Communists map responses to
war threat, economic crisis

TORONTO — The part Cana-
dians are called upon to play in
the struggle for world peace oc-
cupied a dominant place in
discussions and resolutions of the
Centrai Committee of the Com-
munist Party of Canada, meeting
here, April 25-27

Every means must be sought,
the meeting declared, to compel
Canada’s government to adopt a
foreign policy independent of the
USA’s war strategy, a foreign pol-
icy for the benefit of Canadians,
based on détente — on peaceful
relations with countries with dif-
fering political systems.

There was a direct link, the
meeting emphasized, between
working for this kind of world-
scale covenant, and the success
of domestic battles against un-
employment, inflation, and con-
stantly eroding democratic rights
and social services. The arms
build-up, through which Canada
is dictated to by the North Atlan-
tic Treaty Organization and the
U.S. Pentagon, was directly
linked to rampant inflation, and
falling living standards.

The main report to the meeting,
presented by Communist Party
leader William Kashtan at the
Friday night opening, evoked
lively discussion and brought out
a profusion of proposals for
firming up and extending the work
of the Communist Party.

New Economic Policies

While the struggle for peace,
and its various manifestations
held a central place in the dis-
cussions, other highlights and
major topics examined included
the fight for new economic
policies to take Canada out of the
current crisis, adoption of a care-
fully weighed and thoroughly ex-
plained decision in favor of a
“‘yes’’ vote in the Quebec re-
ferendum of May 20, and de-
cisions on the strengthening and
building of the Communist Party,
its press, and the Young Com-
munist League.

Capitalism is historically obsolete ZU

Throughout the crowded
agenda convincing contributions
were made to the discussion of
work among women. Party leader
William Kashtan made a point of
“expressing appreciation to the
women comrades who spoke on
this question ... raising sharply
before the Central Committee the
necessity of a re-examination of
our work ...””

United Meeting

The committee meeting exhi-
bited complete unity, there being
no disagreement with the general
thrust of the report and the resolu-
tions. Kashtan attributed the
clear focus of the discussion in
part to ‘‘a very active situation
both internationally and in
Canada (which) is reflected in our
central committee.”

But, he also noted that the 24th
Convention ‘elected quite a large
number of new members to the
central committee,’’ and he noted
“‘the very active, energetic and
strong contributions that were
made by these comrades to the
development of our policies.”’

The Communist Party leader
noted in his closing summary,
‘strong efforts on the part of im-
perialism to bring an end to
détente, to create the impression
and build up the state of mind
among the people, that war is in-
evitable.”’

Peace and Economic Struggles
Acknowledging a great respon-
sibility in the Communist Party
and the peace and democratic
movements in Canada “‘to argue
against both these concepts and
both these views,’’ Kashtan said:
‘While there are new dangers to
peace, new threats of war, the
danger of nuclear war, world war
is not inevitable if the mass of the
people are able to combine their
forces ... Nuclear war can be
checked.”
And the main report stated a
point crucial to understanding the.
relationship between day-to-day

bread and butter issues and the
struggle for peace and détente.

“The fight for peace,’’ it said,
“tis merging ... with the struggle
for new economic policies .
The question of an independent
foreign policy is linked up with the
demand for Canadian control
over the economy ... with the
progressive and _ all-sided
economic development of the
country on processing natural re-
sources and building secondary
industry through joint federal-
provincial Crown corporations.”

The document pointed to the
crisis of housing and mortgage
rates, and reiterated points from
the Communist Party’s People’s
Housing Program, providing for
mortgage interest rates of no
more than 8%, a freeze on rates
on mortgages which come up for
renewal, and a shelter allowance
for eligible households to reduce
rents to a maximum of 20% of
income. This would be a better
use of funds than the billions
being spent on military planes, the
proposals point out.

Defend Working People

The discussion stressed the im-
portance of unity of Communists
and other democratic and
working-class forces, in the first
place the New Democratic Party,
and particularly with left NDPers.
Speakers stressed the need for

strong measures by the Canadian

Labor Congress convention to
defend the working people in the
current economic crisis.

The clarified position of the
Communist.Party on the Quebec

referendum was enthusiastically:

discussed and was endorsed
unanimously. The reasons for
Communists calling for a ‘‘yes”’
vote were thoroughly examined.

**The conclusions reached here
show that the Central Executive
Committee was on the correct
track when it suggested a change
of tactic to Quebec comrades,”’
Kashtan said in his summary.
““We have to thank the comrades

NT kg
APES, RRWATIEE...-
Peeps CANADIANIZE!
BEFORE

PROFITS a

The need for mass political campaigns, such as the Communist Party ’s
demand that Petrocan be retained as part of an all Canadian energy |
policy was stressed at the CPC Central Committee meeting.

of Quebec for their courage in ad-
justing their tactic while retaining
the unity of the party.”’

He said that the ‘‘yes’’ or ‘‘no’’
option put before voters required
the Parti Communiste du
Québec, and the entire Commu-
nist Party to shift position. The
documents on this question held
firm to the principles consistently
proclaimed by Communists, the
unalterable need for recognition
of the French Canadian nation, its
right to self-determination, and
the basic requirement, a Constitu-
tion drawn up by, and giving
equal rights to, the French and
English-speaking nations of
Canada.

Our line, Kashtah declared,

‘will be proven correct, because
the referendum won't solve the
national question. And the Party
still has major responsibilities in
Quebec and throughout the coun-
try as a whole to win the battle for
the right to self-determinatiori and
equality.”’

The Central Committee meet-
ing endorsed the proposition to
work from now until the 60th an-
niversary of the Communist Party

3

Seam!
next year, to register 1,000 vn
readers of its press, and to sign UP | Y
500 new members.

_Ina major decision, the Central
Committee gave backing to a
$300,000 building campaign tO
convert the present Party centre
into the reconstructed Tim
Buck-Norman Bethune Educa-
tional Centre.

Among resolutions passed was
one entitled, Lenin’s Road for
Peace, Democracy and Social-
ism, greeting the 110th anniver-

sary of the birth of V.I. Lenin, |

leader of the 1917 October
Revolution in Russia, and foun-
der of the Soviet state. The «
Communist Party called upon its
members, as a tribute to Lenin’s 5
genius, ‘‘to deepen our study of
Lenin’s teachings and their
application in Canadian condi-
tions.”’

As a part of its weekend ac- |
tivities, the Central Committee
held a reception honoring Brucé
Magnuson’s many years of work
in the Communist Party, most re-
cently as labor secretary. Magnu-
son is retiring from full-time
work.

| C

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eer NCE Wai _

A reader who says he is a realist tells
us that we are sadly mistaken in claim-
ing that “‘state-monopoly capitalism is
the final stage of capitalism’’. Stating
that he believes in looking facts in the
face, he argues that capitalism is be-
coming a ‘‘people’s capitalism’’ via the
small shareholders route.

Well, that’s his position. We also try
to look facts in the face but we read
them from a different point of view.
And our reading tells us that there can-
not ever be such a social structure as
“peoples captialism’’.

* * *

We say that capitalism is historically
obsolete because it is unable to provide
the working people with standards of
life commensurate with the capacity of
modern technology and science to pro-
duce. It is also historically obsolete be-
cause it is a corrupt, anti-humanist sys-
tem where crime, violence, war and the
threat of war constantly violate the
sense of security and well-being of
whole populations, including the right
to live.

For instance, last week we pointed
out that one of the functions of state-
monopoly capitalism in serving the
profit interests of the monopolies in the
their international operations is military
interventions. This past week the
peoples of the world experienced a
shocking example of this function when
PACIFIC TRIBUNE— MAY 9, 1980—Page 8

Marxism-Leninism in Today’s World

U.S. President Carter ordered a milit-
ary invasion of Iranian territory for the
alleged purpose of rescuing U.S. hos-
tages. That action set the world teeter-
ing on the brink of war. And for what?
To protect the profit interests of U.S.
imperialism, particularly the giant U.S.
multi-national oil corporations.
3 * *

As events have unfolded over the
past several months it has become clear
that reactionary imperialist and
militarist circles in the USA are pre-
pared to drown the Iranian democratic
revolution in a sea of blood rather than
return the deposed shah to Iran to stand
trial for his crimes against the Iranian
people. For, standing in the dock with
the shah will be the spectre of world
imperialism, particularly U.S. im-
perialism.

Herein lies the reason why the
Trudeau government, (and the Clark
government while in office) supports
the U.S. Carter administraion’s aggres-
sive actions against Iran, and ‘‘under-
stands”’ its military violation of Iranian

sovereignty. It does so because profit -

is the game, and ever-intensified exploi-

tation of other peoples the aim.
ee ee

There is no end to the profit greed of

the monopolies. There is no end either
to the ever-increasing tempo of exploi-
tation of labor, the result of which is the
inexorable tendency to undermine
wage gains won through struggle. Off
the job, wage earners are further rob-
bed by monopoly manipulation of the
money, interest and price system, and
by government taxation policy through
which the national income is _ re-
distributed in favor of the monopolies.

The same fate awaits small share-
holder workers, for they too must sell
their labor power to the corporation (of
which they are a small shareholder) in
order that they may eat and have a roof
over their heads, albeit with an unbear-
able mortgage. They, too, must share
the same costs of the arms race as all
working people as well as the consequ-
ences of war, if war should be allowed
to happen.

* * *

The concept of a ‘peoples
capitalism’’, or capitalism with a “‘hu-
man face’ is but a snare and a delusion
to lure the gullible into a dead end street
and away from reality. What is really
taking place in our capitalist society is
the transferring of liquid funds in the
hands of the people into the hands of

the monopolies in the form of capital for
capitalization of means of production,
securely and legally, vested in the abso-
lute-control of the monopolies.

The capitalist state is now an active
participant in the capital reproduction
process. The scientific and technologi- _
cal revolution in production demands
it,.as does the economic competition
with socialism. However, genuine
planned development of the economy is
incompatible with capitalist relations of
private ownership.

The individual profit greed of the —
capitalist. monopolies precludes such —

planning. Capitalism, even under
state-monopoly control, remains an
anarchic system of production ard
marketing. Thus, state-monopoly
capitalism, as life has proved cannot,
and will not, serve the vital interests of
the seople!
* * *

The socialization of production
under the control of a small group of
coupon-clippers has made the
capitalists as a class superfluous. The
next stage of Canada’s economic and
social development — socialism — will
bring about a correspondence of the re-
lations of production and the produc-
tion process. Public social ownership of
the means of production will replace the

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