} The following is a statement issued Sept.

¥ 72, by the central executive committee of | the Communist Party of Canada.

} The struggle for peace, to prevent the

} catastrophe of nuclear war has today 1 reached a new, critical stage.

| On the one hand, the arms race threat- ens to zoom out of control — on earth

¥ and in space. Time is running out for pre- | venting nuclear war.

© On the other hand, there is an unprece- 1 dented opportunity for achieving progress

"Gn reversing the nuclear arms race. | The opportunity opened with Soviet Neader Mikhail Gorbachev’s Aug. 18 f’Aannouncement of the Soviet Union’s "extension to next January first of its } nuclear test moratorium. Canadian Communists join with all | Canadians, with people the world over, in 1 welcoming this latest and fourth extension | of the Soviet Union’s unilateral nuclear a moratorium. © } This extension, the Soviet Union has said, was a difficult decision for it to make. It is clear that such a unilateral morato- rium cannot be extended indefinitely.

One would have hoped the Reagan administration would welcome it and say it would do the same.

Instead President Reagan’s response was negative. He rejected the moratorium as “propaganda” and said no toa test ban agreement. Propaganda? Let’s have this kind of propaganda from the U.S.

He also said a test ban would not be in the U-S. “national interest.” In saying this, the U.S. administration is saying it will never give up its aim of achieving military

superiority over the Soviet Union and a first-strike nuclear strategy.

In a last effort to prevent agreement on ending nuclear tests, the Reagan adminis- tration said “a nuclear test ban is not verif-

jable.” Here too, however, Gorbachev

declared: “There is no problem of control for the Soviet Union. We have no objec- tions to international control.”

Despite this the U.S. administration refuses to also declare a moratorium on nuclear tests. i

The U.S. wants nuclear tests; it has con- ducted 18 of them during the Soviet moratorium. It wants to continue the arms race because it is profitable to the military-industrial complex. It wants to go ahead with Star Wars. It is conducting tests now on fundamentally new types of arms, weapons capable of reaching targets both on earth and in space.

This rejection of a Soviet-U.S. test ban agreement goes opposite to the opinion of the majority of the American people, of Canadian opinion, of world opinion.

Continued nuclear weapons tests can only bring the world closer to the brink of nuclear war, threatening the very existence of the human race.

Can this madness be stopped?

Yes, it can. It depends on the people of our country as on the peoples everywhere, and in the first place the American people, whether it will be.

The first thing to do is compel the Mul- roney government and Parliament to speak up. Why does the government remain silent on this supreme issue?

To agree to a moratorium on nuclear

testing is very much in Canada’s interests. Canada is not an island. The security of our country and people is inseparable from peace and security for the world.

The Canadian government must be compelled by massive people’s action to come out in support of a ban on nuclear tests, for declaring Canada a nuclear wea- pons free zone, for putting an end to further U.S. cruise missile tests over Can- adian soil, for no Canadian involvement in Star Wars.

This would be a might blow for peace. This would show unmistakably that instead of tailing U.S. military strategy, Canada is pursuing an independent for- eign policy of peace.

Can this be achieved?

The Communist Party of Canada believes it can be achieved. While there is danger in the present situation, there is no cause for pessimism. The forces exist to compel the U.S. administration to change or modify its position. The ever growing peace movement in Canada, the strong stand of the Canadian Labor Congress, of the women’s and youth movements, senior citizens, the churches and profes- sions, members of the Liberal and Con- servative parties, the NDP and Communist Party, show this to be the case.

The time is here. The time is now to build such a powerful Canadian people’s campaign to compel the Mulroney government and Parliament to speak up and press the Reagan administration to come out in favor of ending nuclear tests.

Let us all join hands in this battle which would open the door to a comprehensive

test ban treaty and an end to the nuclear arms race.

Canada’s self-interest, the interests of human survival call for making such efforts. The world cannot go on permit- ting more and more arms and less and less security. It is time for new thinking. It should be clear to everyone that no coun- try can be secure unless the world is secure and there can be no peace for one country unless there is peace for all countries.

The place to begin is by a U.S.-Soviet agreement to end nuclear testing.

MIKHAIL GORBACHEV... announce-

ment created new opportunity for test ban treaty.

s

_ The plan announced by Energy Minis- ter Jack Davis to deregulate B.C. Hydro, which was adopted by the Socred caucus when it met in Prince George recently with Premier Bill Vander Zalm, would consti- tute a major Sellout of B.C. hydro resour- ces to private corporate interests and the 7S.

Under the Davis plan the publicly- owned B.C. Hydro system would be broken up and private capitalist interests would be allowed to build dams and take over power Sites all over B.C. to generate power for industrial plants and for export to the U.S. Davis said even the giant Site C dam could be built as an investor-owned utility (IOV), the name given in the plan to private companies operating in the hydro energy field.

Under the Davis plan, the public would | continue to pay for two phases of the hydro | system. B.C. Hydro would be responsible to build and pay for the provincial hydro grid system and guarantee low costs for transmission of power by the privately-

owned companies. In other words, the public would subsidize low distribution

costs for the private sector. The privately owned companies would, according to Davis, be able to generate power cheaper than B.C. Hydro because they would not be saddled with the costs of servicing the B.C. Hydro huge debt which now stands at around $9 billion.

That debt is the result of the Columbia River sellout and the cost of constructing the Revelstoke dam. Under the Davis plan, the public would continue to pay the costs of debt servicing, while private inves-

| Davis plan:

private power at public expense

The province Maurice Rush

tors would escape those costs. In short, it would be another subsidy to the privately- owned utility companies at public expense.

The end result of this scheme would be cheap power for the IOU’s, and higher hydro rates to the public who will have to subsidize the private companies.

The pretext given for privatization of the hydro industry is that it would attract investors with the offer of cheap power and the prospect of making money by exporting hydro to the U.S. It would, said Davis, create new industries and jobs — which is the old cry of right wing politi- cians and economists whenever they want to carry through a major deregulation pro- ject of benefit to the private sector. g

There is no guarantee that the Davis plan would generate new industries and jobs. But there is a guarantee, if the scheme is allowed to go through, that private capi- tal would seize control of the hydro resources of B.C. That, in turn, would result in cheaper power for the corpora- tions and higher utility rates for the public.

Allowing private companies to build dams at every hydro site in B.C. would be a disaster for the province’s fisheries and to the ecology. The little agricultural land

la

B.C. now has available would be flooded to store water for hydro generation. What we will have will be a duplication of the present Kitimat-Alcan deal many times over. The Davis Plan would mean the end of any rational planned over-all-energy policy for B.C. which is possible only under public ownership.

B.C. Hydro was set up by W.A.C. Ben- nett when he nationalized B.C. Electric to finance the Bennett Dam to generate cheap power at public expense for the pulp and mining industry in the north and the Interior. The aim of the Davis Plan is to return the hydro system to private control and to maintain only those public services which would serve the interests of the priate sector.

B.C. Hydro has not been a model pub- lic utility — its policies have been dictated by the Socred government and its big bus- iness backers. But B.C.’s interests would not be-served by demolishing the public utility company, On the contrary, what is needed is a new hydro policy which would ensure that B.C. Hydro serves the public interest. That requires a firm policy of generating electricity for use in B.C. and

not for export; a complete overhaul of the rate structure which now favors the large companies; and democratization of B.C. Hydro to ensure representation on all its boards and policy-making committees of representatives of the public.

B.C. is the only province in Canada where such a far-reaching deregulation of hydro resources in favor of the private sector is being projected. It is the major resource give-away program so far advo- cated by the Vander Zalm government. It goes much further in favoring the private sector than even former premier Bill Ben- nett’s hydro policies.

Bennett abandoned the policy of gener- ating hydro to meet provincial needs in favor of a policy of large scale export of power to the U.S. The Vander Zalm- Davis Plan takes Bennett’s right wing pol- icy a giant step further by opening the way for the private sector to take over control of the hydro industry, to build dams at every available site in B.C. where profits can be made by exporting power, and get- ting cheap rates for their industries. If any- thing exposes the right wing policies which lie behind Vander Zalm’s real intentions, it’s the Davis plan adopted by the Socred caucus in Prince George.

The trade union movement is now engaged in a campaign against deregula- tion. B.C. labor should add Opposition to the Davis plan to their cainpaign. It is by far the most sweeping and dangerous scheme yet put forward for deregulation in B.C. Opposition to the Davis plan should become a major issue in the upcoming provincial election.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE, SEPTEMBER 24, 1986 e 5