CANADA -

| _ Peace movements see their

number and influence grow

In response to Defence Minister Coates’ deri-
sion of the peace movement, the Winnipeg Co-
ordinating Committee for Disarmament has sent
the following release to the media and various
Members of Parliament, including Prime Minister
Mulroney and Defence Minister Coates:

We find it rather distressing and quite pitiful
that Canada’s Minister of Defence, Robert Coates,
would gloat during his speech in Winnipeg, Dec.
14, over the imprisonment of 16 people of peace in
Halifax during the recent appearance there (as part
of a cross-Canada tour) of U.S. Defence Depart-
ment ‘procurement specialists’.

Even if Mr. Coates disagrees with what many

Canadians are saying about our total involvement
in the arms race, it is nevertheless our democratic
right to peacefully protest. Some feel passionately
enough about the issue to risk going to jail. The
peace movement expects dialogue not derision
from elected ministers of the crown.
_ Just exactly whose interests is Mr. Coates serv-
ing when he cynically ‘jokes’ about the jailing in
Halifax — which involved tax-paying, voting citi-
zens of Canada — with U.S. Secretary of Defence,
Caspar Weinberger?

It must also be pointed out that Mr. Coates is
quite wrong when he says that the ‘peace move-
ment is in very bad shape’. The truth of the matter
belies his comments. And what is the truth?
Namely:

e There are at least 1,000 different peace groups
— most representative local coalitions — across
the country. Some of them like ‘End the Arms

ce’ in Vancouver, and the Winnipeg Co-
ordinating Committee for Disarmament, have
yearly Peace Walks which bring out hundreds of
thousands of citizens from all walks of life — in-
cluding many elected officials from all levels of
government.

e A Gallup survey in June indicated that 85 per

» cent of Canadians supported a verifiable’ nuclear

weapons freeze (yet, our government votes against

it at the U.N.)

e 430,000 signatures were gathered in a nation-
ally coordinated effort — the Peace Petition Cara-
van Campaign — calling for an end to Cruise test-
ing in Canada, declaring Canada a Nuclear
Weapons-Free Zone, funding of human needs not
military ‘needs’, and a free vote on the issues in
Parliament.

e Over the past three years 192 cities, towns,
and municipalities across Canada have held re-
ferendums on balanced nuclear disarmament —
with an average of over 70 per cent saying ‘yes’ to
the question.

e Over 90 towns and cities (including Van-
couver and Toronto) have declared themselves
Nuclear Weapons-Free Zones. The latter two ef-
forts are the direct result of lobbying and educa-
tional efforts organized by peace groups.

e Many prominent individual Canadians and
important organizations are part of the peace
movement: Pierre Berton, William Epstein, Mar-
garet Laurence, Major General (retired) Leonard
Johnson, Lois Wilson, Dr. David Suzuki, Robert
White, Physicians for Social Responsibility,
Educators for Social Responsibility, Science for
Peace, many politicians, churches of all denomina-
tions, plus a myriad of others.

While there remains much work to be done, it

’ is plainly evident that — at the grass roots level —

the peace movement is in quite good shape; in fact,
it is growing in both numbers and influence. The
recent Canadian tour by the U.S. ‘procurement
specialists’ highlighted a related aspect of our con-
cern: the increased militarization of the Canadian
economy and its further integration into, and de-
pendency on the U.S. military buildup.
Fortunately, for Canada (and for Mr. Coates,
too) there are people of conscience who ‘are
attempting to arouse and educate others, espe-
cially the government, of the unprecedented disas-
ter which awaits us all unless: ‘.,. . there is a funda-
mental change in their attitudes towards one

another as well as in their concept of the future.’ —

(Albert Einstein).

MULRONEY
PATRONAGE

Tories
helping

| Tories

Patronage, according to the
Mulroney government, is some-

thing you lash others for, and then ©

turn around and indulge in it
yourself.

It seems that 10 of the 11 new
directors appointed to Canada’s
national oil company, Petro-
Canada, are longtime members
and supporters of the Con-
servative Party. Most have
worked for it in various ways,
from actively supporting Mul-
roney in his losing 1976 bid for the
Tory leadership to raising money
over many years and knocking on
doors at election time. And one

has a brother related to Mulroney
by marriage.

Among the new notables are a
former vice-president of Mobil
Oil Canada, several corporation

. lawyers, and a chap who ran his

own heating oil retail firm which
he eventually sold to Shell
Canada Ltd.

The analogy between what this
last fellow did and what the Mul-
roney government seems to be
planning for Canada’s crown
corporations like PetroCanada
and Canadian industry as a whole
speaks pretty loudly for the future
of Canada if Mulroney and com-
pany get their way.

1985 is challenge
to all Canadians

TORONTO — Speaking to
leading Communist Party
members in Southern Ontario,
as well as invited guests from
embassies of several socialist
countries and fraternal Com-
munist parties and liberation
movements, Communist Party
of Canada leader William
Kashtan told the Communist
Party’s annual new year’s re-
ception that ‘1985 will be a
very challenging year for the
Canadian people”.

One of.the first major events
of 1985, he said, is the Geneva
talks between Soviet foreign
minister Andrei Gromyko and
American secretary of state
George Shultz. These talks, he said, are the consequences of the
fact that ‘‘pressure by people aroynd the world, including by the
American people, forced American imperialism, through its rep-
resentative, the Reagan administration, to shift gears, and to
agree to talk with the Soviet Union.” :

There are two roads that the Geneva talks can lead to, Kashtan

said. ‘‘One is the road that leads to peace and detente. The other
leads to cold war, confrontation, an accelerated arms race, and
the miilitarization of outer space,”’ Kashtan noted.
‘This meeting in Geneva’’, Kashtan said, ‘‘will be a great mo-
ment for humanity. A lot will depend now on the peace efforts of
the people in 1985. What they have to do in 1985 is to force
American imperialism to retreat from its position’.

Kashtan labelled the Mulroney government’s position on the
disarmament issue ‘‘shameful’’. He said that the government was
prompted by two considerations — ‘‘one is its hatred of social-
ism, the other the hope that there is money for the military-in-
dustrial complex. So the Canadian people have a great responsi-
bility for 1985. They have to force the government.-to shift
ground. It will require great efforts by all peace-loving people in
our country to win an independent foreign policy for Canada, and
to compel a change of direction by the Canadian government
from its current course.”

The Mulroney government, Kashtan said, has become the
American party in Canada; it represents; speaks for and fights for
the interests of the corporations. Its position towards the
corporations is ‘‘you tell me what you want and I'll give you what
“you need. And the Communist Party was not wraong when it said
following the election of the Tory government that ‘Tory times
mean hard times for the people of Canada’’’.

Working people, said Kashtan, are beginning to raise the ques-.
tion — ‘‘why do we have to go through one crisis after another?”
And they are increasingly seeing that capitalism has lost its
chance, that it can’t create jobs, that it has, so to speak, muffed it.

“‘So the working class has a great responsibility at this time.
What will decide the issue is its unity, the understanding that it
has to fight for basically different policies. At heart what is
involved is curbing the power of monopoly, bringing an end to
that power, and replacing it by people’s power headed by the
working class’’. : :

The job of the Communist Party, Kashtan said, is to help the
working class come to that conclusion. Communists, he said,
have two responsibilities — to end exploitation and oppression,
and to ensure the future of humankind. ‘‘And we pledge our-
selves, on the eve of 1985, to do everything we can to live up to
this objective that history has given us. But to do this we need a
bigger party, a stronger party, a stronger young Communist
League, and a bigger press’’. ;

He urged all Communists to make a pledge for 1985, with an
eye to the coming Communist Party convention, to make the year
and the convention ‘‘an outstanding step forward’’ for the work-
ing people and democratic forces of Canada.

Acknowledging the presence in the hall of representatives of
Communist Parties and liberation movements in various parts of
the world — the African National Congress, Communist Party of
South Africa, Communist Party of Chile, the movements fighting
for liberation in El Salvador, from Nicaragua — Kashtan ex-
pressed best wishes to them and success in their struggles.

‘We will do everything in our power in Canada’’, Kashtan
said, ‘‘to strengthen the spirit of solidarity of the working people,
to help these and other movements win’’.

And that spirit of solidarity in Canada is high, Kashtan pointed
out, as can be seen in the way the organized working class has
responded to the heroic strike of the British miners. ‘‘About
250,000 dollars has already been raised in Canada to help the
British miners win their battle. It shows that workers see the
difference between real solidarity with the British miners, and
so-called solidarity with Solidarnosc in Poland, which represents
totally different forces’’, he said.

The year 1985, Kashtan concluded, will be a year of challenge,
a different kind of year. ‘‘And Canadian working people and
‘Canadian Communists will have to meet that challenge. Make
1985 a year of great achievements for the working people of
Canada. A happy and rewarding new year to all’’.

KASHTAN: “Make 1985 an out-
standing step forward for
Canadian working people”.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE, JANUARY 9, 1985 e 5

Ba ci RNR ce em te

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