on By PETER BOYCHUCK
In December the people of the Soviet Union will be
celebrating the 60th anniversary of the formation of the
~hion of Soviet Socialist Republics. * True totheir Lenin-
Ist traditions, the Soviet people will meet this event not
Only with festive celebrations, but also with assessments _
a their achievements in order to chart the next step
ased on new developments:
the solution of the national question is one such his-
lorical achievement of Soviet power. To evaluate its
Significance was the purpose of the All-Union Scienti-
C-Practical Conference, sponsored by the Central
Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.
Meeting was held in Riga, capital of Latvia, on June
28, 29 and 30. The subject was ‘“‘The Development of
ational Relations in Conditions of Mature Socialism.
Ssons and Problems of Patriotic and Internationalist
Ucation’’.
The Main body of participants were Soviet people who
Presented over 200 papers in plenary and panel sessions.

‘apers were also read by representatives from fraternal ,

Parties of Bulgaria, Hungary, Mongolia, Czechoslo-
re Vietnam, Poland, GDR, Cuba, Afghanistan,
thiopia, Ireland, the USA, Canada and India.

Nazi Invasion in 1940

Latvia, which had joined the USSR in 1940 only to be
€cupied by the Hitler hordes for the next four years,
: “fore liberation by the Soviet Army, is a highly indus-
alized ‘republic with a very productive agriculture.

he-third of its population was killed during the nazi
ccupation. It is only recently that it has again reached

€ pre-war population of 2.5 million. I saw Latvia in
1930 and ‘again in 1931 and can vouch for its dramatic
a transformation from a poverty stricken country to its
Present position of an advanced socialist country with a
"sing curve of well being.

: The experience of the world’s biggest country, with its
Yast national multiformity, a country in which the ruling
Classes for Genturies implanted national discord and
-°Ppression, has irrefutably shown in practice the realis-
tc Possibility of forming a qualitatively new type of

————————

*The USSR, a federation, is a voluntary association of
Sovereign national Soviet Socialist Republics, formed
December 30, 1922.

Kremlin’s Spasskaya Tower

relationship between nations and nationalities, based on
equality, justice and friendship. It has convincingly
proved also that such relationships are a powerful factor
of social progress:

It has substantiated in theory and proved in practice
that, inasmuch as all national oppression and inequality
are the products of a system based on exploitation of
man by man, the struggle for a genuine settlement of the
nationalities question is inseparable from the struggle for
sacial liberation of the working people. Capitalism is
incapable of anything approaching a consistent solution
of the nationalities question.

Equality of Nations

Real equality of nations presupposes realization of the
right to self-determination and the establishment of one’s
own state, a free choice of social and economic system,
and sovereignty in shaping relations with other countries
and peoples: Only a voluntary union of all component

of the Union of Soviet
Socialist Republics

nations and nationalities provides a stable political basis
of a multinational state.

The political liberation of nations can be complete and
stable only if it is combined with the refashioning of
economic and social relations with the fight for economic
equality. In present-day conditions, with dozens of
countries grappling with the complex task of overcoming
centuries of backwardness and attaining economic
equality with developed capitalist countries, the exper-
ience of the Soviet republics is a valuable and inspiring
example. Especially important in this context is the
proven realistic possibility of bypassing the capitalist
stage, or at least substantially reducing it, in the advance
to socialism.

National equality is closely linked with the character
of the political system. The closer it comes to genuine
government by the people and the more working people
are involved in the affairs of the state and society, the
greater is the scope it provides for achieving national
renewal in countries that have set foot on the path of
independent development.

Need for Vanguard Party

A just solution of the nationalities problem requires a
constant, organized and purposeful political vanguard
capable of correctly interpreting and expressing the na-
tional interests, and of concentrating the energy of the
people in such a way that its efforts merge with those of
other peoples in a common international fight against
imperialism, for national freedom and social progress. In
other words, there has to be a party that gives voice to
the interests of the working class, of all working people,
a party guided by scientific socialism.

Long years of experience have demonstrated the im-
portance of the party’s concentrated efforts in educating
the working people of all nationalities in a spirit of inter-
nationalism and implanting the ideas. of friendship and
brotherhood of nations.

Representing the Communist Party of Canada at the
conference were Peter Boychuck, a member of the Cen-
tral Executive and Claire DaSylva, Central Committee
member and editor of the Quebec twice monthly news-
paper, Combat. Boychuck presented a paper, “Solution

of the National Question in the USSR and its Signi-

ficance for Canadian Communists”’ .

Prime Minister Trudeau has launched
a psychological offensive against Cana-
dians that, regardless of the place they
hold in the production process, they are
€qually guilty with monopoly for the in-
flation which holds our country ina ruin-
Ous grip. He has called uponall of us, rich
and poor alike, to admit our guilt by
Voluntarily accepting his 6/5% inflation
formula as being our patriotic duty.
5 Pte. ee”

‘Inflation —a wage-cutting device

‘| Marxism-Leninism Today

| Alfred Dewhurst :

working people in their role as consum-
ers. at
‘ ee eee

Any objective study of monopoly in-
teraction between prices and unit costs
will show that the practice cited above
is much more sophisticated and wide-
spread in present times. Such a study will
show also that increases in nominal wages
usually follow, after a short lag, the

_ Trudeau’s offensive is a logical
follow-through to the MacEachen for-
Mula that ‘incomes chase prices, which
in turn chase incomes in a vicious cir-
Cle’’. Both are equal parts of a bare-faced
attack against the living standards of the
Working people by imposing a general
Wage cut on all who are compelled to sell
their power to labor, in order that they
May purchase the means of life. But the
attack is camouflaged, wrapped in the
flag and carries the label ‘‘we are all
guilty of cheapening the dollar’’. Nothing
Could be further from the truth.

The truth is that wages and other forms
of working people’s incomes consis-
tently lag behind prices, with évery price

_Tise resulting in a comparable cheapening
of the dollar, and consequently a lower-
Ing of the value of the wage packet. The
Tapid growth of prices is not caused by
“excessive’’ increases in wages. Rather,
the especially rapid growth of the cost of

living, beginning in the late 1960s and
Continuing to the present time, has been
accompanied by a steady decline in the

eee

- growth of working people’s incomes,

and, in some cases, by an absolute reduc-
tion of real wages.

Nowadays, with the steady growth in
the consumer index, the struggle for
higher wages is above all a defensive re-
sponse of the working class to the sus-
tained offensive by the monopolies
against living standards and the rights of
labor.

* * *

Trudeau's 6/5% inflation goal coupled .

with the spurious ‘‘price-income spiral”
formula is but a rationale to cover-up

monopoly price-fixing and rip-off pro-

fiteering. This rationale is given satura-

tion media coverage every time workers

come out for higher wages. On the other
hand very little media coverage is given

to the price-fixing practices of the mono- _
. poly corporations. -

The most powerful corporations, such
as steel and other economic industries,
view conclusion of new collective
agreements as being the best time to an-
nounce new price rises. The big cor-
porations, having easy access to the

media and the blessing of government,
use the results of new wage agreements
to publicly rationalize their anti-social
price hikes by simply laying the blame on
the trade unions and the “‘greedy’’ work-

ers. Such sleight of hand trickery turns -

the main victims of monopoly exploita-
tion — the workers.— into swindlers,
and the real swindlers — - the monopolies
— into victims.

: * * *

Here is an example from 1956 taken
from Business Week for August of that
year. In that contract year unit labor
costs per ton of steel in the USA went up
by an average of $2.50 — $3, but the price
of a ton of steel rose by $6. Although
these figures are some 25 years old, they
graphically demonstrate that the pricing
policy of monopoly is not based solely on
labor unit costs, but are arbitrarily set in
coordination by the most powerful
monopoly groupings who are the pace-
setters in price rises. Such cyclical price
rises seep through the entire economy to
end up in the over-the-counter prices (in-
cluding a variety of taxes) paid by the

growth of prices, instead of outstripping
the price growth. On the other hand, the
share of profit in the price of goods pro-
duced and sold increases very much ear-
lier. Such a study also clearly shows that
the price levels set by the pace-setting
monopolies always becomes the norm.

Recent statistical data show very well
that wage rises lag behind price increases
in scale as well as in time. All of which
clearly demonstrates that in our times,
inflation operates as a key instrument in
the redistribution of the national income
at the expense of the workers, and for the
enrichment of the corporate elite.

* * *

The working class, the trade unions,
all working people cannot afford to be
misled by Trudeau’s philosophical
double-talk about inflation guilt and
equality of sacrifice. Canada needs new
priorities which put people’s_ interests
before monopoly and U.S.. trans-
nationals’ profits. Expansion and
development, not restraint and reces-
sion, must be the united aim of the work-
ing class, of all working people.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—AUGUST 13, 1982—Page 5

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