Appeal.

: : =
USSR Peace Committee
launches mass campaign

| The Soviet Peace Committee held a press conference for Soviet .
and foreign journalists June 2 in connection w'
the USSR of a campaign to collect signature

holm Appeal for Stopping the Arms Race and for Disarmament
which has been issued by the World Council of Peace.

The newsmen were addressed by Nikolai Tikhonov, a Soviet
writer and chairman of the Committee. He cited convincing evi-
| dence to the effect that the new initiative of the World Council of
Peace has won broad support throughout the world and has met
with the warm approval of the Soviet people. The Soviet people,
Who fully support the program of further struggle for peace and
international cooperation and for the freedom and independence
ofthe peoples, which was put forward by the 25th Congress of the
| CPSU, are well aware of their responsibility for excluding war and
| Warfare from the life of the present and future generations for all

the beginning In
r the new Stock-

A general meeting of the Soviet Peace Committee representing
all the circles of the Soviet public which was held a few days ago
adopted a decision to launch a countrywide campaign to collect
signatures for the Appeal of the World Council of Peace, Nikolai

honov went on. The campaign will take place in June and July.
Any Soviet citizen over the age of 16 can put his signature to the

_ This campaign, Nikolai Tikhonov said, is to contribute to the
“Solution of the prime objective of our times — disarmament and
the preservation of lasting peace on earth.

sence me

et meeting of the Soviet Peace Committee took place in
loscow May 27 to launch a mass signature campaign for the

Stockhoim Peace Appeal. Our photo shows the
mmittee of Soviet Women, Nikolaeva Tereshkova, signing the

Appeal of the World Peace Council.

Chairwoman ofthe

TORONTO — Jean Vautour,
executive secretary of the Cana-
dian Peace Congress, recently
completed a tour of western
Canada in connection with the
current campaign of the Congress
in support of the Appeal — Stock-
holm 1975 — to Stop.the Arms
Races <7:

The objective of the campaign

_is to obtain one million Canadian
signatures to the Appeal,
launched in 1975 by the World
Peace Council.

Interviewed by the Tribune on
her return from visits to cities in
Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Al-
berta and British Columbia, Jean
Vautour was enthusiastic about
the public response to the Appeal
to stop the arms race that today
threatens world peace.

She related two of the many
examples she encountered of
people’s readiness to put their
names down on this worldwide
appeal. Helen Berezowski of Cal-
gary, who in 1950 collected
thousands of signatures to the
original Stockholm Appeal to
‘Ban the Bomb’’, is today unable
to canvass door to door for signa-
tures. Instead, in a few days last
month she obtained 1,300 signa-
tures to the current Stockholm
Appeal from people, including
Calgary’s mayor, on the streets of

_ her city. In this way she also col-
lected $111 for the campaign.

In White Rock, B.C., members

Booker nationalized

GEORGETOWN — Talks
which began two months ago be-
tween the government of Guyana
and Booker McConnell and Co.

Ltd. ended with the nationaliza-
tion of the sugar holdings of the
British firm. -

In his speech on May 26, the
10th Anniversary of Indepen-
dence; Prime Minister Forbes;
Bumham announced the gov-
ernment’s takeover of Booker

Z companies at the agreed price of _

$102.5-million (G).

‘ A reader asks: ‘‘Can the working
‘ple really compel the federal gov-
. “Ment to withdraw Bill C-73 as advo-

Sp?
; Y €s, they can. For the outcome of this
vaflict depends not only on the will of
© government and the ruling monopoly
Pitalists, but primarily on the persis-
tee and resolution with which the
g people defend their interests. Inv
€r words, on the actual balance of
S that confront each other in the
sit to defeat the government’s aim to
le the costs of the present crisis onto
backs of the people.

KK

Marxism-Leninism teaches that the
ing. masses are the real creators of
tory. The entire history of man clearly
i” lished this important thesis which

€s the political activities of Com-

S scientifically disproves one of the
‘est myths of capitalism, i.e., that

}, an society qwes everything to a
‘Ndful of the elite.

“X the realization that the working
if os are the real makers of history,
Y are inspired to take up the fight

| an d St capitalist injustices, inequalities
,.°XPloitation, to fight for national and
al liberation. Such realization. in-

> ONE MILLION NAMES IS TARGET .
_ Signature drive underway

Jean Vautour, Peace Congress executive secretary.

of the White Rock Peace Council
collected 700 signatures in one
day of canvassing at the local
rodeo. They are continuing to
canvass once a week.

As further evidence of the
widespread public interest in the
campaign, Jean Vautour spoke of
the warm welcome accorded her
by the mayor of Regina, as well as
by a number NDP-MLA’s and
other public figures in the western
provinces. Among the latter were

‘Dan Zehr of the, Central Council

of Mennonites in Winnipeg; Mr.
Head, leader of the Manitoba sec-
tion of the Metis organization;
Hugo Unruh, staff representative
for the United Church Presbytery
in Winnipeg; Mrs. Daley of Vic-
toria, former B.C.-NDP minister
of education; and Ken Dillen,

e people — makers of history

Manitoba NDP-MLA from
Thompson and legislative assis-
tant to the premier of Manitoba.

The western tour of the Peace
Congress executive secretary in-
cluded a number of TV and radio
interviews, as well as a consider-
able newspaper coverage.

The main conclusion Jean Vau-
tour draws from her tour is that
there is no doubt about the posi-
tive response of Canadians to the
Appeal — Stockholm 1975 — to
Stop the Arms Race, and that the
objective of one million signa-
tures by next October is realistic.
What is needed now, she said, is

-more active work by peace ac-

tivists to quickly canvass the
great number of people whose
signatures are assured, once they
are asked to sign the Appeal.

sled by the Canadian’ Labor Con-

Unists among the working people. This .

Once the working people are imbued —

Marxism-Leninism in Today’s World

the practicality of creating a society in
which they — the working people — will
be the masters.
2K

The production activity of the working
people is of primary importance in the
life of society. They create the instru-
ments of labor, improve them, accumu-

Jate labor skills and hand them down

from generation to generation. The
working people produce all the material
values without which society could not
exist for a single day.

The daily labor activity of millions of

ordinary people developing production ~

not only provides society with all that is
necessary but also creates the material
basis for consecutive replacement for
progressive development and human
progress. The production activity of the
working people alone proves that they

_ are the real creators of history.

= ck ORE

Reactionary ideologists claim that
mankind owes the development of sci-
ence, literature and art toa small handful
of men of genius. Marxists, while fully
acknowledging the services of the great
masters, are well aware that an
invaluable contribution to man’s cultural

~ development is made by the working
s them with faith in victory, and in » people. Itis the masses who have laid the

foundations of all man’s spiritual culture,
and who create the conditions for its pro-
gress. History proves that literature and
art developed for a long time exclusively
as folk art. Folk epics, folk tales,

legends, proverbs and songs were the —

foundation on which literature was de-
veloped by professional writers and

poets. : 4

The creative genius of the people also _

laid the foundations of science. It was the
ordinary people who, bit by bit in their

_ daily work, discovered fire, evolved

ways of cultivating cereals and smelting

metals, invented and perfected the first

instruments of labor, and stored up our

first knowledge of the things and

phenomena by-which man is surrounded.
* KK

The ideologists of the capitalist class
argue that intellectual work connected
with the direction of politics and the
economy can only be properly under-
stood by. the representatives of their
class. These bourgeois theoreticians
claim that the working people are intel-
lectually incapable of managing the state
and the economy.

In reality though, brains and talent are
not class attributes. It is only for the op-
portunity for intelligence and talent
possessed by the working people to show

themselves in politics, science, art and
literature in which the question of class
comes to the fore. In an exploiting soci-
ety such opportunity is, as a rule, not a
right of working people. That oppor- .
tunity is either wrested from the ruling
class, or, it is conceded to a minority of
working people because of the need of
the exploiting society.

One of the great advantages of social-
ism is that it puts an end to this senseless
waste of the greatest wealth that society
possesses — human talent. By abolish-
ing all private ownership of the means of
production; political and economic privi-
leges based on wealth, socialism creates
conditions for the all-round development
and rational use of people’s abilities.
This in turn leads to enormous accelera-
tion of progress in all spheres of social
life. Thus, the real creators of history
come into their own.

eK

(The column What is peaceful coexis-
tence, May 31 issue dropped five words
from the paragraph beginning ‘‘The
socialist and capitalist states ...’’ The
words dropped were ‘‘and will continue
to coexist’’, after the word “‘coexisting’’.
The completed sentence would then read
‘‘The socialist and capitalist states are
coexisting and will continue to coexist
until the transition from capitalism to
socialism on a world scale is com-
pleted.’’)

_ PACIFIC TRIBUNE—JUNE 25, 1976—Page 9