clit OTIOO TE I

EDITORIAL

Budget ll continues attack

~The new budget brought down in Victoria last week
is a further extension of the right wing Socred offensive
against the people with some new reactionary features
added. Not surprisingly, it has been enthusiastically
welcomed by the Employers Council and big business,
but has been universally condemned by working
people.

It’s a class budget from beginning to end: serving the
rich and powerful while swinging a sharp axe against
the poor, unemployed and working people. It carries on
where the July 7 budget left off and deserves no better
reception that last year’s budget received from the
public.

It does nothing to tackle the serious unemployment
crisis in B.C. where one out of seven workers are jobless.

It doesn’t even mention unemployment as a problem

with which we need to be concerned.

The main thrust of the budget is seen in the following
facts: Five years ago less than 38 cents of every revenue
dollar came from personal income, sales and tobacco
taxes and profits on liquor. The new budget raises this
to more than 49 cents and next year it will be 52 cents.
At the same time, corporations, which contributed
more than eight cents of each revenue dollar last year
will have that cut to 5.5 cents this year.

What that means in simple figures is that this year the
government will take an additional $90 million out of

the pockets of the people through higher taxes on:

liquor, tobacco, fuel and water. In addition, it has
introduced a new surtax — the Health Care Mainte-

nance Tax — which will take an extra $97 million from
the people this year and $166 million next year. This is
supposed to finance extra health spending of $51 mil-
lion. Obviously, on the pretext of meeting rising health
bills the government is Overtaxing the public by about
100 per cent this year.

For decades it has been provincial policy to use
revenues from resources to pay for social services. The
Curtis budget completely changes that by introducing a
measure providing that henceforth resource revenues
will go into a fund to pay off the provincial debt to the
banks and bond holders. The coupon clippers are
henceforth to be given priority over social: services.
That’s the real meaning of this measure.

The point was Tepeatedly made in the budget speech
that the province last year cut spending over income,
thus Proving that restraint works. This is sheer decep-
tion. Last year’s deficit of $1.6 billion was deliberately
overestimated by some $300 million to justify the sharp
attack on living standards and social services. The
Socreds are up to their old tricks, shifting figures around
to paint whatever picture they want to justify their
anti-people actions.

The people of B.C. cannot allow the Socred govern-
ment to get away with this far right budget. Operation
Solidarity and the Solidarity Coalition should take
action to impress upon the Socreds that this budget and
its reactionary measures will be strongly opposed by the
public,

U.S. missiles block talks

It has to be hoped that Western politicians have a
firmer grip on an understanding of Soviet policy, than
have the editors and analysts of the North American
mass media.

It is on the record that during his short term of office
Soviet leader Yuri Andropov made major statements of
policy directed toward negotiations on disarmament,
reduction of the nuclear war threat, and for detente
between East and West. Last fall, in particular, his
efforts were noteworthy.

Soviet foreign policy is consistent in striving for
peace, for disarmament and for detente, based, of
course on equal security for the two sides, and on
retaining a rough parity in nuclear weapons. That par-
ity could be retained as weapons levels were lowered.

The new Soviet leader Konstantin Chernenko pointed

out the consistency of Soviet policy.
Western mass media, however, took the occasion of
Andropov’s death, and Chernenko’s election as Com-

munist Party leader, to try to disguise the fact that it was

U.S. deployment of Pershing II and Cruise missiles in
western Europe which shattered the previous rough
parity and made negotiations a farce.

It was difficult to say which media machine put it
most crudely. The Toronto Star editorialized that the
new situation in the Soviet Union “creates new oppor-

tunities to correct some badly skewed East-West rela-

‘tions. With new bosses in the Kremlin, both sides can

try again while there’s still time.”

Both sides? But it was the U.S. nuclear medium-
range missiles in western Europe which shattered the
previous parity. The Soviet Union has frequently said
that this is what blocks the way to talks on reducing
these arms.

The Globe and Mail, speculating in the same way
notes that Chernenko has visited such Western capitals
as Vienna and Copenhagen and, while this does not
“guarantee that he will be a dedicated detente
man. . .the West is entitled to hope that he can guide the
Soviet Union back to Geneva.”

Pronouncements of Soviet policy seem to have gone
right by these editors, and they echo the “hopes” of
spokesmen of the Reagan regime for “greater under-
standing and constructive co-operation.”

The Soviet policy of disarmament and detente has
not changed. Rather the U.S. wrecking of nuclear arms
parity dashed hopes of immediate progress in the Gen-
eva talks.

Getting the U.S. Pershings and Cruises out of Europe
is the way to getting back to negotiations, no matter
how the mass media try to sell us their own
fictionalization. — ;

EMPLOYERS
COUNSELLING

PROGRAM

Loblaw Companies Ltd., owner of Loblaws the grocery peor,
National Grocers, Zehrmart, etc., had an after-tax profit (onan
year ended Dec. 31/83 of $52,047,000, before adding ona one-tim
gain of $700,000. The 1982 profit was $44,988,000 before
reduced by a $5-million extraordinary loss.

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ss

hose who follow the twists and turns in
logic of the daily media’s right-wing
pundits will notice that the late Soviet pres-
ident, Yuri Andropov, is painted after his
death, as he was during his life, as the

Soviet weapons were affected = missiles,

People and Issues
RE TET EEE

draws the right conclusion when it com-

—_——.

Friendship Association, so his passing — if
the absence of any signs of illness —
came as a surprise. The cause of death is SO |
far unknown.

former KGB leader whose tenure was
allegedly marked by militarism.
A recent article in In These Times, how-
ever, puts to rest that contrived myth. :
The Chicago-based news magazine
cites no less a source than the Central
Intelligence Agency, whose latest report
on Soviet Economic Trends and Policy
Development states, “the little ‘evidence
that is available indicates Andropov has
not accelerated Soviet military spending.
“For example (the report continues) the
levelling off of weapons procurement in
recent years has been accompanied by an
increase in the share of machinery allotted
to civilian use. That trend...appears to
have continued both in 1982 and 1983.”
Military spending by the USSR
decreased considerably after 1976, the
CIA reports, averaging about two per cent
per year, largely because “procurement of
military hardware — the largest category
of defence spending — was almost flat in
1976-81...practically all categories of

aircraft and ships.”

In contrast, U.S. military spending
averaged 2.95 per cent yearly in the same
period, with spending on weapons increas-
ing by eight per cent annually, states the
agency. ;

Certainly Reagan’s record makes Car-
ter’s administration look as if it was stand-
ing still, when it comes to arms
expenditures. In These Times notes that the
Reagan years have seen spending on mil-
itary procurement increase by 16.75 per
cent annually, with an overall yearly hike
in the military budget of 7.8 per cent.

The CIA report concludes that Andro-
pov considered a strong economy “‘a pre-
condition of military power — suggesting
that defence could no longer on retaining
unquestionable priority in the distribution
of resources.”

However much military spending may
or may not have enjoyed “unquestionable
priority” before Andropov’s time is
debatable. But we think In These Times

pares Reagan’s strident anti-Soviet rhe-
toric to “the alleged missile gap that John
Kennedy introduced during his 1960 cam-
paign. It (the alleged weakening of U.S.
military power) was a fiction designed to
discredit Reagan’s Democratic opposition
and to justify still greater increases in mil-
itary spending.” :
ee ee I oe

is friends in the Cuban support and
peace movements are still getting
over their shock and sadness at the sudden
death last week of Alex Storm, who was
found dead in his West End Vancouver
apartment Feb. 15. ,
Alex, long a familiar figure around the
People’s Co-op Bookstore where until
recently he performed post-retirement
duties as a mailer, was 76 at his death. But,
although slowed down somehwat in his
declining years, Alex still appeared at
many progressive functions and was an
active member of the Canadian-Cuban

Although an outgoing man with an
engaging sense of humor, many details of |
his life remained unknown to-his many
friends and co-workers. It is known he was” :
born in Scotland and emigrated to Can-
ada at an early age. He saw service in the
Canadian Army in North Africa where he
contracted malaria, an affliction that
returned periodically.

Among the interesting facts that have
emerged about Alex was his association —
with the noted Canadian author, Pierre
Berton. Friends a few year ago were aston-
ished to see Alex as a guest on a televised
special in which the author recalled his
days working on the gold fields of the
Yukon with Alex.

In more recent years Alex performed a.
valuable service on behalf of Cuba, proc-
uring for that country several Canadian ©
and American medical journals, which he
mailed to Havana from the. Co-op”
Bookstore.

4 e PACIFIC TRIBUNE, FEBRUARY 29, 1984