CANADA SURVIVE AS A NATION? By STAN LYNN W will we celebrate ie centennial in. ©": Should we launch 4, Slve campaign to rid World of leprosy with- dopt a Canadian flag. ae Canada’s 100th sa the questions asked by many Cana- » Including the govern- moon Canadian “Nnial Committee, set up .. This committee, by 4Y, has the job of pro- SUE Ways to spend the $100 fk Ottawa has decided fate to centennial pro- » the e Ie More centennial gets : and more people a to ask the same Mitte ton the centennial ne Is asking itself: a Markable thing can ~untry do to mark a *y of Confederation? 1S_this the correct Are we not, per- n deciding HOW to that notable date, the cart before the port, horse? We migh "better be asking ourselves, will Canada last until 1967? At first glance, Canadians are apt to brush off such a question. But if we are hesitant about stating it, others are not. A recent issue of U.S. News and World Re- citing the figures of U.S. investment in Canada, suggested that by 1970, Ca- nada’s economy will be so firmly in the grip of Ameri- can ownership that it will be too late for us to do anything about it, even if: we wanted to. The date suggested by that magazine is only three years beyond our century of Con- federation. How much would the process of the U.S, take- over have to be speeded up to make complete control a reality even by 1967? Ob- viously, not very much! This is oniy one problem that faces us, and it faces us now. You can count on the effects of U.S. ownership to be evident to more Canadians before 1967. ‘ Another question we might ask ourselves is this one. Will the Separatist movement in French Canada grow, and will it grow enough to threat- en Confederation before 1967? Forgetting, for a moment, these gnawing questions, what is the committee that is deciding how we will cele- brate doing? Among the pro- jects it and others have sug- gested—some of them already started—are the following: e There is a plan under- way to transform Ottawa into “one of the world’s most beautiful capitals’, with two big projects on the agenda to achieve that. As soon as a new Union Station is completed on the city’s out-skirts, transforma- tion of the present, 15-acre downtown Union Station area will begin. Work has already been started too on Canada’s “Mile of Living History” — a plan to restore and preserve historic buildings along the east side of Sussex drive. A. beautified new capital should have a new national library and archives, e Prime Minister Diefen- baker’s pet scheme is a Con- federation Train — a travel- ling museum of constitutional and historic documents. © Government spokesmen have hinted at the possibility of adding two more provinces to Confederation by 1967. They would come from the ' Northwest Territories. e On a more local scale, Metro Toronto’s former super- mayor Fred Gardiner, sug- gested some time ago that his city could celebrate the cen- tennial by opening a new zoo. The counter-proposal coming from some other quarters was that a low-rental housing pro- ject might be a better idea.) e The National Federation of Canadian University Stu- dents mentioned the possibi- lity of a youth festival in Ca- nada in 1967. These are some of the ideas. There are hundreds more. Any group (after approval by the committee) can associate itself with the Centennial committee by paying a $10 annual fee. Individuals can associate by paying a yearly fee of $5.00. Last April, Quebec’s Dr. Marcel Chaput said he would be pleased to send representa- tives to Canada’s centennial in 1967—as representatives of a sovereign, French-Canadian state. HOW SHOULD WE MARK CENTENNIAL? Chaput is vice-president of an organization called Ras- sembiement pour 1l’Independ- ence Nationale, which, at a generous guess has. about 6,000 members. There are two other smaller Separatist groups, one on the extreme right, and one that calls it- self socialist. Does this movement really constitute a threat to Con- federation? In 1961, Quebec’s minister of national resources, Rene Levesque, who is not a Separatist, laconically com- mented: “If something is not done, the centennial obser- vances may be a pretty grisly affair.” In 1961 also, two French- language newspapers in Que- bec ran a poll on Separatism. Of 4,098 answers mailed in to Le Devoir, nearly 70 per- cent believed indepéndence from Canada was possible and desirable, while only 20 per- cent turned it down. La Presse got 11,000 replies, of which 45 percent favored in- dependence. It is doubtful that all those who said they favored inde- pendence would go whole hog in backing the Separatists. But the polls reflected the wide-spread indignation at the grievances of French Ca- ‘See CENTENNIAL, pg. 10 enez oo reactionary 7 oahu headed by a0 Betancourt, last ie to outlaw that aby S Communist my yp Ud the Revolution- ®vement of the Left. om was taken in. ~ StYong protests in, 0 amber of Deputies.’ Who deo Osition deputesi “iia that the gov- a: “aS an “impend- “ a ttorship”, Mticipation of this move ommtin Bureau of the rust Party of Venezu- AY ater” issued a pow- e. ice to the people _ “ry as well as to fase M which it exposes Ssive Character of the Betan measures taken by lo, Ourt government. of th, Publish a brief ae a statement: i Na save this gov- No ce a decisive de- ~ can prevent the oy of the de- e : ae sca : resisting ar sions and the vio- IS regime,” the re eae in its op- fe st Smmunist Party 8round together q ne union move- Ne Party of De- Ction, the state- Says; the tr hd oe going under- “Ohar €r with the Re- : ment of the worker ‘Ounded and per- betione insubordi- ce ness and inde- * MOnopolies are through their Starvation and. vela d crimes against our people with the help of Betancourt and his cabinet.” : The statement points out that the Betancourt regime is cynically trying to justify its violation of the constitution and the outlawing of the CPV and RML on the following grounds: “1. That we are not demo-~ cratic and, therefore, cannot take refuge in Article 114 of the constitution. “9. That we are terrorists and are preparing an insur- rection of the people. ~ “3. That we took part: in the insurrectionary move- ment in Carupano.” The party then proceeded to examine each of ‘these charges. WHO IS ACTING AGAINST THE _ CONSTITUTION? “Tf ‘derrocracy’ is a policy of violence and crime carried out by the Betancourt gov- ernment, then we confess that we are not democrats. “According to the consti- tution, the government should be, is duty-bound to be de- mocratic, to live up to the law. In practice this govern- ment is arbitrary, despotic. It has broken into thousands of homes, robbed them, and thrown into prison thousands of citizens—men and wom- en, and even youngsters. It harasses political prisoners, murders hundreds of people, suppresses the newspapers of the opposition, seizes and destroys their printing shops. The present government, the statement continues, ‘has nothing to hone for in an hon- est election. That is why, in order to proiong its rule it resoris to violence and de- ceit.“ THE PEOPLE ANSWER WITI]i ARMS - “Tn the face of the wave of violence. from. the ¢.BOveRR?, ictator ment, in the face of persecu- tion, arbitrary rulings, tor- tures and crimes, .a new ele- ment has risen in Venezuela —the armed reply of the peo- ple}. We endorse the armed self- defense of the people. In fact we call upon the people to arm themselves, to defend themselves from attacks such as have already been made upon the people. Once again we call on all patriot-soldiers, “those who do not want the armed forces to be trans- formed into organs of sup- pression, not to fire on the people, to come to the side of the people, to demand that the constitution be lived up to and that democratic liber- ties be respected.” — “The political and economic crisis which is shaking our country could not but affect’ the armed forces. That is how the military crisis arose.. The armed forces are affected by the same worries and the same anxieties as all other sections of the Venezuelan people... “In the ranks of the armed forces the process of differen- tiation has started: on the one side—those who stand for the constitution, who understand the constitutional structure as embodying citizens’ rights and institutions, among which the main one is the national congress; on the other—those, who see the constitutional structure in the arbitrary per- sonal rule of the president.” The statement then goes on to explain how the repres-: sive measures had begun to affect also sections of the Administrator of Washing- ton’s “Alliance for Progress” program: The chain is so that you won't lose the money.” “Don’t be afraid. faces defeat armed forces, how a group of army officers rebelled against these measures, and how their program aroused sympathy and support throughout Vene- - zuela. THE 4th OF MAY MOVEMENT “This movement of the mil- itary and citizens suffered a temporary defeat on May 4 as a result of the superior arms of its opponents... “The 4th of May movement is not finished. On the con- trary, it is only starting. The people will take it into their hands and sooner or later will carry it to victory ... “We do not regret that we supported this group of brave patriot-soldiers; if they will maintain unity with the working class and the people, their victory is assured.” In its concluding paragraphs the statement pledges to the people that the party ‘will continue in its revolutionary activity to place the main em- phasis on the task of organ- izing the people’s struggle— by legal or illegal means, . peaceful or otherwise; “Will continue to spread its democratic and patriotic pro- ’ gram, which is in close har- mony with the entire move- ment of the opposition; “Will continue to organize self-defense groups in towns ' and villages, as well as vari- ous groups of the people; “Will call on groups of the national bourgeoise and the armed forces to join the struggle against the govern- ment of national betrayal, for a national and demoeratic government...” opened. — One and a_ half million passengers have been carried by TU-104 jets between Mos- _cow and Leningrad in the three years since the service