Zaire ‘rescue’ cover for NATO intervention

The so-called ‘‘humanitarian” rescue operation in Zaire’s Shaba or Katanga province was a cover for massive NATO intervention in- to Zaire to prop up the tottering Mobutu Sese Seko regime.

Coordinated by U.S. NATO com- mander General Alexander Haig, Belgium and French troops were airlifted to Zaire last week to fight the insurgent Congolese National Liberation Front (FLNC), on the pretext of ‘“‘rescuing”’ white per- Sonnel of multinational corpora- tions.

The NATO intervention into Zaire was condemned this week by the Soviet Union, Cuba and by Massive. citizen protests’ in Belgium and France. The foreign ministry of Cuba said Sunday in Havana that there are no Cubans in Zaire and rejected the accusations of the Mobutu government that Cuba is ‘interfering in Zaire’s

Cuba said that no relations exist or have existed on the level of mili- tary cooperation between Cuba and the forces fighting Mobutu in Zaire and that it neither trained, supplied or participated with those forces.

The accusations against Cuba are merely to justify NATO’s in- tervention, Cuba said.

As refugees from Shaba arrived in Brussels, Belgium this week it was learned that the sensationalist reports of mass atrocities com- mitted by the Congolese Liberation forces were largely false. The reported atrocities — given wide coverage by the Canadian media — were actually committed by regular Zaire Army troops.

Nelly Van Hevel, a Belgium citi- zen arrived from Kolwezi, told a press conference at the Brussels airport that Zaire troops were re- sponsible for the widely reported

massacre of 34 whites whose See REPORTS pg. 12

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internal affairs.”

Demonstrators from the Toronto Association for P’

eace last week brought their demand for a ban on

the neutron bomb to the U.S. consulate where they maintained their vigil from noon to 1 p.m. through May 26 to mark the opening of the UN Special Session on Disarmament. In Vancouver, the Ad Hoc Coalition for Disarmament will mark the session with a car cavalcade beginning at 10:30 a.m. May 27 at

the Nat Bailey Stadium.

—Mike Phillips photo

~ Munro reiterates

pledge to UFAWU

Federal labor minister John Munro last week reiterated his pledge to amend the labor code.to give fishermen full bargaining rights following meetings in Ot- tawa which United Fishermen and Allied Workers Union secretary George Hewison described as “‘the most positive we’ve had in many years.”

Hewison and UFAWU president Jack Nichol were in Ottawa last Wednesday and Thursday for meetings with Munro, consumer and corporate affairs minister Warren Allmand and _ fisheries minister Romeo LeBlanc.

CP blasts corporate concentration report —

Last week’s controversial Royal Commission report on corporate Concentration was designed to assist a future Liberal or Con- Servative government ‘fasten tighter corporate and U.S. control Over the economy and the people of Canada,” the central executive of the Communist party declared in a Statement last week.

The CP’s condemnation of the report was joined with those of

labor spokesmen throughout the country who branded it a big business, anti-labor and anti- people document.

The Royal Commission was ap- pointed by prime minister Trudeau

in April of 1975 but was delayed by

the loss of its chairman shortly afterwards for health reasons. The report was written by the com- mission’s remaining two mem- bers, Pierre Nadeau, oil executive

and director of the Royal Bank of Canada, and ‘Robert Dickenson, a Vancouver corporate and tax lawyer.

“The Royal Commission labored for three years and produced a total whitewash of U.S. and Canadian corporations in Canada,” the CP statement said in analyzing the report, ‘‘Mergers are ‘a natural phenomenon,’ that is, not only to be approved of, but to be

Trident protesters occupy base to support disarmament session

About 4,000 protesters last week- €nd converged on the Trident nuclear submarine base at Bangor, Wash. to demonstrate against the base and to focus public attention On the United Nations special Session on disarmament.

Demonstrators came from Can- ada and the U.S. to the base Sun- day, 160 kilometres south of Van- Couver, for a giant march around the nuclear base. Several thousand Stayed for a candlelight vigil

unday evening and camped Overnight in a field nearby. Onday morning “about 300

scaled the fence surrounding the Trident base to occupy the base in a non-violent protest. While about a thousand cheered from the outside of the fence, police rounded up demonstrators on to buses and took them to the base gymnasium for

processing. There were no inci- ©

dents and no one was injured.

After questioning, most of the demonstrators were bussed to Ta- coma, 55 kilometres away, where they were released. Five, including two Canadians, had charges laid against them.

The occupation of the Trident base was the second time that protesters have scaled the base’s fences to dramatize their op- position to the ‘‘first strike’ nuclear weapons that will be stored at the $640 million base.

Last weekend’s occupation was organized by a coalition of peace, environment and student groups including the Pacific Life Com- munity, Greenpeace, the Quakers, Crabshell and Clamshell Alliances and the Simon Fraser Students for Nuclear Responsibility. ©

encouraged. Taxes on capital gains should be eliminated. Taxes on corporate profits should be ended. There should be an open door policy with respect to foreign in- vestments in Canada. These and other goodies were proposed by the Royal Commission as being in the public interest.”

The release of the report was a “highly political act,’’ the CP statement warned, timed to come on the eve of an election to demonstrate to Corporations that the Liberals can be counted on “first, last and always — and the public be damned.”

The CP predicted ,that either a Liberal or Tory government would implement the report, which it said, ‘tis another good reason why Canada needs Communists in Parliament.”

The demand for the rejection of the Royal Commission report was also voiced in Vancouver by the newly elected secretary-treasurer of the B.C. Federation of Labor, Dave MacIntyre, who May 16 called the report ‘‘an unbelievable piece of trash.”

The proposals contained in the report are ‘“‘totally wrong and totally out of touch with the reality of Canadian economics,” Mac- Intyre said. ““Exempting corporate

pe See REPORT pg. 2

The UFAWU had sought the meeting to press Munro on his pledge — voiced to the union’s con- vention in February — to grant fishermen full bargaining rights and also to demand that the con- sumer and corporate affairs de- partment intervene to end the Combines harassment of the fishermen’s union.

“Munro gave us an unequivocal commitment that changes would

See ACT pg. 12

INSIDE

NOW ISNT THIS MUCH BETTER FOR BEDDY-BYE * TIME THAN THAT STUFF WEVE BEEN

e RCMP: The tangled web of the RCMP’s activities is unravelled in this article by a Soviet diplomat. The se- cond of two parts, page 7.

e FESTIVAL: In only a few weeks, thousands of youth from around the world will converge on the city of Havana — and among them will be 240 Canadians, the largest delegation ever to the World Youth Festival, page 11.

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