BRITISH COLUMBIA

The session of the B.C. legislature open-
ing in Victoria this week will have a major
impact on the lives of British Columbians
for years to come.

The main issues up for debate will be
the privatization program of the Vander
Zalm government, the free trade deal, the
plan to “decentralize” the government
structure, and — following the cabinet
review, announced in August — all the
social programs, including health, welfare
and education.

Premier Bill Vander Zalm has already
announced major policies which have not
been presented to the legislature for debate
or approval. Many of his initiatives have
been hidden, not only from the public, but
from MLAs and the cabinet itself. He has
demonstrated utter contempt for the
democratic process, acting in the most
autocratic manner of any previous pre-
mier in history.

The Vander Zalm government has no
mandate for most of the new policies he
has announced. His one-man dictatorial
style of'leadership and far right wing poli-
cies have already alienated the majority of
the people, as recent polls indicate. The
Socred government enters this session of
the legislature with a much narrower base
of support among the public than was the
case at the last session.

In particular, Vander Zalm has no

mandate to pursue the government’s top -

priority, its privatization program. The
Socreds have already decided that every-
thing in B.C. is up for sale and have
announced the sale of major Crown corpo-
rations and public services to the private
sector. No public service is to be left intact
from privatization, which is expected to
_ affect the jobs of up to 15,000 government
employees. Ls

The province

Maurice Rush

The two major sales announced are
B.C. Hydro’s major money-makers, the
natural gas and railway line divisions
which for years been used to subsidize
lower hydro costs to the public and to help
pay off the $8 billion hydro debt. The sale
of B.C. Hydro’s gas division to a private
company will result in higher hydro rates
and the public will be left to pay off the
debt out of higher taxes and rates.

The privatization program, taken to-
gether with the terms of the free trade deal
with the U.S., opens the way for a major
takeover of the province by the U.S. and
will, unless stopped, completely transform
B.C. as we know it today.

The trade deal with the U.S. allows the
unrestricted flow of U.S. capital into Can-
ada and U.S. takeovers such as Utilicorp’s
purchase of West Kootenay. Power and
Light, will escape any serious screening
process. Profits made by U.S. corpora-
tions in Canada will flow across the U.S.
border without any government restric-
tion. U.S. monopolies will be able to
acquire B.C. Crown corporations and
public services under the privatization
program.

The current appeal by the U.S. to the
General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade
(GATT) on fish exports — which Vander
Zalm. has. said. we should accept — also

has profound implications for all our
resources. If the U.S. is successful in forc-
ing Canada to abandon the legislation
requiring that B.C. salmon and herring be
processed in Canada before it is exported,
that same principle could be applied to all
B.C. resources. It would mean massive
exports of raw logs and unprocessed wood
products.

Undoubtedly, U.S. multinationals are
seeking to ensure that B.C. will be their
source of raw materials far into the future.

Tied in closely with Vander Zalm’s
support for free trade and his privatization
program is his plan to reorganize the struc-
ture of government which he calls “‘decen-
tralization.” The province has been
broken up into eight “economic regions”,
each of which is under the direction of an
cabinet overseer, or “Secretary of State”
who reports to Vander Zalm and the
cabinet directly.

Those cabinet members will effectively
supersede the elected MLAs in the pro-
vince, downgrading their role and that of
all municipal governments in each region.
Rather than a plan to ‘‘decentralize”
government, the Vander Zalm plan will
highly centralize all power and decision- -
making in the premier’s office. Its imme-
diate effect will be to create an additional
level of government which will make it

B.C. on the block as session opens

possible to raise taxes and shift responsibil-
ity away from Victoria.

But the reorganization plan is not likely
to stop there. A high ranking Socred offi-
cial told the media that the government
hopes that within ten years these regions
will take over responsibility for schools,
hospitals and other public services. What
Vander Zalm has in mind ultimately is to
create a “United States of British Colum-
bia”.

Vander Zalm also told the recent
Socred convention that all social services
in the province will come under review
with the aim of “holding the line on costs”
which in Socred jargon means cutting ser-
vices.

The government claims it has no money
to maintain services, but it earmarks $35
million for the Commonwealth Games;
spends nearly $1 billion on the Coquihalla
Highway; promises $2 million for the
Lions football club; and allows huge tax
breaks and concessions to the corpora-
tions.

MacMillan Bloedel for example, which
had its most profitable year in history has
been allowed to defer payment of $60 mil-
lion in taxes. The Workers’ Compensation
Board was permitted to give the corpora-
tions a “refund” of nearly $100 million.
There’s lots of money for the rich but
nothing for the poor. That’s the govern-
ment’s philosophy.

Protests are mounting in B.C. against
many of Vander Zalm’s policies. Only the
widest and strongest coalition of forces in
the province can stop the dangerous poli-
cies the Socreds have embarked upon.
Working people expect the NDP opposi-
tion in Victoria to put up a stronger fight
than they have so far. The future of the
province is at stake.

Peace movement moved Reagan to arms talks

The recent draft treaty to eliminate Soviet

and American missiles from Europe and
Asia owes its life to a worldwide peace
backed by the U.S. nuclear freeze move-
Ment, according to peace activist Rob

ce:
“The Day After had a profound effect on

the people of the United States, and since
that day, the Reagan administration has
never repeated the stance that a nuclear war
could be won,” said Prince, the U.S. repre-
Sentative on the Helsinki-based World
Peace Council. :

Prince, who addressed an audience in
Vancouver recently and gave an interview
to the Tribune, said the film about the
aftermath of a nuclear exchange on midw-
estern America galvanized public opinion in
favour of world disarmament.

The job now, he said, is to press for the
Signing of the treaty by President Reagan
and its ratification in the U.S. Senate — no
small task, and one which involves more
than just the American people.

Prince praised the treaty as a “break-
through” since it marks the first time the
Unites States and the Soviet Union have
agreed to destroy currently operable weap-
Onry,

He acknowledged the missiles — some
1,500 U.S. in Europe and more than 400
Soviet counterparts in Europe and the Far
East — constitute only some three per cent
of the total nuclear arms. :

“In the U.S. peace movement there's a
Slogan: ‘2,000 down, 48,000 to go’,” Prince
Said,

“So we shouldn’t be pacified by this (turn
of events), but all the same, it’s a break-
through.”

The pact will rid Europe and Asia of
ground-based medium range and short
range nucléar missiles, including Pershing
I, cruise and SS-20 medium range missiles.
Prince acknowledged that these could be
replaced by increasing the number of
submarine-launched and air-launched var-
ieties, but cautioned that any side which did
so would be a violator of the spirit of the
treaty and risk world condemnation.

Reagan administration spokesmen have
defended the “policy of deterrence” — the
euphemism for nuclear-arms buildup — as
being the reason the Soviets have agreed to
the treaty. But that claim ignores several

‘facts, Prince said.

“The contribution of U.S. scientists was
the theory of nuclear winter, which gave a
real blow to the Reagan theory that there
could be a winner to a nuclear war. In
Geneva they (the U.S. negotiators of the
draft pact) we’re saying nuclear war can not
be won, and that very statement flies in the
face of the deterrent theory.

The U.S. president, who Prince noted
came into power as the most pro-nuclear
weapons of any president, wound up going
to Iceland to talk peace with Soviet leader
Mikhail Gorbachev because he knew of the
growing peace sentiment and its effect on
the then upcoming senatorial elections
— elections that subsequently favoured

ro-peace candidates.
eee went to Iceland two weeks after
the U.S. bombing raid on Libya which,
Prince told his audience Nov. 16, was a
practice run for a nuclear war.

“They used the FI-11A, a first-strike
plane in the U.S. arsenal. The distance from
London (from which the, attack was

ROB PRINCE ... peace forces must work for ratification of treaty.

launched) to Tripoli (Libya’s capital) is not
all that different from the distance between
London and Moscow, and the U.S. military
knew that.”

Prince said criticism of the attack, even
by staunch European allies, was the reason
the president went to Reykjavik to talk
peace.

He said the “next step” of the peace
movement was to overcome the well-
financed campaign of opposition to the
draft treaty, expected to be signed by Rea-
gan and Gorbachev Dec. 9, and see it gets
the necessary two-thirds approval of the
U.S. Senate. :

“The opposition is narrow, but they have
a lot of political experience and money, and
they conduct their campaigns aggressively,”
said Prince. He said the major arms manu-
facturers and the ultra-right wing Heritage

Foundation are among the treaty’s oppo-

nents.

“But the key danger to the treaty is pas-
sivity. As long as the peace movement
mobilizes for it, it will be ratified by the
Senate.”

Peace forces abroad should not consider
the treaty a U.S. domestic issue, Prince said.

He said the Canadian government’s
statements favouring the agreement show
the strength of Canada’s peace forces in
influencing government opinions, and said
Ottawa has an influence on the USS.
government.

“I would hope that Canadians will cele-
brate the summit everywhere with a broad
political focus, because it is in part an
achievement of the Canadian peace move-
ment,” Prince said.

The day the treaty is ratified it should be
marked the world over, because it will mean
“we’ve moved into a new era — the total
elimination of nuclear weapons,” he stated.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE, NOVEMBER 25, 1987 e 3