Canadian museum specialists
attend Moscow art conference

By YURI SHNITNIXOV
APN correspondent

The 11th General Conference
of the International Council of
Museums, held in the Soviet
Union, was attended by more
than a_ thousand foreign
specialists, including a Canadian
delegation of 35.

The Conference was held in
Leningrad, a city of unique archi-
tecture and internationally fam-
ous museums.. To many
specialists, the Canadians _in-
cluded, Leningrad was interesting
also on the account of the work on
the restoration and conservation
of cultural treasures carried out
there on a tremendous scale and
at a high artistic level.

In the period of the temporary
occupation of a number of Soviet
territories the German fascist
troops were pursuing, with
method and order, the German
nazi leaders’ barbarous aims of
destroying the Soviet people’s
culture. In the course of the 900-
day-long blockade of Leningrad,
for example, most buildings pro-
claimed to be classical treasures
of culture were damaged to some
or other extent by artillery fire and
bombing. The wonderful ar-
chitectural ensembles in Lenin-

facade fully restored.

Our ee dollar

grad suburbs (the former summer
residencies of the tsars), master-
pieces of world architecture, were
turned to ruins.

Restoration started im-
mediately after the end of the war.
But the scope of destruction was
so large that it will take several
more years to see all these
monuments fully restored. The
state has spent more than
400,000,000 roubles (one Cana-
dian dollar equals 0.71 rouble) for -
architectural, restoration in
Leningrad in the postwar period.

All jobs connected with resto-
ration are done by the Restav-

rator Scientific and Production & 3

Association. Last year alone the d
association carried out work to a 5
sum of 7,000,000 roubles. More :
than 500 objects are to be restored
in the next five years. It can be
seen already now that the scope
of work will grow to 20,000,000
roubles a year by 1980.

The Palace of Catherine II in
Pushkin, a suburb of Leningrad,
is one of the ‘‘objects’’ on which
Leningrad restorers work. The
Canadian specialists visited the
place. When the restorers came
there 20 years ago the Palace was
allin ruins. Its restoration seemed
impossible. But dozens of Palace

~
ef

The Catherine Palace, built in 1756, with its interior, gardens and and excursions specially for the

“

The main vestibule of the
Catherine Palace ruined by fas-
cists. The photograph was taken
in 1944, the day the town of
Pushkin outside Leningrad was
liberated.

halls have got their original aspect
by now. Excursions are taken
through them and the Canadian
museum workers saw it all with
their own eyes.

It is not war alone that makes
restorers work so hard now. All
cultural relics have a common
enemy: Time. All Leningrad’s
outstanding monuments, memo-
rials and statues gracing the city
are carefully listed in special
documents. There are most de-
tailed inventories of the state of
bridges, lattices, old lanterns and
weather-vanes, But the most val-
uable property of the city are
1,016 architectural structures that
are under the official Began of
the state.

With the system of protection
and use of old cultural and other
relics, with Soviet restorers’ work
the Canadian ‘and other foreign
specialists on a visit to the USSR
were acquainted also in Moscow,
! the capital of the Soviet state.
Moscow museums arranged a
number of interesting exhibitions

occasion.

The heart

of monopoly capital

THE MILITARY-INDUSTRIAL
COMPLEX OF THE USA, by B.
Pyadyshev. Progress Pub letyre
Moscow, $2.50.

A careful reading of this book
should fill one with rage over the
monumental. ripoff of working
people being perpetuated by the
military-industrial complex.

This book is an important re-

-ference work for everyone seek-

ing ideological-informational
ammunition about the origins,
dimensions, influence, strategy
and tactics of this bestial cancer.
Unfortunately, it has no index.

B. Pyadyshev, in an all-sided
way marshalls an awesome array
of facts, figures, historical de-
velopments, quotations from
U.S.. scholars, including Victor
Perlo, a wide variety of U.S. pub-
lications, statements from Lenin
the U.S. Communist Party, to
name but a few.’

Here are some main points.

The military industrial complex
(MIC) includes major monopolies
engaged in mass production of the
most modern types and systems
of weapons. However, it is
monopoly capital; not the MIC,
which rules the country.

Monopoly capital increasingly
has been moving into the military
field to make maximum profits
from the arms drive and to build,
up stocks of modern weapons and
other instruments of force in the
vain hope of containing national
liberation and socialist revolu-
tions around the world.

The MIC also includes the elite
of the U.S. military and it has ac-
tive and influential supporters in
the federal government.

The MIC is the most reactio-
nary core of U.S. capitalism. It
cannot be entirely removed until
there is socialism, but significant
reforms can be won before then..

On the one hand, the MIC has
become more influential and
dangerous, corrupting more Con-

gresspersons, bribing moré
foreign officials, exerting molé
influence over the mass media,
and expanding into new fields

activity such as the aerospace ane |
electronics industries.

On the other hand, the overall
world situation and especially thé
U.S. defeat in Indochina has if
flicted serious setbacks to thé
MIC. Like an ogre, the MIC gob-
bles up wealth created by thé
workers:

The MIC spawns the growth of
fascism, police brutality, aml
reaction. Pyadyshev supplies -
bone-chilling material, as, fot
example:

“The Ku Klux Klan maintains

strong links with the leading col
porations of the south and has
often been described as a sub
sidiary of the Texan military”
industrial complex. The Klan’s
‘invisible empire’ is expanding
westward and northward, and its
membership is on the increasé:
Over the past few years, its
‘crossburning’ rituals have a
times collected crowds of 3,000 of
more. (p. 118)’

Recent news accounts of thé
emergence of the KKK in Fal
Rockaway in New York City at
test to the accuracy of the au-
thor’s statement.

As indicated earlier in this r@
view, the author supplies
documentation for his state
ments. We should have liked eve?”
more documentation. 4

The treatment of the influence I
of the MIC on the labor aristocr4”
cy, i.e., George Meany, is scanty:
for example.

Also missing is dramatic evi
dence of the unproductive not
job-creating nature of the
that has been supplied by Labo!
Research Association’s Econ
Notes, the writings of Victor Pel”
lo, thé Position Paper 0
Militarism supplied by the rece
Hall-Tyner election campaign, ©
name but a few.
— Robt. Philtipol

Several readers have asked for com-
ment on the recent drop in the value of
the Canadian dollar on the world cur-
rency exchange. It has reached an
eight-year low at 92.8 cents (U.S.). The
questions asked have to do with cause
and effect.

While there can be more than one~

cause for a drop in the value of any
given currency (including speculation)
they all share a common sourse. That
source is the struggle between national
groupings of capitalists for a larger
share of the world market.

* eK

The recent fall in the value of the
Canadian dollar is a result of the action
taken by the Canadian government to
let the dollar ‘float’; i-e., to let it find its
own level on the world currency ex-
change. The reason for this action by
the government at this particular time is
to bring about devaluation ostensibly as
a result of external pressures. That is,
without arbitrarily fixing its rate of fall
by government edict (pegging).

The practice of currency devaluation
is one of the levers used by capitalist
governments in the competition for a
larger piece of the world market.

For example, the present economic
crisis is affecting all capitalist countries
PACIFIC TRIBUNE—AUGUST 26, 1977—Page 6

Marxism-Leninism in Today’s World

simultaneously. This creates fierce
competition between the capitalist
countries in the world market-place.
Canada is a major: exporting country
with her largest market being in the
USA. And, a7.2% drop in the Canadian

dollar in relation to the U.S. dollar:

means that as of this moment Canadian
exporters to the USA have a 7.2% sel-
ling advantage over their U.S. com-
petitors in that country. In other words
they can undersell them. The same
would be true in respect to other coun-
tries whose currency is higher in value
than the Canadian dollar.
*

On the other hand, Canada is a large
importer from the USA. This is particu-
larly so in respect to capital, certain
types of manufactured goods and off-
season fresh vegetables and fruits. This
being the case Canadian consumers are
will-nilly compelled to pay 7.2 cents
more for every dollar’s (U.S.) worth of
goods they buy that are imported from
the USA. And if past practice is any
guide, sharp business practices tend to
push up the price of Canadian produced

_goods and farm produce up toward the

price of U.S. imports.

The same is true in respect to every
dollar borrowed in the USA and for
every dollar paid in interest on loans
floated there. :

2K

The result of all this is that Canadian
consumers presently subsidize expor-
ters of Canadian products (many of
who are U.S. owned or controled firms)
to the tune of 7.2 cents on the dollar.
This is done in the name of creating jobs
for Canadians. But this i is really only a
cover.

For the main result of this currency
manipulation is to provide the corpora-
tions with the means to temporarily in-
crease their sales by underselling their
competitors, while the living standards
of Canadian consumers are depressed
downwards at a ratio closely equal to
the currency devaluation.

The same result to the consumer is
evident in respect to capital loans. The
higher the cost of financing in terms of
Canadian dollars, the higher the taxes
to meet the costs of municipal, provin-
cial and federal borrowings from U.S.
sources. The same is the case with

loans for utility public services and .

financing. In this area the consumer

pays the increased cost in higher fares:
hydro and telephone bills.
* RK }

It could be said that all of this is rathe!
a neat arrangement conjured up by the
economic wizards responsible to thé
government for Canada’s economi¢
health. However, there’s a fly in the _
ointment. Canada’s competitors in thé
world market-place (capitalist®
hucksters all) are also onto this game
As the competition for the available
market intensifies so will the number ©
players all out to win advantage ov!
the others. The end result of this jo
keying for temporary advantage on thé
world market will be a general worse!”
ing of the condition of the working
people in all capitalist countries. 4

For, while the trade war is being co™
ducted by the capitalists of each and
every capitalist country, the foot sole
diers in this war are the workers of
these countries. It is they who are
led upon to produce goods at an evel
cheaper labor cost through increas'
productivity and inflationary pressures:
It is they who are called upon to sub-
sidize the cost of devalued currencies i
the form of worsening livin
standards. 3