Layman’s guide to arms race OVERKILL By John Cox. Pen- Quin Books, London, 1981, $4.95 in Canada Despite the near-saturation of arms race ‘‘scare’’ stories in the Media, there is a genuine shortage of analytical, factual background material on this subject available to the public at large. It is especially welcome then, to see that one of the few solid, Popular works on_ nuclear Weapons and the arms race, Overkill, by John Cox, has been Tepublished by Penguin Books in a new, updated edition. Overkill comes c'ose to being the definitive primer, offering a Capsule history of the nuclear arms race, a clear layman’s ex- Planation of how atomic weapons work, a look at the dynamics of the arms race, and perhaps most Valuable in the present cir- Cumstances, a concise look at the tue global balance of military forces. This last is, for many people, one of the most confusing aspects of the whole nuclear-weapons debate. What are the numbers, on both sides, how are they arrived at, and what do they mean? Who is ‘‘superior’’, and what does it mean? Cox utilizes data from a number of independent sources to provide a reasonably accurate, up-to-date picture of how the op- posing forces line up, qualita- tively and quantitatively. In the process, Cox demystifies a number of features of the arms race that frequently tend to be- wilder readers of the daily press, most particularly the myth of the ‘*Soviet threat’’. This new edition of. Overkill contains a discussion of the MX missile, of Eurostrategic weapons, and the interrupted SALT-II process. It also contains a handy glossary, for deciphering the jargon of arms build-up. . Overkill was originally pro- duced for British readers, and is therefore heavy with British ex- perience and British perspective. However, it is basically a book about the arms race that afflicts the entire world, and more than that, it is a political guide to the struggle for disarmament. The final chapter is a history of the British Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND), and it will make engaging reading for Cana- dian peace activists. And, most unusual in a Penguin book, there is no epilogue — in its place is an application form, Join the CND! A transliteration of that for Cana- dians might be: Join in the Peace Is Everybody’s Business petition campaign. Overkill is a valuable addition to the sadly undersized library of peace. It is an extremely useful introduction to the realities and complexities of the global arms race, but it goes well beyond a mere academic examination. Its orientation is to move people into action. Nothing could be more timely. — Fred Weir & Around the arts — _ Off Hollywood film distribution centres Two of the progressive film distributors Operating in English Canada deserve mention. ~ Both the Development Educational Centre Film in Toronto and International Development Ed- ucation Resource Association in Vancouver make accessible a variety of films, videos and Slide-shows, documenting contemporary social and political struggles in Canada and throughout the world. Because of their uncompromising exploration of pressing issues some of these filmmakers have had their films censored in their own coun- tries. In North America their showings have deen limited to off showings at local theatres or at public meetings. Both these distributions centres perform a Service to the public by making these films available and to the artists by returning a sub- Stantial amount of distribution revenues to them to continue their work. The aim of the distributors is primarily ed- Ucational and a number of them come with dis- Cussion material to accompany the showing. Pricing is flexible so non-profit low-budget toups can take advantage of their services. Film catalogues can be ordered from DEC at 27 Bloor St. W., Toronto, MSS 1X7 or from ee 2524 Cypress Street, Vancouver V6J From labor camps to landscapes Gershon Iskowitz: A Retrospective is the largest and most comprehensive exhibition to date of the work of this esteemed Canadian ar~. lst. Showing at the Art Gallery of Ontario the Show runs until March 7, after which it will tour Canada and, in 1983, travel to England. _ The earliest works are three war-time draw- Ings: Action, 1941, done in Iskowitz’s birth- Place, Kielce, Poland; and Buchenwald, 1944- 45, and Condemned, 1945, which he painted While a prisoner in the Nazi death camp. The first drawing was recovered by a friend after the War, and the other two were retrieved by the artist from their hiding place under barracks floorboards upon his liberation. Iskowitz was born in Kielce in 1921. He enrolled at the Warsaw Academy of Art in 1939 Ut could not begin his studies due to the occu- _ Sent into forced labor and during the last two Pation of Poland by the Germans. He was first ~ years of the war spent most of the time im- prisoned at Auschwitz and Buchenwald where he was liberated on April 11, 1945. His whole family — mother, father, two brothers and a sister — were killed in concentration camps. After about 18 months convalescing, Iskowitz studied briefly at the Munich Academy of Art and privately with the Austrian painter Oskar Kokoschka, who Iskowitz feels gave him the most significant instruction he received outside his own observations of works by Corot, Cour- bet, the Barbizon School, Monet, Matisee, Max Liebermann, Kandinsky and, above all, Bon- nard. In 1949, through the sponsorship of an uncle, Iskowitz emigrated to Canada and settled in Toronto. For a time he continued to paint scenes from life in the camps, destruction in the ghetto at Kielce, the loss of his family — but he soon turned from the horror of the past to a celebration of life through his paintings of na- ture. The Retrospective traces the artist’s move from small, densely painted landscapes of the °50s such as Parry Sound, 1954, Dusk and Swirl- ing Night, both of 1955 and Midnight, 1955, to more abstract studies of color dynamics in the 1960s. His Retrospective will travel to Windsor; Montreal; London, Ontario; Calgary, and Lon- don, England. Burton Cummings takes up acting Singer Burton Cummings will appear on the silver screen for the first time on February 12, when the feature film Melanie is released in major Canadian cities. Cummings co-stars in the Canadian pro- duction with Glynnis O'Connor (in the title role), Paul Sorvino. Trudy Young and Don Johnson. He also wrote and performed the mus- ical numbers in the film, some of which were recorded on his recent LP, ‘Sweet Sweet.’ Shot in Toronto and Los Angeles last year, Melanie is the poignant story of an illiterate young woman's determination to win back her kidnapped six-year old son. : Cummings portrays a fading rock star trying to make a comeback, who falls in love with Melanie.Cummings says his starring role is ‘almost everything I have ever wanted on one silver platter — a wonderful acting opportunity and an excellent vehicle for my songs as well Letter from Louise on Reed’s death A few weeks after the death of John Reed, Louise Bryant, sent the following letter to Max Eastman, a former editor of the Liberator. It was published in the Liberator in the Feb- ruary 1921 issue. It is abridged here. Dear Max: —I knew you would want details and a story for the Liberator — but I did not have either the strength or the courage. As it is —I will be able to write only a very incoherent letter and you may take from it what you wish. Jack’s death and my strenuous underground trip to Russia and the weeks of horror in the typhus hospital have quite broken me. At the funerai I suf- fered a very severe heart attack which by the merest scratch I survived. I once promised Jack that I would put all his works in order incase of his death. I will come home if I get stronger and do So. All that I write now seems part of a dream. | am in no pain at all and I find it impossible to believe that Jack is dead or that he will not come into this very room any moment. But I must go back to tell you how after my illegal journey across the world I had to skirt Finland, sail 12 days in the Arctic Ocean, hide in a fisherman's shack four days to avoid the police with a Finnish officer and a German, both under sentence of death in their own countries. When I did reach Soviet territory I was at the opposite end of Russia from Jack. When I reached Moscow he was in Baku at the Oriental Congress. Civil War raged in the Ukraine. A military wire reached him and he came back in an armored train. On the morning of September 15 he ran shouting into my room. A month later he was dead. ’ We had only one week together before he went to bed, and we were terribly happy to find each other. I found him older and sadder and grown strangely gentle and aesthetic. His clothes were just rags. He was so impressed with the suffering around him that he would take nothing for himself. The effects of the terrible experience in the Finnish gaol were all too apparent. He told me of his cell, dark and cold and wet. Almost three months of solitary confinement and only raw fish to eat. Sometimes he was delirious and imagined me dead. Some- times he expected to die himself. But walking in the park, under the white birch trees and talking through the brief, happy nights, death and separation seemed very far away. We visited together Lenin, Trotsky, Kaminev, Enver Pasha, Bela Kun, we saw the Ballet and galleries. He was consumed with a desire to go home. I felt how tired and ill he was — how. near a breakdown and tried to persuade him to ‘rest. The Russians told me that he often worked 20 hours a day. Early in his sickness I asked him to promise me that he would rest before going home since it only meant going to prison. I felt prison would be too much for him. I remember he looked at me in a strange way and said, ‘‘My dear little Honey, I would do anything I could for you, but don’t ask me to be acoward.”’ I had not meant it so. I felt so hurt that I burst into tears and said he could go and I would go with him anywhere by the next train, to any death, or any suffering. He smiled so happily then. And all the days that followed he held me tightly by the hand. I could not leave him because he would shout for me. Of the illness I can scarcely write — there was so much pain. I only want you all to know how he fought for his life. He would have died days before but for the fight he made. Five days before he. died his right side was paralyzed. After that he could not speak. And so we watched through days and nights and days hoping against all hope. Even when he died I did not believe it. I must have been there hours afterwards still talking to him and holding his hands. ; And then there came a time when his body lay in state with all military honor, in the Labor Temple, guarded by fourteen sol- diers from the Red Army. Many times I went there and saw the soldiers standing stifly, their bayonets gleaming under the lights and the red star of Communism on their military caps. Jack lay in a long silver coffin banked with flowers and stream- ing banners. Once the soldiers uncovered it for me so I might touch the high white forehead with my lips for the last time. On the day of the funeral, we gathered in the great hall where he lay. I have very few impressions of that day. It was cold and the sky dark, snow fell as we began to march. I was conscious of how people cried and of how the banners floated and how the wailing, heart-breaking Revolutionary funeral hymn, played by a military band, went on forever and ever. I do not remember the speeches. I remember more the broken notes of the speakers’ voices. I was aware that after a long time they ceased and the banners began to dip back and forth in salute. I heard the first shovel of earth go rolling down and then some- thing snapped in my brain. After.an eternity I woke up in my own bed. Emma Goldman was standing there and Berkman and two doctors and a tall young officer from the Red Army. But I have been in the Red Square since then — since that day all those people came to bury in all honor our dear Jack Reed. I have been there in the busy afternoon when all Russia hurmies by, horses and sleighs and bells and peasants carrying bundles, sol- diers singing on their way to the front. Once some of the soldiers came over to the grave. They took off their hats and spoke very reverently. ‘‘What a good fellow he was,” said one. “‘He came all the way across the world for us.”’ *‘He was one of ours — "’ In another moment they shouldered their guns and went on again. . PACIFIC TRIBUNE—FEB. 12, 1982—Page 9