_BRITISH COLUMBIA

Soviet peace
— delegation
here June 11

Six Soviet emissaries for peace, including
a dean of the Russian Orthodox church, will
be the guests at public meetings in Van-
couver and on Vancouver Island as part of a
Cross-country tour early June.

The delegation from the Soviet Peace
Committee includes: Ukrainian peace
committee member and MP of the Ukrain-
lan republic, Vitaly Korotich; executive
Secretary of the USSR’s Scientific Research
Council on Peace and Disarmament, Lev
Voronkov: Viola Anichkina, executive
Secretary: of the journal USA: Economics,
Politics, Ideology; Arkady Tischuk, dean of
Alexievskaya church in Moscow; Soviet
Peace committee consultant Vya Chevslav
Bayko; and Oleg Skulkoy, interpreter.

The group will meet the public and Can-
adian peace activists at a meeting Tuesday,
June 11, 7:30 p.m. at the Plaza 500 hotel in
Vancouver. It is sponsored by the Van-
Couver Peace Assembly.

On Monday, June 10, the Soviet peace
activists are to address'a public meeting
Sponsored by the Mid-Island Disarmament
Committee. The time and place will be
announced later.

The preceding Friday the delegation will

be hosted at an event in Surrey sponsored’

by the Fraser Valley Peace Committee.

Pickets to greet
Siar Wars chief

End the Arms Race is.calling on peace
activists to be on hand for a demonstration
against the retired U.S. army general who is
here to sell Canadians on the controversial
Strategic Defence Initiative — the Star
Wars plan.

Retired. Lt.-Gen. Daniel Graham will be
at the Hyatt hotel in Vancouver June 14 to
Promote his Star Wars vision, described by
EAR vice-president Gayle Gavin as being

So far right that even the Reagan adminis-
tration looks at him with incredulity.”

The demonstration has been called for 12
noon, outside the hotel at the corner: of
West Georgia and Burrard streets.

Graham’s talk is being promoted and
Sponsored by the Canadian Conservative

-Centre, a right-wing organization which
Supposedly invited peace groups to the lec-
ture so that, claimed a spokesman, peace
leaders will “broaden their understanding
i the benefits (of Star Wars) to Canadi-
ns.” :

Graham, a former director of the U.S.
Defence Intelligence Agency and deputy
director of the CIA, holds the view that Star
Wars can be launched immediately.

He expounds those views in his book,
_ High Frontier: A New National Strategy in
Which the general calls fer a $50-billion sys-
tem in space capable of shooting Soviet
Missiles down in the early launching stage,
by 1988. In advocating such measures, said
reviewer Daniel Deudney in the Bulletin of
the Atomic Scientists, Graham calls for a
System “intended to supplement, not substi-
tute for, the new geenration of first-strike
Nuclear weapons such as the NX, Trident II
and Perhsing II. In short, Graham proposes
the missing link in a plausible U.S. first-
Strike scenario.”

_Graham’s book openly advocates scrap-
Ping the 1972 Anti-ballistic missile treaty,
and, by implication, the Limited Test Ban
treaty, Deudney notes.

avin noted the peace movement's gen-
ae observation that the Star Wars plan of
© Reagan administration threatens to

Scuttle the current disarmament talks in
neva,

The Communist Party this week issued
a unity appeal to “the New Democratic
Party and all organizations concerned
with changing the government” to work
out a common strategy and a broad anti-
restraint program to defeat the Social
Credit government in the next election,
widely expected next spring.

Issued by the party’s B.C. provincial
executive, the appeal was going to trade
unions, community and Solidarity organi-
zations, NDP constituency associations
and others.

The Bennett government
has already begun tts
election activities with a
massive public relations
campaign around the false
slogan of “co-operation for
economic renewal.” Butits .
program is basically the
same right wing restraint
policy with some new pro-

- big business wrinkles added.

Noting that the CP “considers the oust-
ing of the Socred government. . .the most
important priority”, it emphasized that a
winning strategy requires ‘“‘a broad fight-
back program around which thé majority
can be rallied and unity of all anti-Socred
forces around an agreed electoral policy.”

The election of the NDP is the realistic
alternative, the appeal states, but the unity
must include many who are outside the
NDP and the program must include alter-
native policies around which all those
opposed to the Socreds can be rallied.

The appeal has taken on new impor-
tance following the provincial convention
of the NDP which moved to submerge
most policy issues and to follow the stra-
tegy of the Barrett leadership in advancing
little in the way of program, in the hopes of
winning the election on the strength of
anti-Socred sentiment. But winning major-
ity support for a program which opposes
restraint and advocates clear-cut alterna-
tives has been seen as particularly impor-
tant in an election in which there will be 11
new seats, 9 of them in Socred territory.

The following is the full text of the
appeal:

The Socred government has entered the
third year since it was re-elected on May 5,-
1983. There is now widespread specula-
tion that the Socreds may call an election
next spring, timed with the opening of
Expo. Whether it does or not, there is no
doubt that we have now entered the pre-
election period.

The Bennett government has already
begun its election activities with a massive
public relations campaign around the false
slogan of “co-operation for economic
renewal.” But its program is basically the
same right-wing restraint policy with some
new pro-big business wrinkles added.

There is nothing in their program which

would put B.C.’s 250,000 jobless back to ,

work, There is no retreat by the govern-
ment on its anti-education policy. They
are continuing their attack on the trade
unions; health care and social services.
Lineups at food banks are growing while
over 220,000 people are forced to subsist
on starvation welfare payments.

The past two years of Socred rule have
been a disaster for B.C. Return of the
Bennett government for another term
would be a calamity for the people. We
must do everything we can to prevent it

SS

from happening. The Communist Party
considers the ousting of the Socred
government in the next election as the
most important priority and is prepared to
do everything it can towards that end.

Recent polls indicate that a majority of
British Columbians do not support the
Socred restraint policy and that support
for the Bennett government has fallen
sharply. The possibility for ousting the
Socreds and electing a new government,
pledged to new policies which put the peo-
ple’s needs before corporation profits, is
there, provided a-winning strategy is
adopted by all those who oppose the
Socreds and their right-wing policies.

A winning strategy requires two things:
A broad fightback program around which
a majority of the people can be
rallied — and unity of all anti-Socred for-
ces around an agreed upon electoral pol-
icy. :

In the present highly polarized political
situation the election of a New Demo-
cratic Party government is seen by most
people as the only realistic alternative.
Unfortunately, however, the recent NDP
convention, and the NDP leadership have
not come forward with a strong alterna-
tive program to the restraint policy of the
Socreds.

If the NDP hopes to form the next
government it must adopt a program
which will offer a clear people’s alternative
to the Socred big business policies. And it
must be prepared to unite with broad sec-
tions of the public who are not NDPers
but who oppose the Socred government.

The Solidarity movement, the educa-
tion fightback and the Vancouver civic
elections have demonstrated that there are
powerful forces outside the NDP who are
opposed to the Socreds and want a
change. These forces must be united in a
broad electoral alliance.

The Communist Party believes that the
key to a winning strategy for the next
provincial election isa minimum program
around which all anti-Socred forces can be
united. We believe the following major
policies should be included in such a pro-
gram and we advance them as a basis for
discussion with the NDP and all organiza-
tions concerned with changing. the
government:

@ Rejection of the restraint program
and its replacement with a program of
government action to stimulate the econ-
omy and put British Columbians back to
work;

e A massive program of public housing

- The Communist Party
considers the ousting of the

- Socred government in the

_ next election as the most

_ important priority and is

_ prepared to do everything it
can towards that end. .

and capital projects to meet municipal and
local needs, including hospitals, sewage,
roads and parks;

e A large scale reforestation and sal-
mon enhancement program. Halt the
export of logs and revamp forest legisla-
tion to restore public ownership of forest
lands. Undertake a major effort to pro-
mote manufacturing of wood products in
BiG

© Restoration of funds cut in education
and the return of education financing to

the 1982 level; increasing funding for
secondary schools, colleges and universi-
ties; ;

@ Bringing all welfare payments in B.C.
up to the poverty line and making special
provision for young people who through
no fault of their own cannot find employ-
ment;

© Restoration of funding for social ser-
vices eliminated by the Socred govern-
ment and improvement of social services
for the people;

© Restoration of labor’s right to collec-
tive bargaining and the repeal of all anti-
union legislation;

@ An end to cutbacks to B.C. health
services and hospitals and an end to all
charges aiid extra biling for health servi-
ces; : :

© Restoration of rent controls and
adoption of tenant’s legislation with teeth
in it to protect the public against unscrup-
ulous landlords;

e A new deal for Native peoples by
recognizing their right to self-government,
serious negotiations to settle Native land
claims; and a halt to logging of Meares
Island;

@ Restoration and strengthening of
human rights legislation and enforcement,
an end to discrimination against women

A winning strategy
requires two things: a broad
fightback program around —
which a majority of the -
people can be rallied — and —
unity of all anti-Socred
forces around an agreed
upon electoral policy.

and establishment of the principle of equal
pay for work of equal value.
This program is not just an electoral

platform. It can be the basis of joint extra-
parliamentary action in the critical period
leading to the next election.

The election cannot be won in 28 days.
The people’s majority must take form in
political activity around common demands
before the election is called. The best way
the NDP, trade unions, women, tenants,
human rights groups, community organi-
zations and the Communist Party can
prepare for the election is by consistent
extra-parliamentary campaigning around
these basic demands.

The Communist Party believes that a
majority of the people of B.C. can be uni-
ted around such a program. Many of these
demands have already been put forward
by labor councils and other people’s
organizations and many of them are
included in the Solidarity Coalition’s Peo-
ple’s Report.

Failure to put forward clear-cut alterna-
tive policies to the Socred restraint policies
in 1983 lost the election. A repeat of that
strategy in the next provincial election
would play into Socred hands and leave
the people with no clear-cut alternative
program.

The Communist Party is prepared to
enter into discussions with the NDP and
all interested organizations with a view to
establishing a broad co-operative frame-
work for extra-parliamentary campaign-
ing and electoral unity based on common
goals. The time to do it is now.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE, MAY 29, 1985 e 3