WORLD —— Canadian CPC group at 70th anniversary MOSCOW—\—A delegation of the Communist Party of Canada, led by its General Secretary William Kashtan, is due to return home this week after spending two weeks here participat- ing in the celebrations marking the 70th Anni- versary of the October Socialist Revolution in Russia. The group, including Kashtan, Communist Party of Quebec President Sam Walsh, and the Party's Educational Director Maggie Bizzell, took part in the ceremonial meeting Nov. 2 in the Kremlin’s Palace of Congresses where Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev delivered his 70th Anniversary address to the Soviet people. Later they also participated in a large, informal meeting of Communist parties, national libera- tion movements, Social Democratic and Green parties, also held in the Kremlin. As part of the activities marking the revolu- tionary anniversary, the Canadian group travel- led to the Moscow suburb of Krasnogorsk, where Kashtan delivered his Party’s greetings to several hundred local Soviet party activists. The CPC leader — who himself first visited the USSR in 1931 — spoke at some length to the largely youthful crowd about the struggle to build and defend socialism over the past 70 years, to win world peace, and the common interest in peace and progress that is shared by Soviet and Canadian workers. “In celebrating the 70th Anniversary of the Great October Socialist Revolution,”’’ he said, *‘the world cannot but note the consistent fight for peace that has permeated the foreign policy of the Soviet Union and the CPSU: peace and socialism, socialism and peace have been the constant watch words of the Soviet Union. The new thinking called for by the Soviet Union is based upon the recognition that ... destruction or survival is the new reality and the real choice in today’s world’’. ‘*These 70 years have shown that socialism is able to adapt to all circumstances and triumph against all odds,’’ Kashtan told the Krasnogorsk activists. ‘‘Socialism has made the Soviet Union a world leader. By its efforts and example the Soviet people have shown the world there is another way forward for humanity.” The Canadian group also prepared an address to the informal meeting, in which some 180 polit- ical parties and movements took part, but due to time constraints were unable to deliver it at the meeting itself. (The speech was later published in full in the newspaper Pravda). In that speech Kashtan forcefully related the reform drive now underway in the Soviet Union to the struggle for a nuclear free world, a goal energetically advanced by the CPSU under Gorbachev. ‘Peace and perestroika go together,’ wrote Kashtan. ‘‘They are inseparable’. ‘* Allow me to express the appreciation of our delegation on the organization of this inter- national forum,’’ his remarks concluded. ‘‘It is being held at a good time, when the 70th anni- versary of the Great October Revolution is being celebrated here and in all parts of the world. It is also being held at a time when:peres- troika and glasnost are changing the image of socialism and making it an ever more attractive force in the world. The changes opening up are making the Soviet Union a magnet both in the fight for peace and in the fight for social pro- gress. We wish the CPSU, and the Soviet people further successes in their great effort’. — F.W. End aid to contras Ortega tells Reagan Nicaragua’s President Daniel Ortega, speaking before the Organization of. American States general assembly in Washington, accused the Reagan ad- ministration of sending 140 supply flights to the contras since the signing last August of the Central America peace plan by the five regional governments. The plan, Ortega reminded the OAS, calls for cessation of all external mili- tary aid as a key condition for re- turning the region to peace. And he charged the U.S. was now supplying its contra forces with ground-to-air missiles thereby creating a new danger to civilian air traffic. The Nicaraguan President cal- led for direct talks with the United States, a proposal which was im- mediately rejected by U.S. am- bassador to the OAS, Richard McCormack. : Ortega outlined to OAS dele- gates the key points of the 1986 ruling by the International Court of Justice which found the United States guilty of violating inter- national law by its contra support, a ruling Washington has publicly spurned..And in direct response to an earlier speech before the same body by President Reagan, Ortega reaffirmed his govern- ment’s intention to comply 100 per cent with the Central Ameri- can peace plan’s provisions, pointing out that several major ORTEGA: The Reagan adminis tion has violated the peace f provisions with 140 contra suf _flights since August. steps have already been take! He also told Reagan t Nicaragua will lift its state emergency brought about by contra war and declare a t amnesty for all political prisof only after an international V fication group confirms all outs assistance to the contras stopped. In an arrogant speech a day < lier, Reagan charged that } aragua was ‘nowhere né meeting the peace plan’s } visions and said the U.S. wo only talk with the Sandin government when it shows “ ious intent’? to comply — | then only if other Central Am can leaders were present. _ Soviet cinema: Scenes from (top) The Theme, (bottom) Repentance. Provoking ‘Past and future merging Moscow Rise mre Fred Weir In a strange display of political chemis- try, a good part of the Western press corps here in Moscow has concluded that Mikhail Gorbachev’s 70th Anniver- sary address to the Soviet people, de- livered on November 2, was the first symptom of perestroika’s death. Point- ing primarily to the historical content of his speech, they have labelled it ‘‘disappointing’’ and a. capitulation to “‘conservative hard-liners.’’ This comes as something of a surprise to me, because I sat in the Palace of Congresses last week, heard the same speech, and came away convinced that it was a ringing af- firmation of continuing revolution. How to understand this? True, rumors had been circulating for weeks suggest- ing that the speech would contain some thunderbolt revelations about the Stalin era. That didn’t materialize, and all jour- nalists naturally felt their expectations thwarted. But if Gorbachev didn’t pro- vide any sensational headlines, it is clear at least to me that what he did say will have far more sweeping repercussions in the long-run. There seems to be a tendency here, and not only among Western correspon- dents, to measure the success of peres- troika by the depth and extent to which history is opened up for debate. There is a sense in which I agree with this: the democratization now underway — @ Gorbachev clearly said this — has to! clude a repudiation of all anti-democra . practices, past and present. It is ! enough to state this in principle. The é tual crimes must be dragged into open air, the guilty and the innoct identified, and the flaws in the syst which permitted such abuses must exposed once and for all. _ However, I suspect that many Wé: ern journalists fundamentally beli¢ that the socialist system itself is the fl and would not be fully satisfied eve? the entire CPSU Politbureau commit! collective suicide. Gary Lee, of | Washington Post, for instance, cil as evidence for Gorbache¥ ‘‘conservatism’’ the fact that he prais the achievements of the early five-y° plans and declared the Soviet Union ¢ rect to have chosen the socialist path development. Of course Gorbachev paid tribute the painful struggles and sacrifices th ensured the survival of the USSR, # the construction of a modern indust! base in the country. But what is strik!! about the Soviet leader’s speech — #! sets it apart from any previous jub address — is that he tried very hard place all events into their authentic © text, to emphasize the complexity | each moment, the contradictions i rent in each decision, and thus he ! stored the sense of process and the © ment of choice to Soviet history. About the excesses of the Stalin & he could hardly have been tougher: * guilt of Stalin and his immediate ent! age before the Party and the people? the wholesale repressions and acts lawlessness is enormous and unforgiv able. This is a lesson for all generatio™® he said. That Gorbachev did not spell out th guilt in excruciating detail on the 10 a \ discussion that is not likely to end soon. ‘a 8 e PACIFIC TRIBUNE, NOVEMBER 18, 1987