May 22, 1989
50°

Vol. 52, No. 19

Campaign on budget heats up

Kevin Neish knew he was taking a risk
when he accompanied a Guatemalan
refugee back to her homeland. He soon
found out how much of a risk.

The Victoria trade unionist and Marta
Torres, the opposition leader for whom he
was an “unarmed bodyguard,” landed
almost in the middle of the attempted
coup d’etat in Guatemala on May 8.

Safely returned to Canada on May 16,
Neish told reporters at a press conference
in Vancouver International Airport of the
death threats, car bomb and high-speed
chase he and Torres endured during his
seven-day stay in Guatemala City.

But despite the risk and the understan-
dable fear he and the leaders of Guatema-
la’s united resistance — knownas RUOG
— underwent, the vocational instructor
and B.C. Government Employees Union

Soc

Victoria unionist Kevin Neish is greeted at Vancouver International Airport by his wife Georgina and daughter Jennifer.

member said he would do it again if called
upon.

Neish, who had the backing of his union
and the Victoria Labour Council, departed
as scheduled with Torres on Monday,
May 8. Torres, a Vancouver resident,
heads the labour sector of RUOG.

She and the four other RUOG leaders:
in exile — Rigaberta Menchu, Frank
Larue, Paul Molina and Dr. Rolando
Castillo —headed for Guatemala at the
invitation of president Vinicio Cerezo to
participate in national reconciliation talks
scheduled to comply with the provisions
of the Esquipulas II peace plan.”

Neish said something seemed amiss
when the plane from Mexico turned
around in mid-air, then subsequently
turned again and continued to Guatemala
City’s airport.

No welcoming delegation was waiting,
so the group took a car and headed to their
lodgings, along streets filled with heavy
artillery.

They subsequently found out about the
military coup, which began about four

‘hours before their arrival and had ended

by the time they arrived at 9 a.m. on May
9.

The threats began almost immediately
after the delegations’ arrival.

“At 12 noon, via five different phone
calls to different groups around town,
there were five threats made. . against the
leaders of RUOG,” Neish related.

“That was a phone call first off, saying,
‘Get out or else,’ and the next one came on
Mothers Day (Wednesday, May 10 in
Guatemala).

see B.C. page 8

Rally slated
for June 8

The campaign against the federal
government’s budget began to gather
momentum this. week as senior citizens
organizations and the influential National
Action Committee on the Status of Women
(NAC) as well as several trade union groups
announced plans to fight the government’s
proposals.

And in the Lower Mainland, the Coali-
tion against “Free” Trade, together with the
Vancouver and New Westminster labour
councils, declared, their intention to mount
a major demonstration’ in downtown Van-
couver June 8 when Prime Minister Brian
Mulroney is scheduled to be in the city.

“In 1985, broad-based active opposition”
forced the Conservative government to
retreat on its plans to de-index old age pen-
sions. In 1989, a similar mobilization of
labour, women, churches, seniors, Native
people and others could force the govern-
ment to retreat on its attempt to cut back
unemployment insurance, impose regres-
sive sales taxes, undermine the universality
of social programs and renege on its prom-
ises to increase child care,” the National
Action Caucus, a group of CLC unions,
declared in a statement.

The Action Caucus declaration, signed
by United Electrical Workers president
Dick Barry, Postal Workers president Jean-
Claude Parrot, United Fishermen’s presi-
dent Jack Nichol, Carpenters provincial
council president Bill Zander and Hospital
Employees Union president Bill MacDo-
nald, echoed a growing demand from many
unions for the labour movement, and par-
ticularly the CLC, to move quickly in
mobilizing a national campaign demanding

- withdrawal of the federal budget.

At the Vancouver and District Labour
Council Tuesday, several local unions sub-
mitted letters pressing the council, the B.C.
Federation of Labour and the CLC to work
with other organizations in a “massive
campaign of resistance” to the budget. The
campaign, they said, should include rallies,
demonstrations and, if necessary, work
stoppages to defeat the budget.

The VDLC had already sponsored a
budget rally last week, in conjunction with
the Coalition against “Free” Trade. But the
council also took the initiative this week to
meet with the B.C. Federation of Labour

see BUDGET page 12