j ) ? ( y ! } eee = f PNC has mee our country’ | Guyana’s PPP sets _ broad unity program Special to the Tribune . GEORGETOWN, Guyana— Meeting In the midst of a calamitous economic and political situation brought on by a bankrupt regime, the People’s Pro- give Party of Guyana (PPP) held its St Congress and advanced a broad _ Program for fundamental social change. ever 650 delegates and observers rep- Senting all sections of the party met for days and considered a wide- Posing report by party leader Cheddi *88an who is also leader of the Opposi- Hon in Guyana’s parliament. €scribing the economic chaos tip ught on by the ruling People’s Na- . nal Congress party of Prime Minister Orbes Burnham (which was returned to PoWer in a rigged election in 1980), Jagan PNC: ‘They have wrecked our coun- tty,” he charged. : Economy Collapsing = The regime deepened the economic Misis; Guyana is going backward. In 1 the performance of the economy | Was disastrous. This year it is tottering — brink of collapse,”’ reported Ja- He pointed out that Guyana’s debt and Soeensation payment has soared from 10-million in 1964 (when the PNC took PoWer) to a staggering $462-million this year. Despite rosy promises, the coun- S$ economic growth has dropped by © in the past six years, vital social Services are bankrupt, shortages in basic Oodstuffs are widespread as is black- Marketing and government and state cor- Tuption. pete government’s “‘new investment a ©” has opened up the country’s re- Gass to the multi-nationals and a pro- SS of denationalization is under way, [eee Manded the immediate resignation of the PPP leader noted. Real per capita income has dropped by 44% between 1976 and 1981, education is deteriorating, only 4.6% of the country’s budget is spent on health care and 0.4% on housing — while 9.1% is spent for the military, para-military and police, Jagan said. He charged the PNC regime has shifted from anti-imperialist to pro- imperialist positions in foreign affairs and to a centre position in the organi- zation of non-aligned states. This position,Jagan said, follows Guyana’s buckling to pressure from the International Monetary Fund and World Bank to ‘‘open up’’ the country to foreign investment and make the econ- omy more palatable to foreign and local capital. Pro-U.S. Course He pointed out that, after the IMF agreement in 1978, the PNC regime began openly following a U.S. course in international affairs, taking the U-S. line on Kampuchea and Afghanistan and sid- ing with Britain during the Malvinas crisis. ‘Pragmatism and opportunism also caused the PNC to move once again to an anti-Soviet and anti-Cuban position,” . Jagan said. Internally, the PPP charges that human and civil rights in Guyana have been curtailed, beginning with the de- struction of the fundamental right to a free and fair election. An international observer team found the 1980 general election which retumed the PNC to power ‘“‘rigged massively and flagrantly’’. The regime followed the same practice of rigging in 1968, 1973 and in the 1978 referendum. (In 1980 the Tribune discovered and reported that WORLD non-existent persons appeared on the official Guyanese overseas electors’ lists in Toronto.) Jagan told the congress that traditional freedoms such as press, speech, trade union activity, movement and associa- tion are severely restricted and that ar- bitrary arrests and searches and police thuggery are common. A Way Out Advancing the PPP’s program to save the nation, Jagan told the delegates “there is a way other than surrender, retreat and sell-out; there is a viable alternative ...”” He outlined a broad series of economic proposals ‘‘to distribute the national cake”’ in favor of the people, which in- cluded rescheduling of Guyana’s crippl- ing foreign debt, cutting government extravagance, reducing military spend- ing, and ending corruption. “To get Guyana moving again, to in- crease production and productivity,”’ Jagan said, ‘‘our party must wage a many-sided campaign for a socialist- oriented program.’’ He then set out a 12-point comprehensive platform and strongly defended nationalization and socialism as the only way forward for the country. Replying to critics from the right that socialism has failed in Guyana, Jagan de- clared, ‘‘Socialism hasn’t failed. The People’s National Congress has failed. Actually, socialism has not even been tried in Guyana; the pre-requisites for socialism have not been laid ...” The People’s Progressive Party con- gress issued an appeal for the widest unity. “‘Our party must reach out to every social class and strata,’ Jagan told the delegates. ‘“‘Our program is an in- valuable weapon ... we have good poli- cies. These must be taken to the people.”’ He spoke of the growing militancy among the working class and farmers, among youth and intellectuals and of ‘*steady progress toward working class and racial unity.” ‘“‘We knew with Marxist-Leninist pre-vision that this day would come — that the class factor would supercede the racial factor and become the domi- nant factor as a result of common strug- gles waged by workers regardless of ethnic origin,’ Jagan said. He said the PPP’s call for a National Patriotic Front government is winning support. ‘‘The need to coalesce all pro- gressive and revolutionary forces and to remove the PNC regime is now the most important task.” The PPP congress, held on the party’s — 32nd anniversary, was also attended by fraternal parties and organizations from 20 countries, among them Geoff DaSylva representing the Communist Party of Canada. b —— International Focus Tom Morris Courage and clarity in Israel’s Knesset Throughout these weeks and Months of barbarity, of the in- Vasion of Lebanon and slaugh- ter of tens of thousands of Lebanese and Palestinians, the Israeli Knesset (parliament) has heard the defiance and clar- ity of its Communist deputies. As Israel’s armor and air- Craft spewed death, a chal- lenge to the criminal Begin 80vernment echoed through Knesset chambers. The brave Voices of Communist deputies _ Meir Vilner and Tawfiq Toubi 4gain and again demanded a halt to this madness. Listen to their reasoned and Sobering words hurled across the chamber floor at Menachem Begin: Toubi (June 11): ‘‘They are dragging this people not to the Shores of peace, but into the Swamp and the desert. _ Just as all previous wars did not bring the Israeli people to the shores of peace, nor true P€ace to the region, this war Will not solve the painful prob- lems of Israel, but will aggra- Vate them, accelerate the hatred and complicate the path to peace. This war will, in fact generate new dangers for the future of Israel ... ‘Through the smoke of the new occupation and in face of war drunkenness and cele- brations of the cannibals on the ruins and destruction, on tears and blood ... the rulers of Is- rael will neither be able to liquidate the PLO nor the just struggle for national liberation of the Palestinian Arab people.” Toubi (June 20): ‘Before our very eyes, Begin, Sharon and Eitan continue pushing Israel, Lebanon and the whole region toward catastrophe. Whoever “Celebration of cannibals on the ruins and destruction ... does not tell them to stop is nothing but a partner to their crimes ... ‘‘They have not succeeded, and will not succeed in liquidat- ing the PLO. We even see the strengthening of its inter- national status at a time when the status of Israel is very much declining. The govern- ment knows it will not solve the Palestinian problem by military force nor succeed in setting up a puppet govern- ment in Lebanon on the bayonets of the Israeli army. “We call on all people in their right senses: Save not only Beirut from the war craze of the War Minister — save also the children of Israel, its sons and its cities. Stop the hands of the adventurers at the head of the regime obsessed by the war craze — Begin, Sha- ron, Eitan.”’ Vilner, (June 30): ‘“You started this war to liquidate the Palestinians as a people and the PLO because you want after that to bring before this Knesset a Bill to annex West Bank and Gaza. “To achieve this you have not only caused mass killings and monstrous destruction in Lebanon, but caused many victims who fell in vain. among our own boys in this dirty war. ‘This war is not in the in- terests of Israel’s security. On the contrary, it endangers the very existence of the State of Israel in the Middle East.”’ * * * The two courageous Com- munist Knesset members may not be the only voices in that body to oppose the war, but when this terrible chapter is written, theirs will surely be high among those who dared to speak out in these dark days of Israel’s history. Chile’s El Siglo a beacon of truth When Pinochet’s gangsters seized power in Chile one of their first targets were pro- gressive newspapers and magazines. El Siglo, paper of the Chilean Communist Party, was supressed, its journalists and printers arrested, its editor brutally tortured. The dictator thought he had silenced the paper forever. But in January, 1980, in ones and twos, copies again began to appear. After an interval of six PACIFIC TRIBUNE—OCTOBER 1, 1982—Page 9 years, Number 7532 of El Siglo once again resumed its work, begun in 1912 by the party’s founder, Luis Recabarren. Since 1980 the job has not been easy. Two writers and a group of printers were arrested and tortured. But the paper kept coming out, its press run larger than before. Today El Siglo is written, printed and circulated completely in illegal conditions. Its workers, sup- porters and, yes, its readers always at risk in this fascist state. Copies are rolled up and find their way to marketplaces where they are sold disguised as wrapping paper; others are posted on walls and factory buildings. The history of the world’s communist press has been one of constant struggle for sur- vival, beginning with Lenin’s Iskra (Spark) which was first printed in Leipzig, Germany, under illegal conditions. EI Siglo and its sister press in Chile will survive the night of fascism and again become mass circulation dailies in a free Chile. But today we should honour our comrades who refuse to be silenced.