Secret meeting held to form —

Edmonton big business party

By K. CARIOU

EDMONTON — Alarmed by the growth of the
civic reform movement in Edmonton, a group of
key local business figures have been meeting
secretly to form a new municipal party. Minutes of
the group’s meetings were leaked to Alderman Ed
Ewasiuk, a member of the labor-based Edmonton
Voters’ Association, and their contents revealed at
a Feb. 25 press conference.

The minutes indicate that the group wants to
‘put civic government back on a_ business-like
basis.”’ To do this it laid out plans for a $2-million,
two to five-year campaign to win control of city
council, beginning by finding campaign manager to
put the organization together.

_ To help set up their party, the group considered
inviting to Edmonton U.S. Congressman Conlan,
“Sone of the key organizers in the Republican group
that pulled several million new voters to the polls”’.
He was to spend time here at a cost of $1,000 a day
— plus expenses — but the idea was later dropped
for fear of a media leak.

The group agreed to keep itself secret for an
interim period of possibly a year while an organ-
ization was built up by the ‘‘key person’’. ‘*...
Some people must be kept in the background. Any
indication that big busi:.ess was backing the organ-
ization of the group, and the entire project would
be dead’, stated the minutes of one meeting.

Their next meeting stressed the point even more
clearly: **... in the front group there would be no
one in real estate, land development, zoning, as the
group would immediately be suSpect; also, there
should be no connotation of connection with the
Chamber of Commerce, as that would be a ‘kiss of
death’. Some people would have to remain in the
background . .. the formal publicized group would
be people such as the small businessman.”’

But those in control would represent very big
business indeed. The initiator of the group, Bev
Brooker, owns Brooker Engineering, which won
the city contract to design Edmonton's Light Rail
Transit stations. He is the structural engineer for

‘he controversial Convention Centre project, and
for the Law Courts Building and the new municipal
urport. A director of Herman Kahn’s Hudson In-

stitute think tank, he also has ties with the Re-
publican Party in the U.S.

Other figures include: Mary Cameron, of Nu-
West Developments, one of the largest developers
in the province; Don Love, a pivotal person in the
Oxford Development Group, which has built many
large projects, shopping centres, and office com-
plexes in Edmonton, Calgary and Denver, Colo.
Ross McBain, owner of several camera shops, a
director of Northwestern Utilities, and past presi-
dent of the local Chamber of Commerce; Robert
Stollery of PCL Construction, and a director of
Montreal Trust Co., which owns PCL; Dr. Charles
Allard, multi-millionaire owner of the ITV tele-
vision station and extensive land holdings, and
owner of the Parkland Nursing Home which broke
a long strike by its employees some time ago,
smashing the Canadian Union of Public Em-
ployees (CUPE) local which was trying to win a
first contract; and about a dozen other prominent
local business leaders.

While much of the Edmonton media tried to
dismiss the revelations as a tempest in a teacup,
labor and progressive civic leaders were quick to
point out the dangers posed by this development.

Edmonton Voters’ Association president Brian
Mason points out that *‘this affair comes to light at
a time when grass-roots civic organizations are
scoring successes in local elections’. The in-
itiators of the business group, he notes, are people
with city contracts, or developers who stand to
gain millions of dollars in profits by maintaining
their grip on city council. :

‘*But,’’ says Mason, ‘‘they know they can’t win
elections by openly stating their goals. Instead they
are trying to dupe Edmontonians by setting up this
phony front group, which, as they say in the docu-
ments, must ‘appear’ to be covering all the issues.

Noting the skyrocketing of land prices, the real
estate boom, and the recent massive annexation of
land by Edmonton, Mason says the stakes are large
for big business. ‘* The battle shaping up is at the
curx of local politics: who will run Edmonton —
the working people, labor, pensioners, renters and

ordinary homeowners, small businesspeople, or

the big real estate firms and their corporate pals?”’

‘7,

4 a
{LABOR NOTES)

OFL SEMINARS ON RACISM

TORONTO — The Ontario Federation of Labor staged the |

second of its eight community race relations seminars in Sarnia, |

March 6.

The series of province wide seminars, launched Feb. 27 in 4

Kitchener-Waterigo will see a meeting each week on the topic
fighting racism in a different city, culminating in a meeting to
held in Toronto, April 24. Other centres slated to hold such
meetings are Windsor, London, Brantford, St. Catharines, and
Sudbury.

The seminars are a follow-up to the OFL’s ‘‘Racism Hurts | a

Everyone’’ anti-racism campaign mounted last fall. Organized —

with the assistance of local labor councils, they are being planned | _

for Saturdays to maximize community involvement. :
‘‘Designed to introduce trade unionists and the general public _

to race relations issues, the seminars will hopefully serve as a |

vehicle to organizing ongoing community human rights activity
where such activity does not presently exist,’’ said OFL presi-
dent Cliff Pilkey. |

The seminars will examine such topics as immigration policy, —
historical incidents of discrimination in Canada, and pertinent —
federal and provincial human rights legislation. Each seminar |

will include an afternoon workshop tailored to the specific con- |

cerns of the particular community.

SFL BACKS CROW RATE

REGINA — ‘From the government that gave us wage con-
trols in 1975, and are threatening more of the same, what can w
expect but an attack on another segment of the producers of
wealth of this country — the farmers’’, Nadine Hunt, Presid
of the Saskatchewan Federation of Labor (SFL), said March 1

‘The four western federations of labor, and the two territorial
federations — B.C., Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, the
Yukon and the Northwest Territories — discussed the possibility.
of changes to the Crow Rate early in 1981’’, she stated, “and we
were united in opposition’’.

‘Lots of us come from farm backgrounds, from pioneering
families, and are quite familiar with the high costs and haza

_ of farming in an uncertain climate. Survival is the name of the

game more often than profit, and farmers deserve every break |

they can get. They haye every right to demand the retention of — 7
the Crow Rate. The only beneficiaries under that plan will be the —
railroads — not the farmers, not the workers, but the profiteers —

such as the CPR.” —

A CLC drive for Turkey, El Salvador?

A persual of the trade union press shows that the

including Poland, all workers oppressed by fascist and

_ Canadian Labor Congress has not been able to generate

much enthusiasm for its crusade for Poland's Solidarity.

Most union papers at best have reproduced the CLC
statement on the matter and left it at that. Nor has there
been any welter of resolutions from local unions.
' Even the night wing in many unions have left the ques-
tion alone. Only the Workers Communist Party seem to
have devoted major attention to raising the matter at
every possible occasion. In their case it is done quite
cynically in defense of the policies of Peking and in an
attempt to weaken the role of the Communist Party in the
unions.

The interesting question that arises out of the great
CLC furor however is the following: such major mobiliz-

a ing efforts can be devoted to an international issue, why

not pay as much attention at least to mobilizing the trade
unions in support of the liberation forces of El Salvador?

_ Why not a mass campaign demanding the end to martial

law and execution of trade unionists in Turkey?

Given the strident outspoken warnings by the CLC to

the Soviet Union to keep its hands off Poland, even when
the USSR has clearly indicated that the question was an
internal Polish matter, why not a similar response to the
threats of the U.S. to interfere in Nicaragua, or the
build-up of U.S. military strength off the shores of Cuba?

_ The CLC can hardly hide behind the argument that the

difference lies in the fact that in Poland the question was
a trade union matter; a defence of free trade unionism.

In Turkey trade unions are banned and in El Salvador
all freedom of expression is banned. By no stretch of the
imagination can anyone with a shred of objectivity claim
that the distortions which had appeared in Poland had
cancelled out the major role that trade unions played in
Polish society.

This column however is not designed to argue the case
of Poland, but rather to suggest that since the CLC has
proved it is prepared to undertake major initiatives in
international affairs, let it give at least the same attention
to El Salvador and Turkey. :

Labor in action
William Stewart

Workers, farmers, intellectuals, youth, women, re-
ligious leaders are being murdered daily in El] Salvador
by a bloody ruthless dictatorship propped up by the U.S.
With great dignity and courage they have united their
ranks and are fighting with their lives to end this brutal
regime.

The CLC would have no difficulty developing full and
enthusiastic support for a mass campaign in support of
the liberation forces in El Salvador. Instead of this it
lags behind the intellectual and religious community.

Likewise in Turkey the trade union movement has
been cancelled out, many of its leaders have been killed,
are facing death or incarcerated. Here too the efforts of
the CLC would receive a warm response by its affiliates
and as well light a flame which could ignite great mass
movements in Canada in support of the democratic
rights of the Turkish people. x

As the world imperialist crisis deepens we can expect
that repression will be undertaken everywhere workers
stand up against attempts to make them shoulder the
burden of the crisis.

Fascism in the final count is really only that. When it is
no longer possible for capital to rule by democracy it
moves to open and brutal force.

Workers in any part of the world have a right to expect
and Teceive the full unqualified support, moral, financial,
political and in whatever other means possible of their
brothers. and sisters from Canada, as well as the entire
world trade union movement in such circumstances.

Making an objective comparison here between the
response of the trade unions in the socialist countries,

neo-fascist regimes, it-can be proven beyond any doubt
that the socialist unions come out far far ahead of thet!)
counterparts in the capitalist countries, Canada 1”
cluded. — sa
It would be much more useful if the CLC would joi)
together with trade unionists around the world, socialist
and non-socialist, in mass support of workers under thé
iron heel of dictatorships, than trying to pretend thal ;
workers in socialist countries lack trade union freedom’ |
and are prisoners of conscience. Be
The refusal of the CLC to undertake exchanges with ‘
unions in socialists countries robs Canadian workers of
the opportunity to make an objective comparison of the
respective roles of the unions in these countries.
almost all cases where this has been done in the past the .
observations of Canadian trade unionists have tended!
support the view that trade unions have much pee
authority and status in socialist countries than they do in :
Canada. ;
One could be excused for thinking that the present baa
on such exchanges is designed to prevent such first-hand !
observations which give the lie to negative allegation’
about the role of trade unions in socialist countries. |

In the present period where the struggle for peace 2
against huge multi-national corporations operat! 4
around the world, requires the utmost of unity, mutU
exchanges between the workers of all countries is impe! |
ative, as is common action of all trade union centres
support of workers suffering under the heel of tyranny: |

In these circumstances it is not too much to ask th#
the CLC show the kind of mobilization it demonstrat |
unwisely around Poland, for our hard pressed brothe? |
and sisters in El Salvador and Turkey.

It is also not to® much to ask that they begin to cart)
out the instructions given them by the last two ‘
conventions and open up exchanges with socialist trad
unions as part of the process of strengthening real an
lasting international working class solidarity.

ee

ACIFIC TRIBUNE—MARCH 12, 1982—Page 12

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