BRITISH COLUMBIA

Soviet doctors reiterate peace appeal

_Five years ago, in Airlie House, Virgi-
Mla, the founding congress of Interna-
tional Physicians for the Prevention of
Nuclear War issued an appeal to physi-
Clans around the world to “practice the
ultimate in preventive medicine — avoid-
ance of the greatest hazard the world will
ever know, nuclear war.”

And last week, tour members of the
Soviet chapter of IPPNW brought that
Same message to Vancouver as they
addressed a press conference in city hall,
part of an 11-city Canadian tour.

Dr. Marat Vartanyan, a psychiatrist at
Moscow’s Mental Health Centre, told
Teporters “our main purpose is to discuss
how we can achieve our main goal, to do
everything possible to prevent nuclear
War.”

The four physicians — Vartanyan; dele-
gation head Dr. Galina Savelyeva, a pro-
fessor of pediatrics, obstectrics and
8ynecology in Moscow; Dr. Alexander
Tsherbakov, a specialist in social hygiene
and public health; and Dr. Simon Khet-

chinashvili, an ear, nose and throat sur-
geon in Tbilisi — are part of a nine-
member delegation visiting Canada at the
invitation of the Canadian chapter of Phy-
sicians for Social Responsibility, itself a
member of the Canadian Medical Coali-
tion for the Prevention of Nuclear War.

The delegation split into two to cover as
many centres as possible during the brief
visit but all nine members were to get
together again at a major conference in
Toronto Apr. 11 and 12.

Vancouver city councillor Libby Davies
welcomed the group to Vancouver on
behalf of Vancouver city council.

Since the founding conference of
IPPNW in 1980, the Soviet doctors have
publicized the appeal in dozens of Soviet
newspapers and on television and have
taken their message to an estimated 150
million Soviets, Vartanyan, speaking in
English, told reporters.

But the “worst thing” the group has
confronted in its five years is the U.S. Star
Wars proposal, he said, responding to a

question about the U.S. initiative.

“Putting devices in outer space is the
most dangerous attempt to escalate the
threat of nuclear war,” he said.

Both Vartanyan and Khetchinashvili
emphasized that they were optimistic that
war could be averted despite the height-
ened threat.

“The negotiations that were opened in
Geneva gave us all some hope,” Varta-
nyan noted.

Asked about the initiative advanced by
Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev for a
moratorium on the deployment of
medium-range missiles in Europe, Varta-
nyan said the group had just been told of it
the day before. 5

“But it is a very, very important idea,”
he said. “‘And if the Americans are in a
position to follow it and come to an
agreement, it would be a most significant
step in the prevention of nuclear war and
conventional war.” j

The group also had an answer for the
perennial question from reporters, sug-

gesting that they were part of a “propa-
ganda offensive” by the Soviet government
because of their support for Soviet peace
initiatives.

“Our reply to that is very simple,” Var-
tanyan noted.

“If someone will suggest a nuclear
freeze, if someone will suggest a total test
ban, if someone — if President Reagan
tomorrow — will suggest no first use, I
will vote, and our group will vote with
both hands for these propositions.”

In fact, the Soviet Union has made all of
those proposals, he emphasized, “and they
coincide with the main goal of our groups
of physicians.”

Asked what their message to the Apr.
27 Walk for Peace would be if given the
chance to address it, Vartanyan replied
“co-operation — through personal con-
tact.

“That is our desire in coming here — to
promote personal contact in our common
work to promote the prevention of nuclear
war,” Khetchinashvili told reporters.

B.C. teachers vow unity in cutbacks fight

B.C.’s teachers vowed last week to make
a broad fight against the erosion of public
education the top priority for the 1985-86
School year, at a convention marked by
unprecedented unanimity,

The 69th annual general meeting of the
B.C. Teachers Federation demanded fund-
Ing for the province’s schools be restored to
the 1981 levels, the return of autonomy to
local school boards, and “fair treatment for
teachers including access to free collective
bargaining and full bargaining and profes-
Sional rights.”

The key activity regarding the fightback
will be a province-wide conference of
teachers and parents, with trustees and stu-
dents invited, the 700 delegates from B.C.’s
7S school districts decided. .

The 26,000-member federation has been
United around the demands for restoration
of adequate funding for schools since the
Socred government imposed its restraint
Program in 1982. But there have been dif-

erences over strategy and tactics in past
years, with challenges to the policies advo-
cated by, and the offices held by, the federa-
ion’s most militant leaders.

This time there were no challengers to the
top two posts. The convention re-elected,

with 618 votes, federation president Pat .

Clarke and first vice-president Elsie
McMurphy.

That pattern continued in votes for the ©

other positions, with teacher activist Al
Crawford edging out incumbent Margaret
Woodlands for the second vice-president’s
position. Incumbent members-at-large Kitty
O’Callaghan and Marion Runcie were re-
elected to their posts, joined by newcomers
David Denyer from Cowichan and Peter
Thomson from Surrey. .

Despite the current leadership’s identity
with the militant Larry Kuehn, BCTF past
president, the federation’s response to
further Socred education cuts during the
past year has been decidedly low-key.

In his keynote speech Clarke reasoned
that the federation’s strategy of building

alliances with the most vocal opponents of

education cuts to date — parents, students
and trustees — has proven the most suit-

able tactic.
“How many of us would have believed a

year ago that we would have the support of

the significant and growing majority in this
province who think the cuts have gone too
far? Most people believe that, now — and
you should take a good deal of the credit,”
he told the assembly. ‘

Clarke said the government’s tactics of

“rumor-mongering, intimidation, diversion
...are in my view the antics of an increas-
ingly beseiged administration.

“They are defensive manoeuvres and
they are defensive because the coalition

which we have so successfully participated

in building in so many parts of this province
is starting to win. It is working,” he
declared. :

The BCTF president noted the Socreds’
efforts to “scapegoat” teachers and make
them the target of parents’ wrath over edu-
cation cuts. Despite that, he said British
Columbians now think teachers are doing a
good job, are overworked and are being
treated unfairly.

Resolutions from the executive commit-
tee, handily adopted by the convention,
reflected the BCTF’s strategy of unity with
the other forces in the education commun-

ity.

PAT CLARKE...returned by acclama-
tion to president's post.

The main motion committed the federa-
tion to hosting a conference of teachers,
parents, students and trustees this fall, fol-
lowing on the heels of the co-operation
struck at several regional meetings across
the province in the past year.

An overwhelming majority also approved
the federation “working within Operation
Solidarity to develop a co-ordinated public
sector strategy to ensure free collective bar-
gaining for public employees.”

The theme of the trustee-teacher co-
operation was echoed by guest speaker Bill
LeFeaux-Valentine, president of the B.C.
School Trustees Association. Noting his
support for school boards submitting needs
budgets exceeding the Education Ministry’s
restraint guidelines, Lefeaux-Valentine told
teachers he-has encouraged trustees “‘not to
compromise their resolve.

“The public urgently needs an opportun-
ity to understand and develop support fora
broadly-based, lasting foundation for pub-
lic education. We all need to emancipate
ourselves from the politics of decline and
despair and find a new consensus, a new
alliance broad enough to be comfortable for
most British Columbians,” he stated.

Teachers adopted a plan committing
their federation to provide financial assist-
ance to local teacher associations support-
ing their trustees by engaging in joint
lobbies of MLAs, backing boards facing
budget examinations by ministry officials,
or taking job action if the ministry imposes
trusteeship on rebellious boards.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE, APRIL 15, 1985 e 3