BOOKS

Joe Wallace's poetry

published

“. PROPHET is

honor in his own country”
is a well-known proverb. And
while Joe Wallace, the man
and poet, is known to many
progressives throughout his
native Canada, the publishing
of-a volume of his selected
poems in the Soviet Union
brings to mind that popular
saying.

without

It evokes a feeling of pride
mingled with self-critical “soul
searching” — pride in the fact
that one of Canada’s sons, a
crusader for her people’s cause,
found recognition in the land
of socialism; “soul searching”
as to whether we, Canadian
progressives, have done enough
to make Joe Wallace’s work
known and appeciated by
much wider circles of our fel-
low countrymen?

The volume under the title
The Golden Legend contains
about three quarters of Wal-
lace’s poems, embracing his
creative work over the past
three decades and is intended
primarily for students of the
English language in the USSR.
It is obtainable here at the
People’s Co-op Bookstore, 307
West Pender Street, Vancou-
ver, price 75 cents.

in. USSR

Here is in part what the
Soviet publishers of the vol-
ume have to say about its
author: (My translation):

“Patriot of his homeland,
fiery fighter for justice and
equality, champion of the idea
of Communist transformation
of society, Wallace enchants
the reader with the softness,
lyricism and simplicity of his
talent; he expresses the aspira-
tions of Canadian people, em-
braces in his creative work
the best of Canadian progres-
sive art. The interests of his
country, the future of the Can-
adian people — this is what
deeply agitates Joe Wallace,
makes his creativeness alive,
gives a particular freshness
to his poems.

“Through immeasurably more
talented than his predecessors,
the poet-Communist did not
receive the recognition he
merited from his countrymen.
‘Conservatism, absence of keen
sense of life, blind submission
to traditions of English litera-
ture are characteristic of the
majority. of Canadian poets.
Wallace, together with other
progressive writers, chose an
entirely different road.”

MISCHA COHEN

OPEN

Can he now exterminate him-
self?

Unlike other forms of life,
homo sapiens is not at the
mercy of his environment. On

Exit homo sapiens?

L. A, Vancouver, B.C.:
Would a nuclear war doom
humanity? Is it possible for
the human race to wipe itself
from the face of the earth by
forces of its own devising?

With three major powers
already in possession of nu-
clear weapons these are no
longer academic questions.

Other forms of life in the
past, the dinosaurs of the
Mesozoic, whole species of
mammals in the Tertiary, have
come and gone. They were
unable ‘to adjust to radical
changes in their environment.

But homo sapiens has proven
himself to be the most adapt-
able of all mammals. From
being a comparatively rare
animal he has multiplied and
spread throughout the earth,
himself exterminating other
forms of life in the process.

the contrary, from the very
beginnings of civilization he
has been at work changing
his environment and increas-
ingly attaining mastery over
it.

At the beginning, he levelled
forests and thus unwittingly
altered his environment by af-
fecting the rainfall and en-
abling deserts, to form and ad-
vance. Now he has reached
the point where his science
can make the deserts bloom
again, reverse the flow of
rivers and divert the course
of ocean currents

Does his science make homo
sapiens invulnerable? Only if
he applies it to his own society,
to eliminate the causes of
war that could lead to his des-
truction.

FORUM

The capitalist form of souk
breeds war—and nucleal ©”
could mean the end of
manity. But the advance
a socialist form of society”
a world scale would end
ever the threat of nu)
war. :

Homo sapiens can ch
his environment, but whe!)
for good or evil depends WY”
himself.

Letter of thanks

MARY GAWRYCKI,
couver, B.C.: Through the
cific Tribune, I would lik®

letters and -postcards
was in hospital recové
from my recent serious OP
tion. Such warmth of ff
ship helped me more th@
medicine.

Why only

EOPLE abroad often won-
der way there is only
one party in the Soviet Un-
ion, writes A. Shishkov in
the Soviet News Bulletin.
In the first place, it should
be recalled what a party is
and what its aims are. A
party is a political organiza-
tion of a particular class in
society The aim of the
party is to defend the inter-
ests of its class in the strug-
gle against other classes.

Plurality of parties is a
feature of a society with dif-
ferent classes whose inter-
ests differ. It is especially
widespread in bourgeois
society, where hostile, an-
tagonistic, classes exist. The
bourgeoisie has its own
parties and the working
class, its own. Naturally,
these parties pursue quite
different aims.

Things are quite different
in the Soviet Union, the
world’s first state of
workers and peasants. As
a result of the victory of
socialism a new, homogen-
eous society has been form-
ed in the USSR, in which

one party?

there are no hostile classes
or groups whose interests
clash or differ.

Soviet society is a society
of working people—work-
ers, peasants, and intellec-
tuals — who live and work
in friendly cooperation.
There are no antagonistic
contradictions between
them, they have one com-
mon aim of developing the
productive forces of their
homeland, multiplying its
material and cultural values,
building communism, whose
motto-is: “From each ac-
cording to his abilities, to
each according to his
needs.”

Understandably, in these
conditions there is no social
ground in Soviet society for
the appearance and exist-
ence of other parties but
one, the Communist Party,
which expresses the inter-
ests of all working people.
Indeed, who would be rep-
resented in the USSR now
by a party of capitalists or
landlords? It is a long time
since there were capitalists
and landlords there.

TO: NAME

ADDRESS Se a

ore Ona
Water Street,

NO BETTER GIFT |
FOR A CENTENNIAL CHRISTMAS!

BRITISH COLUMBIA: -
The People's Early Story |

Ee

FROM NAME 22 -----=_-_-

By HAROLD GRIFFIN

$1.00 plus tax

PLEAST SEND A [] PAPER COVER ($1) [] CLOTH COVER ($2.50) COPY OF BRIT!
COLUMBIA: THE PEOPLE’S EARLY STORY

Vancouver, in 1886

woes tee ee ee ew een ee

TRIBUNE PUBLISHING COMPANY LTD.
ROOM 6 - 426 MAIN STREET, VANCOU

ADDRESS: = pA Oe sila Selo ee ea ee “a

Your gift, with card enclosed, will be mailed for Christmas

December 5, 1958 — PACIFIC TRIBUNE—F*