ee Nt Sate. vats - Rael Meme Epc See Peet Peete Fg see Pte __ Adopt a ‘‘new constitution’’ de- _ Signed to weaken what is left of __ Pinochet’s in Chile, will restrict | Parties, destroy effective trade _ Of seige, install an omnipotent _ Stitutional assembly ‘with rep- _ Tesentatives of all the people, all _ Opposition movements to recon- ‘|| tions and free entry to exiled citi- gs Zens.» ical prisoners. There are about _ 3,000 political prisoners at pre- | Uruguay’s -| ‘constitution’ _ dictatorship, following what ap- _ Pears to be a trend among military the armed forces. ‘the regime. _ Union bodies and other organiza- ‘Campaigning for a ‘‘no’’ vote in the Nov. 30 plebiscite, has ad- - Vanced an alternate program Amplio’s president, General Liber Seregni, jailed for 14 years. plebiscite The Uruguayan fascist Tegimes in. Latin America, has Called a plebiscite Nov. 30 to Tuguay’s former democratic traditions arid give more power to The new constitution, as did all opposition, ban opposition unions, maintain a perpetual state President loyal to the army and Maintain a judicial system serving The Tribune spoke recently 2!) With two members of Uruguay’s ij Frente Amplio (Broad Front), a o|f Coalition, of Communists, 9 Socialists, Workers Revolution- i ary Party, Christian Democrats, 5] Unified Group Action, who are zi Campaigning against the new con- Stitution and for a return to de- -Mocracy in Uruguay. Hugo Villar and Carlos Fasano Were in Canada to explain what — years of military rule has meant to their country and to urge Cana- dian support for their struggle. They charged that the regime has violated all human rights and freedoms for which that country Was once noted in the region. All left-wing parties are illegal. The central trade union body has © n banned, press censorship is Strict. During the 1970s, 500,000 Uruguayans left the country for _ Political and economic reasons — _ about one-fifth of the population. Since seizing power in a 1973 Coup, the regime has turned the €conomy over to foreign capital. Nationally-run enterprises are bankrupt, inflation rampant and Unemployment high. fe) %, ca ay z ¥ Guyana’s PPP in December elections te Demonstrators march through Toronto to the U.S. consu- laté"to protest the stationing of 200 U.S. tropps in the Central American country of El Salvador. Ten U.S. war- ships, including two aircraft carriers, are now cruising off the country’s coast and 200 troops are directly fighting the popular Revolutionary Democratic Front. The U.S. State Department has admitted itis supporting the efforts of the Salvadoran government ‘to combat violence”. According to the Catholic Church, 9,000 people have been murdered and 3,000 more are missing as a result of mili- tary junta’s reign of terror. GEORGETOWN — Following a month-long consultation with its membership the People’s Progressive Party announced it will participate in the Dec. 15 elections, despite every indication the Burnham regime will once again resort to rigging to retain _ power. In a press statement following its decision to contest the vote, the PPP put forward a 4-point plan to eliminate fraud and raise the level of public awareness and fightback. The PPP demands: seg 1. amindependent and impartial Election Commission which will compile a new voters’ list and will be fully in charge of the conduct of the election; - : 2. the abolition of overseas and postal voting; 3. severe restrictions on proxy voting; 4. preliminary counting of ballots at place of poll and opposi- tion agents being allowed to accompany the ballot boxes to the place of count. While warning that the present People’s National Congress Party of Prime Minister Forbes Burnham will utilize every trick, including fraud, thuggery and assassination to hold onto power, _ the PPP “believes that it must use every forum without exception be and every institution however corrupt, to expose the reactionary, minority PNC regime and to raise the ideological consciousness of the people so as to advance the cause of the revolution.” * * * TORONTO — A gathering which included people from across Canada and the U.S., Nov. 8, established the North American Committee of Concerned Guyanese with the aim of coordinating activities to immediately focus on the question of human rights . violations in Guyana. With the Dec. 15 elections in mind, the new committee is working to expose the fraud of ‘‘overseas voting’’ conducted by the PNC regime as part of the fight for the introduction of free and fair elections in Guyana. : The committee’s chairperson, former PPP Member of Parlia- ment, Philomena Shury, now living in Canada, said the commit- ° tee is now investigating the overseas voting lists and intends to press the government and other agencies to protest the use of fraudulent measures in this country by the PNC. The committee also will urge Guyanese abroad to boycott the vote unless guaran- tees of fair elections are present. The grave economic crisis, Coupled with severe military rule ~ | Served to further isolate the Tegime from the mass of people. re is opposition today among all sectors, including the Catholic Church. Internationally, too, Uruguay has been the subject of repeated Criticisms by the UN Committee On Human Rights (on which Canada sits), international trade tions. The Frente Amplio,. while Which has the support of the Majority of workers, students and Intellectuals: 1. The establishment of a con- Struct the country’s life. This re- quires the legalization of banned Parties and workers’ organiza- 2. A general amnesty for polit- Sent. Here, the immediate objec- tive is to win the release of Frente Seregni will be 63 early in De- cember. ‘ClAga’ takes control of Jamaica NORMAN FARIA Tribune Caribbean Correspondent KINGSTON, Jamaica — Faced with widespread CIA-assisted political and economic violence, including an attempted coup by a section of the armed forces earlier in the campaign, the People’s National Party government of Michael Manley was defeated by Edward Seaga’s Jamaica Labor Party. ‘The JLPs election, which the Workers’ Party of Jamaica (the country’s Marxist-Leninist Party, Ed.) said __ was accompanied by ‘“‘sophisticated and extensive fraud’’, is being seen as a setback to the movement fora — more just and democratic society in this aluminium and banana-producing Caribbean island. . The parliamentary defeat came after a valiant attempt by PNP militants and others to turn back the concerted attacks from the pro-Washington JLP. In the end, how- ever, impatient with the slow pace of economic change coupled with the right-wing terror campaign, the Jami- can people opted for the JLP headed by Seaga, a de- ’ mogogic former real estate man who is frequently re- fered to here as “‘CIAga’’. During the campaign, Seaga and other JLP candidates hammered away at the admittedly ramshackle state of the economy. While reportedly handing out guns to its own goon squads, the JLP appealed to the under- standable yearnings of the average islander for peace, stability and a chance to build the country. ~ Seaga himself frequently called for ‘‘stability and mod- ernation’’ but, not surprisingly, gave no real explana- tion for the destabilization brought about by the CIA and the right forces. Manley really had little room for manoevre. Despite ‘ - the partial nationalization of certain industries like the - bauxite mining companies and the enactment of some good legislation like the upgrading of the minimum wage laws, the PNP’s social democratic policies never touched the wealthy Jamaican ruling elite and the big foreign investors. The government in fact spent more time repairing and alleviating the problems rather than in thorough-going and meaningful change.: Seaga has made it plain he will shortly be asking for aid from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the inter- national financial institution with which Manley broke off negotiations earlier this year. Some political analysts say that the benefits accruing from the loans and aid monies expected to flow into the island from an apprecia- tive Washington and the IMF (which had callously re- duced aid to a trickle while Manley was Prime Minister) will be short. term. After all, the conditions which the IMF has set down to ‘help’ Jamaica meant a crackdown on the trade union movement and higher profits for the multi- nationals. Unfortunately, the pre-election prediction of the Director of the National Planning Agency, Dr. Nor- man Girvan, that the IMF program was ‘‘a prescription for the downfall of the government’’, has come true. The question of the IMF connection was taken up by the Workers Party of Jamaica. The WPJ, which declined to run candidates in the elections so as to do extra- parliamentary work and to give critical support to the -Manley government's fight, had argued for measures ' which would include loans and aid from friendly coun- tries such as the Soviet Union, savings on oil imports and the plugging of foreign exchange leadages. . PACIFIC TRIBUNE—DEC. 5, 1980—Page 9 won asthe attrac