- University bookstore agrees
to remove fascist magazine

Special to the Tribune

REGINA — At a meeting Feb.
15, the University of Regina
Bookstore Committee agreed to
permanently remove the fascist
publication ‘‘Soldier of Fortune”’
from the University’s Book-
Store’s magazine racks. ‘‘Soldier
of Fortune’? is a magazine pub-
lished in Colorado, which by
Clever dodges, seems to be stay-
Ing just inside U.S. laws. It is a
Sort of “‘professional journal”’ for
hired killers — mercenary sol-
diers, or “‘mercs’’ as they play-
fully prefer to be called.

Many of the articles are techni-
Cal treatises on latest weaponry;
others — the fine arts of killing
With the bare hands. It also con-
tains plenty of useful information
on latest rates of pay, working
conditions, etc. in various ‘“war
zones’’. There is no confusion re-
garding where the ‘‘war zones’’
are — southern Africa, and who
the enemies are — Black Africans
and the- Soviet Union.

__ The successful campaign to
ban the sale of the magazine was
waged by the University of Re-
gina Students’ Union on the initia-
tive of one of the Union’s vice-
presidents, Bob Buckingham. In
a letter to community organi-
zations requesting their support,
Buckingham wrote: :

“The Students’ Union has a
policy condemning racism and
sexism. We do not believe that

. the propagation of attitudes that
lead to human degredation and
death can be defended on any
grounds, be they academic free-
dom, right to speak, social, moral,
political, philosophical or other-
wise.”’

A number of organizations re-
sponded to his request for sup-

port. One was the Regina branch

of Canadians Concerned About
Southern Africa (CCSA). Ina let-
ter to the bookstore committee,
CCSA branch chairman, Peter

Smollett, who is also a professor
at the U. of R., wrote that he ap-
preciated the sensitivity of the
bookstore committee regarding
possible charges of censorship:

“As a teacher whose political
views, teaching, and particularly
book assignments might be re-
garded by many as ‘controver-
sial’, I have a personal interest in
maintaining high standards of
academic freedom in the Univer-
sity’s bookstore, library, and
classrooms. However, there is a
line between ideas which are
legitimate subjects of academic
and political debate, no matter
how ‘controversial’ or “unpopu-
lar’ they might seem, and ideas
whose dissemination should be
proscribed. I do not presume that
that line is always easy to find.
But I do hold that responsible
people. are obliged to make the
hard judgements about where that
line lies. ...

“Racism has in fact been out-
lawed in the world. It was out-
lawed at the expense of some 50
million lives lost in World War
Two. Advocacy and practice of
racism still exists in spite of that.
‘But its existence does not
legitimize it. On the contrary, its
continued existence imposes
great responsibility on all human
beings to effectively enforce its
outlawry.”’

Smollet goes on to discuss
CCSA’s position in support of the
struggles in southern Africa
against the existing racist re-
gimes. This commitment is the
primary basis for their insistence
on the banning of a publication
which encourages the recruit-
ment of mercenaries for these re-
gimes.

But his letter raises other im-
portant issues which are close to
home:

“CCSA is concerned with the
struggles of the people of south-
ern Africa. But if you think the

issue is only Africa, I suggest you
read the magazine very carefully.
For example: the ads for *Vig-
ilante Magazine’; the ads for the
‘Black Books on Improvized
Munitions’, which advise that

‘Anyone who can forsee the trou-

bled times ahead should not be
without the knowledge contained
in these books’; the feature article
on target practice, complete with
instructions on how to fire from a
moving car; and the ad for a book,
‘Home Workshop Guns — Vol. |
— The Submachine Gun. ... So
You’ll Be Ready!’ ...

“Perhaps some might feel that
our organization and others are
over-reacting in our opposition,
and that ‘‘Soldier of Fortune’’ is
an insignificant publication for
te)

‘* _. what must be understood
is-that the influence of such a pub-
lication is not merely a matter of
its ability to persuade or influence
individual readers to its editorial
point of view. It serves as an or-
ganizing force. Its letters col-
umns, ‘Bulletin Board’, and
primarily its advertising columns
allow a large network of fascist-
minded individuals to find each
other and keep in touch with each
other.”

And for the benefit of know-
nothing nationalists, Smollett’s
letter points out:

‘* _. lest the magazine be dis-
missed as one of those aberra-
tions located south of the border
— please note that the magazine

regularly carries a full page ad for

the ‘Mercenary’s Manual’ from
Downsview, Ontario, and a re-
cent issue contained a classified
ad for ‘Explosives made easy ...
$2.00 from Prince Albert, Sas-
katchewan.””

The Tribune understands that
the Saskatchewan Attorney Gen-
eral is taking a look. Shouldn’t
Ottawa?

BIRMINGHAM — The beginning of the Birmingham-London march in
support of the strike of Turkish Metal Workers sets out to draw world
attention to the anti-fascist struggle of Turkish workers. The march was
organized jointly by the Turkish Students Federation and Committees
for Solidarity with the Striking Metal Workers.

-NEW WAVE OF REPRESSION HITS GRENADA

ST. GEORGES, Grenada — A wave of arrests, illegal searches and
repressive emergency laws have hit Grenada and have been described
as an ‘‘unofficial state of seige’’ by a leader of the Grenada opposition.

George Louison, a leader of the New Jewel Movement, said that
opposition parties, unions and progressive organizations are appealing
to the peoples of the Carribean and all those concerned with human
rights to condemn the latest government actions. Grenada has been
exposed in the past for its open dealings with the Chilean junta.

BELGRADE FINAL DRAFT IS ACCEPTED ‘

BELGRADE — The U.S. gn March 2 was forced to drop its previ-
ous obstruction and agree to a final draft at the 35-nation Belgrade
Conference. The draft, submitted by Denmark, binds signatories to
agree to continue carrying out the 1975 Helsinki agreements. Meetings
of experts will now be held to plan an acceptable method of the
peaceful settling of disputes between states and to prepare an all-
European scientific cooperation conference. ‘

H-BOMB DEAD HONORED BY PEACE CAMPAIGN
TOKYO — The anniversary of the first U.S. H-bomb, detonated
over the Pacific island of Bikini March 1, 1954, has been marked here .
by a stepped-up drive for signatures to ban nuclear weapons. The
fall-out from that bomb killed most members of a Japanese fishing
vessel and their memory has been kept alive each year. This year,
according to a leader of the Japanese Movement to Ban Nuclear Arms,
the effort will be to obtain 35 million signatures to present to this
summer’s special session of the UN. General Assembly on disarma-

ment.

Marx and the workers’ movement RICE om

A Toronto comrade reminded this

Marxism-Leninism in Today’s World

militant pamphlets. He worked at prac-

column last week that March 14 is the
95th anniversary of the death of Marx.
He asked if we would mark the anniver-
Sary with some suitable comment on
Marx’s contribution to the workers’
movement.

__ First, a grateful thanks to our com-
Tade for his reminder.
ok * *

Karl Marx was not only the father of
Sciéntific socialism, he was at once a
Philosopher, socialist publicist,

_ educator, organizer, master theoreti-
Cian and tactician. For him, science was
a historically dynamic, revolutionary
force.

In our remarks we will confine our-
_ Selves to three aspects of Marx’s con-
tribution to the workers’ political
Movement. Our source for such com-
Ment will be the thoughts of his closest
friend and co-worker, Frederick
Engels.
* * *
Marx discovered the law of
_ development of human histor;’. That is,
the simple fact that mankind nwust first
of all eat, drink, have shelter and cloth-
ing, before it can pursue politics, sci-
ence, art, religion, etc. From this he
Concluded that the production of the
immediate material means of subsis-
tence and consequently the degree of

economic development attained by a
given people or during a given epoch
form ‘the foundation upon which the
state institutions, the legal conceptions,
art, and even the ideas of religion, of the
people concerned have been evolved.

On this basis, Marx examined the |

development of. human society from
primitive man, through Slavery,
feudalism to capitalism.

In other words Marx stood the his-
tory of man on its feet, rescuing it from
the bourgeois historians of those days
who placed history on its head as, un-
fortunately, do many of our present-
day political scientists and historians.

* * *

Basing himself on concrete examina-
tion of the prevailing mode of produc-

tion, Marx also discovered the special -

law of motion governing the capitalist
mode of production and the bourgeois
society that this mode of production has
created. This was the discovery of sur-
plus value, i.e., value created over and
above the price (wage) of the labor
power expended in the production of
given objects of value over a given
period of time. This surplus of new
value is pocketed by the capitalist. The
discovery of surplus value threw new
light on the problem of the source of

capitalist profit. This was a problem all
previous investigation by bourgeois
economists and socialist critics had
been unable to solve, because they
looked at it upside-down.

Engels, speaking of these two dis-
coveries by Marx, said: *“*Two such dis-
coveries would be enough for one life-
time. Happy the man to whom it is
granted to make even one such discov-
ery. But in every single field which
Marx investigated — and he investi-
gated many fields, none of them super-
ficially — in every field, even in
mathematics, -he made independent

- discoveries.””

* * *

Marx was above all a revolutionary.
His real mission in life was to contribute
in one way or another, to the overthrow
of capitalist society and of the state in-
stitutions which it had brought into be-
ing. In other words, to contribute to the
liberation of the working class, which
he was the first to make conscious of its
own position and its needs — conscious
of the conditions of its emancipation.

Marx was a fighter. As Engels said,
‘the fought with a passion, a tenacity
and a success such as few could rival.”’

* Besides his great classical works, such

as Das Kapital, Marx produced a host of

tical tasks in socialist organizations in
Paris, Brussels and London. His
crowning achievement was the forma-
tion of the great International Work-
ingmen’s. Association.

* * oK

Founded in London in 1864, the First
International was the fruit of the untir-
ing work of Marx and Engels. After the
earlier Communist League, which
Marx and Engels joined in 1847, had
fallen victim to the hard blows of reac-
tion, these two men of genius continued
their work for the great idea of interna-
tional working-class solidarity, and to
rally the revolutionary forces for the
creation ofa militant international party
of the working class.

The great merit of the First Interna-
tional was that it brought the revolu-
tionary theory of the working class onto
the world arena, and initiated the fusion
of scientific socialism with the work-
ing-class movement on an international .
scale. It united the various sections of
the working class through common
ideas and aims, and demonstrated in
practice the vital importance of work-
ing class internationalism.

_ The grand achievements of the world
socialist system stand as a monument
to Karl Marx. and his co-worker Fre-
derick Engels.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—MARCH 17, 1978—Page 5