BERLIN LETTER

Economic suc

By FILS DELISLE
Tribune Berlin Correspondent
BERLIN — The meeting of the

Council for Mutual Economic
Assistance in Berlin July 7-9
accentuated the economic ad-
vance in the socialist countries
and the continuing stagnation in
the capitalist world.

In the reports to the CMEA,
and in its final communique, the
emphasis was on the striking
economic successes in the past
five years and continued growth
in the period up to 1980. In reports
from the advanced capitalist
countries, the emphasis was on
unbroken crisis, despite recent
optimistic talk of an ‘‘upturn’’, on
continuing mass unemployment
and a clouded future.

Some western commentators
have sought to make it appear as if
it is capitalism that has the bright
future and socialism which is in
trouble. To achieve this aim, they,
manipulate and isolate temporary
phenomena — say, recent poor
harvests in the USSR — to pre-
sent socialist development in grim
terms.

The Berlin meeting of the
socialist states organized into the
CMEA, however, has shown that
despite the real problems that al-
ways confront those building the
society of the future, the trend in
the CMEA countries has been, is
now and will remain: dynamic
economic growth on the basis of

socialism and the ever-expanding
program of economic integration
among them.

Nobody dares to make such
predictions about the capitalist
world. The capitalist countries
the European Economic Com-
munity, for example, go from one
crisis to another. While the social-
ist government leaders were
planning further growth on a
broad scale at their 30th CMEA
meeting, Dutch foreign minister
Max van den Stoel told the
Luxemburg parliament that the
European Economic Community
is threatened by “‘stagnation and
defeat’’. He declared: *‘The EEC
apparatus is still at work, but it is
showing itself to be sterile and
useless.”’

The reverse situation exists in
the socialist countries. The
CMEA meeting reported over-all
progress in all the member coun-

tries, a rapid rate of growth in in- .

dustry, and successful com-

pletion of all the last. five-year

plans in the various countries.
In the five-year period ending in

1975, the total increase in industry
in CMEA countries was 36%. In
the EEC and other leading capital-
ist countries it was only 12-13%
during the same period.

' Again, real income in the
CMEA socialist countries during
this period was 29%, while in
the leading capitalist countries
the trend has been to an actual

AN END

ir Rave vaLbes vivd

fraternal countries.

the puppets of imperialism in

continent.

<=

ANGOLA:

O THE MERCENARIES’ MYTH (1) i

The June 27 issue of the Cuban newspaper Granma carries
~ the first in a series titled “Angola: An End to the Mercenaries’
Myth”. It chronicles the history of mercenary soldiers through-
out the centuries and carries a short section of answers given
to interrogators by the mercenary soldiers captured in Angola.
’ The supplement opens with a quote from Fidel Castro’s
speech delivered during his visit to Africa earlier this year. The
Cuban premier, speaking in Conakry, Guinea, was commenting
on the victory scored over the combined imperialist forces and
white mercenaries by the Angolan liberation troops assisted by

“Many myths were destroyed in this struggle — the myth of

mercenaries who perpetrated so many crimes in Africa. We will
never forget Patrice Lumumba; we will never forget the shame-
ful role played by the white mercenaries in Zaire and Nigeria or
any of the other crimes committed by white mercenaries on this

- “But this time in Angola the white mercenaries were
destroyed along with their myth, and so was the myth of the
invincibility of the South African racists ...”

>

Havana, June 27. 1976

os

Africa, the myth of the white

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—AUGUST 20, 1976—Page 4

reduction in real income for the
working people.

Instead of the rivalry and com-
petition typical of the capitalist
countries, the member states of
the CMEA, at their Berlin meet-
ing, approved a far-reaching,
complex program of economic in-
tegration in the fields of fuels,
energy, raw materials, machines,
the production of basic. food-
stuffs, the mutual exchange of in-
dustrial consumer goods, the
further development and exten-
sion of transport facilities be-
tween their territories.

The members of the CMEA are
the USSR, the German Demo-
cratic Republic, Poland, Hun-
gary, Bulgaria, Romania,
Czechoslovakia, Cuba, Mon-
golia. A Yugoslav representative
attends CMEA sessions under a
special agreement. Also present
as observers at the 30th meeting
were observers from the Socialist
Republic of (reunited) Vietnam,
North Korea, Laos, and repre-
sentatives of a number of inter-
national organizations set up by

MONTIVIDEO — Kidnap-
pings and murders continue, ac-
cording to information received
from this Uruguayan capital. The
ex-president of the Uruguayan
Chamber of Deputies, Hector
Ruiz and a Senator of the “‘Broad
Front’’, Zelmar Michelini were
kidnapped and murdered. Along
with them were found the bodies
of two young people. These four
along with three children who are
still missing, were-kidnapped in
Montevideo and transported to
Buenos Aires where they were
murdered.

The press statement points out
that the fascist Bordaberry regime
has kept up its reign of terror.
Thousands are in concentration
camps. Torture, kidnappings and
murder are the norm and these
crimes escalate as the constitu-
tional date for the national elec-
tions approaches.

Though the Bordaberry gov-
ernment has officially deplored
this latest series of kidnappings
and murders, the record of dis-
appearance of democrats, trade
unionists, communists and
everyone opposing fascism
makes it clear that this regime and
its CIA backers are the only ones
to gain from the terrible
repression.

Spanish Communists

_ fight for legality

Spanish Communist Party
leaders Dolores Ibarruri (La
Pasionaria) and Santiago Carrillo
expect to end 37 years of exile and
return openly to their homeland
early next month.

At the same time, the Spanish
party — still not legalized — is
planning to end its clandestine or-
ganization and set up open
branches throughout Spain.

“The law does not yet recog-
nize this reality, but the reality is

} there, and the legality of the.

Spanish, Communist Party will
without doubt be imposed,”’ said
eons secretary Santiago Carril-
O.

(The following is abridged from an article which first appeared ™
the magazine Women of the Whole World.) :

OUR COMRADE JOSINA ... say the Mozambique women with lové
and respect. Josina Machel was a fearless fighter for national indepel
dence and equal rights for women. She suffered torture, hunger ¢
reprisals in the prisons of the infamous fascist Portuguese secret police
the PIDE. Following her escape, the FRELIMO Central Committeé
put her in charge of setting up the Liberation Front’s first women §
organization. She died at a very early age on 7th April 1971.

The aim she struggled so valiantly for — a free Mozambique — has
been achieved. What use are the women of Mozambique making of this
new era and the new opportunities is offers?

* ok OK

BOANE, LESS THAN 30 KILOMETRES away from the capital:
The women have worked painstakingly to make the land fit for cultiv#
tion. As yet nothing has been cultivated. Everywhere gaping wounds
and burns are to be seen in the soil. But it is not difficult to imagif®
pumpkins, tomatoes, or some other vegetable growing here very sou
This field is just the beginning of joint cultivation for the women 9
Boane. Other arable areas are to follow. Co-operatives like thes¢ are
springing up all over Mozambique. They provide jobs for many womel
and men and help to overcome the hunger brought about by

agricultural policy of the former Portuguese landowners who were only
out to make profit. Mozambique is a fertile country with a favorable
climate, yet less than eight percent of the land was used for agricultul®

A few minutes’ drive away from the virgin soil of the new co-operative
begin the vast vegetable fields and fruit plantations of a Portugues
farmer. The owner of these 250 hectares of land and considerable
livestock had gone to Europe. He’s on holiday, his deputy says. i
shows the plantation with its lemon, orange, pawpaw and grapefitl
trees in magnificent condition — a fact that he constantly refers to wi
unconcealed pride. Although very talkative, our friend makes no met
tion of the people responsible for these truly splendid trees, as well
the profits for the plantation owner.

CACILDA, THE ROBUST market woman who has come te the
Boane pumpkin field with her baby, Eduardo, lives in Infulene, a subul
on the outskirts of the capital. She has eight sons, and goes to thé
square under the tree of honor where the women meet twice a wee
These meetings are organized by the activizing groups in the neighbor
hood. These ‘“‘dinamizadores”’, as they are called, are voluntary kad
tivists, propaganda workers and organizers of FRELIMO who pains
takingly carry out the work among the people in the residential ar eas
factories, offices and villages.

At the meeting, Palmira, a nurse, is the secretary of the Mozambiqi]
Women’s Organization in the activizing group. She‘confirms, “yes
there are plenty who come to our meetings now. There are still maf
who stay at home.’’ Palmira explains: ‘‘Colonial condemnation if
absolute political passivity and intellectual enslavement have left the
marks on the people, which will only disappear in the course of tn
Women also have to cope with the problem of an inherited doub
exploitation. Many men dislike or are even against their wives leav!
their four walls and interesting themselves in politics.’’ How, then, f
the Infulene activizing group able to achieve this success in such a sho
time? Palmira answers: ‘‘We attend to people’s daily problems.

cwmwuocve es su £Fap

ea ee

Here in Infulene, where the houses are very modest, where there is 0°
school, no doctor, hardly any water pipes and inadequate roads leaditt
to the towns, and where many men are either unemployed or else!
poorly paid jobs, daily problems include the questioning search fot
life that contains more than just a vegetation and the struggle for mé /
existence. Thus, advice is offered as to how to produce better 1n th
garden or on a patch of land, and the kealth propaganda and litera®
courses of the activizing group provide convincing examples. The
show in a practical and concrete manner how social relations and
can and must be changed so that the many poor can lead a wort
existence. Moreover, they convince the hesitant and aloof that th
policy and aims of FRELIMO and the new government coincide W!
their own needs and wishes.

THE WOMEN LEARN how to read and write. They sit on the ba
earth of the large square and struggle with their ABCs. This 1
common sight in Mozambique since independence.

This enormous onslaught on education was organized by FRELIM?
In the costly wars of the armed liberation struggle every fighter held
gun in one hand and an exercise book in the other. ‘And in every 0&
village that was freed from the Portuguese colonial yoke by pe)
People’s Army a school was immediately set up for both children ¢ {
grown-ups. Frequently their teacher —a FRELIMO fighter — had jl
earned to read and write himself.

While the people of Mozambique struggle to overcome the ilitert
‘and ignorance inherited from the old society, their aims of a better
are being fulfilled. They need books, and buildings, they need teach?
(they have only eight hundred trained teachers for over eight
inhabitants). In view of this about ten thousand young people up
down the country are now being trained in three-month courses tO"
teachers. Women struggling to overcome inequality and ignorancé
the world can feel certain that the hard-working women of Mo
bique will be victorious in making their contribution in building th
new social order.

—men CG) GF OO Of

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