700 OPEN BATTLE TO WIN WELSH RIGHTS
Supporters of an elected Assembly for Wales have opened their
Campaign with full-page advertisements in the two main daily papers
Covering Wales, the Western Mail and the Liverpool Daily Post.
The declaration headed ‘‘Wales for the Assembly”’ is supported by
Over 700 prominent Welsh people whose names were gathered in just
four days. * : :
They say “An unanswerable case exists for a real extension of
democracy and responsibility to the people of Wales within Britain.
“Welsh economic and social problems as well as the problem of
accountability cannot be met through any reform of the procedures of
One central Parliament,” they adé. :
_ “The need for a directly elected Welsh Assembly and the expecta-
tion that has been built up over the last 10 years has reached a point
where any frustration of the aspiration would dangerously threaten
Social harmony in Wales and relationships in Britain as a whole.

SOLIDARITY CONFERENCE TO BE HELD IN ANGOLA
LAUNDA — An international conference in solidarity with the
Oppressed peoples of Africa will take place here Jan. 31-Feb. 2. The
conference is sponsored by the National Union of Working People
(UNTA), Angola’s labor federation.

COSTA RICA COMMUNISTS TO CONTEST ELECTIONS

SAN JOSE — The People’s Vanguard Party (PVP) has taken steps
to become a fully legal party capable of contesting the 1978 elections.
The PVP is:Costa Rica’s Marxist-Leninist Party and was outlawed in
1948. The ban was lifted in 1974 after liberal president Daniel Oduber
took office. Manuel Mora Valverde, PVP general secretary, said the
party’s electoral program stresses genuine national independence
against imperialism.

CHILEAN OFFICIAL IDENTIFIED AS JUNTA TORTURER

NEW YORK — Jaime Lavin Farina, Chilean airforce commander,
who was toured here by the U.S. State Department last week, was
identified as a junta torturer by a Chilean refugee who escaped to the
U.S. Farina, he said, was also secretary to the courts-martial formed in
April, 1974 at which loyal officers were charged with treason. As
secretary, Farina took part in many of the sessions at which prisoners
were tortured to sign false confessions, the witness said.

GRANMA. COMMENTS ON FORD’S ‘LAST MISTAKE’

HAVANA — ‘“‘Since he couldn’t do anything to fight unemploy-
ment, violence and the economic crisis, Ford wants to compensate by
adding a new star to the flag of the United States: Puerto Rico, writes
the Cuban newspaper Granma. The comment resulted from Ford’s
effort to have Congress pass a bill making the island the 51st U.S. state.
Granma writes that there ‘‘has already been widespread international
reaction to this latest example of Yankee insolence which goes against
the right of self-determination for the Puerto Rican people ...’’

JAMAICA PREMIER WANTS TIES WITH THE USSR
KINGSTON — Premier Michael Manley advocated diplomatic rela-
tions with the Soviet Union in his speech to Jamaica’s parliament Jan.
20. He added that his government’s program for economic expansion
Tequired increased trade with countries of the Council for Mutual
Economic Assistance (CMEA). Jamaica currently has normal trade
relations with Cuba, a CMEA member-state.

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_ Mozambique students demonstrating their solid
___ tlon struggle in. Zimbabwe.

Fight continues as international
ains for Chile

solidarity wins g

TORONTO — ‘The Overseas
Commission of the Central Union
of Workers of Chile (Canada
Committee) issued a statement
calling for heightened activity to
secure the release of trade union-
ists still being held by Pinochet:

In recent days aseries of events
in Chile have drawn the attention
of Chilean and international pub-
lic. opinion:

e the growth of an active op-
position inside the country,
characterized by the - growing
stand taken against the dictator-
ship by the Christian Democratic
Party.

e the hardening of the regime
against the Church and the latter’s
dignified and independent
attitude.

e the public development of
the trade union movement, of
youth and other popular sectors.

These are all factors which
have provoked vacillation and in-
timidation on the part of the junta.

On the other hand, immense in-
ternational solidarity, the deci-
sion by the vast majority of the
countries represented in the UN
with respect to the condemnatory
report of the Human Rights
Commission and the triumph of
Governor Carter in the United
States; increase the fears of the
dictatorship for the effects of its
international isolation.

All of this has led it to try once
again to show a less repulsive face
towards humanity. Thus it has
launched the so called ‘‘freedom
for all political prisoners’’, which
despite its limitations and deceit-
ful character is undoubtedly a
triumph for the Chilean people
and international solidarity.
Nevertheless the dictatorship is
certainly not abandoning its re-
pressive and criminal policies. A
féw days after the ‘‘release’’, it
again detains countless
comrades. E

$s

a

ee

2

a

The recent ‘releases’ of a few Chilean patriots does not indicate a
change in the junta’s policy, countless people are still arrested and

detained daily.

The newspaper ‘El Mercurio’,
in an article dated November 14,
mounted a sinister justification for
repression, supported by the
statement that if the dictatorship
falls, revenge will mean the death
of thousands of civilians and mili-
tary. The objective is to confirm
fascist hatred in the people, to
close the road to discussion in the
Armed Forces and to create the
false image that the only possibil-

ity for Chile is to maintain crimi-
nal fascism. But they aren’t fool-
ing anyone. The Chilean people,
the workers in our country, have
neither assassinated nor tortured
anyone, and never will. These are
not the methods of the people,
they are the methods of fascism.
‘The people and workers only as-
pire to freedom, democracy and
change to a new, more just and
human society.

Socialism gains, capitalism fails

By OLGA TROFIMOVA
APN Commentator

‘‘The rich and poor have an
equal right to sleep under the
bridges”, was the sarcastic re-
mark of Anatole France. This is
especially to the point these days
as only wreckage remains of the
myth of a ‘‘society of universal
prosperity.”

. Economic upheavals in the
West not only widen the gap be-
tween the ‘‘haves”’ and “have
nots’’, but also polarize public
opinion. More people realize that
capitalism as a system is less and
less viable. Small wonder that
against a background of storms
and calms of the capitalist world
the attractive force of socialism is
growing.

Shortly before Christmas the
BBC turned to Gallup and disco-
vered that 94% of Britons polled
called Britain’s economic posi-
tion their most serious cause of
concern. Three out of four
doubted the ability of Britain’s
leaders to solve the crisis.

Another poll taken by the
Commission of European Com-
munities found the European
consumers’ trust in the European
Economic Community had drop-
ped. This can be understood on
the background of recent rapid
price hikes and soaring unem-

ployment. EEC-member states
pessimistically look to 1977 and
experts predict the jobless rate to
beat all post-war records.

Metalworkers in Lorraine,
France; Italian miners facing
massive layoffs, U.S. autowork-
ers facing plant closures — an al-
most 20 million strong army of
unemployed — are beginning to
see that the brunt of the economic
slump is being put squarely on
them. Cuts in social programs re-
inforce this belief.

Two approaches in social sys-
tems are as diametrically opposed
as the systems themselves. The
New Year in the socialist world is
marked by increased. wages and
salaries for 31 million Soviet
workers, a pension hike for Bul-:
garian farmers and increased
benefits for Polish workers. Vast
and comprehensive social pro-
grams are under way resulting
from the labor of millions creating
a society which produces national
wealth and distributes it on the
basis of social justice. .

The socialist world is marked
by a spirit of collectivity and com-
radeship. Almost every Soviet
citizen is satisfied with the
changes made in the past ten
years, according to a poll taken by
the American economist Hans
Apel in four Soviet Republics.

In contrast, workers in the
West are asked to ‘‘make sacri-
fices in the. struggle against the
crisis’’..But general strikes in Ita-
ly, France and Spain show work-
ing people are determined to de-
fend their rights. They are de-
manding increased living stan-
dards, curbing of inflation,
guaranteed jobs and a safeguard-
ing of democratic rights.

The role of the working class
and their communist vanguard
has increasingly influenced the
correlation of forces in Western
Europe. In Italy the Christian
Democrats have lost their ruling
position. In Spain the processs of
democratization has begun. In
Portugal revolutionary reforms
are being introduced. The grow-
ing strength of the working class
has caused a crisis among French
ruling parties.

Business Week writes that the
new recession may lead to sub-
stantial shifts in the balance of
political forces in a number of
West European countries and
that this could undermine NATO
and the Common Market. This
prediction is symptomatic.
Communists don’t predict the
‘‘automatic collapse”’ of capital-
ism. But recent developments
show once again that capitalism is
a system without a future.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—FEBRUARY 4, 1977—Page 5