Editorial

‘Still out of touch

The last time the Alberta town of Kananaskis was in the news was in 1940 when it
housed a notorious federal internment camp where progressives were jailed for up to
two years without charges or trial.

Two weeks ago, Kananaskis hosted NATO defence ministers who met for two days,
ostensibly to conduct a review of NATO nuclear policy in face of a changing Europe
and world. Unfortunately, the locale retained its history of producing disappointments.

Instead of seizing new opportunities to join the USSR in helping end the nuclear

arms race, NATO’s Nuclear Planning Group, led by the United States and Britain, .

delivered a chilling reaffirmation of the alliance’s first-strike policy and its determina-
tion to press ahead with weapons modernization.

To be sure, there was a small acknowledgment that the political and military map of
Europe had changed when the NATO planners indicated they are prepared to nego-
tiate withdrawal of nuclear artillery shells and the obsolete Lance short-range
missile — both of which could only obliterate Eastern European states which are
undergoing radical political change. And there’s the welcome cancellation of plans to
expand low-level flight testing, removing the threat of increased — and
controversial — military activity at Goose Bay, Labrador.

But when it comes to the big picture, every grade school student, it seems, under-
stands what the NATO leaders fail to see — that the Western alliance has been
deprived of its traditional enemy, that the Cold War is ending, that its 40 year-old
“containment” strategy based on destroying the European continent in nuclear fire to
“save it from communism” is not acceptable anymore. :

Under U.S. and British pressure, the NATO planners agreed to scrap the outdated
land-based Lance missiles — and replace them with new air-launched cruise missiles, a
destabilizing and far more dangerous weapon. This is NATO’s “contribution” to
detente. An upgraded stealth cruise with its 200-kiloton nuclear payload fired from a
moving bomber is NATO’s reply to a new and radical approach advanced by the
Warsaw Pact — one which proposes an all-European security arrangement through
the participation of both East and West European states.

Canada, which may eventually get itself further enmeshed in this suicidal and
criminal NATO policy by testing the new air-launched cruise, sat through the Kana-
naskis session in silence. When asked if Canada would test the new cruise if Washing-
ton requested it, Defence Minister William McKnight only mouthed evasions.

But calls for a thorough review of our defence policy are coming from all sides as it
becomes more obvious daily that clinging to cold war responses and policies won’t

‘suffice, that they are dangerous and self-defeating. ~

Kananaskis showed once again the urgent need for a made-in-Canada foreign policy
which looks ahead to the 1990s and beyond, to a new Europe and a new set of world
relationships and challenges.

NATO, and Canada’s acquiescent membership in it, never looked so out of touch as

Hy COMING TO
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it did last week.

(UR NEIGHBORHOOD: Soon, |

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EDITOR

Sean Griffin

ASSOCIATE EDITOR

Dan Keeton
BUSINESS & CIRCULATION MANAGER
Mike Proniuk
GRAPHICS

Angela Kenyon

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f you’re one of those who recently voted

in a neighbourhood plebiscite against
the opening of yet another beer and wine
store, you’re among the ranks of an
increasing number of people. The stores
have proliferated over the last year, with
hotels putting up retail outlets and erecting
huge neon signs to attract customers.

It has been a kind of side-door privati-
zation of liquor sales, with the government-
run Liquor Distribution Branch keeping
its place as the wholesaler. But as the B.C.
Government Employees Union points out,
the beer and wine stores are increasing the
availability of booze without paying any
of the social costs of that increase. On the
contrary, the government is contributing
to their bottom line profits through a
whole number of hidden and direct subsi-
dies.

It’s for that reason, too, that the union is
waging a campaign against the liquor pri-
vatization, urging residents to vote no in
plebiscites and encouraging people to
“buy union” from their regular liquor
store.

According to Randy Pearson, chair of
the retail stores and wholesale component
of the BCGEU, not only are prices higher
and wages lower at the private beer and
wine outlets — the government also gives
their owners some special deals.

Prices average about 11.5 per cent
higher at the stores while the wages for
non-union workers run about $5-$6 an
hour, less than half what a BCGEU retail
clerk receives.

In addition, according to Pearson, the
beer and wine stores have no need to
maintain inventory — that is done by the
LDB — they get low-cost deliveries and

can return unsold stock to government

liquor stores. They also receive a 10 per
cent commission on sales.

In the case of private wine outlets, such
as those in New Westminster’s Westmins-
ter Quay and North Vancouver’s Park
and Tilford Mall, owners get a 36.36 per
cent discount on wine as well as the cheap
delivery charges. In fact, says Pearson,
without the generous discount and the
other subsidies, the private wine wouldn’t
make it.

To top it off, the licensing of the beer
and wine stores allows for late-night open-
ing, while regular liquor stores are more

restricted. Pearson notes that in some |

cases, “the hours of operation of liquor
stores have been decreased to allow beer
and wine stores an advantage.” :

It’s worth keeping all that in mind th
next time you’re looking for a quick stop
to buy the weekend suds. Make it a liquor
store.

* * *

t was U.S. Senate leader Robert Dole

who, in the wake of the UNO election
victory in Nicaragua and the U.S. invasion
of Panama, said, “Two down, one to go,”
the one being the island of Cuba.

Since that time, and even before, Cuba
has been subjected to an intensified mil-
itary and propaganda campaign ona scale
not witnessed since the first years follow-
ing the victory of the 1959 revolution.

Earlier this year, the U.S. Coast Guard
fired on a Cuban freighter in international

People and Issues

waters, insisting that the vessel “fit the
profile” of a drug-running ship. The
attack came eight hours after the U.S.
Coast Guard had made the request to
board the vessel and had been refused,
offered instead the option of allowing
Mexican authorities to search the ship in
port in Mexico (where, in fact, no drugs
were found). During that eight hours,
there were two exchanges of information
between the U.S. and Cuban Foreign Min-
istry officials, indicating that the captain’s
provocative action had full U.S. govern-
ment backing.

Last month, U.S. forces staged massive
military manoeuvres in the Caribbean,

code-named Ocean Venture, which in- ‘

cluded air and naval lands around the area
of Puerto Rico. Manoeuvres were also
scheduled on the U.S. base at Guanta-
namo in Cuba which involved evacuation
of civilian personnel.

The manoeuvres were to culminate in a
huge exercise code-named Global Shield
which, when it was held last year, simu-
lated an all-out air attack on Cuba, with
the option of nuclear weapons.

At the same time, however, the intensi-
fied military threat and the drumfire of
propaganda against Cuba has ignited a
new spark of solidarity around the world,
particularly in. North America. In this

province, a number of groups came.

together last week to found a new solidar-
ity organization, the Action Committee for
Cuban Sovereignty. —

The committee is currently organizing a
special public meeting to hear a represen- |
tative of the Cuban Embassy. It’s set for
June 21, 7:30 p.m. in the Ukrainian Hall,
805 East Pender St. in Vancouver.

* *

nvironment is the issue dominating

the political stage these days, includ-
ing the peace movement, and understan-
dably so. After all, nuclear weapons are ~
the key threat to global well-being, and in
recognition of that fact, the Veterans:
Against Nuclear Arms organization invites
everyone to hear key speakers address the
topic, “‘Militarism: the Ultimate Polluter”
early next month.

On the bill are former Canadian Ambas-
sador for Disarmament, Douglas Roche,
who speaks on “Good Economics and
Bad Economics: Canada and the Peace
Dividend” on Tuesday, June 7, 3:30 p.m.
in the Law Building, Room 101-102, Uni-
versity of British Columbia. His talk is
preceded at 1:30 p.m. by an international
panel of veterans including Col. John F,
Barr, USMC (Ret), now of American Vete-
rans for Peace; Col. Nikolai Lichhak (Ret)
of the International Committee of Soviet —
War Veterans; John R. Morrison, a retired
Royal Air Force officer and former acti-
vist with Britain’s Campaign for Nuclear —
Disarmament; and Rev. John Tsuguo Oishi —
of Veterans Against War, Japan. :

The public sessions, with free admis-
sion, are part of VANA’s third annual |
convention June 5-8. Members will dis-
cuss the role of their organization in the |
perestroika era, the role of the Canadian |
Armed Forces in. the post-Cold-War

period, and the relation between the arms | ;

race and environmental problems.

4 Pacific Tribune, May 28, 1990