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- - EDITORIAL COMMENT

Peace parliament

We greet enthusiastically the Parliament of Peoples for
. ©a¢e, which takes place in Sofia, Bulgaria, Sept. 93-27, and
involves men and women from organizations in an est
mated 135 countries. ,

_ This parliament, which comes together to formulate
, Policies, demands on governments, programs for disarma-

Ment, strengthening détente, and public activity for peace,
8 seen as the most important meeting convened by the
World Peace Council in its 30 years of existence. —

Ata time when transnational arms corporationsare push-
ing for vaster and vaster armaments hordes and arms
Spending, when reactionary governments and aggressive
Pacts are intent on trying to regain lost domains through
cold war leading to nuclear attack, here is a positive act.
Peoples from all walks of life — trade union, farm, scientific,
parliamentary, religious and cultural — are coming to-
Bether to assert that the great majority of the world’s
P€ople want peace.

_ The truth is that the balance of forces in the entire world
tilts toward peace, and against war. But, unfortunately, that
fact has not yet been able to ensure that we are free from
nuclear annihilation. The role of the people — including
ie people of Canada — is crucial, and here are the people
a action for a world of lasting peace.

_ This is a cause to be congratulated and supported. Wish-
_ Ing the participants well is only a start. Canadians must be
_ Prepared for the hard work of popularizing their conclu-
_ Sons upon their return. A practical measure that is certain
to go before the People’s Parliament is the demand that
_ governments abandon cold war policies and adopt policies
Of détente and trade. That is a proposition Canada’s
§0vernment must be compelled to listen to — for our own ‘

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800d right here in Canada.

To the 40 Canadians at the People’s Parlia
wishes for the most positive and effective outcome of the
commissions, workshops, hearings and round tables. We
urge everyone who reads these lines to get into the peace
gle in Canada — particularly on the basis of the
renewed confidence and 1980s policies the returning

Strug

“parliamentarians” will bring us.

ment go our

GZ

Budget must meet crisis

With Canada closing down week by
week, sinking into the worst recession
Since 1962, the Trudeau Liberals,
elected on Feb. 18, should be getting
around to drafting some radical plans to
pull the,country out of the crisis.

We have the leisurely assurance that
sometime between Oct. 15 and 30 Fi-
Nance Minister MacEachen will bring
down a budget. If the Liberals were to
put Canada and its people ahead of the
Monopoly corporations, the budget
would have to contain immediate tax
Cuts and rebates to low income persons,
but it would also prepare a Canada-
building program of which all could be
proud, guaranteeing jobs for all. Such a
Potential is not hard to perceive.

The finance minister, however, has
given some strong indications that he
rules out any significant relief for those
bowled over by high prices, layoffs, and
cutbacks, their living standards battered.
He appears to rule out programs to re-
industrialize the country and put
Canada back to work. Habitually, big
business governments offer handouts to
at phe on the pretext that they will
pull the system out of its morass. Since
Monopoly strangulation, with govern-
Ment compliance, created the crisis, that
would be a government abandonment of
duty. .

If it is true that the budget stands or
falls on the argument over a $2-a-barrel
oil price increase, the country is indeed

in politically feeble hands. We have ar-
gued here for a two-price system, and
against soaking Canadians the world
price for their own oil, but can
MacEachen justify turning the country
off until that is settled?

Canada needs a federal budget which
genuinely copes with the crisis condi-
tions — the decay of the economy, the
withering of development, the collapse
of living standards. As a start, if the
government wants ready funds, it should
transfer 50% of the disgraceful $5-bil-
lion a year squandered on arms, at the
command of NATO and the Pentagon.

MacEachen has spoken to the press
about the staggering need for funds,
federally. Yet for years the Liberals al-
lowed the increasing foreign ownership
to drain profits out of Canada. Canadian
corporations as well have extracted from
the economy billions of dollars which
might have been directed into planned
development. Claiming these huge pro-
fits for the people of Canada could have

provided jobs in new industries based at

the sites of resources.

The federal government ought to
know by now what are the basic urgent
demands of the vast labor movement,
and millions of people. What does it in-
tend to do about such demands? Bet-
ween now and budget date, and after-
ward if need be, Ottawa should be in-
structed, with all frankness, on the real
needs of Canadians.

Flashback 25 years . . ;

CANADA-USSR EXCHANGE URGED

An exchange visit between Canadian and Soviet trade unionists
was unanimously ensorsed by a recent membership meeting of the
United Auto Workers local 222 at General Motors in Oshawa.

The resolution was backed by all wings of opinion at the meeting.
It notes that “increasing numbers of delegations representing
business, religion, sports, cultural, farm and political and other
groups have been visiting countries like Poland, Hungary,
Czechoslovakia and the Soviet Union with favorable reports on

what they have seen.
The Tribune

September 19, 1955

Profiteer of the week:

Roman Corp. Ltd., Known among other
things for its control of Denison Mines Ltd.,
and Strathcona Paper, proves it’s not hard to
take a few million out of the system if you're
organized for it. Roman had after-tax profits
for the first six months of 1980, of $8,953,000,
then got a tax credit of $185,000 to boost it to
$9.4-million clear.

Figures used are from the company’s financial statements.

Editor — SEAN GRIFFIN
Associate Editor — FRED WILSON
Business and Circulation Manager — PAT O'CONNOR

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PACIFIC TRIBUNE—SEPT. 26, 1980—Page 3