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P

i i

Holds U.S. to word
of Jan. 27 accords

@ Continued from page 5
rejecting American efforts to

“broaden” responsibility to the

whole world.
Peacetime Life

Participants, as laid down in
the Agreement on Ending the
War and Restoring Peace in
Vietnam, were: the Democratic
Republic of Vietnam, the Provi-
sional Revolutionary Govern-
ment, and the Thieu group, the
Soviet Union, Britain, the U.S.
and China; countries of the In-
ternational Commission of Con-
trol and Supervision — Canada,
Poland, Hungary and Indonesia;
and the secretary general of the
UN, Kurt Waldheim.

Canada went to the talks,
armed with a plan to remove as
thoroughly as_ possible from
Vietnamese control, the conduct
of the ceasefire and re-establish-
ment of peacetime life. While
easing U.S. answerability, the
Canadian arguments threatened
also to take attention off the
hundreds of thousands of poli-
tical prisoners in Thieu’s jails,
and to blunt Vietnamese prepar-
edness to defend the Peace
Agreement against the use of
monstrous U.S. arsenal still in
the hands of Gen. Thieu.

All this would have been
achieved by taking, guarantees
of peace out of the tight four-
power arena, for big-power dis-
cussion. Actions threatening
to. undermine the Conference
were evident from the start.
Canada’s external affairs minis-
ter, Mitchell Sharp, in the lead-
ing role for the West, under-
standably won Britain’s support.
On its first day the Conference
was “imperiled” by U.S. Secret-
ary of State William Rogers’
outburst, demanding unilateral
release of U.S. POWs, while
other provisions of the Agree-
ment were being violated by the
U.S. and Thieu, while mobs
were being organized to attack
and injure DRV observers of he
true.

Violation by U.S.

U.S. spokesman Robert Mc-
Closkey, tried further disruption
with undocumented accusations
of what he termed “gross viola-
tions” of the ceasefire agree-
ments by “‘the Communist side.”

The DRV delegation reported
in a statement saying that “we
reject completely the slanderous
allegations” of the Americans.
These slanders, the statement

said, “are aimed at simply ca- -

mouflaging and justifying the
very serious violations commit-
ted by the United States and the
Saigon administration against
the ceasefire accord.”

On the second day of the con-
ference, Maj.-Gen. Gilbert Wood-
ward, senior U.S. delegate to the
four-party Joint Military Com-
mission, joined in the chorus of
abuse, from Saigon. But in his
eagerness to pin “violations” on
the Vietnamese patriotic forces,
he blurted out that the U.S. is
conducting spy flights over Viet-
nam — an unseemly way for a
retiring invader to aid the estab-
lishment of peace.

U.S. reluctance to complete
its commitment to remove mines
from Vietnamese waterways
was further reason for appre-
hension.

Foreign Minister Nguyen Thi
Binh of the Provisional Revolu-
tionary Government reported to
the Conference 12,000 attacks
by the Thieu forces since the
ceasefire. And PRG spokesman
Ly Van Sau said there had been
200 to 250 attacks a day by
“planes made in the U.S. with

U.S. bombs, under the control of
U.S. advisors,” lacking only U.S.
markings.
Threat to Withdraw

Canada’s Red Cross team,
named with that of Poland to
inspect prisoner-of-war camps
on both sides, and improve the
conditions of prisoners, during
the 60 days from Jan. 27, left
Saigon, giving as its reason im-

_ patience over delays in being al-

lowed to act.

The sudden departure of Cana-
dian Red Cross from Vietnam,
seemed to underline Mr. Sharp’s
continual threats to -withdraw
Canada from the ICCS team in
Vietnam if the settling in of
peace in Vietnam does not con-
form to Canadian preconcep-
tions.

If the imperialist countries
were not engaged in efforts to
hamstring the realization of
peace on Vietnamese terms at
the Paris conference, then it
would certainly seem that way
to observers of the past week’s
activities.

As Ottawa freelance broad-
caster, Elizabeth Gray, said
on a CBC news commentary:
“international peace keeping
begins to sound more and more
like international face saving.”

Responsibility

What does it all add up to?
That the International Confer-
ence on Vietnam achieved im-
portant positive results is clear
even at this early date. Its clos-
ing statement speaks out in sup-
port of Vietnamese self-deter-
mination, emphasizes responsi-
bility for abiding by the terms
of the peace and seeing to it
that the U.S. puppet regime in
Saigon abides by those terms.

On the negative side are
threats upon which universal
vigilance must fasten until they
are rendered impotent. Several
times during the Conference,
U.S. spokesmen rattled sabres,
warning that President Nixon
was growing “impatient”, and
impudently, that the U.S. gov-
ernment “reserves the right with
its allies to take such actions as
it deems appropriate,” if it is
displeased with the progress of
truce procedures.

This attitude has already
been planted in the news media,
conditioning world opinion for
“a complete breakdown of the
ceasefire soon after the U.S.

prisoners of war have been

freed and the last U.S. troops
have withdrawn—that is to say
in the next 30 to 60 days.’

This is, indeed, a crucial
period for the future of Viet-
nam. The great tide of world
opinion, which combined with
the heroic Vietnamese liberation
forces and socialist aid, to force
Nixon to sign a ceasefire, could
not be more urgently needed
than now, to contain imperial-
ist recklessness, and guarantee
peace in Vietnam.

In Paris, Mme. Binh appealed
“to the progressive people of
the world, those in the U.S.,
who in the past. gave the Viet-
namese people whole-hearted
support, to take practical ac-
tions to guarantee resepect for,
and strict implementation of,
the Paris agreement on Viet-
nam.”

Amnesty call by
Peace Congress

In a wire to Quebec Minister
Jerome Choquette, the Canadian
Peace Congress called upon him
“in the name of human justice
to grant ... amnesty” to the
three imprisoned leaders, “and
effect their immediate release
from prison.”

The Congress said it. was
“deeply shocked by the jailing”
of Yvon Charbonneau, Louis La-
berge and Marcel Pepin. The
three, the wire said, were
“guilty of.no crime against the
people of Quebec. Their leader-
ship in the struggle for economic
and social justice for workers,”
said the wire, “must be com-
mended, not punished.”

Gonos

ik

The U.S. dollar took another nose-
dive this week as President Nixon
strove to head off another
devaluation, the second in as
many months.

Pearl
WEDRO

Pearl Wedro, a long-time mem-
ber of the Communist Party of
Canada, known to thousands in
the trade union movement as a
militant unionist, passed away
suddenly on March 2.

For many years active in the
Fur and Leather Workers Union,
Pearl was equally involved in
the work of the United Jewish
People’s Order. Following World
War Il, she played a prominent

‘role in the Canadian-Soviet

Friendship Society.

_Later, she served as the Cana-
dian representative at the head-
quarters of the World Federa-
tion of Trade Unions in Prague.

In more recent years she de-
voted many hours of her time
to building the movement for
peace among trade unionists,
urging that more voices speak
out against the war in Vietnam.

At her funeral, Tuesda
March 6; speakers were William
Kashtan, Communist Party lead-
er, Joe Gershman, editor of the
Canadian Jewish Weekly, and
Hans Blumenfeld of the Cana-
dian Peace Congress.

Additional information will be

published in a later issue of the
Tribune.

In Memoriam

To Comrade Annie Buller Guralnick.
“It is for us the living rather to be dedicated
to the unfinished work which they who fought
here have thus far so nobly advanced .. .”

—East York-Scarborough

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—FRIDAY, MARCH 9, 1973—PAGE 10

Meir goes cap-in-han¢
Nixon gives more arms

Israeli Prime Minister Golda
Meir’s visit to ‘Washington
proved profitable to U.S. arms
manufacturers, but not to a so-
lution of the Middle East con-
flict nor to the Israeli people,
who will be saddled with a fur-
ther $500 million debt, mainly
for military hardware.

Fresh from the barbarous
shooting down of a Libyan civil-
ian aircraft over Israeli-occu-
pied territory, Mrs. Meir went
cap-in-hand to Nixon demand-
ing more Phantoms for her
“protection” — too many civil-
ian planes in the Middle East.

President Nixon, acting
against the advice of his Pen-
tagon war-lords, who have not
in the past been known for their
reticence to deal out arms, ap-
proved the new Israeli requests
for loans and credits in the fol-
lowing categories:
ie $300 million for Phantom
jets and other military equip-

ment.

e@ $100 million for new hous
ing.
e $65 million for surplus US:
grain.

e $50 million to alleviate the
Israeli budget deficit caused
heavy defense spending. e

During her profitable wash
ington sortie, Mrs. Melt ae
tempted to eschew all respon
sibility. for the shooting 4? ;
of the Libyan plane with ove
100 people aboard. “If wé ne
an inkling that passengers we
on the plane nothing would hav
happened,” she piously intone
at a press conference Ss
after her arrival. he

It remains however, that t
shooting .down of the ©
aircraft is Israeli governmé ve
policy — nothing can remo al
that fact. It is part and pari
of: the whole range of ss
expansionist and terrorist
tivities in the Middle East

New Irish coalition
can't solve crisis

By T. HUTTON

The National Coalition re-
turned in the Irish elections last
week inherits Fianna Fail’s man-
tle of acting as the middleman
in the selling out of Irish work-
ers. to monopoly capitalism.
Already the election is being
talked about as the “shopping
bag election,” as thousands of
housewives flocked to the polls,
determined to register their pro-
test at the outrageous food
prices in Irish shops.

_The coalition, composed of
Fine Gael, the major opposition
party which spawned the Blue-
shirted Irish fascist organiza-
tion of the 30’s, and the right-
wing dominated Labor Party,
had promised to reduce food
prices by abolishing the value
added tax on food. No mention,
however, was made of where
lost revenues (about 4% of the
budget) would come from. It is
certain that they will not come
een paren of foreign pro-

eers like Mogul Min F

fa g es (Toron
_ The voting trend-in the elec-
tions has been most interesting;
returns from the rural areas
show that Fianna Fail (the for-
mer government party), with
whom many small farmers iden-
tified, lost votes, the important
issue being Ireland’s entrance
into the Common Market. Under
the terms of Common Market
agricultural policy, the 40 acre
freeholder (most of Irish small
farmers) would be gradually
driven off the land.
; The coalition will have a ma-
jority of four seats, two held by
independents. One is Neill Bla-
ney, dismissed from Lynch’s
cabinet in May 1970 under sus-
picion of arms smuggling to the
“provisional” IRA. One Fianna
Fail cabinet minister and two
former ministers also lost their
seats.

None of the 10 Sinn Fein (Re-
publican) or Socialist candidates
were elected, but the Irish
Times notes that they mounted
an impressive campaign. The
capitalist kept press and state
broadcasting apparatus typically
refused to give them coverage.
However, the best known Sinn
Fein candidates received high
votes.

A better propaganda effort on

; e
the part of Sinn Fein during ie

coming period could lea ries
way to by-election victo

which would help immensely.
giving the Irish people 4 seis
ist perspective and a s0
voice’ in parliament. SOO’ sot
would also show the people Joy"
the real answer to unemP
ment, the lack of decent roo
ing, scandalously high “iw
prices, and foreign monoP. 4
control lies not in substitul f
Fine Gael leader Cosgrove

Jack Lynch, but in the rena

of the bourgeois parties
pletely from power.

Strangling -

education

© Continued from page 5 ip
ally in this by-election camP* ag
that the people of Toront0
Ontario can have better C04
tion by placing the costs 0? anv"
big resource-based and

facturing corporations.”

Vote Communist qo

Mr. Mossop said that . a0?
make this possible, the provi
must assume the full res uct”
bility for the financing of ed of
tion. The Metro Committe? 4,
the Communist Party has sce
gested that a step in this Se uid
tion, which the province me
take immediately, is to iN

its contribution to educations
Metro Toronto from the Pr rage
33% to the provincial ave

of 60%. e

th
“This would represemt ing

home. yer"

“Quite clearly such long oath
due action by Queen’s fof
would both make it possibl

‘school boards to maintail the

services required to mee” ai?
needs of the children of T° ct
and at the same time eff st

ae
much needed reduction iin

tion on the homes of W°

people. a gut
“It is on the basis ©, sf

drastic, but essential action, oa! q
Mossop stated, “that we ai ost
oie

ing on the people of St.
to return a Communist
Queen’s Park.”

jalist