MOSES MABHIDA

South African CP
__ leader dies at 63

| ‘ The South African Communist Party has an-
‘ nounced the death of its General Secretary, Moses

Mabhida last week at age 63. A long-time member

M)} ofthe South African struggle as a union leader and

Me wh,

communist since joining the SACP in 1942, Moses
Mabhida was elected its leader in 1981.

_ At the time, the SACP Central Committee de-
seribed Moses Mabhida as ‘‘a man tried and tested
in a thousand battles during the course of the na-
tional liberation struggle .. . an African nationalist
and proletarian internationalist (who is) convinced
of the bond between the forces for national libera-
tion and the international communist movement.”

_A Toronto memorial meeting will take place for
| _ this outstanding African communist, March 25 at

_ 7:30p.m., Board of Education

, 155 College Street,

_ 6th Floor.

SACP General Secretary Moses Mabhida.

‘Sick-out’ strikes continue
as Grenada’s economy dives

BRIDGETOWN, Barbados — A crippling ‘‘sick out”’
strike by Grenada’s 3,000 civil servants less than a week
after Reagan’s visit to the Spice Isle, has underscored
the sefious economic problems which continue to plague
governments and peoples in the 12-member economic
and political grouping in the Anglophone Caribbean,
CARICOM.

During his five-hour fiying visit, Reagan spent most of
his time threatening his political opponents in the region

rather than listening to regional government heads or’

announcing any meaningful short or long term aid pack-
age, In his speech, he did offer some scholarships to
study in the U.S., access of CARICOM garments to
U.S. markets and a $5.5-million project to improve the
region’s judicial system.

While there were some who welcomed these pro-
posals, others, like Dr. Pat Emmanuel, a Grenadian-
born Research Fellow at Cave Hill Campus at the Uni-
versity of the West Indies said the whole whoopla about
Reagan’s visit in the region's press still sidesteps the
question of real long-term development and the U.S. role
in it. It is also known that CARICOM governments are
not exactly pleased with Washington’s current trading
and other relationships with the English-speaking Carib-
bean. (Last year, for example, Caribbean exports to the
U.S. dropped by 23 per cent).

Others, like Barbados Prime Minister Bernard St.
John, had already told the press before leaving for Gre-
nada that Reagan’s 1983 Caribbean Basin Initiative has
not lived. up to expectations. Others charge CBI is being
used by Washington to increase and grease the influx of
new U.S. multinationals into the region. This tactic was
referred to by a U.S. Congressman, Marvyn Dymally
(California), in Barbados last year when he said, ‘‘CBI’s
agenda is for the development and protection of the
private industrial economy of the United States.”

Perhaps the harshest words on Reagan’s visit came
from the opposition forces in Grenada. George Louison,
former PRG Agricultural Minister and now a leader of
the Maurice Bishop: Patriotic Movementi(MBPM). He
called Reagan’s visit, *‘Nothing but a sham. If you
examine his proposals, you will see all of them were
empty. They will have no impact on development in the
region,’’ Louison charged.

Western media reports on Grenada’s life since the

From the
Caribbean

U.S. invasion show unemployment at 30 per cent, and
double that for youth. Promised U:S. investment re-
sulted in two projects: one, a nutmeg business that failed,
the second, a toy factory which closed four months later
and whose owner is now in jail for fraud.

Not surprisingly, Jamaican Prime Minister Edward

- Seaga urged more “security” for the region. He is pre-

sently chairman of a new conservative grouping in the
anglo-Caribbean, the Caribbean Democratic Union,
which has close ties with the U.S. Republican Party.

Meanwhile, the labor dispute by Grenadian unions,
including the Grenadian Teachers’ Union, with the
Blaize administration appears to have no end in sight.
The unions are asking for a 30 per cent wage hike across
the board and another 30 per cent next year. Caribbean
News Agency reports say 80 per cent of the island’s
public workers are engaging in the ‘‘sick outs’’ to back
their demands.

Reagan in Grenada: two years after invasion, promises of
aid are forgotten and the economy staggers.

INTERNATIONAL FOCUS Tom Morris.

"High style,
|| low culture
| No 20-kilo luggage limit

Base north of Manila when
_ Marcos and his 88-person en-
| tourage fied the Philippines
aboard four U.S. Airforce
planes last month.
_ The U.S. personnel who
loaded the luggage, including
22 boxes of freshly-minted
‘pesos ($1.4-million) and 278
| crates of jewellery, gold, art
.{ and real estate deeds (yet un-
| estimated), might have had an
_ inkling the party was over-
‘weight, but what the hell, Mar-
_ COS was invited to the U.S. by
}} Reagan himself.
|} Asaninventory of the booty
‘is made, the estimated total
| ripped off stands at between
-} +$5-10-billion. To grasp what

a) 1985 national Philippine budget
da} was $3.1-billion! et

Style was always high on the

list for this couple. Incredulous

Filpinos, inspecting Imelda’s —

‘| bedroom at Malacanang
| Palace, found 3,000 pairs of
shoes, 68 pairs of gloves and
five shelves of handbags
| among the lady’s wardrobe.

| was observed at Clark Air’

this means, consider that the

(It’s assumed she took a few
__ items with her.) The spectacle
must have impressed the aver-
age citizen whose 1984 average
wage was $136.
The Marco’s cultural life
also came-into focus. Video
tapes left behind show a party
aboard the presidential yacht
last summer in which U.S.
consul-general
McAninch, resplendent in
‘shorts and suspenders, is danc-
ing with Imelda and another
man in baby clothes bursts
from a birthday cake. Real fun.

Life in Hawaii will be sucha
drag.

The ‘obscenity of Marcos’
wealth: 3,000 pair of shoes.

‘Vernon.

Needed: a more
humane image

+ In the March 9 New York
Times, James LeMoyne wist-
fully speculates on the growing
problem of contra support in-
side and outside Nicaragua.
The article, examines Rea-
gan’s problem in convincing
anybody to the left of Atilla the
Hun that Nicaragua threatens
the United States and that
Congress should provide con-
tra military aid.

In doing so; LeMoyne
writes: ‘‘The rebels’ (contras)
origins help account for their
uncertain appeal. Washington
turned to the defeated National
Guard which had served
Somoza. CIA contract agents
and Argentine army officers,
who set up government death
squads in their own country,
became the guerrillas’ trainers

“*(They) offered no coherent’

political program (and) often
killed or brutalized Sandinista
soldiers and government of-
ficials they captured ... They
have chosen to attack politi-
cally sensitive targets, includ-
ing coffeepickers, agricultural

cooperatives and civilian of-
ficials ...”’

You'd think, having de-
scribed the contras as they are:
a CIA-backed band of killers,
LeMoyne would come out
swinging against his country
supporting Reagan’s $100-mil-
lion aid bill. Not so.

To pose a serious threat to
the Sandinistas, he writes,
“they will not only have to be-
come a better armed and train-
ed force .. . they will also have
to develop a more humane
image and a genuine popular
political program.”’

Forty-six years ago,
LeMoyne would have urged
U.S. military support to Hitler
to fight the Communists — if
only the SS would improve its
image.

Caught, tried,
jailed and freed

A observant reader, digging
through his scrapbook, sent
along copies of two stories
appearing in the Montreal daily
press in 1978 while Anatoly
Shcharansky was being
charged by Soviet authorities
with being a CIA agent. -

Here was part of the evi-

PACIFIC TRIBUNE, MARCH 19, 1986 e 9

dence aguinst him: a letter to
former Los Angeles Times
Moscow correspondent
Robert Toth from Maj. Robert
Watters, the then U.S. military
Attache in Moscow, thanked
Toth for his work and passed
along praise from Lt.-Gen.
Samuel Wilson, then head of
the Pentagon’s Defence Intel-
ligence Agency.

The letter, which the Soviets
produced, showed
Shcharansky had passed along
lists of Soviet defence plants
and research institutes to Toth.
Small wonder Wilson’s praise,
contained in Watters’ letter,
said Toth was ‘‘doing good
work’’ and that ‘the liked my
analyses’’.

Small wonder, too, Toth told
Newsweek magazine: ‘“‘How
stupid I was not to have eaten
that goddam letter.”’

By now, nobody cares much
about all this — except it’s a bit
much to have gone through the
‘Free at Last’ binge last
month as Anatoly was paraded
by Israel as a dissident and
fighter for human rights.

He is an agent. He was
caught, jailed, then released.
No more, no less.

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