By TOM MORRIS

YNDON Baines Johnson is in
deep trouble. In a recent
television speech, Johnson

said: “If I have done a good job
at anything since I have been
president, it is to insure that
there are plenty of dissenters.”
A lot of windy talk is around
these days about the president’s

“new image” and “fighting
spirit” in the face of exploding
criticism.

Whether Johnson now wears
a hidden microphone when he
speaks in public or drops his
cornball “home-spun image,” it
will neither stem the tide of
anger in the country nor fright-
en the millions of Americans op-
posed to the Administration’s
suicidal policies. Nor will Secre-
tary of State Rusk’s and Vice-
President Humphrey’s kamikaze
missions into the public arena
offset what is now the largest
and most articulate anti-war
movement the United States has
ever seen.

The public opinion polls: are
giving fits to the Administration
and to the establishment press
who are scurrying around try-
ing to “explain” what is hap-
pening. Here’s a sampling of re-
cent polls:

The Harris Survey (Oct. 1967)
put the question: “Do you have
confidence in LBJ personally?”
As opposed to 42 percent an-
swering “yes” in June, 1967, the
figure has plummeted to an all-
time low of 23 percent in Octo-
ber 1967.

The Gallup Poll, released in
Nov. 1967, showed that the Re-
publicans lead the Democrats as

NDIAN troops moved into Cal-
cutta after West Bengal
Governor Dharam Vira, who

is appointed by the central Gov-
ernment in Delhi, dismissed
West Bengal’s  Left-oriented
State Government, headed by a
Communist Mr. Ajoy Mukherjee.

Over 60 truckloads of troops
were reported to have moved
into the city after West Bengal’s
trade unions called for a general
strike in protest against the ap-
pointment of former Food Min-
ister Dr. Ghosh as Chief Minis-
ter. :
People have been forbidden to

assemble or carry lethal weapons
in the city and surrounding in-
dustrial areas, while the army
and police have been alerted
throughout the State.

‘A few hours earlier, the In-
dian President took over direct
control of Haryana State, dis-
missed the Government of Rao
(Prince) Birendra Singh and dis-
solved the State Assembly.

_Mr. Mukherjee’s Ministry took
office last March after the for-
mation of a United Front of 14
parties, including the Commun-
ists, which, with independent
support, had a strength of 153
M.P.s in an Assembly of 280.

Last month Governor Vira at-

Left government

DECEMBER 8.19872 2PKCIFIC TRIBUNE—Page 8

deel ah thal

U.S. SCENE

the party most voters see as best
able to deal with the top prob-
lems. These problems were the
Vietnam war (named by 50 per-
cent as the top problem), civil
rights (21 percent) and the high
cost of living (16 percent). To
the question, “Which political
party can do a better job of
handling the problem?” the re-
plies were: Republican, 30 per-
cent, Democratic, 26 percent, no
opinion, 16 percent and No dif-
ference, 28 percent. The “No
difference” figure is interesting
because it shows a growing
trend in the country which is
regarding the vaunted two party
system as being the same con-
tents in different wrappings.
Many of these are and will be
looking for real alternatives in
the 1968 elections including the
local and state elections.

The forms of dissent (and new
forms are popping up every
week) range from massive peace
demonstrations, full-page adver-
tisements, union, church and
community organization resolu-
tions, to draft card burning,
draft resistence by leaving the
USA, refusal to be shipped over-
seas and desertions from the U.S.
forces in Asia and Europe. One
top Democrat has been quoted
as saying, “I don’t know how
the president will be able to
conduct a normal (election) cam-
paign. He will face demonstra-
tors from coast to coast.”

Johnson faces stiff resistence
both in the Congress and within
his own party. There is a grow-
ing feeling the Congress is be-
ing side-stepped, that decisions
on Vietnam are made elsewhere

INDIA

tempted to oust Bengal’s United
Front Government but was pre-
vented. He then used the resig-
nation of the Food Minister from
the Bengal Government to make
another attempt.

This week, the Indian Com-
munist Party newspaper New
Age warned that India’s central
Congress Party Government was
“giving the finishing touches
to yet another blueprint of their
conspiracy against the United
Front Ministry of West Bengal.”

It charged the central Govern-
ment with using the Home Min-
istry and making the Governor
“an agency for subverting the
constitutional process of govern-
ment in the States so as to faci-
litate the Congress plan of top-
pling the United Front Govern-
ments.”

Although the Governor claim-
ed that Mr. Mukherjee’s Minis-
try no longer enjoyed a majority
in the Assembly, he refused to
wait for the Assembly meeting
called for December 18 to prove
whether the United Front Gov-
ernment had lost its majority or
not.

He announced that the Assem-
bly was being summoned on
November 29.

Indian democrats fear that it

Johnson in trouble 4
as dissent grows

and that this represents a
serious danger to the democra-
tic process and to U.S. constitu- -
tional traditions. While the ma-
jority of Congressmen are still
content to play ostrich while
war rages, new voices of dissent
are being heard. It’s interesting
to note that only four Congress-
men stayed in Washington for
the October 21 demonstrations,
the others evacuating the capi-
tal days before.

Within his own party the pic-
ture is just as bleak. A two-page
ad in the New York Times,
(Nov. 26, 1967) reads in. part:
“From this day on, our cam-
paign funds, our energies and
our votes go to those, and only
those who work for an end to
the war in Vietnam.”

Published by Dissenting De-
mocrats, the statement, accom-
panied. by the names of thou-
sands of registered Democrats in
New York state contains an
open letter to the president.
“We voted for you because you
gave us hope of peace when in
your election campaign you
said, ‘We are not about to send
American boys nine or ten thou-
sand miles away from home to
do what Asians boys ought to be
doing for themselves.’ This was
a: pledge, Mr. President. Since
then we have suffered over
100,000 American casualties and
countless Vietnamese have also
been killed in this war. .

“Your Administration threat-
ens us daily with the prospect
of an all-out confrontation with
China and inevitably with the
Soviet Union, leading us inexer-
ably toward a thermonuclear
holocaust.” The ad signals the

deposed

is the Congress Party’s intention
to use the State Governors, who
have hitherto been figure-heads,
as the means of removing popu-
lar governments in those States
where the Congress Party was
defeated at the polls in the last
elections.

Calcutta crowds hit back as
Indian police continued to attack
the dismissal of West Bengal’s
United Front Government by the
local Governor.

The strike cafled by the trade
unions in protest against the
Governor’s action remained solid
with no buses, trams, taxis or
cars on the streets, no shops,
offices or factories open.

Police attacks on demonstra-
tors have so far resulted in two
killed and 150 wounded, accord-
ing to official figures, while over
900 people have been arrested in
Calcutta, including the Law Min-
ister in the dismissed Govern-
ment, Mr. .Amar Chakravarty.

A curfew was clamped on Cal-
cutta’s ten industrial districts
which contain the major part of
the city’s seven million inhabi-
tants and police opened fire on
crowds on 13 separate occasions.

When the police opened fire
near Calcutta University, the
crowds hit back with stones,
bottles and brickbats.

“When asked if he plans to run next year, the President replied,

ouphant in The
“1 will cross te

when I come to it...”

start of a national campaign to
oppose Johnson’s renomination
for president.

Much of this opposition will
jell with the annoucement by
Sen. Eugene McCarthy that he
will run in the primaries against
Lyndon ‘Johnson for the Demo-
cratic nomination. McCarthy, a
5l-year old Catholic, is from
Minnesota, Vice President Hum-
phery’s old state. He favors an
immediate ending to the Vietnam
war by negotiation and by the
initiative being taken by the
United States.

An important part of the dis-
sent with the Democratic party
will be seen at the Conference of
Concerned Democrats being held
in Chicago Dec. 2-3. Delegates
are expected from over 40 states
to organize for the defeat of

SENATE DEMOCRATIC LEADER Mike Mansfiel
the Saigon Government to sue for direct peace

tions with South Vietnam's

Senator Mansfield said the Saigon regimé
NLF, which he called the dominant force in South
could come up with a solution preferable
ous and fruitless U.S. appeals to North
cussions and to the’ Soviet Union

conference,

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at Alexandria, EgyPt pe al

TWO SOVIET SHIPS arrived

with basic equipment for a new United Ara .
. he (ON am
situated In th eel 7

from Madrid recently.
The sacked workers—fou

nine women — were dismissed for allege
1,200 employees to take part in a banne

guilty to planning the overthrow of the mili
He said he was a member of the banne

Party and told the court: “It

which is a product of violence, to deman

resort to violence.”

Philinis complained that security police hon fice”®
him during investigations and that Po ie
broken two of his front teeth.

POLICE FIRED INTO the air to dispers
ing “Franco no, workers yes,” after ,
sacked from an electric light bulb factory, it

Johnson as_ their presi

nominee and to ham j prot

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lems facing the country:
cially the war in Vietnam: par
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