eR aba base Editorial — Aculture of violence The appalling murder of 14 women at the University of Montreal’s engineering school in the early days of December has served as a stark reminder to many Canadians of the violence that permeates every aspect of our society, and specifically the violence that is targeted at women. Some have said that the slayings and wounding of 13 others by Marc Lepine is a random act of an irrational mind that has no particular meaning for society as a whole. But the chilling image of a 25-year-old man with a semi-automatic firearm deliberately selecting the women as his victims as he voiced his hatred of feminists is not so easily Fear of violence is faced by Canadian women on a daily basis. Some face it in the home — over one million women are physically abused each year by their husbands. Women constitute the largest majority of murder victims in this country and many are murdered by husbands or lovers. All women face violence on the streets — one in four Canadian women will be sexually assaulted at some point in her life. A recent federal survey showed that 56 per cent of Canadian women are afraid to walk alone after dark. Our Charter of Rights guarantees equality for women. But the fact remains that Canada is a more dangerous place to live for women than men. That violation of women’s right to safety needs to be closely examined. In our society today, all unequal power relationships contain within them the threat of violence. Whether it is the violence by men against women, or by men and women against children, or by white police against black and Native youth, or by militaristic governments against liberation movements worldwide, the threat or reality of violence is used to resolve conflict. And that idea is reinforced in every police crime drama on television, every action movie — even children’s cartoons. It is interesting to note that the police report detailing the life of Marc Lepine describes him as a failed candidate for the military who was obsessed with war movies. It is time to move beyond this continuum of violence that begins with labelling words, or sexist or racist jokes and ends with the murderous madness that took places in a classroom at the University of Montreal. We must begin, men and women together, by removing the structures that block women’s full equality with men. For as long as women are considered second-class citizens they will remain at a higher risk of violence. We must enact gun control legislation that is effective and enforced. We must transfer the massive payments that go to support our military into social programs that benefit every Canadian. And we must launch a major campaign throughout all the ideological structures of our society, the schools, the media, and the family, that will teach conflict resolution through non-violent means. __ As we mourn the lives lost and the horror suffered by all linked to the tragedy in Montreal, we reaffirm our commitment to build a world where all women, men and children can walk arm in arm in equality, safety and peace. ACID FKAIN THE GIFT THAT GotES ON GIVING’ BUSINESS & CIRCULATION MANAGER Mike Proniuk GRAPHICS Angela Kenyon Published weekly at 2681 East Hastings Street Vancouver, B.C., V5K 1Z5 . Phone: (604) 251-1186 Fax: (604) 251-4232 Subscription rate: Canada: @ $20 one year @ $35 two years ®@ Foreign $32 one year . Second class mail registration number 1560 t hasn’t exactly been headline news in a media preoccupied with proclaiming the “collapse of communism” in Eastern Europe. But then that’s not surprising since reports of growing layoffs, a rising jobless rate and an impending decline in farm income don’t inspire too much con- fidence about the economic system that is supposed to have triumphed throughout the world. The business papers acknowledged two weeks ago that some 4,400 workers were being thrown out of their jobs, mainly in central Canada, as a result of plant clo- sures and the relocation of production to the United States. Last week, they carried the news from Statistics Canada that the jobless rate for November had climbed to 7.6 per cent from October’s 7.4 per cent. And the Financial Post reported the same week that Prairie farmers could expect a shattering 76 per cent reduction in incomes over the next year, the result of cuts to various agriculture stabilization programs and crop insurance. Of course, no one in Ottawa is officially talking about recession and they are vehement in denying that the plant clo- sures have anything to do with the Canada-U.S. trade deal. Those denials don’t mean a hell of a lot coming from the gang that denied that social programs would be affected — and then announced the cuts to unemploy- ment insurance — and swore that jobs would not be lost if the trade deal was passed. Even John McDermid, Minister of State for Finance, was forced to admit in . the Commons Oct. 20 that he could name “some cases in my community where plants have shut down because of the free trade agreement.” People can,also be excused for drawing the conclusion that the trade deal is to blame when companies such as Inglis and Gerber baby food announce the closure of Canadian plants and state that they will be meeting Canadian demand for their pro- ducts from factories in the U.S. : But whether the trade deal is directly to blame or not is probably a moot point for the affected workers. The fact is that mul- tinational industry in this country — and the U.S. — is re-structuring and is putting thousands of people on the street. In the U.S., for example, computer giant IBM is slashing its work force by 10,000 people. Perhaps the worst part is that the reces- sion the business pundits are predicting is imminent will coincide with the cuts in the work force brought about by restructur- ing. And the combined effect could be devastating — at the very time that the Tories have cut back benefits and eligibil- ity for unemployment insurance. It doesn’t make for good news on the eve of the new year — which is why it hasn’t been at the top of the newscast despite the gathering storm clouds. It’s clear that popular coalitions across this country will be facing new issues as we enter a new decade. * * * he media pundits may have already drawn their conclusions about the outcome of the events in Eastern Europe but, curiously, those events don’t seem to have prompted the same confidence from People and Issues er aan a I ET ES EL the people who have working actively for the downfall of socialist countries ever since the end of the last war. That shouldn’t perhaps be too:surpris- ing since there has been a lot of wishful ' thinking, but it’s worth noting that the agenda of the International Policy Alliance Conference, the international conservative think-tank event that is scheduled for Vancouver next May, will be dominated by the events in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. IPAC is an annual event which bills itself as “setting the conservative agenda” and next year’s event will be co-chaired in Vancouver by the publisher of Conserva- tive Insight, a magazine that tries to give far-right politics the gloss of respectability. According to the conference brochure, the “challenges posed by the Communist world to the West ... have never been more perplexing or more worthy of serious consideration and debate by west- ern conservatives . . . It is time for a careful mapping of strategy in order to assure that the cherished values of conservatives are not swept aside by the tide of political orthodoxy that seems to be developing around words such as glasnost and peres- troika.” Ina press release, Insight publisher Wil- liam Campbell gets more to the point,.wor- rying about “the prime minister’s recent statements regarding Canadian-Soviet relations and the wholesale alteration of Canadian defence policy and foreign pol- icy.” And if there was any question as to the direction IPAC would take foreign and domestic policy, consider some of the speakers and their topics: there’s U.S. Lt.- Gen. Daniel Graham of Star Wars fame, speaking on “The Need to Deploy SDI now’; Nicaraguan contra leader Adolfo Calero; and former U.S. ambassador. Jeane Kirkpatrick and others on “A Con- servative Foreign Policy for the West.” “New thinking” it ain’t. * * t had been a long time since we had ° last seen him although for many years he had been one of the Tribune’s volunteer mailers who help get the paper to readers each week. Last week the news came from his son that Adam Dibble had passed away at the age of 89. Sadly, most of the last 10 years of his life were spent in hospital and extended care facilities following a skull fracture he suf- fered in a fall nearly a decade ago. Born Adam Drapacka in what is now Romania — he later adopted the name Dibble after an athlete he admired —he came to this country with his family, who settled on a homestead in Kaleland, Alberta. In the 1920s, he trained in the Caterpil- lar company’s plant in the U.S. and soon developed a reputation for mechanical ingenuity in the B.C. forest industry. But later, many of the same companies would blacklist him for union activity as he took part in the early organizing campaigns. He later joined the Communist Party and for many years was a member of the Maple Ridge branch of the CPC. : Funeral services were held in Burnaby Dec. 7. e Pacific Tribune, December 18, 1989 7 SO ee AE eee Re ne Re, ORO, Oe noe ie