NEW LEADER OF SO Moses Mabhida, 58-year old revolutionary leader, has been elected general secretary of - the South African Communist Party, a position which has been vacant since the death of former leader Moses Kotane in May, 1978. Mabhida, who joined the SACP in 1942, has a UTH AFRICAN COMMUNIST PARTY long history of struggle in South Africa’s labor movement and the African National Council. Since 1963 he devoted himself to full-time work of Umkhonto we Sizwe (Spear of the Nation) the military wing of South Africa’s liberation. movement. Panama charges U.S. broke pact PANAMA CITY (FL) — The Panamanian government has announced its rejection of job dis- crimination the U.S. seeks to maintain in the Canal Area and has voiced these objections during the third meeting of the Canal Commission. Panama said it will insist on its position that an end must be put to job discrimination against - Panamanian workers, which was part of the agreement signed between the two states in the 1977 Canal Treaties. These specifically called for terminating discrimination which had been in force since 1903. Panamanian unions have charged Washington with reducing by 50% annual pay raises to which Panamanians are entitled and retaining full pay boosts for U.S. workers in the Zone. Panama also charged that promotions are also still being re- served for Americans. WORLD NEWS _ CUSTOMERS PAY FOR THREE MILE ISLAND TRENTON, New Jersey — Customers of the Jersey Central Power and Light Company have shelled out $200-million so far to pay for the Three Mile Island nuclear accident having had $3.33 added to theif utility bills. In addition, they paid $18-million more between March, 1979 and April, 1980 to cover other capital expenses on a Three Mile | Island reactor which wasn’t damaged. These higher rates were au- thorized by the N.J. State Board of Public Utility Commissioners. _ NICARAGUA BACKS EL SALVADOR MANAGUA, Nicaragua — 30,000 people packed the streets in front of the El Salvador embassy in a solidarity rally with the people of that embattled country Jan. 18. Speakers warned of the danger of direct — U.S. intervention and declared that any military action against Bl Salvador would be regarded as an attack against all the people of | Central America. | SOLIDARITY WITH URUGUAYAN WOMEN BARCELONA, Spain — Catalan Committee for Solidarity with Uruguayan Women will hold an all-European solidarity meeting here in May. In its call the CCSUW describes the conditions of severe — repression in Uruguay: ‘‘ They suffer as citizens, workers and mothers; they are victims of the repression in all its forms ... tortured, jailed, deprived of their rights, exiled, their stories — collective and personal — are accusations against the regime..’ AIFLD AGENTS WORKING FOR THE CIA. WASHINGTON (PL) — Former Under Secretary of Justice, Wade McCree inadvertently admitted Jan. 18 that two U.S. citizens recently slain in El Salvador were CIA undercover agents. His slip of the tongue came when speaking on a Bill to cancel the passport of former CIA officer, Phillip Agee, in reprisal for the latter’s public exposure of CIA operations. : “McCree revealled the two, Michael Hammer and Mark David Pearlman, killed Jan. 3, were working in El Salvador covertly and added, ‘‘we will have more killings of that kind if U.S. citizens are allowed to travel around the world uncovering the CIA’s secretagents. — Hammer and Pearlman were in El Salvador for the American Institute for Free Labor Development (AIFLD). ; SOUTH AFRICA’S CRIMES INVESTIGATED - LUANDA, Angola — The Second Session of the International Commission investigating the crimes of the racist South African regime will be held here Jan. 30to Feb. 4. The Commission, founded in 1977, 1S composed of lawyers from around the world. DEATH SENTENCE COMMUTED SEOUL, South Korea — Following a world-wide protest against the death sentence imposed on opposition leader Kim Doe Jung by thé military regime, president Chun Doo Hwan agreed Jan. 23 to commuté the sentence to life imprisonment. Jung was condemned to die for his role in last summer’s uprising in Kwangju which was brutally supres- sed by the South Korean army in what Reuter described as ‘‘a bath- room of blood’’. South Korea today has banned all opposition parties and press and tens of thousands are in jail. The fleet steams in behind hostage cover By TOM MORRIS As you follow the ‘hostage drama’’ (who can escape it?), from Carter’s solomn ‘“‘it was worse than we knew’’ to Reagan's promise of ‘‘swift and effective retribution’’, a pattern emerges. Added to what Canadians have been getting on their TV screens and in the daily press, the U.S. Daily World offers a sampling of American anti-Iranian hate cam- paigning: The New York Times speaks of ‘‘an obvious yearning for revenge’’ and of ‘‘bombing Tehran flat’. The New York Daily News de- clares, ‘‘We’d be surprised if there aren’t some people who will even urge a bombing strike or two to teach Iran a lesson’’. Other references to ‘‘evil Iranian faces’’, ‘‘smug, sullen, sneering ‘Tranians’’, whose ‘‘faces reflect their souls’’ are given. Two resolutions were intro- duced to the U.S. Congress last week calling on Reagan to renege on the deal with Iran. The New York Times editorially de- manded, ‘‘Renounce the deal!’’. PACIFIC TRIBUNE—FEB. 6, 1981—Page 8 Toronto Globe and Mail readers saw that paper urge exactly that too. : One of the surprising aspects of the whole campaign is that the hostages themselves don’t seem to have been clued in. At a West Point press conference they warned reporters against sensa- baulking at fund transfer arrangements. Carter’s airport speech from West Germany propelled hatred further. Choking with emotion, Carter hinted at torture. Reagan looked grim. News Analysis tionalizing stories of maltreat- ment. ‘‘Were we subjected to tor- ture? No, sir.”’ said one Marine. Certainly, they were prisoners. Undoubtedly being held for 444 days is a traumatic experience. | But the orchestrated effort to por- tray Iranians as ‘‘barbarians’’, which Reagan did, and to cook up horror stories with which to play on the emotions of Americans has a far deeper and more dangerous aim. The anti-Iran binge really got underway when, during the final days hitches in the agreement cropped up. Relatives of hostages appeared on TV charging the Ira- nians were twisting the knife. It then emerged the hitches were the fault of U.S. banks who were Even former Canadian ambas- sador to Tehran, Ken Taylor claimed he had reported evidence of mistreatment, much to the sur- prise of former External Affairs Minister Flora MacDonald who denied Taylor ever said any such thing. ‘“‘I’m simply unable to ex- plain it,"’ MacDonald replied. ‘‘Any tidbit of information’ Ot- tawa received was passed on to Washington, she said. So why this clumsy campaign? Pentagon officials gave one big clue last week when they an-° nounced the powerful U.S. naval build-up in the Persian Gulf, as- sembled there days after the hostage-taking, would remain after the 52 came home. The fleet, one of the biggest ever put to- gether, at its peak included four ‘aircraft carriers, 34- other war- ships and 300 aircraft. This build-up, under the hos- tage smokescreen, also includes upgrading U.S. military bases in Oman, Somalia, Kenya, Egypt and Diego Garcia Islands. Penta- gon spokesmen also revealled that the U.S. had been planning to boost its military clout in the Per- sian Gulf and Indian Ocean since 1973. Nine months before the hos- tage incident, just weeks after the shah was toppled, U.S. Defence Secretary Brown promised.:a big- ger U.S. role in the region. So today we have a top Pentagon of- ficial saying, ‘“‘we will be there ina big way, certainly as long as the turmoil continues in the region, and as long as we depend on the Gulf for oil ...” : So its oil, not hostages. It’s the culmination of seven years’ plan- ning to fly the flag in the Persian Gulf, to protect corrupt regimes and threaten national liberation movements, not ‘‘national hon- 29 or. Reagan’s threat of “swift and effective retribution’’ against ‘“*terrorism’’ plays on fears hatred nurtured by talk of mal- treatment and torture. But it’s movements for national liberation” Reagan means when he assem- bles a mighty strike force and chains of military bases. : If Washington wanted, to crusade against terrorism it. wouldn’t have to cast about to find it. There’s fascist Chile which the new Defence Secretary, Ale- xander Haig, was instrumental in setting up. There’s El Salvador. right-wing terrorism, which the U.S. is arming and tutoring. There’s South Korea, a virtual hell-hole, which 40,000 U.S. troops are ‘‘keeping safe for democracy’’. There’s Uruguay, - Argentina, Brazil, Haiti, South Africa, Namibia, Pakistan ... all friends and allies. And, not least of all, there’s the Khmer Rouge, genocide artists par excellence, who wouldn’t last a month with- out U.S.-Chinese support. — _ This broader picture should not be lost as we lurch through the hostage drama.