FRENCH COMMUNISTS
GROW IN NUMBERS

PARIS — The Communist
Party of France has gained
62,218 members since the be-
ginning of 1973. The Political
Bureau of the PCF estimates
that “this is the best result in
the last 25 years”. Party mem-
bership is now nearing 410,-
000.

The number of party clubs
hag risen from 19,250 at the
beginning of 1973 to 20,037 at

the end of November. There
are 5,680 branches in factories
and workplaces. And in spite
of the steady flow of people
leaving the countryside, the
number of party clubs in rural
areas has increased from
5,225 to 5,285.

The Political Bureau also
noted that since 1969, the
number of party clubs in edu-
cational establishments has
risen from 358 to 718 this year.

Assail Ontario s
no strike policy

TORONTO — “The strike-
preaking legislation against
teachers announced by Ontario
Education Minister Thomas
Wells is nothing more nor less
than _ police-state repression,”
declared William Stewart, Onta-
rio leader of the Communist

arty.
~ ee comes on top of the ceil-
ings on education spending im-
posed by the Ontario govern-
ment, which have already sev-
erely curtailed the opportunities
for teachers to improve their
living standards. This led to a
situation in Metropolitan Toron-
to in which the Boards of Educ-
ation were unable to offer their.
teachers a sufficient increase to
even offset the rise in the cost
of living,” Stewart continued.
“Now, not satisfied with the re-
sults of this brutal policy,
Wells is moving to chain the
teachers to their jobs through
compulsory arbitration.”

Elementary Democracy

Even the long standing de-
mand of teachers for the right
to bargain with respect to work-
ing conditions such as class-_
room size has been evaded in
the refusal to provide defini-
tions of the issues to be includ-
ed in such bargaining.

“All people concerned with
elementary democracy in Ont-
ario should rise up and demand
the resignation of Thomas
Wells,” Stewart concluded.
“This man must be driven from
office just as Frederick Cass was
ousted from the Tory cabinet
some years ago for his espousal
of police-state legislation. The
labor movement recognizing
this legislation as an attack on
all labor should immediately
rally in support of the teachers’
struggle to block this evil law.”

The Bill known as 274 pro-
posed by Wells would void let-
ters of resignation handed in by
7,800 teachers in contract nego-
tiations with 17 different school

Pg PARP RPP

In this issue

As the historic Geneva con-
ference on the Middle East ap-
proaches, some of the ques-
tions asked by Canadians are
discussed in an article by Nor-

_man Freed on page 7.

Also, William Beeching takes
a look at the recent convention
of the National Farmers Union

boards in the province, levying
fines of from $200 to $500 a day
for each teacher continuing on
strike. A parallel bill establishes
machinery for compulsory arbit-
ration in all cases in which
boards and teachers cannot ne-
gotiate agreement.

U.S. carpet bombing
pulverizing Cambodia

The United States is readying 117,000
tons of bombs for raining on Cambodia

during 1974, in a continuation of |

Nixon’s three-year old war of annihi-
lation there.

These and other facts of the secret
U.S. war in Cambodia were disclosed
in Paris at a Conference on Cambodia,
December 8 and 9, called by the Stock-
holm Conference on Vietnam and 53
French peace organizations. Delegates
from 58 countries, including Paul D’Al-
laire, an executive member of the Cana-
dian Peace Congress were in attend-
ance. .

Representatives of the Cambodian
liberation movement told the confer-
ence that the war has been going on
since 1970. At that time, while saying
that they recognized the territorial in-
tegrity of Cambodia, the U.S. forces
were carrying out secret raids of ag-
gression and, through the CIA, spon-
soring attempts against the life of the
head of state and government officials.

Between January 27, when the Ac-
cords on Vietnam were signed, and

August 15 of this year the U.S. has been
conducting carpet raids in which, on a
country of only 180,000 square kilo-

metres, they have dropped in bombs
the equivalent of seven atomic bombs
of the type used on Hiroshima.

Some of the bombing was so concen-
trated that 120 B-52s were used at one
time, each carrying 30 tons of bombs.
Destruction in some areas is practical-
ly complete.

Working as much as possible through
the corrupt Lon Nol regime, the U.S. is
trying to hide their deep involvement
by passing off the fighting in Cambodia
as a civil war.

However facts disclosed at the Con-
ference show that over a billion dollars
has been spent directly and indirectly
by the U.S., and the Nixon administra-
tion just asked Congress for another
$200-million. Through the U.S. Em-
bassy in Phnom Penh, which is the
equivalent of a military command post,
funds are distributed to try and prop
up the economy of this country whose
own currency has now become almost
completely: worthless.

Preparations for 1974 are for 273,000
flying hours for Cambodia and the
Pentagon is appropriating 117,000 tons

_of bombs for this purpose.

Since the end of July, according to
Thiounn Prasith, leader of the
Cambodian delegation to the
Conference, the Nixon admin-

“Under public pressure the
Trudeau government has finally
come up with some proposals
which are beginning to move in

the direction of an energy po-
licy,” said William Kashtan,
leader of the Communist Party
of Canada commenting on the
latest energy proposals of the

_ government. “But we have to

remember that it is not yet a
fully integrated Canadian ener-
gy policy.” ;

Talking about the proposals,
Mr. Kashtan reminded observers
that in spite of the government’s
plans, energy prices will still go
up. “What is needed,” he said,
“are price controls on fuel that
would protect consumers and

ensure uniform prices through-
out the country so that no part
of Canada is penalized.

“Not just a petroleum‘ corpo-
ration, whose terms of reference
are limited, but an all-Canadian
petroleum and energy corpora-
tion which embraces all aspects
of energy is required. This is
necessary if we are going to es-
tablish Canadian control of our
natural resources through pub-
lic ownership.”

Mr. Kashtan pointed out that
the proposition to set up a petro-
leum corporation after years of
opposition “indicates that the

_ main, sectors of the monopoly

capitalist class in Canada now
want some government interven-
tion that would guarantee their

supply of energy at reasonable
cost. This is an aspect of state
monopoly capitalism required by
the capitalist class so that the
Canadian people are made to
bear the burden rather than the
multi-national oil corporations
and other multi-nationals.”

Mr. Kashtan scored the gov-
ernment on its vagueness on the
building of a West-East pipeline.
“Even this is not fully spelled
out,” he said. “The pipeline, if
it is to be useful at all, should
be built on an all-Canada route.
This is not set out clearly in Mr.
Trudeau’s speech.

“Unless an all-Canada route is
established, there is always the
possibility of control from out-
side the country, including the

; to continue,
desperately,” to apply its dis- -
' astrous doctrine, the ‘khmer-

istration has used all its means
“obstinately and

ization of the U.S. war of ag-

4 gression” in Cambodia, making

“the Cambodian traitors fight
the’ Cambodian people”. On the
one hand it presses into service
every man and even children
of 10 or 11 to make good the
heavy losses of the puppet army
decimated by the People’s Arm-
ed Forces. On the other hand, it
provides the Phnom Penh trait-
ors with military aid of several
hundred million dollars compris-
ing the most modern arms and
military material, including
planes, tanks and 105 mm can-
nons,
Americans Lead
He pointed to the raids of
reconnaissance and bombing,
thé hundreds of American mili-
tary advisors who “lead and
form the backbone of the pup-
pet units”. He said, “On the
orders of the Nixon administra-
tion, thousands of Thai and
South Vietnamese puppet troops
e Continued on page 10

ply for the Canadian people and
economy will be threatened.
“The federal-provincial meet-
ing on energy proposed for Jan.
22-23 should not only be care-
fully- watched by the working
people of Canada; it should be
innundated with demands for a
fully integrated, all - Canada
pipeline, based on public owner-
‘ ship. :
“This, together with controls
on prices, especially fuel, and
other measures will guarantee
that:the energy resources of. this
country will be used, for vast in-
dustrialization and balanced
economic development, and a
further strengthening of the in-
dependence of Canada.”

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—FRIDAY, DECEMBER 14, 1973—PAGE 5

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