of which she was held

| VV A

European meet
will take place

By FILS DELISLE

BERLIN — The conference of
Europe’s Communist and Workers

_ -Parties is. moving closer as a

—Sean Griffin photo

Laura Allende, sister of Chilean president Salvador Allende and former Socialist Party member of the
House of Representatives is in Vancouver this week as part of an extensive tour on behalf of the united
anti-fascist resistance in Chile. With her as interpreter is Anna-Maria Quiroz from the Vancouver Chilean

Association.

LAURA ALLENDE SPEAKS IN VANCOUVER

special editorial commission

meets this month to give final form |

to the political documents and
declarations to be submitted to the
conference.

This news refutes the fanciful
speculations in much of the
Western press, including a number
of leading Canadian newspapers,
that the continental Communist
conference will never get off the
ground. Western press agency
reports have also flogged the same
theme.

_ Their biased features and ‘‘think
pieces’’ flounder, however, on the
easily ascertained facts the
preparatory meeting last October
10 in Berlin brought European
communists one stage further
along the road to the European
conference. One example to

é e - ) : @ ;
substantiate that fact is the an-
Unit ro win in C | Ee ‘“nouncement that this month’s
: ‘meeting of a special editorial

Laura Allende, sister of mur-
dered Chilean president Salvadore
Allende, told a Vancouver press
conference that her country has
retreated 50 years since the fascist
military coup of September, 1973.

“No strikes are allowed, the
unions which flourished during the
rule of the Popular Unity govern-
ment are illegal, the central labor
body, CUT has been dissolved,
unemployment runs at 22 per cent
and reaches as much as 80 per cent
in the urban centres, all
nationalized industries, even those
which were state owned before the
election of Allende are being
~ returned to private ownership, and

agrarian reform has ended. The
monthly salary of the average
worker ($36-$40) does not provide
him with enough to live on for more
than 10 days.

“The people of Chile are today
facing genocide.”

She said that it is important to
understand what is happening in
Chile. “It is important to un-
derstand what fascism means,

_ because in spite of the tremendous
fight waged against fascism in the
last war, the measures which the
junta is taking in Chile are very
similar to the actions of the Nazis

in Germany.

__ Allende remained in Chile for 18
months after the coup, five months
in-
communicado in the Castro

Noted composer Earl Robinson
will be in Vancouver this weekend

to perform at a special tribute.

concert to Joe Hill, Saturday Nov.
22, 8 p.m., in the IWA Hall at
13th and Commercial. Also fea-
turing Faith Patrick and David
Levine, the performance is co-
sponsored by the Vancouver Folk-
song Society and the NDP
Vancouver Area Council.

_ PACIFIC TRIBUNE—NOVEMBER 21, 1975—Page 10

Alamos prison camp near San-
tiago. The rest of her time in Chile
was spent under house arrest, on
the orders of the junta.

Allende said that it was now
widely recognized that the military
junta does not recognize even
“minimum human rights in
Chile.’’. She said that the United
Nations Commission on Human
Rights has condemned the actions
of the junta.

“That report (of the com-

mission) is now before the General |

Assembly. Now is the time for
sanctions to be applied to that
junta, especially as the junta has
refused to admit the UN com-
mission to the country in order that
they might conduct their in-
vestigation.”’

She said that she was on tour in
order that the people of different
countries would know why the
Chilean people are fighting to
regain their freedom. “When we
regain our freedom, it will help
other countries gain theirs.
Military dictatorships are common
in Latin America. They are backed
by the huge multinational cor-
porations which rape our resources
while we remain underdeveloped.

“But the prime agent of the
multinational corporations is the
CIA. The CIA: operates only to
defend the interests’ of these
companies, and they will stop at
nothing. That is what happened to
our democratic; government in
Chile, and the American govern-
ment now admits it.’’

She said that the Chilean
resistance was growing every day,

and there is more unity every day:

between the forces which made up
the Popular Unity government, but
are now illegal under the junta’s
rule.

“‘Now that we all know who the
enemy is, there is no room for
quarrels amongst us on political
grounds. All of us, Socialists,
Communists, Christian
Democrats, MAPU and MIR, are
working together to defeat the
junta,” she said. ;

Additionally, she said that in-
ternational solidarity with the
Chilean people’s struggle is
growing. She paid special tribute to
the solidarity shown by workers
around the world and to the
thousands of unions which have
condemned the status of workers in
Chile today. ‘‘Workers defend each
other as a class,’’ she declared.

Allende said that international
pressure has been instrumental in
securing the release and safe
conduct of thousands of political
prisoners, herself included.

She denied published reports

that there had been an
assassination plot against the
Chilean dictator, Pinochet. ‘‘Some

presidents make political cam-:

paigns on the basis that someone is
trying to murder them. This plan of
posing as a victim is usually an

attempt to win support from the-

people, but in Pinochet’s case it is
designed to justify the even more
repressive measures that he is
sure to implement,” she said.

Laura Allende will speak at

Charles Tupper high school, 419
East 24th Ave., at 7:30 Saturday:

commission is taking place, not
merely to discuss the drafts of.the
documents to be submitted to the
conference, but to complete them.

That decision was taken by last
month’s preparatory meeting in
Berlin, attended by represen-
tatives of 27 European parties,
with one delegation absent for
technical reasons. Herman Axen, a
member of the Political Bureau of
the Socialist Unity Party, which
will be host to the Berlin con-
ference, when asked if the
preparatory meeting had
developed successfully, replied:

“The answer to that question is
clear yes.”

In the discussion of the draf
documents the SUP had been
authorized to prepare as the host
party, there had been “an ex-—
change of opinions on the curren!
situation in Europe and the i
creased responsibilities resulting
therefrom for the Communist an
Workers parties.”

Axen added: “‘As the leaders 0
the: delegations emphasized, thi
political development in Europ

Now, after Helsinki, ;
looking to the communists for their

answer on how-the struggle fo
peace and progress should proceed
further. That was the highlight 0
our discussion which, in _ac-_
cordance with the tested standard
of our movement, developed in
democratic manner and in an
atmosphere of  fraterna

cooperation.”

The political declarations ani
documents to be ultimat
presented to the continenta
conference will now go to thi
special editorial commission i
accordance with the variou
proposals and suggestions made a
last month’s preparatory meeting —
here.

feel there is enough U.S. capital i

ENOUGH U.S. CAPITAL

A Gallup poll, taken in June.
shows that 71 per cent of Canadian

Canada. This compares with 46 pe:
cent who felt the same way when
the question was first asked in 1964

PU WING)

By MIKE GIDORA

It being election time and all,
promises are flowing freely from
the big business politicians.
They’ve promised to take away
ICBC, they’ve promised to hold the
line on wages, and they’ve
promised to ease royalty taxes on
resource development. But nobody
has promised to do anything to
alleviate the shameful situation
that our province’s amateur
athletes are facing.

In terms of facilities, funds, and

coaching available to athletes in
B.C., this province is probably the
worst of any of the provinces in
Canada. ‘

By way of example, B.C.
produces the majority of the
swimmers for our national swim
team, currently rated third in the
world, yet in all of B.C. there are
only two Olympic-sized swimming
pools, both of which were built in
the last five years.

B.C. generally contributes about
one-third of our national track and
field team, yet we do not have one
full-time track coach working with
our athletes in this field.

At least one-half of the national
soccer team comes from this
province, but we cannot find the
funds to allow them to train
together with a_ professional
coaching staff.

If this is the manner in which we.
treat our athletes, in a society
which is geared to pamper the top
performers at the expense of a
mass sport program, one can
imagine what it must be like for the
hundreds of thousands of people

who take part in sport simply for -

the sake of a little exercise.

Actually it’s not that hard to
imagine at all. All you have to do is
get up at four in the morning and
go down to your neighborhood ice
rink, assuming of course that you
have an ice rink in your neigh-
borhood, which is pretty unlikely.

If you’re there, the chances are
that about 40 or 50 12-year-old kids
will bethere with you, waiting for a.
chance to get on the ice for a game
of hockey. :

Or you can go to one of the city’s
playing fields which we so
graciously called parks. There you
will find another 40 or 50
youngsters slopping around in a
sea of mud trying to get in a game
of soccer.

Generally, these kids will be
accompanied by a -couple of
parents who, without any form of
training themselves, are trying to
help out. But that is not the way to
develop a Sound sports and
recreational program for the
people of this province.

What are the alternatives to the
present situation? First and:
foremost would be the adoption of a
mass program of athletics, much
as the socialist countries have. In
Cuba, for example, which has‘ a
population of nine million people,
over three million people take an
active part in organized and
supervised sports programs.

The Cuban sports program is
typical of most socialist countries.
Their recreational facilities are
simple, but many in number. They
are directed toward the par-
ticipants, and not the crowds.

All athletic programs are con-
ducted with the assistance of fully-
qualified coaches and trainers, and

- scheduled to compete in a 10,00

Support.

all are free of cost to the par
ticipant.

The end result of that type 0!
program is a physically healthie
society, and a greater number 0
excellent athletes. Cuba’s recen
performance in the Pan America
Games in Mexico City attest ¢
that, and speaks volumes about th
effect of a mass approach to spor’

Obviously, that is where B.
recreational program should Pb
heading, and that is the kind 0
approach which our sport bodies
should be seeking. -

The only other result would P
the continuation of a situation that
we have today when this country’S
top distance runner, Tom Howare”
of Richmond, is forced into the
following schedule.

Howard is a letter carrier and 5,
ranked in the top five in the worlé
for the marathon. Last July he wa>

metre (six miles) race in W
nipeg. He was up at five in #
morning to do his mail rout
completed his route and we
straight to the airport where
boarded a plane to the Manitob
city. He had to change his clothe
in the back of the taxi on the way
the stadium, and when he arrivé
he went directly to the track wh
he ran and won the race.

_ After the race he returned
mediately to the airport an
caught a return flight to V4
couver. He returned home

again.
“Low as the wages are in the po®
office, they were his only mean