Russia—Old and New In the 72 years of my own life I have seen much of the old Russia and of the U.S.S.R. today. When I was still in my teens and only beginning to under- stand life and see the world for what it was, I became aware of the measureless woe of the people in the old Russia, of the poverty of the workers, of their vile oppression by the tsarist regime. - : The fields of the country were divided into millions: of tiny, poor-yielding patches of land be- side which spread the vast es- tates of the landowners. The peasant’s chief tool was the wooden plough — that ichthyo- saurus of agricultural instru- ments. The vast majority of the population were illiterate. A sub- stantial portion of the dwellings of Russia were lit by kerosene lamps and in some remote vil- lages rush lights still persisted. In every city there were slums. In the factories and mills the working day was incredibly long, the workers were plagued with fines, working conditions were unspeakable. Famines came fre- quently, disease was rife, and doctors and hospitals were shamefully few. As I grew older life brought ~ me more and more proof of the Oppressed conditions of the toil- ing masses, the lawless despot- ism of the tsarist officials, the luxurious life of the rich, the ill- ie treatment of ordinary folk by office holders, the police, the ’ bourgeoisie and the landowners. I walk today in Soviet Russia and my heart swells with joy and pride. Just try to take in the spreading fields of any state or collective farm. Countless num- bers of all kinds of machines cultivate those expanses. Thousands of cities have been built in the U.S.S.R., millions of apartments. There is no count- ing the parks, schools, palaces of culture, clubs, universities, laboratories built. The discover- ies made by our scientists as- tound the world. Soviet man ushered in the era of space travel. Our cultural and econo- mic achievements are colossal. I walk in the Soviet land in these Lenin centenary days and my thoughts dwell on how Lenin’s_ instructions, Lenin’s plans, Lenin’s ideas have been translated into reality. Here they are! We can see them today with our eyes, touch them with our hands. And no longer are all the countries around our Soviet homeland capitalist countries. The October Revolu- tion has brought into being on our planet a might socialist camp. We still have many hardships, many obstacles to overcome. We have many battles and much hard work ahead. But we will reach the goal set by Lenin. (Alexander Bezymensky) Pacific Tribune West Coast edition, Canadian Tribune resaretetataatatetetatateneeeeetrtsestetetetetetetetetetatetetetetetetatetetetetetatatatetatetetatatatetetstetetetetetetetetatetatatetete® SP ates har LN SON NM SOR SS I I Be ha Bh a a ae ara Sa Editor—MAURICE RUSH Published weekly at Ford Bldg., Mezzanine No. 3, 193 E. Hastings St., Vancouver 4, B.C. Phone 685-5288. Circulation Manager, ERNIE CRIST : Subscription Rate: Canada, $5.00 one year; $2.75 for six months. North and South America and Commonwealth countries, $6.00 one year. All other countrtes, $7.00 one year Second class mail registration number 1560. SO So ee atatetetetererereseteteretetererets ene et eet etete ete tete ete a ate: Asia. A goodly number of poverty: | - stricken Canadians will be startled “ well. : 4 The government’s letter then piles it on—the difficulty of shipping the gral) | OUTNOW A movement to get a million signa- tures on the OUTNOW petition has begun across Canada. The OUTNOW petition calls for the immediate with- drawal of U.S. troops from Indochina. Here is a central demand—OUTNOW —basic to the winning of peace in Indo- china, to which at least a million Cana- dians can affix their signatures, regard- less of their outlook on other questions. The mass involvement of Canadians in the OUTNOW signature campaign will bring popular mass pressure on the Canadian government to end its com- plicity in U.S. imperialism’s criminal war. Twenty-five years have gone by since the end of the Second World War. Those 25 years are a measure of the strength of the forces for peace. Twen- ty-two years ago the ban-the-bomb pe- titions were begun around the Stock- holm Appeal. Since then (and the ban- the-bomb petitions helped give rise to them) widespread peace movements _have risen and developed across the world. No less so in Canada. The great achievements of the forces for peace have been won in face of offi- cial hostility, and a barrage of lies from the media. What is new in today’s pic- ture is that increasingly people, even those in high places, are questioning the war and the “official versions” handed out by Washington to justify its aggression. Popular demand for a new course is rising. The Vietnam war is hated all over the world. It is our direct responsibility to help write “STOP” to it. As Canadians, while bringing pres- sures on the Nixon government to end its war in Indochina, our first responsi- bilitv is to bring pressure on the Cana- dian government to compel it to oppose Nixon’s criminal war. This paper pledges to do everything it can to secure those million signatures to the OUTNOW campaign. By their own words The Canadian Peace Congress has written the Prime Minister objecting to the cut back in wheat production while hunger is widespread in the world. It proposed that the federal gov- ernment should buy up all surplus food stocks and make them available to those in need. In reply to the Peace Congress, the government claimed that it would have paid the farmers some 100 or 150 mil- lion-dollars for wheat to give away, but that this is impossible because present wheat stocks exceed world demand. The problem isn’t one of supply but one of distribution, claims the reply. The Prime Minister’s secretary, who signed the reply, says that he is aware that this reason will startle people. Among those startled will be the two billion odd people in the world whose annual incomes are below $300 a year; almost all the people living in Latin America, Africa and large parts of ee unloading it, storage facilities, and 9° forth. office does one thing well. It makes erystal clear the fact that the Libera Government has no intention of replat ing its present policy of exporting en with one of exporting food. It clear'y has no intention of solving the proniey | of distribution, which would create jo” — for all Canadian workers now unel ployed. And that makes it equally % | clear that workers and farmers ne™ | to unite in the struggle for jobs a markets. a British Justice’ — A Toronto man was hurt in an accl dent. He was dissatisfied with his trea” ment and the amount of money he 2 in compensation. He tore off his shit to reveal his cast, and lay down on thé floor of the Ontario Legislature, durins one of its sessions, in protest. © He was quickly arrested, and charg® } were laid against him. He claims his lawyer advised him plead guilty as one of the-easiest way® out of the problem, which he did. was sentenced to 14 days. The letter from the Prime Minister | = There’s the class nature of “Britis! justice” in a nutshell. Pleading guilty | on minor infractions is the easiest way out, as everyone who has been against it knows from his lawyers 20° — vice. No one was charged for neglecs | for malpractice, for mistreatment, £0" anguish and suffering. No one W4 charged for paying the man too little But when he dared lie down at the fee! of the highly paid legislators in 0” tario, he was quickly “brought to JU’ — tice.” The heavy truth The capitalist press has always pee? unscrupulous. The Toronto Star—snidé and cynical—recruited two innocents Me its anti-communism, by carrying ¢ story that two very young students ha?” conducted experiments which suppose” ly refuted Soviet claims about polyme™” ized water. . The Star’s story alleges that Soviet scientists have claimed that the ne¥ polymerized water is unfreezable, 4?™ that two 13-year-old students have proven them wrong. : The Soviet youth paper Komsomol: skaya Pravda of May 6, in an article by A. Presnyskov, described the proper ties of this water: “It resembles vaselin€ its consistency, has a very low volatilit and does not freeze even at very 10 temperatures. It assumes a glass-like state only at the temperature of minv® — 50 dégrees Centigrade.”