Patan BRITISH COLUMBIA The guessing game has started: when will the next provincial election be called? Some political observers are speculating that the Socreds will call an election next spring, before Expo. The theory is that the government will try to take advantage of public euphoria over Expo before the losses, expected to be in the range of $300 million to $700 million, come home to haunt the government, and before the full impact of the failure of the Northeast coal - deal hits the public. date, when the election is called, it will be one of the most important in the provin- ce’s history. British Columbia is now entering a period of intensive political activity. Although the government can wait until the spring of 1988, most provin- cial governments have called an election after three years in office. The Socreds have now passed the two year period and are entering the third year of power in “May. They have been disastrous years for B.C. under the Socred’s far-right big busi- ness policies. The Socreds are already acting as if they are gearing up for an election campaign. After many months of complete silence from Victoria — the legislature itself did not meet for nine months while Bennett and his cabinet disappeared from the scene — there has been a sudden outburst of “image making” activities. Bennett appears everywhere as the government pushes its “Partnership in Enterprise” campaign in a very expensive public rela- tions operation. But nothing the govern- ment is saying or doing takes B.C. any nearer to solving the province’s critical problems: There are no job-creation programs which would put B.C.’s 250,000 jobless back to work. There is no retreat by the government on its anti-education pro- gram. The Socreds are continuing their attack on the trade unions and continue to slash health care and social services. Lineups at food banks are growing while over 215,000 people are forced to exist on starvation welfare payments. The Socred’s phony campaign of “partnership for economic renewal” is mostly aimed at mobilizing the financial resources of the province to aid the private sector through tax cuts and handouts in the form of cheap power and natural gas rates. Municipalities are being tied into this phony “partnership” through legisla- tion which asks civic government to give private enterprise the shirt off their backs to stimulate local economic activity. The Despite present speculation about the - present Socred policies — despite the new slogans — are a further extension of its disastrous restraint program. They will not alleviate the severe crisis gripping B.C., but will deepen it. A noticeable feature of the people’s fightback movements against the cuts in education, social welfare cutbacks, and layoffs is the increasing public demand for a change of government. Public opinion polls indicate that a majority of citizens now realize that the government’s res- traint program has been a failure. That is why we are witnessing a frenzy of activity by the Socreds to mend fences and to change their public image. At the same time they are counting on electoral reform to give them an additional Il “‘safe” seats in an expanded legislature. The defeat of the Socred government would be a major victory for labor and the people of B.C. It would be a big setback for right wing policies across Canada. The province Maurice Rush Only the defeat of the Socreds and the election of a new majority government pledged to new policies which will put the people’s needs before the profits of big business can begin to take B.C. out of the deep crisis it is in. The Communist Party in B.C. has decided that its first priority on the provin- cial political scene is to help build the broadest labor and peoples majority to oust the Socred government. Such unity must aim to mobilize broad sections of the population, including the mass labor movement, the forces which made up the Solidarity movement, civic reform move- ments and all progressive sections of the population around a program of full employment, restoration of labor and human rights and restoration of cutbacks in social services and education. Such a program will have to include rejection of the restraint program and its replacement by government action to launch a massive program of public hous- ing, reforestation, fish enhancement, im-~ proved public services, and development MAY DAY GREETINGS from the Communist Party of Canada On the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the Pacific Tribune, the B.C. Provincial Committee of the Communist Party salutes the proud tradition first established in 1935. B.C. Provincial Committee Communist Party of Canada #102, 2747 E. Hastings Street Vancouver, B.C. V5K 1Z8 Telephone: 254-9836 of secondary industries. It should include public ownership of Crown corporations alienated to the private sector by the Socreds and nationalization under demo- cratic control of key sectors of industry. It’s clear to everyone that in the highly polarized political situation in B.C. the only realistic alternative to the Socreds would be an NDP government. But so far the NDP leadership has failed to come forward with the kind of alternative fight- ing program which can rally the broad movement needed to ensure the defeat of the Socreds. On the contrary, many New Democrats, trade unionists, supporters of Solidarity, and other progressives have been dismayed by the lack of concrete policies on education, jobs and economic development, and the failure of the NDP. opposition to put up a strong challenge to Socred policies. They have been further dismayed by statements by NDP leader Bob Skelly who has said that “it is not the duty of the opposition to oppose”. He has also called for co-operation with the Socreds, declar- ing that “confrontation is counterprod- uctive”’ and that “‘there’s no war if one side refuses to fight’’. This is not the strategy of victory over the Socreds in the next pro- vincial election — it is a strategy of defeat. Unfortunately, the present leadership has not learned the lesson of the 1983 pro- vincial election when the Barrett leader- ship adopted a similar strategy of failing to put forward strong alternative policies to the restraint program of the Socreds. The theory that if you don’t challenge the Socreds and if you give them enough rope they’ll hang themselves, proved to be a disaster in 1983. The lessons. of last November’s Van- couver civic election and the February civic byelection have also not been learned Election talk highlights need for anti-Socred unity by the NDP leadership. Right wing politi- cal forces in Vancouver were defeated pre- cisely because COPE and its allies opposed the right wing restraint program of the Socreds and refused to implement Socred policies in Vancouver. The anti- restraint policies of COPE won the sup- port of a majority of the people and elected a progressive majority to city hall. At the same time, the COPE-Unity campaign did not run for cover when the right wing attacked the unions but came out unequivocally in their defence. The trade union movement in Vancouver played a major public role in defeating the right wing NPA. Nor did the COPE-Unity forces run for cover when the right wing started to red- bait. By standing up to the red-baiters and rejectir.2 the anti-Communist attacks of the rsht, COPE-Unity succeeded in retaining the majority on city council through the election of Bruce Yorke, a leading Communist Party member. Many New Democrats learned these lessons through their involvement in the Van- couver civic elections. It is to be hoped that the top NDP leaders will also learn them and apply them in the next provincial elec- tion. The key to victory over the Socreds lies in uniting a majority of the people of B.C. in a broad anti-Socred alliance based on a program of ending restraint and replacing it with a program of large scale govern- ment action to create jobs, restore social services and education standards, develop secondary industries, raise living stand- ards and nationalize key sectors of B.C.’s economy. The NDP leaders must realize that the forces who want the Socreds out of office are broader than the NDP itself. This has been demonstrated by the fight- back movement of the last three years. The Communist Party in B.C. is dedi- cated to working for such an alliance. It is prepared to enter into discussions with the NDP, trade unions, Solidarity, and other progressive organizations with a view to reaching broad agreement on a program to oust the Socreds. Twoards.that end we appeal to the upcoming NDP conference in May to give serious consideration to the © above proposals for unity around a com- mon program of action. Mm Greetings to our members and supporters on this International Holiday of Workers. Our fraternal association has been in existence for over 60 years serving the working people of Canada. For information about what the Workers’ Benevolent Association can do for you telephone: 224-6127 Workers’ Benevolent Association, District Committee and Branch 33 ~ 805 East Pender Street, Vancouver, B.C.