CANADA

William Kashtan, leader of the Communist Party of Canada, responds to

~ the Tribune’s questions relating to the forthcoming federal election. In this
_ Second portion of the interview he points to ways to deal with unemployment,
how the Communist Party will deal with the peace issue, and comments on

_some Liberal leadership candidates.

Q. It seems that every politician who

' wants to do something about
unemployment. Have you noted any real
solutions to this problem in their speeches
or their policies

A. So far, neither the Tories nor the Lib-
erals have come forward with any
comprehensive program to cope with the

_ problem of unemployment.

Mulroney has said that the main thrust
of the election battle for the Con-
Servatives is: ‘‘jobs, jobs, jobs’’. But so -

_ far there’s been no elaboration of a pro-

gram to cope with the problem of jobs,
jobs, jobs. °

One way of coping with the quetion,
for example, would be to reduce hours of
work from the present 40 hours a week to
either 30, 32, or 35. That would im-
mediately open the door to an additional
influx of workers into jobs, particularly
young people. Mulroney has not come
forward with a proposal for a marked
increase in pension payments that could
result in workers, after reaching a certain
age, feeling secure enough to decide to
retire, and thereby opening the door to
jobs for young people.
_ Proposals for opening the door to U.S.
investments in this country means the
USA taking over more of the Canadian
economy. The same multi-national
corporations who clamor for unfettered
investment are the ones that have closed
the door of many industries and moved
out of Canada. That kind of investment
program is no pathway to full employ-
ment. Add to that the fact that the Tories
base themselves on free enterprise as the

_ motor of the economy, that private

enterprise is going to do the job. Well, we
see how muchofa job it has done. That’s
why we have mass unemployment to-
day. This is free enterprise in practice.

With respect to the Liberals, there’s a
certain division of position here. There
are those who have come forward with
proposals that high technology will do
the trick, and that what you need to do is
train and retrain workers. That’s all right
provided it’s tied to a full employment
policy, because you can train workers
and then there are no jobs at the end of
the road. High technology, in fact, calls
for fewer workers to produce more, not
for more workers. That means there’ ll be
growing unemployment.

-MacGuigan stated — and he is the only
one so far who has come forward with
the pledge — that if he were elected
leader of the Liberals and becomes the
prime minister of Canada he would pur-
sue a full employment policy. But he
immediately qualified that by saying it
would be left to free enterprise. ;

When has free enterprise undertaken a

_ full employment policy? Where and

when? Nowhere. For those Canadians
who may have forgotten past history, we
had the R.B. Bennett government — a
Tory government —and he also said that
if he were elected, Canada would have
full employment in 60 days. But what we
had was mass unemployment, mass evic-
tions, mass arrests and mass de-
portations. :

Under capitalism, unemployment is
one of the inevitable evils that follows as
a consequence of it. The only way you
can deal with it, at least in part, is by state
intervention. For Mr. MacGuigan to say.
that free enterprise is going to do the trick
is to fool the people of Canada. It’s a

In terms of Liberal policy so far there
is no clear enunciation of a program. The
NDP has put forward some kind of pro-
gram, but it is also limited, because until
you. tackle the multi-nationals and
monopolies that control the economy
and take the resources of this country
into your hands — including the banks —
you don’t have the instruments to pursue
a full employment policy.

In our view there are two aspects of
the problem that need to be tackled.

One is to take immediate action to pro-
tect the working people from the effects
of unemployment along the lines I men-
tioned, including an investment program
on a country-wide. scale to build up in-
dustry, to develop resources as a base for
secondary industry in Canada.

That requires that the Canadian people
agree on the need for public ownership,
for nationalization of the vital sectors of
the economy, without which it would be
impossible to achieve a full employment
policy. Such policies call for a new
government.

Q. Earlier in the interview you com-
mented on the elusive programs of Joh
Turner for the Liberals, and Brian Mul-
roney for the Tories. Can you comment on
other candidates for the Liberal leader-
ship?

A. There.are presently seven candidates
in the field, which would seem like a wide
choice for those who are members of the
Liberal Party, or support it. While there
are some tactical differences among
them, I suppose, fundamentally there are
not too many differences. But even these
differences need to be noted.

One could assume .that Turner and
Chretien are supporters of traditional
liberalism, whereas Johnston, Mac-
Guigan and Roberts seem to be veering
toward what is now being labelled as neo
liberalism. It’s a right-wing liberal ans-
wer to the neo conservatism of the Con-
servative Party. But it is not an answer
that is in the interests of the Canadian

. people. In that sense there seem to be .

some differences.
Who will become the actual Liberal

leader will be decided by the convention,
of course, although perhaps it has al-
ready been decided. If one reads the
media, one assumes that Mr. Turner is
going to be elected as the leader of the
Liberal Party. In that case, even though
he claims he would pursue a centre-left
position, some of the positions he actual-
ly advocates lean more to the right than
to the left. Unless the platform of the
Liberal Party is pinned down, the elec-
tion of Turner will mean a dismantling of
whatever programs Prime Minister
Trudeau has been associated with, and
the moving toward a different type of
program.

So, if one looks to the Liberal Party as
the savior of Canada it would be a very
short-sighted approach, even though
there are differences between it and the
neo conservative stance of the Con-
servative Party.

TRIBUNE PHOTO — MIKE PHILLIPS

‘No solution from old line parties

Proposals for opening the door to U.S. investments in this country means
_the USA taking over more of the Canadian economy. The same multi-
national corporations who clamor for unfettered investment are the ones
who have closed the door of many industries and moved out of Canada.
That kind of investment program is no pathway to full employment.

Q. You have indicated that peace and
disarmament are a central issue in the
federal election campaign. How will the
Communist Party deal with that issue?

A. We view that as a vital part of our
electoral platform. One of our aims, and I
think this may well be the path that the
peace movements throughout the coun-
try will pursue, is to compel all the poli-
tical parties and all the candidates to
make the issue of peace a vital part of the
elections. It is a matter of record that so
far the question of peace has been com-
pletely ignored by the candidates of the
Liberals, and by Mulroney, who seeks
peace by supporting Reagan policies.

It is a responsibility to the Canadian
people that the issues of peace be de-
bated, and that Canada’s foreign policy
be given careful consideration by the.
people, because what is involved now is
survival for Canada and her people.

It’s clear to everyone who thinks
about the problem that the issue is sur-
vival.

The policy that can ensure Canada’s
survival is a policy that must prevent
nuclear war. And that can only be based
upon accepting the need for measures to
reduce arms, nuclear weapons, to chieve

parity and equality of security between
the United States and the Soviet Union
and to stop the deployment of U.S. mis-

. Siles in western Europe. In Canada it

means making Canada a nuclear
weapons-free zone, annulling Cruise
missile testing in Canada, and oreintating
not on a war economy, not on militariza-
tion, which is the proposal of the Con-
servatives. (Mr. Andre, for example,
proposed that over the next number of
years, Canda spend $58-billion for so-
called defence). Fifty-eight billion dollars
would go a long way to create jobs for
young people and for the working people
of Canada. What we need is a peacetime
economy and not a militarized economy.

The Communist Party will try to make
these questions (and we think this is the
position of the New Democratic Party,
and others) a vital part of this election
battle, to strive to achieve an indepen-
dent foreign policy for Canada, free from ~
U.S. entanglements, free from the aims
of American imperialism which threaten
the very existence of our country.

More on the federal elections from
the Kashtan interview in a coming

issue! =.

r

By MIKE PHILLIPS

terrible deception of the people of aoe

\ country.

TORONTO — Some 10,000 On-
tario electricians are getting ready for
a province-wide strike to break a con-
cessions agreement that denies the
civil trades who’ ve already signed it a
wage increase in the first year and
provides $1 an hour increase in 1985.

The International Brotherhood of
Electrical Workers (IBEW), is set to
vote to. launch strike action May 7 un-
less the electrical contractors associa-
tion moves off of its demand for the
concessions pattern. Essentially the
contractors are asking for the same $1
an hour increase over two years, but
they’ve broken it down differently, of-
fering a quarter in the first year and 75
cents in 1985.

was placed on standby, May 3 witha
meeting of the union’s council slated
for the next day where a recom-
mendation of rejection or acceptance
- of the contractors’ offer will be prop-

The IBEW bargaining committee ~

osed for submission to a vote May 7
by each of the 14 IBEW locals
throughout the province. Later that
day a conference call will be held in
which each of the 14 locals will report
on the vote’s results. If eight locals
-Teject the offer then the unions will
carry out their authorization by the
members for a strike.

The IBEW is calling for a contract
that will provide a 50 cent an hour
raise in the first year-and $1 in the
second, designed to break the settle-
ment pattern that was spearheaded by

the Operating Engineers under their -

leader Joe Kennedy. It was also
picked up by the bricklayers, labor-
ers, ironworkers, carpenters, a couple
of other smaller unions, leaving the
mechanical trades, the electricians,
pipe fitters and the sheet metal work-
ers outside the pattern. aly
Spokesmen for the plumbers and
pipefitters union say the union has al-
ready rejected an offer based on the

Electricians ready to strike

pattern and it will be taking strike
votes to put the union in a position to
go out with the IBEW. Sheet Metal
workers won’t be in a strike position
until May 14.

IBEW Local 105 Business Agent
Barry Fraser sees the current conflict
in One sense as a struggle for recogni-
tion by the ‘contractors of who
negotiates for electricians — the
IBEW or the Operating Engineers

~ who’ve already bought the deal.

‘‘The operating engineers, who’ve
masterminded this pattern with their
secret negotiations have in a sense
taken away our bargaining rights.
What they have settled for, now we
have to hit the bricks to break”’, Fraser
said.

“If we come to the table and find we
can’t make any changes to the pattern
it’s pretty clear that the contractors
have got their house in order and its
equally obvious they’ve got~ the
unions right where they want them.”

PACIFIC TRIBUNE, MAY 9, 1984 e5