CAMAD A — Canadian academics want ban on exchange with USSR lifted Special to the Tribune ~ Growing opposition to the Liberal government’s con- ‘tinued suspension of the Canada-Soviet academic ex- change program surfaced at an important public session of the Canadian Association of Slavists held recently at Halifax as part of the annual Canadian Leamed Societies meetings. The long-standing Canada-USSR Exchange Program covering various scientific and cultural fields was first suspended unilaterally by the Conservative government of Joe Clark. The Association of Slavists sponsored a round table session entitled ‘“‘Academic Exchanges Between Canada and the USSR’’. Some indication of the importance of this well- attended meeting can be seen in the fact that the Director of the Eastern European Division of the Bureau of Euro- pean Affairs in the Department of External Affairs, A.P. McLaine, was a panelist. McLaine mentioned that on his own initiative he had replaced from the panel one of his subordinates, a P. Chapin, who had been originally slated to attend. The External Affairs representative ‘took the oppor- tunity of speaking to the assembled group of academics to ‘‘explain’’ the suspension of the exchange program. McLaine followed the U.S. Government-inspired “‘get tough” line against the Soviet Union in claiming that ‘‘imbalances”’ had existed in Canadian-Soviet relations in favor of the USSR. Canada, he suggested, should rid itself of the ‘nice guy’’ image. In his effort to gain anti-Soviet sympathy from the audience he went far - afield, at one point going on at length about how Canada had the worst embassy building in Moscow and was frustrated by the Soviet authorities in getting something better. He emphasized that there must be a substantive gain. to Canada in every agreement : : —_ _—-gave the recent huge Wheat sale as -an example. How- ever, he offered no discussion of the benefits of academic exchanges, although he conceded that the Canadian Association of Slavists had taken a firm position that the early resumption of the exchange agreement was essen- tial to their scholarly work. U.S.-USSR Programs Continue housie University, who acted as chairman for the ses- sion, took a definite position in favor of resumption of the Canada-Soviet exchange program. He declared that the Canadian Government had ‘‘out-Yanked the Yanks’’, pointing to the fact that in the U.S. the privately admin- istered IREX program of academic exchanges had re- fused Carter’s request to suspend for political reasons their exchange program, a program they viewed as beneficial to U.S. scholars. A high point in the meeting came when Lee Lorch, a senior professor in the Departmént of Mathematics at York University and a former participant in the ex- change pregram, rose to attack the-government’s boy- cott. Prof. Lorch, who is also an elected member of the ~ American Mathematical Society, pointed out that not’ only IREX but also the U.S. Government itself has not suspended their U.S.-Soviet exchange programs. Canadians Cut Off Lorch stated that the Canadian government’s ap- proach would hurt Canadian science. Not only would Canadian scientists and scholars be cut off from one of the two most important scientific establishments in the: world, Canadian science would as a result become in- creasingly dependent on the U.S. scientific establish- ment and less able to chart its own course. ’ Lorch also challenged McLaine’s claim that the Cana- da-Soviet exchange program had an ‘‘imbalance’’ in favor of the Soviet Union. Lorch documented how in his field, mathematics, in which the Soviet Union is out- standing, Canada has benefitted concretely. He named world-famous Soviet mathematicians who had visited Canada and he pointed to the vast extension of scientific contact that had resulted. Such exchange activity had been so successful-and-sot agreement with the Mathematical Research Institute of the Soviet Academy of Sciences. Lorch called emphatically for a full and immediate restoration of the Canada-Soviet exchange program. His" closing demand that the government “get off our backs and let us get on with our work”’ was greeted with a burst i tant for | Canada thatit —}- “had led Queen’s University to institute its own exchange CNR forced to rehire fired Native workers Special to the Tribune DAUPHIN — Indian and Métis people in central and western Manitoba banded together last week to force the Canadian National Railways to rehire 28 workers fired last month for protesting against racial discrimination. The climax of the hectic week came when about 40 Native people interrupted negotiations at Clear Lake between the Manitoba Métis Federation and the Four, Nations Confederation, on the one hand, and the CNR. They occupied the room and said neither they nor the _railway negotiators were leaving until the workers had guarantees they could return to their jobs. CNR vice-president Ralph Hansen capitulated © quickly agreeing that the 28 would be called back to work. The workers also won a concession on complaints about working conditions for seasonal CNR employees as Hansen promised there would be federal labor de- partment inspections of railway constructions sites. But Hansen refused one of the group’s major de- | mands, suspension of a foreman said to have hurled racial insults at the workers. He also hedged on back pay for the time lost since the June 12 protest saying that a decision on both issues would have to await the outcome of a federal human rights investigation. The appearance of the 40 protestors at the Clear Lake meeting let Hansen know what the union and the Métis felt about his tactics. Most of last week’s protests took place at Dauphin, but Hansen refused to meet with the Native people there, demanding instead a ‘“‘neutral”’ spot for the talks. Leading up to Hansen’s agreement to open negotia- tions with the Native people, a total of 23 people were arrested in three separate incidents. On June 22, two were taken away by the RCMP.as they began to disman- tle the rails outside the Dauphin train station at the end of ~a-three hour sit-in on the tracks. _ more were arrested the next day, “for again starting to pry spikes.and rails loose, the 18 women who took up places on the tracks and refused to move, were also arrested. All the arrested face charges of trespass or interfering with railway property. On June 23, the RCMP were again called in by the CNR to carry off 100 people from the rail lines in Cor- paosaut 185 miles north of Dauphin, but no charges were guiltion i ee a bret, N. Pereira of the History Department at Dal- from the floor. of applause, the only applause accorded any speaker \. By KIMBAL CARIOU Big Oil_and Peter Lougheed’s Tory government come under heavy fire in a leafiet just published by the Communist Party in Alberta. Produced for wide distribution across the province, the lea- fiet also gives a critical analysis of the last federal budget and the National Energy- ‘Program (NEP). ‘First and foremost, the budget is an attack on working people’’, it says, pointing to massive increases in energy costs, leading to huge price rises for everything from gasoline and heating fuel to manufactured products. The budget and other statemerts from federal Liber- als indicate that workers won't be al- lowed to catch up to rising inflation. But the loudest protests against the NEP have come from the oil industry and the Alberta Tories, and their spawn, the “‘western separatists’’. The Com- munist leaflet shows, however, that “‘the oilmen won't be reduced to poverty”’. Under the NEP, $22-billion will go to the ‘industry in various incentives by 1983. (This is on top of provincial give-aways; it was recently revealed that the oil monopolies have received nearly $4-bil- lion in tax write-offs and other incentives over the past four years). Conventional oil prices are to rise to $65/bbl by 1990, including a ‘‘netback’’ (pre-tax surplus) to companies of $24.58/bbl, Natural gas prices will follow a similar pattern. A chart in the publication shows that gs top twelve oil monopolies in Canada (nine of which are foreign- owned) rose from $1.96-billion in 1979 to $2.77-billion in 1980. The industry’s ef- PACIFIC TRIBUNE—JULY 24, 1981—Page 6 fect on the economy is strongest in Al- berta: another chart shows that the share of the gross provincial income here going to working people (in the form of wages, salaries and other labor income) has dropped from 48% in 1971, when .Lougheed was elected, to 37% in 1979. The corporate share, mainly from the aaa industry, has risen from 21% to (a) The ‘‘Canadianization’”’ program of the Liberals is a major point of conten- tion with the oil monopolies and their backers in Washington, who view it as “‘unfair’’. Yet the program ‘‘has holes in it large enough to float a drill ship through”’ says the leaflet, pointing to the deal which allowed Dome Petroleum to set up a paper ‘‘75% Canadian’’ sub- sidiary to qualify for full tax breaks. An- other example is PetroCanada’s $1.4-bil- lion purchase of Petrofina, giving that Belgian-controlled company’s share- 1979 Company Profits (mills. $) imperial Oil 471 Gulf 274 Shell 259 Texaco 264 Nova 116 Total Petroleum 35 BP 63 ~ Suncor ‘ 170 Dome Petroleum 182 PetroCanada 126 Amoco 141 Mobil 137 Petrofina 62 holders a book profit of $600-million. This and future take-overs are to be paid for directly by the working people through gasoline price increases. The leaflet concludes that the Liberals are using ‘“‘Canadianization’”’ to ‘‘open the door to centrally-based industry to invest in oil and at the same time to pre- serve the profitability of the oil giants.’’ The oil industry has accumulated even - more super-profits than other sectors of big business in recent years. For ex- ample, a Financial Post survey last November showed a 40% profit increase for oil and gas producers during the first nine months of 1980, contrasting sharply with a decline of 15% in profit levels of other companies. Seen in this light, the NEP is a tool to re-divide the wealth of Canada, giving the eastern monopolies a bigger share of the pie, and maintaining their dominance over local ‘‘Western’’ capital. % Foreign 1980 Profits % increase Ownership (mills. $) 601 28% 71% 380 39% 60% 355 37% 71% 373 41% . 91% 144 24% _— — 56 60% 51% 104 65% 65% -287 58% _ 164 30% _ 135 4% 100% 170 24% 100% 99 60% 72% SON i es tp Se SR eae ian Retype Bk Pg Ay co eae te - Big oil's role exposed i in Alberta At ‘the same time, the leaflet urges Canadians to take advantage of the pos- sibilitiés opened up by the shift in Liberal policy. “‘United political pressure by the unions, the farm movement, and other ‘democratic forces could push the ‘‘Canadianization’’ process further, to- ward complete nationalization of energy resources, to ensure their use to benefit all Canadians, not just a corporate elite. This would be a tremendous step away from the pro-US. sellout policies of the post-war period, towards economic poli- cies made in Canada for the benefit of Canadians.”’ Premier Lougheed has cut back oil production by 15%, and so far has re- fused to authorize new oil sands plants. The leaflet calls these moves an expen- sive form of blackmail, a method of push- ing for higher oil prices which all of us would pay for. Tory propaganda in Al- berta is geared to make working people . accept the idea that ‘‘world prices’’ for ‘our oil’’ would benefit all Albertans. In fact, as the recent round of energy price increases has already shown, ‘‘world prices’’ would simply mean even higher inflation, and sky-high profits for Big Oil. ‘“‘The freezing of energy prices would _ result in a considerable saving now for working people and could be a significant factor in developing industry and Jobst in Canada’, the leaflet states. As the energy pricing talks between Ottawa and Alberta seem to move to- wards a compromise, the Communist Party in Alberta intends to use its leaflet to build the growing anti- Tory sentiment in the province.