il al Ce CANADA Dramatic drop in free trade support By MIGUEL FIGUEROA HALIFAX — Big business boosters of free trade received more bad news this week with the announcement that support for a trade pact in Atlantic Canada has fallen **precipitously”’ over the ears. ned over job losses and the threat to Canada’s political, economic and cultural sovereign- ty, people in the Maritimes and Newfoundland are rejecting the free trade “‘logic’’ as never be- fore. Since 1984, when various listers placed Atlantic support for free trade at up to 90 per cent, opposition to the scheme has wn_ steadily _and now con- stitutes the majority sentiment among Canadians on the east Be poll released by Omnifacts Research last week for instance shows that over 56 per cent of decided Nova Scotians now op- se free trade. On Cape Breton jsland, opposition runs even stronger, wtih two out of every voicing their disapproval. Business groups like the Atlan- tic Provinces Economic Council and the Construction Association of Nova Scotia were among the first to jump aboard the free trade bandwagon when the scheme was brought forth by the Mulroney government almost two years ago, arguing that such industries as fishing and lumber needed “secure access”’ to the big U.S. market. But their arguments quickly turned to dust as reports surfaced that industry after industry would suffer under the terms of such a - pact. The steel, textile, brewing and food processing industries, among others, would all be ser- iously weakened and in some cases destroyed under the weight of such an unequal trade agreement. It is estimated for instance that all three poultry processors in the Maritimes would be forced to shut down within weeks of a free trade deal, due to crippling com- petition from producers located in the so-called ‘‘right-to-work”’ states in the southern United States. \ Farmers in the productive An- napolis Valley are equally wor- ried about the impact of ‘‘free”’ trade on their livelihoods. Bill Kenny, farmer and former mayor of Wolfville, N.S., is one of a growing number of east coast farmers concerned that a trade pact will undermine social gains like medicare and unemployment insurance without improving other conditions for working and farming Canadians. ‘“‘Some big corporations in Canada can win (under free trade)’, Kenny says, but “to the ordinary Canadian it’s going to mean more job loss.” Nor will free trade with the United States bring new _ in- dustries to the region to replace those that have been destroyed under such a pact. According to Hugh Pinchin, an economics pro- fessor at Colgate University in New York, free trade will prompt manufacturing firms to move south of the border, reducing further jobs in Atlantic Canada and pushing wages downwards. “Tt appears unlikely that tariff removal would attract many firms From the Atlantic Miguel Figueroa in market-oriented industries into the region, and the reverse flow out of the region would serve to reduce employment opportun- ities.”” The CLC campaign against free trade, privatization and de- regulation is also gaining momen- tum throughout the Maritimes.’ Alistair MacLeod, CEC representative in New Brunswick, noted recently in an interview with the Tribune that working class opinion has firmly swung against the Tory free trade scheme but the trade union movement will keep up the pres- sure until the proposal is declared a ‘‘dead-letter’’. Labor Council-sponsored seminars are currently being held ‘Lethbridge now nuclear weapons free cial to the Tribune declaring this Alberta community LETHBRIDGE — City coun- a nuclear weapons free zone. cil here joined more than 100 "other Canadian centres Oct. 6, in to the city’s fifth annual Walk for Pr A The declaration was the climax “vsscannammngagg” merous Lethbridge organizations marched in the fifth annual Walk or Peace demanding peace, solidarity and social justice. Peace and a weekend festival fea- turing performers, children’s peace art and street dancing. The Walk for Peace, led by the Lethbridge Nuclear Disarma- ment Coalition, combined plac- ards, banners, and chants for peace with support for social jus- tice and national liberation, par- ticularly for the peoples of Cen- tral America and South Africa. Coalition spokesperson, Anne Williams, called for a flood of let- ters to government and the op- position parties demanding that Canada become an independent voice for a ban on all nuclear test- ing and for a meaningful summit. She emphasized the connection between peace and national lib- eration. Peace, she said, must be based on social justice. Special guest speaker was Denis Goldberg, a 22-year vet- eran of apartheid’s prison. Sen- tenced to life imprisonment along with African National Congress leader Nelson Mandela and six others in 1963, he was released two years ago on condition that he leave South Africa. Goldberg’s call for complete and total sanc- tions against apartheid was greeted enthusiastically by the crowd. , Much of the credit for council’s action goes to the city’s youth. The Students’ Union of the Uni- versity of Lethbridge made a tour of high schools speaking and showing peace films. Students Against Nuclear Extinction cir- culated petitions throughout the secondary school system and presented them to city council. throughout the region to mobilize trade union opposition and post- ers and leaflets are under pro- duction for public distribution in workplaces and communities. Anti-apartheid not enough Special to the Tribune OTTAWA — “‘Being anti- apartheid is not enough’’, accord- ing to ANC official Denis Gold- berg, a released South African prisoner. Goldberg told about 50 demonstrators here Oct. 10 that more support for the African Na- tional Congress is needed. “Just because your Prime Minister has taken a lead in the Commonwealth against apart- heid, this does not mean that you should slow down,”’ he said, and referred to meetings the ANC has held with the U.S., UK and other governments. “Your Prime Minister should be meeting with the ANC representative in Canada,’’ Gold- berg told the crowd which had gathered in front of the South Af- rican embassy across. the street from the Prime Minister's resi- dence. He said that no solution to the crisis in South Africa will be ’ possible without the ANC, calling the ANC the leading force against the apartheid regime. Five police officers straddled the steps leading to the embassy door and a police vehicle blocked a nearby street to prevent park- ing, though most people had walked to the demonstration. The evening before, Goldberg spoke to a meeting of about 60 persons describing his experience as a political prisoner in South Africa for 22 years. No change in government policy say women ‘Family values’ in throne speech a farce TORONTO — The government's at- tempt to woo voters in its Oct. 1 throne | speech by emphasizing ‘‘family values”’ 1| did not score well with women activists. “The women of Canada don’t think this is good enough’, charged Louise Dulude, president of the National Action Committee on the Status of Women. The government’s way of achieving 1| the ‘‘mandate for reform” it received '| two years ago is ‘‘by remaining true to the course set in the past two years’’, said Dulude, who heads Canada’s largest women’s organization. *“Passive reliance on the business sec- 1| tor to cure all of the country’s ills has }| done nothing to give better jobs to wom- } | en, to narrow the female-male wage gap | orto reduce the crying need for increased | child-care services’’, she said. In reviewing the measures included in | the ‘‘social justice’’ portion of the throne speech, the NAC president found *‘hun- dreds of words but not a single commit- ment that could be pinned down.”’ The sole paragraph dealing with ‘‘adequate, quality child care’’ said the government would ‘‘initiate discussions with the provinces, business and labor on the sub- ject. ““Are we to understand that women, who are most affected, are going to be left out?”’ asked an incredulous Dulude. The short reference to battered women was no less vacuous. After call- ing it an “intolerable affront to human dignity’’, the government has no specific proposals to change the situation in the foreseeable future, she said. On social programs generally, the throne speech offers a disturbing state- ment that may predict changes of policy to the detriment of women. ‘‘Based on past experience with this government’’, said Dulude, ‘“‘it is not far-fetched to be- lieve the talk of putting the highest prior- ity on those who are in greatest need are -code words to announce further attacks on old age pensions and family allow- ances.”’ Economist Marjorie Cohen was also unimpressed with the proposals. ‘‘In- stead of re-adjusting its ineffectual eco- nomic policies to meet the needs of Canadians, the government intends to rely to an even greater degree on pro- grams of direct assistance to small busi- ness and entrepreneurs’’, she said. Cohen added that the government’s stated tax reform objectives, which call for less reliance on personal income tax, ‘tare potentially very harmful to low- income Canadians, if they imply that more revenue will be raised through re- gressive forms of taxation,” she said. Fears of government cutbacks on so- cial benefits are reinforced by the gov-. ernment’s intentions to increase Cana- da’s military commitments. NAC’s spokesperson on international affairs, Trudy Richardson, said she deplores the throne speech’s commitment for more expenditures on the armed forces and increased NATO contributions and wishes these monies were devoted to more constructive uses. “What the women of this country need is a government that will actively inter- vene with concrete measures such as mandatory affirmative action, effective programs to give women access to good jobs, and strong protection giving part- time workers the right to equal pay and benefits,’’ says Dulude. ‘‘These are not day dreams, but formal promises the government made to us before it was elected and has totally failed to act ” upon. PACIFIC TRIBUNE, OCTOBER 22, 1986 e 5 wail: