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Communist Party leader George Hewison,
44, heads up a cross-country electoral cam-
paign with 50 candidates as the countdown
begins to the.Nov. 21 federal elections. This is
the former trade unionist’s first election as
party leader. He assumed the post in only
May of this year.

If there is unanimity in Canada, it’s that
this is a crucial election with the future of
Canada as sovereign country hanging on the
question of which party will form the next
government. But what room is there in the
campaign for fourth parties? The Tribune put
this and some other questions to Hewison in
an interview last week.

Why is the Com-
munist Party run-
ning in this election?

. We have entered
this historic election
battle for three basic
and related reasons:

_ first, to contribute
to the defeat of
Brian Mulroney’s
Conservatives, by

focussing on the real nature of their neo-
conservative, pro-U.S. policies; second, to
offer a coherent and reliable alternative
program to the people of Canada; and
third, to build a base of support for our
party, which is a lasting guarantee for real
change.

In the past four years of Tory rule, Cana-
dians have witnessed an unprecedented ons-
laught on the trade unions, on real wages
and working conditions. Social programs,
developed through the struggles of the Can-
adian people over past decades, are being
dismantled and cut back.

Tax policy ravages the state treasury to
endow the corporate elite at the expense of
the people, while poverty escalates and pub-
lic indebtedness reaches crisis proportions.
Privatization and deregulation enrich the
corporations, as does militarization of the
economy which is being undertaken by the
Tories on a massive scale. In short, the Mul-
roney Conservatives are systematically
remaking the social, economic and political
face of Canada according to a corporate
master plan.

Neo-conservatism and the Tories’ agenda
(both hidden and public) are the corporate
response to the deepening crisis of capital-
ism. The Business Council on National
Issues, the “Who’s Who” of big business in
this country, having studied the experiences
of state monopoly capitalism throughout
the world, and most particularly the neo-
conservative experiences, have evolved a
comprehensive plan to place the burden of
the crisis onto the backs of the Canadian
working class, the Canadian people, middle
strata, and even sections of larger capital.

So-called “‘free trade” embodies all these
elements of the attack on labour and the
people, and more, as the grand design of
North American (including Canadian-
based) transnational corporations unfolds.
It represents a “new, economic constitu-
tion” for the transnational corporations of

CP completes nominations in British Columbia: —

says C

Ss ( sa ra

North America. Since World War II, Can-
adian capitalists have followed their U.S.
counterparts in an “antagonistic partner-
ship” to new plateaus of profit-taking, all
the while carefully guarding essential
instruments for preserving Canadian inde-
pendence (even while this special relation-
ship was causing our sovereignty and
independence to be seriously eroded).

Those instruments aré abandoned in the
current so-called free trade agreement.
Canadian sovereignty is sacrificed to flexi-
bility for the transnational corporations to
exploit Canada and Canadians to the max-
imum. To the extent that this flexibility
extends on both sides of the border, the deal
is also anti-American and holds great
dangers for the people of the world. Cana-
da’s independence is threatened, and any
potential role for Canada as a world leader
in the fight for peace and the environment is
on the line.

The Meech Lake Accord is the Tory con-
stitutional framework for the sellout of the
people and the country.

Communists, and all progressive-minded
Canadians, should see the defeat of the
Tories as the priority task. This would con-
stitute a significant setback for the corpo-
rate agenda of the transnational corpora-
tions.

The Communist Party is running in this
election because a clear class analysis and
critique of the Tories is needed to help clar-
ify the debate in this fight for Canada. We
will be offering such an analysis and critique
as well as offering the fullest, most defensi-
ble alternative program and strategy.

All of this, plus a clearer, stronger voice
and movement, not tied to capitalism, will
help shift the political debate in this election
to the left, and make a contribution to the
defeat of the Tories.

But the Commu-
nist Party is only
running 50 candi-
dates. It cannot form
the next government,
nor is it likely that its
candidates will be
elected. If defeating
the Tories and their agenda in the coming
election is key — as the party stated at its

REG WALTERS
Mission-Coquitlam

6 « Pacific Tribune, October 17, 1988

ELSIE DEAN
Burnaby-New Westminster

VI SWANN
Surrey-White Rock

May convention — why not throw the CP’s
support behind the New Democratic Party,
which at least has a chance of forming the
government or emerging as a strong opposi-
tion bloc?

The Communist
Party has carefully
considered its elec-
toral tactic in. this
specific election, and
shares the concern
of progressive Can-
adians on the need
to defeat the Tories and their neo-
conservative agenda.

But how will the Tories be defeated? And
with whom should the Tories be replaced?

A simple, but unsatisfactory, answer to
the Tories could be the election of the Lib-
eral Party. But remember it too is a big
business party, which initially held the door
open for the integration of Canada in the
interests of the corporations. The Liberals
are now attempting to restore their credibil-
ity as a reform alternative to the Tory
agenda.

Recent splits in Liberal ranks reflect div-
isions within the capitalist class over this
shift. Turner’s move to capture the sym-
pathy of the growing popular movements,
and head off gains by the NDP has cost him
the support of many big corporate suppor-
ters, and financial difficulties borne out of
such defections.

In struggling for leadership in the anti-
Conservative movement, the Liberals have
taken a stand against the Mulroney-Reagan
trade deal and the White Paper on Defence,
and many other elements of the Tory
agenda. Nevertheless they are a big business
party and not a real alternative for working
people. This is seen in their stance on free
trade. The Liberals are opposed to this par-
ticular deal, not free trade with the U.S. and
further integration per se. The are, for
example, opposed to the sale of water being
incorporated into the agreement, but are
willing themselves to negotiate the sale of
Canada’s water in other contexts.

What about the New Democratic Party?
It has long-standing official support from
the trade union movement. It has also
enjoyed a surge in popular support as a

BERT OGDEN
Vancouver-Quadra

KIM ZANDER
Vancouver-East

result of the growing peoples’ movements:
Should not the Communist Party merge if
efforts behind the NDP as you infer?

The Communist Party welcomes tht
increased support for the NDP at the
expense of big: business parties. The possibil
ity of much larger numbers of NDP MPs, 0!
even a minority NDP government, would
open up new sets of possibilities for tht
working class and democratic opinion. li
could open the door to blocking the trad?
deal, and putting Canada on a path othd
than the one chosen by the Business Cout
cil on National Issues.

But “uncritical” support for the NDP if
this election would be wrong in that
would not help the working class an
democratic forces achieve what they seek
achieve, namely a new government (inclué
ing, perhaps, an NDP government) with
new policies capable of getting the neo
conservative monkey off its back.

Experience in a number of Canadiall
provinces (where the NDP has previously
formed governments) shows, bringing thé
possibility of an NDP government to reak

‘It is the mobilization and
unity of all anti-Tory
forces around an
alternative program
which is key to defeating

the Tories.’ ;

ity, involves much more than hard work
and committing the already committed 1
NDP constituency campaigns. Official
trade union endorsement for the NDP bY
itself has not delivered the trade union vol
much less the working class vote.

It is the mobilization and unity of all
anti-Tory forces, the working class in thé
first place, around an alternative progra™
which is the key to defeating the Tories a?
is urgently called for.

While the NDP has been forthright
opposing the Mulroney-Reagan agreemen!

HOMER STEVENS
Richmond