EBITGRIAL

Wage controls on agenda?

The federal government says it is
helpless in the face of soaring interest
rates which are ruining homeowners,
small business people, farmers, as well
as millions of working-class consumers.

What the smug government and its
finance minister are hiding is their
siphoning of millions of dollars away
from these people, and into the profits
of monopoly corporations. Figures
prove that profits keep soaring while
workers’ living standards plunge.

Behind Finance Minister Alan
MacEachen’s pretext that high interest
rates will help freeze spending and
thereby reduce inflation, is the real
intent: to make working people pay for
the excesses of monopoly capitalism.
This has been said before, but the truth
of it becomes more evident daily. The
gap is widening between the wealth and
exploiting ability of the corporate elite
on top of the heap, and an im-
poverished mass of workers and far-
mers at the bottom. It is a conscious
lowering of the majority’s living stan-
dards.

MacEachen says publicly that he has
no plan to inhibit interest rates; and’ it’s
clear in the case of inflation that his
government encourages it by, among

other actions, dumping more than $5- -

billion a year into the most inflationary
sector — military squandering. But the

minister warns workers not to seek wage
increases!

This is amazing callousness; and the
Tories’ crocodile tears are mainly be-
cause they aren’t able to bludgeon the
people on behalf of the U.S.-based
transnationals which they favor.

MacEachen has been soft-pedalling:

the ominous “tax based incomes policy”
(TIP) — which in plain English spells
wage controls with penalties for exceed-
ing the government
nowhere is there a guarantee that in-
flation won’t continue to outpace wages.
Nowhere is there a guarantee of jobs —-
something the much-maligned Soviet
Union has had for 50 years.

The job of a big business government
is to pander to big business. This one
also may want to accumulate an energy
fund; but it has no excuse for doing so
by robbing wage earners. And it has no
right to tie Canadians to the sinking
living standards being forced upon
workers in the USA under the Reagan
regime.

It is clear that the working class needs
to gather the strength, and act as the

core of an anti-monopoly coalition to.

compel changes of government policies,
to raise not lower standards in every
facet of workers’ lives. It begins with a
powerful “no” to wage controls.

Emissary to El Salvador

The crimes of the right-wing junta
which has fastened itself onto El Sal-
vador are known around the world. The
swelling demand of the world’s peoples
is that the junta be condemned and de-
nied any aid in its grisly betrayal.

The fact that the Socialist Inter-
national, an organization representing
social democratic parties of the world,
has decided to send an emissary with
proposals for a “political solution” to the
fighting cannot but arouse interest.

That the emissary is to be a Canadian,
New Democratic Party leader Ed Broad-
bent, is of special interest to Canadians,
who have the added insight of living next
door to the most ardent supporter of the
Salvadoran junta, the USA.

The NDP leader has not revealled the
“specific proposals” he says he is taking
on what he called “a fact-finding mis-
sion”. It is to be hoped, of course, that
enough facts were already known to help
in formulating the “specific proposals”.

Mass rallies in many countries have
demanded an end to U.S. military and
“adviser” assistance to a regime engaged
in systematic slaughter. Broadbent will
have the opportunity to support this
demand, and to express it again when he
visits the USA as part of the trip.

It is not a question of putting on a scale

the positions of the USA and say, Cuba, .

which country Broadbent says he will
also consult; it is a question of putting a

stop to Washington’s propping up of :

another rightist regime in the interests of
U.S. hegemony. a

The ie of El Salvador, who are
presently battling the government’s ex-
termination squads, and battling for the
freedom of their country from such de-
struction and horror, must receive the
support which assures their right to de-
cide their own destiny.

A great many people will be watching
to see how Ed Broadbent puts these es-
-sentials into practical proposals.

F-18 bad deal at any price

U.S. Defence Secretary Caspar Wein-
berger suggested in Ottawa during April
that Canada might have to pay more than
anticipated for the 130-odd F-18 jet

Correction

The editorial, End Israel’s death-
dealing, in our previous issue, contained
a reference to “these new nazis — the
Israeli Zionists,” which we now retract.
While the actions .of the Government of
Israel demand harsh criticism, we be-
lieve that the generalization used in that
editorial was unacceptable as a valid
criticism.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—MAY 22, 1981—Page 4

fighters the government agreed to take °

from McDonnell Douglas of USA. This
paper wrote about the folly of that deal in
October 1979, when we warned that the
“make-believe $2.3-billion expenditure
... iS now near $3-billion, and will near
$4-billion by the time of delivery.”

Today, when Weinberger looks at a
higher price he means higher than the
now-acknowledged $4-billion!

This deal at any price is a bad one for
Canada. It’s sole purpose is to keep up the
capacity of U.S. military production while

-keeping up Washington’s cold-war

propaganda.

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INTEREST RATES

Flashbacks

25 years ago... 50 years ago...

A MOTHER FOR
EVERY CHILD

Abortions stand at second
place as a cause for maternal
mortality in this country. Dr.
Douglas Dalziel, secretary of the

committee who did the study. .
not

stated: “Abortion does
occur mostly among young un-
married women but among

women with families diving in

basement apartments who can-
not afford more children.”

Dr. Dalziel also points out
that women do not get sufficient
pre-natal care. He reported that
only 40% of expectant mothers
in Canada were able to get
prenatal examination because
of lack of funds, remoteness
from doctors and lack of medi-
cal personnel in some areas.

Tribune,
May 21, 1956

KA

We ail understand, of course, that skyrocketing food prices are
no one’s fault; they just happen — like the weather. So it’s just idlé
curiosity that prompts us to observe, and share with you, Dominion —
Stores Ltd.’s 52-week after-tax profit (up to March 21/81) df

$28,009.503.

MOTHER — CHILDREN
EXECUTED IN CHINA

“Twelve supposed Chinest
Communists were due f
execution, one of them thé
mother of three children rang’ '

‘ing from five to ten years of age,

For several hours the aw
thorities debated over what
do with the children after thé
mother had been shot. Sh
boasts of no orphanage and nd
one could be found to adopt thé
children. It was finally decided
that the children would be. bet
tet off dead that turned loose t0
compete with beggars on thé
city . streets, and according!
were all shot.” (New Yor
Times, April 12)

Next time anyone tells you

about “Bolshevik atrocities”
quote the above.
The Workef;

May 23, 193}

a

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Associate Editor — FRED WILSON
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