Ethiopia advances despite David Owen’s slanders By B. TAFESSE The imperialist campaign against the Ethiopian Revolution has now reached a new propor- tion with the direct personal involvement of the British Foreign Secretary Dr. David Owen. With the defeat of Somalia’s invading troops against Ethiopia, one would have hoped that — Somalia’s imperialist allies would have come to their senses would have stopped their vile pro- paganda war and accepted the Ethiopian Revolution as a fact. However, the monopolists of Europe and North America are not reconciled to their defeat in Ethiopia. They, as yet, have not drawn the necessary lesson they should have. drawn from their’s and Somalia’s defeat in the Oga- den region of Ethiopia. They are still weaving their conspiracies against Ethiopia. Nothing would more precisely express the position of im- perialism against Ethiopia as the wishful thought of the Saudi oil baron, Prince Fahd, who said, “Ethiopia should be carved up and its revolution drowned in blood.’’ This effort failed in the Ogaden and they are trying to do it through Eritrea. On April 5, Owen made a vici- ous attack on the Ethiopian Rev- olution, Cuba, and the Soviet Union. He attacked Cuba’s inter- nationalist assistance to Ethiopia in its war of national defence against the Somali invaders as an action committed by troops who are “‘like armies of feudal barons” who go around ‘“‘tilting the milit- ary balance indiscriminately at the whim of the feudal barons’. This shameful slander was de- nounced by Cuba in its statement April 7: ‘“‘Dr. Owen seems to forget he is the representative of a colonial power which for cen- turies was considered the exam- ple of the oppression and mal-— treatment of African peoples.” How true the statement of the Cuban Government is! Britain, of all countries in the world, should never posture as a protagonist of African dignity and indepen- dence. The people of Africa know better. _ British imperialism was and still is the most pernicious op- pressor of Africa. Owen’s speech is another manifestation of the deep rooted chauvinism and arro- gance of the British ruling class. Britain does not want to see Af- rica free from Vorster, Smith, and - other agents of imperialism in Af- rica. _ It is clear that Britain’s attack. against Cuba and the Soviet Union and their firm solidarity with the African revolutions is another sign of Britain’s fear over the inevitable developments in southern Africa. Owen’s attack against the Ethiopian Revolution and its vic- torious advance indicates im- Lotta Unitaria marks 1st year of publication By TIM MORRIS “It is time for a real change, not from the Liberals to the Conser- vatives, but to a progressive majority including Communists in Ottawa,”’ said William Kashtan, general secretary of the Com- munist Party of Canada, at a ban- quet April 1, celebrating the first anniversary of Lotta Unitaria, Canada’s Italian-language Com- munist monthly. Three hundred Lotta Unitaria supporters gathered to honor the paper of the Communist Party ' published by its Italian Bureau. Nick Veronico, stated that, “‘di- rect contact with Italian working people has convinced us that Lotta Unitaria is a necessary in- strument to defeat the falsifying influence of the bourgeois media. Things are not so bright as the self-proclaimed leaders of the Italian-Canadian community would have us believe.” In his speech, William Kashtan pointed to the “‘growing interest _being shown in Lotta Unitaria,”’ and on behalf of the Central Executive Committee of the Communist Party, expressed his thanks to the Italian Bureau and the Antonio Gramsci Club of the Party for’their fine job in produc- ing Lotta Unitaria. . “Lotta Unitaria has served to enlighten, inform, and organize the progressive Italian-Canadian community, showing that there is no hope of solving their problems without tying them into the gen- eral progressive and democratic struggle in Canada,’’ Kashtan continued. ‘‘The government has told us to ’tighten our belts’, give more money to the corporations, and solve the economic crisis at the expense of Canada’s working people. Both the Liberal and Conservative parties are in the same ideological bed. “‘We need real changes in the interests of the working people. This is why the Communist Party intends to run 100 candidates in the coming federal election; to offer a real alternative to the policies of monopoly in Canada,” said Kashtan. s Canadians have a right to both jobs and decent housing, he said, outlining the Communist Party’s platform to create one million jobs through publicly-financed hous- ing construction. He also stressed the importance of safeguarding peace and détente, calling for a resolute no to the neutron bomb. PACIFIC TRIBUNE—Apri! 22, 1978—Page 8 Tanks for Ethiopia: massive Soviet aid changed the balance of forces. perialism’s fear about the broad significance of the consolidation of revolutionary power in Ethiopia for the liberation strug- gles in southern Africa and pro- gressive developments elsewhere in Africa. Owne’s arrogant attack against Ethiopia and its allies was pre-- ceded by a loathsome journalistic slander against the Ethiopian Revolution by one Hans Eerik, who on March 22, planted a front page article in the London Times, which was filled with wild tales of killings and gruesome murder which he stated was taking place in Addis Ababa as a result of a government sanction against enemies of the revolution. The Ethiopian Government made a public statement concern- ing the fictitious story which the Times carried saying: ‘‘The Ethiopian revolution has from the beginning been treated with dis- dain, malice and consistent dis- tortion by the imperialist press. Given the fact that they are faith- fully serving their class interests and shout shriller in proportion with the thickness of the money- bag stuffed into their pockets, it would be illogical to expect them to act otherwise. As the English saying has it, ‘he who pays the piper calls the tune’ ”’. The statement continues: “*The current vicious propaganda can only be seen in this light. How- ever, it is a change of tactics and _strategy, in the sense that they are. now resorting to pure fabrications and fantasies to discredit the vic- tories of the Ethiopian revolution, deliberately distorting the course of the Ethiopian revolution. “The revolutionary forces of Ethiopia, are determined to struggle till final victory and will certainly found the Peoples Dem- ocratic Republic of Ethiopia. This resolute stand and heroic under- taking will not in the least be af- fected by the hoarse squeaks of the imperialist press,”’ the state- ment concludes. The anti-Ethiopian,. anti- Cuban, and anti-Soviet lamenta- tions may have been welcomed in the reactionary camp from Peking to Pretoria, from Cairo to Tel Aviv, from Rhiyad to Mogadishu, and from Bonn to Washington. To all the freedom-loving peoples, Owen’s already discre- dited remarks could only be ut- tered by those who are not accus- tomed to seeing others equally - and who are used to bullying people and imposing on them the rules of imperialism. This is exactly what Owen’s attack on ‘heroic Cuba’s internationalism boils down to when he slanders it as Soviet-instigated. The Soviet ambassador To Bri- tain, Nikolai Lunkov responded to Owen’s attack April 7 saying that ‘‘Dr. Owen has completely distorted the USSR’s position in Africa.”” Ethiopian ambassador _Gellner who wrote in the Gu “and Mail April 8: “By supplyil® President Mengistu Halle Maria” to Britain Ayalew Georgis said ht “could not see (Owen’s remat s) in any other way than an affror tary to the honor and dignity 0 the Ethiopian people and the! revolution.” ae Facts prove that Cuba is ins gated more by its own just conve tions than by any other facto True, Cuba, the Soviet Unio? and Ethiopia have fraternal rel# tions which are based on equally; sovereignty, mutual respect, 2 proletarian internationalism. Tes) this fact which the imperialists . unwilling to accept and woul rather distort. The same is true mendacious argument of about tht Joht Glob soldiers in Africa, Castro is repay ing his debt to the Russians.” A this in an article which bett@/ imperialism’s and Gellner’s por tion concerning Zimbabwe W c Gellner prefers to call Rhodes -The universal cries of ¥ perialism is a sign of its despe® tion. Faced with the most sev economic crisis at home ast victories in Ethiopia, Angola, Mozambique, the imperialists ast only lamenting about their & spicable fate in Zimbzbwe Namibia, and South Africa. Ld wed from this light, and 7 dynamic social . revolution Ethiopia will definitely be victo” Husak holds talks in FRG By FILS DELISLE / Tribune Berlin Correspondent The state visit of Czechoslovak president Gustav Husak to the Federal Republic of Germany is viewed as an important contribu- tion to the trend to detente in Europe. Those who witnessed the at- tempt to wreck socialism in Czechoslovakia in 1968 and the years that followed estimate that the new and more normal stage in relations between the FRG and the CSR indicated by the Husak visit vindicates the course fol- lowed at Prague during the past decade. The facts speak for themselves. In 1968, West Germany’s ruling circles, along with other forces in the West, violently sought to de- stabilize socialist Czecho- slovakia. Now, however, follow- ing the undoubted successes of the Czechoslovak government, they concede that Czecho- slovakia is a stabilized socialist society that is going places. They recognize the need for expanded trade and therefore for more nor- mal relations with it. The revanchists and old Sude- ten Nazis who have clamored for the Czechoslovak Sudeten areas to be swallowed up by West Ger- many, of course, are still howling. But they have been déalt a sym- bolical and real setback. Husak’s statement that the FRG and CSR had “‘agreed to undertake joint efforts to advance the relaxation of tensions and peaceful coexistence in the world’? was Schmidt’s declaration that the achievement of good neighborly relations ‘‘between adjoining states in the heart of Europe’’ was one of the basic requirements for the relaxation of tensions in Europe. Both leaders said in their communique that ‘‘there is no al- ternative to the policy of relaxa- followed by. tion of tensions’. | In supporting the body rf treaties between the FRG; afl GDR, the USSR, Poland f! Czechoslovakia as ‘‘a signific contribution” to collective § urity in Europe, the commun? also called ‘‘for the strict 0 se vance and full application O" |, four-power treaty’’ on West Be lin. i This was a timely referent, since it is precisely in rece weeks that this question has 0%, again been coming to the bow. ‘ the GDR newspaper Deutschland commented, Four Power Pact, accepted by GDR, the FRG and the why world, states very precisely if West Berlin is not -and canne treated as a part of the FRG: Wl an independent territorial encl# inside the GDR with its a government (Senate) and is U f the military occupation of F Britain and the USA.