Se te ee Tone 4 Ao Ce avs SY SS eee ey Sd Se ie OU et i la OO bg A er LD WORLD 2,611 missiles to be smashed, crushed, burned Continued from page 1 “We can only hope that this history-making agreement will not be an end in itself, but the begin- ning of a working relationship that will enable us to tackle other issues, urgent issues before us — stra- tegic offensive nuclear weapons, the balance of con- ventional forces in Europe ... ,” the U.S. president told the gathering, The agreement removes all intermediate-range missiles, launchers and support systems no later than three years after it goes into affect. Shorter- range missiles will be gone in 18 months. The U.S. will eliminate its Pershing-1A, Pershing-2 and ground launched Cruise systems; the USSR will lose its SS-4, SS-5, SS-12, SS-' 20 and SS-23 systems. The treaty bans all future manufacture of short and medium-range missiles or any stages of them. It details notification procedures for elimination of missiles and methods of their destruction as well as outlining verification, monitoring and on-site inspection steps. he treaty guarantees spy-in-the-sky verification as well as the setting up of a Special Verification Commission. December 8, 1987: The historic INF treaty is signed at the White House. Finally, the treaty is of unlimited duration, but contains the right ofeither party to withdraw should it decide events relating to the agreement endanger its overriding interests. During his three day visit, the Soviet leader held five working meetings with the U.S. president, spoke with Congressional leaders and met with a wide range of U.S. opinion shapers. Throughout, he repeated the Soviet Union’s contention that new thinking must replace old, confrontational practices in international affairs. ‘‘What has been accomplished is only a begin- ning, Gorbachev told the world after the signing. ‘It’s only a start of nuclear disarmament. “People want to live in a world in which they will not be haunted by fear of nuclear catastrophe ... where American and Soviet spacecraft would come together for dockings and joint voyages, not for Star Wars. ‘‘People want to live in a world in which they would not have to spend millions each day on weapons they could only use against themselves’’. tl An historic moment — now the next step The following statement was issued Dec. 9, 1987 by the Central Executive Committee of the Communist Party of Canada follow- ing the signing of the U.S.-USSR INF agreement. The treaty eliminating all intermediate and shorter range mis- siles signed by President Reagan and General Secretary Gor- bachev is an historic gain for all those who strive for a nuclear weapons-free world. — The peoples of the world had a major input in this historic agreement. Ceaseless peace actions in Canada as in the world compelled imperialism to come to the negotiating table. The first step has been taken. Now it is necessary to take the next step — that of a treaty curtailing strategic missiles by SO per cent, including compliance with the ABM Treaty. Were such a step taken it would go a long way towards the realization of a nuclear weapons-free world by the year 2000. Unfortunately there are reactionary forces in the world and particularly in the USA who want to prevent this. Such forces are being lined up to prevent the U.S. Senate from voting for the newly signed INF Treaty. Similar forces in the USA and in NATO have been working around the clock to replace the intermediate and shorter range missiles with equally dangerous nuclear and conventional weapons — they disarm while continuing to arm. The truth is that the military-industrial complex does not want to give up nuclear weapons and opposes measures which would achieve real disarmament. Clearly, these forces are not yet in tune with the new thinking called for today — that there can be no victors in a nuclear war, only a destroyed world and its peoples. They must be forced to retreat. There must be no halting or turning back from the path of nuclear disarmament. The peace forces, all peace-loving Canadians in no matter what political party, the trade union movement, all democratic forces must unite in support of a 50 per cent reduction in strategic missiles, for an end to nuclear testing, for the Mulroney govern- ment to put a stop to U.S. Cruise missile testing on Canadian soil. In supporting such measures Canadians need to ask them- selves — why has Prime Minister Mulroney not yet issued a statement as have other NATO countries welcoming the agree- ment reached between the USA and the USSR? Why is the only statement issued so far, that by External Affairs Minister Clark suggesting Canada may have to consider strengthening and mod- ernizing its armed forces? Why is this policy of militarization being pursued exactly when the world appears to be moving in an opposite direction? These are legitimate questions particularly today when new possibilities exist to move towards the next step leading towards the achievement of a nuclear weapons-free world. INTERNATIONAL FOCUS Tom Morris NONE ee se ee LN AE, ws FIO mee YR rege SA + Not paying the banker The United States is heading for a big fall in Latin America. The rumblings have been heard (and ignored) by Washington for years now that the peoples living south of the Rio Grande aren’t prepared to live in the old way much longer. For decades, Uncle Sam has practiced economic banditry in Latin America. The economies of the majority of South and Central American states and many in the Carib- bean have been twisted, de- formed and brutalized by a consistent U.S. policy of dollar colonialism. Buy cheap and sell dear has been the motto. A combined assault by U.S. transnationals and American-controlled international banking, plus de- pendency on U.S. imports, has resulted in Latin American debts that now are unpayable. For these nations the bulk of foreign earnings are eaten up just to pay the interest on their foreign debt. Social programs are butchered, poverty has be- come permanent and immovable. But there are stirrings. Meet- ing in Acapulco, Mexico last week, eight major members of the Organization of American States met (without the U.S.) and called for a ceiling on re- payment of some $400-billion in foreign debts. Peru earlier had begun unilaterally by declaring it will permit only 10 per cent of its foreign earnings to be spent servicing its $14-bil- lion debt to the IMF and World Bank (Peru also said it will nationalize 33 private banks and insurance companies). Fidel Castro said some years ago that the oppressed nations of the Third World will begin to refuse payment on these catas- trophic and usury debts. He warned the U.S. banker-of- the-world it had better begin re-thinking its position as arbiter and world policeman. The inexorable prdcess is underway. Strange and unusual sights It must be a novel experi- ence for Ronald Reagan to be shot at from his political right. His entire career was built on Soviet-bashing and America-the-Great hyperbole which propelled him from peddling General Electric ap- pliances to a governor’s man- sion, then to the very White House itself. And yet, as he and Soviet leader Gorbachev signed the INF treaty, the conservative dogs at home were nipping and yelping; they were bemoaning lost causes and even found Reagan: being shot at from the Right. PACIFIC TRIBUNE, DECEMBER 16, 1987 e 21 themselves insulting the man who once led them against the Godless hoards of the Evil Empire, calling him a ‘‘useful idiot of Soviet propaganda.” And it was unusual to watch Reagan defending peace and telling his ultra-right purist cri- tics that they, too, might prefer living in a world which hasn’t been saturated by some 50,000 nuclear blasts. It was also frightening to witness the depth of hatred by the U.S. extreme right, a hatred devoid of reason, built on mindless fear, supported by a fundamentalist religion which argues the bible predicts the world will be consumed ina nuclear inferno, that we are the last civilization. These are unusual times. If Reagan keeps talking peace and disarmament, he will continue to lose his ultra-right base in America. But he may be re- membered as a president who finally got the disarmament process under way. And that’s not bad.