- DEMAND IMPEACHMENT OF NIXON
WASHINGTON — Americans for Democratic Action has renewed
its call for impeachment of President Nixon. The ADA’s 24th annual
convention adopted a resolution which called on Congress to “‘insti-
tute impeachment proceedings against Richard M. Nixon on the
grounds of high crimes” connected with the war in Vietnam. The
convention in 1970 called for impeachment of Nixon because of

U.S. eggression against Cambodia.

Critics of this year’s resolution said that ADA should concentrate
efforts on ending the war and preventing Nixon’s re-election.

The resolution said that Nixon has exceeded his powers in con-
ducting the war. It charged that crimes against humanity were com-
raitted which violate the Nuremberg standards set after World War
II. In addition, the resolution stated that the war violates the
Constitution, the UN Charter and the 1928 Treaty of Paris.

BLAST PENTAGON FABRICATIONS =
MOSCOW—U.S. Defense Secretary Melvin R. Laird was strongly
attacked in Pravda and charged with dragging out the tattered
“Communist menace” to justify an escalated arms race and to cover
up administration failures in Vietnam.

The focus of the article was Laird’s speech to the American
Society of Newspaper Editors in New York, in which Laird asserted
that a massive Soviet strategic arms build-up was taking place and
the U.S. as a result was falling into a “second-rate position.” So-
called “intelligence leaks” evidently were planted in the U.S.
press.

Pravda commentator Vitaly Korinov said that despite Laird’s
assertion that Nixon policy is becoming more realistic, exactly the
contrary is true. Laird once more ‘“‘shouts about a ‘Soviet military
build-up’ on the sea, the ground, the air, in space . . . The Pentagon
needs this fabrication, first of all, to justify a planned new round in
the arms race.”

ECUADOR SAYS USSR LEADS ANTI-RACISM STRUGGLE

UNITED NATIONS, N.Y. — Louis Valencina Rodrigeuz, UN re-
presentative off Ecuador declared: “The USSR is the leader of the
struggle for equality of races and nationalities, against racial
discrimination and oppression.”

Valencia Rodriguez spoke at the Third Session of the UN Com-
mittee on the Liquidation of Racial. Discrimination, which opened
on Tuesday. He said: “V. I. Lenin, the founder of the first socialist
state in the world, sharply denounced racial discrimination way
back at the dawn of Soviet power. The Soviet Union’s attitude
toward any manifestations of racialism and oppression is also re-
flected in the Constitution of the USSR. Under discussion at the UN
Committee session were reports submitted by the USSR and Brazil.

NEW HEALTH CENTER TO BE BUILT IN MOSCOW

' MOSCOW — Soviet Health Minister Boris Petrovsky announced
that during the latest (1971-75) Five-Year Plan period, a major new
health center will be built in Moscow in which thousands of physi-
cians and medical scientists will be employed. Several other health
centers, research centers and hospitals will be built in the city
during 1971-75 as well, Petrovsky said. As an example, he said, in
1971, alone, hospitals with a total capacity of 10,000 beds will be
constructed in Moscow.

The Soviet Health Minister was discussing the tasks of Soviet
medicine in connection with the decisions of the 24th Congress
of the Communist Party of the USSR. He placed great stress on
ecology, and mentioned that Moscow has the cleanest air by
scientific test of any city in the world.

PEOPLE’S.ASSEMBLY CONVENED IN BOLIVIA

LA PAZ — A People’s Assembly was convened here last week
on the initiative of several left-wing political parties, the trade-
unions and student organizations. It is an extra-constitutional (non-
governmental) body, formed to check up on government activities,
and to help resolve any conflicts between the government and the
workers. The Bolivian government last week nationalized an im-
portant U.S.-owned mining company and President Juan Jose Torres
said at a May Day demonstration that by this act the government
was returning power “into the hands of Bolivian themselves.”

VENEZUELAN WORKERS FAVOR UNITED FRONT

CARACAS — A large workers’ demonstration took place in
Caracas on the Plaza La Concordia in support of a united front of
the Venezuelan trade unions. Taking part were trade unionists from
the Communist Party of Venezuela, the People’s Electoral Move-
ment (MEP), the Republican Democratic Union (URD), the Popular
Democratic Front (FDP), and unaffiliated workers.

Meanwhile, workers in the Ricaurte district called a general
strike in support of textile workers who were locked out by the
owners of the Telares Capriles factory.

PEOPLE’S FRONT BEING DISCUSSED IN COLOMBIA

BOGOTA — Representatives of progressive political, civic and
trade union organizations of Colombia have met here and worked
out general agreement on the principles of a people’s front. Parti-
cipants included the Communist Party, National People’s Union,
Haitan People’s Front, left-wing groups of the Liberal Party, Com-
munist Youth League, Trade Union Confederation of the Working
People and other organizations.

There was unanimous agreement that the objective conditions
for unity of the progressive. forces exist. It was decided to press
for unity of action of the organizations representing the majority
of the population in the struggle against foreign monopolies, par-
ticularly U.S., and the oligarchy.

The people’s front’s minimum program should provide for lift-
ing the state of emergency, release of political prisoners, defense
of national sovereignty and the national wealth, for real agrarian
reform. A national congress of anti-imperialist and anti-oligarchic
forces will be held soon.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—FRIDAY MAY 14, 1971—PAGE 8

Eyewitness report

What happened in Ceylé

By JEAN-EMILE VIDAL

L'Humanité correspondent

COLOMBO — For the last
few weeks gunfire has echoed
through this island paradise. On
April 5 groups of young insur-
gents hidden in the jungles of
Ceylon attacked several police

stations and captured some
areas.
Their action was probably

precipitated because their move-
ment, Janatha Vimukti Paramu-
na (Front for the Liberation of
the People) was in process of
being dismantled — 500 arrests
had been made since mid-
March.

This was neither a civil war
nor a popular uprising, but a
movement of a few groups. The
estimate in Colombo is that out
of the island’s population of 13
million, some 10,000 young peo-
ple were involved.

Certain of Ceylon’s troubles
are not over as the fundamental
causes that led to the outburst
have not disappeared.

Independent since 1948, hav-
ing suffered three centuries’ of
colonialism, Ceylon is still suf-
fering from the results of for-
eign domination.

Legacy of Past

When the United Front gov-
ernment formed from Mrs. Ban-
daranaike’s Shri Lanka Free-
dom Party and two left-wing
parties, one of which is the
Communist Party, came _ to
power in May 1970 the right-
wing government of the Nation-
al United Party had tripled the
country’s debts.

Ceylon’s capitalists, dodging
the law at will, assured them-
selves massive profits in their
commercial deals with hardly
any investment in industry.

From the time it came to
power the United Front govern-
ment took measures to ensure

‘that the costs of the crisis

would no longer be borne just
by the workers. ;

But even the most unflap-
pable of economists have not
hesitated to describe the state
of the economy as catastrophic.

Nearly 40% of the cultivated
area is taken up by plantations,
tea, coconuts and rubber, most-
ly foreign owned, mainly Bri-
tish. Grain production is insuf-
ficient and 55% of customs re-
ceipts are spent in paying for
food imports.

Capital which could be invest-
ed in industrial and irrigation
projects is wasted in consump-
tion. At the same time unem-
ployment is growing in the
towns and the under-employ-
ment of land-starved peasants
is spreading.

Big Planters
The products of the big plan-

Fo

tations bring in 95% of the
country’s revenues — 60% for
tea alone. Prices on the tea,
rubber and copra markets are
fixed by the-*developed coun-
tries, and have not stopped fall-
ing. So much so that Ceylon’s
resources are being cut down,
not built up, and there has been
a constant deficit in the balance
of payments since 1960.

The population has been
growing at the rate of 2.4% a
year, and one. of the most ser-
ious problems the present gov-
ernment must face up to is that
of unemployment — now esti-
mated to cover some 800,000.

In the days when Ceylon’s
exports were well paid and the
country’s financial situation was
the envy of its neighbors, the
government establishéd an edu-
cational system that, for an
Asian country,
vanced.

School is obligatory up to 14,
and education is free up to de-
gree level. The percentage of
illiteracy has been brought
down to less than 20% as
against 60% for India.

Rebel Recruits

At present there are some
18,000 graduates without work
in Ceylon and it is from their
ranks that the IVP insurgents
have been recruited.

What do these young insur-
gents, called Guevarists by the
press, want?

Let me first of all make it
clear that this description is a
complete falsehood, given to
them because, exiled in the
jungle, they wore beards. But
they do not see themselves as
followers of Che. And that I can
state for a fact, for I spent an
evening’s discussion with some
of them.

They have no particular ideo-
logy, apart from some side re-
ferences to Marxism of which
they know little. They said they
were ‘‘several thousand strong”
without wanting, or being able,
to give a precise figure.

Without Work

From the long meeting I had
with them I got the impression
that they were in revolt against
“the Establishment,” because

it had not been able to give _

them the positions their diplo-
mas prepared them for. With-
Out work and without any per-
spective, they believed they
would find a solution in making
home-made bombs.

Primarily nationalists, they
swore by the Buddhist tradi-
tions of the Ceylonese people
and campaigned violently
against the privileged positions
of the English-speaking “elite”
—whose existence, as in India,
is a hangover from colonialism.

was very ad-

carried through.

Ceylonese nationalism 7 f -
gives their movement i
conservative color, eae
revolutionaries
Tamils—immigrant
—who number more
million and work in ihe 4 i
plantations. Paid little” | a
mils incontestably
poorest part of the

Cut off from this vp
rural proletariat, the ! a
ents have on the ott
only found a limited #
among the Ceylonesé F
from which many of

come. This peasantry F

ie &
popul i
mass

The industrial workels
whom there are not ™
the public service .
are in favor of the ra
which has backed the ‘i
their struggles with the :
ers. They were frankly nth
to the revolt vie Ww
or program by the *"
less han a year 28° i
ported the United Frat,

The sudden about.
many here to think th?
volt was financed, 9. i
and manipulated frat
The National United off
the CIA have beet
cited in this regard.

Deprived of a pop at

ll

sry

“ing the IVP groups. oy

their influence in
and — universities,
majority of students
outside the movemen™ 4

Ceylon seems NO" |
returned to relative
what of the future?

by speculation a” df
Penk and the pressure Fr
erialism. eS
3 Will Mrs. pandaranaligs
ernment, dominate rt Ml
Lanka Freedom Pe
holds an absolute = ca
the Assembly, bé vi
carrying through t Tell
draconian ;
Ceylon is to find 1 ~
rogress? a)
: The Communist P8 mY a
lon, which has only © Cf
the Parliament an@ ath i
Minister, Peter Ku? pul
ister of Housing, ©

jones. t
booting the rea ot
tional United P@
power. wed

it 8
At the moment rit
to see that the
program, which

tory in last year's

Section of Sportsmen’s Parade marching in the May Day demonstration