EDITORIAL = Support B.C. strikers! British Columbia’s workers, it is recog- nized across Canada, are in the front lines for all of us. It is trade union rights, it is seniority, it is job security that is at stake, but it is vastly more. The cutbacks by the Bennett Socred regime go to the bone. They attack the elderly, they deny the sick, they suppress education, they under- mine buying power and living standards, and they claim everything of worth for the corporate elite. Bennett thought he could destroy the most vigorous and organized voice for democratic rights, the trade unions, and — thereby subdue the whole province. He began where he thought he had clout, with the public sector. The public sector workers’ taking on of Bennett means that they are fighting the battle for workers and all those millions who are not part of that corporate elite so dear to Bennett. Backing the strikers is the entire B.C. Federation of Labor, as well as the Canadian Labor Congress, which has launched a financial appeal through its two million members for massive support to the B.C. strikers. All-out support for them is the order of the day from all sectors of the people. By defeating Bennett’s draconian legislation, -they will deal a blow to reactionary governments elsewhere in Canada who have in mind similar assaults on the people. Tories okay ‘initiative’ The Reagan administration desperately needs supporters in the Western world for its diabolical attack on Grenada. As matters stand, U.S. credibility in the whole dirty operation is sagging. In Canada, support is from various right-wing quarters and,, from the Con- servative Party and its leader, Brian Mulroney. Not that Mulroney says any- thing in a straightforward way, except to froth at the Soviet Union. _ While the Tories don’t want their policies to be too clear before an election, they have been all around the Grenada question in the House of Commons. _ The tack taken has been to badger the government for endorsation of Reagan’s act of aggression, or to oppose it. In all decency the government should do the lat- ter. Meanwhile, the prime minister has re- sponded more directly than most Cana- dians can glean from the media. “In the case of Canada I know we had permission from Grenada to evacuate our nationals”, he explained. “I do not know if, for some reason or another, the Americans did not have that permission from Grenada. . . If they had the authority to do that, I cannot see any reason for invading _ to protect their nationals . .. when you can protect them by getting them out.” Trudeau referred to. Reagan’s ‘ploy about maintaining the democratic system: “... what would happen if the United States gave itself authority to invade any country where the democratic system (on the U.S. model — editor) did not exist?” Liberal MP Warren Allmand went further, without censure from his party, and said: “If the United States is sincerely interested in restoring democracy in Latin America, will it now invade Chile? The United States action in Grenada must be condemned .. . not only because it is a vio- lation of international law but also because it allows for the setclement of disputes by force rather than by peaceful means.” But, in the view Of the leader of the Op- sition, Canada’s position “...asa NATO ally and asa NORAD partner of the United States . . . occasionally requires us to resolve doubt in favor of our greatest friend, neighbor, and ally, the United States of America.” So, with one-way “mutual” trust a Tory government would condemn Canada to rubber stamping every act of Pentagon blood-letting. With casualties rising on both sides, with Cuban workers assisting Grenada slaughtered along with Grenadians, with a vicious attempt to set up a regime obedient to Washington, and eliminate the right to self-determination, Mulroney can only refer to it as an “initiative”. The jets screeching over St. George’s, spewing death, are a mere “initiative”. “Does the government,” he asked in Commons, Oct. 25, “support the initiative that has been taken?” He might ask the Canadian people as well, if he cared about their opinion. Do they accept Reagan’s right to send killers to any country he disagrees with — including Canada? It will be useful to remember Mulroney’s true colors when elections roll around. One more U.S. atrocity. One of the more bestial atrocities of the Reaganites invading Grenada was the at- tack by U.S. naval planes on a mental hospi- tal, killing 47 or 14 patients and/or staff depending upon whether you believe the staff or U.S. propaganda. The slaughter was “accidental” says the U.S. Pentagon. Was it accidental that a U.S. aircraft car- rier and other ships, dispatched planes and Marines to attack Grenada? Was it acciden- tal that some 5,600 U.S. military personnel went ashore and burned, killed and de- stroyed what was a sovereign people and a sovereign state? Was it accidental that U.S. imperialism sought to destroy the economy of Grenada — as one example, to destabil- PACIFIC TRIBUNE—NOVEMBER 9, 1983—Page 4 ize the tourist industry’s potential salva- tion, the new airport? Was it accidental that U.S. propaganda tried to whip up a frenzy of hysteria about Grenada having arms and ammunition? Canada has arms and am- munition; will we be. attacked if our government fails to please the USA? And, obviously, Grenada had good reason to be armed; the USA plotted its invasion over a long period. Was it accidental thatthe USA and its puppets were doing this hundreds of miles from the USA? It was all about as accidental as U.S. imperialism’s atom- bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, or its massive criminality in Vietnam. That’s how accidental was U.S. imperial- ism’s murder of patients in a hospital in Grenada. vital interests’ is?” (3 Ree Bee oe : “Now do you understand how heavy the burden of the ‘sphere of our Drawing by Vsevolod ARSENYEV ) Flashbacks 25 years PLENTY OF WARNINGS If Dosco officials ‘had fol- lowed the advice of Spring- hill’s mayor, 93 miners might still be alive today. “Fhe deeper they went the more bumps they had,” says Mayor Ralph Gilroy. He asked the company officials to reopen No. 3 and No. 4 shafts but he had been told by Dosco”® that it would cost $400,000 to reopen the sealed No. 4 and would take five years to get No. 5 into operation. Com- pany and government of- ficials are getting badly cros- sed up in their efforts to explain away the Springhill disaster. Bumps were re- ported up to two hours be- fore the rock face caved in crushing the miners. Tribune, ’ November 3, 1958 Loblaw Companies Ltd., Toronto, had an after-tax operating profit of $35,178,000 for the 40 weeks ended Oct. 8, compared 1 $31,167,000 for the same period a year earlier. This year an ext!® _— ordinary tax reduction brought total profit to $40,964,000. a Stratford furniture worker summarized the situation 1 | 50 years STRATFORD WORKERS WIN “A glorious strike and 4 fine finish” that is how 4 the Brooks Plant, central headquarters of the Strat ford strikers. The head quarters no longer bore thé busy, seething aspect of thé last weeks. Of six plants 0? | strike three went into work Nov. 6, but some pickets are still outside to back the shop - committee in its fight fot wage increases. Increases $0 | far have been for 10 to 47 per cent, with recognition of shop committees and thé right of workers to join thé union of their choice. The Worket November 4, 1933 Editor — SEAN GRIFFIN Assistant Editor — DAN KEETON Business and Circulation Manager — PAT O'CONNOR Published weekly at Suite 101 Vancouver, B.C. V5L 3X9. Phone 251-1186 Subscription Rate: Canada $14 one year; $8 for six months. Second class mail registration number 1560 — 1416 Commercial Drive. | ¥