September 1, 1994, carnegie newsletter by Carnegie Newsletter

FREE donations accented.

NO DICE!

September City staff will hold a number of public meetings throughout the city to find out what people think of Mirage's scheme. It looks like there will be a meeting at Carnegie on Thursday, September 22nd (more details in the next issue). Also, if you are tired of other people's megaprojects and believe that the Mirage/ VLC proposal is too big a gamble for the community, the Carnegie Community Action Project wants to work with you to come up with a better alternative for the central waterfront. Beginning with workshops with the residents at the Metropole and Pender Hotels, we hope to come up with a community-based plan that will show what can be positively done on our waterfront. This alternative plan cannot happen without you. So it you know of any groups or organisations that would be interested in helping arrange a workshop, please call John Shayler at 6890397. Some workshops will also be held at Carnegie (watch for dates and times). In the meantime, if you have ideas about how the central waterfront can best used for the benefit of the downtown eastside and the city as a whole please drop those ideas by the Association office on the second floor at Camegie. While you are there you might want to sign the petition against the Casino project, or pick up a petition and get it sibmed by others. As mentioned earlier, there is still much to do, especially if we want to turn the waterfront from a gamble that could sink the neighbourhood into an alternative vision that will mean clear sailing for the community.

By JOHN SHAYLER

Grand Union Just call me lonesome Call me crazy or dumb But the music tells me Where I'm coining from

I can't believe it's Monday nite But by the crowd it must be Somewhere today, not far away, Something died in me. 'Cause I can't see Or hear or speak Or take a leak I think I'm in trouble What shall we do Call Firehall 2 to send the crew If you can't see what you wrote And you have no recall

...better that we end the ball. D o n Hodgson

Junkie Master now becomes the slave You won't command me from the grave, You're just a junkie.

People have been OD'ing on these streets for about 30 years, And it ain't about to stop.

Nothing really changes here, you're just seeing different faces, from far away places, Wanting to escape.

Learning Centre Election Outreach Worker

It grabs a hold of you tightly, No way out but to die a junkie's life is never easy, But you'll never see us cry.

Kim Andre' In loving memory of Lisa Gertrude Moosomin Born: June4,1971 Died: February 13,1994 Sadly missed Always loved Never forgotten

There is an opening on the staff in the Carrnegie Learning Centre. The new staff person will act as a liaison between the community and the learning centre. It is a very rewarding position. In August the Learning Centre Coordinator, Staff, Tutors and Learners met in classroom 2. They were there to choose one representative each to sit on a selection committee. The committee will have the responsibility of choosing one person from among the many interviewed for the staff position. This action allows learners, tutors and staff to share in the responsibility of the Centre. Leigh Donohue, who will be the Carnegie Board rep on the selection committee, discussed the duties of those present, and those of the position that must be filled. Each group then went to separate areas to vote on their representative. The results: Colin Lanyon, staff; Jim Delaney, tutor; Gus Shaw, learner. By DORA SANDERS

f 1 read a story in a newspaper about a man who killed himself by taking aspirins i t was a way out I'd never considered I bought a couple family-size bottles & chose a night when my parents were at home sitting downstairs in silence wishing they were elsewhere with someone else I was supposed to be doing school work memorizing lies 1 filled my hand with aspirins & threw them down my throat but gagged when I tried to swallow I got some water & took them a few at a time in a trance I finished the aspirins & laid down to die staring at the ceiling I began shaking my stomach bucked against the poison I heard explosions

& I sank spinning down an abyss opening wider & blacker beneath & around me

I panicked I stood up my legs collapsed 1 hurled myself out of the room staggered across the hallway & fell down the stairs into the livingroom where they looked up from the television my mother rushed towards me & asked what'd happened I told her she screamed "why?' my stepfather strolled off to get the car a smile was on his face in the sterile fluorescent emergency room a doctor asked me if I wanted to vomit or have my stomach pumped "vomit" I said another doctor rushed in with the lab report & said it was "almost too late!" they'd have to pump

a cop came in with a gun & badge & handcuffs

he couldn't even stomach looking at me shoved his cold blue eyes in a notebook & asked me why I did it no he shot me with the question I boom! ' I told him I didn't know why he didn't believe me

the cop slapped his notebook closed shook his head & walked out of the room

I spent the night in the hospital in the morning a detective came in smiling & told me I had a record now that it was against the law "to try to harm yourself" he said not to worry about it smiled

, "come on" he said "people know why they do things now tell me!" I started crying "come on" he said "why'd you do it?" "I don't know!'. I yelled

' "all right" he said I

"how are your grades? do you have a girlfriend? do you play any sports?"

closed his eyes & prayed into the wall for the sake of my soul I'd become a criminal & a sinner

& told him my grades were good

my girlfriend was fine & I played several sports "what's her name & address?" the cop asked

I told him all that had nothing to do "hey!" he shouted at me "do you know your mother is out there pacing the halls? how do you think she feels about this? how do you think what you did to her makes her feel?" the cop was shaking & said "we've got places for people who don't know why they do things!"

& when the counselor was lured into the web of ropes & rendered powerless

the boy called him every degrading name he'd ever wanted to the counselor just swore back & threatened to beat hell out of him when he got loose the boy took a knife from his pocket & gouged the counselor's teeth out stnpped his pants castrated him waved cock & balls in the counselor's face then sewed them up in his mouth with fishing tackle & the boy felt truly happy for the first time in his life

my mother & I were in the kitchen

the day after I took the aspirins my stepfather was away on business she told me not to tell anyone what really happened "tell them it was food poisoning" she said "spoiled pineapple juice" I said & took a fresh can of it from the refrigerator & poured it down the drain a look of horror disappeared between us we never mentioned it again everyplace was a place where no one knew what they were doing

BUD OSBORN

Memorial for former Reading Room Staff L Y m KETTLES

d the very sad news that Lyall had passed away. From 1987 to 1993 Lyall worked in the Reading Room as a Library Assistant. He was well-known in the DE and by many of our patrons for the kindly interest he took in their lives and welfare. In the last year Lyall worked at other VPL Branches, but he was not forgotten in the Downtown Eastside. A memorial will take place on THURSDAY, Sept. 1 st, from 2:OO-3:30 pm. Everyone is welcome to come and remember Lyall.

With actors Evan Tlesla Adams, Debbie Charlie, Marie Humber Clements, Leith Harris, Wayne Lavallee, Mark Anthony Prior, Marianne Sundown, and Laurence James Wilson.

Saturday, September 17: 8:00

P.M.

South Hill United Church, 645 East 47th Avenue (at Fraser) Pay what you can a t the door. Free parking next to the Church. Contact: Trude Huebner, 322-2858

Sunday, September 18: 8:00 P.M. Carnegie Community Centre, Main and Hastings Free performance. Contact: Eleanor Kelly, 665-3015

News Clip: No wonder the casino corporation calls itself MIRAGE i.e. an illusory image; something that's not really there. It is not surprising at all that the construction of a casino is even suggested. After Expo 86 Vancouver became an internationally recobmized party city. Before that, it was just some west coast port a large hick town. Vancouver is such a geographically beautiful city, it's no wonder the creeps want to steal it away for themselves. Anytime you get enough of a population base, it attracts all the greaseballs.. Gambling is a reactionary, sleazy type of entertainment. It is disappointing that our civic and Provincial leaders would even say "maybe" rather than NO to the proposal of a casino. It's because this society is not a meritocracy; too often it is a nepotistic oligarchy staffed with talentless voyeurs, flunky philistine parvenus and milquetoast policy makers. Dean KO

"Her Majesty" Elizabeth stepped out of a million-dollar bulletproof Cadillac, looking like a slightly overweight, agmg housewife, took the flowers out of the little girl's hand, & disappeared down the line of well-placed tourists shaking hands as she went., The eye of one of thousands of television news cameras lingered for an instant on the face of the little girl who had presented the flowers. She was crying. The camera moved into close-up. It was obvious this was no "buy me a chocolate bar" kind of crying that was going on ere. The little girl looked old, her eyes turned deeply inward. Betrayal was written all over her little girl face. Hi-tech microphones moved into range. The little girl sobbed & shook her head slowly from side to side. Tears were streaming down her cheeks. Her small voice cut clearly through the sound of the crowd. - "That wasn't no Queen," she said.

TORA

RUMOURS, GOSSIP & LIES WORKSHOP There will be a workshop on gossip and lies in the Learning Centre September 29th, from 2 - 3 Staffmember Sharon Johnson and tutor Dora Sanders are putting the program together and welcome your participation. Gossip can destroy lives, careers, friendships and concern about gossip can hinder the enjoyment of social activities. How do you control gossip? There is no place in the education system for damaging rumours. Not when htures depend on passing grades and jobs depend on good character.

The Carnegie Library Part 2 Should Vancouver Have Taken Cnmegie's Money? Should the City of Vancouver have taken Andrew Carnegie7s$50,000 in order to build a library? Like many questions in our lives, the answer is neither an unqualified "yes" or "no" Carnegie was an American business tycoon who made his fortune in iron and steel. In 1892 he broke the union, the Amalgamated Association of Iron and Steel Workers, during a strike at his Homestead Steel Mills in Pennsylvania. He, or his manager Mr. Frick (Carnegie was in Scotland during the strike), hired three hundred armed Pinkerton "guards" to assault the strikers, and hired non-union scab labour to replace union members. In the ensuing battle ten men were killed and over sixty were wounded. The Pinkerton men were driven out of the plant and the strikers held it until the Governor of Pennsylvania called in the National Guard. On November 2 1, 1892, the Amalgamated Association of Iron and Steel Workers admitted defeat and called off the strike. The union was broken. The twelve-hour day was re-established and "speed-up" methods were introduced into the plant. Union leaders were black-listed from ever working in the industry again. A labour poem of those days, entitled Andrew Carnegie's Library, contained these lines: There's a scent on the books of dead men's bones, And a splatter of blood over all; There's a rough, ragged hole in each leaf you turn,

Like the wound from a ritleman's ball ... Will we ever forget how in sweatshop and mine, The fathers and mothers and children are slain? How virtue is battered and childhood crushed? By Carnegie's will and for Carnegie's gain.

Probably Samuel Gompers, President of the American Federation of Labor (AFL), reflected the typical attitude of Labour on Carnegie Libraries. When Toronto was considering a public library from Carnegie in 1903, a local labour leader wrote to Gompers for his opinion. He replied that the matter was not a big issue for the AFL. He acknowledged that Carnegie had made his money at the expense of Labour, but thought that spending it on libraries was better than spending it on right-wing propaganda. Gompers advised the labour leader in Toronto to accept the library, and then use it to further social justice. "Fight for better working conditions," he wrote, "particularly for a reduction in hours of work, and then workers will have the leisure to read books." I think Gompers was right. Carnegie donated $56,162,622 for the construction of 2509 public library buildings throughout the English-speaking world. Today the free public library is as much a part of our society as the public school and the church. Carnegie didn't create the public library system in North America, but he gave it a huge boost at a time when it was struggling. By SANDY CAMERON (to be continued)

So you think cocaine is cool, then you must be a fool; cocaine will keep you on your toes, all your money goes up your nose; so you think nose candy is dandy, forget it..it doesn't even get you randy. You reach the point of no return - all you do is bum. Ask Richard Pryor about the fire - he just wanted to get a little higher. 'Cocaine is cool'..you must be a fool. Pawn, pawn, Sell, sell, don't you know you've gone to hell. Throw in a little grass & then go out & sell your ass. You wait for that next hit - don't listen to the bullshit. You reach for more, then worry about your next score. Cocaine is cool, when out of reach you drool; you just need that next line, you'll be fine. It's not the dealer you have to excuse..don't you know he doesn't use. More, more, Score, score, so you want to be a whore. Oh yes cocaine is cool you must be a fool - the paranoia will stupefy you - oh yes cocaine is cool

Maybe you'll go back if you don't have that fatal heart attack. Beware, beware, Heed this scare: cocaine isn't cool so don't be a fool. Keith O'Brien isbe ?%J

"SEAPORT CENTRE: A URINAL?" The August/September edition of the Pacific Current magazine features "Casino Reality: Mike Harcourt's Billion-Dollar Headache". A picture of the Seaport Centre proposal has this printed beside it: "The Seaport Proposal: 'a urinal' with its back to the city?" Yes, the Seaport Centre may just look like a giant urinal. In the City of Vancouver Casino Review paper, they state that casinos are usually "an inwardly focused environment designed to let patrons forget outside climate, geography and time itself'. The City report also states "park space would be especially vulnerable (such as Crab Park) because of spillover crowds or spin-off petty crime." Regarding crime: "Is Organized Crime a Risk in Casino Gambling?: Increased levels of money laundering, profit-skimming, loan sharking and extortion are very real risks. These will be accompanied by increases'in book-making, prostitution, and illegal drug sales; all of which are well established by existing crime groups." You can get a free copy of the City's Casino Review paper at any branch of the Public Library, including Camegie's. Help save Crab Park for local children. Help save existing tenants from eviction. Get the Casino Review paper, and speak out at the public hearings that start soon. Don Larson

(This letter appears on the letterhead of Federated Anti-Poverty Groups, Dawson Creek)

Margaret Ellen Mitchell

September 8,191 8 July 22,1994

I said good-bye to a dear friend today. When I attended my first AGM in Naramata in the summer of 1981, Margaret wasn't there physically. I was a single parent of two toddlers and 1 was feeling very inadequate. I knew nothing of legislation, government or even social assistance itself. People were so friendly and welcoming, and time after time I heard Margaret's name mentioned. Her name seemed to be synonymous with wisdom, strength and respect. I had to meet this woman. When I did meet Margaret, I was struck by her down to earth wisdom. She spoke clearly and to the point. I had found a teacher. There were about 145 people at the funeral service - from the very poor to the management of BC Housing. Each one's life had been affected by Margaret. At the close of the service her casket was re-opened. I looked around in confusion, as we had all seen her before the service. From the foyer came a procession of young men, each wearing the patch of "Hell's Angels". They too came to show their respects to a friend. I was able to let Margaret go with a full heart. She will be remembered deeply by many. She also left dear goals for us to strive for: our leaders need support, families must be preserved and we must be united in our voice against oppression of any kind. Thank you Margaret.

mission news it's early about 40 minutes before they're supposed to let us in & some people wait on the sidewalk & roll cigarettes & others lay down in the weeds across the street & a few stick their faces in paper sacks & sniff glue but most stand by the fence waiting for someone inside to take the german sheppard off its long chain so we can line up by the door but one guy crosses the asphalt & the dog jumps up barking like a madman & pulls at its chain & the guy shuffles closer to it at a time & someone yells "leave the dog alone!" but the guy keeps going & someone shouts "get away from it for chrissake!" & the dog's frantic its fur sticking straight up & the guy edges nearer & the dog's on its hind legs & lunges & would've ripped the guy's throat open if he hadn't turned his back & swung his arm instead into the sheppard's jaws & the g . ~ screams y & we make noise & a mission worker comes outside & calms down the dog & then an old man says "he was lucky, dog coulda ate his ass!'' & we laugh glad to laugh at anything standing there shifting weight from one leg to the other watching blood dripping waiting in line for something to eat Bud Osborn

DOWNTOWN EASTSIDE YOUTH ACTIVITIES SOCIETY -1994 DONATIONS E Paula R.-$20) Sandy C.-$20 C e c i l e C.-$10 B i l l B.-$16 L i l l i a n H.-$16 E t i e n n e S.-$40 A d u l t LCC - $ I 2 C a r n e g i e LC-$30 Anonymous -$35

STD Clinic - Monday through Friday, loam - 6pmFREE MEDICAL CLFJIC - Mon, Wed, Friday, 5130-7:30pm. NEEDLE EXCHANGE - 22 1 Main; every day, 9am - 5pm. Needle Exchange Van - on the street evenings, Mon-Sat. N.A. meets every Monday night at 223 Main Street. Bruce J.-$10 B i l l S.-$2 C h a r l e y B.-$32 S t u a r t M.-$50 K e t t l e FS -$16 H a z e l M.-$10 JOYT.-$12 D i a n e M.-$16 L i b b y D.-$20 CEEDS -$50 M a r g i S.-$5 S u e H,-$35

THE NEWSLElTER IS A PUBLICATION OF TllE CARHEClE COWUNITY CENTRE ASSOCIATION. A r t t c l e r represent t h e vlewr of lndlvldual c o n t r l b u t o r m and n o t o f t h e A s r o c f a t Ion.

H e l p i n t h e Downtown E a s t s i d e ( f u n d i n g )

/Submisslor;\ Deadline NEXT ISSUE

Legal Services Society -$935

NEED HELP ?

12 September

Monday

The Downtown Eastside Residents' Association can help you with: any welfare problem Information on legal rights disputes with landlords a unsafe living conditions I income tax a UIC problem 0 finding housing a opening a bank account Come Into the DERA office at 9 East Hastings St. or phone us at 682-0931,

DERA HAS BEEN SERVING THE DOWNTOWN EASTSIDE FOR 20 YEARS.

Cheap Labour Policy ( "Social Security Review" )

DEBT

The Liberals are dancing with fancy language and "consultation" - and they call it Social Security Review. On May 25th a confidential document entitled Social Security Reform Communications from the federal government's strategic Communications Department was leaked to the public. This document acknowledges that it'll be difficult to get public support for the federal government's planned social policy changes. It also contains a strategy to convince Canadians to accept the final decision. Part of the strateby is to spend taxpayers' money on polling, media programs and ads, workbooks and focus bq-oups to change people's opinions. Big business is pushing for "reform" (read "gutting") of all social programs. They want the focus of public thinking to shift from citizens with rights to consumers with choices - making the push to privatize somehow more 'rational' aand things like education vouchers acceptable.

Jean Swanson, founder of the End Legislated Poverty coalition and currently president of the National Anti-Poverty Organisation, did a brutal analysis of a Discussion Paper on Social Reform, leaked to the public in July, which was in itself just a draft of the final product that the Liberals and business flacks will be giving the hard sell to through saturation tactics, slick ads and incomplete statistics.

'The leaked Discussion Paper on social reform: what it says and means for low income people By Jean Swanson

Some people think we don't know what the Liberal Government is planning for social security review--especially since the Action Plan that was supposed to come out at the end of April has been stalled. But we do have a pretty good idea of what the Government is up to. Our clues are in the Feb.'94 budget which cut $5 billion from UI and $1.5 billion from welfare, statements that Axworthy has made to the press, and the leaked Discussion Paper that the feds are discussing with the provinces. It appears that this Discussion Paper is a version of the Action Plan, and that the feds are trying to get the provinces to agree to it before it is released. The leaked Discussion Paper looks bad for low income people. These things stand out in the Discussion Paper for me: + 1. UI could be drastically weakened for the people who need it most - people who have claimed it 3 or more times in the past 5 years. These people could be forced into workforce or community work, or welfare. The amount that employers pay for UI could be reduced or even ended. + 2. CAP could be abolished. There is no mention whatsoever about the rights for poor people in CAP. Presumably they would be abolished too. + 3. Money that the feds now give to provinces for welfare could be redirected to employment services (like workfare, "training," community "volunteering"), and a child benefit. + 4. People on UI or welfare could be forced to take part in work or training to get benefits. + 5. Money that used to be spent on UI or welfare could be spent on subsidies to employers who pay low wages (wage supplements). + 6. Federal cost sharing of social programs could be replaced with "block funding." This means that money that used to be spent on welfare could now be spent on highways, or anything. + 7. The plans for education are a nightmare. The government's 3 options for federal funding to provinces are "terminate," "reduce," or "phase out." As a result universities and colleges would have to greatly increase tuition. Student debt load would go from $40,000 to $80,000 for a 4year university education. These parts of the Action Plan would help promote more cheap labour and working poverty: * Cutting UI for seasonal workers will make them more desperate to take any low wage job * Forcing people on welfare to take training or community work could displace community workers at union or regular wages, and create a bigger group of trained workers desperate to work at low wages. * Earnings supplements will pit worker against worker, create conflict in the workplace and undercut wages that are already too low. * We don't need more people in the workforce until there are jobs for them to take. Pushing more people in when the jobs aren't there only pushes wages down and creates working poverty. * Poor people trying to get better jobs by going to University or College would have such high debt loads that they wouldn't really begm to see the fruits of their degrees until their children are grown, if then. Having to pay back huge education debts means that poor people couldn't escape

e ! I

poverty by going to university even if they did get a good job afterwards. * Increasing child benefits could be accompanied by laws to force parents to leave children and work at minimum wage, or the benefits would be so low that parents would have to do this. Most children are not orphans. They have families that need adequate incomes. Just recently the Yukon gov't has changed its welfare regulations to force single parents to look for work when their youngest child is two. * Ending funding for welfare and putting it into childcare and training is designed to put more people into a workforce that still doesn't have enough jobs. * CAP ensures poor peoples7 rights to appeal, to an amount that meets basic requirements, to not have to work or train for benefits, to be able to collect benefits if in need in any province. Block funding would end these rights for low income people and force more to look for low wage jobs.

Some additional points: Reducing employer's contributions to UI leaves employers with the right to fire but no responsibility to help workers they lay off. It could dump billions in costs for supporting unemployed workers onto the workers themselves or welfare programs. The proposal for education would result in the privatisation of higher education and reduce accessibility to university for low income people even more than it is reduced now. Right now, provinces don't have to repay the feds for federal contributions to education. With this proposal, individual students will have to repay some or all of these billions in addition to the amounts they already have to repay for tuition and living expenses. History shows us: we're not dealing with "social security reform", it's a cheap labour strategy

I've been looking at the old MacDonald Commission report and the new report on jobs from the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). It's fascinating to see how closely both reports recommend precisely what the Liberals are considering for their so-called "social security review." It's also crucial to know what the right wing is planning and why, if wee are to develop effective tactics ourselves. Here's a bit of history: In the early 1980's the Liberals appointed a Royal Commission on the economy led by corporate lawyer Donald MacDonald. The commission heard hundreds of submissions by groups across the country, but ignored the briefs by women's groups, anti-poverty groups, labour and other people who wanted an economy that served people - an economy that was just. Instead MacDonald adopted recommendations in the briefs presented by the corporate lobby groups like the Business Council on National Issues and the Canadian Manufacturers Association. They didn't want justice, they wanted competitiveness. MacDonald didn't talk about how to create good jobs, which is what the justice seeking groups wanted. In fact, he quoted with approval from an Economic Council of Canada report that said: "...measures to reduce unemployment should focus on facilitating rapid job search and increased job holding, rather than on increasing the number of available jobs." In 1986 the Commission produced a I9 1 1-page report that had, essentially, two recommendations: Thefirst recommendation was free trade. By now we all have a pretty good idea of what free trade

is...helping corporations move to wherever wages and taxes are lowest and environmental regulations are the weakest--creating a world wide environment where workers have to compete with each other for lower and lower wages--competitive impoverishment. The second recommendation was to fit Canada into a low wage free trade environment .....the big business version of the Guaranteed Annual Income. Not everyone has studied this version of the GAI, essentially the one presented to MacDonald by the Canadian Manufacturer's Association. It has four parts: 3 destroy nearly all existing social programs including UI (really an insurance program but MacDonald wanted to end it), federal contributions to provinces for welfare, family allowance, social housing, the Guaranteed Income Supplement for Seniors = keep the GAI low, about one third of the poverty line a keep minimum wage low and pay equity ineffective allow the GAI to be used to supplement inadequate wages MacDonald recognised that this would be radical change and might have to be phased in. He recommended as phase I, ending the family allowance, child tax credit, and child tax exemption, and replacing it with a child benefit for low income families. Mulroney's Tories did precisely this. The Big Business version of the GAI and Axworthy's plans also tie in with the recent report on jobs of the OECD. The rich nations club recommends loosening minimum wages and cutting social programs to promote (poverty level) job creation. Like both MacDonald and Axworthy, the OECD recommends spending government money on programs to place and train the unemployed, not on job creation. These programs should target youth and the long-term unemployed, says the OECD, because it may lead to "wage moderation" - in other words, cheap labour. Axworthy says he likes the OECD recommendations. The OECD clearly stands on the side of the U.S. model of creating jobs by reducing wages and creating more working poverty, as opposed to the European model where minimum wages are high and there is virtually no working poverty. While the U.S. does have a relatively low unemployment rate of about 6.5% it also has a high poverty rate, and, because of poverty, the highest infant mortality rate in the industrialised world. In short, the whole focus of the liberal's "reform" of social programs is to create more cheap Canadian labour to fit into the free trade environment where corporations are free to move where labour is cheapest and taxes are lowest. (i.e. southern states, Mexico, ...). How to get corporations to move here, to Canada? Keep wages low, reduce or end employer's UI premiums (also put forward in Axworthy's discussion paper), cut UI and welfare so people are desperate for low wage work, and get taxpayers to supplement corporations that pay inadequate wages. Linking the OECD report, the MacDonald Commission and Axworthy's discussion paper show that this so-called "social security review" is really part of the competitive impoverishment that we talked about in the free trade debate. To be effective in our struggle we have to name what we're up against correctly. In the coming debate on social policy, watch out for these things: Language that blames the victim, not the system;

Dividing workers against workers, parents against children, deserving against "undeserving", people on UI and welfare against workers, immigrants against others, all to keep us from seeing that the rich are too rich and should be made to share by increasing both the taxes and wages they Pay Policies that require taking from the poor to give to the poor, not taking form the rich No real job creation, instead implying that training, reduced minimum wage and cuts to social programs will create jobs Using the deficit as an excuse to cut programs It's not a "social security review," it's a cheap labour strategy. Pass it on.

...................................................................................

In coming issues there will be more on this attack on our social safety net. The biggest lie is that we can't "afford" the programs we have. At the same time, over 93,000 profit-making corporations pay no income tax whatsoever, and the list of those owing over $5 million in "deferred" taxes is , over 20 pages long. Imperial Oil recently had $1.9 billion in taxes "deferred" and General Motors made a profit of over $1 billion in 3 months! There are currently over 350 billionaires in the world, their ranks swelling dramatically in the last 10 years while the entire world is in the deepest recession since the Great Depression of the 30's. If you think it's all a coincidence, you're practicing being stupid. As in the 30's and through the 70's, the tools we have to bring about progressive change are co-operation, spiritual oneness, organising and faith. - PRT \\

PROPOSED DE-STAFFING OF ALL B.C. LIGHTSTATIONS The existence of 35 staffed lighthouses along the rugged and treacherous coast of BC is now being threatened by a directive from the Minister of Transport to close down all of these stations; essential safety services will be eliminated. Lightkeepers have provided a vital and essential service in the assistance to mariners for more than 125 years.. The daily maintenance of beacons, foghorns, generators and all other equipment on the station ensures safe passage through these difficult waters . A constant watch on sea, sky and weather conditions ensures accurate and early warning of storms, gales and unexpected changes in the weather. Local marine and aviation weather observations are available to the mariner and aviator 24 hours a day, 7 days a week due to the presence of staffed lightstations. Automatic equipment cannot provide this type of service,. Monitoring of VHF radio distress channels by lightkeepers has saved many lives and the lightkeepers cooperation in search and rescue has saved many more., Your signature on the petition requests an immediate public inquiry into the unacceptable situation of automated rather than staffed lighthouses, The lives and property of all who use the waters and airways of this coast are at risk. Please sign the petition at Carnegie's front desk.

CROSSWORD # 3

ANSWERS TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE

ACROSS Make quieter (61 Bohemian (8) Hole that collects coins (7.41 Acquire knowledge (51 Stone or bladder (41 Proper (4) Cold symptom (6) School break (6) Season (61 Get there 16) Kind of line (4) Restless feeling (61 Style (51 26. Schoolchildrens'assignment14.3.4) 27. Walker (8) 28. Far East religion (6)

DOWN

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 21. 22.

Widow (71 Unconditional (81 Bowling (8) Pen again (71 Flower spores (6) Elaborate ( 6 ) Not as old ( 7 ) Necklaces (el Thoroughbred Dancer (81 Lesser known Greek god (71 Pitcher 17) Shakesperean Moor 171 Author's audience member (61 Ship (6)

"THE WRITING IS ON THE WALL"

In this case the writing is contained in the North American Free Trade Agreement. Under the terms of these agreements, multinational corporations can move their capital, factories and services around North, Central and South America in pursuit of maximum profits with no regard for the needs of people, democracy or the environment. The Mexican Action Network on Free Trade (RMALC) called a Tri-National Conference on Integration, Democracy and Development: Towards a Continental Social Agenda, so that the countries affected by NAFTA could share experiences, build relationships, and develop a series of basic agreements across these continents to put social and environmental issues first; a peoples' agenda in place of the agreements that have been imposed upon us and that serve the interests of the multinational corporations in their drive for maximum profits no matter the cost. This conference took place in Mexico City, July 22-23, 1994, one month before the Mexican national election. It was attended by representatives from Mexico, the United States, Canada, Chile, Brazil, Uruguay and Italy. Presidential candidate Cuauhtemoc Cardenas of the Revolutionary Democratic Party, spoke to the gathering expressing his opposition to NAFTA and called for fair trade between our countries. The "Social Agenda" included five main elements: Environment, Labour, Human Rights and Migrant Labour, Social Policy, Education & Cultural Issues. There were five panels in which the following topics were

~entalIntegration Free Trade Agreements: Consequences for our Countries' Futures; * Towards the Construction of an Alternative Development Model of Social and Environmental Justice; * The Continental Social Agenda as a Response to the Economic, Social and Environmental Problems after a decade of Neo-Liberalism; * The War in Chiapas the struggles of Campesinos and Indigenous Peoples on the continent; * Democracy and Development: Implication: the Turn of the Century.

Attending - from Canada were representatives ?om Action Canada Network (national), 4ction Canada Network (BC), National 4ction Committee on the Status of Women, 3xfam-Canada, Ecumenical Coalition on Economic Justice, Common Frontiers Human Rights Project, Liberal MP and past president of the National Farmers Union - Wayne Easter, Canadian Federation of Students, BC Teachers' Federation, Council of Canadians (BC), Confederation Sindical National (Quebec Trade Unions), and Bob White, president of the Canadian Labour Congress, sent a letter of support. The Conference delegates approved a political declaration that calls on us to look at the new realities and face the challenge of

globalisation...to come up with global to the multi-nationals' agenda. It is a statement of unity that calls for our three countries to monitor the results of globalisation on our economies, on social programs, the environment, jobs and working conditions; to exchange information; to formalize a strong network of mutual support in our demands for democracy, labour rights, social justice, a more humane society and for peace and justice internationally. The labour accord called for cooperation on exchange of information about conditions for workers employed by trans-national corporations, support in struggles to improve workinl conditions and the work environment and to work toward unity in the labour movement throughout our continent., The environmental statement called for the monitoring of environmental effects of development, exchange of information and unity in preventative action. Statements were issued calling for unity to monitor and exchange information on social programs, education, health care, human rights and democracy. The success of the conference will be measured by how well we in each country are able to bring into this network the majority of our people to demand a more humane, democratic, just society - To build a social novement that will shape a better tomorrow. Father Onecimo Hidalgo said, "Let us not lave a language gap that does not correspond with action. The true work is when we unite he verb, the language of action. I would like :o see the work ordered, articulated and :onverted into a plan of action.

HOTEL A M E R I C A N O

CASTRO D E F E A T S BGTISTA!!!

CASTRO DEFEATS AMERICAN BACKED

give t h e okay f o r

DEATHBY / MURDERBY ADVERTISING I SPECIAL EFFECTS

If marketplace imagery has anything to do with shaping the mass psycholob3/ of capitalist nations, we can now look forward to societies in which random violence, mass murder, serial killings & violent sexual abuse become status symbols. When all valid avenues of rebellion against a corrupt & aging system have been blocked or co-opted by government & business, the youth, whose natural inclination is towards change in one generation, begin to value insanity & murderous mayhem as heroic lifestyles worthy of imitation. Advertisers are the first to recognize the dollar-making potential of ax murders, headless corpses, car crashes, explosions, fires, etc. Psychologically, America is a dead & dying nation that aspires to lead the world with its self-righteous World Police attitude while conjuring up domestically, from within its own rotting empire, powerful visual image packages whose main purpose is the promotion of horror, pain, insanity & selfdestruction as something funny & cheerful.

These poisonous pieces of pop propaganda cost millions to produce & have instant massdistribution networks to pump them into every neighbourhood & populated area in North America. A party attitude to serial killing is connected to marketing. Coke has the latest American murder package, a film that is now playing in 1500 theatres across North America, 13 of which are concentrated in the vancower-Lower Mainland market area. The title of this latest piece of American propaganda is ''Ndural Born Killers", referring of course to the fact that most Americans believe their children are born with a "natural" desire to kill something or someone, usually their pets, playmates, parents or teachers. This idea is connected to the "bad seed" philosophy packaged & sold by such films as Rosemary's Baby (& Hutmcm) & reinforced by scientists who claim that all violent, deviant behavior is inherited through DNA. With science & the medical profession backing them up, those who make millions & support incredibly fat & sticky life styles by expert manipulation of violent special effects are at it again. As the CBC Primetime reviewer points out, these images achieve 'mythic status' in society... "These are not entertainers," he says, "these are gods." He ends his review with the comment: "It gets strangely boring." - why 'strangely'? well, because these are realistic serial killings & mass murders we are witnessing. The night before the film opened, the Vancouver Province reviewer had this to say about Natural Born Killers: uCompletely bizarre, hallucinatory, blood-soaked, hyperviolent, helter-skelter, surreal, music-video,

jeans-ad style, relentless violence, hyperkinetic imagety." The male lead is played by Woody Harrelson, who has won a place in the hearts of America by playing a lovable farm boy on the TV series Cheers. What do young people think now when they see him cast as a "gleeful homicidal drifter" in Natural Rorn Killers?...if Woody can do it so can I? ...but it's all a hall of mirrors from the beginning because Harrelson's real life father is a convicted murderer. So there is a dark hint that he typifies the "natural born" homicidal maniac. America is being convinced by such imagery 8: suggestions that murder & insanity is just something in their blood - as natural as blue eyes, inherited from Mom & Dad through

Nutural Born Killers is supposedly a film made to satirize how America sells violence, but Coca-cola executives, who arranged to

have their logo shown throughout the film, are waiting to see what effect on the fortunes of Coke its association with such popular pastimes as serial killing & homicidal mania will have. The most popular kids video in the North American market is Power Rangers, starring robotized human killing machines. A recent poll named Philadelphia the most hostile North American city, ahead of New York. ~ ~ h i l ~ d lmeans ~ h i ~"city - of Brotherly

A group calling itself 4'Concerned Citizens Against The Casino" states the following We oppose the proposed casino on Vancouver's waterfront. We do not want a casino built ANYWHERE in Vancouver. Hundreds of charity groups would lose their current source of fundraising: yearly 'casino nights'. Almost 100 acres ofthe ~ancouverharbour water frontage would be filled, severely straining the wild life habitat and environment. Rental housing would be destroyed ,forcing limited-income tenants to move out. The proposed Casino would surely increase the cost of policing the area. The proposed Casino would surely take business away from firms in the area. Economists call Casino resorts a short term fad with a dubious record in permanent jobs,. A Casino and "Destination Resort" is the worst possible use of publicly owned lands. Wed., Sept. 14,12 noon 1450 W. Broadway (just east of Granville)

BROADWAY OFFlCE OFFICIAL OPENING Invited guests: Local leaders who oppose the casino Refreshments, information, publicity for our views.

through brilliant green & crimson salvadoreen jungles & woke up thinking about 2 young fugitives I drove around the city last night & the girl showed me scars from the times she's been raped & the bones her father broke & said "pain doesn't bother me anymore" & laughed describing teachers beaten over the head with her chair] & cops she's bitten & kids cold-cocked in the shopping malls & how she kicks the bulldaggers in jail I stopped the car outside an apartment where the courts put her baby after taking it away from her she was inside a few minutes & returned in tears about the place smelling & looking like shit "they don't take care of my baby!" she said

WHY I HATE THE SCIENCE CENTRE Is it just me, am I really slow, or has the pace of society speeded up? As I went through the exhibits I saw a blur of children with parents in tow who turned knobs, hit buttons and just wanted to "Make it go". But no one it seems reads the instructions. I felt compelled to read the accompaniment to the experiments to understand why it worked. And I was left behind. The entire world is in a rush to see everything and it's all play. I felt a minor accomplishment at the controls of the Enterprise when I was awarded two bonus visuals on the telescreen for having quickly completed the assigned task of finding the Earth by triangulating the stars. Yet again, as I explored reading, again and again I was rushed by exuberant crowds trying to rush through and the unseen all knowing voice.. .who are the controllers here?

legend of how Halkis taught the intricate skills of basket weaving to the River People and how he punished the bad by turning them to stone. The day the rock was to be dynamited the contractor took off to go fishing., Legend has it that nothing happens by accident., By the next day he Gov't archeologists had confirmed it as a very ancient site and worth preserving. The bulldozing and construction as halted. A coincidence? Or spiritual intervention? Whatever, the site was saved and volunteers are needed to help sift the soil piled up by the bulldozers to recover lost artifacts. Afterwards we had lunch and a swim and took backroads home. Taum

My favourite day trip was with Sandy and Joe to Hatzic Rock. There we heard the '4)

A Smoker's View Where are all the virtuous non-smokers? It took one do-nothing paper shumer to create a special area upstairs for a non-smoking area, that is usually empty of people.

Just like jail the authoritarian paper shufflers operate with an arrogant attitude. The staff forget that they are paid it serve the members of ~ a r n e ~ iThe e . staff need to change their attitudes from one of being an authoritarian dictorship to one of not pushing their childish rules & regulations. The upstairs area should be changed back to a smoking area, start a petition and tell the Carnegie Dictarship that the recent nonsmoking area change is assine. Brian Wagget

Brian, The Health Department of the City of Vancouver is the driving force behind these the staff here changes. They started about 5 years ago and have heard every reason contran, to what their 'bottom line' was - that Carnegie, because it is a "public building", must be totally non-smoking. They've allowed changes to occur over time rather than one drastic NO SMOKING rule, but the truth of the matter was that Carnegie was allowed to break the law every day for most of the last 5 years. The change you refer to, when the entire first floor became nonsmoking, is relatively small. Most of the first floor was already non-smoking anyway and just the games area was the exception. As a word to the wise, the ongoing damage being done in the lane level smoking area the booths in the hall by the seniors lounge is getting so bad that that area may also be declared non-smoking in the new year. The total lack of respect for others' rights to also use and enjoy this area has left it scarred and burned. So much for childishness. . - Ed.

IF WE DON'T DECIDE, S O M O N E ELSE WILL. As awful as it would be, the casino is only the tip of the iceberg. The movers and shakers are planning major changes for the economy of the city that will have serious spillover effects on the Downtown Eastside, and it can be summed up in a word - tourism. Already, the public relations campaign is on to convince Vancouverites that we should accommodate ever-expanding numbers of visitors, no matter what the cost to neighbourhood life and peace and quiet. The casino and the attached cruise ship; dock, 1000-room hotel and convention centre would have overrun our neighbourhood with 10 million visitors a year, bringing crime, noise, traffic and homelessness in their wake. But it doesn't stop there. The tourism industry wants to turn the entire waterfront area into a tourist mecca. You may have

noticed our stretch of Hastings Street is suffering, but look a few blocks further down toward Granville and you will see glitzy new shops, like Birks and Cartier's jewelers, getting ready to move in, creating an international zone to tap into the well-heeled cruiseship tourists and conventioneers bobbing around Canada Place. Unless it's stopped, it's only a matter of time until it snreads to the Victory. Square area. . More than 1,000 low-income people live around Victory Square, but the city and business interests are determined to turn it into an upscale shopping area for people who don't live there. Tourism claims to be the No. 2 industry in B.C. in terms of job creation and spin-off . businesses, right behind King Forestry and I ahead of mining and agriculture. That's why we're supposed to put up with hordes of rubberneckers in tour buses coming down our streets and the noise and disruption of spectacles like the Molson Indy. But the high-paid consultants who tlack for the tourism industry are padding the figures. They count everything that moves - like your bus ticket to visit Aunt Clara in Kamloops even if it doesn't bring in any new money to BC. In fact, provincial government studies place tourism at No. 14 in the BC economy...hardly worth all the sacrifices we're supposed to make. Anyway, we already have our own tourism industry - all those outsiders who come down to the beer parlours to prey on the elders and disabled of our community. In a way, the casino scare has been a good thing. It set us on our guard. We can't leave the future of the waterfront of the big boys. Even if the casino is killed, the Port of

Vancouver wants top build something b~g,a cruise ship dock, a convention centre, a fancy hotel - anything to attract tourists A community planning process is getting underway - people can say what they want to see on the waterfront - more parks, community services, you name it. Workshops will be held in hotels, halls, parks, wherever people ask for them. You can be part of the process. Just contact John Shayler at the Carnegie Community Action Project (2nd floor of Carnegie) or call 689-0397 and arrange for a session. And remember, the casino isn't dead, it's just playing possum. By MUGGS SIGURGEIRSON