Editorial

The Tory barrage ©

Continued from page 1

The offensive against Canadians’ social programs and living standards that the Tories
are marshalling for budget day —now set for April 27 — are beginning to take shape. And
that shape looks ominous indeed.

It is not the blitzkrieg of the Social Credit budget in 1983; it has been a daily pounding at
public opinion, accompanied by a relentless drumfire of propaganda from the business
press. But what Canadians can expect from the budget will be no less dramatic in changing
the shape and direction of their country.

During the election campaign, opponents of the free trade agreement (FTA) spoke
about the danger of Canadians losing their ability to determine their policies in
Canada — because those policies would be made in the international marketplace.
Already that is emerging in the budget debate.

Cuts must be made to the deficit, the corporate sector demands — but new revenue
can’t be raised through new taxation of their profitable sector because that would endanger
their “international competitiveness.”

Changes must be made to reduce the government's costs in maintaining unemployment
insurance — but don’t increase the employers’ portion, says the Business Council on
National Issues because that will affect their member companies’ “international competi-
tiveness.” :

All of the corporation’s deferred taxes, the grants under the Defence Industry Productiv-
ity Program — and the other areas which would make the corporate sector bear its share
of deficit reduction — are ruled out by the business lobby because they would affect
“international competitiveness.” :

The de Grandpre commission cited the same argument in calling on Canadians, as one
of its recommendations, to accept higher food prices to assist Canadian food processors in
meeting international competition. Can anyone imagine the explosive effect such a sugges-
tion would have had on the country if it had been made during the election campaign?

But now it is a routine thing for business which is daily urging the Tories use their
mandate to proceed quickly with the corporate agenda.

The deliberately vague proposal in the Throne Speech that family and elderly benefits
will be directed to those on lower incomes leaves little doubt that universality will be
affected when the budget comes down.

And there was an alarming emphasis in the Throne Speech on changes to the unem-
ployment insurance program, which is to be restructured “to eliminate inconsistencies with
Canada’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms, to create greater incentives to employment and
to ensure that the resources available are used more effectively to generate labour market
opportunities.”

The potential for cutbacks under those categories are numerous — including the
elimination of benefits for seasonal workers, increases in the waiting period, elimination of
those provisions which increase the duration of benefits in areas of high unemployment and
requirements that workers enter re-training programs as a condition of receiving benefits.
But one thing is clear: there will be cuts to the program and there will be less money for the
unemployed.

Working Canadians, elderly Canadians, the unemployed and the poor are going to be
_ told to bear the brunt of deficit reduction when the budget is brought down later this
month.

But they should tell Ottawa just as firmly that they will not accept that burden.

Already there has been opposition, from groups such as the Coalition against Free
Trade, to the apparent direction this government is taking. That will need to grow as budget
day draws nearer.

Clearly it will take a movement across the country, embracing the trade union move-
ment, pensioners’ organizations, the unemployed, anti-poverty groups, women’s groups,
Native organizations, the peace movement and others, to challenge this government. And
that movement will need to be armed with an alternative budget to do it.

New Democrat leader Ed Broadbent called the Throne Speech “part two of the business
agenda.” The task over the next few weeks will be to ensure that part three plays to
overwhelming opposition from Canadians coast to coast.

6 VAS 1989

CORFORATE WELFARE BUMS

TON DEAR y, NOW WE'LL ALL
HAVE TO CUT BACK.”

pss

FIRIBUNE

EDITOR
Sean Griffin

ASSISTANT EDITOR
Dan Keeton

BUSINESS & CIRCULATION MANAGER
Mike Proniuk

GRAPHICS
Angela Kenyon

Published weekly at

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e other day we listened as Jean Swan-

son, of the B.C. Goalition Against

“Free” Trade, told a rally in Vancouver
that the worst fears of free trade oppo- -
nents were coming true with demands by ~

big business spokespersons for deep cuts

to social services. She noted that those
same people had dismissed all warnings
that such would be the case during the
federal election campaign last fall.

Since then, we’ve certainly seen those
calls for the axe, and with increasing fre-
quency. Recently the head of the Cana-
dian Manufacturers Association was
touting the line that Canadian business

can not be competitive under the new eco- -

nomic rules without social service cuts.
And the Throne Speech delivered last
Monday indicated the upcoming federal
budget of the Tory government will attack
Canada’s social programs while giving
greater tax breaks to the top money-
makers.

Adding to the chorus of business calls
for reduced living standards for working
people is John Doddridge, president of
Hayes-Dana, Inc., a truck parts manufac-
turer whose main customers are the big
auto companies. His target is new social

legislation, particularly equal pay for work”

of equal value for women workers.

Doddridge, quoted in the Globe and
Mail’s Report on Business, said he was

concerned about the pace of such legisla-
tion, targeting the Ontario government’s
Pay Equity Act which calls for implemen-
tation of a timetable to establish pay
equity in all private sector companies of 10
employees or more by January, 1991.

Doddridge, head of a company which
plans to expand into the U.S. market
under the Free Trade Agreement, cited
“excessive government regulations” and
“a significant productivity gap” on the
part.of Canadian workers as barriers to
competition with U.S. firms. He also
attacked labour’s wage demands which he
said could result in more plants closing.

The company head was frank about his
fears regarding the new legislation. It
could, he acknowledged, force Hayes-
Dana to up the wages at a non-union plant
located near its unionized, St. Catharines
factory. Wages at the non-union work-
place range $15 to $20 an hour, compared
to the union rates of up to $28.

Lest you be mislead into assuming
Doddridge’s company is facing red ink,
take a glance at their ledger sheets. The
company racked up a year-end profit of

People and Issues

021.9 million in 1988, up from the pre-
vious year’s $20.1 million.

Of course, companies doing business
under free trade estimate they can do a lot
better — if they can force Canadian
workers to lower their standards to those
increasingly declining standards south of
the border, and in other parts of the indus-
trialized world.

* *

A item in the news caught our eye the
other day. In it, Sweden’s Save the
Children organization accused Israel’s
army of following a shoot-to-kill policy
against children active in the intifada —
uprising — of Palestinians in the occu-

. pied West Bank and Gaza territories. The

organization, whose Swedish name is
Radda Barn, observed: “Soldiers in their
use of gunfire have deliberately aimed at
children and young people. Furthermore,
as the horrifying effects of the army’s
methods and gunfire have become clear
and yet they still continue, one is bound to
conclude that the continued killings are
deliberate.”

That makes the upcoming visit to Van-

couver by Dr. Jacqueline Sfier, director of
the early childhood training program of
Catholic University, all the more relevant.
Dr. Sfier will address the question of how
the military occupation of the territories
affects children, having recently attended a
UNESCO conference in New York to
mark 1989 as the United Nations Year of
the Child.

Her tour is sponsored by the Near East
Cultural and Educational Foundation of
Canada. She speaks at the Vancouver Pla-
netarium, 1100 Chestnut, Saturday, April
15, 8 p.m.

* * *

e should report that George North, a

friend of many Tribune readers and
bargaining director for the B.C. Teachers
Federation, has been in hospital for tests
for cancer. Despite the seriousness of the
ailment, George is reported in good spirits
and has received visits from several friends
in the federation and other well-wishers.
He has been in St. Vincents, but will likely
be home by the time we go to press.

* * *

e have a note that a memorial for

John Johnson, the Mac-Pap veteran
who died recently at age 77, has been set
for April 15. It will be at the Centre for
Socialist Education, 1726 E. Hastings St.,
Vancouver, at 2 p.m.

4 Pacific Tribune, April 10, 1989