IS PEACE, SOLIDARITY, FRIENDSHIP

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Mh oe saw that unity
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‘Solidarit Stronger because
f Conadi Y become concrete.
Mieq 182 delegation repre-
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her A. ad never met each
ity wit We showed our solid-
CRS people, within
‘Atta 1on we began to un-
“fle from mselves better. The
Mh the B.C. became friends
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Dae Tstood. the Quebec
F Droble € understood better
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My wae eBation, the same

betyy @ppening that took
fen all the delega-

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sf

ie , te;

4 highligh at were some of

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2 hin,

, a ashe oo the nine days

Min, Vas. g t example, one

the Ped to solidarity

HBS wer.’s Of Indochina,

Wntativa Held at which
*S of the various

'

A

delegations described their sup-
port actions and at which the
Vietnamese spoke. In the eve-
ning there was a rally where all
delegations participated in full.

Another day was devoted to

discussions about the struggles .
' Korea, African National Con-

of young people in capitalist
countries where you could find
out as much as you could about
different experiences. The Can-
adian group’ prepared an exten-
sive statement dealing with
youth’s fightback against U.S.
economic domination of our

At the Festival a symbolic
cheque representing $23,700 was
turned over to the delegation
from the Democratic Republic of
Vietnam by a representative of
the Canadian Committee for a
Vietnamese Children’s Hospital.

This sum represents a tremen-
dous Canada-wide effort of more
than a year’s work, a Canadian
contribution to this international

- campaign to build the Nguyen
- Van Troi children’s hospital in

Hanoi. A photo album containing
a history of anti-war demonstra-
tions and hospital campaign ac-
tivities accompanied the cheque.
Contributions still continue to
arrive to the Committee for the
hospital fund.

country, the national struggle in
Quebec and also with native
youth. This statement was read
at a bilateral meeting between
the GDR youth and ourselves.

The solidarity that was felt
all over seemed to be reflected
through the youth of the GDR
as the host country.

The whole city was just filled
with youth wearing the blue
shirts of the Free German Youth
organization. They were just
waiting to give people informa-
tion. If you asked someone the
directions to a place, they
wouldn’t just tell you, they
would take you there.

September Williams: A per-
fect example of this was the
first day at the opening cere-
monies. The march was very
long and along the entire two
mile route the Free German
Youth and everyone else in the
city was lined up to greet every
single delegation. We were all
getting thirsty as we marched

and all of a sudden people be- .

gan appearing with bottles of

!

pop and glasses of water. It was
really incredible.

Tribune: Which countries did
Canada hold bilateral meetings
with?

All: Bulgaria, the USSR, North

gress, Northern Ireland, Viet-
nam, GDR, Australia, Britain.
We were also billeted with
youth from Uruguay, Chile,
Peru, Guyana and Czechoslo-
vakia and had plenty of dis-
cussions informally.

Tribune: What were some of
the highlights that stand out
personally?

Ken Rouble: I was one of
three Canadians who went to
Cuba on an international brigade
which attracted youth from 27
countries. I wanted to meet
with some of the people .who
were on that brigade who might
come to the Festival. Well, com-

ing into the opening day cere-

monies we met lots of them.
They were just watching for
anyone who was on that bri-
gade. We met the leader of the
brigate who told us that Fidel
suggested a meeting take place
of all those who were on the
brigade. That was the highlight
for me—we met old friends,
had lunch with the Cubans and
were guests at the concert they
put on. It was just fantastic!

September Williams: There
were a lot of highlights — the
meeting with the African Na-
tional Congress was one of the
best we had as far as communi-
cation goes— but the one that
moved me the most was with
the Vietnamese people. It took
place at their Festival head-
quarters where we were greet-
ed by two rows of clapping,
quiet Vietnamese. Upstairs the
same thing.

The Canadians were known
as the fun-loving Canadians at
the Festival — just the way we
are. Well, we went into this
room and at first everything was
loud and laughing with conver-
sation. The Vietnamese people
were beautiful, physically beau-

- tiful and they spoke so quietly

and gently. There was a lot of
conversation and I _ looked

au

The theme of the Festival was “For Anti-imperialist Solidarity,
Peace and Friendship!”, as expressed in this meeting of German
youth. The sign reads “We are fighting alongside you, Cambodia”.

around the rooni in about a half
an hour and the mood of the en-
tire delegation had. changed in
that short space, it was a quiet
kind of .interchange that. we
were having. There was a war-
rior there who had fought in
about 140 battles and the little
girl who symbolized the inter-
national hospital campaign.

The. gentleness of these peo-
ple made me say to myself,
“How in the world could any-
body drop a bomb on them?”
Just a beautiful, beautiful peo-

ple..

Ken Kinsley: The first impres-
sion I got of the GDR was at
the opening day ceremony where
children 5-7 years old were do-
ing gymnastics along with young
men and women. The accent was
on youth and you could see that
socialism was for people — not
for profit or bombs. These peo-
ple have a future and that’s
what rang in my mind. They
have a great pride in what
they’re building.

Donalda Greenwell: For me
too, one incident that started
the feeling going was on the
first day. After walking through
the streets of Berlin, as we en-
tered the stadium, after the
chanting, cheering and signing
autographs, I heard my name
called from the stands. There
was a friend I had met in Cuba,
it was just amazing that it hap-
pened among all those people!

September Williams: Auto-
graphs were a big thing. Every

rogram ran
aren in thea

@ 25,646 delegates from 140 ae ates —

@ They represented 1,700 political, trade union,
last Sait and other organizations.

© 520,000 GDR youth took part.

© Over 5 million people
cultural and sports events. ; ose
e A total of 1,556 journalists from press, radio
and TV were accredited. cau ae és
from 11 a.m. until midni ne:
cms simultaneously on 22 open-air
tres and houses of culture.

attended 1,542 political,

Berliner, it seemed, wanted to
fill his scarf with signatures.
One day three of us went to a
park for a discussion and were
immediately surrounded by au-

tograph seekers. One person’

suggested we take a rowboat on
the lake, which we did, and
there we were in the middle of
the lake talking. All of a -sud-
den we looked _up and tealized
we were surrounded by other
people in rowboats who had
come after us for signatures!

Garry Hansen: The youth of
the GDR really impressed me.
They were looking to the future
and were ready to lead the
country forward. The prepara-
tion for the Festival was a tre-
mendous job. -Every building
carried flags, all along the road-
side in the country too. The
closing ceremony was also in-
credible — a massive event in
Karl Marx Square which cloged
with a térrific fireworks display.

Liz Hill: I think that the
Festival plays more of a role
than ever before. With the
moves toward detente the world-
wide youth movement js on a
different level. People want to
know what’s going on in other
countries and there are 82
young Canadians who. will be
talking about their experience
in Berlin this summer.

On the second last day, the:

theme was “Solidarity with the
youth of the socialist countries.”
I watched the German youth
march past for three hours car-
rying signs in many languages
in solidarity with world youth.
When you think that 30 years
ago at the war’s end there was
the Hitler Youth and now they
have completely re-educated the
young people, I felt that a whole
generation had passed before
me in that three hours.

Ken Kinsley: The German
Army chorus was there and
they had children on their shoul-
ders; strong men and women
symbolizing the protection of
the future, of socialism. Not
destruction, but the generation
of life and peace.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—FRIDAY, AUGUST 31, 1973—-PAGE 7