EDITORIAL

Spokesman for death

Defence Minister Perrin Beatty seems to be carrying on in the footsteps of
previous holders of that office who become seduced by machismo and milita-
rism. Not long ago, we had a defence minister who told reporters his spin in the
hot, new F-18 jet fighter bordered on the erotic.

7 ANOTHER GREAT SOUTH
AFRICAN INVENTION:
HANDCUFFS FOR CHILDREN. ,

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Now here’s Beatty, flanked by armed forces General Paul Manson, warning
that the Soviet Union is a “real and immediate threat” to Canada’s security.

Simply put, Beatty is lying.

Diplomatically put, Beatty is misinformed.

Journalistically put, Beatty has a credibility gap.

Politically, however, Beatty and his top brass are trying to kill two birds with
one stone: first, to keep the spectre of a Soviet threat front and centre, tricking
Canadians into pouring additional billions of dollars into the bottomless pit of
arms spending. He and his armed forces cronies havea long shopping list which
includes nuclear submarines, new battle tanks, modern warships, exotic hi-tech
systems, more troops and a “bigger NATO role.” Sure they need “‘the Russian
threat,” or Canadians would laugh them off the street.

The second aim is to blunt the country’s peace movements. Here, Beatty
warned against sentiments to get out of NATO. He warned against improved
east-west relations and specifically down-played Moscow’s peace initiatives. He
scoffed at an independent Canadian foreign policy.

He parroted the lie of Warsaw Pact “conventional and nuclear weapons
superiority” in Europe. He urged a more active role for Canada’s armed forces
in a staunchly pro-U.S. global strategy, all spiced with references to “western
values” and other deceptions his listeners in the posh Empire Club could relate
to.

ay

A day orso after, Beatty beat the drums for a drastically increased role for the
armed forces reserves — including a much larger budget. This Tory tinhorn
solider, who has never heard a shot fired in anger, thinks he’s Caspar Wein-
berger. He wants to play war in the big leagues.

Beatty speaks for Mulroney’s Tories who have made it clear they will follow
Reagan to the wall.

_____ His antiquated Cold War caricature of the Soviet Union as a blood-thirsty,
militaristic threat to Canada’s security and “way of life” is wearing thin. It’s
increasingly being exposed by life itself — both by- the USSR’s spectacular
global peace offensive and the equally spectacular and frightening U.S. military
build-up.
Beatty speaks for mistrust, fear, tension, the Pentagon’s warfighting strat-

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gegy, military spending, marching boots and nuclear graveyards.
But he, his Tories and his generals don’t speak for Canadians.

Second class mail registration number 1560

ANC must
participate

L.V. Naidoo, Regina, Sask., writes:
Seventy-five years ago, in January, 1912,
leading “African doctors, lawyers and
clergymen, representing numerous ethnic
groups and nationalities in South Africa
met at Bloemfontein in the Orange Free
State to found the South African Native
National Congress, the forerunner of the
African National Congress (ANC).

The Congress convention was called to
agree on how best to unite their peoples in
the cause of their diminishing human

settlers.

In the former Cape Colony (Cape Pro-
vince) where many of the outstanding
African leaders like Nelson Mandela and
Oliver Tambo hail from, men of all races
from the age of 21 who had the required
education and property qualifications
were eligible to vote on the common roll.
There was little or no race discrimination
as regards the franchise in the Cape consti-
tution of 1853.

Three decades later, however, the
whites feared the growth of an African
majority electorate. The Africans at that
time constituted 14 per cent of the voting
population and by 1886, the figure had
risen to four per cent. In at least two consti-
tuencies, they are actually in the majority
with 51 and 54 per cent respectively.

rights and the loss of their lands to white _

The following year, the Parliamentary -

Registration Bill was introduced by the

~ Cape government to strike off the African

voters from the roll whose qualifications
were thought to be doubtful. It was a first
step towards disenfranchising the Africans
and other non-whites. Some 30,000 Afri-
cans were removed form the voters’ list.
Only the white Independents in the legisla-
ture opposed the measure.

Then in 1982, the property qualification
was sharply increased from 25 to 75
pounds, to further reduce the number of
black voters, who included Indians,
Malays and Coloreds. But when President
P.W. Botha’s National Party came to
power in 1948, the limited but qualified
franchise for all non-whites was finally
abolished in 1956.

All through the years, the ANC has
pursued peaceful means in the campaign
against the iniquitous apartheid system.

- But the shooting down of demonstrators

against the “pass laws” at Sharpeville in
1960, and the subsequent banning of the
ANC and other black organizations, shat-
tered the hopes and dreams of the non-
whites for a peaceful resolution of the
country’s problems. It was then that the
ANC decided to wage an armed struggle
against the Pretoria racist regime.
Moreoever, the ANC is not a political
party per se. It is a broad-based national

liberation movement, a political organiza-
tion consisting of people with differing
philosophical outlooks, social strata and
religious beliefs. All races now belong to it.

The organization is firmly entrenched in
the political life of the country and the
state of emergency has only helped to
strengthen and popularize the struggle it
leads.

Both P.W. Botha and Ronald Reagan
have to face the fact that the problems in
South Africa cannot be resolved without
the participation of the ANC.

Forum debates
labor’s future

Ben Swankey, director, Centre for

Socialist Education, writes: The Centre for
Socialist Education is pleased to announce
a public forum:

Community Based Economic Devel-
opment: Alternative or Diversion? Mari-
time Labor Centre, 111 Victoria Dr.,
(Victoria Dr. entrance) Wednesday, Feb.
11, 7:30 p.m.

Should political parties of the left and
the trade union movement change their
fundamental approach to economic and
social policy? Should they instead concen-
trate on the development of community-

based economic development programs?
How does CBED relate to policies for
public ownership and expanding social
programs?

Come and hear these and other related
issues discussed by knowledgeable and
informed speakers:

Cliff Andstein, secretary treasurer, B.C.
Federation of Labor;

David Fairey, economist, Trade Union
Research Bureau;

Jef Keighley, Confederation of Cana-
dian Unions;

Rita Chudnovsky, educator concerned
with CBED and women.

The moderator is Jack Phillips.

A discussion and question period will
follow introductory remarks by the speak-
ers.
We would also like to take this oppor-
tunity to inform you of the Centre for
Socialist Education’s newest publication,
The CSE Journal.

The CSE Journal is our new periodical
which publishes occasional papers on sub-
jects of interest to the labor and socialist
movement in B.C. The first edition con-
tains these articles: Indian/ Working Class
Alliances, by Geoff Meggs; Prostitution
and its Abolition in Vietnam, by Kathleen
Gough; The Judiciary and the Canadian
State, by Jim Quail; Free Trade from a
Labor Perspective, by Dave Werlin.

The CSE Journal costs $2.75 and is
available from our office 105-2747 E.
Hastings St., Vancouver, V5K 1Z8 or

from the Co-op Bookstore, 1391 Com- |

mercial Dr., Vancouver, VSL 3X5.

4 e PACIFIC TRIBUNE, JANUARY 28, 1987