_ peared

The following letter which ap-
in the British weekly,
Manchester Guardian in its July 12
edition, was submitted by Darshan
Singh, a name familiar to many

Tribune readers for his work in the

WA in the 40’s as well as his book,
Published in this country several

j| Years ago, The Rise of the New

Asia. He now sits as a Communist
meenber of the Punjab Legislative
Ssembly. Jointly signed by Jagjit

i| Singh Anand, a member of the

le Indian Parliament, the letter sheds
eee uert onthe situation in India.
_ -€ir comments about the British

_ Press could apply equally to the

“orth American press.

( The reaction of the British press
© the latest political events

_ Reading to the declaration of
_ ‘mergency in India is hardly

7 balanced or objective. The Times

_ '8“surprised and shocked” and the

Wardian sees in it a ‘desperate
and perilous plunge’ with

€mocracy put in cold storage.”
he Telegraph goes one stage

farther and sees one -woman
4 pictatorship”’ and a ‘dark
| SUtlook’’ for the country. It is being

Propagated by the editors and~

 Ommentators of the British press

at there is flimsy evidence to
Prove that a deep and.widespread

| “Nspiracy existed to warrant the

- “Mergency proclamation.

ch

© any Indian conversant with

ie facts of the situation it would

‘fem that the British press has
ae to ignore the reality and
“€sent a onesided and distorted

: Picture, which denigrates Prime

Mister Indira Gandhi as an

_ autocrat and builds up the rightist

| Sup

| “aders involved in the conspiracy

Martyrs in the cause of freedom
democracy. That these

‘ Igctionary leaders had done their
ar best to subvert democracy in
4.4 iS proved tothe hilt by in-

Sputable facts, some of which —

for the knowledge of the British
public — we enumerate here.

On March 18, 1974 Patna was
burned and looted (causing
damage of almost 500,000 pounds)
by demonstrators led by the so-
called great moralist Jayaprakash
Narayan. Mr.
followers, numbering many
thousands, laid siege to the demo-
cratically elected State Assembly

‘ina bid to get it forcibly dissolved.

During the course of this
demonstration democratically
elected members of the legislative
assembly, who refused to follow
the rightist movement, were
publicly abused, beaten and
terrorized by gangs of toughs
owing allegiance to Mr. Narayan.

Late in 1974, when a general
strike was launched in the state of
Bihar by Mr. Jayaprakash
Narayan, dozens of bridges,
culverts and railway cabins were
blown up in order to paralyze the
transport system.

Early in 1975 Mr. Narayan gave
a call to set up a parallel govern-
ment in the country and called
upon the army and the police to
disobey the government. It was in
this. atmosphere of anarchy,
violence, and subversion that the
dark fascist forces first vilified and
then murdered the railway
minister Mr. L. N. Mishra for no
other crime than that he was a
progressive who fully supported
the Prime Minister and her
policies. A few days later a mur-
derous assault was made on Chief
Justice Mr. Ray, who was also
earlier vilified as being the stooge
of the prime minister.

It was against this background,
after the Supreme Court had
allowed Mrs. Gandhi to stay on as
prime minister — pending the final
decision on her appeal against the
earlier judgment of Allahabad

High Court unseating her from the*

Narayan’s -

FORUM

Parliament — that the rightist
opposition refused to abide by this
Supreme Court decision. Mr.
Morarji Desai gave a do or die call

to the rightist battalions. Mr.
Jayaprakash Narayan called upon
the people to launch a_ no-tax
campaign throughout the country.
A further plan was charted to lay
siege to the prime minister’s
residence to coerce her forcibly to
resign. In his last public meeting
before his arrest Jayaprakash
Narayan once again called upon
the armed forces and the police to
disobey the government.

The democratically-minded
people of India and their leader
Mrs. Gandhi have drawn their
lesson from the tragic events of
Chile. Today even the American
imperialist ruling circles
acknowledge how such actions of
Chilean counter-revolutionaries as
the empty pots demonstration of
housewives in Santiago, the truck
owners’ general strike, and the
violent acts of the fascist gangs
were planned and financed by the
CIA.

However, when this high drama
was unfolding three years ago, a
good part of the Western press was
at that time hailing it as a mighty
democratic resurgence of Chilean
people against Allende’s radical-
ism. It. would not be far wrong to
say that the same attitude is being
displayed toward the Indian
counter-revolution.

If anything the fault of Mrs:
Gandhi and her government was
that they were too soft toward this
counter-revolutionary movement
and they have acted rather
belatedly against it. Those who are
lamenting like Mr. Cameron that
“India Goes to Sleep’? are dead
wrong and they will have the
surprise of their lifetime. If
anything, India has just started to
wake up — and how!

PORTUGUESE GOVERNMENT

Cont'd from pg. 1

the AR M called for unity, saying,

the AFM will not repay hatred

ae hatred. Against defamation
Will respond with our acts.

aeamst: demagoguery we will

~“Mploy reason.”
“th he consolidation this week of

fail M comes after last week’s
« Ure of the Socialist party to
yheralyze the country”’ as they had
fatened to do. ‘“‘The country is
Sbilized from North to South,”
ann aoer Soares had declared in
Be acing their plans. But when
fe vehly touted rally last
ay in Lisbon began it was

ay
Pparent that Socialist statements

trey utmatched their organized
out eth. Less than 15,000 turned
a hear Soares scream anti-

Munist and anti-AFM slogans

at th

‘ © demonstration which had
1 predicted to draw 50,000.

or rally on Thursday in the
Port €rn Socialist stronghold of
ah..-? Home of port wine, drew

about 1 5 :
ie 0,
. Short - 000 which was again far

ae _€xpectations in spite of
6 Joined by thousands of PDP

Porters : i
ements, and __ pro-fascist

Re hroughout the week Communist

al and AFM forces protected,

| up S°Vernment buildings and set
We Toadblocks to search for

es as the demonstrations
Suppo, A Communist Party rally in
Soho ott of the government was

A Sc
The lulled for Sunday in Lisbon.

power

Merican newswire service

| of Co ported only that “thousands

Loc nnunists took to the streets.”’
organi Communist Party
tow. IZations in two northern
ave accused local lan-

Oodhy S of hiring gangs of

attag ™s for the widely publicized
agt pe On local CP headquarters
. Tiday. The hired thugs made
attacks in Leurinha and

uf

Cadaval, 15 and 25 miles north of
Lisbon. Several people were in-
jured in the assaults and offices
looted and wrecked.
The two attacks, together with
one earlier in the week against the
Communist Party office in Rio
Major have borne out the warnings
of the Communists that the
splitting activities of the Socialists

increase in fascist activity.

While Soares and other Socialist
Party leaders have demagogically
announced that there is no longer a
right threat to Portugal —
reserving their full wrath for the
revolutionary forces — the
Communist Party has pointed out
that there is still a strong right-
wing element in the country which
has organized a secret war against
the revolution. This was evidenced
by a June 30 escape from a sup-
posedly maximum security prison
of 89 fascist secret police thugs and
a fire in Lisbon soon after that
destroyed the fascist secret police
files.

The CP’s contention has been
backed up by Intersindical, Por-
tugal’s sole trade union federation,
which urged its two million
members to give strong support to
the AFM. ‘‘Reactionaries who take
advantage of the situation created
by the Socialist Parties’ top
leadership may create dif-
ficulties,’ the federation warned

last Friday.

An anti-Portugal slander
ign has been launched in the
eset Intersindical

imperialist media,
Aatniedt that has been ac-
companied by threats of an
economic boycott if the revolution

id not abandon its course. ;
oe reality of the threat and the
direct hand of the Socialist Party in
it was revealed this week when it
was learned that SP leader Soares

had personally intervened to block

a $700 million loan to Portugal
from the European Economic
Community. According to an UPI
expose, Soares made personal
phone calls to EEC leaders to
gather their support for his
campaign against the AFM. The
EEC decision last Thursday was to
grant the loan “‘only if that country

create suitable conditions for an - changes direction and moves

toward a pluralist democracy.”
- As events develop in Portugal it
has become clear that at stake is
not the bogus issue of democracy
and freedom as the Socialist and
pro-capitalist forces proclaim but
the Portuguese revolution itself.

The attacks against the AFM

from the SP and PDP have in-

tensified in the recent months
precisely as the economic ob-
jectives of the revolution have been
undertaken. Banks, insurance
companies, and key industries
have already been nationalized
and the vigorous land reform
program is now well under way. It
is now illegal for any individual to
own more than 50 hectares of

irrigated land.

“Instead of the road to building
socialism,” the Communist Party
said following the SP’s poor
showing at their Tuesday rally,
“the SP leaders offered the Por-
tuguese people another road, West
European social democracy, the
road which leaves intact the power
of the monopolies and the big land-

_ owners.

“Their assaults against Premier
Goncalves, against progressive
AFM officers, were fittingly
rebuffed. The prospects for settling
the present political and economic
difficulties in the interests of the
working masses have

strengthened.”

LABOR COMMENT

Cont'd from pg. 1
seven-day, continuous operation,
which is in effect in pulp and paper
plants because of the nature of
those operations.

Woodworkers point out that
continuous operation is not
necessary in the overwhelming
majority of their operations. It is
obvious that any proposed set-
tlement recommending continuous
operation will meet strong op-
position. Well-informed wood-
workers tell us that the big com-
panies would like to introduce the
seven-day, continuous operation
for sawmills and plywood plants,
along with the most up-to-date,
automated machinery.

This, they say would bring much
higher profits to big operators,
while squeezing out smaller

‘ companies and causing massive

layoffs. With some 5,000 wood-
workers already on extended
layoffs since before negotiations
began, woodworkers cannot be
blamed if they are not prepared to
buy continuous operations.

When Canadian Cellulose
Company and Ocean Falls Cor-
poration (Crown corporations) lent
their endorsement to anti-union
advertisements in the Vancouver
Sun ‘and Province, they betrayed
the workers in wood, pulp and
paper. The betrayal was further
compounded when labor minister
King threatened to further restrict
“free collective bargaining”’ if the
two pulp unions persisted in their
strike.

Instead of acting in this fashion,
the government should have set-
tled with the workers employed by
the Crown corporations and put
pressure on the privately owned
companies to do likewise.

Many honest workers are
wondering if the current labor
crisis has been whipped up to
discredit the NDP government and
bring back the Socreds. There is no
doubt that big business wants to
bring back the Socreds. However,
by retreating in the face of
pressure from monopoly capital,
the NDP government is facilitating
the return of big business govern-
ment.

What is required is unity of all
anti-monopoly forces based on an
anti-monopoly program. A united
trade union movement is the best
vehicle to serve as the base for
such a united fight-back. The
policies of the NDP government
are designed to separate it from
the trade union movement in the
vain hope of appeasing its political
enemies, and to prove they can run
the capitalist system better than

the capitalists. Of course the NDP
wants the financial backing of the
trade union movement, its election
workers and formal endorsement
— but no more.

But to the workers on the job,
that is not good enough. They are
beginning to realize that they must
rely on their own strength and
unity in collective bargaining. The
next step is to realize the im-
portance of independent labor
political action by the working
class, which is the best antidote to
right-wing pressures within the
NDP and to the objectionable
features of government policy.
Without this antidote, there will be
a drift toward voting for the old-
line parties on the part of many
workers who voted otherwise in
recent years. Many militant
workers may, in disgust, refuse to
vote.

Specifically, progressive and
militant workers on the job should
advance the following program
now:

e Consolidate and extend unity
among the members of the three
unions, from below and from the
top. The more the sentiment for
unity catches on below, the more
likely it will be strengthened at the
top.

e If the mediator’s report is
unacceptable to the membership of
either of the three unions, there
must be a united resistance, with
one, agreed-upon course of action
by all three unions.

eIn the event of an all-out
shutdown in the industry, a special
convention of the B.C. Federation
of Labor should be called to
mobilize the whole trade union
movement in support of the unions
directly involved. The united of-

- fensive of big business against the

living standards of the workers
must be met by the united
resistance of the working class.

e The leadership of the three
unions must be pressed to counter
the false and malicious
propaganda of the forest bosses, by
giving the true story to the people.

The forest bosses have made
fabulous profits in the past 10
years. They can-well afford to meet
the demands of the workers.

BOLER TRAILER
TO RENT

Carl Warder
731-4084
or 531-5909

PSUR ARAL i ase

CLASSIFIED AD

ERTISING

COMING EVENTS

SATURDAY, July 26, 1:00 p.m. —
3rd ANNUAL YCL SALMON
BAKE — at the Legebokoff’s,
3310 Cardinal Dr., North Bur-
naby. Swimming, en-
tertainment, refreshments, good
food. Admission (includes meal)
$3.00. All welcome.

JULY 27 — CELEBRATE
CUBA’S NATIONAL HOLIDAY -
ANNUAL GARDEN PARTY,
3882 Yale St., Sunday, July 27 - 2-
7 p.m. Cuban menu, supper at 5
p.m. Adults $3.00 under 12 $1.50.
Slide showing. Refreshments.
Ausp: Canadian Cuban Friend-

ship Cttee. Proceeds to the

School for the Blind.

AUG. 10 — Sunday, August 10.
Keep this date open for annual
COPE Garden Party at the
Rankins’. ~

TO RENT

WANTED

ARTICLES for resale — Proceeds
to P.T. Phone 526-5226.

STORAGE space, preferably in
Burnaby — for articles for
resale. Phone 526-5226.

WANTED — Room & Board with
quiet study area. Approx. 8
months. David Harris, 33083 - 1st
Ave., Mission. 826-2784. -

BUSINESS PERSONALS

RON SOSTAD, Writer-Researcher.
Ph. 922-6980-

_ HALLS FOR RENT -

UKRAINIAN CANADIAN
CULTURAL CENTRE — 805
East Pender St., Vancouver 4.
Available for banquets, wed-
dings, meetings. Phone 254-3436.

RUSSIAN PEOPLE’S HOME —
Now available for rentals. For
reservations phone 254-3430.

ACCOMMODATION available in
Ladner house. Rent open. Fast
Bus to Vancouver each 30 min.
Phone John or Ellen 946-8402.

WEBSTER’S CORNERS. HALL.

) Available for banquets,
meetings, etc. For rates; Ozzie,
325-4171 or 685-5836.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—JULY 25, 1975—Page 7

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