In order to look ahead and try and prognosticate what the coming year will bring, it is necessary to evaluate what has transpired in the year that is drawing to a close. The bourgeois press has worked overtime in its effort to convince the working class, not only in Canada, but throughout the world where capitalism holds sway, that the struggle is over and that resistance is futile. They would have us believe that the capitalist system has resolved its contradictions and that it is the wave of the future. However, their trumpeting of the so-called magic of the market place and the newly revived laissez faire economy sound more hollow with each coming day. No matter how much the spin doctors and their capitalist mentors try to placate the proletariat, certain facts can no longer be ignored. They are that the so-called Globalized Economy is a bust. That unemployment is at an all time high with no hope of being resolved. The economics of the East European countries are incapable of duplicating, let alone improving, the living standards, that the working class in those countries enjoyed under socialism. In the west, the living standards are being eroded, social programmes are being done away with and the only things that are enjoying unprecedented growth are the food banks, unemployment, pollution and profits.
First of all, the so-called globalized economy which was supposed to solve capitalism's number one problem - that of overproduction - has prove to be a total failure. One has only to look at Canada, Mexico and the countries of the Pacific Rim to realize that what was touted as a solution to the economic failure of 1990 is in fact a bust. In Canada, the free trade agreement with the U.S.A. and the subsequent North American Free Trade Agreement have resulted in more unemployment as factories are moved to lower wage areas such as the southern U.S. and Mexico. This has resulted in lower wages and the subsequent lowering of the standard of living. In Mexico, it has resulted in unprecedented pollution while wages and living standards have not improved as promised. In Japan, the so-called miracle economy is in decline with banks collapsing like a deck of cards. Western Europe is experiencing usually high levels of unemployment and the countries of Eastern Europe are in turmoil with workers in Russia not being paid for months at a time. The G.N.P. in all of Eastern Europe is in decline and social services are being gutted as they are in the rest of the capitalist world. In the U.S., the ghettos keep growing with the underprivileged living in cardboard boxes, underground sewers and abandoned buildings. There are thousands of people on death row, most of them poor, awaiting execution. All these things prove but one thing and that is that the free market system is incapable of equitably distributing the G.N.P. which the working class produces but is prevented from enjoying. Added to this is the problem of pollution on a world scale resulting in global warming and the ultimate destruction of this planet in the anarchy of the market economy and the quest for ever-increasing profits.
All this has led to an ever increasing militancy and class consciousness among the working class on a global scale. One has but to look at the strikes by the workers at United Parcel in the U.S., the threatened general strike here in Canada and the strikes that have taken place in both Western and Eastern Europe, the general strike in Israel, not to mention the strikes in Korea and Japan. Northstar Compass has tried over the past year to keep our readers in 61 countries informed about all these events especially those taking place in the soon to be revived, we hope, Soviet Union. What is missing in all this fight back is the leadership of the U.S.S.R. on a world scale. This has resulted in a situation where parties that are aspiring to be the vanguard of the working class are incapable of a proper scientific Marxist-Leninist analysis of the contemporary class struggle taking place here in the West. This has manifested itself in many forms such as "Anti-Stalinism" which inevitably leads the working class down the slippery slope of Anti-Socialism, Anti-Leninism and ultimately, onto the path of revisionism. There are other symptoms of this same phenomenon such as the falsification of historical data, various innuendoes and outright lies which lead to strife within the various progressive forces helping the realization of the age old bourgeois goal of divide and rule. The editorial board of this paper continues to strive to keep our readers informed of all those events that are taking place on a global scale. We also want to keep our readers informed of the struggles taking place in the lands of Lenin as the progressive forces there continue to form new associations as the struggle towards a revived Soviet Union and socialism intensifies.
On February 20, 21 & 22 of 1998, Northstar Compass will be holding its 5th Conference here in Toronto. We will be reviewing oar past accomplishments and analyzing our past mistakes in order that we might learn from our experiences. But most importantly, we will be exploring the question of setting up an "International Council of Friendship and Solidarity with the Soviet People" dedicated to the resurrection of the Soviet Union. Time has come for all those who are genuine friends of the Soviet People to set aside all their subjective differences and join hands in the struggle for the accomplishment of this noble goal, much like our forefathers in 1918 who set up the "Hands Off Russia Committees."
Let us not be so naive as to think that history will not repeat itself! If our Soviet brothers and sisters organize to overthrow the present western-sponsored regime, you can be certain that NATO troops shall immediately invade the territory of the former USSR and try to drown the baby in the cradle as Winston Churchill stated in 1918.
We appeal to all of our readers to try and attend this important event and participate in these deliberations. Our goals are socialism, brotherhood and peace. Please help us realize this goal.
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