JUST THE THING PAL
TO GET YOUR MIND OFF
YOUR TROUBLES/ 4

25 years ago...

MAY DAY 1928

Moscow — the eleventh May-
Day parade turned out to be the
biggest demonstration since the
Revolution ...

London — Tens of thousands
marched from the embankment
to Hyde Park...

Bogota — Ten thousand
people paraded in the May Day
demonstration ...

Havana — Government busi-
ness ceased and no newspapers
were published May Day ...

Berlin — Upward of one mill-
ion workers took part in the May
Day celebration. There were no
untoward occurrences ...

Vienna Thousands
marched past the jail where Bela
Kun is held and demanded the
release of the Hungarian revolu-
tionary leader ...

The Worker,
May 12, 1928

FLASHBACKS FROM |
THE COMMUNIST PRESS

50 years ago...

10,000 AT VANCOUVER

MAY DAY CELEBRATION

Five thousand Vancouver citi-
zens marched to celebrate May
Day last Sunday, parading
through streets to Stanley Park -
where 5,000 more joined in one
of the city’s greatest cele-
brations. The rally heard A.A.

MacLeod of Toronto issue a

ringing call for peace, friend-
ship and trade with all countries.

The huge crowd which
gathered at Lumbermen’s Arch
heard messages from the strik-
ing grainhandlers; the Negro
Citizen’s League, the Civic Re-
form Association and MacLeod.

“We must become active par-
ticipants in the great struggle
that is going on between the
forces of peace and war”, he told
the audience.

Tribune,

- HURRY!

COMING ABOUT A
BIG TAX
CONCESSION /

A aes

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—May 12, 1978—Page 4

| GOT A GUY FROM
THE GOVERNMENT

May 11, 1953

EDINTORIALL
COMIMTENT.

Two guideposts for peace

May 9, 33 years ago, marked the allied
powers’ victory in Europe over the Nazi
Reich, and effectively, the end of World
War II. (U.S. President Truman un-
necessarily “tested” the atomic bomb on
a Japan which had already sued for
peace.)

Victory in Berlin was proclaimed
when a Soviet soldier raised the hammer
and sickle flag over the reichstag. That
victory has served as a guidepost to peace
for those determined to prevent a third
world war. Some 40,000 Canadians had
lost their lives; our Soviet comrades in
arms lost 20 million — nearly two-thirds
of them civilians. ~

Reflecting on those grim days, and the
intervening years during which war has
been prevented in Europe, one. must
conclude that international negotiations
for disarmament, however prolonged,

-|. are the only choice for humanity.

But passivity is an open invitation to

monopolies which bloat ‘themselves on.

profits from armaments, and the gener-

als of NATO and the Pentagon who are —

ready to risk plunging the world into
nuclear war.

World public opinion (including
Canadian) is now a recognized factor in
compelling disarmament, stopping esca-
lation such as the neutron weapon, and
in winning détente and the peaceful co-.
existence of different social systems.

Appropriately the United Nations
Special Session on Disarmament begins
in this anniversary month — and can be
another guidepost for the forces of
peace. A world disarmament conference
of governments and non-governmental
organizations should be one outcome.

_The Canadian government delegation
to the UN’s SSD must be told bluntly and
forcefully to cast aside its subservience to
NATO and the Pentagon, and to stand
up in support of real measures to scrap
the neutron bomb, get on with disarma-

ment agreements, and to set an example —

with a 50% cut in our $4-billion annual
arms budget!

‘Games’ insult electorate

For several weeks Prime Minister
Pierre Trudeau has been playing a cat
and mouse game about the date of the
next federal election.

Far from concern about the burning
problems nagging millions of Canadians
— unemployment, the ever-rising cost of
living, the decaying moral fibre of the
capitalist system, the future of the young
generation — the Liberal Party and its
leader are interested only in percentage
points.

The fact that the Gallup Poll came out
the other day giving both Liberals and
Tories 41% of the popular vote (includ-
ing a proportional split of the undecided
vote!) may have put the election off till
the fall.

The very fact that the cheap, gim-
micky numbers game is the way the
country’s elections are decided is an in-
sult to the electorate.

But it is in no narrow interest to have
‘civilized, planned elections, which occur
at a pre-arranged interval.

Such an important matter to the entire

population cannot be left to one arrog-
ant man to play with, as he would with a

flower in his lapel, waiting for the mo- _
ment when he and his big business forces

hope to gain the most from their
pre-election trickery.

There should be a definite time for _

elections and the labor movement could
afford to make this a demand in the in-
terests of democracy as opposed to the
advantage-seeking, and costly game
played by the old line
and Tories alike.

It is evident that such a distortion of

electoral democracy must be defeated —
along with the spokesmen for big —

business.

End spying on candidates

Police state tactics by the Royal Cana-

dian Mounted Police, including spying

on candidates of various parties, are pre-
sented as normal practice by the prime
minister or his solicitor-general.
Solicitor-General Jean Jacques Blais
who, as postmaster-general assured us
no mail was opened by the RCMP, only
to face evidence to the contrary, now
brushes aside legal action against the
RCMP for some 400 illegal break-ins —
for purposes of planting listening de-
vices and stealing documents.
The “opinion” of the Justice Depart-
ment that the break-ins were legal, is now
up for question again, and Blais says, “It

' isn’t a clearcut issue.”

It is clearcut enough for a very large
number of Canadians. The state police
have systematically trampled human
rights with their criminal acts; and the
government wants to legalize what they

have done just as it has pressed its law to

legalize the police opening of private
mail.

The attempt to intimidate political
candidates is a particularly odious effort |
to limit the electorate’s access to informa-
tion and to candidates. Instructions in
the RCMP manual direct this spying on
candidates and defines membership in
any one of a number of legal organi-
zations as constituting a “subversive

trace.” In fact, “association” with people _

from such organizations is enough to
warrant state police snooping into one’s
affairs.

The time has to be now, before this
trend makes it more difficult to protest,
to call the government to account. These
assaults on democratic rights,
spearheaded by the RCMP, with the pro-
tection of the Trudeau govérnment,
must be stopped and the illegal police

instigators still hold the same posts or
have been promoted!) The further
infringement of rights by the RCMP
cannot be tolerated.

parties — Liberals |

" activities punished. (Many of the RCMP —