CANADA

Manitoba NDP Convention:

Drift to right without rocking the boat

By PAULA FLETCHER

The recent New Democratic Party
Convention in Manitoba had the air of a
Pre-election rally as the government pre-
Pares to send voters to the polls in the fall
of this year or early next spring.

_It was a quiet gathering with little ob-
Vious dissension coming from the floor,
but the seeming unity was due more to
the leadership's ability to convince dele-
gates not to rock the pre-election boat,
than to agreement on a political course.
A tight rein was placed on proceedings as
the right-of-centre leadership managed
Once again to convince the membership
that appearances are all important.

_ Noticeable was the on-going capitula-
tion of the labor leaders in acquiescing to
80vernment measures which have hurt
the movement. Just as apparent was the
_ €Ontinued absence of a left presence
Which could present alternative pro-
8rams and blunt the rightward shift in the
Party.

Howard Pawley’s speech on day two
of the convention could and should have

€n the much needed spark and focus of
the discussion. The premier outlined the
Positive achievements over the past
three years of his government, highlight-
Ing the province’s record for having the
lowest unemployment rate in the
country.

He hit hard at the present Tory cam-
Paign to unseat the NDP. The former
yon government’s record of

Misguided social and economic poli-
Cles’’ was invoked. He called for the
Party to keep ‘‘the people and forces dri-
ven by right-wing ideology, a lust for
Power, greed and disregard for the
legitimate aspirations of ordinary people
from returning this province to the state
it was in 1980°’.

B.C. to Bay Street

Pawley forecast Tory preparations to
unleash:a campaign ‘“‘the likes of which
we have never seen before . .. supported
by Tory governments across the country
and bank-rolled in corporate towers from
B.C. to Bay Street’’.

In contrast to Pawley’s tone and astute
Political conclusions were the speeches
delivered by British Columbia party
leader Bob Skelley and federal leader Ed
Broadbent.

After citing the two NDP by-election
Wins against the Socreds, Skelley man-
aged to speak for 20 minutes without
once mentioning the massive extra-
parliamentary actions by the BC Fed-
eration of Labor, the Solidarity Coali-
tion, his own party or the Communist
Party, all of which contributed to the

P by-election victories.

Staying with the by-election victory
theme, Broadbent contrasted all other
provincial governments with Manitoba’s
lone NDP holding, calling it the one pro-
vincial government ‘‘that cares’’. How-
ever there was nothing passing for
analysis of the Mulroney government’s
agenda; the sellout of Canada to U.S.
interests or even Ronald Reagan’s Star
Wars plan. In fact, the question of nu-
clear war and related issues of foreign
policy were completely absent from the
11 major convention addresses by NDP

leaders.

The burying of the peace question by ©

the leadership was in contrast to the
number of delegates who sported anti-
nuclear buttons and a brisk business was
done by peace coalition booths in the
convention lobby. Two resolutions were
passed; one calling for Manitoba to be-
come a nuclear weapons-free zone and
the other congratulating New Zealand
for its stand against the U.S.

Unlike previous conventions, a special
place on the agends was given to long-
range resolutions which almost served as
policy papers for the party. It was around
these statements that the real philo-
sophical and concrete debate took place
over the future direction of the NDP and
social democracy itself.

Nationalization Key

The key questions of nationalization
and public ownership were raised con-
tinually from the floor as necessary to
ensure any degree of success for the
good-intentioned social policy of the par-
ty. Voices were also raised to say the
NDP must be committed to changing the
rules of the game which now allow
wealth and power to be concentrated in
the hands of the few at the expense of the
many. One delegate demanded to know
how anyone could talk about
‘‘democracy”’ in Canada without chal-
lenging the massive increases in military
spending. ‘

Differing from the NDP Government.
under former Premier Ed Schreyer
(1969-1977) which brought McKenzie
Seeds, Flyer Industries and automobile
insurance under public ownership, the
Pawley government has abandoned this
economic approach altogether.

Instead, its direction — and this was
mirrored in Ed Broadbent’s speech —
has been a continued emphasis on the
private sector, private-sector investment
as the economic stimulus and co-
operation among government, business
and labor. This tripartite approach has
been gradually developed over the past
three years and has led to the proposed
introduction of Final Offer Selection into
labor legislation.

Final Offer Selection, in the words of
Manitoba Federation of Labor leaders
speaking at a pre-plenary panel, is an
attempt to create ‘‘an alternative ap-
proach to collective bargaining’’.

Under FOS, the employer or the union
could apply for an ‘‘independent
government arbitrator’ who would
select either the contract proposed by the
company or by the union. This final
selection would be binding on both par-
ties. Proponents say a safeguard in this
process for workers is that the company
must participate if the union chooses to
go to FOS, while the union has the option
to refuse if the company chooses this
route.

But, opponents argue, not only does
FOS emasculate the whole principle of
collective bargaining which the labor
movement has fought for and won, but a
change of government would soon bring
an end to any ‘‘safeguards”’ the NDP has
put into place.

The championing of FOS by MFL
leaders at the convention indicates the
deep inroads tripartism has made into the
labor movement during the Pawley
administration and finds reflection in the
fact there is no real fight for workers’
interests by the trade union leadership in
Manitoba.

While finally agreeing to submit the
FOS resolution to the plenary, the panel
added a rider that FOS legislation should
be introduced at a later session of the
legislature. This would give a welcome
chance for delegates to the bi-annual
MEL convention this fall to actually de-
cide their position on such major labor
legislation surgery.

In a very routine fashion, and for the
third consecutive convention since the
NDP returned to power, a resolution for
the government to bring in anti-strike-
breaking legislation was again passed.
Some delegates noted, in discussion, that
if anti-scab legislation were introduced,
there would be no need for FOS. Dele-
gates also went on record as supporting
the Eaton’s strike and calling for all NDP
members to join the boycott against the
retail giant.

The convention greeted plans by ag-
riculture minister Bill Uruski for farm
assistance and re-financing and the
moratorium on farm debts and urged that
this policy be taken out and explained in
the countryside. The banks, said one
delegate, would never follow through
with threats to pull out of farm financing
in retaliation for government assistance
programs because, for them, it is too big
and lucrative a business.

The crisis in the Winnipeg municipal
wing of the NDP was kept hidden

throughout the convention. Insiders re-
port that a plan to introduce Winnipeg
city councillors and trustees and school
trustees along with MLAs was shelved.

Pension Plan Support

Organizers were apparently afraid of
negative response as NDP city council-
lors had supported the greedy pension
plan for councillors and the NDP school
trustees spearheaded the move for the
recent hefty salary hike for trustees of
School Division No. 1.

The NDP’s disarray on the civic front
is part of its rejection of unity with non-
party reform sources.

Part of Pawley’s speech reinforced the
NDP’s concept that reform includes only
those who carry a party card when he
outlined alliances as being based solely
within the NDP itself — among its vari-
ous sectors such as labor, women, etc.

The controversial abortion issue was
addressed only by a resolution calling on
the federal government to delete section
251 of the Criminal Code and deploring
police action which endangers women’s
health.

A second resolution on reproductive
health clinics was shelved when an anti-
choice delegate challenged the quorum
late Sunday afternoon, and the conven-
tion found itself with only 100 voting de-
legates left out of more than 700. Not
only was the clinic resolution left hanging
but all business came to a rather abrupt
and ignoble halt.

The convention was illustrative of the
quandary in which social democracy
finds itself today, when in government,
of trying to administer a crisis-ridden
capitalist system and play by its rules.

It has resulted in the Manitoba NDP
steadily drifting to the right in its attempt
to defeat Tory policy by occupying mid-
dle ground as well as giving credence to ©
Broadbent’s federal election remark that
the NDP is “‘trying to rid itself of its
socialist baggage.’

With no viable Liberal Party presence
in Manitoba, and no Liberal MLAs, this
right drift of social democracy in power is
reinforced.

The visible differences at the recent
First Ministers’ Conference between
those direct representatives of monopoly
who sit around the table fighting for con-
trol of Canadian economic interests and
the Manitoba NDP government rep-
resentatives who put forward positions
of more benefit to the Canadian people,
will have to be highlighted over and over
again if Canada’s sole social -democratic
government is to make it for another
term.

Paul Fletcher is Manitoba leader of the
Communist Party of Canada.

ene

in Reagan’s Star Wars project.

Clark, Nitze said the U.S. would not ru

the research involved.

a

U.S. confirms Canada’s
role in Star Wars

U.S. arms control negotiator Paul Nitze has confirmed con-

Refused test, teacher suspended

cerns raised by the peace movement that Canada will be involved

In a surprise announcement following a meeting with Prime

inister Brian Mulroney and External Affairs Minister Joe

le out the possibility that
the radar warning system in Canada’s North would become a
Component in the Strategic Defence Initiative, or Star Wars.
The U.S. statement contradicts repeated assurances given by
the government that Canada will not in any way participate in the
Plan, but has just agreed to support the research. Soon after
taking office last September, the Conservatives agreed to support

The peace movement has raised fears that the modernization of
the Distant Early Warning line under the Norad agreement would
8ive the U.S. a foot in the door in placing its nuclear weapons on
Canadian soil and tie Canada to Star Wars.

TORONTO — Sheridan Col-
lege is a stickler for enforcing the
rules even if they endanger the
health of their employees. In Oc-
tober last year Sheridan sus-
pended nursing teacher Alice
Kolisnyk because she refused to
have an annual chest x-ray to de-
tect tuberculosis.

Her decision was not taken
lightly. Medical evidence backs
her contention that yearly chest
x-rays are potentially dangerous
and contribute to leukemia,
breast and thyroid cancer, and
diseases associated with aging.

The Ontario Hospital Associa-

tion no longer requires its mem-
bers to have a yearly x-ray and
doctors have never been required
to take them. No employee has
been suspended in the past for re-
fusing to comply. In 1981 almost
2,000 workers refused the test.
Kolisnyk has offered to have
her doctor examine her for TB,

. take alternative tests, or sign a

waiver. Her union, the Ontario
Public Service Employees, has
filed a grievance on her behalf for
reinstatement with full back pay
and benefits. Her case is slated to
be heard in the spring of this year.
In the meantime, Kolisnyk, a

sole-support mother, has no
means of support. She does not
qualify for unemployment insur-
ance because she is suspended —
not fired.

Organized Working Women, a
toronto-based trade union’s wo-
men’s organization, has taken up
Kolisnyk’s case and is circulating
a petition demanding Sheridan
re-instate her pending the out-
come of the arbitration ruling. It
has also established a defence
fund on her behalf. OWW can be
contacted at 366 Adelaide Street,
East, Suite 426, Toronto, MSA
3X9,

PACIFIC TRIBUNE, MARCH 13, 1985 e 5