BRITISH COLUMBIA

‘Peace agreements
key to the future’

Continued from page 1

The Vancouver event was sponsored by
the Canada-USSR Friendship Society, the
Association of United Ukrainian Canadi-

- ans and the Federation of Russian Canadi-
ans.
In Vancouver, Bagramov told the
audience that, “Some time ago I thought
the revolution in my country had been
Stopped. Now I am sure it has a... second
breath. The revolution is continuing.”
-  Bagramov traced briefly the history of
the Nov. 7, 1917 revolution that ushered in
the world’s first socialist state.

“According to orthodox Marxism, this
Tevolution should not have happened in
Russia. But it did because Russia was the
embodiment of the sharpest (social) contra-
dictions,” he said.

Bagramov said that a key problem for the
emerging Soviet state was that its first leader
and the revolution’s key architect, Vladimir
Lenin, died too soon.

Lenin had advised “his comrades”
Shortly before his death to find a way to
Temove Josef Stalin from the post of general
Secretary of the Communist Party. Although
his successor had a “sharp mind”, he was,

nin warned, “rude and capricious.”

Stalin’s government was marked on the
One hand by a successful fight against
Trotskyism and strong leadership during
World War II, but the Soviet leader could
Not take criticism and regarded political
Opponents as personal enemies, Bagramov
Said.

The result was “serious damage done to
the cause of socialism and the (Communist)
Party,” damage that is “enormous and
unforgivable,” he said.

In a tone highly critical of Soviet indus-
try’s past performances, Bagramov fre-
quently quoted Lenin to stress his point that
Perestroika, the process of industrial and
€conomic restructuring, aims to turn a new
leaf-in Soviet history.

The new process is trying to end “‘over-
centralization” of economic planning, and
Create much more decision-making at the
local level, he said.

“The other important task is to tie
Temuneration to the end product that goes
to market. (Before perestroika) no one
Cared about quality, so our stores were filled
With merchandise that no one really liked.”

Bagramov said the new system also ties
Wages to productivity: “The main principle
of socialism, from each according to his
ability, to each according to his work’ was
very often violated. There was a kind of
leveling off of wages. Those who worked
Well and those who worked poorly got the
Same wages. That was certainly bad for
Mcentives.”

Lenin, he said, “emphasized that we

Should rely more on personal interests, per-

Sonal incentives and business principles.”

The word “profits” was a “bad” one a
few years ago in the USSR, Bagramov said.
But the word that is usually equated with
Capitalism and its attendant ills — an
€xploiting ruling class, pornography and
astronomical military expenditures — can
Mean increased wealth for society as a
Whole under socialism, he stressed.

And, he said, “We see nothing wrong
When a family or a team runs a small restau-
Tant or an artist earns money selling his
Pictures. Before, such activity was consi-
dered to be illegal. (But now) we are strong
€nough not to be afraid that this type of

Usiness can damage socialism.”

Turning to the arms race, Bagramov
Noted numerous Soviet initiatives in the
Past few years, including the acceptance of
the United States’ so-called “zero option”
that will eliminate nuclear missiles in

Urope. And he expressed the hope that
Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev will sign
an “historic” agreement on medium- and

DR.LEON BAGRAMOV

short-range missiles when he and U.S. Pres-
ident Ronald Reagan hold a summit next
month.

“Tenin foresaw the time when military
technique would be developed to the extent
that it would deny itself. Now, this time has
come.

““We can sail in this boat to a better future
for mankind — we havea lot of work to do
to eradicate hunger, to clean our water and
air, to use our resources more ration-
ally — or we can explode our globe, to put
an end to our civilization,” Bagramov said.

New Westminster Mayor Tom Baker,
one of several guests to greet Bagramov,
said the Russian Revolution made the
Soviet Union a “great nation.”

“The western world, however, has had
great difficulty in understand other peoples
throughout the world and it’s only by
friendship that perhaps we can bridge those
gaps,” Baker said to applause.

Vancouver peace activist and physician
Dr. Tom Perry was applauded when he said
that as a combat veteran of World War II,
“T feel that the tremendous sacrifices of the
Soviet Union and of the Red Army and of
the whole Soviet people contributed a great
deal to the fact that I managed to survive on
the western front against the Nazis, and I
think there are a lot of people in this
audience who owe their lives to the heroism
of the Soviet Union.

“I hope glasnost and perestroika will
improve Soviet’s socialism tremendously,
make a very good life for young people of
the same sort that we want for our young

ople,” Perry said.
eed Gamiet, vice-president of the
Vancouver chapter of the United Nations
Association in Canada, noted the Soviet

~ Union has “a great role to play in easing

world tensions.”
B.C. Communist Party leader Maurice

Rush called for measures to make the
Pacific region “truly a zone of peace.”

Premier Bill Vander Zalm’s privatiza-
tion program has not yet generated the
heat of opposition among community
groups that it has among unionists in the
public sector, but “there is real appre-
hension out there about what’s going to
happen,” one community group repre-
sentative helping to organize a labour-
community conference on privatization
said this week.

Tenants’ rights activist Suzi Kilgour,
one of those working with the Van-
couver and District Labour Council in
organizing a conference set for next
month, said that the contacts made with
dozens of community groups has indi-
cated that most are “‘very worried” about
the government’s privatization program,
particularly because they expect that it
will soon move into other fields, includ-
ing health care and education.

“The biggest fear among the groups I
have been talking to is that health care
and education will be next — particularly
when they hear Vander Zalm talking
about two-tiered hospital service,” she
said.

Because the program has only just
been announced and the parts are being
put in place mainly behind closed doors
in committee rooms in Victoria, there
has been little indication yet of the
impact on services — and little for
community groups to react to.

But the dimensions of the govern-
ment’s program — the impending loss
of jobs, the loss of trade union rights as
operations are privatized and Vander
Zalm’s intention to do it without
recourse to the legislature — are becom-
ing clearer.

“And we expect that a lot of the reac-
tion among community groups is going
to come at the conference,” Kilgour said.

The conference was initiated by a spe-
cial VDLC committee on privatization,
de-regulation and free trade which was
broadened to include representatives
from a number of community groups,
including the Coalition of the Disabled,
anti-poverty groups, tenants’ rights and
housing groups, senior citizens’ organi-
zations as well as the unemployed action
centre and student’s organizations.

Originally scheduled for Nov. 28, it
has now been moved to Dec. 11 and 12
to accommodate speakers and other
arrangements. Labour council secretary

Community groups
voice apprehension
over privatization

* nurseries, an environmental laboratory

Frank Kennedy said the conference will
open with a public meeting Friday night,
followed by several workshop sessions
Saturday.

Organizers hope to draw up action
plans in the workshops, which will focus
on the effect of privatization in various
areas, including health care, municipal
services, transportation, environmental
protection and public utilities.

In launching the first phase of the pri-
vatization program, the Socred govern-
ment clearly intended to limit the sell-off
to low-profile operations such as tree

and highways maintenance, which do
not directly affect services to the public.
By beginning with them, Vander Zalm
hoped to minimize public opposition
and isolate trade unionists who would
face the loss of their jobs and bargaining
rights.

But it is widely expected that the
Socreds will move quickly to put addi-
tional services and Crown corporations
on the auction block if they are not com-
pelled to halt their sell-off program by
public opposition and trade union
action.

A particular fear is health care, espe-
cially since the proposals for phase two
of privatization were coupled with
announcements of government reviews 4
of health care and GAIN program
costs — both of which were intended to
“cap costs at current committed expendi-
ture levels.”

Jo Arland, president of the B.C. Old
Age Pensioners Organization, said that
seniors’ groups were “really concerned”
that future privatization proposals would
take aim at the medicare program,
including new user fees and the possibil-
ity of privatized hospitals and other facil-
ities.

“Our members are really frightened,”
she said, adding that the OAPO would
be working with other community
groups and the labour council in the
upcoming conference on privatization.

That fear was also noted by B.C. Fed-
eration of Labour president Ken Geor-
getti in a speech to the B.C. Government
Employees Union Thursday. He and
secretary-treasurer Cliff Andstein have
been touring the province “and it’s not
just the workers who are scared to death
of privatization, it’s the people of this
province,” he said.

Corporate sector pushing gov't sell-off

The underlying causes of the drive by
right wing governments and business
towards privatization is to be found in
growing corporate concentration of the
economy, a Centre for Socialist Education
forum on privatization in Castlegar was

Id.

. CSE director Ben Swankey, NDP
Nelson-Creston provincial candidate Corky
Evans and Castlegar alderman Len Embree
were panelists at the CSE forum which drew
50 people to the Nordic Hall in Castlegar
Nov. 2.

Swankey connected privatization to the
immense concentration of wealth in the
hands of billionaire families and the corpo-
rate elite. Looking for new markets in which

to invest and earn high profits, the corpo-
rate sector wants access to the U.S. market
through free trade and wants to obtain con-
trol of the assets of the public sector through
privatization, he said.

A logging contractor, Corky Evans deve-

loped a similar theme drawing on his indus- -

try for illustration. The idea that privati-
zation. will re-generate free enterprise is
refuted by the monopoly power that exists
in all basic industries, he argued.
Privatization reflects a fundamental pro-
cess in the capitalist economy and is not just
a political policy of the current government,
he said. “We don’t have privatization
because people voted for it in the last elec-
tion, and we won’t get rid of it simply by

voting for someone else in the next elec-
tion,” he said.

Alderman Len Embree told the meeting
that privatization and the Socreds’ plans for
“decentralization” are “lies” which will
result in a deterioration of services for the
Kootenays and higher taxes and user fees.

Embree said that the Kootenays has a
strong labour movement, and many signifi-
cant community, peace and solidarity
organizations that should be brought
together in a coalition against privatization.

He urged that the current municipal elec-
tions be used to start the campaign. “Every
candidate should be put on the spot over
their postion on privatization,” he said.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE, NOVEMBER 11, 1987 e 3