_ Wh and kd LB ate A. : ¢ ee (a a F i ¥ ‘~ i ee Ne es Vea as . Sai 2a as t ze SS vik sings DAT these Black Panthers on, finger. him fer us and we'll give ya a coupl’ Sticks of pot fer free!” Tve become somebody .. . Otto and I talked a bit before Topping off to sleep. It had been peone day canvassing for the te bune, and we both felt the €nsion of arguments, new faces, tes breements and happy laugh- eave you ever wondered,” Otto, “what being a mem- &t of the Communist party fans to you?” tho 1s question started a train of x Ught. He took my silence for n Invitation to continue. : Te thought about it a lot,” id Otto, “an awful lot. You Now, I was born near Weyburn 1a farm, and my mother died ie I was seven. You know W rocky it is there?” eege soured him that I did in- Well, my father was too poor too hard working to worry aus us young ones going to Reco! He had to try to make a farm pay, so he found work * Could do at our age. My job 48 Picking rocks, digging them oe Carting them to a little wag- mn We had a lot of bread and N to eat, tar nen I grew up, I left the ga ™ and went to B.C. Became a =a Warden there. The pay was °r, but it was a: job. After a W years I took a little home- Nis, Pacitic Tribune West Coast edition, Canadian Tribune 7 stead. It was right up on the side of a mountain. My neighbors were Communists. They were so- lid people, who knew what it was all about. They talked me into it. “And that was the beginning of real living for me. I actually , became somebody, and I’ve been somebody ever since. I didn’t know what I was up until then. You know, I started to read. I led demonstrations, and went to fight for relief recipients, and won. The police had their eye on’ me, and they put me in jail on a trumped up charge once. “Yes,” Otto stated, his voice clear and loud in the dark of the night, “I really became some- body. I’ve met important people, and sat on the platform with them. I’ve run in elections, and hundreds of people have voted for me. I belong to life. That’s what the Communist Party does for people.” He talked. some more, talked about his experiences as a game warden, revealing a penetrating insight into that aspect of nat- ure, too. Finally his voice faded away as he fell into a deep, un- troubled sleep. I stayed awake a long time that night. W.B. anata et ene! Editor—MAURICE RUSH Published weekly at Ford Bidg., Mezzanine No. 3, 193 E. Hastings St., Vancouver 4, B.C. Phone 685-5288. Circulation Manager, ERNIE CRIST Subscription Rate: Canada, $5.00 one year; $2.75 for six months. North and South America and Commonwealth countries, $6.00 one year. All other countries, $7.00 one year Second class mail registration number 1560. LY WORLD “Hi, sonny. This Lenin, or Lenny, or Sump’n, who has been turnin’ y.. Editorial Comment... We salute the YCL We warmly. greet the formation of the Young Communist League over Easter weekend. We wish the YCL suc- cess in the glorious struggle for peace. Canadian independence and socialism. The rebirth of the YCL is a revolu- tionary reaffirmation of the vanguard role of Marxism-Leninism. The YCL is an independent youth organization. guided by the science of Marxism-Len- inism, fraternally related to the Com- munist Party of Canada, following its’ lead, guided by its program and assisted by its advice. Because of its Marxist- Leninist character the YCL cannot, and does not, have a program contradicting the program of the Communist Party of Canada. The Young Communist League has already begun to fill a political vacuum among Canadian youth, aiming to bring to it a Marxist-Leninist consci- ousness, to unite it, and to give it an effective direction. YCL-ers will become known as fore- most fighters for reforms, and will join with all Canadians in struggles to win urgently needed reforms, but are not, themselves, reformists. The YCL does not work to patch up capitalism. Its goal is the winning of a socialist Can- ada. It doesn’t believe that the problems young Canadian workers face are a choice between a “good” boss or a “bad” boss—but the need to replace the obso- lete capitalist system, which blights their lives, with socialism. The YCL founding convention agreed to struggle everywhere for the indepen- dence of French Canada up to and in- cluding the right to secession. The con- vention pledged to oppose all racist poli- cies in Canada, all forms of national chauvinism, and to support the victims of racism and fascist-like oppression everywhere. The convention, in a truly Marxist- Leninist fashion, agreed that the test of its internationalism would be in what its members do to defend the victims of oppression, to end the war of U.S. im- perialism against Vietnam, and in the struggle for a better life. The YCL has begun to bring a revo- lutionary spirit to Canada’s youth movement. It is a powerful factor in the class struggle. When its founding convention unanimously decided to make Tim Buck an honorary member, it highlighted the desire of its members to be known as Communists, and to de- dicate their lives to the cause of their ‘fellow man. It’s an old, old story The columnists who write for capital- ist newspapers continue to plug the line that wages are the cause of high prices. They do not produce any factual evidence to back up their claims, but following the Goebbels principle, repeat the lie constantly so that it is uncritic- ally accepted as fact. Enough evidence creeps through the barrage of misinformation, however, to reveal that profiteering, and the spend- ing of huge sums on war and war pre- ‘ations, are the root causes of high prices. The economic plight of the automobile workers in the current recession plagu- - ing the industry is only part of a long story of exploitation of the workers by the motor monopolies. Figures for the United States—which are applicable in Canada—reveal that between the years 1946 and 1969, pro- duction in the auto industry increased by 186 percent, and production per worker by 114 percent. But the real take-home pay of the workers, calcu- lated by adjusting his weekly wage for consumer prices and deductions for fed- eral taxes, has risén by only 55 percent during these 23 years. Thus the facts reveal that the real take-home pay of the automobile work- ers has dropped by 28 percent in this period. Not so with the profits of the Industry. Canada’s complicity The people of North Battleford, Saskatchewan, are angrily demonstrat- ing against U.S. bomber practice runs over their province. U.S. B-52’s will be practicing all this summer over the province of Saskat- chewan, as they have done in previous years. These are the planes that are dropping napalm and _ anti-personnel bombs in Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos. Some of the American airforce who are doing just that right now, got their training over Saskatchewan. This is one of the components of Canadian complicity in U.S. imperial- ism’s war against Vietnam. It goes along with the supplying of arms, poi- ' sonous chemicals, and all sorts of ex- perimentation for U.S. imperialism’s military machine by Canadian big busi- ness, and by some research and educa- tional institutions. It has not been announced that the U.S. government pays for the use of | Saskatchewan for target practice, or what compensation it would make in case of damage and loss of life. It is a kind of “inducement,” made possible by the Trudeau government, on behalf of big business, in return for which Cana- dian private business concerns expect to get contracts for military supplies and equipment. Canadians don’t like it, particularly Saskatchewan people. They see in it a threat to their sovereignty, which it is. Some Canadians are chilled with the thought that some day B-52 bombers might drop napalm on Canadians. They recognize the fact that in the eyes of the world the practice bombing makes Canada an integrated part of United States’ military machine. There’s no es- caping that. And for Saskatchewan farmers, it rubs their noses in the fact that the Canadian and U.S. governments ean find plenty of money for the military and the people who make money out of war—but none for those who grow the staff of life. PACIFIC TRIBUNE— APRIL 3, 1970 Page 3