REVIEW/ARTS

Peace message shines
through all the cliches

The advertisement states, “If

you liked Stand By Me, you'll
love Russkies.” Russkies may not
reach that level of cinematic
achievement, but it’s message of
peace goes a long way in compen-
sating for some of the film’s
shortcomings.
The thing to understand about
Russkies, a tale of three boys who
discover-and befriend a shipw-
recked Soviet sailor, is that its
main appeal is to kids and ado-
lescents. But in this case parents
can take, or send, their children to
the show with the assurance that,
for a change, militarism and
mindless flag-waving get a drub-
bing.

Army brats Jason (Stefan
DeSalle) and Danny (Leaf Pho-
enix), and their friend Adam
(Peter Billingsley) live in Key
West, Florida, home to a large
army base and apparently more
American jingoism than can be
found in the other 49 states com-
bined. The boys wear child-size
army fatigues, play soldier and
hero-worship a GlI-Joe type
comic book character named
Sergeant Slammer. America’s
militaristic nurturing has pro-
vided three good candidates for
imperialist cannon fodder.

Misha (Whip Hubley) is a
radio operator and _ translator
aboard a Soviet surveillance ship
operating in heavy seas off the
Key West coast. He and two oth-
ers are capsized and separated
when the rubber raft m which
they are sent by an overzealous
officer for a clandestine rendez-
vous on shore capsizes.

When Misha and the boys
have their fateful meeting — he
winds up in an abandoned con-
crete bunker the boys use as a
clubhouse — things predictably
are off to a bad start. Represent-
ing their countries in microcosm,
each side criticizes the other’s
ventures, from Afghanistan to
Vietnam. Nor is the impact of
Sergeant Slammer lost on Misha.
He looks at the boys’ comic
books and remarks, accusingly,
“He shoots ‘gooks’ and commu-
nists ... and Russians.”

But, Russkies tells us, animosi-
ties usually end where familiarity
begins. In this case, getting drunk
together provides the catalyst for
the transformation, with the
result that Jason, Danny and
Adam decide to try to smuggle
Misha out of the country to
Cuba.

There is a deliberate irony in

having Misha land in America
during Fourth of July weekend, a
time of year when U.S. citizens,
never lacking a propensity for
flag-waving, do it with a ven-
geance. Awash in a sea of stars-
and-stripes, Misha and his friends
must contend with an assortment
of obstacles that includes Dan-
ny’s father — an army officer
who fled Hungary during the
1956 uprising —a_ red-necked
army corporal who enjoys tortur-
ing animals and shooting Soviet
sailors, and plans that go awry.
On the positive side, he spends a
memorable day enjoying the car-
nival attractions of Key West and
developing a romantic interest in

“Danny’s older sister.

When Misha’s shipmates also
show up, dressed in polyester golf
clothes and still trying to procure
a new piece of U.S. weaponry,
things really get complicated, and
also somewhat contrived. Russ-
kies could go on the cinematic
record for the most drawn-out
climax that becomes so convo-
luted it is rendered almost anti-
climactic. :

Adults and critically-minded
people generally are asked to
check their sense of credulity at
the door for much of Russkies.

Misha and the boys in Russkies.

Why Soviets would be trying to
procure. purloined sensitive mil-
itary equipment by showing up
off the heavily guarded USS.
coast — in this day and age of
sophisticated surveillance tech-
niques:— is a mystery not really
worth probing. It can be ignored
along with the film’s premise that
the Soviet Union is always trying
to steal U.S. military secrets.

The film’s real strength is in its
consistent rejection of violence
and uncritical patriotism, things
that get in the way of understand-
ing and mutual respect. Much of
this is due to the character of
Misha, a strong but gentle man

who loves his family back home.
(“We hug,” he says, “like bears.”’)
and who will intervene when an
injustice is being committed

. without recourse to physical

aggression. Only when children
are being hurt does Misha use his
fists. :

Like its predecessor some 20
years ago — the acclaimed The
Russians Are Coming, The Rus-
sians Are Coming — Russkies
promotes detente in a hopeful era
following on the heels of Cold
War. Young people have some-
thing to learn from this film.

— Dan Keeton —

Asharply critical look at ‘quality circles’

EMPTY PROMISES: Quality of Working
Life Programs and the Labour Movement.
By Donald M. Wells. Monthly Review
Press, 1987. Available at Co-op Books.

The author, a dedicated trade unionist
and writer, makes three major points in this
sharp critique of Quality of Life (QWL)
programs in the workplace. First, they came
into being because of the constant pressure
under capitalism to increase profit. Second,
QWL is designed to strengthen the power of
management, not to share decision-making
with workers. And third, if there is to be

more democracy in the work place, it must - ° is.
- ingful say on all the decisions that affect

be achieved through a more effective trade
union movement.

Empty Promises is based on a detailed
study of QWL programs in two Ontario
enterprises, a U.S.-owned auto plant and a
multi-product electronics plant owned by a
transnational corporation. In both cases,

Books

the workers were covered by trade union
agreements.

Management representatives, union
leaders and workers were interviewed, at
work and in their homes. Questionnaires
were filled out and an overall evaluation
was circulated in each plant by the author,
with a request for comments and criticisms.
In both cases, there was almost unanimous
agreement that QWL had failed to live up to
its promises.

The book proves conclusively that this
result was inevitable because QWL, irres-
pective of what name it is given in a particu-
lar plant, is management’s response to new
technologies and changing economic condi-
tions. It is essentially designed to achieve
greater power over workers, over the way
they work and the product of their labour.

It is tailored to undermine union solidarity
and to sow doubts about the need for a
trade union. This is the soft sell approach,
an application of sophisticated manage-
ment psychology in labour relations.

In his conclusions, Wells points out that
labour is paying the cost of continuing
recession through higher unemployment,
declining real wages, regressive taxation,
cutbacks in unemployment insurance bene-
fits, lack of affordable housing and the
withdrawal of a wide range of social serv-
ices.

He calls for an extension of collective
bargaining to give workers a more mean-

their working lives, a better informed mem-
bership and more membership involve-
ment, along with an improved program of
trade union education and public relations.

Significantly, the final chapter stresses the
importance to the labour movement of
building coalitions together with other

groups, including peace and _ ecological
movements, women’s groups, farm groups
and church organizations, around issues of
common concern. He calls for a “common
coalition strategy that is capable of moving
beyond opposition to create concrete politi-
cal objectives.” :

All interviews and access to confidential
documents were granted on the condition
that the names of the enterprises and the
people who were interviewed would not be
divulged. Hence the fictitious name “Pro-
gressive Motors” for the auto plant and
“Universal Electric’”’ for the electronics fac-
tory.

For those who are interested in doing
further research on this subject after reading
the book, there is an appendix with a sub-
stantial list of suggested titles based on the \

10 e PACIFIC TRIBUNE, NOVEMBER 25, 1987

experience with QWL in various forms in a
number of countries.

Empty Promises is not the last word on
this important topic but it should be a useful

tool for trade union activists who are seek-.

ing a better understanding of this managé
ment device to sidetrack the trade unio!
movement and ultimately destroy its effec
tiveness.

— Jack Phillip

——

Ryga was a unique voice
in Canadian literature

Canada lost one of its most unique
artistic voices with the death of play-
wright and novelist George Ryga who
passed away at his home in Summerland
Nov. 18. :

Best known for his play The Ecstasy of
Rita Joe, first staged by the Vancouver
Playhouse in 1966
when it played to
capacity audien-
ces, his work
echoed his own
empathy with
Native people, the
poor and dispos-
sessed and with
their struggle to
cope with a
changing and of-
ten alien society.

Two of his early novels, Hungry Hills
and Ballad of a Stonepicker, were drawn
from his early years in the Ukrainian
farming communities of northern Al-
berta. He was born in Deep Creek,
Alberta in 1932, at the bottom of the
depression.

Besides Rita Joe, Ryga wrote a
number of plays including Indian, which
was produced for CBC television in
1962; Grass and Wild Strawberries, Sun-
rise on Sarah and Captives of Faceless
Drummer which was commissioned by

RYGA

the Vancouver PLayhouse but subse-
quently dropped at the height of the
FLQ crisis and the federal government’s
imposition of the War Measures Act.
The Playhouse returned to Ryga’s work
only last year, producing his 1974 play,
Paracelsus. :

Much of Ryga’s work is filled with a
lyrical realism. In his novels, particularly,
the textures of dust and soil combine
with the often austere characters to
create images of life on the Prairies in the
1940s and 1950s that are an unmistaka- —
ble part of the Canadian heritage.

Ironically, Ryga was often given
greater acclaim in Europe and the Soviet
Union where his work has been pub-
lished in translation. He was one of Can-
ada’s better known authors to many
Russian readers and he himself travelled
to the Soviet Union on _ cultural
exchanges.

He was also an outspoken cultural
advocate, deriding the lack of govern-
ment support for the arts in Canada and
the lack of appreciation for the country’s —
traditions. In June, 1981, he appeared
before the royal commission on cultural —
policy, chaired by Louis Applebaum, to —
urge that the federal government “dem- —
onstrate its maturity as a nation” and
provide new policies to ensure funding

and support for Canadian artists.
——