aa

Ju iy

TORIAL

Negotiatio

*f a trade unionist or not, every British.
meetj has reason to be alarmed about the half-
ting at the legislature last week in which
Bennett gave B.C. Government

yes Union president John Shields the ultima-

to work on the government’s terms or be
temo and risk losing the right to strike.
Astrated once again that this government

ud i 2 . . . . . ”
Hig. oo NOthing since it imposed its “restraint

Jj
mh

pow years ago. Public employees are still
accept the government’ diktat despite the
it a months of negotiations.

; Tevealed something more — that Expo
ies of Just a symbol of the misplaced economic
Ol the Socreds. It is also a convenient foil for
ent of the government’s anti-labor policies.
see all, Expo that provided the pretext for
Labor pes oduce Bill 28, the amendments to
devel le, which included provision for “eco-
“lopment zones,” the first one of which was
a And nowit is the pretext for Victoria to

' ae on the rights of the BCGEU.
EU PO is, of course, not the real issue. The
ad made it amply clear that picketing

n by diktat

would not affect the fair or the fair site. For the
govenrment, “protecting Expo 86” is a handy dressing
to cover up the raw injustice of continuing wage curbs
on the public sectors workers and restrictions on their
right to bargain collectively and to strike.

For unionists, there is a message in last week’s
meetings. Despite all the pronouncements from several
would-be Socred leaders that they will work to lessen
confrontation in the province, none has said a peep
about the government's restraint policies. Certainly
none has suggested that there will be any voluntary
movement at the bargaining table — or that the res-
trictive Compensation Stabilization Program will be
put aside. ,

Whoever is in the premier’s chair after July 30, the
cornerstone of Socred policy — squeezing social ser-
vice and public sector workers and continuing han-
douts to business — will remain. For public sector
workers, whether they are government workers, hos-
pital workers or nurses, winning the wage increases
they have been denied for four years will require
fighting for them.— with the full strength of the trade
union movement behind them.

he peril of deregulation

a S Survival as a sovereign country has, from
>» been closely linked to government regula-
tal Sportation. The building of the transcon-
Tailway system, the nationalization of
National Railways and the coastal ferry
hie formation of Air Canada have all been

the country’s development and its prosper-

th j ;
ts relatively small population, vast geo-

if) f 2
ton and its proximity to the economic colossus to

: Canada has had to struggle throughout its
to maintain and strengthen its east-west

~ '0 avoid being swalloed up by the U.S.
go P°4 Of all the corporate rhetoric about making

mp

q

ay more competitive, and the wild promises
®ved service and lower consumer prices,
biog is a policy aimed at returning capitalism

Century glory days when free enterprise held

Y, 2 re
td a tally unimpeded by any public input or regu-
trols,

n

x National Transportation Act, recently intro-

t Y the federal govefnment will enshrine deregu-
Sughout the rail, water, air, and commodity
Mdustries. It is a key element in the neo-

conservative agenda to bind Canada closer economi-
cally to the U.S., through free trade.

Everywhere deregulation has been applied, services
to the public have deteriorated, the workers complain
of poorer health and safety on the job and in many
cases, such as the airlines, public safety has been

undermined. :
From the government which shamelessly cam-

paigns on the mendacious promise of jobs, jobs, jobs,
we now get a legislative blueprint that experience in
the U.S. already provides will produce more unem-
ployment, and fatter profits for transnationals, pre-
dominantly U.S. corporations.

But alternatives exist to this grim scenario. In’ 1963,
the Communist Party developed a program for trans-
portation in this country that would create meaningful
jobs and strengthen Canadian independence.

It called for a totally integrated, publicly-owned

and democratically controlled transportation system

covering road, air, water, commodity pipelines and
the railways. :

Such a policy reflects the confidence of working
people in the future of Canada; a future based on
government intervention to improve the quality of life,
not to enhance monopoly power and wealth.

RESEARCH BREAK ~ —
— THROUGH!!! MULRONEY _
‘DISCOVEKS CUISE Foie

/ GENERIC DRUIGS!!
: \ et Sage :
THAT WILl BE 100 Buchs,
BuT WITH THIS STRING

Upu CAN SWALLOW !T
AS OFTEN AS

YoU NEED
Se

Profiteer of the week |

If you thought the landlords only rob you through the front door better
check your shopping bills. Two of Canada’s biggest shopping centre
landlords, Trizec Corp. Ltd. and Bramalea Ltd. both controlled by the
Bronfmans are merging. Trizec’s profits were $34.6 million, up from
$27.2 million last year. Bramalea pulled in $3.4 million, compared to
$2.9 million last year.

Editor — SEAN GRIFFIN
Assistant Editor — DAN KEETON
Business & Circulation Manager — MIKE PRONIUK
; Graphics — ANGELA KENYON

Published weekly at 2681 East Hastings Street
Vancouver, B.C. V5K 1Z5
Phone (604) 251-1186

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Foreign — $25 one year;

Second class mail registration number 1560

Tho
| “4 decades they fought a heroic battle

st one invader after another. And
m, as well as around the world,
of victory went up when the last
Military and civilian personnel

Peonle and Issues

Seen a

as then, a Tory government rules in
Ottawa, and that its track record in creat-
ing meaningful jobs is as sorry in the pres-
ent as it was in the past. And in their
meeting with .Prime Minister Brian

fe from Saigon, signalling the-end

Used bombings and devastation that
' penuh suffering in the southeast
on.

ig tnately, the end of the outright —

ee aha did not spell an end to
Sabot troubles. Years of interference
tage, by the U.S., the former Pol
S0vernment of Kampuchea, and
Continued to wreak havoc on a

People.
ty aS In part, explains the continued
i and activities of the Canadian
tn, Vietnam Civilians, a project not
YO pee More recently established Tools
a campaign aiding Nicaragua.
relat; When the war in Vietnam was
lon po tively young — 1966 — the coali-
ar at has the support of notables such
mM Pe Mowat, Pierre Berton and Dr.
Try is marking its 20th anniversary

New campaign.

help eately needed this year are funds
‘ €quip the Ben Hai District’ Hospi-
ent thoyed by typhoons which last fall
Mice . © former de-militarized zone that
: Lage arated north and south Vietnam.
a year the effort to provide rein-
. Steel to rebuild the hospital netted
than $100,000 in cash donations.
ee the project is aiming for $1
‘ to buy an X-ray machine and
3 The SY equipment for the hospital.
Campaign organizers note that the

hospital may one day be renamed the
Canadian Aid for Vietnam Civilians Viet-
nam Hospital. Whatever name it ulti-
mately carries, we urge full support for the
effort. The project can be phoned at
731-3048 or 872-1524.

* * *

Fo. eight years now Vancouver has
played host to a variety of performers,
both local and international, who have
converged on city park land — for the last
seven years, it’s been Jericho Beach — to
offer British Columbians a sample of the
world’s folk music.

We’re pleased to announce that, even
though it was a little late in publicizing
itself, the 9th annual Vancouver Folk Music
Festival is almost upon us. The festival,
with more than 200 performers, is set for
Jericho Beach park from July 18-20.

The schedule follows the time-tested
pattern of three evening concerts on the
mainstage — on Friday, Saturday and
Sunday — along with a full day’s worth
of workshops featuring songs, skits and
children’s entertainment on six area stages
beginning at 10 a.m., Saturday and Sun-
day.

This year’s festival features an impres-
sive array of topical and political per-
formers, including performers from Cuba
and Nicarauga. Additionally, the festival
will feature a number of local performers,

including Vancouver Folk Song Society
founders Phil and Hilda Thomas, Michael
Pratt and Lynn McGown, and former
Threesome Reel’ members Ross McRae
and Lorraine Helgerson. Also featured on

the billing are the orators and songsters of

the On-to-Ottawa Trek, 1935-1985 group
(more on them later).

There’s a variety of prices for tickets —

including free admission — depending on
whether one is a child, a senior, unem-
ployed or employed, and whether you'll be
attending all or part of the festival. Suffice
it to say for most attenders, the best deal is
the advance weekend price of $47. The
festival can be phoned at 879-2931. One
final word: the festival organizers advise
that the best often comes early, and urge
early attendance to pick up on the work-
shop performances.

*  ¥- *

ast year they toured the country with a

twofold purpose: to remind Canadians
of the massive effort — and the victories
achieved in waging it — to alleviate the
suffering of the country’s millions of
unemployed during the last great crisis of
capitalism, the Great Depression; and to
bring attention to the latest crisis which
sees more millions of Canadians jobless in
the ’80s.

The On-to-Ottawa Trek, 1935-1985,
also brought into focus the point that now,

Mulroney — repeating the showdown the
original trekkers had with former prime
minister R.B. Bennett — they found the
same lack of commitment to Canada’s
jobless.

But the 1985 version of the trek
brought, through songs and oral history, a
vision of the potential power of organized
jobless workers. This year, that vision will
be brought before thousands in Van--
couver. The On-to-Ottawa Trek show,
with ‘singers’ Tom Hawken and Steve
Gidora, along with former trekker Bob
Jackson and Jean Evans Shiels, daughter
of 1935 trek leader Arthur Evans, will be
performing and reciting at the Vancouver
Folk Music Festival July 18-20. They'll -
also be at the Folklife Pavilion at Expo 86,
‘running July 21-27.

* * *

A® appearing at the folk festival will

be El Grupo Moncada, the experi-
mental and highly acclaimed Cuban band
that has spearheaded the country’s New
Song movement.

Fans of the group will also have a
chance to see them through the auspices of
the Canadian-Cuban Friendship Society.
They’ll be on stage at the New York Thea-
tre, 639 Commercial Dr. in Vancouver on

July 17. It’s billed as a “‘dance-concert,”
and tickets are $8. Phone 879-6638 for
information.

~

PACIFIC TRIBUNE, JULY 9,1986¢3