ee By SAM WALSH

During the 25th Congress of the
"}ommunist Party of the Soviet
ion I was invited, as a rep-
‘Tesentative of the Communist
: of Canada, together with
‘Tepresentatives of six other

‘foreign delegations, to go to Vol-
80grad, formerly renowned as
Stalingrad, to speak at a meeting
| of Party activists.
_ The invitation alone sent my
Flood tingling, for ‘the name
t Stalingrad has for many years in-
} Yoked unforgettable memories.
}.‘" January 1937 I was a
} Yeutenant in the Canadian Army
7'€sponsible, together with
} other Communist officer, for
7 the “morale education” of all
mored corps troops who had
} “shed their training in Canada
8nd who were awaiting embarka-
“ton to go overseas.
| [taught them why we were at
ag against the fascist axis and
7 “*Panese imperialism; who were
Our enemies, their aims and mili-
Y doctrine; who were our
4 ,¢S, their aims and military
4 “0Ctrine, etc.
e day, as usual, [had about a
‘hundred young soldiers, for the
Most part 18-year-old conscripts,
| my class. The next day they
Were to leave for Halifax and em-
i Satkation. I did my best to make
€m understand the why and
Wherefore of this terrible war. But

g Cupied with other thoughts.
'*XPerience had already taught

4) Me why. They believed that they
Seen their loved ones for the

last time, that this war against the
_ “Powerful fascist armies had al-
Teady proved that they would cer-

| h ly die in Europe without
ving reached the age of twenty.

uddenly someone fiung open

© door shouting: ‘“‘Hey, you
8uys, the Red Army has smashed

the Whole works, all the German
pemies at Stalingrad! It’s a victory

OF our side!’
re was an explosion of joy!

Most of them were obviously pre-

iThe state in class society

Motherland-Fatherland memorial at Stalingrad.

Everyone was on his feet, shout-
ing backslapping, not a few with
tears flowing down their cheeks.
After five or ten minutes I suc-
ceeded in restoring relative calm.
But now every man-jack of them
greedily hung onto each word of
their Communist lecturer. For
now, for the first time, they had
hope of returning one day. They
were ready to fight for something
noble, without the certainty of
dying in vain, thanks to the enor-
mous sacrifice of our heroic allies,
their Soviet counterparts, who
had proven with their courage,
with their blood, with their
spiritual and material strength
that the nazi war machine was not
invincible. A day I shall never
forget.

February 1976, my feet were
the first time on what had been a
nightmarish battlefield for many
months in Stalingrad, a hill which
had changed hands several times,
where each square meter of
ground had contained more than a
thousand bomb and _ shell
fragments.

There is the magnificent sculp-
tural complex dominated by the
immense and deeply moving
figure of ‘‘Mother-Fatherland,”’
sword in hand calling on all to de-

fend the hero-city. And there the
famous ‘‘Pavlov’s house,”’
named after the sergeant who,
with a tiny handful of men, de-
fended this strategic house
against the numerous enemy
troops surrounding it and
emerged victorious.
Above all there is the beautiful
city of Volgograd, built anew on
the ashes of the city that was 85%
destroyed. Above all there are the
Volgogradians, still very con-
scious of theenormousimportance
of the battle of Stalingrad for the
eventual victory over fascism, for
socialism, for peace, for the
forthcoming liberation of the op-
pressed nations from the imperial-
ist, colonialist and racist op-
pressors. The. Volgogradians are
calm, confident in their future,

- fully supporting the foreign policy
of peace and détente and the in-
ternal policy of improving the
quality of work and of life which
constitutes the line of their Com-
munist Party and their Soviet
govemment.

Looking at the faces of these
Communist activists of all ages in
Volgograd, and bringing them our
heartfelt fraternal greetings, I at
last realized a 33-year-old dream.
A second day I shall neverforget.

HALIFAX — Nova Scotia labor leaders James Bell (left) and Gerald
Yaltman, secretary-treasurer and president respectively of the Nova
Scotia Federation of Labor, led a protest march on Province House April
9. The protest was in response to the province’s decision to join the
federal government's anti-labor “attack on inflation.” Marchers,
numbering more than 300, called for Premier Gerald Regan’s

resignation.

LABOR

UNIONIST WANTS
ACTION ON JUDGE

MONTREAL — André
Choquette, acquitted recently of a
charge of forcible detention dur-
ing last May’s workers’ occupa-
tion of the Pratt and Whitney
plant near here, has asked federal
Justice Minister Ron - Basford
what action can be taken against
the judge and his remarks made
during Choquette’s trial.

Justice Louis Paradis, the judge
in question, told the jury who ac-
quitted Choquette ‘‘I am not in
agreement with your verdict.”’

By ALFRED DEWHURST

™ BRIEF

MILLIONS GIVE
A DAY’S WORK

MOSCOW — Millions of Soviet
citizens gave a free day of labor to
the state on Communist Saturday,
April 17, in a show of workers’

Solidarity and to give the economy —

a boost.

-Workers did a‘ full factory shift
and farmhands toiled in the fields
for no pay. Office workers, pro-
fessors, students and state
functionaries took to the streets
with brooms, rakes and shovels to
give the cities a spring face lift.

1 lage tis week’s column continues where
t Week’s left off. For class struggle
the state, in a class-divided society,
inseparable.
ofc € State is linked with the existenc>
a asses. In the early stages of human
‘Yelopment, under the classless
& itive communal system there was
a Indeed there was no need of a
fi. in that period of human society,
the function of managing the affairs

of soci i i
itselp ety were carried. out by society

It Was only when private ownership
eq € into. being, with its economic in-
_wality, and society was split into op-
+ Sing classes, that the system of man-
chan public affairs underwent a radical
tol ge. For then, public affairs could
Onger be settled on the basis of the
Majors will of the whole or even the
Ority of society.

* ok * *
} With the break-up of the primitive
| ti ymunal system the dominating posi-
Dloj 1 society was seized by the ex-
§ classes. Since these classes
of gPtise only an insignificant minority
Coen ety, they had to rely on direct
ae as well as their economic

8
ited them. For this purpose a special

T to maintain the society that

Marxism-Leninism in Today’s World

apparatus composed of armed men
(army and police), courts and prisons
was needed.

Control of this special apparatus was"

placed in the hands of those concerned
wholly with protecting the interests of
the exploiting minority rather than the
interests of society as a whole. In this
way the state was built up as a machine
for maintaining the domination of one
class over another. With the passage of
time this special apparatus of coersion
was sanctified by constitution and law,
based on private property relations.
x * *

With the help of this machine the
economically dominant class con-
solidates the social system that is to its
advantage and forcibly keeps its class
opponents within the framework of the
given social system. This is the reason
why the state in an exploiting society
and regardless of how democratic it
may appear, represents, in essence, the
dictatorship of the class of exploiters.

Such is the essence of the state, the
nature of its relations with society.

In our times the capitalist state serves.

mainly the interests of monopoly

capitalism which represents only a
small fraction of the capitalist class as a
whole. The state’s special apparatus of
armed men, courts and prisons, refined
and modernized in keeping with the
needs of the times, serves the monop-
olists as an instrument of coercion
against the working class — its main
class opponent. But it does not limit its
coercion to the working class. It is di-
rected also against all segments of soci-
ety that rebel against the framework of
capitalist production relations.

The state apparatus, under the rule of
capitalism, has in addition to its special
apparatus of coercion, been extended
to embrace a veritable army of bureau-
cratic officialdom appointed and com-
missioned by the ruling class. This vast
array of judges, deputy ministers, tax
collectors, directors of crown corpora-
tions, government boards of all kinds
such as the AIB, and a whole host of
minor government and state officials
(appointees all) are pledged to uphold
the ‘‘legal rights’’ of private property
relations.

x * *

The characteristic feature, common

to all three types of exploiting state
known to man — slave, feudal and
capitalist — is the domination of the
exploiters, who represent only a small
section of society, over the exploited,
who comprise the overwhelming
majority.

While the type of state expresses its
class nature, the form of state primarily
expresses how the organs of power and
administration are structured and the
kind of political regime maintained. For
instance, the capitalist state is found
not only in the form of a constitutional
monarchy (such as in Canada), or that
of a democratic republic (USA) but in
the form of a terroristic fascist regime
(Chile).

All these forms are capitalist type
states. They all serve the interests of
the big monopolies and oppose the
basic interests of the working class and
of all working people.

At the beginning of the present cen-
tury a type of state emerged — the
socialist state (USSR) — where the
working class and all the working
people comprising the vast majority of
the whole of society are in power,
which is a new and different type of
state. More on this next week.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—APRIL 30, 1976—Page 13.