} The following is a statement issued Sept.

¥ 72, by the central executive committee of
| the Communist Party of Canada.

} The struggle for peace, to prevent the

} catastrophe of nuclear war has today
1 reached a new, critical stage.

| On the one hand, the arms race threat-
ens to zoom out of control — on earth

¥ and in space. Time is running out for pre-
| venting nuclear war.

© On the other hand, there is an unprece-
1 dented opportunity for achieving progress

"Gn reversing the nuclear arms race.
| The opportunity opened with Soviet
Neader Mikhail Gorbachev’s Aug. 18
f’Aannouncement of the Soviet Union’s
"extension to next January first of its
} nuclear test moratorium.
Canadian Communists join with all
| Canadians, with people the world over, in
1 welcoming this latest and fourth extension
| of the Soviet Union’s unilateral nuclear
a moratorium. ©
} This extension, the Soviet Union has
said, was a difficult decision for it to make.
It is clear that such a unilateral morato-
rium cannot be extended indefinitely.

One would have hoped the Reagan
administration would welcome it and say
it would do the same.

Instead President Reagan’s response
was negative. He rejected the moratorium
as “propaganda” and said no toa test ban
agreement. Propaganda? Let’s have this
kind of propaganda from the U.S.

He also said a test ban would not be in
the U-S. “national interest.” In saying this,
the U.S. administration is saying it will
never give up its aim of achieving military

superiority over the Soviet Union and a
first-strike nuclear strategy.

In a last effort to prevent agreement on
ending nuclear tests, the Reagan adminis-
tration said “a nuclear test ban is not verif-

jable.” Here too, however, Gorbachev

declared: “There is no problem of control
for the Soviet Union. We have no objec-
tions to international control.”

Despite this the U.S. administration
refuses to also declare a moratorium on
nuclear tests. i

The U.S. wants nuclear tests; it has con-
ducted 18 of them during the Soviet
moratorium. It wants to continue the arms
race because it is profitable to the
military-industrial complex. It wants to go
ahead with Star Wars. It is conducting
tests now on fundamentally new types of
arms, weapons capable of reaching targets
both on earth and in space.

This rejection of a Soviet-U.S. test ban
agreement goes opposite to the opinion of
the majority of the American people, of
Canadian opinion, of world opinion.

Continued nuclear weapons tests can
only bring the world closer to the brink of
nuclear war, threatening the very existence
of the human race.

Can this madness be stopped?

Yes, it can. It depends on the people of
our country as on the peoples everywhere,
and in the first place the American people,
whether it will be.

The first thing to do is compel the Mul-
roney government and Parliament to
speak up. Why does the government
remain silent on this supreme issue?

To agree to a moratorium on nuclear

testing is very much in Canada’s interests.
Canada is not an island. The security of
our country and people is inseparable
from peace and security for the world.

The Canadian government must be
compelled by massive people’s action to
come out in support of a ban on nuclear
tests, for declaring Canada a nuclear wea-
pons free zone, for putting an end to
further U.S. cruise missile tests over Can-
adian soil, for no Canadian involvement
in Star Wars.

This would be a might blow for peace.
This would show unmistakably that
instead of tailing U.S. military strategy,
Canada is pursuing an independent for-
eign policy of peace.

Can this be achieved?

The Communist Party of Canada
believes it can be achieved. While there is
danger in the present situation, there is no
cause for pessimism. The forces exist to
compel the U.S. administration to change
or modify its position. The ever growing
peace movement in Canada, the strong
stand of the Canadian Labor Congress, of
the women’s and youth movements,
senior citizens, the churches and profes-
sions, members of the Liberal and Con-
servative parties, the NDP and Communist
Party, show this to be the case.

The time is here. The time is now to
build such a powerful Canadian people’s
campaign to compel the Mulroney
government and Parliament to speak up
and press the Reagan administration to
come out in favor of ending nuclear tests.

Let us all join hands in this battle which
would open the door to a comprehensive

test ban treaty and an end to the nuclear
arms race.

Canada’s self-interest, the interests of
human survival call for making such
efforts. The world cannot go on permit-
ting more and more arms and less and less
security. It is time for new thinking. It
should be clear to everyone that no coun-
try can be secure unless the world is secure
and there can be no peace for one country
unless there is peace for all countries.

The place to begin is by a U.S.-Soviet
agreement to end nuclear testing.

MIKHAIL GORBACHEV... announce-

ment created new opportunity for test
ban treaty.

s

_ The plan announced by Energy Minis-
ter Jack Davis to deregulate B.C. Hydro,
which was adopted by the Socred caucus
when it met in Prince George recently with
Premier Bill Vander Zalm, would consti-
tute a major Sellout of B.C. hydro resour-
ces to private corporate interests and the
7S.

Under the Davis plan the publicly-
owned B.C. Hydro system would be
broken up and private capitalist interests
would be allowed to build dams and take
over power Sites all over B.C. to generate
power for industrial plants and for export
to the U.S. Davis said even the giant Site C
dam could be built as an investor-owned
utility (IOV), the name given in the plan to
private companies operating in the hydro
energy field.

Under the Davis plan, the public would
| continue to pay for two phases of the hydro
| system. B.C. Hydro would be responsible
to build and pay for the provincial hydro
grid system and guarantee low costs for
transmission of power by the privately-

owned companies. In other words, the
public would subsidize low distribution

costs for the private sector. The privately
owned companies would, according to
Davis, be able to generate power cheaper
than B.C. Hydro because they would not
be saddled with the costs of servicing the
B.C. Hydro huge debt which now stands
at around $9 billion.

That debt is the result of the Columbia
River sellout and the cost of constructing
the Revelstoke dam. Under the Davis
plan, the public would continue to pay the
costs of debt servicing, while private inves-

| Davis plan:

private power at public expense

The province
Maurice Rush

tors would escape those costs. In short, it
would be another subsidy to the privately-
owned utility companies at public expense.

The end result of this scheme would be
cheap power for the IOU’s, and higher
hydro rates to the public who will have to
subsidize the private companies.

The pretext given for privatization of
the hydro industry is that it would attract
investors with the offer of cheap power
and the prospect of making money by
exporting hydro to the U.S. It would, said
Davis, create new industries and jobs —
which is the old cry of right wing politi-
cians and economists whenever they want
to carry through a major deregulation pro-
ject of benefit to the private sector. g

There is no guarantee that the Davis
plan would generate new industries and
jobs. But there is a guarantee, if the scheme
is allowed to go through, that private capi-
tal would seize control of the hydro
resources of B.C. That, in turn, would
result in cheaper power for the corpora-
tions and higher utility rates for the public.

Allowing private companies to build
dams at every hydro site in B.C. would be
a disaster for the province’s fisheries and
to the ecology. The little agricultural land

la

B.C. now has available would be flooded
to store water for hydro generation. What
we will have will be a duplication of the
present Kitimat-Alcan deal many times
over. The Davis Plan would mean the end
of any rational planned over-all-energy
policy for B.C. which is possible only
under public ownership.

B.C. Hydro was set up by W.A.C. Ben-
nett when he nationalized B.C. Electric to
finance the Bennett Dam to generate
cheap power at public expense for the pulp
and mining industry in the north and the
Interior. The aim of the Davis Plan is to
return the hydro system to private control
and to maintain only those public services
which would serve the interests of the
priate sector.

B.C. Hydro has not been a model pub-
lic utility — its policies have been dictated
by the Socred government and its big bus-
iness backers. But B.C.’s interests would
not be-served by demolishing the public
utility company, On the contrary, what is
needed is a new hydro policy which would
ensure that B.C. Hydro serves the public
interest. That requires a firm policy of
generating electricity for use in B.C. and

not for export; a complete overhaul of the
rate structure which now favors the large
companies; and democratization of B.C.
Hydro to ensure representation on all its
boards and policy-making committees of
representatives of the public.

B.C. is the only province in Canada
where such a far-reaching deregulation of
hydro resources in favor of the private
sector is being projected. It is the major
resource give-away program so far advo-
cated by the Vander Zalm government. It
goes much further in favoring the private
sector than even former premier Bill Ben-
nett’s hydro policies.

Bennett abandoned the policy of gener-
ating hydro to meet provincial needs in
favor of a policy of large scale export of
power to the U.S. The Vander Zalm-
Davis Plan takes Bennett’s right wing pol-
icy a giant step further by opening the way
for the private sector to take over control
of the hydro industry, to build dams at
every available site in B.C. where profits
can be made by exporting power, and get-
ting cheap rates for their industries. If any-
thing exposes the right wing policies which
lie behind Vander Zalm’s real intentions,
it’s the Davis plan adopted by the Socred
caucus in Prince George.

The trade union movement is now
engaged in a campaign against deregula-
tion. B.C. labor should add Opposition to
the Davis plan to their cainpaign. It is by
far the most sweeping and dangerous
scheme yet put forward for deregulation in
B.C. Opposition to the Davis plan should
become a major issue in the upcoming
provincial election.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE, SEPTEMBER 24, 1986 e 5