[The following statement by the Soviet Committee to Oversee Implementation of the Helsinki Accords was published in the March 9 issue of the French Trotskyist daily Rouge. The translation is by Intercontinental Press.]
Early last August, four Riga dock workers were convicted by the Supreme Tribunal of the Soviet Socialist Republic of Latvia, on charges of "fabricating slanders denigrating the State and the Soviet social system."
The workers had been arrested in May, following the "fish day strike" on the Riga waterfront. (Last spring, because of the meat shortage in our country, "fish days" were introduced. Meat was removed from the menus of the collective enterprises serving food, canteens, and restaurants for one to six days a week, which naturally caused dissatisfaction.)
Those who received three-year sentences were:
• Frolov, Sergei Ivanovich, born in 1946, father of two children aged five and three. Family address: Riga, 23 Linzu St.
• Varna, Janis Kristapovich, born in 1949, father of two children aged two and four. Family address: Saulkrasty, 8 Meya St.
• Larchenkov, Mikhail Stepanovich, born in 1939. His thirteen-year-old child lives at the following address: Riga, 16 Elviras St., Apartment 2.
Goldberg, Andres Petrovich, born in 1936 and the father of three children aged fifteen, twelve and eight, was sentenced to a year and a half in prison. His children live at the following address: Tsessis, 18 Riga St., Apartment 3.
All of the workers are now being held in ordinary prison camps in Latvia, along with common-law prisoners.
By publishing this information, we hope to draw attention to the fate of these four workers, not only from the governments that signed the Helsinki accords, but from public opinion in those countries as well. In particular, we are appealing to the trade unions in Europe, the U.S., and Canada.
Signed by the following members of the Group:
Lyudmila Alekseyeva Aleksandr Ginzburg
Malva Landa
Yuri Orlou
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