British Columbia

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Solidarity, militancy needed
to counter free trade: forum

One battle against free trade may have
been lost, but the war is not over, an Alberta
economist told a forum on the continuing
fight against the free trade pact last week.

Professor Ed Shaffer of the University of -

Alberta advised a Vancouver audience that
international solidarity among workers is
necessary to counter the effects of the
U.S./Canada Free Trade Agreement that
will erode living standards and social servi-
ces and contribute to the militarization of
Canada.

Fellow panel members Sue Vohanka,
chair of the Vancouver Coalition Against
“Free” Trade, and president Bill Zander of
the B.C. Provincial Council of Carpenters,
told the Feb. 16 forum at the Centre for
Socialist Education of the need to continue
the fight the effects of the deal.

Vohanka said economic developments
since the pact was ratified Jan. 1 have
proven that anti-free trade forces weren’t
exaggerating the anticipated effects of free
trade. She cited the large corporate mergers
in Canada and the layoffs as factories pulled
up stakes and moved south of the border,
and vocal attacks on social programs.

“The business community chorus since
the election has been pretty loud and clear:
cut the deficit, cut social programs, let’s get
rid of the universality of social programs,”
she noted.

Vohanka said turnouts at coalition meet-
ings have increased since the deal was
passed, and noted the launching of a cam-
paign against the privatization of health
care and two upcoming conferences on free
trade as examples of continued determina-
tion to fight the impacts of the deal.

Zander said the current political climate
shows that people are not about to “man
the barricades” to fight free trade. But with
proper leadership and direction, people will
be ready to move.

Unfortunately, documents such as the
Canadian Labour Congress’ “Workers
Agenda” have emphasized accommodating
the changes by making sitting on commis-
sions with business leaders the priority,
Zander said.

But he noted that at a recent CLC execu-
tive meeting, not one of the 175 delegates
spoke in favour of the document. “Every
speaker said it needed to be improved, to be
more militant,” Zander related.

On the economic front, Shaffer said that
the free trade deal was designed to give U.S.
corporations an advantage over European
and Japanese multinationals operating in
the North American market. Instead of
increasing competition, the agreement has
reduced it, he said.

In the wake of the recent mergers of Can-
adian corporations to give them a competi-
tive advantage over their U.S. counterparts,
the real questions are which companies will
merge in the future, and in which country
will they invest, Shaffer said.

One thing is certain, and that is that “the

SUE VOHANKA

logic of free trade is regional specialization,”
he noted.

That means Western provinces will
become even more resource oriented, while
manufacturing will continue to concentrate
in the East. In sucha situation, the West will
be even more dependent on the U.S. for
investment, Shaffer reasoned.

Economic blackmail follows. U.S. multi-
nationals can threaten to look for raw mate-
rials elsewhere if market and labour
conditions aren’t to their liking. “They can
play one part of the world against another,”
he warned.

Shaffer also called the government’s
White Paper on Defence, which calls for
Canada to spend more than $200 billion on
the military over the next 15 years, “part
and parcel of the free trade agreement.” The
US. government had to find a way to
relieve the inflationary pressure of its tre-
mendous military budget, and is forcing its

NATO allies to spend more or risk losing”

trade business with the U.S., he said.

Shaffer, an author of several books on
the operations of oil conglomerates, said the
Alberta government is already chafing
under the deal it so strongly supported
because It promised no restrictions on gas
and oil imports. They counted on the low-
value Canadian dollar being an asset in this
trade.

Instead, the U.S. has complained that the
low dollar is an unfair subsidy under the
deal. Shaffer said he was “quite sure” that
the Bank of Canada has raised interest rates
and tightened the money supply to assure
the U.S. that Canadian exports will not

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Ys, »

BILL ZANDER

flood the U.S. market. The result has been
less oil and gas sales for Alberta.

Shaffer noted that a recent cabinet order-
in-council granting American Express the
right to establish banks in Canada has
raised concerns in Canadian banking cir-
cles. And Zander observed that the Cana-
dian food giant, McCain’s, has been among
the most vociferous corporate opponents of
the Free Trade Agreement.

As such, there is potential to build anti-
free trade coalitions among unions, com-
munity, native and church groups, and even
some corporate interests, the speakers said.

Vohanka, executive assistant in the Con-
federation of Canadian Unions, said the
alliance of CCU, CLC and Quebec’s CNTU
unions in the Social Solidarity Coalition
shows how the anti-free trade forces can
unite.

Zander said it is important to set a
workers agenda that includes international
solidarity to counter corporate attempts to
cut wages and working conditions in Can-
ada by threatening to locate in areas such as
Mexico’s free trade zones — such as Fleck
Corporation has recently done.

“T don’t know how we can get into an
argument and lose. I don’t know how the
program of labour will not stand up against
the shutdown of plants and the mergers and
the loss of jobs and the unemployment and
the cutback in social services,” Zander said.-
but

“The point is we’ve got to start the argu-
ment, we’ve got to continue the debate on
free trade to stop that from taking place.”

E CP to elect new leader at May convention

The B.C. provin-
cial committee of
the Communist Par-
ty this weekend set
May 12-14 for the
party’s 27th provin-
cial convention
which will elect a
new provincial lead-
er.

Veteran commu-
nist leader Maurice
Rush, who has held
the B.C. party’s top post of provincial secre-

RUSH

tary since 1977, had previously announced
to the committee that he would not seek
re-election.

In anticipation of the leadership change,
the leading committee of the B.C. party last
September took the unprecedented step of
electing a “commission on party work and
leadership,” chaired by Ben Swankey,
which prepared for the leadership transition
by meeting with party organizations and
members over an intensive three-month
period.

Last weekend’s meeting of the provincial
committee received the commission’s report

which called for dramatic changes in the
party’s style of work and public image.

Reflecting the new style, the provincial
committee opened discussion on leadership
renewal and a nomination for provincial
secretary to go to the May convention with-
out any recommendations from the party
executive.

The committee meets again April 8-9 to
adopt draft resolutions on public policy, to
work out a procedure for election of the
new leadership, and to consider its nomina-
tion to the convention for the post of party
leader.

Provincial Notes |

B.C. churches
hit poverty

Religious leaders in B.C. have called
on the provincial and federal govern-
ments to increase welfare rates, introduce
a “truly progressive tax system” and
initiate job-creation programs to end
poverty.

“We are in danger of accepting the
poor as a permanent subculture in our
society. We have to break this vicious
cycle of poverty,” Lutheran Bishop
Marvin Aadland said Feb. 15.

Ten religious groups sent a petition to
Premier Bill Vander Zalm and Prime
Minister Brian Mulroney stating, “We
believe that solutions to the present crisis
can be found without sacrificing social
responsibility, spiritual values or eco-
nomic prosperity.”

It was signed by leaders of the Angli-
can, Mennonite, Unitarian, Hindu, Jew-
ish, Baptist, United, Muslim and Re-
formed Churches of B.C.

Van-Odessa
Fit Trek ends

Vancouver residents logged 3,778,540
kilometres of activity in their Fit-Trek
contest of physical activity with the citi-
zens of their Soviet sister city, Odessa, the
Vancouver parks board reports.

Spokesperson Pete Quevillon reported
a tentative score of about 8% million
kilometres for the Black Sea port, but
said the Ukrainian city has about twice
the population of Vancouver. An official
tally is forthcoming.

About 200 people braved snow and
near-zero temperatures to cover the walk
around the Stanley Park seawall on Sat-
urday, Feb. 18, the final event of the
week-long contest supported by com-
munity centres, health clubs, and indi-
viduals who clocked one kilometre for
every 20 minutes of activity.

The Vancouver-Odessa events were
part of a national competition in which
five Canadian cities competed with their
Soviet counterparts during January and
February.

Students plan
USSR exchange

Students from the Websters Corners
elementary school are planning to make
history by partaking in a_ school-
sponsored trip to the USSR, the Ridge/-
Meadows Times reports.

School principal Dave Rempel said
that to his knowledge, no such exchange
visit has been done by a Canadian ele-
mentary school.

About 10 parents and 30 children are
preparing for the trip, which involves
fund-raising activities and a documen-
tary by the local cable TV station.

‘Defend choice’
IWD theme

“March for Choice” is theme of this
year’s International Women’s Day
march and rally in Vancouver, on Satur-
day, March 4.

Marchers will assemble at the Queen
Elizabeth Plaza, Georgia and Hamilton
streets, at 11 a.m., and move to the rally
at Robson Square.

Sponsored by the B.C. Coalition for
Abortion Clinics, the march will stress
the need to defend the Everywoman’s
Health Centre and the demand for full
government funding of women’s health
clinics. For child care phone 430-6846.

Pacific Tribune, February 27, 1989 e 3