Luis Corvalan, jailed general secretary of

the Chilean Communist Party.

The following are excerpts from a Manifesto of the Communist Party of Chile.

The document, addressed to the Party and the entire people of Chile, is being.
circulated clandestinely in that country.

5 more than one year of dictatorial
rule has sufficed to make it plain that Pin-
ochet and his henchmen cannot hold on to
power for long. The power of the military
junta is definitely transient.

The vast majority of the Chileans are
opposed to fascism. The dictatorship is be-
coming weaker from day to day. Its crimes
and brutality demonstrate its growing iso-
lation, not its strength. |

At the same time, foundations are being

laid in the country for broad national, anti-
fascist unity capable of putting an end to
the usurpation -of power, brining about
democratic renewal and once again giving
effect to the social reforms essential for
the country’s progress.

The decisive, vitally necessary pre- -
condition for the building of anti-fascist |

unity is work among the masses. No tac-

tics can take the place of this work, which
is the guarantee of victory. There is no way
whatsoever out of the present situation ex-
cept through action by the masses. Victory
depends on their participation.

The Anti-Fascist Front will be built
mostly from below, at the level of the popu-
lar organizations, where the people live,
work, study or spend their leisure time. It
is here that the revolutionaries must work.
to unite the majority and help it achieve its
aspirations, the realization of which de-
pends in the final analysis on the type of
government at the head of the country.

_ It is the prime duty of all anti-fascists
to belong to mass organizations. Fascism
seeks to prevent all manifestations of in-
dependence on the part of the Chilean peo-
ple’s public organizations. In its efforts to
turn the country into a military barracks it

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is trying to crush all democratic activity] |

The junta has outlawed the United Trade
Union Center (CUT). which was built 0
democratic principles, and replaced it wit

a Labor Office directed by ‘‘leaders’’ 4P |

pointed from above. It has banned the su”
dent federations and set up instead the S”
called Youth Secretariat. likewise appoint
ed from the top. It has proscribed: the d@
mocratic election of the leaders of thé

trade unions, tenants’ committees, moth |

ers’ centers and all other public organiz#
tions. It ignores the opinion of all-but He

The following is an abridgement of a
speech delivered by City Council President
Paul O'Dwyer at the celebration of the
38th anniversary of the Abraham Lincoln
Brigade on Sunday, February 16, 1975,
at the Statler-Hilton Hotel, New York

City. -

| have just returned from Spain. There
I presented a brief and petition before

the Spanish Supreme Court — for the 10°

men* incarcerated in  Carabanchel
prison.

For what were these men sentenced
to 162 years in that hellhole? For organ-
izing workers tofight for humane wages,
hours and conditions, and against their
beastly lives and intolerable poverty.

IT have no illusion that the petition to
the court, signed by an array of Ameri-
can labor, public and political leaders,
will bring about release of the Caraban-
chel 10. But what it does do is show the
support of millions of Americans for the
rapidly rising movement inside Spain
for the overthrow of fascist tyranny. It
is this movement that will finally free
the 10 and 20,000 others jailed through-
out the country. It is this movement
that will finally free the whole Spanish
people from the prison that all of Spain
is today. ;

This growing movement now in-
volves every part of Spanish society. In
recent months; hundreds of thousands of
workers, organized by the underground
Workers’ Commissions, have struck
and demonstrared. The resulting disrup-
tion of production, as reported by the
February 2nd New York Times, has
caused an increasing number of indus-
trialists to: oppose the government’s
labor syndicates, a pillar of the political
system. ;

The Roman Catholic Church, long a
mainstay of the Franco regime, has
joined the struggle against it. The first
break came in September 1971 when a
meeting of bishops and priests in Ma-
drid called for separation of the Church
and State, and for support of social and
human rights. Then in early 1972,-on the
10th anniversary of Pope John’s ‘‘Pa-
cem in Terris,”’ the 85 bishops making
up the Bishops’ Commission on Justice
and Peace, headed by Cardinal Vincente
y Taracon, the Archbishop of Madrid,
met in Madrid, and issued a denuncia-
tion of the regime, which said:

There is violence and death against

*The sentences have been reduced, con-
sequently four of the Carabanchel 10,
~ having served their time, have been re-
leased. She remaining six have four vears
ond four m.s:ths to s:x years to serve.

the right to live. There is torture against
the right to bodily and mental integrity.
The people lack the essentials for decent
living ... instead of the right to free
association and public protest there is
repression... To say that the people
are not ready for democracy, that they
have not reached maturity is an insult
to Spaniards and a smokescreen to cover
up the interests of privileged groups...

- Only the action of the people can achieve
the common good of the people.

Now, all over Spain, parish priests
close to. the people are joining in the
struggle, despite the especially vindic-
tive terror against them, with prison
sentences of up to 50 years.

The opposition to Franco among
Spain’s intellectuals and professionals
has always remained strong, though
many have been subjected to unspeak-
able horrors. The November 24, 1974,
New York Times described the torture
of nine intellectuals recently arrested,
among them Dr. Genoveva Forest,
wife of the playwright Alfonso Sastro,
also arrested:

Dr. Forest was held incommunicado
for 26 days. She was continually beaten
and kicked in all parts of her body. She
was told she would be thrown out of a
window and that the world would be in-
formed that she had committed suicide.
When she vomited, she was forced to
swallow the mess.

But the torture does not work. The

_ voices of Spain’s intellectuals are not
silenced. They continue to speak out

against the government and its policies.
Even the army, which put Franco into
power, has begun to turn against his
regime. Last summer General Diaz
Alegria was removed as Chief of Staff
because of his efforts to reduce the
army’s political role. At about the same
time, the Army Minister, Lieutenant-
General Francisco Coloma, issued or-
ders to his officer corps warning them
against ‘‘sowing dissent in the armed
. forces.”” The Washington Post corres-
pondent, on the scene at the time, de-
scribed this as ‘‘an unprecedented reve-
lation of unrest in the armed forces.”

A. now, within the government it-
self, the opposition has surfaced. Under
the headline “500 Spanish Officials: Pe-
tition for a Democracy,’’ The Feb. 7th
New York Times reports on a written
demand handed to the Spanish Prime
Minister last Thursday. This demand
calls-for:

. A Democratic state in which politi-
cal authority emanates from the people
through participation of all citizens,
freely grouped according to their opin-
‘ons on public matters and without any
exclusion. ‘,

‘This petition was signed by 500 gov-
ernment officials, including legal ad-

‘visors and-technicians of some 20 minis-
tries, professors of state-run yniversi-
ties, members of the diplomatic corps,

A demonstration in support of the Carabanchel 10,

New York City, July 1973.

and the former Director-General of cul
tural Matters. : .
With all this opposition, what 3%
tains dictatorship? ;
It isthe support of the U.S. gover
ment for the Spanish rulers. Without’ ;
backing, Franco could not remait ot
power. For over 20 years, U.S.-Spail!
relations have been governed by the
Madrid Pact. This pact, original
signed in September 1953, was execu f
as an ‘Executive Agreement’’ ratilé
than a treaty, so as to avoid the requl”

ment of the advise and consent provis™ |

of the U.S. Senate, with the result?
public scrutiny and discussion. it
The Madrid Pact was last renewed!
August, 1970, and will come up for "
newal again in August this year. unt
this ‘‘Pact,’’ the U.S. has poured 0 ve
four billion dollars into Spain. We be:
built, all over Spain, an enormous 4”
military complex, with airfields, mi
sile bases, radar installations, atom
munitions dumps and a gigantic 1°
base at Rota, near Cadiz, as the host
for our 6th Fleet and our chief Eur:
missile launching site, all connecté
a 485-mile oil pipeline, and all mat
by U.S. troops. ‘
Under the pact, the United States if
given and continues to give Franco h aif
dreds of millions of dollars to train
equip his arrned forces whose only ful
tion is to preserve the dictatorstl?
Article 30 of this pact provides:: w
, Each government will support d
' make such contributions as are dee

d bY

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—JULY 11, 1975—Page 4

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