_WORLD

A new way of thinking

_ TORONTO — The level of positive
interest shown by Canadians toward
developments in the USSR is clearly
greater today than at any time since the
Second World War. Curiosity is mingled
With confusion, doubt and skepticism
among many, but there is also an aggres-
Sive new enthusiasm among progressive
People and an increasingly apparent fear
On the Right.

It seems to me that there are two basic
reasons for this. The first is the stunning
Series of disarmament initiatives under-
taken by the new Soviet leadership in the
Past couple of years. Such bold steps as
the eighteen-month nuclear testing mora-
torium and the amazing flexibility of the
Soviet negotiating position have created
an unprecedented momentum for a nu-
Clear weapons free world, and have
Placed the center of gravity of that
Movement squarely in Moscow. These

about everybody is forced to concede
this.

What many people have not realized is
that these moves do not just represent
brilliant footwork or clever propaganda
tactics on the part of the Soviet leaders.
The reason the Soviets are winning the
public relations contest these days is be-
cause they are pursuing a genuinely new
approach to global relations. They have
realized that in the nuclear missile age all
previous political and military formulas
are obsolete. Not only do they proclaim

days, whether they like it or not, just

Outdoor art show, Moscow 1987. “The focus in the USSR is on action, from the new

Openness in the media to the inclusive democratization of workplace, community and

government.

this, but they are the first nuclear weap-
ons state in history to actively strive to
implement a program of disarmament.

It is this ‘new way of thinking’ and the
deeds that flow from it which has
impressed so many people. The Soviets
are saying that the old military equations
are dangerous illusions, that no state can
gain unilateral security, and that what-
ever our differences we are all united by
our humanity. They say there is no cause
worth blowing up the world for, and
substitute for the Cold War a vision of
common security, global development
and peaceful competition.

These are radical, no, subversive ideas
on our side of the world. Nevertheless,
many people have held them and fought
for them for a long time. No wonder the
vigorous and qualitatively new commit-
ment of the Soviet Union to these goals
has had such an impact.

The second area of renewed interest is
the domestic process of change, known
in the USSR as perestroika, or restructur-
ing. Here too the focus is upon actions,
from the new openness in the media, to
the inclusive democratization of work-
place, community and government,
Soviet society is transforming itself with
breathtaking speed.

There is profound thinking behind this
as well. Perestroika has not come out of
the blue, but is a logical new stage of a
revolution that has been underway in the
Soviet Union since 1917. It is the
contemporary evidence that socialism is
a creative, living force.

This has deeply affected many Cana-
dians, particularly those who are ready
to think about socialism as a viable alter-
native for,our,own.country... While there
may be no decisive model which answers
to all points of the Canadian context, the
experience of existing socialism in our

It is the willingness to admit faults and
reformulate goals that renews the en-
thusiasm of many people says corres-
pondent Weir, shown here reporting from
Chernoby! last month.
world is intensely relevant. Despite its
enormous historical achievements, the
Soviet example has appeared static and
somewhat deficient in important respects
over recent decades.

This is what has changed, and changed
decisively. It is not that Soviet problems
have now all been solved: they are only
beginning to address many of them and,
in the process, discovering new ones
they were not aware of having. Rather, it
is the movement, the willingness to admit
faults and reformulate goals that renews
the enthusiasm of many people. It is
exciting, not depressing, to realize that
socialism is an unfinished, open-ended
adventure which is still in its infancy.

In short, there is a revolutionary new
energy animating global politics and, not
surprisingly, this is also being felt in
many. corners of Canadian life. People
whose hope has long been dormant are
stirring restlessly again, while those who
thought their positions of ideological,
political and economic supremacy were
permanent and unassailable are worried,
very worried.

This is the second column written from
Canada. Weir has now returned to the USSR
and in the next week will travel to one or
more of the Soviet Asian republics.

The name
of the game

That’s quite a cast of charac-
ters that will take turns testify-
ing before the cameras in the
Irangate hearings.

As the tale unravels, we see
retired Air Force Major Gen-
eral Richard Secord ‘‘itching to -
tell his story’? according to
friends. Secord’s career has
taken him through Vietnam,
Thailand, Laos and Iran as he
toiled for his country’s cause.
A close associate is cooling his
heels for 52 years in a federal
pen for illegal arms sales. Sec-
Ord today is business partner
With arms dealer Albert Hakim
who engineered the secret con-
tra Swiss bank accounts.

Then there’s two former
Reagan National Security ad-
visers — McFarlane and Poin-
dexter, both of whom insist
they kept the president in-
formed of goings on.

Add one Assistant Secretary
of State for Inter-American Af-
fairs (Elliott Abrams) who
conned the Sultan of Brunei
out of $10-million for the con-
Rass ss

And finally include lieuten-
ant colonel ‘‘Ollie’’ North,
whose code names in the con-
tra operation were Blood-and-

INTERNATIONAL FOCUS Tom Morris

Guts, and Steel Hammer, and
you have the ingredients of a
first-class Agatha Christie
thriller.

There are other intriguing
elements: Iranian con man
Mousalreza Zadeh, for ex-
ample, convinced North in
1985 he was an oil-rich Saudi
Prince anxious to donate
bushels of cash to the contras
and managed instead to bilk a
North associate out of
$250,000. And, or course,
there’s a real, live Saudi pr-
ince. Boyish-looking Robert
Owen, a North aide, gave ump-
teen details of hanging around
under trees in the rain, passing
envelopes stuffed with money,
and taking contra arms orders.
Owen was called (guess what?)
TC — The Courier.

Finally there’s Papa ron. His
is the derierre, like Nixon’s,
that must be saved at all costs.
Reagan, as we know, has
selective memory losses and
his hearing cuts in and out.

That’s how the game is
played.

Paranoia and
sharp teeth

In his first speech since

being returned to power in his
whites only election, South Af-

rican premier Botha on May 19
warned the muzzled media and
the country’s besieged univer-
sities not to promote opposi-
tion to apartheid “under the
guise of freedom of speech or
freedom of the press’’.

How about that? Don’t ad-
vocate freedom under the
guise of advocating freedom.

Having again disenfran-
chized South Africa’s 24 mil-
lion Black people, having told
the country he will not lift the
Group Areas Act; his jails filled
with tens of thousands of de-
tainees and the ultra-right fro-
thing at the mouth for
“*stronger measures’’ — Botha
warns the people not to “‘pro-
mote opposition’’.

The apartheid system and its

backers appear to have all the.

symptoms of advanced rabies,
the dangerous mix of irrational-
ity, paranoia and sharp teeth.

The tear gas
Olympics

The barely-tolerated opposi-
tion party in South Korea is
now to be dragged into court to
explain why its program advo-
cates the reunification of the
two Koreas. This, charges the

courts loyal to the military dic-
tatorship, implies ‘‘pro-com-
munist sympathies’’.

The Reunification Demo-
cratic Party has committed an-
other terrible crime: it wants
elections! That, presumably,
also shows its true pro-com-
munist colors.

In fact the RDP is comprised
of anti-dictatorship, pro-
democratic, patriotic forces
who show great strength and
courage in face of the repres-
sion. The students, and pa-
rents of murdered students,
also last weekend again faced
walls of police in South
Korea’s continuing agony.

And now the regime an-
nounced it will delay any elec-
tions until after the 1988 Olym-
pics to “‘preserve order’’.

That ‘‘order’’ will be bought
at terrible cost so the Olympic
Games may be held there.
Surely the international sport-
ing community, the IOC and
national Olympic committees
watch television and see the
regime’s brutality in living
color?

Can it really be argued South
Korea fulfills the prerequisites
of the Olympic ideals?

The site should be moved or
the Games boycotted.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE, MAY 27, 1987 9