AG

—__ EDITORIAL

Keep U.S. hands off Cuba!

The mounting campaign to destroy
. socialist Cuba, being carried on by the
right-wing ruling circles of the USA, in-

cluding the Central Intelligence Agency,

demands the sounding of an alarm.

For many years the USA conducted a
blockade of trade with Cuba in the hope
of strangling the population and
government. Now the incendiary and
provocative statements by Reagan
spokesmen are reaching a pitch de-
signed to justify past crimes by U.S.
imperialism against Cuba and countries
of the Caribbean, Central and South
America.

Public opinion in Canada, as else-
where, in the interests of preventing that
flash-point of aggression the USA is
building up to, is called upon to put pres-
sure on Ottawa. The Canadian Govern-
ment has the responsibility to assist the
U.S, rulers — at the U.N. and privately
— to see that they must end such a
scenario.

Reagan is now patting our heads and
saying his regime has “no plans for put-
ting Americans in combat anywhere in
the world.” Reagan is a liar and a hypoc-
rite who thinks by contradicting the ob-
vious U.S. policy and the contexts of all
the foreign policy statements of his gang,
he can get away with murder because he
has taken the world off guard.

No doubt he'd like to Caribbeanize, er
Latinize, or Arabize the U.S. plans for
aggression, as his despicable pre-
decessors tried to Vietnamize U.S.
genocide against the Vietnamese people.

What does U:S. Secretary of State
General Haig mean when he speaks of
“preserving the Americas from ... ex-

rted revolution,” an accusation he

falsely hurls at Cuba? What does U.S. .

planner Richard Weinberg mean when
he gloats over what he sees as “more suc-
cess than I could have imagined in isolat-
ing Cuba from other Latin American
_ countries”? How can former CIA direc-
tor George Bush, now U.S. vice-

Step up workers’ struggle

Signs of a serious recession were the
words from Statistics Canada in its re-
_ port for October. With unemployment
at 8.3%, worse by 132,000 than a year
ago (now an official 891,000), retail sales

and house buying plunged sharply. The —

export market looks bleak, says Statscan;
and in the USA, -our biggest trading
partner, Reagan says. the monopoly
capitalist system has nothing to offer but
“hard times”. ;

Anyone who expected Canada’s fed-
eral budget to bring widespread or
deep-going relief from the crisis of living
standards needed only to study the
trends. to think otherwise.
_ Housing starts in Canada dropped
44% in October from October 1980, and
no rental housing is being built. Layoffs
are sweeping the manufacturing in-
dustry.

Obviously, every fight tht is on the
books needs to be stepped up. .

Budgets of big business governments
have a common goal. And although this
is being written before the MacEachen
budget is brought down, it is a fair guess
PACIFIC TRIBUNE—NOV. 20, 1981—Page 4

president justify the accusation that “no
elections have been held in Cuba in 22
years,” 24 hours after 6,097,639 Cubans
cast ballots for delegates to People’s

Power — the guardian organization of

Cuba’s social system?

But the U.S. rulers have done more
than talk. They have conducted a prac-
tice invasion of the Island of Cuba, using
the Guantanamo Naval Base, which
Washington acquired on a 99-year lease
from its former puppet government in
Havana.

Worst of all the USAsstands accused of
conducting biological warfare against
Cuba. Speaking on July 26 and on Sept.
15, President Fidel Castro used refer-
ences to U.S. Senate and other institu-
tions’ documents to back up his denunci-
ation of the diabolical use of disease to
destabilize Cuba.

Cuban Foreign Minister Isidoro Mal-
mierca told the U.N. General Assembly
last month that one such U.S.. attack,
using dengue type 2 virus, resulted in the
deaths of 156 people, including 99 chil-
dren. Like the epidemics which attacked
tobacco, swine and sugarcane, hemor-
rhagic dengue was not reported in any
other country of the region, and dengue
fever not since 1978! -

More recently the New York Times
reported this month that General Haig
has been pressing the Pentagon to
examine military options in E] Salvador
as well as Cuba and Nicaragua. The New

York Times story may be naively lagging
behind actual Pentagon decisions.

Itis on this background that the World
Peace Council has issued an urgent ap-
peal (Nov. 10) to public opinion every-
where to act “to curb U.S. Government
aggression against the peoples of Cuba,
Central America and the Caribbean.”
Noting U.S. “aggressive and threatening
statements,” the Peace Council calls for a
“world campaign of solidarity with Cu-
ba”.

that it will be no exception. That goal is to
convince workers and all those.struggl-
ing against the assaults on their living

standards, that in the long run (!) they'll -

benefit from handouts and tax “incen-
tives” given to the corporate elite.

The truth is that Canada needs new ~

policies — policies to serve the people of
Canada instead of the monopolies, and

transnationals, policies to put resources _

and other major industrial sectors under
public ownership and democratic con-

trol. Canada needs a foreign policy of
_peace instead of being tied to the U.S.

military adventurism which costs us $6-
billion a year in direct military spending,
as well as loss of economic momentum
and jobs. Senior governments must pro-
vide more, not less money to
municipalities to lift the burden from the

hardest pressed — the working people. —

More than ever, as recession takes
hold, a massive outpouring on Parlia-

ment Hill on November 21, along with

the original target — high interest rates
—needs to protest all the basic demands

trampled by big business government. _

CARTOON BY NUEZ, GRANMA

Flashbacks

25 years ago... 50 years ago...

CANADIAN
TROOPS TO SUEZ

Parliament will be called into
special emergency session within
days after the cabinet decides
how many troops to send to the
proposed UN force for the Suez.

The cabinet meeting behind
closed doors sent a secret mes-
sage to British Prime Minister
Eden. The pattern being fol-
lowed was that of the events that
preceded sending Canadian
troops into Korea — cabinet ac-
tion on a potential world war

threat, before a meeting of —

parliament.

External Affairs Minister
Pearson’s advice — the UN
police force — was having a
rough ride in British ruling cir-
cles. Eden doesn’t want a UN
force until British and Frenth
troops have taken over Egypt.

Tribune,
November 12, 1956

Profiteer of the week

TERROR REIGN
IN IRELAND

DUBLIN — With the prohibi- —
tion of a mass meeting by the

Anti-Imperialist League great
political unrest and ferment has.
developed, The meeting was
banned under the Public Safety

Act recently passed by the Cos-
grave government under which —

all democratic rights are

abolished, including trial by jury —

and military tribunals set up to

adjudicate ‘‘sedition’” and _
“treason”. - ae
The Irish Republican”

Brotherhood has been officially

pronounced “illegal”. Raids and
arrests are creating a veritable
reign of terror in the country.

The government is finding it”

impossible to crush the Republi-
can movement which finds sup-’
port among the majority.
2 The Worker,
November 14, 1931

t

Molson Companies made an after-tax profit of $36,093,000 in just
six months (Apr.-Sept.) compared to $26,906,000 in the same 1980
period. Just give up beer, you say? That would leave Molson-
profiteering only from Beaver Lumber, furniture, school supplies,
chemical specialties, warehousing and cartage. Hence, our

award.

4 *
Figures used are from the company’s financial statements.

Editor — SEAN GRIFFIN
Business and Circulation Manager — PAT O'CONNOR

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