, i
Re ———
QS 2

BERLIN — The Washington policy of organ-
izing economic, political and possibly military
war against the Soviet Union, the socialist world
and other countries is meeting ever firmer resis-
tance in Europe.

In the socialist countries, the people and
governments have made it clear they will not be
blackmailed or intimidated by the USA’s at-
tempts to alter the military balance in the world
with an armaments program unprecedented in
history. In the European capitalist countries,
the peace movement and the revolt against
Washington’s cold and hot war policies has be-
come a major political factor. It is finding a
response in the refusal of many governments to
go along with the demands of U.S. President
Reagan and his fanatical aides for economic
sanctions and increased military preparations
against the USSR and the socialist world.

A typical example is the declaration of Prime
Minister, Thorbjorn Falldin that Sweden re-
fuses to heed Reagan’s demand that western
capitalist countries impose sanctions on Poland.
The Prime Minister made it clear that Sweden's
foreign policy was based upon its own national
interests. Sweden, he said, was extending Po-
land substantial credit to help finance Polish-
Swedish trade.

On a larger scale, the FRG, France, the
Netherlands and Italy have rejected the USA’s
attacks and gone ahead with contracts for a
trans-European pipeline to bring Soviet gas to
their countries. Spain has also declared it wishes
to join this enormous pipeline project.

In Mid-March, the Leipzig Trade Fair will
deliver another blow to the USA's attempt to
force capitalist countries to cut their trade with
the USSR, Poland and the other socialist coun-
tries. Officials of the world’s largest east-west
trade event of the year have revealed that the
Fair will featurae 9,000 exhibitors from more
than 60 countries, including Canada. Among the
exhibitors will be many of the capitalist world’s
biggest corporations.

In West Germany the mass movement for
peace has prompted large Social Democratic
organizations to condemn the stationing of more
U.S. nuclear rockets on West European territ-
ory. Despite a lot of doubletalk in Bonn
Government circles, the government has openly
refused Washington’s pressure to cut down on
trade relations with the USSR. Now Chancellor

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—FEB. 19, 1982—Page 4

From Berlin
Fils Delisle

Helmut Schmidt, despite all his concessions to
Washington, has also declared that detente be-
tween east and west must continue.. He was
supported by Willy Brandt, Chairman of the
FRG’s Social Democratic Party and President
of the Socialist International.

Chancellor Schmidt said that it is precisely in
the present complicated world situation that ef-
forts must continue on behalf of relaxation of
tensions and the continuing of a dialogue be-
tween the capitalist and socialist worlds. Calling
for contacts at the highest level between the
USA and the USSR, Schmidt supported the
NATO line of interference in the internal affairs
of Poland, but also made it clear that there was a
difference of opinion between Bonn and
Washington on the question.

Significantly, Schmidt refused to heed those
who are demanding that the Polish situation be
exploited for a ‘‘tougher’’ policy towards the
GDR. He said: ‘*The relations between both
German states can and should contribute to

making the relations between east and west in |

Europe more consistent and more trust-
worthy.’ These relations, he said, were a part
of the European policy of peace and affected
peace in the entire world.

The elder statesman and executive board
member of the West German Free Democratic

Party William Borm, has made public in Bonna

letter he has written to 1,600 parliamentary rep-
resentatives and other leading figures in the
junior party in the West German coalition
government. In his letter, Borm warned that the
USA is using the events in Poland ‘‘as a wel-

come excuse for the further spreading of ten- -

sions in relations with the Soviet Union’’. He
said that the Polish situation is also being
exploited ‘“‘to push the armaments drive on
West European Territory’. With ‘‘black-

. mailing threats’’ a ‘‘new cold war’’ was being

promoted. West Germany was most directly af-
fected by this drive, which was a threat to all of
Western Europe. Borm condemned policies of
blindly following U.S. dictates, declaring that
the FRG ahd different interests than
Washington.

UT RTNAE PRATT i ART ARAM EL

“OR POS ES

+e

Al
Pangea World News

U.S. out to torpedo Madrid Conference

MADRID — Led by U.S. Secretary of State Alexander Haig and)
joined by Canada’s External Affairs Minister Mark MacGuigan, sev-|

eral NATO states attempted to introduce a discussion on Poland into

the meeting of the European Security Conference despite objections)

from other states, includirig Poland, that the matter was not on the

conference agenda.
Haig had announced well in advance the U.S. considers the Madrid

meeting should be postponed until the end of 1982, but ran into opposi-|

tion from his allies who feel that the talks should proceed.

Prior to the Conference opening Feb. 9, the World Peace Council’

issued an appeal to the participants to decide in favor of convening @
conference on military détente and disarmament in Europe.

‘*The Madrid meeting must and can take decisive steps to prevent@,

nuclear war’’, the WPC said. ‘‘It must and can brighten the prospects
for European security and détente; it must and can set a milestone of
the road opened up by the Helsinki Final Act, which leads to stable
peace for Europe and the world.”’

U.S. rejects Soviet cutback plan
WASHINGTON — U.S. President Reagan rejected a Soviet pro

posal, presented at the Geneva talks on arms limitations, that both the

U.S. and USSR reduce their medium-range nuclear weapons if

Europe by two-thirds by 1990. In rejecting the Soviet offer, the White’
House repeated its ‘‘zero option’’ offer presented by Reagan last
November in which the USSR is asked to disarm in favor of the U.S:

not deploying new missile systems in Europe. The so-called **zef
option’’ has béen rejected by the Soviet Union who argue it will, in fach
leave present U.S., French and British weapons in place while remov
ing Soviet weapons. The Geneva talks began Nov. 30, 1981.

Cuba a major citrus exporter
HAVANA — Cuba announced it had exported over 250,000 tons of

fresh citrus fruit in 1981, placing that nation among the top seven citrt$ »

fruit exporting countries in the world. The 1981 figure is a 21% jump
over a year earlier. Prior to the 1959 revolution, Cuba actually imported
many fresh fruits due to its backward economy.

U.S. ambassador to Nicaragua

WASHINGTON (PL) — The United States has assigned Anthony
Quainton, presently chief of the so-called office of ‘‘Combat Against

Terrorism’ at the State Department, as its new ambassador 10)
Nicaragua. Quainton, 48, began diplomatic service in 1959 and has

occupied his present State Department post since 1978. He will replacé
Lawrence Pezzullo, a Carter appointee, who resigned last August afte!
expressing his disagreement with present U.S. policy in Latin Amer
ca.

Police response to general strike
NEW DELHI — India’s first ever nation-wide general strike, called

by the national campaign committees of eight central trade unio?

bodies and federations has been termed a “‘resounding success’’ by
New Age, the central newspaper of the Communist Party of India.
The Jan. 19 action, New Age writes, united large sections of thé

working class and all toilers as well as significant numbers of farmers: |

It’s success was all the more significant, the paper explains, “*becausé
it was achieved in the teeth of terror and a hostile campaign not see#
since the railway strike of 1974.

Fourteen people were killed by police and Congress Party (I) goo”)

squads and 50,000 were arrested. ‘‘Pretenses of democracy were
thrown to the winds,’’ New Age reports, ‘‘as meetings for strikes wel®
denied or broken up, organizers attacked, telephone lines to unio?
offices cut, factories invaded by police and Congress (I) thugs
persons distributing handbills arrested.

‘The repression let loose,’ New Age concludes, ‘‘gives a glimp%®

how the government will react in future to all major struggles of thé
people.”*

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