“EDITORIAL

Speak up for Canada

On the first weekend in April, President Ronald Reagan, beset and besieged
by terminal scandal, struggling to hang on for the remainder of his term, facing
a hostile Congress and a monumental deficit, will visit Ottawa for the third
Canada-U.S. summit.

_ Meeting him will be our prime minister, beset by never-ending scandal, sitting
‘in third place with a scant 22 per cent support among decided voters, desper-
ately looking for salvation, but seeing instead 1.5 million unemployed, regional
crisis and the end to his Tory dream looming closer each day.

It’s poetic justice that these two high priests of neo-conservatism should be
“meeting this way.
Gone are the heady days when all they had to do was paint rosy pictures and

_ make outlandish promises. Life has again proved stronger than right-wing
rhetoric. The victims of the neo-conservative agenda, put into place with brutal
_ force by Reagan cannot be swept away. There are too many of them.

Mulroney’s gamble to tie Canada’s political-economic-military fate to Reag-

anism has backfired in his face. Canadians, the Tories discovered, don’t want

this country sold out to the Americans, don’t want to be cremated for Reagan’s

_ anti-communist crusade, don’t want their hard-won social services sacrificed on
_ the altar of free enterprise.

They do, however, want a secure future — economically and politically.
They actively support such goals as nuclear weapons-free zones and the protec-
tion and clean-up of our environment. Canadians are deeply worried about the
chronic daycare crisis, regional disparity, Canada’s sovereignty, world
peace — aims directly opposite to the neo-conservative, anti-people agenda of
the Mulroneys and Reagans.

When these two political dinosaurs hug, pose and sing songs for the media
this April, the cameras might also focus on the real events: the people of this
country will also be in Ottawa — attending a counter-summit organized by the
Council of Canadians and/or participating in a demonstration on Parliament

Hill April 5.

These will be the genuine people’s voices, expressing the real and urgent .
Concerns oe our country. Mulroney and Reagan will speak for the discredited,
interests who have bought and paid | for them.
ee eastern Ontario and western ‘Quebec who can travel to
_ Ottawa that April weekend should make it a point to be there to voice their
concerns and speak up for Canada.

Editor — SEAN GRIFFIN
Assistant Editor — DAN KEETON
Business & Circulation Manager — MIKE PRONIUK
Graphics — ANGELA KENYON

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Mulroney won’t do it for you.

Je couldn’t help noticing last month
that as the international affairs
_ department of the Canadian Labor Con-
gress was welcoming the initiation of Soli-
darnosc into the International Confeder-
ation of Free Trade Unions, and praising
Lech Walesa and Zbigniew Bujak as
“great figures i in the fight for peace and
justice,” it was once again ignoring the
plight of 264 trade unionists on trial in
Turkey.
It was nothing new, of course — the
CLC did not raise the issue in 1980 when a
military coup imposed martial law in Tur-
_ key, being completely preoccupied with
~ martial law in Poland. But the Congress’
- silence is all the more disturbing because
of the outcome of the Turkish trial and the
| clear demonstration of the regime’s intent
— to crush trade unionism in that country.
» Some 1,400 members of the trade union
| central, DISK, were originally put on mil-
~ itary trial in December, 1981, under provi-
sions of the Turkish penal code modelled
~ on Mussolini’s fascist labor code. Initially,
52 faced possible death sentences although
international protest forced the regime to
withdraw that threat.
| Last year, two days before Christmas,
_ 264 DISK members, including its presi-
dent Abdullah Basturkh were convicted

and handed sentences ranging from five ’

year and six months in prison to 20 years.

_ DISK itself was ordered dissolved along

with 28 of its 30 national branch unions.
Still, their campaign to win trade union
freedoms isn’t over yet. The unionists are
pursuing an appeal to the military court
and the World Federation of Trade Unions
_ which has focussed attention on the trial
| throughout the five years, called last
| month fora day of international solidarity

with the DISK leaders on Feb. 15, the 20th

People and Issues

anniversary of the Turkish labor central.
We hope this time, at least, that the

. CLC added its voice to the campaign.

e- ¥ ®

Pa Seg Maclean’s magazine story on

the corporate shakeup at General
Motors Corporation reminded us the fam-
ous comments that former United Auto
Workers president Walter Reuther made
to Henry Ford when the auto magnate
was taking the union leader on a tour of a
new auto assembly plant more than 40
years ago.

“Some day, there won’t be any workers
here, only, machines,” Ford said. Who
will pay your union dues then?”

_ “More to the point,” Reuther replied.
“Who.will buy your cars?”

Far-fetched as that 1940's scenario
might have seemed at the time, it is now
coming to pass — at General Motors, the
biggest auto corporation in the world. But
if GM chairman Roger B. Smith is rushing
headlong to fulfil Ford’s chilling predic-
tion, he still hasn’t answered Reuther’s
question.

GM had record sales last year of $137
billion and chalked up a staggering $2.91
billion in profit. But apparently that’s not
good enough for the company executives
who are determined to cut $13.4 billion
from expenses and are launching a mas-
sive rationalization program which will
~esult over the next three years in the clo-

sure of 11 plants in North America. That
will put 29,000 workers, at least 3,500 of
whom will be Canadians, on the unem-
ployed rolls.

Over the next several years, the com-
pany is expected to close an additional 20
plants, according to the Detroit Free
Press.

But at the same time as it is closing .

existing plants, the auto multinational
plans to open a brand-new, state-of-the-
art assembly plant in Saginaw, Mich.
— which will operate virtually without
workers. As Maclean’s put it, “the $80.4
million plant will have no employees
directly assembling cars, just computer-
operated robots on the factory floor. The
20 attendants will supervise the operation
without being directly involved in the
ae production of front-wheel drive
axles.”

Industry analysts acknowledge that cars
sales in North American are likely to
remain stagnant for most of the next 10

_ years. In fact, the auto industry already

has an overcapacity of about two million
vehicles annually. Yet if you take the
incomes of 29,000-plus auto workers out
of the economy, it pushes down auto sales
even more, prompting Smith and his

board of directors to consider even more

plant closures.
How far that spiral goes is anybody’s
guess. But there is no doubt that GM

intends to make its workers, past and
present, bear the cost of its restructuring.
And the Canadian Auto Workers will
have their work cut out for them.

Te. Kae

y all accounts, the last time The

Couriers got together was back in
1962, at a community hall in Campbell
River. But undoubtedly the high point for
the trio, resurrected for the first time in 25
years last week, was when the three young
musicians took to the stage at the World
Youth Festival in Helsinki in 1961.

And even though the audience wasn’t as —
big on Saturday, Feb. 14, the people who
packed the Ukrainian Hall in Richmond
were probably as appreciative as the thou-
sands who attended the festival more than
two decades ago. That’s likely because, in
its own small way, the old-time hoote-
nanny staged to raise funds for the Rich-
mond Electors Action League was just as
important an event.

One thing we do know is that the
audience — consisting of those who were

- there in early Sixties when the folk music

movement was in flower, and those who ~
were not around then — helped revive the
spirit of the folk days. They applauded
and sang along with the trio — consisting
of labor balladeer Tom Hawken, with bas-
sist Jim Thomas and guitar player Steve
Rankin — in the finest folk tradition.

Also contributing their efforts to see
that REAL has a treasure chest for the
civic elections were performers Phil Ver-.
non, Linda Chobotuck, Doug Stewart and
even Tribune staff member Dan Keeton.
We're told it was so successful, there’ll be
another next year. Frankly, we can’t wait. |

* PACIFIC TRIBUNE, FEBRUARY 25, 1987