BRITISH COLUMBIA For Vancouver’s peace march, it was bright colors all the way. To some, it might seem an extravagance, but our full-color front page photo of the rally capping the nine-day peace festival seemed the appropriate way to celebrate the Canadian peace movement coming into its own. We think, and hope you'll agree, that B.C.’s only labor weekly should reflect the pride of achievements in the fights for peace, jobs and labor rights. Despite the attacks and Cold War manoeuvering of big-business governments, Canadians in the thousands still take to the streets in the cause of nuclear disarmament. We'd like to keep it that way. And we’d like to keep the Tribune alive to record and analyze that growing movement. But to achieve that goal, there has to be a much greater effort on the 1986 Tribune fund-raising drive. As of the publication date on this issue, we’ve only raised $23,000 towards our target of $95,000. And we have only five weeks in which to raise the remainder. It’s a serious situation — in fact, the small amount collected is among the lowest we’ve ever seen this far into the drive. So we make this most urgent appeal The Non-Partisan Association (NPA) is up to its old tricks again. Once more it is demanding that the city of Vancouver turn over to private contractors those services which are presently being pro- vided by city employees, both inside and outside of city hall. In the past it tried unsuccessfully on numerous occasions to get the city to contract out the collection of garbage. Every time public protest forced it to backtrack. This time, though, the NPA would like us to contract out all services. If the NPA had its way, many hundreds of city employees would be dismissed and thrown on the scrap heap of unemployment. Ald. Gordon Campbell has served notice of motion on this issue. Obviously he intends to make this an issue in his bid for the mayoralty. Contracting out is a form of privatiza- tion. It’s one of the right-wing policies being pursued by the Social Credit government in Victoria and the Tory government in Ottawa. The NPA has been given its marching orders by its Tory-Social Credit business backers to try and get the same policies adopted in Vancouver. Ald. Campbell in his motion claims that “recent surveys found that local governments save 40 per cent and more on the costs of services they deliver by having private firms do some of the work normally performed by civic forces.” That’s totally untrue. That sort of state- ment is right out of the back end of a bull. It is based on the phony argument and “surveys” of the Fraser Institute which is also pushing for contracting out. ' It simply isn’t possible for private con- tractors to provide the same services for less cost. For one thing, the private busi- ness firm has to make a profit, while the city can deliver these services at cost. It is completely false for anyone to claim that the same level of services can be provided at less cost by a private firm than by the city. Where Canadian cities have con- tracted out services such as garbage col- lection, the results invariably have been a eventually higher taxes for homeowners. Private contractors are not in the busi- ness of providing the best possible service to residents. They’re in the business to make money, and the way to make more money is to cut the quality and level of services. The experience of other cities that have succumbed to contracting out drastic decline in the level of services and - NPA privatization push uses misleading figures shows this pattern. First the private con- tractors put in low bids, even below cost, just to get the contract and to “prove” they can do it for less. Then the city sells all the equipment it had used to supply the service at fire sale prices, and usually itis bought up by the contractor who got the job.. ; Once this is done, the city is at the mercy of this contractor and he proceeds to jack up his price year after year. He demands more and more and provides less and less. Contracting out of municipal services also lends itself to patronage and corrup- tion. Municipal politicians who support contracting out are expected to reward their friends who helped them get into office. We’ve seen enough patronage at the provincial and federal level. We don’t need it at city hall. It’s no accident either that the munici- pal politicians who support contracting out are always the ones who hate unions. Harry Rankin Contracting out is a form of union- busting. Every trade unionist knows this. There is a role for private contractors in supplying city services. It’s okay when those services are such that the city can’t ‘supply them itself with its existing work- force or equipment. The city of Van- couver does contract out scores of such services to private firms. But there is no role for private contrac- tors to supply those services that the city can itself supply. Right now the city of Vancouver is contracting out work that it could and should be doing itself. This includes street and lane paving, collec- tion of commercial garbage, vehicle tow- ing and storage and the operation of city-owned parking lots. ‘ We should be running and staffing the restaurants in our parks. We could have municipal daycare centres. Edmonton has its municipally-owned telephone and electricity systems which keep rates down and provide substantial revenues to the city. Rather than discussing how to con- tract out more services, we should be discussing how to supply some of the services ourselves that we now contract out. fi to our friends and supporters: please redouble your efforts so that June 21 does not mark the first time in the paper’s 51-year history that the target was missed. =) Help us brighten the picture To keép celebrating people’s 10" with bright colors — or even 10 ink — we've got to see a bigget a better effort on the drive. Let’s al our bit to brighten the picture. — Achieved to date GREATER VANCOUVER Quota Achieved _ Bill Bennett 700 534 Burnaby 6,000 1,889 Coquitlam 2,700 1,249 Effie Jones 2,500 1,521 Kingsway 6,500 ‘778 New West. - 2,500... 736 Nigel Morgan 2,200 20 North Van. 2,900 1,580 Olgin 700 100 Richmond 1,600 445 Van. East 9,500 4,243 Van. Fishermen 800 60 West Side 4,800 1,189 FRASER VALLEY ; Delta 850 283 Fraser Valley 300 267 Langley 700 415 Maple Ridge 2,800 890 Surrey 5,000 293 White Rock 1,400 10 KAMLOOPS-SHUSWAP Kamloops 950 69 Shuswap 750 20 OKANAGAN Penticton 750 Vernon 1,500 N. COAST/INTERIOR Correspondence 2,000 aa ; Creston 400 a Fernie _250 194 Powell River 600 10 Prince George 200 Prince Rupert 250 | Sunshine Coast 800 * Terrace 50 4 Trail 800) VANCOUVER ISLAND Campbell River 2,000 Comox Valley 1,500 966 Nanaimo 2,800 “a North Island ~ 400 ai. Port Alberni 1,500 gt Victoria 3,200 1, af Miscellaneous 2,000 TOTAL: 77,150 2260) 2 e PACIFIC TRIBUNE, MAY 14, 1986 Communists meet May 1 The Social Credit government’s latest hydro export plans are part and parcel of the federal government's free trade schemes — and that spells disaster for Canadian industry and jobs, says B.C.’s Communist Party. “This deal, if allowed to go through, will represent a basic change in previous government policy to produce hydro only to meet provincial needs and not for export. It means also that instead of industrial development in B.C. based on large blocs of available hydro, industrial development and jobs will be exported to the U.S. along with hydro,” states the draft proposal for the party’s 1986-87 political program. Free trade, on a national and provincial scale, will be one of the major concerns addressed at the Communist Party of Can- ada’s B.C. branch biennial convention May 17-19, says provincial leader Maurice Rush. A special position paper on B.C. Native issues, the struggle for peace and disarma- ment and the upcoming provincial and civic elections are also on the table when dele- gates from Communist Party clubs around the province meet this weekend. While policy resolution discussions are limited to members, the presentation of the main political report by Rush Saturday morning will be open to the public. The convention is set for the Ukrainian Hall, 805 East Pender St. in Vancouver, beginning at 10 a.m. Saturday. Rush told the Tribune the report will con- centrate on “the offensive of big business ‘against working people and the need to organize an effective fightback. “Right now there are thousands of B.C. workers in negotiations for new contracts — negotiations in which the employ” demanding previously unheard-0 sions,” he said. : “We need to discuss these and build unity around the fightba¢ them, while addressing the absen® y tive fightback and unity policies 08 ~ of the top labor leadership.” Rush said the party office has” several proposed resolutions ane ments arising out of some three ye discussions of the draft resolutio® clubs across the province. Rush said convention discuss! include an assessment of B.C.5 3 which he termed a “Tory-dominal®, wing coalition” that has “pione® tionary legislation in Canada. _—s Unfortunately, the low-pro} confrontation polices of the provi® Democratic Party “is not one ensure the defeat of the socreds Rush, calling for “alternative poli@ can unite all anti-Socred forces. _ Rush said the way to unity shown by the “phenomenal” * scored in the three elections in ™” months by the left civic forces in an The victories of the Committee sive Electors and the Unity forces major focus of discussion with th F achieving similar victories in othe palities and on a provincial scale, Ay On Saturday night there will me quet with Communist Party na oH eral secretary Bill Kashtan and Rv ing on Vancouver’s Centenary. K@* should be made with the CP sites - 254-9836.