. This is why Canada’s Tories, have been so insipid in their statements to Washington; why Britain’s Thatcher can lecture the world on the need to be “realistic” about the possibilities of a nuclear weapons free world and why Reagan can reject his own proposals. The disarmament race cannot be held with only one runner. The peace forces must hold a torch under Western leaders, force them to respond to the Soviet MAID OF THE MIST [PD == a Tt NIAGARA FALLS : CANADAS HONEYMOON, PCB, CAPITAL FRIBUN Editor — SEAN GRIFFIN Assistant Editor — DAN KEETON Business & Circulation Manager — MIKE PRONIUK Graphics — ANGELA KENYON . Published weekly at 2681 East Hastings Street Vancouver, B.C. V5K 1Z5 Phone (604) 251-1186 ISSN 0030-896X Subscription Rate: Canada — $16 one year; $10 six months Foreign — $25 one year; peace initiatives and catch up in the race for survival. Second class mail registration number 1560 - \ tT ‘get justice done over unfair transit cutbacks can be a hard business in Socred-ruled British Columbia. It can be even harder when the local municipal council and the Greater Vancouver Regional Transit Commission collectively throw a curve ball that amounts to a Catch-22. This fate befell the Surrey-Delta Citi- zens Transit Committee, some 70 members of whom were rejected from appearing before Surrey municipal council April 27. The group — formed of several area citizens’ associations and individuals fed up with bus route cuts and changes that add hours on to travel time in Surrey and Delta — asked council in a phone call April 7 to put them on the agenda. In the meantime, the group appeared before a” session of the transit commission where they were told to “work closer with coun- cil.” In other words, “take your beef to them.” Things really got confusing when the citizens committee received a letter from municipal clerk Wayne Vollrath inform- ing them that their request to address council was denied because the matter fell under the jurisdiction of the transit com- mission. : After a discussion with citizens commit- tee representative Bill Gabriel, Vollrath promised to bring the matter up again with council. On April 27 the group, hav- ing heard nothing from Vollrath, showed up at council anyway. But a motion, from Ald. Garry Watkins, to allow them to address council died without a seconder. Committee member Jo Arland, a seniors’ activist, reports that the citizens committee has had far more support from Delta municipal council, which has passed the complaints on to the commission. Arland states that the group, which attracted a crowd of close to 100 in a recent public meeting, is angry that several express bus routes that used to connect the two municipalities with each other, or directly to downtown Vancouver, have been eliminated and rerouted through the People and Issues Sale UR RR i NN ar aR a RS EES, Skytrain station in New Westminster. Other routes have been cut from half-hour to once-an-hour service. Committee spo- kesman Gabriel states that citizens “are being held hostage to Skytrain.” Paying for the costly rapid transit sys- tem is what the latest round of bus cut- backs are all about. And, not to be put off, the citizens group will try again to appear before Surrey council, Arland states. In the meantime, there’s this irony to contemplate: Municipal Affairs Minister Rita Johnson, who hand-picks the munici- pal officials who sit on the transit commis- sion, fired three long-time commissioners . in a shuffle last month — among them Port Coquitlam Mayor Len Traboulay, often an outspoken critic of cutbacks to transit services — and appointed a new commission, with the chair being none other than Surrey Mayor Don Ross. * * * he pages of the Tribune have been filled lately with news about glasnost, the process of openness and change in the Soviet Union that, under the leadership of Mikhail Gorbachev, seeks to transform Soviet society. But the USSR is not the only socialist country where far-reaching reforms are pursued. There’s also the Socialist Republic of Vietnam. The southeast Asian nation that waged an heroic struggle for liberation against United States’ imperialism — and was later, regrettably, forced to do the same against China — has been out of the lime- light lately. That will change in Vancouver with a public talk by an author and fre- quent visitor to Vietnam, Kathleen Gough Aberle. Aberle will address those changes — which, she says, to a degree anticipated the transformation currently underway in the USSR — at the new offices of the Cen- tre for Socialist Education, 1726 East Hast- ings Street, at 7:30 p.m. on May 27. Admission to the talks, sponsored by the Westside Club of the Communist Party, is by donation, with all proceeds going to the Tribune. ek ak here were a few Neanderthal com- ments to the contrary. But despite them, a majority heeded the call of area peace groups and gave meaning to the local walk for peace when Prince George city council voted to declare the northern aS a nuclear-weapons free zone on April That vote gave meaning not only to the city’s contribution to the provincial peace sentiment April 25, when some 400 Prince George residents joined thousands of Brit- ish Columbians who walked for peace on that date. It also was a fitting complement to the visit a week earlier by the four tour- ing members of the Montreal-based Stu- dents Against Global Extermination. The SAGE members, who subsequently en- thralled the thousands of peace marchers at the Vancouver Walk for Peace rally, urged students in seven secondary schools in Prince George to get involved in fight- ing the arms race. : Fittingly, high school student Nancy Patterson addressed council during debate on the peace vote, telling the mayor and aldermen, “I’m afraid of dying in a nuclear war.” Council voted for the nuclear-arms free declaration, and passed a motion cal- ling on the United States and the USSR to intensify efforts to reduce nuclear arms. Wi: realize not all our readers can afford to spend hard-earned money on new art. But if you’re looking for a new print to decorate the living room, may we suggest where? Artist Ken Mowatt, a Gitksan artist from Hazelton, has donated a limited run of his new print, “Footprints” to Head- lines Theatre. Headlines, whose past pro- ductions include Buy, Buy Vancouver and the disarmament review, Under the Gun, is touring the province with a new produc- tion, No~Footprints. Produced in co- operation with the Gitksan-Wet’suwet’en Tribal Council, the play opens in Hazelton on Sept. 8 and is on the road for 11 weeks in the Lower Mainland and the rest of B.C. Funding for the play has come from several sources, including the B.C. Federa- tion of Labor and the Kitimat-Terrace and District Labor Council. The four-color, 15” X 22” prints, which cost $110 unframed and are numbered and signed by the artist, are on sale at Headlines’ office, 104-1955 West Fourth Ave., Van- couver, phone 738-2283. * * * F° those who like their Latin American music with a decidedly North Amer- ican — and politically progressive —fla- vor, we report that the U.S.-based group Sabia is in town Monday, May 18. Presented by the Vancouver Folk Music Festival Society, the concert begins at 8 p.m. at the Vancouver East Cultural - Centre, 1895 Venables St. For reservations phone 254-9578. * * * e neglected to mention, regarding the rally against anticipated Socred social service cutbacks (Rally slams ‘pho- ney’ social services forum, Tribune, April 29, 1987) that the Seniors Caucus, a group of militant B.C. pensioners, was one of the organizers and inspirations for the rally- Our apologies. 4 e PACIFIC TRIBUNE, MAY 13, 1987