eactionary, 4 ood ‘first steps’ in Australia By MARJORIE POLLITT -_ ADELAIDE — After 23 long, inefficient years, ustralia has at last a Labor overnment. It is too early to say to what Axtent any real social measures \Vill be taken to improve the \tate of the economy, but not oo early to give unqualified ap- “\roval of the ealy steps which Nave beeh taken by the Premier, Sough Whitlam, and Deputy by ve ‘\ount of absentee votes and dis- emier, Mr. Barnard. (The full Government cannot announced until the final ribution of preferences have een announced in closely con- ested constituencies, which will ave happened by the time this _ \ppears). Immediately, all draft resist- \rs in prison were released, pro- \edings in the courts against “hose on the run were with- ‘\Irawn, National Service has een abolished, and the Colonel limps reduced to gibbering “‘renzy by the suggestion that nancial compensation may be iven to all who suffered loss of a \iniversity studentships or jobs s a result of their stand. © Aboriginal Rights The Australian Ambassador ‘\o Taiwan has been withdrawn, pnd preliminary negotiations ‘as “cosmetics” and subjected to ave been opened up in Paris \with a view to early diplomatic. \elations with the People’s Re- ‘bublic of China. Australia and New Zealand also with a newly elected bor Government) have revers- d the lukewarm stand of their ormer Governments in the Unit- Nations to wholehearted con- emnation of French nuclear ut decisively against racist Overnments. All Aboriginal children, other han those fully integrated into rimary white schools in the ities, are to receive primary ucation in their own language, and be taught their own arts, ‘trafts, music, dancing, tracking, ‘and mythology, thus implement- ing the conventions of both the Labor Organiza- ions and UNESCO. English will e€ taught as a second language. _ The sale of wheat to Rhodesia {22,000 tons last year) is banned. The veil of secrecy has been torn away from under-the-count- tn government activities by an i nternational t ‘instruction to publish the find- ‘ings of all commissions, statis- ‘tical inquiries and fact-finding bodies hitherto confined to the Cabinet room. All taxation on contraceptives including the Pill, hitherto listed Australian Prime Minister Gough hitlam. : Labor shakes up policies Lifeboat removes passengers from the American cruise ship Monterey in Sydney, Australia, after maritime workers refused to unload the ship in protest of U.S. higher “luxury” taxation, is re- moved. Women Benefit A strong submission was made by the Federal Govern- ment to the Commonwealth Ar- bitration Commission to grant equal pay for women. This has been granted, though hedged about by the expression “equal pay for work of equal value,” New Zealand Prime Minister Nor- man Kirk. and to be phased in over 214 years. The unions estimate, how- ever, that 82% of women work- ers will benefit from this deci- sion. A niece of famous former Labor leader Dr. H. Ewatt, Miss Elizabeth Ewatt, has been ap- pointed a deputy president of the Conciliation and Arbitration Commission. Education Needs All progressive women in South Australia are delighted by the appointment of Mrs. Jean Blackburn, an opponent of the Vietnam war from its inception and member of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom, as deputy-chair- man of a commission to advise the government of Australia’s edcuation needs, long lagging behind, as in all non-socialist countries. é However, there is legitimate criticism that no teacher or parent is on the commission. Mrs. Blackburn is a lecturer at a teachers’ training college. Our State Labor Premier, Mr. Dunstan, who has been snubbed and sent home almost empty handed after every Prime Minis- ters’ Conference, has — as have all the other State Governments, whether Labor or Liberal — been granted substantial sums of money to deal with the un- employment consciously and deliberately created by the 1971 Budget as the Liberal method of coping with inflation. Vietnam war policies. Dectors and Health Only the poor old pensioners have to wait until February for legislation to grant them the promsied $1.50 a week increase, at which time legislation will also be introduced on a Federal level to outlaw all racial discri- mination, including jobs, homes, education, opportunity, entry to pubs and restaurants, etc. Still looming on the horizon is the fight to introduce a new form of health service which will make the opposition of Brit- ish doctors to Bevan’s proposals look like a difference of opinion at a vicar’s tea-party. Not all, but the majority of Australian doctors went abso- lutely berserk when Labor's very modest proposals. were out- lined. The Australian Medical Asso- ciation issued a leaflet attacking them, urging support of the Liberal candidates, and many doctors not merely made them available in their waiting-rooms but enclosed them with their patients’ bills. All the good first steps, how- ever, cannot and do not obscure the fact that great industrial battles are looming in the New Year, and the Labor government will have to decide whose side it is on. v7, —Morning Star. Portugese tried | for telegrams LISBON — Ten members of the National Committee to Aid Political Prisoners appeared be- fore the military tribunal of Coimbra Dec. 18, on charges of “defaming the good name of the police.” Among them were five - university professors. The ten were severely reprimanded for having signed, in the name of the Committee, a telegram which police authorities con- sidered a swipe at their “renoun and prestige.” Also three writers were repri- manded along with them for “abuse of freedom of the press.” The National Committee to Aid Political. Prisoners is com- prised mainly of lawyers, doc- tors, clergy and university pro- fessors. Since its formation, it has constantly denounced Portu- gal’s attacks on human rights and police brutality, several times petitioning the prime min- ister on instances of abuse and torture of political prisoners. Under new Lynch law Suspicion equals guilt By P. O'HARA Repression is nothing new to the Irish people. For approxima- tely the last 800 years they have fought it in differing forms. To- day they face it on all fronts, the last pretentions of “democ- racy” having been wiped out by Jack Lynch’s Fianna Fail govern- ment on Dec. 2, 1972. Lynch (Prime Minister of the “Free” State) had been under pressure for some time to move in an open crackdown of the IRA. The British rulers, in order to force through their “solution”, see that it is first necessary for them to defeat the will of the northern minority. This can only be accomplished by eliminating the people’s only defence, the Republican Movement. This is Lynch’s primary aim, to carry out his end of the deal by strangling opposition forces in the south. (Whether he will suc- ceed or not is another story). The most recent move in this direction was the forced resig- nation of the Radio Telefis Eir- eann, (RTE), executive members. The state justification for this action was that the RTE had held an interview with MacStio- fain and given a public news re- port on it. All news interviews must be approved by the direc- tor general, P. Hardiman, before transmission. The newsman who gave the interview, Kevin O’Kelly, was arrested and is now on bail pending an appeal of his three-month conviction. It seems that the director general does not deem it necessary to inter- fere with the ample broadcast- ing time received by Craig and Falkner. However, this is not surprising when we take into account the source of his wages. Erases Rights For those who are still in doubt about the aims of Lynch et al, there is also, the Offences Against the State (Amendment) Act. The bill takes away virtu- ally all democratic rights (free-_ dom of speech, press, assem- bly, etc.) and places the power in the hands of the military. This is the reality of a police state. It means that any person with- out proof of innocence, is guilty. “Any statement made orally, in writing or otherwise. or any conduct, by an accused person implying or leading to a reason- able inference that he was at a material time a member of an unlawful organization shall . . . 2 ie > be evidence that. he was then such a member.” “Where an officer of . . . the rank of chief superintendent . . . states that he believes that the accused was at a material time a member of an unlawful organi- zation, the statement shall be evidence that he was then such a member.” Thus, the Act’ allows Lynch complete freedom to smash what he can of the southern op- position forces, and, keep the remainder under his thumb, while the British move in to quell the northern minority whose forces would be more vulnerable due to battling open repression in both the north and the south. c The stakes that Lynch has in the Act were shown clearly in the way in which it was passed. Just before it came to the vote, two bombs exploded in parked cars in Dublin, killing two peo- ple and injuring 120 others. Statements from the IRA, stu- dent organizations, the so-called Provisionals and others stated, “that Friday night’s explosions were a “once-off” action design- ed to achieve the political end of influencing public opinion and speeding the passage of the new legislation.” American Standpoint For North Americans con- cerned with the Irish struggle, the situation must be examined by the existing conditions. First of all, it is a fact that the U.S. and Canadian governments have a large economic interest in both the North and South of Ireland. (e.g. in Northern Ireland, ITT employs over 6,000; Goodyear 2,000; Bosch & Lomb _ 1,100; Berkshire International 1,000. Six percent of the work force in the north is employed by Ameri- can capitalists. Also there is an American Naval Communica- tions Station at Derry. In the south thefe are more. than 70 U.S. companies employing more than 11,500.) Secondly, these economic in- terests were not established by permission of the Irish people, but rather, by permission of the U.K. government. Support of the North American governments is in reality, support of the British government and its intervention in Ireland. Supporting the rights of the Irish people to self-deter- mination means calling for the withdrawal of all foreign inter- ests, British and North Ameri- can. British Paratrooper in Derry on Bloody Sunday when they murdered 13 people. Meanwhile, a new law in the South erases civil rights. - PACIFIC TRIBUNE—FRIDAY, JANUARY 12, 1973—PAGE 9 ;