}

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The monthly journal of the
Young Communist League, the
Young Worker, recently.
Changed its format from tabloid
to magazine style.

‘We feel the magazine format
is more in keeping with the fre-
quency of publication,” co-
editor Steve Worrell said, “also
it makes for easier reading and
tegularizes the content into
Specific sections.”’

Worrell, who works as a printer,
and Shane Parkhill have been
the Young Worker’s editors for
just more than a year. There are
also contributing editors in
Winnipeg, Regina and Van-
Ccouver.

The May issue of the Young
Worker — second issue in the
new format — seen here, fea-
tures the question of cutbacks
in post-secondary education
.8Cross Canada. Regular sec-
tions are: the youth movement;
World youth news; theoretically
Speaking; music notes; at the
flicks; and sports.

Summer youth unemployment
will be the main focus of June’s
Young Worker, which is availa-
ble through subscription as
Well as being sold on news-
Stands, on the street and at
Public rallies etc. Subscription
tates are $2 for 10 issues and $4
for 20 issues, through Young
Worker Publishing Company,
24 Cecil St., Toronto, Ontario.

a

Young Worker gets new wrappings

—

ae

ge

ee

League of Artists

THIRD IN A SERIES
By OSCAR RYAN

: Prominent among the fidurish-
4g Soviet cultural institutions is
€ Theatre Society.
‘ Membership is not obligatory,
Ough most eligible theatre
eee belong — technical and ar-
IC Staffs, administrators, even
“ee critics — everyone as-
lated with the stage, and ac-
Re and actresses, of course,
Sugh they require at-least two
far’ experience before joining.
off met some of the society’s
‘ Cers in Kiev, Tbilisi and Mos-
ow. Membership throughout the
OF Viet Union is 46,000, with each
ee 15 Soviet Republics sup-
Sian its own section. The Rus-
‘ Republic’s society alone
Umbers 27,000.
we teatre people welcomed us in
°scow at an informative and
che pitable daytime get-together
a by Fyodor I. Kossarev,
of of the International Section
the Russian Republic’s Theatre
Sciety and deputy-chairman for
© whole of the Soviet Union.
K © society’s first groups,
OSsarev told us, were formed
ome before the 1917 Revolution.

to ak already giving thought

tions),

Before the revolution their
Main task was to defend the rights
®tactors and other theatre staffs,
Protect working conditions and

Prove payment.

Best 1917 the situation
R ‘anged. Theatre people today
Oy year-round security and
©Y can supplement their in-

h anniversary celebra-

comes with TV, film and radio
work.

The societies’ main concern
now is with the broader aspects of
developing their art — promoting
higher standards, expanding
creativity, enlarging the reper-
toire, serving the needs of the

Soviet Union’s many stages, ad-.

vising, planning and stimulating.

They promote festivals, con-
ferences, competitions and tours.
They help theatres in the smaller
centres with advice on business
management, construction ques-
tions, production plans and the
like.

~The Moscow society has ac-
cumulated a great deal of material
on the history of theatre and op-
erates acentral theatre library and
information centre which supplies
photos and sketches of stage
sets, costumes, props, etc. The
society also assists in the educa-
tion of drama critics.

Other societies in various
localities have built Central
Houses of Actors. These houses
are more than clubs; they serve

also as workshops or studios
where actors can undertake crea-
tive experiments and where they
can meet with other artists and
intellectuals to exchange shop-
talk and theories.

But the societies also recognize
that though theatre workers enjoy

year-round security, there are in- _

dividual cases requiring special
help, and financial aid is allotted
in such circumstances.

The societies also build and op-
erate rest homes, vacation resorts
and sanitariums on the Volga and
near Karelia as well as Sochi and
Yalta in the south, where their
members pay only one-third of
the usual tariff. (In special cases
there is no charge at all.) .

Moscow and Leningrad have
established retirement homes for
pensioned theatre workers, some
of whom are fully supported by
the society. There the stage vete-
rans lead active lives, take part in
managing the homes and organize
their own private theatrical pro-
jects.

(All rights reserved,
Progress Books, Toronto)

ER
ACTION

By MARY DENNIS

IN 1949, AT A CONFERENCE OF THE Women’s Inter-
national Democratic Federation, in which women of many
countries participated, including Canadian women, the matter
of the welfare of children was given major attention. There
was particular concem about the plight of children in war-rav-
aged countries, as well as the general standards of living for
children in all parts of the world.

IN ORDER TO BRING THIS CONCERN to the broadest
sections of people everywhere, it was decided that June 1 be
declared International Children’s Day, with the aim of focus-
ing on all matters pertaining to the well-being of children such
as upbringing at home, health and education, their legal pro-
tection and guarantees for a happy and constructive future.
Ten years later, on Nov. 20, 1959, the United Nations
General Assembly proclaimed a Declaration on the Rights of
the Child in which 10 principles are set forth. The Preamble of
the Declaration gives the essence of the rights to which each
and every child is entitled and ends with this appeal to the
more than 100 countries who endorsed it. The UN:
‘“‘Proclaims this Declaration of the Rights of the Child to the

. end that he may havea happy childhood and enjoy for his own

good and for the good of society the rights and freedoms herein
set forth, and call upon parents, upon men and women, volun-
tary organizations, local authorities and national governments
to recognize these rights and strive for their observance by
legislative and other measures progressively taken in ac-
cordance with the following principles ...”

THE CONGRESS OF CANADIAN. WOMEN and its af-
filiates have been among those many movements and organi-
zations that have been marking International Children’s Day
with the objective of seeking ways and means of having the
Principles of the United Nations Declaration of the Rights of
the Child implemented.

Canada asa co-signer of the Document has never declared
officially how it intends to publicize and implement its pro-
visions for the protection of Canadian children.

CANADIAN NEWSPAPERS PUBLISH almost daily,
horror stories of battered babies. Recently a special school
was set up in Scarborough, Ontario in an effort to save abused
children and to show them there is a better world than they
have known.

There are some 12 items seriously affecting the welfare of
children in developing countries, according to UNICEF's
International Child Review:

“Because of a serious vitamin A deficiency there are 100,000
children going blind yearly; less than one per cent of pre-
school children have access to daycare centres; at least 100
million children between the ages of 7 to 10 are educationally
deprived and cannot read or write; upwards of 200 million
children suffer from various forms of malnutrition; children
make up half the population of slums and shanty towns which
are increasing three or four times faster than the more modern
parts of cities.””

MEANWHILE THE WORLD MILITARY is spending up-
wards of $300-billion yearly for weapons of war — weapons
specially designed for overkill and mass destruction of
civilians in conjested cities of the world.

The fires of inflation are stoked by the monstrous growth of the
world’s arms budget, the money for which is filched by
governments from social services spending.

Canada budgets some $3-billion for armaments. Some
way must be found to encourage our government to use this
vast sum for the betterment of Canadian families and their
children.

The Women’s International Democratic Federation, to which
the Congress of Canadian Women is affiliated, and its other
119 affiliated national groups has called for a 10% reduction in
the world’s arms budget and for the money saved to be used
for social purposes in areas of greatest need.

THE BEST LEGACY we can offer our children is a peaceful
world. June 1, International Children’s Day is a fitting time to
speak of the importance of peace and general disarmament for
the security and happiness of children.

The great advances benefiting children in socialist countries,
where they are the preoccupation of the state, stand out once
again on this International Children’s Day. One of our most
vital obligations to children is to dedicate ourselves to the
struggle to ensure peace and detente and to achieve a world of
international friendship and understanding.

On this International Children’s Day, the Congress of Cana-
dian Women calls upon all its members and affiliates to sign the
Stockholm Appeal as one way to focus public attention on this
vicious cycle of inflation and preparation for world war which
bears so cruelly upon children everywhere. Here is an urgent
task for us all to undertake now.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—JUNE 4, 1976—Page 9