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INTERNATIONAL FOCUS

Tom Morris

_ Giving peace
achance...

What a kick in the political
teeth Reagan got last week
When Costa Rican President
Oscar Arias was awarded the
Nobel Peace Prize!

Just days after Rambo Ron
addressed the OAS saying he

~ will demand millions more for
his contra war; days after his
UN ambassador stalked out of
the United Nations during
Nicaraguan President Ortega’s
Speech, Arias wins the presti-
gious award — then correctly
tells the press it was the plan
for peace, and not an individ-
ual, which won the prize.

Now Reagan will have to
Spit in the face of world public
Opinion to ram through the con-
tra aid bill. The U.S. Congress
will have to publicly discredit
Itself to meet Reagan’s demand

BillDay™ FREE PRESS

MORE BLOOD PARTII

No Congress, no law, no Sandinista can stop hitn.

— something they are not like-
ly to do.

Everyone knows Reagan’s
scenario to kill the Arias plan
for peace in Central America.
It’s simple, just like its author:

First, Reagan ‘“‘welcomes’’
the plan because he has no
other option;

Then he publicly says Nica-
ragua will never abide by its
provisions;

Then he says Nicaragua, by
complying with the provisions
is engaged in trickery;

He then calls for stepped up
contra attacks and funding;

The continuing war will then
‘““prove’’ the Arias plan has
failed.

Then Reagan can step in,
something he dearly wishes to
do before leaving office next
year.

Oscar Arias winning the
Nobel Peace Prize is a major

REAGAN

blow to Reagan’s scenario.
Arias’ public plea to ‘‘Give
peace a chance’’ in Central
America can overcome Rea-
gan’s option of continued kill-
ing and destruction.

The Nobel Prize committee
in Oslo had better take care
Reagan doesn’t begin funding
some Norwegian contras.

Two debacles
in one week

“Over my dead body,”
Reagan told reporters who

~ questioned him about the dan-

ger that his nominee for the
Supreme Court would be de-
feated= =

Unfortunately none of them
accepted the challenge, be-
cause last week Judge Robert
Bork, who represented Rea-
gan’s hopes to swing the coun-
try’s highest court sharply to
the right for years to come, was
defeated by the Senate.

It was a dramatic defeat both
for conservatism and for Rea-
gan personally. In a welcome
change, the organized opposi-
tion to Bork and his draconian
views outclassed the usually
effective right-wing lobby.

The public outcry which met
the nomination was quite
unprecedented. ‘‘Stop Bork”’
demonstrations erupted

civil rights, approaching that of

. Attila the. Hun, proved too
“much even for the Great

Communicator to sell to the
country.

everywhere: His, record on |

This defeat for Reagan came
just days before he awoke to
discover his contra fortunes
had been torpedoed in far-off
Norway.

It just wasn’t the Gipper’s
week.

Move over
Admiral Nelson

The United States navy is
the world’s largest, most
sophisticated navy. It has
more ships in mothballs than
most nations have in active
service.

Its attack carrier fleets patrol
every sea. Its submarine fleet
rings the USSR, each new Tri-
dent carrying enough nuclear
strike power to destroy every
major Soviet target.

The electronic _ gear,
search-and-destroy equip-
ment, state-of-the-art aircraft
and helicopters, guided missile
systems carried aboard U.S.
naval vessels is awesome.

How, then, to explain the
glee being displayed over the
sinking last week of one Ira-
nian 7-meter long speedboat by
the mighty U.S. navy? Why
the endless reports, complete
with maps?

Are military analysts and the
public supposed to be impress-
ed?

»Have.we. witnessed another»

Battle of the Coral Sea, -

another sinking of the Bis-
mark?

Can we now sleep safely in
our beds?

Tougher
sanctions
demanded

Continued from page 1

SACTU (South African Congress
of Trade Unions) Support Com-
mittee. Net proceeds from a collec-
tion were to sent to SACTU and
the Congress of South African
Trade Unions (COSATU).

Makatini charged that the
Thatcher government had at the
Commonwealth summit waged an
“unprecedented orchestrated cam-
paign of disinformation ... the
objective being one of blunting the
momentum in favour of sanc-
tions.”

“For the first time, the Com-
monwealth has taken a position
despite the demand for a so-called
consensus ... the Commonwealth
has opted for sanctions despite
Margaret Thatcher’s intransigence
and opposition,” Makatini declared
to applause.

Canadians against apartheid
would like to see Ottawa do much
more to end racial discrimination
in South Africa, he acknowledged.

But he praised Canada for play-
ing “an extremely positive role in
making common cause with the
front line states, with SWAPO
(South West Africa People’s
Organization), with the ANC and
with the Caribbean countries and
the African countries against Mar-
garet Thatcher.

The congress spokesman.
“sooner or later, the Margaret
Thatcher government is going to
face a situation like that of the
Reagan adminstration, when the
American people forced the Uni-
ted States to adopt sanctions.”

limited, but Soviets eat well and with the
“arefree nature of people who know that
Staple foods are cheap, plentiful, and
€re will always be more tomorrow.
Oviets are very well dressed, al-
Ough they will all tell you horror stories
about what they had to go through to get
S suit or that pair ofjeans. They are, on
€ whole, one of the best educated
Populations in the world, with a decent
€vel of health care, enviable social sec-
unity and a fairly fluid social structure. Of
Sourse, there are ‘‘buts’’ in all of those
areas,
It is precisely because they have
"eached this level that they have grown
Utely conscious of what they don’t
ave. Soviets — particularly young ones
__8re not interested in comparing them-
‘elves with most of the world. The only
tenficant comparison for them is how
Cy rate against the advanced countries
ee West, like Canada, and they are
of Oking only of the prosperous sections
these societies.
th hey see that in their lives they lack
s € Tange of refined consumer goods and
Weve that Canadians — always pro-
ded they can afford to — take for
Sfanted. Soviets feel stifled by bureauc-
Y, petty rules and mindless proce-
€s, and wish they had more social
Nobility. Just about every one I’ve met
. S to travel, and deplores the non-
°NVertible currency, the cold war bar-
ey and the bureaucratic obstacles that
ake It so difficult.
full ittually all see such improvements as
Y within the scope of socialism to

provide, although many frankly take the
attitude that they’Il ‘‘believe it when they

-see it.”’ I've never met. anyone who

contemplates a return to capitalism, but
sometimes. I wonder whether they

understand the full complexity of the:

danger. :
But what about perestroika? What

movement is actually taking place in
oples’ lives?

P This question receives a very different
answer depending on whom you ask.
Intellectuals tend to speak, with some
satisfaction, of exciting new books and
articles, of movies released from censor-
ship, and the growing climate of open
discussion. Western journalists measure
progress frugally in terms of street
demonstrations and exit-visas granted.
Workers, I’m sorry to say, are the most
likely to assert that at this stage they see
no movement, only confusion. _

So far, I have only once received a
gratifyingly simple and straightforward
answer to the question, ““how is peres-
troika affecting your life?’’ It came from
a élass of grade 10 history students at
Moscow’s municipal school number 622.

When I put the question to them, I at
first received tedious recitations about
the quality of heavy piping and new oil-
fields in Siberia. Gradually, however,

he ideas" > =
Soa got up. “‘T don’t know if this is
what you mean,” she said, “but we have
a new computer class downstairs. We
never had that before’’. She was right.
After nearly missing the electronics rev-
olution, the USSR is now racing to catch

A still from It Isn’t Easy To Be Young, a documentary that has shattered forevert

he silly

stereotypes of uncomplicated problem-free youth.

up. Last September school no. 622 re-
ceived its first class with 12 Soviet-made
“‘Elektronika’’ pe’s, and kids who never
saw a computer before are now learning
to program.

Another student stood up. ‘‘We have
the anti-alcohol drive,’ he pointed out,
‘“‘and you never see a drunk on the street
anymore. My parents have stopped
drinking.’’ There was general laughter at
this, but it does seem to be the case that
the double policy of restricting supply
and trying to educate against alcohol-
abuse is beginning to. have some.impact
on hardened drinking patterns.

Finally, another girl offered this: ‘‘I
went to see the film, Js /t Easy To Be
Young?, with my parents. Afterwards we
had a good talk. We are talking more
about things these days.”’ /s /t Easy To Be

Young? is the controversial documentary
about Soviet teenagers that has shattered
forever all of the silly stereotypes of
uncomplicated problem-free youth
under socialism.

These examples may be small, but

they express real, tangible and hopefully

permanent changes that are happening
today in people’s lives.

And that brings me to what I wanted to
say in this column: Soviet people have
everything they need. In fact, given their
turbulent history, they have reached an
impressive level-of development. But
they are; on the whole, a strong, decent,
thoughtful, hard-working and long-
suffering people who deserve much
more. *‘Perestroika’’ is the word they are
using these days to sum up their hopes
and aspirations.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE, OCTOBER 21, 1987 9