EDITORIAL Hoping we'll forget There seems little doubt 1988 will see a federal election. Everything the conservatives are doing is being done with an eye to the next vote, to play the game of smoke and mirrors, to cover the tracks of the arrogant, inept, corrupt, right-wing, pro-American government we have endured since 1984. Tory think tanks and public relations people are running the show, one designed to bolster Mulroney’s dismal public image, to have us forget the anti-social, anti-labour, neo-conservative thrust and the countless scandals that have marked this regime of 211 Tory members of the House. We will be treated to the prime minister’s face from the Calgary Winter Games. We will see him jet off to do battle in the international arena. We will be deluged by tons of pro-free trade propaganda (paid for by our own tax dollars). In preparation, trickster Finance Minister Wilson brought down a so-called tax reform plan which will put a few pennies in our pockets this year (elections?) and then rob us blind as consumers the following year. The Tories recently revealed their answer to the child care crisis: A plan designed to speed up the privatization of child care rather than develop what is needed — a Canada-wide accessible and affordable child care system. Conservatives have descended on the land like locusts to sell the free trade deal. Every speech writer is employed, every federal government department is conscripted to add their weight to the ferocious corporation free trade blitz. Canadians will be expected to forget that this regime tried to de-index pensions and would have done so but for the tide of anger they met. But they . managed to strike at seniors anyway by giving the big drug cartels carte blanche to rip off those in need. We’re to forget the bailing out of banks, oil companies and corrupt cabinet colleagues with sacks of public money. We’re to forget the pork-barreling that has given virtually every Tory pal a cushy appointment to some board or panel. We're to forget the almost obscene courting of Quebec votes with the dangerous Meech Lake agreement and lucrative defence contracts. We’re to forget the union bashing, the deregulation and privatization drive of this neo-conservative regime. All this and much, much more will be swept under the rug. Tory strategy is to gamble everything on one throw of the free trade dice and downplay all other issues. The country will be wooed and cuddled by gangs of smiling conservatives who will promise you the very heavens. But their record is depressingly clear. So is their intention to sell out our independence and sovereignty to Uncle Sam, his entrepreneurs and generals. 1988 will certainly be a cross roads year for Canada, one in which the need for new policies and a new government will stand out more sharply than ever. ; Put peace on the plate in ‘88 MC ty, FIRIBUNE EDITOR Sean Griffin ASSISTANT EDITOR Dan Keeton BUSINESS & CIRCULATION MANAGER Mike Proniuk GRAPHICS Angela Kenyon Published weekly at 2681 East Hastings Street Vancouver, B.C. V5K 1Z5 Phone (604) 251-1186 Subscription Rate: Canada @ $16 one year @ $10 six months @ Foreign @ $25 one year Second class mail registration number 1560 he statement made by free trade critics that the more Canadians see of the free trade deal, the worse it will become has been confirmed yet again by the Canadian Labour Congress in its close reading of the agreement’s fine print. — CLC president Shirley Carr noted last month that Congress researchers, in going over the detailed agreement language, had discovered a clause giving U.S. corpora- tions access to management services for hospitals, nursing homes, homes for emo- tionally disturbed children, ambulance services and public health clinics. When they asked the federal govern- ment what exactly was meant by ‘“man- agement services,” they were told by the trade negotiation office that those services involved “the running of hospitals and the running of nursing homes.” Obviously, when that provision is coupled with the privatization drive of the Social Credit government, the prospect of B.C. hospitals and other facilities being run by U.S. health care corporations isn’t that far off. In fact, a number of giant American management firms have been looking covetously north for several years and various provincial governments, seek- ing new ways to cut health care funding, would welcome such firms across the border if free trade opened the way. Reagan-style health care would be the result. The CLC also noted that the fine print confirmed its worst fears that the trade negotiations were “part of the govern- ment’s hidden agenda to privatize public sector services and erode the quality of health care in this country.” It’s one more reason to keep up the tempo of opposition — and the demand for a federal election on the issue — before the agreement is implemented next year. * * * everal weeks ago, Tribune reader Eric Waugh wrote the Soviet Embassy to welcome the Soviet government's initia- tive in honouring Canadian veterans but also to urge that Canadian merchant sea- men who were part of Allied efforts to aid the Soviet Union be recognized as well. He received a reply back from embassy First Secretary Liakin Frolov just before Christmas pointing out that the medal struck by the USSR in honour of the vete- rans is, in fact, available to seamen who took part in convoys to Soviet ports — but the Soviets need details on who those people were. Eric passed the letter on to the Tribune, asking that we canvass reader for any sur- viving Seamen who might have sailed with any such convoy. They should send a letter to the embassy, with the relevant personal data and detailed information on their partici- pation in the shipping convoys to Soviet People and Issues ports. The applications will then be for- warded to Moscow for consideration. The address is: Embassy of the USSR, 285 Charlotte St., Otttawa, KIN 8L5. * * * O ne of the last remaining links with the early labour and socialist movements in this province was broken this week with the passing of Jack Treliving. A supporter of the Tribune since its founding in 1935 and of socialist papers two decades before that, he died in Lan- gley Hospital Jan. 11, just a month short of his 91st birthday. It was one of the ironies of a long life devoted to the progressive movement that he almost became part of the Canadian Expeditionary Force sent to Siberia to crush the October Socialist Revolution in Russia. But his unit, one of several raised under conscription during the last years of WW I, was pulled out just before it sailed as the Canadian government faced increasing pressure from the labour movement to withdraw its intervention forces. Born Feb. 23, 1897, in Fleming in the Northwest Territories — it was later to become part of Saskatchewan when that province joined Confederation — he came to Langley in 1912 when his family began farming. Six years later, he took part in his first strike at Beaver River logging camp, a one-day walkout inspired by the Industrial Workers of the World. In 1920, he took out membership in the Lumber and Saw- mill Workers. The early years in the camps began for Jack a lifelong commitment to the trade union and progressive movements. Work- ing variously as a logger, fishermen and farmer in the Fraser Valley, he became a member of the United Fishermen and Allied Workers Union and also of the early Farmer’s Union which he joined in 1934. In 1928, he joined the ranks of the Communist Party of Canada, maintaining continuous membership throughout his life. He was a member of the Fort Langley club at the time of his death. Jack also ran successfully for Langley council in 1946, winning re-election the following year on a labour-backed pro- © gressive ticket. Although retired from the fishing indus- try for the last 17 years, he continued his activity in the Communist Party and the B.C. Peace Council. He also contributed generously from his pension and savings to both the Tribune and, for many years, to Canadian Aid for Vietnam Civilians. A memorial meeting is to be held this Saturday, Jan. 16 although a location and time had yet to be set at Tribune press time. Readers can call the CP office at 254-9836 for more information. _— a, 4 e PACIFIC TRIBUNE, JANUARY 13, 1988 Peer eae Mil oy