ae —_See

_ ISRAELI GENOCIDE

Se SS See ESE Se Se Se.

_ SOVIET COMMUNISTS CONDEMN MORO KIDNAPPING

MOSCOW — The Communist Party of the Soviet Union, in a
telegram to the Italian Communist Party, expressed its solidarity with
the CPI struggle in defence of Italy’s democratic institutions in face ofa
dangerous provocation in the kidnapping of Aldo Moro. The CPSU
cable said there is no doubt that those who inspire and organize such
kidnappings and other acts of terrorism are pursuing one objective —
to create an atmosphere of fear and tension in which to undermine the
Position of Italy’s democratic forces and, if possible, provoke a right-
Wing attack against the country’s democrats. .

CHURCHES ATTACK ISRAELI INVASION OF LEBANON
GENEVA — The World Council of Churches has condemned the
Tecent Israeli invasion of Lebanon, particularly the bombing of refugee
Camps and mass killing of civilians. Calling the Israeli act ‘open
aggression’ the WPC said that one of the main requirements for a
Mid-east peace is the recognition of the Palestinian people’s right to a
homeland and to national self-determination.

PINOCHET ORDERED MURDER OF ORLANDO LETELIER :

ROME — Chilean fascist chief Pinochet order the murder of Orlando
Letelier, charged Volodia Teitelboim, member of the political commis-
Sion of the Chilean Communist Party in an interview with the daily
paper L’ Unita April 10. Letelier, former Chilean Foreign Minister in
the Popular Unity government was assassinated in Washington in
September 1976.

A Michael Townely was arraigned in a Washington federal court the
Same day as a material witness to Letelier’s murders. He is a former
employee of the Chilean secret police and was deported from that

country April 7. Letelier was killed when a bomb exploded in his caron
_ a Washington street. He had been jailed by the junta following the 1973

coup and, after his release worked in the U.S. capital for the liberation
of Chile.

Lyon says ‘tighten your belts’ —

4,000 protest education cuts

WINNIPEG — Some 4,000
students, faculty and support staff
marched on the Manitoba Legis-
lature here April 6 demanding the
Tory Lyon government affirm its
support for post-secondary edu-
cation by revising this year’s level
of funding.
~ Coming from the universities of
Brandon, Winnipeg and Manito-
ba, St. Boniface College, As-
siniboine and Red River commun-
ity colleges, the marchers brought
with them more than 5,200 signed
copies of a form letter and peti-
tions with 2,700 names supporting
their demands.

The Winnipeg demonstration
was part of a country-wide
fightback by students, faculty and
support staff against provincial

government cuts in support for ©

post-secondary education. Ear-
lier mass marches in Edmonton
and Toronto were triggered by
basically the same issues.

The Manitoba marchers and
their supporters insisted the gov-
ernment improve the grant
schedule to meet an inflation rate
of some 8-9%. They pointed out
that the government’s 3% in-

- crease amounts to a cutback

GIGANTIC PROFITS FROM MEXICO’S FOOD
MEXICO CITY —U.S. corporations control 75% of Mexico’s food
industry and more than 25% of Mexico’s farm output. This was re-
Vealed in a study by the Graduate Food Research Dept. of the National
Polytechnical Institute and National University in Mexico City.

TEL AVIV — Israel has admitted using U.S.-made cluster bombs
during its invasion of Lebanon last month. Following charges by U.S.

Represen iv ifornia, the Israeli army said it used
an undisclosed eee palnetnian positions, but McCloskey
Said the bombs were dropped on areas where civilians lived, especially

The Seven-foot-long cluster bomb canisters, after being dropped,
‘an down hundreds of fist-sized bomlets. Each bomblet then explodes
into 200 diamond-shaped pieces of shrapnel which, while useless
gainst steel or concrete, rip into flesh. The cluster bombs were used
Widely by the U.S. against Vietnam.

Over 4,000 students, faculty and support staff confronted Manitoba’s

premier Sterling Lyon demanding Increased funding for education.

which will affect enrolement by

students: from poorer families. .

Meeting with about 20 represen-

tatives, Lyon insisted the $90-100 .

fee increase would not prevent
people from getting an education.

Incoming president of the Uni-
versity of Manitoba Students,
Steve Ashton, responded by

charging that the cumulative ef-
fect of hikes in rents, transit,
school supplies and other costs,
added to a fee increase, will most
surely weed out poorer students.
Lyon spoke briefly to a booing
crowd and repeated his position
that all sectors getting funding will
have to tighten their belts.

Three maritime provinces block
fishermen’s efforts to organize

FREDERICTON — Inshore
fishermen of the Atlantic
maritime provinces are locked in
a struggle to win the right to or-
ganize into a union.

Founded last March ’77, the
Maritime Fishermen’s Union
(MFU) has waged a running battle

-with the fishing monopolies and

the governments of the three
maritime provinces for the right of
recognition. New Brunswick’s
Tory premier Richard Hatfield,
the MFU organizers say, has
been particularly strident in his
government’s efforts to stop the
union. :

His government’s minister of
fisheries Omer Leger has de-
clared there is no place in Canada
where inshore fishermen have the
right to join a union and bargain
collectively, despite the fact that
MFU points to Newfoundland’s
inland fishermen who have exer-
cised that right since 1970.

In addition to the government’s

cutbacks in social services, health

and education, the fishermen
condemn the Hatfield govern-

ment as having one of the worst .

records for fighting union certi-
fication in Canada. Unsuccessful
union organizing drives at Cirtex
Ltd., E.P.. Melanson fish plant
workers, and the K.C. Irving
truck drivers, MFU spokesmen
say are evidence of this govern-
ment’s anti-union posture:

Facing a deepening economic
crisis, the increasing concentra-
tion of the fishing companies into
monopoly hands, decreasing
catches and escalating living
costs, the fishermen say their
plight is becoming intolerable.

The 15,000 or so small
fishermen in the three maritime
provinces are increasingly finding
themselves squeezed out by the

500% increase in the number of
boats with more than a 50-ton
capacity between 1959 and 1974.

On the processing end of
things, 80% of the fish being pro-
cessed is in the hands of a few
companies, The Nickerson-
National Sea Co. empire alone
owns 35% of the fish processing
companies. In addition the federal
Fisheries Department has
pledged itself to gearing up for a
future oriented on higher profits
for the monopolies.

‘In 1973, which fishermen say
was a good year on the market,

60% of the Atlantic coast’s

fishermen were making under
$5,000 a year, while only seven
per cent made over $10,000.

The MFU is beaming its cam-
paign for recognition to the public
and working people in general.
On March 15 they demonstrated
in Fredericton to show the
government MFU indeed had the
support of working people and the
public in general in the battle to
make the government and the -
companies back off.

It’s also why they went to the
12th biennial CLC convention
April 3-7 to distribute leaflets and
garner support for their cause.

UE blasts budget as
cruel, cheap gimmick

TORONTO — In a sharp pro-
test to Prime Minister Pierre
Trudeau, the United Electrical,
Radio and Machine Workers
Union (UE) termed the federal
Budget brought down April 10 by
Finance Minister Jean Chretien
‘‘a cruel, cheap election gim-
mick.”’

In a telegram to the PM the fol-
lowing day, Val Bjarnason, UE
director of organization, says the
‘union is critical of the budget be-
cause it *‘does precious little to
turn around our desperate un-
employment crisis and to curb
wildly escalating prices that have
made daily living a real hardship
for all but the wealthy.”’

Bjarnason urged Trudeau to
bring down a supplementary
budget, before announcing a fed-

eral election date, to provide ‘‘a
strong thrust to consumer pur-
chasing power and demand by
cutting retail sales taxes by 50%.
permanently, reducing income
taxes by 15% on all wages and
salaries below $25,000 for this
current tax year, and an im-
mediate 20% hike in pensions . . .
and other social assistance allow-
ances.”’

The telegram urged govern-
ment action on ‘‘job-creating
programs, such as a massive pub-
lic housing program and substan-
tial public works undertakings,
including vital ‘transportation,
energy and other socially neces-
sary projects,”’ along with a gov-
ernment commitment to ‘“‘the ex-
tension and development of high
job-producing secondary industry
in Canada.”’

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—April 22, 1978—Page 9