ai as

FREEDOM FROM APARTHEID

d TORONTO — Children from the African National Congress performed a concert here
‘| a, 16 to commemorate the third anniversary of Soweto, when South African police
I a led hundreds of children protesting inadequate education. The signs the children hold
| S'@ Points from the United Nation’s Declaration of the Rights of the Child. For South
f° iN Children this declaration holds a special meaning. Inadequate maternal nutrition

TRIBUNE PHOTOS—SHANE PARKHILL

ee NU "8 ities

means Black children start at a disadvantage from conception. The infant mortality rate
for Blacks reaches as high as 400 per thousand in some areas, for the white population it

is 21 per thousand. For whites the ratio of doctor to patients Is 1:400, for Blacks 1:400,000.
Education for white children is free and compulsory, for Black children their parents must
provide tuition, uniforms and supplies. Because so many parents cannot afford to send
their children to school an estimated 48% are illiterate. Neglect and cruelty is an inevita-
bility for the Black child, apartheid has built it into its system. Proceeds from this concert
will go to build a mother and child hospital for refugees from apartheid in Tanzania.

y a an interview with the
t eune, Samuel Walsh, presi-
“nt of the Communist Party of
] ae made these comments
tig Ut the outcome of the conven-
he the Parti Quebecois, held
pe beginning of June. In addi-
4p.» Walsh pointed out that his
th ty had distributed a letter to
; ve Convention making known its
‘tio WS on the constitutional ques-
in and the proposed referen-
b the While the PQ did not accept
' Bore osals of the CPQ, they
fd So lously came into the discus-
mn n and aroused the interest of
, any delegates. The final parag-
aph of the letter read:
beg times are pressing. Your
.- vention can certainly help to

it

;clerendum by _ permitting
angeeckers to have a real choice
rf ean really exercise the right to
i) aS their future. One of the re-
¢,.-“dum questions should be:
th the you in favor of negotiating on
I di 1s of equality a new Cana-
; Constitution\ which would
i i tee sovereignty including
con Night to secession and the
| plete equality of Quebec and

)8lVe a democratic content to the -

English Canada, voluntarily
united in a democratic Canada?”

It is safe to say that the Parti
Quebecois convention, on the
June 1 weekend, succeeded’ in
reuniting the various wings of the
party. Unity had been badly sha-
ken as a result of defeats in the
by-elections in Quebec, and
overwhelming Liberal victories in
the federal elections, as well as
the resignation of Robert Burns
from the Cabinet.

These events caused the no-
compromise ‘‘independentists”’
to press hard for the abandoning
of the step-by-step policy of going
to independence in Quebec. They
objected to the emphasis being
placed less-and. less on-indepen-
dence and more and more on as-
sociation with English Canada.

However, a series of com-
promises was worked out without
clashes at. the convention which
impressed the journalists present
as rallying of the troops for the
referendum.

Compromises consisted of (1)
retaining the word ‘‘in-
dependence’”’ in the program
of the party, (2) in case of a

‘*yes’’ vote in the referendum,

_the government is now expected

not only to open negotiations for
sovereignty and association, but
while negotiating, with the
government, to go on to demand
that Quebec take control of all
aspects of politics that would ac-
crue to the sovereign state, espe-
cially with regard to taxation, (3)
the election as vice-president of
Louise Harel, who had been
president of the Montreal Centre
region of the PQ, and regarded as,
a spokesperson of the left —
more properly radical section;
he stresses a more ‘‘radical”’ ap-
proach to independence, to
women’s rights, and also the need
to bring the party closer to the
trade unions.

In return, Rene Levesque was
able to get massive agreement on
focusing the question in the re-
ferendum and during the re-
ferendum campaign on associa-
tion rather than on sovereignty,
to have a better chance of win-
ning in the referendum.

It was agreed if the vote is
‘‘yes’’ for sovereignty-asso-
ciation — with the accent on as-

sociation — it will give the
government a mandate to

negotiate sovereignty association.

If the negotiations should be
fruitless the PQ pledges itself not
to make a unilateral declaration
of independence, but to have

another popular consultation on

the question of sovereignty, its
term for independence.

Among concessions Levesque
made was to acknowledge that
‘“*to us’’ sovereignty still means
independence. The argumenta-
tion was that the use of the word
“‘sovereignty’’ was necessary
because it was impossible to
foresee a ‘‘yes”’ vote in Quebec
for ‘‘independence’’. -

The convention took an even
sharper and clearer stand in favor
of remaining in NATO and
NORAD after independence. It
was argued that although the PQ
follows a peaceful policy, belong-
ing to NATO and NORAD is a
guarantee of security.

There was a very strong de-
bate in the workshop on this to-
pic. People asked how you can be
pacifist and belong to these
pacts. It took the intervention of

Parti Quebecois meet — a shaky unity

two Cabinet ministers to sway
opinion. One even went so far as
to invoke the meance of the
Soviet. Union. j

While going this far to defend
participation in these military
pacts, the convention failed to
deal with unemployment. or in-
flation.

Samuel -Walsh, president of
the Communist Party of Quebec.

Democracy and the RCMP Ee

i ge week's (June 18) issue of the
pre Tribune carried a four-page
— On the elaborate ‘‘bugging’’ sys-
| quar Overed in the central head-
| Canes, Of the Communist Party of
| ‘ise Installed by “‘person or persons
| as ke , Suspected by Party officials
|S Being the RCMP.
tron discovery of this 20 year-old elec-
| den € stool-pigeon system, while acci-
| Serv? ©2Me as no surprise. Rather it
unde! as additional confirmation of the
| pol OVEr illegal activities of the state
cles 5 Acting on behalf of the ruling cir-
| “*S Of our country.

ie * * *

V an Violation of civil rights and pri-
nists 'S Not only directed at the Commu-
| Shown But as recent exposures have
and ._¢ iS directed against all persons

|
|
|

Organizations who work to change
S€nt unjust economic and social
ism. i, for a more just society — social-
thos. = fact, it is directed also against
Most vu° Only strive to alleviate the

By ious features of monopoly rule.
Ome nence has shown that the system
ture aePoly Capitalism is by.its very na-

Stan de Posed to democracy because it

tereg ane an impediment to the unfet-

Raing ence the monopolies’ attack
| dem, democracy is directed against the

"0Cratic institutions, practices and

Omination of the monopolies. As a-

Marxism-Leninism in Today’s World

traditions of the people and embraces the
broadest areas of political and social life.
* * *

The democratic rights of the working
people are continuously under attack by
the combined power of monopoly and
the state. During periods of crisis this
attack is intensified. Arbitrary police
practices increase. The bugging of tele-
phone conversations, meetings and dis-
cussions, and the tampering with mail
becomes the rule rather than the excep-
tion.

But this is not all. The, offensive
against democracy takes the form also of
revision of constitutional norms and
electoral practice. Constituency bound-
aries are gerry-mandered in order to dis-
tribute votes in favor of the parties of

_ monopoly, while the parliamentary rep-
resentation of the working class is re-
duced. The democratic principle of
proportional representation is reduced to
a sham. The role of parliament is sys-
tematically curtailed by the trend of gov-

—érnment by order-in-council decrees and
departmental measures. The inner-
government cabinet becomes, in ¢s-
sence, the real executive power serving
the interests of monopoly.

* * *

The subordination of the state to
monopoly, unless checked, could allow
the monopolies to abolish any democra-
tic procedures which could interfere with
their aim of unlimited domination. The
most dangerous threat of all lies in the
sphere of anti-labor legislation aimed at
subordinating the working-class move-
ment to monopoly, so that resistance to
the every-increasing rate of exploitation
of the working people can be contained.

The most favored form of state-
monopoly’s offensive against democracy
is the so-called ‘‘fight against commu-

nism’’. The monopolies see Communists -

as the most consistent opponents of the
system of state-monopoly capitalism.
And by this token, see them also as the
most consistent defenders of the democ-

_ratic liberties and rights of the working

people. In this way they plot to strike a
blow against Communists, utilizing the
very forces which fought for and won the
democratic rights and liberties we now

enjoy.
\ * * *

But as we have already mentioned
Communists are not alone in being the
recipients of police surveillance and
harassment. The attacks launched under
the banner of the ‘‘fight against commu-

nism”’ are in reality aimed at the demo-
cratic rights and liberties of the working
people — at the very heart of democracy.
Such attacks, as life has shown, serve
as a signal to reaction all down the line to
step.up the offensive on all democratic
parties and organizations, on the trade
unions, on all opposition to monopoly
domination. The surveillance and
harassment of Communists is invariably
followed by attacks against the left as a
whole, then against social reformists and
finally, against democrats and liberals.
* * *

The history of the struggle of the work-
ing people in countries under the rule of

monopoly capitalism leads to the funda- -

mental conclusion that democracy is in-
divisible. It cannot be doled out on a
pro-rate basis. For the very essence of
democracy is the right of the people to
struggle for democratic rights and liber-
ties, for world peace with security for all,
for social advance and for socialism.
That is why the defence of democracy,
its extension and full flowering as a
democracy of all the people is the duty
and responsibility of all progressive
people and organizations. And, because
the preservation and extension of demo-
cracy serves the interests of the majority
of the people, is a guarantee that a wide

* front of struggle can be mobilized to at-

tain these goals.
PACIFIC TRIBUNE—JUNE 29, 1979—Page 9