; | ON FEBRUARY 18 fora Vote Communist Ones Convention kicks off CP campaign Block Tory majority, Kashtan urges With a sharp warning to Canadians that the Feb. 18 federal election is ‘‘crucial’’ to the country’s future, Com- munist Party national leader William Kashtan kicked off the CP election campaign Saturday in Toronto as he _ greeted the opening of the par- ty’s 24th central convention. If the Tories are returned with a majority it will be to ‘mplement their austerity program for the people, their giveaways to the corporations and to subordinate Canada’s foreign policy to U.S. im- perialism,”” Kashtan stressed,’ Afghans protest U.S.-China acts of ‘subversion’ @LABOR: Shirley Mathieson, the president of the embattled B.C. Ferry and Marine Workers Union, has placed her union under a voluntary trusteeship of the Cana- dian Labor Congress. Jack Phillips examines the issues involved in his Labor Comment, page 8. @ELECTIONS: Vancouver alderman Harry Rankin welcomes the fall of the Clark government, and lays out the main election issues as he sees them, page 2. By SEAN GRIFFIN Afghanistan’s Radio Kabul has charged that the U.S. and China were using Pakistan as ‘‘a springboard for anti-Afghan subversive activities’? which prompted the request to the Soviet Union for military aid, under the terms of the 1978 treaty. on friendship and cooperation. NEWS ANALYSIS The USSR sent a military contingent to Afghanistan Dec. 28 which Novosti press agency said was to ‘‘assist the Republic of Afghanistan in repelling arm- ed intervention from without.” The new government of Babrak Karmal had made the request for Soviet aid in the face of what it termed ‘‘provoca- tions of the foreign enemies of Afghanistan.”” Radio Kabul reported the government state- ment Dec. 28 which said: ‘‘The government of Afghanistan, taking into account the continu- ing and broadening interference and provocations of the foreign enemies of Afghanistan, with a view to defending the gains of the April revolution and pro- ceeding from the terms of the treaty of Dec. 5, approached the USSR with the urgent request to give political, moral and economic aid, including military aid. “The government of the Soviet Union -has met the re- quest of the Afghan side,”’ it said. Karmal assumed the presidency after toppling the former. regime of Hafizullah see SOVIET page 7 “‘We must do everything to prevent such an outcome.”’ The best outcome of the election would be if both the Tories and the Liberals were denied majorities, he said, and if instead a large block of pro- gressives and ‘working class candidates’ were elected. More than 50 CP candidates across the country will be in the campaign by the end of this week and they will ‘‘focus their attack on the political right’’, he said. A Liberal majority could be expected to carry out much the same kind of austerity pro- -gram as the Tories have pro- t TRIBUNE PHOTO—SEAN GRIFFIN mised, Kashtan added, and the ‘‘mild reforms’’ advocated by the NDP won’t have much im- pact on the country’s pro- blems. Kashtan will be beginning his campaign this week with a cross country tour that will take him to Vancouver Thurs- day for media appearances and to address a meeting of CP members and campaign workers in Vancouver. In B.C., the CP has placed 10 nominations in the field; concentrated in the Greater Vancouver, Fraser Valley and Vancouver Island regions: e In Vancouver Centre the CP has nominated Jack Phillips, the party’s labor secretary and a member of its central committee. Phillips has been moved into Centre to take on Tory Pat Carney, a personal favorite of Joe Clark’s and Art Phillips, the sole incumbent Liberal in Western Canada. The NDP has nominated Ron Johnson for a third time. e In Vancouver East the CP candidate will be Tribune associate editor Fred Wilson. Wilson ran in the last election in Vancouver East which saw the NDP’s Margaret Mitchell see CP page 2 _ Commonwealth © oh “J | Oe ee Siler I Toronto alderman Dan Heap welcomed delegates to the Communist Party's central convention at the Holiday Inn in downtown Toront members of the Communist Party, o. Heap brought greetings from mayor John Sewell and called on the New Democratic Party and others to work together to “defend the gains won in past years.” Seated behind Heap are fraternal delegations from foreign Communist and Workers’ parties. Unity and solidarity keynote Communist Party convention “‘The Communist Party is alive and kicking. It is growing younger and growing larger, and having a bigger impact all across Canada,’? Communist Party general secretary William Kashtan declared as he closed the 24th convention of the Communist Party Monday in Toronto. Although blacked out in the media across Canada, the CP conventiOn was a major success bringing 158 delegates from all across the country together with hundreds of observers and fra- ternal delegations from foreign countries for the three-day ses- sion. Kashtan was unanimously re- elected general secretary and leader of the CP by the conven- tion which also chose a 67-person central committee ‘9 lead its work until 1981. Seven members of the central commit- tee were from B.C. For the first time in the CP’s 57-year history, foreign delega- tions were allowed into the country to attend the conven- tion. The weighty presidium in- cluded leading representatives of the Communist Parties of the Soviet Union, Czechoslovakia, Vietnam, Bulgaria, Romania and the United States, the Hun- garian Workers and Socialist Party, the Socialist Unity Party of the German Democratic Re- public, and the Workers’ Party of Jamaica. In its three days of intensive discussions the convention dealt with over a hundred amendm- ments to the draft policy state- ment and adopted special resolutions on the coming Que- bec referendum, the — federal election, the crisis in the auto in- dustry, arts and cultural policy and international solidarity. Before the convention closed Monday, delegates gave unanj- mous approval to the draft policy statement. ‘‘The party is more united than ever,’’ Kash- tan said in his concluding re- marks. In a special report on the ex- pulsion of former CP leader in Saskatchewan, Bill Beeching, delegates gave unanimous ap- proval to the actions taken by the central committee. CP conventions are usually held every three years, but dele- gates voted to convene the next central convention in 1981, the 60th anniversary of the found- ing of the party. The date for the convention will be set later this year by the new central committee.