diac ae i PROTEST AGAINST NICARAGUAN AID LAG SAN JOSE — The Nicaraguan Socialist Party issued a strong protest against the dictatorial Nicaraguan regime’s interference with aid sent to victims of the recent earthquake. The protest was made in public in San Jose, capital of Costa Rica. The earthquake which struck the Nicaraguan capital of Managua devastated more than 80% of the city 450,000, killed an estimated 3,000 people, and led to the fight of more than 300,000 from the ruined area. The NSP protest said that the regime of Anastacio Somoza, head of the National Guard, “is denying aid to victims of the earthquake who are homeless and have no means of livelihood. For the second week now, large numbers of children, women and elderly people are without clothing and suffer from hunger. The large amounts of aid from abroad do not reach them because it is pocketed by highly-placed officials. National Guards Officers, and friends of Somoza.” JOHNNY WALKER BOYCOTT IN BRITAIN LONDON — More than 30 British pubs and hotels joined two large British supermarket chains last week in a boycott of products made by Distrillers Company, Ltd., one of Britain’s biggest liquor and pharmaceutical corporations, to try to force it to settle claims advanced on behalf of 342 deformed children. The children were born deformed by thalidomide sold by the corporation, which also manufactures Johnny Walker, Dewar, Black and White and other Scotch whiskeys. Distrillers Co., Ltd., during the court fight over the issue for the Past several years, has always denied a legal liability for the thali- domide it sold. In Washington, consumer advocate Ralph Nader called for a U.S. boycott, which he said might take a month to organize, but would prove to be highly effective. GUATEMALAN TERROR REGIME CONDEMNED MOSCOW — Leader of the Communist parties of the Americas condemned the terrorist, U.S. imperialist-backed regime of Presi- dent Carlos Arana Osorio in Guatemala, in a joint statement issued in Moscow. Representatives of all the Latin American Communist Parties and the Communist parties of Canada and the U.S. were in Moscow to attend the USSR’s 50th anniversary celebrations. The statement called on all the peoples of the world, and parti- cularly the peoples of the Americas, to “give the Guatemalan people Prompt and vigorous moral, material and political support” against e terrorism of the Arana regime. Arana, an army colonel who came to power in 1970, personally ordered the torture and execution of Bernardo Alvarado Monzon, general secretary of the Guatemalan Party of Labor, and five leading members of the GPL Central Committee. The joint statement of the Communist parties said the Guate- malan people have had to endure terrorist regimes since 1954 over- throw of the democratic regime of President Jacobo Arbenz Guzman by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency. Arana in 1966-68 com- manded the punitive military expeditions that killed thousands of Guatemalan peasants. TUNISIA-DRV RELATIONS ESTABLISHED TUNIS — Tunisia and the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (North Vietnam) recognized each other and agreed to exchange ambassadors. Tunisia is a Florida-sized Arab North African country of 5.5 million which is generally thought to have one of the most pro-U.S. of afiAtab governments. AFRICAN STATES SEVER ISRAELI TIES BRAZZAVILLE — Two more African states severed their diplo- matic relations with Israel on Jan. 1 because of the Israeli govern- ment’s continued policy of aggression. The states are the People’s Republic of the Congo-Brazzaville and Republic of Niger. The PRC-B is the former French Congo and has a population of about one million. The PRC-B government is dedicated to a non- Capitalist path of development and maintains close ties with the USSR and other socialist countries. Niger, just north of Nigeria in West Africa, has a population of 4.5 million. WIDESPREAD STRIKES ROCK ISRAEL TEL-AVIV — Israel’s workers went on strike last week to protest the Israeli government’s lifting of price controls on a wide range Of consumer goods and services. More than 30,000 Israeli engineers and technicians were scheduled to walk out on strike unless they receive a wage raise to offset the increase in living costs; the walkout is expected to. shut down or drastically curtail Israel’s radio, television, telephone, water and electricity services. Thousands of workers in nearly every field waged two-hour protest strikes against the expected price hikes: they included hospital workers, workers in the food industry, supermarket clerks, Cock workers, civil aviation workers, custom inspectors and others. TRANSPORT OF DRUG IN CORPSES GREENSBORO, N.C. — Grand jury indictments of more than 10 _ Persons are expected as a result of an investigation into interna- ~ tional smuggling of heroin into the U.S. by using the corpses of troops from Vietnam, the Greensboro Daily News reported. The investigation is being conducted at Ft. Bragg, the home of the Green Berets. A federal grand jury in Baltimore indicted a man identified as Thomas E. Southerland, who gave a Goldsboro address, On charges of acquiring forged military passes, orders and other identification which enabled him to fly in military planes. GAS MASK FOR 50,000 VENICE — “All 50,000 workers in Porto Marghera, the industrial port of Venice (Italy), must be equipped with gas masks to protect them from air pollution under an order issued to 206 firms with establishments at the port by Venice’s chief inspector of labor conditions.” » PACIFIC TRIBUNE—FRIDAY, JANUARY 12, 1973—PAGE 8 i Sc OS ete ee ee a, eR ho ee “AND THERE WILL BE WORK FOR ALL” reads one of Chile’s wall posters. Chile surging ahead Economics and the people © Michel Marcland, a French journalist now in Chile, wrote the following article for l’Huma- nite, paper of the French Com- munist Party. ) SANTIAGO — Both support- ers and opponents of Allende’s Popular Unity government gene- rally agree that Chile is now enmeshed in serious economic difficulties. For the ideologues of “free enterprise,” the source of these problems is nothing more than the socialist character of Allende’s policies. On. the other hand, a number of “impartial and disinterested” observers have not hesitated to affirm that the “crisis” that has affected Chile is only a foretaste of the ills that will not fail to be in- flicted on France if Union Popu- laire becomes our next govern- ment. Aside from the fact that social and economic conditions in which Chile’s transformation is taking place are highly different from those which characterize France (as well as citing certain similarities: democratic tradi- tions, the existence of a power- ful, organized working class movement, unity of the left) — and that any such comparisons would be at best inadequate, it is useful to examine a little more closely the famous “economic depression” in which Salvador Allende’s government is floun- dering. Let us leave aside for the moment the real causes of Chile’s economic difficulties (the imperialist economic blockade, the decline of the price of copper on the world market, interna- tional sabotage) which demon- Strate the state of total depen- dence on imperialism in which previous governments placed Chile. Let us be content for the instant in asking ourselves just what, in these conditions, could be done, and, most of all, in what measure. does this econo- mic crisis affect the population. So let us forthrightly pose the following: Are Chileans living better or worse than before? Supply and Demand Generally, economic crises in Capitalist regimes are character- ized by a disequilibrium between Supply and demand. To be more Precise, supply (all products that are sold) exceeds demand (the Possibility of the population to acquire these products). The Chilean “crisis” presents itself in the following particularity: there, demand exceeds supply. Among the first measures taken by Popular Unity when it took over the reins of government pees. were: a general increase in wages, a considerable reduction in unemployment, the limitation of imports to those strictly ne- cessary (as a means of conserv- ing hard currency which Chile has a tremendous deficit of in her balance of payments). These measures (and others which we need not enumerate) had the following consequences: 1.—an increase in the buying power of the working class and of salaried persons in general. 2.—an increase in the number of consumers due to the entry of unemployed into production. 3.—the sharply increased con- sumption of Chilean products by the relatively privileged social sectors because of the decrease in imported goods. There has also been a con- siderable growth in the con- sumption of vitally necessary products: food, clothing, etc. To this higher demand there has not (at least, not as yet) been a corresponding rate of supply. A retarded agriculture, an econo- my previously geared to the in- terests of multinational corpor- ations and to the “needs” of a minority of Chile’s population could not, and in so little time, reply to the totality of her new demands. Overhauling the economy Thus it was inevitable that certain products became scarce and were bought up immediately as they were_placed on sale. It must be pointed out and insisted on, however, that (contrary to what the Chilean right and the international press barons would have us understand) these diffi- culties have not come about from a lack of commodities, (or in decreased production) but through increased consumption. All the efforts of reactionary propaganda cannot hide the fact that consumption of food, cloth- ing, pharmaceutical products and even books has considerably increased since the coming into power of Popular Unity. This signifies that in spite of undeni- able difficulties in resupplying commodities (also because of illegal stocking and the black market), the great majority of Chile’s population is better off now than before. This is especially true for the working class and peasantry, but equally so for a large por- tion of the middle class. The . only “victims” of Popular Unity are the privileged sectors of the population (notably the bourgeo- isie linked in some way to the giant multinational corporations, and the latifundistas — large landowners) who have effective- ly lost a good part of their buy- re pp ey ye ae, ing power and, to be brief, theif } power in general. The “sym- j phony of the empty pots” has — only been played on the “good side of the tracks.” _ Spectacular Turnabout : The Chilean economy is today planned in accordance with the ~ needs of the entire population, and in the first place, of her” workers. The social and econ0-— . mic policies of Popular Unity, | far from having provoked chaos, — have contributed to the total redirection of her economy. This” comes out quite clearly in the last report of the United Nations — Economic Commission for Latin | America (CEPAL). The report contains some revealing figures. According to CEPAL, Chile, | up to 1971, had one of the low- © est growth ratés in Latin Ame-— rica: 3.7% (15th position) for the © period 1965-70; and 3.1% (18th 4 position) for the year 1970. With | the coming into power of the Popular Unity government at | the end of 1970, there has been a spectacular turnabout Chile’s economy which saw 4 ing growth rate of 8.5% in 1971, | placing her second in Latin Ame- — rica, immediately behind Brazil. This second position is, in - reality, the first. One has to take ~ into account that the foreign assistance which Chile now fr ceives (and which is of great importance to a _ developing” country) is far from that which flows into Brazil; and Chile’s foreign aid does not com from a single imperialist powe (with the economic and political — dependence that inevitably fol lows), but from a number 0 countries, both socialist an capitalist. Thus, Chile’s econo mic growth has not come abou that | to the detriment of her people, | but in their interests. 4 Chile’s “illness” seems not really that bad at all. Still, it cannot be denied that she faces serious problems, or that these problems do not call for (and will continue ot do so) tremen= dous sacrifices by her people. But it also must be said that in spite of the problems facing them, in spite of extremely dif- ficult conditions, the Chilean people are on the way to obtain: — ing better living conditions, greater personal dignity, and direct participation in important decision-making. This is largely to the realization of the Popular Unity program, to the fight for increased production led day after day by the work ing class, and to the struggle of an entire people to escape the morass of under-development. — due-