aS SS . ee ee

EDITORIAL

Lewis cold war outburst

The carefully orchestrated attack on the
Soviet Union by Canada’s UN ambassador
and amplified by the Canadian Broadcasting
Corporation, accusing the USSR of the des-
truction of Afghanistan, came just seven days
before the opening of the Geneva summit.

Stephen Lewis, the social democrat selected
by the Mulroney Tories to represent their poli-
cies at the UN, lashed out in reckless hatred of
the USSR on Nov. 13.

Using such slander as “military decimation”
and “atrocities” to describe Soviet military and
civilian aid to the Afghan government and
| people, Lewis, who previously fought to pre-
vent sanctions against the racist South African

regime, was now defending the U.S. Central |
Intelligence Agency’s bankrolling of anti-
Afghan mercenaries, counter-revolutionaries
and thugs. Invited by Peter Gzowski to the
program Morningside, Lewis stated in defence
of the CIA infiltration from Pakistan: “I don’t
know how you could resist giving some aid to
Afghan ‘guerillas’.”’

Lewis admitted to deliberately setting out to
create a wave of anti-Soviet feeling. He told
Gzowski “. . .with the present attitude and view
in Ottawa, and talking with them about it, they
were perfectly willing to aaccept that” (his vitri-
olic attack).

With the worst reactionaries of the Reagan
regime, the CIA, the Mulroney neo-conserva-
tives, Lewis and the lords of the heroin traffic
agreeing on whose rights to uphold in the
Pakistan-Afghanistan area, the CBC trotted
out the “impeccable” credentials of a Michael
Barry speaking from Paris.

Using an organization called International
Federation for Human Rights, Barry told of
sneaking into Afghanistan with the CIA-
backed gangs, and claimed to have seen signs
of, or to have been told about, Soviet misdeeds.

Both apologists for counter-revolution omit-
ted mention of the Afghan army defending its
homeland against the bandits they eulogize.
They breathed not a word of the enormous
advances in health, education, housing and
production gained by the Afghan people with
Soviet aid. Lewis and his ilk obviously know
their assignment well.

They repeat horror stories reminiscent of
those created and circulated by the imperialist
powers and their cohorts raging against Soviet
authority after the 1917 Socialist Revolution.

This despicable use of Canada’s UN ambas-

_sador to bolster U.S. imperialism’s cruel plot

against the Afghan people discredits both the
Mulroney Tory government and the ambassa-
dor who so willingly lends himself to the ploy.
And, he gave his “services” even though, as he
said, “.. .I don’t know the flow of arms other
than what I read in the New York Times...”
Some credential. °

Not only should Lewis be recalled, the Mul-
roney government should apologize to the
people of Canada for his behavior and for the
government’s collusion in it. If any one “‘man-
gles the use of language” on Afghanistan, it is
Stephen Lewis. If anything was “premeditated”
it was his abusive attempt to sow cold war
hatred. Many must be asking: If this former
leader of the New Democratic Party is still a
member of that party, is he telling us that the
line is that blurry between NDP and Mulroney
Tory policy?

Afghanistan, struggling out of age-old
backwardness, despite the CIA-backed infiltra-
tion of armed enemies, is being subjected to
horrors only such cut throats could inflict. It is
a disgrace for Canada and for its UN ambassa-
dor that to hold his job he is required to twist
the facts and blame the victims of imperialism
for the horrors of imperialist intrigue.

OUK MAN AT TH

c UN...

po

—_IRIBUNE

~

Editor — SEAN GRIFFIN
Assistant Editor — DAN KEETON

Business & Circulation Manager — MIKE PRONIUK

Graphics — ANGELA KENYON

Published weekly at 2681 East Hastings Street
Vancouver, B.C. V5K 1Z5
Phone (604) 251-1186

Subscription Rate: Canada — $14 one year; $8 six months
Foreign — $20 one year;

Second class mail registration number 1560

m one says “peace march,” the

term usually conjures up the image

of citizens moving through city streets pro-

testing the nuclear arms race. But for

thousands of people around the world,

“peace” also has the more immediate

connotation of an end to the daily violence

and oppression that marks the lot of so
many around the world.

In Central America, peace means a
negotiated political settlement to the con-
flicts in Guatemala, Honduras, El Salva-
| dor, Nicargua, Costa Rica and Mexico.

All a direct result of U.S. military and
political interference, these are the subject
of a special peace march through the
region in December and January.
North Vancouver physical therapist
Diane Jacobs is one of seven British
Columbians, and 40 Canadians, who will
be joining hundreds of citizens from
* around the world for the march, which
leaves Panama City Dec. 20 and winds up
in Mexico Jan. 22. They'll be passing
through all the countries affected by, as
press material promoting the march des-
cribes it, “the Reagan administration’s
interventionist policies and pressure on

People and Issues

BOUND FOR CENTRAL AMERICA PEACE MARCH. . .(left to right) Andrea
Clark of Parksville, Diane Jacobs, and Susan Holvenstot of Courtenay.

may have been the biggest tribute paid to
trade unionist and Communist Party
member Peter Gidora, who died last week
at age 64 after a long battle with lung
cancer.

The Surrey civic workers, members of
Local 728 of the Canadian Union of Pub-
lic Employees, swelled the ranks of family
and friends marking the sadly short but
productive life of the trade unionist who
contributed so much to the labor move-
ment and his community.

Born in Alberta in 1921 of Ukrainian
immigrant parents, Peter began his work
history laboring on the family’s home-
stead. He drew political conclusions early
in life, and joined the Communist Party at
age 15.

The family moved to British Columbia
in 1943, where Peter established and oper-
ated a mushroom farm with his brother,
Kostyn. In subsequent years he became a
sawmill worker and a member of the
International Woodworkers, the B.C.
Government Employees Union and finally
CUPE Local 728, which he served at one
time as president. Until the time of his
death he was employed by the Surrey

Central America.

“We all have the responsibility for, and
the possibility to be a part of, the shaping
of peace in Central America. It is for that
reason that we arrange the peach march,”
the statement explains.

Jacobs, a member of the local chapter
of Friends of AMES (AMES is a women’s
organization involved in the liberation
struggle in El Salvador), reports that the
march was initiated by a Norwegian peace
group. Last year, that organization
received praise from the government of
Nicaragua when Norway sent a ship

loaded with medical and agricultural
supplies sorely needed by the citizens of
that country.

The peace march now has the endorse-
ment of more than 40 organizations and
individuals from the affected Central
American nations and elsewhere. These
include the Foreign Ministry of Nicaragua
and Nicaraguan government officials, the
Mexican ambassador to Norway, El Sal-
vador’s Faribundo Marti National Liber-
ation Front, and dozens of church,
women’s and national liberation organiza-
tions.

Diane acknowledges that participation
in the march isn’t without its attendant
dangers — considering the kidnapping
and violence that have beset some foreign
delegations at the hands -of right-wing
death squads — but considers their effort
a “small price” to pay for the restoration
of human rights in Central America.

* * x

ey attended, several of them, in their
work clothes. They arrived driving the
vehicles — school buses and municipal
trucks — they use on the job. And that

school board.

He was his local’s delegate to the New
Westminster and District Labor council,
and also to CUPE’s Metro Council.

During his active political life Peter ran —

as a federal candidate for the Communist
Party’s Fifties forerunner, the Labor Pro-

gressive party, and was chair of the Com- —

munist Party’s Fraser Valley regional
committee. He was also a top Tribune fund-
raiser, regularly achieving the status of
honor press builder.

He is survived by four children and six
grandchildren.

_ 4 PACIFIC TRIBUNE, NOVEMBER 27, 1985

ee ee ee ee s eS ee ed siti ela e
SS RR a si