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By NELSON CLARKE

The Consultative Conference
of Communist and Workers’

: Parties is moving to a success-

ful conclusion. Speculation that
the conference would fall apart
following the Rumanian with-
drawal has proven completely
groundless. Instead as the dis-
cussion goes on, greater clarity
and unanimity is emerging. -
Although no decisions about
‘the next steps have yet been
taken, a consensus is shaping

Parties héld which will be open:
to every: such party in the
world, the: fact that some par-

‘ties are not expected to attend -

will not be allowed to prevent

the overwhelming majority of-

parties from going ahead. At the
same time, the conference will

- not become the instrument for
. reading any party out of the
- ranks of the world communist

movement.

The conference should : be
‘held before the end of 1968.
Most parties are suggesting that
it take place in Moscow. This
opinion far from reflecting

““Soviet pressure” is an expres-

sion of the determination of par-
ties present from all parts of
the world not to give an inch to
the balderdash that’ there ex-
istes in fact any problem of “‘do-
minatian hu tha © DCTIT”

There is a lively debate tak-
ing place about the main focus
of the conference. Generally, it
is felt that it should concentrate
on the problem of rallying all
progressive forces in the fight
against imperialism. Obviously,
Vietnam is in the centre of this
fight, and the first act of the
consultative meeting was’ to
adopt a statement of solidarity
with the _ heroic Vietnamese.
‘people. But many parties feel
that the development of world
wide united actions against im-

: perialism demands the working
- out of a program of struggle on .

many fronts ‘such as the estab-
lishment of lasting peace in the
Middle East, the ending of the
threat. of West German militar-
‘ism, as well as the fight back
against the plundering of the
peoples of the “third world” by

neo-colonialism, and the counter

offensive of the working class.

against the monopoly offensive
in the advanced capitalist coun-
tries.

At the same time, a number of
parties have warned against

what they consider to be the.

danger of this forthcoming con-
ference attempting to deal with
all aspects of the strategy and
tactics of the transition to so-
cialism in various parts of the
world in the way attempted by
the declaration adopted by the

: ; : Moscow meeting of 81 parties
up around the following points. | ; ee
There taut BA a conferénce | in 1960. These parties see the

of Communist and Workers’.

coming conference..as a major
first step towards beginning to
restore unity of the whole world
Communist movement, and
therefore believe it must con-
centrate on those issues which
are most unifying.

The only negative feature of
the consultative meeting until
|now has been the withdrawal on
‘Feb. 29 of the Rumanian delega-
tion. :

Briefly the facts on this matter '

are as follows:

On Feb. 28, the head of the
Syrian delegation made some
remarks in his speech about the
Middle East policies of Rumania:
The Rumanian delegation took
strong exception. The Syrian de-
legate agreed in the interests of
getting on with the meeting that
the statements in dispute should
be deleted from the minutes.
This withdrawal was accepted
by the Rumanian delegation, and
the whole conference felt that
the matter had been closed to
the satisfaction of everyone.

But the next morning, the Ru-
manian delegate reopened the
matter under new instructions
from Bucharest to demand that
the whole Consultative Meeting
condemn the delegation of the
Syrian Communist Party. Many
delegates found very strange the
position of the Rumanian Com-
munists who were not prepared
to tolerate any criticism of their
own party, but were quite ready
to demand the condemnation of
another. party by the entire
meeting. But nevertheless stre-
nuous efforts were made con-
tinuing all day Thursday to re-
solve the problem in such a way
as to keep the Rumanian delega-
tion at the meeting.

The Finnish delegation pre-

Monday, April 11, 1966
SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE

udapest conference

pared a proposal which read:
“We suggest that the minutes
of the morning session should
point out that the participants
of the Consultative Meeting have’
expressed satisfaction over the
settlement of the disagreements
between the Syrian Communist
Party and the Rumanian Com-
munist Party and that they will
do their best to achieve the ob-
jectives of the meeting in a free,
friendly and comradely atmos-
phere. It should also be men-
tioned in the minutes that every
party bears responsibility on its
own for the contributions it is
making.”

This proposal was favorably
received by the meeting, but de-
spite this at the end of a long
discussion, the Rumanian deleg-
ation rejecting all efforts to con-
vince them to remain, got up and
walked out. |

This experience which the

meeting passed through has {-:

served to underline the follow-
ing deeply held » convictions,
shared by the participating par-'
ties:

It is of the utmost importance -
to put forward every effort to |
draw all parties into the work of |
the world conference. Every
party. has a right to have its
viewpoint listened to with res-
pect. But every party also has
the duty to act with a high sense
of responsibility and do all it
can to consolidate the unity of
all Communist Parties in the
spirit of working class interna-
tionalism and for their common
cause.

It is with these principles in
mind that it can be confidently
expected the consultative meet-
ing will take a decision to
call an international conference
of Communist and Workers Par-
ties, and to set up immediately
a-committee in which every
party will be invited to partici-
pate to prepare the materials for
that conference. This will mark
a significant step forward to-
wards the consolidation of unity
of the international Communist
movement, and to the forging
of the world wide front of the:
people against the imperialists.

..trails along which B.C. has

‘da, are whitened with the
bleached bones of erstwhile

oa

a

MARCH 15,.1968—PAGIFIC TRIBUNE—Page 10 - 99:01

(the latter as private citizens), ~
” have allegedy become intel-
ested, involved, or what-have-

. you in this good old “get-it-
while - the - getting’s - good” -
highways development bust
Senate and the B.C. Legisla- ness.

“TF YE have tears, prepare to
shed them now . .
(Mark Anthony at the

burial cf Caesar).

Some two thousand years’
interval between the Roman

Thursday of last week the
Minister promised to reveal
all, in a night sitting of the
Legislature; “to blast the roof
off the legislature’ and nail

ture have elapsed, so the dra-
mas are by no means iden-
ticle by comparison, but tears
there were; big crocodile
pearls of lachrymose moisture
welling up like a spring fresh- his traducers to the cross
et, designed to wash away “All B.C.”, purred Prime
any and all plebian doubters Minister Bennett “will be
of Social Credit “virtues”. watchin.”
As-a backdrop to this. uni- A lot were, and what 4
que tear-jerking session of burlesque it was. Barnum
the British Columbia Legisla-. never produced such a cast in
ture at which “Prime Minis- his most halycon days.
ter” W.A.C. Bennett wept Minister Gaglardi was loud,
copiously, if albeit for the long, and unconvincing, using
wrong people, it should be the soft pedal to “explain
remembered that the political his Department involvement,
but with all stops pulled out
in his pose of the “outraged
father” defending the “honor”
of his family, a nice bit of
acting, but purely superficial
since his sons, as private citi-
zens, are not answerable to
government or the public in
pursuit of their daily, normal,
and legitimate business. j
But the “outraged father’
act reduced Prime Minister
Bennett to tears, copious
tears, which dampened the
Gaglardi burlesque audience
like an outdoor circus in 4
wet November drizzle. Even
- the Minister of Education
(and Labor) was hard put to
it not to mingle his tearful:
output with Bennett’s. Truly
it was a sight for the gods.
Earlier in the day one couldn’t
help but notice that none of
these Socred “Weeping Wil-
lies” had shed any tears for
Parent-Teacher, Fishermen
and other working people
delegations petitioning | the
government to do what it was

come since Confederation —
and for that matter all Cana-

“Honest Johns”, who noisily
blew their “honesty” horns,
until the people inevitably
caught up with them—which
ultimately the people have a
habit of doing.

In these. rapidly changing
times it could also be “sooner
than you think.”

In bygone days we've had
“Honest” John Olivers, “Hon-
est” John Brackens, “Honest”
Bill Aberharts, “Honest” Jim-
my Gardiners, etc. etc. No
end of them in yesterday’s
legion of “honest” politicians
of every old-line political vin-
tage, all of whom adhered
strictly to the old adage of
“honesty being the best po-
licy”—with the added proviso
“if it pays.” For all such it
did, and does pay; hence the
special need to lay added
stress upon their “honest” vir-

‘tues. elected to do — serve the |’
In “Beautiful British Col- People’s interests before that
umbia”-with a tearful Socred Of the monopolists . . . for

whom it wept!

One wondered at the end of
this watery performance why -
some NDP-MLA didn’t get up
from his seat to gratiously
offer the PM a towel, and
comfort him with a_ brief
couplet from the immortal
Omar Kayyam:—

“The Moving Finger writes;
and, having writ,

Moves on; nor all your
piety nor Wit

Shall lure it back to cancel
half a line, :

Nor all your Tears wash
out a Word of it.”

eye upon the tourist. trade,
new highways get high pre-
ference in Socred budgets, and
since new highways envision
new hot-dog stands, new gas
stations, new motels, new op-
portunities for those “in the
know” to turn a fast real
estate buck on lands fronting
the highways, “why wait till
Spring?”.

Coincident with these great
new “opportunities” it seems
Minister of Highways P.A.
Gaglardi, his Highways De-
partment, and sundry mem-
bers of the Gaglardi family,

AT ONTARIO LIBERAL CONVENTICN. Photo shows some of the 300 |
demonstrators outside the Liberal Party convention in Ontario in February.

Placards called on Liberal leadership candidates to take a stand on Vietnam; to 4
end Canadian complicity and stop arms sales to the U.S. ;