CANADIANS VIEW SOVIET OIL EXPLORATIONS The search for oil— | how the USSR does it Canadians visiting vast oil | developments in western Siberia found, as well as facts about Soviet oil production, facts Which are an “astonishing con- | demnation” of the multi-nation- | als involved in the Canadian _Syncrude deal and other Cana- | dian oil developments. | At the same time they found ample evidence that the Native | Peoples of the USSR, those like the Khanty, Mansi and the _Nentsi, who live in the area of” West Siberia take -an active, , Often leading role.in the progress _ Of development. Sam Walsh, head of the Parti Communiste du Quebec, who led . A delegation of Communist Party Provincial leaders on a fact-find- ing visit to Soviet oil centres in * the north, and in the Azerbaijan - Soviet Socialist Republic in the south, said it was clear that the | Mmulti-nationals in Canada were ‘MInaking “fantastic profits” by fooling the public about the time it takes to recoup their Capital investments. “We found that despite the enormous capital investments in West Siberia . . . and the work is extremely difficult and extre- Mely costly, and yet they recoup their capital investment in a Period ranging from two to three years. And after that it’s profit,” 2 he said, for the state-owned en- terprise. It’s really difficult to extract Oil there,’ Walsh said, “becausé } . Of the swampland. They can only | do construction in the winter. # “4€re, construction is done in the . Summer: — can’t do it in the ‘ winter. There, they can’t do it in the’ summer because is 15 metres — let’s say 15 yards — of swamp before they get down to something like solid ground.” Even so, he said, they recoup their investment in two to three years. “We found that an astonishing condemnation of the hypocrisy of the multi-national corpora- tions which control our country, and which always raise the ques- tion of the tremendous expense of exploration and bringing into production of. our oilfields in Canada. They plead the neces- sity for enormous concessions like the recent concessions that were made to the Syncrude con- sortium, whereas in fact, they can recoup their capital invést- ments in much less time than the Soviet Union. Soviet oil pro- ducers sell their oil” at five roubles per ton to the Soviet state (a rouble $1.30), and they recoup all the cost of their investment in be- tween two ‘and three years. That’s what it costs them,” Walsh said. “You can imagine,” he went on, “why the multi-national com- panies make such fantastic pro- fits in Canada, despite the heavy investments they have to make. “The other thing we learned,” Walsh stated, ‘“‘was that a big lie is being circulated in our coun- try, and I suppose in other ad- vanced capitalist countries. And the lie is to the effect that the Soviet Union was exploiting other socialist countries by in- creasing the price of oil to them — more or less commensurate’ is valued at' with the increasing price in our country. “This is an unmitigated lie Walsh charged. “The price of oil to the social- ist countries, i.e. the countries that are fed by the Druzhba (Friendship) Line, which has its origin in the Soviet Union. . . has increased not one kopeck. This was attested to, not only by the Soviet people with whom we spoke, but we had an opportun- ity to visit Poland, which is on the receiving end of the oil,” he said, “And,” he said, “it was confirmed in Poland: there has been an increase of not one single kopek in the price of oil to them.” The delegation, invited by the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, and the Polish United Workers’ Party, consisted of Nigel Morgan (B.C.), Wm. Tuomi (Alta.), Wm. Beeching (Sask.), Wm. Ross (Man.), Wm. Stewart (Ont.) and Sam Walsh (Que.) Tuomi and Morgan returned be- fore the Polish trip, the former to lead the Communist -Party forces in Alberta's provincial election, and Morgan to take part in a B.C. Party convention. The group had the opportunity of visiting oil production centres in both the Khanty-Mansi Natio- nal Area, a relatively recent de- velopment, and the oil fields of Azerbaijan, which have been bringing up the black gold for 100 years. — “We discovered there is no oil crisis,’ said Sam Walsh. “There is no energy crisis in the Soviet Union. The west Siberia area, now is one of the greatest pro- ducers of oil in the world... The drilling rigs on these man-made islands in Lake Samotlor, wtstern Siberia, are reached by concrete roads. Canadians visited the area. under incredibly difficult condi- tions... .” He said that despite this, “they have succeeded in producing a billion barrels of oil in 1974. During their stay in Siberia, - the Canadian Communists. met representatives of northern peo- ples*— the Khanty, Menti, Nen- si and others. The Soviet Union has “arriv- ed at a definitive solution to the problem of involving the small northern peoples in the develop- ment of the natural resources of the northern-areas,” Sam Walsh said. oe “Many of them occupy posts of leadership, but also in the political life of the country,” he added. “The ideological secret- ary — that is, the educational secretary of the Communist Party, who was one of our hosts, was a Khanty... : “And he was the ideological secretary, not for the Khanty _people, but for the whole region of the Party. “So that they have succeeded in doing something really re- markable. The opening of the north in Canada,” said Walsh, “is being.done at the expense of, and with the destruction of, our northern peoples — and against their will. “In the James Bay area of Quebec,” he pointed out, “you - can count the number of Innuit and Indians who have been hired on the project on the fingers of one hand... “This is by no means the case in the Soviet Union. We found a tremendous confidence on the part of people there,” Walsh said, “tremendous pride of the Kanti and Mansi people in the fact they are a respected, inte- grated part of the development of the economy and culture; they ’ have not lost their identity, but have developed their culture with the help of the Russians and others. But they most cer- tainly identify with the whole Soviet people and the whole so- cialist system. And for very good reasons. There is no ques- tion about it, they are making a wonderful contribution, made po$sible as well by the contri- bution other peoples of the So- viet Union to their own develop- © ‘ment.” i The myth that ‘money makes money’ spc ae gia etre pea __ have been asked to answer briefly and in terms @ ‘Nderstandable to the average person, the following @ Westion:; Why do Marxists reject the theory that ‘Money makes money?” At first glance it appears as ‘it is true. You put some money into the bank and a You are paid a certain amount of interest. It is like | ‘Tenting” your money to the bank and you receive a You less interest than it charges to others who ‘seek ; ‘© “rent” money from the bank, (this assumes that | You have extra money to “rent” out, after you have - Sections of the population have extra money to “rent” t and receive payment in the form of interest. All : oh numerous transactions, including the process _ %t buying and selling, create the illusion that “money eS money.” When one first: looks at any aspect of social pheno- ! rie it is the reflection which. we see first. The sub-. ‘t Raia c from which the reflections. are cast are usually 4 to find, It is the role and place of science, in this ina the science of political economy, Marxism-Lenin- it, which gets at the substance rather than the - “llection to find the answer to this and other aspects ~ Political economy. * - t is really involved in this argument is the t is only one of the forms of profit. ¥ ‘ * : * - . * 3 Sy Marx made the greatest contribution to the is ae of political economy discovering that there ia Brean modity on the market which actually creates ) ster values than its own in the course of being i Marx calls this labor power. He was the first 1 ogee ee the difference between labor and labor : agutbor is labor power put to use. He proves that }, Uming that the commodity labor power is bought b y - Certain “rent” for it in a given period. The bank pays . y Met the bare necessities of life). We know that some — jWestion of the real source of all profits, of which Bi if Capitalist on the average at value, he or she Marxism-Leninism and today's world put to work-labor produces commodities (useful things) over and above its own value. If a worker works an 8-hour day and the price of his labor power (wages) is $30 a day it may take him or her say four hours to produce values equal to $30, but he or she has agreed to work eight hours a day, the other four hours he or she produces products, let us say also worth $30, ~ but does not receive any payment for this. It is this “unpaid labor” which Karl Marx calls “surplus value.” It is the creation of surplus value which is the source of all forms of profit. If a worker does not create - values above his own value (wages) he or she is fired. - _ The ownér of the factory is not able-to retain all the “surplus value” created in his factory. He is often compelled to share the surplus value with others. . Those who lend him money he must pay interest,’ those who rent him the factory he must pay rent. He. must pay those who sell him machines and raw ma- terial, etc. Above all he must find a commodity on the market, labor power which when put to work, brings to new life old values, raw materials, wear and tear . of machines, energy etc., what Marx calls “dead labor,” and at the same time create new wealth which the owner of the factory sells on the market. . * _ ® Just as we assumed that * e commodity labor power is sold on the average ~ .