eee! eee 01) eee || | So mal i 7 a WORLD World Youth Festival — isolation’ By DAN KEETON Whatever their expectations, they all agree it was an overwhelming experience. For eight days, this summer young Brit- ish Columbians celebrated peace and inter- national friendship by marching, discussing, travelling and just plain partying in Mos- cow, the capital of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. When the 12th World Festival of Youth and Students was over, the B.C. members of the Canadian delegation said goodbye to the friends they’d made from some 120 other countries and headed back home to their jobs and fields of activities, and con- templation of a short period of intense activ- ity and emotional highs. “| think I felt a real sense of loss after the festival. It took me about a week to come down,” said Sandra Brice, a credit union worker and a delegate from the B.C. chap- ter of the Congress of Canadian Women. Brice was one of 20 B.C. delegates who, along with 10 tourists, helped compose the Canadian delegation of more than 100 indi- viduals from several fields — trade unions, the peace movement, women’s organiza- tions, ethnic groups, Native associations and international solidarity organizations. Representing a broad cross-section of ages — from mid-teens to mid-30s — and all activists of a sort, the young delegates were outspoken in their praise of the festi- val, first held in 1947 as a means of prevent- ing further wars. Active in movements where questioning established procedures is part and parcel of one’s work, the delegates also had criticisms. But all agreed that, both through contacts with others from around the globe, and with Soviet citizens, the festi- val provided a once-in-a-lifetime chance to meet others, and compare and contrast first-hand the struggles one faces. Teresa McGee, a University of B.C. stu- dent and a member of the Canadian Catholic Youth Organization for Devel- opment and Peace, found that for other students, studying is only part of the agenda. “We're full time students and part time activists. But the South African students I met could only study on the side,” said McGee. Student activist Donna Morgan dis- covered the same. The former organizer of the Pacific Region of the Canadian Federa- tion of Students attended the student centre, one of 15 thematic centres spread around Moscow. She cited medical students in El Salvador working as paramedics for the revolutionary forces, and students in Nica- ragua taking to the countryside in “literacy brigades” following the successful revolu- tion. “I found we were a lot narrower in scope, compared to what delegates from other student organizations talked about. I think we were kind of embarrassed about the relative ignorance of Canadian delegates,” said Morgan. “One thing that became pretty obvious is the link between education and politics. Whenever something awful happens in a country, the first thing closed down is the university. “Many face struggles far harder than we must. But on the other hand, many coun- tries provide free tuition and stipends,” Is ended Morgan, whose organization has for years fought cutbacks in student aid and courses, and hiked tuition fees, commented. In discussions with Soviet officials on the environment, Morgan and McGee found themselves in a disagreement over nuclear power — “they think it’s the wave of the future,” McGee commented — but were impressed with handling of pollution in the USSR. “Tt seems the minister of the environment has a high position there. I think they’re more successful because everything is better planned and the prime motive isn’t profit,” said Morgan. For Brice, there were surprises in discov- ering the state of affairs for Soviet women. “We have a lot of struggles in common. I suppose I went over there a bit naive, think- ing they had total equality. In the economic and job scenes, yes, but they’re still fighting on the social front.” Brice recalled a conversation with Valen- tina Tereshkova, the first woman astronaut and now head of the USSR’s women’s fed- eration. In a relaxed atmosphere that saw the discussion run to four hours, Brice found it “almost like talking to your mother.” For Brian Mulligan, vice-president of Local 517 of the Longshoremen’s Union, discussion with fellow trade unionists — including his “wharfie” counterparts from Australia — formed only part of the young trade unionists’ agenda. A member of the Trade Union Peace Committee, Mulligan found British delegates receptive to the idea. A strong participant in organized sports, Mulligan became involved in discussions at the festival’s sports centre: While objecting somewhat to what he called the “political” nature of some of the speeches, he became concerned about the lack of organized sport in third world countries: “The money just isn’t there for poorer people.” Theme centres spread around the city constituted just one aspect of the festival’s offerings, which also included tours of the city, performances by artists and musicians, and activities sponsored by delegations at their respective “clubhouses.” “You can write notes and take hundreds of pictures, and you still won’t be able to get it all down,” commented Gord Penner, an industrial carpenter and volunteer at the Vancouver Unemployed Action Centre. Penner made presentations at both the human rights and rights of working youth thematic centres, citing Canada’s unem- ployment figures and the export of jobs to low-paying transnational operations off- shore. “One thing we concluded in those discus- sions,” said Penner, “As long as there’s a third world being exploited, there’ll be unemployment in the western world.” Penner said Soviet life impressed,him the most when he met a seven-year old boy on the Moscow subway. Through his interpre- ter, Penner told of his nephews in Canada that were approximately the boy’s age. “He told me he wished all the young children of Canada peace and friendship. “It’s obvious they educate their children on these issues. It’s a part of the school curriculum, whereas we must educate our children about peace, at home.” Education in the USSR also impresed 10 e PACIFIC TRIBUNE, SEPTEMBER 18, 1985 TOP: Opening ceremonies at the Lenin Central Stadium, July 27. BOTTOM: B.C. delegate Debra Jacobs (I) and other Native members of the Canadian delegation. Debra Jacobs, a delegate from the Squam- ish Band who works for the professional Native women’s organization in Van- couver. ; Jacobs and six other Native delegates from across Canada helped organize a “round table” discussion ‘with other indi- genous people from Sweden, Greenland and the USSR. Jacobs described as “really exciting” learning about the lifestyles of the Samani people of Sweden and the peoples of the northern regions of Georgia and Lithuania. “One of our long-term goals is to begin exchanges of visits between the Squamish band and the Samani,” said Jacobs. Regarding the Soviet natives, Jacobs found herself “‘very impressed by the cultu- ral retention they have. It is their right to be taught in their own language. We know that doesn’t happen in Canada.” Jacobs also recalled a meeting held at the house of Soviet ethnographer Valeri Tish- kov and a discussion of the specific socio- logical ills that plague indigenous peoples. “They didn’t require any long explana- tions about North American Native prob- lems. They had a great understanding. You could say it was one of the high points of my trip.” Several of the B.C. delegates will be talk- ing further about their impressions of the 12th world festival at public meetings, replete with slide shows, around the Lower Mainland in the near future. All those inter- viewed were overwhelmingly positive about the festival. Recalling the delegation marching into _ the Lenin Central Stadium during the open- ing ceremonies — attended by some 60,000 people — Brice commented: “I don’t think I’ve been looked at by that many people. I’m sure I was grinning from ear to ear. “The experience really just reaffirmed my beliefs. You come back feeling rejuvenated. You realize that people all over the world share your ideas, and that feeling of isola- tion is destroyed.” “To me, the festival showed we need more of an international perspective,” said Morgan. “T think we need more facts and different types of exchanges. The student movement (in Canada) should become less isolated: We don’t compare education systems enough.” “The world seems a lot smaller now,” echoed McGee. “When you sit in a lecture hall and hear speakers such as I’ve heard (at the festival), you’ve pretty much covered the globe. “I think it’s going to make me work harder this year. There is a common bond among young people.” Mulligan enthused: “I feel like a cosmo naut. I feel I’ve done something really great. It convinced me that my involvement with the trade union movement is of paramount importance.” “TI got this new confidence that we can achieve world peace through communica- tion and education, because no matter what one’s politics were, everyone was draw? together,” said Penner. “I could only say ‘yes’ to my childre attending a world youth festival,” said Jac" obs. “It involved so many people of different races and religions. I could really feel thé themes of the festival coming through 11 terms of friendship and peace.”