hii

i eames

Letters

Nanaimo arrests hint
of Tory gov't trend

When I watched the film footage of the
arrests of three Nanoose Conversion Cam-
paign members at the Mulroney rally in
Nanaimo Nov. 2, I had three different
impressions, from a Western European
view:

The Conservative Party shipped a certain
kind of people from Vancouver to
Nanaimo, fed them with false information,
and raised fears and aggression against pro-
testors and opponents at a very early stage.
the conflict and violence was programmed
and provoked by the Conservative Party.

Help in labour
research sought

I am working on a dissertation on
the early B.C. labour movement and I
would appreciate information and
documents on Robert Raglan Gosden,
the Socialist Party of Canada and the
Industrial Workers of the World.

Robert Gosden was born in the
south of England, circa 1881, and
immigrated to Canada, circa 1905. He
was active in the [WW and municipal
politics and may have married Lena
Hessen in the 1950s. I believe he lived
around Horseshoe Bay at that time.

Anyone with information or pap-
ers pertaining to the above subjects is
asked to contact Mark Leier, c/o His-
tory Department, Simon Fraser Uni-
versity, Burnaby, B.C. V5A 1S6.

Mark Leier
Burnaby

This sort of political “discussion” reminds
me strongly of the political behaviour of the
Nazi Party in its early stage during the twen-
ties in Germany. Will this be the style of
political arguments in the Nineties in Can-
ada?

Someone who is a political activist is sus-
pected no matter what. It doesn’t matter
what he/she is doing, he/she must be “pre-
vented” per se. This reminds me of a parallel
in the Seventies in West Germany where
everyone who protested against the reduc-
tion of democratic rights in connection with
terrorism was suspected of being a suppor-
ter of the terrorists. Today we see in Ger-
many that these laws made in the Seventies
are used for oppressing and disciplining the
social change (anti-nuclear, peace, women’s)
movement. The social change movement in
Canada has to keep these experiences in
mind. Ted Schellenberg’s statement that “‘it
is the duty of the RCMP to protect the
prime minister,” goes in the same direction.
An opponent and politically active person is
at any time suspected to attack the political
adversary personally. Who must be pro-
tected from whom? I think this will be only
the beginning of a rougher political climate
in the second Mulroney era.

To arrest people preventively is a typical
sign of a authoritarian state. It is a direct
violation of a democratic right. It is not a
great distance from the arrests of these three
people in Nanaimo to the “Hamburg Kes-
sel,” where in 1986, about 1,000 people were
encircled by the police in a public place in
Hamburg, West Germany, and _ preven-
tively arrested for 13 hours.

It isn’t astonishing that this has happened
ata time when the social change movement

=
wu
=
x
oO
2
<
wi
n
|
°
e
2}
x=
a
w
2
=
=
c
-

Laurie McBride displays small sign that got her, and fellow Nanaimo peace activists
Norman Abbey (I) and Brian Stedman, manhandled and arrested at Tory rally during

election campaign.

is growing and carrying more political
weight in public discussions, at a time then
the Canadian government has had to push
the free trade agreement against the wishes
of half of all Canadians, and when the
environmental, military, social and political
problems created by this policy will
increase.

For me, coming from West Germany, it
is quite clear that Canadian government
leaders have learned from the West German
government. The leaders of the western
industrialized nations are coming together
twice a year. We don’t know what they
really discuss behind closed doors. But it is
apparent that they learn from each other.

The social change movement here in
Canada has to learn from the experiences
and mistakes of the German movement.

ourrey vote result opens way to reform

The Surrey Coalition of Progressive Elec-
tors (Surrey COPE) views the Surrey Civic
Electors’ (SCE) near sweep at the polls as a
victory for all progressive forces in the
municipality. Our organization and _ its
predecessor, the Surrey Alternative Move-
ment (SAM), have been campaigning for
the election of progressives to both council
and school board for 12 years.

The progressive forces — SCE, Surrey
COPE and. the two independents, Linda
Hunt and Sharon Horn — collectively cap-
tured the majority of the reform vote that
has traditionally gone to the formerly dom-
inant Surrey Municipal Electors (SME).
Over the years, SME has been challenged
unsuccessfully by a variety of forces and
individuals, including disenchanted former
members who left in 1976 and founded the
Surrey Alternative Movement, and the ex-
SME school trustee, Louise Sorenson, who
ran as an independent. It was also chal-
lenged by independents such as Bob Bose
and Jim Gillis, and the short-lived Citizens
for a Better Surrey, an electoral vehicle for
New Democrats at the civic level.

During the late 1970s. and early 1980s,

~ SAM/Surrey COPE articulated clear posi-

tions on development, the preservation of
Green Timbers, the sale of Whalley ball
park, a referendum on disarmament, the
provincial government’s attack 1983 on
social programs and labour, and the more
recent Bills 19 and 20. Unfortunately, the
majority of left-leaning people either were
not involved or mistakenly gave their sup-

port to SME.

In 1987 and 1988, the bankrupt policies

of SME and its right-wing rival, the Surrey

Non-Partisan Association (SNPA), engen-
dered a groundswell of protest by commun-
ity groups. With the leadership of former
alderman Bob Bose (now the SCE mayor),
and the former SME-turned-SCE school
trustee, Penny Priddy, SCE as the official
NDP group was able to deliver civic
government that promises to be more
responsible to Surrey residents.

This decisive change was made possible
by the federal NDP election machine, the
popular referendums on Green Timbers
and Sunnyside Acres, a multitude of dissat-
isfied groups, and the rift between the two
developer-sponsored slates. (Perhaps the
only reason Ald. Bonnie Schrenk was
elected is the fact that she was absent from
council for one year and was able to dis-
tance herself from the unpopular antics of
the SME-dominated council.)

The policies supported by the two inde-
pendent candidates, SCE and Surrey
COPE, were remarkably similar. Support
for these policies and consistent campaign-
ing are the factors that contributed to Sur-
rey COPE aldermanic candidate Steve
Gidora’s 3,500 votes — one-third of what
is needed to elect — and the 1,197 votes for
first-time candidate and running mate Iqbal
Kahlon. When one considers the modest
$2,900 campaign and the lack of endorse-
ment by any major political party, we, of
Surrey COPE, can be proud of our partici-
pation.

SCE has now become an effective voice
on council and the dominant force on
school board. But in 1990, the same condi-
tions that made this welcome change possi-
ble will likely not exist. Instead, SCE will

face a single, well financed, pro-developer
slate.

The SCE incumbents will be in a strong
position but their re-election will require the
full mobilization of community and
progressive-minded voters. Our shared goal
must be the maintenance of the progressive
majority on school board, and the winning
of a majority on council.

The electorate has voted for local
government that will restrain development,
consider community input, and provide
accessible and affordable community facili-
ties and programs. But funding for these
expectations will have to be wrested from
the senior levels of government.

This will require vocal criticism of the
governments’ priorities and the winning of
wide public support for a change in direc-
tion. Privatization, the so-called Free Trade
Deal, and the squandering of millions on
nuclear submarines and other military
schemes all affect our quality of life and
must be challenged by our civic and com-
munity leaders. The era of simply managing
one crisis after another must be replaced by
bold leadership and long-term problem
solving.

Surrey COPE will continue to identify
the problems and articulate the solutions.
We invite all progressives to get involved
and pledge our willingness to unite with the
broadest possible spectrum of concerned
citizens to deliver another clear mandate to
council and school board in 1990.

Steve Gidora
Surrey Coalition of Progressive Electors

Otherwise they will fail in their struggle
against their own oppression.

Therefore the court case of the three peo-
ple in Nanaimo is important for all politi-
cally active people and I can only encourage
people to support this trial personally, polit-
ically and financially, as it is in their own
best interest to do so. Otherwise they will
come to the same conclusions as Pastor
Martin Neimoeller, active against the Nazi
regime and later its victim:

“First they came for the Jews and I did
not speak out — because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for the communists and I
did not speak out — because I was not a
communist. Then they came for the trade
unionists and I did not speak out — because
I was not a trade unionist. Then they came
for me — and there was no one left to
speak out for me.”

Ernst-Ludwig Iskenius
Vancouver

(The three activists from Nanaimo —
Norman Abbey, Laurie McBride and Brian
Stedman — have launched a suit against the
RCMP officers and Tory campaign workers
involved in the incident and the federal
solicitor-general. They are suing for false
arrest, assault and battery, false imprison-
ment and breach of their rights under the
Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. A

fund has been set up and donations to assist

preparation of their legal case can be sent to
Nanaimo Civil Liberties Suit, P.O. Box 122,
Gabriola Island, VOR 1X0. For more infor-
mation, call (604) 247-8670. — Ed.)

Paper welcome
to U.S. reader

I am amazed at the information we get
from your paper that we don’t get from the
USS. press.

For instance, the possible loss (or distor-
tion) of your health plan under the trade
agreement. I had the material photocopied
and sent to friends, as I belong to the Gray
Panthers here and seniors are very inter-
ested in medicare.

Some of us wide-awake Americans were
very concerned about your recent election.
At least your candidates met face to face
and really debated! Our TV newscaster,
Peter Jennings, formerly (maybe still) a
Canadian, commented at the end of our
election: “Bush made it by a landslide —
maybe I should say a mudslide.”

Your paper — that comes tome — gets
circulated. Keep on slugging along.

Marie Talbot
Eugene, Oregon

Pacific Tribune, January 16, 1989 « 3