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DOUGLAS COLLEGE’S AUTONOMOUS NEWSPAPER

JTHER PRESS

VOLUME 15 NUMBER 4.NOV. 2ND TO NOV. 15TH 1983

 

 

The crowdon Georgia St. in
front of the Hotel Vancouver
chants, ‘‘Sieg Heil.”’

 

By Arnold Hedstrom
B.C. Bureau Chief
Canadian University Press

 

About a dozen protestors
give the fascist salute to the
small crowd of Social Credit
convention delegates who
have curiously wandered to
the front of the hotel’s main
entrance to watch Operation
Solidarity’s march.

‘This is the type of people
we have in Solidarity,’’ says
one delegate to another.
‘‘They can’t see past their
socialist minds to be reason-
able.’’

One self proclaimed free
enterpriser standing in the
Socred ranks shook his fist
at the demonstrators stre-
aming by. ‘‘These people
area a small minority of
pinko academics, commun-
ists and rabble rousers,’’ he
says.

Politics in British Colum-
bia are polarized. And it is
polarization which has push-
ed those opposed to ‘‘re-
pression’ to the brink of
general strike and promoted
a blind furor for ‘‘restraint’’

 

among Social Credit supp-
orters.

The Social Credit govern-
ment won a 35 to 22 seat
majority over the NDP in
May’s general election but
only won the popular vote 49
to 45 percent.

A couple of Socred youth
stand in the hotel and. say
the protest against B.C.’s
July 7 budget is about to
fizzle out.

“They had a rally at the
University of Victoria and
only 60 people showed up,”’
says youth delegate Alec
Maclean. The young Socred
past president, Franco Tras-
olini, a University of B.C.
student, calls a similar rally
Oct 13 UBC a ‘‘pitiful fail-
ure.

But -today, Oct. 15, any-
where from 50,000 to 65,000
people, including students,
faculty and support staff,
have come downtown in
brisk fall weather to demon-
strate their anger.

The march is the city’s
second largest -ever. Only
April’s anti-nuclear demon-
stration drew more Van-
couverites together.

Unlike earlier Solidarity
rallies and marches, the
protestors frequently yell
“fight, fight. |General

strike,’’ and buttons, ban-
ners, and placards call for
province-wide strike action.
Inside the warmth of the
hotel, delegates listen to a
panel discussion on the
‘“‘road to recovery.’’ Most
are oblivious to what is
going on outside the hotel.
The Socreds believe they
have a mandate to lead
recovery through the private
sector by giving investors
lower taxes at the expense of
government services.

The government has killed
regional planning vetoes
which might have impeded
business development and
they have weakened union-
ized employees’ rights to
organize.

Despite a 12 percent in-

‘crease in the provincial bud-

get and a deficit of more
than $1 billion, the govern-
ment is telling business that
cutting services like the
human rights branch and
centralizing fiscal control of
education means _ there
won't be tax increases in
B.C.

But in the short term,
premier Bill Bennett has
created the type of business
environment he hoped to
eliminate.

Since the introduction of

 

’Socreds React Smugly ‘to Rally

the controversial legislation,
contract talks have stalled in
both the public and private
sectors.

In total, about one-third of
the provinces’ labor force
will be in a legal strike
position by the end of the
month. A recent survey by
the Sun newspaper of 512
randomly chosen respond-
ents, showed 20 percent
would support a_ general
strike by not working, com-

' pared’ to 46 percent who

would continue.

A general strike would
affect the province’s educa-
tion system. teachers are
conducting a strike vote now
and with many faculty assoc-
iations and campus unions
part of the Solidarity coal-
itions, institutes would all
but close.

At Oct. 15’s rally, unions
from every sector of the
economy, members of Oper-
ation Solidarity and the Sol-
idarity Coalition, people
from ethnic, women’s, gay,
lesbian, and service groups
affected by the legislation
protested outside the con-
vention.

The day before Saturday’s
protest, premier Bill Benn-
ett said he wants his policies
enacted across the country.

photos by Sean Valentini

“The federal government
lacks the courage, the
committment and the
policies to do what is nec-
essary in these times to lead
our country through the
recession to a more profit-
able future by making our
country a place where inves-
tors will feel more comfort-
able, a place where employ-
ers will employ our people
and a country in which
people can get jobs in the
private sector because of
those factors,’’ Bennett told
1200 delegates at the con-
vention opening.

‘INSIDE

Making
your own
beer

See page 6

 

 

 

 

J