which
to fol

Parliament—

road
low?

Act for Canada’s good,

says Tommy Douglas

hen Canada’s 27th Parlia-

ment opened, the progres=-

sive road it should take was
pointed out by Tommy Douglas,

__ national leader of the New Demo-
~. cratic Party, Speaking in the
Throne Speech debate, Douglas
listed six priorities which should

receive immediate attention.
They are:
(1) An independent foreign

policy that would provide leader-
ship in achieving peace in Viet-
nam;

(2) Regaining control of the
Canadian economy;

(3) A coordinated manpower
policy;

(4) Free education at the uni-
versity, technical and vocational
levels;

(5) A universal, comprehen-
sive medicare program;

(6) An increase in Old Age
Pensions to $100 a month at
age 65, without a means test,

On the burning question of Viet-
nam, Douglas told Parliament
his party is convinced the poli-
cies pursued by the UnitedStates
are wrong. They are legally in-

- defensible and morally inexcus-
able, he charged, And he con-
tinued:

“The Prime Minister should
know that any attempt to involve
Canada by giving military “aid
to the United States in any way,
shape or form will split this

By PHYLLIS ROSNER

ROME—Communist proposals
for a new democratic majority
and for unifying Left forces in
the country were outlined last
week to the Italian Communist
Party Congress by party secre-
tary Luigi Longo,

“The alternative we envisage—

- and around which it is necessary

and possible to assemble abroad

lineup of social and political

forces—is not aSocialist alterna-
tive,” Longo said,

“We are fighting for economic
planning and for a democratic
transformation of the state to
open up the path to socialism,”

~ he added,

_ Longo was addressing dele-
_ gates representing a party with
1,800,000 members and a voting
strength of eight million,

diplomats, representatives of
sieve cee og | Peetice, VSS

Also listening were fraternal
delegates from many countries, —

country as it has not been divided
since 1917.”

He made it clear that he was
not being anti-American, He be-
lieved in goodneighborliness, but

‘being a good neighbor did not

mean being subservient,

“Canada’s best role is not to
defend U.S, policies in Vietnam,

‘as the Prime Minister and the

Leader of the Opposition have
done from time to time,” Doug-
las declared,

“Our most effective role is to
do what many influential Ameri-
cans have been doing, and that is
urge the United States to accept
a strict adherence to the Geneva
agreement,

“(This) means an eventual
withdrawing by the U.S. of its
troops from Vietnam in order to
allow the Vietnamese them-
selves, by free elections, to de-
cide what form of government
they will have and whether ornot
North Vietnam andSouth Vietnam
shall be reunited.”

In calling for an independent
Canadian foreign policy, Douglas
concluded:

“Our world today trembles on
the brink of a precipice that
could plunge us into the third
world war. This is not the time
for syrupy diplomacy; this is the

1,000 visitors from all over the
country and about 200 newsmen,

Conviction was growing in Italy,
said Longo, that without a change
in the country’s foreign policy
there could be no effective social
and democratic progress,

“Is it not necessary,” asked
Longo, in a call to Catholics, “to
search together for the points of
meeting and of collaboration
which there are between you and
us?”

He urged a joint effort to con-
struct a society freed from war,
from exploitation and from want,

Longo declared his party was
ready to discuss joint action with
Catholics “without prejudices or
dogmatisms, with sincere faith
in the contribution which can be
made toward the construction and
structure of the new society also
by idealist forces and, above all,
by Catholic forces,”

The Catholic church, he Said,

time for Canada to speak out, and
to speak out firmly, for inter-
national justice and world peace.”

- On the key question of regain-
ing control of Canada’s economy,
Douglas reminded Parliament
that foreign investors now con=
trol major segments of our man-
ufacturing, mining and smelting,
oil production and refining, the
rubber industry, farm machinery
and auto and aircraft manufac-
turing.

Now foreign investors’ are
moving over into the insurance
and financing fields, His party’s
objections to these developments
were not based on any sentimen-
tal grounds, Douglas stated,

“It does not make much dif-
ference to a Canadian whether
he is exploited by a Canadian

capitalist or a United States.

capitalist, he is still being ex-
ploited.% ..

“Our objection is that increas-
ingly the important decisions af-
fecting the well being of Canadi-
ans are being made outside
Canada by people who have loyalty
to other countries than ours.”

He warned that absorption al-
ways begins with economic con-

.trol, followed by cultural assimi-_

lation via control of press, radio,

had “new orientations” after Pope
John XXIII, after the peace initia-
tives of Pope Paul, and after the
decisions of the Vatican Ecumen-

ical Council.

He proposed that foreign policy

_ LUIGI LONGO

TV and periodicals, History
teaches us that political power
inevitably follows economic pow=
er, and we shouldn’t neglect this

lesson, he said.

Douglas pointed out that “once
a nation has tremendous sums of
money invested in another nation
it must begin to exercise an in-
fluence on the political activity
of that nation,”

In his call for a coordinated
manpower policy the NDP na-
tional leader demanded a vast
training and retraining program,
not only for unemployed persons
put for workers who desire to
upgrade their educational stand-
ards and acquire new skills,

There must be adequate allow-
ances, he emphasized, so that
workers will take these courses
without having to impose hard-
ships on their families.

@

In his remarks on Canada’s
educational needs Douglas in-
sisted the federal government
must provide universities and
technical institutes with suffi-
cient revenue to operate prop-

Italian CP appeals for unity with Catholics

discussions should centre around
three points:

(1) Italy’s atomic disengage-
ment and denial of nuclear weap-
ons to West Germany.

(2) An Italian initiative lead-
_ing to the eventual replacement
of the Atlantic Pact and the War-
saw Treaty through European
collective security agreements,

(3) Recognition of People’s
China and its entry into the United
Nations. Recognition of the Ger-
man Democratic Republic and
the Oder-Neisse frontier,

The Communists were working
toward the aim of Italian neu-
trality, but their immediate ob-
jective was a clear disavowal by
Italy of the American aggression
in Vietnam,

Longo described as “grave”
and “absurd” the attitude of the
Chinese Communists, who re-
jected all common struggle with
Communist parties not accept-

ing their theses,

February 4 1966—PACIFIC TRIBUNE Page 2

erly, and sufficient capital grants
to take care of all the new facili-
ties which will be required over
the next five years.

All fees must be abolished “so
that education is free and avail-
able to every person capable of
making use of it.”

e |

The time for stalling on acom-
plete medicare program had long
passed, Douglas said, He accused
Prime Minister Pearson of
waffling and hedging on principles
of universality and poy
administration.

Nothing could be more disas-
trous than a phoney medicare
program based on a division of
people who either are covered
by private plans, on the one hand,
or have to go through a degrad-
ing means test in order to re=
ceive help, on the other.

In fighting for pensions at age
65, Douglas showed that this is
the actual age of retirement for
most people and making them wait
for an old age pension was simply
penalizing them because “Oey
were born too soon,”

He rejected the attempts of
imperialist propaganda to make
China responsible for the tension
in Asia, Solely responsible were
the United States and all those
refusing to recognize China, to
restore to her her rights within
the UN, and building a network
of bases for aggression around
her.

Longo appealed to the Chinese
Communist Party—which did not
send a delegation, but atelegram
of greetings—to make its con-
tribution to bringing about unity
of action, in view of the gravity
of the international situation,

On domestic matters, Longo
said the current government
crisis further confirms the bank-
ruptey of th so-called Centre-
Left coalition’s policy.

Possibilities exist today for a
new. dialogue between Italy’s.
democratic and prcegressive
forces and for a new unity and
a new majority of Left forces,
he concluded,