J ‘Parallel’ meet united on sanctions demand pe SOI While the leaders of the Commonwealth Nations were preparing to face a Britain intransigent over demands it end trade with South Africa, leaders of the anti-apartheid Struggle were finding new unity in their call for complete and total sanctions against the Tacist regime in the white-ruled nation. Representatives of dozens of non- 80vernmental, international aid agencies, anti-apartheid organizations, trade unions and community groups emerged from 2"2 days of a “parallel Commonwealth confer- €nce on Southern Africa” in Vancouver to Call for the complete economic, cultural and Political isolation of South Africa. The conference, called to “complement” the week-long Conference of Common- Wealth heads of state in Vancouver this Week, struck a series of resolutions to be Communicated directly to Prime Minister tian Mulroney, who as head of the host Country is chairing the conference. Grouping as it did representatives from 8foups as diverse as the African National Ongress and several NGOs, the parallel Conference could have concluded with no nding resolutions or direction for future, ‘rucial, anti-apartheid actions. While’ reporters were barred from the Workshops and plenary sessions, it was “nhown that some delegates favoured play- Ing down calls for stronger actions on the Part of Canada and the Commonwealth 8gainst Pretoria. In an echo of the recent ift by the Mulroney Conservative gov- see FULL page 3 & NS Scenes like this outside the main Vancouver post office Friday we 40° q re repeated across the country as members of the Canadian Union of Postal Workers launched a country-wide strike in response to the federal government's introduction of back-to-work legislation Oct. 8. But injunctions in both Vancouver and Toronto over the weekend imposed new limits on union picketing. (Story page 12.) October 14, 1987 Vol. 50, No. 38 k-to-work bill n-busting in Eee» TRIBUNE PHOTO — DAN KEETON Peter Cazalet See Peers ( seRgtes gest share sale yet. BP CHAIRMAN ... launching the big- n just one day from now — Oct.15 — financial institutions across Britain will open their doors on what has been dubbed “Impact Day” — the launch of the big- gest ever sale of shares in a publicly-owned company by the government which has made privatization a byword of conserva- tism around the world. On that day, the Thatcher government will begin the sale of a £7.5 billion ($16.2 billion Cdn.) controlling interest of British Petroleum, the nationally-owned British oil company which has pumped millions into government coffers through the Sea oil boom. ' be like the more than 20 companies that have been put on the auction block by the Thatcher government, it will be sold to the private sector, the shares going at a i rice. Prnall of those government sell-offs, the Tories’ rhetoric has. flowed as freely as North Sea oil: privatization is taking enterprise out of the inefficient grip of the public sector and putting it into private hands where the market can operate unfet- tered; the taxpayers are shedding compan- ies which were a drain on the public purse; and the people of Britain are getting an opportunity to own a piece of Britain. The government, Thatcher has pro- claimed repeatedly, “‘is creating popular capitalism.” When the Social Credit government in this province launches its privatization program — expected when the legislature opens next month — British Columbians will undoubtedly hear much the same from Premier Bill Vander Zalm and members of cabinet. And Britain’s “suc- cess story” will be presented as the model. The picture is painted everywhere of a transformed British economy, buoyed up by the share investments of thousands of ordinary Britons who are benefiting through their shares from the economic boom they have helped to create. An article in the Vancouver Sun on the Social Credit government’s impending privatization program Sept. 4 reported that the effect of “popular capitalism on the British economy has been dramatic. “Income tax is at its lowest point in half a century. The country’s inflation rate is the lowest in 20 years. The strike level in this nation of shareholders is at a 40-year low.” For anyone watching the financial pages, it is a familiar picture. It is also a grossly distorted one. If income tax rates are lower and infla- tion has been held in check, it is also true that the Thatcher government has pre- sided over the second highest rate of job losses in all of Europe — and a steady increase in unemployment, from five per cent in 1979 to 11.2 per cent — and has created income inequities unprecedented since the 1930s. see PRIVATIZATION page 6 .