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QUIPS and QUIRKS ©

by JOHN WEIR

If the Establishment is somewhat wary in the way it goes about
t, it is nevertheless persistent in its plans to beat down labor to
ees. The latest weapon to be added to the bosses’ anti-union
arsenal is the proposal to bring the trade unions under the anti-
Combines law. Treasury Board president C. M. Drury told the press:

, There’s no question about it, the so-called monopolistic prac-

tices, whether they be in relation to management cartels or or-

labor, are able to impose on the economy as a whole price

Sanized
decisions...»

So, it transpires that the capitalist trusts and the workers’ unions

ey both monopolies, and organized labor is guilty along with the
SSes of monopolistic practices which impose price decisions on
€ €conomy as a whole. .

What unmitigated rot! Workers don’t own ‘the industries, they

~ don't own the products of their labor, they don’t sell them on the

one and they don’t have a say about the prices that are charged
or them. All that is the prerogative of the monopolies, the capi-
St Owners of industry and finance.

Trade unions are in the first place workers’ defense organizations
t strive to wring from the monopolies, who own the industries
5 Operate the economy, such wages and conditions as they can
the face of the continued and urrelenting efforts of the bosses
ao government to drive them down. “Monopolistic practices”

d No, Messrs Trudeau, Drury et al, you won’t get away with that
itty trick.

*

‘

ot Course, in the process of that struggle the workers should
tae and the unions should be helping them to learn it — that
tie high time the workers DID take over the government, DID
a away the industries and banks from the monopolists, DID

me masters of the country’s economy, and then they WOULD
bose low prices alongside of providing high incomes for all who

*

thet staunch worker in the cause of advancing the great future
“ge awaits Canada on that day, Jeff Hurley, has written a stirring
~~~hg to Lenin”, which we hereby share with all our readers:

Old soldier of the working class,

Intellectual, man of infinite humanism,

I greet you as you lie in state

On your gentle bier in Red Square, Moscow, 1970.

The blood stained banner of the working class ___-
Flies symbolically across your holy resting place.
Before your Pantheon long lines :

Of people form to pay workers’ homage

To mankind’s heroic statesman.

Though thousands of miles separate us
From your last resting place

The Lenin spirit flows among us

In factories, fields, laboratories,

Libraries, concert halls, theatres,

And in the streets of my city,

In the infinite struggles of my people,
Within the laughter of children,

Within the agony of the exploited,
Within the culture and science of my city.

The beat of your heart,

Like the beat of the soldier’s drum

Sounds within the struggles of my people.
. The spirit of Lenin,

The very air whispers merrily to me,

As wise and sardonic as a worker’s curse,

Arises in our struggles ~

Like the warm, red blood of life itself.

To Lenin, beloved son of a heroic people, salute!
* * *

| Point. “peculiarities” of North American newspaper practice were

ted up in the story about.one U.S. daily that carried the fol-
‘scoop” on its front page:

6
hag’ *Sterday our paper was the first to report that the City Hall
ed down. Today we are the first to report that there was

a
| fie at the City Hall.”

ae that was in the old days of “laissez faire” capitalism, I
q

lo S. Nowadays there’s no attempt to correct misstatements (or
Scoop ight fabrications) even by dressing the correction up as a

mer €xample, a week or so ago the daily press blazoned a state-
the .@UPposedly made by a Soviet press attache at Ammon, to
Reiali €ct that “Soviet policy supports any struggle aimed at any
Go} St State based on religious fanaticism, such as the State of
eir.” It was the pretext for all sorts of anti-Soviet com-
de Wild speculations, the claim that the U.S.S.R. was out to

Y the State of Israel’, etc.
The

tum Teport was immediately denied. But have you seen that
Peted in your daily paper? No, the old hooplah continues.

*

f vigePetting Danny Kaye’s suggestion that he might take South

aes tk asa dependent on his income tax form, a unior paper
"alissimo Chiang Kai Shekel next year”.

y
he

~

t if that works “he could add Prince Mazuma Phouma and

Both have same enemy

Israeli and Arab patriots

David Burstein, member of
the Political Bureau and Sec-
retary of the Central Commit-
tee of the Communist Party of
Israel, was a fraternal delegate
to the 19th Congress of the
Communist Party of France in
February. While in Paris, Bur-
stein gave an interview to
Georges Girard, reporter for the
Communist Party’s weekly mag-
azine France Nouvelle.

Burstein said: “The conflict
between Israel and the Arab
states, and more particularly,
between Israel and the Palestin-
ian Arabs, is not a conflict be-
tween Arabs and Jews, but ra-
ther a conflict with Arabs and
Jews on one side, and imperial-
ism on the other.

“The American imperialists,”
Burstein said, “are seeking to
destroy the national and anti-
imperialist. movement of the
Arab peoples. They are using in
this firm goal the government
of Israel.”

Girard: “But in Israel itself
aren’t there contradictions be-
tween Jews and Arabs?”

Burstein: “Between the gov-
ernment and the Arab popula-
tion—certainly. Officially, the
Arabs have the same rights as
the Jews, but in reality there
is racial discrimination. For ex-
ample, the identity cards issued
to Arabs are stamped with the
letter “B’”—second-class citizen.
For the same work, the wages
of an Arab are lower than those
of a Jew. Progressives and Com-
munists cannot go from one
town to another without special
authorization. A certain number
of them are forbidden to leave
their homes from dusk to dawn.

“Arabs represent 12 percent
of the population of Israel, but
make up only one percent of
the administration. And a
great number of Arabs with uni-
versity degrees have to be con-
tent with menial jobs. Yes,
there is a national discrimina-
tion against the Israeli Arabs in
Israel.”

Girard: “What do you think
of the Arab struggle in the oc-
cupied territories?”

Burstein: “In the occupied
lands the Arabs are fighting
against the occupation. If, God
forbid, Israel were occupied, we
Communists would be in the
vanguard of the struggle against
the occupation. It is not for us
to say how the Arabs should
fight the occupation. Of course,
we are not indifferent to certain
terrorist actions. I am speaking
of the bombs in bus-depots or
in markets: our organization in
Nazareth, which. is made up
basically of Arabs, has printed
leaflets denouncing these provo-
cations.”

Girard: “What is the situation
in the occupied territories?”

Burstein: “Dayan speaks of a
‘liberal’ occupation. An _ occu-
pation is an occupation. It is
very tough. There are many in

prison, Frequently, the Israeli

army destroys houses. On Da-
yan’s orders, they have set up
“regroupment centers.’ Numer-
ous Arabs have been expelled
into Jordan. In these conditions,
the struggle of the Arabs is in-
tensifying day by day.”

Girard: “How do you see a
political solution to the con-
flict?”

Burstein: “Israel was created
as a state, on the basis of the
United Nations declaration of
1948. The problem of the Arabs
of Palestine was not resolved in
1948, contrary to the recommen-
dation of the-U.N. resolution.

“It appears now that a politi-
cal solution is possible if the
Israeli government decides to
accept the U.N. resolution of
November 22, 1967. Egypt,
Jordan, and other Arab states
are ready to carry out this reso-
lution. Thus, the struggle for
the application of the U.N. reso-
lution is, in Israel, a poltical
struggle: if Israel changes its
policy, if Isreal ceases to be
allied to imperialism, it will be
possible to find a solution to
this conflict.

“Tt is not the Arabs who con-
stitute the danger for the Israeli
people. The true danger is the
government of Dayan - Meir-
Beigin. Our patriotic duty is to
fight against the Israeli govern-
ment for the true interests of
Jews and Arabs alike.”

Girerd: “Is it possible to say,
then, that there is an identity of
interests between an Arab pa-
triot and an Israeli one?”

Burstein: -“To answer your
question, allow me to give you

SSR

WARSAW — The Central
Board of the Cultural Jewish
Society in Poland has issued a
statement on the occasion of
“national memory month’ ob-
served in April.

“Remembering the frightful
tragedy of fascist occupation and
being loyal to the behests of the
fighters of the Warsaw Ghetto—
to fight for peace and against
racial discrimination and humi-
liation of any people,” says the
statement, “we express our full
support to thé initiative of the
Polish Government and the gov-
ernments of other socialist coun-
tries who have been striving to
secure peace in Europe and the
whole world, establish relations
of friendship and brotherhood
between peoples. We have al-
ways been against any national-
ism, above all against any Jew-
ish nationalism, of which Zion-

Behind locked doors

an example: after the 1967 war,
the Israeli government arrested
one of the leaders of the Jordan-
ian Communist Party in Jeru-
salem, Comrade Naim al-Ash-
hab. In prison, he was attacked
by one of the common criminals
and badly wounded in the head;
the Arab prisoners went on
hunger strikes in protest.

“We have organized a soli-
darity campaign for the libera-
tion of our comrade. Because
what does Naim  al-Ashhab
want? He is fighting also for a
peaceful solution permitting
good relations between Israel
and the Arab peoples.

“Naim al-Ashhab is a Pale-
stinian patriot. I am a Jew and
an Israeli patriot, and there is
no difference between the fight

Naim al-Ashhab is waging and -

mine. My fight for his liberation
is in the interest of Israel; his
fight for the national rights of
the Palestinian people is in the
interest of Israel. It is an ex-
ample of internationalism, Com-
munism and patriotism.”

ism has been and remains an
extreme expression.

“The adventurist policy of ag-
gression of Israel’s ruling cir-
cles, which have the support of

American imperialism, brings
only new suffering to the peoples
of the Middle East, both Jews
and Arabs.”

The statement stresses that in
the interest of peace in the Mid-
dle East and the world over, Is-
rael should abandon its policy of
aggression and return the Arab
lands it seized and the conflict

should be resolved through a full .

implementation of the UN Secur-
ity Council’s resolution of No-
vember 22, 1967.

“We are in full agreement
with proposals of Poland and the
Soviet Union’ aimed at restoring
peace in the Middle East,” the
statement declares.

Eban, Brandt love affair

The German Democratic Re-
public television service inter-
viewed Dr. Wolfgang Kiesewet-
ter, asking him his opinion of
the recent first official visit to
Bonn of Israel’s foreign minister
Abba Eban.

Dr. Kiesewetter said, ‘The
negotiations between West Ger-
many and Israel carried on be-
hind closed doors concerned the
further extensive economic, po-

‘litical and also military assist-

ance to be rendered Isreal by
the West German Federal Govy-
ernment with a view to enabling
the former country. to continue
its aggressive and expansionist
policy.

“Considerable funds have for
years been flowing from Bonn
into the Israel military budget
and the West German monopo-
lies consider Israeli armament
industry a profitable capital in-
vestment. Though the West Ger-
man statesmen have always
tried to make the world believe
that the Federal Republic was
not supplying Israel with arms,

the’ facts give the lie to them.
Israel still receives diverse mili-
tary assistance; also armament
experts are sent there.

“Mr. Eban announced that he
had found that the political
views held by Israel did not dif-
fer much from those of the Fed-
eral Republic of Germany. This
is also rather revealing with re-
gard to the Bonn-Tel Aviv axis.

“There is no condemning the
barbarian raids of the UAR by
Israeli bomber pilots on the
part of West German statesmen.

“Eban’s remark that there
had been no mention of neutral-
ity in his talks shows that what
Messrs. Brandt and Scheel have
always tried to hide is true: The
SPD/FDP Government in Bonn
is pursuing a definitely anti-
Arab policy as did its predeces-
sors. There is no such thing as
the frequently professed “neu-
trality’ towards the Arab states.
Bonn is backing the cause of the
Israeli aggressor and not of the
invaded Arab states.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—MAY 1, 1970—Page 9