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Greek fais junta

imprisons

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Greek composer Mikis Theo-
dorakis has been put in a prison
camp at Oropos, 37 miles north
of Athens, said a member of his
family.

He was taken there from the
remote mountain village of Za-
touna, to which he was banished
14 months ago.

Theodorakis was first arrested
in August 1967 and charged with
plotting to overthrow the mili-
tary junta.

He was released under an am-

composer

nesty on January 26, 1968, and
banished seven months later: His
music was banned.

The Oropos prison camp is
used for political prisoners
rounded up after the 1967 coup.

The composer’s relative said:
“Last night, a lorry fetched his
belongings to his villa over-
looking the Gulf of Corinth,
where his wife Myrto and his
two children George and Mar-
garette live. Today, he was taken
to Oropos prison camp.

“No reason was given for his
imprisonment. He was banished

as ‘dangerous to public security,’ »

but he did nothing to justify
this move by the authorities.

“He had settled in the village
and did nothing to endanger
public security. His health is not
very good.”

On his morning CBC broad-
cast, Oct. 22, Max Ferguson
played a selection of music by
Theodorakis dedicated to the
struggle for freedom. It was for
this reason, Ferguson reminded
his large listening audience, that
the Junta has imprisoned the
great composer.

In another development last
week 50 former members of the
Greek Parliament sent letters to
50 United States Senators calling
for a restoration of democracy
in Greece.

Union leaders oppose
Trudeau's wage freeze

Donald MacDonald, president
of the Canadian Labor Congress,
and Marcel Pepin, President of
the Confederation of National
Trade Unions have jointly come
out with a statement opposing a
wage freeze.

“We are deeply concerned
with the current inflation in the
Canadian economy,” the state.
ment reads. “Price increases of
the magnitude which Canadians
have been experiencing have
created serious hardships for
many people, particularly per-
sons living on fixed incomes, es-
pecially old age pensioners, those
with low incomes, and the large
number of unorganized workers
and others in comparatively
weak bargaining positions.

“We believe that the time has

arrived for governments to im- ~

pose, over the next year or two,
a freeze on all prices. Price in-
creases should be permitted only
in the case of those business
firms which can properly justify
such increases.” The two labor
leaders believe elaborate control
machinery would be _ needed.
“Those business firms which re-
quested price increases would be
compelled to prove to a Prices
Review _Board that increased
production costs justified an in-
crease in the price or prices of
their products.”

“We reject outright the idea
that voluntary guidelines can
cope effectively with the current
inflation. This is a highly over-
simplified approach to a very
complicated problem. It is totally
impractical in a country like
Canada. Indeed, guidelines have
proved in other countries to be
unworkable in curbing. overall
price increases. Furthermore,
they are highly inequitable. A
standard wage and salary for-
mula is highly discriminatory

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—QCTOBER 31,,1969—-Page 8

against people with low incomes,
and would only result in the
creation of income inequities.

“For guidelines, or an incomes
policy, to be at all fair it would
require all non-wage and salary
forms of income, including pro-
fits, rents, interest, professicnal
fees, unincorporated business
income, speculation in real es-
tate prices, and so on, to be ef-
fectively restrained.

“We believe that the appoint-
ment by the federal govern-
ment of the Prices and Incomes
Commission to study and ana-
lyze the causes of inflation to be
highly commendable . . . We
have taken issue with the Com-
mission in that it is attempting
to extract major policy commit-
ments from unions, business and
governments before it has had
an opportunity to undertake the
necessary research to identify
what these inflationary causes
are.”

The statement from labor,
which — essentially opposes a
freeze on wages, is to be wel-
comed as a positive contribu-
tion to the struggle of working
people against the Trudeau pol-
icy of freezing profits at a high
level, and wages at a low one.
It will help Canadians to under-
stand the necessity of a united
and firm opposition to Trudeau’s
reactionary policies.

It is unfortunate that the trade
union leadership did not itself
point out that generally speak-
ing profits are at an all time
high, that the Trudeau policy is
aimed at deliberately creating
unemployment, and that the ex-
penditure by the government of
$1.8 billion dollars on so-called
defense is the largest single in-
flationary factor in the economy,
along with the unbridled policy
of allowing the big monopolies
to increase prices at their will.

CP Leader:

NIXON NOT FOR PEACE

Gus Hall, leader of the Com-
munist Party of the United
States said that President Nixon
is making an even graver error
than his predecessor L. B. John-
son, in that he believes it is
possible to ‘fool some .of the
people all of the time.”

These are new times, he said,
and on the question of Vietnam
you cannot fool the people.
When spokesmen for the Nixon
administration say they are
working for a peaceful settle-
ment in Vietnam, they are delib-
erately lying. They are, in fact,
talking about an _ imperialist
“peace,” a “peace” through con-
quest.

U.S. aggression has not chang-
ed. Only the hypocritical cliches
have changed. Nixon rants about
a political settlement,” ‘“‘a coa-
lition government,” about ‘“hold-
ing elections” etc. They are nice-
sounding cliches. For the Nixon
Administration, they are just
that and nothing more.

What are the facts behind this
curtain of hypocritical phrases?

The aggressihon
The total U.S. military presence
in the field of battle has not de-
clined. The basic truth is that
the U.S. cannot win a military
victory.

On the other hand, a political
settlement is possible only
through a government that is
supported by the people of Viet-
nam, a government that insists
on the withdrawal of U.S. armed
forces, a government that opens
the prisons, ends the policy of
terror, corruption and. gangster-
ism.

This is the only foundation
for peace in Vietnam. This is
what the struggle is all about.
But this is exactly what the
U.S. policy and armed aggression
is geared to stop. The armed
struggle started against a U.S.-
sponsored, corrupt, bruta] pup-
‘pet government. Things have not
changed. The present Thieu set-
up is a brutal, corrupt, puppet
hangman’s setup.

U.S. policy is not to change
this. Actually, it is to strengthen
the hangmen of the Vietnamese
people. There can be lulls in
the fighting. There can even be
a ceasefire — but there can be
no peace until U.S. troops are
out and the people of Vietnam
determine the political future of
their land.

Nixon rants about a political
settlement, but the puppets say
publicly they will never accept
any political setlement short of
unconditional surrender by the
people of South Vietnam.

They repeat openly that they
will not accept peace through a
coalition of political forces: they
say openly the U.S. forces of
aggression must remain in Viet-

Solidarity
with teacher

A message of solidarity has
been sent from the Communist
Club at the University of To-
ronto to Angela Davis who has
been the victim of discrimina-
tion by the Board of Regents of
the University of California be-
cause she is a member of the
Communist Party of the United
States.

The message, signed by Club

Secretary Tim Walsh says:

Your resolute stand which has
won such wide-spread support
in your student body is also a

splendid example for Commv- °

nists and progressive people
throughout the world. With
warmest comradely greetings.

continues. _

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nam. This, of course, is under-
standable—it is the only support
they have. Any citizen of South
Vietnam who takes the U.S.
cliches seriously. about a “poli-
tical settlement” is ‘either sum-
marily shot or imprisoned inde-
finitely.

After meeting with Nixon in
Saigon, the puppet president
Thieu stated publicly::

“From now on those who
spread rumors that there will be
a coalition government in this
country, whoever they .-be,
whether in the executive or the
legislature, will be severely pun-
ished on charges of collusion
with the enemy and demoraliz-
ing the army and the people. I
will punish them in the name of
the Constitution.”

Without withholding U.S. sup-
port from this despicable gang
that has usurped power and
holds power only in the areas
surrounded by U.S. military
forcse, there can be no meaning-
ful political settlement of any-
thing. There are more than 200,-
000 political prisoners alone in
South Vietnam, besides the mili-
tary prisoners. Among the pris-
oners are the leaders of the
Buddhists, the leadership of the
trade unions and the student
union, leading editors of news-
papers, the runner-up candidate
in the last presidential election,
attorneys, monks and even chil-
dren from six years and up.

The nature of the political set-
tlement the Nixon administra-

tion has in mind is clear in the .

fact that the U.S. forces have
enlarged many of the prisons.
At present the U.S. Government
is spending one million six hun-
dred thousand dollars to enlarge

the Devils Island prison on Con.

Son Island.

The Nixon administration says
it is for elections but such elec-
tions would be called, arranged
and conducted by this corrupt
hangmans’ setup, backed up by
the CIA and the U.S. military
presence. That is a tragic farce.

This puppet government is the
real obstacle. As long as the U.S.
follows its present path, there
can be no settlement or peace
in Vietnam.

This is a basic reality that is
not negotiable.

The end to U.S. Bey
can come only through atl suf)
ment the people of Viel? :
port and trust. - tna

The only kind of “Viet is st
tion’ that has meaning ~ |
determination. ‘geen

Hitler signed peace al
ments with Quislings @ i
pets, In the end they
smoke with Hitler. — th

This is a time and § ‘
matter about which pel
not be fooled. Nixon that
to learn the hard walk
can not ‘con’ the
surrender.

—