2)

Political opposition in Iran
own Sha

Soars in effort to d

Spetial to the Tribune

vn political and economic
crisis in Iran has only been aggra-
vated by the Shah’s increasing
Feptession and has found the op-
Position to his rule increase
among all sectors of the Iranian
population.

The hallmarks of the 25-year
tule of Shah Reza Pahlavj after he
Was Teturned to power in a CIA-
backed coup has been brutal polit-
Kea! repression, militarism, ex-
Pansionism, corruption and the
sell-out of Iran’s oil resources to
the West.

The purchase of arms by the
ah in the last three years has
amounted to $40-billion. Wages
Paid to foreign military advisers
amounted to $3.5-billion in: the

t year alone. The yearly wages
of all foreign military advisers
equalled the total amount spent
on health and education in Iran.

€ average yearly wage of a
foreign military adviser amounted
to $100,

Tran, whose population is 35

On, is; an underdeveloped
country and spends more on its
military than Canada, Italy and
Belgium combined. Over $2,000
per Person is spent on the milit-
aty, Which is six times the annual
Wage of the rural worker. Since
the Shah’s installation by the CIA

Tate of growth in Iran’s milit-
ary Spending grossly exceeds that
of the U.S. The U.S. expenditure
on the military was $14.4-billion
in 1945 and rose nine times to
$130-billion in 1978. In Iran the
growth rate has been from $5.7

Iranian exiles in San Francisco demonstrate against Shah’s U.S. visit.
Opposition mounts in and outside the country to down his regime.

million in 1954 to well over $10
billion in the 1970’s, which does
not include wages paid to foreign
military advisers, a growth rate of
175 times.

Right-wing terrorism,
arrests sweep Turkey

In a letter to Communist and

orker’s Parties, the Communist
Party of Turkey (TKP) has out-
lined the severe repression and at-
tacks directed against com-
munists, progressive and democ-
ratic forces in that country.

‘At a time when U.S. im-
perialism and NATO forces have
intensified their attacks against
the socialist world under the guise
of “human tights’, the most basic
human rights and freedoms are
being trod underfoot in Turkey,”
Says the TKP. ‘‘This is the only
country in Europe where. the
: mmunist Party is banned.
*.-.» Security of human life has
disappeared. Readers of democ-
fatic newspapers are subjected to
Open attacks . .. in the past seven
months more than 400 people
have been killed by fascist com-
Mandos, the secret and open
police and Maoist provocateurs.
Thousands more have been
wounded. The aim of this mount-
ing fascist terror is to draw the
government of Prime Minister
Ecevit further to the right, hinder
its developing relations with the
socialist world and fan the winds

of cold war. ...”’

The TKR letter describes the
trial of the publishers of progres-
sive journals and the confiscation
of these magazines. One journal-
ist faces a possible 156 years in
prison. The trial of the publisher
of the TKP Program, which began
in Istanbul on Oct. 17, has at-
tracted world-wide attention with

democratic lawyers and journal-"

ists from many countries in
attendance.

“Investigations have been
launched into 54 democratic or-
ganization.” the TKP letters
says, “in connection with the sh-
outing of slogans at last year’s
May Day parade. Interrogation of
the leaders, the trials and investi-
gations are essentially contrary to
the Helsinki Final Document and
basic human rights.”’

The letter reports that, making
use of the ban against the Turkish
Communist Party, the National
Intelligence Agency with the col-
laboration of the Maoists have at-
tempted to establish a fake com-
munist party using the name
TKP-ML in an effort to confuse

‘the people and blunt - the

working-class struggle.

The TKP asks fraternal com-
munist and worker’s parties to
condemn the wave of terror and
the supression of human rights in
Turkey and to held publicize the
‘trials of journalists and publishers
now under way.

Shortly after this letter was re-
ceived, the press reported the're-
opening of four U.S. military
bases in ‘Turkey which had been
closed in 1975 following a U.S.
‘arms embargo brought on by
Turkey's invasion of Cyprus in
1974. The embargo has been lifted
by Congress in return for Ameri-
can use of bases in Turkey from

’ which spying missions against the
USSR are conducted. Spying sta- .

tions at Sinop, on the Black Sea
coast, at Diyarbakir in eastern
Turkey, at Belbasi near the capi-
tal and at Kargaburun, north
of the Marmara Sea re-opened
on Oct. 9.

This massive expenditure on
the military has been going on ata
time when the average rural in-
come per year amounts to only
$300 per person, most villages are
without doctors and over two mil-
lion live in shanty towns outside
the cities. The death rate among
children is one of the highest in
the world.

The Shah’s regime maintains
relations with the most reaction-
ary countries, supplying 90% of
the oil needs of South Africa,
which later sells part of it to
Rhodesia, and 60% of the oil
needs of Israel. Iran was the main
supplier of arms. to Somalia’s
aggression against Ethiopia and
sold oil supplies to the Thiu
government and the U.S. war
machine in Vietnam.

The Shah also sent troops to
back the Sultanates in Muscat and
Oman against the democratic na-
tional liberation forces in those
countries.

The number of foreign military
advisers, management and skilled
oil workers from the West and
laborers from Pakistan, the
Philippines and South Korea
amounts to close to 2 million to-
tally displacing the Iranian
economy when over one million
people are unemployed. Much of
the wages paid foreign personnel
are sent out of the country. Over
100,000 political prisoners have
been held in Iran in past.year and
tortured by the hands of the
Savak. Any public criticism of
the Shah results in the jailing of
the person without trial and a
permanent black mark on his re-
cord kept on the security files of
Savak.

During the recent demonstra-
tions the slogan ‘Death to the
Shah" and the burning of his por-
trait flew in the face of years of
repression, and has shown obser-
vers of the Iranian people’s strug-
gle the depth to which-the resis-
tance to the autocracy of the Shah
has reached among the broad

‘Populace of Iran.

WEST GERMAN STEELWORKERS ON STRIKE FOR SHORTER
WORK WEEK

BONN — Some 37,000 West German steelworkers went on strike
Nov. 28 for a 35-hour. work week to prevent the loss of jobs in the
industry. The steel industry is currently losing 1,000 jobs a month and
many workers are on short time.

About 120,000 steelworkers have lost their jobs since the 1960's and
this strike is part of an effort by the German Trade Union Federation to
win a shorter work week in all major industries. There are about
300,000 steelworkers in the Federal Republic of Germany and the
union estimates another. 150,000 jobs will be lost by 1985 unless the
work week is shortened.

COMMUNIST PARTY OF BANGLADESH REGAINS LEGALITY

DACCA — The Communist:Party of Bangladesh has regained its
former status as a legal political party as part of the government's lifting
of the ban on all political parties. It was feared that reactionary forces
might try to exclude the CPB from this action. In a statement last week,
the CPB Central Committee called on the government to now lift the
existing state of martial law, free political prisoners and restore demo-
cratic rights.

GUYANESE GOVERNMENT REFUSES INVESTIGATION ON

JONESTOWN MURDERS

GEORGETOWN — Despite repeated calls by the opposition party
(the People’s Progressive Party) on the government of Forbes Bur-
nham to launch an official investigation into the deaths of 914 persons,
the Burnham government has refused stating it deems such action
unnecessary. The PPP motion, which was ruled out of order by the
House Speaker, called for the creation of a special investigative com-

- mission with wide powers and a broad, independent character. This

demand was also supported by the Working People’s Alliance.

WORLD OUTPUT OF FOODSTUFFS INCREASING
ROME — The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the
United Nations said here Nov. 27 that world food production has
increased faster in 1978 than in 1977. (3-3.5% this year compared to
2.2% in 1977) The FAO said the increase was due mainly to increased
production in the USSR and eastern Europe.

JAPANESE COMMUNISTS SCORE MORE ELECTION GAINS
TOKYO — The Communist Party of Japan won 48 seats-in last
month’s local and municipal elections increasing CPJ representation

-by five seats. So far this year CPJ deputies in such councils has grown

by 69, while the ruling Liberal Democratic Party has added only 17.

At present there are 3,292 Communist members of 1,917 local and
municipal councils in Japan — more than half of such councils. The
CPJ holds the overwhelming majority in 209 of them.

LUANDA, Angola — Troops of Angola’s People’s Militia march
through the streets here as the country has been placed on alert due to
South African spy plane overflights and massive concentration of
troops — and UNITA counter-revolutionaries — which are poised on the
Namiblan-Angolan border.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—DECEMBER 20, 1978—Page 11