Pte ee ee , a
Demonstrators in Kabul carrying pictures St M. N. Taraki.

Reading the ‘earth
about Afghanistan

The news about Afghanistan
has retraced a pattern very fa-
miliar in the West. First the
media breaks out in a hysterical
rash of sensationalist stories,
full of wild allegations and “‘re-
ports” from unnamed sources.
And then, some weeks or
months later, countering infor-
mation about what has really
happened becomes available for
those who make an effort to
seek it out.

The first five months of this
year have seen the Western
media reach a pinnacle of news
manipulation and fabrication
about Afghanistan. And now,
detailed information answering

the deluge of lies from the West-
ern news agencies is finding its
way to this country.

Two recent publications are
part of the growing rebuttal.
One is a 150-page pamphlet pro-
duced by Novosti, Moscow call-
ed The Truth About Afghanis-
tan.

The most interesting of the
new information is a chapter
with indjvidual testimonies de-
tailing allegations that former
Afghan government head Haf-
izullah Amin murdered Noor
Mohammad Taraki, and that
- Amin was, in fact, a CIA agent.

An Afghan press report,
datelined Kabul, January 19,
1980 quotes a member of the

Afghan Revolutionary Council,
Aslam Watanjar, that Amin
made contact with the CIA dur-
ing his two-year stay in Wash-
ington 1962-1964. ‘“We know
for sure who recruited Amin
... and we can say exactly
which CIA agents Amin met
and where, in 1973-1978, when
he received assignments to blow
up the party,’’ said Watanjar.

Another statement by Af-
ghanistan’s minister of interior
Sayed Mohammad Gulabzoi
given to a press conference in
Kabul two days later declared
that Amin had held secret talks
with the right wing Islamic Par-
ty of Afghanistan in October to
discuss a proposed coup sched-
uled for December 29. And in
mid December Amin held fur-
ther talks with U.S. intelligence
agents in Paris and Rome and
with Afghan counter-revolu-
tionary groups in Peshawar,
Pakistan. The coup attempt was
aborted, and was one of the key
developments leading to the
overthrow of Amin weeks later.

There is a lot more informa-
tion in this Novosti pamphlet,
[but its strength does not lie in its

THE TRUTH ABOUT AFGHANISTAN,
compiled by Y. Volkov and others,
Novosti Press Agency Publishing
House, Moscow, 1980, available soon at
People’s Co-Op Books, 341 W. Pender,
Van.

THE AFGHAN STORY —
FABRICATING. THE NEWS, by Phillip
Bonosky, Political Affairs, May, 1980
edition, New York.

readability. Most of the mater-
ial is simply excerpts from press
conferences or press reports,
and it has the appearance of be-
ing thrown together. Still, there
is information here worth dig-
ging out, when greater numbers
of the pamphlet follow the ad-
vance copies already in. this
country.

The second account of events
in Afghanistan worth reading is
published closer to home and is
very readable. It is Phillip Bon-
osky’s The Afghan Story —
Fabricating the News, publish-
edin the May edition of Political
Affairs, the political and theor-
etical journal of the Communist
Party of the U.S.A.

Bonosky is the Daily World
correspondent in Moscow and
he holds the distinction of being
the only progressive journalist
from either the U.S. or Canada
to have been in Afghanistan
during January of this year, in
the immediate aftermath of the
Soviet intervention.

He travelled with the foreign
préss, attended the same press
conferences and saw the same
things as they did, and was
shocked by the outright lies
which appeared in the Interna-
tional Herald Tribune, the Lon-
‘don Sunday Times, the Chicago

Tribune, or on the BBC, ABC’

or NBC networks.

“The journalists descended
on Afghanistan like predators,”
Bonosky recounted. ‘‘They

hardly stopped tosee where they

were before they moved into the
attack — aggressive, insulting,
arrogant. . All the informa-

tion that the American people
read in those days from that be-
leagured country was, and I say
it regretfully, untrue. Lies. Just
lies, lies, lies.””

The best way to get this excell-
ent article is to take out a sub-
scription to Political Affairs. It
costs $11 for one year from 235
W. 23rd St., New York, N.Y.
1011, U.S.A. And ask for the
May issue.

—Fred Wilson |

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—JUNE 13, 1980—Page 10

Mrs. Murdoch was an Alberta
farm wife who during her 30-year
marriage was wife, housekeeper,
farm hand and manager of her hus-
band’s farm. When the marriage
fell apart and the couple separated,
the husband retained possession of
the farm and everything on it.

She was left with nothing. The
judges ruled that her contribution
was not unusual. It ‘‘was what any
farm wife would have done.”’

The Murdoch case in the Sup-
reme Court in 1973 hit the papers
bringing to light the shocking real-
ity of how little protection women
actually have in marriage and,
more importantly, upon separa-
tion or divorce.

But it was also the watershed for
a round of reforms concerning
family law which have been enact-
ed in nearly every province in this
country in the intervening years.

But just in case you have been
left with the misconception that
marriage is now a 50-50 deal in the
eyes of the law, guess again. Mar-
riage may bea partnership but in all
cases women still exist as the ‘‘jun
ior partner.”

Family law specialist Lynn King
opens her book with the following
warning:

““Women have been shortchang-.
ed, and nowhere is this more evi-
dent than in marriage, separation
and divorce. Because of their weak
economic position women are at a
distinct disadvantage when it
comes to operating as equal part-
ners in marriage and equal negoti-
ators when a marriage dissolves.

‘‘Although we now have all sorts
of family legislation that makes
claims to equality, women learn

King book counsels women
about rights in marriage

WHAT EVERY WOMAN SHOULD
KNOW ABOUT MARRIAGE,
SEPARATION AND DIVORCE, by
Lynn King, James Lorimer and Co.,
Toronto, 1980. Cloth $15.95, paper
$8.95,

only too late that these are mostly:

just wor

Most of the laws concerning
marriage come into force only
when the marriage breaks down. It
is at this point that the reality of
having entered an ‘‘economic rela-
tionship’ comes to the fore. -Be-
cause, whether the woman has
been a housewife or worker, deci-
sions concerning what is her ‘‘due’’
will be based upon her economic
contribution, whose name the pro-
perty is in, and which of the part-
ners is best able to economically
provide for the children.

In this society where women are
limited in earning power and
potential and where they have been
socially trained to think their best
contribution can be made in the
home and with the family, there is
little comfort in knowing that the

_courts and legislatures put little

economic value on that unpaid
contribution.

But why should a woman wait
until a crisis to find that if the fam-
ily home is not also in her name
there may be difficulties laying
claim to her share, or that if a man
dies without a will, his family could
be left destitute regardless of their
previous economic standing.

King takes a very complicated set
of laws governed by both federal
and provincial statues and turns
them into easily understandable
language. Step by step a woman’s
rights (and lack of them) in mar-
riage, in a common-law relation-

ship, upon separation or divorce,
property considerations and child |
custody matters are explained in
detail.

This isn’t a ‘“‘how-to”’ book. It
does not explain how to proceed if”
you want a divorce but it does |
you know what to expect from the
laws relating to marriage.

Many of the provincial statutes
are new and have yet to be
tested in the courts. This is import-
ant since, as King explains, many
decisions are based on ‘“‘prece=
dent,” how similar cases have been
treated in the past. Laws applicable
in one province may not apply in
another. Unlike the rest of
Quebec has developed its own dis-
tinct set of laws governing mat-
riage. This book does not deal with
family law in Quebec.

As we’ve often been admonisil
ed ‘‘not knowing the law is no X
cuse,”’ and that rule of thumb oe
plies equally to the laws gov
marriage. Once in court it becomes:
very difficult to prove unwritten
agreements and understandings. —
An old friend once passed on the
saying ‘‘when the bailiff walks. in
the door, loves flies out the win-
dow’’ and with it frequently goes
all those good intentions and i
derstandings.

Of course, getting their eco-
nomic due from marriage will not
solve all of women’s problems. a
only when women are allowed
social and economic equality
marriage will become a true
nership. But until then it doesnt
hurt for women to be aware of
fundamental realities gove

their lives and to know what st
to take to protect their own intel
ests. —Kerry Mi ‘i

Tingling climax, but little
enlightenment in ‘39 steps’

THE THIRTY NINE STEPS, based on
the novel by John Buchan. Screenplay
by Michalel Robson; directed by Don
Sharp. With Robert. Powell, David
Wamer, Karen Dotrice, Eric Porter and
John Mills. Presented by the Rank
Organization, London. At local theatres.

In 1935 Alfred Hitchcock’s film
of this title made him famous, and
it was not easy for anyone to follow
with a remake, even now, 45 years
later. Whether the film was as great
as those who claim to remember it
say, or whether the mystique sur-
rounding the late ‘‘Master of Sus-
pense” continued and enhances the
myth is really not important. The

question now is, how entertaining .

a thriller is the current offering?

It is entertaining, it is a thriller,
and it is helped by the substance,
which is historical and therefore
meaningful beyond the usual who-
dunit, however skilfully conceived.
For this spy story is based on an in-
cident which. occurred in England
just before World War I, telling of
German espionage and murder,
and the attempt to render the Brit-
ish fleet inoperative just before
Germany prepared to launch their

_ attacks. Asa result, each complica-

tion, each murder, each forgive-
able or stupid error on the part of
the British in uncovering the plot
adds to the suspense, culminating
in the classic mechanism of work-
ing against the clock for mounting
thrills.

In the main it is successful, build-
ing to a tingling climax. The pro-
ducers and director have caught the

beauty of the Scottish and English
countryside, the costumes and
autos of the time create a valid en-
vironment, and the actors play with
the kind of aplomb that only the
British can bring to this kind of
light, non-enlightening entertain-
ment.

The film tries to move fast
enough so that you will not see be-
fore you reach the 39 steps that
there at least 39 holes in the plot.
For a less experienced plot-

‘watcher, they might have succeed-

ed. —Lester Cole

ROBERT POWELL seas
steps.’

Drama of unionization

highlights upcoming TV

Two features on labor struggles
in the U.S., today and in the early
years of the labor movement,
highlight upcoming fare on televi-
sion for B.C. viewers. Both pro-
grams are on the Public Broad-
casting System (PBS), or Channel
nine for those with cable.

The first, ‘‘Taylor Chain’’, is a
documentary film about a labor
dispute at a small plant at Ham-
mond, Indiana. Filmmakers Jerry
Blumenthal and Gorden Quinn
follow the real life conflict between
the recently unionized workers and
the employer over a first contract.
It appears Sunday, June 22 at 10
p.m. on the Non Fiction TV pro-

gram. .

The second feature is a historical
drama ‘‘Molders of Troy’’
the inconvenient time of 1 p.m. 08
Friday, June 22. The 90 minute
drama traces the organization
the New York iron foundries bet-
ween 1859 and 1876 through te
story of one man who founds and
builds the Troy. Iron Mola
Union into one of the strong”
unions in the U.S.

One of the few programs , on
CBC worth noting in oa
weeks is The Rare Breed, show”
June 24 at 10:30p.m. The half hou!
program is a visit with the
family, active members of the NG 4
tional Farmers Union, and
with the NFU’s es with t
CPR and CNR.

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