en Ge ae ‘Go forward,’ Nicaraguans urged as Ortega concedes By DAN KEETON Nicaraguans put their sentiments on hold in the Feb. 18 election that ended more than 10 years of leadership by the forces that liberated Nicaragua from a U.S.-backed dictatorship and incensed their powerful neighbour to the north. In choosing the right-wing coalition, fin- anced with U.S. money, by a sizeable major- ity over the Sandinistas in presidential, national and municipal elections, voters in the impoverished Central American nation showed their weariness with eight years of counter-revolutionary war combined with S four years of economic embargo. But observers, including Canadian organ- izations dedicated to aiding Nicaragua overcome the ravages imposed by a hostile superpower, note that with more than 40 per cent of the popular vote, the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN) will continue to struggle for the revolution they fought for the past three decades. In a concession speech, President Daniel Ortega said the electoral process was designed to “give all Nicaraguans that peace and that stability which we so need to reconstruct this country....” Predicting the Sandinistas would again ' be victorious “‘because we have changed our words into deeds despite all the campaigns raised against this electoral process,” Ortega urged Nicaraguans to “go forward with our struggle and our battle cry. . .Free fatherland or death.” Scott Eavenson was as surprised as anyone when the results came in late Sun- day showing a definitive victory for the Uni- ted Nicaraguan Opposition, the 14-party coalition better known by its Spanish acro- nym, UNO. see SANDINISTAS page 9 Yew agreement won in lengthy Pittston strike — page 11 — March 5, 1990 50° Vol. 53, No. 8 | Signing the Moscow-McDonald’s deal. Union calls for probe as Crown decides not to prosecute — page 3 — ag a BRAD HOLMES ... no charges against man who ran him over on picket line. on | The Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs charged last week that the budget cuts imposed by Finance Minister Michael Wilson on Native programs were aimed at “silencing criticism” and were intended by the federal government “to once and for all settle the land question in B.C. in its own way.” “The Conservative government of Prime Minister Brian Mulroney has finally declared the war it has been waging against the Indian people of British Columbia,” UBCIC president Saul Terry told reporters at a news conference Feb. 27. “By cutting funding to the Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs, the Mulroney govern- ment is clearly signalling an all-out cam- paign to emasculate our political effective- Women’s centres protest, page 6 ness in protecting our aboriginal rights from extinguishment policies.” The same day, United Native Nations vice-president Ernie Crey and Keith Mat- thew, editor of the Native newspaper Kah- tou, which will lose all its funding under the budget cuts, confronted Wilson at the CANADIAN INTERESTS FIRST! Vancouver Trade and Convention Centre where the finance minister was addressing the Home Builders’ Association. ““We’ll give you so much heat, you’ll rue the day you ever brought down his budget,” Crey told Wilson. In his Feb. 20 federal budget, Wilson cut $3.4 million from secretary of state funding for Native organizations and tri- bal councils. But of the 28 organizations across the country identified for cuts, Terry noted, 14 come from British Columbia. see BUDGET page 3 TRIBUNE PHOTO — SEAN GRIF Workers from North Vancouver's Versatile Pacific Shipyard and members of other maritime unions greet Finance Minister Michael Wilson with placards protesting the cancellation of the Polar 8 project early Thursday as the minister arrives at the North Shore Winter Club to address a breakfast meeting put on by local chambers of commerce. Cuts for Natives ‘part of Tory strategy’