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® WORLD SCENE

SUDANESE WOMEN MARK LENIN CENTENARY

The Sudanese Women’s League sponsored a meeting devoted
to the Lenin Centenary at the Khartoum Teachers’ Club: Minister
of Education Mohi E]-din Sabir addressed the meeting. Frida Brown,
a member of the Bureau of the Women’s International Democratic
Federation, described the role and heritage of-Lenin in the establish-
ment of social equality between men and women. Z. Rakhimbaeva
described the successful carrying out of the Leninist program of
establishing equal rights for women in the Soviet Central Asian
republics. The All-African Conference of Women was represented,
and heads of diplomatic missions accredited to the Sudan attended.

SOVIET-CUBAN TRADE EXPANDED

A Cuban delegation to Moscow, led by Deputy Minister of
Foreign Trade German Amado Blanco, signed a protocol on trade

which provides for a considerable increase. Soviet trade with Cuba

will amount to 1.2 billion rubles ($1,212 million) this year, a 50 per-
cent increase over 1968. The new protocol was signed within the
framework of the six-year Soviet-Cuban trade agreement. The
main Cuban export to the Soviet Union is sugar, while the Soviet
Union supplies crude oil and oil products, machines and equipment
and some foodstuffs. Cuba will deliver up to 5 million tons of sugar
in 1970 to the U.S.S.R. of its 10 million ton production. The agree-
ment provides a fixed price for the sugar, which guarantees: Cuba’s
economy against all possible price fluctuations on the world market.

CONFERENCE OF WOMEN OF SOCIALIST COUNTRIES

The first and only woman cosmonaut, Valentina Nikolayeva
Tereshkova, chairman of the Committee of Soviet Women, last
week opened a symposium in Moscow on “Lenin on the role of the
woman in society and the experience of the solution of the women’s
problem in socialist countries.” The five-day conference was attend-

ed by delegates from Bulgaria, Hungary, German Democratic Re-

public, Democratic Republic of Vietnam, Republic of South Viet-
nam, Cuba, the Korean Democratic Peoples Republic, Mongolia,
Poland, Rumania, U.S.S.R., Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia, as well
as the International Federation of Democratic Women, World Fede-
ration of Trade Unions, and the Organization of Solidarity of the

Peoples of Asia and Africa. ;
}

POLICE-STATE REPRESSION IN SOUTH VIETNAM

On orders of “President” Nguyen Van Thieu, military police
violated the immunity of National Assembly Deputy Tran Ngoc
Chau, who had taken asylum in the Assembly building, by carrying
him off to jail by force without a warrant. Chau was condemned
in absentia by a military court to 20 years in prison at hard labor
and confiscation of his property. There are already 200,000 political
prisoners in South Vietnam.

A number of reporters and television men were injured by the
military police and the regime’s strongarm plainclothesmen. U.S.
military police tried to prevent U.S. television crews from filming
the incidents. Stan Major of the National Broadcasting Co. was
dragged away by police.

Chau was accused of having had eight unlawful meetings with
his brother, Tran Ngoc Hsien, who is supposedly a “Communist”
espionage agent. He is held to have sought to arrange direct nego-
tiations with the National Liberation Front of South Vetnam.

UNIONS HELP REBUILD BOMBED PLANTS

As part of thé preparations for the 4th International Trade Con-
ference of the Textile, Clothing, Leather and Fur Workers and as
an expression of international solidarity of the workers in these
trades with the workers and the people of Vietnam a post card
has been ‘published, showing the ruins of the Nam Dinh textile
factories (Vietnam Democratic Republic) destroyed by ferocious
U.S. imperialist bombing.

Tens of thousands of these postcards. have been sent to affiliated
and friendly organizations all over the world in order to collect
funds and help the Vietnamese workers to re-build the important
textile plants at Nam Dinh.

THREE-QUARTERS OF GUINEA LIBERATED

Amilcar Cabral, one of the leaders of the national liberation
movement in Guinea (Bissau) showed newsmen at the UN a map
of the liberation armed forces command in Bissau. Almost three-
quarters of the country is now controlled by the liberation forces
after seven years of struggle. A new life for the people is being
built on the territory liberated from the 500-year old Portuguese
yoke. The extensive aid given Portugal by NATO is the main ob-
stacle in the way of complete liberation. Despite this aid, the Por-
tuguese colonists in 1969 lost 20 aircraft and helicopters, 18 naval
‘vessels and more than one thousand officers and men. :

TROOPS OCCUPY UNIVERSITY CAMPUS

The Colombian government closed the National University in
Bogota and sent in troops to occupy the campus to break a strike
by the university’s 11,500 students. The school will be kept closed
throughout the semester. The student strike was begun: last Decem-
ber when students in the School of Medicine boycotted classes in
an attempt to force the administration to reinstate two professors
and expand the faculty. The government used troops against medi-
cal school strikers, and the rest of the students joined the protest
action last Friday.

SOVIET RAILWAY ELECTRIFICATION LEADS

The Soviet Union is first in the world in Mileage of electrified rail-
ways, 19,872 miles. This is. one-fourth of the world’s total. Electric
and diesel locomotives pull about 96 percent of the freight.
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Lenin's views on class struggle

LENIN ON CLASS STRUGGLE

The young Lenin studied
Marx, and in that study ‘he
learned that in order to rid man-
kind of the system of exploita-
tion there must be a force cap-
able of overthrowing the power
of the capitalist class and of
building a new, socialist society,
and that such a force is the pro-
letariat, the wage-earning class
—the most exploited, the most
organized and the most revolu-
tionary class in capitalist soci-
ety.

In explaining the essence of
Marxist theory, Lenin wrote,
“It is the great and historic
merit of Marx and Engels that

they indicated to the proleta-~

rians of all countries their role,
their task, their mission, name-
ly, to be the first to rise in
revolutionary struggle against
capital and to rally around them-
selves in this struggle all the
toilgrs and exploited.”

Lenin argued against those
who, while calling themselves
socialist, wanted the working
class to follow the lead of the
bourgeois liberals.

It is in this sense that all
worker militants and socialists
in Canada should view propos-
als, already current in the labor
movement, that the workers
should have a say in production
and management of industry, as
very important steps towards
curbing the power of the big
monopolies.

AGAINST
NARROW ECONOMISM

Lenin taught that to leave the
workers’ movement bereft of re-
volutionary theory was, in effect,
to leave the politics of the work-
ing class movement in the hands
of the capitalist class. Lenin
fought many a stormy battle
with the opportunists in the
labor movement who contended
that the working class should
confine itself to the fight on the
economic front and leave the
political struggle to the various
democratic political groupings,
the liberal intellectuals and re-
formers. That same refrain is
often heard in our times.

‘The very existence of the
Soviet Union and the other so-
cialist countries is living proof
of the correctness of Lenin’s
theory as it relates to class
struggle.

The other side of the coin is
visible also. Two outstanding
examples of states where the re-
formist position towards class
rule has also been put: to the
test exist. Firstly, Sweden, where
the Social Democrats have been
the government for over two
decades and, secondly, Great
Britain, where the Social-Demo-
cratic led Labor Party has held
office more than once. In both
cases, the capitalist class con-
tinued to rule, with the powerful
monopolists in control. .

CANADA—

A COUNTRY OF WORKERS —

A scientific examination of the
Canadian working class will
show that Canadian workers in
their overwhelming majority
have not yet accepted Marx's
proven theory that the exploita-
tion of man by man is the essen-
tial condition for the existence

.of the working class; that the

condition for capital is wage
labor; and the growth of wage
labor is essential to the growth

of capital.
The majority are held in the
grip of widespread illusions

about the nature of capitalism.

Once the decisive sections of
the working class grasp the
basic idea of Marxism and, in so

Below are printed excerpts
from. the lecture The Role of
The Working Class, delivered
by Alf Dewhurst, Executive Sec-
retary of the Central Executive
Committee of the Communist
Party of Canada at the Nor-
man Bethune Centre.

doing, rid themselvés of these
capitalist - inspired _ illustions,
Canada will be on its way to
socialism. For Canada is a
country of workers.

A survey conducted by the
Marxist Study Center, published
in 1969, shows that paid work-
ers in the civilian labor force,
excepting top management per-
sonnel, in 1967, comprised 81
percent of the civilian labor
force. The study concludes that,
if these figures of paid workers
were expanded to include the
non-working members of the
the families of these working
people, plus those from the
working class now retired, the
total falling within the working
class would amount to 80 per-
cent of the entire population.

In examining the composition
of the working class, one must
accept the wide diversity in
consciousness and co ncept
bound to exist within it. For in-
stance, the survey shows that
total paid workers in material
production, (those employed
in manufacturing, construction,
transport, stoOrage, communica-
tions and public utilities) was
less than 50 percent of the total
paid labor force.

The total of non-material paid
workers (those employed in
trade, finance, services and gov-
ernment, but excluding the arm-
ed forces and civilians directly
concerned therein) measured
over 50 percent. The weight of
the various sections of the paid
workers has been shifting stead-
ily to those sections not engag-
ed directly in the production of
things. This is a result of the
advance of modern technology
in production, transport and
communications, and the signi-
ficant extension of trade, fin-
ance, credit, public services and
government administration.

This shifting process means
that bourgeois ideology and
middle class social practices
which infect the working class
by those sections of workers
and salaried personnel who
stand closest to middle-class
standards as to place of employ-
ment and income, tend to be-
come stronger. To note this ten-
dency, is not to turn a blind eye
to the direct exposure of the
working class to the ceaseless
barrage of bourgeois propogan-
da. But, over and above this
bourgeois ideological offensive,
where the various component
parts of the working class stand
in relation to the production pro-
cesses also has an important
bearing on class consciousness.

The closer the worker is io
the point of production, the
more clearly he can see the
source of capitalist profit. This
is not only related as to how
sharply he feels the effects of
capitalist exploitation on ~ his
own back, but how he sees for
himself that the introduction of
a new machine, or new methods
of work, can result in the pro-
duction of two units where one
was produced before.

He sees that he does not ac-
crue the fruits of his increased
production, but it does find im-
mediate reflection in the profit
figures of the company.

“same age category accounts

On the other hand, the furthel)
a paid worker is removed from
the point of production, th
harder it is for him to see him
self as a member of the exploll
ed class of producers. He
much more apt to consider thal
he is of the middle class, whit
is the burden of capitalist pl
paganda.

The structure of the modem —
working class is bound to be !®
flected in considerable diversil)
in the conditions of the class
a whole. Many differing stam
ards of living are to be fount
ranging from dire poverty 4!
sub-standard incomes to a 82
measure of affluence and middle ”
class standards of life. This ca”
not help but result in the exist
ence of differing degrees of d* —
satisfaction (or satisfaction)
with the material and spiritu® —
conditions of life, in accordant
with place in the income stru@
ture. ‘

The rapid growth of the work
ing class in the post-war yeas”
is testimony that the class, OV
and above natural replenish
ment, has received a heavy
flux of new wage and ‘sala
workers over the past 20 yeal®
The new additions, native b®
and ifmigrant, serve to dilulé
temporarily the level of co™
sciousness as a whole. This ¥—
because the main body
drawn from the ranks of thos’
whom monopoly: has displace
from the land, self-employ®
practice and business. The ide
these new additions to the wo
ing class bring with them @
stamped with the cult of nae
vidualism of their former m®
of making a living, tending
conservatism in some cases a }
even reaction in social outloo™ —

The new recruits for the yes
ing class drawn from the Tan"
of the young are a welcome ae
dition to'the paid work fore
They are better educated oe
trained than their predecessor,
in keeping with the needs y
modern capitalism. Their exe
ences in pursuit of democrar’
in the schools and universitl@”
and the struggles that mar
have engaged in for peace, ee
rights and other social caus”
(on and off campuses) have ?
bued a substantia] section if
these young men and wore
with a healthy skepticism of t 2
capitalist establishment, a 8107
ing radicalism (often ting.
with unscientific petty-bourge’
notions) spirited militancy,

a certain sense of collectivity:
e younb

ad

i

The importance of th 1es
workers in the current struge iy
for higher wages can be rapl:
appreciated when account
taken of the fact that ‘in steé
is reported that 50 percent ‘
the workers are 25 years of one
or less, and auto notes that Pe

J it

40 percent. It is precisely ot
younger workers who feel me
sharply the inadequacy of of
incomes to meet the needs
homes and families.

It is the combination of yout!
and experience that resides
the basic section of the work?
class—the industrial worker
which in struggle against me
poly exploitation and domi
tion will inevitably lead CT |
whole class to THINK and #7) —
for itself as a class, that 15 49 5
“use its political supremacy.)
wrest, by degrees, all can
from the bourgeoisie to cone }
ize all instruments of produe 7

,

into the hands of the S@
namely, of the proletariat
ganized as the ruling class:

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