4 ictotig .
Rodriguez tells the meeting of conditions in Franco’s jails.

Spanish prisons are hell

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Wives of victims relate

f Two
fV bushan Spanish women, whose

MFrancg .*te Prisoners of the
PAdience SMe, spoke to an
Glare, 350 at the Toronto
meetine Centre last week.
+, 8 Sponsored by the
n, cee a Democratic
0 the * € young women
ical aE meted out to
. 5 oa in many of

Ora Victor:
Made; & Victoria Rodriguez, of

1
0)
: » @x i

i te a Saiained that although
Me A¥Aiting tra, Tusband, who
q rallets el for carrying
I FtaNC pg nich opposed — the
i dition because of the
iS forecn the visiting rooms
el, to shout through a

Seno,
p Of B ra Juang i
4 the qctlona eon Sanchez,

» told of th
 SPan e role of
‘4 Siong Whice orkers’ Commis-

i ee been establish-

ed throughout Spain as a res-
ponse to Franco’s harsh anti-
labor policies. The Workers’
Commissions were also, in large
part, responsible for the planning
of the May Day general strike in
Spain.

The meeting last week mark-
ed the first time that the women
had addressed a public meeting
and as Senora Rodriguez said,
“It is with great emotion that I
address you tonight because in
Spain such gatherings are prohi-
bited by law.” _

The women plan to continue
their tour throughout Canada
with meetings in Vancouver,
Regina, Winnipeg, Sudbury,
Windsor, Hamilton, Oshawa,
Montreal, Ottawa and Halifax.
As in Toronto, their appeal will
be for amnesty for all political
prisoners in Spain.

Act quick to stop

Nixon's DISC
attack on Canada

Demanding that not a single Cana-
dian job be sacrificed to the DISC pro-
gram, the latest form of U.S. economic
aggression, the Central Executive Com-
mittee of the Communist Party in a
statement issued May 2 declared that
Canada’s answer to DISC “must be
swift and sure.” The text of the state-

ment follows:

A new threat to Canadi
manufacturing industry surfaced last
week with the disclosure by the Cana-
dian government that about 1,100 U.S.

industries including the

mobile corporations applied for and

parts manufacturers and threat-
ens their very existence, already
in jeopardy under the terms of
the pact.

As was the case with the
10% surcharge, DISC also is a
direct violation of the terms of
GATT (General Agreement on
Tariffs and Trade). to which
both the U.S. and Canada as
well as most of the world capi-
talist governments are signa-
tories.

The Canadian government has
reacted by suggesting that some
counter measures may be an-
nounced in the budget to be
brought down on May 8 in Ot-
tawa.

This new U.S. action brings

to the fore the painful fact that -

precisely while the president of

an jobs and

ducts.

giant auto-

the United States was in Can-
ada arrogantly assuring the Ca-
nadian Parliament of our right
to exist as an industrial nation,

this further direct assault on
our economic life was well un-

derway. So much for the “fan-
tastic breakthrough” which Mr.
Nixon’s visit was touted to be
by the Canadian government!

The Canadian answer to Mr.
Nixon must be swift and sure.
Not a single Canadian job shall

~ be sacrificed to this U.S. eco-

nomic aggression. All measures
need to be taken by the Tru-
deau government, up to and in-
cluding public takeover of in-
dustries threatened by this eco-
nomic piracy. At the same time
the cost of these measures can-
not be borne by the people. They
must be charged against the
swollen, ever-increasing profits

IV
:
¢

No da te yet, but elections on

B
i —Y WILLIAM KASHTAN, leader Communist Party

Now

U
ates spn election
, . y the guessin;
yeas ae0Cussed on July or
i ites, Prim likely substitute
be “ nulinister Trudeau
all bie ing up his sleeve
i because while the
an §0es on as to
a is likely to be
fend Speaks as if
fin : now. How else
i thetmontterPret his remarks
4 ee Arctic N about a highway to
L AA Boone his Temarks in To-
J em of Nae $10 billion pro-
i the usly ‘ hern Development?
Vie dang}; Se are vote getters
i of on Beet the Northern
I en investments,
Omen. Vent Canadian devel-

© likely to

l get
the : ae in the course
a aos Mister’s visit to

D

S| h
a
Ke, the a Ccasion to say be-
2 dat eons are on with-
shee Prime minis Set even though
“af bing Boar Says: “TI don’t
MW 4 = . . .
rf tin’, 5 to eee Which. will
. People at this

fs to
th , Yes the
*ODle Pefore 4, fe no great

A th
D S fe count
bette Minin ifestly false ae
tery, ‘Ster of Spee
It isn’t course knows
that there is a

lack of issues but that these is-
sues may not favor the govern-
ment.

A cdse in point is the state of
the economy which, despite rosy
pictures, shows no signs of a
major upturn. In the main the
upturn depends largely on the
state of the U.S. economy which
continues to be in a flat state.
The key element in the situation
remains the low level of capital
investment in new plants and
equipment. It is this, combined
with modernization of existing
plants, that bears most heavily
on lack of job prospects for a
growing labor force, and for the
emergence of permanent unem-
ployment as a feature of Cana-
dian life. Whether the Budget
will change this situation re-
mains to be seen; but it is clear
that the issue of jobs or an ade-
quate income for all Canadians
as a right remains a central is-
sue of the elections.

Another case in point is Cana-
dian-U.S. relations and continu-
ing U.S. domination of the Cana-
dian economy.

The government gave the im-
pression that with President
Nixon’s visit to Ottawa, all the
difficulties in relationships be-
tween the two countries would

‘be overcome, and that every-
thing would be smooth sailing
from now on. President Nixon
even did Canada the “honor” of
enunciating the Nixon Doctrine
on Canadian soil, something
which the press interpreted as
a good neighbor policy.

How good neighborly it is can

be seen in the operation of the
Domestic International Sales
Corporation (DISC), directed to
set up U.S. exports into Canada
and elsewhere. Although DISC
extends beyond the auto indus-

try, the U.S. auto corporations
have been quick to make use of

‘it contrary to the Canada-U.S.

Automotive Pact.

The Nixon Doctrine turns out
to be a “get tough with Canada
policy,” as the Communist Party
warned it would be.

The fact is that DISC is being
used as a ploy by the Nixon
government to force the Tru-
deau government to accede to
the demands of the U.S. Admin-
istration — to turn its trade
policies around in such a way as
to suit the needs of U.S. im-
perialism.

There should be no illustions
on that score or on the fact that
underneath it is the new type of
relationship which U.S. imperial-_

ism is trying to foist on its trade
partners and allies arising from
its growing crisis. DISC, the
Nixon Doctrine, these are ex-
pressions of the trade war
launched by U.S. imperialism to

__ pass its crisis on to the working

class of the USA and on to its _
allies.

The U.S. trade war is only one
aspect of U.S.-Canadian’ rela-
tions, spelling out the need for
Canada to extricate itself from
the U.S. vise and to embark on
policies of all-Canadian develop-
ment based on public ownership
of natural resources and energy,
on vast industrial development,
on new trade policies and peace-
ful co-existence with the social-
ist countries. :

These too, are major issues in
the coming elections.

All the more surprising, in
light of the decisive importance
for Canada in developing such
policies, is the way in which
President Nixon used Canada’s
parliament to attack the Soviet
Union and the socialist countries
for aiding the Vietnamese peo-
ple. It has been said that the
government knew of the con-
tents of the Nixon Doctrine. It
must have because stories are
being leaked that the lovy-dovey
affair between Nixon and Tru-
deau was all pre-arranged. Did
the government and Prime Min-
ister Trudeau agree, and if so
how does this jibe with the Pro-
tocol of Friendship signed be-
tween the USSR and Canada?
The prime minister and his gov-

received U.S. government assistance
through the newly established Domes-
tic International Sales Corporation
(DISC). DISC was established last
August when President Nixon an-
nounced his Nixonomics, including the
infamous 10% surcharge on all imports.

The DISC program provides for tax
concessions to corporations which can
demonstrate that such concession will
directly increase exports of their pro-

In the case of the auto industry this
contravenes the whole intent of the
Auto Pact. It disadvantages Canadian

of the big U.S. and Canadian
corporations.

Canada should call for a spe-
.cial meeting of the GATT
countries to demand that the
U.S. live up to the terms of the
GATT agreement,

The Communist Party reiter-
ates its conviction that the
deepening economic crisis re-
flected by this DISC measure
shows the inability of monopoly
either to patch up its operations
or to satisfy the needs of the
majority of the people.

The need is for massive pres-
sure on the government to en-
sure that the kind of solutions
they are forced to adopt lead
towards basic structural changes
in the economy, serving the
needs of the people and cutting
the power of monopoly.

ernment Owe the country and
the people an explanation. It
also has an obligation to pub-
licly separate itself from the

Nixon Doctrine and all that it
entails. - i

: Clearly to speak of “no great
issue,” aS Prime Minister Tru-
deau does, is to flaunt reality
and cover up for an inability to
cope with the problems beset-
ting the country. In any case,
he and Mr. Sharp, his minister
of external affairs, don’t seem to
agree with each other. Mr. Sharp
is reported as saying that na-
tional unity will be the big issue
in the elections, that is, which
party could best keep the coun-
try together. In saying this, Mr.
Sharp hopes that the govern-
ment can. pull another 1968 out
of the hat.

There is no doubt that natio-
nal unity will be a central
feature of the elections. There
is also no doubt that national
unity will not be achieved on
the basis of capitalist and state
monopoly policies. Indeed the
policies being pursued are sharp-
ening divisions not overcoming
them. Here, too, the policies
advanced by the Communist
Party are the only sound ones—
the right to self-determination,
a voluntary equal partnership
of the English and French-Cana-
dian people in a new confederal
pact.

All this is by way of stating
that, while the date of an elec-
tion is still unknown, it would
be the better part of wisdom to
do all the things necessary to
bring our policies to the work-
ing people.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—FRIDAY, MAY 5, 1972—PAGE 5