: < ? RIGHT: Se ETS of spovesbars: Fepreseriting union jocate across the country, march on to Parliament Hill to join the huge throng that massed in front of the Parlia- wCunuunuctu IrUm page i sal. publicly-funded quality day care as every parent’s and child’s right in Canada; and for economic policies designed to create jobs and economic security. The protest was so large, that, as CLC president Dennis McDermott observed from the steps of parlia- ment, thousands were still arriving through the gates leading to Canada’s legislative chamber even as the rally was winding down. including the CLC, the coalition against high interest rates encom- passed 25 Canada-wide organiza- tions representing farmers, con- sumers, co-operatives, environ- mental organizations, Native peoples, senior citizens, students, teachers, women and the churches. CLC president McDermott, who with Quebec Federation of Labor president Louis Laberge co- chaired the rally, noted its historical importance and its uni- ‘We don’t want any Reaganomics here’ OTTAWA — The breadth of the Nov. 21 rally was demonstrated in the lineup of speakers that took the podium outside the parliament buildings. Nancy McDonald, rep- resenting the organization that CLC president McDermott intro- duced as ‘‘one of the most exciting organizations to spring up in recent times,” Women Against Rising Prices (WARP), blasted the high interest rate policies of the federal government as part of ‘‘Reagan- omics.”” “‘We don’t need Reagan, his neutron bomb and Reaganomics in our country,’’ she said, ‘‘and we sure as hell don’t need Clark- onomics.”’ Looking out over the ocean of banners and the many bonfires lit to stave off the cold, she said: “This mighty demonstration is tell- ing those in parliament — no more -foreclosures, no more evictions, down with interest rates, roll back prices.” In an interview following the rally, McDonald emphasized that “*the money is there’’ for the gov- ernment to help improve living standards. ‘‘We want the more than $6 billion they waste each year on military spending drastically re- duced and the money applied to social programs for ordinary Canadians.”’ McDonald also told the rally that the ‘‘splendid coalition’’ that the CLC organized to fight interest rates has the beginnings of the al- ternative to “‘Liberal-Tory bank- rupt economic policies.”’ “We believe the coalition must continue to unite all progressive and democratic forces and that it will centre on the alternate eco- nomic policies our country needs to take it out of the hands of the multi- national corporations, bank and trust companies and out of the pre- sent economic crisis,”’ she said. National Farmers Union vice- president Wayne Easter described the grim toll high interest rates have taken of farmers throughout Can- ada. ‘‘Bankruptcy figures are up to 20 percent among farmers and they only begin to tell of the hardship they’re facing,”’ he said. “Many are just quietly quitting and it’s forcing some to turn their familiés into slaves. When a farmer sells out, he’s not just losing his job and a home but the family heritage handed to him by his parents and grandparents.”’ Easter noted the connection be- tween the ruin of farmers and the plight of thousands of industrial workers, citing the massive layoffs at Massey-Ferguson in Brantford and Toronto as tragic examples. The rally also heard from repre- sentatives of the Canadian Teach- ers Federation, the National Ac- tion Committee on the Status of Women, the Canadian Association for Sensible Interest Rates (CASIR) and Dan Simpson of the Senior Citizens’ Federation. Represented on the podium were such groups as the Canadian Fed- eration of Students, church groups, the Inuit Tapirisat, the As- sociation of United Ukrainian Ca- nadians and many others who didn’t get the chance to address the rally because time ran out. Pensioner Dan Simpson struck a responsive chord among the thou- sands of protesters. ‘‘We remem- ber the last depression when mort- gage foreclosures robbed people of their homes and lifetime savings,”’ he said. ““We were there . . . surely we don’t have to wait until our society is crippled before the government takes action.” PACIFIC TRIBUNE—NOV. 27, 1981—Page 12 FISHERMAN PHOTOS —ELIAS STAVRIDES queness. ‘This rally is unique both in the number of people par- ticipating,”’ he said, ‘“‘and because it has sought such a wide diversity of people from all-regions of this - country. MacEachen and Trudeau and the rest of these turkeys better start paying attention.”’ He slammed the big business government in Ottawa for what he called its ‘‘insane’’ economic policies which are victimizing Canadians through higher interest rates that are robbing them of their jobs and even their homes. He slammed federal finance minister MacEachen and Gerald Bouey, governor of the Bank of Canada, for the high interest rates policy which, he stressed, has only benefitted the banks, giving them unprecedented profits.. He accused Bouey of ‘‘throwing ‘Tocks at working-class Canadians from his glass house’. In targeting the banks, however, McDermott emphasized that Parliament Hill was chosen over the Bank of Canada headquarters for a good reason. ‘‘Ultimately the government has to bear the respon- sibility for this mess,” McDermott said. The Nov. 12 federal budget brought no relief for Canadians from interest rates — currently in . excess of 17 percent — rising food prices, rent increases. or massive layoffs and plant closures, he said. He rejected the message advanc- ed by Bouey and MacEachen that interest rates are too complicated for the government to control pointing out: ‘‘In 1976 they said thou shalt not negotiate wage in- creases beyond 6 percent, and it was done. “‘Let them walk into that house of iniquity on Monday morning, (Nov. 23) and do the same damn thing on interest rates,’ he said, pointing to the Parliament Buildings. QFL president Louis Laberge summed up the most important aspect of the protest besides its breadth and size. ‘‘This demonstration shouldn’t be seen as aone shot deal,’’ he said. ‘‘It’s the beginning of a fight we’ll carry on as long as we have to, perhaps even to work stoppages to move this damned government.”’ He stressed the importance of follow-up protests and actions by the provincial federations and * pledged the QFL to such actions. ‘We'll go as far as we have to, to get them to bend down as much as we want them to bend,’ Laberge told the cheering demonstrators. . with a CLC PROTESTER . message for the governor of the Bank of Canada. It was also Laberge’s sad duty to break the news to the rally of a tragic accident involving a busload of Quebec members of the Public Service Alliance of Canada. One person was killed and _ several seriously injured when bad weather caused the bus coming from Quebec City to skid and roll over some 40 miles southwest of that ci- ty. (Labor's side—weokly - No other paper in the province covered the historic § CLC rally.in Ottawa as the Tribune did. It’s not that §! other papers didn’t have the resources or the staff. They § > do. But they always look at labor from the point of view 9) of those who sit on the other side of the bargaining 9) © table. Published weekly at Suite 101 — 1416 Commercial Drive, Vancouver, B.C. V5L 3X9. Phone 251-1186 Read the paper that rl ll for gee O City ortown: 2635. thas Province. ORE an et ee ae PostalCode. = ==. | am enclosing: 1 year $120 2 years $220 6 months $7 LD OldO New Foreign 1 year $15 0 SD ansch me ntater .) ye $ ree CLT LED LP LEY LED AP” M,C TTS © ity “i hs os 465 4 Pr a he’ TRIBUNE PHOTO—TOM MORRIS Read the paper tae gives a fighting perspective — on FE the labor movement, on international events, the peace § movement and more. Get it every week with a sub to the Tribune — still British Columbia’s only labor weekly. ‘ment Hill. large turnout. Estimating it 4!) ment Buildings. LEFT: Some of the 200-odd unionists from British Columbia wht took part in the historic CLC demonstration. : One hundred and twenty tho sand stood in silence to pay tribu to sister Claudette Hebert Boisvet!: who Laberge called ‘‘the first mal tyr in the fight to bring down if terest rates.’ The rally heard from both | Robert Gaulin, leader of thé} Quebec Teachers Central, (CEQ) | and Norbert Rodrigue of the Col" | federation of National Tradé) unions (CSN), who like Laberg¢| stressed the need for all-in unity 1) tackle the multinationals and theit| governments that are at the root 0! | the economic crisis smashing) Canadian living standards. a3 The three Quebec labor bodies clearly did an outstanding job i organizing some 40,000-50,00V) protesters participating in the rally: Representative of the United Ele trical Workers who mustered ee to the 1,000 members they had ain” ed for, reported that they waited about two hours for the Queber contingent to pass before taking their place in the march to Parlie The United Auto Workee west : equally ‘successful in mobilizing # almost 7,000, the UAW su: their goal of 5,000 as the hard-hit industries represented by the unio? had their laid off casualties fillin® | the ranks of the marchers. :