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