Forty years of a made-in-the-USA dic-
torship has left the people of
ragua in a desperate situation. The
war which won them their freedom
cted a high price. Over 600,000 are
Without adequate food, medical atten-
tlon, clothing and shelter. if help doesn’t
Some quickly many will die, especially
most vulnerable — the children. Re-
lef efforts have been started — but
More is needed — immediately.

ees

Some 250,000 of Nicaragua’s children
er the age of four are suffering from
utrition in the wake of the civil war

42 years of Somoza-ism. A letter
ssed to External Affairs Minister
Fora MacDonald, awaits the signature
Sf Canadians who feel the urgency of
}*Ving the lives of these children and
}untless thousands of adults. They face
“arvation, wounds and sickness for
Which there are no medical supplies, ex-
Posure because of lack of even
“Mergency housing, and hardship be-
of inadequate clothing.
The Nicaraguans, having defeated the
Vloody Somoza regime set up and armed
»y the USA, now badly need this aid for
Survival as their new revolutionary gov-
jqument throws all of its strength into the
Uefence and well-being of the people and
I new state.
4 The Canadian Labor Congress, fol-
Wing the Clark government’s recogni-
N of Nicaragua’s Provisional Re-
Yolutionary Government, took dramatic
fr Swift action recently to get funds
}-°M its affiliates for food, medical
“Upplies, shelter, clothing and other
neds. The CLC action followed a report
Y¥ John Simmonds its member on the
fact-finding commission to Nicaragua,
ganized by the International Confed-
{ation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU).

4 In the thick of the fighting between the
Srees of the new government — the
Gudinist guerrillas — and the National
cd of dictator Somoza, another
‘nadian took part in deliberations to
‘Putin motion practical solidarity with the
Volutionary government, which had
ay that time, proclaimed its final vic-

: Venezuela Conference
a Quinn, an auto worker and Un-
Auto Workers member from Niag-
os alls, Ontario, was in Caracus, Ven-
thr fla on the eve of the complete over-
‘OW of the U.S. puppet, Somoza.

op Oining in the decision-making there,
Over 300 delegates from 60 countries,
Conk Was part of the demand from that
sio €rence for full support to the Provi-
Ni Revolutionary Government of
— unconditional support.

Be attended the conference called by
a Orld Peace Council, July 13 - 15, as
Co Presentative of the Canadian Peace
Niastess. Quinn is a member of the
the P, Peace Movement. In a report to
face Congress on his return, Quinn

The streets of Managua: before Somoza fled he robbed the
banks of all the foreign currency, he burned the domestic cur-
rency. Even for those with money there is little to buy. Because

of the fighting no crops were planted, the National Guard sys-
tematically destroyed all the industry, hospitals and schools
and their equipment and machinery on the eve of their defeat.

The new Nicaragua
desperately needs our aid

gave these figures to indicate the absence
of human rights under the former made-
in-USA regime. With such facts in view
who. would question the Nicaraguans’
decision to rid themselves of their tor-
turer? .

Sixty percent of Nicaragua’s popula-
tion lived in extreme poverty. Rural in-
habitants, half the population, earned
less than $150a year, and half of them less
than $39 a year! Unemployment ex-
ceeded 30% of the workforce, rising to
50% in the off season among agricultural
workers. While 70% of Nicaraguan
foodstuffs were imports, 50% of the chil-
dren suffered from malnutiriton under
the U.S.-Somoza regime. Forty-six per-
cent died before the age of four.

Illiteracy, nationwide, was 60%,
reaching 80-95% in the countryside.
These statistics were compiled by the
U.S. State Department.

It was on this background that jour-
nalists, and representatives from peace
organizations and trade unions, church
and legal associations, at the World Con-

In 1966 the UN General As-
Sembly declared the occupation

and ordered immediate and un-
Conditional withdrawal by Pre-
‘oria. Thirteen years later, South
““rican occupation and repres-
Sl0n not only continues, but has
iMtensified.

Namibian people under the lead-
€tship of the South West Africa
People’s Organization (SWAPO)

iE ae Concerned About Southern

. I. the Ca (CCSA) which reports that

gx er of South African

| fee PS in Namibia has now

Teached 75,000. They are backed,
. 4

| - Namibia Day marked —

_ OfNamibia by South Africa illegal

August 26, the dayon which the

CCSA says, by the latest
weaponry and aim to retain real |
economic-political power in the
hands of South Africa’s racists.

CCSA charges the elections
which were to be held in June
have been sabataged by South Af-
rica by:
e the unilateral appointment of a
colonial governor,

e the massacre of refugees in
Kassinga,

e the sham December elections,

e the creation of a so-called con-
stituent assembly

e and the installation of an il-
legal national assembly.

CCSA reaffirms its solidarity
with the Namibian people’s strug-
gle for independence and urges the

ference of Solidarity with the People of
Nicaragua voted unanimously, without
abstentions, to mobilize aid for Nicara-

guan reconstruction...
Mercouri Adds Voice

In Toronto, on August 21, a film show-
ing was organized — proceeds to aid the
revolutionary government of Nicaragua,
at which Greek actress, parliamentarian
and peace activist Melina Mercouri,
spoke of the urgent need for practical
assistance to the people of Nicaragua.

Like the Greeks who had had to rid
themselves of a fascist junta, she said,
like the Cypriots who were still fighting
for the reunification of their island
against the forces of the Turkish invader
— a member of NATO — the Nicara-
guans had fought tyranny and now
needed urgent help from all quarters.

The meeting was addressed by Pastor
Valle-Garay, Nicaraguan charge d’af-
faires in Canada, who stressed his coun-
try’s non-aligned stance in foreign poli-
cy.
A letter circulated at the film showing,
addressed to Flora MacDonald, and re-
quiring the signatures of millions of
Canadians, expressed distress that ‘‘the
federal government of Canada has cho-
sen not to reply with concrete aid and
action to the desperate calls for help that
the Nicaraguan Government of National
Reconstruction has issued to all the
humanitarian nations of the world.”

The letter voiced its concern for “‘the
fate of the 600,000 Nicaraguan civilians
left homeless, starving and ill from the
national war that recently devastated
their country.”’

It reported that 40,000 had lost their
lives, that 250,000 children under the age
of four suffer from malnutrition, that
‘due to the conflict, no crops were
planted and the traumatized population
desperately needs the nutritive and med-
ical aid of other nations of the world to
survive.”

Finally, the letter implores the minis-
ter, in this Year of the Child particularly,
“to assure that a quarter of a million
Nicaraguan children, under the age of
four, neither starve nor perish for lack of
food, medicine or shelter.’’

The Canadian Labor Congress has

made a contribution to the need, many
Canadians feel, but it remains for the
Clark government to live up. to it
humanitarian - billing, _ publicized _for.,
example in the case of the ‘‘boat
people’, and show that its
humanitarianism is not just a political
gimmick.

The new government is presently re-
ceiving aid — no strings attached — from
the Soviet Union and Cuba.

USA Bought Somoza

In his contacts with Nicaraguans and
others closely associated with the situa-
tion in Nicaragua before the overthrow
of the Somoza dictatorship, Canadian
auto worker Don Quinn learned that
since 1970, ‘‘the U.S. Government gave
Somoza $150-million in economic aid,
$30-million in military aid, and $571-
million through the international lending
agencies it dominates.

‘*The National Guard,’ he reported,
‘‘was equipped with weapons supplied
by the U.S. and Israel, with further aid
given by neighboring dictatorships of El
Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala.”

Quinn said that ‘‘atrocities committed
by Somoza’s National Guard seem end-
less, and are well documented in the Re-
port on the Situation of Human Rights in
Nicaragua.’’ They were also well
documented in the film shown in Toron-
to, Aug. 21, a film whose parts were held
together by an interview with general of
the new Nicaraguan army, Humberto
Ortega Saavedra.

*‘During the seige of the capital, Man-
agua, the USA maintained four squad-
rons of C-147 fighter planes and trained
troops waiting in readiness in Panama,”’
Quinn learned. “Daily a plane would
leave Panama and fly to Managua to ob-
serve the situation...U.S. intelligence
was co-ordinated with the Somoza re-
pime.-;"*

The solidarity actions of today are bet-
ter fuelled having the knowledge of what
Somoza-ism meant to that country.

Canadians who cannot participate
through a union or other organization are
asked to send financial aid to: Cana-
dian Action for Nicaragua, Imperial Bank
of Commerce, York Mills and Victoria
Park, Account Number 49-10761.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE— SEPTEMBER 14, 1979—Page 7