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July 6, 1988
50°

Vol. 51, No. 26

unity demands

Representatives of labour, community
groups and seniors organizations all say it:
the Social Credit government of Premier
Bill Vander Zalm is morally bankrupt, and
a provincial election should be held imme-
diately.

Most frequently cited in interviews con-

ducted by the Tribune is the style of Vander

Zalm’s leadership — the gross interference
in government affairs, the lack of demo-
cracy and the ham-fisted way the premier
has pursued the government’s destructive
policies, for which the Socreds have
received no mandate.

And others take care to note that which-
ever leader heads Social Credit,-it is still a
government hell-bent on_ privatization,
union-bashing and generally making the
province a haven for big business.

Recently B.C. Communist Party leader
Maurice Rush called for a provincial elec-
tion following the government’s defeat in

Socreds must go
Rush, page 2

the traditionally safe seat of Boundary-
Similkameen. Rush said the New Demo-
crats’ victory -in- .a~ Socred... stronghold
heralded a province-wide rejection of the
premier and his government’s positions on
free trade, privatization and trade union
and people’s rights.

And last week the surprise resignation of
Brian Smith as attorney general prompted
NDP leader Mike Harcourt to call for an
election “to clear the air.”

Smith, who still sits as Socred MLA for
Oak Bay-Gordon Head, charged that inter-
ference from the premier’s office — he
cited the premier’s inquiry into possible
RCMP investigations concerning Vander

Zalm’s business partner, Peter Toigo, and
his handling of the abortion issue — had
made the job untenable.

“This is a government that’s out of con-
trol, that doesn’t understand parliamentary
institutions, that doesn’t understand demo-
cracy,” Harcourt charged.

see ISSUES page 2

That tough admonition might serve as
the theme of the 19th CPSU confer-
ence — an extraordinary political event
which was convened to evaluate and
develop an extraordinary situation; to
re-orient and galvanize the Communist
Party as it confronts, if not its most diffi-
cult, then certainly its most complicated
and uncertain challenge since 1917.

“The coming years will determine the
future of our country and the destiny of

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: The Friends of Strathcona Park are establishing a base camp in a disputed area of B.C.’s oldest wilderness park (inset)

f during the summer. The camp, recalling the one pictured above that maintained protestors of the planned mining

g ©perations in the park last February and March, is intended to draw attention to provincial government's policy of changing

Z the boundaries of B.C.’s provincial parks to allow resource exploitation within them — and specifically, to oppose Cream
Silver Mines’ intent to pursue its mineral exploration claim in the park, put on temporary moratorium while a government

: wilderness advisory committee toured the province in a series of hearings that ended last month. The protesters, many

; residents of the nearby communities of Campbell River, Courtenay and Port Alberni, and local gulf islands, point out that

t Not only is the action destructive to B.C.’s wilderness heritage, but threatens the local water supply and fishery as well. The

. Summer base camp will assist visitors to the park, conduct civil disobedience workshops — 64 people were arrested for

2 eroekade actions last spring — and “maintain a watch against industrial intrusions,’ a release from Friends of Strathcona

ites.

. ———

e

‘| F ins July 15

; | Folk fest begins July

y -

B ’ By FRED WEIR

s Perestroika is hovering at a critical

Z crossroads, Soviet leader Gorbachev

Z told the opening of the 19th CPSU con-

Z ference in the Kremlin June 28, as the

) political life of Soviet society grew visibly

more interesting and complex, literally

: by the hour. Unless the Communist

f Party can succeed in focussing and

y directing all of the energies and potential

e The Vusisizwe Players will be bringing women’s contribution to the anti-apar- now revealing itself, he said, the restruc-

) theid struggle in South Africa to the 11th annual Vancouver Folk Music Festival turing drive could falter.

A danger exists, he warned, that the
Party could “flinch in the face of the
complexity and the unusualness of the
new tasks, succumbing to passions and
emotions, embracing superficially attrac-
tive causes, and indulging in various
campaigns.” Or, conversely, it could
simply “lament the ironies of life and
drop back to sleep, which would suit all
those who prefer the times of stagna-
tion.”

©n July 15-17. With fellow South Africans in the band Earth Players they'll
4 €ngage in song and dance and perform their play, You Have Struck a Rock (also
; Slated to run at the Vancouver East Cultural Centre July 19-Aug. 7). Concen-
tration camp survivor and singer-songwriter Esther Bejarano, Chilean com-
Poser Hugo Torres, Vancouver singer-songwriter Stephen Fearing, Toronto’s
Eileen McGann, punk-folkers Malcolm’s Interview and the Real Sounds of
Zimbabwe are a few of the other dozens of varied acts that make up the three
day event, which starts with the first of three evening concerts at Jericho
Beach Park on Friday, July 15 at 6 p.m., and includes two full days of area stage
Performances beginning at 10 a.m. Tickets are available at the gate or by
: Phoning 879-2931.

ND et te NP

the Soviet system,” said Gorbachev.
“For us this future will be what we make
of it.”

Gorbachev has defined the central
problem to be faced as one of democrat-
izing Soviet society — though net all
delegates to the conference appeared to
agree with him, or even to fully under-
stand him on this point.

see 19TH page 5

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