WORLD SCENE

SEEK TO-UNITE NIGERIAN TRADE UNIONS

The Federal Nigerian Government stands for the unification of
Nigerian trade unions into a single, strong trade union federation,
Commissioner of Transport Tarka said at a conference of the Unit-
ed Congress of Labor in Kaduna. He said that the disunity of the
trade unions is a heritage of the colonial past. A united front of the
trade unions would serve the task of improving Nigeria’s rights of
the working-class.

There are more than 600 trade unions now and the number is
growing. The largest are the United Congress of Labor, the Nigerian
Congress of Trade Unions, the Council of Nigerian Workers and
the Federation of Labor of Northern Nigeria.

Unification of the trade unions will strike a blow at imperialism
which fears a united front of Nigeria’s working people, Tarka
stressed. He also urged the Government to prohibit in the future
the resumption of activities by parties which had “compromised
themselves in the past and reflected tribalist interests.”

JAPANESE RAILWAYMEN PLAN STRIKES -

A series of strikes will be undertaken by Japanese railroad work-
ers beginning at the end of March, according to plans worked out
by the central committee of the Japanese State Railway Employ-
ees Union. It has emphasized that these workers are ready to par-
ticipate in working-class activities against continuation of the
U.S.-Japanese “securty” treaty and for the ending of Japan’s mili-
tary alliance with the U.S.

SOCIALISM ONLY WAY, PREMIER INDIRA GANDHI SAYS

“Socialism is the only way to bring into life the aspiration of
free India,” Premier Indira Gandhi told a mass meeting in Uttar
Pradej State. She emphasized again that she will continue to follow
the course of fulfillment of socialist programs despite slanders and
concoctions spread by reaction.

Fifteen years of economic cooperation between India and the
Soviet Union was marked Jan. 4. D. R. Gadgil, vice-chairman of
India’s planning commission, said in a TASS interview that econo-
mic cooperation between the two countries played an important
role in the development of Indian industry.

In connection with this memorable occasion, Premier Indira
Gandhi said the assistance and cooperation of the Soviet people
helps India to follow the road of a planned development of the
economy, to overcome economic backwardness, to modernize so-
ciety and to became self-sufficient.

The 28th Congress of the All-Indian Trade Union Congress came
to a close Monday after five days of meetings. It adopted an appeal

to all trade unions and trade union associations of India to form”

a powerful united front to fight for the rights of the people. It also
called on the people of India to mark the centenary of the birth
of V. I. Lenin.

CZECHOSLOVAK COMMUNISTS PREPARE FOR CONGRESS

Renewal of Communist Party cards in Czechoslovakia will be
completed in the first half of 1970, a letter of the Central Commit-
tee to all Party members published in Rude Pravo states. In the
course of this campaign during which the work of each member
will be discussed, the ideological unity of the party membership
will be the goal. On this basis the 14th Congress of the Party will
be prepared and held. ‘ :

The letter states that the socialist development of Czechoslova-
kia, particularly in 1968 and the first half of 1969, was slowed
down and even thrown back in some aspects due to ideological and
organizational-political weaknesses, a decline of the guiding role
and authority of the Party, and violation of allied ties with other
socialist countries, particularly the Soviet Union.

Since April of 1969, the letter states, certain partal successes
have been attained in overcoming the consequences of this abnor-
mal development and the reasons for it. “We now want to consoli-
date these favorable results and develop them further to make
1970 a year of all-round consolidation,” the letter states.

ECONOMIST SAYS U.S. IN RECESSION

Economist Leon H. Keyserling believes that the U.S. has moved
into a recession and that the government must spend rather than
cut funds to revive the economy. Keyserling was President Harry
S. Truman’s chief economic adviser. He says that government poli-
cies intended to fight inflation in fact create inflation and are fol-
lowed by a recession.

“The kind of inflation we have had in recent years generated
deliberately by stunning economic growth, denying social justice
and neglecting our great domestic priorities is both intolerable and
stupid,” the economist told a House Labor subcommittee hearing.
“Current business indexes would seem to indicate that we are
now in an absolute recession, although it has not yet gained cumu-

lative force.”

U.S. ARMY CENSORS RELEASED POWs

The U.S. Army command banned future news conferences with
‘released U.S. war prisoners because some have praised their cap-
tors, the UPI reported from Saigon Thursday. The decision was
made after three U.S. POWs released in November and two in
December spoke highly of the treatment they had received at the
hands of the National Liberation Front of South Vietnam. One of
the POWs said he would never fight the NLF forces again. The UPI
story said that informed military sources said that such statements
“were not in line with U.S. Defense Department statements about
the bad treatment American~ prisoners receive,” but “the Army
makes an exception if a former prisoner is found during debriefings
to be hostile to his captors.”

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—FEBRUARY 13, 1970—Page 8

is

Evidence of massacres of Vietnamese civilians
by U.S. armed forces continues to mount. One
such piece of evidence was read into the record
of the “conspiracy” trial of the Chicago 7 by Mrs.
Cora Weiss, testifying for the defense. Mrs. Weiss,
a New York housewife and a leader of Women
Strike for Peace, recently returned from Hanoi
where she was given a letter from a 12-year-old
Vietnamese girl, Vo Thi Lien. Mrs. Weiss read the
letter to a hushed courtroom on Jan. 15, birthday-
of the martyred Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
The letter and her testimony were later stricken
from the record by U.S. District Court Judge Julius
J. Hoffman on demand of the prosecution.

The full text of the-letter, as translated from
the Vietnamese, follows.

THE WITNESS: “I am Vo Thi Lien,
twelve years old, a native of My Hoi
block, Co-Luy hamlet, Song My village,
Son Tinh district, Quang Ngai pro-
vince. I have survived the murder by
GI’s of 502 inhabiants of my village
early last year. My Hoi alone lost 87
people, including eighteen of my dear-

- est relatives. Now I wish to tell you in

delat how the massacre was commit-
ed.

Aunties, the weather was fine at dawn
on Mar. 16, 1968. As usual, people were
going about their work, heading for
their fields with spades on their shoul-
ders, or sailing off on their boats, or
pounding coconut bark to make coir.
(A fiber—Ed.) Suddenly from Mount
Ram and other places, enemy artillery
heavily pounded my village. Everybody
hurried to safety.

When the shelling ended, two heli-
copters circled overhead and let down
a rain of bullets. The firing stopped a
few moments later. Thinking jt had
done so for good, people got out of their
shelters. But at that very moment
eleven choppers rushed in from the
Chu Lai airfield; having made a circle
in the sky they landed GIs. Realizing
that the enemy had come for a sweep,
the people scurried back to cover...

The enemy now made for My Hoi.
My paternal grandfather and grand-
mother and myself were in an under-
ground. Grandmother set out to see
whether. as usual, they had withdrawn
after plundering houses and setting
fire to them. Unexpectedly, a volley hit
her right at the entrance. Without even
a moan, she collapsed by my side. Then
there was a flash and an explosion and
I lost consciousness.

When I came to, I was frightened
and trembling so much that I could
hardly stand on my feet. I felt slimy
bits of flesh of grandmother thrown. by
grenades on my body. In tears, I crawl-
ed out of the trench to see who had died
and who had survived. Aunties, you can
never imagine what a horrible scene of

‘ carnage I then saw.

All the fifteen members of Le’s fam-
ily were a heap of bodies maimed be-
yond recognition, eight -piled on the
brink of the underground and seven
with severed heads or limbs. Small
pieces of flesh were all over the place.
Other families were exterminated to
the last man; Mrs. Mot with her child,
Mrs. Trinh with her five daughters and
‘sons. Mrs. Hoa and Mrs. Mui each with
their four little ones. Corpses were
sprawled in clusters on the ground,
chests pierced by bayonets, broken
skulls with brains spilling, and bodies
with pieces of flesh carved off by gre-
nade splinters. :

Survivors told me what had happen-

* while I was lying senseless in the
shelter. American soldiers, after raping

w
and my throat chokes.

rung

Wo Vid Usa, ten ewthor of Gite better, ts 08 oe
old. On her right is Anne-Marie Sundbom of fit”
Swedish Vietnam Committee.

Mrs. Ngo who was near her time, killed
her with rifle shots. The foetus w#
ejected from her womb. And as hé
three panic-stricken children burst ov
crying, they shot them dead immedi’
ely. ;
ly own beloved ones died not les
horribly. Soldiers dragged auntie
Thi Phu out of her shelter and tried #
assault her, but as she desperately
sisted, they gunned her down as ht
one-year old baby was crawling tow4
her body for a suck. They threw stra¥
: on noi and child and set fire to the!”
oth.

My uncle's wife Le Thi Hong we
also killed by gunshots. Of the fou!
people of grand uncle Mai’s family tht
GI’s likewise murdered his wife wh
she was coming out of her unde
ground. Then they pulled him out by
his beard, they burned it: off, finish@
him with a shot and trampled upon h»

body.
Aunt Mai and her child had be@
mown down with hand grenade
American soldiers also hurled grenade
into my grand uncle Tang’s sheltél
killing all his family. Grand aunt Thu!
shelter was blown up. All people dow
there were killed, except little Duc, wh!
had hidden in a hole in the trencl!
he was only injured. When I dug hit,
out I was frightened to see grand Avy,

Minh’s body standing by his side, al!

}

little Bung’s body in a sitting positioy

nearby.
It was terrible. In one day my pop!
lous village had become a desert@’
devastated place with just a few sur?
VOrs. = i
Aunties, I cannot tell you all the
atrocities that American troops co
mitted against my co-villagers and ro)
own kith and kin. A
Whenever I think of the heart-ren,
ing sight I witnessed, my heart
wrung and my throat chokes. Fi
Aunties, Americans have massacl™
not only my fellow villagers. I have ™
many friends of mine from differe
parts of South Viet Nam, not a few
them orphaned by American bombs 2%
bullets. They have told me of -eyime
against their families and their cour
trymen. What atrocities have be
committed, very much like those I Wi
nessed in my native place. I hope th
you will do your best so that not 07
more GI will be sent to South Viet Nay
that you will call for the immedi,
repatriation of all American troops
that my country suffers no more @
truction and no more mass killing ‘
the one in my native village, and so tht
other friends of mine will not exp
ience horrors and sufferings like mi?

=

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