7 20° VOL. 39, No. 40 PACIFIC SUNE Big business backed Lyon In Man. vote In a turn of events similar to those in B.C. in 1975, Manitoba’s New Democratic Party was swept Out -of office by a Conservative Majority in Tuesday’s provincial election. Right wing Tory Sterling Lyon is € new premier of Manitoba after leading his party to victory with 33 Seats in the 57 seat legislature. The NDP under former Premier Ed hreyer was reduced to 23 seats. The Liberals were all but wiped out, winning a single seat. “What happened,”’ Manitoba Communist Party leader Bill Ross told the Tribune in a telephone interview Wednesday morning, “was that the tactic of the NDP to Tun on their record and not to challenge the “big business program of the Conservatives Proved to be inadequate. The NDP failed miserably in really juallenging what the Tories stood or.” The NDP defeat was in some ways a repeat of the loss in B.C., Ross said, citing Schreyer’s anti- labor recordand the polarization of € right wing vote as examples. “In B.C. the anti-NDP vote Polarized around Bennett, here it Went to Lyon,’’ Ross said, ‘Even © Winnipeg Free Press, the Organ of the Liberal party in Western Canada, called for a Tory 80vernment on the eve of the election.”’ Schreyer’s support of the federal Wage control program together with incidents such as the police Sttikebreaking at the Griffin Steel Strike undoubtedly cost the NDP Considerable working class sup- Port, Ross said, especially in Mnipeg where a number of NDP Candidates lost by. narrow Margins. But the real indication of bor’s disillusionment with the P was the Tory win in Thomp- Son, the site of last year’s Protracted struggle against the TB and INCO. Tm ve will all suffer with the ories,”” Ross predicted, “but the lesson is that you can’t fight a line UP of reaction without a program or fundamental change.” Nkomo on TV Zimbabwe Patriotic Front leader Joshua Nkomo will arrive in @ncouver October 24 and make television appearances, that ay, on CBC’s Hourglass, and CK- "Ss Vancouver. Omo will be honored at a Feception on October 24 at the Otel Vancouver. Tickets are $25 fach with two thirds of the Proceeds going to the Patriotic Front, For more information Phone CLC representative Art Rube at 294-6405. its. ON. STRIKE! Gio. NUP Gg. BS FED. a The B.C. ferry fleet remained docked behind picket lines this week as ferry workers remained out despite government moves to send them back to work (see story). U.S. law raises fear of Kitimat tanker port A sudden move by the USS. Senate to block the plans of the major oil companies to build a supertanker oil port at Cherry Point, Washington, has again raised the spectre of a supertanker port at Kitimat, B.C. The U.S. move was prompted by Washington State senator Warren Magnuson who sponsored an amendment to an act protecting marine mannals. The effect of the amendment is to ban any further oil port expansion east of Port Angeles in the straits of Juan de Fuca or in Puget Sound. The decision also focuses new attention on the proposal of the Kitimat Pipeline Company to build a “horror port” at Kitimat that wouldlink up with a pipeline to Edmontonen route tothe U.S. KPL had previously dropped their application for the Kitimat bid is now expected to be re-opened, with full backing from the major oil anies. The oil companies benefited this week from an untimely and ill- considered statement from West Coast Oil Ports Inquiry com- missioner Andrew Thompson. Thompson reacted to the news of the American decision by saying that it ‘brings Kitimat back into the lead.” — hava: “Tt is not a question as to who is in the lead, but whether or not there is any need for a race in the first place,” UFAWU. oil port opposition. co-ordinator Arnie Thomlinson angrily replied, “Our position all along has been that there is no need for an oil port at Kitimat, Cherry Point or Port Angeles.”’ The third proposal for a supertanker oil port, at Port Angeles, Washington, is also reported in trouble. Never a favorite of the major companies, the Port Angeles Northern Tier consortium is said to be on the verge of collapse due to lack of financial support. Southern coastal fishermen will have an opportunity to tell Thompson about their opposition to the oil port proposals at a public hearing in Steveston October 21-22 at the Steveston Buddhist Church. Northern residents will reaffirm their opposition to a Kitimat port when Thompson takes his inquiry north this fall. Phase one of the inquiry is expected to end this week after a major presentation on ~the legal background to land claims by the Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs. B.C. Federation of Labor backing defiant workers Ferry workers remained firm in their determination to win a collective agreement as their strike moved -into its sixth day in defiance of a cabinet imposed cooling-off period and a back-to- work order issued by the Labor Relations Board. At Tribune press time, officers of the B.C. Ferry and Marine Workers Union were meeting with newly-appointed mediator, in- dustrial affairs counsellor Clive McKee, but it was not known what subsequent action the union would take. Union officers had earlier stated that there would be no return to work without a govern- ment guarantee that no reprisals be taken against the 2,600 ferry workers. They also called on the B.C. Ferries Corporation, the crown corporation which was formed earlier this year to operate the ferries, to sit down ‘‘to responsible bargaining.” The appointment of McKee as mediator indicated a more con- ciliatory approach to the dispute by the provincial government whose precipitate action Friday in imposing the cooling-off period, coupled with the hardnosed bargaining position of the B.C. Ferries Corporation, aggravated the bitter dispute. At membership meeting held in several locations Monday, all the pent-up anger over the negotiations with the ferries Corporation erupted as unionists voted unanimously to stay out despite the LRB order issued Saturday. The ferry workers had earlier received the full backing of the B.C. Federation of Labor which condemned the cabinet’s 90-day cooling off period as showing ‘‘a complete lack of understanding of industrial relations in British Columbia. “This Socred government, through its arrogance and hostility toward the workers of the province, has created a climate of contempt for its actions,” LAND CLAIMS: Ben Swankey examines the issue of land claims, given new urgency in recent months. Pages 6, 7. MARKETING BOARDS: Often blamed for high prices but they’re not the villain Federation secretary Len Guy charged. “The government has nobody to blame but itself for the disrespect it-has created.” He said that the Federation had “no hesitation” in backing the ferry workers in any and all ac- tions necessary to win the dispute. “T have no doubt now that the union will win a total victory in this strike and that the Socreds labor policies will be exposed as bankrupt and completely un- workable.’’ The support of the B.C. Federation of Labor and the labor movement has been of particular importance in the dispute which, from the beginning, has developed at a time of continuing attacks on collective bargaining rights and attempts to undermine the ferry workers long established contrac gains: : Ferry and Marine Workers Union business agent Leo Gray said that the strike was provoked see OVERTIME, pg. 2 Viet women here Oct. 29 Two Vietnamese women will bring Vancouverites up to date on current developments in Vietnam, Saturday, October 29, 8 p.m., at a public meeting in the Unitarian Church, 49 Ave at Oak. “Vietnam Today’”’ is the theme of the meeting that will hear Than Thi An, an executive member of the Vietnam Womens Union and vice- dean of a major Vietnamese university and Le Thi Thuy, representative of the international section of the Vietnam Womens Union. Nguyen Le Khanh is ac- companying the women as their interpreter. The meeting is sponsored by the Canadian Aid for Vietnam Civilians (CAVC). The CAVC has raised $370,000 in cash donations for Vietnam. CAVC’s current project is to raise $50,000 for a 200- bed hospital near Hanoi. THIS WEEK: INSIDE #