Lawyers condemn junta By VLADIMIR KUDRYAVTSEV, Corresponding member of the ‘USSR Academy of Sciences, Director of the Institute of State and Law of the USSR Academy of Sciences €verything that has been going On in the past two years in Chile is a direct violation of elemen- and arbitrarieness perpetrated by the military junta are gross Norms of international law and, in particular, the principles of International Conventions on Human Rights which Chile rati- fied under Salvador Allende’s government. Every one of the steps which the junta took after it had Seized power was anti-constitu- tional and illegal — the disband- ment of parliament, arrests of deputies, proclamation of mar- tial law and then a state of Siege, mass-scale arrests without Warrant, detention of political Opponents and deportation with- Code and the Code of Penal Procedure of Chile which, after € overthrow of Allende’s law- ~ ful government, were ‘‘operated” _ On paper only. _ Many organizations and indi- Viduals who visited Chile, de- Scribe the situation there as un- disguised lawlessness. It has the International Commission of Nquiry into the Crimes of the ilitary Junta and. was assessed @ccordingly in the final docu- Ment of its 3rd Session held in Talks to control nuclear sales LONDON — Seven exporters tial, including Canada, met in mdon this month to discuss tighter controls over sales in an ttempt to limit the spread of luclear weapons. The meeting ‘was held in tight _S€curity, as were three previous Meetings. Other. participants Were the Soviet Union, United States, Japan, Britain, West Ger- Many and France. _ The talks are designed to de- Velop stricter guidelines for €s of nuclear equipment such 8 Canada’s CANDU reactors, 80 that countries cannot acquire €m for use to develop weap- Ns. All nuclear reactors pro- Uce plutonium by-products used Or atomic weapons. But France has so far refused tank of selling a CANDU reac- T to South Korea, and it is the Ste from this and two Ameri- * Soy Teactors already acquired by 1th Korea that would be used da oduce the plutonium. Can- sup . also under contract to- ; Tae Y Argentina with a nuclear “und Or, Both ‘sales: have come cf heavy criticism. an €st' Germany, also involved € talks is in the process of ng nuclear generating equip- ; Nt to Brazil, From a, lawyer’s viewpoint, . tary legal rules. The lawlessness - Violations of the Constitution — | Of the Chilean Republic, of Out trial.. All these acts contra- ° dict the articles of the Criminal me a subject of study by | nuclear equipment and mate-. ew Events in Chile are illegal . Every one of the steps taken by Gen. Pinochet and his butchers after they seized power was against the Chilean constitution, the norms of international law and the principles of the United Nations’ International Human Rights Conventions. _the spring of 1975 in Mexico City. ‘The junta’s terroristic regime was. condemned in Resolution 3219 (29) of the UN General Assembly on November 6, 1974 and in the document of a num- ber of authoritative inter-gov- ernmental organizations (UNES- CO, ILO, and others). Under pressure of world opi- nion the junta is trying to manoeuvre, do its utmost to create a semblance of “‘liberali- zation” and “normalization”, for example, the recent release of several Popular Unity leaders. However, the fate of thousands of arrested people continues to be unknown, many of them, including Luis Corvalan, gene- . ral secretary of the Communist Party of Chile, have been in prison for over two years where they are subjected to torture and humiliation. Courts martial con- tinue to function, and there are reports of extra-judicial repres- sions and murders of Chilean citizens. Lawyers who try to de- fend innocent victims are perse- cuted. In 1975 the junta added an- other cruel law to its legislation. Decree 1009, dated May 5, 1975, . known as the “State Security Code” under which any “at- tempt to change the constitutio- nal order’ introduced by the junta is considered as a crime against public safety. — The decree confirms the “state of siege’ which the junta uses as a legal basis for the activity of the courts martial. Under article 8 of the decree, all cases considered as crimes “against the state’s internal security” fall under the power of the courts martial. The decree. considers as such crimes not only the activ- ity of. banned parties, the dis- covery of pamphlets or leaflets, assisting the escape of suspects, _ etc., but also the “secret return to the country” of persons evicted by the junta. In this con- nection it should be noted that eviction from the country con- tradicts Article 5 of the Consti- tution of Chile and the country’s criminal laws. Decree 1009 sanctions the system of extra-judical repres- sion and sets up the so-called preventive imprisonment of per- sons considered harmful to the regime, without establishing the term of imprisonment. This is a gross contradiction of the coun- try’s Constitution, as Well as international covenants on human rights. The mockery of law, which the junta’s decrees actually are, is unable to strengthen the posi- tion of the junta inside the country or internationally. The junta feels the instability of its pesition and it was fear of ex- posure that made it refuse entry into the country of a special UN working group for investigating the existing situation in Chile which was set up at the 31st Session of the UN Human Rights Commission in March this year. : However, all these actions are unable to help the military junta conceal its crimes. Soviet law- ‘yers, together with the demo- cratic public of all countries, condemn the inhuman regime that is being imposed on Chile and express their firm convic- tion that the day will come when the criminals in military uni- forms, as well as their accom- plices, will be publicly called to account and ‘will be duly and severely punished. Legislation protects Soviet working mothers While women in Canada are fighting to be recognized under law as equal citizens; women in the Soviet Union are constantly having their lives made easier. One of the major areas of con- cern in the USSR is preventative health protection for women, especially mothers, and provid- ing for the special needs of working mothers. : Along with the major network of health clinics, hospitals, sani- toriums etc. specializing in women’s health care, working mothers receive fully paid ma- ternity leave, transfer to easier work for expectant mothers, free childcare staffed with train- ed workers and special allow- ances, _ The latest action in working mothers’ protection is a recom- mendation by Soviet Deputies to the USSR Supreme Soviet for establishing a special quota of jobs with a shorter working day for women having two or more children. ™ INTERNATIONAL WOMEN'S YEAR ‘75 Wages for housework By BARBARA CAMERON THE WORLD LEADERS of the Wages for Housework Campaign were in Toronto, October 24, for a public meet- ing. Present were Mariarosa Dalla Costa from Italy, Silvia Federici from the United States and Selma James from Great Britain. This seemed like the perfect opportunity for me to find out more about the Wages for Housework group. The Wages for Housework Committee in Toronto is not an organization of housewives. I had heard that a number of welfare women, fed up with the miserable assistance they get from the government were involved but they were nowhere in evidence. The 175 women who assembled for the meeting, most of whom had come out of curiosity as’ I had, appeared to be mainly young working women. Some of the leadership of the Wages for Housework Com- mittee I recognized as old New Leftists. * * % THE FIRST THING TO EEARN about the Wages for Housework Committee is that their definition of “house- work” is not the one you or I use im our dailyslives. House- work to them is any unpaid activity performed by women which is related, no matter how indirectly, to the paid work people do. Thus, not only are things like cleaning floors and doing dishes housework, but so are putting on make-up for work, travelling to work and even giving your husband emotional support so he can put up with his job from day to day. All this they describe as the reproduction of labor power! The Wages fcr Housework concept of housework requires reducing all relationships outside the workplace to unpaid work, done by women, which directly or indirectly serves the boss. Sexual relationships thus become a kind of work wemen do that benefits the boss. One member of the Wages for Housework Committee used the example of the mother who spends 20 years raising a child only to have him sent off by the state to get killed in Vietnam. To this, cne member cf the audience replied that paying the mother wouldn’t save her son, but struggling against imperialist war would. * * * TO THOSE UNFAMILIAR with the elaborate ideological rationale of its exponents, Wages for Housework might appear to be a simple reform directed at recognizing the housewife’s contribution in the home and to reducing her economic dependence on her husband. But the Wages for Housework Committee does not see it as a single demand, rather as a “strategic perspective.” Very much in the tradition of the New Left, they claim to have found the one and only demand key to transforming not just women’s positicn but all relationships in society. Basic to the appeal of Wages for Housework to middle- class women, many of whom find themselves involuntarily forced by economic necessity into the labor force, is its opposition to work. The anti-working-class bias of this group is also revealed in its attacks on trade unions and ‘working-class political parties. Dalla Costa maintained that “trade unions have kept housewives separated from work- ing women‘and women working in large factories from those working in small factories.” Selma James ridiculed “that horrible phrase” equal pay for equal work. This weird amalgamation of prejudices and ideas is strung together by strong doses of feminist and pseudo-revolution- ary slcganeering. The anti-working-class and anti-male bias of the Wages for Housework Committee will prevent it . from gaining much influence among Canadian women. Most of the women at the Toronto meeting went away unim- pressed. The demand of Wages for Housework may some temporary support among sections of the middle- class women’s movenient and will undoubtedly be promot- ‘ed by the bourgeois media as a way to divide women and men, What must be fought for instead is a real program for housewives, based on a guaranteed annual income for all, equal property rights, pension benefits, a system of free universal day care and access to retraining. a me McDonald speaks on wage controls KITCHENER — Nan McDon- ald, Communist Party organizer for work among women, spoke in Kitchener, Ontario, Oct, 29 on the source of women’s exploita- tion, : ‘She addressed herself to the recently imposed federal wage controls, saying the bill should be condemned because it cannot cope with the problems created by. inflation. McDonald said the wage freeze Iccks women into their inferior income position, while allowing the corporations continued super profits, part of which are made due to the lower wages paid to women. PACIFIC TRIBUNE—NOVEMBER 21, 1975—Page 9