Special to the Tribune

PENTICTON — NDP provin-
cial leader Dave Barrett joked to
delegates in his keynote address to
the party’s provincial convention

‘here Monday that the party

couldn’t expect every convention
to be as ‘“‘peaceful’’ as this one.
This convention was not only

- peaceful; it was lacklustre. The

smallest NDP convention in years
with only 650 delegates at the
Peach Bowl Centre, it was forced
to adjourn an hour early because
there was no longer a quorum of
delegates present.

It was difficult to imagine
through three days of this conven-
tion that it was taking place on the
eve of the historic Quebec referen-
dum — federal leader Ed Broad-
bent didn’t even mention it in his
speech — or that B.C. is in a
continuing political and economic

crisis and ripe for change. Instead

of calling for struggle to put the
Socreds out as soon as possible,
NDP president Gerry Stoney, re-
turned by acclamation, expressed
the hope that there would be no
election soon so that the party can
regain financial solvency.

With no major policy initiatives
leading the party to either the right
or left, it was the absence of contro-
versy and the issues not addressed
which reinforced the steady drift to
the political centre which the Bar-
rétt leadership has steered the
NDP.

Perhaps the most significant
policy decision was a resolution
calling on an NDP government to
purchase one of the major forest
companies in B.C., or to establish a
new forestry corporation under
public ownership.

The resolution was in line with
the ‘‘window theory’ advanced by
NDP federal leader Ed Broadbent,
who in his speech called on Petro-
Can to take over one of the multi-
national oil corporations in Can-
ada, and by last year’s convention
when the NDP opted for the estab-
lishment of a B.C. Coal Corpora-
tion. In all cases the NDP’s com-
mitment to a ‘‘mixed economy”
was stressed with the role of the
public sector being to give the pub-
lica “‘window”’ on the industry and
bargaining power with the big
multinationals.

Resolutions on bargaining rights

' for farmers and fishermen were the

only significant labor issues debat-
ed, and neither was controversial,
although the resolution on fisher-
men did pledge the NDP caucus to
grant bargaining rights provincially
if it forms a government.

Two other positive develop-
ments in NDP policy were the for-
thright condemnation of the Anna-
cis Island crossing of the Fraser —a
project planned by the former
NDP government — and the deci-

_ sion to repudiate the Urban Transit

Authority and call for its abolition.

Until now the NDP has been equiv-

ocal in its approach to the UTA,
criticizing the cost sharing formula
between the province and munici-
palities for transit, but supportin,
the UTA concept. '
The big organizational decision
taken by the convention’ was an
amendment to the party constitu-
on to allow the NDP to contest
municipal elections in its own
name, or through front organiza-
‘ons with different names, but di-
rectly chartered by the party, and
ae entirely of NDP mem-
s

Expected to create heated de-

_ bate, the proposal did snarl the

be

oe

although there was no debate on
the substance of the proposal —
that the NDP enter municipal pol-
itics independently and directly,
without regard for the develop-
ment of broad alliances at the com-
munity level.

The actual decision, taken al-
most unanimously, gave the pro-
vincial council of the NDP the au-
thority to charter either ‘‘area
councils’’ of existing NDP constit-
uency associations, or new affiliat-
ed organizations which may or may
not use the NDP label.

An amendment, secured by
some NDPers active in municipal
politics, qualified the right of the
provincial council to charter new
municipal. political associations
with the reservation that it must be
with the “‘approval of the members
in the affected constituencies.”

But another section of -the
amendment to the constitution
states that where such an organiza-
tion is established, any NDP mem-
ber associated with any other politi-
cal grouping at the municipal level
is liable for disciplinary action, in-
cluding expulsion.

The move into the municipal
arena, led by the provincial coun-
cil, was in large part a response to
NDP groups in Richmond and
Surrey already running in muni-
cipal elections using variations of
the NDP name. The constitution
now prohibits the use of the NDP

name or any variation of it, unless

approved by the provincial leader-
ship. The implications of the deci-
sion for Vancouver or other muni=
cipalities where broadly based alli-
ances of NDPers and members of
other parties already exist are not
yet clear.

Party to move into.:municipal elections

_NDP convention a lacklustre even

La kn AARNE i Manas ro

BARRETT... demagogic speec

Elections to the new provincial
council saw all table officers
returned by acclamation and the
official slate of 10 members at large
returned by a wide margin over
their six opponents. A year ago in
Vancouver, the NDP ‘‘Open Cau-
cus,”’ for years a fixture at conven-
tions, ran a partial slate which cap-
tured about a third of the vote. This
year, however, there was no visible
opposition to the political direction
of the party leadership.

In addition to Stoney, officers
elected were Sandy Bannister, first
vice-president; Joy Langan, second
vice-president; Dave Stupich, third
vice-president; Jim McKenzie,

h to NDP convention a measure of party’s continuing drift to right.

fourth vice-president, and Roger
Howard, treasurer.

Barrett called the acclamation of
the executive officers ‘‘a wonderful
thing’’ — a sign of party unity. But
his own address was the best ex-
ample of the diluted policies which
the new unity is based on.

On Quebec, Barrett said that the
NDP ‘‘prefers referendums to
rifles”’ and that ‘Canada is more a
concept than a country ...a
model for the global village.’ Self
determination or Quebec nation-
hood was not mentioned, nor did
he offer any opinion on the refer-
endum except to say that the re-
sponse to it must be “‘positive, ma-

ture, loving and showing con-
Cems,

He threw his usual barbs at the
Socreds, attacking them for their
“big ticket”’ policies like Annacis
Island and B.C. Place and for ig-
noring social needs like housing.

He went on to blast the ‘‘con-
sumer society”’ and make a plea for
a ‘‘conserver society,’’ which he
termed ‘“‘the overriding need of our
age.”’ For Barrett, ‘‘materialistic
growth is the enemy.”’

The light, almost perfunctory
applause which greeted Barrett’s
speech summed up this conven-
tion.

‘Bankrupt policies’ of Socreds
cited in Cargill's takeover bid

The provincial government was
slammed last week for its “totally
bankrupt policy” which has result-
ed ina crisis in the Fraser Valley
poultry industry, the loss of 135
jobs — and the imminent possibil-
ity that foreign multinationals will
control the industry completely.

And the Communist Party has
demanded that the government
end that bankrupt policy and move
to restore control by taking over
Maplewood Processors Ltd. of
Abbotsford.

Social Credit agricultural minis-
ter Jim Hewitt announced in the
legislature May 14 that the govern-
ment would appear before the fed-
eral Foreign Investment Review
Agency to ask that Cargill be allow-
ed.to take over the financially
troubled Maplewood turkey pro-
cessing facility. The announcement

reversed an earlier government

stand.

Hewitt had earlier intervened
with FIRA to block the sale of
Maplewood to Cargill, claiming
that acquisition of the plant by the
huge conglomerate “‘would not be
in the best interests of the poultry
industry in this province.”’

He offered a line of credit to the
current owners to keep the plant
going and said that the government
was trying to find a Canadian
buyer. However, producers in the

area were denied the low interest
loans which might have enabled
them to run the plan.

The government dickering end-
ed May 14 when the plant went into
receivership, throwing some 135
employees out of work and leaving
50 local turkey producers without a
plant to process their birds.

“The Social Credit government

has to bear the blame for this situa- -

tion,’’ CP leader Maurice Rush
charged Monday. ‘‘First it opens
the door to expanded multinational
domination by selling off the only
public corporation, Panco
Poultry, to Cargill. Then, when the
industry faces a crisis, because a
plant is shutting down, it goes beg-
ging to that same multinational to
bail the government out.

“It shows just how bankrupt is
the ‘free enterprise’ policy of the
Bennett government — free enter-
prise just means further domina-
tion of the province by monop-
oly,”’ he said. :

He called on the government to
reverse its policy and take steps to
re-establish control by taking over
the Maplewood plant and running
it under public control. He also
urged Victoria to make aid avail-
able to turkey producers to offset
any financial loss caused by the
plant closure.

That action should be coupled

with a government program to ex-
tend public ownership and encour-
age producer co-operatives to de-
‘velop a local processing industry.

“‘That’s the only way to reverse
the dangerous trend in the industry
towards total control by a few big
corporations,”’ he said.

NDP agricultural critic Barbara
Wallace, who condemned the gov-
ernment’s decision to support the
Cargill bid as a “‘sweetheart deal,”’
warned that the Maplewood sale
would leave the poultry industry in
the province “‘in an unusually con-
centrated state. .

“‘With little force in the market-
place to keep prices competitive,
the consumer can say goodbye to
low-cost poultry,”’ she said.

She noted that the degree of con-
centration in the industry, where a
few large corporations dominate
the industry, was 42 percent for

- broiler chickens, 80 percent for tur-
keys and 100 percent for hatchery
eggs.

Cargill will benefit while both
the consumer and the farmer will
pay, she warned, adding that Car-
gill ‘Sis corporate agriculture per-
sonified.”’

In an earlier address to the legis-
lature April 2, Wallace cited the
corporate record of Cargill, de-

scribing it as the ‘“‘world’s largest
grain-trading corporation”? which
has become ‘‘especially adept at
tapping the public purse.”

Cargill has ‘‘a very unsavory rec-
ord. . .’’ she noted, which includes
“some rather interesting esca-
pades.

_ “They (Cargill) were fined $66,-
000 by the Canadian Wheat Board
for committing over 100
violations. . . This is the company
that was taken to court in a dozen
American states for being part of a

_ conspiracy to keep the price of

chickens artificially high.

“Yet this is the company that
this government and this ministry
have allowed into the chicken pro-
cessing business in British Colum-
bia,”’ she said.

Eighteen months ago, the Soc-
red government sold publicly-own-
ed Panco Poultry in Surrey to Car-
gill, bypassing FIRA in making the
sale.

Last month, Cargill announced
that it-would cut more than 100
jobs at the Surrey plant as it auto-
mated the facility, and would dis-
continue turkey processing. But in
a barely disguised pressure play, it
said that it would seek to relocate
the Panco workers at the Maple-
wood plant — if FIRA could be
convinced to allow the takeover.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—MAY 24, 1980—Page 3

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