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Wednesday, November 27, 1985

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Newsstand Price 40°

Vol. 48, No. 44

Summit opens up ‘cautious

hope’

— page 9

GRR BR UE HY ATTERORNTS AGRA TEN

PWA strike launched

— page 6

_ Delegates to the B.C. Federa- tion of Labor convention agreed this week to establish the framework for what eventually could be, an accord with the New Democratic Party — but Whatever document emerges from the disucssions, it will bear no resemblance to the Austral- lan model, nor will it involve Wage restraint.

That was the consensus Tuesday as some 900 delegates finally got the opportunity to discuss the issue that had been Pulling like an undercurrent at Virtually all the convention debate from the opening address by federation president Art Kube.

A statement was reportedly to have been presented to the Convention early Monday but was put off because of dis- agreements among the execu- tive council. The final statement apparently allayed any concern, however, since it was presented With the unanimous backing of the council.

It stated:

“The New Democratic Party and the labor movement share a Vision of a society committed to €quality, full employment, an end to discrimination, a vibrant and democratically managed economy, environmentally sound development and educational and social services that put the heeds of people first. We are committed to building a society that recognizes the worth and dignity of people as workers, as Parents, as students, as citizens. The trade union movement is determined to maintain a sys- tem of free collective bargaining as one method of advancing

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economic. justice and equality for working people.

“We are confronted, how- ever, with the legacy of the Socred wrecking crew; increased poverty, decreased human worth, wasted youth and criminally high unemployment. We see each day actions deliberately designed to encourage confron- tation: worker vs worker, Native vs non-Native, student vs teacher. A legacy of fear, despair, con- frontation and divisiveness.

“British Columbians deserve better. New Democratic policies and programs could turn that legacy into one of co-operation instead of confrontation, con- sultation over imposition and consensus instead of divisive- ness. These policies and pro- grams cannot be implemented overnight, however. We need a timetable for change that is responsive to the needs of the people of this province.

“In the struggle for equality, for social and economic justice

see LEGISLATIVE page 5

‘Free market future unacceptable’: De Roo

Victoria Catholic Bishop Remi De Roo called on dele- gates to the B.C. Federation of Labor Tuesday to “take a stand together with the victims of the market-dominated economy... struggle (with them) for an alternative economic and social future.”

In an eloquent address to the 900 delegates at the federation’s 30th annual convention, Bishop De Roo warned that B.C. was at the ‘cutting edge” of a “new high tech market economy ...which gives priority to the private sector, to social service cuts, to lower corporate taxes, deregulation and free trade.”

The result, he said, is that “social relations are being defined in terms of the supply and demand of the market- place.

“And that is morally and eth- ically unacceptable,” he declared to applause.

“The economic doctrine of the survival of the fittest serves

‘to rationalize the concentration of wealth in the hands of a few — and that, too, is fundamen- tally wrong,” he said.

“The rights and needs of people should be at the centre of the economy.”

Bishop De Roo, the former chairman of the social affairs commission of the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops and one of the authors of Ethi- cal Reflections, told the conven- tion that the thrust of policies by the Social Credit government and the Conservative govern- ments in Ottawa — including free trade and special economic zones — were aimed at “res- tructuring the economy to what is called the tough new world of competition.”

But it really is an “interna- tional game of competitive impoverishment,” he said, emphasizing that those policies, intended to attract foreign investment and industry, were enacted at “an enormous social and human cost.

“Transnational corporations are being allowed to operate without social responsibility,” he warned.

“In addition,’ he noted, “while corporate and bank profits rise, workers are being called upon to make more and

more sacrifices.”

Social services have also become victims to the market economy, he said, pointing to the soup kitchens and food banks as “a dramatic indica- tion” of the impoverishment that has taken place.

“It staggers the imagination that in a country as rich as Can- ada that one in six Canadians is poor.

“Tt calls for nothing less than a fundamental transformation of values, priorities and struc- tures of our economic order,” he declared.

Bishop De Roo told delegates that they could take one of two courses: ““We could stop resist- ing and accommodate ourselves

Bishop Remi De Roo addressing B.C. Fed delegates Tuesday.

to the new high tech market economy.

“But we could also intensify our resistance and struggle for an alternative economic and social future.”

He called on unionists to “take a stand together with the victims of the market economy ...and intensify your efforts for the common good of all workers.

“We in the church may not have all the answers,” he said to a standing ovation, “but we commit ourselves to work with you and other popular coali- tions to find those answers and to work for the creation of a new society in which there is equality for all.”