CANADA Tory times will be tough times The Communist Party of Canada was the first group on Parliament Hill to protest the implications of the Conservative government’s mini budget. Bus loads left Toronto and Montreal on Nov. 15 to lobby the government and the two opposition parties in parliament. The following is the text of the presentation the CPC delivered: TUVEAUUEDENUOUEOUAUEUEOUOVEUEAEAUOUOGEELEGEOEGEGEOCRGEGEOUEGEOUELEOUELOOELEGUEU EEA EUEOEOUEGEOUEGEGEOOEOUOURUEGEGUOLEGUOUOUOOUOUEDEOUGQEGEOOEOEOUEDOOUEOEOLODEGENL The mini budget is bad news for Cana- dians. The hopes of the Canadian electo- rate that the Tories would bring change for the better has been betrayed. The change is for the worse. The basic thrust of the mini budget is to take from the poor, the unemployed, the pensioners, the children and give to the rich and the corporations. This is Reaganomics and Thatcherism combined with Bennett in B.C. thrown in for good measure. The argument advanced is that leav- ing it to the market place and to free enterprise will lead to a strong recovery. But the last time it was left tothe market place was in 1929. Is Prime Minister Mul- roney going to give us another R.B. Ben- nett? Mr. Wilson says the mini budget will open the door to investments and this will create jobs. But manufacturing is presently working at 80 per cent capaci- ty. Consumer demand has been reduced by 2 per cent annually since 1977. Not least the recovery in the USA is begin- ning to falter. Only massive government intervention can change this situation. Behind all their sweet words the main thrust of the mini budget is deficit reduc- tion. But the Government got no man- date from the Canadian people to make deficit reductions the number one target. The number one target was to have been, ‘‘jobs, jobs, jobs.’” Instead by its policies the Government is creating more unemployment. ; It did get a mandate to protect univer- sality in social programs. Instead, it is now going to review universality with regard to family allowances and pen- ‘sions, and “‘tighten up’’ on unem- ployment insurance. Federal programs for the unemployed are to be slashed to the tune of $428 million. Unemployment insurance will be cut by over $200 million, while UIC premiums on individuals will increase by $562 a year. Many of the unemployed will be cut off and have to go on welfare at tremendous costs to provincial and municipal budgets. The aim of this exer- cise is to create an ever larger pool of cheap labor, and to use this as a means to force concessions from the trade unions and unemployed workers. The new Conservative government flouts the mandate given it by the people of Canada, and instead honours the mandate of the corporations which was the price-tag for its massive financial backing in the elections. The fact is that the deficit is being used as a cover to attack social security mea- sures and transfer that income to the cor- porations. Messrs. Mulroney and Wilson say they are going to be fair. Fair to whom? . They are proposing to take from the un- employed, the pensioners, the children. They have already raised prices on gaoline and increased the sales tax, both of which hit the working people, not the corporations and the wealthy. According to press stories corpora- tions will receive $18 billion in subsidies from the Government this year. The $18 billion subsidy to the corporations in- clude. $7.4 billion in direct grants and subsidies and about $11 billion in savings to the corporations through special tax concessions. If the Government is really serious about ways to cut spending this is the place to start. It would cut the deficit in half. And if to this the present arms project were halved, another $5 billion or more could go towards cutting the deficit or in the creation of jobs for the young people of Canada. The Government mini budget suggested there will be a cut in arms ex- penditures. This is a misleading state- ment. The so-called cut is merely an ex- pression of a decline in the rate of in- flation. The Government, unless stop- ped, will double arms expenditures from 3 to 6 per cent annually above the rate of inflation. All of this while saying it in- tends to cut the deficit. NEP and FIRA are being scuttled. This means the Government is taking the road of Americanization not Canadiani- zation. The savage cuts in funding for the CBC, the National Arts Council and other Canadian cultural institutions is a further blow for Americanization of our cultural life. The Government has likewise taken the road of deregulation and privatiza- tion. To hand over significant, even vital parts of the economy to the corporations and to U.S. multinationals is not the road to Canada’s independence and sovereignty. Some people call what Prime Minister Mulroney is doing, smart politics. We say it is conning the public. He made promises to the people he did not intend to keep. This is being dishonest. Being dishonest does not only mean Stealing; it includes failing to do what had been promised the people during an election campaign. We need new rules. Legisla- tion permitting the recall of MP’s would be an important first step here. Instead of scuttling NEP and FIRA the Communist Party of Canada proposes that the present mini-budget be scuttled and replaced by an economic policy of all Canada development. This would not only create jobs, ‘it would also help to overcome the sharp regional conflicts that afflict the country. Some conclusions can be drawn from the mini-budget. One, is that if the Canadian people want a policy of jobs and full employ- ment they will have to fight for it. They won’t get it from the present Tory major- ity in Parliament. Two, is that if they want to maintain universality in social programs they will have to fight for it outside of Parliament. They won’t get that either from the pre- sent Tory majority in Parliament. The overwhelming Tory majority in Parliament needs to be matched by a People’s Majority outside of Parliament. The Communist Party of Canada proposes the establishment of a Peoples Coalition to defend universality and jobs embracing the pensioners, the unem- ployed, and youth and the trade union movement directed to compel the Gov- ernment to withdraw its mini budget and advance instead a massive program of all Canadian development. This is what Canadians in their majority voted for. In the area of foreign policy we urge the Government to stop giving the USA “‘the benefit of the doubt’’ regarding its aggression against Nicaragua. It should demand of the Reagan Administration to take a hands off position with respect to that country and its sovereignty. It should come out in support of the Con- tadora agreement as originally com- posed, an agreement which the Nicara- guan Government has endorsed, and not TRIBUNE PHOTO —JAMES LEECH Communist Party leader William Kashtan boards an early morning bus in Toronto Nov. 15. The party staged a demonstration on Parliament Hill against the mini budget. least, it should send an Ambassador to Nicaragua. Such measures would de- monstrate before the peoples of Central America, of Latin America that Cana- da’s voice is not the voice of the USA but that in Canada they have a friend, a _ friend of peace, not an exploiter and op- pressor. This can be further de- monstrated by the Canadian Govern- ment’s refusal of the Reagan Administra- tion’s demands for testing in Canada of six new U.S. weapons and by cancella- tion of U.S. Cruise missile testing in Canada. We said on September 5th, the day following the elections, that Tory times are hard for the people and good times for the corporations. The mini budget bears this out. Canadians face a difficult situation. Only their unity around sound alternatives can take Canada out of the crisis and put it back to work. Agreement. where else in the economy’’. Stop the tests, create jobs TORONTO — The Canadian Peace Congress has suggested to the Mulroney Tory government in Ottawa that it annul the Canada-U.S. weapons testing agreement as a step toward diverting war expenditures to creating jobs. The Reagan Government has made six new requests under the umbrella weapons-testing pact with Canada, known as the CANUS and Evaluation “Ifthe new government under Mulroney wants to receive support from the broad and growing peace movement it will need to do more than speak fine words of concern for world peace,’ a congress spokesperson said. ‘‘Mr. Mulroney will need to show through deeds that Canada will not partici- pate in the spiralling arms race which will cripple a recovery in our economy. The statement said that ‘‘With jobs the number one priority for the new prime minister he should realize that monies spent for military equipment will create fewer jobs than monies spent on health, education, social programs or any- The Canadian Peace Congress called on the new government ‘‘to annul the Canada-U.S. Weapons Testing Agreement, make Canada a nuclear weapons-free zone, support a nuclear freeze, call for a no first-strike pledge, non-militarization of space and for the banning of chemical weapons’’. Socreds lose two B.C. votes VANCOUVER — In two provincial by-elections, the New Democrats held one seat and gained another from the Socreds. The government now has 34 seats in the legislature while the NDP holds 23. The Vancouver East seat became vacant with the resignation of former NDP leader David Barett after his party’s 1983 election loss. Okanagan North had been a Socred seat for more than 30 years, but was taken narrowly by a 35-year-old high school science teacher, Lyle MacWilliam. The by-elections were the first voter response to the Socred government since the introduction of Premier Bennett’s right-wing legislative program. « PACIFIC TRIBUNE, NOVEMBER 21, 1 98405