MENA VN A A 1a ORT TTT 7 ORLD What prospects for summit? as been a week of breathtaking Spments in international diploma- After much darkness and *Pointment, there now seems to be Stthe appearance of an opportunity ovement in several areas of critical Concern. Firs there was the dramatic U.S.- agreement to discard the spy Ss against American Nicholas Off and Soviet Gennady Zakharov. Mind the face-saving formulas Were built into the arrangement, or Meaning of the episode was by predictable media double- aniloff was ‘‘released’’, OV was ‘‘expelled’’. Such seman- are Telatively unimportant. The ~“nt thing is that common sense Umphed, and the diplomatic pro- Now has been given a chance. *t this week; Reagan will meet €Vv at a specially arranged sum- tun, hference in Iceland. This too is ith 4° DEWS. It signifies a will to deal € real issues, something we have from Washington since Ronald Came to town. fg e29AN’s “New Mood” a: Said this, however, it seems _ mllate to strike a sober note of cau- mt events of the past week rep- en pe best, a tiny opening which, 08 on what happens next, may “8er or disappear altogether. “Sident Reagan has moved slightly Opening rational relations with inesn » it is because global and 0 5 72 Pressures have forced him to “lis quite possible, however, that .Nerican leader merely wants a “etic summit’’, a hollow event that bj warily silence his critics, boost an electoral prospects, and ‘false impression of movement in °ntrol and other serious interna- Ssues. Gorbachev undoubtedly sus- d oe and that is why he has arrang- », Meet Reagan briefly in Iceland, nt an holding a major summit ;, 1 the United States as pre- arranged. Soviet leaders, wisely, ; lake the measure of Wash- S “new mood’’, before stepping Y more Reaganesque propaganda F Need only recall our frustrated tas the aftermath of last year’s lich, mit. Reagan bathed in the ho ts, spoke many fine words, then Me to schedule some 20 nuclear ne, UP. Star Wars development, Se the SALT treaties, and stall or Yery proposal for arms control News Analysis Fred Weir |. progress that has been put forward by the other side. Carl Sagan Arrested On the domestic front there is clearly no change of heart in the Reagan estab- lishment. The U.S. last week detonated a 150 kiloton — the maximum permissible yield — nuclear device in the Nevada desert. It was the 20th U.S. nuclear test since the Soviet testing moratorium came into effect more than a year ago (this includes three ‘secret’ tests, unannounced by the Pentagon but con- firmed by independent seismologists and geologists who have detected and mea- ~ sured them). Near the testing site in Nevada Sep- tember 30 were hundreds of scientists, doctors and peace activists, there to pro- test the U.S. government’s refusal to join the USSR in a suspension of nuclear explosions. Ina revealing display of of- ficial attitude, military security des- cended upon the non-violent demon- strators, arresting 139 of them, including astronomer Carl Sagan. The big media did not notice this story, and Americans were thereby spared from viewing the painful spectacle of the creator of Cosmos, one of the world’s foremost voices for humanism and common sense, being trussed-up with plastic handcuffs and thrown into the back of a military van. No Visas for Scientists In yet another development, which speaks volumes about the Reagan admin- istration’s underlying intentions, the U.S. State Department has refused to grant Soviet scientists the opportunity to go to Nevada and set up seismic measur- ing equipment as Americans have been permitted to do in the USSR. (See last week’s Trib for story). The Soviet scientists, who were to have come to the U.S. on September 14 as part of a reciprocal arrangement with American colleagues, have had their visa applications denied unless they will agree to one of two unacceptable condi- tions. Late last week the Tribune contacted the scientists’ group which has invited the Soviets, the Natural Resources De- fence Council (NRDC). A spokesperson told us that the Soviet scientists are not being permitted into the United States unless they agree to either: 1) Act asofficial Soviet witnesses of an American nuclear test. Then they may be allowed to set up their seismic equipment in Nevada for two weeks only. (The Soviet government has refused to of- ficially observe a U.S. nuclear explosion, because to do so would be to endorse the- continuation of testing). ‘ 2) Or, the Soviet scientists may come to the U.S. for one week only, but may not go anywhere near the Nevada testing zone, and may not set up any seismic detection equipment anywhere. (Ameri- can seismologists have been inthe USSR for three months, and with no political preconditions have been allowed to set up seismic equipment all around the . major Soviet test site). This apparently represents the Reagan administration’s final word. What it means is that U.S. scientists will be un- able to carry out their half of the bargain, and give their Soviet counterparts access to seismic data concerning American nu- clear tests. It also means that one of the most imaginative private initiatives for peace and international co-operation ever devised has been now effectively killed. These are things worth keeping in mind as Reagan heads for Iceland to meet Gorbachev. Diplomacy alone, im- portant as it may be, will not force the Reagan administration to bargain in good faith. There is no substitute for a mobilized public. If we are to defeat the Cold War, that is what we need now more than ever. “ag Bad week for scientists: Carl Sagan (above) was arrested at anti-nuclear test- ing demonstration in Nevada. Soviet participants in joint scientific monitoring project were denied visas to enter U.S. Iraq and Iran war drags on TORONTO — The devastating carnage of the Iran and Iraq war was the topic of discussion at a public meeting held last week in Toronto. Sponsored by the Iraqi Democratic Union, the Tudeh Party (Iran) and the Iranian Peoples Fedain (Majority) the meeting was held as the Iran-Iraq conflict enters its 7th year with no end in sight. A leading representative of the Tudeh Party described the devas- tation the war has created in the region. ‘‘The war has caused un- told suffering to the peoples of Iran and Iraq. The number of kil- led, wonded and maimed has top- ped 1.2-million. On the Iranian side almost three million have be- come homeless refugees. Tens of thousands have ‘deserted the army and emigrated. The loss of property in Iran is estimated at $250-billion.. The fruits of the labor of several generations of Iranians and Iraqis have ° been lost.” A meeting of the Communist and Worker’s parties of the Arab countries in June 1985 pointed out that the war has been accom- panied by growing signs of retro- gression in the policies of both countries. It also pointed out the role of the United States and Is- rae] in fanning the flames of war in the region. : On the positive side the speaker pointed out that there were in- creasingly frequent anti-war | demonstrations in Iran ‘‘which — have assumed particularily note- worthy proportions in recent months and are evidence of wide- spread protest against the per- sisting carnage.” Addressing the audience, the Tudeh Party representative reiterated the position of his par- ty: ““We demand that hostilities be ended immediately and that steps be taken to settle all dis- putes by peaceful means guar- anteeing the legitimate rights and interests of both neighbouring peoples and ruling out all curtail- ment. of their national in- dependence and sovereignty,”” he said. All three organizations expres- sed their resolve to do all in their power to bring the conflict to an end and to bring peace to the reg- ion. TORONTO — “This is a Throne Speech that ought to be torn up and a new one writ- ten,” Communist Party gen- eral secretary William Kashtan said, Oct. 1, responding to the Mulroney government’s agenda for the current Parliamentary session. : While trying to project a “caring” image and mention- ing almost every interest group in the country from children to the Atlantic provinces, the government’s agenda came under universal criticism for failing to propose any concrete actions other than promsing to stay the couse on the neo- conservative agenda of slash- assert that its agenda. ing the deficit and trimming government spending as the Tories’ top priority. Instead, he Communist lead-' er said, the government should have placed economic expan- sion, the raising of people’s purchasing power and vital © issues such as alleviating the crisis of the family farmer on Kashtan asked. “The Throne Speech shows that the government is still addicted to its austerity pro- gram-in that it continues to its anti-inflation measures take precedence over the need to fight unemploy- ment and create jobs,” Kash- tan said in an interview. as other exemptions. “Where are the jobs, jobs, jobs, that were promised by Prime Minister Mulroney?” He rejected the Tory argu- ment that the deficit made it impossible to develop an ex- pansionary economic program for Canada, because the gov- ernment has given and con- tinues to give big business billions of dollars in incentive money and income tax as well He also accused the Tories of “playing games with the Canadian people” on the tax reform issue. While noting the .Vague promises in the Throne Speech, he cited the proposed Business Transfer Tax which will in fact increase taxation on. the public and reduce taxes for the corporate sector. The Throne Speech’s “fam- ily orientation” and its sup- posed “caring” image relative to action against drug and alcohol abuse, prostituion, child abuse, and other promises are legitimate questions to be dealt with but don’t address far more fundamental problems confronting Canadian families, he said. “Canadians don’t need the government to ‘stay the course,” they need a government that will chart a new direction lead- ing to jobs and a higher living standard,” Kashtan said. PACIFIC TRIBUNE, OCTOBER 8, 1986 « 5