PEACE -. ] | Helen Caldicott believes those who say they haven’t enough time to devote to the peace movement are just spouting “a lot of rhubarb.” It’s the key issue, and there isn’t much time left to this planet for people not to be involved, says the Australian-born physi- cian whose name has become a household world within the peace movement and beyond. in the packed War Memorial Gym at the University of B.C. Monday said even if all efforts to avoid nuclear annihilation fail, at least those who were involved can say, “I tried.” “But I believe we can save it, because I believe in the goodness of the human race,” Caldicott, best known from the National Film Board documentary, If You Love This Planet, asserted. In Vancouver at the invitation of the UBC Students for Peace and Mutual Dis- armament, the doctor who gave up a pres- tigious position on Harvard University’s medical faculty to devote her energies to world peace, talked of everything from the medical effects of a nuclear attack to the frightening ignorance of U.S. President Caldicott, who addressed 3,000 people - Ronald Reagan, at the meeting and during an earlier press conference. Caldicott, who unabashedly approaches disarmament from a basic emotional position — “I would die to save the lives of my children, and. . .if they weren’t going to survive, nothing else would matter” — did not offer perspectives on tactics for the peace movement. Summed up, her credo is simply, “do it.” By “doing it,” Caldicott doesn’t rule out civil disobedience: “I think it’s time people followed their own moral dictates, a la Nuremburg principles: that every person is morally responsible for what.his or her government does.” In that vein, Caldicott did not hold to the view, expressed in some circles within the peace movement recently, that the election of conservative or reactionary governments meant a conservative electo- rate, and hence a need to “tone down” the peace movement's activities. She noted an initiative to run “200 women” in the U.S. congressional elec- tions in 1986, in an effort to control the “purse strings” of the U.S. military. “You know. ..two years left, to save this?’;’ she said, pointing to the snow-capped moun- tains along the Burrard Inlet, “Anything goes — but not violence against people.” Caldicott’s peace efforts have taken her as far as the White House, where she ~ recently met with Reagan. “I was taken to see him by his daughter Patty. She was worried about him. “It was really shocking. Every single statement he made to me was factually very inaccurate. ..He would anecdote on, the way he does, as as if he’d learned his data by rote from the teleprompter. I'd stop him at a certain point and correct every fact. “But he didn’t listen to me. His eyes just sort of glazed over. He had no back- ground knowledge to debate any point with me at all,” she observed. “And then he got a piece of paper out of his pocket. He said, ‘You know, I took some notes before I came down,’ and read to me that people who work for the nuclear weapons freeze are either KGB dupes or Soviet agents. And I said to him ‘But that’s from the Readers” Digest’? — and it was — but he said, ‘No, it’s from my intelligence files.’ ” Told by his daughter that Caldicott was correct “ ‘because I’ve got the 1982 Pen- \ Educate MPs on arms race, Caldicott tells 3,000 tagon document to prove it,’ ” Reagé responded “ ‘That’s a forgery.’ ” “I left the White House clinical shocked,” said Caldicott. Neither Reagan, Defence Secreta! Caspar Weinberger or State Secreta! George Shultz know much about the portfolios. The man who does is unde Secretary of Defence, Richard Perl, sa Caldicott. Called by his Pentagon colleagues, “tl Prince of Darkness,” who “almost singl handedly prevented the ratification | SALT 2,” he is “the nay-sayer of arn control,” she said. “He designed the START and IN talks, which were unilaterally humiliatin to the Russians — he knew the Russiat would walk out, and they did.” There is a power struggle between Pé and the more moderate Shultz, said Cald cott. But despite the power of Perl, “pathological hater of the Russians,” th Canadian cabinet know little about hin she said, urging Canadians to becom acquainted with their MPs and educa’ them on the issues of the arms race. \ — Reagan re-election TORONTO — The huge war budget of the Reagan government, which threatens the world with nuclear annihilation, also bears major responsibility for growing pov- erty and starvation in Latin America and Africa, a world peace leader told the Tribune in an interview Nov. 21. Romesh Chandra, president of the World Peace Council, visiting Canada to partici- pate in the World Dialogue for Peace And Disarmament — Against Nuclear War Nov. 23-25, said that he considers the dia- logue to be taking place in the right place at the right time to help meet these challenges. “I think the reality of today is, much more so than before the re-election of Presi- dent Reagan, that the danger of a nuclear war has become greater,” Chandra said. “The actions of the Reagan administration after re-election have made this very clear. All types of anti-war movements all over the world, and particularly in North America, understand this danger. ~ “But there is the other reality and that is that the anti-war movement — the peace movement — is stronger than ever before; and I think that the re-election of Reagan has led to a far greater consciousness among the people who may not have been asso- ciated with any of the anti-war organiza- tions, that it is necessary to fight Reaganism, to fight the policies of Reaganism, which threaten the whole world with nuclear annihilation,” he said. “At this moment, every slogan, and every demand of the anti-war movement in regard to disarmament, has been over- whelminingly supported in the United Nations. Take the question of a freeze, of a no first strike, of nuclear-free zones, the question of the missiles in Europe: on all these the United Nations in the last general assembly adopted resolutions by an over- whelming majority against the position of the United States. The U.S. voted some- times alone against all the governments of the world, and sometimes with a few of the most aggressive of its NATO partners, and with some fascist regimes in Latin America as a maximum. “But,” said Chandra, “tan overwhelming majority of the non-aligned, and of course the socialist countries, but also realistic countries even in the NATO camp (such as Greece) support disarmament proposals. All this is having a considerable effect on the mass movement itself, but it is the mass ROMESH CHANDRA movement which has pushed the govern- ments to take such a stand.” One example, he said, is the six- government initiative — Greece, Sweden, Indian, Argentina, Tanzania and Mexico — appealing to the five nuclear powers to freeze, and then move forward to negotia- tion. “We believe this has stimulated the heightens war risk initiative on the part of the anti-war move- ments and, in its turn, the support is has had is now going to lead to further initiatives by these six and perhaps by others. ‘And in this context the World Dialogue of Peace and Disarmament — Against Nuclear War — assumes tremendous importance. We have the view in the World Peace Council that it is perhaps most important of the many meetings in which we’ve been privileged to take part,” the world peace leader said. “This is because of the timing; it’s a dan- gerous moment. It’s the moment after the American election. It is a dangerous moment when the threat of the invasion of Nicaragua is on the doorstep, and similarly intervention everywhere. The whole policy of supremacy of the Reagan administration is causing tremendous danger,” he charged. “T may also say that this dialogue is of great importance because we are faced with the economic situation such that — as we see on the television in the Western countries every day — people are dying before our eyes. This is certainly the result of the robbery and the plunder of the developing countries particularly of Africa, and it is essentially because of the need for the tre- 3 Oye * One Union in Wood; a political history of the IWA $12.95 * Labour Confronts the Transnationals $4.95 Books for Christmas Anda wide selection of Labour History, Canadiana, Children’s Books and Soviet Publications. People’s Co-op Bookstore 1391 Commercial Dr., Vancouver, VSL 3X5, 253-6442 Christmas hours: 9:30 a.m. to 9 p.m. Dec. 12-23, closed Sun. Mail orders please add 50¢ postage. * The New Reality; The policies of restraint in B.C. $4.95 * Spotlight on Labour History (illustrated) $4.25 mendous war budget of the U.S. Thes with the debt of the Latin American © tries, which is causing immense povelt “We think that this dialogue meets 4 right moment. And I think also it meé the right place. We are on the borders 9 United States, but we are ina country W the peace forces and the main political ties are committed to the prevention nuclear war. And therefore, whatever | relationship might be, with the Uf States administration, it’s a relation which they do not seek to maintain OF ae of support the measures for a nut ” he said. a UNION © IN WOOD A political history of the INTERNATIONAL WOODWOR KERS of AMERICA Jerry Lembcke & William M. Tattam Meet JERRY LEMBCKE and WILLIAM TATTAW authors of ONE UNION IN WOOD Wed. Dec. 12, 5 to 8 Pp! 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