EDITORIAL

End ties with Pretoria

The naked force used against a peaceful march last
week to mark the 25th anniversary of the Sharpeville
massacre again reinforces the view, if reinforcement
were needed, that South Africa’s apartheid has not

changed.

Winnie Mandela, in a television interview Mar. 21,
said exactly that, as have other leaders of the liberation
struggle in that country and supporters abroad. “Con-
structive engagement”, the U.S. political scrren which
chatters about “change”’ while bolstering white rule,
has proven a fraud, as has the regime’s phoney prom-
ise of reform.

Canadian government policy of politely criticizing
apartheid, coupled with diplomatic, trade and eco-
nomic investment is likewise a policy of support for
the regime. No amount of argument by Tory apolo-
gists that such relations “help Black workers” can be
sustained by the facts.

What can be proven is that every contact —
diplomatic, trade, investment, cultural, sporting —

helps keep apartheid firmly inplace a terrible cost in
lives, repression and misery. Pretoria’s lifeline is pre-
cisely these ties with the world which give it the mil-
itary, economic and moral muscle it requires to
survive year after year.

It is time not only to review Canada’s policy
towards apartheid as External Affairs Minister Joe
Clark says his government will, but to come out
clearly against the illegal, genocidal white minority

. government.

This means taking real action, by ending all diplo-
matic, and economic relations with South Africa. It
means complete disinvestment. It means pulling out
companies like Bata, Ford and other giants presently
operating there. It means a complete trade embargo
with Pretoria.

It means Canada standing up at the United Nations
and, instead of defending relations with apartheid,
announcing its new policy to.the world and inviting
other nations to join with us in a united effort to bring
the regime down forever.

Sneaking into Star Wars

While the Danish parliament was voting 74 to 66 on
Mar. 26 against any involvement in the Reagan
regime’s Star Wars preparations, the Mulroney
government in Canada was continuing to hide the
facts of its commitments to the U.S. and to cover up
the extent of its sellout of Canada’s sovereignty.

Now Mulroney is going through the motions of
“considering” the U.S. formal invitation for Canada

to sign up for war service. The outcome is not hard to

predict. We'll hear about firm guarantees of Canadian
decision-making rights; and anyway it’s only agree-
ment to engage in research — like deciding to go
half-way over Niagara Falls in a barrel. We’ve had this
same sneak approach and cover-up, this same deadly
trickery since last election day.

Reagan spoke in Quebec City on Mar. 18 of “the
possibility of developing, and sharing with you, tech-
nology that could provide a security shield. ..and we
very much appreciate Canada’s support on SDI (Star
Wars) research.”

Somewhere Reagan got the idea that the commit-
ment is already there. The hollow denials from Joe
Clark have become a permanent feature of Commons

procedure.

On Mar. 23, however, on the pretext that participat-
ing in Washington’s war strategy (of which Star Wars
is part) would provide jobs, Mulroney edged the coun-
try closer to the baited trap.

Only.days earlier, Defence Minister Erik Nielsen
had been rubbing hands at the prospect of military
contracts and fat profits for his corporate friends. The
promise that this would mean jobs is a gross exaggera-
tion inscribed on a death warrant.

Just as U.S. authorities “overlooked” the Mulroney
government. when it drew up contingency ‘plans to
place nuclear depth charges on Canadian territory,
U.S. Defence Secretary Caspar Weinberger appar-
ently didn’t bother to notify Ottawa that the U.S. has
now formally invited NATO countries to jump into
Star Wars.

With the Ottawa Tories eating out of their hands,
the Pentagon planners consider Canada already under
their rule. It shows the folly of the Mulroney Tories in
throwing aside Canada’s interests, and the concerns of
the majority of humankind for peace, instead of set-
ting forth a genuine independent Canadian foreign
policy, and fighting for it. That is what the. Canadian
people strongly demand.

OKAY, MAUREEN!
WHERE ARE THOSE

COMICS If

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Se, Pritiiriier

brite

Collapsing banks give monopoly capitalism a bad name, henc@
the recent transfusion by banks and governments for ailing Cana
dian Commercial Bank. In contrast the Canadian Imperial Bank of
Commerce racked up after-tax profit of $85,891,000 in three
months ended Jan. 31. In the same period a year earlier it wa$

$64,873,000.

——

 IRIBUNE

Editor — SEAN GRIFFIN
Assistant Editor — DAN KEETON

Business & Circulation Manager — PAT O'CONNOR

Graphics — ANGELA KENYON

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eople struggling to make out their

income tax forms this month and last
may not have bothered to read all the fine
print at the back of the guidebook —
especially since most of it relates to all the
tax deductions available only to corporate
executives and the coupon clippers.

But if you looked closely on page 42 of
the tax guide, you might have noticed one
sentence which read: “There is now a Brit-
ish Columbia Health Services Mainte-
nance Surtax which is four per cent of your
British Columbia tax. ..”

That piece of buried information is the
reminder of the Socreds’ budget from a
year ago when the tax was first announced
as a means of making British Columbians
pay yet another direct tax for health care.
In simple dollar terms, it means you'll be
paying roughly $30 extra if your taxable
income is $10,000. For the Socreds, it
means an additional $97 million taken
directly from the pockets of taxpayers in
1984-85 and $166 million in 1985-86.

What makes the tax even more disturb-
ing is that it was imposed to make up for
revenue lost when B.C. refused to comply
with the Canada Health Act and eliminate
hospital user fees. Readers will recall that
the Act, passed by the federal government
last year, imposed dollar-for-dollar penal-
ties against provincial governments which
continued to charge user fees which limit
access to health care.

According to figures tabled in the legis-
lature Mar. 21 by NDP MLA Eileen
Dailly, this province lost over $20
million — $2.53 million a month — over

People and Issues

the past eight months by violating the Act.
But the Socreds are raising far more

_ than that amount through the health

maintenance surtax and to add gouging to
injury, they have increased Medical Plan
premiums (up six per cent Apr. 1) and
various user fees. The result is that British
Columbia has the most regressive, heavily
user-financed health care system in the
country.

But the horror story doesn’t stop there.

According to Dailly, “there is unanim-
ous concern among hospital administra-
tors and health care workers that 1985 will
see a repeat of 1982 when massive cut-
backs closed 1,200 beds and 3,000 full-
time jobs were lost.”

In addition, she notes, hsopitals have
not yet returned to pre-1982 levels — yet
more cuts are being announced which will
lead inevitably to more bed closures being
added to those already in effect. Waiting
lists for elective surgery are up to 2,000 in
Prince George, 1,500 in Kelowna and a
six-month wait is now the norm in Kam-
loops.

The story is the same as in education:
basic social programs are being stripped
bare to provide a basketload of tax con-
cessions and special incentives for the pri-
vate sector. And it is not only jobs that are
being lost but the quality of a vital health
service for which we are already being
taxed too heavily.

AS if it wasn’t bad enough that the
producers of the Hollywood flick
Rocky IV wanted to get free volunteer
extras to provide “background atmos-
phere” during filming in Vancouver, now
we hear that the filmmakers have
digressed from the usual boxing theme to
make the film a cheap anti-Soviet spy
thriller.

Readers will recall that Chartoff-
Winkler Productions, which is making the
film, tried to get community groups in
Vancouver to provide volunteers as extras
in return for a donation to the group
involved. The extras, needed for a big fight
scene in the PNE Agrodome, were to get
only coffee and doughnuts and the chance
at a prize draw for their labors, saving the
filmmakers thousands in wages.

The deal prompted an outcry from ~

community groups as well as from the
B.C. Federation of Labor which pointed
out that the film’s producers were violat-
ing the union agreement which sets out a
minimum rate for extras.

Unable to push the scheme through, the
producers then stated acidly that they
might have to take their film crew else-
where.

Better that they should cancel the pro-
ject altogether. According to the producer,
who was interviewed following the
Academy Award ceremonies last week,
the film focuses not on the world of boxing

_ and that nuclear war will be the last epi-

but on a KGB agent who provides a
Hollywood-style anti-Soviet foil for star
Sylvester Stallone.

Asked why he was making such a film,
the producer replied, “I’m all for America. |
And if anybody doesn’t like it, they can |
step outside.” :

e had a brief news release from
Novosti Press last week noting gra-
duating medical students in the Soviet
Union, in addition to swearing the hippo-
cratic oath on entering the profession, will
also swear to work to prevent nuclear war.
The hippocratic oath, which makes it
the moral duty of every doctor to render
aid to anyone in need, is sworn by medical
students around the world. But the new
oath is so far unique and reads: “As a
doctor of the 20th century who is fully
aware that nuclear weapons are an
unprecedented challenge to my profession |

demic on earth, I will spare no effort to
prevent nuclear war.”

The idea was conceived by Physicians
for the Prevention of Nuclear War which
has relations with Physicians for Social
Responsibility in this country and the U.S.
as well as similar groups in other coun-
tries. According to Novosti, Physicians for
the Prevention of Nuclear war will be
holding an international conference at the
time of the 12th World Youth Festival
scheduled for Moscow in July.

4 e PACIFIC TRIBUNE, APRIL 3, 1985

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