FRG athletes fight Carter blackmail By FILS DELISLE Tribune Rerlin Correspondent uN — As this is written, Yest German Chancellor Helmut “hmidt is telling athletes they Aust decide to boycott the Olym- Acs. Willi Daume, chairman of Ne FRG’s National Olympic “ommittee, wants his athletes to Nrticipate but says he doesn’t Siow how to get around the “hancellor’s order. The Olympic Xhletes themselves are protesting Nat order vehemently and are or- nizing meetings to put their \se for participation before the \iblic. SPD (Social Democratic Party) Saders have admitted there is in- Anse opposition in the SPD to the “hancellor’s decision to bow to Ne blackmailing and threats from Vashington. One of the three top SPD lead- 5, Herbert Wehner, illustrated ‘“\w deep the anger runs against Ne crude demarche from \ ashington. Stating that Bonn yas powerless to oppose Vashington on this question, he \. vertheless made a blistering at- k on Carter for forcing the \inerican Olympic committee to Aree to boycott, for acting arrog- tly and not consulting the 'SA’s allies, and for demanding they also bow to his will “ithout the right to make their \wn decision. poses New Weapons 5 i who is one of the most arliamentarians in peed! P the SPD’s House also shaken up the eee a series of proclama- \n = which put in question the ims being made by Washington \ and to some extent by Bonn — \ the current international con- D sies. He has declared: Rect e is not of one mind with yD) rmment — and therefore Mth NATO and the USA — on Me need to sation more . -range nucicar weapons 4 Seat German soil. 2) Soviet armaments are not \. cant for aggression but are de- \insive in nature. _ 3) The Soviet Union was en- ed in a “‘preventive’’ action in \fghanistan, which means that it No way menaced the Western bas statements predictably Seated a*state of shock in those ircles which have been raging Nat the USSR is planning to over- \in all of Europe and then the | Former Chancellor oe dt, now head of the Socialist Mn ternational and still chairman of the SPD in West Germany, has \iso stated that it is impossible to \ormulate international policies Which are not orientated on Niétente. He has by no means iven any indication that he has Neff the circle of those who believe Bonn must remain fixed in an \ulliance with Washington and NATO at any price, but his com- fesents reveal A strength of le ‘European urge for détente (peace, despite all the propaganda m Washington. Repudiated Washington Another Social Democratic \eader, Chancellor Bruno “Kreisky of Austria, in recent days fonce more voiced vigorous pro- test against Washington’s claim to Rie the right to tell European countries what policies to. pursue ‘toward Iran. Previously, he had repudiated Washington's demand In this space a week ago, Fils Delisle wrote of the growing disquiet in the Federal Republic of Germany over pressures from the USA to disrupt trade and other relations of the FRG with the German Democratic Rebpublic, the Moslem world, and the social- ist community. U.S. President Carter’s insistence that U.S. allies back his Olympic boycott, and his pressure for new nuclear weapons in the FRG, have also caused the ire of both politicians and athletes, as our correspondent reports. that European capitalist countries introduce economic sanctions against the USSR and cut their trade with it. While the ruthless Washington attempt to harness western Europe for its policy of a Washington-dictated world order continues in western Europe, the GDR and the socialist countries have replied as follows: 1) They have shown that they are in no way intimidated by-Car- ter’s hostile actions and threats. 2) They have challenged and refuted Washington’s hostile claims, though their arguments have either not been reported in the Western press or have been twisted. 3) They have made it clear that they continue to work for relaxa- tion of international tensions and the movement for co-existence and peace which made so much headway in the 1970s. Will Meet Halfway As part of that policy, two more withdrawals of Soviet troops and tanks have been made in the GDR in April. There have thus been four such withdrawals to date. Everyone understands that this move to implement Soviet President Brezhnev’s pledge to withdraw 20,000 Soviet soldiers, 1,000 tanks and other technical equipment from the GDR in 1980 is meant to demonstrate that the socialist countries are more than prepared to meet the West half- way on reduction of armaments, détente and relaxation of ten- sions. The withdrawals are supported by the GDR and the other War- saw Pact countries. The same support has been voiced here by Neues Deutschland for the wide- ranging proposals on peace and reduction of armaments made to UN Secretary-General Waldheim by Soviet Foreign Minister Gromyko thus: after four months in which President Carter, Brzezinski and their pro- pagandists have been trying. in- tensively to persuade the world that the USSR is threatening all countries militarily, the picture in the world this week was quite dif- ferent. It showed the Soviet Union and the socialist countries making realistic moves and proposals to guarantee peace, and Washington openly threatening to make war against Iran and anyone else who stands up against Carter’s im- perialist program of total world dimination. Taste of defeat before Games begin The decision of the United States Olympic Committee which voted two to one to back Presi- dent Carter’s boycott call has drawn the following comment from Spartak Beglov, a political commentator for the Soviet news agency Novosti. A * * Sports fans throughout the world and others honoring the ideals of the Olympic-movement, including those in the Soviet Un- ion, can only deeply regret the decision of the U.S. Olympic Committee to support the boycott of the 1980 Games. We sym- pathize with hundreds of out- standing American athletes who have trained for many years to make their life dream come true —to take part in the Games and to win. However, they were de- stined to taste the bitterness of de- feat even before the games began. They were defeated not by rivals, but by their own politicians. It would be an understatement to say that the USOC decision was forced and that many of its members voted for the boycott against their will. The Carter Administration virtually wrang this ‘“‘consent’’ out of its victims, submitting them to unpre- cedented moral, political and economic pressure. Athletes were told that their participation would endanger na- tional security. The USOC was threatened with deprivation of its tax-exemption status, which would mean certain bankruptcy. Athletes were threatened with all sorts of legal punishment, all the way to indictment on the count of taking currency out of the country for participation in the Games. Washington’s action against the Olympic Games is another example of arbitrariness exer- cised by the Administration in the international arena. It is trying to keep the American people: en- trapped by distorted or one- sidedly interpreted notions of ‘‘national honor’ and ‘‘vital in- terests’’. If honor were the issue, American leaders would have to * admit to the wrongs committed by the USA in other nations — in $ Vietnam, Chile, Iran and the Mid-east. This list could be con- tinued. Such an admission has proven to be impossible for the propo- nents of the doctrine of ‘*‘Ameri- can exclusiveness’’ (and there- Response to USOC boycott fore ‘‘infallibility’’). Faced with the attempts of peoples to protect themselves against American interference, Washington has taken unto itself ‘‘the right to punish’’. It threatens ‘‘punish- ment’? to Cuba, Nicaragua, Ethiopia and Angola, and now is trying to intimidate Iran. It is. thundering against the Soviet ‘Union for its action, taken at the request of the new Afghan regime and intended to prevent Afghanis- tan from becoming another Chile. Moreover, it tries to punish all those who find it impossible to side themselves with American punitive policy. The Olympic Games have thus become one of its targets for blackmail and threats. Washington is bent on punish- ing Moscow, disregarding the fact that the Games are staged by the world Olympic movement and by the International Olympic Com- mittee. The Soviet capital has done and continues doing every- thing possible so that the particip- ants in the Games should find Moscow’s stadiums in perfect order on July 19. The same is being done by Kiev, Leningrad, Tallin and Minsk. The U.S. administration has succeeded in denying American athletes their right, written into the USOC Charter, to decide their affairs independently, and has violated the American Con- stitution in the process. Now athletes in other countries should redouble their vigilance: the club of American intervention and ‘*punishment’’ may make another sweeping swing. It is time for everyone who believes in the Olympic ideals of friendship to oppose this arbitrariness. It is also proper to ask if the guardians of the Olympic princi- ples would not be right to bar from the next Games the power that has come out against the Olym- pic this year. And what will hap- pen to the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles? American jumper J. Connolly became the first Olympic champ- ion in modern history. This hap- pened in Athens in 1896. The international movement of athletes should close ranks so that the reckless political tricks of the present American administration will not make 1980 the last year in Olympic history. Masha hopes for Gold Canadians will remember this accomplished gymnast from the Montreal Olympics, when at 13 she became a gold winner on the Soviet women’s gymnastic team. Masha Filatov has since gone on to win the World Gymnastics Cup. Her big hope now is to win another gold medal at the Summer Olympics. This Siberian lady is only one of the fine competetors on the Soviet team. - PACIFIC TRIBUNE—MAY 2, 1980—Page 15