Lower Mainland Warship stance not backed by action On April 9, Vancouver city council, sit- ting as the standing committee on finance and priorities, rejected by a 7-4 vote a motion asking that the city not provide funding to any organization which pro- poses to invite nuclear-armed warships to the Port of Vancouver. This resolution was recommended by the Special Council Committee on Peace, and was supported at the meeting by a represen- tative of the peace committee and by four other delegations. The resolution, and the passionate 2% hour debate on it, were pre- cipitated by a demand from the Sea Festival Society for an increased cultural grant for 1990. The Sea Festival Society has for some time been actively involved in inviting nuclear-armed warships to visit the port. What was shocking to me, aldermen Libby Davies and Harry Rankin, and to visitors in the council chamber was both the ignorance of some council members about the danger posed by nuclear weapons in our harbour and the hypocrisy of many alder- men and Mayor Gordon Campbell on this issue. Five delegations supported the resolu- tion. They were Dr. Thomas L. Perry (Sr.), representing Council’s Special Committee on Peace; Ms Jane Kee, a lawyer; Com- mander Roger Sweeny (ret.) representing Veterans Against Nuclear Arms; Robert Light, representing Save Our Seas; and Peter Coombs, representing End the Arms Race, the coalition of peace and disarma- ment groups which puts on Vancouver's annual Walk for Peace. These delegations emphasized the enor- mous loss of life and property damage which would occur in Vancouver if even a single small nuclear weapon on a visiting warship were to burn in an accidental ship- board fire, releasing its cloud of toxic pluto- nium oxides to drift over the city. A major accident involving the burning of the 100 or so nuclear weapons carried on U.S. aircraft carriers, like the two which visited Van- couver in 1989, could cause hundreds of thousands of deaths and billions of dollars of property damage. The delegations also emphasized that DERA extends our best wishes on May Day to all our friends and supporters DOWNTOWN EASTSIDE RESIDENTS’ ASSOCIATION 9 East Hastings Street Vancouver, B.C. V6A 1M9 Phone: 682-0931 | Bruce despite the public’s impression that the danger of nuclear war is past, 55,000 nuclear weapons remain in the arsenals of the two superpowers, and more and more of these weapons are being placed on naval vessels which are highly mobile and difficult to locate. Nuclear weapons at sea are particu- larly likely to precipitate a global nuclear war by accident or miscalculation. It was painfully apparent from their questions to the delegations, and from the council debate, that most of the Non Parti- san Association aldermen and the mayor were ignorant about these dangers, and that they had not even troubled to read the briefs submitted in advance. Ald. Don Bellamy even persists in his child-like belief that visit- ing warships offload their nuclear weapons “somewhere” before entering our harbour, and that no nuclear weapons have ever entered our port. Equally distressing was the gross hypoc- risy of some council members. They appar- ently found nothing disturbing about the discrepancy on the one hand between coun- cil’s votes (6-3) on April 11, 1989, and (10-1) on March 6 this year requesting the federal government to prevent further visits to the port by nuclear-armed warships, and on the other, their votes (8-3) on Nov. 23, 1989, and (7-4) at this council meeting’ to fund organizations which ignore the city’s formal policy on maintaining a nuclear-weapons free harbour. Aldermen Carole Taylor, Sandra Wilk- ing and George Puil, and Mayor Campbell all insisted that it would constitute censor- ship and a violation of civil liberties by the city if funding were withheld from an organ- ization like the Sea Festival Society which has carried out activities which deliberately endanger the people of Vancouver, and which run counter to worldwide efforts to prevent nuclear war and to promote multi- lateral disarmament. The phoney argu- ments on this issue made by Ald. Taylor were sickening. Except for the three Committee of Pro- gressive Electors aldermen, no one at this council meeting seemed to recognize that their waffling on the issue of nuclear-armed warship visits to Vancouver is sending a . clear message to Ottawa: we don’t really mean business when we urge you to stop nuclear-armed warship visits to the Ports of Vancouver; we weren’t serious when Van- couver city council asked the federal government on Sept. 26, 1989 to change its policy and henceforth actively support a comprehensive nuclear weapons test ban treaty; we Just do these things from time to time to fool the voters and appease our local MAY DAY GREETINGS VANCOUVER AND DISTRICT PUBLIC HOUSING TENANTS ASSOC. #12, 246 E. Broadway Vancouver, B.C. THE SOURCE OF ALL WEALTH IS LABOUR 2 « Pacific Tribune, April 30, 1990 | Eriksen peace groups; we don’t care about what is morally right or wrong. The council meeting ended with Mayor Campbell’s pious statement about how much he favoured peace, and about how he would proudly march at the head of the Walk for Peace on April 21. He then pro- ceeded to vote against the peace commit tee’s resolution, and then in favour of an increased grant to the Sea Festival Society. Altogether it was a council meeting to disgust anyone who is concerned about the safety of the people who live here, and who has even an elementary understanding of right and wrong. May Days come and May Days go, but we’d like the spirit to linger a while. We think the international workers’ day on May | should be commemorated in the manner in which it was conceived: a struggle for working people’s demo- cratic rights. We think that’s necessary, given the times. Times of Gouge and Screw taxes, of a divisive and undemocratic Meech Lake Accord, of continued sellout in the name of free trade, of massive privatiza- tion of publicly owned resources and enterprises. Such times call for a renewed spirit of unity and determination. That’s needed all year round. For the Tribune, it’s essential until June 30, at least. That’s the date of the Tribune Victory GREATER VANCOUVER Target Achieved Aubrey Burton 700 --- Bill Bennett 500 50 Burnaby 6,000 257 Coquitlam 2,500 --- Effie Jones 1,500 100 Kingsway 5,000 570 New West. 2,000 5 Nigel Morgan 600 --- North Van. 2,500 125 Richmond 1,500 --- Stan Lowe 250 100 Van. East 6,800 -153 Westside 4,800 70 FRASER VALLEY Delta 600 20 Fraser Valley 1,000 --- Maple Ridge 2,200 102 Surrey/ White Rock 3,100 1,030 Spirit of May Day throughout the year Banquet, and we'd like something to celebrate. We want to say on that Satur- day that we’ve surpassed the target of $82,000 to keep the weekly paper of peace, labour, the community and the environment covering the struggles for the next year. ' We want to keep the spirit going. But it’s going to take a greater effort than we’ve seen so far in this year’s Financial Drive. To date only about $6,000 has come in — far less than is usual for this time of year. So allow us to sound a ‘Mayday’ on- May Day. We've done it before, and you’ve responded. That accomplishment will be one sure _ way to keep the spirit of May Day alive’ all year. OKANAGAN Kamloops 1,100 240 Okanagan 600 10 Vernon 1,600 655 N. COAST/INTERIOR Correspondence’ 1,500 1,080 Creston 200 200 Fernie 250 325 L. Similkameen 500 --- Powell River 500 =. Prince George 200 --- Prince Rupert 300 --- Sunshine Coast 500 50 Trail 700 35 VANCOUVER ISLAND Campbell River 2,000 --- Comox Valley 1,400 5 Nanaimo 3,000 660 Port Alberni 1,500 --- Victoria 3,300 20 Miscellaneous 2,500 222 TOTAL: 63,200 6,018 _ MAY DAY GREETINGS — in solidarity with Vancouver's working people, for peace, jobs, housing and the environment, and a better city for everyone.