SEREGNI FACES URUGUAY COURT MARTIAL

MONTEVIDEO — Gen. Liber
Seregni, a national hero of
Uruguay, was dragged before a
courtmartial here Dec. 29 reliable

Tuguayan sources said. Gen.
Seregni, leader of the progressive
Broad Front (Frente Amplio) co-
alition of Uruguay, is being
Charged by the fascist military in

Tuguay of ‘‘violating the
constitution.’

The Uruguayan sources said
the Charge is ‘‘a disgusting hypoc-
Nisy.”” When the fascist military
sa ee Se Juan. Maria

ordaberry to seize power in
mid-1973, they abolished the con- LIBER EN
stitution, Congress, all political parties and the entire organized labor
movement. Uruguay today has more political prisoners per capita than
any other country in the world.

It is widely believed that the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)
Organized the 1973 fascist coup. The aim was to prevent Uruguay’s left
democratic forces — Seregni’s Broad Front in particular — from

coming to power through democratic political means. Seregni has been:

tortured, denied food and any sort of medical aid since his arrest by the
fascists.

NIKOLAI PODGORNY TO TOUR AFRICA
MOSCOW — Soviet president Nikolai Podgorny will tour three
African states in March. The Soviet leader is expected to visit Zambia,
Tanzania and Mozambique.

MONOPOLY GROWING IN U.S. WAR PRODUCTION
WASHINGTON — McDonnell-Douglas has taken the lead in U.S.
war contracts with $2.5-billion. The 100 leading American corpora-
tions in war production received $28.9-billion, or 69% of 1975’s total.
The. U.S. now has 1,033 companies licenced for arms production,
among them are 32 of the top 50 U.S. corporations.

JAPAN-SOVIET LABOR FRIENDSHIP GROWING

MOSCOW — Friendship and solidarity between Soviet and
Japanese labor was emphasized here during a visit by two top Japanese
trade union leaders. Yutaka Nakagawa, vice president of Sohyo, the
“4.5 million-member General Trade Union Confederation of Japan and
Shigeru Okamura, general secretary of the Churitsu Roren trade union
federation. They said at a press conference here that at the recently-
concluded session of the Japanese-Soviet Trade Union Commission in

Moscow, it was decided to hold a joint Japanese-Soviet trade union.

gathering in Japan in the fall of 1977.

SCHOOL FOR PARENTS OPENS IN CUBA

HAVANA — A unique school for parents, attended by more than
1,200,000 couples, has opened in Cuba with the cooperation of the
neighborhood mass organization Committee for the Defense of the
Revolution (CDR) and national television. These classes, which will be
given in more than 75,000 neighborhoods, are designed to offer gui-
dance for educating the child in the home in keeping with the classwork
in the schools.

_ SOVIET UNION AND IRELAND SIGN AGREEMENT
MOSCOW — An lIrish-Soviet agreement was signed here Dec. 16 on

development of economic, industrial, scientific and technological .

cooperation between the two. countries. Foreign Minister Garret
Fitzgerald of the Republic of Ireland (Eire) and Soviet Deputy Foreign
Trade Minister Mikhail Kuzmin signed the agreement. Fitzgerald is the
first Irish Foreign Minister ever to visit the USSR. Relations between
the two countries were first established in 1973.

MOSCOW — Luis Corvalan, Chilean Communist Party leader, being
greeted at the Kremlin last month by Soviet Communist Party general
Secretary Leonid Brezhnev.

Peace delegation calls on Ottawa
to support disarmament conference

. Special to the Tribune

OTTAWA — A delegation
from the Canadian Peace Con-
gress and the Conseil Quebecois
de la Paix presented a brief in Ot-
tawa Dec. 2, describing the pur-
poses and interim results of the
Stockholm Appeal Campaign in
Canada, and urging Canadian
political parties to take a positive
stand -in pressing for dis-
armament.

(Among the Stockholm Appe-
al’s aims are: a United Nations
world disarmament conference,
and agreements leading to general
and complete disarmament.)

The brief was presented in
meetings with Elmer MacKay,
Progressive Conservative caucus
chairman; Stuart Leggatt, New
Democratic Party caucus chair-
man; Peter Stollery, Liberal
caucus chairman; and A. Francis,
of the External Affairs Depart-
ment’s United Nations Desk. The
meetings were followed by a
press conference.

The delegation, headed by
Canadian Peace Congress presi-
dent, Rev. John Morgan, in-
cluded: Jean Vautour, its execu-
tive secretary, Art Jenkyn, its tre-
asurer, all from Toronto and Prof.
James Steele of Ottawa. Three
from Quebec, included Laurette
Sloan, executive member of the
COP:

The delegation expressed its
support for recent progressive
statements and votes by Cana-
dian representatives at the UN,
especially Canadian opposition to
apartheid, and recognition of the
Palestinian people’s need for their
own territory.

The delegation also drew atten-
tion to some inconsistencies such
as the continued economic sup-
port for the apartheid regime by
sections of Canadian industry and
finance.

It was inconsistent, they said,
for Canadians to vote for a special
UN session on disarmament

Delegations from the Canadian Peace Congress and the Conseil

Quebecois de la Paix called on the government and political parties to
take an active role in the campaign for world peace.

while escalating Canadian arma-
ments integrated into the North
Atlantic Treaty Organization,
whose strategy and tactics pre-
suppose war in Europe.

The point was made that
NATO assumptions of a possible
military attack by the sociAlist
countries on capitalist Europe
have no objective basis in the
economic, social and_ political
needs of the socialist countries.

On the contrary, the delegates
noted, the socialist governments
have. given every indication of
their eagerness for gradual reduc-
tion of armaments in Europe so
that they may free industry and
labor from wasteful military in-
vestment, and thus step up so-
cially useful production.

The delegation further stressed
the importance of not substituting
for a world disarmament confer-

-

Communists hail release
of Corvalan as victory

TORONTO — A statement hailing the release of Luis Cor-

~

valan, General Secretary of the Communist Party of Chile, as

an important victory for world democratic opinion was issued

by the Central Executive Committee of the Communist Party

of Canada after its Dec. 21 cable of greeting (Canadian

Tribune, December 27) to the heroic Chilean Popular Unity
~ and Communist Party leader. The statement reads:

The Communist Party of Canada joins with men and women
of goodwill throughout the world in hailing the release of Luis
Corvalan, general secretary of the Communist Party of Chile,
from the deadly grasp of the Pinochet fascist dictatorship as an
important victory for world democratic opinion.

The freedom of Corvalan, heroic Popular Unity and Com-
munist Party leader, symbolizes both the unyielding courage of
the Chilean people and the world-wide support of progressive
and democratic forces for their struggle to overthrow fascism
and restore democracy in their country.

This support must not only be continued now but be in-
creased in scope and intensity. Over 6,000 Chilean patriots
seized by Pinochet’s secret police are being held today in the
prison dungeons and concentration camps of the fascist junta.
Their lives must be saved and their freedom must be won with
the restoration of human rights in Chile.

This is the task facing all democratic and freedom-loving
people. -

Both the release of Luis Corvalan and the terrible dangers
still facing thousands of Chilean political prisoners must in-
spire the Canadian trade union movement and all Canadian
workers and democratic forces to redouble their efforts for the
immediate release of all imprisoned Chilean patriots and for
the complete restoration of democracy and human rights in
Chile.

S

ence called by the UN, the prop-
osed special session on disarma-
ment which would be too limiting
under the present make-up and
procedures of the UN. The great
thrust of the Stockholm Appeal is
for a world peace conference
where mass public opinion may
be more effective than’is pre-
sently possible in the UN, which
is an association of governments
only in varying degrees respon-
sive to popular opinion.

It was also pointed out that if
public. response to the peace
question is so strong that rela-
tively small organizations, such
as the Canadian Peace Congress
and the Conseil Quebecois de la
Paix could, in a short time muster
support representing over one
million people, an effort by a
large, well-staffed and financed
organization could run up an
enormous total. (In Canada, sig-
natures and endorsements by or-
ganizations and individuals on the
Stockholm Appeal represent the
support of well over a million
Canadians.)

Most Canadians, the delegation
said, were receptive to more vig-
orous leadership by our political
parties and our government on
the matter of disarmament.

Sample copies of both the brief
and the Stockholm Appeal peti-
tion were left for distribution to
staff and caucus members of all
parties.

Vietnamese
hold Xmas

- Christmas was celebrated by
Vietnamese Christians through-
out the Socialist Republic of Viet-
nam, the Vietnam News Agency
(VNA) said in Hanoi. Vietnam,
next to the Philippines, has the
largest Christian minority of any
state in Asia.

‘Christmas was celebrated by
half a million Catholics in Ho Chi
Minh City (Saigon),’’ VNA re-
ported. ‘‘Midnight mass was said
at more than 200 churches.”’ It
noted that Christmas gifts from
the Vietnamese public — cooking
utensils, farm tools; cookies,
books, etc. — had been sent to
Catholics working in reconstruc-
tion projects in Vietnam.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—JANUARY 14, 1977—Page 3