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. 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