“To arms, to arms!” { ae *: Qe} ~ ee . 5 ==> cee r ~ - -- ce - oo -- rm -—- | 25 years ago... | A LETTER FROM BRITISH GUIANA The following letter arrived from a friend in British Guiana: I believe you have been follow- ing events in British Guiana since 1953 when the constitution was suspended, elected rep- resentatives deposed, troops __ landed and a state of emergency | & declared. I am appealing to you to help remove these undemocratic laws. This you can do by writing to the Colonial Office, London, England; to members of parlia- ment, to the governor of Guia- na, urging the removal of emergency regulations, the withdrawal of British troops and the return of constitutional life. ' Tribune, January 2,.1956 FLASHBACKS FROM — THE COMMUNIST PRESS 50 years ago pe TERROR GROWS IN GERMANY BERLIN — The repression against. German workers adopted by the government over the last weeks show that fascist méthods are becoming a regular occurance. While the fascists are de- monstrating against the workers: the police look on. On the other hand, no workers’ demonstra- tions take place without being interrupted by police, arrests made and marchers dismissed on the grounds of “singing for- bidden songs”. The police now have orders to disband all demonstrations “without warning”. That means free reign is given to the policeman’s gun and more vic- tims will pay the penalty of asking. for bread. : The Worker, December 27, 1930 Profiteer of the week: Provigo inc., Montreal, which recently negotiated to buy Dominion Stores’ holdings in Quebec for $100-million, had a nice, 40- week, after-tax profit (Nov. 1) of $18,560,000. This wholesaler-retailer is in the food, tobac- co, drugs and general merchandise business. So that’s where the family budget goes! | a Figures used are from the company’s financial statements. 7 Editor — SEAN GRIFFIN _ Associate Editor — FRED WILSON Business and Circulation Manager — PAT O'CONNOR Published weekly at Suite 101 — 1416 Commercial Drive, Vancouver, B.C. V5L 3X9. Phone 251-1186 PACIFIC TRIBUNE—JAN. 9, 1981—Page 4 Subscription Rate: Canada $10 one yr.; $6.00 for six months; All other countries, $12 one year. Second class mail-_registration number. 1560 IDITORIALL COMIMIEINT Labor looking to 1981 New Year resolutions come in many shapes, sizes and degrees of seriousness. But among workers on the threshold of 1981 the major resolves are easy to define: Fight for jobs! Fight to hold onto gains made! Fight for more say in everything job-related! The list could go -on, to include homes, prices and, at the opposite extreme, huge and growing profits ripped out of the economy and the workers. For months everybody from the finance minister to the corner grocer have been: predicting the trend from bad to worse for working people’s living conditions. Dennis McDermott, presi- dent of the Canadian Labor Congress has confirmed in his year end statement that, yes, workers must organize to face these challenges in 1981. Canada and On Christmas Eve, the Communist Party of Canada urged the Canadian Government to refuse to be a part to any U.S. presidential pressure to commit Canada’s resources to a continentalist _ “sharing” scheme. It commended to Ot- tawa that it avoid as well becoming further embroiled in U.S. war hysteria, arms build-ups and campaigns of threatened aggression. New justification for keeping Canada free of U.S. entanglements was not long in appearing. On Dec. 28 Reagan ac-. cused Iran of demanding “ransom” for the U.S. hostages and called Iranians “barbarians”. The so-called ransom consists of bil- lions of dollars in Iranian assets frozen in the USA — literally stolen — and the billions more of which the former shah robbed the people of Iran to amass a fabulous fortune. He did not leave these spoils behind when he fled to the USA, as Reagan knows. Reagan’s untennable position was worsened by his toying with the lives of Show trials and allies The show trials in Peking of the so- called Gang of Four, including Mao Tse-tung’s widow, Jiang Qing, are un- doubtedly intended as proof of the puri- fication of Maoist China's present crop of leaders. While there has been no de- _ nunciation of Maoism, the bad old days of “running dogs and lackeys of U.S. im- perialism” are meant to be laid to rest, perhaps along with Jiang Qing. Maoism is not on trial, merely a selec- tion of those who carried it to its logical extremes. Presumably, having put the past behind, China’s leading circles will now become publicly-acceptable allies for U.S. imperialism. (The widespread misuse of power against countless thousands in China can be guaranteed not to stir a ripple among the usual human rights vigilantes.) ae In China the essential factors of Mao- ism remain —a policy of fomenting war, of seeking hegemony over a whole array of countries, and of mounting a continu- _ ous anti-Soviet slander and propaganda -campaign. These features, particularly the last, endear China’s current masters \ . — an avenue for imperialism’s chief ti As a starting point, the Canadian Union of Postal Workers told its mem- bers in the year-end edition of Com- ment: “Now is the time to show the © employer you are serious in your de- | mands and you are ready to fight for — them.” Taking it another step: Now is the time as well to show governments of the — corporations and multi-nationals that workers demand the ae to jobs and the right to the fruits of their labor, as _ well as a say in how the economy is — organized to serve working people. | In this paper’s view the huge advan- tage goes to those workers with a vision of a socialist future, to which today’s hard economic, democratic and com- munity battles mark the road. ’] : nc’ U.S. ‘plans the U.S. hostages. For the sake’ of in- flicting military revenge on Iran, he sug- gested, he might sacrifice them as being secondary to the glory of U.S. imperial- ism. If this kind of rash policy, this philosophy of aggression to achieve Washington’s ends in what we are to ex- — pect from the new man down south, it has nothing in common with the inter- — ests of Canada, which are for détente, disarmament and world peace. Prime Minister Trudeau recently. — spoke out on the foolishness of NATO rattling its sabres.and tossing warnings at the Soviet Union that NATO, not the Soviet Union and Poland would decide on the two countries’ relationships, The PM should now make it clear to the new U.S. president, when he gets to Ottawa a few weeks from now with his . propositions, that Canadian policy will . 0 Ne Sa ne Re - be made in Ganada — and in the inter- ests of the Canadian people, not to help ‘U.S. imperialism re-establish its faltering grip. i to the militarists and transnationals of the USA. Maoist Chinais linked to fascist _ Chile — just like the USA. Maoist China is linked to expansionist, racist Israel — | just like the USA. Maoist China harbors | delusions of yet conquering Vietnam — just like the USA (by proxy). Suitable ‘allies, indeed. — ; For those in Canada once taken in by: Maoism, it is now revealled as a dead end weapon against socialism and national liberation — anti-Sovietism. It leads no- where but to the restoration of capitalism in China, by selling out the lives and interests of the Chinese people to the USA. No wonder the capitalist media are at “work to popularize cleansed Maoism. The potential profits and cannon fodder from exploiting the people of China is limitless. as iee The show trials, in their tawdry way, are a part of proving that the leadership of Maoist China is now house-broken, _ and worthy of U.S. imperialism’s em- brace. ae