BRITISH COLUMBIA -

300 honor friendship

Gov'ts’ failure to act

on apartheid shameful

Thousands of people, including
trade union and church leaders,
arrested and many subjected to tor-
ture. Anti-apartheid protesters killed
every day. Whole black townships
razed to the ground and all houses
and belongings burned by gangs of
black mercenaries backed by white
police. Censorship of the press. Aboli-
tion of freedom of speech and assem-
bly. :

This is South Africa today under
the country-wide state of emergency
imposed on June 12 by the dictatorial
government headed by President
P.W. Botha. All criticism is labelled as
subversive. Foreign journalists have
been warned that any who call the
government a ‘white minority
regime” will be deported. Singing or
whistling by those arrested is puni-
shable by lashes.

All this is happening in “the only
country in the world that claims to be
a Christian country.”

This is terrorism, state terrorism, in
all its ugly and brutal forms.

Yet in spite of this, millions of
blacks on June 16 joined in a nation-
wide general strike to mark the 10th
anniversary of the Soweto massacre
and its aftermath during which the
police killed 575 blacks. Going on
strike under these conditions took real
courage.

Harry

Rankin

What are President Reagan, Prime
Minister Thatcher and Chancellor
Kohl of West Germany, these self-
styled opponents of terrorism, doing
about South Africa? Nothing, exactly
nothing, because corporate interests
in these countries do a thriving trade
with South Africa and profits come
before freedom. President Reagan is
even ignoring the resolution passed by
his own Congress demanding that full
sanctions be imposed on South
Africa.

Reagan, Thatcher and Kohl con-
sider South Africa an ally, one that
must be propped up. They know full
well that if they impose sanctions, the
South African government and the
whole system of apartheid could be
toppled ina short time. That’s the last
thing these leaders want to see.

So what they do is express mild
criticism of South Africa in words but
back the regime in deeds. All three
countries boycotted a United Nations
conference on sanctions against South
Africa. President Reagan even refused
to condemn the state of emergency
imposed by the South African dicta-
torship. Instead he called on the black
people to exercise “maximum res-
traint.”

What about Canada? There is no
doubt that Canadians are filled with
loathing and anger at the actions of

2 e PACIFIC TRIBUNE, JUNE 25, 1986

the South African regime. There is no
doubt that Canadians would whole-
heartedly support sanctions. But the
Mulroney government refuses to
impose real sanctions. What we’re
getting from Ottawa is also a lot of
talk but little action.

Exports by Canadian corporations
to South Africa totalled $150 million
last year. Almost half of this — $71
million — was in the form of sulphur.
Seventeen Canadian companies
employing more than 21,000 people
operate in South Africa. Eleven of
them, including Bata, Falconbridge,
Massey Ferguson, Dominion Textile
and Moore Corporations are reported
to be paying less than an acceptable
minimum wage, and so find apartheid
highly profitable.

The B.C. government imports
South African wines and brazenly
states that it will continue to do so. The
affinity that this government feels
with the South African regime is
hardly a secret.

The shameful fact is that Ottawa
and Victoria simply haven’t the politi-
cal guts to stand up to the corpora-
tions that trade with South Africa.
Nor have they the political guts to

impose sanctions without the okay of.

their pal Ronnie.
Vancouver city council, under the
leadership of our labor-backed major-

ity, and despite the reluctance and
opposition of NPA and TEAM
aldermen, has imposed all the sanc-
tions it could against South Africa.
Our city will not invest its funds in any
bank that deals with South Africa.
We will buy no South African goods.
We will not permit the use of city-
owned sport or cultural facilities for

events which include official South —

African participants. We will name
one of our streets or one of our build-
ings after a South African black
leader.

What Vancouver city council can
do is limited. But there are no such
limits on senior governments. What
they lack is the political will. That is
why the citizens of our country must
continue their boycott of all goods
from South Africa and increase the
pressure on Victoria and Ottawa to
impose full sanctions on Ottawa now
and not wait for President Reagan’s
approval.

If Victoria and Ottawa just con-
tinue to talk and do not act to help
stop the carnage in South Africa, they
must accept some of the responsibility
for it. They will stand exposed as two-
faced politicians. Failure on their part
to help the blacks of South Africa by

‘imposing full sanctions is a shameful

reflection on Canadians, on our pro-
vince and on our country.

Westminster June 18.

Vassili Vinogradov (I), USSR consul to Vancouver during Exp? et
receives gift from Dr. Alan Inglis of the Canada-USSR Friendship Society | :
before some 300 participants who packed the Carpenters Hall in N&™ | jh

B.C. food bank stud
refutes Socred myth

The average patron of British Colum-
bia’s 60-odd food banks is precisely
that — a representative of a cross section of
typical Canadian jobless, a report into the
province’s food banks reveals.

Furthermore, most food bank recipients
had a record of steady employment before
Canada’s depression forced them on to
Unemployment Insurance, and subsequently
the welfare rolls, the study found.

The report, the result of a survey con-
ducted by the Social Planning and Research
Council of British Columbia (SPARC), also
states: “For most welfare recipients. ..who
make up in total over 80 per cent of the
users, the food banks have become an
essential part of their daily survival.”

Sylvia Russell, head of the Vancouver
Food Bank and a member of the B.C. Food
Bank Task Force, which commissioned the
study, laid the blame for the necessity of
food banks squarely on the shoulders of the
Social Credit government.

“Their history speaks for itself. You have
to look for alternatives (to continued
Socred rule),” she said in an interview.

The task force was set up last year follow-
ing a major conference of food bank opera-
tors who resolved at the time to close down
the community-sponsored depots by July,
1986. Participants at the conference cited
the fact that Ministry of Human Resources
staff — a leaked internal memo confirmed
this was ministry policy — were routinely
rejecting welfare emergency assistance
claims and referring the applicants to the
food banks.

Russell said, however, that the motion
was predicated on a hoped-for increase in
GAIN rates, frozen for the past four years.
That hasn’t happened, and hence the
volunteer-run organizations plan to stay in
business, she said.

But, Russell arrerted, food bank repre-
sentatives have no intention of remaining
passive.

“We have no intention of backing off. I
know some of the unions (who help fund
the banks) were worried we’d soft-pedal the
situation, but we’re certainly not going to.
We'll continue to take an advocacy posi-
tion.”

In a foreward to the report, entitled Food
Bank Users: A Profile of the Hungry in
B.C., the food bank task force acknow-
ledges a “moral dilemma” between the need
to feed B.C.’s impoverished citizens and the
problem of “‘institutionalizing” food banks,
stating that these should not become a
“permanent fixture” in the social assistance

field.

Instead, the task force contends, federal
and provincial governments should provide
adequate funds for the country’s jobless and
destitute, it :

‘while more than 37 per cent have

The SPARC study interviewed
and women in seven food b
Lower Mainland, Vancouver Islan
Interior during the fall of 1985 t0
the nature of B.C.’s estimat
monthly food bank users.

Russell said the report refutes the
type promoted during the ~
era” — when Socred cabinet ™
Grace McCarthy ran the MHR
food bank recipients are largely
unemployed men with little edu@

In fact, the report states, “.. It ®
that the welfare group in our sample 7)
characteristic of ‘employable’ '
than the longer-term chronic incom®
ance dependents.”

The study found that 65 pet cen
sample group of 278 recipients had un
more times received Unemployme 4,
‘rance, while 68 per cent of thos¢ thas
without UI payments for more ©
years. “

Some 316 of the study’s respondeh
still looking for work, but most ¥”
pairing of finding any, the report”

Other key findings of the study! de

© Food banks cannot prove”
quately for the needs of the hut

@ The average users’ income ©
from 37 per cent to 50 per cent ee
lished poverty lines; oe

@ Shelter costs absorbed monies
sary for a nutritious diet; 4

© More than one half of the food j
clientele have an education above font
qualifications; ys

@ Thirty-one per cent of the ess
stable employment prior to 1%" —
layoffs; a it
e Each user supported with th z
packages an average 2.3 people;

@ Users considered governments
sible for alleviating the crisis, a0
terms of job creation and income™
tion rather than food banks and

The task force released a COPY,
report, prior to public release, ae
Resources Minister Jim Neils gaa
May 8 meeting Neilsen told R
other food bank officials that thet
more money” to raise GAIN rates: ss

“That’s as hollow an argumen
can get, considering the bucks they’
on everything else,”’ said Russell, ‘cat
pared the provincial government 5%
to the economic policies practh™
U.S. Reagan administration.

Russell said food banks may
candidates for the Social Credit le
asking their position on social #
rate increases, 5