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Canada _

By KERRY McCUAIG
omen are out to de-rail last month’s
federal budget.
Delegates to the annual meeting of the
National Action Committee on the Status
of Women, voted overwhelmingly last week-

-€nd to a Via Rail tour, whistle stopping in

communities across the country and gather-
ing testimonials on the effect the budget will
have on Canadian’s lives.

Actions against the budget accompanied
a toughly-worded statement condemning
Program cuts in the budget and accusing the
government of using the deficit as an excuse
to “push through its right-wing, free trade
agenda.”

_ “The budget assaults Canada’s distinc-
live social programs, leads to increased
income insecurity for working people and
the poor, and turns its back on the needs of
our children,” it said.

The statement pointed to cuts in unem-
ployment insurance, the erosion of univer-
sality in social programs, cutbacks in child
care and transfer payments for health and
education, the privatization and cuts of
CBC, Via Rail and the Post Office, cuts to
farm programs, regional economic devel-
opment, social advocacy groups and for-
eign aid as “only a few examples” of the
government’s attempt to “gut social pro-
grams and fundamentally change the
nature of Canada in conformity with the
free trade deal.”

The feisty budget debate continued
through the lunch recess as speakers
knocked the Tories for breaking election
promises.

“This budget will be particularly harsh
on women,” said Montreal economist Ruth
Rose. “‘We will be paying more in taxes and
getting less in services. The very fabric of
our social service system, universality, is
under attack. And make no doubt while the
family allowance program and old age
security is on the line today, health care will
be there tomorrow.”

_~ The sales tax is insanity,” charged NAC
vice-president and economist Marjorie
Cohen, outlining the effects of the proposed
goods and services tax. “It will immediately
drive up the cost of every item and service.
Fora government which is bent on fighting
inflation, the introduction of this tax is
Insane.”

The country’s largest women’s lobby also
resolved
including reaching a compromise on the

some outstanding questions,

LYNN KAYE

Meech Lake Accord. At previous conven-
tions the issue had resulted in some explo-
sive scenes between delegates from Quebec
and those from the rest of Canada.

Negotiations over the past year, which
continued to the minute the resolution hit
the floor, resulted in a statement “which
gives women in Quebec what they want,
and women in English Canada what they
want,” noted Quebec representative Mich-
elle Seguin.

The resolution, which passed to standing
applause, rejects the Meech Lake Accord,
and calls for a new democratically achieved
accord which will bring “Quebec as a full
signatory, with special status within Con-
federation.”

Such an accord would “affirm the rights
and freedoms of women, visible minorities,
the franco-phone minority outside Quebec
and persons with disabilities” and preserve
the “multicultural heritage of Canadians.”

While recognizing the five demands of
Quebec, the resolution warns that bringing
Quebec into the constitution should not be

used as “a tool by other provinces for bring-
ing constitutional changes which have not
been put before the people of the provinces
and territories of Canada.”

The resolution states that once Quebec is
a signatory to the constitution, the first
priority for constitutional change would be
the “full recognition of aboriginal rights.”

It also commits the organization to popu-
larizing its position in the coming year.

Organizational changes at this year’s
AGM, the result of an intense two-year
debate over making NAC accessible, also
met with delegate approval. Smaller, more
informal sessions brought wider delegate
participation and the executive was con-
gratulated for retiring the $30,000 deficit it
inherited from the previous year.

Other than the constant rain, the only
cloud over the event was the Conservative’s
unilateral cancelling of a 15-year-old tradi-
tion to attend the NAC lobby.

The lobby, a tightly-run question and
answer period between delegate representa-
tives and the caucuses of the three parlia-
mentary parties, is not a comfortable one
for the politicians, NAC president Lynn
Kaye noted. “We do insist on answers. We
don’t take kindly to long-winded political
answers that don’t get to the point.”

But she rejected suggestions that the
lobby has become too raucous, unwieldy or
partisan. “If these men are too emotional
and can’t contain themselves it isn’t our
fault,” she replied sarcastically, then grew
serious. “Compared to question period our
lobbies are models of decorum.”

Two weeks before the scheduled meeting,
Barbara McDougall, the Minister Respon-
sible for the Status of Women, informed
NAC the caucus would not be attending but
some cabinet ministers would be prepared
to meet individually with executive board
members.

But Kaye said the NAC executive
rejected the idea.”"Women come from
across the country to see and speak with
members of government. It is not up to the
minister to tell the women’s movement how
to operate.”

NAC, an umbrella group, representing
580 groups in every region of the country,

was personally singled out in the April -

budget. All advocacy groups funded by
Secretary of State received a 15 per cent cut
in government funding. NAC alone will
have its budget cut by 50 per cent over the
next three years.

NAC opens budget campaign Open talks

on missiles,
VANA urges

Continued from page 1

It is that danger that has prompted
West Germany to support the Soviet call
for early negotiations on short-range
weapons. The overwhelming peace sen-
timent in West Germany has created a
force that the ruling Christian Democrat
coalition must reckon with.

But the U.S. and Britain are demand-
ing the addition of the new missiles as
part of the policy of maintaining the
nuclear deterrent in Europe. They have
also opposed negotiations on the missiles
until after talks on conventional wea-
pons.

But NATO should be prepared to
conduct talks wherever there are oppor-
tunities to curb the arms race, VANA
declared. ;

“There is no reason why the negotia-
tions on conventional weapons now
going on in Vienna should not be
accompanied by negotiations on short-
range nuclear weapons, naval forces, air
forces and other parts of the military
confrontation,” said Cmdr. (Ret.) Roger
Sweeny.

Sweeny and Hoye called on the federal
government to press for a change in
NATO priorities at the Brussels meeting
and to propose that all NATO and War-
saw Pact countries accept the World
Court as the forum for settling disputes.
That should be coupled with strengthen-
ing of the UN, they said. .

But above all, Canada should not
agree to the U.S. proposal to station new
short-range missiles in Europe, VANA
said.

“Tt is unacceptable for Canada to sup-
port upgrading of NATO’s short-range
nuclear weapons or to sit on the fence
while others decide at the NATO coun-
cil,” said Col. Hoye. “At this critical
point, Canada should throw its full
weight behind negotiations on all aspects
of the military confrontation, including a
comprehensive test ban.”

Ottawa trek dramatizes free trade closures

By MARC YOUNG

Last Tuesday, three busloads of unem-
ployed and soon-to-be laid. off workers
from the Metropolitan Toronto area partic-
ipated in an “on to Ottawa trek.” The
workers, many of whom worked in plants
that have been deemed “‘free trade” casual-
ties, went to the capital to protest the effects
of the neo-conservative deal and the Tory
government’s assault on the unemployment
insurance system. ;

Metro Toronto Labour Council Presi-
dent Linda Torney and Brenda Wall, Direc-
tor of the Metro Labour Education Centre,
led the convoy to the capital city.

Many of the protesters are currently
enrolled in re-training programs at the edu-
cation centre. One of their key demands was
that federally funding of basic skills upgrad-
ing be improved, and not gutted. And they
don’t want training paid for through their
unemployment insurance contributions.

They are also angry that their centre is
scheduled to shut down in the fall when it
runs out of its $600,000 federal grant.

An assortment of trade union leaders and
members of the NDP federal caucus greeted
them on Parliament Hill to lend support.
And individual workers themselves spoke
eloquently to the issues.

Maria Reis was a clothing industry
worker, and a member of the garment
workers’ union, until her factory was shut
down a short time ago. She told the rally
about the difficulties that immigrant
workers face finding a place in programs
where they can learn English.

“It’s more difficult (finding retraining)
for those who speak English as a second
language. We should be able to go to school
and get unemployment while we are train-
ing.”

For many workers, learning how to work
with new technologies is impossible without
first acquiring basic skills in literacy and
numeracy. Yet it is extremely difficult to
collect unemployment insurance participat-
ing in programs that teach them.

Reis was also sharply critical of the prac-
tice of penalizing workers by treating sever-
ance pay as earned income, and thereby
extending the period of time that they have
to wait before collecting UI. “We worked
for and deserve this money,” she said, and it
shouldn’t be deducted from UI.

Mike Hersh is president of United Steel-
workers of America Local 2900 at the Inglis
plant in Toronto, scheduled to close in Jan-
uary of 1990. He pointed out the clear link
between the trade deal and the difficulties

facing the employees in his plant.

“The appliance industry told us that
9,000 jobs would be lost through free trade.
So our members didn’t vote for it.”” Hersh
noted that two-thirds of the workforce at
Inglis is over 45 years of age, and for them it
will be particularly difficult to find decent
work in the Toronto labour market. A
majority of workers over 45 experience a
decline in wages when they change
employment.

“Ten years ago, who would imagine the
jobs (at our plant) would be gone by 1991.
We don’t want to be laid off.’ Workers
want a good job with a decent standard of
living, said Hersh. “If we can’t get it, we
expect to be sustained and trained until we
get it.”

As Hersh and others argued, the ink on
the “free trade” deal was a signal to big
business to initiate a process whose effects in
the Metro Toronto region have already
been devastating. As of late May, 23 area
companies have declared that they will
close. That means over 5,000 jobless
workers. Other firms, including the Chrysler
Trim plant and DeHavilland Aircraft, have

_announced extensive workforce reductions

(1,000 between them). All of the closing
enterprises are unionized.

Trade union leaders and NDP members
told the demonstration about the militant
strategy that has be mounted to fight the
deal’s effects and the assault on UI.

Dick Martin, executive vice-president
ofthe Canadian Labour Congress said:
“You are going to be joined in the future by
thousands and thousands of more Canadi-
ans. We are going to fight back with every
labour council and every like-minded
group.”

Organizers of the rally had requested a
meeting with Employment Minister Bar-
bara McDougall. The minister, who the
previous day declined to talk to representa-
tives of the National Action Committee on
the Status of Women, chose not to accom-
modate the unemployed workers. She sent _
several members of her staff to field their
angry comments and questions instead.

Torney was nevertheless confident that
the day’s action made a significant impres-
sion on the government. =

Spadina Trinity MP Dan Heap tried to |
put his finger on the reason for McDou-
gall’s reluctance to meet and talk by describ- |
ing the rally as a reminder “that one day
working people will run this country.

Maybe that’s what (the minister) is afraid = j

of.”

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