|__ona new course

By CONRAD KOMOROWSKI

WARSAW — The decision of the meeting March 31 in Gdansk of
Solidarity’s National Consultative Commission to call off indefinitely
plans for a general strike was a defeat for the extremist elements in
Solidarity’s leadership who were seeking to provoke civil war.

The Commission also ratified an agreement with the government
reached only hours before the deadline for beginning the strike.

The agreement reflected the national demand for.calm, responsibil-
ity and settlement ofall issues by negotiation instead of use of the strike
weapon by Solidarity.

: The agreement not only averted what would have beer a catas-
i} trophic confrontation, but has deflated the atmosphere of tension the
| extremists in Solidarity’s leadership had built up.

This does not mean that the anti-socialist elements in Solidarity’s
leadership will end their provocative tactics or give up their strategic
aims, but it has put sharp limits on their influence and activities.

The decision to call off the general strike indefinitely reflects wide-
spread popular opposition to the tactics persued by the extremists.

As events have shown, the extremists in Solidarity overreached
themselves by forcing the four-hour “warning strike™’. Television
pictures of immobilized tractor assembly tines when the country needs
tractors for the spring sowing, and the devastating cost of the strike
when the people need products and exports had a shocking effect.

People stopped saying **I am fed up with the strike,”” and said, “I i
won't strike.”’

Widespread opposition to a general strike, the strong stand taken by
the PUWP’s Plenum March 29, and appeals by Roman Catholic church
authonties for calm and dialogue exerted strong pressure for averting a
general strike.

The people's opposition to the strike was in effect a vote for con-
tinuation of Premier Wojciech Jaruszelski’s period of stabilization and
moratorium on work stoppages and strikes, which the Solidarity ex-
tremists had disrupted.

The PUWP took a firm stand. It denounced the extremists in Solidar-
ity who were trying to use Solidarity in their “‘open battle against our
party, the state authorities, against socialism."’ It warned against the
consequences of political adventurism by the anti-socialist, extremist
elements.

The PUWP appealed again for calm and responsibility, for the
settlement of all issues by negotiation instead of force.

The agreement reached March 31 between the Solidarity committee,
headed by Lech Walesa, which conducted negotiations with the '
government team headed by vice-premier M. Rakowski, was a com-

Ss

Democracy in action ... to inform the people
of its programs the People’s Revolutionary
Government convenes regular mass meet-
ings in both the capital, St. George’s, and in
the rural areas. Residents in many villages
offer suggestions and take part in the plan-
ning of social projects. Although the com-
manding heights of the Grenadian economy
are still largely privately owned the PRG is
improving the state sector and allowing for
worker-farmer participation in it.

f

sete eee

Grenada is pay-
ing particular at-
tention to a type
of agriculture
which is both
able to feed its
people and be a
source of foreign
exchange.
(Above) the rev-
olution has given
women equal
pay for work of
equal value, paid
maternity leave
j.and..other. be-
nefits.

mon-sense settlement.

Regarding the alleged use of force by police against an illegal sit-in,
the government agreed to prosecute any infraction of law and Solidar-
ity agreed to end illegal sit-ins.

The issue of Rural Solidarity was left to be settled by a law now being
prepared for parliamentary action, and the government agreed not to
interfere with Solidarity organizers of farmers. a:

A demand that former charges, court decisions, etc., against so-
called ‘‘dissidents’’ be lifted was to be turned over to a joint inquiry
panel.

The agreement was denounced by Solidarity extremists as a ‘‘sell-
out’’ by Walesa. In Gdansk the vote for ratification of the agreement. ]
and calling off the general strike indefinitely was 25 in favor, four
against and six abstentions.

Volunteer labor ... (above) a
Qroup of residents in the north-
ern town of Gouayve paint a
bridge’s iron work. Nearly all
the island’s primary schools
Were repaired by volunteer
labor. Situated on one of the
richest fishing grounds in the
world, the government is up-
' Qrading its fishing industry, a
fish processing plant and
fisheries school has already
Opened. Photo (right) shows
one of the two fishing trawlers
given to Grenada by Cuba.

EST SA AEE EERE ;
2 LA

(Komorowski has returned from his assignment in Poland)

Latin America: a furnace set to explode |

a maT aa

Poverty, illiteracy, nco-colonialism and dependence
has been Latin America’s fate for too many years. Its
Countries have to sell cheap and buy expensive. Chile
Sells copper ingots to the United States at 90 cents per
Metric ton and buys it back in the form of manufactured
goods it cannot produce itself, for a price it can hardly
afford. SS

Bolivia sells its tin to the U.S. and buys it back in the
form of consumer goods that 90% of the population
Cannot afford. Cars are sold at international prices by
Ford Motors of Mexico in Mexico City, while Ford
assembly-line workers in the poor northern states are
Paid U.S. $150 a year.

Industrialization and self-reliance are actively op-
posed by the U.S. and effectively prevented by its con-
trol of the economies of the countries concerned, almost
entirely geared to supply the American economy. A few
months of dumping are usually enough to kill any at-
tempts to escape from the one-industry system.

Programs of foreign aid are simply oriented towards
opening up new markets for the surplus production of the
U.S. economy; the so-called ‘‘transfer of technology”’
amounts to no more than an increase in the degree of
dependence of Latin American countries on the U.S. for
maintenance, spare parts and technical skills.

The list of such activities, of the American multi-
nationals in the region, of the sometimes subtle and

all over, of the times governments have been overthrown
to suit American interests and ‘‘national security’,
would be endless.

A recent and most dramatic example is the coup d’etat
that overthrew Dr. Salvador Allende in Chile in 1973. An
entirely dependent economy was brought to a standstill
by an American embargo that cut off the supply of spare

parts for industry, agriculture and transportation.

Backgrounder

From $900-million in American loans to Chile in 1969,
they were axed to zero in 1970 through 1973, after which
the credit lines were reopened for the present Chilean
dictators. :

Chilean copper, nationalized by the Allende govern-
ment, was boycotted in the international market by the
U.S.; the American government threw into the world
market its entire copper reserves and made its price drop
to levels that caused Chile losses of billions of dollars a
year. Anaconda Copper Mining Co., now an Exxon
subsidiary, joined with ITT, former owner of the Chi-
lean telephone company, in presenting a proposal and
financing for a ClA-coordinated coup to do away with
Allende.

Back in 1964, the CIA had poured millions of dollars
into the campaigns of right-wing and Christian Democrat

1970 elections, contingency plans were put in motion by
the National Security Council, headed by Henry Kis-
singer.

Allende did take office in 1970, and proceeded to
nationalize the American-owned mines. He was over-
thrown in 1973 in one of the bloodiest coups ever, which
left 200,000 Chiieans dead and sent one million into exile.
American companies, naturally enough, once again own
Chile's copper and control its economy.

The topics we have discussed during this series are
nothing but the tip of a giant iceberg.

Latin America is a continent at the crossroads, and
events such as the Cuban Revolution, the Grenadian
Revolution, the Allende experience, the recent Nicara-
guan Revolution and the coming upheavals in Central
America should surprise no one.

To put it mildly, American plundering and pillage of
Latin America with the complicity of corrupt dictators
and psuedo-democracies has led the 280 million im-
poverished and exploited Latin Americans, deprived of
access to health, education, employment, recreation,
culture, and in general, deprived of the right to a dignified
life, to a stage where socialism provides the only com-
mon sense alternative.

Latin America is a furnace about to explode, and if we
have instilled these articles with any degree of clarity,
this fact should surprise no one.

\ little-known ways in which their tentacles have extended candidates in order to stop Allende. After he won the Last in a series of seven. | — José Amor de la Patria -,

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—APRIL 10, 1981—Page 7