YBORIS NiKiFOROY Tofessor of Law, Sscow University at are wt the Ussnt® Toots of crime Your Osco\ Is Bert Whyte, Tish whe at correspondent, Gime ; ays in his article sin, 16) a ‘f USSR” (Tribune, Mon ig ei Crime in the Soviet have ane Wane and that ec ences ¢ i N. etc Revessity"? er Publish” Toronto in his ‘ : NM vour Marc of SUS dg \ March " this Vi pat the authenticity | € : I the yoctthor's Opinion crime Stems among other fconomic reasons, ; ne the high cost of i Shae his views Mr. WeverS for some pro- eat | es Slves wrong S not 3 roubles 60 anywhere from 1 ee to 2 roubles meas Come,” writes Can ay admit that prob- t in a socialist znt0 explain them ty ‘till more on ‘old ideas’ IS ays as ang rticle, ity; ficially g y lett! board. Ccepted by Mihy's a criticgt Raich- att 2, Bae tbr, en? or Me ght Matters to aq; “dit fay Tri board of the free When uld be more njedUently Beery articles Hi elt sa gn USe of “Per es Nee Phrase “oid opve a avortunate.” ; Tticles Ji rege Murphy's Snice Sem, SCO eet Clarity which ‘tics ~“'°d and inade use - Raich- Tings for- ex: o Xamples. It is tr wpPatt of nit -Story. leit be ich ¢ " Raichman's a Very lows O14 Id Mae Mt enh “if these ‘ Q 3 ‘ {eveithe ¢ re 2SUUg an ~ “Pm new so- tel 7% ideas et et th From this ca Yat old, cor- wer the ney etoueht for- + and rj tory s evelop igher Beneraliz:. discusses without using vague generalities and worn out platitudes.’ One cannot but agree with this. There is no doubt that crime presents one of such problems and it is furthest from our intentions to play it down. When we say, for example, and Mr. Whyte writes about it, that alcohol gives rise to hooliganism we are not evad- ing the problem but, quite on the contrary, stressing its im- portance, because experience shows that it is more difficult to fight alcoholism than its victims. But it is one thing. to admit the existence and difficulty of a problem and quite another to in- dulge in guesswork as to its scope and tendencies on the basis of haphazard observations and fortuitous talks with chance people. According to a selective sur- vey in the Central Black Soil Economic Region of the RSFSR, property crimes are as a rule committed by people who are materially sufficiently well off. Thus 588 percent of all the criminals surveyed were from families whose monthly income per member was 40 roubles, of whom 33 percent had 60 roubles per person and more. A Soviet law professor Roots of crime Similarly, a survey of juvenile offences in Moscow's Leninsky District in 1964 has shown that the majority of juvenile offences were committed for reasons other than material need. Thus 14.6 percent offenders in this group were from families with a monthly income up to 100 rou- bles, 31.4 percent had an aver- age family income up to 150 roubles, 34.9 percent — up to 200 roubles, 12.4 percent — up to 250 roubels and 6.7 percent —upwards of 250 roubles. No matter how you look at these figures one fact emerges quite clearly: property crimes in the USSR do not stem from material need. In evaluating the prospects of our anti-crime work we are guid- ed by two considerations. In the first place such crime-producing phenomena as poverty, exploita- tion and ignorance are inherent- ly alien to socialism. Secondly, socialism brings about the rise of the living and cultural stan- dard and the growth of public consciousness of ‘the people. These two factors naturally tend to decrease crime and eventual- ly will lead to its liquidation. POINT OF VIEW One of his generalizations is: “Collectively Marxists still have a strong tendency to cling to old attitudes under the guise of pre- serving good old ideas and loy- alties.” What does Mr. Story consider Old Attitudes? Nothing is wrong wtih good old ideas and loyalties. Mr. Story leaves the impres- sion that statements by the lead- ership, such as Nelson Clarke's, are not open to question and, as you notice, he shies away from discussing the statement. According to Mr. Story any- One who does not agree with statements like Rae Murphy makes is regarded as being “fat between the ears and on their backsides” and “reactionary” Communists. Let's examine fur- ther some of Rae Murphy's statement. He places the old trade union leadership into one pot, and “if the leadership of the trade union movement which by and large is a lot older than the average member of the unions seeks to insulate itself with the subjective notion that the big problem in the union is a preponderance of yahoos from the pepsi-generation who can be whipped into line, then the movement as a whole is in for a rather traumatic period.” My observation is that the old trade union leadership is not in- terested in that kind of a policy, and isolated cases cannot be used as the general pattern. The struggle is against right-oppor- tunism in the trade union lead- ership in many of the unions, which is reflected in its weak stand on-the stopping of the war in Vietnam, In this day and age, with its high level of technological revo- lution, there are hard working youth who strive for an all- round education which includes a progressive outlook and who also can learn many_ lessons from the experiences of the old timers. They have great oppor- tunities in a world where a so- cialist system exists, irrespec- tive of strong capitalist ideolog- ical propaganda. Unfortunately there is the weak youth who are misled by capitalist culture. Be: cause of their misunderstanding and frustration they rebel against the status quo by de- fending the Beatle culture and the sex fad, abuse the liquor bottle and think that in this way they can overcome the evils of capitalism. Molly Raichman, Calgary, Alta. THE ONTARIO LEGISLATURE abt IN SESSION he df SK Be 4 Anti-Communism— a despicable tactic A WEEKLY COMMENTARY By BRUCE MAGNUSON Ontario Leader, Communist Party NTI-COMMUNISM is not only a negative reaction to Communism. It is the ideological and political smoke- screen that strives to conceal the true ideological and political intentions of the capitalist monopolies. Anti-Com- munism is the smoke-screen behind which the big monopo- lies attack the working class, its standards of living, its jobs and democratic rights and keeps the working people tied to capitalism and to capitalist ideology. Anti-Communism is the crusade of a sick and declining social system which has long ago abandoned scientific truth and instead resorts to anti-Communist propaganda as a last line of defense to maintain indefensible positions—witness today the barbaric attack by United States imperialism against the people of Vietnam. Those who cultivate hatred of Communism and sow reformist illusions within the labor movement are doing a grave disservice to the working people. To use the distort- ed, repulsive picture of Communists that has been painted by labor’s reactionary enemies, as a means of blackmail and smear of political opponents, is to play into the hands of reaction. With the growing struggles of the working peo- ple for their democratic rights and for world peace this tac- tic, long denounced by true democrats as McCarthyism in ‘America, has become unpopular and despised in all but the most prejudiced and die-hard right-wing circles. x * * It was, therefore, a deplorable incident that occurred in the Ontario Legislature when the deputy-leader of the Ontario New Democratic Party, Ken Bryden, MPP for To- ronto-Woodbine, resorted to this despicable tactic- as a means of smearing a political opponent. The Liberal Party spokesmen, against whom Mr. Bryden used this discredited weapon, were not slow to react by referring to Mr. Bryden’s tactic as McCarthyism. For the New Democratic Party this incident was most deplorable. It served to distort its political position as the only realistic democratic alternative to both the capitalist parties in Ontario at this time. It gave the Liberal Party the opportunity to pose as the persecuted champion of the un- derdog, attacked by Mr. Bryden from positions of the Left, accused of Communist support, when, in fact, the Liberals like the Tories.get their support from big business and serve as agencies of United States interests in this country. Mr. Bryden’s use of the smear-word “‘Commie”’ in this particular case was recognized even by him as “going too far when he withdrew the remark the following day. But the question arises whether people like Mr. Bryden do not resort to red-baiting as a means of cheap, demagogic and opportunist politicking to gain bourgeois respectability and votes among the middle class, while taking the working class for granted. Such a position is particularly harmful at this time, when only the most selfless devotion to principle can rally the Left political forces to defeat both the old parties. * * * The Communist Party’s position on this is quite clear and unequivocal. We expect to make it even clearer during the forthcoming provincial campaign. We do not expect people to “automatically” or spontaneously agree with our point of view. We are prepared to debate the pros and cons of our political position with everyone, including of course Mr. Bryden. We expect such a debate to be conducted in an objective, principled and rational way. Like everyone else, we want to be judged fairly and equitably, without prejudice and discrimination, on the basis of our immediate policies and program. Red-baiting is the device of our class enemies to pre- vent rational and calm political discussion and public ex- amination of the Communist point of view, and to substi- tute anti-Communist misrepresentations for our political position. The aim of our party is to move Ontario politics to the Left. Eventually we aim to achieve a socialist reorganiza- tion of our social structure based on public ownership, where poverty and want will be banished, where human dignity and peace will prevail over human suffering and violence. Let that aim be our goal and let us unite to achieve it soon. May 19, 1967—PACIFIC TRIBUNE—Page 7: