1 ce | Socred manoeuvring In the midst of the federal and civic election campaigns the people of B.C. should not lose sight of what could be shaping up as another Socred manoeuvre to frustrate public opposition to their policies and leadership and to give the Socred government a new lease on life. The Socreds are meeting at their annual convention Oct. 20-21 in Penticton ata time when the party’s popularity is at the lowest point since the last provincial election. Mass public opposition to Socred policies and the antics of Premier Vander Zalm, and the in-fighting over the spoils of privatization and positions of power in the Socred hierarchy, have brought the party into public disfavour. Public opinion polls indicate that as things stand the Socreds face political disaster. Taking advantage of the Socred’s difficulties, the provincial Liberals are hoping that they could pick up the pieces and revive their moribund party around a new leader. Millionaire developer Jack Poole has been touted as possible candidate for leader at a coming B.C. Liberal Party convention. Faced with this crisis, the top brass of the Socred party and their right-wing backers have been engaged in a program of damage control aimed at restoring their political fortunes in the eyes of the public. They see the coming Socred convention as the means to do that. It would be a mistake to underestimate the ability of the Socred leadership and their big business backers to manoeuvre to find a way out of their present difficulties. They demonstrated that talent before the last provincial election when they manipulated Vander Zalm into becoming the new provincial leader, and with the aid of the media, restored the Socreds to power. The scenario for the Socred convention is now being set: hold a secret ballot at the opening of the convention on support for the premier and the government. All of Vander Zalm’s critics in the party have come out in support of a secret ballot, Vander Zalm has said he will abide by it, and the media (especially the Vancouver Sun) have given it support. , “Give the grass roots a voice ina secret ballot” is being urged by all sides inthe Socred party. The idea of a secret ballot to give the grass roots a voice sounds good. There’s only one fly in the ointment: most of the delegates at the convention were not elected by the grass roots. They were hand picked by the constituency executives. It’s widely expected that in this staged vote there will be a minority vote against Vander.Zalm and the government, but that the convention will uphold him and the government. The message they hope to send out to the public is that the convention has confirmed support for Vander Zalm and the government on the promise that the premier and his cabinet will do better and should be given another chance. A secret ballot by a hand-picked convention will not solve the problems facing B.C. The Socred government will continue with its right wing policies which are not up for review at this convention. The struggle against those policies must continue until they are changed. The public should not be taken in by a rigged Socred convention and “secret” ballot. “Free trade. We're getting ready now.” External Affairs Canada ivi Canada Affaires exterieures This is such an exciting time for me. Despite the fact that I'm the least trusted prime minister in our country's history, my government has struck a deal that I know will push this country into even more of a subservient role in it's own national affairs. That's a small price to pay for the potential wealth that's available for some of us. fe BUSINESS & CIRCULATION MANAGER Mike Proniuk GRAPHICS Angela Kenyon Published weekly at 2681 East Hastings Street Vancouver, B.C. V5K 1Z5 Phone (604) 251-1186 Subscription rate: Canada: @. $20 one year @ $35 two years @ Foreign $32 one year Second class mail registration number 1560 —— — | was only a short time ago that we, along with their many friends and family members, marked their 60th wedding anniversary. So it with sadness that. we report the passing of Jean Bird, whose death Sept. 28 at age 82 followed closely that of hér husband Harry. Jean left behind four children, 10 the Stockholm Peace Appeal in the Fifties, years before the current widespread popu- larity of the nuclear disarmament move- pee Ome i Soe |S a eR) grandchildren and six great-grandchildren. But her family, the devotion to which was noted at her memorial Oct. 4, was not Jean’s only legacy. As long-time friend and civic activist Mickey Beagle noted ina eulogy, Jean’s life marked six decades of struggle for a better world through activi- ties in the women’s, peace and unem- ployed movements. Jean, who was born March 18, 1906, in England, was active in the “block commit- tees” which fought evictions and furniture repossessions of jobless Vancouver fami- lies in the Thirties. She persevered in main- taining the “tin canner” activity raising funds for the unemployed, even after the city banned it during the Depression. Jean was instrumental in the campaigns for social housing and child care in that decade. Her contribution led to the estab- lishment of the Strathcona child care cen- tre in 1943, the first such service in Vancouver. Jean was a participant the Mother’s March of 1935, in which women demand- ing the abolition of the slave-labour Relief Camps formed their ranks into a heart shape that has been immortalized in a famous photo. She was active in the Housewives League and Women Against High Prices which sought to curb gouging food prices in the Thirties. Jean was a member of the Congress of Canadian Women and was on the streets promoting ment. She continued that involvement until the present, participating in the Walk for Peace march in Vancouver last April. Other activities for Jean, who was a long-standing member of the Communist Party to which she attributed her inspira- tion, included the successful fight against the Tory government’s attempt to de- index senior’s pensions, and the protest against the Socreds’ imposition of drug prescription fees. As friend Mickey noted in her eulogy, if they handed out gold medals for social involvement, Jean would have been a sure winner. Donations to the Tribune were made in her memory. * * * W: also note with sadness the passing of Steve Josul, a long-time Tribune reader and supporter who died at Van- couver General Hospital on Oct. 2. Steve was born in Bukovina province in the Ukraine in 1910, and came to this country before his second birthday. His family settled in a homestead in the Ukrainian-Canadian farming community near Lamont, Alta. The necessity of joining the work force to help feed his family curtailed Steve’s education at the Grade 5 level. In 1941 a devastating hail storm destroyed the crop and his family moved to East Coulee, near Drumheller, where Steve joined the prim- ISSUES arily Ukrainian- and Hungarian-Canadian workforce in the area’s coal mines. It was there that Steve became involved with the trade union movement, the progressive Association of United Ukrainian Canadi- ans and the Workers Benevolent Associa- tion, beginning commitments he was to © follow throughout his life. The ending of World War II signifi- cantly reduced the demand for coal, and in 1948 the family settled in Calgary, where Steve took employment in the Canadian Pacific Railway shop. He became secre- tary of the WBA, a position he continued to hold after his retirement when he and his family moved to Penticton in 1974. There he contributed to the area’s peace movement and to Canada-USSR friend- ship activities. His daughter, Vancouver . resident Audrey Moysiuk, recalls that her parents’ recreation room was the scene of frequent fund-raising activities for the WBA and the Tribune. He and his wife Jean, with whom he would have celebrated a 57th wedding anniversary this November, moved to Vancouver shortly before his death. A memorial was held at the AUUC Hall in Vancouver on Oct. 6, where donations in lieu of flowers were collected for the Trib- une. * * * Ithough the noted Canadian pub- lisher faces substantial losses because of a book store chain’s deep discounting of his new Canadian Encyclopedia, Edmon- ton’s Mel Hurtig says he is not financially destitute. And the outspoken opponent of the Canada-US. trade agreement makes a comparison between his misfortune and that facing Canadians if the Tory govern- ment is re-elected this November. ‘Lroubles arose for Hurtig Publishers Ltd. when Coles Book Store Ltd., a wholly- owned subsidiary of the Southam news- paper chain, began selling the heralded new edition for $99. Another chain, the British-owned W.H. Smith Canada Ltd., soon followed suit, leaving small book- sellers with no customers for the encyc- lopedia, which most must sell at the suggested retail price of $225. The $99 price tag was a loss leader, yet represented no actual loss for the Coles chain, which purchased the books at the large-volume discount rate of $79 a set. The price-slashing not only undercut Hur- tig’s offer of a $50-dollar price refund for those who turned in their first edition, but caused substantial losses when the pub- lisher, to alleviate hardship for small retailers, accepted all unsalable copies as returns. (Those retailers had to pay $103- $105 per set.) Hurtig figures he can resell many of the returned copies eventually, but estimates his firm will still lose some $475,000 in sales. Nonetheless, the Council of Canadi- ans spokesperson remains philosophical and likens the effect of the mass price cut to a free-trade future in which huge Amer- | ican firms would enter Canada and under- cut Canadian businesses — probablyeven | that of Coles Books. Noted Hurtig in a recent newspaper interview: “It’s great in the short term for the consumer. But in the long term, people without jobs aren’t going to be buying very much.” 4 Pacific Tribune, October 17,1988 sacha Sea =~ oT: OO Rr OO i rs 7 6D CODD tc ca wi Pe OS SS ease