_ found military and

EDITORIAL

Rig figures, rob pensioners

Does anyone in Canada really believe the
drivel coming out of Ottawa which suggests
that the economic crisis is caused by, and
can be cured by persecuting, old age pen-
sioners, families dependent on F amily
Allowances, and public service workers,
whose pay and pensions are both under
attack?

Is bleeding these people going to save
the country from ruin? Or does such salva-
tion depend upon new policies and new
governments to apply them?

Parliament voted, Liberals 117 for, with
102 New Democrats and Tories opposed
on Feb. 3, to depress pensioners’ living
standards still more by clamping them into
the 6 and 5 tyranny. That holds pension
increases to about 50% of the current in-
flation rate, guaranteeing depressed living
standards. No wonder new sections of the
population are working to replace this bra-
zen government of the monopolies with
MPs who represent the non-monopoly
majority.

To compound the insults to those who

can barely stretch their incomes to cover
the necessities, the government manipu-
lates the cost-of-living index:

In 1971, its agency, Statistics Canada,
buried the evidence of daylight robbery of
the people of Canada by abolishing the
aggregate cost-of-living records and start-
ing once more at zero.

Now this total has become embarrassin
again, and so, as of February 1, they began
with a clean slate. Allinflation over the past

12 years has been expunged. There hasn’t
been any.

To top it off, a group of five members of
parliament have directed criticism at the
Catholic bishops’ condemnation of the way
the system is working. The bishops, they:
complain, “are engaging the authority of
the Church, and therefore God, in tem-
poral matters ... a dangerous precedent.”

Arrogance seems to be contageous
among MPs-for-monopoly. With their re-
cord of assault on living standards and all
other standards, they deserve a barrage of
dangerous precedents from every quarter.

Let world judge massacre

Israel’s judicial inquiry into respon-
sibility for the massacre of Palestinians in
the refugee camps of Sabra and Shatila last
fall, while that area of Beirut was under
Israeli occupation, has ended.

While it called Israeli Defence Minister
Ariel Sharon “personally responsible” for
not preventing the massacre, rebuked
Prime Minister Menachem
intelligence chiefs
culpable, it steered clear of finding any
deliberateness in their deeds.

Last September, when word of the mass
murders of Palestinian men, women and
children of all ages became known, the
Communist Party of Canada voiced certain
requirements for bringing the perpe-
trators to justice: “The Israeli Government
and those in Washington who armed the
Israeli forces to the teeth, primed the
aggression against Lebanon and then sup-
ported it, are responsible for this crime
against humanity.

Begin, and.

“They must not be allowed to get away
with it,” the statement says.““The Nurem-
berg trials established the principle that
individuals could not absolve themselves of
crime against humanity for they are collec-
tively responsible. We need another
Nuremberg trial against those who com-
mitted this holocaust, both directly and in-
directly. This includes Begin, Sharon and

policy of expansionism, annexation and-
genocide against another people.”

It went on to demand the complete with-
drawal of the Israeli military from
Lebanon.

Each and every one of these points is
valid today. An international tribunal is cal-
led for, withdraw] of Israeli troops is long
overdue. Whether Begin brazens it out or
calls an election is not the point. The crime
against the Palestinians, involving the
USA, Israel and their Lebanese fascist
collaborators, is in the international arena,
and there it must be tried.

Peace needs efforts of all

The battle to keep Cruise nuclear missile
testing out of Canada cannot be considered
finished until that battle is won, regardless
of the stage of the Canadian Government's

deal to allow such tests.

Not only is the battle not over, but the
ranks of the growing peace forces are wide
open as never before for the participation
of people and organizations who Oppose
the Cruise tests, whatever their approach
to other matters. In a broader sense, there
is room for this broad spectrum of views in
the overall movements for disarmament,
for declaring Canada a nuclear weapons
free zone and barring the way to nuclear
escalation.

The recent meeting of the central execu-
tive committee of the Communist Party of
Canada took note of the developing peace
offensive:

“In Canada the desire for peace, against
the arms drive and against nuclear war,
expresses itself in widespread opposition to

the Cruise missile testing on Canadian soil,
>ACIFIC TRIBUNE—FEBRUARY 18, 1983—Page 4

and in support of making Canada a nuclear
weapons-free zone.”

The meeting called attention to opposi-
tion to the Cruise tests, shown by Gallup
Poll, and by opposition to the tests among
Liberals (including Cabinet ministers),
among New Democrats and among Tories.

“What must be at the centre of our atten-
tion is the role the organized peace move-
ment can and must play at this stage of the
struggle, that of mobilizers, and unifiers of
all peace movements around an agreed
peace program, working on an equal basis
with all who want peace and oppose nu-
clear war ... working to help build up a
powerful anti-war coalition in this country
as part of the international coalition
needed to deal with the dangers to peace
today.”

That is the scope that is needed at this
crucial time in history. An all-embracing |
surge for nuclear disarmament, for peace
and life permits of no narrowness, but calls
for the broadest participation by all who
share these aims.

ZZ

Flashbacks

25 years 50 years

INSULTING
ARRANGEMENT

New insults are being
heaped on Canada from
south of the border.

A quartet of young To-
ronto singers, the Crewcuts,

it ne tier eet eee woh 4j-.._ 2) are .denied:-entry to ‘the |:
those in Washington who endorsed their *

United States unless they ob-
tain immigrant visas. They
will lose $50,000 while com-
plying with U.S. customs red
tape. Canada exacts no such
conditions from U.S. artists.

Now U.S. Congressmen
have decided to “investigate”
U.S.-Canada relations and
have the audacity to suggest
Canadian cabinet ministers
should be summoned before
them to “testify”.

And Secretary of State Dul-
les tells the committee that
Canada-U.S. difficulties are
“due to the inexperience of
the present Canada govern-
ment”.

Tribune,
February 17, 1958

hee
bea

Not as spectacular as the headline-catchers, but Canadé
Trustco Mortgage Co., London, Ont., had a 1982 after-tax profit of
$40,307,000, compared to 1981's $28,684,000. Considering they’vé@
been taking all the market will bear since 1864 (within the law$
passed for their enrichment) it’s not a bad life.

-after conflicts between fascist8

Editor — SEAN GRIFFIN
Assistant Editor — DAN KEETON
Business and Circulation Manager — PAT O'CONNOR

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HITLER’S TERROR
GRIPS GERMANY —

BERLIN — Mass raids and
searches of all workers’ oF
ganizations are now bein
carried out by fascists al
police. :

“Liebknecht House, head
quarters of the Germa#
Communist Party, was 0
cupied by armed forces:
Many arrests have taken placé
throughout the country:
especially in Prussia.

In Loebeck a 24-hour ge”
eral strike has develope

and socialist workers’ defensé
corps. Goering has pro-
hibited all Communist out
door demonstrations and
meetings and police have or
ders to arrest communists
whenever they deem neces
sary.

The Worker;
February 11, 1933