0 are some of the Congress
Tacs, /op to bottom: airline
Bia, Mara Ovcharenko; collec-

' Chairman Boshai Kitan-
1 Cotton spinner Maria

Un
skunovas metallurgist Yegor

gr Temi
_~ *88, which began Feb. 24.

hi Palace of Congresses photographed at night. Th

Canadian Communists greet Soviet spirit of detente

bead
we

On

Continued from page 4 °

and realistic foreign policy has
strengthened peace. The Peace
Program adopted by the 24th
CPSU Congress became the rally-
ing point of a world-wide struggle
for peace and against imperialist
aggression, finally culminating in
victory for the peoples of Viet-
nam and the significant victory for
detente in Helsinki. These two
events not only signalled impor-
tant advances in the cause of
peace; they also mirrored the
changing balance of forces on a
world scale in favor of peace,
democracy and socialism.

The fact that world war has
been prevented is. due to the de-
termined, persevering and
many-sided struggle of the Soviet
Union, of the socialist countries,
of Communist and Workers par-
ties and peace fighters throughout
the world. Everyone who wants
to, can now see that it was the
far-sighted peace initiatives of the
Soviet Union, in conditions of a
changing balance of forces, which
is responsible for the retreat of the
cold warriors and the advance of
the process of international de-
tente.

We are sure the 25th Congress
will likewise stand out for the new
initiatives of the Soviet Union in
the struggle for peace and to make
detente irreversible, by extending
it to the military field.

Detente, despite the fears of
some, has not led to a cessation of
the struggle against imperialism
or of the class struggle. On the
contrary, rather than weakening
the struggles of the peoples, de-
tente has created a more favora-
ble situation for the anti-
imperialist and democratic forces

to oppose imperialism and reac- .

tion, and win new successes. An-
gola is a further example of this.

The Soviet Union’s principled
positions in the fight for peace,
finds its counterpart in the sig-
nificant steps forward being taken
by the 25th Congress of the CPSU
in the building of a developed
socialist society on the way to

e Palace is the location of the 25th CPSU

Delegation from the Communist Party of Canada, including General Secretary William Kashtan; Sam

Walsh, President of the Parti Communiste du Quebec; and Alfred Dewhurst, ideological director, arrive in

Moscow for the CPSU Congress.

communism. These measures
stand out sharply and clearly in
contrast to the growing crisis of
capitalism. This has made the
power of attraction of socialism
ever greater. It draws attention to
the fact that there are two paths of
development shaping up in the
world today: the path of growth
and economic development and
rising living standards taken by
the Soviet Union and other
socialist countries, and the path of.
stagnation, inflation, unemploy-
ment and declining living stan-
dards in the lands of state-
monopoly capitalism.

The ‘‘affluent society’? and
‘‘welfare state’? have shown
themselves to be built on quick-
sand. Working people are being
told to tighten their belts, to get
used to less, to not expect too
much. In line with this, wage
freezes and wage-cutting, and a
concentrated drive to undermine
trade union rights, including the
right to strike, typify present day
reality in many capitalist coun-
tries including Canada. The wel-
fare state is presently being dis-
mantled piece by piece: educa-
tion, health services, social legis-
lation —all these are under attack
as. state-monopoly capitalism
tries to get out of the crisis at the

expense of the working people.

In these two paths of develop-
ment one sees two different types
of planning — under socialism
planning for plenty, and under
state-monopoly capitalism plan-
ning hardships for the working
people so as to assure maximum
profits for monopoly.

This reality highlights the dif-
ference between socialist democ-
racy and the limited democracy
won by working people under
capitalism, which reaction is now
trying to suppress and which the
working class defends. Where in
the capitalist world can one seé a
similar country-wide debate
which took place in the Soviet
Union around the 10th Five-Year
Plan? Where in the capitalist
world does the working class
have the opportunity to discuss
and decide on their economic
future? On the contrary, all the
main decisions are in the hands of
the ruling class,who decide on
questions without any thought for
the welfare of the working people.

In conditions of deepening
economic crisis Communists in

the capitalist world have the ~°

responsibility, indeed the duty, to
enter more energetically into the
debate on democracy, not in or-
der to retreat under the pressures
of capitalism, but so as to expose
the falsity of the claims of those
who pretend to be champions of
democracy. There can be no re-
treat in the defence of socialist
democracy. Any retreat on this
question, any tendency to placate
the anti-Sovieteers and_anti-
Communists will be self-defeating
in the end. It is a losing policy, not
a victorious one.

Our Party condemns' the Mao-
ists and their splitting and anti-
Soviet and anti-Communist
policies. The Maoists have gonea
long way from the times when
they pretended to be opposed to
imperialism and to be defenders
of the Third World: From 6p-
ponents of imperialism they have
turned into its ally. From cham-
pions of the Third World they
have lined up with imperialism in
attacks on the genuine national
liberation movement in Angola.

In Angola and in Western
Europe, in Chile and in the Ger-
man Federal Republic the Mao-
ists find themselves in the same
camp as the reactionary forces of

imperialism, including the South
African racists. There can be no
effective struggle for peace and
against imperialism without a
continuing struggle against
Maoism.

Our Party recognizes that the
present situation calls for ever
greater cooperation and unity of
Communist and Workers’
partiés, and the strengthening of
proletarian internationalism. We
cannot agree with a viewpoint
which calls for weakening pro-
letarian internationalism rather
than strengthening it. Those who
advocate such views see the
world in a one-sided and distorted
way and underestimate the
necessity for concerted and co-
ordinated strategy and action in
the struggle against imperialism
and for peace.

Our Party has always striven to
combine patriotism and _inter-
nationalism so that each merges
with and reinforces the other.
This is why we support all
measures which strengthen unity
of Communist and Workers’
parties and why we condemn all
policies and. practices which
undermine the international unity
of these parties. This is also why
we continue to advocate the con-
vening of a world meeting of
Communist and Workers’
parties.

Our Party welcomes every step
which results in the strengthening
of economic, cultural and scienti-
fic exchanges and ties between
Canada and the Soviet Union. We
see in this, and in the develop-
ment of a trading partnership be-
tween our two countries, not only
a course of employment for
Canadians but an important fac-
tor in strengthening Canadian in-
dependence against the growing
pressures of U.S. imperialism.
United States imperialism con-
tinues to interfere in the internal
affairs of other countries and
Canada is not excluded from this.
Indeed, relations have sharpened
recently, raising again the ques-
tion: which way for Canada? The
answer lies, as the Communist
Party of Canada has emphasized
time and time again, in the
adoption of new policies which
would strengthen Canadian inde-
pendence and enable Canada to
play an ever more effective and
significant role in world affairs.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—MARCH 12, 1976—Page 7