PLU MH |) i Ae WORLD U.S. multinationals vs St. Vincent workers From the Caribbean es rs é td ~ Norman Faria KINGSTOWN, St. Vincent — A few minutes walk from the town square of this typical Caribbean Island capital with its French colonial architecture (and Cana- dian banks) lies a botanical gardens. It contains a descen- dant of.one of the breadfruit tree saplings brought from the South Seas by Captain Bligh (on a later voyage after the mutiny) during the 18th century. : With its draconian layoff practices, anti-trade union stances and low wage policies, management of the several trans-national corporations which have operations in this Eastern Cribbean island nation appear to have taken a page out of the book of the notorious Royal Navy slave driver. ~ AUS. construction firm involved in building a multi- million dollar hydro electric project in the north of the island, CDK, has refused to recognize the union the 350 islanders at the site had voted for. The workers had to go on strike and up to press time were standing firm for both the recognition of the union, the National Workers Movement, and for improved working conditions and wages. _ In an interview with the Tribune, Wayne Thomas, a union militant described how some skilled workers were receiving the incredibly low wage of EC$1.50 per hour (about Can. 75 cents). Consumer goods are expensive in this mountainous former British colony of 100,000. Most essential items must be imported. In September, some 20 women were thrown into the tanks of the unemployed from the Philatelic Bureau, hich despite its name was set up by a private inter- National firm to sell stamps on a mail order basis to collec- ‘tors world wide. : At a rally in the capital Kingstown protesting the arbit- the unionized workers, the leader of the opposition, Un- ited People’s Movement (UPM) party, Oscar Alleyne, accused the U.S. multinational of treating the workers like slaves. This has forced them to go on strike and to demand that the companies recognize the union of their choice .. . The employers have gotten the government to send down heavily armed police . . . not to protect the workers, but to defend the employers. All these are part of the consistent attacks on the working class of our country. Workers cannot afford to sit back and accept these actions meekly. It is time to organize and fight back.”’ Alleyne added: “Vincentians are people who work hard but they also deserve respect. We call on the government to lay down the line with respect to these firms. The UPM would especially like to see a Code of Conduct enacted and vigorously enforced for investors, particularly foreign investors.” The two-year-old populist New Democratic Party (NDP) administration of Prime Minister James ‘‘Son”’ Mitchell has little commitment and, no policies to put this poor banana and arrowroot producing country on the path of economic and social justice, says the UPM. In an editorial in its Justice newspaper on the occasion of the second anniversary of the NDP’s land-slide defeat of the social democratic St. Vincent Labor Party which had ruled the island for several decades, the UPM observed: ‘Hardly has a government which was swept into power on such a surge of popularity made itself so unpopular in such a short space of time.”’ What about Mitchell’s much publicized opposition to Washington-backed Regional Security System (RSS), a military pact among several of the small Eastern Carib- bean states? In an interview, UPM Central Committee member Adrian Saunders termed the stance commend- able and ‘‘a firm stand” but noted its “‘lack of depth’’. As to the general political situation, where many inhabi- tants of coastal villages make a living from fishing (there is in fact a whaling station in an outlying island dependency of Bequia), Saunders referred to the ‘‘dissatisfaction with both the established parties’’ following layoffs and other cutbacks which has pushed the unemployment level above 40 percent. The UPM is currently gearing to build a **people’s alternative’ to contest the general elections, constitutionally due in two and a half years. TRIBUNE PHOTO: NORMAN FARIA Editor of the WPM’s newspaper Renwick Rose (left), makes a point at a protest rally attended by striking work- ers. The UPM hopes to have discussions with another op- position group, the Movement for National Unity (MNU) led by former UPM member Dr. Ralph Gonsalves to bring about some form of united action during the election campaign. Repeated requests by the Tribune for an inter- view with Dr. Gonsalves, a former University of the West Indies political science lecturer but now barrister, were turned down. Besides the National Workers Movement, another sig- nificant trade union in St. Vincent and the Grenadines is the St. Vincent Union of Teachers (SVUT). The teachers’ organization have continually charged that government policies are laying the basis for further erosion of teachers’ rights and benefits won over the years as well as the deterioration in standards in the educational field. While the Mitchell administration seeks to reduce the number of teachers, the SVUT points out that some of its colleagues teach large classes containing 50-60 stu- dents. There is also a general shortage of school places for deserving students, says the union. One way which this unsavoury state of affairs will soon be corrected is with the entry into the school system of several Vincentian teachers trained in Cuba under a UPM sponsored assistance program. Over 30 islanders have been trained, or are presently studying in the socialist Cuba. Three Vincentians have also gone to Cuba on scholarships granted by Havana to the St. Vincent and Grenadines government. (Third in a seris). Next: Dominica and the coming defeat of Miss Charles. tel caeemnn ania Tary dismissials plus the Captain Bligh-like treatment of ire, INTERNATIONAL FOCUS Tom Morris Soviet subs or rubber ducks? It’s an axiom of Canadian politics: when Joe Clark gets excited, his brain goes in one direction, his mouth in another. On Dec. 1, Clark rose in Par- liament to strike at Opposition Leader John Turner for the Liberal convention’s recent Opposition to cruise missile testing. : In majestic tones carrying the full weight of Clark’s im- portant office, the External Af- fairs Minister warned there are ‘some 300 Soviet submarines in Canadian waters”. That's why, said Clark, Canada re- mains a strong NATO sup- cn after Defence Minis- ter Beatty whispered in his ear, Clark informed Parliament that he had meant to say there are 375 Soviet submarines capable of operating in Canadian aioe _ For his part, Beatty told the press he couldn’t say whether - Canada has ever detected an intrusion by a Soviet sub- marine. i : — It’s an amazing display ° ' stupidity combined with 1rra- tional logic. The fact that Canada con- tributed directly to Reagan’s breaking of SALT-2 last week doesn’t seem to bother this Tory minister and his sidekick Beatty who plays at war games. Testing the US. air- launched Cruise missile in Al- berta, which helped convert the 131st B-52 bomber and sink SALT-2, is explained away by Clark in a crude numbers game about ‘‘300 Soviet sub- - marines’ which he might have confused with rubber ducks in his bathtub. Years ago, a reporter wrote that Joe Clark actually had never held a job other than asa Member of Parliament. He said that Clark’s only skill was that of being a politician. He should have specified: a Tory politician. ‘Heroes’ according to Ronald Reagan Reagan has compared the Nicaraguan contra scum to America’s founding fathers. It’s not surprising, therefore, he would call the Marine bimbo who organized his latest fiasco, Lt.-Col. Oliver North, ‘‘a national hero’’. The President's mind works that way. There’s poor Eugene Hasen- fus doing 30 years hard time in Nicaragua for carrying out North’s orders — alone, un- wanted, rejected, and prob- ably pretty upset. And there’s Oliver North, architect of the Libyan caper and now Iran- gate, being praised by a dotty Reagan who by now can’t tell fact from fancy. Evidence is that North, de- scribed as a right-wing ideo- logue, built a secret U.S. mini-air force from Iranian arms sales profits to fly weap- ons to the contras. His centre of operations was El Salvador’s Ilopango air base, the place Hasenfus told his captors he worked out of. So the chain now links poor Hasenfus to North, North to former National Security ad- viser Poindexter, Poindexter to vice-president George Bush. Whether anyone actual- ly told Reagan is a moot point as he isn’t known for his grasp of complicated issues. When his handlers get the Script written and the words on a tele-prompter, we'll get Rea- gan’s official version. era Ree ee ae PACIFIC TRIBUNE, DECEMBER 17, 1986 Just who ‘fits the criteria Far be it from me-to imply that our immigration authori- ties have different yardsticks to measure applicants for refu- gee status. ; Ina few short days Ottawa's watchdogs refused entry to 25 year-old Iranian student. - Akber Sedeh Moatamedi. de- ported from the U.S. after his student visa expired, but quickly issued a special Minis- terial permit for five Soviet army defectors. More: External Affairs Minister Clark personally engineered getting the defec- tors out of Afghanistan and safely here where they could be paraded in front of the press. Moatamedi, however. not being Russian or Polish or the like: not being a defector. “does not fit the criteria’ ac- cording to Canada immigra- tion. His crime, I suppose. is being Iranian and fearing for his life should he be deported home. Soviet military defectors. we're to believe. will make dandy citizens and. more im- portantly, probably vote Tory.