YCL a moving, growing force

“The YCL is a living, moving,
growing force in Canada,” said
Elizabeth Hill, Secretary of the
Young Communist League on
her return from a three week
western tour of Canada. The
tour highlighted the celebration
of the organization’s 50th an-
niversary, its current campaigns
and the preparations of the
YCL for its 18th convention
(postponed from October until
spring, to allow time to conso-
lidate the succésses of the Viet-
nam children’s hospital cam-
paign, the 10th World Youth
_Festival and the present growth
in membership).

In Vancouver, the 50th an-
niversary was marked by a ban-
quet of more than 200 people.
On behalf of the B.C. Provincial
Committee of the Communist
Party, Maurice Rush spoke of
the contributions the YCL dur-
ing its half century of history
in Canadian struggles. At an

all-day provincial conference the
YCL set out a plan of work for
the forthcoming period includ-
ign ‘the fight for jobs for youth,
support -for the grape boycott,
building their campus club and
expanding work among high
school students.

At high schools in Edmonton,
interest in the YCL’s positions
ran high, and discussions and
questions jumped from anti-
pollution struggles around Lake
Louise to workers’ control and
the Communist Manifesto.

High Unemployment

In Calgary, a newly organized
YCL club-is bouncing into mili-
tant political activity. The club
crganized a meeting at the Uni-
versity of Alberta, where Liz
Hill outlined the YCL’s position
on major problems facing youth,
pointing out that we are now
facing youth unemployment
levels: surpassing the last two
decades, along with skyrocketing

prices, and a decline in the num-
ber of students. Liz Hill stressed
the need for a program for
youth to unite around in defense
of their immediate rights and
guarantees of a secure future,
A social on campus celebrated
the YCL’s 50th anniversary and
reported ‘on the 10th World
Youth Festival. —

The five day visit to Regina
advanced the public work of
the YCL in a bustle of sessions
with university classes, public
meetings, press interviews. It
included a discussion with a
group of working women on the
positions of the Communist
Party: on. struggles of women,
and how socialism has overcome
oppression and_ inequality of
women,

In the midwest, the Winnipeg
YCL is the first to go over the
top on its campaign for new
subscriptions to the Young
Worker. The club organized two
campus meetings and held an

open evening on the Berlin
Youth Festival.

Democratic Chile

At the University of Win-
nipeg, Liz Hill spoke on the
grave situation .in Chile. While
ultra-leftists and anarchists,
calling for civil war were decid-
ing for the Chileans what they
should do, a young Colombian
woman in the audience gave her
support to the struggles for a
democratic Chile. She said ‘‘peo-
ple are interested in solutions to
their immediate problems, not
abstract debate and revolution-
ary slogans; and they will move
forward one step at a time.”

Thunder Bay is the city with
the highest inflation in Canada.
Here, Liz Hill spoke of the

effect of high prices on young

workers, the unemployed and
student youth. In a television
and radio interview, she said:
“It is the big monopoly corpora-

tions which are to blame for the

ridiculous prices and they who

lL 000, 000 ;

UNION OF
ees a! pr | | MOBS NOW

PUT al,
| 5

must be forced to roll back
prices.”

Thunder Bay was the last”
stop of the tour, and it conclud
ed with a social in the Com”
munist Party’s new centre whelé }
the YCL presented an honoraly
pennant to Tom Hill, who Ww
general secretary of the YCL#
1923 when it was founded.

we

MONTREAL '— What are the
other parties talking about in
the Quebec election campaign,
and what are their chances?
This question and others were
put to Sam Walsh, president of
the Parti Communiste du Qué-
bec, who talked recently with
the Tribune.

“All the parties of the opposi-
tion, with the exception of the
Union Nationale, are going for
government,” he said. René Lé-
vesque of the Parti Québécois
maintains that the PQ will form
a minority government; the Cré-
ditistes under Yvon Dupuis
claim they will be returned as a
majority government.

“This presupposes an enor-
mous ‘gain in popular vote for
each of these two parties. There
has been a re-shuffling of the
electoral map to equalize the
number of votes in each consti-
tuency, which will give Mont-
real two more, but with the
changes, no constituency re-
mains as before.

“So it’s very difficult to pre-
dict what the results will be,
even in Montreal, which is de-
cisive. In. this campaign Mont-
real has 36 seats. Looking over
the 1970 vote, with fewer seats,
28 went to the Liberals; six to
the Parti Québécois, and one to
the Union Nationale. The Crédi-
tistes didn’t win a seat.

Disenchantment

“With any shifts, especially in
the constituencies where win-
ning margins were small, there
could be a decisive difference.”

Further commenting on Libe-
ral changes in the elections,
Walsh pointed out that although
English-speaking voters in Mont-
real have traditionaaly voted
Liberal, there is considerable
disenchantment on the part of
the English-speaking population.
“It’s not hard to see why,” he
said. “The government is really
incompetent. In spite of its high-
blown claims about managerial
efficiency, the government has
been woefully weak in getting
anything done.

“The only capable minister in
the bunch, Claude Castonguay,

ok

SAMUEL WALSH, President,
Communist Party of Quebec

is not up for re-election. It
seems as though he’s had
enough.

“But the effect of English-
speaking disenchantment is not
likely to result in any large
move to the Parti Québécois. A
few have indicated they will
vote PQ because of their social
program; it seems that they are
not afraid of separation.

Appeal to Business

“The Créditistes may pick up
votes from the reactionary sec-
tion of the English-speaking po-
pulation because of their em-
phasis on free enterprise, and
their appeal to English-speaking
businessment for support, in
which they’re getting an unex-
pectedly good response. It is
quite possible that the English-
speaking bourgeoisie has decid-‘
ed to make a certain investment
in the Créditistes as a substitute
for the Union Nationale, who
are completely discredited.”

The Tribune asked what
would happen if at least part of
the PQ and Créditiste claim
were true, that they are picking
up votes and ‘seats. “If there is
a big Liberal loss in Montreal,
for whatever reason, the gov-
ernment is in for trouble. There
is absolutely no sign that the
Liberals are picking up strength
in rural areas; it’s there that the

Créditistes look to be gaining
strength. And if the PQ is doing
well in the city constituencies,
which is quite possible, the fu-
ture of the Liberals as a major-
ity government is in doubt.
Victory or the End

“The Parti Québécois was
quite frank during its conven-
tion, when it said that in 1973
they would be the party in op-
position, not the government,
and look forward to 1975. Then
if another general election were
called, it would be a PQ victory
— independence — or the end
of the Parti Québécois.

“You see,” Mr. Walsh conti-
nued, “it is their calculation
that by 1975 .. . (if the) PQ
will show that it cannot deliver
its promise of independence as
a prerequisite to social change,
the working class will have no
other alternative than to form a

_mass party of labor. This will

mean the end of the road for the
PQ for an electoral victory, be-
cause the main base of PQ sup-
port so far has been working
people.”

In concluding, .Mr. Walsh
spoke of the significance of
changes in the welfare program,
and how they might affect the
election. “In the first place, and
we're talking about the new fa-
mily allowance, it’s a federal
program,” he said. “The federal
government made the decision
to increase family allowances.

“The victory gained by Que-
bec, and, it should be said, the
other provinces, is that the
federal government has decided
to deal with each of the pro-
vinces directly, based on the
needs of that province as seen
by the respective provincial gov-
ernment.

“The fact that Ottawa has’ so
far felt constrained to deal first
with Quebec, which is the only
province to reach an agreement,
has considerable electoral signi-
ficance. First because both are
Liberal. And obviously it was
done so as to give Bourassa
some ammunition for the elec-
tion. Actually, it is no great
program of the Quebec govern-
ment.”

“ Quebec election ’73: The Parti Communist

Anti-labor bias
main feature of
Liberal regime

MONTREAL — “We are call-
ing on working men and work-
ing people to defend themselves
— to vote Communist,” said
Jeannette Walsh, Communist
Party candidate in Mercier con-
stituency, who talked to the
Tribune in an interview. “I am
very proud to represent. the
Communist Party and its pro-
gram, which is based on the in-
terests of the working class,
especially in Mercier, whose sit-
ting member is Robert Bourassa,
premier of Quebec.”

Mrs. Walsh, the National Or-
ganizer of the Parti Communiste
du Québec, was asked to give an
outline of the problems facing
Quebec’s working people.

“Premier Bourassa, in _ his
three years of office, has done
nothing to solve the problem of
unemployment. He won the last
election on the promise of
100,000 new jobs. Now he says
that this will come about only
in the 1980’s, when the question
of unemployment will solve it-
self through the décline in the
birth rate.

Infringed on Rights

“The Bourassa government
has also infringed on all demo-
cratic rights, particularly those
of the workers. He favored the
decisions which found the three
labor leaders in contempt of
court; Laberge, Pepin and Char-
bonneau, and their subsequent
sentencing to a year’s imprison-
ment. ‘

“Bourassa and his govern-
ment have done nothing to pro-
vide remedies for the galloping
inflation from which we are now
suffering. I think that the haste
with which he called the elec-
tion is answered by the fact that
the bourgeoisie finds itself com-
pletely incapable of dealing

with the needs of thé
elass today. five dh
“With respect to the’.
lion French Canadians
bec, he has done es of!
guarantee their right doe! Ah
termination — which "ig
mean that we are to
separation, The right © ii}
termination is necess? ont
fend the political, ec
cultural needs and
the French-Canadian

Historic Election ie
Mrs, Walsh spoke of

natio® r

she said, “because it
election after the. ef
of the Oct. '70 crisi® onl
had an army of occu ne |
in our gates, and ™&
sion,
t
“It is also the Mra
i m
following the de oKers

thousands of wW2
‘streets... By He :
Bourassa’s electiOM
. Presse strike, and He Auy
Day, 1973, when 3°" jg
demonstrated for t
the three union lea‘
repeal of Bill 89. if Si

“Bourassa says th@ 1
ted, he will introduc
that will prevent §
public service. He
terday that ‘sick ;
folks will never 48

ders.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—FRIDAY, OCTOBER 19, 1973—PAGE 6 _