The space shuttle — workhorse or warhorse?

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By FRED WEIR
When the new space shuttle, Columbia, roars sky-
ward on April 10, the hopes of many people around the
world for a new era of peaceful space exploration will
ride with it. However there are disturbing signs that
Columbia is more a creature of the arms race than of the
Space race, and that its mission will be to transport the
tensions of Earth into space, rather than to bring the

Usne

+= wonders of the solar system home to Earth.

The space shuttle has been sold to the public as the
instrument that will put America back into the forefront
of space exploration. It is described as a kind of
‘tworkhorse’’, that will be capable of moving the com-
ponents of space stations, laboratories, and interplane-
tary vehicles out of earth’s gravity and into orbit where
they can be assembled and utilized with maximum
efficiency.

Columbia is undeniably an impressive feat of tech-
nology. It will take-off like a rocket, deliver up to 65,000
pounds of cargo into earth orbit, and then re-enter the
atmosphere to land like a conventional aircraft. The
shuttle will be continuously re-usable, and NASA plans
to have a fleet of up to four of them operating during the
1980s.

Yet the stark fact is that not one project of space
exploration based upon the space shuttle has been plan-
ned or approved by the.U.S. government. NASA’s
budget has been slashed again and again, its only current
planetary project — the Galileo mission to Jupiter slated
for 1988 — is hanging by a slender thread. The Reagan
administration is on record as opposing grants for further
space exploration. NASA has even been reduced to
soliciting private donations to help keep the old Viking
Mars lander alive and transmitting for a few months
more.

‘*After a decade of stirring feats’’ writes American
astrophysicist Robert Jastrow, ‘‘the United States has

| decided to drop out of planetary exploration.”’ So, the
| space shuttle would seem to have been widowed even
| before its maiden flight.

There will be, however, no shortage of cargo for Col-
umbia to lift. Fully one-third of the 75 scheduled space
shuttle flights over the next few years have already been

| reserved — by the Pentagon. In fact, according to
i ‘‘Discover’’ magazine, Columbia probably would never

have gotten off the drawing boards ‘‘if it had not been

| needed by the Air Force for launching spy satellites.”

The reasons for such a large number of military-run

{ flights of the space shuttle are unknown. However a

flurry of articles has .appeared in science magazines in

| recent months which speculate upon a new generation of

military technology soon to be applied in space. These

include a whole new dimension in electronic warfare and

*

U.S. space shuttle set for launching April 10.

subversion; techniques for ‘‘kidnapping’’ enemy satel-
lites; anti-missile lasers mounted on platforms in earth
orbit; orbital missile guidance systems which would
guarantee pinpoint accuracy ... It is becoming apparent
that Columbia is intended to be not the workhorse, but
the warhorse of space.

It takes 10 to 15 years to plan and develop a project of
interplanetary exploration. At present, beyond the
Galileo flight, NASA has nothing at all on its books.
Even if the American establishment has a change of
heart, it will be well into the 1990's before anything can
be launched. In the meantime, we might well ask, what
will those space shuttles be doing up there?

_ A political incompetent, or a fraud?

A B.C. reader sent along an article
“Workers in common struggle’, au-
thored by one-time B.C. premier Dave
Barrett and leader of the New Democrat-
ic Party in that province. The article,
Carried in the March 8 issue of New
Democrat, is notable for its ideological _
and political poverty. To read the article
is to understand better why his govern-
ment fell before the reactionary demag-
Ogy of the B.C. Socreds.

*

* *

In philosophical vein Barrett goes on

|
|

te

Alfred Dewhurst

Marxism-Leninism Today

that perspective with a word ‘Solidari-

counter-revolutionary aims of im-
perialist agents in Poland. ‘
* * *

As if to give the lie to Barrett's position
the Toronto Star for March 28 carried an
article date-lined Washington that, *‘As
an anxious Ronald Reagan administra-
tion heightened its war of nerves with the
Soviets, officials privately speculated
that it is now a matter of ‘when’ not ‘if an
invasion of Poland takes place.’’ And

For instance, the author informs his
Teaders that the social democratic
Movement is feared alike by ‘‘doc-
trinaire’’ capitalists and communists
throughout North America. The “‘doc-
trinaire’’ capitalists, whoever they are,
can speak for themselves. As for the
communists, why do they consistently
appeal to the NDP to form a common
front with the trade unions, the farm or-
ganizations and the Communist Party if

they fear the social democratic move- .

ment?

In an attempt to justify his erroneous
statement, Barrett asserts that both the
‘‘doctrinaire’’ capitalists and the com-
munists ‘‘attack us” (social democrats)
“because we care about people as
human beings, not fodder for various
‘isms’ which exploit the many for the
benefit of the few’’. Obviously, v/hen he
refers to the ‘‘isms’’ he must of necessity
include socialism, for it is one of the most
important of the ‘‘isms’’. So, if we read
him right, he is not sincere when he
speaks of the benefits of democratic
Socialism.

Pt * * *

to explain that the social democratic
movement’s approach to the ‘‘problems
of humankind” is ‘‘in the round”’, that it
is ‘three dimensial — not just political,
not just economic, but, also, spiritual’.
This. being the case, he informs the
reader that the social democratic
‘trademark is not a label, but a perspec-
tive’’; and that ‘twe’’ (social democrats)
‘believe in human beings everywhere,
and in all circumstances.”

What does all of this really mean? Di-
vested of its philosophical gibberish,
what Barrett is expounding is anon-class
concept of social reality. His notion of a
“three dimensial’’ outlook is meant to
cover up the reality of class and class
relationships in a class divided society.
This is done by substituting the concept
of ‘‘spiritual’’ for that of social (class) ina
class structured society. And, to look at
the ‘‘problems of humankind in the
round’, certainly obviates the need of
taking sides in the class struggle.

: * * *

However, we come to the nub of the
one-time B.C. premier’s roundabout

~ reasoning when he writes ‘‘and we voice

ty’. Solidarity with whom? With the
workers in Canada who are battling their
corporate bosses and governments for a
living wage, and an end to social spend-
ing cutbacks? No. What Barrett has in
mind is solidarity with ‘‘Solidarity — the
movement which srang up in Poland.”’
And he quotes the big business New York
Times that, ‘‘Solidarity has no alterna-
tive to waging political battle on behalf of
all disaffected groups.’ The Time quote
goes on to note that Solidarity ‘cuts ac-
ross all strata and all age groups’’ (Our
emphases)

The author then points out that U.S.
Secretary of State Haig publicly expres-
sed ‘‘concern that Solidarity was goint
too far’’. This, he interprets as evidence
of collusion between the ‘‘hierarchies of
communism and capitalism’’, because
Solidarity sounded to him (Haig) ‘‘like a
social democratic movement’’. Appa-
rently Barrett could not see Haig’s

statement as a warning to anti-socialist .

elements in Solidarity not to push their
positions too hard, in case such pushing
would have a negative effect on the

throughout the same day the same mes-
sage to the Soviets came from all quar-
ters of Washington: ‘‘invade Poland and
the economic and political costs will be
severe’’.

The Star article gave these examples:
Defence Secretary Weinberger warned,
a ‘‘Soviet invasion would spell doom for
any arms control on any level between
the two superpowers’’. White House
chief of staff James Brady said, ‘‘no op-
tion has been ruled out’’ in the event of
an attack. And Secretary of State Haig
repeated an earlier threat of a ‘‘severe
breach’’ in East-West relations if the
Poles aren’t left to themselves.

* * *

There can be no doubt that U.S. im-
perialism is encouraging the anti-
socialists elements in Solidarity in their
counter-revolutionary aims. Imperialism
in general would like to see the over-
throw of the socialist regime in Poland.
As could be expected the former B.C.
premier Dave Barrett, while proclaiming
a non-class, or above class, world out-
look, has landed in the same camp as his
‘‘doctrinaire’’ capitalists.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—APRIL 10, 1981— Page 5