BRITISH COLUMBIA

Groups call for ‘action now’ on racism

Continued from page 1

“Aryan Nations”’ and the B.C. branch of
the Ku Klux Klan clearly singled out Jews
and non-whites as objects of vilification.
But according to present federal and pro-
vincial legislation, the racists were acting
within the bounds of the law.

According to Feldhammer, unless one
actually advocates violence against a
recognizable ethnic group, one isn’t con-
travening current laws. He said two recent
attempts by the Anti-Defamation League
failed to get convictions against groups
engaging in racist activities.

The Klan has often claimed that the
presence of different ethnic groups and
cultures in Canada contributes to racism
and racist violence (in addition to threaten-
ing the ‘‘purity’’ of the ‘‘white race’’), and
federal politicians have mirrored the same
notion in their activities, said Feldhammer.

“The idea that differences cause racism
is bs.,”” Feldhammer told the Tribune.
“Yet the whole Fleming committee is bas-
ed on this idea.”’

Feldhammer also pointed to immigra-
tion minister Lloyd Axworthy’s decision to
impose lower quotas on immigration
because of high unemployment, calling
this “respectable racism” which is harder
to fight than the racism practised by groups
such as the Klan.

Gill, whose organization has files on 150
incidents of racially motivated incidents,
distinguished between the standard type of
racism — racial slurs, hate literature,
violent attacks — and what he called ‘‘in-
stitutionalized”’ racism.

Of the former, BCOFR has seen a rise in
incidents since the relative calm of 1982,
although the organization notes that 1981,
with home burnings and several acts of
violence, was the worst year for such in-
cidents.

Regarding the latter, Gill said the In-
surance Corporation of B.C. recently
demoted 56 employees — the majority of
whom are women from the Chinese and
Filipino communities — to ‘Clerk 2” posi-
tions in data processing after their Clerk 3
positions were phased out along with the
complaints department. The rest of the ap-
proximately 400 employees were transfer-

i
s ,

TO |

CHARAN GILL... ‘institutionalized’ ra

red to other jobs with no loss in pay, he
said.

The women were told they were ineligi-
ble for other work ‘‘because of their
accents,’’ said Gill. ,

BCOFR, in monitoring racist attacks on
the street, has discovered that the vast ma-
jority of such incidents are committed by
those who are themselves ‘‘poor and op-
pressed”’ and are ‘‘seeking a scapegoat in
the other person,”’ said Gill.

“Until the structure and institutions of
our society change, police won’t be able to
do anything about racism,”’ he said.

“There are real economic gains to be
made from racism on the part of a very
small minority of our society,’’ said,
Feldhammer.

Employers benefit from racism, keeping
their work force divided and making it
easier to pay low wages, decertify unions
and threaten employees with a reserve ar-
my of jobless — among which arenumbers
of immigrants, he said.

CRE’s latest project is a videotape pro-
duction entitled Work, Racism and Labor.
It was produced in conjunction with the
Labor Studies Centre and the Metro
Toronto Labor Council, and is to be
shown primarily to union locals, although
it will also be available to church and com-

munity groups.

The Toronto organization is also work-
ing on forming an ‘“‘affirmative action
coalition”’ with other organizations in an
effort to establish ‘‘targets and target
dates”’ for affirmative action programs,
said Feldhammer.

Although it has ‘‘a lot of reservations’’
about Fleming’s parliamentary commit-
tee, BCOFR will be “‘intervening very
strongly’? in the inquiry, said BCOFR
member Tim Stanley. Other plans call for

‘ongoing educational programs, continued

monitoring of cases of racism, and a possi-
ble large public meeting in the near future.

Last year officials in Vancouver took
some important steps to meet deal with
racism. On the initiative of the Committee
of Progressive Electors aldermen and
mayor Mike Harcourt, city council
established its committee on race relations
last April. Its terms for reference included
establishing ‘‘strategies and actions to pro-
mote racial harmony and reduce racial ten-
sion,”’ and review current legislation deal-
ing with racism.

In June last year the Vancouver School
Board unanimously adopted 19 recom-
mendations of its working committee on
race relations and a policy which stated the
board condemned ‘‘any expression of
racial or ethnic prejudice by its personnel,
students or trustees.”’

.the schools.

Sam Fillipoff, the school board’s com
sultant on race relations, said some of the
policies — students can be suspended for
racist activities — have helped 10
“minimize” incidences of racism withil

But acentral problem is curriculum, said
Fillipov, pointing to school textbooks:
“Take, for instance, Native people al
how they are depicted. You don’t have 10
look too far to see there’s been some
serious omissions.”’

Textbooks are the responsibility of the
minitry of education, and “until thé
minitry sees the importance of changing”
some of its choices, and as long as childret
see themselves ridiculed in or absent from.
learning materials, then there’ll always be@
struggle.”’ :

And as long as laws governing incité
ment to racist activities are deliberately
vague, groups such as the Klan will be able
to distribute their literature free from pr
secution, according to Feldhammer.

Laws on racism need to be tightened UP _
to make all facets of racial discriminatiom
illegal, he said: ‘‘After all, governments
have no problem formulating pages a0!
books of laws protecting private

property.”

wie
CFR AGL.

LOUIS FELDHAMMER . . . preparing
anti-racism videotape for trade unions:
ee

Canada is

way behind on shipping policy

At its meeting on May 28, city council en-
dorsed a brief prepared by the Vancouver
economic advisory commission, a body ap-
pointed by council, dealing with
Vancouver’s marine industrial strategy.
Specifically it dealt with the federal govern-
ment’s pending legislation on ‘‘offshore
jurisdiction and onshore benefits’’.

The brief pointed out that B.C. has about
21 percent of the national ship-
building/repair work force, with most of it
concentrated in the Lower Mainland. It
noted that the industry is currently suffering
a severe downturn. But it also noted that the
exploration and development of Canada’s
north could provide great new opportunities
for the shipbuilding industry.

It urged that the federal government pro-
vide some immediate stimulus to the Cana-
dian shipbuilding and repair industry in this
current severe recession, that it retain the
grants currently available under the Ship-
building Industry Assistance Program,
reserve the Canadian coastal trade to Cana-
dian ships and reserve to Canadian ships cer-
tain other activities such as dredging and
resource exploration and expolitation taking
place in Canadian waters or over and upon
its continental shelf. It also asked that any
vessels which are in the resource develop-
ment industry be built and manned in
Canada.

The brief also noted that at present many
vessels used in Arctic exploration and
resource development are still bought or
leased offshore (in foreign countries).
PACIFIC TRIBUNE—JUNE 10, 1983—Page 2

The brief was good as far as it went and ci-

~ ty council endorsed it. It could have been

everrmuch stronger. The fact is that the ship-
building and repair service in the Lower
Mainland is in a very serious crisis. About 50
percent of the work force has been laid off.
Although the current economic crisis is of

Harry

Rankin

course a factor, it is not the main cause. The
basic causes include the following, and they
all relate to federal government policy.

@ Canada has no merchant marine that
amounts to anything. This in spite of the fact
that we are one of the top exporting nations
of the world. We had a big merchant marine
at the end of World War II but it was given
away at fire-sale prices and the new Cana-
dian owners registered the ships in foreign
countries (to avoid paying income tax in
Canada) and hired foreign crews at wages
far below Canadian standards.

@ The U.S. and many other countries
have a requirement that at least 40 percent of
its exports be carried in American-owned
ships employing American crews. Canada
has no such requirement.

@ Most of the countries that have a
flourishing shipbuilding industry also have a

steel industry. We have no steel industry on
the west coast. Canadian west coast ship-

builders have to compete with Japan but in.

doing so they have to buy their steel from
Japan, where it is made from B.C. iron ore
and B.C. coal. Could anything be more
ridiculous? /

@ Most countries subsidize their ship-
building industries heavily. Canada does
not. 4
@ Canada subsidizes its oil and mining
industries in many ways (tax exemptions,
outright gifts and grants) but does not re-
quire that these industries build their ships in
Canadian yards, register them in Canada or
man them with Canadian crews. As a result
they go elsewhere to have their ships built.
Then they register them in foreign lands and
employ foreign crews. This applies even to
such ‘*Canadian’”’ corporations as Canadian
Pacific.

One more example of how our govern-
ment subsidizes foreign firms: Recently a

~ lose the work and the jobs. -

hugh new dry dock was built for Burtt
Yarrows in North Vancouver that wo
enable it to repair the really big ships howd
ing used in international trade. This dryd®
was heavily subsidized by the Canadist
government and then turned over to Burra
Yarrows. It could have been built in Can
but it wasn’t. It was built in Japan and th
floated over here!

@ We have no requirement in Canal
that industries that exploit our resources ©,
Canadian owned ships, built in Canal ;
and registered in Canada and employi™
Canadians. So they go elsewhere while

When you add it all up, it comes to th®

Canada desperately needs a merch of
marine of its own. The benefits to the wh 4
country in terms of jobs, business oi
Canada’s international balance of paym®
would be enormous. Our laws should
quire that a higher percentage of all ou! ow
ports be carried in Canadian ships. 5 |

The government must be prepared to SY
sidize the Canadian shipbuilding and rep"
industry to enable it to compete int ff]
tionally. The corporations which exploit 0
resources must be compelled to use C#" |
dian built, Canadian owned, and Cana
manned ships for their exploration *
development work. ;

People and Issues on page I1