What will happen at NATO meet?

By WILLIAM DEVINE

What will happen at ‘he
NATO | foreigm,ministers’
meeting in Ottawa from May
22-24?

Any arbitrary and binding
prediction is a chancy busin-
ess. There is no evidence to
indicate that any of the mem-
bers of the 14-nation military
pact have softened their hos-
tility toward the socialist
world — the main lynch-pin
holding the alliance together.

This is illustrated by the
proposed plan for a multina-
tional NATO nuclear force
which will be a top item for
discussion at the Ottawa
meeting.

A Soviet note points out
the threat to peace this plan
entails, and exposes the ag-
gressive intent of NATO by
showing that the alliance is
planning detailed armaments
programs for decades ahead,
rather than coming to grips
with disarmament.

But this position within NA-
TO is accompanied by ever-
sharpening contradictions, es-
pecially among its major
members. These _ contradic-
tions are rooted in economics,
but, arising from this source,
involve contradictions of a
political nature as well.

UNDER WHOSE CONTROL?

In fact the whole debate
about what kind of nuclear
force NATO should have re-
flects these contradictions.
The U.S. wants a multilateral
force under its control, while
France has rejected this in
favour of its own nuclear
force and maintains an aloof-
ness about the apparent com-
promise U.S. proposal for a
multinational force.

West Germany
wants nuclear arms for its re-
venge-seeking Hitlerite gen-
erals and has shown its wil-
lingness to back any plan that
will take it in that direction.

It has carefully hedged its
bets, supporting the U.S. pro-
posals on the one hand, while
joining in a Bonn-Paris pact
that could provide it with nu-
clear arms if other doors are
not opened.

At the same time it aims to
use the pact with France to
pressure the U.S. into driving
for a scheme to make sure
West Germany gets nuclear
weapons. Not stated, the mes-
sage to the U.S. from the West

Germans is clear: get us nu-
clear arms or we may align

ourselves more closely with
French policies.

The contradictions within
NATO have been a built-in
feature since its inception 14
years ago, and have become
more and more unresolvable.
Today radical shifts of forces
are’ taking place within NA-
TO, which reflect the devel-
opment of world history since
the second world war.

WHAT THE PLANS WERE

NATO came into existence
in 1949. It was seen by the
U.S. as the method by which
. that country could exert its
aggressive aims against the
Soviet Union and other social-
ist countries and the national-
liberation movement in the
colonies anq semi-colonies.

To this end the U.S. poured
in vast amounts of ‘aid’ to
West European countries. But
this led to the rebuilding of
the industry of these coun-
tries and has produced a situ-
ation where they now chal-
lenge the U.S. economically.

The contradictions that
have resulted are myriad.

simply

The most outstanding is
that between the U.S. and the
six-member European Com-
mon Market. The U.S. sup-
ported the establishment of
the ECM, expecting to be able
to dominate it and use it as
a mainstay in fashining a U.S.-

—Dimovsky in the Otechestven
Front (Bulgaria)

“I’m all in favor of a multi-
national nuclear force.”
controlled “Atlantic Commun-
ity’ — a capitalist world com-
munity with the US. at its
head.

Now that the ECM has be-
come a strong economic unit,
however, it is not so keen on
being swallowed up by Big
Brother. France appears as
the most “difficult” for the
U.S. of the ECM members.
DE GAULE’S AIMS

French President de Gaulle
sees himself as leader of a
vast European network of na-
tions, stretching from the At-
lantic to the Urals, and he
wants no U.S. interference. At
the same time he has taken
steps to limit the investment
of U.S. capital in France —
an investment regarded by
France and other countries
of West Europe as America’s
Trojan Horse. -

In line with this policy, he
vetoed British membership in
the ECM. The U.S. had push-
ed for British entry, hoping
it would play the role of Am-
erican “agent” in orienting
the ECM closer to the Atlantic
Community concept.

The U.S. also hoped to ben-
efit from tariff concessions
that would accrue to_ its
branch plants in Britain once
Britain was in the ECM.
ARTFUL DODGER

These U.S. aims were not
overlooked by other ECM
members as well as France
and it is illusory to think
France could have or would
have gone it alone on its
veto of Britain.

West German Chancellor
Adenauer played the artful
dodger on the British-ECM is-
sue, not wanting to offend the
U.S. openly, but also not
wanting to sacrifice unnece-
ssarily any control of its econ-
omy to the U-S.

Thus, U.S.-West German re-
lations are also not without
their contradictions.

In the circumstances, how-
ever, the U.S. can forgive Ad-
enauer a great deal, as it still
sees Bonn as its only life-line

in Western Europe, and the

Pentagon naturally puts more
value on West Germany’s 12
divisions in NATO than on
France’s sub-strength two div-
isions.

Within the ECM itself, all
is not tranquil, especially be-
tween West Germany and
France. While Bonn has join-
ed in the recent pact with
France, this can be seen as a
safeguard for West Germany
to get nuclear arms any way

it can, and as 8 manoeuvre by

France to strengthen its own
hand.

But West Germany has no
desire to see France as the
“Jeader”’ in Europe. This is
the role it has reserved for
itself. :

All these contradictions
have made NATO not what it
was originally nor what the
U.S. hoped it would become.
U.S. STILL DOMINANT

The U.S., however, still re-
mains the dominant imperial-
ist power and it is now intent
on seeing that it stays that
way.

The U.S. proposals for a
multinational or multilateral
nuclear force for NATO can
be seen in this light, in addi-
tion to its use to keep the
cold war going and step up
profits for the arms makers.

The U.S. hopes to use the
nuclear NATO proposal
which would be under U.S.
control, to consolidate and
even reinforce its political po-
sitions in western Europe.

But the underlying contra-
dictions within NATO have
come into play, and find their
military expressions as indi-
cated earlier.

CANADA‘S ROLE

It is in this situation that
the reasons why the US. is
insisting on Canada’s accep-
tance of nuclear arms become
more clear. Such a step by
Canada would be a help to

‘the U.S. in bringing its other

NATO “allies” to heel.
It would also draw Canada
closer into the maw of US.

imperialism and make it that
much easier for the U.S. to
use Canada more and more as
a source of raw materials in
its drive to compete econom-
ically with western Europe.
This would strengthen Wash-
ington’s hand in its drive for
a U.S.-controlled Atlantic
Community.

This policy toward Canada’
by the U.S. is already far ad-
vanced and has resulted in
holding back Canada’s indus-
trialization and economic pro-
gress.

The only logical course for
Canada is to disentangle itself
from NATO altogether and
pursue an independent pol-
icy based on neutrality and
peaceful co-existence.

Drive half
$12,200 Still to go...

By JERRY SHACK
(Drive Manager)

With half the time allotted
for the Press Drive gone, we
have received less than one
third of our objective to date.
Although $1,800 came in dur-
ing the last
week, we are
still consider-
ably short of
the tempo we
will have to
® set and main-
tain in order
to secure the
needed funds to keep the
presses rolling.

The province has turned in
just a little over $1,900 on
its quota of $6,500, while the
city has done a little better
in raising slightly over $3,800
on its target of $11,500. In
both cases, however, the pace
will have to be stepped up!

At a time when the pro-

American government of Les-
ter Pearson, displaying all the
arrogance associated with the
infamous pipeline deal of
1956, has already given away
a good portion of Canada’s

fisheries and threatens to do’

the same with the Columbia
river, at a time when that
government is taking all the
necessary steps to prepare the
way for acquisition of nuclear

arms ang tié our country ever
more closely to U.S. imperial-
ism, it is absolutely impera-
tive that we guarantee the
continued publication of the
Pacific Tribune.

This newspaper does not
have access to the lush adver-
tising revenues enjoyed by
other “independent” journals

- it doesn’t yet have a cir-
culation running into the tens
of thousands . . . it can turn
to only one source for its sus-
tenance — the working class.

It has been turning to this
source for may years now
and has eee managed to
keep the wolf from the door.
We are confident that, given
the chance, the workers of
this province will respond
once again to the challenge
and will enable the PT to con-
tinue its leading role in the
fight for peace, socialism and
Canadian independence.

A number of clubs _ have
been showing the way and
carrying the brunt of the load
up till now. Our hats are tip-
ped in salute to the South
Surrey club — the first club
in 1963 to go over the top,
with $285 turned in on a quo-
ta of $275. Vernon is also do-
ing an outstanding job provin-
cially, having already submit-
ted $151 on $200, followed by
Nanaimo ($251.45 on $400).

over!

In the city, Broadway leads
the race with $433 in ($770),
backed by North Burnaby
with $413.43 ($800) and Van-
couver East ($607 on $1,430—
the largest quota in the prov-
ince).

Three people have already
achieved the distinction of be-
coming Honor Press Builders
—Rita Tanche (South Surrey)
has raised $150, Bill Hreher-

chuk (Advance) $118 and
John Tanche (South Surrey)
$100. While singling the

above people out, we know
that there are a number of
others who have pledged to
raise $100 and that every
booster will keep working
until the final objective of
$18,000 has been overfulfill-
ed.

To sum up then, it can be
said that a whole number of
clubs are working conscienti-:
ously and consistently.to meet
their obligations to the work-
ing class of B.C. Some clubs,
however, have not yet really
got untracked and will have
to start getting off the ground
in a hurry.

All such clubs should take
stock of where they stand and
begin to implement the neces-
sary measures to pull their
load. ’

Watch next week’s PT for a
full report on the drive,

Photo above shows a portion of the PT’s volun-
tary mailing crew. Left to right are: Oxana Bige-
low (PT Business Manager), Pat Foley, Ernie Da-
mon, John Carlson, Dunc McLean (standing),
Norman Smith and George Dougenes. Doug-

Press. Drive.

enes will soon be 74 years of age and, along

May 17, 1963—PACIFIC TRIB

at a Banquet on Sat. May 25 at th
ple’s Home, 600 Campbell
is 6:30 p.m. and all proce

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