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The great discussion |

hoviet leaders as

TORONTO

@ Ina special statement issued here last week, the
‘onal executive of the Labor-Progrssive party declared
¢ it could “‘not accept as satisfactory the present ex-

a@ations of the failures to stop the crimes against the

le of the Soviet Union long before the death of Stalin.”’

a Full text of the statement follows:

rae national executive com-
fee of the Labor Progres-
ty party, recognizing the
ig €ctive measures which are
oler way, nevertheless does
consider adequate the ex-
Mations for the violations
loviet democracy from 1934
53 as given by Nikita
ushchev to the closed ses-
@ of the 20th congress of the
fAmunist Party of the Sov-
sUnion.

the spirit of the new
, Which calls for frank
critical re-evaluation and
ination of political ideas
xperiences, the LPP wel-
les the courageous actions
whe central committee of
'CPSU in placing before
delegates at their 20th
Bress the facts concerning
berrors, excesses and crimes
t were committed during
' latter half of the leader-
29 of Joseph Stalin.

a ile appreciating the forth-

statement of facts, the
however, must empha-
+ that the leaders of the
SU owe to the world labor
socialist movement thor-
lWth-going explanations as to
ely and why, during the pe-
1 when socialism was act-
ly being built; there could
ye arisen what is described
V as one-man rule by Stalin,
clear violation of the so-
ist democratic principles of
vorking class government.

* Such violations are not in-
ent in a socialist society.
) assure that they will not
cur in the Soviet Union
Ad to reinforce this con-
wction” among  socialist-
inded people, the reasons
y they arose in the first
ce and were cultivated
ver sO many years should
made. clear,

Ve have no reason to quest-
i the accusations against Jo-
oh Stalin and we welcome
> restoration of democratic
ctices. We realize that the
mediate need was to fe-
re socialist law and de-
eracy as the 20th congress
“phasized, but _ corrective
lion by the CPSU must of
cessity go even further than

“must explain what in-
frect theories and concepts,
jfailures on the part of other

bers of the central com-
ttee, led to Stalin’s arroga-

of such extraordinary
wers and to the establish-
mt of a cult. It is not a
farxist explanation to say
Stalin’s personal weak-
sses and shortcomings alone

were responsible, as is sug-
gested by Khrushchev’s speech
tor that explains Joseph Stalin
by Joseph Stalin.

We cannot .accept as satis-
factory the present explana-
tions of the failures to stop the
crimes against the people of
the Soviet Union long before
the death of Stalin. In effect
it is said that these were im-
posed upon the people by the
security forces under Beria
and his immediate predeces-
sors during the cult of Stalin,
and that they had such rami-
fications that they became a
law unto themselves and op-
position to lawlessness led to
death or imprisonment.

The Communist party is the
guardian of the rights of the
working people. How did it
happen that this guardianship
failed to be exercised and the
crimes stopped long before the
death of Stalin ?

Clearly, responsibility for
this failure falls on the
shoulders of the leadership
of the CPSU as a whole.
They endorsed Stalin’s
wrong theory that the class
struggle must be intensified
after socialism was built.

We believe that definite
historical conditions. and po-
litical errors lay at the root of
this. situation. These include
the isolation of the Soviet
Union in a hostile capitalist
encirclement from 1917, the
civil War and imperialist inter-
vention, the growing danger
of fascist attack in the thirties
and forties, the ordeal of the
Second World War, and the
eold war with its accompani-
ment of systematic, highly
organized sabotage, political,
murder and attempts to organ-
ize armed revolt by the out-
raageous Operation X of. the
U.S. State Department.

All this external hostility
was added tio the internal
difficulties which the Soviet
people heroically struggled a-
gainst and are overcoming’ to
build their new life of peace
and plenty. It is the responsi-
bility of the leaders of the
CPSU to give explanations as
to how, in this situation, the
cult of Stalin arose.

The invasion of the rights of
nations and nationalities in de-
fiance of the socialist national
policy of the equality of na-
tions, great and small, cannot
be laid solely at the door of
Stalin’s suspicions. This is not
the Marxist method of analys-
is. :

In this connection we can-
not help deploring the absence

ee,

ked to explain

“The United States and Britain have signed an agreement

Se
extending the guided missile

range, which now extends from Florida to Puerto Rico, to Ascension Island in the South
Atlantic. This picture shows launching sites of the U.S. guided missile the Nike, surround-

ing Washington.

of any mention — in the text
of Khrushchev’s speech so far
available — of the suppression
of Jewish culture in the Soviet
Union, and up to now there
have been no official or press
reports from the Soviet Union
dealing with this.

The rights of the Jewish
people, especially since the
war against Hitler fascism,
are a matter of world-wide
concern. We feel that the
CPSU should make the facts
known and give explanati-
ons for what occurred, and
say what is now being done
to restore full rights of cult-
ural. expression to the Jew-
ish people of the USSR.

We feel that a serious error
was made by the central com-
mittee of the CPSU in assum-
ing that such an account of
Stalin’s crimes as was given
by Khrushchev would or could
for long havé remained a pri-
vate matter for the CPSU.

The effect was to enable the
capitalist press and govern-
ment agencies to be the first
to report the speech in an ef-
fort to confuse and mislead
public opinion, and to dis-
tract attention from the a-
chievements recorded at the
20th congress, and the Sixth
Five Year Plan.

If the speech was intended
to be public then the fraternal
guests of the Communist par-
ties and all press represent-
atives in Moscow should have
been present, or given a text.

If it was considered to be a
private matter for the CPSU
then the fact that the capitalist
press and the U.S. State De-

partment published it, in our
opinion shows that a major
blunder was committed.

All progressive people ad-
mire the achievements of the
Soviet people in building so-
cialism, their contributions to
the defeat of the fascist axis,
and in their consistent fight
for peaceful coexistence. The
USSR is the world’s first so-
cialist state, the first country
in the world to abolish the ex-
ploitation of man by man, the
country which has shown the
limitless capacities for social
progress once the rule of capi-
talist monopoly is broken.

We are making these com-
ments on the speech of Nik-
ita Khrushchev because it
would be of the greatest as-
sistance to socialist-minded
people everywhere if deeper
and more satisfactory scienti-
fic Marxist explanations -for
the events since 1934 were to
be given by the leaders of
the CPSU.

xk. wk Ok

The national executive com-
mittee, as well as our party

members, have been going
through an arduous process of
grasping the implications and
lessons of the disclosures made
at the 20th congress.

In this process, the nation-
al executive committee has
displayed hesitation and
lack of boldness in elabor-
ating and coming to grips
with the new problems in-
volved in the subjecting to
fraternal, critical and in-
dependent examination the
actions of the CPSU, and
has not followed this

through with sufficient en-
ergy.

This statement is a step in
overcoming that weakness.
The national executive’ com-
mittee expresses the hope that
the statement will assist the
present discussions and enable
our party and all socialist-
minded Canadians to think
out for themselves the prob-
lems arising from the advance
of socialism beyond the bord-
ers of the Soviet Union, to em-
brace, as it now does, one-
third of humanity.

Fraternal relations of a new
sort: are developing between
the socialist and labor move-
ments of the world as the
people of different countries
chart their own national paths
to socialism.

In the new era dawning,
when war is not inevitable and
the prospects are brighter for
the healing of the divisions in
the labor movement and for
peaceful advance to. socialism,
these relations will be of in-
creasing assistance to the
working people of all
countries.

The Labor-Progressive par-
ty’s program of 1954 described
our views on Canada’s path’ to
socialism. This program is a
contribution to the debate that
is going on about Canada’s
future.

The LPP will join in this
national debate with all so-
cialist-minded Canadians in
a free and friendly exchange
of views on all problems. We

are confident that out of it-

there will come a more uni-
fied labor movément.

July 6, 1956 —PACIFIC TRIBUNE — PAGE 3