- been

~~ way to socialism and, at the same

By TOM MORRIS
TORONTO — An impressive

panel of speakers addressed a

rally here Jan. 16 to warn the

progressive movement in Canada

of unmistakable signs of a
dangerous drift to the right by
governments and monopoly
forces in the English-speaking
Caribbean.

Called by a wide section of na-
tional liberation and support
groups, the meeting heard rep-
resentatives from the Toronto
Chilean Association; the Youlou
United Liberation Movement

&

monopoly was back’ in power.
Today, Pinochet and the military
junta is not too useful and an ef-
fort is being made to replace him
with a civilian-military form while
retaining the substance with
monopoly firmly in power,’’ he
concluded.

Michael Als, secretary of the
council of Progressive Trade
Unions in Trinidad and Tobago,
described the two basic alterna-
tives facing his country: either the
transformation of the social and
political life in a progressive di-

si

Capitalist, some with variations of
feudal streams and others with
aspects of state-capitalism. He
carefully pointed out that there
are no fascist regimes in the reg-
ion today, but that some contain
such tendencies and all of them
the seed. :

“Their economies are weak,
the productive forces low and
underdeveloped,”’ he said. ‘All

display the contradiction between e

private ownership and foreign
plunder and the rising expecta-
tions of their people. As this con-

. . fection to meet people’s needs or tradiction sharpens, it gives rise
Cee), Sty Vincent,” 5 right swing and a military- to new progressive organizations,
Camnoll of Progressive : Trade capitalist government. workers’ struggles and th
Unions, Trinidad and Tobago and 8

the Association of Concerned
Guyanese..

Vincente Palma, speaking for
the Toronto Chilean Association,
traced the history of attempts by
Chile’s right forces to seize pow-
er. ‘‘Fascism didn’t begin in Chile
in 1973,” he’ said. ‘There have
Tepeated efforts by

monopoly and right. political par-
ties and their supporters to ward
off workers’ power.”’

In the period before the victory
of Salvador Allende and the Popu-
lar Unity Government in 1970, the
cry on the streets was ‘*People’s
Power!’’. The capitalist forces did
all they could to avert a dem-
ocratic victory but failed. They
were faced with a people who
didn’t want to be governed, but
wanted to govern, Palma said.

_ ‘In the 1970s Chile was on the

they have control over their lives. . °°©" 1" Varying degrees through-. Front being developed -with..a. ation and struggle: @ =" 7
time, was on the threshold of fas- “But faced with a threat to their - ee Seen Wears oe ee SPENCE TENE ES PSS Ne AE
cism. The right forces combined power and profits, capitalism
with the military and aided by the pulls out its trump card — fascism

active intervention of imperialism
succeeded in defeating the dem--
ocratic forces.

Als called for support for the
locked-out workers of the news-
paper Guardian who have been
singled out by monopoly in the
mounting attack against the labor
movement in Trinidad. He paid
special attention to alerting the

progressive community to the’

rightward swing. ‘‘We will need
your understanding and _sup-
port,’’ he said.

Mike Browne, representing
YOULIMO, gave a broad outline
of this right swing in the English-
speaking Caribbean drawing to-
gether the main characteristics
that prompt today’s concerns.

“All capitalist countries con-
tain the embryo of fascism,”’ he
said, “‘no matter how democratic
they appear to be. Capitalism pre-
fers a democratic face and man-

_ ages to fool workers into thinking .

— to hold onto their power.”
Browne said that all the
economies in the countries of the

socialist solution.’

This, in turn, Browne stressed,
gives rise to a danger of a right-
wing threat as traditional pro-
capitalist governments find it in-
creasingly difficult to reply to the
demands of the people.

The anti-democratic trend in
the area, Browne said; takes
many forms: a sharp increase in

~ election frauds and manipulation

and evasion of elections; repres-
sive legislation, including retroac-
tive laws; tighter ‘‘emergency’’
laws; anti-labor laws; the holding
of political prisoners; police brut-
ality; build-up of military forces;
anti-intellectualism; the increased
role of foreign agencies such as

. the CIA and, running throughout,

increased anti-communism,
These characteristics are to be

g
3
i
es
:
E

Mike Browne, representative from Youlimo in St. Vincent outlines the
rapidly developing situation in the English-speaking Caribbean and the

potential for solid advance. He also issued a warning thatinherentinthe _

situation is a right-wing danger.

out the region and, Browne
pointed out, show a heightening

-interest in right-wing and military

solutions to keep capitalism in the
driver’s seat.

Speaking on behalf of the As-
sociation of Concerned
Guyanese, Geoff Da Silva said
the government of Forbes Burn-
ham fits many of the above de-
scriptions. He said it has, since
1977, moved sharply to the right
and shows definite reactionary
trends. Da Silva spoke of the
emergence of a National Patriotic

NY
=)

popular, anti-imperialist program 4

to counter and prevent the

emergence of fascism in Guyana. —

Civil rights lawyer Charles”
“Roach spoke briefly and ridiculed ~
those who slander Vietnam and

join in the imperialist chorus over
the liberation of neighboring
Kampuchea. He also said, ‘‘this
has been a great day. I’ve been on
a high since morning when I heard
the news ...’’ That morning the
Shah of Iran fied the country.

Roach read four beautiful
poems he had written about liber-”

the movement was to see that Nazim Hikmet
girl of Hiroshima, like my grandaughter, 0
daughter, your son, should not burn, but sho

7

el

VA
oe : 2 : V : Fe sweets in their mouth. ‘
Naked terror ruled and English-speaking Caribbean are y 1979 International I think of Vietnam. Don’t you remember f
XY L Year of the Child tures which were printed in every part of the

the child who ran, with napalm burning het,
’ Nazim Hikmet did not see this girl. When wa
long ago? — that in a place called Soweto on®

continent, not in Asia this time, not in Jap ie
Vietnam, but in Africa, in a town called Sowell”
children were shot and killed by the tens and tw
hunted down, because it’s easier to kill childr
to kill grown-up men and women. =
I thought to myself of the hospital: visite@\\
Suez Canal in 1967, and of the little girls and litt\\
who lay in those hospital beds with arms gone ay
gone, and who said, when they were told thath
people who stand for peace, who said only this
younger brother not come to this hospital ..
So, whether it is Africa or the Middle 5
Vietnam, or Hiroshima, somehow still, child)
burning like torches, and still how many mil
them do not have sweets in their mouth. —_{}
If I came to politics, or what you call politi
may call it the peace movement, call it what y
it was because I saw in my own land, as a ch
there were many, many millions of children!
who did not have in their mouths the sweets!
could have. And, so many of us joined the st
freedom, which meant that we fought, not onl:
in our own country and not have a foreign imp
ruling over us. That, of course. But what we
for was precisely that our children may be able \
one night in a week not to go to sleep hungry. 4
one night in a week. This is what the st
independence was, and is at this time. a
We do not burn only with napalm or with th
bomb. Our children burn with hunger, with p
for hundreds of them. One billion people-starvi
one billion dollars are spent on armaments. §
‘ such a difficult thing to understand what \
fighting for? 4
What a change there is in the world! Char
cause of the sacrifices of so many millions who!
in the ranks of the peace movement — a pea
ment which is a movement that seeks not o

Ahandful |
of rice for
every child

In this, the International Year of the Child, 1979, so
proclaimed by the United Nations, Romesh Chandra,
speaking in Toronto in December, made a strong plea
for an end to the horror which fills the lives of millions
of children today. He called to mind pictures of chil-
dren condemned to war, pain and poverty. On the

other hand, he pointed to the potential in a world at
peace, and in which profit is not the priority, for

EGYPT SIGNS $10-MILLION DEAL WITH FASCIST CHILE
CAIRO — An agreement on economic, technical and trade coopera-
tion was signed here recently between Egypt.and the fascist Chilean
‘junta. According to Agence France Presse, the junta will grant Egypt a
$10-million credit for financing so-called food programs. The agree-

ment also provides for training Egyptians in Chile for banks and other
financial institutions.

_NICARAGUAN TROOPS FIRE ON MARCHERS
MANAGUA — Ten persons were wounded when National Guard
troops fired into a demonstration here marking the first anniversary of
the assassination of one of the regime’s severest critics. Marches took
place Jan. 11 in the capital and many other cities. Some 10,000 persons
turned out in Managua and a nation-wide general strike began at noon
Jan. 10 as the movement to oust the U.S.-backed dictatorship of

Sores: children to live full and healthy lives.
U.S. COMMUNIST DAILY MARKS 55TH ANNIVERSARY Romesh Chandra is president of the World Peace

CHICAGO — January 13 was a red-letter day for the heroic com- Council. These are excerpts from his remarks.
munist press of the United States. For on that day 55 years ago, the first eae ee
daily, the Daily Worker, came off the presses. It was the forerunner to Iam very fond of that poem, of that song, of Nazim
today’s Daily World, edited and printed in New York and the People’s Hikmet’s, ‘‘Who Is It?’ — for it speaks of a little girl
World in Los Angeles. The Tribune sent the following cable to the who became a torch and burned — a girl of seven.
Daily World’s editor and staff: ; : 1979 is the International Year of the Child and so,

“Warm greetings and congratulations to you and the entire staff of it’s good to remember Nazim Hikmet’s little girl. But
the Daily World on the occassion of the 55th anniversary of the birth of she wasn’t the only little girl —and Nazim died —and
the Daily Worker. We wish you continued success in our common little girls and little boys continued to be torches.
efforts to break through the blackout, spread the truth and advance the Hiroshima was not the last place where little girls and
struggle for socialism." : little boys were torches.

I remember these years, and you remember them,
as years of great struggle and great campaigns and
movements for peace, and of the great people of our
movement who are no more with us. But what was
that movement about? And then you will remember:

ARAB WOMEN PROTEST TREATMENT OF PRISONERS
BEIRUT — The All-Arab Women’s Federation has sent a petition
to the UN Commission on Human Rights and the International Red
Cross protesting the inhuman treatment of Arab prisoners held in
Israeli jails.
PACIFIC TRIBUNE—JANUARY 26, 1979—Page 4