. author of this article, Lori Gi, IS a high school student and m er of the Vancouver Young MuUnist league.) 1 -Y LORI GORDON Mine Tecently, I had the j.-8 ©Xperience of being a comrades from Canada, * and Britain, I travelled ii, -osCOW, to Irkutsk and a Eastern Siberia and to In Uzbekistan (just lof Afghanistan). Mng the visit, our dele- a encountered very ctive aspects of bite life and of the great a Meathe: U.S.S.R. — im complexes, a collec- lt > Places of education, »Tecreation and so forth. As : ; Bam Witnessed these live paths c and spoke to the farmer astic Soviet workers, “Tight; 284 students, our own MF iniy ..-¢ Socialism was brought Mean €ven more realistic and hgful perspective. n A te i the main purposes of af telepat Y tour was to give the A deo . Msight into the young | better oa Socialist nation. What ID ited Place is there to be Vv Brats to Soviet youth than When? Where the average age 6] Population is 29 years? a Siberian youth town had lg, Sinings in the winter of | “Mme 30 50,000 young people buildin ° participate in the lang Of the Bratsk Hydro Migether the Angara River. ) De M they survived those - While; ~: Siberian winters the ates in mere tents!) and the taiga infested summers eee )) Shi oe Of the many hard- i) the con ®Y Completed in 10 years ( Higes, ptuction, of one of the ‘ the oe power stations in Mowe, 2: It has 3 times the er rea eq tPut that Lenin had & , 4 ah al ad expand j | alum: ed to include Ti) minum Plant and lumber N P Bowing He town pita een new apartments, Hy Cong » 29d schools (every ve student Person in Bratsk is a | . People ame kind.) Presently ey Palaces ®njoy, free of charge, inst rec of culture and many h ‘ting reational facilities, i tg ng uting, rowing, skin- we tous) Parachuting. So this yo ettig 4 darsh, unexplored if Cloned 810n is now a well- is rapidly The story of Bratsk tells a great deal about the young people of the Soviet Union. Mainly, they are carrying on, with determination, the building of a socialist nation. Like their grandparents and parents, they feel the responsibility for the development and transforma- tion of their society toward communism. Why? Perhaps this can be answered, abstractly, by a simple comment made by a worker in Bratsk. When asked how the workers feel about overfulfilling production quotas, he answered, ‘“‘When we overproduce, it is we workers who benefit. After all, this is the peoples’ factory!” In the same way, the youth are aware that as the nation is built and as socialism develops, itis in the interest of all the people. New opportunities open for self- fulfilment — studying and working in exciting fields, and exploring new areas. In others words, they know that they will reap what they sow! There is another aspect of the socialist construction which reflects itself on the Soviet youth. It is this: young people feel that they are a necessary part of society and thus, the work. that they do becomes meaningful. This is quite differ- ent from Canadian youth who are, on the whole, lost! With one half a million young people unemployed in our coun- try, with increasing numbers of closed doors, and with fewer and fewer opportunities, it’s no wonder Canadian youth are “‘dis- illusioned” . . . they don’t feel needed by society; they feel removed and alienated. Soviet youth, with every avail- able resource at their fingertips to learn and build, are enthusias- tic and confident in the future. This positiveness is the over- = -— . Workers Benevolent Assn. Of Canada Progressive Fraternal Society Caters to all your needs in the Life Insurance field LIFE INSURANCE ENDOWMENTS PENSION PLANS WEEKLY BENEFITS Apply to: B.C. office at 805 East Pender St. or National Office at 595 Pritchard Ave. | I I | | 1 | I { I t I ! I | | 1 I l ! 1 I t vs j W000 peo tis community Winnipeg 4, Manitoba eeu a ee wr ee i | }| 7th ANNUAL CANADA-CUBA WINTER CARNIVAL | Departs Vancouver Dec. 26/71 || Only $659.00 a e 8s G Contact: |. 29. 2679 E.. Hastings St., : yal Vancouver 6,B.C. 254-2313 ity student finds Soviet jouth confident of future whelming atmosphere among the young in the USSR. I would like to mention here that I was very moved by the warmth and hospitality of both the young and old that was consistently shown to us during our stay. The comradeship and solidarity be- tween us was extremely inspiring. Another particularly striking aspect of our tour was the city of Tashkent. In recent history it has been a truly fantastic feat.of socialism. On April 26, 1966 at 5:30 in the morning, an earth- quake struck in the center of the city, destroying 2 million cubic meters of houses, 400 factories and plants, and about 84 adminis- trative houses. At the same time, there were from 300-500 serious casualties, and many deaths. Immediately, every one of the Republics of the USSR pledged one-half of its own construction program for the rebuilding of the city. In a week, the first engineers came to draw up the plans for Tashkent. However, every day for a year, there were smaller earth tremors — the people of the city lived in fear of another large quake which might totally ruin Tashkent. For precuation the children had been evacuated, and many of the people slept in the boulevards. and parks at night (away from broken buildings). In spite of this suffering, all workers continued work at the plants, proving their courage and discipline. Regardless of the many diffi- culties, with the aid of the 14 other Republics and peoples of 113 different nationalities of the Soviet Union, Tashkent was restored in two and one-half ° years. This is a very impressive display of Socialist inter- nationalism and collectivity. When one sees, at first hand, what is left of the earthquake damage ‘as compared to the many new buildings with their mixture of mosaics and archi- tectural styles of the 15 Republics, one can’t help but feel a sense of pride in this Socialist achievement. er visiting a socialist aoe it is rather difficult for one to adjust back into our capitalist society of exploitation and repression. But even though we have a difficult struggle facing us, I am convinced that the tremendous strides of the Soviet people will always stand as a symbol of encouragement and inspiration for we who live in Canada. ——TEDHARRIS._ | 757 East Hastings St. Vancouver 4, B.C. Painters ‘and Paperhangers Supplies é Sunworthy Wallpape Reg. 45¢ — Now 19¢ a Roll, 7 By MABEL RICHARDS The past fifty year history of British Columbia would have been dull indeed were it not for the left-wing labor leaders, the dedicated socialists and the colorful and down-to-earth Marxists in. the Communist Party. The many crisis which have developed within the capitalist system with attendant repression of the working class have always been met head on by the people above. They consis- tently refused to take lying down the kicks in the teeth so liberally administered by the bosses and their toadies, the Tory-Liberal-Social Credit series of governments. A small concise book has recently come off the press which relates in French and English the many contributions, struggles, and victories carried out by the Communist Party of Canada in the years 1921-1971. British Columbia plays no small part in the pages of this book, replete with historic photos. Power to the People is a booklet put together to commem- orate fifty years of struggle by members of the Communist Party. It leads off with a chapter on the influence of the socialist revolution in Russia on the working class of Canada. It describes the founding of the party in 1921. It identifies the place and role of the left wing groups in the ethnic communi- ties. @ david brown features “It weighs four pounds — three pounds of fish and one pound of mercury.” Colorful CP booklet tells 50-year history The chapter on the hungry thirties is particularly fascinat- ing! ‘‘When the right-wing trade union leaders gave up all pre- tence of fighting for their members, the Communist Party took the initiative in organizing the Workers’ Unity League which led 90 percent of the strikes and inspired every effort during the Hungry Thirties to organize the unorganized and to fight against the wage-cutting offensive of the employers.” That one paragraph alone tells a story which we who were very young in the 1930’s can vouch for. All too well do we remember the Tory-Liberal government on the prairies telling us to be grateful for rotten apples, salty fish and the beans they ladled out at railway stations to farmers made desti- tute by mortgage companies, unsold wheat and drought. It was the Communist Party and its spokesmen who came to the farm districts to help us organize. It was Communists who came into the northern Manitoba mines to help the miners organize to fight back against the most disgraceful conditions wages, and housing. They were Communists who led the relief recipients in * marches down the main streets of prairie cities and towns protesting the starvation hand- outs. I know, for I was one of those looking for leadership in those days, and it was the Communist Party that gave it. Spain, the struggle against war and fascism; the PHoney War; the Struggle for Victory over Hitler; Building the Unions; The Cold War years; the Party in the Fight for Peace; National Rights in Quebec; are all dealt with in the book, and the Party’s role in every phase of the continuing struggle. The book brings back memories of beloved comrades who have died; of events recalled with nostalgia; of people, aged now, but still fighting the good fight. All in all it is a document of interest not only to Party members, but to all of those who want a capsule history of the Canadian workers’ long struggle for justice and eventual socialism. Classified advertising — COMING EVENTS DON’T FORGET the evening of Ukranian music and dance at the QE Theatre on Saturday, Sept. 11, featuring the Kobzar Ensemble. Tickets at Vancouver Ticket Centre, 639 Hamilton, or Ukrainian Hall. RUMMAGE NEED to help the CHILDREN. of _ INDO- CHINA. Please Call 876- 0041. ’ HALLS FOR RENT Beaver Transfer * Moving — * Packing * Storage 790 Powell St. Phone 254-371 u 7 UKRAINIAN CANADIAN CULTURAL CENTRE - 805 East Pender St., Vancouver 4. Available for banquets, wed- dings, meetings. Phone 254- 3436. RUSSIAN PEOPLE’S HOME Available for meetings, banquets and weddings at reasonable rates. 600 Campbell Ave. 254-3430. cues *SPACIFIC TRIBUNE — FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, 1971==PAGE 11 - : CLINTON HALL, 2605 East Pender. Available for . banquets, meetings, weddings, etc. Phone 253-7414. BUSINESS PERSONALS FOR THE CONTROL OF COCKROACHES AND .ALL CRAWLING INSECTS CALL PAUL CORBEIL Li- censed Pest Exterminator 684-0742 BETWEEN 8 to 10 a.m., after 10 A.M. 435-0034 daily. REGENT TAILORS _LTD.- Custom Tailors and Ready-to- Wear, 324 W. Hastings St. MU 1-8456 of 4441 E. Hastings - CY 8-2030. See Henry Rankin for. personal service. DRY CLEANING & LAUNDRY Also Coin-op LAUNDERETTE 2633 Commercial Dr. 879-9956