WE'RE POOLING OUR

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Arms of the USSR

The designing of the arms of
the Soviet state was a task of
outstanding importance since it
had to be a coat of arms that
differed substantially in its im-
plication from anything that had
ever been in the arms of capital-
ist states.

The office of the Council of
People’s Commissars received a
design for the arms done in
water colors. It was round in
shape and bore the same em-
blems as the present coat of
arms, but through the centre
ran a long, unsheathed sword.
The sword seemed to cover the
entire design.

Vladimir Ilyich was in his of-
fice talking to several comrades.

“What’s that, a coat of arms?
Let’s have a look at it!” He bent
over the desk and peered closely
at the drawing. We all stood
round Vladimir Ilyich, interested
to see this design for a coat of
arms that had beea sent in by
an engraver employed at Goz-
nak, the printing works that pro-
duced. banknotes.

Outwardly the arms had been
well done. Tie rays of the rising
sun, surrounded by a semicircle
of sheaves of wheat gleamed
against a red background; the
hammer and sickle stood out
clearly in this semi-circle but
the entire design was dominated
by the sharpened steel blade
that ran right through it from
bottom to top, as though to put
everyone on his guard.

“Interesting!” exclaimed Vla-
dimir Ilyich. “The idea is there,
but what is the sword for?”

“We are battling, we are fight-
ing and will continue ‘to fight
until we have consolidated the
dictatorship of the proletariat
and have driven the Whiteguards

“>

wg | Pacific

and interventionists out of our
country, but that does not mean
that war, war lords and violence
will ever take the lead with us.
We do not need any conquests.
A policy of conquest is alien
to us; we are not attacking but
are defending ourselves against
internal and external enemies;
our war is defensive and the
sword is not our emblem. We
must hold it firmly to protect
our proletarian state as long as
we have enemies, as long as we
are attacked, as long as we are
threatened, but that does not
mean forever.”

“Socialism will triumph in all
countries, there is no doubt
about that. The brotherhood of
the peoples will be proclaimed
and will become reality through-
out the world, and we do not
need the sword. It is not our em-
blem.” Vladimir Ilyich repeated.

“We must remove the sword
from the arms of our socialist
state,” he continued. He took
a black-lead pencil with a sharp
point and made the proof-read-
er’s sign for “delete” over the
sword.

When the sketch was return-
ed without the sword we de-
cided to show it to the sculptor
Andreyev: He drew it again,
made the sheaves of grain thick-
er, made the gleaming rays of
the sun stand out more clearly
and, in general, produced the
entire coat of arms in relief,
making it more expressive.

The coat of arms of the
RSFSR was approved at the
very beginning of 1918.
—tTaken from The Arms of. the

Soviet State, from the book
The October: Storm and
After. Progress Books, Tor-
onto.

Editor—MAURICE RUSH

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PACIFIC TRIBUNE—FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 25, 1970—PAGE 4

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Opening the door

Trudeau will soon journey to the
USSR in what appears to be the first
serious step taken by Canada to widen
trade relations, and technical and
scientific information exchanges with
the Soviet Union. :

It is what the Communist Party and
other progressive forces in Canadian
society have been advocating.

Some efforts to mar Trudeau’s trip
were made with the stage-managed
Dotsenko letter to the Soviet Govern-
ment, and through efforts to breathe
life into the Gouzenko corpse. These
efforts seem to have fizzled, and the air
is all the cleaner for that.

Hitherto the official propaganda was
that the Soviet Union had nothing to
give or sell us. The idea of socialist
backwardness is assiduously cultivated
in the capitalist press.

The fact is that socialist planning
has been an outstanding success, en-
abling socialist society to outpace capi-
talist society in annual rates of ‘devel-
opmen. Instead of reflecting a crisis,
the changes taking place in the econo-
mic life of the Soviet Union arise as a
result of success.

The economic reforms of recent years
are consciously taken to extend and re-
fine the socialist control of the produc-
tive forces. They are part of the pro-
cess of socialist advance, in which the
economic laws are brought into full
play and harmony in order to improve
the quality of life of the people. This
has always been the case.

The capitalist world faces real diffi-
culties today in trying to cover up this

basic truth by depicting the economic
_ life of the USSR as a series of errors,

a position more and more untenable in
face of the enormous developments in
the Soviet Union.

Trudeau is going to the Soviet Union
not because the Soviet Union needs us,
but because Canada and the Soviet
Union each have something to contri-
bute to the other in the spirit of peace,
friendship and mutual advantage. So-
viet know-how in the Arctic is being
sought. because it is indispensable for
Canada’s Arctic development, and
everyone knows it, ~

It’s a- good beginning. It is encour-
aging for those of us who have advo-
cated it for so long. Let’s work to ex-

-pand it to cover every front,

Soak the rich instead

The Economie Council of Canada is
noted for writing things it thinks
people would like to hear. Its latest
report is a departure from the soft
soap approach. According to the capi-
talist press the Council is reeommend-
ing deterrent fees and a cutback in
educational spending.

It wouldn’t take a great deal of bril-
liance to figure that this is the ECC’s
contribution to back up the Trudeau
austerity program, which is creating
mass unemployment and is ruining
the farmers.

Deterrent fees are an extra tax on
the poor designed to deny people medi-
cal care rather than solve the problem
of providing it. That’s capitalism. More
and better education is required in to-

‘
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BO : hatieric

just

-ures of the insurance

day’s world. Education is a right. 1H
Council attacks this principle. —_|
Rising costs are given as the reasi))
There is need for a great deal of ‘el
ging into the claims made by the he
before they are accepted as the truly
But, and this exposes the deceit as W®)
as anything, the Council had noth!
to say about profiteering as a cals
for rising costs. dai
Just a few days ago the capitali)
press reported that penicillin tape
range from $11.10 a hundred to $2.00 il
hundred —and the doctors give HS
prescriptions for the most expensiv’)
Tranquilizers range from nearly 9% |
hundred to $2 a hundred. And so. 0m: i
This is an example of scandald)
profiteering which is ‘costing the a
tims many millions of dollars, and the”
health. ‘
Another source of funds for people
needs is the nearly two billion dolla
spent each year on armaments. — '
Canada needs a people’s governmel
which would have: agencies bring !
reports on how to improve the life ®
the people, not on how to widen pove
and discrimination.

Speak up Trudeau! |

In the Middle East the picture h®
been transformed from the bright hoP*}
of peace to the grim menace of a W4
which threatens the world.

King Hussein is doing what he’s sul”
posed to do—frustrating a peace Sé F
tlement. Once again the UAR has calle
the bluff of Washington and Tel AVY
by stating that it would, given fi
committments against Israeli attack)
agree to withdraw its defense missile

It’s time that the Trudeau govel™
ment came out behind the UAR’s pea®
initiatives and the implementation
the UN decisions.

Dangerous thoughts! |

Charles Lynch, political commenti
tor for the capitalist media, is mad 4

the private insurance companies. Freé |

enterprise is OK, until it costs y
money, he has discovered. Low incom
people who need cheap medicare al
auto insurance discovered that fact
long ago.

It seems that Mr. Lynch was doilé |

some research on the subject of auto
mobile insurance when the Manitoba
scheme was hitting stormy weather.

The auto insurance company with
which Mr. Lynch does his insuring se?

him a notice fining him: because of tw? |

infractions of the law. :
The private insurance companies, it

seems, can triple any fine the law im |

poses on you for traffic infractions. 59
Mr. Lynch’s pocket will be lightened by
$102 which will go into the profit fig
company. ‘

The Ontario Department of Tran%
port gives over a “driving abstract’ t0
the insurance company which reveals
all infractions of the law. That is, thé
government of Ontario spends the tax
payers’ money to do a stoolpigeoning
job for private business.
Anywhy, it has made Charles Lynch
into a socialist. He says he’d sooner
pay his money into the public treasury
than to a private insurance company:

What’s this world coming to?
= apes