A political act with a purpose Strange role for ‘peace’ prize Awarding the 1983 Nobel Peace Prize to former head of the disbanded Solidarnosc union in Poland has been described in the media as a political act. One sup- porter of the choice argued the reason is: peace is political. It certainly is, but just what has . Lech Walesa to do with peace? Search as one may, Walesa’s public statements are devoid of _ any mention of world peace or of the tremendous campaigns under way to stop the nuclear arms race. The Nobel award to Walesa, however, is highly political. The committee clearly made its choice based on its politics which are overtly anti-socialist. And, com- ing at a time when the Polish Government and people are striv- ing to normalize Polish life, the Walesa award aims to revive the process of destabilization with which he and his supporters are associated. The Walesa prize, however, isn’t the first time the Nobel committee tilted its lance against the socialist world. 464 slated for Europe AMHERST, CONN. — Students registering for Amherst College were grimly reminded of the threat the U.S. poses for the world with their plan to install 464 Cruise missiles in Europe by the end of ~ the year. Each Cruise carries fifteen times the power of the atom bomb dropped on Hiroshima, and as the sign on the truck notes “greatly reduces chances for negotiations and disarmament.” CLUM USA In 1975 the Peace Prize went to Soviet physicist Andrei Sakharov. His ‘‘contribution’’ to world peace became rounded out in a letter he made public earlier this year fully backing the deployment of U.S. Pershing-2 and Cruise missiles in western Europe. Sakharov earned his $200,000 prize money. Henry Kissinger (along with Vietnam’s Le Duc Tho, who re- fused the prize) won the award in 1973. Kissinger’s ‘‘contribution to peace’’ in Vietnam, Kam- * puchea, Laos, the. Middle East . and now in Central America was and is to act as a smooth-talking advocate of U.S. foreign policy. It is the antithesis of peace. In 1978 the Nobel Peace Prize went to Egypt’s Sadat and Is- rael’s Begin. “contribution’” was to smash Arab unity in the face of Israeli military expansion. Begin’s was to gleefully aid in this process, following up on his success with — the brutal invasion and occupa- tion of Lebanon. The committee got another stab in against socialism in 1970 when it gave the Nobel Prize for Litera- ture to Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn who today sits in the West brood- ing over his fortune and advocat- ing a return to the tzars in the Soviet Union. The awarding of the Peace Prize to Lech Walesa, therefore, while insulting to peace fighters everywhere, is not surprising ‘when the politics of the Nobel committee are considered. It is part of the cold war which seems __ determined to be worthy of the Sadat’s : Prize to Lech Walesa?’’ tries to emulate him. controllers. awards. U.S. Congress. : ‘Caldicott a more worthy candidate’ The following are remarks made by Alex McLennan on the. CBC program, “‘Cross Country Check Up”’ on October 9, answer to the question, ‘‘Would you have given the Nobel Peace I would not. This award defeats the purpose for which t Nobel Peace Prize was initiated. At no time has Lech Wale: ever taken a stand for peace. 3 In the presentation of the award, it was stated that he (Walesa) championed ‘‘The longing ofall peoples for peace and freedom’’. There are in Latin America certain countries in which the people are suffering torture under repressive regimes such aS” Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Costa Rica and Chile; fasci t governments which enjoy the wholehearted support of t government of the United States, and which, in fact, could n remain in power without the support of the United States. Yet Lech Walesa stated in an interview with the Italian jour- nalist Oriana Fellaci that he was a disciple of Ronald Reagan and Imagine a trade unionist being the disciple of the man wh destroyed the Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization in the United States and took away the jobs of 15,000 air-traffic One must question the kind of perverse philosophy whic dominates the thinking of this committee when they make suc For example, in a previous award they chose Henry Kissinge the man who together with Richard Nixon carried ona secret W: against Cambodia (Kampuchea) and for 10 months carried out ‘ raids by the U.S. air force without even the knowledge of the * * A more worthy candidate for such a prize would be Dr. Helen Caldicott, of the Physicians for Social Responsibility, rather than a man who admires Ronald Reagan with his policy of genocid against those nations which are struggling for freedom. Let me finish with a word from Dr. Caldicott: ‘‘If we don’t sto} doing what we're doing, the air we breathe, the food we eat, at the water we drink will soon be contaminated with enough radi activity to endanger you, your family and in fact all life on earth Within the next 10 years there could be a nuclear war which could © kill up to 90 per cent of Americans within 30 days. Nuclear wal |) threatens us with the final medical epidemic for which there is 00 |)” cure. Parents must take responsibility for their children’s future |) and demandbilateral nuclear disarmament. If you love'this planet — you have got to change your priorities’. — ¥ inventor of dynamite. — T.M. ee And I would suggest that the Nobel committee change theirs. International Focus Tom Morrie -KAL: less heat, more light More lessons are emerging along with new facts about the KAL 007 incident. “Soviets didn’t know jet was 747, U.S. experts say”’, reads a headline in the Toronto _ Globe & Mail, Oct. 7 which carries a New York Times Service story explaining that U.S. military and intelligence findings indicate the Soviets believed they were tracking a U.S. RC-135 spy plane flying over their military defences. A re-reading of Soviet statements show that’s what they’ve been saying all along. Equally informative in the article is the disclosure that this information was passed on to the White House and State Department two weeks after the incident — in mud September. Branding. Soviet estlons’ tions as ‘‘excuses’’, the full weight of the Western media was brought to bear charging the USSR willfully and know- ingly shot a Korean passenger jet out of the sky. Ronald Reagan led the as- sault, calling the Soviet Union criminals. His lieutenants added their voices in the Un- ited Nations and at the Geneva arms talks. A spate of actions followed: Canada’s banning of the Soviet airline Aeroflot, the Moscow Circus and Soviet cultural ar- tists. We were treated to miles of TV tape of anti-Soviet rallies in South Korea and victims’ re- latives throwing flowers into the Sea of Japan. Some U.S. states banned Soviet vodka, other idiots smashed up Lada automobiles. The U.S. Congress gave Reagan .his military budget based on the KAL 007 hysteria and Margaret Thatcher used the incident to thump for mis- sile deployment in Europe, urging everyone who would listen to “stand up” to the Russians. The lesson, of course, is that © the KAL provocation was a classic case of the Pentagon and State Department jerking the media around and the media, in turn, plying its anti- Soviet trade. Full scale media manipula- tion to portray the USSR as ‘‘barbarians”’ fits in nicely for those who plan war against the . Soviet Union. But, as the facts. slowly but surely assert them- selves, more and more people are beginning to draw the con- clusions. To Pinochet with thanks Never let it be said the Tory Thatcher government doesn’t take care of its friends. During its campaign last year to keep the Malvinas Is- lands in the Empire, the only government in Latin America to back Britain was that of Chile’s General Pinochet. While it was hinted at the time that Chile’s support had more to do with its long-standing ar- gument with Argentina over the Beagle Channel, today we see more of what Pinochet’s support was about. . The Cuban press agency Prensa Latina last week quoted the Conservative Lon- don Daily Telegraph which an- nounced Britain is repaying Graves on the Falklands Chile for its timely help by supplying Pinochet's navy with the destroyer ‘‘Antrim”’ for the bargain basement price of $10-million. Appropriately, ‘‘Antrim’”’ was part of Thatcher’s battle- fleet used in the Malvinas cam- paign. © This tough lady is apparently not in the least bothered by the fact that the people of Chile are in the process of dumping Pinochet and his gang of murdering generals and col- onels. A modern 5,400-ton des- troyer added to the Chilean navy plus British ‘‘Jaguar”’ fighter-bombers the Chilean airforce is negotiating to purchase will-form part of the arsenal to kill the people of Chile. British imperialism may be a long-toothed old tiger, but it still knows a friendly dictator when it sees one. And more debts repaid Another heartwarming story of friendship is the not-so- discreet love affair between the Israeli government and that of El Salvador. Students of Central Ameri- can politics watched as Israeli arms merchants did a land office business selling weapons PACIFIC TRIBUNE—OCTOBER 19, 1983—Page 8 ‘Salvadorean junta (as it did — - operations to the ‘‘eternal capi-_ ons are what keeps them in and other war material to the — previously to the Somoza re- gime in Nicaragua) not caring aca | damn that these were put to immediate use in butchering” the population. Now the El Salvador government has responded by | moving its embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem ~ making it only the second state (along with Costa Rica) to do so. a This is an important psychological boost for Israel. _ In 1980 the Begin government | illegally declared Jerusalem aS — its ‘‘eternal capital’’ annexing East Jerusalem despite overwhelming world protest. Virtually every state with dip-~ lomatic relations condemned the move and kept its embas sies in Tel Aviv. Only former Prime Minister Joe Clark (re- ff member?) fell into the trap and thought Canada might move its | tal’’. He ate that one. The Salvadorean junta has no such qualms. UZ machine-guns and other weap- power against their ow people. An embassy 10 Jerusalem, they reason, is 4 : small price to pay for such @ service. aa |