ATTIC TUUUC UTIL VP

__ LABOUR

Demand grows for vote
before trade pact signed

_Leaders of the Council of Cana-

ans and the Canadian Labour
Congress last week reiterated
demands that the federal govern-
Ment call a federal election before
Signing the free trade agreement
with the United States.

Council president Mel Hurtig
told the CoC convention in Ottawa
Saturday that people across the
Country must compel Prime Minis-
ter Brian Mulroney to put the issue
toa federal vote. “There must be a
federal election, even if extreme
Steps must be taken to force it,
before the deal is ratified,” he told
the 300 delegates to the annual
Meeting,

Earlier, CLC executive vice-
President Nancy Riche said that
the free trade deal was “worse than
We could have imagined.

“Mulroney has no mandate to
do this,” she declared in an inter-
view. “As far as we’re concerned
this is day one of a federal election
Campaign.”

She said that “every single one
Of our members” would be reached
through the Congress or its affil-
lates about the free trade issue over

© coming months.

“People must know that this
deal was made by and for the mul-
tinational corporations who want
© move back and forth without
Testraint,” she said. “There is no
humanity in this. They don’t care if

4 plant closes in Newfoundland._

and a small community dies.”
The free trade deal was the focus
of attention at the Council of Can-
adians meeting where both NDP
leader Ed Broadbent and Liberal
arty trade critic Lloyd Axworthy
Were featured speakers.

Both slammed the federal gov-
ernment for “putting the whole
store up for sale” and acquiescing
before U.S. economic domination.

Axworthy, who had returned
recently from a visit to Nicaragua,
told delegates that he had watched
peasant farmers carrying rifles with
them into the fields to defend their
country. But when he returned to
Canada, he said, it was to see the
Mulroney government “giving up

_the country to the U.S.”

NANCY RICHE

He warned that the deal would

inevitably put corporate profit and
the operation of market forces
before national interests but the
Conservatives would nonetheless
attempt to sell it as a good deal for
Canadians.
. “You are going to see every
ounce of political distortion and
fabrication that is possible,” he
said.

Substantial discrepancies _ be-
tween government claims and the
actual wording of the agreement
have already emerged in question

period in the Commons. Opposi-
tion speakers have cited an earlier
version of the agreement which
included a Canadian commitment
to pass Bill C-22, the changes to the
drug Patent Act which is currently
held up by the Senate. The referen-
ces to the bill were subsequently
omitted in “‘official” versions of the
draft agreement presented to MPs.

Corporate Affairs Minister
Harvie Andre has insisted that the
drug bill had nothing to do with
the free trade talks, a statement
that has lacked credibility even in
Conservative circles.

There is also a huge gulf between
the understanding of the effects of
the trade agreement in Washing-
ton and in Ottawa.

Also last week, a management
study on the implications of the
free trade agreement for the forest
industry underscored what critics
of the agreement have charged
— that the much-vaunted disputes
mechanism will provide no shield
for Canadian industries from U.S.
trade protectionism.

“One of the big disappointments
in the agreement is the so-called
binding dispute mechanism,” the
study, prepared by Widman Man-
agement Ltd., stated. “In the event
of a future countervail duty action
by the U.S. against Canada’s pulp
and paper industry, similar to the
softwood lumber dispute, the

industry would be subjected to the

full brunt of U.S. protectionism.

“Only after a duty was imposed
would Canada have the right to
appeal to the proposed interna-
tional tribunal, and then only to
challenge whether U.S. law had
been upheld,” it said.

United voice needed to fight
Tory free trade deal, says CP

The Jollowing is a joint statement is-
Sued Oct, 15 by the Central Executive
Ommittee and Provincial leaders of
€ Communist Party of Canada:
© Conservative government
of Canada has signed a tentative
ade agreement with the USA.
S agreement gives unrestricted
cess to Canada’s natural re-
Sources and energy. With this
agreement in principle’? the
or would be closed to indepen-
nt economic development for
eaada. Canada’s future would
© longer be determined by the
Nadian people. It would be
“termined by the USA.
tif his agreement would create
of @Ployment for large numbers
Canadians through the wiping
Of entire industries in various
aa of Canada, give away Cana-
wi Ss energy and water resources,
i Out vital sections of Cana-
Le food supply; endanger our
eal Programs and our distinct
Ulture, ‘
taysthis the road Canada should
sea Should Canada tie itself toa
igen iden USA, led by a bel-
Pee and war-oriented admin-
anes Or pursue a course which
the d strenghthen the economy,
ei Independence and sover-
8nty of Canada?

The Mulroney government was
given no mandate by the Cana-
dian people to implement this
‘‘agreement in principle.” The
agreement must not be signed
until the Canadian people have an
opportunity to debate it and vote
on it in an early federal election.
We support this demand raised by
so many public organizations and
movements.

For the past 40 years the Com-
munist Party has worked to ex-
pose those sections of Canadian
monopoly who have squandered
and bartered our natural re-
sources, sacrificing the real in-
terests of Canada to their own
greedy interests. For these
monopoly interests their profits
come before Canada and her
people. The Communist Party
welcomes the growing numbers
of patriotic Canadians who op-
pose the free trade sell-out of
Canada to U.S. imperialism and

-who demand the rejection of this

- ent in principle.”
SReress the cannes Canadians
from all walks of life are speaking
up in protest against free trade.
The Communist Party joins hands
with them in mobilizing and
deepening the protest in all organ-
izations and movements of the

people, so that it becomes the
majority opinion in Canada.
Indeed the only force which
can stop Mulroney’s plans to
sell-out to the USA is the united
voice of the people. The key role
in that voice is the labour move-
ment. We will work to strengthen
the role labour is playing in this
historic struggle. :
Communists will work around
the clock with the aim of showing
there is an alternative other than
submission to the USA. Canada
can become a truly indepencent

~ country,.can develop an indepen-

dent, modern and balanced econ-
omy, free of regional disparity in
which workers, farmers, profes-
sions and business in all parts of
Canada can fully participate.

’ We not only need policies to
strengthen Canada’s economic
independence. We need as well
an independent foreign policy of
peace to prevent Canada from
being sucked into the military
strategy of U.S. imperialism.

The free trade sell-out of »

Canada must be defeated to
guarantee the independence and
sovereignty of Canada around
alternatives which provide jobs
and rising standards for the

people.

Labour in action

GEORGE HEWISON

Postal battle test
for labour’s future

When Peter Pocklington fumbled on behalf of big business,
first Bill Vander Zalm and then Brian Mulroney picked up the
union-busting ball. ,

The unprecedented assault on CUPW is part of the Tory mas-
ter vision of deregulation, privatization and free trade. So far that
vision has successfully re-introduced the word ‘‘scab’’ back into
the Canadian lexicon in a mass way. It has resulted in the police
and courts being stripped of their “‘neutrality’’ garb. There have
been broken limbs of peaceful picketers from St. John’s to Vic-
toria. There have been mass arrests and contempt of court
proceedings against honest working people from one end of the

‘country to the other.

The Tory vision in labour relations is now being closely com-
pared to that of South Korea and South Africa.

The Mulroney government, which doesn’t miss an opportunity
to call up concern for human rights in other countries, part-
icularly a socialist country, is guilty here at home, of system-
atically destroying the most basic human right — the right of
working people to withdraw thier labour.

Legislation Offensive

The massive penalties envisaged for violation of the back-to-
work legislation have offended every democrat in Canada.

The most significant aspect of the Tory vision is that it is being
carried out by a government with less than a quarter of the
country’s support. That support is likely to erode still further.

We all have an enormous stake in the battle of the post office.
This is not only a fight to save the postal service; not only a fight to
maintain and extend living standards with an economy buoyed by
the greater disposable income of working people; not only to save
four thousand jobs, but this fight is over the vision of Canada.

Prime Minister Brian Mulroney’s vision, despite his professed
working class background, and his assurances that he has never
crossed a picket line, is the same as that of Margaret Thatcher and
Ronald Reagan. His vision is the vision of the corporate board-
room and the profit and loss ledger.

If democratic and civil rights obstruct that vision, eliminate
them. If sovereignty stands in the way, surrender it.

The stake for Canadians in the current postal battle is very
high. An attack on the unions is an attack on the very pillars of
democracy. CUPW is a very serious component of the trade
union movement of this country.

In the days, weeks, and months ahead, CUPW will have to face
some rock hard choices. They must not stand alone. They will
need to receive stepped up support and mobilization of the entire
trade union movement from one end of the country to the other.

The public will need to be mobilized with the aim of defending
CUPW, our postal service and demanding repeal of the Tory
strike-breaking bill.

Withdraw the Bill

Parliament should be besieged by messages ‘‘Withdraw the
Bill — hands off CUPW — The Post Office is Not For Sale’’.

The battle at the post office is pivotal. It is a test for the people
of Canada, her working people in the first place, of their ability to
unite to prevent the erosion of their hard won rights.

The Tories must be made to realize that there is a difference
between the United Kingdom of Margaret Thatcher and the
America of Ronald Reagan when it comes to the sanctity of trade
union rights.

This government must be compelled by mass action and popu-
lar opinion to retreat or pay the political price. It must not be
allowed to resurrect its political fortunes on the backs of 23,000
postal workers.

The two faces of free trade

e Ottawa says the free trade agreement establishes ‘‘a bind-
ing dispute settling mechanism’’. Washington says it estab-
lishes ‘‘a strong and expeditious’? mechanism.

e We say the pact makes ‘‘no changes to regulations in
beer’’. They say ‘*Canada’s discriminatory pricing system will
be phased out’’.

e We say ‘‘the status quo remains in Canadian content for
Canadian broadcasters ... the cultural industries are exempt-
ed.” They say the two sides ‘“‘agreed to resolve long-standing
trade irritants in broadcasting”, and Canada’s cultural mea-
sures ‘‘will not impair the benefits the U.S. would otherwise
expect from the provisions of this agreement”’.

e We say the service industries ‘‘will be treated as if they
were domestic firms in the other country’’. They say there will
be a ‘‘new 80 per cent North American rule of origin based on
direct cost of manufacturing’’ for auto parts and materials.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE, OCTOBER 21, 1987 e 3