Nixon imperils world peace

abor chiefs hammer Trudeau on liberties

By NELSON CLARKE ‘ ie — The Canadian af ngress this week sharp- uked the Trudeau govern- he “cool, detached : with which it has ‘hundreds of thou- anadian workers and the hardship of

fi Bice no less scathing in its Tre ™m of the proclamation of aie Measures Act which Baie an excess of zeal ill rent” Ng a responsible govern-

In its an hnual submission to Bye oral Cabinet backed by 4 hundred union leaders

Toom, the CLC said: disturbs us is that our yment has been ed... It-is the .0f coldly-calculated as OSé sole object was € unemployment in

0 cOmbat j i The en inflation . . . the ARAN the callousness,

Bin indifference to the anti-inflageeseauences of this Matcheg 1onary approach: were x ey by its ineptitude.” eae ee advanced by the TOposale eet Was confined to limmean: Tor tax reductions, € implementation of the ent insurance Be naw provements in old i ne, abolition of the erly S tax on building ma- a an expanded house- peeam, All these sug-

ew ou CNefits

ji Mas MOE jobs a or do ¢ n ah emergency basis, either 9 : @Mada rhe subject of the

Vv On, nor hae °pment Corpora-

had been con- about inflation, 80vernment had Problem by “good : of the economy.” © Finance Minister Tment y-P/ain what the gov- loyment ss doing about unem- es That worthy promptly of tee oven the modest I the CLC were unac- Would have to ex- Ron: Supply,” said Byway neat 2 On > added with Mow ecetaW on his pipe, “we're

80in /onomy > 4p to an expanding

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Warned of the anger of unemploy-

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fasy witicism of the War £5 SPeciayy Act in labor’s ranks f bee, ves but not only in Que-

*Xceedingly cautious ‘ssued by Donald s a Oct. 16 is now but « temperate state-

We are less inclin- €mperate now,” the

submission stated. “Events have clouded the purity of your in- tentions . . . your actions were such as to lend doubt to the propriety of proclaiming the War Measures Act and plunging the country into a state of panic from which it is only now be- ginning to emerge. Your govern- ment spoke of an apprehended insurrection and of terrorists to

be counted in the thousands. The people of this country have been provided with not a tittle

of evidence that this has been

the case.”

Pointing out that the statute which replaced the WMA —

the Public Order Act — is it-

self open to misgivings, the sub- mission continues: “We seek assurance that your govern- ment will forsake the extraor- dinary measures which it pro- fessed to find necessary and re- store to this country the order- ly and lawful processes which every citizen has a right to ex- pect.”

Trudeau, obviously smarting under this criticism, tried to pass the buck to the Quebec and Montreal governments. Mac- Donald retorted: “The respon- sibility was your government's. You should have found out if these requests from lower levels of government were justified.”

Trudeau then accused Quebec Federation of Labor president Louis Laberge of being “sympa- thetic to kidnappers and killers.” This cheap diversion was the

subject of a face-to-face con- frontation after the hearing with Laberge telling the Prime Minister that it had been his position that it was the business of the Quebec government to negotiate for the lives of Cross and Laporte — “Our provincial government should have been permitted to continue its inten- tion of negotiation,” he said.

“Trudeau fears any suggestion of the demand for right to self- determination for French Can- ada as the devil fears holy water.” “That’s all I wanted to know,” the P.M. exclaimed an- grily, and turned on his heels and marched out.

The CLC called for discon- tinuance by all NATO countries of aid to the Greek junta, and for similar action on Portugal. It called for vigorous protest by Canada on the failure of the Spanish courts to “respect uni- versal standards of justice and the killing of workers who were taking part in peaceful demon- strations.” It demanded move- ment “towards the complete cessation of all trade’ with South Africa.

Unfortunately, it did not deal with the grave new crisis in In- dochina resulting from the U.S.- Saigon invasion of Laos. It did find room for three paragraphs on what it called a Soviet “anti- Semitic campaign.”

But for all the criticisms that must be made the government of Canada has been clearly told that it is in deep trouble with

- 1.7 million unionists on at least

two of the most basic issues facing our country now—unem- ployment and civil liberties.

U.S. military are poised to invade North Vietnam

U.S. President Nixon and the Penta- gon are furiously accelerating the war in Indochina into what bears all the earmarks of plans for an early full- scale invasion of North Vietnam and that means—to the brink of a global conflict. Both the Soviet Union and People’s China have served serious

that they will not abandon the people of Indochina to their fate. (See the statement of the Government’ of the USSR on this page.)

As the puppet Saigon troops and U.S. airforce suffered heavy casualties in Laos, the Pentagon abandoned the pre- tense that U.S. ground troops are not

warning to the American aggressors participating

Anti-aircraft gunners of the Pathet Lao have inflicted heavy losses on U.S. aircraft and helicopters in the U.S.-Saigon invasion of their

country.

‘HANDS OFF’ SAYS USSR

MOSCOW (TASS) — “The United States is taking upon itself a grave responsibility for new complications in the in- ternational situation,” says a statement of the Soviet govern- ment published here in connection with the expansion of U.S. aggression against Laos.

“Such actions cannot but effect Soviet-American relations, too,” the statement warns.

“The Soviet government resolutely denounces the armed intervention against Laos as another criminal act by the Unit- -ed States, undertaken in flagrant violation of generally ac- cepted standards and principles of international law, contrary to the commitments assumed by the United States under the, United Nations Charter.

“The USSR cannot remain indifferent to this new escala- tion of the American aggression. The Soviet people is pre- pared to continue giving all necessary help to the fraternal Democratic Republic of Vietnam (DRV), to the patriots of Indochina defending their legitimate rights, fighting for the realization of their vital interests and aspirations.”

Washington alleges, says the statement, that American armed forces are taking a restricted part in the incursion. “This kind of allegation, designed to mislead world opinion, will not fool anyone,” the statement continues. “U.S. attempts to justify the invasion of Laotian territory by referring to con- siderations of ‘self-defense’ and ‘safeguarding the security’ of the American trogps who earlier invaded another country bordering: on Laos, look just as untenable and provocative.

“All these attempts, just as the statement by President

. Nixon at a recent press conference, show that the U.S. leader-

ship seeks to condition public opinion to the idea that the

United States can act in Indochina with impunity, that every- thing will go off all right for the American aggressors.

“This is a dangerous delusion fraught with the most serious consequences for the United States itself in the first place.”

The statement recalls the complete failure of the senseless _ U.S. adventure of waging an air war against North Vietnam.

“At present any U.S. plans to attain its goals by stepping up military provocations against North Vietnam are also doomed to failure,” the statements adds. “The DRV is a member of the socialist camp. The USSR: and other socialist states will give the fraternal Vietnamese people help in repelling the U.S. aggression.”

The U.S. invasion into Laos, the threats to step up provo- cations against the DRV, lack of readiness for serious and constructive discussion at the Vietnam talks in Paris—“All this topples the repeated statements by U.S. officials about a desire to work for a peaceful settlement in Indochina.”

in the invasion of that country and announced that “small teams” of American com- bat troops were sent in.

In Hanoi, Premier Pham Van Dong of North Vietnam met with Phoumi Phimphatian of the Lao Patriotic Front, and stated that the U.S. ‘invasion of Laos “creates a direct threat to the

security of the Democratic Re- public of Vietnam and an ex- tremely dangerous situation in Southeast Asia and the world.”

“The U.S. has turned the three countries into a single battle- front,” he said. “Faced with this grave situation the peoples of Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos are fully resolved to strengthen their solidarity, mutual assistance and

support.”

Laotian Premier Prince Sou- vanna Phouma has appealed to the ‘United Nations and the powers of the Security Council to secure the withdrawal of for- eign troops.

The immediate reason for the stubborn refusal of the U.S. to withdraw from Southeast Asia— and to continue to block peace in the Middle East—is now re- vealed to be the interests of the oil trusts in that area. A number of U.S. congressmen and officials have urged Senator J. William Fulbright; chairman of the For- eign Affairs Committee, to im- mediately “open hearings regard- ing the influence exerted by oil companies and other investors on U.S. policy . . . and in pro- longing the war in Indochina.”

Reports of fabulously rich off- shore oil concessions in that area have appeared in the Wall Street Journal and other publications.

Canada’s minister of external affairs Mitchell Sharp stated under questioning by Andrew Brewin of the NDP in the House of Commons that he-had several meetings with Secretary of State W. Rogers and was “wholeheart- edly in favor” of U.S. policies in that area.

Brantford unions ask CLC action

BRANTFORD —Theé initiative taken by the St. Catharines Labor council in pressing on the Canadian Labor Congress to call an emergency confer- ence to launch a drive against unemployment has received strong backing from the Brant- ford District Labor Council.

Delegates to Council spoke angrily of the policies pursued by both senior governments in regard to the plight of the jobless..

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—FRIDAY, MARCH 5,1971—PAGE5