MOSCOW (APN) — In about a Week all the adult population of the Soviet Union will go to the Polls to elect the deputies of the local bodies of state power. As Usual, the elections will proceed Ma festive atmosphere, but at the Same time, in a_ businesslike Manner. The very character of the elec- lions, devoid of intrigues and Candidate trading’, derives m the nature of Soviet power. Elections in our country do not Mean a competition in programs of great promises, the accusation Opponents and a parading self- Vertisement. In Soviet society there are no _ Aitagonistic classes and groups, _ 4nd each citizen is given equal _ Pportunities. Naturally, the road 80Verning the state is open for - The people select from among themselves the most worthy and St known, who by their labor ve earned the electors’ trust. at is the characteristic fea- ture or essence of the new state System? Above all, of course is that it Permits the people themselves to € a direct part in administering € state. The majority of the de- Puties of the country’s parliament 'S Comprised of workers and Peasants, people engaged in pro- duction. While in the local organs of state power they hold more than two-thirds of the deputies’ Positions. The structure of the Soviets it- Self has no analogues in Western democracies. Its strength is en- sured by the vertical of democra- tic obedience of the lower body of Power to the higher one. If we IMagine the system of state power asa Pyramid, the apex of which is Peed by the Supreme Soviet the USSR, then its base will be ee up of the local Soviets: city, Strict and rural, Their number *xCeeds 50,000. aan the other hand, the strength the IS structure is underlined by é horizontal of mass participa- On, the political activeness of the pore and the influence and pres- 8€ of the Soviets. che new effort to divide the Urch in Uruguay and stop its Position to the fascist dictator- .-P 1S being made by the extreme R t wing group ‘‘Tradition, amily and Property”. e N intense campaign has been ee for some time against the cane which has gone on record it comming the dictatorship for denial of human rights. Pas- Re letters condemning tortures x Ve been stolen, priests impris- hed and foreign priests expelled. le © government’s hope is to si- Nce the church and its outspo- ve Archbishop of Montevideo, nsignor Carlos Partelli. th € latest attack has come in Ch form of a book “Leftism in the urch” published. by ‘‘Tradi- °n, Family and Property’? in = Ich they attempt to show the ee is ‘‘allied with communist 1 el and has been since Its fundamental accusation is at'the church has supported the PHOTO — APN Ny By JOHN WEIR Tribune Moscow Correspondent MOSCOW — Here is a country where they have their own con- stitution that is written by them- selves and not an act of a foreign parliament, and which is the re- sult of a public country-wide dis- cussion. The draft of the new Soviet constitution, presented by Con- stitution Committee chairman Leonid Brezhnev, is an historic document that will be closely studied as the fulfillment of the 60 years of the socialist revolution. Each of the 173 Articles is a reve- lation. : Both employed and un- employed Canadians will find food for thought in Article 40 ofthe chapter on the basic rights, free- doms and duties of Soviet citi- zens: ‘Citizens of the USSR shall have the right to work, that is guaranteed employment and re- muneration for their work in ac- cordance with its quantity and quality, including the right to choice of profession, type of oc- When Soviet voters go to. the polls next month they will be electing such people as Nikolai Minin (centre). Nikolai, a student, is 21-and the youngest member of the Soviet parliament. Some constitutional _ rights Canadians. ‘might like having — cupation and employment in ac- cordance with their. vocation, abilities, training and education, and with due account for ‘the ‘needs of society. ‘*This right shall be ensured by the socialist economic system, steady growth of the productive forces of society, free vocational training, improvement of skills and training in new trades.” Never before has a country in- cluded such wide human rights in its constitution. Tribune readers: will probably wish that in a constitution of our own that must.and surely will one day soon be adopted, a provision similar to Article 105 of the Soviet draft is included: ‘‘Deputies who have not justified the trust of con- stituents may be recalled at any time by decision of the majority of constituents in accordance with the procedure established by law.”’ Already news is rolling in from all sections of the vast Soviet Union: that meetings are Held at which the draft of the new con- stitution is discussed and en- dorsed. -enemies Sometimes one is surprised by the diversity and unusualness of the requests with which people come to their deputy. But it seems to me that this very fact em- phasizes, on the one hand, the special intimacy linking the elec- tor with his deputy, and on the other — the sensitiveness of the state system which permits each person to seek redress for his grievance, knowing that he will receive support. Otherwise they would never seek it. To become a deputy of a Soviet, it is not at all necessary to be a member of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU). Fifty-six percent of the people’s elected representatives are non-party people. It is not necessary to have an education qualification, suchacategory does not exist in the USSR, or the re- quisite capital since all expendi- tures incurred in election cam- Common Front (Frente Amplio), allowed hunger strikes by work- ers, showed excessive concern | about tortures and, of great worry to the fascist group, that some priests spoke about an end to capitalism. ‘Tradition, Family and Prop- erty’’ is a small group of reactio- ° nary aristocracy, banned in 1974, but has come back actively as the fascist dictatorship strengthened, : The book and enormous public- ity given to it in Uruguay has so far failed to influence the church and its supporters. One catholic leader, commenting on the group ‘Tradition, Family and Proper- ty’’ said: ‘‘ When the freedom and & tolerance, which is Uruguay's tradition is crashing; when families are being destroyed by the dictatorship and when prop- erty is being confiscated, this group is seen as allies of the of our land and country.” paigns are assumed by the state. The most important thing is to have a good reputation and pre- stige and to be socially active. The fact of nomination itself does not yet tell anything. At the last elections in 1975 a considera- ble number of candidates for the deputies of the local Soviets were rejected on the proposal of elec- tors even after registration. Finally, even after election the electors can at any time deprive the deputy of his mandate. This also happens and not necessarily on account of some local ‘*Water- gate.’’ Simply the deputy has not been active enough and has failed to justify his electors’ trust. It is not yet known who on June 19 will receive-the right to wear a deputy’s badge. But one thing is clear: these more than two million persons, apart from the recogni- tion of the people, will be invested ‘with the highest responsibility. cas ce o imi z today. A network of police, army and spies makes Uruguay one of the most repressive regimes in Latin America PACIFIC TRIBUNE—JUNE 17, 1977—Page 7 ‘CHAVIS ON HUMAN RIGHTS With himself and 9 others facing a total 282 years in prison on a frame-up, the Rev. Ben Chavis writes a letter to Carter on human rights violations in North Carolina.