AT ITALIAN SOCIALIST PARTY CONGRESS By PHYLLIS ROSNER ery shortly negotiations are due to start between the Soc- ialist, Christian Democratic, Re- public and Social Democratic parties on the formation of a new Centre- Left government. As a result of the recent con- gress (October 25-29) of the Italian Socialist Party, general secretary Pietro Nenni will now have a smaller margin for these negotiations. The key question — not fully resolved by the congress—is that of the conditions on which the Socialists should enter such a government. Thanks to the Left Wing’s firm attitude and to the changed line of certain members of Nenni’s own Right Wing group the draft resolution had to be changed and kept deliberately vague on cer- tain key questions. Moreover, in the new central committee, enlarged by 20 new members to 101, Nenni cannot always count majority. It has 40 Left Wing represen- tatives, two from a splinter group and 59 from the Right, or Autonomists, as they are known. However, an estimated 15 of this latter group are followers of Ricardo Lombardi who, during the congress, showed he was not always prepared to follow Nenni’s line. During the congress, Nenni showed he was prepared to pay any. price to enter the govern- ment. His two-hour speech lacked any real criticism of the Christ- ian Democrats; he indicated he was prepared to accept all their conditions, These include a policy of defla- tion, acceptance of a multilateral Nato atomic force, and the so- called ‘‘limitation of the majority,’’ namely, that Com- munist votes in Parliament for government motions be automat- ically rejected if they are de- on having a Buck on power grab Cont'd from pg. 7 POWER GENERATED”. (My emphasis T.B.) It is impossible to ignore the fact that, following this announce- ment by the Pearson government, Robert Winters, the head of the vast speculative project to exploit the resources of a large part of Newfoundland and Labrador, de- -Scribed by Stan Lynn two weeks: ago, also made a public state- ment, This was addressed to monopo- ly-capitalist interests, assuring them that this group is receiving governmental encouragement and co-operation in its plan to devel- op the enormous power potential of the Hamilton river in Labra- dor and export hydro-electrical energy to the United States, The fact that Winters was a- Minister in the Liberal govern- ment under Louis St. Laurent and the fact that he referred Specifically to the Liberal governments of Newfoundland and Quebec as examples of the co- operation he is receiving are not the most important facts in con- nection with his public statement. - ~ What is vital to Canada is the fact that he revealed the first specific objective of the new policy announced by the Pearson government; it includes a plan to alienate the greatest single undeveloped power site in the ‘Western Hemisphere — perhaps in the world. 7 * * In our Canada Day greeting of July 1, 1955, we wrote: “The availability of abundant power, preferably cheap power, has become the decisive consid- eration in deciding where great industries shall be located...” *“‘We can become the main centre of the great basic indus- tries of North America, drawn here by the irresistible magnet of abundant cheap power and in- dustrial raw materials or, we shall become a vast reserve of natural resources from which the United States will draw energy and industrial raw materials as she needs them.”’ Events are proving the truth of those words much faster than we anticipated at that time. The Columbia, and now the Hamilton rivers, are the beginning of a policy of LICENSING THE EXPORT OF LARGE BLOCKS OF POWER FOR RELATIVELY LONG PERIODS OF YEARS FROM POWER DEVELOP- re =, —— S eos eee 8 ee ~ : 7 Pe ct Ss i Gl + MENTS : AND DIVERSIONS WHICH ARE CARRIED OUT EXPRESSLY BECAUSE OF THE DEMAND FOR EXPORT. “ Tf the government is allowed to put this policy into operation without effective protest from the Canadian people, then the sell- out of control of our country to foreign capital will surely be beyond the point of no return, If ever there was need for patri- otic people to make a stand in defense of the interests of Cana- da it is now. The unanswerable arguments about the necessity for action to save Canadian sovereignty that were voiced by James Coyne before he was removed from the Governorship of the Bank of Canada, all apply fully in this issue of what is to be the role of Canada’s power resources, * * * The principle at stake in the patriotic battle fought by General McNaughton to save the Colum- bia for Canada, is repudiated by the new policy announced by the Pearson government. The Pear- son-Udall scheme is the reality which makes a mockery of the words uttered by the Minister of Finance, Walter Gordon, when “he warned the members of the House of Commons on October 16: ’ “Tf we mean business Canada must gradually take whatever steps are necessary, even if such steps are not popular in all circles, to regain agreater mea- sure of control over her own economic affairs ... If we do not do this, Canadians may well wake up some day, and perhaps. sooner than they think, and find that they have lost control not only of their economic destiny but of their political destiny as well.’’ Walter Gordon’s words were and are profoundly true. The trouble is that his words are repudiated by the government’s “action. In a slightly different form it is like the division of labor between Coyne and the Diefenbaker government all over again. Patriotic Canadians, regard- less of their political affiliation: > should demand of their members of Parliament to speak up now in defense of our country’s inter- ests. Against the plan to make a gigantic pool of Canadian and U.S. resources for the profit of U.S, industries, we need anation- al campaign for the development of industries in Canada, a4 pis ee aT Sys cisive for the fate of a draft law. His speech contained a lengthy polemic against the Communists, PIETRO NENNI, leader of the Atalian Socialist Party. and its entire tenor rancounter to Italian Socialist Party tradition. Unlike other West European Socialist Parties, the Socialist Party has defended its Marxist ‘basis, It has conducted bitter struggles against fascism and re- action together with other work- ing-class parties, in particular with the four-times-as-powerful Italian Communist Party. it was up to the Left Wing, headed by Vechietti, to . recall this tradition. In his warmly received speech at the congress, Vechietti stressed it was not a matter of the Left rejecting par- ticipation in the government at all costs, The decisive point was under what conditions. * * * Another key congess speech was that made by Riccardo Lom- bardi, who opposed Nenni’s op- portunist line and put forward a far more realistic policy. For the Socialist Party to take partinthe government there mustbe abasic change in government policy. *‘Not just any change, but one in a determined direction, that of a turn to the left,’’ he declared to thunderous applause. had the majority. After five days’ rather heated debate, congress closed with the adoption of the majority Auto- nomist resolution, which obtained gor? PALMIRO TOGLIATTI, leader of the Italian Communist Party. 57.42 per cent of the votes. It declares ‘‘in the present sit-- uation between the classes and. parties, the Centre-Left coalition © is the most capable of defeating the Right and guaranteeing pro- gress in the country.’’ This is so because there areno other conditions existing for forming a government and ‘‘there remains the impossibility of a joint fight for power with the Communists.”’ Such a government must adopt a policy of economic plan- ning and structural reforms, giv- ing priority to agriculture, schools and town planning. The reforms must be designed ‘‘to overcome the disequilibriums created by the present system dominated by the monopoly groups.’’ * * * On the important issue of the formation of regional, district and local administrations, the resolution has changed previous congress decisions which stipu- lated the. setting up of joint Socialist - Communist adminis- trations where these two parties LOOKING FOR UNUSUAL BUYS AT POPULAR PRICES? ¥ We have an interesting choice of goods from the ( U.S.S.R., Czechoslovakia, China and Poland. f TEA AND CONFECTIONERY FROM U.S.S.R. — CHINAWARE — LINENS — CERAMIC FIGURINES i iE Rt ( We specialize in arranging tourist visits to the Soviet Union “is «as