st

Not used since the Habitat Forum, Hangar 5 at Jericho came ative again last Sunday during the multinational

concert organized by COPE together with the Friends of Jericho to spotlight the campaign being waged to
save the site for a part and recreation facility. Among those on the concert bill were the Trinidad Supertones
Steel -Band (above) as well as other groups (see photo below).

—Sean Griffin photo

ry |
Left wing:

BY

Whois it that keeps sport alive in
this country? The federal govern-
ment’s department of fitness and
sport, and the provincial ministry
of recreation and conservation, the
two major governmental bodies
one would think responsible for
that sort of thing?

Nope, it’s the breweries and
distilleries across Canada which

-keep us going.

If you check out the professional
scene, you will find that a fair
number of Canada’s professional
teams, are owned by either
breweries or distilleries. In
baseball, the Montreal Expos are
owned by the Bronfman family,
owners of Seagram’s distilleries,
and the new Toronto Blue Jays
have their bills paid by Labatt’s
breweries.

Until very recently, the Montreal
Canadiens were owned by Molsons,
and the current champions of the
North American Soccer League,
Toronto Metro-Croatia are in the
process of being sold to Labatts,

BOOK REVIEW

Philosophy, clearly and

The working class of France has
a long and glorious revolutionary
tradition but perhaps it has had no
more glorious moment than the
great. days of 1934 when the
workers of Paris beat back the
most serious assault of the French
fascists by forming the - United
Front which later developed into
the Popular Front and formed a
government. By 1936, the Popular
Front, a coalition of all left and
progressive parties in France that
enacted many pieces. of social
legislation. It was only the
vacillations of the Social
Democrats, led by Leon Blum, that
finally gave up the government of
France to reaction, opening the
way tothe later surrender to Hitler
when the Nazis marched in.

That the French workers
pioneered in creating that united

front was no accident, nor was it’

mere spontaneity. It was the fruit
of a great program of working
class education developed under
the leadership of Maurice Thorez,
the general secretary of the
Communist Party of France.
Thousands of workers achieved a
living understanding of the
meaning of working class -unity
and how to bring it about in the
shops and the neighborhoods. One
important factor was the Marxist
schools in all the great industrial
centres and particularly the
Workers University of Paris where
the quality of teaching was very
high.

Probably the most popular
teacher at the Workers University
was Georges Politzer who taught
Marxist philosophy with such
simplicity and depth that literally
thousands discovered that the
Marxist variety of philosophy was
not strange or hard to grasp, that it
was intimately connected with
practical struggles and that it
made better sense than any other
outlook in the world.

Politzer later was a leader of the
Resistance and published an un-
derground paper. He‘and his wife
were arrested in 1942 and were
promised full freedom if they
would throw their great influence
to the side of the Occupation. They
refused and Politzer was executed,
at the age of 39. His wife died at the
age of 39.

But the text of Politzer’s course

at the Workers University was

published in France in 1945 and
was translated and published in
Australia the same year. Then it
seems to have been forgotten until
last year, when it was reissued in

France and has since sold 300,000
copies. Barbara Morris, an
American teacher in Ethiopia,
discovered it in Paris on her way
home for a visit with a proposal to

translate it. Her translation has .

since been put out by International
Publishers and Politzer’s lectures
are again available under the title,
Elementary Principles of
Philosophy.

If I may be allowed a personal
note: for a full half-century, I have
eagerly read every book of Marxist
theory and philosophy I could lay
my hands on. I know of no book of
Marxist philosophy that equals this
one for class and self-study. It is a
striking combination of simplicity,
clarity and depth. It ought to make
a radical transformation in the
quality of Marxist teaching of
philosophy addressed to the public.

Politzer begins with ideas easily
shared with any interested student
and he never goes from one theme
to the next until he has laid a solid
groundwork. The book -is_ well

organized into parts, chapters and’

sort sections and even a reading of
the comprehensive table of con-
tents gives a logical idea of the
progression of his presentation.
Recommended further readings
are given at the end of each
chapter and review questions
appear at the end of each part.
The material in this book is too
detailed to be summarized in a
short review, which can only try to
hit the high spots. Politzer opens
with the simple question : Why
should we study philosophy? He
answers that the philosophy he is
offering is not difficult, but that it
is important for the understanding
of life and especially of politics.
A summary account of the
principal ways in which humans
have tried through history to ex-
plain themselves and the universe
makes an easily grasped in-
troduction to the main issue of
philosophy, the distinction between
philosophic idealism and
materialism, the question whether
the world existed before and in-
dependent of, thinking humanity or
whether there was ‘“‘spirit’’ before
there was matter. He shows how, if
“spirit’’ or ideas came first,
science is impossible. That is
followed by an historical and
logical account of philosophical
materialism according to several
questions: What is matter?) What
are space, time, motion? How is
one a materialist in practice.
Materialist dialectics is useful
only when it is applied to the many

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—NOVEMBER 19, 1976—Page 10

ELEMENTARY PRINCIPLES OF
PHILOSOPHY. By Georges Politzer.
International Publishers, 1976. Paper,
$3.50. Available at the Peoples’ Co-op
Bookstore.

problems that face humanity.
Marxist political economy is too
complex tohave a proper place ina
short book like this but historical
materialism, the Marxist account
of the development of human
societies, the crowning
achievement of the application of
dialectical materialism, receives a
part to itself, as it should.
Historical materialism is at once
the most important, the most
contested and the most mis-
understood and misinterpreted of
the general propositions — of
Marxism

Politzer begins with the analysis

of the idealist explanations of
history. There are many but all of
them in one way or another explain
the great events of history in terms
of ideas that moved rulers,
leaders, masses. It was not until
Marx made the simple observation
that all ideas are produced by. the
real conditions of life that it
became possible to pinpoint the
real motive force of history — how
humans have to act to keep alive.

Without minimizing the force of
ideas, Marx asked: Where do ideas
come from? Politzer explains with
simple but precise terms what
Marx meant by “‘social being,”’ the

simply

reality that finds expression in
social and political attitudes,
formations and actions.

From there he comes to the point
that behind ideas there are social
classes with opposing interests,
and that in the long run, the ex-
planation of history is to be found
in class struggle.

The book leads by logical stages
to a climax in its final chapter,
“The Application of the Dialectical
Method to Ideologies.’’ Political
education is essentially the
clarification of ideologies, for as
people think, so they will act. The
feeling of oppression or ex-
ploitation is not enough to lead to
successful political action. The
cause has to be seen beneath the

appearances and behind the ideas

that are drummed into people by
schools, institutions and the media.
The social reality so carefully
hidden from view has to be
discovered: in other words, one
must develop a working class
ideology. For that, the science of
Marxism is needed as is an un-
derstanding of that science in its
many applications.

That is what Politzer’s book is
about. In my opinion, it is a book
for everybody concerned with
Marxism in any way, either as a
superb source of study or as a
brilliant example of how Marxism
can be taught.

—Morris Colman
Daily World [abridged ]

a

The Kobzar Dancers led off the program which also included the

Dionysius Greek Dancers, Chilean folksinger

Raul Figueroa, poet.

Seymour Levitan and the Arabic Dancers.

j nament, its parent company

the same people who own a shat
of the Toronto Argonauts. Even I!
Vancouver, the soccer Whitecaps
are owned by Herb Capozzi, wh?
made most of his money makiné
wine in the Okanagan. a
But, the pre-eminence of MY
money in the Canadian sporting
setup isn’t restricted to tht
professional ranks. a
A few years back, the federal
government announced that it was
going to do something to guarantee
that Canada would be well
represented as hosts of the 197)
Olympics. The government told 8
about “Game Plan °76” whi¢l
would put aside a few millio?
dollars to help prepare Canadial |
athletes for the upcoming Olym) |
pics. According to the scheme, thi§) |
money would help out athletes, pay
expenses for coaches and trainer) |
as well as cover a few a0 |
ministrative. costs. Unfortunately;
it turned out that a large portion) s
that money went towards ad} }
ministration costs and to buy
air plane tickets for Sports Canadé
types to establish Canada’$ j
presence‘at international events? ;
Tokyo, Budapest and elsewhere
That’s fair enough, but on all 10 ;
many occasions, the Sporl ;
Canada people were there, but they
forgot to bring along our athlete (
with them. t
And even more disturbing wa ;
the fact that the athletes them ;
selves kept waiting for thel! |
promised federal assistance an®
were getting restless. At that poith
another well known brewery: s
Carling-O’Keefe, stepped in with?
few million dollars of their ow!
which they distributed around ®
hire coaches, finance traininé
sessions, and cover travelliné §
n

s

expenses. As well they sponsored?
number of international events
many sports. ge
The athletes were, of cours’ |
quite happy to receive | N
assistance, sports fans applaud | A
the selfless generosity of Carling
and Carlings won thousands of neW
friends — plus a substantial 1
come tax deduction. And the
government, which should have
been paying the bills all along, Ww?
let off the hook. |
But not only the government was
let off the hook, so was Carling
and now with Labatts bailing out
the-financially troubled national
soccer team, they too are now off
the hook. Because of its refusal
provide proper financl |
assistance to athletics thé
Canadian government has allow!
giant corporations such as Labatt
Seagrams and Carlings to get 0¥ |
from under their unsavory imag’
amongst working people. "
Nobody in the B.C. labo!
movement has to be reminded ©
the anti-labor attitude of Seagra™
and how they have employed 19!
century labor relations with the
workers at their New Westminst@
distillery, nor do they have to
reminded of Labatts’ record 7
anti-labor activity, particularly it
eastern Canada. But maybe W
should examine Carling-0’Keefe®
record a little further. i
The major shareholder in thé
Carling Brewing Company is
Canadian Breweries Limited
which in turn is owned by RoW,
man’s of Pall Mall. Rothmans |
Pall Mall is one of the large t
corporate powers in South Afric?
and one of the pillars of
country’s racist apartheid syste™
of government. a
At the same time that Carlin€,
O’Keefe in Canada is handing 0
millions of dollars to amatel!
sports across the country an
posting a $2.5 million guarantee id
the Canada Cup hockey. tour

228

practicing they type of rach.
policies which have led to the
expulsion of South Africa from
nearly every international spo! a
federation. a