“To correctly assess the poli-
tica] situation in Canada, and to
project the road ahead, it is ab-
solutely necessary. to situate the
problems facing Canada, and the

subsequent possibilities opening: ‘

_ up for working class and demo-
cratic advance in the country, in
their world setting. That is why
the Communist Party places its
assessment of the present inter-
national situation as the first sec-
tion of its draft policy statement
to come before the 22nd Con-
vention of the Party this coming
Easter weekend.”

With these words the Party or-
ganizer, Alf Dewhurst opened up
a lively and interesting seminar
Canada and the _ International
Situation. The seminar, chaired
by Metro Toronto Party chair-
man, John Bizzell, was the first
in a series of six to be held on
the’ Draft Statement as an im-
portant feature of the pre-con-
vention discussion.

Corroborating the statement in
the short introduction of the
Draft Statement that in the
present period “prospects open
up for more rapid growth for the
Communist Party, the YCL and
its press”, Chairman Bizzell ob-
served that more than two-thirds
of the seminar’s participants had
joined the Communist Party
since its 2lst Convention in
November of 1971:

General Crisis of Capitalism

The speaker drew attention to
the party’s. assessment that the
entire capitalist system is beset
by insoluble contradictions, by
growing . economic, fiscal and
‘monetary difficulties, by inflation
and rising unemployment and an
energy crisis of mounting pro-
portions, all of which represent
a new stage in the further sharp-
ening and deépening of the a
eral crisis of capitalism.

This has been accompanied Ae
the new historical situation
which has arisen due to the fail-
ure of U.S. imperialism to im-
pose its cold war strategy, its
positions of strength, ‘roll-back’
and ‘containment of communism’
policies, to gain military su-
periority over the USSR, and to
unite the capitalist world against
socialism and the national libera-
tion movement.

The speaker and other partici-
pants in the discussion con-
trasted the significant changes
which have highlighted recent
world politics with the situation
that existed only a short few
years ago. :

It was only a year ago that
U.S. imperialism was forced by
the heroic Vietnamese people,
solidly backed by the USSR and
other: socialist countries and all
anti-imperialist forces, to pull out
its military presence from: Viet-
nam. -

In the past couple of years im-
perialist West Germany: had to
recognize the socialist German
Democratic Republic as a sove-
reign state, with .both German
states recently admitted to
membership in the United Na-
tions. West Germany has also in

this period ratified treaties based

on post Second: World War boun-

daries. with the USSR and Po-.

land. Also there is the cease-fire
and disengagement in the Middle
East and the opening of peace
talks in Geneva on the basis of
the UN Resolution 242 with the
UN, the USSR and the USA as
participants. The’ most recent
period saw also the carrying
‘through of the first stage of the
European Conference on Security
and Cooperation.

: Peace and Detente
'The brief. resume of events

Number One

The first issue of Convention 74, the pre-convention discussion bulletin of the Communist Party
of Canada, is off the press, containing the draft resolution. A series of seminars has been plan-
ned around the resolution, beginning with the one above. :

January 15, 1974

showed, said - the speaker; the

correctness of the draft state- ~

ment assertion that after 25

. years of cold war, confrontation .

is giving way to detente, atomic
‘diplomacy is giving way to an
acceptance of equality of a se-
curity and peaceful co-existence,
economic blockade is giving way
to the development of trade, cul-
tural and scientific exchanges
between the socialist world and
more and more capitalist coun-
tries.

The seminar participants were
in agreement that the change
from cold war to détente is di-
rectly attributable to the mighty
peace offensive waged by the so-

cialist countries sparked by the ;

24th Congress of the CPSU and
its peace program ,the growing
cohesion of Commiunist and

Workers Parties, and the up- °

surge of the national liberation
movement of the peoples of Asia,
Africa and Latin America.

The seminar greeted the World
Congress of Peace Forces as the
mightiest assembly for peace the
world has never known. It noted
the broad nature of the 60-mem-
ber Canadian delegation to the
Congress which, in the opinion of
the seminar, augured well for the
extension of the peace movement
in Canada to make our country
a genuine force for the strength-
ening of the trend to détente
and peaceful co-existence as the
normal state of relations . be-
tween countries. of different. so-
cial. systems. The. participants
recognized however, that the
task of achieving a stable, demo-
cratic and just world peace rests
in the main on the shoulders of
the working class of all coun-
tries and their democratic allies.

They noted processes at work
such as the fascist rape of de-
mocracy ‘in Chile, the stubborn
resistance of the imperialist
countries to a comprehensive
cut-back in armaments, particu-

larly nuclear arms, and the con-'

tinuing support by imperialist
governments, including Canada,
of the aggressive territorial aims
of Israel in the Middle East.

MEMORIZE AND PROSELYTIZE -

Anatole France

Used a lightning lance

As when he said

The law forbids the rich andthe
poor °

To beg on the streets for bread

Tolstoy attacks

With a verbal axe:

The rich would do anything for
the poor

Except get off their backs

‘PACIFIC TRIBUNE—FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 8, 1974 PAGES”

- word for capitalism) ;
. cold-warriors

Attention was drawn also to

attempts to rekindle the cold
war such as the spate of venom
and. hatred spewed forth. by

some sections of the press (To-'

ronto Star and The Sun) against
the Soviet Union and. socialism,

_utilizing the anti-Soviet rantings
of that enemy of socialism’ —

Solzhenitsyn.
Political and Ideological Sttuggle

'.The seminar agreed that de-
ténte does not, and cannot, apply

.to the political: and ideological.
struggles between the working

class and capital, between so-
cialism and imperialism, between
national liberation and imperial-
ism, between the democratic

forces of peace and the imperial-

ist promoters of war, reaction,
racism and genocide.

Participants. in ‘the seminar
drew attention to the mighty
struggles of the working- -class
and democratic forces in Canada

BOOK REVIEW]

‘What ‘democracy’ and ‘freedom’ mea

The Sakharov-Solzhenitsyn
Fraud: What’s Behind the Hue
and Cry for “Intellectual Free-
dom,” by Gus Hall. New Out-

look, 1973. 32 pp., 40¢. Avail-

able from Progress Books,

Toronto.

This pamphlet is a succinct
statement by the General Secre-
tary of the Community Party,

‘USA, of the Marxist position on

the use of the categories “free-

dom,” . “democracy,” “Shuman
rights,” etc., in the timely. form

of analysis of the writings of ~

Sakharov and Solzhenitsyn.

Stripped of their rhetorical
garb and the mantle of heroism
draped. on them by liberal sup-
porters, they appear as outright

_reactionaries, accommodating to

and excusing imperialism, rac-
ism, militarism. The cover. is
talk about “convergence,” “heal-
ing divisions in the world,” and

.so forth. Hall is forthright in

his’ characterization: “Meaning-
less, abstract humanitarian-
sounding generalizations . have
alwavs been the tools of dema-
gogy’” (p. 16). Those who advoc-
ate “competition in the market
place of ideas’ irrespective of

-concrete social conditions are in

fact (and possibly ‘also in intent)

.providing a cover for the real,

effective denial of free speech in
the historically relevant sense.
This is the most important point
in the pamphlet. .

You do have to look at what
S and S are actually saying —
as distinct from the sugar-coated
commentaries of their admirers
here. When-vou do, you may be
shocked. We'll take Sakharoy
as our case in point. He has re-
pudiated socialism. .in ‘favor of
the “mixed economy” (a code
supports
Henry Jackson

(the Senator from Boeing). in

the latter’s attempt to blackmail.

the USSR with most-favored na-
tion status; warns ‘Western’
newsmen that his country is a
threat to world peace; has his
work published by neo-fascist
NTS, based in West Germany;
asks that “the ruling group” in
the United States be allowed to
“settle the Negro problem”; etc.,
etc. In a word, racism, sabre-
rattling, brinkmanship, contempt
for the sovereignty of socialist
centre-to-right circles in’ the
U.S.; in fact, it is a.feeble echo
of those circles. But coming
from where it does, it takes on
special—and ominious—signific-
ance,

Hall asks: “Should a socialist
society, in the name of ‘intellec-
tual freedom,’ make its press,

‘TV and .radio stations available

to a handful of renegades so

they can spread their vile sland-

€rs against socialism, so they
can spread their racism. and im-
perialist propaganda?” (p, 28).

The answer is implied in the-

question; but the heart of the
matter is that the denial of the
right of advocacy to exponents
of bourgeois ideology is not the
denial of democracy but rather
and indeed nart of the very
basis of the only democracy
which exists in the USSR, or
can exist there: socialist demo-
cracy. And this, in turn, is not
an abstract .generalization, but
rather one which is profoundly
true at the present time which
is the time we happen to inhabit.

' Moreover, ‘“‘socialist demo-
cracy is not and never will be
like bourgeois democracy . .

(It is) infinitely more demo-
cratic than anything in exist-
ence under capitalism. Because
of this basic fact the essence of
socialist democracy is more in

"(p. 29). To decide the qu!
* of free speech and human

that they serve the cause

CANADA and the INTERNATIONAL SCEN

— for instance railworkers
Ontario teachers — who
their counterparts in all cap
countries, are uniting to d
and extend the standards
and rights of the working Pp

Détente, they conclud
fered the most favorable
tions for the working- -class
democratic forces in W
their common struggles age
monopoly policies, for impr
standards of life, increased §
benefits, democratic rights
national rights of the
Canadian people, genuine
dian control-of energy an
sources through public 0
ship. under democratic co
economic development an
dustrialization, and an ind
dent foreign policy.

Détente and an_ indepen
foreign policy go together, ®
of them essential ingredients”
strengthening the indepen
of Canada, gravely threaten
the continuing expansion 0
eign ownership in Canada.

Similarily,, they agreed
the Draft Statement that —
historic task of achieving 5 —
uine - Canadian independ,
rests on the ‘shoulders 0
working class ana its demo™

- allies’; for, “unless the w0!

class becomes its leading *
the struggle for indepen®
will be misdirected tow
strengthening Canadian m
oly ‘at the expense of the @
dian people.”

__the sense of self-regulation ©

in restrictions imposed |
other class” (p. 31). What i
irks Sakharov and Solzhenl™
Hall points out, is that wo
do have this power in
society (they don’t let “tt
tellectuals” do all their tall
for them), and.that intelle®
are responsible to the 5
which gives them the fré
to create.

The point is that while
talist societies are’ demé
in their talk about freedot
socialist societies are nd!
‘society cannot exist that
not put some limits on th
cf individuals making uP
society. A most basic qu
is: restrictions to what —

GP” jet Fg ioe

yor! must evaluate’ what
calls “the basics”: the

struggle between the sy
between socialism and n@
liberation on one side
monopoly capitalism and 1
rialism on the other. There =
other meaningful approach

The problem of SakharoY
Solzhenitsyn is not one of '
luating and refuting theif '
ments, fallacious as thes? |
out to be. It is to undele §
that these arguments are f &
from. within a socialist 5°

perialism; that they. are
fore especially detrimens (
everything that the real D :
of humane societies an
tions are seeking to build.
If, you do; not agree wi
review, the pamphlet will
make you angry! But-it w
fail to stimulate though!
discussions.

“—David Laibman —
_ in New World 8