Communist heads united front cabinet in Kerala ACHUTA MENON pew DELHI — Communist arty of India leader Achuta €non has become Prime Minis- ter of the state of Kerala, head- Ng a united front government, Ollowing the resounding defeat of the right wing parties and pect “CP Marxist” party in ar election. The deputies elect- a by the Congress Party of Time Minister Indira Ghandi até supporting the Menon gov- €fmment. 5 Daily World correspondent adhan Mukherjee reports: AG CPI front won 39 seats Md for CPI and 23 for three €r constituents). The Con- Btess Party got 32 seats. The Combined total of 71 in the state €gislature of 133 provides a Comfortable majority. The Maoist CPM-led front was le to win only 29 seats. __ Ten parties, including right- Wing parties like the Hindu com- Munalist Jana Sangh, big bour- 8€0is Swatantra, and the split- _ 4Way Congress group known as the Syndicate, were not able to Win a single seat. € Kerala voters’ verdict is Clearly for a national democra- IC consolidation and against : M-style left-adventurism and €ctarianism as well as right- Wing politics. Stormy history Kerala went to the polls this eptember for the tenth time Since this southwest India state Was formed in 1948. It had the Jtst Communist-led government in India in 1957, which was dis- Missed in 1959. In 1967. the CPI and the CPM, \ : Not so, Mr. Young!’ Wages not Rejection of charges by the ‘ices and Incomes Commission at recent wage gains of super- Market employees are damaging fo the Canadian economy was €xpressed in a letter sent last Week by the Fred W. Dowling, the Canadian Director of the Amalgamated Meat Cutters and utcher Workmen of North Merica, The following is the partial text of Dowling’s letter to the Time Minister: am writing to you in res- POnse to the Prices and Incomes Ommission review of wage set- “lements in food retailing. This ill-informed report is a perfect €xample of why labor finds it 'mpossible to cooperate with the Ommission. From his pinnacle of plenty, John Young of the Prices and Incomes Commission has looked down and decreed that the recent Settlement by supermarket em- Ployees is inflationary and dam- 4ging to the economy. together with several other par- ties swept back to power, win- ning 114 of the 133 seats: In 1959-67, several non-com- munist governments and various reactionary combinations ruled Kerala. The state also had sever- al bouts under direct presidential rule when administration was taken over by the President of India. CPM strategy disastrous In 1967, the CPM became the dominant partner of the front with 52 seats. CPM policy very soon alienated other partners in the front and the state was plunged into chaos. Wide-spread corruption and intra-party clash- es and political murders became the hallmark of the CPM-led government with E.M.S. Nam- boodiripad as the Chief Minister. The CPM followed a policy of hegemonistic rule, trying to wipe out its own partners in the front. In November 1969 the CPM broke away from the united front along with four minor par- ties. Namboodiripad tendered his resignation as chief minister, expecting presidential rule again to be imposed from New Delhi. But this strategy did not work. The CPI formed a government together with the remaining con- stituents of the united front. CPI success This government, headed by CPI leader Achutha Menon as -chief minister, established a rec- ord of clean and efficient admin- istration in the state during its nine-month rule. The CPM several times tried to break the CPI-led coalition gov- ernment, which had a very small majority, by trying to entice away members of those parties which were supporting the gov- ernment. The Menon government successfully weathered several no-confidence motions moved by the CPM. Finally, in March 1970 the government moved for a dissolu- tion: of the state legislative as- sembly and a new election was ordered. The CPM, which had by then entered into alliance with right-wing forces tried to block the election. All these moves failed and the election was held on September 17 with a victory for progressive unity. inflationary In fact, the Commission’s wage review of the retail food industry is irresponsible and in- accurate. It is another’ example of your government’s attempt to blame the workers of this coun- try for all the faults which your government has both created and refused to correct... The review is inaccurate be- cause it ignores the effects of productivity. Your appointee, Mr. Young, speaks of the long- term national productivity in- creases of 2.5 to 3 percent per year. If he had consulted us, we would have shown him, with facts and figures, annual produc- tivity gains in supermarket re- tailing five to 10 times greater. Contrary to what Mr. Young says, there is no need for super- markets to raise food prices as a result of the settlements. It is bad economics as well as plain dishonesty to ignore these facts. One may be excused for doubt- ing the truth of other of Mr. Young’s pronouncements . pean Security Conference. US prevents peace plan in Laos VIENTIANE (APN) — The Geneva agreements of 1954 and later of 1962 guaranteed the peaceful, neutral. and indepen- dent development of Laos. It would seem that the aims for which the patriots had been fighting since the end of World War Two were achieved, But, as one French journalist put it, Laos which used to be called “the country of a million elephants— because the country of a ‘“mil- lion problems” caused above all by US interference. Day and night US fighter- bombers zoom over the land of Laos destroying huts, Buddhist temples, schools, markets, rice paddies,’ and peacefully grazing buffaloes. Old people, women and children are killed. Thou- sands of US advisors, disguised in civilian garb, are drilling and training the army of the rightist grouping in Laos. In the quiet of the Pentagon studies, new plans are being hatched for fresh hos- tilities against the regions con- trolled by the patriotic forces. The Laotian patriots are not restricting their actions to armed struggle alone. Last March 1970 the PFL launched an important political offensive putting for- ward a 5-point program for a Overflow rallies -peaceful settlement, based on the main provisions of the Gen- eva agreements and on the real situation in Laos. This program - envisages the end of US inter- vention and first of all of air raids by the USAF on Laotian territory. As for the internal problems, it proposes that they should be dealt with by Laotians . themselves. The PFL also initiat- ed the restoration of contacts be- tween the Laotian political groupings, with the aim of nego- tiating the main unsettled ques- tions. The initiative of the patriots met with a wide response in var- ious circles in the country, and in Vientiane as well, Prince Sou- vanna Phouma declared that he was prepared to meet the repre- sentatives of the PFL for a pre- ~ liminary exchange of opinions. Tiao Souk Vongsat, a PFL spokesman, arrived in Vientiane and had several meetings and talks with Souvanna Phouma and other political leaders. The renewed contacts led to the choice of Khang Khay (a settle- ment in the Plain of Jars) as the place for a meeting of plenipo- tentiary representatives of the princes Souvanna Phouma and Souphanouvong. \ Kashtan tours east, west The best turnout they ever had for a spokesman of a politi- cal party—this is how some members of the faculty of Fran- cis Xavier University of Sydney and Antigonish University in, Nova Scotia put it in thanking William Kashtan, general secre- tary of the Communist Party, for addressing the students at the two universities. Mr. Kashtan had been invited to address the students on the Communist position in Canada. He spoke at three large student meetings in two of which stu- dents and faculty members had to sit on the floor due to lack of space. In addition to these meet- ings. Mr. Kashtan answered questions at two other “free-for- all’ meetings. While in Sydney, CBC radio interviewed Mr. Kashtan. In An- tigonish he participated in a_ radio round table discussion with three other members of the faculty. This will be used as part of the educational program in the university. Both universities are Catholic. Mr. Kashtan’s visit to Nova Scotia concluded a tour which took him to BC, Alberta, Mani- toba and Thunder Bay. He ad- dressed public meetings, meet- ings of trade unionists, and a meeting of students at Lakehead University. Mr. Kashtan held press conferences in Winnipeg and Thunder Bay. At some of the meetings in BC workers applied for membership in the Communist Party and the Young Communist League. Once again, just as so often in the past, the USA went out of its way to torpedo the con- tacts that had been made. The rightist forces, obeying the de- mands of the US military com- mand, launched offensive opera- tions in the Plain of Jars and in the south of the country. But it isn’t this that deter- mines the main direction in which events are developing. From the talks I’ve had with rep- resentatives of PFL, I draw the obvious conclusion that the Lao- tion patriots are firmly convinc- ed that the country’s problems: can and must be settled only by negotiation. The PFL is deeply convinced that. in the long run all the other groupings will real- ize the hopelessness and adven- turism of the policy of US impe- rialism, and showing necessary prudence, will take into account - the real state of affairs in the country. Therefore, guided by good will and by the vital inter- ests of the country, the Patriotic Front of Laos intends to proceed with its efforts to settle the Lao- tian problem by peaceful means. It is high time that Washing- ton realized that all the attempts to suppress the national patrio- tic movement in Laos by force and to impose upon it an Ameri- can formula for coping with in- ternal problems, are doomed to failure. UE call on Gov't to halt plant closing Spokesmen ffor the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of. America (UE) last week called on the federal gov- ernment to intervene in a plant closing in the Metro Toronto area. 155 workers at the Rexdale plant of Canadian General Elec- tric are scheduled to be out of work when the company closes the plant this December. The plant produces black and white ‘television tubes. The union claims that the gov- ernment is following a policy which will result in the death of the electrical industry in Can- ada, and that the same policy is leading to anarchy within the industry. PACIFIC TRIBUNE—OCTOBER 16, 1970—PAGE 7 .