I Wie

_ On November 30, the Trudeau
government announced, follow-
ing a mass campaign initiated
by the churches, trade union
movement, and committees of
Solidarity with Chile, that re-
fugees from Chile would be al-
lowed entrance into Canada.

Since then none has arrived,
although delegations to Ottawa
have learned (and it has also
been leaked), that such proceed-
Ings are in the works.

It has also been learned that
there is a tough “screening pro-
cess” being used by Canadian

Immigration officers in Santiago

and other countries (Panama)
temporarily housing refugees

from Chile, ably assisted by

RCMP officers. This, we are
told, is to ensure that no “un-
desirables” are allowed entry.
While Canadian immigration
department and RCMP bureau-
Cracy cogs grind ponderously
to the tune of a right-wing cam-

-Palgn to slow down or halt com-
Pletely the possibility of any re-
fugee from Chile entering Can-

} that Dec. 31. would be the ex-

ada, the fascist junta decided

e are the Chilean refugees?

piry date for refugees leaving
the country.

On Dec. 21, the Communist
Party, “deeply alarmed over the
reports that the promised free-
dom of entry for Chilean_poli-
tical refugees to Canada is being
thwarted by stipulations that in
effect close the door io them,”
demanded that restrictions on
the entry of Chilean political re-
fugees be restored forthwith.
“The Communist Party also ask-
ed that “their quick release
from the junta prisons, concen-
tration camps and persecution
be facilitated and measures to
ensure safe conduct for them to
Canada be undertaken.”

The government of Saskatche-
wan, on learning of the Decem-
ber 31 deadline for refugees
leaving Chile, asked the Cana-
dian government to “extend as
a matter of greatest urgency to
all refugees wishing to come to
Canada the fullest facilities for
‘their most rapid movement from
Santiago .=..7)

The telegram went on to say:
“Our information indicates that
large numbers of refugees of

both Chilean and other national-
ities remain in a most precari-
Ous position and the military
junta intends ‘to terminate,
effective midnight December 31,
the exit of all refugees from
Chile. We wish to express the
Saskatchewan government’s con-
tinued concern for the plight
and safety of the refugees.”

Although the Dec. 31 date
still stands, it appears that Can-
ada has done little to see that
political refugees left Chile be-
fore then. A Toronto-based com-
mittee to deal with the refugee
question, involving churches,
the Latin American Working
Group, Canadian Committee for
Solidarity with Democratic
Chile, Association of Chilean
Students and others learned that
a Canadian plane would be
bringing 86 refugees to Canada
from Santiago on. Jan. 1.

This :plane did not arrive.
However, protestations to the
government ended up with the
information that a Canadian
plane carrying 112 refugees
would arrive here “within th
next two weeks.” .

Food prices up 300%

Junta's sorry record

In a remarkable display of
journalistic acrobatics for which
it has long been famous, Time
magazine in its Dec. 31 issue
writes about the record of the
Chilean junta since its coup. Un-
der the sombre title, “The price
of order,” we are given the
news that taxis are now avail-
able at Santiago’s airport and
that political slogans are absent
from the city’s walls and_bill-
boards.

Warming up, Time correspon-
dent Charles Eisendrath says
that the bars are empty and the
junta’s
work, work, work’ is paying off.
Similarly, foreign banks, U.S.,
Canadian, British and German,
are now looking upon Chile
more favorably as the junta
makes its intention clear to ne-
gotiate compensation to former

U.S. copper barons, and turns.

other nationalized firms over to
their former owners.

In what they describe as
“counterbalance”, Time lists
several areas of difficulty facing

ileans under the new regime:
Cost of living up 120% with

“spartan program of.

food up 300%. Cooking oil up
to 400%; gasoline up 700%.
Executions still continuing,
“though indiscriminate killings
apparently have ceased’; sever-
al thousand political prisoners
still in jails without trials; a new
law “Bando 28” in Santiago for-
bidding “elections of any kind
in union, guild, political, student
or any other kind of group. Vac-
ancies will be filled by the
amilitary.”

Chileans abroad who criticize
the regime will automatically
lose their citizenship; an 11 p.m.
to 5:30 a.m. curfew is in effect.
“Many poor Chileans are going
hungry as the removal of the
Allende government’s subsidy of
consumer items takes hold.”

If-all of this sounds like Time
has changed sides, don’t worry.
The story sums up:. “Despite all
this, Chileans, if they had the
choice, would. probably reluc-
tantly vote for the junta as the

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lesser of the two evils...”

The world rice. crop for 1973-

record 300 million metric tons.

From inside Chile, Carlos Altami-
Tano, general secretary of the So-
Cialist Party, who is highest on the
Junta’s most wanted list, has issued
a declaration to the people of Chile.
“I take this opportunity,” he states,

_“‘to reaffirm our unswerving decision
to continue the struggle until the
».4ascist military dictatorship — has

~ been overthrown.”

Harking back to the final words of
President Salvador Allende, who: as-
sured the people of Chile that one
day other free men will arise to con-
tinue the construction of a better
Society, Altamirano ‘says: ‘These
other men, Comrade Allende, are the
people of Chile, its working class,
its peasants. They are our young
People, the women of our country.
All united, firmly united, we will
Open up the broad avenues over
which free men will pass in order to
build a better society, the socialist
Society ... :

Sordid Invention

“Hitler, in 1933, had the Reich-
Stag burned; then he blamed it on
the Communist Party, first to launch
_ 4 violent campaign of repression
against it, and later against all the
Political parties in Germany. The
Chilean junta, because of its lack of
Imagination, has resorted to the
Same trick. It has invented a ‘Plan
Z,’ in which the parties and Popular
Unity government were to have
been planning to assassinate high-
ranking army officers and leaders of
the opposition. I solemnly affirm
that this plan is nothing but a false
and sordid invention of the military
Junta . . . having no other end than

to justify the treason of the mili-
ETA ee)

The military junta, states Alta-
Mirano, “has declared a ‘state of .
War’. We ask: a state of war against

Unity cornerstone of Chile's

fully armed men to oppress a people

. of the population which were against

whom? War against the massacred
people of Chile? War against assas-
sinated workers? War against tor-
tured and imprisoned young people?
War against bombed-out women and
children? Who is the enemy in this
war? Never has the world seen such
a strange war. Yet, in the name of
this prefabricated .war, they have
mobilized the 100,000-strong armed
forces, called up 200,000 reserves,
Immense Prison

“Three, hundred thousand power-

to torture and shoot down working- ©
class cadres .. . Never has a country
mobilized as many men — 300,000
— to make war on an unarmed ene-
my, on workers without defense, on
its own people.

“Chile has been transformed into
an immense prison. Terror reigns.
Terror is the only force by which the
junta can‘support itself. The repres-
sion will grow. Their desire is to
physically liquidate the 44% of the
Chilean people who voted Popular
Unity in the parliamentary elections
last March.

“But now this 44% has become
more than 70%. Today vast sectors

only ones to have committed the
crime of ‘treason’, -of ‘sedition
against his country’ are those who
.took up arms against the legal presi-
dent of Chile, Salvador Allende. My:
accusers are the accused. In wishing
to judge me, it is they who will be
judged. The rods with which they
seek to whip me and Comrade Luis
Corvalan will be turned against
them one day, sooner than they
think.”

Altamirano then goes on to define
the tasks of the Popular Unity par-
ties: to involve themselves whole-
heartedly in the struggle against the
junta. First is unity. :

Unity Indispensible

“The unity of the vanguard par-
ties of the working class, the Social-
ist and Communist Parties, is the
cornerstone of the anti-fascist strug-
gle. The working class, the peasants,
are the central kernel, the protagon-
ists of this historic struggle. It is
indispensible to strengthen the unity
of the Socialist and Communist par-
ties with the other parties and
movements who were not part of
Popular Unity but who are attached
to its democratic convictions and to
freedom. The unity, the breadth of
this front has arisen naturally as an
imperative necessity in order to con-
front and defeat the fascist barbar-
ity.

Altamirano states that the first
aims of the resistance are to re-es-
tablish a democratic regime, and to
defend the rights of the working
class that have been trampled. See-
ing a: long struggle ahead, he de-
clares:

Freedom for Prisoners

“This struggle must be a mass

struggie, united, organized and dis-

Popular Unity feel the horror of a
fascist junta...”
Accusers Are Accused '

After noting the forces inside
Chile who are against the military
regime, Altamirano turns to his own
case. “These same four traitorous
generals are those who accuse me of.
inciting sedition in the army and -
sundry other crimes. I have no law-
yer, and I am forbidden to have one.
I cannot defend myself in court.
They might condemn me to death or
sentence me to life imprisonment if
they succeed in arresting me. But
Chile and the world know that the

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—FRIDAY, JANUARY 11, 1974—PAGE 9 - |

struggle

have their place in this struggle and

» concluded.”

BAN Ve Re Oa AE

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1974 has been estimated at a = |
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ciplined. All mass _ organizations

must participate.

“I think that a primary task is
also to forge a central leadership of
all revolutionary, democratic and
popular forces who are struggling
against the military fascist tyranny.

“Adventurist actions have no
place in this struggle; they only
serve to justify new crimes, new re-
pression. They also allow the junta
to resolve its own internal contra-
dictions.”

Altamirano calls for freedom for
all political prisoners and respect
for the right of exile. As for interna-
tional solidarity, it is “indispensible
and necessary for the development
of the process of the liberation of
the Chilean people...

“At our sides are free peoples of
the world, the socialist countries,
the Soviet Union, the Cuban revolu-
t:on, the popular movements, revolu-
tionary movements, liberation move-
ments of America, Asia and Africa,
numerous governments, including
capitalist countries, and the best in-
tellectuals around the world.

Bloody Chapter

“The great battle for liberty has
only begun. As our comrade Salva-
dor Allende said, under the murder-
ous fire of the fascist military
camarilla: ‘Thus is written the first
page of this history. My people and
America will write the others’. We
assure our heroic and unforgettable
Comrade President, martyr for liber-
ty, for the dignity of Chile, of Amer-
ica, of enslaved people, that we will
continue to write these pages until
this saddest, darkest and most
bloody chapter in our history has