Amajor dilemma for the PQ The Quebec referendum By SAM WALSH President; Communist Party : of Quebec _ Today, the dilemma of the Parti Québécois government with re- gard to the aspirations of ‘Quebeckers for self-deter- Mination is making headlines. Cabinet ministers, and even Rene Levesque himself feel obliged to be publicly evasive in the face of the dilemma. ‘On the other hand the irreconcilable in- dependentist activists of the PQ have become jittery and are striv- Ing to force the government to re- fuse any ‘‘association’”’? with En- glish Canada which would not be that of an independent state. It must be said, the Communist Party of Quebec (PCQ) was the first and most consistent in reveal- _ Ing this dilemma of the PQ gov- ernment. On the day after the election of November 15, 1976, the National ~Committee of the PCQ pointed to the contradiction between the Main purpose of the PQ (the inde- Pendence of Quebec) on the one hand and the aspirations and ‘in- terests of Quebeckers on the other who did not see political Independence as being a good Way of realizing their aspirations for national self-determination’ and defending their interests. This theme was taken up and elaborated at the 6th convention of the PCQ in May, 1977, and again in the December 23, 1977, Issue of Combat, where the year’s balance sheet of the PQ govern- ment. was made. : ‘Sovereignty-Association’ Loses Appeal : _ First, the PQ proclaimed itself In favor of ‘‘sovereignty- association’, in order to calm down those, particularly the workers, who sensed the serious €conomic dangers for them of- €conomic separation from En- glish Canada. But the irreconcila- ble separatists in the party had reservations about the abandon- ment of *‘independentism’’. Levesque’s opportunism Serves badly the interests of Quebeckers. He explained, in an iritated enough tone, that for the » SOVereignty means indepen- dence — but that he prefers the word sovereignty. This definition (false moreover) of sovereignty has brought about a rapid fall in the popularity of the ‘‘sovereignty-association”’, op- tion in the gallup polls. In the face of the PQ govern- ment’s impotence in meeting the economic crisis, and the growing rejection by Quebeckers of the PQ option for solving the con- stitutional crisis, its declarations © and gestures more and more indi- cate a desire for compromises with the big bourgeoisie of En- glish Canada and the United States -while defending itself against attacks from _petty- bourgeois nationalists, PQ “‘inde- pendentists”’ by repeating their ‘‘basic”’ loyalty to “‘sovereignty- association’’. Referendum Coming But the referendum is coming, probably in 1979. There is a great danger that Quebeckers will be frustrated by this political game which obsesses the PQ, because they are unable to use the re- ferendum to express their true choice for self-determination. It appears that we willbe called to favor the PQ option. To vote against would be interpreted as a vote for the status quo or for - Trudeau’s superficial window- dressing of the Canadian constitu- tion. To vote for ‘‘sovereignty- association”’ can be interpreted as a vote for political independence (with, or as a preliminary to, some economic association with the rest of Canada), and for this reason this option had little chance of passing. But everybody now knows that the Quebec people almost unani- mously are ardently for self- determination, which means in political terms, for Quebec’s sovereignty: and equality at all levels — political, economic, cul- tural, linguistic — with English Canada without political separa- tion. The Quebec people must have the chance to proclaim themselves for or against the elaboration (on an equal footing between Quebec and English Canada) of a new Canadian con- GDR pledges support to Vietnam sovereignty By FILS DELISLE Tribune Berlin Correspondent BERLIN — The German Mocratic Republic has guaran- teed Vietnam its fullest support against the expansionist aspira- ions”’ of others and ‘‘against all _ the attacks of imperialism and in- ternational reaction’’. The pledge was contained in a Message of greetings to Viet- Nam’s leaders on the occasion of the southeast Asian socialist re- Public’s National Independence Day. ._ The message once again makes It clear that the GDR’s policy is based on the fundamental princi-. Ples of international socialist sol- \darity, defence of national rights and sovereignty and firm opposi- Hon to interference in a country’s Internal affairs or threats against Its borders. The GDR, it is equally clear, is for the solution of all problems between Vietnam and China, and between all other countries, by peaceful negotiations and on the basis of coexistence. Like the Soviet Union and other socialist countries, it will give the fullest support to Vietnam whenever these principles are endangered or violated, regardless of whether the attacks on them come from south, east, west, north or from across the seas. ; Considerable attention ae aid here to the recent trip to an by William Kashtan, General Secretary of the. Com- munist Party of Canada. Many commentators during the past week have quoted Kashtan’s es- timate of the situation in Vietnam and approvingly cited his state- ments in support of the position taken by the Vietnamese with re- ‘gard to Peking’s latest actions. - Tories, made it incumbent on big-hearted stitution which would declare Quebec and English Canada as sovereign, which gives the two nations in Canada the right to self-determination up to and in- cluding the right to secession if the majority of either one or the other so desires, and the right to equality and the means to achieve it in a democratic Canadian re- public. History Won’t Forgive . To refuse to include such a question in the referendum means to reject the right of self- determination, to impose the op- tion of the narrowly nationalistic petty-bourgeoisie who are dis- dainful of the workers’ interests grovelling before the multi- nationals of U.S. imperialism, or the option of the big bourgeoisie which means continuing with the oppression of the French- Canadian nation in Quebec. — History will not forgive the PQ government if it imposes its di- lemma on our people, and so sets back the cause of national self- determination in order to please the chauvinists within our society or in English Canada. ; The PQ, if it wants to keep its ‘term ‘‘sovereignty-association’”’, would have to drop the definition . (a very inadequate one in any case) of “‘political sovereignty and economic association’’ and frankly and openly present the , content of a new Canadian con- stitution guaranteeing the Levesque faces contradictions within his own party, trying to juggle the strongly separatist elements and those in the party who worry about the economic dangers of separation. sovereignty of Quebec and En- glish Canada in an equal, freely negotiated and agreed upon as- sociation. That would not make either the narrow nationalists of the PQ or the Anglo-Saxon chauvinists of the big bourgeoisie happy. But from all evidence, that would be a'worthy solution ac- ceptable not only to the majority of Quebec but even of English Canada, coming out of a victory for this option in a referendum in Quebec. : If the PQ government will not or cannot support such an option, it should at ‘least let Quebeckers express their opinion on it. The Communist Party of Quebec, for its part, is ready to campaign for such a democratic solution and to unite with all who are ready to work for and fight for its realiza- tion. A bad week for the big boys "Some weeks just don’t go well for the powers that be. Some weeks are full of embarrassments for the high and mighty. Surely in moments of isolation from the un- grateful throng, top-dog Liberals, Social Crediters and media moguls must ask them- selves is it all worth it for the limp enthusiasm displayed by the mob, or even a seat in the Senate. . You take John Munro... Don’t want him? Well, just consider the situation of the (up till Sept. 8) federal labor minister. All he did was phone a judge, get him out of | the courtroom, and acquaint him with the good .character of the man the judge was sentencing for attacking one of his tenants with a hammer, The fact that the sen- - tencee was a millionaire, anti- socialist professional landlord John M. to testify as to his good character. Mr. Munro resigned to protect the good name of the crumbling Liberal Cabinet. Then there was Mr. Kerr of the Ontario Tory government’s upper echelon. George Kerr was solicitor-general in the Bill Davis true blues. He called the assistant Crown attorney — not to in- fluence him mind you — but merely to know if a defendent in whom he had an interest faced a mandatory jail sentence for driv- ing while his license was sus- pended. That’s all. Premier Davis said that was okay, there was no evil intent, and honest George should stay on. As usual the Tories could tough it out, whatever the in- nuendos. But. public wrath tilted too heavily toward GK after John Munro admitted the error of his ways and quit. So another embar- rassment, another old-line party, another Cabinet minister. But Ontario can’t claim all the dirt. In British Columbia, former federal and provincial Cabinet minister, Jack Davis, was con- victed of fraud, Sept. 11. After problems over a $140,000. Local . Initiatives Program grant for his riding he lost his Liberal federal seat (and Cabinet post), and in 1975 entered the Socred Cabinet of B.C.’s Premier Bennett. Then there was the discomfort of Canadian Broadcasting Corpo- ration president Al Johnson, when Peter Kent, in the revered position of reader of CBC’s biased 11 p.m. news, bit the hand that fed him. He named at least four specific occasions when the _ prime minister’s office intervened to tell the CBC how to handle coverage of the PM. But fear not, it will be investigated by the Lib- % : wes eral | government-appointed Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commis- sion. : Another media family got into an embarrassing spot, again re- lated to the prime minister. Just as Maclean’s Magazine was launch- ing into weekly publication its executive editor up and quit be- cause the publisher axed the very first weekly cover (and the elec- tion story it illustrated) because it consisted of, you guessed it, a car- toon of a ratty-looking Trudeau, backed into a corner. To make it hilarious the cover was replaced with a picture of the Begin-Sadat road-to-no-where duo, and this on the most Canadian of Cana- dian media efforts! Why? It seems the magazine’s first weekly issue is to be presented to Prime Min- ister Trudeau as part of the public- ity hoopla. Some weeks just don’t go well etc. Former labor minister John Munro tries his hand at influence peddling and gets caught. Peter Kent finds himself off the air when he exposes the prime minister for tampering with the news. PACIFIC TRIBUNE—SEPTEMBER 22, 1978—Page 5 i.