The American voters voted for
Jimmy Carter with ‘‘crossed
fingers’’ in hopes of a change, the
Communist Party USA declared.

The statement was issued by
Henry Winston, national chair-
man, and Gus Hall, general sec-
retary, after a recent meeting of
the Party’s central committee Nov.
29.

The statement follows:

“*The election of Jimmy Carter
represented no major shift to
either right or left in the US.
political scene. It indicated rejec-
tion of the Ford p.-cics without
any genuine enthus.asm for Car-
ter. This was emph.:sized by the
48% of the eligible voters who
stayed away from ‘%« polls,
turned off by both o!« parties.

CPUSA program for struggle

“Carter was elected as “‘the

lesser evil’ and so touted by the
media in the latter stages of the
campaign. The vote he received
from the Black community, esti-
mated at about 92%, and from the
ranks of organized labor was not
an endorsement of his policies but
represented a cross-fingered hope
for change from the Nixon-Ford
policies.

Reactionary Pressures -

However, reactionary. group-
ings, including some avowed
Carter supporters, are moving to
increase the already swollen
Pentagon budget under a barrage
of fables about an alleged growth
of Soviet arms.

‘At the same time, there is a
growing demand in ruling class
circles for an end to the arms race
by mutual treaties.

The Fight for Jobs

“The most urgent issue of the
day is the fight for jobs. Labor and
’ the Black voters will not accept
Carter’s proposals to reduce un-
employment by 1980 merely to
5% which leaves at least four mill-
ion permanently unemployed.
Permanent unemployment is a
phrase with a racist meaning — a
dead end for millions of Black and
other minority youth.

** Another immediate issue fac- °

ing the people will be the battle

i Porty\
fonsyivania

The American people cast over 110,000 votes for the Communist Party in the "76 alacion campaign. The
vote for the Hall-Tyner Presidential ticket doubled’ over 1972. As stated in the report from the Central
Committee of the CPUSA the voters rejected the policies of the Nixon-Ford administration and crossed their

fingers and hoped for Carter.

over the swollen Pentagon
budget. The outcome of. this

struggle will help determine.

whether the government will con-
tinue to starve social needs or
move to meet the people’s needs.
It will also be an important index
to the direction of the Carter
foreign policy. Our country needs
a peace policy instead of an im-
perialist war policy.

‘‘ Another immediate test of the
Carter Adminisration is the steps
it will take to wipe out racism in
our land.

‘‘We must halt the export of
racism to other countries by end-
ing all aid and support to racist
and fascist regimes. We call for an
end to all economic, military and
diplomatic relations with the
apartheid Vorster regime and
South Africa and the fascist junta
in Chile.”

Goals of United Struggle

_ “Throughout the campaign,
the Communist Party and its Pres-
idential ticket, Gus Hall and Jar-
vis Tyner, advanced these issues.
We call now for a united struggle
to win these demands. Whatever
divisions there were among

workers in the voting booth — or
between voters and non-voters —
should now be submerged in a
common struggle for these com-
mon aims:

‘*1) The fight for jobs — NOW.
This includes swift passage of
wide public works programs. and
legislation establishing the six-
hour day without any cut in pay.

‘**2) A defeat of the Pentagon .

big budgeteers, with a sharp re-
duction in military spending, and
the use of funds thus released for
the people’s social needs.

**3) Strengthening of detente
and elimination of the Jackson-
Vanik amendment, and all other
barriers to trade with the socialist
countries, trade which means
new jobs for U.S. workers. Swift
steps must be taken toward a nuc-
lear ban and mutual balanced re-

duction of conventional arms and

dismantling of military bases ab-
road, by a series of treaties be-
tween the USA, the Soviet Un-
ion and other countries, followed
by practical implementation.

“‘4) Prompt steps toward the
outlawing of racism and making
racist acts punishable crimes, in-
cluding banker “‘redlining’’ of dis-

tricts, discrimination in hiring and

promotion, etc. Token appoint- .

ments of Blacks and other rep-
resentatives of minority groups
are not enough. Required is an
energetic affirmative action prog-
ram, strictly enforced, at every
level.

‘A Majority Program’

‘“‘These were the issues
brought to the U.S. people in this
campaign by the Communist can-
didates. Wide agreement on these
issues indicated that the Com-
munist Party was ‘‘a minority
party with a majority program.”

“Tt was because we stood on
this platform that nearly 500,000
voters signed Communist
nominating petitions and helped
us win ballot status in 19. states
and the District of Columbia. This
was won in the face of a maze of
restrictive electoral laws and a
conspiracy to keep us off the bal-
lot. This calls for legislation to
democratize the electoral process
to guarantee the right of people to
vote for candidates of their
choice,‘and for the ballot rights of
the Communist Party and other
independent parties.

“In this campaign the Com-
munist Party attained a new visi-
bility, and clearly became a rec-
ognized, legitimate part of the

‘U.S. electoral scene. Gus Hall —

“and Jarvis Tyner spoke to mill-
ions via TV, radio, press and
mass rallies, leaving a strong im-

pact on the minds of millions of —

voters who heard for the first time

the true position of the Com- —

munists directly from Communist
spokesmen.

Over 110,000 cP Votes
. \

‘While most: were not yet
ready to: break.from the lesser

evil, clearly'a new respect for the”
Communist developed. The re-—
corded, vote for the Communist -

Presidential ticket in the 19 states
where we were on the ballot was

about 60,000, more than doubling

the 1972 recorded vote. And -

when the tallies for local Com-
munist candidates in five states is __

included, the total of Communist
votes is over 110,000.

‘Developments in the cam-
paign indicate that there is a wide

disgust with the two old parties
and a search for alternatives.
There is a new movement for
political independence today.

Even those who voted for Carter —
did so with fingers crossed, sim- |

ply because they saw no popular”

mass alternative.

‘‘The new economic and politi-
cal struggles will create coalitions
of varied forms on specific issues.
Such developments can léad to

the building of a mass, anti- |
monopoly people’s party, based *

firmly on the working class, the
Black, the Puerto Rican,
Chicano, and other oppressed
peoples. Such a party could be a
viable electoral instrument for the
millions who today are trapped in
the Democrat-Republican one
party system. Based on local and

state levels, it could be an effec- |

tive challenge in forthcoming
elections.

“‘To such struggle on the
economic and political front, ‘our
Party rededicates itself.”’

Class and nation

eo 8
. Sh --ANRT

(SECOND OF Two PARTS)

Last week’s column pointed out that
the crisis of Confederation is rooted in
the stubbom refusal of the Canadian
ruling class to accept the existence of

. two nations in Canada.

Most people in English-speaking
Canada have yet to challenge the ruling
class concept of one Canadian nation,
which relegates the other Canadian na-
tion to the position of being’only a
French-speaking minority that resides
in the province of Quebec.

This being the case, a brief look at the
history of Quebec from the point of
view of Marxism on the national ques-
tion is in order.

* * *

Quebec (New France) was colonized
by France, commencing in the early
years of the 17th century. The social
system the French settlers brought with
them was that which prevailed in Fr-
ance of the 17th century, namely:
feudal tenure of land, merchant-
capitalist commerce, a feudal-’
absolutist monarchy.

g That meant a common language, a
common economic life, and a common
culture were the particular features
shared by the French settlers when

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—DECEMBER 17, 1976—Page 6

f HAVIASOIG-2VIGsHE CANA

Marxism-Leninism in Today’ Ss World

‘they came to Quebec. Once arrived,

they shared.a common territory stolen
from the Indian tribes by the force of
imperialist French arms.

This was Quebec as a colony of Fr-
ance. Its system was feudal, within
which capitalism was already sprouting
— but sprouting under the specific con-
ditions of a colonial economy. At the
beginning it could not be a stable com-
munity of people. That came later with
the development of capitalism and the

creation of a single economic unit.
* KK

Quebec became a British colony af- —

ter the defeat of the French colonizers
by the armed might of the British col-
onialists. As a consequence of the
British conquest some, but not all, of
the civil and military personnel of the
previous administration returned to Fr-
ance. However, the great bulk of the
French settlers remained in their new

homeland. Their descendents make up ~

the French-Canadian nation which re-
sides in Quebec today.

There can be no doubt that the
French-Canadian people possess all the
attributes of a nation; i.e., a historically

constituted, stable community of
people, formed on the basis of a com-
mon language, territory, economic life,
and culture.

**

The French-Canadian nation has yet
to be ‘officially recognized’ by the do-
minant Anglo-Canadian ruling class.
French Canada was forced into Con-
federation by reason of the British con-
quest. It was a shotgun marriage,
legalized and sanctified under the
British North America Act. It is this
imperialist British Act, incorrectly

-dubbed ‘Canada’s constitution’, that

the advocates of ‘cooperative
federalism’ and ‘bilingualism’ want to
bring to Canada.

Canadians would be better served by
leaving the BNA Act at rest in the
mouldy vaults of Westminster as a relic
of national inequality.

Canada needs a constitution based
on an equal, voluntary partnership of

the two Canadian nations worked out —
by a Constituent Assembly based on -

equal representation from English and
French Canada. Only in this way can
the crisis of Confederation be solved.

This is the position of the Communist
Party which is the only Canadian party
that has aclear and realistic position on

the national question.
**k *

National inequality suffered by the —

French-Canadian people must be
abolished. That this be done is a matter
of vital interest to the working class of
both Canadian nations. For such in-
equality always and primarily affects
the working people economically, cul-
turally and politically. The task cannot
be entrusted to the ruling capitalist
class. For its ‘solutions’ invariably, in

_ the interests of higher monopoly pro-

fits, serve to engender distrust and hos-

tility among the workers of both na- |
tions. Such artificial barriers serve to

hinder working people joining their
forces in struggle against a common foe
for common class demands. Class sep-
aration can only make it easier for the
monopoly capitalists to exploit the

working people of both Canadian na-

tions.

workers can be served best through un-
ited struggle for a Canadian constitu-
tion as advocated by the Communist
Party.

The best interests of all Canadian

Tt ye