Romesh Chandra honored

for contribution to peace

MOSCOW — On his 60th
birthday, March 30, Romesh
Chandra, president of the World
Peace Council, was awarded the
international Lenin prize, ‘‘For
the Promotion of Peace Among

__ Nations.”’ This USSR award goes

to Soviet and some foreign citi-
zens whose work is considered
meritorious. :
Writing: of the event in the
newspaper Pravda, Ws
Shaposhnikov, a leading member
of the World Peace Council said:

Canadians to attend
world children’s meet

HORONTO — Intemational

* Year of the Child is being marked

in countries in all parts of the
world. But as well as through
each country’s own programs,
IYC is receiving international
recognition. :

_A global centre-piece will be
the World Conference: For a
Peaceful and Secure Future for
All Children, to be held under Un-
ited Nations and other auspices,
in Moscow, Sept. 7-11.

The participation of a Canadian
‘delegation is being arranged by
the Canadian Preparatory Com-

mittee for the World Conference

for International Year of the
Child. The Committee serves in
liaison with the International Pre-
paratory Committee for IYC.
Freda Brown of Australia,
president of the International
Preparatory Committee, reports
an enthusiastic response by many

- organizations throughout the
- world to the proclamation by the

United Nations for IYC, 1979.
‘*The solution... of .children’s

_ problems should be an integral

of economic and social

development,” she said. “Above

all, every child anywhere needs to
‘ow up in a peaceful world.””
The World Conference will in-
volve a wide spectrum of organi-
zations, specialists on the prob-
lems of children, educationists,
health, science, and cultural
workers, representatives of rv-

ligious forces, the mass media,
trade unions, women, youth, stu-
dents’, parents’ and children’s
organizations, as well as the Un-
ited Nations and its specialized
agencies, such as UNICEF and
UNESCO.

A Youth Forum and other spe-
cial interest groups, such as
parliamentarians, lawyers, writ-

‘ers and artists, will meet within

the framework of the Conference,
whose main structure will include
plenary sessions and*four work-
ing commissions:Commission I:
Economic, social and legal condi-
tions needed to guarantee the
rights of children; updating the
UN Declaration of the Rights of
the Child and elaboration of a
Convention.

Commission II; Education, recre-
ation, development of the child’s
personality, and the role of the
mass media.
Commission II: Protection of and
solidarity for children living under
extremely unfavorable conditions

(under, armed conflicts, refugees,

migrants, indigenous peoples).
Commission IV: Assistance for
handicapped children, orphans
and abandoned children..
Canadians interested in attend-
ing or preparing materials for the
World Conference IYC, are in-
vited to write the Canadian Pre-

‘paratory Committee, Box 524,

Port Credit Postal Station; Mis-
sissauga, Ontario.

“The high level: of activity of
the World Peace Council is first of
all the result of the efforts of mill-
ions of people in 130 countries
who seek to give effect to the
noble ideals of peace and friend-
ship among peoples. No small
credit for the successes of the
World Peace Council and the
growth of its international pre-
stige and influence must undoub-
tedly go to its president who has
faith in the vast potentialities of
the masses of the people, and in
the strength of peace-loving pub-
lic opinion capable of exercising a
positive effect on the activities of
parliaments and governments.”’

Chandra was born on March
30, 1919, was educated at the col-
lege of Lahore, then at Cambridge
University. At 20, he-led a student
movement in Punjab and in 1942
was elected secretary-general of
the All-India Student Federation.

A journalist by training,
Chandra contributed in 1944-1947
to various organs of the left-
democratic and Communist
press. He took an active part in
the national liberation struggle of
the Indian people against British
rule and was victimized and
persecuted on many occasions.

After the formation of the Re-
public of India, Romesh Chandra
made a great contribution to the
creation of a national movement
of peace supporters and then the
Afro-Asian solidarity movement.
In 1955 he was elected secretary-
general of the All-India Peace Or-
ganization, one of the largest na-
tional peace movements.

In 1966, Chandra was elected
secretary-general of the World
Peace Council, and since 1977 as
president, has been in the fore-
front of campaigns for signatures
on the new Stockholm Appeal,
campaigns to ban the neutron
bomb, and in support of the
peoples of the Middle East, Chile,
Angola and southern Africa. The
World Peace’Ce-incil was among

Lg ;
: *

Berm -

,

Romesh Chandra, president of the World Peace Congress was

awarded the Lenin Peace Prize by the Soviet government.

the first to voice solidarity with
Vietnam when it was attacked by
the Chinese military in February
of this year.

Canadians who have met
Chandra during one of his visits
here are aware of his unique abil-
ity to pull together divergent
points of view for the purpose of
unity on the single issue of peace.
An outspoken opponent of
imperialism, the World Peace
Council president is by the same
token the staunchest of sup-
porters of the national liberation
movements and of peoples
fighting for freedom from oppres-
sion.

Canada and 30 years of NATO mE

Murder’s a gas

Ford Motor Company is up on
a murder charge over deaths re-
sulting from exploding gas tanks
in defective Pintos. Firestone’s
radial tires have been fingered for
numerous highway deaths — a
charge the company no longer
disputes.

To demonstrate their remorse,
Henry Ford and Firestone chair-
man Richard Riley were the fea-
ture singing duet at a New York
roast for The Best Recalls of
1978.

April 4 marked the 30th anniversary
of the founding of NATO (North Atlan-
tic Treaty Organization). To celebrate
this occasion the giant U.S. aircraft
corporation McDonnell Douglas gave
its employees two days off with pay.
This maker of fighter and bomber
planes could well afford to do so; it has

waxed fat on NATO country orders.
Ok

Canada has been a member of NATO

for all of its 30 years. And what have
Canadians got out of this membership?
For one thing they have got steeply in-
creased taxes to pay for ever-increasing
purchases of arms, including war-
planes, including the current estimated
$3-billion for new fighter planes. And,
- for another, we have suffered a great
loss of sovereignty in determining the
vital issue of peace or war.
If the 30-year history of NATO con-
firms anything, it is the description of
the North Atlantic Treaty Organization
by the Communist Party of Canada at
the time it was signed. Namely, that it
was a military alliance directed against
other countries and people, of open
hostility toward other member states of
the United Nations, and its contra-
vention of the UN Charter.
~ haga * * *
In sharp contrast to the assessment
by the Communist Party the then Lib-
eral Prime Minister.St. Laurent asses-

_ sed the Treaty as ‘‘the best possible

Marxism-Leninism in Today’s World

insurance against war’’ which, he said
was couched in “‘language that speaks
from strength’’. This contradicted an
earlier statement he made while Minis-
ter of External Affairs in MacKenzie

- King’s Liberal government that ‘‘the

war would be fought at Canada’s gate-
s,’’ and it would be between “‘an atheis-
tic communist world and our demo-
cratic Christian civilization’’.

While this Liberal prime minister pi-

loted the treaty through parliament with _

a unanimous vote, the Conservative
Party under the leadership of Colonel
George Drew was equally adept in hid-
ing the real purpose of NATO behind a
smokescreen of an alleged ‘communist
menace’’..
ey ak

Unfortunately for the Canadian
people, the then right-wing leaders of
the CCF, forerunner of the NDP, were
equally enthusiastic supporters of the
treaty. And, in order to divert criticism
of the treaty in progressive and trade
union circles, they pleaded that NATO
should contain a clause on economic
cooperation between the member
states. 5

This concession was made by the
U.S. midwives of NATO, with the in-
clusion of a clause that the member

- States to the treaty ‘‘will seek to elimi-

nate conflict in their internal economic
collaboration between any and all of
the’’. This clause opened the way for
the CCF (NDP) group in the House at
that time to vote for the treaty, under
the pretence that the pact was some-
thing other than what it was — an alli-
ance for military aggression against

member states of the United Nations.
ee get

The essential nature of NATO isa _

prior commitment to war by its member
countries, which is spelled out in these
worlds, ‘‘in case of an armed attack on
any parties to the treaty in either

Europe or North America all members -

of the treaty will assist the one which is
attacked’. This prior commitment is
backed-up by a definition of “‘aggres-
sion’? which takes into account ‘‘the
new and sinister danger, indirect ag-
gression” from within the country
needing assistance.

Thus, in NATO's book ‘‘aggres-
sion’’ includes popular uprisings
against dictatorial regimes for democra-
tic social advance. For instance,
NATO strategy includes ‘‘preventive’’
action. Such action has included troop
and gunboat exercises on the borders of
a member country, or for that matter
non-members, in which the ability of

imperialism to continue its rule and —

exploitation was seriously in question.
This was the case in Greece, a member ©
over a number of years. And recently
the case in Zaire, a non-member.

* * *

The keystone of Canada’s present
foreign policy is its membership in
NATO. This military alliance, which
Prime Minister St. Laurent claimed as
“‘insurance”’ against war with premium
payments “‘lower than the cost of war”’,
has cost Canadian taxpayers some
$55-billion over the past 30 years. It has
cost Canadians their sovereign prerog-
ative of decision-making in respect to
war or peace. This military alliance
with U.S. imperialism determines the
main direction of Canada’s foreign pol-
icy.

For Canada to develop a truly inde-
pendent foreign policy it must withdraw
from NATO as well as it American
counterpart, NORAD, (North Ameri-
can Air Defence). This would enable
Canada to play a positive role for a just

- and stable world peace. This would re-

lease funds, presently squandered in a
useless arms race, for socially neces-
sary purposes.

* * *

The Communist Pr~ty is the only
party that campaigns day in and day out
for Canada to pull out of NATO and
NORAD. This is the only sane policy

’ for Canada to follow. This being the

case, vote Communist on May 22.
PACIFIC TRIBUNE—APRIL 27, 1979—Page 11