BRITISH COLUMBIA Progressive candidates set for ‘crucial’ Nov. 16 election For Ald. Eunice Parker, the upcoming civic election is the “most important, the most crucial” facing the labor-backed alliance she represents. “Council is just not dealing with all the harmful legislation coming down from the provincial government,” charges Parker, who will be seeking a full, two-year term Nov. 16 under the banner of the Associa- tion of Coquitlam Electors (ACE). A former ACE school trustee who won her first aldermanic seat in 1984, Parker is one of dozens of municipal and school board candidates seeking election or re- election this fall on a general program of supporting the rights of trade unionists, pushing peace initiatives at the municipal level, and fighting provincial encorchments on the powers of municipal governments and school trustees. (In the following weeks the Tribune will be dealing with the candidates and the issues they face in several B.C. municipalities.) Most candidates of the left, or of progres- sive movements,-will be seeking the endor- sement of local labor councils for platforms that include keeping civic workers on the payroll, ensuring that civic jobs are per- formed by union labor, and pressing for community development for residents rather than for the benefit of realtors and quick-buck developments. For Parker, long a leading activist in ACE — which traditionally goes to the polls with the backing of the New West- minster and District Labor Council — the last year on council has been a fight against the further contracting out of civic workers jobs and the resulting layoffs. Such practices have seen a 300-per cent _ hike in garbage disposal and collection fees ever since council handed municipal gar- bage collection to a private firm three years ago, she charged. Much of the hike is accounted for by the private ownership of the municipality’s Fraser Mills dump site, which charges Coq- uitlam dumping fees. But the suburban community is also locked into a contract with Haulaway Disposal which pays the firm a yearly seven-per cent increase in col- lection fees, despite the fact that the figure is now above the annual cost-of-living increase, Parker notes. “To top that off, council sweetened the contract one year ago, and handed the commercial garbage collection business over to Haulaway,” she said. Parker sees an ongoing fight over the provincial government’s controversial Partners in Enterprise program. Although Coquitlam council voted to reject the plan, under which new industries are given sub- stantial tax breaks, Parker anticipates a renewed effort by the industry ministry to pressure council’s predominant right wing into adopting the measure. Parker also wants council to take a more serious attitude to the Federation of Cana- dian Municipalites’ (supported provincially by the Union of B.C. Municipalites) infras- tructure upgrading plan. While ‘council voted to accept the jobs-creating proposal “in principle,” following Parkers’ initiative, it rejected her motion that municipal staff study the plan’s possible implementation for Coquitlam. Parker is joined in the aldermanic race by Lorna Morford, cur- rently an ACE school trustee who has been outspoken in her opposition to the educa- tion ministry’s school cutbacks. Aiming for the seat left vacant by Mor- ford is ACE school trustee candidate Anne Kachmar. Across the Fraser River, the Surrey Alternative Movement (SAM) has formed an electoral alliance with the recently estab- lished Coalition for Responsible Develop- ment. The latter emerged when Surrey _ council sent eviction notices to the fisher- men and small boat owners of Wards Mar- ina, in order to free the land for development of high-priced housing which has already claimed waterfront locations along Crescent Road. The two groups have united in the Surrey Coalition of Progressive Electors (SCOPE). “We're all for land banking,” says SCOPE aldermanic candidate and long- time SAM activist Steve Gidora, “But we also ask, ‘Land banking for whom?’ ” Surrey council’s land development prac- tices — which will also see a renewed create a huge shopping complex near Clov- erdale, drawing business away from estab- lished enterprises in that town centre — constitute part of its Land Use Plan, and will be a key issue in the Nov. 16 race. SCOPE will also be targetting “the fail- ure of the (current) Surrey school board to rally a strong defence of the public school system,” the group states. Candidates for two-year aldermanic terms include Gidora and United Fisher- men and Allied Workers Union member Don Carter. A one-year seat is being con- - tested by carpenter Terry Lawrence. SCOPE’s school board candidates include Josephine Arland, a long-time seniors’ acti- vist and Solidarity Coalition leader, and Surrey civic worker Gord Savard. Richmond school board is dominated by “Socred symps and apologists who don’t want to fight the provincial government to save our schools,” charges school board candidate Fred Pawluk. ; Pawluk, a runner-up in last year’s race for one of the board’s seven seats, is running with Richmond civic activist Sylvia Surette for the Richmond Electors Action League (REAL). The candidates have already received backing from the Vancouver and District Labor Council. “Our people have pledged no more cut- backs, no more budget cuts. We’re standing on that platform, and we’ll face the conse- quences of it if we’re elected,” Pawluk declared. REAL is not running aldermanic candidates. Pawluk said his organization, along with the Richmond New Democrats (an NDP civic group), has received strong backing from locals of the Canadian Union of Pub- lic Employees and the Richmond Firefight- ers, as well as some other union locals. While there is no formal unity between REAL and the NDP, candidates from the two organizations are not running against each other. Richmond NDP school board hopefuls include incumbent Brian Collins, joined by Pat Gudlugson, Marva Black- more and Sue Halsey-Brandt. ” attempt to allow Woodward's stores to — EUNICE PARKER...Coquitlam ACE — Ald. seeks re-election. 4 SYLVIA SURETTE...REAL candidate for school trustee. ' STEVE GIDORA...new alliance backs Surrey aldermanic hopeful. There seems to be a widely held notion with steps to reduce the prostitution problem in the West End and Mount Pleasant areas that everything will be fine once the House of Commons passes Bill C-49. All we need in the meantime, some reason, are some temporary measures to move the hookers from one area to another. Nothing could be further from the truth. Bill 49, we are told, will stop street Soliciting by more clearly and more broadly defining the term “soliciting.” Presumably the police will then be able to make more arrests and secure more We have had no end of laws in Can- ada concerning street soliciting and these have never stopped it. There are at least two reasons: there are always ways to get around such a law; and the laws are ‘simply not enforced, ‘for whatever rea- son ___ Bill 49 will also have some decidely harmful effects. It will criminalize the business of pros- titution. If hookers are picked up, forced to put up bail, put on trial, compelled to seek expensive legal aid, and then fined if convicted, they will simply have to engage in even more prostitution to pay all the bills. It will leave the prostitutes, even more 2 e PACIFIC TRIBUNE, OCTOBER 16, 1985 among many who have been involved - than now, in the hands of pimps and, finally, in the clutches of organized crime. It’s hardly a secret that prostitu- tion in all big American cities is con- trolled by one or another form of mafia. It will simply force more of the solicit- ing indoors, where it operates with the connivance of hotel, pub and night club operators and escort services, who will see to it that they get their share of the “take.” In American cities this is also Harry Rankin done with the connivance of corrupt Bill 49 places all the blame and all the onus on the hookers. What about the “johns?” Aren’t they as much to blame for soliciting as the hookers? And what about the “johns” and pimps who specialize in preying on juvenile hookers? We have laws against that on the statute books now and these aren’t being enforced when it comes to prostitution. But Bill 49 deserves criticism from another angle — one that is even more Govt’s prostitution bill blames victim pertinent. The bill promises nothing that would deal with either the causes or results of prostitution. It deals only with the symptoms, and puts the blame on the victims. Prostitution is a social problem and it can only be solved by action to get at the root of the problem. Cuba provides a good example. Before the 1959 revolu- tion it was one huge brothel for Ameri- can Armed Forces personnel and tourists. The Cubans dealt with it in two ways: 1) They put the prostitutes into rehab centres where they were given health care, trained for jobs and provided an education; 2) They removed the social causes of prostitution by building a society where everyone is entitled to and receives an education, housing, health care, training and a job. All of this is provided by the State. Why doesn’t Ottawa do anything about the social causes of prostitution? _ The basic reason is that in our profit- oriented society the welfare of people is not the first consideration. In fact it’s the last. The first consideration is profit, and the corporate elite who run our country don’t want to “waste” money taking care of social problems like prostitution. They would rather spend it on the arms race or an Expo 86 or other megaprojects that directly benefit big business. be I’m not saying that social problems like prostitution can’t be solved. But Iam saying that we need some pretty funda- mental reforms of our political system before we finish prostitution in this coun- try. The answer lies in two directions. The first is to help prostitutes get out of their business through social pro- grams to take care of their specific needs and first on the list should be help for the child prostitutes and a severe crackdown on those who use or exploit them. The second and much broader step needed is to reform our present society so that people’s needs will come ahead of corporate profit. If everyone were pro- vided with a job and job security, with adequate housing, with job training and education, and an education, and health care, many of the economic causes of prostitution would be eliminated.