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REPORT PRESENTED TO THE
CENTRAL COMMITTEE CPC, OCT. 14-16

On November 7 we celebrate the 60th Anniversary of
the Great October Socialist Revolution, a revolution
which not only transformed old Russia but helped to
change the world. In these past 60 years the Soviet
Union was faced with intervention, economic blockade,
counter-revolutionary conspiracies, nazi aggression,
atomic blackmail. It met all these challenges and de-
feated them. Socialism has shown in these 60 year: its
ability to solve basic social problems, to solve the na-
tional question, to advance an effective peace policy
embodied in peaceful co-existence of differing social
systems, to counter and check the drive of imperialism to
war. The Soviet Union by its very existence and by its
steadfast policy of proletarian internationalism, has
helped to bring the socialist community of states into
being and bring an end, by and large, to colonialism.

On this 60th Anniversary, the contrasts between living’

socialism and dying capitalism, historically speaking,
have become more distinct. A sick economy, a sick
dollar, a sick society, these are the features of a dying
system which has outlived its usefulness to society.

The 60th Anniversary has also affirmed the validity of
Marxism-Leninism. The vast experiences of the Com-
munist Party of the Soviet Union and.of socialist con-
struction in the USSR have proven time and time again
that there is no real socialism without the political power
of the working class, without the leading role of the
working class and its Party, as there can be no socialism
without central planning based on public ownership of
the main means of production. =

It has also shown that socialism cannot last unless it is
prepared to‘defend itself by a state through which the
working class exercises political power together within
its allies. Not least, these 60 years have demonstrated
the power of international solidarity without which the
struggle of the working people throughout the world
would have been seriously weakened if not defeated.

These are major lessons and major contributions of
the 60 years of existence of socialism, lessons which
need to be constantly digested, taking fully into account
the specifics, the traditions of our country, and correctly
and creatively applying Marxism-Leninism to the condi-
tions of each situation..

For the socialist-minded workers, students and intel-

lectuals who are moving toward socialism and desire to
bring an end to monopoly rule and achieve a socialist
system of society, in Canada the lessons of the Great
October Socialist Revolution are invaluable. That this is
so is to be seen in the fact that nowhere, that social
democracy ruled or rules has socialism been achieved.
Invariably it has led back to direct capitalist rule with
monopoly power more or less intact.

NEW SOVIET CONSTITUTION

To these outstanding achievements of October has
now been added the New Soviet Constitution which has
been adopted following the most intensive discussion.
Socialism, wh'ch ever since 1917 has proven itself more
democratic than capitalist democracy could ever be, has
now, in the new Soviet Constitution, extended democra-
PACIFIC TRIBU) E—NOVEMBER 11, 1977—Page 4

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tic rights to correspond with the new stage of develop-
ment of socialism. The contrasts here, of genuine free-
dom and real democracy, as against the limited and
formal character they have under capitalism, give the
working class and democratic forces in the capitalist
world an additional and important weapon in the struggle
for social progress.

Throughout its history the Soviet Union set the pace
on ail major fronts, thereby stimulating the working class
and working people in the capitalist world to raise their
sights and strive for new goals and new achievements.

‘The present Soviet Constitution repeats this. It has ad-

vanced a whole set of social and economic rights which.
working people have still to win in the capitalist world.
At a time when _state-monopoly-capitalism is increas-
ingly adopting undemocratic and authoritarian mea-
sures, including wire-tapping, censorship of mail, the
increased use of the police and the bounts against the
people, the new draft Soviet Constitution declares the
inviolability of the home, privacy of correspondence,
telephone and telegrams.

At.a time when state-monopoly-capitalism shows its
inability to guarantee such human rights as the right to
work, to rest and to leisure, the right to health protection
and free medicare, the right to maintenance in old age,
the right to free education, the right to a home, the Soviet
Constitution spells out these human rights — the right
not only to ajob but the right to choose one’s occupation,
trade or job. It guarantees not only medical care but the
right to health protection, to universal secondary educa-
tion, vocational and higher education. And for the first
time in the world the Constitution proclaims housing as a
fundamental human right.

HISTORIC ADVANTAGE OF SOCIALISM

The new Soviet Constitution provides new and clear
proof of the historic advantages of socialism in the
world. The main difference between the Constitutions of
the two worlds lies in this: the new Soviet Constitution
establishes and confirms the power of the whole people,
while the Constitution of capitalist states legitimize, on
one hand, the power of the propertied classes, the dic-
tatorship of the bourgeoisie, and on the other, the lack of
rights of the working people who constitute the over-
whelming majority of the population. ;

The differences between the Soviet Constitution and
capitalist constitutions are especially marked when it
comes to civil rights and freedoms. The new Soviet
Constitution places the individual in the foreground, in
relationship to the State. The Constitution contains a
broad spectrum of rights pertaining to the very founda-
tions of the life of everyone. The situation in the
capitalist countries is different. Bourgeois constitutions
are characterized by formally proclaiming civil rights
and freedoms while restricting them in practice for the
working people. For the majority of the population these
rights and freedoms are not ensured by material, political

and legal guarantees. In seme capitalist countries civil .

rights are not even proclaimed. The U.S. constitution for
example, does not contain such major social and
economic rights as the right to work, to leisure and to
rest, the right to education.

When constitutional provisions are not sufficient to
protect the interests of the ruling class, another legal
weapon is used in the capitalist world, namely, the pro-
clamation of the so-called emergency laws. When this is

transformed

the world —

~

done all constitutional guarantees are suspended. The
War Measures Act in Canada illustrates this.

The rights and freedoms proclaimed in the constitu-
tions of the capitalist countries prove in practice to be _
largely fictional or completely trampled upon as a result
of the very nature of bourgeois democracy. Bourgeois
constitutions confirm the economic basis of the capitalist
system, private ownership of the means of production
and exploitation of man by man. The capitalist state,
established for supporting the power of the propertied —
classes and suppressing the resistence of the working
people’ naturally cannot really involve the working
people in the process of solving the problems of any state.
importance.

GENUINE DEMOCRACY AND EQUALITY

Genuine democracy, and equality is associated with —
the abolition of exploitation of man by man, the estab-
lishment of public ownership of the means of production
and the victory of socialism. Only a socialist constitution
seals and legalizes all this. Capitalist democracy signifies
in practice the inequality of citizens in all its forms, a
screen for oppression and violence, a society without a
future. : .

The working people in the capitalist countries fight for
constitutional rights and freedoms, a struggle which will
be helped by the new Soviet Constitution. In the prevail-
ing conditions today the Communist Party will be in the
forefront of the struggle to defend ‘and extend those
democratic rights and freedoms, which were won, by the
working people, in the course of struggle.

Precisely because state monopoly-capitalism cannot —
guarantee the rights laid down in the Soviet Constitution

- it tries to divert peoples attention by attacks on the
Soviet Union. However this will not succeed. There is

no doubt that the new Soviet Constitution will give
added strength and confidence to the working people in
the capitalist world in their struggle for their rights and —
for an end to capitalist exploitation. Indeed it will be-
come a powerful weapon of the working class in its
struggle to curb the power of monopoly and bring anend ~
to monopoly rule. 3