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Members of the Communist Party’s newly-elected central executive commit-
tee join George Hewison on stage at convention Monday. L to r, Bill Kashtan,
Chris Frazer, Maggie Bizzell, Hewison, Sam Walsh, John MacLennan, John
Bizzell and Geoff Da Sylva. Not shown are Paula Fletcher, Liz Rowley and Tom
Morris.

Hewison acclaimed

TORONTO — Former United Fisher-
men and Allied Workers Union secre-
tary George Hewison was acclaimed
unanimously as the new leader and gen-
eral secretary of the Communist Party of
Canada at the party’s convention at
York University Monday.

In a spontaneous display of support,
the crowd of delegates, observers and
international guests were on their feet for
several minutes of sustained applause as
the motion electing the 43-year-old
former unionist as leader was affirmed
by the convention. The motion was pro-
posed to the convention by outgoing
leader William Kashtan who stepped
down at the convention after leading the
party for 23 years.

The party’s newly-elected central
committee, had earlier voted to endorse
Hewison as general secretary, the key
post on the party’s leading committee. It
also named Kashtan as chair of the party
and elected a new central executive
committee of 11 members.

Hewison, who as chair of the Lower
Mainland Budget Coalition, helped
launch the historic Solidarity campaign
in B.C. in 1983, had been labour secre-
tary in the Communist Party’s central
office since 1985.

The elections, which saw considerable
changes made in the personnel of both
the central committee and the central
executive, capped four days of conven-
tion proceedings in which delegates
debated a draft policy statement as well
as numerous resolutions and constitu-
tional amendments and heard from a
number of fraternal parties.

The changes were evident in the elec-
tion of the 65-member central committee
which took three ballots to complete
because of the keen competition for
seats. The constitution requires that can-
didates obtain at least 50 per cent plus
one of the votes cast to be elected.

Although much of the attention had
been focussed on Hewison’s election, the
committee elections also reflected the
transition in leadership from an earlier
generation, the product of the struggles
of the 1930s, to a younger generation
more familiar with the coalition politics
of the 1970s and 1980s.

But all the generations will be “march-
ing together,” declared Hewison, who
told delegates that the convention was
meeting at “an historic time for Canada.

“There is a critical debate in this coun-
try over whether Canada will continue as
an independent country or whether 1t
will continue to be absorbed into the
U.S. and Fortress America,” he said.

In that debate, the Communist Party
“offers the Canadian people a realistic

and reliable alternative,” he said refer-
ring to the program outlined in the par-
ty’s policy statement.

“This convention has also addressed
the Canadian people’s concern over the
companion piece to the trade deal — the
Meech Lake Accord,” he said. “We offer
the people of Canada the only solution to
the crisis brought on by Meech
Lake — a constitution ... based on the
full right of self-determination, a consti-
tution which supports and enhances the
rights of women, (and) aboriginal peo-
ples and guarantees working people the
unfettered right to organize, to strike and
to picket.

“This convention has offered the
Canadian people a rejoinder to the drive
towards militarization in the Tory white
paper ... (it) has offered the Canadian
people the alternative to privatization,
deregulation, attacks on living standards
and social services and attacks on trade
union rights.

“Now is the time to take the message
to the Canadian people,” he told the
convention.

Hewison urged delegates to “open a
dialogue with all progressives interested
in an alternative — with new Demo-
crats, progressive Liberals, trade unions
and people’s movements of all kinds.”

Throughout his address, punctuated
repeatedly by applause, Hewison told
party members that it was ‘a good time
to be a communist.

“In the not-too-distant past, Commu-
nists stood virtually alone in the fight for
peace,” he reminded them. “Today,
peace is the passion of the overwhelming
majority of the inhabitants of our planet
and our country.

“Consider the fighting spirit of the
Canadian people, its working class and
trade union movement in particular, as it
rallies to defend Canadian independence
....” he said.

“And can we remember a time which
produced such an explosion of the
movements of the people, fighting back
against the neo-conservative agenda?”

In taking on the position of leadership,
Hewison said he would be “calling on
you, every one of you and through you,
our many friends and _ supporters
throughout this land.

‘““We have peace to secure; we have a
country to save; we have a continuing
struggle with the transnational corpora-
tions; we have the gang at Sussex Drive
to oust; we have a government to win
based on new policies for peace, inde-
pendence and social progress; and we
have a long term date with our destiny,
which is a socialist Canada.”

TRIBUNE PHOTO — SEAN GRIFFIN

GP targets trade

deal in ‘historic
fight for Canada’

TORONTO — Calling the fight against
the Mulroney-Reagan trade deal “am his-
toric battle for Canada,” delegates to the
central convention of the Communist Party
Monday called ‘“‘on every party member,
club and committee to step up participation
... in the campaign to defeat the deal.”

The party’s resolution came only one day
before the Conservative government of
Prime Minister Brian Mulroney introduced
legislation into the Commons to implement
the trade agreement. The 123-page- bill
tabled Tuesday by International Trade
Minister John Crosbie would amend 27
pieces of existing legislation.

“The defeat of the trade deal is an historic
battle for Canada requiring the maximum
mobilization of Canadians into a powerful
extra-parliamentary force between now and
the next federal elec-
tion and beyond,” a
special action reso-
lution adopted unani-
mously by the con-
vention declared.

It emphasized that
Communists ‘‘in
working class and
democratic organi-
zations have a deci-
sive role to play in
bringing about this
mobilization” and urged that they make the
campaign “the priority struggle in the
period ahead.”

The resolution called on CP members to:

e@ Take immediate action to strengthen
anti-free trade coalitions, to assist in their
formation where they do not exist and to
pay particular attention to the June 12 day
of action organized by the Pro-Canada
Network;

@ Find the ways to link the trade deal
with other issues, to involve other groups;

e Draw up imaginative plans emphasiz-
ing extra-parliamentary demonstrative
actions;

@ Promote and support activities “which
will unite Canadians in action against the
trade deal;”

@ Popularize the labour movement’s
alternatives to the trade deal.

More than 20 delegates lined the floor
microphones on the final day of the four-
day convention to back the resolution and
to underline the demand for action.

“We have endorsed our policy and
elected a new leadership. Now we need to
determine what we do when we go home
tomorrow,” said Manitoba delegate and
provincial CP leader Lorne Robson.

“This resolution spells it out clearly.”

He warned delegates that if the fight
against free trade isn’t won, “‘it will have a
negative impact on everything else — the
women’s movement, the labour movement.
We must make this a priority struggle,” he
said.

Robson noted that the trade union
movement had taken a decisive stand
against the trade deal but added: “It hasn’t
yet been won to the kind of action that will
rally the working class.

“That’s got to be our job,” he said.

Alberta delegate Dave Werlin echoed
Robson’s call for action by the organized
labour movement, calling on delegates to
“make sure that trade unionists are
involved in coalitions against free trade.

“If there is no mobilization, then we can
lose with even perfect policy,” he said. “And

ROBSON

that point has to be driven home in the trade
union movement.”

He urged delegates to press for action
through the summer months, without wait-
ing for an end to the vacation period.

“This is one time when we can’t wait for
September — by September, it may be too
late,” he warned.

“We've got a role to play in telling
workers the real story about free trade,”
Hamilton CP organizer Liz Rowley told
delegates.

That has already begun, she noted, point-
ing to a newly-published brochure about
the effects of free trade in the steel industry,
one of several leaflets against free trade put
out by the CP.

“We've got to tell workers that free trade
doesn’t mean jobs and guaranteed access to
markets — it means plant closures, more
non-union plants and misery for workers.”

And free trade is more than just a
government plan — the legislation is already
ready for Parliament, said B.C. delegate
Fred Wilson.

The first government bill to implement
the trade deal was introduced into the
Commons Tuesday.

Wilson also emphasized that it would
require more than a federal election to
defeat the trade deal.

“We have to fight the trade deal now and
after the election,” he said.

. Quebec delegate Marianne Roy called on
convention delegates to “‘start today... and
devote all our energies to mobilizing organ-
izations against this trade deal.”

The resolution, unanimously endorsed
with a standing ovation by delegates,
underscored the importance given to the
campaign against the trade deal which dom-
inated much of the discussion during the
four days.

The 140 delegates had earlier adopted a
detailed draft policy statement entitled “The
Issues — Sovereignty And Survival,” which
focussed on opposition to the trade deal and
the Conservative government’s peace poli-
cies.

“The issues are clear,” it stated. “Either
economic and military integration within
the U.S. empire, or the path of independent
economic development which would enlarge
the home market, create jobs and assist
Canada in establishing trade relations with
all countries in a mutually satisfactory basis.
That possibility is there providing Canada
pursues a consistent policy of peaceful coex-
istence and breaks from the policies of cold
war and confrontation.”

Convention committees spent much of
the four days working on more than 300
amendments to the policy statement sub-
mitted by CP clubs and committees, as well
as several resolutions.

Those resolutions, later endorsed by the
convention, covered a wide range of issues,
including: support for a just peace in the
Middle East based on an end to Israeli
occupation and negotiations involving the
PLO; support for aboriginal rights, includ-
ing immediate federal action to negotiate
land claims and grant self-government; a
call for government action to alleviate the
growing crisis of poverty in Canada; sup-
port for human rights amendments to
ensure rights for gays and lesbians in Can-
ada; and a call for stepped-up action against
racism in Canada.

Delegates alse agreed to hold conven-
tions more frequently, voting for biennial,
rather than triennial meetings.

Pacific Tribune, May 25, 1988 « 3

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