UN disarmament
meet first step
fo make peace
a fact of life

UNITED NATIONS — The world disarmament
Meeting which began May 23 — the UN Special Session
on Disarmament — may Well be seen in retrospect as the
Most significant coming together of governments in our
time on this issue vital to humankind. Many see it as the
foundation for a broader conference uniting not just
government representatives, but people from every walk
of life, a conference again called by the United Nations,
which would compel governments to make disarmament

On the first day of the session, UN Secretary-General
Kurt Waldheim appealed to each of the 149 member-na-
tions for a total commitment.of $400-million annually for
disarmament efforts — that is, 10% of the amount spent
annually on arms.

‘He also called for an advisory board to help develop
‘‘a comprehensive approach to international study in the

‘ field of arms control and disarmament.”

Out of step with the Waldheim proposals, U.S. Vice-
President Walter Mondale used his speech to attack the
Soviet Union, casting doubts on U.S. concern for de-
tente. In fact, while he was speaking the U.S. House of
Representatives was putting finishing touches on $38-bil-
lion military appropriation — $12-billion for research and
$26-billion for weapons. Several delegates and observers
likened his speech to those of the worst days of the cold
war. It contained not a single new major disarmament
proposal. ;

Speaking for the USSR the following day, Foreign
Minister Andrei Gromyko offered seven major pro-
posals for disarmament, including banning of the neut-
ron bomb. He said the Soviet Union and other socialist
countries had submitted a draft convention to ban the
neutron bomb to the Committee on Disarmament in
Geneva, and ‘‘We expect a clear and unambiguous ans-
wer ...’’ In Prague only days later, Soviet President
Brezhnev declared Soviet readiness to negotiate a ban
on all types of weapons.

Outlining other proposals, Gromyko stated: *‘The
Soviet Union has never unleashed war and will never do

so. Whenever the Soviet people had to go to war it was to
repel the aggressors.”

The session was significant for the fact also that Fr-
ance, represented by President Valery Giscard d’Esta-
ing, was participating in - international disarmament
negotiations for the first time since the death of de Gaul-
le.

Although the big business media is playing down the
Special Session since the big names departed, the really
serious debate goes on. General debate on disarmament
will continue until June 9. Next day, work will begin on a
final document which will contain a declaration on dis-
armament and an action program, accompanied by an
outline of how the program is to be implemented.

The session is also expected to prepare the ground-
work for a World Disarmament Conference, and will
also try to help achieve military detente as a follow-up
step in the process of political detente. _

Almost simultaneously with the opening of the UN
session, the Harris Poll released figures May 26 showing
a dramatic change in U.S. public opinion on the neutron
bomb. The latest figures show a 47-35 plurality opposing
the weapon, while last July there was a 44-38 plurality
favoring its production.

A 75% majority said they believed the neutron bomb
could make nuclear war more likely. And a significant
49-34 plurality believe that ‘‘it is morally wrong for the
U.S. to produce any more weapons in addition to those
we already have which kill people by radiation, even if
they are enemy soldiers.”’ i

a fact of life.

Conferences, marches, demos mark disarmament session

Meet asks UN session to urge N-bomb ban

_ NEW YORK — Marches, demonstra-
lions, religious gatherings and pro-
disarmament discussions highlighted the
days of the opening here of the United
Nations Special Session on Disarma-

- Ment.

_ Documents approved at an interna-
ional conference attended by several
Canadians, urged the special ‘session
“and all participating delegations to
Make the ban of the neutron bomb a cent-
al issue of their debates and resolu-
tions.” It laid out a number of steps for
th the cessation of production of
Mass destruction weapons and for
8eneral disarmament. |

On May 27, a 15,000-strong demonst-
Tation, led by musicians and splashed
with colorful banners, marched through
Midtown Manhattan to the UN to a rally

Or nuclear disarmament. Among the
€monstrators was a large contingent of
apanese, some of them still suffering the
effects of the U.S. atom-bombing of two -
“apanese cities in 1945.

On May 23 a delegation of the World

€ace Council, at special ceremonies in
the UN Secretariat Building, handed
Over to UN Secretary-General Kurt

aldheim, signatures to the New Stoc-

_ Xholm Appeal representing 700,000,000

People. The delegation was led by

Omesh Chandra, president of the World

€ace Council, which launched the
Stockholm Appeal.

It included Joseph Cyrankiewicz,
President of the Polish Peace Committee
and former prime minister of Poland;

ael Ocegura Ramos, member of

€xico’s ruling party and member of

Parliament; and Mazen Husami director
Of the WPC Information Centre.

e signatures were presented to the

UN on the eve of the special session, as a

Manifestation of world public opinion to

€nd the arms race.

Waldheim told the delegation he was
Stateful for the WPC efforts and stressed
‘he importance of mobilizing public opin-
10n for disarmament and in support of the

efforts in that field.

Among the signers of the Appeal were

_ ©Ver 300 prime ministers, heads of states .

and ministers, including the presidents of
Finland, the USSR, Portugal, Senegal,
Taq, Democratic Yemen, Guinea and
Cuba.
Arms Versus Development
The May 27-28 International Confer-

ence to Support the UN Special Session
Devoted to Disarmament, organized by
the World Peace Council, and held just a
few blocks from UN headquarters, at-
tracted from 200 to 300 people to its vari-

point whose relevance was brought
home a few days later when NATO lead-
ers claimed to be doing just that.
Canadian Peace Congress President
John Morgan spoke during the confer-

4 jet fighter
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(US $500,000)

--Weapons versus Development

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(Us $100 million) EEEEy

4 tank. ems
GigSge

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40,000 village pharmacies

Electrification for 13 cities and:
19 rural zones with a population
of about nine million inhabitants

Equipment for 520 classrooms
(30 puplis per primary school
Class)

ous sessions, which dealt with disarma-
ment inits relationship to the vast subject
of development, and to racism.

The director of the UN Commission -

on Disarmament, J. Caladini, spoke to
the conference of the potential of the UN
Special Session for developing a new at-
mosphere. Coming out of the session, he
said, we may look for a political climate
favorable to further progress toward dis-
armament. It raises the moral aspects,
Caladini said; you can’t think of arming

~ and disarming at the same time. It was a

ence, pointing out the irony and inconsis-
tency of Canadian Government policy of
increasing already bloated arms expendi-
tures while the country’s development
remained in want.

Canadians participating included Prof.
Lee Lorch of York University, who
served on the preparatory committee;
Jean Vautour and Jeannette Morgan,
executive secretary and executive
member, respectively, of the Canadian
Peace Congress; James Young, chair-
man of the Hamilton Peace Council;

Nancy McDonald, of the Congress of
Canadian Women, and James
Bridgewood, an auto worker and
member of the World Peace Council.
The conference had the benefit of
hearing authoritative members of the
permanent UN delegations of several
countries including Poland, Vietnam,
and the German Democratic Republic.
The conference heard speakers as well
from Britain, Finland and the USA.

Vital First Steps

In a message to the UN Special Ses-
sion, the conference emphasized ‘‘the
powerful link between disarmament and
development,”’ pointing out that massive
sums could be freed to ‘accelerate de-
velopment of third world countries,’’ and
to provide industrialized countries with
‘‘more socially useful products.”’

The UN Special Session was asked to
adopt two central proposals “‘as vital first
steps for ending the arms race’’:

_@ The cessation of all further produc-
tion of all types of nuclear weapons and
all types of conventional weapons of
mass destruction, with the aim of the
complete ending of a further build-up in
numbers and quality of arms and armed
forces of those states with large military
potential.

e The progressive reduction of the
existing armies and conventional arms of
the Permanent Members of the UN Sec-
urity Council, together with all the coun-
tries associated with them in military ag-
reements.

The conference also submitted to the
UN Session a document entitled: For the
Banning of the Neutron Bomb. Init were
set out the particular dangers of this
‘“‘abhorrent super-weapon against
human life,”’ and a call to UN delegations

work to have its prohibition enshrined in -

a Convention of the Geneva Conference
of the Committee for Disarmament.

And finally, in the conference docu-
ment the World Peace Council appealed
‘‘to the people of the world to intensify
their efforts to enforce a definite ban on
the manufacture and stockpiling of neut-
ron weapons.’’ Urging, not deferment,
but ‘‘definite renunciation’’ on the part of
President Carter, the document calls for
“mass actions by world public opinion,
by all peace forces,’’ to press their own
governments to demand a Convention
prohibiting neutron weapons.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—June 9, 1978—Page 7

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