LABOR —- Caribbean youth prepare for IYY, Moscow testival ~ BRIDGETOWN, Barbados — In keeping with the Spirit of the United Nations designated International Youth Year, Caribbean youth and students will this year Join millions of young people all over the world in mount- Ing activities to highlight the situation of the youth, their Problems and their aspirations. _ Already, several events, including festivals, fund rais- ing ventures and literary competitions, have taken place M such regional states as Dominica, The Bahamas, Guyana, Jamaica, St. Lucia, Trinidad and Tobago and Barbados under the aegis of a Regional Co-ordinating Committee for International Youth Year. Additionally, other organizations and youth groups : have moved to mount their own activities including par- Ucipation in preparatory committees to send regional delegations to this year’s World Festival of Youth and Students slated to come off in Moscow in July and Au- gust. In Jamaica, the government of Prime Minister Edward aga has organized a so-called ‘‘International Youth Conference”’ to be held in the island’s capital Kingston Call for Jamfest boycott KINGSTON, Jamaica — The Young Communist League and Workers’ Party of Jamaica have called on the youth of the country to boycott the Interna- tional Youth Conference scheduled for April. The YCL-WPJ call charged the Seaga govern- ment with ‘‘pursuing the narrow political partisan views of its organizers and sponsors — the U.S. government and Reagan.” It charged the conference preparations are being carried out in ‘‘extreme sec- recy, lack of democracy and partiality in delegate Selection and the use of politics and ideology to divide the youth’’. Examples of such tactics, the call says, are ban- ning from the conference of youth organizations with different views than that of the Seaga government, failure to address burning problems of youth and the expected presence of contra mercenaries fighting the Sandinista government. ee From the Caribbean Norman Faria April 6-9. This will take place alongside *‘Jamfest’’, which will include a pop music and film festival. According to flashy official literature, the conference is designed as an-‘‘international forum in which young individuals can discuss major questions and problems confronting democracy’’. However, invitations have not been sent to youth organizations in the socialist coun- tries either for the conference or Jamfest. Among those criticizing the way the conference was planned and the decision to bar certain organizations was the youth arm of the powerful opposition people’s National Party (PNP), the PNP Youth Organization (PNP-YO). PNP-YO spokesperson Audrey Bhudai told the Caribbean News Agnecy that the government had no moral authority to exclude other organizations for politi- cal reasons. Bhudai also argued that the governing Jamaica Labour Party administration *‘lacked credibility as a host”’. Other criticism of the way the Kingston government is handling the events have come from the Barbados Na- tional Preparatory Committee of the World Festival of Youth and Students. In an interview with the Tribune, the Committee’s Chairman, Michael Richards, termed the Jamaican government’s approach ‘‘a blatant at- tempt’’ to undermine the event in the USSR. He also said that he doubted that the activities (in Jamaica) would live up to the advertisements of the organizers. ‘“‘T have reliably heard that such stars as (Jamaican reggae singer) Peter Tosh and others have pulled out. Already, Michael Jackson has turned down the invita- tion to attend,” said Richards. ; Kennedy Roberts, the former (1983-84 academic year) International Affairs Chairperson of the Guild of Under- _ graduates.at the Barbados campus of the University of the West Indies feels that Jamaica can make a better TRIBUNE PHOTO — NORMAN FARIA Barbados World Youth Festival Preparatory Committee chairperson Michael Richards (left) makes a point to a passer-by at a poster display on a Bridgetown street. contribution to IYY activities by providing ‘‘tangible benefits’’ for the-island’s youth. ‘‘A lot of money is being spent on the events. This money could be used to provide better educational facilities and other tangible benefits for Jamaican youth and students,’’ he argued. The decision by the Seaga government, which cur- rently reigns supreme in the island’s Parliament follow- ing the PNP’s boycott of the last general election held in December 1983, to ram through the Conference and Jamfest comes against the backdrop of continuing social unrest in the northern Caribbean nation state. In January, the streets of Kingston were filled with protes- ters demanding the rescinding of a 21 per cent jump in fuel prices. Seven people died and 15 others were in- jured. Early this month, two members of the other major opposition party, the Workers Party of Jamaica, were gunned down by police. Meanwhile, in another incident the President of the Moravian Church of Jamaica, Robert Cuthbert, was kil- led by unidentified gunmen early this month. A formertop official of the Caribbean Conference of Churches (CCC), Rev. Cuthbert was eulogized by the WPJ as “a broad-minded and patriotic Jamaican’? who was con- -cerned with ‘‘the-independent development of the peoples of the Caribbean’’. ens International Focus Tom Morris T : tion of contra-style military at- ing. Ina lengthy rejoinder, Dr. [Ljke father, position of many of the world’s he reality tacks backed by China andthe —_ Endicott tells his readers he like da ughte r women is connected with un- of Ka a hat have beencarriedout omitted mention of the decima- derdevelopment, unjust inter- mpucne U.S.t It seems we have a running gunbattle between this column and Dr. James Endicott’s Far Eastern Newsletter around events in Kampuchea. In the Nov.-Dec. 1984 F.E.N., Dr. Endicott wrote a Piece predicting ‘important gains’ to be made by Pol Pot’s Khmer Rouge and the other groups that make up the anti- ampuchean forces along the Thai-Kampuchea frontier. As the issue appeared, a Major Kampuchean-Vietnam- ese offensive was under way against Khmer Rouge base camps aimed at ridding the na- Pol Pot’s legacy of death. And still today, since Pol Pot’s defeat in 1979. We argued with Dr. Endi- cott’s version of what was tak- ing place there (Tribune, Feb. 18, 1985), suggesting that, hav- ing rid itself of the murderous regime which butchered mil- lions between 1975-78, the people of that nation would never again accept such a re- gime. Further, this column said that ‘‘uncritical backing of the Chinese line has its pit- falls’’, as the Kampuchea issue shows. : History will tell. The latest issue of F.E.N. (March, 1985) kept the pot boil- some argue the Khmer Rouge genocide in Kampuchea didn’t happen. tion of two million Kampuc- heans (by the Khmer Rouge) ‘*because I believe it is a big lie put out to excuse a criminal war of aggression’. Further: ‘According to my knowledge, the genocide did not occur Neither did the nazi death camps during World War Two? ~ Dr. Endicott charges the Tribune with following ‘‘the Moscow line’’. Furthermore he quotes a ‘Thai senior sec- urity officer’ (!) who recently said Pot Pot’s bands ‘“‘are dis- playing growing strength, con- fidence and cooperation.” I visited Kampuchea just months after its liberation in 1979 and saw the results of Pol Pot’s ‘100 per cent high-level socialist revolution’ in the mass graveyards and torture chambers. No ‘‘Moscow line”’ that; rather a sickening, numb- ing, sobering lesson in what fanaticism can do. More Cana- dians should have had that experience. With the fraternal assistance of the socialist community, in- cluding the selfless aid of their ‘Vietnamese brothers and sis- ters, Kampuchea is -insuring this will never happen again. Speaking in Toronto March 8 to mark International Wo- men’s Day, (see page 3), Angela Davis refered to U.S. efforts to ‘‘de-politicize’’ next summer’s United Nations’ international conference on women scheduled for Nairobi, Kenya. On March 14, the press car- ried a report from the planning session for the conference tak- ing place in Vienna. It reports that the U.S. representative at the UN Commission on the Status of Women, Maureen Reagan (yep, Ronnie’s daugh- ter), has accused the ‘‘Soviet bloc’ of holding up prepara- tions by efforts to include ‘“‘ir- relevant issues’’ on the confer- ence’s agenda. Ms. Reagan, 39, will also lead the U.S. group to Nairobi. She told reporters in Vienna, “the east seems determined not to agree to anythingat all’’, and that ‘‘Soviet bloc’’ in- sistance would mean the Vie- nna meeting would have to run late. And what are the “irrelevant issues’’ the socialist countries want on Nairobi’s agenda that bother Maureen? They. insist that the poor PACIFIC TRIBUNE, MARCH 20, 1985 e 9 national economic relations deriving from. imperialism, colonialism, neocolonialism, apartheid, racism and racial discrimination. -The U.S. wants a paragraph deleted from the draft which speaks of ‘“‘women’s partici- pation in the strengthening of international peace and secur- ity, in the struggle against colonialism, racism, racial discrimination, foreign aggres- sion and occupation and all forms of foreign domination.”’ They also want removed a paragraph dealing with the situation of Palestinian women in occupied Arab lands and an- other concerning women living under apartheid. ‘Irrelevant issues’’? Like father, like daughter. Flag of unknown type A new Marine after-action — report reveals U.S. troops were ready to shell Fort Adol- phus during the 1983 Grenada - invasion which was flying a flag of an ‘“‘unknown type’’. They didn’t, which was lucky for both Marines and the fort — it was the Venezuelan embassy.