WORLD NEWS

LEFT GAIN IN DUTCH ELECTION

THE HAGUE — left forces in the Netherlands made significant
gains in last week’s elections for the 150-seat lower house of par-
_ liament, the latest tallies showed. A record 82.9% of the

_ country’s nine million eligible voters gave the three-party opposi-

.. tion bloc a gain of four seats, from 52 to 56. The three-party right-

__ ist clerical bloc, part of the ruling coalition which fell apart last

_ July, suffered a severe loss, falling from 58 seats to 48.

. Premier Barend Biesheuvel, who represents the Protestant-based
_ Anti-Revolutionary Party, said Thursday: “I’m afraid it will be ex-

_ tremely difficult to form a new government,” but Queen Juliana is
_ €xpected to ask him to remain in office on a day-to-day, caretaker
_ basis. Biggest gainer in the election was the Labor Party, which

won four seats, making it the largest single Dutch party, with a
total of 43 seats.

ITALIAN COMMUNISTS WELCOME ELECTION GAINS

ROME — The Political Bureau of the Communist Party of Italy
issued a statement welcoming the successes won by Communist
and other left forces in the country’s recent local elections. The CPI
_ gained more than two percent more votes than in the 1970 local
_ elections in the 778 different municipalities. The Italian Commu-
nists characterized these successes as being “of great political sig-
_ hiificance. It is indicative of the voters’ great support for the anti-

fascist forces and of the people’s strivings for democratic transfor-

-Mations in our country.” The CPI said the vote was “a solid bar-
_ Tier in the path of the extreme right wing and an obvious setback
_ for the Christian Democrats.” :

ICELAND RECOGNIZES GDR

___ REYKJAVIK — The government of Iceland decided to recognize

. ‘the German Democratic Republic, becoming the first Scandinavian

member of NATO to do so. Denmark had announced earlier that

_ it would recognize the GDR immediately after the GDR-West Ger-

_ man treaty was signed, and last week the two German states said

_ in a join communique that the signing will take place on Dec. 21,
_ in Berlin, the GDR capital.

CHILE WINS IN FRENCH COURT

PARIS — The High Court of Paris ruled last week in favor of
Chile and against Kennecott Copper Corporation, lifting a court-
imposed freeze on payment to Chile for a 1,200-ton shipment of cop-
per ore. The verdict was immediately hailed by progressive forces
in France and throughout the world and seems likely to be remem-
bered as one of the more important international legal decisions
of the 20th century.

_ Jean Vassogne, president of the High Court, ruled that the deci-
sion in favor of Chile will become effective immediately. The cop-
per shipment, from the nationalized El Teniente mine, has an esti-

_ mated worth of about $1,300,000; it was purchased by the French
_ trading firm, GIM, which is run by the French metals industries.
Kennecott Copper, which owned 49% of El-Teniente before it
- was nationalized in July 1971, started the legal action earlier this
year to prevent sales of Chilean copper abroad, claiming it had not
been compensated for its Chilean mine interests.

Inasmuch has Chile derives 85% of its foreign earnings from cop-

_ per sales, the Kennecott move was viewed as one not only by that
U.S. monopoly alone, but as a general U.S. imperialist economic
_ warfare offensive against the’ Popular Unity government of Chile.

French and Dutch dock workers refused to unload the shipment

of ore, thus preventing Kennecott from séizing it. The Latin Ame-
_ rican countries and nearly all the developing countries in the’
_ United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNSTAD)
came out in formal, public support of Chile, as did international
_ workingclass organizations like the 130-million member World
Federation of Trade Unions.
The issue rapidly became one involving the question of a coun-
_ try’s sovereignty over its own natural resources. As WFTU General
_ Assembly declared on Dec. 14, 1962 that “the right of peoples and
nations to permanent sovereignty over their natural wealth and
resources must be exercised in the interest of their national deve-

lopment and of the well-being of the people of .the State con-
cerned.” The decision of the Paris court upholds that right and is
a victory not only for Chile but also for international workingclass
solidarity and all the world’s developing countries.

IRISH PROTESTS MAY TOPPLE GOVERNMENT

DUBLIN — The Dail Eireann (Irish parliatment) continued a cru-
cial debate on proposed repressive legislation Thursday as the op-
‘position Labor and Fine Gael Parties, stiffened by mass public
protests, declared they would vote against it, thus wiping out Pre-
_ mier Jack Lynch’s one-seat majority in the Dail. The Lynch govern-
ment almost certainly would be toppled as a result, and Dublin
sources said his Fianna Fail Party already has drawn up plans for
a national election (probably on Dec. 22) if this occurs. The laws
- ‘proposed by Lynch would shift the burden of proof from the state

to those arrested by it.

That would mean that a person picked up by the police on the
grounds of alleged membership in an “illegal organization,” such
as the Irish Republican Army (IRA), would have to prove he was
not an IRA member. Members of the Lynch government argue that
this is necessary to fight what they term “the IRA threat.” But
opponents, including the Communist Party of Ireland, say that the
IRA is merely being used by Lynch as a pretext for the drastic
legislation, which would be used against all opponents of the gov-
ernment. » i La 3s
PACIFIC TRIBUNE—FRIDAY, DECEMBER 8, 1972—-PAGE 6

QUEBEC TODAY

‘French only’ misses point

By SAM WALSH

The . percentage of Franco-
phones in the population of
Quebec is expected to peak in
1975-1976, and for those who

regard the rights of nations and -

nationalities only from an arith-
metical point of view—majority
or minority—this tendency has
become a nightmare, pushing
them to ill-considered and fool-
ish acts.

The great majority of immi-
grants coming to Quebec prefer
to have their children educated
in English, for quite under-
standable reasons. The nationa-
lists react to this by trying to
modify the law in order to force
them to have their children edu-
cated in French. A simplistic,
dangerous, anti-democratic and
discriminatory response to a
complex problem.

Why do immigrants, including
those who come from countries
where the language belongs to
the same family as French, pre-
fer English? Because the key
industries and commercial hous-
es belong to Americans or to
Anglo-Canadians, and the work-
ing language in all responsible
positions and even for skilled
labor is English. A less impor-
tant factor is the fact that many
of these immigrants go into sea-
sonal work, where unemploy-
ment forces them to move to
English Canada or to the United
States, where, obviously, English
is necessary.

Disastrous Experience

All efforts to coerce the im-
migrants to abandon English-
language education only deepen
the chasm between these new
Quebecois and the French-Cana-
dians. After the disastrous ex-
perience at St-Leonard, where
the Catholic School Board elimi-
nated English progressively each
year in elementary schools, an
act directly aimed at the Italian-
Canadian population and leading
to racist riots and eventually to
the adoption of Law 63 guaran-

Radio Havana has just issued
its new broadcast schedule for
the next four months.

This powerful Cuban station
broadcasts programs in __ nine
languages throughout the West-
ern Hemisphere. Western Eu-
rope and North Africa. The pro-
grams include news of Cuba and
Latin America as well as ac-
counts of liberation movements
throughout the world.

A special feature is the re-
broadcasting of Vietnamese
news programs in English and
Spanish. So if you have a short
wave set you can listen to the
“Voice of Vietnam.” The sche-
dule for English language pro-
grams for the Western Hemis-
phere is given below. The com-
plete schedule can be obtained
by writing to Radio Habana
Cuba. Aapartado de Correos
70-26 La Habana, Cuba.

Radio Havana English lan-
guage program schedule for
Nov. 1972 to March 1973. (all
times are Eastern Standard
Time.

Time
3:50-4:50 p.m.
8:00-11:50 p.m.
8:00 p.m.-1:00 a.m.
10:30 p.m.-1:00 a.m.
1:30-3:00 a.m. :

Frequency (Kcs)
17715 and 15285
11930
11910
11760
9525":

teeing the rights of all parents
to choose English- or French-
language instruction for their
children, the immigrants were
even more determined to have
their children educated*in Eng-
lish. This is evident by the fig-
ures revealed. Language is no

“more an object of coercion than

is religion.

What is most disquieting is
the fact that in the full fury of
the battle of the Common Front
against LaPresse and the whole
state machinery, and again in
the most critical moments of the
struggle of the Common Front
on behalf of the public and para-
public workers, some _ trade
union leaders called on workers
to walk into the nationalist and
divisive trap of unilingualism.

Moreover, during the last con-
vention of the Quebec Federa-
tion of Labor, Fernand Daoust
moved a resolution to eliminate

English from all procedures of

this organization — and this
when the simultaneous transla-
tion system “simultaneously”
stopped operating! More than
one English-speaking worker

asked the question: Did Mayor -

Dreapeau’s police ask if my skull
contained English or French be-
fore clubbing it during the
united demonstration in support
of the La Presse strikers?

Against Priviledge

Workers are obligated, as a
matter of principle, to support
the French-Canadian nation
against all discrimination and
for the right to national self-
determination. But, on the other
hand, they are obligated to fight
against any privilege, whether it
be in favor of the oppressing
nation or of the oppressed na-
tion.

The workers must support
equality of rights for all nationa-
lities and peoples, regardless of
their numerical size, regardless
of their majority or minority
status in the population. The
teaching of Lenin on this ques-
tion is the only reliable one:
fight against all national privil-

‘eges, fight against all national

discrimination.

The danger to the French
language exists primarily be-
cause the principal language of
work is not French. To remedy
this, French-Canadians -must
own the key industries. Even
then English, but not necessarily
unilingual Anglophones, will be

‘bourgeois

necessary in certain positions,
because of the commercial rea-
lity of this continent.

Well, how can this be achiev-
ed? The dreams of the petty
French Canadians, "
calling on Quebecois to buy
Quebecois, etc. are childish
dreams. How will this deliver
the decisive industries into their
hands?

Then again, a separate Quebec
relying on American investors,
how can this solve the prob-
lem?

Nationalization

The only solution is the na-
tionalization of these industries.
Then it will be revealed, as was
the case with Hydro-Quebec,
that everything can be done just
as well in French as in English.

In the meantime pressure
should be mounted against the ~
government and the industrial-
ists —.and not against the im-
migrant workers so that
“every collective agreement, all
directives and instructions,
every training program etc. in
commercial, establishments and
in industries must be drawn up
in French, and when necessary,
also in English... .” (“For a.
Democratic Solution to the
Language Crisis”, declaration of
the Parti Communiste du Que-

“bec, September 17, 1968).

Within the education system
all privileges and all discrimina-
tion with respect to per-pupil
allocation of funds must be eli-
minated, whether the children
carry on their education in
French or in English Religious
control of education has proven
itself to be an obstacle to ade-
quate preparation. for modern
life and should no longer be
maintained.

Beware of all coercive efforts
to “integrate” the workers into
the “Quebec nation”. The only
result will be disintegration of
the unity, regardles of language,
nationality or religion of the
working class.

Magicians meet

BERLIN (ADN)—Professional
and amateur magicians from
Poland, Czechoslovakia and
Hungary met in Berlin recently
with their colleagues of the Ger-
man Democratic Republic for an
exchange of tricks. Some 500
“sorcerers’ apprentices” in the
GDR have regular get-togethers
in 31 amateur circles.

with questions.

ist Party of Canada.

and Inflation.

NOV.-DEC. VIEWPOINT

The new stirring of public interest in the viewpoint of
Communists is shown these days in many ways. Election can-
didates and campaign headquarters were recently showered

Progress Subscription Service reports another worthy ef-
fort to put this point of view in circulation. PSS has. received
a gift donation of ten subscriptions to the monthly Commun-
ist Viewpoint, to be sent to as many leading libraries.

COMMUNIST VIEWPOINT is the leading Marxist theore-
tical and political journal dealing with Canadian and world
affairs from the standpoint of scientific socialism, and is
edited by Norman Freed, a leading member of the Commun-

Its current issue November-December 1972 is devoted to
the theme of assessing the world-wide significance of the
founding of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics —history’s
first multinational socialist state.

Leading articles include: An assessment of the 1972 fede-
ral elections, Lenin’s National Policy In Action by N. Freed;
The National Question in Canada by Jeannette Walsh; Com-
munist Party presentation to the Ontario Select Committee
on Economic and Cultural Nationalism; Ireland's Battle for
National Independence by Michael O'Riordan, general sec-
retary of the Communist Party of Ireland — an exclusive fea-
ture; and a flashback article by Tim Buck on Wages, Prices