EDITORIAL

Nuclear Test Ban

on Hiroshima Day

On Aug. 6 the era of nucler war will turn 41. It isa
painful birthday, a time to remember the scorched
victims of the first atom bombs, drapped without
warning on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in the summer
of 1945. Its also a day to look ahead, with mixed hope
and fear, to consider our own prospects in the closing
years of this terrible century.

Last year, to mark the 40th anniversary of Hiro-
shima, the government of the Soviet Union made a
gesture of enormous significance: it declared a unilat-
eral moratorium on nuclear weapons tests, and invited
the United States to join immediate negotiations for a
comprehensive test ban treaty — an agreement that
would halt all nuclear blasts.

The Soviet moratorium has been extended three
times, and has lasted now a full year. During that
period, the United States has conducted 14 nuclear
weapons tests at its proving grounds in Nevada.

The Reagan administration has consistently

rebuffed the Soviet initiative, declaring a comprehen-.

sive test ban to be an “unverifiable” measure.

The verification hoax, however, has been exploded
by a surprising citizens’ initiative. Scientists from the
U.S. Natural Resource Defence Council (NRDC)
signed an agreement in May with their counterparts in
the Soviet Academy of Sciences to monitor nuclear

explosions from installations within each other’s terri- .

- Real tax

The Tories aren’t waiting for the conclusion of a
free trade deal to turn Canada into the Slst state.
Finance Minister Michael Wilson is doing his bit to
smooth out the playing field to ensure there will be no
snags in negotiations.

His latest gift is a new tax structure. Introduced
under the pretence that it will uncomplicate the
nightmare of tax forms that face Canadians at the end
of each April, it is in fact Ottawa’s method of institut-
ing a tax system which duplicates that in the U.S.

This is a far cry from the tax reform Canadians have
been demanding and which the Mulroney govern-

tory. During July, the American scientists set up their
equipment at three stations in eastern Kazakhstan,
from which they were clearly able to detect and mea-
sure the latest U.S. nuclear explosion in Nevada.

If scientists, acting unofficially in a spirit of co-
operation, can resolve the difficulties involved in nego-
tiating and verifying a test ban treaty, then there is no
longer any excuse for the inaction of the United States
government. .

Time is running out, and it is unclear whether the
USSR will find itself able to renew its testing morato-
rium yet again on Aug. 6. That, said Mikhail Gorba-
chev recently, “depends to a large extent on whether

the U.S. is going at long last to set about serious

disarmament negotiations.”

An historic opportunity to stop and begin to reverse
the arms race is before us. The decisive ingredient, that
can force the Reagan administraton to bargain in
good faith, is public pressure.

On Aug. 6, let us all join in the demand that talks
open immediately to negotiate a comprehensive test
ban treaty. The best thing we can do for our own
future on this day, and the most appropriate and
hopeful way to remember the victims of Hiroshima, is
to win an agreement that will abolish nuclear explo-
sions forever.

reform |

ment promised during the last federal elections.

To maintain the pretence, the Tory politicians trot-
ted out the 239 Canadians earning more than $250,000
who paid no income tax. But it was only the Commu-
nist Party which ‘zeroed in on the many large corpora-
tions that also escaped without paying a cent and
managed to accumulate an astounding $30 billion in
deferred taxes — an amount almost equal to the fed-
eral deficit. ,

It’s time for Canadians to start calling in the chips.
Genuine tax reform demands that the corporations
pay their share. Anything less is a sham.

Business & Circulation Manager — MIKE PR

Se

Editor — SEAN GRIFFIN
Assistant Editor — DAN KEETON

ontuk

_ Graphics — ANGELA KENYON

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hose who regularly monitor the
goings-on of Vancouver city council
— doing anything from getting council
documents through attending committee
and full council meetings to simply tuning

light. She argues that council should be

People and Issues icc Remembers tee Bem

Although his brother Bill initially

On Hiroshima Day itself, the star

Aug. 6, 1945 atom bombing 0 '
nese city as well as those U.S. ofits
involved with the bombing. We 8”

in to the ongoing council coverage on
Vancouver’s Cable 10 television — might
be forgiven for assuming that such a
steady access to information is the norm
across B.C. But a report we’ve received

‘from Coquitlam alderman Eunice Parker

shows that this isn’t the norm.

Parker, the lone labor-backed member
of the muncipality’s council, tells us that
an attempt by the Coquitlam branch of
the community channel to bring cameras
into council chambers failed recently when
council voted to rescind a previous motion
allowing the coverage. According to
Parker, who both on and off council as a
member of the Association of Coquitlam
Electors (ACE) has fought moves to pri-
vatize municipal services, and has pressed
for social housing, says the reason given
for the rescinder was that live council cov-
erage would give Coquitlam residents “an
incomplete view” of council’s .delibera-

’ tions. That comment came from the
mover of the rescinder motion, Ald. Bill:

LeClair, who claimed his views had not
been aired since he was absent during the
initial vote. It was seconded by former
ACE alderman Len Bewley, who departed
the labor supported coalition four years
ago after voting for contracting out the
municipality’s garbage collection service.

For Parker, who has recently battled
with councillors and Mayor Lou Sekora
over a hastily passed city budget, the issue
is one more example of how a right-wing
dominated council seeks to avoid the lime-

spending more public time debating the
issues, and is currently seeking advice on
how to bring the question of televised cov-
erage again before council.

For us, this issue underscores the fact
that, in pushing for more community and
labor representation in municipalities out-
side Vancouver, we’ve got our work cut
out for us. -

ME se

e’s been a long-time, tireless fighter

for the rights of working people, since
the days when he was an organizer and
business agent in the electrical industry.
Now George Gee has a fight on his hands
to get healthy again after an operation for
cancer July 22.

George had the operation in the Royal
Columbian hospital in New Westminster
after doctors discovered a spot on a lung
during a routine examination. He was in
hospital recovering from the loss of two
fingers incurred when he fell into a three-
metre deep ditch with a power mower
while cutting his lawn at his home near
Davis Bay on the Sunshine Coast.

George has a long history of service in
the labor movement. For years he was a
business agent for the International Broth-
erhood of Electrical Workers, Local 213,
before he was expelled in one of the several
purges of progressives carried out by the
international in the past. Following that,
he was an Edmonton-based business
agent for the United Electrical workers
union.

reported that George had come through
the operation, during which a part of the
lung was removed, with “flying colors,”
his latest report is that George is still too
weak to receive visitors. But we’re all pul-

‘ling for him, and note that the former

labor fighter successfully dealt with a heart
bypass operation one year ago.

* oe x

hatever its faults, perhaps the posi-

tive comment one can make about
U.S. public television is that it is closer to
the mood of the times — and is far less a
propaganda mouthpiece for Cold Warriors
— that its privately owned counterparts.
With that said, the U.S. Public Broadcast-
ing System offers a few programs on and
prior to Hiroshima Day Aug. 6 that might
be of interest to readers.

On Aug. 5, the Seattle-baed KCTS —
Channel 9 for most B.C. viewers — will
air the film Testament. One of a growing
body of fictional works that warn against
the dangerous arms build-up, by depicting
the aftermath of a nuclear exchange, the
1984 Academy Award winner traces the
fate of a family in a small California town
following a nuclear exchange. While not
as visually shocking as its counterparts —

The Day After, or the British-made -

Threads — Testament provides a power-
ful message by depicting the radiation
deaths of members of the family, and
friends. The film will be broadcast at
10 p.m.

idea of the content of the film — jou!
it raises any of the questions rals¢ iso
the bombing presented in the spe”
shima Day supplement in this issU® fi,
thought we should let you know 4”
It airs at 9 p.m.

* * *

his is only a footnote to two, un in
events — last week’s Royal We
and the continued call for econom 4 j
cultural sanctions against aparth me
South Africa — but one well worth ™
tioning. Bey

According to an item in the Globe
Mail, South African viewers of Bie
ding, broadast via satellite, rece! 4,
images or sound of singers and MY
who participated in the event. Whe?
the music or the image was broad” ‘0
South African Broadcasting CorP: owl
substitute the performance with 18
music or visuals. ye!

That was because British Equi,
performers’ union, observes — alt ot
the British government does. Toe
sanctions against the racist reo! og
agreement, the British Broadcastin&
recognizes the ban. British Equity
policy of blacklisting any member
perform in South Africa.

Prime Minister Margaret Thatche
try her best to thwart the sanctions
but, thanks to the conscience of It
unions, much of the rest of Brit
ports it.

10
dsl

4 e PACIFIC TRIBUNE, JULY 30, 1986