“Large-scale killings reported Brazil's war on the Indians BRASILIA — The Brazilian _ government issued what amounts to a declaration of war against the Waimiri- Atroaris Indians with an announcement late last month that despite native peo- ‘ples’ opposition, it will speed up construction of the Manaus-Cari-’ cari highway. in the Amazon region of the’ country. 3 Interior Minister Mauricio _ Rangel stated that ‘‘work in the - area will be intensified in order to complete the road by March 1976 because it is vital to the country for economic and secur- ity reasons”. In indicating that the highway is to be finished in that period, without regard for ' obstacles, Rangel stated that “the decision had been made by resident Ernesto Geisel, the head of the Military Government”. The Manaus-Caricary stretch is the final one to complete the Brasilia-Caracas highway which links Brazil and Venezuela across a border area near Gu- _ yana. This is one of the three _ Mnain roads crossing the Amazon region, which contains some of _ Latin America’s biggest reserves of mineral- resources. In addition to economic reas- Ons for the. highway building there are others of a strategic- military nature. According to the concepts of the Brazilian regime the project will facilitate speedy troop movements, should such a need arise, towards Venezuela or any other westward border point. ; To complete the roads, how- ever, the rebelliousness of about one thousand Waimiris-Atroaris, whose land is being forcibly taken over must be broken. They have on several occasions shown their opposition to the presence in the region of the settlers. About a month ago five offi- cials of the National Indian Foundation (FUNAI), a Govern- ment Agency, were killed by native peoples in unclear circum- stances. Nine others were killed ‘earlier when they forcibly en- tered Maimiris-Atroaris territory, in the Amazon. FUNAI is supposed to “pacify” the Indians and settle them on reservations “to prevent their extermination”. However, num- bers of FUNAI staff members have displayed quite the oppo- site attitude. Recently one FUNAI worker declared that “the best way to treat the In- dians is to scare them through the use of force”. . : He added that “in ordér to settle the Amazon and_ native population, a wide range of me- thods must be used including dynamite and teargas.” . An important Rio daily, Jour- nal do Brasil, carried a state- ment by Roque do Barros La- raira, head of the Social Science Department at the University of Brasilia, on the frequent inci- dents. and clashes between authorities and Indians. “When they killed the FUNAF staff members the Indians ex- pressed their one concern: to defend their remaining territory from the greed of the white man.” He stated that “while the press devoted much space to the death of FUNAI officials at the hands of the Indians, it kept silent about the large scale slaughter of the Waimiri-Atroa- ris.” . Laraia said that the Indians kill only in self-defense and that the people who attacked the FUNAI representatives must have been concerned and desper- ate.: He added that there are groups interested in fomenting hatred of the Indians among'the rest of Brazilians and therefore do not cancern. themselves with the causes for the native peoples’ actions. : The situation in Brazil seems all too familiar to Canadian na- tive peoples, and those who struggle with them for their free- dom. ROC: Merit ial \ Use of armed terror against Brazil’s Indian people steps up as Ya) the highway to the country’s interior is proceeding. ‘Death Squad’ RIO DE JANEIRO — Members of the Brazilian Democratic Movement are seeking to organ- ize a congressional investigation into the activities of that. coun- try’s Death Squad. The legislat- ors, who belong to the only legal opposition party, announced they had the support of several members of the ruling Brazilian party to: set up a commission when Congress resumes its ses- sion in March. + The Death Squad, comprised of active and retired policemen, has for ten years been engaged in the elimination of presumed common criminals in main Brazi- lian cities, but it is also charged probe sought with killing political prisoners and other opponents ‘of the mili- tary regime. The Squad claims responsibil- ity for about two thousand mur- ders. Last year it reportedly killed 233 people in Rio de Jane- iro alone. This would make the parapolice organization respon- sible for one out-of three killings in this part of Brazil. Sao Paulo, the country’s larg- est industrial centre is another area of Death Squad activities. It is believed that its dealings accounts for a large portion of the 34.2% rise in crimes of viol- ence in Sao Paulo last year over 1973. The NDP and Ontario’s.elections The 12th Ontario convention of the Communist Party held Jan. 25-26 emphasized the need to develop mass actions in defense of economic and democratic rights with the focus of electing a progressive majority to Qeen’s Park in the forthcoming pro- vincial elections. A previous Tribune article (Jan. 29) dealt with the need to defeat the Tories 2nd keep out the Liberals. This article examines certain aspects of NDP policy which stand in the way of the forging that unity in ac- tion needed to set the stage for an outcome . favorable to Ontario’s working people. : & a am The refusal of the NDP, which” holds 20 seats in the Ontario Legis- lature, to connect together the mass struggles of the people with efforts in the Legislature, encourages. re- strictions of parliamentary activity to a handful of elected representa- tives, and to work on the hustings at . the time of elections. : The. NDP right wing leadership consistently refuses to face up to the simple fact that objectively for the working class, parliamentary work at the level of the bourgeois legisla- — ture, is mainly an extension of the struggles outside parliament and that the primary question is the level of those struggles; that the im- portance of parliamentary work is that it adds another dimension to such struggles and can build upon them as part of the process of the struggle, of working people for far. reaching reforms leading in the dir- ection of socialism. Contrary to this, the consistent ef- forts of the present leadership of the NDP in Ontario is to dampen down mass struggles and insist that change will come about when, and only when an NDP government is elected in Ontario. . Elitist Politics Operating from this contention the NDP leadership in the Legislature has unfortunately failed in most in- stances to assist, encourage or de- velop any of the mass movements which have sprung up spontaneously among the people in the struggles against monopoly over the past period. Nowhere was this more evident than in the recent Civil’ Service . negotiations. From the very begin- ning Stephen Lewis made it clear that the most disastrous thing that could happen to the NDP would be a strike’ by the Civil Service. By his reasoning, this would be seized on by the Tories as an election pretext and would put the NDP in the un- fortunate position of either. support- ing the strike, in which ‘case it would lose the support of the major- ity of voters in the province, or opposing the strike in which case it would lose the support of the work- ing class : The answer to this dilemma of course was for the workers to take less than they deserved in order: to - serve the interests of the election of the NDP. Let Stephen Lewis Answer Let Stephen Lewis answer this question to the working people of ‘this province: If the militant strug- gles of the working class are a lia- bility to him when he is in opposi- | tion and trying for political power— how much more of a liability will they be if he finds himself in office, and how will the NDP.deal with the legitimate demands of civil ser- vants? teachers? transit workers? hospital workers? Will he do the same as the NDP government is now doing in Saskat- chewan with the Hydro workers, passing special legislation ordering them back to work? Is this. what working people expect when they elect the party which has the official backing of the organized trade union movement? : Mr. Lewis has made it clear time and again, the last time at the On- tario Convention of the NDP. If there is a choice to be made between the interests of the trade union movement and that of the commun- - ity at large, the NDP will come down on the side of the community. Sheer Opportunism This is sheer opportunism. In the first place it will not lead to the election of a government firmly op- posed. to the policies of the Tories and Liberals around a program aim- ed against the monopolies. If indeed it were to lead to the election of such an NDP government in Ontario, it would be a wishy-washy govern- ment pledged to administer the’ capitalist system better than either the Tories: or the Liberals. This would be of little benefit to the working people of this province. The healthy forces in the NDP and in the first place the organized trade union movement, which is one of the major backers and financers of the NDP, must force the NDP to aban- don its class collaborationist position ‘and come out instead firmly on the side of: all those forces fighting against monopoly and in the first instance the workers in the facto- “ries, mines and offices. Unity Needed - It must not only participate in, but encourage and organize in every community and at a provincial level, mass actions designed to mobilize and unite all those forces being op- pressed by monopoly. In the short period between now and the coming election there is still time to develop such mass actions against layoffs, plant shutdowns, against price gouging, for decent» housing, against skyrocketing rents. To do so, however, requires the total efforts of the entire labor move- ment including the NDP and the centres of the trade union movement. In retrospect it would appear that the withdrawal of a substantial part of the left by the Waffle in the hope of setting up a “left Marxist orient- ed Socialist Party” in competition with the NDP and the Communist PACIFIC TRIBUNE—FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 14, 1975—Page 7 Party, led to a weakening of the NDP and the struggle for Left policy inside that party, but did not pro- duce much of substance which is helpful to the working class and -de- mocratic forces on the outside. The Waffle is split into warring factions on fundamental policy is- sues and is little more than opposing groups of armchair philosophers somewhat frantically searching for some viable basis for existence. Its lack of an internationalist outlook, and its inability to fasten its natio- nalist aspirations to a fundamental working-class. position led to its breakup. The question of the development: of a coherent Left within the NDP— avoiding the clammy hand of the ever-present Trotskyite conspirators who remain in the NDP — is a mat- ter of great importance not only for the NDP but for the working class and democratic forces generally. Such a Left can come into being . ~ around the struggle for united action of the working class and democratic forces in the present crisis situation. The Communist Party It must be emphasized, again and again, that fundamental to such a development is the independant cam- paigning and actions of the Commun- ist Party, the only party with a clear, ‘consistent anti-monopoly, class posi- tion around which the trade-union, labor and democratic movement can unite. The Communist Party is the only force in the labor and democ- ratic movement which consistently and -perseveringly fights for such unity. The Communist party synthesizes into a dialectical unity the struggle for its own long term aims and the unity of the working class and all democratic forces for their imme-. diate needs. This is why its presence is always unifying, and an objective necessity if these forces are to unite and move over onto the offensive against monopoly and shift politics to the left.