{

|

in |

a
aS.
i-
m

“il

‘he

S-
1S
st

)-

Ee Oe oF. aap FS

:

British Columbia

tax dollars going to fund
human needs. Send a
postcard, sign a petition,
pass a resolution at your
School, union or
association.

ulroney you want your

‘Sink subs’
Campaign

2 Continued from page 1
___ Wedon’t think they can get all the pieces
in place but it’s because the government is
moving so quickly that we’ve launched this
campaign now,” said Theilheimer. “We
want to slow it down — and then stop the
submarine program altogether.”

He said the campaign would be a com-
ponent of the Canadian Peace Alliance’s
voter pledge campaign and would be used
to make disarmament an important issue in
the federal election campaign.

Peration Dismantle has sent a special
appeal out to the 170 nuclear-weapons free
zones across the country, urging them to
take a stand against the nuclear submarine

Program. “We think it provides them witha ~

practical Opportunity to speak out for dis-
armament,” he said.

_ The campaign has also marked an
increasing tempo of opposition to the fed-
eral government’s plan to acquire the
nuclear subs. Last week, the Canadian Cen-
tre for Arms Control and Disarmament
challenged the government’s rationale for
the purchase and suggested that questions
of escalating cost and destabilization of the
Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty were not
being addressed.

In addition, said centre director John
Lamb, the operation of the subs, “rather
than contributing to Canadian independ-
ence ... could result in closer and closer
Canadian integration, as a junior partner, in
USS. naval operations in the North.”

Also last week, the biennial convention
of the 2.3 million member Canadian
Labour Congress, voted to reject the
government’s defence white paper and the
ene acquisition program outlined in
it.

“We reject the Tories’ narrow and pro-
vocative vision, and we oppose their nuclear
subs,” CLC president Shirley Carr said in
her opening address to the convention.

Residents fight ferry closure

Residents on opposite sides of the
Columbia River at Robson and Castlegar
have banded together in a bid to save a
highways department ferry that the Socred
government closed last month in what has
been seen as a prelude to privatization of a
vital public service.

Some 50 people from the two communi-
ties began occupying the ferry May 9 follow-
ing Highways Minister Stephen Rogers’
announcement that the ferry service
between Castlegar and Robson was being
shut down. The initial reason given was low
water levels on the Columbia although
Rogers later stated that .the ferry would
remain at the dock until local government
took over the service or it was turned over to
a private contractor.

Rogers — who is also the minister
responsible for the Socred government’s
privatization program — sent out letters
May 13 offering to turn the service over to
the Central Kootenay regional district or
the city of Castlegar, failing which it would
be offered to the private sector for $1.

But the regional district voted May 14 not
to consider any such proposal until the ferry
service has been restored by the provincial
government. That was echoed Monday by
Castlegar mayor Audrey Moore who said
that the government’s offer was not made in
good faith since the ferry service had first
been terminated.

The ferry is one of the most frequently
used freshwater ferry services in the pro-
vince, taking an est-
imated 500,000 veh-
icles a year across
the Columbia from
Castlegar to Rob-
son. It also provides
access to the Douk-
hobor community
of Brilliant, cutting
a 26-km trip across
the highway bridge
to six kilometres,
and is the key trans-
portation link to ensure continued vitality
for businesses in the centre of Castlegar.

The ferry is currently run without charge
as part of the highways department,
although that would inevitably change if the
government privatized the service.

Ironically, Robson and Castlegar resi-
dents last year had to fight Canada Post to
retain the post office at Robson which the
corporation had tried to close.

The government’s announcement on
termination of the ferry service has also
been seen as a vindictive response to com-

SHIELDS

TRIBUNE PHOTO — SEAN GRIFFIN

ROBSON FERRY...vital transportation
link cut by Socreds.

munity opposition to privatization. Premier
Bill Vander Zalm was booed at a high
school during a recent visit and several
municipalities in the area have opposed pri-
vatization of highways maintenance.

John Shields, president of the B.C.
Government Employees Union, whose
members are employed on the ferry, last
week condemned the closure and accused
the government of playing politics with the
service.

“The discontinuation of the Robson
Ferry is another example of this govern-
ment’s blind commitment to eliminating
vital public services despite the hardship for
the community and the elimination of

jobs,” he said in a statement. Ten full-time

and part-time BCGEU members work on
the ferry in addition to three auxiliaries.

He also pointed to the government’s vin-
dictiveness, noting that the Kelowna Dis-
trict highways manager had been fired the
same week because he disagreed with the
government’s plan to privatize the highways
maintenance system.

“And now it appears that the Robson
ferry has been eliminated because the com-
munity spoke out against privatization
when the premier visited the area,” he said.

“British Columbians don’t want a
government that decides whether a com-
munity will have a vital service or not based
on politics,” Shields declared.

Several thousand names have been
gathered on a petition demanding that the
government restore the ferry service.

Rush slams gov't sell-off secrecy

B.C. Communist Party leader Maurice
Rush branded as “outrageous” the state-
ment by Premier Vander Zalm that the
government would

not release any in-
formation about
contracts signed with
the private sector on
the sell-off of pro-
vincial government
assets.

_ “The public has a
right to know what
the details are in-
volving any govern- :
ment sale of public RUSH
property to the private sector — and this
applies to the Expo lands sale as well the
B.C. Hydro divisions which are now being
privatized in secret negotiations,’ Rush

said in a statement May 13.

His comments followed a government
news release May 12 which stated that doc-
uments and other details of deals made with
the private sector for the sale of public assets

would only be made available “where the.

public interest will be served.” Vander Zalm
added that the government would itself
determine what constituted public interest.
The policy, which the release said was
laid down as part of the privatization pro-
cess, follows the advice given the govern-
ment by British privatization consultant Dr.
Madsen Pirie who told the Social Credit
government to make public only what
information was absolutely essential.
“This is a betrayal of the public trust,”
Rush declared. ‘The Socred government
has no authorization from the legislature or
mandate from the public to pursue its plans

to sell off the people’s property in secret
deals as it is doing.”

He charged that the government was
proceeding with its privatization plans “as if
they were the board of directors of a corpo-
ration.

“But the province is not a private com-
pany and the government is responsible to
the people of B.C. who elected it,” he said.

Calling privatization “the number one
issue before the province,” Rush said the
Vander Zalm government should be forced
to abandon its privatization plans or put the
issue to an election.

“If Vander Zalm and the Socreds persist
in pushing through their program to sell off
the people’s property to private interests
through back door deals, then the public
should demand the resignation of the pre-
mier and his government,” he said.

Memorial June 4
for Tom McEwen

Canadians lost one of the most
prominent and colourful figures in
their country’s militant labour history
with the death of Tom McEwen who
passed away in Vancouver May 11 at
the age of 97.

A former editor of the Tribune and
a columnist for the paper for several
years after his formal retirement in
1970, he drew ona long working class
tradition in his writing. He joined his
first union as an immigrant Scottish
blacksmith in 1913 and joined the
Socialist Party of Canada. shortly
afterward.

A member of the Communist Party
from 1922, he was one of the founders
of the Workers’ Unity League and
served as its general secretary
throughout the five militant years of
its existence.

Together with that of eight other

Communist leaders, his name burst
into national prominence in 1931 with
the arrest of the nine leaders under the
infamous Section 98 for “teaching
and advocating the overthrow of con-
stituted authority by force and vio-
lence.” The Kingston Eight (one was
acquitted), as they came to be known
after they were sentenced to five years
in Kingston Penitentiary, dramatized
the opposition to the policies of Tory
Prime Minister R.B. Bennett that was
growing across the country.
- McEwen also served as the Cana-
dian representative on the Commu-
nist International in 1938 and narrowly
missed election as a Communist MP
for the Yukon in the 1945 federal elec-
tions.

He is survived by his wife Rose, his
sons, Bruce, Norman and Sean as well
as grandchildren and great-grand-
children. Another son, Jim, a veteran
of the Mackenzie-Papineau Battalion,
predeceased him only last month.

A fuller tribute to Tom’s life and
work will appear in the next issue of
the Tribune.

A memorial service is scheduled for
June 4 at which Communist Party
leader Bill Kashtan and McEwen’s
grandson, Tom Kozar, will be among
those honouring him. It has been set
for 2 p.m. in the Russian Hall, 600
Campbell Ave. in Vancouver.

The family has requested that in
lieu of flowers, donations be made to
the Pacific Tribune’s financial drive in
Tom McEwen’s name.

Pacific Tribune, May 18. 1988 «