Guyana’s rulers won't leave by the ballot says PPP leader By DANNY HEAP TORONTO — General elec- tions are due in Guyana this year, at a time when working people’s living standards are under attack, foreign debt is growing, and moves to rig Guyana’s constitu- tion are in the wind. This was the message brought to a large To- ronto audience April 5 by Dr. Cheddi Jagan, leader of the "People’s Progressive Party, (PPP) of Guyana. He described the efforts of the CIA-installed People’s National Congress (PNC) government to load the crises onto the backs of working people and still pose as **socialist’’ as being like ‘‘a dog chasing its own tail’. Jagan warmed that imperialist countries, concerned about the possibility of Guyana shifting into the anti- imperialist camp, are ready to ‘‘make a new deal with the local elite to turn back the clock of history.” Although elections should be held by October this year under the constitution, it is by no means certain that they will be held. The PNC has a history of maintaining itself in power through massive election fraud and attacks on democratic rights since it came to power on the coattails ofa destabi- lization campaign launched by the British and Americans, Jagan noted. “This regime is not going to allow itself to be removeg by bal- lots’’ Jagan stressed, and he cal- led for committees for ‘‘Democ- racy and Majority Rule’ to be formed in Canada to help prevent the PNC from postponing the election, rigging the constitution to make elections meaningless, or even brazenly rigging another election. Jagan’s party, the PPP, sees the only way out of the current crises in the formation of a ‘‘National Patriotic Front’? government, composed of all parties support- ing the aspirations of the majority of Guyanese people who want to move away from imperialism, towards socialism. To date the Cheddi Jagan, leader of the of- ficial opposition in Guyana. PNC has refused to participate in such a government. William Kashtan, general sec- retary of the Communist Party of Canada, greeted Jagan saying, “*The Guyanese people have every right to be proud”’ of Dr. Jagan, an internationally recog- nized, revolutionary and anti- imperialist. He went on to draw attention to the many similarities between Guyana and Canada, both facing elections against the backdrop of profound economic crises, attacks on working people’s living standards and democratic rights, and threats to their independence posed by U.S. imperialism. Kashtan asserted that ‘‘human rights, capitalist style’’ are sum- med up in-the “‘obscene’’ specta- cle of Ontario Provincial Police standing on the hands of picketers trying to win a contract and de- cent working conditions at struck Fleck Manufacturing. Monopoly control can be broken, in both Guyana and Canada, by uniting all progressive forces, including Communists, to fight for new policies which serve the interests of working people, Kashtan said. Dr. Jagan gave his audience a graphic picture of how the PNC government is trying to solve its foreign debt crises by ‘‘taking it out of the hides of the workers’’. Jagan described his own fiat where there are blackouts every other day and he can’t remember “‘when the shower-bath last worked’’; how gasoline - prices rose 50 cents to $3 (Guyanese); how the removal of subsidies on rice and flour resulted in soaring prices; and how Georgetown rents take one-half to one-third of the average salary — when hous- ing is available. He recalled the recent sugar strike where the ‘‘whole state ap- paratus’’ was mobilized, includ- ing the army, police and 6,000 scabs, to break the strike. Even PNC supporters’ are finding that they are not immune to the attack on living standards and this has’ led to rebellion in the PNC ranks and unity between unions and mass organizations controlled by the PNC and those led by the PPP. Concluding that the ‘‘moment of decision is now’’, Jagan looked forward hopefully to a PPP conference to be _ held “‘within a month’’ to explain the PPP’s proposal for a National Patriotic Front, which the PNC is expected to be represented at. The solution has ‘‘got to come one way or another’ he observed. UNIONS AGAINST APARTHEID SAN FRANCISCO — Some 24 unions in the Bay Area are spon- soring a June 10 trade union con- ference against apartheid rule in South Africa; for full trade union rights in that country, release of unionists in jail; and for the sup- port of the liberation movements against apartheid. BOYCOTT SOUTH AFRICAN PRODUCTS RADIOACTIVE SPY DEVICE LOST | NEW DELHI — A stormy session of India’s parliament has de- manded an explanation of reports that the CIA may be responsible for the radioactive poisoning of the Ganges River. Foreign Minister A. B. Vajpayee tried to assure the angry members that a government report would be forthcoming, but tumult erupted and order was not restored for a half-hour. Outside magazine reported in its current issue that the CIA lost a spy device filled with deadly plutonium-238 while trying to plant it atop Nanda Devi mountain in 1965, the plutonium may have poisoned the Ganges’ headwaters. GAINS FOR MEXICAN C.P. MEXICO CITY — The Mexican Communist Party (PCM) now has more than 103,000 members. This was announced recently to wild applause at a PCM mass rally in the Plaza de Santo Domingo. The recruiting drive launched last November was to conform to the new election law requiring a party to have at least 65,000 members to register as a legal party. The biggest success in the PCM campaign was achieved in the heavy industrial centre Monclova where more than eight million pesos (20 pesos equals one dollar) was raised for the campaign. ; A BROADLY BASED CONGRESS ; PRAGUE — The Ninth World Congress of Trade Unions opened here, April 16, and has been hailed all-over the world as an example of growing world labor unity. More than 1,000 delegates from 140 coun- tries, representing 356 national and international trade union organiza- tions are taking part. This is the first time in the history of the world trade union movement that such a broadly representative congress has met. About 100 Black political prisoners of the lan Smith regime were released from detention at Wha Wha Prison in Zimbabwe, the first of more than 400 ordered released as part of Smith’s “internal settlement”. Many of the detainees had been held for over 10 years without trial. ‘Deferment’ is not good enough President Carter's decision to defer and the NATO chiefs want the neutron production of the neutron bomb for the time-being has the media war hawks in full flight. They have blood in their eyes, war in their blood, and deceit in their hearts. A finely tuned and well orchestrated campaign is sweeping the Western world picturing Carter as a weak vacil- lating President unfit to serve as the “Free World’s”’ spokesman. x * * Its refrain: ‘““You’re wrong, Jimmy. The neutron bomb must be produced and deployed in Europe. The bomb is the best means available to restore the military balance and deter war. Don’t give away any bargaining chips’’. The media argue along these lines: “It is impossible to persuade the USSR through appeasement or decency. It must be done through strength and nerve. Carter, the Free World’s spokesman, doesn’t seem to under- stand this. It is one more reason why he is likely to be a one-term president. He just doesn’t have it.’’ (Toronto Sun, April 13, 1978). * * * Does one detect just a hint of nuclear blackmail here? Directed in the first PACIFIC TRIBUNE—April 28, 1978—Page 16 Marxism-Leninism in Today’s World place against the Soviet Union but aimed also at the President of the USA. The argument of the neutron bombardiers is rooted in the age-old theme of ‘‘peace through strength’’. Coupled with the equally discredited policy of ‘“‘brinkmanship diplomacy” practiced by the late John Foster Dulles when he was U.S. Secretary of State, “‘peace through strength’’ can turn out to be a disaster. Dulles’s ‘‘brinkman- ship’’ more than once brought mankind to the very brink of nuclear holocaust. - This is the meaning of the Sun’s ‘strength through nerve.” * * * What is the purpose of this,exercise?- Firstly, to hoodwink the people of the capitalist world that the road to peace lies through preparing with might and main for war. In other words, it is a conspiracy engineered by the U.S.- based military-industrial complex and the NATO chiefs aimed at the people of the whole world, who are demanding in ever increasing numbers that the arms race be de-escalated. Secondly, and most importantly, the aim is to strive to win over public opin- ion to the position that the neutron bomb is necessary as a bargaining lever with the Soviets in the current SALT talks. That is, to bargain from “‘strength’’. But of course, no bluffing. For, as all good poker players know, if one is caught bluffing, one loses the pot. So we must have the neutron weapon to bargain with. That’s where ‘“‘nerve’’ enters the picture. * * * The world does not need the neutron bomb as a “bargaining chip’’. There are plenty of “bargaining chips’’ already at hand. Far too many. There is the Tri- dent submarine for instance, not to speak of the nuclear warheads as such, and other means of delivery at hand. So why the insistence on the neutron bomb? This question assumes greater validity when it is studied in the next context of the Soviet Union’s statement that it is ready to join in a pact to outlaw the production and deployment of the neutron bomb. The only obvious answer is that the U.S.-based military-industrial complex bomb. They want that bomb because the main function of the neutron bomb is to make nuclear war thinkable. eleka The hurdle that must be overcome before this goal can be achieved, is the mass public revulsion that exists everywhere at the very thought of world nuclear war. It is this revulsion that triggered the instant and massive rejection of the neutron bomb by people from all walks of life and on all _ continents. That is why the media emphasis is on picturing the N-bomb as a ‘‘bargaining chip’’, with false assurances that there is little likelihood that it will ever be used providing the Soviets will only be “‘sensible’’. Meaning, to give in to nuc- lear blackmail! * * * Don’t let Carter off the hook. Defer- ment is not good enough. There is one way, and one way only, to ensure that » the N-bomb will never be used. Write today to your M.P. and tell him to tell Prime Minister Trudeau, to tell Presi- dent Carter to take up President Brezhnev’s offer of a joint pact to néVer produce the neutron bomb.