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By MEL DOIG

MONTREAL

- A special congress of the Ras-
Gaement pour l’Indépendance
| 4 Québec was recently held in
) &cques Cartier in the area of
 qetfopolitan Montreal. At a
| ee marked by rapid and wide
,  *€groupings of “‘indépendantiste”
Movements and parties, over

€ hundred delegates from

Most regions of Quebec met for -

ai ‘0 days to patch up the rather
peeevelled appearance of their
Wn party and then, fully dress-

ed as it were, to proceed to the
wooing of the fast-growing Mou-
vement Souveraineté-Association
(MSA) lead by René Levesque.

Still reeling under the impact
of the battle between the forces
of its president, Pierre Bourgault,
and those of the “radical left”
whose leadership around Mme.
Andrée Ferretti had resigned
shortly before this congress, the
delegates re- elected Bourgault
and gave him full control by
electing his entire slate. The
right-wing was the majority at

RIN refurbishing
to join Levesque

the congress, although in at-
tempts to strike out of the con-
stitution phrases paying lip-ser-
vice to the working people of
Quebec they could not carry the
two-thirds necessary to amend
the constitution.

The widest agreement was
evidenced in decisions to proceed
at once with efforts to establish
a common front through joint
activities with the MSA. This
common front in turn is expect-
ed to lead to the early fusion of
the RIN: with the MSA. Bour-
gault won the sharply-contested
struggle to exclude the ultra-
reactionary Ralliement Nationale
of Gilles Gregoire from the ini-
tial common front, leaving open
the possibility of its inclusion
at a later stage.

But whatever the realism of
the recognition by the RIN con-
gress of the cold fact it must,
either through a common front
or outright fusion, identify itself
quickly with the resurgent MSA
or die as a political party, there
was no other sign of the realities
of the struggle for the sovereign-
ty of Quebec in the world of
today. Of Vietnam, of the right
of nations to self-determination,
the meaning of Vietnam today
for the French-Canadian nation
—not a word. Of monopoly and
its onslaught on the masses of
the working people, of unem-
ployment, of monopoly’s control
of the life of Quebec—silence.

The general fact that Quebec’s
economy relates to the matter
of its sovereignty was, however,
recognized. The congress direct-
ed the RIN leadership in its
discussions aimed at fusion with
the MSA to uphold the position
that any economic association of

‘an independent Quebec with
Ottawa must be through treaty,

and not by way of any consti-

- tution. It is not expected that

René Levesque will quarrel with
this.

Reality was on the students’
wall-board of the classical col-
lege where the congress met. A
large poster asked: “Oi-oi-0t
jrez-vous s'il n’y a plus de place
a: l'université?” (““Where, where,
where will you go if there’s no
room for you at university?”) Of
the 330 delegates, it appeared at
least sixty percent were under
thirty-five years of age. But of
workers there were very few.

This was why a _ delegate,
speaking in support of the reso-
lution, later adopted, to establish
a propaganda commission, said,
“Why is it that the RIN is not
favorably regarded by workers?
We are constantly confronted by
our inability to reach the work-
ing masses.” With only an op-
portunistic, catch-all program
for the independence of Quebec,
the RIN cannot overcome the
frustrating fact of its isolation
from the working people of
Quebec.

A mass labor political party

‘that brings together the demo-

cratic forces of Quebec around
its working people in a struggle

for the sovereignty of Quebec .

and against monopoly is being
advanced as the realistic solu-
tion today: The future of any
fusion of the tattered RIN with
the new Movement for Sover-
eignty-Association will be decid-
ed by the degree to which its
supporters engage in this
struggle., eyuiiss Ci! cal Fos

of Canada.

JOHNSON AND THE LIBERALS

The following statement was issued by Nelson Clarke
on behalf of the Central Executive of the Communist Party

There is no great mystery about the downfall of Lyndon
Johnson. He has been forced out by the massive demands
of the people for peace and the mounting economic trou-
bles of the United States and the whole capitalist world.

All the aspirants for Liberal leadership in our country
had better contemplate what happens to politicians who
try to stem the tide running for peace in Vietnam. Instead
of talking about “pressure on Hanoi” to now negotiate,
they should one and all come out for total dissociation of
Canada from the U.S. war, and for the end of arms sales
to the United States. They should emphasize the point
Johnson evaded that there can be no negotiations exclud-
ing the National Liberation Front.

And closely related to this, they must condemn and
repudiate the signing of a new NORAD agreement by a
lame duck prime minister behind the back of parliament.

PEACE POWER’

PUSHES LBJ

‘PART OF WAY

US HALL, general secretary of the Communist Party of the
U.S.A., sees the role of people’s peace power in President
Johnson’s de-escalation steps and LBJ’s fade-out as a candidate for

re-election.

In response to inquiries about the Sunday night speech of
President Johnson, the Communist Party spokesman released the

following statement:

“The step taken towards the de-escalation of the criminal war
of aggression which the Johnson government wages in Vietnam can

only be appraised as a welcome turn of events. President Johnson’s -

announcement that he is ordering certain restrictions in an area of
Vietnam territory upon which U.S. planes will carry out their
barbarous bombardment, will have real meaning only if this will
become a first step to the earliest withdrawal of all military forces

from Vietnam.

“In appraising positively and
grasping the opportunity of the
moment visible in this first step,
one must point to the fact that
U.S. air force planes still are and
will continue unloading their
deadly cargoes of napalm, ex-
plosive and chemical bombs over
the Democratic Republic of Viet-
nam. Men, women and children
are still dying at the hands of

our soldiers. And the young men’

from our home towns are falling
in a totally ignoble cause.

“The task of compelling an end

qu PRESIDENT .JOBNEON |...

to the killing remains to be ac-
complished. Johnson fails to ac-
knowledge the necessity of ne-
gotiations with the National Lib-
eration Front, one of the major
spokesmen and the sole author-
ity of the South Vietnam people.
This calculated omission calls
for special vigilence from the
peace forces.
“Johnson’s grave warnings
about disunity on the home front
were veiled threats. Unity can
not be secured through the en-
forcing of accommodation to in-
justices and poverty as is the
situation of the black people of
the ghettos of our country. Real
unity can come only from the
struggle to eliminate racism, in-
justice and poverty. :
“The war in Vietnam has al-
ready opened the chasm of dis-
content in the nation. It has shar-
pened in every way economic

and political features of world

capitalism in general crisis. The
economy of our country, as that
of many capitalist states, is
threatened with monetary in-
flationary and other afflictions.
caused by the disorder this war
has produced upon the operation
of the system. :

“We join in the sense of confi-
dence which the popular forces
for peace are expressing that

this can be the beginning of a.
chain of events that can end the '

disastrous war that the Johnson
government escalated, to such
dangerous heights in Vietnam,” ,

SERLS. LGB aa SHI AREUNE P98?