Many are hungry"

Our wheat isn't surplus

DRESDEN (ADN) — The 5th
World Cereal and Bread Con-
gress in the German Democratic
Republic which was attended by
more than 2,000 scientists from
all continents, was held at a
time when 600 million people in
the world are starving and 1,600
“million people are suffering from
malnutrition due to protein and
vitamin deficiency.

Although cereal production
has considerably risen in the
world over the past years, it is
lagging mainly in countries with
the biggest increases in popula-
tion. The experts at the congress
had no doubt that already today
alt people could be sufficiently
nourished if research results
were put into practice every-
where.

In Brazil, for example, only
2% of the population own more
than 50% of the cultivated acre-
age. In: South Africa the white
minority owns 88% of the best
land. Big undertakings of im-
perialist powers such as the
United Fruit Company of the
U.S.A. have obtained large tracts
which they cultivate not for the
requirements of the people but
for export.

By transfering their foreign
exchange profits they deprive
these countries of the funds
needed to combat hunger. The
U.S. monopolies which within

By SADHAN MUKHERJEE

NEW DELHI (By airmail) —
The Communist Party of India
is preparing to lead a mass
movement involving “occupa-
tion of land” by landless agri-
cultural laborers, small peasant-
ry and tribal people.

There are in India various
types of cultivable lands which
are still not utilized for farm-
ing: government land, reserved
areas as forest land which ac-
tually are not forest, and lands
illegally held by landlords,
monopolists and former rulers.

The All-India Peasanfs Or-
ganization and the All-India
Agricultural Workers. Union
have pledged their participation
in this struggle. Several Left
and democratic parties are also
expected to lend their support
on local levels. ae

This struggle now being un-
leashed by the CPI is the first
all-India movement of this type.
It is set to start July 1, which
will be observed throughout In-
dia as the “Struggle for Land
Day.” From that day on, de-
pending on local conditions and
the beginning of the monsoon
(rainy) season, the campaign
will continue for occupation and
tilling of the land.

The second phase will begin
Aug. 9, when land illegally held
by big landlords, former rulers
and monopolists will be taken.

During the last one and a half
years, landless agricultural lab-
orers, small peasants and tribal
people, led by the CPI have oc-
cupied nearly 320,000 acres of
land, tilled it and produced a
good harvest. Many have got
homestead land. ;

In Kerala under the united
front government headed by CPI
Chief Minister Achutha Menon,
surplus and cultivable waste-

six years invested 3.2 thousand
million dollars in developing
countries drew 16.2 thousand
million dollars of profits from
their investments.

It is not overpopulation but

feudal and capitalist exploitation

which cause the starvation of so
many people of the world includ-

ing the 17 million undernourish-

ed people in the slums of the
United States.

Even with the world popula-
tion reaching six thousand mil-
lion in the year 2,000, twice this
figure could be fed without the
acreage under cultivation being
expanded. One method would be
the use by improved machinery
of deeper soil layers rich in nu-
trients. Food for one thousand
million people could be gained
by the use of tractors to set free
areas now planted to fodder for
draught animals.

Other problems of increasing
food production lie in the fact
that world agriculture uses only
one-eighth of the fertilizer it is
in need’ of, only 13% of the
world acreage have enough
water, although large water re-
sources exist.

Great attention was given at
the congress to the breeding of
new cereal varieties, and on new
ways ‘of combating weed and
plant pests which destroy one
quarter of the world.

land as well as homestead plots
are being distributed to the
landless, under a new law that
ended all forms of landlordism.

In West Bengal, which was
also under the rule of a united
front government, including the
Communists, nearly 150,000
acres of land have been occu-
pied under the leadership of the
CPI. At present formal regulari-
zation of this occupation by the

Governor’s administration is
being fought for.
On May 13, the National

Council of the CPI made a de- ©

tailed analysis of the political
situation in the country, whose
keynote is the necessity of an
alternate government of “Left
and democratic unity.”

The CPI feels that the pre-
sent government headed by Mrs.
Indira Gandhi “is only a tem-
porary, passing phase in a fast-
moving political situation whose
very survival depends on the
democratic opposition and which
is also vulnerable to reaction-
ary pressures.” But this does
not mean that the CPI will im-
mediately withdraw its support
to the Indira government, since
that would mean a rightist take-
over.

The government that the CPI
visualizes will represent the
“broad unity” of the Left and
democratic forces. Either such
a government or a rightist coa-
lition—these are “really the two
alternatives facing the nation.”

The government the CPI envi-.

sages “will include progressive
and democratic sections within
the present ruling Congress
party” but it can be ushered in
“only through Left and demo-
cratic unity and a nationwide
militant mass political move-
ment for a decisive shift to the
Left.”

PACIFIC TRIBUNE=FRIDAY, JUNE 19, 1970—Page 6

17 years ago

‘Peace, bread and roses for all...

Ethel and Julius Rosenberg
were murdered by the United
States Government at 8 p.m. on
June 19, 1953. One day before
their execution in the electric
chair at Sing Sing prison, Julius

Rosenberg, in a letter to their ,

lawyer, Emanuel Bloch, wrote:

“Ethel wants it made known |

that we are the first victims of
American fascism .. .”

The Rosenbergs were arrested

in 1950, accused of espionage
and, in spite of a blatent frame-
up which was part of the Mc-
Carthy hysteria, were tried and
sentenced to die by Judge Irving
Kaufman.

Two appeals to the Supreme
Court were turned down, Presi-
dent Eisenhower refused to in-
tervene. New evidence finally
forced a stay of execution, which
was then reversed and June 20
was the date set for execution.
Since this was the Jewish Sab-
bath and widespread protests
were aroused, the date was mov-
ed up to June 19, 1953—the final
brutality.

In the years between the trial
and the murder, a world-wide
campaign to save the Rosen-
bergs swept into every commu-
nity. Meetings and petitions
were organized. Statesmen, scho-
lars, labor leaders and artists
spoke out for clemency. In the
final hours, petitions gave way
to tens of thousands of people
massed in silent vigils in front
of United States embassies and
consulates everywhere.

The Rosenberg case has been
likened to the Sacco and Van-
zetti and Dreyfus cases in the
impact it had upon the con-
science of the world.

Interesting also is that the
McCarthy witch-hunts and me-
dia-instigated hysteria which
helped murder the Rosenbergs
has today been recalled by the
Chicago Conspiracy Trial, the
violence against the Black Panth-
er Party and the collusion be-
tween the monied interests, the
judiciary and the police in the

Millions hungry, billions for war

: By TIM WHEELER
WASHINGTON — Dick Gre-

‘gory, the black anti-war leader,

told President Nixon that 20
million Americans go to bed
hungry each night because of
the U.S. Indochina war.

Twenty-seven Chicago area
students, at a press conference
near the Capitol, released a let-
ter they and Gregory sent to
President Nixon containing the
charge.

They told reporters they had
been fasting for peace since
Memorial Day, living only on
water, as a protest against
Nixon’s policy of war in Asia
and hunger at home.

Their fast (now ended) was
aimed to compel the senate to
pass the “amendment to end the
war” (Amendment 609).

“We cannot accept 20 million
Americans going to bed hungry
every night while billions are
spent for the war in Indochina,”
declared William Wynn, a stu-
dent from Loyola University in
Chicago, who spoke on behalf
of Gregory at the press confer-
ence.

Reporters crowded the lawn
in front of the Capitol as Winn
told them the group will remain
on this ‘‘campsite” until Con-

(Gs ws

U.S.A. as they frame and shoot

- dissenters at home and engage

in genocide abroad.

As with Sacco and Vanzetti,
who bore their ordeal with honor
and dignity, so the Rosenbergs
in the teeth of vicious and piti-
less government pressure to “‘co-
operate or die,” maintained their
innocence.

In their five point appeal for
Executive Clemency, the Rosen-
bergs argued:

“The primary reason, I assert,

and my husband with me, is that
we are innocent.
_ “We stand convicted of the
conspiracy with which we were
charged. We are conscious that
were we to accept this verdict,
we might more readily obtain a
mitigation of our sentences.

“But this course is not open
to us.

“We are innocent, as: we have
proclaimed and maintained from
the time of our arrest. This is
the whole truth. To forsake this
truth is to pay too high a price
even for the priceless gift of life
— for life thus purchased we
could not live out in dignity and
self-respect.

“We are no ‘martyrs or heroes,
nor do we wish to be. We do not
want to die. We are young, too

gress acts. He said the group
had received telegrams of en-

_dorsement from Jesse Jackson,

director of Operation Bread-
basket on Chicago; Sen. George
McGovern (D-SD), chairman of
the Senate Subcommittee on
Nutrition and Human Need, and
Senators Vance Hardke (D-Ind.)
and Lee Metcalf (D-Mont.).

Dick Moser, co-ordinator of
the fast, said, ‘“‘The peace neces-
sarily demands the elimination
of hunger.”

They condemned the murders
at Jackson State, Augusta and
Kent State. ,

The letter demands a cutoff
of war funds and use of the
money instead for fighting “pov-
erty, hunger, slum housing” and
for education and medical care.

Young Scholars Protest —

The cream of next year’s col-
lege freshmen—the Presidential
Scholars—told Nixon they al-
most unanimously : oppose his
war in Indochina.

The 119 high school seniors,
here on June 4 with their par-
ents for two days of acclaim
and: meetings with national
leaders, asked Dr. Alexander
Heard, Nixon’s college advisor,
to deliver their anti-war views
to Nixon.

NS we Sie SR ct %
Ethel and Julius Rosenberg, “The first victims of American fascis™”’

;

young for death: We long tos)
our two young sons, Michael ool
Robert, grown to full manh ‘0
We desire with every ibe
be restored sometime Oho
children and to resume thé ye!
monious family life we eM? i
before the nightmare of oUF it
rests and convictions. We © ia
someday to be restored to § out
ty where we can contribule
energies toward building 4 | 4)
where all shall have peace, P
and roses...” z fot

That world is not yet het
all. But the magnificent hut
ism and optimism, the !0 4 :
life and humanity display jy
the Rosenbergs. brings tbe

closer. Here it is again in.
sai

last letter:

“Iam not much at
goodbyes because I belieV® © i,
good accomplishments liV®
forever, but this I can S4V" gy
love of life has never bee of
strong because I’ve seen gintt
beautiful the future can be-»!
I feel that we in some ov
measure have contribute@ .y
share in this direction
my sons and millions of ®
will have benefited by it: ~

“Never let them change ~
truth of our innocence.” r M)

The President met with
youths barely an hour later og
gingerly recognized thé sim :
unanimous anti-war % (
among the nation’s i:
generation. But, he said defer
ively, “I don’t want to De oo
anish, but I do say, bec@™ ag
believe it, that you are nite
fortunate to live in the ©
States.” ae

Resist Pressure

Some of the students 5
satisfied with a verbal ©
sion, signed a letter to the
sident protesting the Wl 44

They said “enormous © py
sure” had been put on thé! oy
Dr. John M. Stalnaker, © io"
tive director of the Comm! fay
on Presidential Scholars, Pigg!
make the letter public 29° p40”
to involve the ScholarshiP
gram in politics.” 4}

Frederick B. D. smal i
scholarship winner from © cept
field, N.J., said, “If we YS) gd
over there and shoO® ote
with the President and er f
our reward, it woud be BEAT
sing tacit apolitical appre no!
what he’s doing, and that cial!
the way we feel, Yate
after the U.S. move intO ~~
bodia,” /