EDITORIAL

Freeze arms, create jobs

Millions of people the world over, like
Canadians, are marching in mass demonst-
rations for nuclear disarmament, for an
end to the threat of nuclear war.

The labor movement, in all the countries
of widespread unemployment, is fighting
back against economic strangulation, for
jobs, in defence of people’s living stan-
dards.

No wonder these streams come together
against the same enemies, No wonder they
embrace as well the many struggling in de-
fence of human rights. Their objectives are
irrevocably intertwined.

Scientific estimates of the radioactive
ruin that would be wrought by nuclear war,
annihilating the human race, are well
known. The threat preys on the minds of
even the children. People everywhere are
saying no to nuclear war.

Whatis logical and human and needed at
once is a freeze on nuclear production and
deployment — an atmosphere for serious
negotiations. While there remains parity
between East and West there can be hope
of mutual agreements.

But so-called “deterrence” at ever-
higher aggregates of destructiveness offers
little hope. On the one hand is the increas-
ing danger that U.S. first-strike strategy or
one of the many other scenarios for trig-
gering a war will indeed set the missiles of
doom flying.”

On the other hand is the purchase of
“deterrence” at the cost of life’s necessities
— jobs, homes, health care, education and
science (for progress, not annihilation).

It is now widely acknowledged that dis-
armament, far from being a threat to jobs,
is a virtual pre-condition for recovery. The
inflationary effects of military expen-
ditures inhibit developmental capital in-
vestment. And capital invested in the civi-
lian sector provides more jobs, more buy-

ing power, than the same amount sunk in
war industry.

The figures are not new, but still impres-
sive. A $1-billion investment in the milit-
ary, (in U.S. terms) would produce as few
as 14,000 jobs in the defence industry, or as
many as 65,000 in retail trade, reports the
Labor Research Association of New York.
In other sectors $1-billion would generate
these jobs: education — 62,000, hospitals
— 48,000, apparel manufacturing —
28,000, fabricated metals — 16,000. In
other terms, 1,000 teachers’ salaries for a
year equal one F-16 fighter; $4-billion for
higher education equals two B-1 bombers.
And the monstrous squandering of the re-
sources and energy of our planet on war
material is fatal.

The arithmetic of the U.S. military-
industrial complex to which Canada is
shackled is relentless. As the jobless in-
crease, the rich corporations get richer. In
1980, the 10 biggest war-goods contractors
for the Pentagon, got one-third of all milit-
ary contracts, led by General Dynamics (5.5
per cent of all contracts), McDonnell Doug-
las (5.1 percent), United Technologies (4.0
per cent), General Electric (3.2 per cent)
and Lockheed (2.8 per cent).

Besides that, in the USA as here, there
are favored regions in the employment
scramble. Sixty per cent of Pentagon con-
tracts went to 10 states, led by California,
New York, Texas and Connecticut. So
much for the benefits of feeding the milit-
ary gluttons.

_The slogans for Canadians are clear: Re-
fuse the Cruise! — Declare Canada a nu-
clear weapons-free zone! — Halt the
deployment of Cruise and Pershing II mis-
siles in Europe!

From the amalgamated forces of peace
and labor let there be a resounding de-
mand for a nuclear freeze and negotiations
oriented on a disarmament agreement.

Stop deployment, negotiate!

Deployment of new U.S. nuclear missiles
in western Europe, if it is allowed to hap-

pen, may be the final reckless military pro-—

vocation on the road to nuclear oblitera-
tion.

The deployment of the Cruise and
Pershing II in west European countries in

Rude intrusion

U.S. Ambassador Paul Robinson is once
more instructing Canada on how to run its
affairs. He doesn’t want Gander, Nfid.,
used as a refuelling stop for Soviet planes
bound for Cuba. He considers that they’re
carrying “spare parts and other equipment
that can be used in a military sense,” and
says pointedly: “We don’t like that.”

His evidence? Well, what loudmouth of
the Reagan ruling circles needs evidence?
He’s just telling it to us, that’s all.

Legal, international agreements entered
into by the Canadian Government come
second to the rude interference from this
contemptible intruder. Not even consi-
dered, of course, is the fact that Canada
signs such agreements for Canada’s own
benefit. What does Robinson care about
the incomes and jobs for Newfoundlanders
where the unemployment rate is 20%?

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—OCTOBER 26, 1983—Page 4

December, as planned, would - be tan-

‘tamount to blasting the Geneva talks aimed

at limiting European-based medium range
missiles. What is needed is a prolongation
of those talks.

However, the Soviet Union has made it
clear that it will not sit and discuss limita-

_ tion or reduction while the USA is putting a

six-minute fuse on missiles. targeted on
Soviet cities and defence installations.

Deployment is guaranteed to trigger a

Soviet program to match the U.S. threat
with both forward-based missiles in eastern
Europe and missiles with a 10-minute de-
livery time to the USA itself.

Prime Minister Trudeau warned of the
danger of confrontation. He should be
pressed to join Greece’s Papandreou, Swe-
den’s Palme and social democratic spokes-
men in West Germany and call for no
deployment — no tipping of the scales to-

ward. war. As Britain’s Winston Churchill .

once observed: “Better jaw, jaw, jaw than
war, war, war.”

Our own government, and contending
political parties, must now get the message
to renounce support for deployment of the
Cruise and Pershing II, and to call, without
asking for Washington’s approval, for
productive negotiations to rid humankind
of the nuclear war threat.

NO TO NUCLEAR ARMS

Flashbacks

25 years 50 years |

ECONOMIC
COMPETITION

A call for increased “give
and take” relations and
peaceful competition be-
tween Canada and the Soviet
Union was made last week by
a spokesman for 32 top busi-
ness executives who visited
the USSR earlier this year.

The coexistence appeal was
made by Walter McLaughlan,
one of A.V. Roe’s  vice-
presidents, to a capacity audi-
ence in Toronto who turned

out to see the film “Canadian:

Businessmen in the USSR”.

McLaughlan stressed that —

both were northern coun-
tries: “We have many things
in common in developing the
natural resources of our
northern regions,” he said,
and called for economic not
military competition on a give
and take basis.
Tribune,
October 27, 1958

NAZI AGENT
CHASED OUT

Hitler’s supporters in
Canada got a rude shock heré
last week when workers preé-
sent took control of a Toronto
meeting organized by the
“Friends of the New Gerf-
many” and chased the naz
agents from the hall.

This is a decisive defeat for
Mr. Spanknoebel, the chief
nazi organizer who has bee?
sent to America to organiz€ |
the German fascist movement
in Canada and the USA. ;

After the speaker said the
meeting’s purpose was to OF
ganize the Germans in Cana
da, one worker took the floot
to ask about the bloody
repression of workers by Ht
tler. The meeting was then
converted into a demon
stration against fascism.

The Worket
October 28, 1933

The crisis is over; profits are zooming! Northern Telecom Ltd.,
Mississauga, had a nine-month after-tax profit of $159.3-million for
the period ended Sept. 30. Compare that with the same period
year earlier when net take was $88.9-million and see who capital
ism exempts from “restraint”.

Editor — SEAN GRIFFIN
Associate Editor — DAN KEETON
Business and Circulation Manager — PAT O'CONNOR

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