EDITORIAL - Socreds bio The derision with which Grace McCarthy, the Socred minister responsible for transit, spoke of the still-confidential labor relations report on the Metro Transit Operating Company is but the latest demon- stration of the government’s union-busting approach to the transit dispute and its contempt of the bus-riding public. : = Of the report, which apparently details the destruc- tive labor-relations attitudes of Metro Transit man- agement, McCarthy claimed it was not well-prepared, could not be taken seriously and, in any event, “is just a smokescreen.” Mind you, she conceded, she has not seen the report. This is also the McCarthy who told the legislature May 16 that she believed the competency of the MTOC board of directors ‘“‘is excellent and I don’t question it one little bit.” : The conclusion is obvious: if union-busting is the objective, all the evidence which shows management intransigence is dismissed and management itself which, in this instance, stonewalled negotiations for 14 months and more, is deemed to be competent beyond question. : Premier Bennett’s comments are equally transparent: just as his father, W.A.C. Bennett used anonymous phone calls a decade ago as evidence of public support for his anti-labor action, he claims that he has been © getting phone calls from people who want transit strikes banned. ee In fact, the transit dispute was on the government’s anti-union-agenda from the beginning. At the bidding of Victoria, the MTOC board set out to use Bill 3 as a club to exact concessions. It set out with avengeance to impose part-time drivers as part of the plan to slash ck the buses | both staff and service. And the Socreds, as they have done at Expo, hoped all the while to create a another contrived issue which could provide the -pretext for more restrictive anti-labor legislation and more attacks on trade union rights. The Independent Canadian Transit Union, mindful of the difficult position it was in, sought first to maintain service with its “unstrike” tactic. Since that time, it has declared its willingness to return to work under a prop- osal which included the appointment of an industrial inquiry commissioner suggested by the Downtown Vancouver Association — a group more given to Socred leanings than to the labor movement. - But that proposal was rejected by the MTOC and its government masters. They see bus drivers on the picket lines withut strike pay and they are still hoping to starve ICTU into submission. The drivers, the mechanics and all those who ride the buses are pawns as the Socreds work out their union-busting moves. But the government must be forced to resolve the dispute — to appoint an industrial inquiry commission _ and to give it the unreleased report, commissioned last year by B.C. Transit, as its first piece of evidence. That must be accompanied by the establishment of a full public inquiry, with hearings, into public transit in this province. “4 That won’t happen easily — the Socreds are no more interested in an equitable settlement than they are in arriving at a negotiated agreement at Expo. And the profile of the labor movement has not yet been suffi- ciently high in the transit workers’ battle. But with an - organized public campaign — and a commitment by Operation Solidarity to go beyond its current boycott of municipal transit levy payments — it could be achieved. Toeing U.S. military line Tory leader Brian Mulroney would, if he were to gain control of Canada, accelerate this country’s build-up for war demanded by the Reagan administration. He admitted as much Aug. 1. - Speaking in New Brunswick, in an effort to win votes from the unemployed and those threatened with job loss because Chatham, N.B. is denied any means of income except from the military base there, Mulroney chose a military build-up over productive jobs for peace, proposing a 10 per cent increase in the armed forces. This Tory attempt to apply the Reagan line to Can- ada serves only the interests of U.S. world hegemony and the monopolies behind that drive. But talks leading to disarmament and the release of millions of dollars to job creation and useful production would make sense to millions of Canadian workers. The current government already squanders more than $8 billion on the military and both Turner and Mulro- ney would raise that figure substantially. Yet if it could be cut significantly and diverted to housing, education, job training and other urgent needs, it would mean thousands of new jobs — and a demonstration of Can- ada’s commitment to peace and disarmament. While Mulroney refused to put a figure on his advo- cacy of arms build-up, his defence critic Harvey Andre was more candid July 12 in stating that the Tories would push up military spending by 50 per cent. A Tory victory then would shoot the arms budget up to a ‘massive $14.75 billion for 1985-86! For the millions in Canada who are determined to vote for peace on Sept. 4, this further exposure of Mulroney’s allegiance to U.S. militarism should spur greater support for candidates committed to detente and disarmament — to a nuclear weapons-free Can- ada, the cancellation of the cruise tests and conversion to peace-time production. Profiteer of the week i Pancanadian Petroleum Ltd., Calgary, (87 per cent controlled by _ Canadian Pacific Enterprises Ltd.) had after-tax profit for ‘six months ended June 30, of $148,300,000, up from $119,700,000 same period a year earlier. They say it’s due to crude oil and ‘ natural gas. The profiteering is pretty crude too. 2 ¥ ee RIBUNE | Editor — SEAN GRIFFIN Assistant Editor — DAN KEETON Business & Circulation Manager — PAT O'CONNOR Graphics — ANGELA KENYON. Published weekly at 2681 East Hastings Street Vancouver, B.C. V5K 1Z5 : Phone (604) 251-1186 Subscription Rate: Canada — $14 one year: $8 six months Foreign — $20 one year; Second class mail registration number 1560 ae — ot being on the receiving end of a news wire service and having to depend on the mails for any international journals we receive, we often are left wait- People and Issues of the ten priests who were charged with — developing political activities against the state and for taking action that exacer- ing for information to reach us — information that is vital to filling the gaps left by the commercial media. So it has frequently been with’ Nicaragua which, ~ like Chile a decade and a half ago, has been the target of media distortion. For example, the news of Nicaragua’s ~ expulsion July 9 of the 10 foreign priests _ was picked up quickly here of course, with most newspapers and broadcast media” giving it considerable play. In. the ‘Van- couver Sun, international commentator _ Eric Downtown used the occasion to snarl at both the Nicaraguan government and the B.C. NDP with his jargon-infested * prose, attacking the Sandinistas for creat- ing a regime “that in some directions is more savagely repressive of the Nicara- guan people’s human rights than was the Somoza dictatorship.” (Readers may recall that’ Downtown, at the time a Sun business writer, derisively dismissed those who protested the ferocity of the Sept. it; 1973 fascist coup in Chile as “bleeding — hearts.”) The reports here did quote Sandinista ~ leaders’ statements announcing the expulsion — but none of the reports car- ried the detailed reasons given for the action. And it wasn’t until we received a story from Daily World correspondent in Mexico City Cindy Hawes that some of the details on the larger picture of the Catholic Church hierarchy’s involvement in Nica- raguan counter-revolution became avail- able. Hawes obtained a copy of a memoran- dum of a meeting held in New York in May between Nicaraguan Archbishop Miguel Obando Y Bravo and John Meehan, a special assistant to the multinational U.S. corporation W.R. Grace Co. Ltd. The archbishop had been in the city to meet with company chairman J. Peter Grace to solicit funds, but he was unavailable and Meehan was assigned instead to conduct — the 90-minute meeting. The memo described a “development plan” which Obando had been working on which was intended “to thwart the Marxist-Leninist policies of the Sandinis- tas.” The plan involved organizing and training small groups of counter- revolutionaries inside the country under the guise of giving courses on “hygiene, nutrition and manual skills.” to developing leadership who can oppose the Sandinistas and his program has been growing for about four years.” An econ- omist travelling with Obando brought a “list of the various training courses cur- rently underway in districts in Managua and the-costs involved. ae The main reason the Catholic leader met with the company was to solicit _ money for further work. And it was signif- icant that he shoud go the W.R. Grace company, since, according to Hawes, J. Peter Grace is well-known for his ties to - the CIA and is currently chairman of the . -ClA-funded American Institute for Free According to the memo, “The Archi- _ bishop has given all his resources and skills - collaboration that prompted the expulsion — Labor Development. As Meehan noted in his recommenda- .-, tion that aid be given, as the church hier- archy “has the best chance of stopping the Sandinista rush toward Marxism-_ Leninism.” — Of course, when the Sandinista govern- ment takes steps to prevent the church from engaging in activities such as the W.R. Grace Company is financing, we are told that it is persecuting religious figures. oa os But it is precisely that kind of foreign throughout his life. - bated the confrontation between church } and state. ae Notable by their absence’ from reports ‘here about the incident were the com- } ments of Nicaraguan Minister of Culture, | Ernesto Cardenal, himself a Catholic priest, “The expelled were foreigners who participated in a demonstration (of 21 priests — Ed.) against the government and no country in the world permits for- eigners to involve themselves in internal political matters in the country where they “reside.” j RE customers of the People’s Co-operative Bookstore over the years, the slightly — stooped figure of Eugene Popil was afamil- — iar sight. A quiet, gentle man, he was ever — congenial, particularly if the discussion — was in his native Ukrainian. _ But when he passed away July 26, we found that we knew almost nothing of the — nine-decade span of his life. Such was his — - manner that he rarely spoke of himself and _ like so many of his generation, he had no | family. But if few knew much about him, — scores knew of him — and tell us that he ~ supported the progressive movement - or many people who have been regular _ j - 4e PACIFIC TRIBUNE, AUGUST 8, 1984