“Let me explain how this troop withdrawal works . . .’ Somewhere in Spain... known to the world as if the affairs of men were of little con- sequence. There are still green trees, grass, flowers and other things. You smell the odors of a fact that it was the earth fee made no difference. We ‘ €d ourselves as deeply into Oter® We could, seeking safety. Shella the force of exploding Cove pounced us off the ground, Of 78 US with earth and bits death. Stone, Soldiers stand up and look at + heute each other. Who’s alive, who’s hag fascist artillery barrage Withoon’ on for hours, almost for Out letup. We were dug in ee ‘While in a little valley, Wher ere in Spain. Where and fire I don’t remember. But tern, ask any veteran of the In- Were onal Brigades. All of them time MM some such valley some- tt between 1936 and 1939. set Was the kind of barrage that on pour mind to playing tricks } to g..\» 28 you listened carefully ine ©.20W close they were land- © thought kept occurring You are struck by the bloodshot staring look in everyone else’s eyes, the drawn and haggard look, until you realize those faces are a mirror of your own. The first words are curses. Everyone is grim and tense. Sud- denly a youngster from New York began to talk. “There I was,’”’ he said drama- tically, “in Times Square. Mind- ing my own business. You know? Then this s.o.b. came bite never hear the one that along and sold me a subscription ona always.told so author- to the Daily Worker. Look where tho Vely by the seasoned vet, al- I ended up!” : fro We had never heard it That did it. We laughed. Oh, dines anyone who had been hit how we laughed! We needed a poly. With an artillery shell or that moment in that terrible val- Youd: ley. Later on our Commissar on ®s, your mind played tricks frowned and grew thoughtful. YOu while you stubbornly He wasn’t sure that such re- ae to that little bit of the marks were really politically aeak What were you doing sound. could Why had you come? What He must have concluded, as You you, one person, do? And, we did, that the young guy was tion ought, it was in a situa- just telling us about the power of the working class press, and of how he had wrestled with himself in a time of testing, and ke this when you really bee ¢ 2 God, if only there had er 1 one around. But there nev- aS It was all up to you. had won. tho Uddenly silence. But don’t I forget his name. He’s buried jie © yet. The fascists-may be in an unmarked grave in Spain, long since ploughed over. A hero, he is one of the legions of nameless men and. women who gave the most precious posses- sion they had — Life — for the cause of human progress. —W.B. they taking a breather. Or are n Betting ready to attack? awar Of a sudden you become Wha Of other things. Some- there’ right in the valley, S a cuckoo making itself Pacific Tribune West Coast edition, Canadian Tribune hte Editor —MAURICE RUSH Published weekly at Ford Bldg., Mezzanine No. 3, 193 E. Hastings pt. Vancouver 4, 8.C. Phone 685-5288. Circulation Manager, ERNIE CRIST Subscription Rate: Canada, $5.00 one year; $2.75 for six months. North ond South America and Commonwealth countries, $6.00 one yeor. All other countries, $7.00 one year di U tration number 1560. life, mingled with the smell of. dead, and who’s in need of help?. of oil problems in the United States. OUTNOW! In 1949, Frederic Joliot-Curie opened the First Peace Congress in Paris. It adopted the famous Stockholm Appeal, which called for a ban on the manufac- ture and use of weapons of mass anni- hilation, and condemned any govern- ment to first use them as a war crimI- nal. Joliot-Curie, asked from the floor whether he thought a sheet of paper could save mankind from atomic war, replied that, as a physicist, he could say that mankind had invented enough weapons to make the world barren, but that the will and reason of nations, backed by their signatures, could save the human race. With these words, he raised the sheet of paper high above his head. More than 500 million men and women in all countries signed it. That, of course, is not the whole story to ex- plain why a world war has been avert- ed, and atomic weapons not used, but it’s an important part of it. : The struggle for peace in the United States has features which distinguish it from the struggle for peace in Can- ada, features which can’t be artificially transported here. Just one example is that two Senators are sponsoring legis- lation demanding complete U.S. with- drawal from Vietnam in one year. Over two million Americans have signed petitions supporting it. Parallel developments in Canada would be all to the good. A million sig- natures to the OUTNOW petition, and official endorsation by governing bodies, workers and farmers unions, and others, can influence the Trudeau administration to speak up against U.S. imperialism’s war in Vietnam, to end Canadian complicity in that war, and would bring additional interna- tional pressure on the Nixon Adminis- tration in Washington. Securing signatures and endorsation of the OUTNOW campaign will lift the struggle for , peace in Canada to a higher level. ; -Israel’s opportunity The present situation in the Middle East offers the possibility of a settle- ment of the conflict there. The Soviet Union and the United Arab Republic have taken a positive position on the U.S. government’s proposals (which are substantially what the UAR and USSR have been proposing), forcing the hand of a reluctant expansionist- minded Israeli government. Although it is busy manoeuvring, the Israeli cabi- net has been compelled to accept the proposals, causing a split in its ranks. Israel can avoid the threat to its existence by agreeing to negotiate un- der the terms of the November 22, 1967, Security Council Resolution. The change for the better is because of the growing world-wide pressure for peace, because of the growth of the peace movement within Israel itself, and because of the growing unity and strength of the Arab states — and be- . cause of growing anti-war sentiment in the U.S. In addition, there is the strong smell The Trans-Arabian pipeline, knocked out of action in May, hasn’t been re- paired. Libya has ordered several Ame- rican and European oil firms to reduce output. Tanker charges have doubled in recent months from that. part of the world. However, Canadian oil reserves are “safe and secure” for U.S. needs, says the Financial Post, comfortingly. Make them clean up The capitalist press reports that mer- cury contamination of Clay Lake at Kenora, Ontario, is 33 times above the level considered safe for humans. The culprit is Dryden Chemicals of the Anglo-Canadian Pulp and Paper Mills. The toxic effect of mercury causes illness and death to human beings. It can’ gain access to the body through the unbroken skin. It is a cumulative poison which causes a metal-fume-like fever, acute skin reactions, inflamma- tion of the gums, mouth and tongue, loss of teeth, the ague, and personality changes, and death. Although we thought we had long since left behind the terrible occupa- tional diseases connected with mercury in industry, it is quite obvious that we have been living in a fool’s paradise. It appears that the Ontario Water Resources Commission has been part of the conspiracy to keep the people ignor- ant. Dr. E. G. Bligh of Winnipeg pre- pared a report on mercury pollution some time.ago which was not made pub- lic. Clay Lake must have been polluted for many, many years. People have sickened and very likely have died from its consequences. People have had to be treated for chronic ailments at their own and public expense. The responsibility rests with the Dry- den Chemical Company. All this talk that we, the people, are responsible for pollution is a lot of hogwash. The main source of the most dangerous and ex- ' tensive pollution is big business — bi money. They should not only be force to stop it, but also should be compelled to foot the clean-up bills and the finan- cial responsibility for its victims. Challenge to Canada The argument that “the Russians have nothing to sell us” has been used very often in the past as justification for trying to get rid of our surplus stocks of wheat to the USSR, while not buying much of anything in return. With the burgeoning of Soviet trade everywhere in the world, there are many apparent contradictions to this statement. The Financial Post recently carried a story that the Soviet Union’s YAK-40, a tri-jet, 400 mph craft which can be used for commercial, feeder pur- poses, or as an executive jet, will be displayed at the Abbottsford, B.C., air- show on August 6-9. After that it will appear in most major Canadian cities. Any careful examination of the prob- lem reveals that the USSR has a long line of sophisticated goods for sale. The silence of the three prairie premiers, although faced with serious economic problems, on this question, not only re- veals their anti-Soviet bias, but also their lack of a real program to solve the problems of the farmers.