' Services cut, ‘Section 11’ proclaimed 4

The program of ‘‘fiscal restraint”’
4 to control municipal budgets in
,.B.C. introduced January 3 by
, finance minister Evan Wolfe and
the Socred government represents
jan “‘attack on civic democracy,
y~ municipal services and civic
f- unions,” Communist Party leader
-) Maurice Rush responded in a state-
ap ment Tuesday. ge

Rush joined civic leaders and
labor spokesmen in condemning the
8 move by the government which
established-a five percent ceiling on

4 increases in municipal budgets over _

1978 — barely half the inflation
rate.

The restriction will mean budget
cutbacks =1n- most. =" B_C-
municipalities and will likely force
layoffs throughout the province of
municipal workers.

The provincial edict drew a mixed
response from municipal leaders
with right wing, pro-Socred mayors
like Vancouver’s Jack Volrich and
Delta’s Tom Goode welcoming it as
an assist to their own austerity pro-
grams. But by far the majority of
municipal officials were hotly op-

posed to the move which they said
would be a ‘‘disaster’’ for
municipal services and a serious in-
trusion into the autonomy of
municipalities.

Burnaby’s mayor Tom Constable
questioned the constutionality of
the provincial government dictating
the decisions of elected municipal
bodies, and suggested that the
legislation may be challenged in the
courts.

Labor leaders were also incensed
over the legislation, seeing it as a
new form of wage controls over

municipal employees currently
reaching a crucial stage in bargain-
ing for a new collective agreement.

But when Wolfe’s January 3 an-
nouncement was followed January
4 with the proclamation of the con-
troversial Section 11 of the Essen-
tial Services Disputes Act, pro-
claiming all municipal, regional and
school district employees ‘‘essential
services’, it made the coercive
package complete.

B.C. Federation of Labor presi-
dent Jim Kinnaird, speaking to a
special conference of the Canadian

\ee Labor Comment, page 8.

1\, an told a CUPE conference in Vancouver that governments are in-
reasingly moving to strip public employees of their rights and said:

e have it within our power to unite and tell the Trudeaus and the
TR @nnetts that their kind of abuse of authority will not be tolerated.”

© —Sean Griffin photo

A meeting in Nelson January 23
‘vill kick off a series of rallies in
Various centres throughout the pro-
Vince called by the B.C. Federation

.ei) f Labor to voice apposition to the .
iréyrovincial government’s Bill 46 and -

e contentious Section 11 which
‘akes away the right to strike from
ainunicipal- and school board
‘mployees.

_ The schedule of rallies, which will
ind up with a meeting in Van-
\ouver some time in March after the
pening of the Legislature was part
Nf a program of opposition in-
\luding a province-wide advertising
\ampaign, mapped by a Federation

‘taff conference last Friday.

Some 240 unionists were at the
-"\onference called by the Federation
*o ratify the program outlined at a
neeting last month of the Federa-
Yon executive council, labor council
‘epresentatives and representatives
Sf public service unions.

The program also called for the

‘ormation of a Public Sector Com-

ittee made up of representatives

>f various unions in the public sec-
or.

The rally in Nelson: will be follow-

ed protest meetings
set to begin Jan. 23

ed by a rally in Cranbrook, January
25; in Kamloops January 30; in
Kelowna, February 1; in Nanaimo,
February 6; in Prince George,
February 15; in Terrace, February
22. A rally in Victoria will be
scheduled to coincide with the
opening of the Legislature, ex-
pected during the week of February
26.

Kampuchea’s Pol

Pot regime ousted
by National Front

A movement for ‘‘national salva-
tion’’ which last month declared its
aim ‘‘to establish a _people’s
democratic regime in
Kampuchea(Cambodia)’’ has suc-
cessfully overthrown the regime of
Pol Pot, forcing the former premier
to flee to China, the country which
had long supported — and had
been instrumental'in shaping — his
brutal economic and social policies.

The Kampuchea National Front
for National Salvation, led by Heng
Samrin, a former central committee
member of the Communist Party
and a former general of the Kam-
puchean army, and Chea Sim, also
a Communist Party leader and
formerly a member of the People’s
Representative Assembly, had
begun a major offensive late last
year and by the beginning of this
week had taken the capital city of
Phnom Penh. By midweek the
Front had consolidated its base in
the country’s 19 provinces and an-
nounced the formation of a provi-
sional revolutionary council.

Although presented in much of
the North American and European
media as a victory for superior Viet-
nNamese arms — many commen-
tators claimed Vietnamese and
Soviet ‘‘aggression’’ — the swift
movement of the Front in deposing
the Pol Pot forces was, in fact, clear
indication of the almost total isola-
tion of the Chinese-backed regime

and the wide support given the op-
position National Front.

Since premier Pol Pot’ and “nis
deputy premier and foreign minister
leng Sary came to power following
the Khmer Rouge victory over the
U.S. supported Lon Nol govern-
ment in 1975, more than 150,000
refugees, including hundreds of
guerilla leaders had fled Kam-
puchea, seeking refuge in neighbor-
ing Vietnam.

Accounts by those refugees
outlined a story of terrible purges
which have resulted in the death of
an estimated two million people
since 1975, massive depopulation of
the cities and forced family breakup
to support agricultural
complete isolation from the outisde
world — all coupled with a policy
of border aggression against Viet-
nam.

The Pol Pot regime had denied
access to Kampuchea to all western
news reporters — until last month
when the sudden lifting of the cur-
tain of silence was seen as a
desperate bid to gain international
prestige in the wake of the U.S.
recognition of China.

But although the move found
favor in the U:S. media, it could

“not stem the uprising which this

week culminated in the victory for
the National United Front.

The Soviet Union Tuesday
See NATIONAL pg. 7

City schools facing massive cuts

Vancouver’s new right wing
school board wasted no . time
finding the spirit of the provincial
government’s austerity program for
municipal government and
education as the board voted at its
inaugural meeting Jan.2 to slash
$2.6 million out of Vancouver's
$120 million school board budget.

The board’s finance committee
made the cuts concrete Tuesday
with proposals to scrap the city’s
summer school program, to reduce
maintenance costs by $250,000, to
lay off 171 teachers’ aides and to
eliminate free school supplies to
elementary students. Other cuts will
involve layoffs of markers, reduced

language and science programs and
cuts in library, math and other
educational materials. —

The cuts were opposed by TEAM
trustees Norm Robinson and Betty
Ann Fenwick, but the NPA

majority on the board was deaf to -

any appeals for maintaining educa-
tion standards.

“Tt will be working class, low
income and children with special
needs who will suffer the most,’’
British Columbia Teachers
Federation staff person and COPE
school board candidate Wes Knapp
said Wednesday.

Knapp predicted that the closing
of the summer school program will

result in ‘‘a significant increase in
the dropout rate,’’ because the
summer school was an important
method of keeping students with
academic problems in the system.
Students from low income homes
dominate the summer school
sessions, he said.

The removal of free school
supplies such as notebooks and
pencils will also “hit poor students,
especially those on fixed income,”’
he said, noting that the cuts come at
a time when schools generally are
demanding that students be better
equipped. Although it is difficult to
estimate the costs in providing

See BRADY page 7

policies, °

‘Socreds attack municipalities, unions

Union of Public Employees Satur-
day, called the proclamation of Sec-
tion 11 ‘‘mean and vindictive’ and
a ‘‘declaration of war against
labor.’’ Labor had been ‘‘double-
crossed’’ by Socred labor minister
Williams he said, as Williams had
promised the Section would not be
proclaimed immediately.

“It is not restraint which the
Socreds are imposing, but a severe
cutback in all services, including
hospital and education services,’

See WOLFE page 8

INSIDE

a z,

—

= a

@ VANCOUVER: The new
city council is barely in-
stalled and it's clear what
to expect. Harry Rankin
reviews the mayor's in-
augural speech and
makes COPE’s first in-
itiative of the year at city
hall, page 2.

And now... Fitth & Fittht

BES rmuzcc coMPORATION tb

@ DEVELOPERS: Living off
the fat of one of the most
lucrative industries in
Canada, the developers
have re-shaped Canada’s
cities. Reviewer Dave

Fairey takes a look at a
new book by Jim
Lorimer, page 6.

3

ae |

g oe f 4 f
pedal 32
ae. nee ager et!

@ SALT 2: As the U-S.-
Soviet talks draw to a

close after six years, a
Soviet correspondent ex-

ES eo Ra

(Vere

&

amines. what the talks
oS accomplished, page 5. a