Bloody reign of terror unleashed in the Sudan Bloody violence reigns in Su- dan. The. general secretary of the Sudanese’ Federation of Trade Unions, vice-president of the World Federation of Trade Unions, Lenin Peace Prize win- ner Shafie Ahmed El-Sheikh is hanged, General Secretary of the Sudanese Communist Party Abde Khalig:Mahgoub executed following a mockery of a trial, and hundreds of Communists thrown into prisons. A UPI correspondent reports from Khartoum that the Sudan- ese authorities are now hunting for four leading members of the Central. Committee of the Su- danese Communist Party—Tiga- ni Taeb, Mohammad Ibrahim Nugudn, Oezuli Saed and Soli- man Hamid. Government cir. cles say that when these lead: ing members of the Communist Party are captured, they too will face a “trial,” and a death sent- ence awaits them. It looks as if Sudan has taken the line of completely abolish- ing the Sudanese Communist Party and of physically exter- minating its leading members railitants and rank and file Com LABOR SCENE by Bruce Magnuson Inflation, is now a_ chronic sickness of all countries where capitalist monopolies and giant multinational corporations do- minate economic life. It pre- vails in all private enterprise countries where unplanned mar- ket economy operates. It does not occur in planned socialist economies like the USSR, GDR, CSSR, etc. The contradiction that exists between the social character of production on one hand, and private appropriation and dis- posal of products and services because of private ownership of land, means’ of wealth-produc- tion and means of communica- tions on the. other hand, finds expression in inflation and unemployment. The monetary system is the weakest link in present-day capitalist society, taken as a whole. Rising prices and the resultant decline in the buying- power of money hit hardest all the people who live by their labor. Every time money de- clines in value, or the price of a product is increased, it means a cut in-income for the worker, the farmer, the professional and service people, and those who carry on small or medium-sized businesses. The big monopolies, on the other hand, do not mind a creep- ing kind of inflation that erodes the value of money by a couple or three percent per year. Such a small increase in_ inflation serves a useful purpose so that the monopolists can increase their profits almost imperceptib- _ ly at the expense of the work- ing people. The facts are that for decades now we have been living precariously, teetering on the brink of inflation or defla- tion. Most of the time, how- ever, governments: acting with big business have been able to manipulate fiscal and monetary policies and other gimmicks to avoid disaster. MURIStS wy chs. he ae vy Imperialist circles in certair Western countries, taking ad- vantage of the existing situa- tion, are at great pains to im: part to the anti-communist hys: teria being fanned by the Su- danese! authorities an anti- Soviet trend. They slanderously claim that. the July 19 move: ment was “directed from Mos- cow,” that the Soviet Union “supported and _ encouraged” the plotters. : Speaking at a press confer. ence in Khartoum, General Nimeiry declared, that Sudan does not wish a deterioration of its relations with friendly coun- tries and especially with the Soviet Union. He even expressed his “surprise” over talk about that. But on Monday he. re-, called the Sudanese ambassador from Moscow and ordered the USSR and Bulgarian envoys to leave Khartoum. The Sudanese authorities dis- regard the opinion of friendly countries, particularly the re- peated calls from the Soviet leadership to halt the butchery of progressives. The Saviet Union strictly ad- heres to the policy of non-inter- ference in the domestic affairs of other states. But Soviet pub- lic opinion, just as democratic opinion throughout the world, cannot be indifferent to the fate of Sudanese Communists and progressives — _ staunch fighters against imperialism for democracy and social —pro. gress. PROTEST President Jaafar Nimeiry, Khartoum, Sudan. : The Communist Party of Canada condemns the brutal repressive measures and exe- cutions by your regime against Sudanese democrats. We par- -ticularly condemn the extreme measures against Commun- ists, the hanging of the gen- eral secretary and other lead- ing Communists. With all our strength we urge you to end this. brutal repression which serves only the cause of im- perialism. —Central Executive, Communist Party of Canada Peking congratulates) butcher of Khartou By VLADIMIR KATIN | - MOSCOW (APN)—Unbridled arbitrariness, mass scale arrests and execution of patriots in Sudan are continuing . . . and while progressive world public opinion is coming out in de- fence of the victims of that violence, thé leaders of the People’s Republic of China are to all intents and purposes, welcoming the bloody terror in | Sudan. The’ Hsinhua’ . agency comments with satisfaction on ities are treating the progres- sive forces of the country and in the first place the Commun- | the way the Sudanese author- { ; ists. The events of July 19 are ! interpreted by the Chinese of- : ficial agency as an act by a | “putschist. clique”. | This signal sent from Peking : was understood and “highly” ; appraised in Khartoum. Presi- dent Nimeiry was not slow in replying. He sent a warm mes- sage to Mao Tse-tung, saying “the splendid relations binding Sudan and China will go on ‘ strengthening.” The message also says that these “remark- able. relations” are based on ““mutual understanding operation.” The position taken by during a period espe” ficult for the progress of Sudan should evidl regarded aS approval Chinese leaders of whit ‘being done in Sudan. in The course of events Suggests that the cou taken the course’ of 00! liquidating the Suda, munist Party,’ physically minating its leading ities and front-ram ists. It appears that UN leadership fully solidaf™ this course. “The people of vie full of. indignation a and murder of the the Communist Party unions and patriots % © says the Hanoi ™ Nhan Dan. But such brutal rept the weakening of the the anti-imperialist Sudan is apparently by official Peking a5 development. aS an 2S. To cure inflation, understand The difference now is, that growing power of monopoly on an international scale has given rise to galloping inflation, chaos in capitalist economy, im- pelling workers to fight for wage increases and thereby aggravat- ing the struggle between labor and capital, not to mention other contradictions. Capitalist theories about, the causes of inflation, needless to say, go in the direction of blam- ing the workers, who are the victims of infiation. This is true of the so-called ‘“wage-price spiral”, according to which every wage increase automati- cally sends prices up and caus- es more wage demands. The underlying premise for this con- clusion is that prices are deter- mined or regulated by wages. But these theses were refuted more than 150 years ago by the English economist David Ricar- do, who was one of the found- | ers of classical bourgeois politi- cal-economy. “It was . .. the great merit of Ricardo,” wrote Marx, “that in his work on ‘The Principles of Economy,’ publish- ed in 1817, he fundamentally destroyed the old, popular, and worn-out fallacy. that ‘wages determine prices’.” In his “Wages, Price and Pro- fit”, showed Marx that price is the monetary expression of the value of a product. But this value is not determined by wages, but by the quantity of socially necessary labor-time ex- panded on the production of the given commodity. An in- crease or decrease of wages does not affect the value of a commodity or, consequently, its price. Higher wages merely mearis less profit for the em- ployer. But employers do not wish to give up any of their profits and therefore seek to in- crease prices without raising wages. This is the underlying mechanism and basic source: of inflation. Now, it must be remembered that it is not the market and PACIFIC TRIBUNE—FRIDAY, AUGUST 6, 1971—PAGE 6 the old law of supply and de- mand that determine all prices today. A great many products are sold at prices far above their value. In monopoly-con- trolled branches’ of industry (oil, nickel, iron. and steel, au- tomobiles and many more areas, including transportation: and communications) prices are mo- nopoly-rigged prices, exceeding value. These prices are the source of monopoly super-pro- fits. A recent example of the ope- ration of this is in the Canadian steel industry, where in a few months prices have been, raised by 8% on top of price increases taken before ‘and after the 1969 \ strike in Big Steel. But this big steal has been given the bless- ing of chairman Mr. John Young and members of the Pri-' ces and Incomes Commission. The stated reason for giving this Commission an extended lease of life by the Trudeau government.was to prepare for the introduction, if and when the government ‘may consider it appropriate, of . compulsory wage-and-price freeze legisla- tion. To sell labor on this, Mr. Young has even changed his tactics from the hard to a soft- er approach, as shown recently by his tongue-in-cheek defence of pay increases in the construc- tion industry. But while Mr. Young, chair- man.of the Prices and Incomes Commission, has. constantly put the pressure on against wage increases up until his. recent speech in Edmonton, the same Mr. Young has persistently re- frained’ from exposing mono- poly price-fixing as a source of inflation. It is generally true to state, that inasmuch as wages go into the total cost of production, they have of course some bear- ing.on prices, But they do not determine prices. In the capitalist countries to- _ day, the share of wages in the price of manufacture of goods” does not go beyond 25%. This means that a company granting a 20 to 40% wage increase need only increase its prices by 5 to 10% to preserve its profit mar- gin untouched. In practice, however, price increases far exceed wage in- creases and often come both be- fore and after wage increases. Consequently, it is not wages that make prices go up, but the other way. around. The talk about “wage inflation” is pure poppycock to cover up the mo- nopoly drive for super-profits. Another false notion is the Keynesian thesis that ‘“excess- ive’ demand for goods is the cause of growing inflation. This theory holds that by curtailing demand for goods and services the rise of prices and inflation will be checked. Needless to say, this argument implies a re- duction of effective demand which is sure to create increas- ed~ unemployment: This was Trudeau’s approach to the prob- lem of inflation in the fall of 1969. But his was not the only austerity program in the world. All capitalist. countries have used this as one of their prin- cipal means of combatting: in- flation. That this is no remedy kas been proved by experience. This is now shown in unemployment statistics, which are on the rise everywhere: -in the capitalist world. But the inflationary pro- cesses have not been halted. What we have ended up with is both continued inflation and’ massive unemployment, * as Prime Minister Trudeau’ admit- ted at a press conference on‘ July 27, 1971. The real cause of inflation is the capitalist economy with its private ownership of the means of production which gives rise to the basic contradiction men- tioned at the beginning of this article — the contradiction be- tween the. social character of production and the It form of appropriation ic which leads to ec? ¢ mor and to the printing © nicl niore paper money: "and. not but devalue mont the growth of inflati