a Party Co

ae €xpressed in this Soviet photo of Moscow citizens in a recent celebration in Red Square. The
Stess drew up a blueprint for a further rapid growth of peoples living standards.

m
past Party, returned
™ Moscow where he

th Congress of the
'Y of the Soviet

Wing

h = @n interview he
ie Tri
&ssions. tribune as to
* ky

Ae YOu we.

nt at Toe In Moscow in
Particnta ‘ Bes did you see
tary “'Y impressed you
tha t8an —

apartments. |

f . large
® Duildings. The
«. oreat deal of
é et §00ds, such

m Denmark,

the attractive sport

department
een manu-

ea ;
€ Se. aqieansion of trade
19 "avian countries
Urope

Cun e cont 'Mpresseq though
tua as f- a With our own
On cre

lyon, Ver “reget ital
are

fap Padi ve If you listen
Morning, for
hundreds of

WVvertic® are
Ss
O= machinists,

Pr Elect:
r. Wretician

Brag h Sand so on
le. Whee’ about :
SE Saeamae
tye "Ban ey

Ni, Tint A It drafteg anew
y lai “The : €Cono .
ty, the : is little any ¢ xP a
Marg Asis for At has
; “alte eo highest

incre: €t known, They

gis National

es Percent, and

ve ip ttatted a bold

elp €radicate

© Insure the
ace in o

. rder

here Eros favorable
ft ee Yr the achi

>W, Ideals ae

Te frate,,
onemnal delegates
Countries in

I€S such as 4
fee the ctles as
Chit peialist Party of
y Tica Bue |
* Alrican ae and the
me j HVsrete, It is
gathe IStory of the

a 3 :
as d Security that +

SURGAN IN PT INTERVIEW

Communist movement that
Socialist Left parties have sent
delegates to the Congress on this
scale.

In this regard South American
delegates were most inter-
esting. They said their Socialist
parties were Marxist-Leninist,
not reformist. Life itself has
taught the people of South
America that only socialist-com-
munist unity can end Yankee
domination and bring an answer
to peoples’ needs: Similarly
African people are becoming
convinced of this. At the last
Congress African and South
American delegates were
strongly anti-imperialist and
anti-colonialist. Now they make
it clear that having rid them-
selves of colonialism they have
no intention of — suffering
capitalism.

The general-secretary of the
Party of African Unity told the
conference ‘‘We Africans now
realize we need a Marxist-
Leninist party to solve our
political problems, just like a
woodsman has to have a chopper
to cut through the trees in a
jungle.” ;

PT — Would you say the
Congress was successful in
forging a new unity amongst the
peoples of emerging nations?

Morgan — There is no doubt
this 24th Congress, and: the
economic perspectives it opens
up. are going to have a profound
effect on the political
developments far beyond the
boundaries of the Soviet Union.
In a world where 375 million
human being are on the verge of
death from starvation, the
example of rising standards of
living in the USSR demonstrates
for the whole world to see the
superiority of the socialist
economic system. It is a
powerful magnet to attract
people to a new social order.

PT — The economic goals of
the Five Year Plan as put
forward at the Congress were
outlined in past issues of the PT.
Could you tell us something of
the Soviet delegates who made
up the body of the Congress?

Morgan — Well, in view of the
fact that 70 percent of the 4,953
delegates were attending their
first Congress, you can get some
idea of the youth and vigor of the
party in the Soviet Union. Three
million of the 14 million
members of the CPSU are

delegates were women, and
there was considerable
criticism that the number did not
represent the extent to which
women played a role in the life of
the nation. But 650,000 women
have enrolled since the Congress
four years ago, and are
becoming involved at an acceler-
ated rate.

Fifty-eight percent of the
delegates who attended the
Congress have college education,
most of them workers in
industry or agriculture.
Agricultural workers numbered
870, two-thirds of them rank and
file collective and state
farmers. Doctors of science
numbered 363, many of them in
research in one or another
branch of the economy. Cultural
workers, that is artists,
musicians, actors, poets,
writers, etc., numbered 120. And
so on. :

An interesting point to me is
that close to 2 million citizens
participated in. the meetings
where delgates to the Congress
were elected. There was one
delegate for every 2,900
members of the party.

PT — How did the delegates
from other countries follow. the
proceedings? :

Morgan — There were 26
‘different translations of the
proceedings made simul-
taneously for the benefit of the
visitors. Incidentally. nearly a
quarter , million wires, letters,
cand telegrams were received by
Leonid Breznev, the general-
secretary of the party, and‘by
the Central Committee. They
were made up of fraternal
greetings, pledges of solidarity,
friendship, pledges of produc-
tion increases and so on. It was
very inspiring, let me say!

PT — In view of the projected
visit of Prime Minister Trudeau
to the Soviet Union, do you see
increased. trade and other co-
operative ventures between our
country and the USSR?

Morgan — Certainly our
government can explore avenues
for maintaining peace,
expanded trade, cultural
exchange and so on. The people
of the Soviet Union made it very
clear at the Congress they were
ready for such exchanges with
any nation which sincerely
desires friendship.

i

by VOW

The B.C. Voice of Women annual meeting in Nanaimo last week-
end called on the Canadian government to urge the U.S. Atomic:
Energy Commission to halt the explosion of the U.S. nuclear device
on Amchitka Island in the Aleutians in October.

The meeting also decided to
give full support of the Voice of
Women to the protest move-
ment demanding the October
test and all further testing be
halted.

Meanwhile, reacting to the
world wide protest against the
scheduled test at Amchitka Is-
land, eighteen U.S. senators this
week called for a public hearing
on the nuclear test set for Octo-
ber. Included among the
senators are Edmund Muskie
and Habert Humphrey, both
considered contenders for the
Democratic presidential
nomination. a
U.S. underground test ever
conducted. It will be the equi-
valent of five million tons of
TNT, and its purpose is to test a
new nuclear warhead.

The Voice of Women meeting
decided that the emphasis in
their campaign against the test
will be on discontinuing
production of nuclear weapons
rather than on environmental
destruction, which is being
taken up by environmental
groups. A committee was set up

to work out a campaign.

It was also decided that the
VOW delegate to the World
Council of Peace in Budapest
later this month will attempt to
contact delegates from the
USSR to ask for joint protests
along with Japan and U-S.
citizens against the tests.

A highlight of the VOW
meeting was a talk by Dr. Usha
Mahajani, a Southeast Asia
expert from Washington State
University. She stated that one
of the main reasons for

American presence in Indochina .

is the rich oil resources in the
surrounding seas, not as stated,
to keep out- communism. She
urged that Canada make its
voice heard against the war.

Other matters dealt with at the
parley included a panel on
education, and a report on the
recent Status of Women
conference in Vancouver. An
executive of sixteen was
elected. Mrs. Deeno
Birmingham was re-elected
president for her fourth term.

NPA aims to curb civic
democracy in new changes

A threat to civic democracy in
Vancouver was evident beneath
the report of city council’s
general purposes committee on
electoral reform announced last
week.

Drafted by City Clerk Ron
Thompson on behalf of the com-
mittee, the report’s proposals
serve no other purpose than to
restrict and narrow the demo-

cratic base of civic government _

in Vancouver. In essence the
proposals are designed to
maintain and perpetuate, under
the guise of electoral reform,
continued big-business domina-
tion of City Hall through the
NPA.

Smarting from its decline in
voting strength and the gains
registered by opposition candi-
dates in last year’s Civic
election, the NPA seeks to stave
off progressive changes by
coming up with a new twist
called electoral reform.

The report proposes to extend
the terms of mayor and
aldermen from two years to
three, electing one-third of
council each year. This
retrogade measure is to ensure
that the NPA will continue to
exercise an advantage of
representation on council in an
attempt to prevent its complete
ouster from City Hall.

Other changes in the report,
that bear the imprint of a

straight jacket on civic democ-
racy, is the cash deposit for
candidates; mayoralty candi-
dates qualifications that they
must have previous experience
in civic, provincial or federal
office; the ballot paper to carry
the name of the political party
of the candidate.

All in all this NPA-inspired
report naturally projects not a
single democratic feature for
consideration in this day and
age that demands an end to
establishment rule at City Hall.
This can only be achieved by
taking those forward steps based
upon widening the democratic
structure of civic government
and electoral reform.

Proposals should include
adopting the ward system of
elections for aldermen, school
and parks board. The present
undemocratic practice of
appointees to the police com-
mission, library board and other
civic bodies must be replaced by
representative bodies elected by
the people.

It is hoped that civic organi-
zations, ratepayers, labor and
community groups. will
decisively reject the NPA report
and present their own demands
for democratic civic electoral
reform by submitting briefs to
the general purposes committee
at City Hall before June 30.

Nixon policy hit —

President Nixon’s policy on
Indochina is totally unrealistic,
Ken Kirkpatrick of the
American Friends Service
Committee told a capacity
audience at the Guild Room of
Christ Church Cathedral
Thursday night. The United
States wants to impose a Korean-
type settlement on Vietnam
with U.S. troops stationed there
permanently.

Mr. Kirkpatrick, who spent a
considerable amount of time in
both North and Séuth Vietnam as

well as Laos late last year, said
that in contrast the position of
the North Vietnamese and
Provisional Revolutionary
government negotiators was
flexible and realistic.

They are willing to negotiate a
neutral non-aligned South
Vietnam with the question of
reunification left for further
working out, and while they set
the date of June 30 for the with-
drawl of all U.S. troops they
have made it quite clear that this
date is negotiable.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—FRIDAY, MAY 7, 1971—PAGE 3