a ee

The effects of the Iranian re-
volution through the Middle East
are being felt, but nowhere as
immediate and heavily as in racist
South Africa. Pretoria, which re-
ceived 90% of its oil from Iran, is
now cut off from Iranian oil
supplies. On March 5 Tehran an-
nounced it was severing diploma-
tic ties with South Africa.

The following is a portion of an
article ‘‘Revolution in Iran Rat-
tles Apartheid’”’ which appeared
in the January issue of ‘‘Worker’s
Unity”’ newspaper of the South
African Congress of Trade
Unions.

a

The shock-waves of the Iranian
revolution have been felt as far
afield as South Africa, causing
serious difficulties for the apar-
theid regime. In the past Iran has
supplied over 90% of South Afri-
ca’s vital oil needs.

The strike by the Iranian oil
workers was so effective that the

Shah was forced to import oil to
cope with Iran’s own needs!

The South African government
has been forced to prepare petrol
rationing plans and further price
increases, while trying to find oil
supplies on the international
‘‘spot market’* (where it costs a
lot more).

SASOL 1, the oil-from-coal
plant, provides only 5% of South
Africa’s oil requirements. Even
when SASOL 2 comes into use in
the early 1980s, only 28% of the
fuel demands of South Africa will
be produced at home.

Exploitation

While South Africa is rich in
minerals, Iran is rich in oil. A con-
sortium (or ‘“‘club’’) of oil com-
panies based in Britain, the USA,
Holland and France, together
controlled 90% of oil production
in Iran. The British-owned BP is
the biggest share-holder in this
consortium, with 40%.

A number of these companies

lran’s revolution aparthei |

are also involved in fuelling the
South African economy, for
example: BP; the American-
owned Mobil; Shell (60% Dutch
and 40% British-owned); ‘and
Total (66% French-owned).
Along with the American-owned
Caltex, they own three of the four
oil refineries in South Africa. The
fourth refinery is controlled by
SASOL, with a share being
owned by the Iranian National Oil
Company.

The big oil companies are so
powerful that the turnover ofeach
one world-wide is greater than the
whole national output of most of
the world’s countries. These vast
financial interests have fiercely
resisted attempts to cut off South
Africa’s oil supplies. The
involvement of BP, Shell, Total
and Mobil in supplying oil to the
Rhodesian regime has: recently
been exposed.

Deals
While Iran has supplied 90% of

South Africa’s oil needs, it has
also supplied about 80% of Is-
rael’s. (This oil is also now to be
cut off.) The regimes of Iran,
South Africa and Israel have been
linked together in a number of
economic and military deals. For
instancé, South Africa has been
involved, along with Israel and
the USA, in providing training
and equipment for SAVAK, the
monstrous Iranian secret police.

While the foreign oil companies .
siphoned off fabulous profits from
Iran, the workers and people of
that country suffered hardship
and poverty. Prices rose by 30%
each year and there were serious
food shortages. 65 out of every
100 Iranians cannot read or write.
85 out of every 100 dwellings are
built with mud, not cement,
which explains why so many
people (26,000) died in the Tabas
earthquake last year.

While $11,669-million has been

spent on the army: and «|
police each year, a mere $693-0
lion has been spent on housifl

While there was hardship
millions of Iranians, there }
wealth and luxury for the. eli
Ten per cent of the populat
took 42% of the total weal
duced.

Shaken

Now the Iranian masses
most particularly the worké
have shaken this system to?
foundations. In doing so, #
have also helped to shake thes }
tem of apartheid,

The struggle of the Ira
workers and peasants shows}
the fate of working people allo
the world is bound together. !
the responsibility of work
throughout the world to suns
the workers and people of Ire
doing so they will at the same f
be strengthening the strugg
the workers and people of Si ’
Africa.

Candidate to the Supreme Soviet Maria

Poleshchuk at nomination meeting.

World protest condemns China

World protests condemning
China’s invasion of Vietnam have
assumed tremendous scope and
anger. It has been condemned by
the general secretary of India’s
ruling Janata Party who com-
pared it with China's 1962 inva-
sion of India. Both the president
and prime minister of India called
for China’s immediate withdraw-
al.

Angola president Neto called
thei invasion * ‘a disgusting aggres-
sion”’ and Cuba compared it with
Hitler's attack on Poland. The
Portuguese Communist Party de-
scribed the’ action in a statement
as ‘‘a crime against the Viet-
namese people .

Numerous statements and sev-
eral demonstrations in Moscow at
the Chinese embassy clearly
showed the condemnation of the
aggression by the Soviet people.
Mass demonstrations also took
place in Sweden.

The World Federation of Trade
Unions, the World Peace Council
and the Women’s International
Democratic Federation de-
nounced the attacks. The

governments of Poland, Hun-
gary, Czechoslovakia, the Ger-
man Democratic Republic, Bul-
garia, Kampuchea, Ethiopia,
Laos and Mozambique have
made their voices heard and cal-
led for unconditional withdrawal
of Chinese troops.

The Communist Parties of Ja-
pan, Italy, France, Great Britain,
the USA, Greece, Venezuela,
Syria, Austria and Indonesia
were among the’many communist
parties to react sharply describing
the aggression as a danger to
world peace.

CP demands Chinese
withdraw from Vietnam

TORONTO — A special meet-
ing, on March 3, of the Central
Executive Committee of the
Communist Party, together with
the provincial leaders of the
Communist Party, reaffirmed the
Party's condemnation of
“China's brutal aggression
against Vietnam,”
“the immediate, total and uncon-
ditional withdrawal of all Chinese
troops from Vietnam.”

Categorizing the Chinese ac-

. tions as *‘brutal aggression which

poses a threat to world peace,”
the meeting called upon peace
loving Canadians to urge the

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—MARCH 16, 1979—Page 8

and called for .

Trudeau government and parlia-
ment to demand the immediate
withdrawal of Chinese troops
from Vietnam, declare that it will
not sell arms to China and urge
NATO to do likewise.

**To be silent or neutral at this
time is to take the side of Chinese
aggression,” the meeting de-
clared.

It appealed to all peace-loving
Canadians to demand ‘‘Hands off
Vietnam” and ‘‘Get out of Viet-
nam’’, as their part of the inter-
national feeling of outrage against
Chinese aggression in Southeast
Asia.

A Canadian sits in on
a Soviet election mee:

By JOHN WEIR
* Tribune- Moscow Correspondent

On March 4 Soviet citizens of
18 years of age and over voted in
1,500 constituencies for deputies
to both houses of parliament, the
Supreme Soviet and the Soviet of
Nationalities. The candidates
have been nominated and the
summation is instructive. All na-
tions and nationalities are rep-
resented. Workers and collective

| .farmers account for 51% of those

‘cg named, others are scientists,

: = professional people, cultural and
=%™< political workers.

One-third of the nominees are
women, 21% young persons
under 30.

Over 28% are not members of
the Communist Party. This bears
out the policy of electoral unity of
Party and non-Party members, as
it exists in all fields of activity.

I attended the nomination
meeting of Maria Poleshchuk for
the Kuibyshev riding in Moscow.
Her name was put forward by the
workers of the Shcherbakov Silk
Kombinat (group of. enterprises)
where she has worked since com-
ing to the city from her native vil-
lage when she was 15 years of age.

Maria Poleshchuk has won the
title Hero of Socialist Labor and
been awarded two’ Orders of
Lenin for her labor prowess,
which includes manning three
times as many looms as the norm.
She has trained many new work-
ers to come close to that record.

She has been active in public
life, being several times elected to
the Moscow Soviet (City Council)
and taking up hundreds of prob-
lems.

‘The meeting was addressed by
people from various enterprises
and sections of the riding. They
spoke of the domestic and exter-
nal affairs policies of the CPSU
and Government of the USSR.

‘The Chinese Maoist leadership’s

attack on Socialist Vietnam

acutely pointed up both the peril |

and the ceaseless struggle for
peace and disarmament on the
part of the Soviet Union.

One of the features of Soviet
democracy is the mandate of the

CACORE Se a

electors to their candid
Among the instructions gi
Maria Poleshchuk were many
aling with local problems, suc
more greenery in certain aré
establishment of a baron
vice kombinat, etc. And a
all, to speed along the building”
communism and furthering ™%
cause of world peace.

French cP |
supports
Vietnamese

PARIS — The French Cold
munist Party has issued a stré &
condemnation of China’s att# le
on Vietnam, part ofwhich folloft t

“China’s attack against Vi
nam with the use of powe
means of warfare excites d
agitation and anxiety among
Communists and working pec
of our country. We are witness
‘the deliberate use of arms wh
Vice-premier Deng Xiaoping
threatened to do in his stateme
during the recent visit to the

‘*The independence of the ¥
tnamese people which has wof,
so high a price is in jeopardy. })
current inadmissible aggressio
fraught with danger to univer
peace.

‘*The French Communist Pal
demands the immediate
drawal of Chinese troops from
territory of Vietnam which th
have invaded. It calls upon #
Party organizations, Communi)
and all Frenchmen who hold dé ,
the ideals of the independence
nations and peace to express!
same’ demand in letters, reso
tions and cables which would
sent to the embassy of China.

“In the name of the right of
tions to decide their destiny inf
pendently and in the name oft
special ties linking France
Vietnam, the French governm
should insist at the United N +
tions and demand from
Chinese government that] |
should immediately stop |
aggression... .”’ t

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