Festival of many people’s art

By MONICA WHYTE

MOSCOW — A grandiose fes- tival of the arts in honor of Lenin’s one hundredth birthday is being held in the Soviet Union. It began in March and winds up May 15.

Special performances at fac- tories and farms, and festivals in honor of different republics are a regular feature of Soviet life across the country, but never before has such a broad, sweep- ing exhibition of the achieve- ments of socialism in this field been attempted. From settle- ments high in the Tien Shan Mountains to coastal fishing vil- lages in the Baltic, from towns inside the Arctic Circle to the balmy shores of the Black Sea, the people will have a chance to see the country’s finest perform- ers—and this country’s finest is often also the world’s. To name only a few of those taking part: Pianists Svyatoslav Richter and Emil Gilels, violinists David Oistrakh and Leonid Kogan, cellist Mstislav Rostropovich. More than 60 groups will give performances across the country and each one will present the songs and dances of its republic,

region or nationality as the case.

may be.

Canada is familiar with the Moiseyev Dance Ensemble, the Red Army Song and Dance Group, the Pyatnitsky Choir, the Song and Dance Ensemble of the Ukraine—all of whom are taking part — but just as ‘talented and exciting are innumerable other troupes. To give an example of what is happening these days in the 15 republics of the U.S.S.R., let’s take Moldavia. The follow- ing are scheduled to appear not only in Kishinev, the capital, but all over the republic: Pyatnitsky Choir, the Bukovina Ensemble

Maoist

The small circles of Maoism spawned in Canada by the great leap backward of the Mao re- gime in China are weird and harmful.

There is a tragi-comedy aspect to the Maoists in Canada, who are split and warring among themselves, and who_ elevate their little meetings to historic turning points, and their petty differences into mass move- ments.

Their most recent meeting, however, has a more sinister purpose. The Maoists, true to their splitting role have taken the name “Communist Party of Can- ada (Marxist-Leninist) .” Unlike some countries, where Maoism did succeed in bringing about splits in the Communist move- ment, the Maoists in Canada are restricted to small groups of petty bourgeois radicals. The extreme sectarianism, the cult- ism, the grave and dangerous immaturity of the young people

“HAIL to the CENTENNIAL of Our GREAT LEADER—LENIN” The Pacific Tribune Workingclass Paper is needed more than ever : now. FRASER VALLEY CLUB, C.P.C.

from the Ukraine, the Lithuan- ian Song and Dance Ensemble and various groups from Kirghi- zia, Byelorussia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Armenia, Estonia, Lat- via, Turkmenia, Tadjikistan and Kazakhstan. In addition, indi- vidual singers and musicians, symphony orchestras and cham- ber music groups will give con- certs.

Yekaterina Furtseva, minister of culture, pointed out at a press conference that according to UNESCO figures, the Soviet Union. holds first place in the world for cinema, theatre and museum attendance. She went on to say that annually two and

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of the worker,

Towards the skies.

Lies asleep, lies asleep.

Lies asleep, lies asleep.

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“LENIN LIES ASLEEP

Lenin lies asleep in Moscow.

Lenin lies asleep in a deep, dreamless sleep While the pillars of his planning swiftly rise To the clamor of the hammer, to the whistle

To the wonder of the world—

But the architect who planned, (His the head, his the hand)

Lenin lies asleep in Moscow,

Lenin lies asleep in a deep, dreamless sleep While the harvest-heavy rains

Flush with wheat the fenceless plains.

He who broke the great blockade,

Faced the famine unafraid,

Rock against a world arrayed,

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one half million people visit the Hermitage Museum in. Leningrad and one and one half million the Tretyakov Gallery in Mos- cow. There are more than 400,- 000 libraries in the country and the Lenin Library alone contains some 25 million books. In Soviet times Shakespeare has had 324 editions in 28 languages of the U.S.S.R.; Mark Twain 314 edi- tions in 28 languages; Balzac, 287 in 18; Dickens, 247 in 19.

Such figures, and the festival of the arts now taking place, show the triumph of Lenin’s ideas in the development of a multi-national, socialist culture, Furtseva said.

tr

—J.S. Wallace, 1925

‘eftism’ aids ultras

who are ensnared in Maoism will lead them to political limbo where they belong. No one will be fooled by their attempt to appropriate the grand name of Communist.

The Canadian version of Mao- ism is a particularly doctrinaire form of petty-bourgeois revolu- tionarism. This sect of student radicals have embraced Maoism with fanaticism and religious fer- vour. It is this mindless devo- tion to the litany of Maoism which is preparing the ground for these youngsters to commit acts harmful to the genuine Left and to the cause of the working people. The militantly worded repetition of Maoist jargon, the inflating of obscure, inconse- quential and farcical little ad- ventures: into “great revolution- ary events” would be mildly hu- morous if it was not so diver- sionary and provocative, playing into the hands of capitalist reac- tion. It is this kind of situation the CIA, anti-communist and neo-fascist agent provocateurs exploit.

The damage they can inflict was revealed at a recent Ottawa peace demonstration, when their adventures led to a near riot, and provided the capitalist press with the opportunity to distort the peace struggle, and to pre- sent the Maoists as the main at- traction instead of the fight to end Canadian complicity in the war in Vietnam.

The Maoists have elevated splittism into a lofty principle. Their efforts, like those of the Trotskyites, and other parasitic

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—MAY 1, 1970—Page 10

growths on the working class movement, are designed to di- vide and confuse. With the evan- gelistic fervor usually associated with religious fanatics the Mao- ists have set out “to make the revolution.” They pose well- known Marxist truths as newly discovered divine revelations of Mao, and reduce the complexi- ties of the class struggle, and the relation of the struggle for Canadian Independence to the fight for socialism to an absurd, schematic, unrelated series of contradictions. They consider the struggle for reforms, for higher wages and improved working conditions, tq be op- portunism of the worst kind and unrelated to the struggle for so- cialism.

The Maoists direct their main attack at the Communist Party, the labor movement and the de- mocratic left forces generally. In this respect they are no different than other phoney “left” trends which unite on anti-Commun- ism, and anti-Sovietism. ~

While it is hard to imagine this small and isolated sect could

‘ have a big effect on Canadian po-

litical life, the fact that such an anti - Communist organization could be used by the political police and other anti-Communist forces against the Canadian working class, makes it neces- sary to sound a warning. Demo- cratic Canadians need to be vigi- lant to see that these forces do not continue to wreck ‘peace meetings, provoke disunity, and spread their anti-Communist ve- nom.

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The Damned, by Luchino Vis- conti.

Zabriskie Point, by Michel- angelo Antonioni,

The Damned, modelled on the

Krupps, covers the 1933-34 peri- od in Germany when the Nazis made their class safe for fascism. Viscontin’s title was Gotterdam- merung (twilight of the gods), more clearly underscoring the content of the film and _ its theme: whom the gods would de- stroy they first make mad.

The old-fashioned family pa- triarch is murdered in his bed and another contender for the top monopoly capitalist throne in Nazi Germany (outside the state) is murdered along with the troublesome lumpen proleta- rian SA in the famous 1934 mas- sacre — quick, simple and effi- cient. But the throning of the right person out of those left is vastly more complex, a subtle enterprise realized with that sin- ister ruthlessness synonymous with the word “nazi.” As they had earlier exploited the lumpen Brownshirts against the German masses, now the corruption and degeneracy of inbred German imperialist gods is exploited in power plays culminating in effi- cient integration of the country’s

. dominant steel and manufactur-

ing monopoly into the nazi state.

The most corrupt element of this incredibly corrupt bourgeois Babylon, it becomes obvious, is absolute power. It destroys those wielding power as well as those over whom it is wielded, even ‘within fascism’s own domestic framework — on its own terms. A moment’s reflection after the film reminds us of history’s prompt retribution and excision of this social cancer: World War II. Another moment and we rea- lize that Hitler’s heirs in the

U.S.A. and elsewhere face an-

equally limited future. Their cause is self-destroying, the Got- terdammerung of an outmoded class.

Antonioni’s Zabriskie Point tackles “democratic” fascism — freedom-farting, huckstering U.S. society marinated in a greed and guns way-of-life. The difference between absolute individualism

Instructive, Interesting

Two films to enjoy and ponder over

= = FMM

VULVA

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bred by TV, billboards, the trap pings of affluence (even if only vicarious or at most occasional); of legal violence by trigger haP py cops and illegal violence. mail-order gunslingers, institl tionalized right to hate (an murder) everything “foreig: gooks in Vietnam or commies 1" California; the difference > tween this fascism and the mol “efficient” systematized fascis® of nazi Germany is non-existen in philosophical terms and nol all that great in practical terms. Moreover, less obvious it is mo insidious . . . like cancer of thé pancreas. It is this sort of observation of the arsenal of democracy * Antonioni brings to a simple

. story set among California you

‘and develops in his characterist ically elliptical style. The swer, seen through the eye of his female lead, is litera. to blow-it-up (to paraphrase previous film). The Damned and Zabrisklt Point provide an interesting con parison of expressive uses f color. Visconti’s treatment © old-fashioned decadence empP in sizes heavy opulent colors ; low-keyed lighting. Antoniot leans on bright garish colors vt the cool world of commerce @ crisp cutthroat decadence. Both films are positively to seen... . and pondered. OF word of warning: Despite gros ly inflated cinema admission prices, Famous Players (at leas is chiselling on the traditio24 4 p.m. weekday change to eveniNf prices. If you intend to take 4 i vantage of lower afterno” prices, plan to arrive well befor 4:30 or (without warning OF) dication) you may find the } er er price already posted and : flexible. :

* * *

Red by Gilles Carles. Sex an’ violence melodrama by the m? er of La Vie Heureuse de Leopol Z. Good talent wasted in 4 a cause, made no better bY qi fact that it is “Québecois.” 5 worse, grafted onto the cor influence of the genre is 2 © if vinistic attitude to Native || dians. NLE. Stony

rosiv®

Story of Lenin’s life

V. I. LENIN. A Short Biography. Progress Publishers, Moscow. Distributed in Canada by Pro- gress Books. 216 pages. $1.25.

As an introduction to the book review it is important to say that for me personally it was a new experience into the life and works of the great man. This is written into a very small volume, and it is surprising that so much material has been packed in the book.

The book is easy to read, written in such a way as to excite the reader’s interest into searching out more information. This is especially. important in Marxist-Leninist literature. For those newly introduced to the works and the man himself, it is a handbook for student and personal use.

The biography touches very lightly, but warmly, on the per-

. with those whom he met

sonal relationships Lenin bas with people close to him ee ly. Lenin’s was a dynamic pe sonality, and a bold one. reader will be amazed ant |, miring of all the achieveme by one human, notwithstand” the opposition of many su“ the Mensheviks, Cadets Economists. nd What times those were! fr this is the time when he 7g is convinced in principle, * is striving to learn how 1 Pd into action that principle, WC 4. do well to read this short D! raphy. It is a refresher, ou! should lead us to direct 4° 4, energies to the aim of the! ing lutionary theory — the liv Marxist-Leninist theory ~ ay the building of a revolutio” movement, international “it eque

_—

proletarian, annd its subs results.—J.D.