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Editorial

_ Nopeace without PLO

U.S. Secretary of State George Shultz reports that his efforts to push the
American so-called “peace” plan for the Middle East is “very tough going.”

In still another try at shuttle diplomacy, Shultz has been unable to sell
Washington’s plan to either the Shamir (Likud) or Peres (Labour) camps in
Israel. Nor are Syria and Jordan buying it. And the Palestinians, brutalized
and besieged in the occupied lands, won’t even talk to Shultz.

Small wonder, and here’s why:

Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres agrees with the U.S. idea of an
international conference. Prime Minister Yitzak Shamir does not. Jordan’s
King Hussein doesn’t speak for the Palestinians, thus is unable to deliver
much even if he chose to. He limited himself to asking Shultz a series of
questions. Syria’s president Hafez Assad “differed sharply” with Shultz.

So far, nobody has talked with the Palestinian people and their sole
representative, the Palestine Liberation Organization.

Herein lies the crux of the issue: the U.S.-Israeli hope is that a “solution”
can be found to quell the uprising, guarantee Israeli control of occupied
lands, continue the zionist settlements policy, keep the Israeli military
predominant in the Middle East — and appear to have conjured up a
“peace settlement.”

The U.S. plan rules out PLO participation in the talks. So does Israel.
Then, to make sure any chance of real negotiations were deeply buried,
Shultz told the media April 5: “We don’t think an independent Palestinian
state on the West Bank makes sense.”

Caught between Shamir’s ultra-right, dehumanizing, anti-Palestinian
stance (“ ... in our eyes they are like grasshoppers.”’), and Shultz’s denial of
their right to self-determination or even to participation in determining their
future, the Palestinian people press forward with their heroic rebellion.

Palestinians, through their leadership, the PLO, have made their position
clear. They are engaged in a decades-long struggle for human rights, for the
right of self-determination and a national homeland. The PLO proposes an
international conference in which all concerned parties, including the Israeli
government, the PLO, Arab states, the U.S. and the USSR take part. They
insist that the Israeli occupation end, and that a political settlement based on
guaranteeing the rights of Israelis and Palestinians be achieved.

_ Peace will never come to the Middle East in any deals which ignore the
Palestinian people, their chosen leadership and their rights.

8B OU CHARp FORMER MINISTER a

[MIGRATION PRESENTS HIS FiRsT
INITIATIVE Ag MINISTER OF TRANS Pory

NON RETURNABLE |

No DEC OSIT

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EDITOR
Sean Griffin

ASSISTANT EDITOR
Dan Keeton

BUSINESS & CIRCULATION MANAGER
Mike Proniuk

GRAPHICS
Angela Kenyon

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VW: recently’ received a _ mailing

regarding the retrial of Nazi sympa-
thizer Ernst Zundel. To say that it was
unsolicited would be to understate the
point.

In six crudely reproduced pages the
alleged publication harangued the “media”
to give the same attention to Zundel’s
appeal trial as it did to the original. (Fail-
ure to do so, it argued, would somehow
indicate a lack of “freedom of the press.”’)
The photocopied sheets, which included
reproduced newspaper articles and items
from a British racist journal, and a typed
commentary, also attacked some journal-
ists who argued that Zundel should receive
no more sensationalized coverage from
the Canadian press.

We concur with those journalists under
attack from the anonymous supporter of
the anti-Semitic historical revisionist.
Zundel’s trial settled once and for all the
“question” of the authenticity of the
Holocaust — not that there had been any
question of the mass murder of six million
in the minds of most — and the trial Zun-
del won on appeal will not deal with that
issue.

Such has turned out to be the case:
Zundel’s retrial has been conducted with-
out the glare of publicity, and copies of the
neo-nazi’s book, The Hoax of the Twen- ©
tieth Ceritury, have been banned.

Which is fine by us. The Zundels in our
midst, while a small minority, have done
their part to misinform and miseducate
those young enough and gullible enough
— witness the Keegstra case — and to
promote racism, hate and bigotry as
answers to the problems of joblessness,

+ poverty, and political and social impo-
tence.

We're left to ponder a couple of ques-

tions. Why did the unknown commenta-
tor select us to receive his hate literature?
Why did the envelope in which it arrived
bear a Kelowna postmark while the return
address was that of the aforementioned
neo-nazi publication in London?

In answer to the first, we’d have to
assume that the sender was far more atten-
tive to researching potential media outlets
that to producing a tidy-looking publica-
tion. To the second question, we'can only
offer conjecture: the writer wants us to
believe there is an influential international
network of Zundel supporters. We’re
pleased to note that in this case, whatever
influence they have is waning.

* * *

hen we wrote up our Free Trade
supplement a month ago we
covered in general several sectors of Can-
ada’s industry and economy that will be
adversely affected by the deal. We also
warned about the additional whammy
imposed by recent rulings of the General
Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT),
particularly as these affect the Canadian
fish processing, and wine and _ grape-
growing industries. To wit, free trade will
allow California wineries and grapes to
flood the Canadian market, while GATT
has struck down the higher price imposed
on foreign wines.
Now The Financial Post, the journal of
big business in this country, provides in its
March 26-28 issue some up-to-date figures

People and Issues

on just how hard the wine and grape
industry will be hit.

Quoting Brian Nash, a grape-grower
and chair of the Ontario Grape Growers
Marketing Board, the article reports that
almost immediately after the free trade
pact and the GATT ruling are enacted, at
least 8,000 acres of vines — about one-
third of the Niagara region’s fields — will
be taken out of production. About one-
third of the 900 growers will be out of
business, and a third of the 16,000 jobs in
the industry will end. The income of Onta-
rio grape growers will be halved.

In British Columbia, the impact could
be worse. Within two years the Okanagan
Valley could lose 2,000 of its 3,400 acres of
vineyards, according to chair Alan Brock
of the British Columbia Grape Marketing
Board. Only 90 of the 220 grape growers
will survive free trade and GATT, Brock is
quoted as saying.

Of course, those to get the axe won’t be
the bigger corporations. T.G. Bright &
Co., Andres Wines and Ridout Wines all
plan to survive the crunch by increasing
their imports of bulk wine and cheap
grapes from California.

* * *

or much of his pre-retirement, he had
been a leading activist in the farmers
movement in Alberta. But history has its
own agenda, and Ray Garneau wound up
finishing his days about 900 miles away
from the centre of his life’s activity.
Ray, a member of the Vancouver East

club of the Communist Party of Canada,
died Tuesday, April 5 at age 88. Remem-
bered for his sharp mind and clear political
judgement right up to the time of his
death, Ray leaves behind him a legacy of
progressive involvement in the Alberta
farmers movement.

Socialist traditions ran deep for Ray,
whose father, a state of Maine resident of
French Canadian extraction, was a social-
ist and personal friend of the famed Wob-
bly leader Big Bill Haywood. Ray himself
came to homestead in Wainwright, Alta.,
some time in the early decades of this
century, in partnership with a founding
member of the Communist Party, E.R.
Fay.

In Alberta, Ray soon gained renown
and respect as a district leader and provin-
cial executive member of the Alberta
Farmers Union. He was instrumental in
the 1947 province-wide strike for “parity
prices,” by which the struggling farmers
fought to achieve a price for their produce
that reflected their expenses. Ray also
became a member of the Communist
Party, serving for some 10 years on the
party’s provincial executive.

In the late 1950s Ray moved to Van-
couver and settled with his wife, Tillie
(who died in September, 1986). For years
until the founding of the Committee of
Progressive Electors, he worked in the
civic front on the Committee to Elect
Harry Rankin with his friend of the past 50
years, labour historian and a former leader
of the Alberta Communist Party, Ben
Swankey.

Ben and Harry Rankin will speak at a
memorial for Ray at the Centre for Social-
ist Education, 1726 E. Hastings St. in
Vancouver on Saturday, April 16 at 11
a.m.

4 « Pacific Tribune, April 13, 1988