Editorial Our pain, their gain An International Monetary Fund report, leaked, some suspect, by the federal Tories to soften up the public for Finance Minister Michael Wilson’s April budget, calls on Canada to cut its deficit by $9 billion. Immediately, the issue becomes: what programs are to be cut? Welcoming the IMF’s call, Wilson described it as “‘consistent. with what we’ve been saying ourselves .. . I think the IMF report underscores what we’ve been saying for four years.” Under media questioning, Prime Minister Brian Mulroney took pains to defend his government’s plans to pour an estimated $15 billion down the arms sewer on nuclear-powered submarines. He didn’t see this as waste. Increased military spending, it seems, will steam ahead. Neither did Mulroney target huge, built-in tax giveaways and corpo- rate bail-outs which cost Canadians additional billions of dollars annu- ally. He didn’t see them as waste, either. Giveaways and tax loopholes for corporate hogs at the public trough will continue. So who is being targeted? You are. , The IMF “call” for deficit cuts is but the latest in a series of similar demands from the corporate and investment sectors urging Mulroney to “get tough,” to zero in on social programs. In a March 9 editorial, The Globe and Mail writes: “Enormous pressure is needed to extract budget cuts or tax increases ... and to increase the public tolerance for pain.” Supporting Mulroney’s rejection of scrapping the submarine purchase, the Globe offers its answer: “The real solution must come through social program reform ....” Those powerful interests that invested $40 million to save Mulroney’s political neck last November are now submitting their account. They want payment. “Reform,” in plain English, is social program cuts, an end to indexing and to the principle of universality. “Tolerance for pain” means less spending on child care, pensions, education, housing, health _ are; more taxes and privatization. They’re talking about our pain, and their gain. V4 j 8 fi oF, t Zh, 4A\ di 4) A! TH A RATA FIRIBUNE EDITOR Sean Griffin ASSISTANT EDITOR Dan Keeton BUSINESS & CIRCULATION MANAGER Mike Proniuk GRAPHICS Angela Kenyon Published weekly at 2681 East Hastings Street Vancouver, B.C., V5K 1Z5 Phone: (604) 251-1186 Fax: (604) 251-4232 Subscription rate: Canada: @ $20 one year @ $35 two years @ Foreign $32 one year Second class mail registration number 1560 Having not read nor intending to read Salman Rushdie’s book, I cannot com- ment on its total content. However, I must take issue with the editorial in the Pacific Tribune (“Defending Rushdie,” Tribune March 6, 1989). Religious fanaticism is a tool of the cap- italist class to sow hate and division amongst the people. There is no doubt that Moslem fundamentalism fits into that category. But most Moslems are not fanat- ics and even moderate Moslem leaders are opposed to this book. It insults Islam, not from any objective analysis, but by vilifying leading figures in their holy book, the Koran. The title “Satanic Verses” is indicative of its mes- sage. What it is saying is that the belief of millions of people is evil. Most of religion, in my view, is composed of fairy tales, based on the belief in gods, forces or ener- gies, of which there is no objective evi- Value Village aid cut off In a recent issue of the Tribune there was an article about the strike of handlers and sorters of used clothing at the Value Village thrift store.(““Workers strike Value Village, Labour Notes, Tribune Feb. 27, 1989). About the same time I received a phone cali from the Canadian Diabetes Association asking for donations of clo- thing, so I gathered up some used articles in the belief that such an association was a worthwhile recipient. However, your arti- cle impelled me to make a further check on the recipient and lo and behold I found that their address was the same as -the address for the Value Village store. Suffice it to say, Pll call the Canadian Diabetes Association — whose question- able tactics to acquire donations of any sort and whose support of an international retail organization like Value Village which pay starvation wages to its workers must be questioned by the public at large — and tell them in no uncertain manner that I will never donate any clo- thing to them. Furthermore that I will inform my friends of the ultimate destina- tion of their donations through that medium. W.W. Logan Victoria Editorial on Rushdie novel queried dence. The book is not a real analysis either — from what I have heard — of Islam. In the meantime, the masses are still religious. We on the left and in the pro- gressive movement cannot expect that to change in the near future. We have to work with working class and other people of all sorts of persuasion in order to defeat our class enemy. We cannot alienate our potential allies by siding in with the likes of Salman Rushdie, who is stirring up antag- onisms over his own set of fairy tales, in order to sell a book. What about the question of freedom of expression? Such: freedom should not extend to hate literature. Calling. people’s beliefs “satanic,” when they’re not, is hate literature. The book plays into the hands of the class enemy as well as into those of Kho- meini. There are economic and social crises in both the capitalist west and in Iran after the war. What better way to divert people’s attention from those prob- lems: The whole storm about “Satanic Verses” would disappear if that piece of hate literature were taken off bookstore shelves. Peter Marcus, Vancouver Thanks to VSB for lunch program The Child Poverty Action Com- mittee wishes to thank the Van- couver School Board for including enough money in its new budget for a complete food program. We have, as parents of poor child- ren, worked hard to convince the VSB to accept responsibility for our children. The food program is an educa- tional program that will make a huge difference in the lives of many poor children in Vancouver. We can now put our efforts into trying to convince the federal and provincial government that children are hungry because welfare rates and wages are too low. All levels of government must accept responsibility for hungry children. Patricia Chauncey, Spokesperson, Child Poverty Action Committee, : Vancouver 4 Pacific Tribune, March 20, 1989