Dntario Lom

TORONTO — ‘‘The Ontario
overnment is out to scuttle
DHIP”’ charged William Stewart,
Ontario Leader of the Communist
arty, at a meeting-of Party work-

sin Brampton March 22. (OHIP
ee, Hospital Insurance
“Make no mistake,” Stewart
aid, “the actions of Health
Minister Timbrell, with the full
upport of the Cabinet, are part of
plone term plan to restore health
insurance to private carriers. This
Tory privatization program and in
eeping with the whole history of
th Ontario Government towards
It was fOneario which blocked
medicare and delayed its intro-
duction for many years in Cana-

Beechin
—expelle

TORONTO — In actions taken
March 5 by the Central Commit-
fee of the Communist Party of
‘Canada, the Saskatchewan Pro-

vincial Committee of the Party
s removed from office, and
MWilliam Beeching, former pro-
vincial leader, was expelled from
e Party for actions “‘detrimental

Ibf the working class.’’ Beeching
d earlier been removed from all
9 Pts in the Party.
) In the motion removing the
h rovincial committee, the Central
Executive concluded that the
ommnittee could not be relied
tnon to carry through the line and
ecisions of the Party and its
Central Committee. Both mo-
Hons were passed unanimously.
Fyll information on the motions
has beén sent out to Central
ommittee members and leading
ommittees of the Party.

sa key and integral part of the -

tte the Party and the best interests -

leader charges

da, Stewart recalled. It was the
same government which led the
campaign to change the federal
health financing system from
payments designated for health
care (which had to be spent by
provincial governments on
health) to transfers which could
be spent by provinces as the pro-
vinces saw fit. When this new
financing scheme was introduced,
the government began using
money which would have been

" hitherto pinned to health care (the

same -holds true of education
grants, etc.) for general govern-
ment expenditures, such as gifts
to Ford Motor Co., Denison
Mines and to pulp and paper
companies.

Stewart accused Queen’s Park
of now openly working, together
with doctors, to tear the entire
scheme apart. Through a combi-
nation of exorbitant premiums,
double billings, amounting in
some instances of 80%, opting
out, extra charge for hospital,
etc., universal medicare is being
disassembled, he charged.

Along with this, Stewart noted,
there is a continual cutback on
hospital and health services. Ac-
ross the province there is a grow-

ing outcry against hospital bed

shortages, in general care and
psychiatric care as well. People
are unable to find a bed in most
areas even when in dire need of
treatment. In northwestern On-
tario a major protest movement
has begun and in Windsor, Toron-
to, Hamilton, Peterboro and
many other centres people are in
action against cutbacks, opt-outs
and double billing.

The United Auto Workers have
called “‘enough’’, and have begun
a dual campaign to boycott doc-
tors who have opted out of OHIP,
while pressuring the Ontario
Government to make such a prac-
tice illegal. The union points out
that when it signs an agreement
with an employer its members

Tories out to scuttle OHIP —

can’t decide they don’t like it and
double bill the companies for
extra wages. Why. then should
doctors have such a right. If the
rates are not satisfactory they
should have the same options as
workers, to negotiate higher
rates.

What is needed, Stewart said,
is for these movements to find the
way to come together into an all-
out assault on government
health-care policy. The Tories
were forced to get into medicare,
although they were unalterably

opposed to it. They were forced
to back, at least partially, away
from their 37% rate boost last
year and they can be forced to
abandon their cutback and opt-
out policies today. This, how-
ever, will require that all of those
people angered by the govern-
ment’s actions find the way to hit
out together at the government
during this session of the legisla-
ture. The Ontario Federation of
Labor should see it as their re-
sponsibility to spark and be a key
part of such a movement.

Government actions are part of
a long term plan to restore health
insurance to private companies.

Federal actions aid provincial
schemes to privatize medicare

TORONTO — Concerted ef-
forts to privatize medicare is just
one more of the growing attacks
on social security in the name of
restraint and austerity, the Com-
munist Party has charged. Com-
menting on attempts to scuttle the
principle of universality of medi-
care, the Party’s Central Execu-
tive Committee said in a March 20
Statement that: ‘‘From all ac-
counts it appears that a concerted
drive is under way, sparked by
the provincial Conservative
governments, to scuttle medicare
or at least undermine its universal
character.

‘This appears to be part of a
‘campaign behind which stand the
msurance companies in Canada,
to privatize medicare and hand it
to private enterprise in the same
way as Conservative leader Clark
proposes to hand back Petrocan
to the multi-national corpora-

tions.

“The federal government,
however, does not come with
clean hands on this question
either,’’ states the document

signed by Communist leader Wil-
liam Kashtan. ‘“‘It pretends to de-
fend universality in medicare
even though it scuttled that prin-
ciple when it came to Family Allo-
wances. Moreover it opened the
door to attacks on medicare when
it undertook, together with the
provinces, new financial
arrangements on social security,
health and education, all in the
name of restraints and austerity.
The doctors, in ‘opting out’ are
clearing the way for the further .
Sea rcp of the medicare |
program

*Cansilians are faced today |
with growing attacks on social;
security in the name of restraint;
and austerity while the federal!
government and provincial
governments literally give away
the sink to the multi-national cor-

porations and while the federal -

government spends over $4-:
billion on so-called defence,’’:
the statement charges.
‘“‘The priorities which place’
corporate profits before the health .
of the people must be changed,” .
it argues. ‘‘ The health and welfare

of the people must be a first prior-
ity of governments. Within this
context there is need to adjust

payments to doctors to take in-

flationary price rises into account.
At the same time the principle of
universality must be upheld.”’

: people

15,000 march
for women
in Montreal

MONTREAL — Some 15,000
marched through
downtown Montreal on March 8,
International Women’s Day, with
demands for Equal pay for work
of equal valie, Daycare centres
and nurseries to meet the current
urgent needs and abortion on
demand, among others.

Among organizers of the march
‘were the three trade union cent-
rals, the Quebec Federation of
Labor, the Confederation of Na-
tional Trade Unions, and the
Quebec Teachers’ Central, as
well as La Ligue des Femmes and
several more organizations.

‘An apologist for aggression

" A reader sent in the March 1979 issue
of the Far Eastern Newsletter with a re-
quest that we comment on the lead arti-
cle. The Newsletter is published by
James Endicott, once a prominent
‘spokesman for the Canadian peace
‘movement, but now a militant apologist
for Chinese aggression against Vietnam.
* * *

_ Endicott begins his lead article with a
«sense of urgency” as he informs his
readers that he is sponsoring the
“formation of a Democratic Kampuchea
Support Committee’’. The article makes
it quite clear that the Kampuchea he has
in mind is not Kampuchea as such but the
fascist Pol Pot-Ieng Sary regime. For that
matter that regime does not even exist
anymore. It was rightfully overthrown
by the outraged citizens of Kampuchea.
So why call for a “‘support commit-
tee’’? To call for such a committee is
tantamount to embracing fascist thugs.
But perhaps Dr. Endicott has something
else in mind, such as a backdoor support
action for the Chinese Maoist leaders’
' aggression against Vietnam? We will
. come back to this later. But first some
, facts on Kampuchea which Endicott
, cannot see.

* * *

The governments of Canada, Norway,

, Britain and the United States, in accor-
_ dance with a resolution adopted by the
. 2Ath Conference of the United Nations

_ Commission on Human Rights, submit- .

ted factual reports to the Economic and

Marxism-Leninism in Today’s World

Social Council or the Secretary General
of the UN on the situation in Cambodia
(Kampuchea). Also submitting reports

were the International Committee of

Lawyers and Amnesty International.
_ Allreports without exception revealed

that the Pol Pot-Ieng Sary regime was

enforcing extremely inhuman measures,
including mass murders. Prince Noro-
dom Sihanouk, who represented that re-
gime at the UN Security Council, admit-

ted that it slaughtered people as if they

were animals. The number of people
murdered is estimated at more than two
million, one quarter of the total popula-
tion of Kampuchea.

In addition these fact-finding reports
point out that families and married
couples were broken up, adults were
sent to the countryside. Boys and girls
were put to work in the factories. Trade
and money were abolished. All daily
requirements were supplied on a quota
system controlled by the Pol Pot regime.

* * ok

The facts show that the Kampuchean
regime was overthrown by the Kampuch-
ean people united under the flag of the

National United Front for Salvation, and ~

not as a result of Vietnam ‘‘aggression”’
as the Maoist leaders of China would
have us believe.

The basic policy demands of the Na-
tional United Front were: a self-reliant
economic policy for socialism, settle-

ment of differences between neighboring
countries by negotiations on the basis of
mutual respect for independence,
sovereignty and_ territorial integrity;
freedom of the people as regards resi-
dence, movement, association and be-
liefs, restoration of family life, abolition
of forced marriages, and freedom of
choice of marriage partners;
*

The fact that the above principles were
singled out as the centre-piece around
which almost the whole Kampuchean
people rallied is in itself a striking indict-
ment of the Pol Pot regime and its anti-
people policies.

Sufficient evidence exists to show that
the people’s movement which overthrew
that reactionary regime which Endicott
supports, rests on a powerful, broad base
comprising all strata of the Kampuchean
population, including whole army units
and their commanders. For the matter of
the record both the president and secre-
tary-general of the National United

Front for Nationat Salvation, Heng

Samrin and Ros Samay, were both com-
manders of the Kampuchean army.

These are the basic reasons why the
fascist Pol Pot-Ieng Sary regime was so
rapidly overthrown. Politically and mor-
ally that regime was rotten to the core.

Mo hak

However, this does not fully explain

why Endicott comes out for a “‘support

committee’’-for a regime that no longer
exists. As we have already mentioned,
this proposition for a ‘‘Kampuchea sup-
port committee’’ is a backdoor attempt
to rally support for the Chinese invasion
of Vietnam. For it is rather difficult, even
for such a champion of the expansionist
aims of the Chinese Maoist leaders as
James Endicott, to openly call for a
“‘support China committee.’’ Thus, his
need for a diversion, namely, to paint
Vietnam as the villain in southeast Asia
and China as one of the victims.

What nonsense. Just imagine a small
country like Vietnam attacking a giant
like China! One would have to believe in
fairy tales. It just doesn’t make sense.

“ * * *

To view the events in southeast Asia
through the eyes of the Chinese rulers
and of James Endicott is to stand things
on their heads — to look at things upside
down.

For the aims of the Chinese Maoist
leaders is to establish their hegemony
over all of southeast Asia. Further evi-
dence of this intention is the new armed
front they have opened up against Laos.
The main barrier to the expansionist
policies of the Chinese leaders is Viet-
nam.

Ke Se

In the name of socialism, humanism
and international cooperation the only
course to follow is to support the growing
public demand for ‘‘Hands off Viet-

nam’’, ‘“‘China out of Vietnam’’.
PACIFIC TRIBUNE—MARCH 30, 1979—Page 9