it would be good for
Canadian democracy to
have a few Communists
in Parliament. But whe-
ther we achieve this or
not we will work for it

and fight for every vote.

William Kashtan, nation-
al leader of the Communist
Party, is seeking a seat in
Parliament in the Toronto
riding of Davenport. After
his nomination, in his ac-

ceptance speech, Kashtan
described how the Commu-
nist Party sees the issues
in this election. Published

here, abridged, is Kash-
tan's speech.

ORN in Montreal on June 27,

1909, William Kashtan began

to work at 12 years of age.
At 18, he moved to Toronto and,
except for short periods in which
he has lived in Hamilton and
Montreal, has resided there ever
since.

In. 1927 Kashtan joined the
Communist movement dnd be-
came the national secretary of
the Young Communist League.
He was also an editor of the
Young Worker.

At the time of the great de-
pression Kashtan was active in
erganizing young people to de-
fend themselves from the conse-
quences of mass unémployment
and he assisted in recruiting
many young people into the trade
unions.

When fascism became a men-
ace to world peace he played
an active role in building the
Canadian Youth Congress. Ih
1936 he was one of the Cana-
dian delegates who went to
Geneva to the world youth con-
gress sponsored by the League
ef Nations.

Kashtan was in Spain when
Franco began his march on Ma-
drid. A year later he assisted in
the formation of the Mackenzie-
Papineau Battalion of volunteers
to help defend Spanish democ-
racy. ;

Before 1963 Kashtan wrote a
weekly labor column for the Can-

adian Tribune and devoted con- -

siderable attention to trade
union problems. He was elected
national leader and general sec-
retary of the Communist Party in
1963. He is married and has one

daughter.
eee

The Communist Party’s elec-
.tion headquarters is 1178 Bloor
St. W., Phone 535-0436.

HIS is. a strange kind of election:
By all accounts it is the most un-
wanted in Canadian history, except
for the Liberal Party. Yet it may also
turn out to be one of the most signi-
ficant-and crucial Canada has had for
many a year.

All the stops may be pulled out by
the Liberals to create the impression
that election of a majority government
is the most important business before
the country. Canadians should not allow
themselves to be fooled by such propa-
ganda. The issue is not a majority gov-
ernment.

The real question is: what policies are
required today to face up to the new
challenges of our time? ?

We need policies which can strengthen
Canadian democracy and assure work
and higher living standards as we enter
the technological revolution. We need
policies to help bring world peace and
safety from nuclear annihilation. We
need policies which will make it possible

~ for French and English Canadians to

work together for the common good.

In short, we need a new direction in
Canadian policy.

At present the Canadian economy is
in full flush, thanks in-part to the large
amount of wheat purchased by the
Soviet Union—and thanks too to the U.S.
war in Vietnam. Is it not a commentary
on and condemnation of capitalism, that
it keeps the economy going by means
of war threats and actual war?

The boom cannot hide the fact that,
according to the Economic Council of
Canada, one and a half million new jobs
must be available by 1970 if a growing
labor force is to find useful work.

We are now entering the era of the
technological revolution, of automation.

We know enough about automation
to know it displaces workers from in-
dustry on a large scale. It is estimated
in some quarters that over the next 20
years only 10 percent of the population
will work and 90 percent will become
idled, unnecessary to the productive pro-
cess, obsolete.

Yet, the technological revolution opens
up, for the first time in history, an era
of abundance for Canadians, for man-
kind. generally. :

But who will purchase the increased
products automation makes possible if
a majority of the population is idled?
Here we face one of the greatest chal-
lenges in our history. Neither of the
old-line parties has faced up to it, tied
as they are to the status quo and cor-
porate interests who finance and control
them.

Canada cannot afford to lag behind
in the technological revolution. To do so
would be to stagnate and die. This em-
phasizes the need for a greater percen-
tage of the national income to be spent
on research.

But we cannot permit automation to
be carried out in ways injurious to the
Canadian people. If automation is to
benefit society it must be controlled by
society. Conversely, if automation re-
mains under the control of monopoly it
will benefit monopoly.

Can continuous economic expansion
be achieved without the booms and
bends typical of the post-war period,
without changes in the ‘structure of
capitalism? I say no. If decisions are left
to corporate interests, we shall head
toward economic disaster.

This is why the unrestricted power
of monopoly must be curbed. This is
why labor, which produces all the wealth
of this country, must have a voice at all
levels of government and a full say on
all questions pertaining to automation.

We need far-reaching, democratic re-
forms. We need democratic planning.
But democratic planning without public
ownership, without control over mono-
poly, means planning for profit, not for

people.
We are convinced that only socialism

How

Communists

see

the issues |
in this |
election

can offer man the possibility of using
science in his own interests and in the
interests of society. We are convinced
the Canadian people will arrive at this
conclusion ‘in the course of their ex-
perience.

This does not mean. nothing can be
done now to alleviate the effects of
automation, to ensure that policies will
be pursued to make useful, creative work
available to the million and a half young
people and others who need it now and
tomorrow.

We propose, for example, that a fede-
ral-provincial authority on automation
and technology be established, with
labor and farmer representation, to
license automation processes in industry
‘and offices and control the pace of its
development.

Where automated processes are insti-
tuted there should be an immediate re-
duction in hours of work with no re-
duction in take-home pay.

Government policy must be directed
to the achievement of full employment.
It must ke based on the right of every
person to a job, to rising living stand-
ards, to adequate leisure, to health, to

. sons entering the labor m

- school leaving age be rai

October 1, 1965—PACIFIC TRIBUNE—""

decent housing and dignity in °

This will require large-scal
vestment in resources and
development. It also requires
bution of the national incom@
of the people.

Automation requires new
ernment must assume resp0O!
training and retraining work
pay and for the relocation of
displaced by automation.

The technological revoluti
a revolution in education.

have the new skills require
tific advance. This may requil®

will require national standards
cation and greater federal ré

for education costs. It will
continuing expansion of the &
system.

The Liberal government
10,000 scholarships when it W®
This pledge was forgotten.
government enacted legislatio”
loans available to needy stv

‘Our country needs a clear-cut, indepe"
position on the prevention of nuclear Ww
halting the spread of nuclear weapons: