Women's Congress Cheers Plea for a Free Vietnam (WIDF Helsinki congress; women tortured in Indonesian prisons)

=== [PDF page 1] === Page 10 DAILY WORLD Tuesday. June 17,1969 Third World problems discussed Peru’s Communists persecuted in nationalization fight; favorable world balance of forces bailed by Sudanese MOSCOW, June 16 - The Peru vian Communist Party's role in the struggle for nationalization of I S enterprises in Peru was cited in the report of Jorge Del Prado, that party's general secretary, to the conference here of 75 Com munist and workers’ parties. This work," he continued, was not at all easy. During the recent decade. Communists re peatedly became victims of police raids, they were prosecuted by disgraceful military - political courts. "Directed against us was the enemy’s splitting activities, with the help of opportunist leftist, splitting groups, encouraged, or ganized and directed by Maoists. "To reform our ranks and carry out a successful mass policy, it was necessary to firmly unite the party, cleaning it of such scum. Maoism is now politically defeat ed in Peru ‘We insist that Maoism be characterized as neo-Trotskyism Pactional and subversive activi ties. actual collusion with imper ialism in the international arena. ,1 military-bureaucratic concep tion of building the slate and the parts a tendency to militarization in all aspects of life inside the country — all this, elevated to the status of official policy at the fraudulent Ninth Congress of the Communist Party of China, re affirms this characterization "But Maoism is more danger ous than the old Trotskyism. Mao ism has turned from anti-Leninist theoretical conceptions to antiSoviet military actions." Sudan Abdel Kahliq Mahgoub, general secretary of the Sudanese Com munist party, noted that convoca tion of the conference shows the strengthened unity of the interna tional Communist movement. "Non-participation of some Com munist parties," he continued, "though we regret it, does not ne gate the victory of the cause of unity' Efforts should be exerted to achieve cohesion of the Com munist ranks without anticipat ing when unanimity will be reach Mahgoub then assailed the pos ition of the leadership of the Com munist Party of China, which, while talking about struggle against imperialism, makes its primary task the struggle against the Soviet Union, the socialist sys tem and those fraternal parties that do not share its views. Source of bribery He pointed out that the relative ly high living standards in Western Europe and the U S wTere based not only on the technical revolu tion but on the profits squeezed by monopolies out of the "third world" countries, which are used to bribe new strata of workers. ‘The revolutionary’ act of Mav 25 in our country," he said, "re affirms that the general align ment of forces in the world has not changed in favor of neo-colon ialism, despite its unceasing pres sure upon the national liberation movement and the activity of counter-revolution. "Despite all the possibilities and internal resources of the Sudanese revolution, material and moral support of the Socialist camp play a decisive role in the establishment, above all, of prop er conditions for retaining the new power and for development of the revolution in face of the counter revolution and neo-colonialist in trigues. "The future of the Sudanese revolution which is living through a national democratic stage and coming over to a new stage, de pends on continuation of revolu tionary activities ot the Commun ist Party and all revolutionary forces in the establishment of a national democratic front." Portugal A. Cunhal. general secretary of the Portuguese Communist Party, declared that "if imperial ist aggression or actions of coun ter-revolutionary forces create a threat to the power of the working people in a socialist country, it is the sacred duty of other socialist countries and the entire interna tional working class movement to come to its defense.. Women’s congress cheers plea for a free Vietnam B\ BEATRICE JOHNSON HELSINKI. June 16 - The World Congress of Women in ses sion here applauded a fervent plea yesterday by Mrs. Nguyen Thi Bmh vice-president of the National Liberation P'ront of South Vietnam, for mobilizing the world's peace forces for un conditional withdrawal of US. trcops from her heroic and suf fering country Mrs Bmh. who is also assist ant chief of the NLF delegation in Pans, denounced President Nixon's proposed withdrawal of 25.000 troops as a subterfuge to hide U S accelerated attempts to exterminate the Vietnamese people and bypass the conference table She told the 1.000 delegates and guests from every continent at tending the women's congress of the heroic deeds of the Vietnam ese women as workers in the factories and on the land, as mothers and as soldiers. She ackknowledged with thanks the signs of world solidarity, and said the Vietnamese were particularly en couraged by the efforts of the American people to stop the criminal war The brutality of the war. she declared, is indescribable, in cluding chemical and biological warfare and indiscriminate de struction of everything in sight. More bombs have been dropped in Vietnam than during the en tire Second World War, she pointed out. She reported on the overwhelm ing support of the people for the NLF 10-point program and for the new provisional government recently established in her coun try The Vietnamese people, she said, have made a great contri bution to the struggle against U S imperialism and are giving their full support to all people fighting imperialism, racism and war Colorful opening The hall in Helsinki's Workers Cultural Center was bedecked with flags of all nations as the women s congress opened there. Gathering for the congress were black women from 26 African countries, with their flowing robes, and Asian women from 21 countries with long sans. Adding to the colorful spectacle were the women of 14 Latin American countries and the dele gates in mini skirts from West Europe and the U. S. Among those present from the U. S. are Charlene Mitchell. Bettma Aptheker and representatives of the Women Strike for Peace. The congress was opened Sat urday by Herta Kuusinen, mem ber of the Finnish Parliament, one of Europe's outstanding po litical figures. In her speech of welcome she noted that the Con gress had aroused great interest among all sections of the Finnish people, as reflected in the rep resentation of w o m e n of a 11 walks of life. Report on struggles Cecile Hugel, general secretary of the Women’s International Democratic Federation, presented the main address, "The Role of Women in the World Today." Women, she emphasized, are engaged in increasingly greater masses in all people’s move ments for better conditions, for democracy and for peace She cited the conventions and recommendations of UN special agencies as a direct results of the increasing struggles of wo men and their organizations, as well as trade unions. The presence of 27 internation al organizations and the repre sentatives of hundreds of nation al women organizations at this congress, she declared, shows how deeply women are engaged in the struggles to implement these documents. She emphasized that where there is racism, poverty, illiter acy. and absence of democracy, women find themselves on the lowest rung of the social lad der. Hundreds of women, she added, are being lortured in concentra tion camps and prisons in Greece, Indonesia, Spain and oth er countries. Cheer woman cosmonaut A high point in the second ses sion was the report on women at work by the first woman cosmon aut, Valentina Nikolayeva Teresh kova, who received an ovation. Other reports were "Women in the Family" by Elsie Leyden, of Australia," ‘‘Women in Society," by Marta de Tamajo, of Mexico, and the report by Mahasin Abd El Aal of Sudan on national inde pendence, democracy, and peace. "Any fraternal party would make a tragic mistake, if it sup posed that it would be easier for it to solve national tasks or enter into political alliances if it deviat ed from the Communist Party of the Soviet Union or took a position of systematic criticism towards "To work for the sake of achiev ing unity means not only to strengthen the ties of cooperation but to fight against the actions of those who declare it to be their aim to split the Communist Par ties." Belgium Marc Drumaux, chairman of the Communist Party of Belgium, reported that the rising peace.movement in Belgium "was in jured by sabotage of the struggle for peaceful co-existence, carried out by the Chinese Communist Party, and by anti-Sovietism both from the left and the right. After the military action in Czech oslovakia, these trends were able to carry out their propaganda on an even wider scale." “The Communist Party of Bel gium is working in the sphere of foreign policy, he said, for soli darity with Vietnam, support to the Budapest call, participation in the struggle for European security, including recognition of present frontiers, recognition of the Ger man Democratic Republic, and active neutrality by the Belgian state. He noted with satisfaction that the proposal for the subsequent study of questions in dispute found a wide response at the confer ence. but the existing differences, he stressed, should not stand in the way of the unity of action. particularly against the back ground of the critical discussion which followed the movement of troops into Czechoslovakia in Au gust last year, from which we dis associated ourselves, as did some other Communist parties.... "We attend this conference, therefore, as observers. We should like to express the hope that the conference will be able to help the development of anti-imper- ' ialist struggle and make it ever more efficient. The Left party — Communists — on its part, is ready to exert every effort, to use all the possibilities to make its contribution to the joint struggle. ’ Costa Rica Manuel Mora, general secreta ry of the People s Vanguard Par ty of Costa Rica, declared that "we never lose sight of the fact that imperialism keeps the world on the brink of war. that it is pre preparing for war "Using money and police, it manages to penetrate the spheres where this is expected least of all It cunningly conducts subversive work, in secret from the masses, as a rule. In this situation, ab stract application of principles is impermissible, since in this case they might turn into an obstacle for our cause. WTe bore this in mind when the events in Czecho slovakia took place... “I think, for instance, that if imperialism ever decides to im plement its plans to attack Cuba, all the Latin American Commun ists will be ready to give their lives to defend the Cuban revolu tion ■ We saw how in Indonesia and Greece power was assumed by the military juntas — fanatics, anti communists, shameless flunkeys Sweden Lars Werner, deputy chairman of the Pentagon "We witnessed Israel’s prefidof the Left Party-Communists of Sweden, stressed "international ious attacks on the Arab coun solidarity with those peoples tries And we saw that Israel is which are fighting for national strongly backed by imperialism, and social independence, both whose hands are stained with against the old, still persisting blood W'e saw how German generals colonial regimes, and against neoimpenalist exploitation in all its jointly with Americans stage dangerous manoeuvers in Europe forms. And we saw. too. how agents of "We are doing work," he said, "aimed at enhancing practical imperialist powers are seeking to solidarity with liberation move undermine the security of social ments in South Africa, and on the ist countries, using the plan work territories under Portugal's rule. ed out by the U S. Senate Seeing all this, we realized that But international solidarity is link ed, above all today, with the Viet it is time to bar to imperialism the road in the most energetic namese people. "We proposed that not only all way. and the Socialist countries Communist parties should take have done this." part in this conference but also the left Socialist parties, and the national and social liberation movements. We should like to ex press the hope that in the nearest future such a wide international conference against imperialism will become a reality. "We believe that omitted from the document circulated are im portant questions concerning rev olutionary strategy in the third world.’ "The document stresses both the independence of Communist parties and their responsibility to the international working class movement, but the thesis that each party should have the decisive say in the affairs of its own people, was formulated not very precisely. We believe this to be the main principled question, Rome Academy awards $16,000 prize to Mrs. King ROME (UPI) — The medical Accademia del Lincei awarded a special humanitarian prize of $16,000 Friday to Mrs. Coretta King, widow of slain U.S. civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King. Other prizes awarded at the closing ceremony of the academic year were $32,000 to Prof. Rita Levi Montalcini of Washington University in St. Louis, Mo., for medical research, and $3,200 to Prof. Raman Vsiwanathan of New Delhi Institute for lung research.