By WILLIAM BEECHING

The Canadian Tribune was
‘born to advocate and advance
the workers’ cause on January
20, 1940, during World War IL.
In the early months of the war,
the government of Canada out-

lawed left-wing organizations
and closed down the workers’
papers, whose editors were
among those arrested and held
for. several years in internment
camps.

Thus, the Canadian Tribune
was. born when the Communist
press was suppressed, and it be-
came the people’s voice in de-

fiance of the state and its police. .

It published materials and advo-
cated policies that were in the
interests of the Canadian work-
ing people — and the workers
took it up and defended it.
Born out of struggle in tem-
pestuous times, the record of the
Canadian Tribune has been a
glorious one, in the tradition of
the Canadian Communist work-
ers’ newspaper in the 1920’s and
1930’s and the world left-wing
press, guided by Marxist-Leninist
principles. As Lenin taught and
demonstrated in his own work
as editor and writer, the Cana-
dian Tribune has sought to con-
sistently advance the people’s
cause to be an instrument of the
_education of the masses in scien-
tific socialism, a propagandist
and an organizer of mass move-
ments and struggle.
Its appeal to the cause of the

“We have more than 30 ap-
plications already,” Leslie Hunt,
executive director of the Can-
ada-U.S.S.R. Association, told
the Tribune regarding the two
summer friendship tours of the
Soviet Union which his organi-
zation is co-sponsoring with the
Northern Neighbors magazine.
Also some of the people who
took part in last year’s tour have

signified that they want to go”

again.
The 1969 group of 40, led by
Morris _ Kamiel of Toronto,

found the tour a heart-warming
experience, starting with a Can-
ada Day gathering in Moscow’s
Friendship House. The two tours
planned for this year promise to
be even more rewarding.

“One group of 50 will leave
Canada on June 29, and the sec-
ond of another 50 on Aug. 3,”
Mr. Hunt informed us. “Both

A group of Canadians tour the Kremlin.
PACIFIC TRIBUNE—JANUARY 23, 1970—Page 6

30 years of struggle

socialist revolution won it from
the outset many loyal and coura-
geous supporters among Cana-
da’s workers and farmers, and
their allies. Under trying circum-
stances, one way or another, the
paper was published and deliver-
ed. The story of how money was
raised, how the printers were
paid, and how the paper was
distributed, is an epic in the his-
tory of Canada’s Communist
movement and a tribute ~to its
members and supporters.
Courageous Record

The paper did not equivocate.
From the outset it campaigned
for the release of over 100 Com-
munists and anti-fascists held in
Canada’s internment camps and
prisons. It campaigned for the
opening of a Second Front by
the Western Allies in World War
II. It appealed for war-time unity
to defeat the threat of world
fascism.

In the post-war period it ad-
vocated and worked for a great
democratic alliance to win for
the working class the economic
and social advances for which it
had made such big sacrifices dur-
ing the years of the war. In or-
der to achieve that aim, the
Daily Tribune was launched in

will spend 21 days on tour and
the cost all told — fare, first-
class hotels, meals, excursions,
entertainment and of course the
best of care, will be less than
$1,000.
‘Each group will split into
two on arrival in the Soviet
Union, one that will travel over
the European part of the coun-
try and one that will also visit
fast-growing and fascinating Si-
beria and the Soviet eastern re-
gions. S :
“Since this is the Lenin Cen-
tenary year, the tourists will
have the opportunity to visit
various localities associated
with Lenin’s life and work. This
will include Minsk, the place
where the first convention to
establish the workers’ party was
held in 1895, Kiev where Lenin’s
mother and sisters lived for a
while and were raided and ar-

1947. The “cold war” carried on
by imperialism compelled us,
however, to temporarily give up
the daily. and return to a weekly
edition.

It was on:Canadian soil that
the cold-war propaganda was
heated up with the notorious
“spy scare,” engineered by the
Canadan authorities, which help-
ed to prepare the atmosphere for
the hounding and persecution of
thousands of workers and pro-
gressives in. Canada and the
United States.

Today, the Canadian people
face a crisis in every aspect of
their lives. Prime Minister Tru-
deau, on behalf of monopoly,
ushered in the Seventies with a
vow to carry through monopoly’s
program for austerity, unemploy-
ment, the mass ruination of the
farmers, and the neglect of all
the needs of the toiling people
of Canada.

Greatest Challenge

It is a coincidence that a Sen-
ate Committee to Investigate the
Mass Media and the Lenin Cen-
tennial occur simultaneously.
While the special Senate Com-
mittee is busy attempting to
overcome the credibility gap, the
greatest challenge to the capital-

rested, the Smolny at Leningrad
from where he directed the 1917
Revolution, etc. It will be both
thrilling and educational.”

Since its inception in 1960,
the Association has sent over
500 Canadians on various tours ~
of the U.S.S.R., including special
groups of doctors, educationists,
etc.

Among the more than 6,000
tourists from Canada to visit
the Soviet Union last: year, the
Association’s group was unique.
This first annual friendship tour
gathered together a most con-
genial group of persons from
various walks of life. The
youngest was a schoolgirl of 16,
and the senior member was a
retired railroad worker of 82,
who was not the less youthful
for all his years.

“George Murdoch had worked
46 years as a steward on the
CNR and all that time had been
a socialist by conviction. Now
he had the opportunity to see
socialism in practice and he
certainly made the most of that
opportunity,” Mr. Hunt remark-
ed.

‘The tourists appreciated the
fact that they had every leeway,
could rest or undertake less
strenuous excursions whenever
they found the pace a little too
tiring. And as for hospitality
and friendships made wherever
they went, it has to be ex
perienced to be fully appre-
ciated.”

The Canada-U.S.S.R. Associa-
tion’s head offices at 84 Avenue
Road, Toronto, are busy these
days with people enquiring
about particulars of the tours.

“A number of persons were
sorely disappointed last year

ist press comes from the Coin-
munist press.

Capitalist journalism is off bal-
ance. It has an enormous credi-
bility gap to cope with. It is at-
tempting to develop a new ap-
proach to class struggle. It floods
its readers with high-flown,
meaningless phrases about de-
mocracy, freedom and love of
humanity. It has found new ways
to present anti-Communism, us-
ing such expressions as Commun-
ism with a human soul, demo-
cratic socialism, pure national
rights, etc. It is a past master at
dissembling and tailoring facts.

The capitalist press, unable to
hide the ugly decay of contem-
porary life, resorts to. cynicism
and muckraking, without giving
answers to problems or showing
their root causes. In a deliberate
attempt to turn the attention of
the people away from the real
causes of the rot, it finds “psy-
chological” explanations for
poverty, low wages, youth un-
rest, and for the upsurge of mili-
tancy in the trade union and
farm union movements.

In the Leninist tradition, the
Canadian Tribune sets itself the
task of uniting the-mighty force
represented by over seven mil-

that they were left out of the
group,” Mr. Hunt said. “We
couldn’t help it, since we have
to make reservations before-
hand. There will probably be a
similar situation this year, and
those who make their applica-

CP LEADER SAYS:

‘Roll back prices! ;

W. Kashtan, national leader
of the Communist Party of Can-
ada, lashed the latest ploy in
the Trudeau austerity drive, in
a condemnation of the Canadian
Manufacturers’ Association and
the Chamber of Commerce. He
said:

The endorsement by the Cana-
dian Manufacturers Association
and the Chamber of Commerce
of price restraints-is nothing but
a pig in a poke. Their state-
ments are couched in such a
way as to allow a train to run
right through them. The only
thing definite in them, is that
these bodies will continue to de-
cide their rate of profit which
means that prices will continue
to rise as they are in fact doing.
Profits remain untouchable be-
cause this is the “holy of holies”
for capitalism.

This cynical manoeuvring of
the CMA and C of C, aided and
abetted by the Prices and In-
comes Commission, is nothing
but a cheap trick, aimed at ex-
erting pressures on the workers
and the trade unions to compel

lion wage earners and farmers”
plus many thousands of students, ©
intellectuals .and middle class _
people into a struggle against”
the power of the great monopo-
lies and conglomerates, to win
peace, to regain Canadian inde-
pendence from U.S. moopoly
domination, and to frustrate the
plans of Canada’s capitalist gov-
ernment to sell the ownership -
of our basic power resources tO”
U.S. monopoly, and to place the
entire burden of crisis on the |
backs of the working people.
Truly Internationalist

The Canadian Tribune is guid:
ed by the Leninist principles of |
proletarian internationalism. It”
champions the national rights of ©
the French-Canadian workers,
supports the just demands of
Canada’s Native Peoples, cam-
paigns in defence of the Black
Panthers, and defends the vic- }i
tims of fascist oppression every-—
where.

Always in the forefront of the ©
peace struggle, the Canadian
Tribune has consistently fought -
for and espoused the cause of
peace, and with every issue has
called for solidarity with the
heroic people of Vietnam and all
victims of aggression.

The Canadian Tribune proudly —
proclaims that it belongs to the ©
world family of Communist and
workers’ newspapers, that it”
unites the struggle of today with
the fight for the socialist to- |
morrow.

tions early ‘will be the fortu-
nate ones.”

The Canada-U.S.S.R. Associa-
tion has branches in Vancouver ~
and St. John., N.B., and there is
a flourishing Quebec-U.S.S.R.
Society in Montreal. (

4 LY‘

them to accept wage restraints. Xt
Its purpose is to create the im- 7°
pression that wages are respon- ©°
sible for inflation when in fact ©
workers are compelled to fight ©
for substantial wage increases |
to prevent their living standards ®
from being eroded. :

This psychological trick won't
work. Government policies; 9;
monopoly control of the econ 4
omy, monopoly price gouging q
the U.S. war in Vietnam, de-
fense expenditures, these —not *
wages — are the factors respon:
sible for the inflationary spiral
and rising prices. Without |
changing them inflation will con .
tinue.

Instead of the pretense of
price restraint, real curbs of |
prices are needed. Government 4
policy should be directed to roll dic
back prices. It has the power t0
do so. It should exercise it |
What’s required today is # te
powerful grass roots movement eq
throughout the country demand: Pf
ing “Roll Back Prices.”