VANCOUVER

2

Vancouver NDP activists have rejected
— at least for now — an effort to create
an NDP municipal organization that
many saw as a threat to the city’s left-
wing reform movement.

Some 60 people reportedly voted 32-31
that the Vancouver NDP not form an
organization to run in the civic election, at
aclosed door meeting at the International
Woodworkers hall Oct. 27.

A majority at the meeting, which was
open to NDP members, “‘was clearly
against anything that might split the
alliance necessary to keep the civic
Socreds from gaining control of city
council,”’ Vancouver Ald. Bruce Eriksen
said later.

Eriksen and Ald. Libby Davies,
members of both the NDP and the labor-
backed Committee of Progressive Elec-
tors, attended the meeting as did several
other COPE members.

Observers report that Mayor Mike
Harcourt, who with Ald. Bill Yee
represents the more conservative social-
democratic element on council, pushed
hard for the NDP civic group, as did
leading lights in some Vancouver provin-
cial NDP constituency associations.

Another group, however, supported
the organization concept more out con-
cern for accountability of the mayor and
his running-mate, a concern that arose
over some of the positions the two have

~ taken on council.

- Countering that sentiment was the one
expressed by some delegates who derided

_COPE and declared they ‘‘would never

NDP group rejected
as COPE urges unity

support any organization that has com-
munists in it,” said Eriksen.

He and Davies pointed out that
COPE, since it was formed on the in-
itiative of the Vancouver and District
Labor Council in 1968, has established
policies “that are not NDP, or com-
munist, but are designed to carry out the
aims and aspirations of the working peo-
ple of Vancouver.”

That position was also stated by trade
unionists at the meeting, including
VDLC president Frank Kennedy, and
David Cadman, president of the Van-
couver Municipal and Regional
Employees Union, who spoke against the
formation of a specifically NDP
municipal group.

There have been various attempts at
forming such an organization in Van-
couver in the past, and several times

throughout the 70s slates of NDP »

members contested the election indepen-
dent of COPE and labor council backing.

But the 1980 and 1982 civic elections
have seen at least a tacit alliance of pro-
gressive candidates, with labor council
electoral and financial support going toa
full slate of candidates representing both
COPE and Harcourt and his ‘‘indepen-
dent’’ running-mates.

Such unity should be enhanced, not
decreased, in the future, according to
COPE alderman Bruce Yorke.

Yorke said it is time for all interested
parties to sit down and discuss civic
policies with the aim of achieving ‘‘full,
integrated unity’’ for the 1984 Vancouver
elections.

Concerned about the unrestrained fir-
ing of public servants, higher taxes for
working people, the stripping of planning
powers from regional districts and a lack
of legal restraints on racist acts, Van-
couver city council members have fired
off a new round of missives urging the
Socred government to meet with council

Mayor Mike Harcourt telegramed Vic-
toria on Oct. 11 and Oct. 24 urging a
meeting between council and the provin-
cial cabinet to discuss the Public Sector
Restraint Act — the notorious Bill 3 —
the Property Tax Reform Act and the

The telegrams also mentioned
council’s concern over the abolition of
the Rentalsman’s office and the Human
at council’s regular meeting Oct. 24.

Meanwhile, Ald. Bill Yee has written
Labor Minister Bob McClelland express-
ing council’s Special Committee on Race
Relations’ ‘‘strong opposition”’ to Bill 27,
the new Human Rights Act which
abolishes the Human Rights Commission
and the labor ministry’s Human Rights
Branch, fires some 40 human nights
caseworkers and replaces them with a
five-member, cabinet-appointed com-
mittee.

The race relations committee urged the
government to withdraw Bill 27 and keep
the present legislation in place while
undertaking “‘six to 12 months of inten-
sive public discussion in order to for-
mulate and implement the best possible
legislation to protect human rights.”’

Yee, who chairs the 17-member com-
mittee of aldermen — himself and Bruce
Yorke — and ethnic, labor and police

tatives, said the last meeting the
committee had with McClelland over the

City presses Victoria
to meet about bills

“We told him we believed the spirit of
the new act short-cut many of the protec-
tions of the current legislation,”’ Yee said
in an interview.

McClelland had replied that in his opi-
nion, most human rights disputes arose
from workplace situations, and that these
cases could be handled by provincial
labor relations officers, said Yee.

“We pointed out that many cases, such
as the discrimination at Misty’s cabaret,
sao come under the Labor Code,” he

The race relations committee has yet to
receive a reply, but Harcourt reported
he’d received a telegram from the provin-
cial government Oct. 21 which told coun-
cil to express its concerns to ‘‘individual
cabinet ministers.”

Harcourt reported he sent a telegram
in response pointing out that meetings
with individual ministers had failed to
produce results.

His Oct. 24 telegram noted that the
bills in question had now received royal.
assent ‘“‘without amendments, so it is
urgent that you be present at any subse-
quent meetings.””

Harcourt also urged the government to
take a ‘‘second look”’ at the bills.

Yorke, who moved the original motion
July 26 in which council voted to call on
Victoria to withdraw all 27 pieces of
legislation, said it was important for the
Socreds to heed Harcourt’s request.

~ “Tt’s not just city council that opposes
the bills. The government has received an
overwhelming message from the people
in this province, both within and without
the Solidarity Coalition, to hoist those
bills. Any new legislation should be
drafted only after public consultation
with all affected parties,’’ he said.

_ PACIFIC TRIBUNE—NOVEMBER 2, 1983—Page 2

Kennedy’s hypocrisy
revealed in attempt

to sever Odessa link

Ald. Warnett Kennedy has introduced a
notice of motion in Vancouver city council
demanding that Vancouver’s sister relation-
ship with Odessa in the Soviet Union, “‘be
suspended indefinitely.” The reasons he ad-
vances for this demand include (to use his
words), ‘“‘suppression of trade unions in
Poland,’ the ‘‘Soviet invasion -of
Afghanistan” and ‘‘Soviet threats agains
civilian airliners (a reference to the shooting
down of the Korean jet).”’

Ald. Kennedy is a strong supporter of
U.S. President Ronald Reagan’s Cold War
policies and military adventures so this latest
attempt to torpedo any friendly contact bet-
ween Canadian and Soviet citizens is not sur-

prising.

Ald. Kennedy cannot claim that he is in
favor of either peace or general disarmament
in the world. He voted against holding a
referendum on disarmament,in Vancouver
two years ago. He voted against council
declaring Vancouver a nuclear-weapons free

~ gone and has always opposed Vancouver

having friendly contact with the city council
of Odessa.

On all these issues he has been in the
minority, and a small minority at that. The
citizens of Vancouver want to see negotia-
tions for peace and general disarmament go

Harry
Rankin

ahead and they want to see normal relations
with the Soviet Union eventhough our coun-
tries have different political systems.

None of the reasons given by Kennedy for
suspending our relations with Odessa have
any validity. Of course the Soviet Union and
Canada have different -views about the
world affairs, often conflicting views. That,
if anything, should be an added reason for
the people of Canada and the people of the
Soviet Union through their municipal
governments to exchange friendly visits and
views.

However, having said that, I still feel it
necessary to comment on some of
Kennedy’s ideas, if only because they are so
absurd.

Ald. Kennedy is apparently so ignorant of
foreign affairs that he doesn’t even know, or
pretends not to know, that the actions taken
in Poland with regard to trade unions were
taken by the Polish government, not the
Soviet Union. The Polish government
declared martial law in Poland, not the
Soviet government. No Soviet troops were
sent in to occupy Poland.

It’s a pity that Ald. Kennedy’s touching
concern for trade union rights doesn’t ex-
tend to B.C. Kennedy was a Social Credit
candidate in one provincial election; he has
always been and still is a staunch supporter
of Social Credit. Through Bills 2 and 3 the
Bennett government has destroyed the
bargaining rights of trade unions in the

public sector in British Columbia. Why .

doesn’t Kennedy stand up and protest this
suppression of trade unions in B.C.? His
failure to do so exposes his alleged concern
for trade union rights as political hypocrisy.
Ald. Kennedy demands ‘‘compensation
to all civilians who lost their lives,’’ in the
shooting down of the Korean jetliner on
Sept. 1. I agree with him there, although I
think it’s stupid to make this a condition for
friendly relationships with our sister city
Odessa. But to whom should this demand
for compensation be directed?
Evidence which has appeared in Cana-

dian newspapers clearly shows that the .

Korean jetliner KAL 007 was on a spy mis-

- sion over Soviet nuclear installations, that it

Odessa Mayor Anatoly Malykhin
presents sister-city plaque to
Vancouver's. Mike Harcourt Aug. 17,
1981.

went deep into Soviet territory in a mannef
which could not have happened accidentally
with the sophisticated navigational equip-
ment it had on board, that U.S. and
Japanese intelligence were monitoring it all
the way (even recording the voices of the
Soviet fighter pilots sent up to intercept it),
that it refused orders to land in Soviet ter-
ritory when intercepted, that the Soviets had |.
no way of knowing it was a paassengéf
jetliner.

What really happened is that the U.S.,

- with Japanese complicity, was using civilian

airlines for spying purposes and was risking
the lives of innocent passengers in doing s0-
Soviet fighter planes shot down the plane — |
that is fact. The U.S. sent it on a spy mission
over the Soviet territory — that also is fact.
Where then does the blame lie for this tragi¢
incident?

Ald. Kennedy demands an end to what he
calls, ‘‘the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.’
But he has nothing to say about the U.S. 0&
cupation of Beirut (in support of a puppet
government set up when the Isaelis invaded
‘and overran the country). What about the
brutal invasion by U.S. marines 0 —
Grenada? What about the CIA-financed
and CIA-armed invasion of Nicaragua from
U.S. bases in Honduras? What about the
murder of no less than 30,000 citizens 18
Guatemala by U.S.-armed ,:U.S.-trained
and U.S.-led killer squads and even more of

the same in El Salvador?

On these issues Ald. Kennedy is quiet.
Should we now, because of these U.S. 2@
tions, end all relations with our sister citY

Seattle and barricade the highway at th

border? That would do nothing to solve #™.
ternational relations or lessen the danger of
nuclear war.

What Ald. Kennedy is really saying with
his resolution is that the west should ha‘
nothing to do with the Soviet Union un!
stops doing things with which the we
disagrees. Such a position is an unrealistic
it is stupid. The Soviet Union and the o'
socialist countries of the world are here ©
stay. That is a fact of life which must "i
recognized. Any attempts to blow them 0}
the face of the earth with nuclear bombs
have the same effect and result for us.

We in Vancouver can make a small and
modest contribution to sanity in an inset
situation by keeping up our contacts wi
our sister city Odessa. The friendly exchange
of delegations between our two cities and
dialogue between its citizens (neither they
nor us want war) is a good thing and should d
be kept up. oe