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EDITORIAL

Fight Mac’s attack on labor

The Macdonald royal commission report has
some obvious poisoned barbs. It aims to subordi-
nate Canada to the policies of U.S. imperialism
and to further the neo-conservative goals of the
Mulroney federal government. In this way it
hopes to save capitalism from its internal crises.
Not least, the clear intent is to do it all on the
backs of the working class and its allies in strug-
gle.

With the Macdonald report, the right-wing
policies of the Tories, and the solutions to capital-
ism’s crises by the former Liberal cabinet minister
and his crowd, are obviously betrothed. They are
as one in their attempts to dismantle the “welfare
state” which was the boast of earlier govern-
ments. They are as one in their readiness to sacri-
fice Canadian industry at the altar of free trade.
They are coupled in their eagerness to sell out
Canadian sovereignty and independence to the
U.S. military-industrial complex.

The Communist Party of Canada, in The
Road Ahead, the main report adopted at its April
1985 convention, notes that a number of monop-
oly interests in Canada are supporting free trade
“in an effort to get themselves out of the crisis.
They see no perspective for Canada other than
the U.S. market and are prepared in return to
subordinate the interests of Canada to active
support for U.S. foreign policies. This, despite the
fact that historically U.S. imperialism is in a state
of decline. (Canadian) Monopoly however, is not
united in. . the struggle over the direction Canada
should take — toward complete subordination
to U.S. imperialism or the path of Canadian
independence...(That struggle) is likely to
sharpen in the days ahead and become a major
political issue.”

_ That is exactly what is happening.

While the Macdonald report is not formally
government policy, in many places it dovetails

precisely with the most reactionary Tory posi-
tions. It takes the neo-conservative line, putting
the goals of the private sector — and certain of
the monopolies —above the well-being of the
majority.

Certain direct lessons can be learned from the
report. Why, for exmaple, does the Macdonald
commission select 6.5 per cent unemployment as
the ideal, supposing that the system were capable
of providing full employment? (The socialist sys-
tem in the USSR did so, and has known genuine
full employment for 50 years.)

The report is cold-bloodedly frank. This is the
“natural” level, given today’s capitalist circum-
stances, because, balanced against inflation and
fluctuating interest rates, 6.5 per cent jobless
would neither increase nor decrease inflation.
Today’s real unemployment level, 10.4 per cent
(which the commission admits fails to count an
army of discouraged job seekers) is explained, it
says, by “cyclical factors” — in fact, relative
over-production, the inability of workers as a
whole to buy back what they have produced.

So the 6.5 per cent jobless level desired by
Macdonald and company is not just some figure
they think is the best capitalism can do for the
working people; it is the balancing point
which — for the moment — best suits the sys-
tem.

It’s the coldest admission yet that the system
rigs mass unemployment to suit its needs. Now,
new layoffs are planning to accommodate free
trade.

That alone would be reason enough, but there
are many others, why decisive action is needed by
labor to oppose Mulroney’s neo-conservative
policies. Macdonald’s assault on living standards
and sovereignty, and the dead end outlook of a
system which is anti-working class by nature.

REAGAN SLAPS WRISTS ,

BoTHA DOESNT

TRIBUNE

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I: the spirit of international friendship
that continues to provide a welcome
antidote to the poison of Reagan’s cold-

People and Issues

guising his products as something they

aren’t. So much for “consumer choice.”
According to Kistler, a shipload of

war rhetoric, municipalities in Canada
and the United States have in growing
numbers declared their support for the
people of Nicaragua by forming close ties
With their counterparts through sister-city
relationships. The latest effort, we're
pleased to report, comes from the B.C.
Village of Alert Bay.

In an Aug. 9 letter Mayor Gil Popovich
advised Armando Quiroz Pena, head of the
town of San Juan del Sur, of the decision
by Alert Bay’s five-member council to
Seek the twinning arrangement.

“This resolution symbolizes the wish of
the people of our town to promote peace,
understanding, respect for the sovereignty
of the Nicaraguan government, and to
enhance our respective economic progress
through occasional exchange of ideas and
mutual assistance wherever possible,”
Popovich wrote. The mayor pointed out
that the twinning proposal is consistent
with Canadian foreign policy, which

(pursues) an amicable diplomatic rela-
tionship with the Republic of Nicaragua.”

Alert Bay, on an island off the northern

tip of Vancouver Island, has fishing and’

tourism as its economic mainstays. Many
of its approximately 1,400 residents are
Native Indians.
2 Noting that Alert Bay is a municipality
free from armed conflicts and other
threats from foreign jurisdictions,” the
mayor went on to “wish you well in your
Struggle to reach your goals of peace,
Social justice, and economic staiblity.””
The village has been involved in efforts
to aid Nicaragua. Recently a group of
ishermen donated the proceeds from a

fish sale to buy equipment for Nicaraguan
fishermen, according to a receptionist at
the municipal hall.

The official also said the village of San
Juan del Sur has replied to the council
initiative. But for the time being, the con-
tent of the reply is unknown.

The Nicaraguan letter is in Spanish.
Popovich, possibly the only Alert Bay res-
ident who understands the language, was
out fishing at press time.

, daieate:, He, J

Wie: obstacles there may be in
the formal government policies in
Ottawa, it seems that small bridges to
peace and international understanding are
being built, one by one, at many levels of
Canadian society.

It was to build such bridges that Ques-
nel mayor Mike Pearce decided last year to
send letters out urging municipalities to set
up exchanges with cities in the Soviet
Union through twinning. And it was also
to build bridges with people in the Soviet
Union that Ken O’Kennedy of the North
Shore Rotary Club decided to go to North
Vancouver schools and gather together
200 childrens’ drawings to send to the
USSR in an international exchange.

This week, Canadians will have an
opportunity to see the Soviet side of that
exchange as some 200 paintings and draw-
ings by Soviet children go on display at
Park Royal Shopping Centre Sept. 16 to 21.

The mall will also be the scene of a small
celebration on the Saturday, Sept. 21 as
Soviet ambassador Alexei Rodionov will be

presenting awards to the Canadian child-
ren whose art was specially honred when
the display was in the Soviet Union.

Oe

ver the years, as the movement

against apartheid has pressed govern-
ments at both the federal and provincial
level to take action to block the import
and sale of South African products, the
official response — epitomized by Socred
Consumer Affairs Minister Jim Hewitt —
has been that the “consumers should be the
ones” to make the final choice as to
whether or not to buy the product. It’s a
familiar line, of course — which provides a
neat free-enterprise pretext for inaction
while helping to ensure that companies
like Sainsbury Ltd., the national company
that distributes Paarl wines, continues to
make profits.

But lately — much to Hewitt’s chagrin,
no doubt — consumers have been mak-
ing the choice and increasingly it has been
to shun products which they know to be
from South Africa. And that apparently
has prompted some new manoeuvres
from the purveyors of apartheid goods.

There is, of course, the case of one
supermarket chain which routinely puts
unmarked South African oranges in the
bin with oranges from other countries,
leaving consumers with no choice —
unless they give up eating oranges alto-
gether.

But as Washington State activist Elmer
Kistler tells us, an importer in Seattle has
thrown away any subtlety and is just dis-

South African apple juice was brought
into the port of Seattle and the cargo
offloaded into a nearby warehouse. There,
the importer’s employees stripped off the
labels and replaced them with new ones
which read: Tree Top Apple Juice. Worse,
the label stated: “‘Made from Washington
apples.”

We don’t know if anything like that is
going on in this country but the incident
highlights the points made around the
world: policy on apartheid is not some-
thing to be made on the business pretext of
“consumer choice.” It’s time the federal
government moved to impose economic
sanctions against South Africa and the
provincial government followed the lead
of other provinces which have banned
South African wines and liquors from
liquor store shelves.

* * *

ccording to his son Paul, he was up

and roaming about the hospital cor-
ridors 36 hours after his operation — no
doubt pondering economics statistics —
but his many friends were rather more
anxious when Trade Union Research
Bureau director and Tribune economics
columnist Emil Bjarnason had to go in for
emergency surgery Sept. 3 to head off the
future possibility of a stroke.

The operation was completed success-_
fully — for want of a more technical
explanation, it consists of “reaming out” ]}
an artery — and Emil was back at home —
to recuperate last Wednesday. And true to
form, he was expecting to be back at work
next week.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE, SEPTEMBER 18, 1985 ¢ 3