VAS A-bo 25 years ago... U.S. FLEET AT RECORD LEVELS The U.S. Seventh Fleet, now massed in the Formosa Straits in its greatest strength since the war with Japan, is equipped for atomic warfare, it was revealled in New York, Feb. 1. ~ U.S. ‘military sources are quoted as saying that “atom bomb casings and the electronic triggering devices are indeed aboard but the nuclear “cores” are ashore and can only be re- leased on White House order. It is confirmed that the U.S. carrier, Midway, the world’s largest aircraft carrier, is also in the Straits. Her presence means the U.S. has a greater concentra- _ tion of naval power in the For- mosa Straits than during the Ko- rean war, greater than any time since and far greater than dur- ing the closing stages of the war with Japan. The Tribune, February 14, 1955 FLASHBACKS FROM THE COMMUNIST PRESS 50 years ago... WHITE TERROR IN MEXICO The 30 militant trade union leaders and members of the Communist Party and commu- nist youth movement, arrested by the Mexican government, are being held incommunicado in the military barracks and police station in the suburbs of Mexico City. - A number. of Cuban commu- nists: have already been de- ported to Cuba into the hands of the bloody Machada, the mur- derer of hundreds of Cuban workers. Many of them are still in jail slated for deportation. They are subjected to methods of torture which are driving the prisoners into insanity. - Anyone bringing food to th prisoners is arrested. A Bolivian writer was also arrested when he sought an interview with those being tortured by the govern- ment. The Worker, February 15, 1930 Profiteer of the week: Canadian Pacific Ltd., the octopus of rail, air, ships, metal mining, forestry, iron and steel, and investments, had a tax-free profit of $511,000,000 for 1979. That’s up from $349,800,000 the year before, but none of it benefits the Canadian people since CP is still _not publicly owned, although it uses land and resources belonging to the Canadian people. Figures used are from the company’s financial statements. 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 Subscription Rate: Canada $10 one yr.; $6.00 for six months; All other countries, $12 one year. Second class mail registration number 1560 PACIFIC TRIBUNE—FEBRUARY 22, 1980—Page 4 EDITORIAL COMMENT Missiles and starvation Once a nuclear missile is on its way it can’t be recalled. Such is not the case with wrong policy. The cold war policy built up by the Canadian Government is obei- sance to the Carter doctrine for world domination, can and must be reversed in | Canada. Every genuine interest of the Cana- dian people is trampled and prostituted by such treachery. Détente, not cold war, guarantees our security, our prosperity. Détente, not an arms build-up protects the lives Carter would sacrifice for the U.S. military-industrial complex. Total nuclear megacapacity in the world equals about 1.3 million bombs like the horrors dropped by the USA on Hiroshima. Yet, President Carter, elected on a promise to cut $5.7-billion from Penta- gon military spending, calls for $1- trillion over the next five years for war. ($1-trillion is $1,000,000,000,000 in North American terms.) Joe Clark was elected last May on a promise to restrain government spend- ing, yet this country’s war budget is over $4-billion annually. In addition to a 3% rise yearly beyond inflation, set off by the Liberals, the Tories declared another 17% increase for war. The sole purpose is to help U.S. imperialism gain a stranglehold on peoples throughout the world, and to create record profits for the arms profiteers. In September 1979 the U.S. Senate raised military spending by 5% on top of inflation. In recent years one-quarter to one-third of U.S. federal spending has been for war. NATO members fell in line. The Federal Republic of Germany Buying U.S. A United States Defence Department report said recently: “To prevail in an Iranian scenario, we might have to threaten or make use of tactical nuclear weapons.” That’s clear; the USA takes the same attitude everywhere that it took when atomizing the people of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945. Enter Joe Clark. On a backdrop of U.S. multi-nationals with their claws on much of Canada’s energy and other re- sources, Clark opts for handing every- i jumped its war budget by 80% betwee® | 1970 and 1979, to 36.6 billion marks; | Britain boosted its war spending by 73 to nine billion pounds; while France creased its war budget by 183% to 77-4 billion francs. Canada’s sabre-rattling Tories hyp notized by the notion of wiping out socialism, the liberation movements, a” undercutting any developing county not to their liking, proclaimed: guns be fore butter. a The Liberals’ Trudeau jumped with both feet into the cold war camp, pr& pared to sell Canada out to U.S. policies as a lever for stopping working-class gains at home, and social progress 2 road. But while defenders of the Carte! doctrine (Ed Broadbent says he suppor’ © it 100%) would lead us to war, look at the world: : One out of seven people suffers from — ravaging hunger. One out of three is deprived of basic medical care. One out of five is illiterate. © A mere $8-billion would eliminate thé hunger! The implementation of the World Health Organization’s program to wipé out diseases like malaria needs only $450-million! Some $7- to $8-billion could teach all the world’s illiterate to read and write! _ How long can we in Canada accept the perversion of science, of planning, of human existence? The only sane alterna- tive to nuclear annihilation is détente, — disarmament and the peaceful co- existence of different social systems — no matter how long the negotiations. protection a rel thing over, and thanking the U.S. for the i honor. But he badly exposed our “ally”. | Clark told a Global Television audi- ence Feb. 10: “If we were a bad friend of the United States, they might try tomove — in on our energy,” presumably militarily as in the Persian Gulf. 4 “If we are a good friend,” piped Clark, “J think that they will recognize that we have national rights that we are going to respect ...” So much for schoolboy opinion. To the Summer Olympics In a letter to a Toronto daily, a writer describes the training and striving of Olympic athletes, with a chance to prove themselves once in four years. He asks the boycotters what sacrifices they propose to make after asking athletes to choose between being “selfish and un- patriotic” or scapegoats of hypocritical moralizing. Indeed, why use the Olympics. Are they a chance for a lot of cheap anti- Soviet propaganda to cover U.S. designs on Persian Gulf oil? Afghan events really have no connec- tion with the Olympics despite Washington’s tirades. Soviet economic and military aid, at the request of the Afghan Government is. within the terms of the 1978 Soviet- Afghan treaty, and within the bounds of the U.N. Charter. : ‘Military aid was asked to halt outside interference when counter-revolution- aries were armed and directed by China, Pakistan and the USA’s CIA, etc. Carter then set off his propaganda barrage to kill the Olympics. The only decent stand for Canadians is to back the right of Canada’s athletes to participate in the Summer Games in Moscow and to urge Ottawa to facilitate that participation.