WORLD

Opposition to Reagan’s arms build-up —

Peace forces abroad are intensifying
the struggle to curb the arms race. A
number of actions took place during the
holiday season, many of. which speci-
fically opposed the military buildup of
the Reagan administration.

It was recently announced in Tokyo
that the Japanese National Teachers’
Union has collected 18 million signatures
On its petition demanding that military
Spending be reduced and that funds allo-
cated to education be greatly increased.
The major Tokyo daily newspapers
Mainichi and Yomiuri reported that their
December polls showed 70-72 percent of
the Japanese people oppose any in-
Creases in military spending.

- On a local level, over 300 cities and
towns and five provinces of Japan have
declared themselves nuclear-free zones.
This movement has snow-balled to such
an extent that a new newspaper has
appeared called Non-Nuclear Cities’
Herald, said Professor Katsu Misida,
One of the leaders of the non-nuclear
movement.

’ Takeshi Kurokawa, chair of the
Japanese Trade Unions General Coun-
cil, Japan’s largest trade union fed-
eration, told the mid-December meeting
of Soviet and Japanese trade unionists in
Tokyo that labor is united in the struggle
against nuclear war. The meeting

acquainted the trade unionists of the two .-

countries with the activities of organized
labor in the fight to prevent a nuclear
war.

In Rome, Italy’s biggest trade union
association, the General Confederation
of Italian Labor (CGIL), denounced the
use of Italian ports by U.S. nuclear sub-
Marines that have recently been armed
With cruise missiles. The CGIL took part
In the big anti-war demonstration on
Maddelena Island in Sardinia where the
Subs are based.

- A new Italian peace organization éal-
led Maddalena has been established that
unites the labor, peace, youth and ecol-
ogy movements.

In Britain, a big demonstration took
place outside Alconbury air base where
support facilities for U.S. cruise missiles

_ are to be sited. Large units of reinforced

police attacked the peace demonstrators
in much the same way they have been
attacking coal miners’ picket lines.

In Glasgow, the leading religious
figures of Scotland issued a New Year’s
message to Prime Minister Margaret
Thatcher urging her to abandon her mili-
tary buildup and use the funds for human
needs, particularly to fight Britain’s mas-
sive unemployment and poverty.

British peace forces are already stag-
ing symbolic blockades of the U.S.
cruise missile bases at Greenham Com-
mon and Molesworth. Tent cities have
sprung up around the bases and the
government has threatened to throw all
the protesters into jail.

.In the Netherlands, peace activists
staged a torchlight procession outside
the U.S. air base at Soeseterbergand and
set up a peace camp. Police attacked a
women’s peace demonstration near Vol-
kel air base. Trade unions are playing a
prominent role in both the British and
Dutch peace movements.

Ibrahim Zakaria, general secretary of
the 206-million-member World Fed-
eration of Trade Unions, in his New
Year’s message to Working people of the
world, stressed that the fight for peace
requires the broadest possible unity of
action involving great masses of people.

The past year showed growing unity of
actions by the peace and organized labor
movements throughout the world.
Zakaria said that the whole world is suf-
fering from the insane drive of im-

S

sei,

world

Defying majority sentiment in Japan, the U.S. Navy’s new aircraft carrier Carl Vinson, a
floating nuclear base, made port December 10 at the U.S. naval base in Yokosuka, the
entrance to Tokyo. The first nuclear aircraft carrier to dock at Yokosuka was faced with
two days of protest demonstrations on land and sea, including this one at Seaside Park in

which 5,000 participated.

perialism to step up the arms race in an
attempt to perpetuate its economic dom-
inance.

The WFTU leader, who played an out-
standing role in the trade union move-
ment of his Sudanese homeland, pointed
out that the arms race is already killing
people because ‘‘funds for socio-eco-
nomic development get cut down and
tremendous resources are spent on the
arms race to bolster the profits of the
military-industrial complex.

“As a result of that, the development
of whole regions of the world stagnates
and hunger reigns in many countries,
particularly in Africa. Every day
thousands of people lose their jobs and
join the vast army of unemployed even in
the industrially-developed capitalist
countries,’ Zakaria said, emphasizing
the need for the peace forces and all
working people to join to fight the arms
race for their common self-interest.

— U.S. Daily World

heen:

_ Election gives Grenada no relief

BRIDGETOWN, Barbados — While much of the
Caribbean's big business media and governments, like
that of Tom Adams in Barbados and Eugenia Charles in

Minica, wax eloquently on “‘the sweep of the polls”
by the Washington-backed New National Party in last

Cember’s rigged general elections in Grenada, a cloud
of Uncertainty continues to hang over the economic
Well-being of the man in the street in this Eastern Carib-

an island of 90,000 people. :

Since the October 1983 invasion by U.S.-led forces,
the island’s agriculture-based (nutmeg, cocoa, bananas)
€conomy has plummeted from crisis to crisis, with some

| Sectors’ productivity hitting rock bottom.

In terms of bananas, although there is a guaranteed
Market under an agreement between the regional grow-
€rs and British importers, bad management in the sector
Since the overthrow of the People’s Revolutionary
Government of the late Prime Minister Maurice Bishop

almost totally decimated the crop. Recently, the
rowers’ umbrella group — the windward Islands Bana-
na Association (WINBAN) — threatened to cancel out
renada’s part of the contract until things improve.
¢ Association is particularly worried about the
Sloppy handling of the fruit and the spread of the dreaded
leafy spot disease, which the organization said had

_ feached ‘epidemic proportions’’.,

As for nutmeg, there are virtually no markets with
Worthwhile prices for the spice at present. The German
emocratic Republic and several other socialist coun-
s had an agreement with the PRG to buy some of the
ther at favorable prices, but the invasion destroyed all

Th the process, unemployment has jumped consider-
ly — above 40 per cent, says former PRG Agriculture
nhister George Lousion — both in the agricultural sec-
tor and throughout the economy as a whole. _
_fourism, another significant part of the island’s
€conomy under the Bishop administration (32, 439
Stay-over visitors in the first three quarters of 1983) has
€n hard hit since the invasion. Hope for improvement,
Specially the qualitative aspect of the industry, in the

From the
Caribbean

Norman
Faria

immediate future is dim. The reason is simple: no rooms.
The island has about 650 hotel rooms, but nearly 400 of
them are now commandeered by the U.S. military
forces. The largest hotel, the Grenada Beach, is the
headquarters for the occupation troops, while the U.S.
embassy has been set up in another hotel at the end of the
famous Grand Anse Beach — the Ross Point Inn.
Both the Grenada Hotel Association and the Ministry
of Tourism express confidence that things will improve;
however, there have been little concrete developments
to get the industry back on its feet. The lack of both
serious planning and sensitivity at the top levels of the
industry is perhaps exemplified by the revelation of the

. Public Relations Officer at the Ministry of Tourism that

he has ‘‘an agreement in principle” that a luxury hotel
will be built on the ruins of no less a property than the
bombed out offices of Maurice Bishop, which overlooks
the scenic capital, St. George’s.

One of the reasons why the new regime may find itself
with no foreign capital to utilize in building up the eco-
nomy is the unstable political situation. It is doubtful if
the Blaize government will get anything more than
fly-by-night companies to invest — that is, those firms
and corporations which know that the “‘sweep”’ at the
polls by the NNP was hardly representative of political
sentiment in the island but will come in anyway to try and
make a few quick bucks.

They are aware of the hundreds of Grenadians who
complained to the Maurice Bishop Patriotic Foundation,
one of the parties which ran a slate of candidates during
the December 3rd poll, that even though they voted for
the MBPM their votes weren’t registered. The Front’s

main leaders,-Louison and Kenrick Radix, later accused
the U.S.-backed Interim Administration of tampering
with the ballot papers. Incredibly, when all the
sleight-of-hand shuffling was completed by the officials,
the Front, which pledged during the campaign to carry
on with the PRG’s popular programmes, ended up with
2,022 votes, or 4.9 per cent. .

From my personal observations and discussions with
Grenadian journalist colleagues while on a visit to Gre-
nada six months before the election, it is clear that there
is significant support for the Front, although Yankee
propaganda has made some inroads into it. The obvious
tomfoolery during the elections can therefore only lead
to tension and political unrest, argue some political
analysts. ]

Ominously, several hundred armed forces personnel
from the U.S. and such regional states as Barbados —
the Chief of Police is a Barbadian — remain in Grenada.
According to MBPM, their presence is provocative and a
continued threat to the peace and security of the island.
Everyday life for the islanders cannot return to normal
unless these forces withdraw, says the Front.

As the first session of the island’s new Parliament got
underway last month, there appears to’be no relief in
sight for the ordinary Grenadian since the fall of the
PRG. Indeed, it appears more belt-tightening is in store
for them: a confidential International Monetary Fund

(IMF) report leaked to the Caribbean News Agency

(CANA) has urged the new government to maintain a
policy of wage restraint for the island’s civil servants,
who make up a sizeable part of the workforce.
“There is a need to undertake adjustment and to in-
crease the mobilization of domestic resources,” said the

_ IMF report in part.

However, the MBPM has pledged to continue to help
Grenadians regain the sovereignty of their homeland,
rebuild the vibrant, representative political institutions
existing under the PRG and in general support the
people’s struggle to restore democracy, peace and well-
being in the island.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE, JANUARY 16, 1985 e 5

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