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BRITISH COLUMBIA

NDP’s direction
Still unclear after

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ae B.C. New Democratic Party conven-
Skell ay 18-20 elected Alberni MLA Bob
Eh »Y to head the party into the next pro-
ne election, but failed to produce a new
gram to reflect the fightback of the last
ects and make the NDP a clear alter-
a €to voters facing the Socreds’ cutbacks
attacks on trade union, human and
€mocratic rights.
eats, the more than 1,000 delegates
Nae under hot lights in the Pacific
ee Exhibition Agrodome passed
Sn ee that emphasized task forces as a
He of checking the political pulse of the
5 vince and putting the party back in .
uch with the grass roots.
€ delegates were treated to a report
from Operation Solidarity and the Solidar-

—'Y Coalition, through coalition leaders

i Shearer and Art Kube, there was no
: fe On the Solidarity phenomenon and
<a extra parliamentary struggle it
iver oat Neither was there any direction

gig Or continued struggle to bring down
eile before their regular term of

expires in 1987.
ite Sig newly-elected leader Skelly
fie asized “consultation” through “talk-
cou © labor, women’s organizations, tribal
He ..” while urging NDPers to “work

and put together policy alternatives
will bring people our way.”

I f by that, Skelly was acknowledging that
stu learned the lesson provided by the
aaa defeat of his party in last year’s

10n — a defeat which many members
ae came about because of the party’s
= mt Present a clear opposition to the
ta, D Testraint” philosophy — outgoing
tight T Dave Barret showed that the NDP’s
May © 8 has learned nothing from the
ay 5 disaster.

spent atulating Skelly on his victory, the
lea sae hot line host opined that the new
. ee sit back, allow Premier Bennett

Servic Inue on his course of cutting social
mati €s, education and health while dessi-
- hg the rights of trade unions, tenants

Minorities, and walk into office in 1987.

th Such was the philosophy and strategy of
= Barrett leadership during the campaign
T government last year. And, while Skelly

Te

_ Temains somewhat of a political enigma at

Point, his election to leadership and the

Support he received from NDP left wing

Members indicates the province’s social-

leadership race

democrats are looking for a more progres-
sive leadership that will draw a clear distinc-
tion between itself and the Socreds.

They rejected an out-front appeal to
move the party distinctly to the right
through the adtoption of large-L Liberal
policies, dropping Prince Rupert MLA
Graham Lea on the first of five ballots for
provincial leader. Lea, backed by Van-
couver Centre MLA Gary Lauk, argued
the party must sever its formal ties to organ-
ized labor and reject a “radical left”
approach to the Socreds’ “radical right”
Policies.

By “radical left,” Lea was referring to

/ leadership hopeful Margaret Birrell, who

tied her campaign to Solidarity, a strong
trade union fightback and who urged the
party to return to its roots as party of
“working people, organized or unorgan-
ized, employed or unemployed — the real
producers of social wealth.”

Of all the candidates, Birrell was the
strongest on policy, distributing a campaign
package with six policy papers that, in
essence, argued that a strong NDP was
dependent on a broad fightback through a
renewed Solidarity. In her speech, she
warned of the dangers of foreign ownership
of B.C.’s economy, linking the issue with the
Socreds’ and the Fraser Institute’s eco-
nomic designs, while attacking the Kelowna
accord which she said “defeated” the Solid-
arity struggle.

NEW NDPLEADER BOB SKELLY. . .support
for peace, Central America cited.

ELECTIONEERING AT NDP CONVENTION. . despite the fact that six candidates vied for

the leadership, only a few gave clear policy statements, and the party failed to strike a new,

action-oriented direction.

But with the backing only of Vancouver
East MP Margaret Mitchell and a few left-
wingers, Birrell was dropped in the second
ballot.

However, her defeat precipitated the rise
in the fortunes of Skelly, who picked up her
votes in the third ballot and edged out Dave
Stupich to take third place.

Skelly subsequently went on to defeat Bill
King, the former labor minister backed by
Barrett. King, who many trade unionists
remember as the minister who ordered
striking woodworkers back on the job in
1975, then threw his support to Skelly, seal-
ing the fate of the ex-Liberal and former
deputy attorney-general, David Vickers.

Vickers, backed by some labor leaders
and the “Cocke machine” — consisting of
party heavyweight Yvonne Cocke. and
MLA Dennis Cocke — had been an odds-
on favorite, along with King. He scored
some points by calling for a strategy “to
herald the end of our economic colonialism.”

But Vickers proved to have more suavity
than substance, delivering a speech that was
long on promising “co-operation, not con-
frontation” and other blandishments, but
short on policy. “Don’t expect a caucus
under my leadership to decide which policy
we’ll emphasize,’””he said at one point.

Yet Skelly, MLA for a region in which
labor plays a prominent part, said little
about unemployment or labor matters,
such as the draconian Labor Code amend-
ments, in his public addresses. His backer,
Skeena MLA Jim Fulton, instead placed
emphasis on Skelly’s support for B.C. as a
nuclear-weapons free zone, and his support
for Nicaragua and revolutionary move-
ments in Central America.

On both these issues, the NDP conven-
tion was forthright. Delegates cheered
national leader Ed Broadbent when he
called for a strong peace statement from the
federal government that would urge a freeze
on nuclear weapons deployment and devel-

opment, commit Canada to work for a no-
first strike declaration from the Warsaw
Pact and NATO forces (ignoring, unfortu-
nately, the USSR’s declaration of 1982), and
an international agreement to end the pro-
liferation of nuclear weapons, with particular
emphasis on banning outer space weapons.

“It’s time the prime minister said to the
United States, ‘one year from now, there'll
be no more testing of the cruise missile in
this country of ours,’ ” Broadbent declared
to the applauding convention.

Delegates also gave a warm welcome to
the international director of the Nicaraguan
Health Workers Union, Mercedes Tenorio,
and passed a resolution permitting ushers to
take donations to support Nicaragua’s med-
ical programs.

Another emergency resolution, submitted
by Kube, condemned the Socreds’ Labor
Code amendments and called on the con-
vention “to commit itself to the reintroduc-
tion of fair and equitable labor law.” It was
unanimously adopted with prolonged,
standing applause.

Additional emergency resolutions com=
mitted the NDP to strike a province-wide
task force on human rights, to continue to
fight Bill 11, the Socreds’ Human. Rights
Act, and to introduce a new human rights
act upon assuming the government; to call
on the federal government to protest to U.S:
president Reagan his announced sale of off+
shore lands in Canadian territory on the

’ Dixon Entrance; and to demand the cancel-

lation of Expo 86, with the monies for it
redirected to forest rehabilitation.

Resolutions were passed opposing extra
billing and hospital user fees, and promot-
ing “worker and consumer co-operative
ownership of natural resources and public
services.”

Delegates also agreed to strike a series of
province-wide public forums on women’s
rights, the economy. and _ technological
change. ~

The plight of B.C.’s jobless — and
Solutions to end it — will be the focus in

ictoria this week as unemployed rights
activists stage a camp-in on the legislature
lawn,

With the support and financial backing
Of several labor councils, and some non-
affiliated unions, members of the unem-
Ployed action centres in the Lower Main-

nd and around Vancouver Island, joined
by members of the Solidarity Coalition
and the Island Building Trades Council
Pitched tents and unrolled sleeping bags
On the legislature lawn Tuesday.

The action was set to continue through
Friday, culminating in a rally at noon, said

ed Freethy of Nanaimo’s Unem-
Ployed Workers Centre. .

The project was initially conceived as a
lobby of MLAs, under the heading of “A
Relief Camp Under Another Bennett” —

a reference to the Depression’s jobless
Under then-prime minister R.B. Bennett.
—

The action arose from a meeting of
unemployed activists in Nanaimo recently,
said Freethy.

Since the legislature has been adjourned,
the intended lobby of members cannot
take place. Instead, the tent protest will
concentrate on “bringing the issue of
B.C.’s unemployed to the attention of
Victoria — including tourists,” he said.

Some 75 people were expected to partic-
ipate, he added.

During the tent protest — which, coin-
cidentally, will accompany the tents set up
to mark a fair put on by the city of

‘Victoria — the activists plan to publicize
the unemployed movement’s demands to
put Canadians back to work.

A massive job creation program by the
federal and provincial government heads
the list of short-term demands. Housing,
“socially necessary capital works,” forest
and salmon enhancement and the expan-
sion of social services are urged.

Other demands include:

@ Tax reform. The jobless movement
calls for a more equitable system of taxa-
tion and demands more tax dollars be put:
into social services. Literature promoting
the tent-in notes that in B.C. last year
corporations paid only $383 million in
income tax, while individuals provided
$2.1 billion for the government's coffers;

@ Rights for labor, including the right
to join a trade union and a demand for the
“elimination” of the recent Labor Code
amendments;

e A “decent income,” by which GAIN
rates would be increased above the pov-
erty line;

© Unemployment Insurance legislation
to bring rates up to 90 per cent of earnings
before unemployment, and benefits for
the full period of unemployment;

e A debt moratorium to protect small

3 Tent-in to publicize demand for jobs

key speakers Fred Wilson, organizational

businesses, farmers and the unemployed
and poor from bankruptcy.

For the longer term, the activists
demand the expansion of . secondary
industry, price controls, exchange controls
to prevent the.drain of capital from the
country, and an “expanded public sector”
that includes the public ownership of key
resources and industries. ~

Friday’s noon time rally is to feature

secretary of the B.C. Communist Party,
Carpenters’ president Bill Zander, and
Kim Zander, head of Vancouver’s. Unem-
ployed Action Centre.. See ee

Efforts were also underway to procure a
speaker from the New Democrats, possi-
bly newly-elected leader Bob Skelly... --

At its leadership conference last ‘week-
end, the NDP adopted a resolution reaf-
firming “that full employment must be the

top priority of the NDP government.”

PACIFIC TRIBUNE, MAY 23, 1984 e 3