: EDITORIAL__

Sane voices in the Commons

Two viewpoints have emerged in the

Government's Standing Committee on Ex-_

ternal Affairs and National Defence.

The majority view reaffirms the Trudeau
government basic cold war position — full
reliance on NATO and its “collective effort to
deter aggression”, full support for
Washington’s drive to “catch up with the
USSR”, a heavier commitment by this coun-
try to defence spending.

This position will be taken by Canadian UN

representatives to the Second UN Special
Session on Disarmament in June, disguised

with meaningless and self-serving phrases °

favoring disarmament in general while arm-
ing to the teeth.

But, ina rare and welcome move, six mem-
bers of the Committee dissented. And in
place of the cold war, back-the-Yanks, major-
ity policy, they issued a minority report filled
with concern and political realism.

The minority, members of the three politi-
cal parties in the House, place their view of
the world and the danger of war eloquently.
They describe the tremendous waste of mili-
tary expenditure ($550-billion per year), the
destructive capacity of the world’s nuclear
arsenals and advanced delivery systems now
existing.

The report describes “the horrors awaiting
mankind” in a nuclear exchange quoting
from the 1981 Congress of International

War.

And the minority report proposes a new
course of action, a new direction Canada
should take at the UN Special Session:

e A comprehensive test ban to impede the
further omer of nuclear explosive
devices;

e An agreement to stop the flight-testing of
all new strategic delivery vehicles;

e Anagreement to prohibit all production of
fissionable material for weapons purposes;
e An agreement .to limit and then progres-
sively reduce military spending on new.
strategic nuclear weapons systems.

The report further argues for a nuclear
weapons freeze. It asks that Canada deny the
United States permission to test the Cruise
missile here. It urges Canada to pledge
one-tenth ($7-million) of our defence budget
toward disarmament efforts.

A strong voice of reason ina sea of insanity

Flashbacks

McCARTHY IS DEAD

Senator Joseph McCarthy is dead, but his evil spirit
lives on.

McCarthyism has become a by-word for bigotry,
hatred and the persecution of honest men. One of his
victims, Alger Hiss, has just written a book exposing
his frame-up by Whittaker Chambers and the McCar-.
thy crew.

The time will come when Hiss, the Rosenbergs and :

others will have their names cleared. McCarthy was an
expression in one man of a force which his death has
not removed, as it could not. It was a force which
represents all that is against progress.

The fact remains, McCarthy is dead. As J.B.
McLachlin, old-time leader of the Nova Scotia miners
said of the funeral of Samuel Gompers: “I’m sorry I
cannot attend the funeral, but I heartily approve of
the event.”

Tribune,
May 13, 1957
PACIFIC TRIBUNE—MAY 14, 1982—Page 4

*hysicians for the Prevention of Nuclear.

and war-mania which is today’s Canadian:

foreign policy. In debating the two conflict-
ing views in the Commons, External Affairs.

Minister MacGuigan strove mightily to por-
tray the West under seige from Soviet rockets
and the consequent need for more and big-
ger nuclear weapons.

He spoke for the majority on the Standing
Committee — but the minority six spoke for
the majority of Canadians.

MacGuigan’s shrill war call rings hollow
when assessed against world reality where
peace is the only answer, where disarmament
is the only sane recourse for humanity.

In the case of the six MPs, the country has
been well served. Their contribution, added
to the ‘massive public upsurge for peace tak-
ing place across the land will overcome.

Fruits of right-wing policy

The decimation of the 11 year-old NDP gov-
ernment in Saskatchewan certainly illustrates
what happens when government loses touch”
with the people and, as was the case with
former Premier Blakeney’s NDP majority,
even turns on the very forces that brought it
to power and kept it there since 1971.

With the many excuses in -the aftermath,
one single fact stands out: right-wing NDP
policies were responsible for the defeat. The
lesson was banged home — the NDP cannot
win by turning on labor, the farmers and the
people whose needs were ignored and tram-
pled by their complacent regime.

Blakeney’s bid to “out right the right” by
ordering striking hospital workers back to
work days before the elections were an-
nounced lost him the support of organized
labor.

He spoke of a “balanced budget” in the face
thousands of people whose budgets were
wrecked. He talked about a Heritage Fund of
$1-billion while people’s farms disappeared.

Narrow parliamentarianism, traded for
mass political action for the real needs of
Saskatchewan was a prescription for disaster.

The Tories won on a populist program,
trading in on government imeffectuainess..
The victory was not a political rightward shift
as Tory leader Clarke would like us to think,
but a public response against a complacent
government and a signal that the people de-
mand more.

POLICE KIDNAPPINGS

SUDBURY — Raiding the editorial offices of the
Finnish newspaper “Vapaus”, city and RCMP police
seized Aarvo Vaara and Martin Parker and have spi-
rited them away secretly for deportation.

This kidnapping follows a similar incident in Win-
nipeg and represents an attempt to weed out militant
leaders of the working class by stealthy, secret deport-
ations without trial or any legal procedure.

Vaara is Chief Editor of Vapaus with a long history
of struggle; Martin is Associate Editor. Both are being
deported to a country where White Terror Tages.

This outrageous kidnapping is part of a reign of
terror let loose here since May Day and is arousing a
storm of protest from Sudbury workers. Three
thousand marched to the railway station hoping to see
‘the two prisoners but they were moved secretly by

automobile. :

: The Worker,
May 7, 1932

proud working class traditions. And in this
‘process of unity, the inclusion of the Com-

with sedition. He is out on $2,500 bail:

The concept of a limited,

wimable nuclear wor was
conclusively disproven

when ooo
az
W)

Mass unity and pressure is needed to en-
sure these promises are kept, to ensure that
the left and democratic forces, split by an
NDP government which forgot its roots,
reorganizes to win back this province with its

munists and their positions is indispensible. |

Profiteer of the week

As you line up with your buggy this week wondering
how many items you may have to return when the total
rings up, take heart. Someone’s misfortune is someone
else’s fortune — in this case Loblaws. That smiting oc-
topus raked in a profit of $7,631,000 for.12 weeks ending
March 27, 1982 compared with $6,253,000 a year ago. Not
bad for 12 weeks. ae

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

Published weekly at Suite 101 — 1416 Commercial Drive,
Vancouver, B.C. V5L 3X9. Phone 251-1186

‘Subscription Rate: Canada $14 one year; $8 for six months.
- All other countries: $15 one year.

Second class mail registration number 1560

IMPERIALISM AND SEDITION

Trevor Maguire, business manager of The Worker, —
spoke at a May Day meeting of 2,000 in Toronto onthe _

same platform with representatives of
Council, J.S: Woodsorth, MP, and others.

Maguire, recipient of the Distinguished Conduct
Medal, was discharged from the army because of
wounds received in action in France. -

He prefaced his speech with “Long Live the First of
May!”, “Long Live Solidarity of the International
Working Class!”. Maguire spoke of the atrocities being
committed daily by British imperialism against the
people of India, Egypt, Ireland and South Africa and
that this was British imperialism’s last century. The
crowd cheered.

On his way home from the meeting comradé
Maguire was arrested, held overnight and charged

The Worker, _
May 15, 1925

the Labor