EDITORIAL

Total sanctions necessary

As the Communist Party recently observed in the
document from its last central committee meeting:
“There is now no excuse. . for the Mulroney govern-
ment not to break off relations with the South African
government and to impose total sanctions on it.”

While the racist Botha regime tries to smother
South Africa under a blanket of violent repression and
total press censorship, Black South Africans in their
millions defiantly marked the 10th anniversary of the
Soweto uprisings, and have slowed much of the econ-
omy down with mass work stoppages.

The State of Emergency declared June 12 by the
apartheid regime was both an act of desperation by
the government as it faces a situation it no longer can
control, and a signal to the world that the racists in
Pretoria do not intend to relinquish power any more
willingly than the maniacs who clung to the Nazi
Third Reich until their bunkers were blown away.

Meanwhile the Mulroney government, trading on
the prime minister’s alleged revulsion for apartheid,
has been long on promises and short on action in
representing the democratic sentiments of Canadians
on this issue.

If the federal Tory government ever needed another
reason to declare total sanctions on apartheid, surely
the report of the Commonwealth eminent person’s

group was enough. Its call for sanctions was based on
a clear recognition that economic measures by the
countries of the Commonwealth, and the rest of the
world for that matter, would constitute a necessary and

effective means of helping the people of South Africa

to attain their freedom.

If the U.S. House of Representatives can vote, albeit

symbolically, for a trade embargo against South
Africa, why can’t the Parliament of Canada take
action on its own?

- Why should Canada play the shy “go-between”
with those in the Commonwealth who support sanc-
tions and Thatcherite Britain, acting in the interests of
its transnational corporations, to make sure profits
come ahead of human rights.

Hollow gestures like External Affairs Minister Joe
Clark’s recent banning of South African tourism
promotion, or “revelations” in Parliament that Cana-
dian corporations in South Africa underpay Black
workers, do nothing but brand our government as
hypocrites by those risking their lives to bring an end
to apartheid.

The only meaningful action at this stage of the
struggle is total sanctions, and there’s no reason why
Canada shouldn’t be implementing them.

Reform Alberta labor law

Justice for Alberta labor is new labor laws.

This is the resounding demand that the workers of
Alberta have united around as they hit the streets in
support of the strikers at Gainers, and now at Zeidler
Forest Industries at Slave Lake, and Suncor at Fort
McMurray.

The government-inspired violence on picket lines
throughout Alberta has not only failed to break the
workers’ spirit but in fact has sent the premier and his
big business cabinet a clear message about what
Albertans want and don’t want.

They don’t want police arresting picketers while the
people hired to steal their jobs are ushered through
union picket lines. They don’t want legal loopholes
that empower the bosses to wipe out union contracts
at the stroke of a pen.

They want laws that will protect their pensions from
being stolen by the likes of Peter Pocklington, with the
full co-operation and support of the government.

And, they want as a minimum, the same rights as
enjoyed by the workers of Ontario, Manitoba, Saskat-
chewan and other provinces, to return to their jobs
after a strike has ended.

Premier Don Getty and the Tory government
should not assume that injunctions, raw police terror,
and an inquiry into the Gainers dispute will lull the

working people of Alberta and the rest of the country
to sleep.

The magnificent 10,000-strong protest on the open-
ing day of the legislature, June 12, wasn’t meant by
labor to be the high point of the fight for justice in
Alberta, but rather a taste of what’s in store for the
Tory regime if it continues on its present course.

It is equally clear that the labor movement in
Alberta does not stand alone, particularly when it
comes to the Gainers strikers. The boycott of Gainers
products is being picked up by organized labor
throughout Canada.

Another example of labor solidarity is the recent
decision by Hamilton’s Stelco workers, members of
Steelworkers Local 1005, to donate $1,005 each
month to the strikers.

Support is deepending for the Alberta labor move-
ment and must be strengthened until labor’s demand
for better legislation becomes irresitible. Canadian
workers know what’s at stake for all labor if the
coprorations and their government win in Alberta.

Ignoring labor’s demands for legislative reform,
and serving big business come “hell or high water” is a
recipe that would prove costly to the Getty govern-
ment. As AFL president Dave Werlin said May 12,
“there aren’t enough police officers, enough courts,
enough judges, and enough jails to hold us all!”

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the brewery uncorked its profits for the fiscal year ona

$101.5-million this year. Not only did the London-based) ates

1986. Profits foamed over from their 1985 level of $8

sell more suds during that period but they got us when

higher profits from its agri-products and packaged foods 3

WERE. aoe

Editor — SEAN GRIFFIN
Assistant Editor — DAN KEETON

Graphics — ANGELA KENYON

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> pully

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ver since the Walk for Peace in

Vancouver became an event of inter-
national stature, with marches of 50,000
and more people, it -has inevitably
attracted some right-wing political figures
who have pushed themselves into the front
ranks of the parade for maximum public
display — and then, on the other 364 days
of the year, they continue to obstruct initi-
atives at the provincial and municipal level -
that would ease international tensions.and
advance the cause of disarmament.

That was the case in 1983, of course,

- when Premier Bill Bennett sent a letter of
welcome to the peace marchers, and dis-
patched Social Credit MLAs Doug
Mowat and Terry Segarty to take their
place at the head of the parade — and.
then proceeded to block every effort by the
Sunshine Coast regional district to erect a
sign proclaiming the district’s resolution
declaring the area a nuclear-free zone.

But the latest instance, involving the
Vancouver city alderman and NPA may-
oral candidate Gordon Campbell must
surely be the most brazen of all.

Those wathcing the contingent of
marchers coming from Kitsilano Beach in
last April’s Walk for Peace — the culmi-
nation of the week-long Vancouver Peace
Festival — could not have missed Camp-
bell marching at the head of the parade, in
full display of onlookers and the media.

Readers will also recall that it was follow-

ing the march, in the huge rally in B.C.

Place Stadium, that thousands of partici-

sium.

Just last Tuesday, the Vancouver Prop-
osals, which had been referred for action
to city council’s special committee on *
peace, chaired by Libby Davies, came
back to Vancouver council for endorse-
ment and forwarding to other levels of
government and international bodies.

So who joined other right-wingers in
council to vote against the proposals? You
guessed it — Gordon Campbell. He wasn’t
alone, of course, since Marguerite Ford,
May Brown, Don Bellamy and George
Puil also opposed them, for reasons that
were no more rational than the cold war
politics they were echoing. But at least
they didn’t flaunt themselves at the head of
the peace march.

_On the other side, speaking out for
endorsement of the proposals, were
COPE aldermen Harry Rankin, Bruce
Eriksen, Libby Davies and Bruce Yorke as
well as Civic Independent Bill Yée.

But because Mayor Michael Harcourt
could not attend the council meeting, the

People and Issues

pants enthusiastically endorsed the Van-
couver Proposals for Peace, drafted by
Nobel laureates Sean McBride and
Dorothy Hodgkin and presented earlier to
the three-day international peace sympo-

preneurs.

food banks.

vote was tied and the peace committee’s
motion will have to come back to a subse-
quent meeting for a decision.

That needn’t have been the case — if
Campbell had voted in council the same RSE
way that he wanted the public to see him
April 27 at the Walk for Peace.

n these tough economic times, it’s nice to
know our country doesn’t lack entre-

We may lack jobs for more than two
million people; we might be short on
decent, affordable housing; and our natu-
ral resources may be heading south of the
border because we lack a sufficient manu-
facturing sector to process them.

But we can sleep nights now, satisfied
that when all appears to be failing, capital-
ist endeavor keeps on going.

We're referring to a little item we found
while flipping through the pages of the
June issue of Economic Review, the bul-
letin published by the B.C. and Yukon
branch of the Unemployment Insurance
Commission for its workers. In it, we were
informed that Canada’s unemployment
has spawned more industry than simply

We’re told a Toronto company of
i It

by a “termination consultant”
duced a book and manual entitl

corporate upper echelons the
procedures” to use when 1a

2 B.C. Telephone Co. But we print

are tendered.

A recent issue of the Globe and
Report on Business reported that ?

the nation, telephone company ie ep

J.

down. Among those affected are

story. For the first quarter of

ing arm, Microtel, and incr
distance use.

the CRTC for a rate hike.

ers
wg
i ‘ef oa
workers. Comments the Review W™
ironically, we trust — “Surely, this
that every cloud has a silver lining:

purports to tell managers and oth'

poe

”

Wr sure we don’t have tO

our readers to shed no teats foe
te bY

and recommend clipping it for Tt
the next time applications for a

licly owned enterprises in Nova
New Brunswick and Newfoundlan@,
For B.C. Tel, however, it’s a aif the

U.S.-owned corporation reported 2
bling of profits, from $13.8 millio? t
year to this year’s $28.7 million. 11 @
the rise, which also includes a hike
ity revenues to $312.9 million from ®
million, to a turnaround in its ma? fo

si

$28
We trust the company will beat ig

mind the next time it thinks of app!

4 e PACIFIC TRIBUNE, JUNE 25, 1986

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