British Columbia

M- B role
seen in
Tsitika
dispute

Continued from page 1
Vancouver Island gathered on the court-
house lawn.

Amid a sea of placards reading “Share
the Forests,” “Held Hostage By Native Land
Claims,” and “Hug a Logger, Mug a Hug-
ger,” the crowd heard and applauded an
hour’s worth of speeches critical of “preser-
Vationists,” of government reluctance to set-
tle land claims, and of the impracticality of
halting logging until claims are heard.

Sy Pederson, president of TWA-Canada
Local 1-363 whose members are currently
logging the Tsitika, called on the provincial
government to accept its responsibility and
deal with land claims.

But, he added, “it is obvious that the
negotiation of Native land claims is going to
take quite a while. We cannot shut down the
economy of this province while the negotia-
tions are going on. We cannot lay off wood-
workers while the negotiations are going
on.”

For the environmentalists, Natives and
trade unionists involved in forging an al-
liance at last month’s Tin-Wis conference in
Port Alberni, the current stand-off over the
Tsitika is seen as a set-back.

Gourlay, a Tin-Wis participant, believes -

MacMillan Bloedel is using the Tsitika to
drive a wedge between these groups, thus
preventing them from joining forces and
turning their attention to questions of cor-
porate control over forests and other resour-
ces.

“MacMillan Bloedel couldn’t care less
about their 27 hectares in the Tsitika,” Gour-
lay said after the rally. “They’re trying to
split the alliance that’s been forming ‘be-
tween environmentalists, workers and Na-
tives. They want to make this the case that
breaks the environmental movement in
B.C.”

After the courthouse rally was over, but
before the crowd dispersed, Musgamagwa
Tribal Council chairman Bob Joseph tried to
salvage the situation with a spontaneous
speech to the loggers. F

“We don’t view you as our enemy,” he
shouted from across the street where he
stood with a small group of Natives cloaked
in traditional red button blankets. “Tt is not

- in our interest to have a work stoppage. It’s

not our intent to threaten you or take away
your jobs.”

To date members of the Musgamagwa
Tribal Council, of which the Tlowitsis-
Mumtagila band is a member, have sup-
ported and been present at the on-site protest
mounted by the environmentalists. How-
ever, the Natives have not actively disrupted
logging.

If the Tlowitsis-Mumtagila band loses its
bid for an injunction and responds by joining
the environmentalists in arrest-risking ac-
tion in the Tsitika, the equation would be
significantly altered.

The Friends of the Tsitika are asking for
cash donations as well as additional
campers, waterproof structures, a cook
shack, drivers and especially cameras.

“The police behaviour has been less than
exemplary,” says Friends member Laurie
MacBride, referring to the handling of arres-
tees. “Cameras could deter some of that.”

The group is also encouraging people to
phone provincial forests minister Claude
Richmond and MacMillan Bloedel’s Van-
couver office demanding a halt ot logging
until the land claim is settled.

Friends of the Tsitika can be reached in
Nanaimo at 754-7492 and in Courtenay at
338-9242.

Dre:
Nov. 6.

ssed in ceremonial blankets members of the Tlowitsis-Mumtagila First Nation demonstrate outside the Nanaimo court house

Resolution of Gulf conflict seen
as test for post cold war world

The international crisis triggered by
Traq’s annexation of Kuwait has provided a
“laboratory for crisis resolution in the post
cold war world,” two leading disarmament
commentators told a peace forum in Van-
couver Nov. 2.

And Canadians should join others around
the world in urging a resolution of the con-
flict without resorting to military force, they
agreed.

But newspaper columnist Gwynne Dyer
and Greenpeace researcher William Arkin
disagreed sharply on whether a military ac-
tion against Iraq could be contained and
whether the United Nations could free itself
from cold war patterns enough to be effec-
tive.

The forum, the opening event in a week-
end-long peace conference organized by
EAR, dramatized the heightened fears that
many peace activists have felt because of the
military build-up in the Persian Gulf. It also
highlighted the search for new answers to
international crises now that many of the
cold war divisions have disappeared.

Arkin, a researcher with Greenpeace,
USA who has closely followed U.S. military
strategy, told the packed theatre that if “by
some miracle,” the world could resolve the
Gulf conflict without resorting to the use of
force, “it will give us a better idea of the
dynamics” of crisis resolution in a changing
world.

But every day, the Pentagon and political
leaders are preparing the way for a military
strike against Iraq as the only solution, he
warned.

“The military will go for ‘precision
bombing’ or a ’surgical strike’ — they will
seek to make it antiseptic ... and make it
seem that it’s far away,” he said.

He noted that the Pentagon has already
estimated that some 30,000 lives would be
lost in a military strike against Iraq “but we
know that the Pentagon has always been
wrong by a factor of at least 2.”

“Byery day we’re being asked to accept
death, to accept the use of military force —
to accept that it is right and necessary.

“We have to fight that,” he declared,
adding that the use of force would be “a
ridiculous and impossible solution to the
crisis.”

sped

GWYNNE DYER 1), WILLIAM ARKIN ... different views of military action in Perisan

Gulf. :

But Arkin told the meeting he was pes-
simistic about avoiding a military option,
noting that the U.S. was very much in con-
trol of the multinational force in the Gulf and
that the international institutions —includ-
ing the United Nations — were themselves
products of the cold war and reflected “a
world which no longer exists.”

“They must be changed ... to move into
the future beyond Iraq and beyond the cold
war,” he said.

Dyer took issue with Arkin that the UN
was a product of the cold war, arguing rather
that the principle of international co-opera-
tion and international law on which the UN
was based “‘was sabotaged by the cold war.”
With the removal of many of the cold war
divisions and the old east-west strictures, he
said, the UN can again be an effective inter-
national agency for resolving crises.

That has already been evidenced by the

_unanimity achieved in the 10 resolutiéns on

the Gulf crisis passed by the Security Coun-
cil (Cuba and Yemen have abstained on
many votes), he noted.

Dyer did contend that it would be pos-
sible to have a limited military action
against Iraq without it escalating into a
regional war — a point on which few peace
activists agree.

But he emphasized that the economic
sanctions imposed by the UN must first be
given a chance to work. “Military action
should not be chosen as an option as long as
there are any other options available to us,”
he said.

And there is hope that peaceful solutions
can be found, he told the audience.

Calling the current historical period a
turning point, he cited three factors that
could move the world more in the direction
of peace. The first, he said, is the increasing
awareness of the technological consequen-
ces of war and the consequent awareness of
the need to impose the intemational rule of
law to prevent it.

There is also a new awareness of the
interpendence of the world, both economi-
cally and ecologically, he noted. And the end
of the cold war has made possible greater
co-operation in international agencies.

Arkin also cited a new mood among Can-
adians particularly of rejection of militariza-
tion of the country.

“You essentially killed the 1987 defence
white paper,” he told the audience, adding
that the feeling among Canadians “could
presage the end of Tory rule in Canada.”

Pacific Tribune, November 12, 1990 «3