WORLD

‘PPP is at centre stage’ — Jagan

_ The People’s Progres- Sive Party (PPP) is at centre Stage today. Many sectors of the Guyanese people, unhappy with the present €conomic and_ political Situation, see that without the PPP no change is possi- ble,’ said Cheddi Jagan, PPP General Secretary and Opposition Leader in the Country’s parliament.

Jagan was in Canada last week where he spoke at a public meeting in Toronto and held several news con- ferences and interviews.

“The new factors which have brought about a new Political situation,’ he said, ‘are, 1. removal of the Tuling People’s National Congress (PNC) party from Control of the Trade Union Congress, 2. the PNC letter to the PPP proposing a dialogue, and 3. the death of Prime Minister Forbes Burnham in August.”

“At the juncture of Guyana’s development, the PPP

lieves the best solution to the massive economic and Social problems we face would be to find a political solution — the creation of a democratic front with in- dependence, democracy and a_ socialist-oriented Policy,’ Jagan said. “It would include all sectors which Subscribe to its program: other political parties, church, business, labor, and professional groups.

Such a democratic front, Jagan continued, would be faced with immense tasks. It would be required to solve the economic crisis and social deterioration; it would face the need to overcome racial and political discrimina- Hon. It would also face the need to defend the country’s Independence and security.

Jagan emphasized that the removal of the leadership of the Trade Union Congress from PNC-government con- trol was acrushing defeat for the ruling party. **Based on the deterioration of workers’ living standards and the PNC’s inability to provide for the needs of workers,”’ he Said, *‘the delegates removed the old leadership.”

PPP leader Jagan

This was done, he explained, despite PNC use of the courts to resurrect a dead union and shift votes away from progressive unions within the TUC congress. Ina secret ballot, - notwithstanding the PNC-controlled unions had 125 votes out of a total of 212, the cengress elected a new president, vice-president, organizational secretary and treasurer.

**TUC policy lines, as a result of the congress,’ Jagan said, ‘‘now coincide with those of the PPP — in favor of free and fair national elections, in favor of a political solution to the country’s crisis, opposition to denational- ization of key industries and for socialism.”

In response to questions concerning PPP-PNC talks, Jagan outlined his party’s long-term and present views. ‘‘Our efforts to achieve a political settlement of the poli- tical/economic/social crisis have gone through several Stages. In 1975 the PPP developed a position of ‘critical support’ toward the PNC government.

In 1976 formal talks between us collapsed, and in 1977 the PPP advanced a proposal of a National Patriotic Front. This proposal was rejected by the PNC who continued to rig elections in order to retain power.

In reply to the PNC letter for a dialogue with the PPP, we have agreed to talk, Jagan said, ‘‘But we will not enter such talks with any pre-conceived agreement with PNC plans. We will not go into any government as a minority.”

Jagan explained the PNC problem: it knows it would lose a free and fair election, yet to continue rigging elections, as it has done since 1968, would heighten the crisis. They would like a negotiation settlement with the PPP in the minority and postponement of elections scheduled for next year, he said.

While agreeing to talks with the PNC, the PPP is also talking with other sectors of Guyanese society, Jagan said, with a view to building a democratic front alter- native government and entering a new, free election. “Consultations are underway with the TUC, Chamber of Commerce, Forest Products Association, Association of Guyanese Industry,”’ he said, *‘and we hope to meet with such groups as the Manufacturers Association and Guyana Council of Churches.”

The PNC faces a choice, Jagan said. It either makes an accomodation with the International Monetary Fund or with the PPP. An accomodation with the IMF, which will bring ever harsher economic conditions can only result in a sharpening of the class struggle, he explained. It would mean a turn to the right, more rigged elections, denationalization of industry. It would mean confronta- tion between the mass of the people and the ruling PNC elite.

Such a situation, the PPP leader concluded, would open the door to the CIA and the danger of a right-wing military coup. “‘We are socialists. The PNC has power. Our task is to reach a political solution, create a broad democratic front, to try and save the country from the danger of a civil war and to proceed toward socialism peacefully.”

— T.M.

‘U.S. responsible’

Hearings into U.S. aggression against Nicaragua opened at the Internationai Court of Justice in The Hague Sept. 15 with testimony from American citi- zens who charge that Washington’s backing of the contras makes the U.S. responsible for murder, rape and kidnappings.

Professor Michael Glennon of the University of Cincinnati and former counsel to the foreign re- lations committee of the U.S. Senate said his evi- dence is based on a fact-finding visit to Nicaragua where he gathered eyewitness testimony. ‘‘I con- clude the U.S. Government is responsible for these acts,’’ he testified.

A former CIA agent in the region, Dr. David Macmichael, told the court his search for an ‘‘arms flow’’ from Nicaragua to El Salvador’s liberation fighters turned up nothing. I believe U.S. charges are designed to justify its policy against the Sandin- ista government, he said. The U.S. has officially boycotted the World Court hearings.

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International Focus

Tom Morris

Mitterand’s frappe is designed, though the __ tent, we suppose, was to show Repressive ‘another sovereign state, all in “ fact French missiles point what pals we are with the U.S. P one swoop, the South African many options eastward gives a clue. Events since have shown all and aggressive commander tells the Angolan

“Take those tests. back to France,’ Australian Prime Minister Robert Hawke chal- lenged France’s Premier Mitterand. ‘‘Have_ those ‘absolutely safe’ tests in Metropolitan France’’.

Why not, come to think of it? _ France's insistence in carry- Ing out ‘‘absolutely safe’ nu- Clear tests next to Australia and New Zealand, not to speak of the feelings of the people in the South Pacific Islands who have been nuclear guinea-pigs for decades, has aroused a Storm of protest.

Mitterand The Socialist Stoutly defends the tests as imperitive to French security.

€ doesn’t explain why and against whom France’s force de

But back to Hawke’s invita- tion: why not test the weapon off the French Riviera. Why doesn’t Paris convince Spain, Italy, Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia that the tests are ‘‘ab- solutely safe’’ then hold them in the Mediterranean? Maybe Corsica would be ideal, it’s French territory.

‘‘Absolutely safe’’ tests could take place in the Cham- pagne District, or perhaps in the Bois de Boulogne. There are some small French islands at the western end of the En- glish Channel — why not im- press the hell out of the English and test there?

Another thought: New- foundlanders would probably immerse themselves in anorgy of pro-French revelry if Mit- terand tested his nuclear weapon on St. Pierre and Miquelon, some few kilo- meters offshore.

Boos from our ‘Best Friend’

It was a far cry from the Shamrock Summit in Quebec City as we watched two erst- while Irishmen, Mulroney and

Reagan, belt out ‘When Irish Eyes are Smiling’’. As painful as that exhibition was, the in-

is not rosy along the *‘unpro- tected border.”

Free trade worries Cana- dians. Star Wars does even more, forcing Mulroney back from his ‘‘ready, aye ready” position. The voyage of the USS Polar Sea further strained relations. Numerous charges by U.S. protectionist interests against Canada add more fuel to the idea that Uncle Sam isn’t all sweetness and light.

But history may just record that it was New York Yankee baseball fans who belled the cat of the Mulroney-Reagan love-in. It isn’t polite, you see, to boo *‘O,Canada”™ in Yankee Stadium. It’s even stupider to hire a singer the next day who knows neither the anthem’s words nor tune.

But, after all the insults and

It’s hard to know whether to give the South African regime a “‘C” for chuzpah or an *‘S” for stupidity.

On September 17 South Af- rican troops and warplanes swept into southern Angola in a major attack. To get to Ango- la’s southern border, the South African military crossed over some 1,500 kilometers of another nation, Namibia.

Having violated (once again) any semblance of Namibian independence and attacked

government “‘not to inter- fere™*.

Imagine the Canadian militia crossing over the U.S. to at- tack Mexico, then telling the Mexicans ‘“‘not to interfere’’?

Little wonder, with that mentality, the racist regime is an international outlaw — re- pressive at home, aggressive © abroad. This is the real face of apartheid, the one Joe Clark finds difficult to recognize and Stephen Lewis employs a thousand adjectives to rationalize.

the “‘We’re Number One” hype coming from New York City, it’s absolutely unforgive- able to lose the series against the lowly Toronto Blue Jays.

That final act might reveal

the giant has feet of clay. At the very least, Canadians know they ve just received a taste of what Reagan meant when he called Canada ‘‘our closest neighbor, our best friend”’.

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PACIFIC TRIBUNE, SEPTEMBER 25, 1985 e 9