ain 4 Moratorium, public inquiry demanded ‘Halt nuclear power expansion’ —CP The Communist Party has called for @ moratorium on further expan- sion Of nuclear power production in Canada pending the findings of a public inquiry commission into the nuclear power industry in Canada. " In a Statement issued April 11 in Toronto, CP general secretary William Kashtan cited the nuclear disaster at Three Mile Island, Har- risburg, Pennsylvania, saying that “it underlines for Canadians the ever present possibility of it hap- pening here.’? The potential for a nuclear disaster of massive proportions in the production of nuclear power can no longer be tolerated, the CP statement said. ‘‘Measures must be found for ensuring that such a disaster shall never take place.’’ The statement also linked the nuclear power industry to ar- maments, with the demand that “the deadly threat to all humanity embodied in the existing stockpiles of nuclear bombs and warheads must be eliminated once and for all.’’ Kashtan noted prime minister Trudeau’s statement on the Har- risburg disaster made by the prime minister April 8 in Vancouver when he said, ‘‘There is no technology which doesn’t have some danger,”’ and related the threat of nuclear disaster with the invention of the automobile and the deaths caused each year by automobile accidents. Trudeau’s statements were “cynically inhuman,’’ the CP said, and proved that protection against nuclear power disasters ‘‘cannot be left any longer in the hands of the corporate elite for whom the prime minister speaks, the Atomic Energy Board or the various provincial agencies such as Ontario Hydro. The public must assert its sovereign right and vigorously intervene.’’ The federal government should call a moratorium on further expan- sion of nuclear power production, the CP said and launch a public in- quiry commission to establish the degree of protection presently ex- isting in the nuclear plants already in production. The inquiry should take into ac- count all of the Canadian and inter- national experience gained to date and also consider Canada’s overall energy needs and other power alter- natives to determine whether Canada requires production of nuclear power. “The determining factor in such an inquiry must be the human fac- tor, not corporate profits,’’ the statement stressed. Only after the findings of a public inquiry are “completed, publicly declared and discussed, should any decision be made by government on the future role of nuclear power in Canada, the CP said. Madrid presses case in election Chilean refugee Galindo Madrid, whose year-long appeal against a federal deportation order was re- jected in Federal Appeals Court last | week,.Was taking his case into the federal election campaign this week bid to dramatize the discriminatory immigration policy. Following the federal court’s ac- tion in upholding the deportation order, the 22-year-old refugee could | pe ordered returned to Chile in as jittle as two weeks. . af he is returned to the Chilean | authorities he would almost certain- | ly be the target of reprisals because ' of his opposition to the junta and | his revelations about military tor- ‘ture, drawn from his own ex- _ periences while in the army. Prominent supporters of Madrid’s appeal for political asylum, including the Canadian | Labor Congress, Amnesty Interna- tional, the Inter-Church Committee H - $ee CHILE pg. 12 | Rally slated | | | | for Apr. 29° | The May Day rally, sponsored by | the Vancouver Trade Union May | Day Committee, is slated for Sun- | day, April 29, 7:30 p.m. in the /Templeton High School . Auditorium, 727 Templeton Drive ‘in Vancouver. Last week’s | Tribune had the wrong date in the ‘headline although the story | reported it correctly. | _Ernie Hall, NDP provincial can- | didate in Surrey, and Jack Phillips, Communist Party federal candidate 'in Vancouver Kingsway are the | speakers for the rally together with | a spokesman for the B.C. Federa- tion of Labor. Vancouver Labor | Council secretary Paddy Neale is to | chair the meeting. | The Tribune’s annual May Day ‘issue with special features, labor | history, and greetings from the | labor movement will also be out | next week, enlarged for the special | issue, to 16 pages. Extra copies | should be ordered by noon, April E25, Vigils for Mahlangu Thousands around the world, like these people in Toronto, stood a final vigil of protest April 6 as the apartheid regime sent South African freedom fighter Solomon Mahlangu to the gallows despite resounding world opposition and personal in- tervention from UN secretary general Kurt Waldheim. Before he went to this death, he told his mother, Martha Mahlangu, “My blood will nourish the tree which will bear the fruits of freedom. Tell my people | love them and that they must con- tinue the struggle. La Luta Continua.” Cannery petition TOFINO — A campaign to save up to 300 jobs at the Canfisco fish plant in Tofino was launched Tues- day. Naming it a ‘Day of Concern’, workers at the plant and supporters began the circulation of a door-to- door petition that called on the company to keep the plant operating at full capacity. The petition notes that the plant provides employment to _ large numbers of local residents and has the potential of employing up to 400. Canfisco’s proposal to downgrade its modern facility and cut the majority of workers from its payroll, will create serious problems for the economic life of the whole Tofino region. The workers, member of the United Fishermen and Allied Workers Union (UFAWU), do not accept that the new plant, built with generous government assistance and located in the new 200-mile economic zone, should be phased out when the potential for expan- sion has never been better. The plant processes herring, shrimp and salmon but has not yet expanded into the processing of bottom fish. To do so would re- quire additional facilities but federal Communist candidate in Alberni, Mark Mosher, stated this week that those extra facilities could keep the plant open year round and provide steady employ- ment for its workers. Mosher, along with local can- didates running in the forthcoming federal and provincial elections, in- cluding CP provincial Alberni can- didate Gary Swann, will be atten- ding a public meeting sponsored by the UFAWU workers to state their position on the proposed plant shutdown. Secretary-treasurer of the UFAWU, George Hewison, in a statement this week, branded the company’s proposal as ‘shocking.’’ He said that ‘‘the modern plant at Tofino was built with the help of considerable _government financing to provide employment to local people, par- ticularly native Indians, and to take advantage of the fishing potential of the new 200-mile economic zone.” “‘A shutdown is totally un- thinkable,’’ he remarked. ‘‘It can only be seen as a giveaway to foreign fishing interests.’’ workers for jobs @ ELECTIONS |: William Kashtan touches on some of the key issues in the federal election as ' the Communist Party leader announces his candidacy in the riding of Toronto—Trinity, page 10. @ ELECTIONS Il: Organiz- ed labor will be putting considerable resources into the elections but a decisive question re- mains: Will labor press for its own program of demands?, page 12. On Ses @ IRAN: Mass media cov- erage of the demonstra- tions by women in the new Iran has been con- siderable but many of the issues have been missed — or misrepres- ented, page 8. @ THEATRE: Playwright Jackie Crossland takes a dramatic look at man- kind’s future in her new work, on stage at the Vancouver East Cultural Centre, page 11.