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EDITORIAL ee

Refurbishing U.S. control

If anyone had doubts that Prime Minister Mulroney
is Reagan’s man, and that the Tory party is the Reagan
party in Canada, the doubts must have now dissolved.

When Mulroney hurried off to Washington, Sept. 25,
only a week after being sworn in, and without yet
getting a grasp of the state of affairs in Canada, his
pro-Reagan bias was already known. By the time the
media got through talking about the “chemistry”
between the two right-wingers, the brew being readied
for Canadians could be smelled across the continent.

Not that Mulroney said a whole lot for public con-
sumption, but what he said, along with the not-so-
subtle changes being made in Ottawa, bring out the
picture.

For example, bearing forward the banners of the
transnational corporations, largely based in the U.S.,
the Mulroney government announced on the day of the

‘PM’s U.S. visit that the Foreign Investment Review

Agency, hated by the transnationals, would get a name
change for starters. It will now be called Investment
Canada. That’s not a subtle change; it is a right turn
from the original purpose of the agency. An agency that
was intended to put foreign investment under scrutiny
will now be the vehicle for encouraging foreign
investment — under the pretence of creating jobs.
Mulroney plans to dump more tax money into the

North Atlantic Treaty Organization, to squander more
on armaments, will make Canada’s current $8.5-billion
a year military budget look like a pittance, which it is
not.

His other plans include hand-overs to the multi-
national oil corporations, of some of that industry pres-
ently held by the government, presumably. in the
interests of the Canadian people to whom the natural
wealth of the country rightly belongs.

Some able observers point out that Mulroney
appears to believe that the powers that be in the U.S.
will, in return, accommodate Canada by lowering inter-
est rates, putting a stop to acid rain, and other neigh-
borly good deeds. In addition there is a lot of talk about
consultations between the two buddies before Reagan
does anything outrageous. Perhaps it will be the kind of
consultation he held with Britain’s prime minister
before U.S. troops invaded Grenada, a member of the
Commonwealth. None at all.

All this is by way of saying that more than ever before
rank and file Canadians and their organizations are
called upon to defend Canada’s interests. The Tories
are certainly not going to do so. The labor movement,
the most extensive organization the working people
have, cam play a leading part. If ever an anti-monopoly
coalition were needed it is needed now.

Gromyko/Reagan meeting

Contemplating the Gromyko-Reagan talks before
they take place leaves room for considerable follow-up,
yet some things are obvious.

The U.S. president is on a negotiations-and-friendly-
relations kick — at least in words. He needs to be for
the sake of his campaign for re-election on Nov. 6.

And one may expect him to take some care when he
meets Soviet Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko, a
veteran of 27 years as the USSR’s top diplomat. The
U.S.’s warlike pronouncements and actions, and its
continuing preparations for war, have created barriers
to disarmament negotiations, and any other kind of
negotiations between the U.S. and the USSR.

The Soviet Union’s foreign policy has always been
and continues to be based on peace, peaceful co-
existence and fully developed state and human relations
with other countries on a reciprocal basis.

The stated policy of the USSR is that it does not seek
military domination of other countries and will not
tolerate military domination over it by other courtries.
Gromyko’s talks with Reagan can be reliably expected
to reflect this long-held position.

The need for a peaceful outcome in talks between the

U.S. and the USSR cannot be over-emphasized. But
should they fail not just political organizations, but

- individual, thinking persons need to stir themsleves into

a realization of where the blame lies.

The Soviet Union has put forward in the United
Nations and independently, proposal after proposal for
advancing the dialogue for a peaceful world. It has
consistently been shot down by Reagan’s raiders — the
U.S. gang under Jeane Kirkpatrick at the UN:and by
Reagan in splendiferous TV shows.

In view of the consistent U.S. preference for arms
escalation and libeling of the Soviet leadership, it is
difficult to believe the newly-packaged president. His
talks with Gromyko may or may not reveal the true
measure of his administration’s readiness to turn a new
leaf and begin to work for the peace the whole world
desires. That will be judged, in part, on his readiness to
abandon the fatal Pershing II and cruise missile
deployments in western Eurpe. It will be judged by his
readiness to reach agreement on scrapping the insane
space wars scenario. =

Since 1917 the USSR’s foreign policy has been based
on establishing peaceful equilibrium on a world scale, on

preventing world war. In the nuclear age that policy has
been re-dedicated.

Reaganism will risk its existence if it choses the road
to nuclear war, or a hypocritical prologue to nuclear
war through a series of fake election manoeuvres
designed to get the Reagan warmongers back into seats
of power.

v)

THE LITTLE
TAILOR FROM
BAlE COMEAYV

MAKes A House-
CALL :

Mc

Provigo Inc., Montreal and its numerous subsidiaries in Canada
and U.S. wholesale and retail foodstuffs, tobacco, drugs and gen-
eral merchandise. After-tax profit for 28 weeks ended Aug. 11 was _
$21,523,000. Quite a jump from $10,367,000, same period a year
earlier. =

*

~ JIRIBUNE |

Editor — SEAN GRIFFIN —
Assistant Editor — DAN KEETON
Business & Circulation Manager — PAT O'CONNOR
Graphics — ANGELA KENYON

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ver since the anti-Communist pot-
shots that opened the 1980 and 1982
civic election campaigns proved: to be:
duds, Vancouver’s right-wing Non Parti-
san Association has shifted its fire to
another angle. For months now, the NPA

People and issues

country. Both she and her husband Gil }
have been active members of the Commit- }
tee of Progressive Electors since coming to
this country. ;

A memorial service is to be held Oct. 6,

aldermen, assisted by Social Credit Munic-
ipal Affairs Minister Bill Ritchie and,
more recently, NPA would-be-mayoral-
candidate-if-enough-people-twist-his-arm
Bill Vander Zalm, have been sniping at
COPE and independent council members
for raising issues that are “beyond coun-
cil’s jurisdiction” and turning council into
a “United Nations debate.”

Of course, most of the issues which the
NPA finds go beyond the city boundaries
have to do with nuclear disarmament and
involve initiatives which have been
admired and emulated by many cities
across the country. And as at least one
plebiscite has demonstrated, a majority of
city voters think disarmament, although a
global issue, is of concern to every house-
hold and every resident.

What the COPE initiators of the var-
ious motions on disarmament have also
demonstrated is that they have broader
interests in mind than handing out favors
to developers, which is what the NPA did
for 30 years before its grip on city council
was broken. At the same time, those same
aldermen earned their way into city hall

not because of their stand on nuclear dis-
armament but because they had been
active leaders in city politics and had done
years of foot-slogging work on behalf of
city residents prior to their election
— work that they continue to do on
council.

All of that should make people scratch
their heads at one of the candidates for
alderman put up by the NPA which held
its nominating meeting last week.

There is the usual list — incumbents, a
couple of refugees from TEAM — but
one the names will probably be vastly
more familiar to dissidents in the Soviet
Union that to residents of Vancouver:
David Levy.

Who is David Levy? Voters in Van-
couver will be hard put to find anything in
his record that indicates knowledge of, or
involvement in city government. In fact,
based on the NPA’s criterion, virtually his
entire career is “outside the city’s
jurisdiction.”

He’s billed as a journalism instructor
but he’s better known in media circles asa
former Moscow correspondent for CBC
and other media whose beat since he

returned to Canada has involved coverage
of defectors from the Soviet Union and
other socialist countries and any related
topics. He pops up at press conferences
involving Soviets and has written articles
which often reveal intimate details of the
comings and goings of various defectors.
More recently, he founded the Sakharov
Institute in Vancouver.

Actually, about the only reason Levy
has even come to city council is to raise
such issues as Jews in Odessa.

But no doubt all of that will be trans-
lated into good, solid civic activism after
the NPA propagandists have finished with
it.

* * *

ur condolences go out to Jonnie and

Harry Rankin on the death of their
sister-in-law Charlotte Tonge who passed
away from cancer last week.

A peace activist throughout her life, she
was one of the U.S. delegates to attend the
World Peace Council conference in 1962
during the height of the Cold War in that

2 p.m. at the Rankin’s, 3570 Hull St.

* * x

Je have a note from Tribune reader | .
Bob Jackson informing us that Sid —

Sheard has died at age 85, following an
illness, at Shaughnessy Hospital Sept. 23.

Born in Birmingham, England, Sid was
one of those who saw military action at an
early age, joining the army at age 16 to
fight in World War I. Shortly after that, at
age 19, he moved to Canada.

He worked and lived in Powell River |

during the 20s, moving to Vancouver and
joining the unemployed workers move-
ment in the 30s. During that period Sid
also made his commitment to socialism,
joining the Communist party in 1934. He
subsequently became organizer for the

. party in South Vancouver...

For much of his working life in Canada,
- Sid was a member of the International

Brotherhood of Electrical Workers and
lived through some of the red-baiting that
divided the union in the 50s.

A memorial service was held Sept. 29, |

4 e PACIFIC TRIBUNE, OCTOBER 3, 1984