Tory and Liberal,

“come in and have a seat”,

people,

all opposition.

EDITORIAL
Playing it ‘safe’!

he political tag ‘Tweedledee and Tweedledum’ got

its start long ago with a growing realization that the
difference between the old-line parties of Big Business,
is precisely nil; that the similarities —
of both far outweigh any ‘differences’,

Less than a week ago this contention was again amply
confirmed. Following his ‘election’ as leader of the Tory
party with Dief getting the old heave-ho, Stanfield is now
headed for a seat in the House of Commons, A “safe” seat
is already prepared for him in the Nova Scotia constituency
of Colchester-Hants, — “safe” that is, if unopposed.

This is where Tweedledee and Tweedledum enter the
picture in unholy matrimony — to reduce electoral democracy
to a pitiable farce. ‘Gentlemen all’, the Liberals have indicated
they won’t ‘oppose’ Stanfield. The Socreds, or what mas-
querades under that label, ditto, All that of course is to be
expected from political bedmates under the skin (or should it
be ‘blanket’?), All quite in line with bi-partisan tradition
and usage — with Canada the ultimate loser.

What is a shade more difficult to savvy, politically and _
morally, is why such chicanery should or can win the approval
of any section of the NDP and/or its national leader Tommy
Douglas, who is also reported as stating that he “would do
everything possible to see that Stanfield was unopposed” in
his effort to win a Commons seat?

There is a growing opinion in Canada that in the realm of
Peace, social progress and democratic advance, that the
fewer Liberals and Tories there are in the Parliaments of
our ‘Second Century’ (a lesson not yet fully learned from the
experiences of our first century), the better it will be for all
Canadians, But if we cannot get shut of them for a few years
yet — at least confront and test them with an opposition based
on the kind of policies Canada needs, instead of just saying to
another Tory, scarcely known outside his native province,

As the new Moses of the Tory party pledged to lead it out
of the political wilderness and back into a dominant position
at the public trough, Stanfield is in a fair way to achieve both
positions without so much as a ‘by your leave’ of the Canadian

They, the people, had no voice in his ‘elevation’, either as
Tory leader or as probable prime minister of Canada, But
once again they do see Tweedledee and Tweedledum, with
other aspirants of the ‘old school tie’, falling over themselves
to keep the ‘road open’ for Stanfield, uncluttered by any or

It seems that, in the final elimination of all partisan ‘dif-
ferences’, elementary democracy itself gets eliminated!

Tom

McEWEN

he Vancouver Province is

currently in a ‘Svetlana’
sweat. High-pressure sales
*come-on’ with pictures of Svet-
lana plastered all over the place,
A warmed-up anti-Soviet neuro-
sis so to speak, with two prime
objectives;

To keep the smouldering fires
of anti-Soviet coldwar stoked up,
and of course, to boost sales and
circulation of a highly monopo-
lized coldwar press, As in war,
there are big profits to be had
from the circulation of anti-
Soviet lies, distortions, and
drivel;

We haven’t read Svetlana’s
book ‘Twenty Letters to aF riend’
either in its English edition nor
its Province serialized presenta-
tion, nor are we likely to. When
we do turn to light fiction we
prefer it, like our drinks to be
unadulterated,

We don’t doubt for one minute
that this daughter of the late
Soviet Premier Joseph Stalin,
from her early childhood days
down until recently has had a
pretty rough time of it, socially
and otherwise, Any competent
Soviet — or Canadian psychia-

SSS NS

September 22, 1967—PACIFIC TRIBUNE—Page 2

trist might diagnose that as the
root cause of her extreme neuro-
sis, This view is certainly con-
firmed by Canadian and other
foreign visitors to the Soviet
Union over the years who met
Svetlana personally, more often
under clinical care than other-
wise,

It is often said that ‘genius’
is a form of insanity, but since
the author of this latest anti-
Soviet ‘best seller’ is neither a
‘genuis’ nor insane, but just an
unfortunate woman for whom life
has come apart at the. seams
at an early age, a condition by
no means exclusive to any one
social system, (as our own shor-
tage of mental health clinics so
eloquently affirm), we must look
elsewhere for the reasons for
Svetlana’s much -chaperoned
‘continental’ debut, so neatly ar-
ranged by sundry U.S, ‘agencies’,

The ‘defection’ of Svetlana
from her homeland, her compen-
dium of doleful‘ memoirs’ speed-
ily whipped into book form, mon-
opoly book publishers literally
falling over each other for ‘ex-
clusive’ rights to Svetlana’s
nightmare thrillers, and at fig-
ures which make winning aticket

Well-baited hook

Inter-American armed forcé

By V. Kobysh

A six-day meeting of most
Latin American Foreign Minis-
ters is being officially called in
Asuncion, Paraguay, to discuss
a plan for the economic integra-
tion of the continent,

The story of the plan is as
follows: For .Latin American
countries facing serious econo-
mic difficulties, disunited, and
getting year in and year out less
for their exports and having to
pay more for imports, the prob-
lem of an all-continental market
is acrucial one, The United States
monopolies, however, have their
own selfish attitude to the project,
For them the economic integra-
tion of the continent is above all
a way to tighten their grip more
and to plunder on a wide scale
their neighbors, This is why a
plan for a common Latin Ameri-
can market was put forward at
last April’s meeting of Presi-
dents at Punta-del-Este by the
White House, Propaganda played
up this thing, but little concrete
was offered to the meeting: the
program was planned for 1980,
In return Washington demanded
from its neighbors approval — not
later on, but now — for an inter-
American armed force,

That was blackmail, Govern-

ments of many Latin American
countries flatly refused to accept
it, The prospect of sharing the
fate of the Dominican Republic
made even some of the obliging
ones resist.

Washington then changed its
tactics, turning to twisting of the
arms of individual countries,
Then another feeler was sent
out. In a statement a few days
ago the State Department “ex-
plained” that there was noneed at
all for approving the “inter-
American force” plan, The mu-
tual defence treaty signed in Rio
de Janeiro in 1947 it said gives
the USA the right to interfere

unilaterally in any Latin Ameri-
can country.

Latin American reaction to
this interpretation of the 1947
treaty was naturally a very
stormy one, But this did not
make Washington politicians give
up their intrigues. A report said
that seeing nothing came offfrom
attempts to herd Latin American
countries into a common conti-
nental pen, American diplomats
are seeking a way outin“region-
al pacts of defense.” The question
is one of establishing regional
branches of the gendarme corps,
One of the branches is expected
to include as a nucleus Brazil,
Argentine and Paraguay, most

close to Washington potiey
spirit, another — Central Ame
can republics, etc.

diplomats are going to
plan at Asuncion so aS
it more widely at a Se
meeting of Foreign Ministers:

The picture is cleat.
ton’s noisy promises of
assistance to Latin AM
countries, cooperation
mic integration are not
than a bait. But this bal
a hook, Washington poli vile
are only changing the balty th

the hook remains one
«jnter-AMe

same —

an
armed force.”

Amer!
probellls
to discuss
tembe!

washins:
econo
erica
in ecol

ping mom
t conceal

Yo!
PROGRESSIVE, New
Escalation in Vietnam

on the Irish sweepstakes look like
a ten-cent bag of peanuts?

How come? Well this year of
1967 is not only Canada Centen-
nial Year, but also the 50th
Anniversary of the great Russian
Revolution of 1917, which all the
‘great statesmen’ of the Western
world prophesized wouldn’t last
over ‘six weeks, ..or three
months at the most’ (Churchill),
But it did last and in its 50th
Anniversary, not only marks the
inspiring triumph of Socialism
‘in one country’, but in that vic-
tory giving unparalled generous
aid to many new Socialist States
and ‘emerging’ anti -colonial
States in Europe, Asia, Latin
America and Africa,

A victorious Socialist State
which, in the short space of 50-
years, has not only ‘caught up’
with, but is already far ahead of
a decadent Capitalism in almost
every important field of human
progress and science,

Not a pleasant thought for the
‘Free West’ and their myopic
Establishments, So howto dredge
up some new dirt with which to
downgrade Soviet ideology, sci-
entific achievements, general
social progress? This is where
the Svetlanas come in, much like
those moulting human ‘chickens’
Lenin spoke of which always
“dream of millet”, And there’s
always lots of “millet” in the
USA for those ‘chickens’ which
cackle in the approved mode,

Over the years the Gouzenkas,
Svetlanas et al have supplied a
ready coldwar market for anti-

Soviet balderdash from their re-
spective ‘literary’ dungheaps,
much of it of a fairly uniform
pattern and ‘quality’, But the
cash ‘returns’ to every new ‘de-
fecting’ literati (aided by well
brained - washed American
‘Ghost’ writers) can always be
counted upon to assuage any ker=-
nel of conscience they may have
retained,

In Svetlana’s narrative (or all
we have read of it) as presented
by the coldwar muck-raking
Province there is just one slight
difference; in her’s an anti-Soviet
tale with a touch of ‘Sob Sister’
in it to pry open the reader’s
‘sympathy’ pores: aslight change
from the traditional style of vin-
dictive anti-Soviet hate, distor-
tion and falsehood adopted by the
Gouzenko species — which by the
way cost the Canadian taxpayer
a hell of a lot more than just the
price of a ‘book’ written by a
traitor to his country and people,

On her own say-so Svetlana

came to Ameri¢
a very rare com
the higher circles Ss 58
ton and the Pentago® am
cidal war in Vie
clear, But it has @

for all the svetian@
ts ‘statu

anti-Soviet neuros

able commodit
: which incr?

ro:
tyne

interests —

cludes substan

es for its

“free press’.

low easily—
fortification

a deep pity —
deeper contemP

from “
e
snake-charmer®:

Editor—TOM McEWEN

Vancouver 4, B.C. Phone 685-5288.

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Asso

5 sec!

RIC
ciate Editor MACE gE. Hi
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