WORLD OUTLOOK
Vol.5, No.40 December 8, 1967 Tribunal Verdict: U.S. Guilty
of Genocide
Ernest Mandel: The Pound Sterling Bows Out
as the Queen of Moneys George Novack: Why McNamara’s Removal
from Pentagon Stirs Fear
Livio Maitan: In Reply to the Bolivian CP
and Its Backers Jean-Paul Sartre:
Speech at Copenhagen Hearings on U. S. War Crimes
Stokely Carmichael’s Message
on Che Guevara soe
THE POUND STERLING BOWS OUT AS THE QUEEN OF MONEYS
By Ernest Mandel
Several historic tendencies met at the crossroads in the devaluation of the pound sterling. The most important, without doubt, were the decline of British imperialism on the one hand and the growing social crisis in Great Britain on the other. The British Labour party chiefs, good doctors at the bedside of capitalisn, tried for a long time to bolster the patient by means of stimulants. But in face of the gravity of the relapse, they could not avoid the surgery which many experts had desired for quite some time.
Downfall of a Queen
For a century, from the battle of Waterloo until the shots fired at Sarajevo, the pound sterling was the queen of the world. Not that all the gold flowed toward the City, London's financial district, often there was more in Paris and sometimes even in Petrograd.
What gave the pound sterling its power was the superiority of British industry, the rise in productivity which it enjoyed in relation to that of other countries, the low prices which enabled it to penetrate all customs barriers, the abundance of capital which flowed toward all continents.
This abundance was such that the returns on capital invested abroad, for more than a half century, from 1885 to 1939, outweighed the capital exported annually.
The British bourgeoisie constructed the Empire to assure the security of their investments. They planted naval and military bases throughout the world to defend this empire and -- prudent stockholders -- spent for this only a fraction of the income returned by the capital invested abroad. Another function of the Empire was to extort from the colonized peoples -- above all those of India and Egypt -- payment for a good part of the costs of maintaining the British arny, fleet and administration.
Two victorious wars and a wave of colonial revolution completely undermined the solidity of the edifice. A good part of the investments abroad had to be liq-~ uidated to finance the war effort. The political independence granted most of the former colonized countries meant that while the British investments were still safe, these countries hardly contributed any longer to financing the Establishment of her Gracious Majesty. The revenues brought in by these investments is still considerable, but their proportion in relation to the national income has been
greatly reduced. They no longer suffice
to absorb the traditional deficit of
Britain's trade balance; above all they
are insufficient to finance the military
effort which this weakened imperialist
structure continues to require in all
quarters of the globe.
The worst is that Great Britain
long ago lost its monopoly in the world
market on high productivity. Taking into
account only the capitalist countries,
the United States, Western Germany, Japan
stand above England's technical level and
sell industrial products at a lower price.
In this is to be found the definitive
cause of the continual deficit in the
trade balance, the fundamental reason why
the pound sterling no longer serves as an
international means of payment.
For two decades, the Labour and
Conservative governments succeeding each
other in office have sought to hide this
fundamental truth. In line with this,
they have imposed many useless sacrifices
on the British people. The day of reckon-
ing finally came. The pound sterling is
dead as the queen of moneys. The sterling
zone is dying. The pound is becoming one
money among others, standing somewhere
between the Deutsche mark and the Italian
lire. Thus the economic and financial
reality, like a faithful seismograph,
registered this major political overturn
-- the irreparable decline of British
imperialisn.
Revolt of the Working Class
Not since the general strike of
1926 has the British working class been
beaten in a direct struggle -- something
unique in all of Europe. It suffered, it
is true, the upset of MacDonald's split
in 1931. But its Labour party came out
of this holding the bulk of its forces,
accentuating its socialist doctrine, re-
maining more than ever the symbol and
rallying point of the world of labor as
opposed to the world of capital.
This undefeated working class as-
sembled the majority of the nation in
1945 in hope of constructing a socialist
society along the peaceful road. If ever
this hope could seem realistic anywhere,
it was certainly at that moment and in
this country. It is not easy to see what
social force could have stood in the way
of the Labour party forces at that time
when they sought to definitively break
with the capitalist regime.
The leadership didn't want social-
ism. Of course, they passed the most pro-
gressive social legislation, they nation-
alized some uneconomic branches of industry, but they left the monopoly of the manufacturing industries in the hands of the private capitalists and left it up to them to introduce the most modern technology in current production.
The results were not long in becoming manifest. The British economy showed a rate of growth below that of its main competitors. To seek to adjust high social expenses with an economy based on private profit -- this has long been impossible under capitalism. Thus first came the austerity which led to the discontent of a part of the middle classes and the white-collar workers, permitting the Conservatives to return to power. Then came fifteen years of Tory power during which the old industrial position was progressively wasted away in luxury expenditures and the growing flight of capital. Competitive capacities deteriorated more and more, not because wages were too high but because productive investments were insufficient.
To step these up, it was necessary -- as this course logically implied -- to stimulate and subsidize profits; and, in order to accomplish this, to reduce social costs and real wages. If the Tories had tried this, there would have been a general strike. Thus the job was left to Harold Wilson, greeted by the British capitalist press as the champion of "modernization" of the country from the time of his election.
Wilson loyally applied the program of capitalist health improvements. He reinstated austerity, levied new taxes on consumers' goods, froze wages, threatened organizers of strikes with criminal prosecution. Undoubtedly he scored the success of a surprise attack. For a year the British workers remained stupefied at the spectacle of "their" representatives, whom they had lifted into office at the cost of such efforts and sacrifices, unmasking themselves as worse enemies than the representatives of the bosses had ever dared show themselves in forty years.
But after this year of paralysis, came a second year of anger. One after the other, the big unions, the labor army by entire detachments, revolted against Harold Wilson.
The Transport Workers were the first to take the road of revolt; Wilson was beaten at the last Trades Union Congress. A shameful bit of skullduggery still saved him at the Labour Congress at Scarborough -- he promised the miners to suspend closing down the pits for the time being, without adding that this pronise implied tie perspective of an accelerated shutdown in the spring. The Miners Union thus voted for him at Scarborough; but when they discovered how they had
been cheated (Lord Robens, the head of
the nationalized coal mines, charged the
government with seeking to reduce employ-
ment in the mines from 380,000 persons to
65,000 within a time limit of a few years),
they turned violently against the cabinet.
Then the Amalgamated Engineering Union
elected a militant of the left, a former
Communist, Hugh Scanlon, to replace an
extreme right-wing bureaucrat as main
leader of the organization. Next came
some very spirited and militant strikes
in the ports of London and Liverpool.
Already cut off from the majority
of the trade-union movement, Wilson had
to undergo a furious assault from almost
the whole party when his chancellor of
the exchequer, James Callaghan, publicly
supported a declaration made by the gov-
ernor of the Bank of England, Sir leslie
O'Brien, according to which a permanent
pool of unemployed is indispensable if
Britain is to overcome inflation. This
signified abandoning the principle of
full employment, which has dominated the
reformist ideology since the crisis of
1929. This was the drop that made the cup
flow over. Wilson was threatened with a
revolt by his whole party. This is what
led him to devaluate.
The truth was that the economic
policy of the Labour cabinet was caught
in a dilemma: it sought at any price to
wipe out the deficit in the balance of
payments; and it sought at the same time
to step up the economy. The struggle
against the deficit in foreign payments
implied deflation; deflation implied
mounting unemployment (at present it is
without doubt around 800,000). But to
seek at one and the same time to carry
out deflation and to step up production
is an impossible combination. By devalu-
ing, that is, by cutting export prices
seventeen percent, Wilson can hope to
stimulate production and discourage in-
ports; i.e., reestablish equilibrium in
the balance of payments without choking
off industrial expansion.
The Immediate Repercussions...
The immediate effect will be to
cut down unemployment and weaken the
pressure on the cabinet from the trade
unions.
But the respite will not last long;
inasmuch as Great Britain imports a large
part of its food and raw materials. De-
valuation stimulates not only exports
(and thus production); it also provokes
a rise in import prices, hence a rise in
the cost of living. The specialists esti-
mate this at four percent; no doubt their
figure is too low. Wilson will seek to
block the demands for an increase in
wages. Cousins and Scanlon, under the
pressure of their rank and file, have
already warned him that he should be
under no illusions about this.
If the government seeks to impose a new wage freeze, the battle it evaded in the field of unemployment will have to be conducted in the field of incomes. If it concedes in this, inflation will become all the worse.
As always, the devaluation will thus provide only a brief respite, after which all the unresolved problems will reappear, sharper than ever.
In the international domain, the capitalist countries were happy over Wilson's "moderation"; if he had devalued thirty percent, it would have rudely shaken their markets. In exchange for this "moderation," they granted him a bit of charity in the form of a loan. The editorial writer of The Economist summed up perfectly the relations between the British bourgeoisie and their foreign partners in the title: "Beggars or Choosers." Are we beggars, or people who still have a choice?
The weekend of November 18 provided an answer to the question.
..-and the Long-Range Ones
Aside from the British colonies and semicolonies, the only countries that immediately devaluated their own currencies following the devaluation of the pound sterling were those that have an analogous domestic problem of simultaneous inflation and stagnation, such as Spain and Israel. The operation on their part had a political rather than monetary motive.
In Brussels there was exultation: Great Britain's path toward the Common Market was singularly shortened by the elimination of two obstacles: the international role of sterling and the econonmic stagnation of Great Britain. It remains to be seen whether the social crisis and industrial competition will not yet arouse sentiments of a different kind among the capitalists of Western Europe.
For if in truth the other imperialist moneys are, to say the least, tech-
nically solid, the real problem does not
lie there. The devaluation of the pound
places a premium on British exports. If
the world market is expanding, this pre-
mium brings a loss to no one. If it is
stagnating, other countries are threaten-
ed with paying the bill for the temporary
advantages assured to the British indus-
trialists.
The first to become worried were
the Japanese, who for the moment are ex-
periencing the greatest expansion. In
New York and Dusseldorf, the reaction is
like that of the primitive rain makers:
"May a recession be staved off! May an
expansion come!" The fate of the interna-
tional capitalist economy will be deter-
mined in the next six months. If in Ger-
many a recovery sets in, the threat of a
general recession will be avoided...this
time. If the recession in Germany lasts,
the effects of this recession and the
British devaluation will make 1968 a
somber year for the international capital-
ist economy. A touch of fever could lead
some of the other capitalist powers to
take advantage in their turn of devalua-
tion in order to get out of a decline.
The whole international monetary system
threatens to be shaken.
The root of the problem is to be
found here. Like the pound sterling, the
dollar, keystone of the arch of the en-
tire world monetary system, has a double
function requiring two qualities that are
becoming more and more contradictory.
As a means of international pay-
ment, it must be as stable as possible.
As a weapon of struggle against a crisis
in the United States (and by way of rico-
chet for the international capitalist
economy!) it must also be flexible, that
is, as unstable as possible. Any return
to the automatism of the gold standard
threatens to precipitate a grave economic
crisis, which the capitalist world must
avoid at any cost. But any continual mone-
tary manipulation for expansionist aims
is certain to precipitate inflation and
the erosion of the international monetary
system. The main lesson of the devalua-
tion of the pound is that within the
framework of the capitalist regime, there
is no way out of this dilemma.
BRAZILIAN POLICE PUT A STOP TO SUBVERSIVE BLOUSES
Six blouses on display in a stylish shop in Rio de Janeiro were seized by the political police November 16. Accused of subversion, the owner of the shop, Miss Regina Viera de Melo, stated that in having the blouses made up, she had no intention of "creating a guerrilla atmos-
phere in Brazil."
The police replied grimly that
each of the blouses was decorated with a
portrait of Che Guevara and that in Bra-
zil it is impossible to permit effigies
of that man to be sold.
WHY McNAMARA'S REMOVAL FROM THE PENTAGON STIRS FEAR
By George Novack
President Johnson has suddenly transferred Robert McNamara from the post of secretary of defense where he has served for seven years to the presidency of the World Bank. This move has touched off feverish speculation in diplomatic and political quarters at home and abroad. What does it portend?
The perfunctory explanation in the official statements that McNamara took the step entirely out of personal choice hardly holds water. Tom Wicker of the New York Times categorically asserts that the initiative came from the president. The Washington correspondent wrote on November 30 that "Johnson himself did not inform the Secretary of his nomination to the bank post" but confronted McNamara with the accomplished fact.
What led Johnson to remove McNamnara so stealthily from the third most inportant office in the U.S. government and appoint a new secretary of defense at this time when there is only a year to go in the president's present term? Why did he make a change that he knew would create commotion and even consternation around the world?
Some essential elements for an answer are known. McNamara has been one of the three men in Washington who make the ultimate decisions on foreign policy. He has met regularly at least once a week, sometimes more, with the president and secretary of state to deal with all matters pertaining to the Vietnam intervention. He has been so conspicuous as the chief civilian organizer that at one point it was called "McNamara's war."
However, since the summer of 1966 the defense secretary has developed sharp differences with the joint chiefs of staff over some major issues of military strategy. He has resisted requests for the mobilization of reserves to amplify the numbers of American troops beyond 525,000 to fight the ground war in the south. Against the generals, he favored the erection of an anti-infiltration barrier along the seventeenth parallel which divides the north from the south. He reportedly regards the $5 billion antimissile missile system he recently announced as a waste of money.
No admirer of the achievements of General Westmoreland, he has: been increasingly critical of the commander's tactics and displeased with the progress of the war which he knows is not going so well as the official optimists claim in public. He has angered the admirals by overriding on grounds of economy their recommenda-
tions for more aircraft carriers.
His main disagreement with the
military leaders has concerned bombing
targets in North Vietnam. McNamara has
advised against bombing too close to the
Chinese border or striking at the docks
in Haiphong harbor. Since the generals
have won out, U.S. planes have been bomb-
ing within seven miles of Chinese terri-
tory and hitting warehouses close to the
docks.
In addition to these quarrels with
the Pentagon chiefs, McNamara has offend-
ed key industrial interests over such
disputes as the TFX fighter plane, long-
range bombers and similar military hard-
ware decisions involving billions of dol-
lars in lucrative contracts. As secretary
of defense, the former head of Ford Mo-
tors controlled the expenditure of $80
billion, well over half the federal bud-
get.
Consequently, he has been looked
upon by "doves" and "hawks" alike as the
most persuasive voice for restraint upon
the Pentagon brass hats among the men
closest to Johnson.
The president's move to dump his
defense chief must be interpreted as a
victory for the joint chiefs of staff and
the advocates of widening the war and
fighting on regardless of costs and con-
sequences in the powerful armed services
committees of Congress, in the State De-
partment and on the White House staff.
That is how the news has been received
in both camps.
Thus the 1964 Republican presiden-
tial candidate, Barry Goldwater, whose
policy Johnson has been pursuing, stated
that the decision was a "combination of
McNamara wanting to move and Johnson
wanting him to." In any event, he added,
"I'm very glad he's leaving."
On the other hand, Professor John
Galbraith characterized McNamara's de-
parture as a triumph for the conservative
forces and the generals "who have found
him an inconvenient voice for restraint"
and prefer a more compliant man in that
cabinet seat. Arthur Schlesinger, the
academic adviser to the Kennedys, de-
plores his removal "as ominous and scary."
Their attitude appears justified by the
fact that Rusk, the main target of the
"doves" on Capitol Hill, stays in office
while McNamara is on his way out.
Johnson's surrender to the brass
hats is connected with plans under dis-
cussion to escalate nilitary operations
in Southeast Asia which raises problems in regard to the forthcoming presidential campaign. By dismissing McNamara and appeasing the generals, Johnson is free to widen the war without risking a public policy row between the joint chiefs and the defense secretary which might have ended in resignations on either side. Such a contretemps would have been highly embarrassing during an election year.
Mary McGrory reported from Washington in the November 28 New York Post that "the President is increasingly desperate to end the war which has cost him popularity and prestige and mounting criticism. McNamara's removal would make a decision to intensify and hopefully end the war by 1968 presumably unanimous with~ in the government.'
She pointed out that “his removal to the World Bank post...insures his silence. International servants do not speak out against national policy from the counting-houses."
While official circles deny that McNamara was shifted to clear the way for new nilitary actions, this supposition was given credence by General Eisenhower's television interview with former General of the Army Omar Bradley coinciding with the announcement. The former president proposed that land forays be made into North Vietnam as well as neutral Laos and Cambodia and favored hot pursuit by air into China. Respect for boundary lines on a map can be overdone, he said.
According to the November 30 New York Times, some senior military men believed that "General Eisenhower may have been asked by the Administration to float the idea to test the reaction, both among the American people and in Moscow and Peking."
That same day the apprehensive Times editors complained of this reversal of position by Eisenhower who had warned against involving American forces in a major war on the Asian mainland and re-
jected escalation in favor of negotiation
when he was in the White House. They ob-
served that "Eisenhower's remarks will
strengthen fears at home and abroad --
fears that we hope are groundless (our
emphasis) -- that the United States is
preparing to widen its present 'limited'
war that has already exceeded reasonable
bounds. His unfortunate remarks could
hasten that genuine possibility."
While the chairman of the joint
chiefs of staff conceded that plans are
being studied for invading North Vietnam,
he contended that these are solely for
contingency purposes and have not yet
been recommended. Nevertheless, some
highly placed congressional critics fear
that expansion is on the doorstep as
McNamara goes out. Thus Senate Democratic
leader Mike Mansfield expressed the hope
that "McNamara's leaving will not mean
in the months ahead further escalation
of the bombing in North Vietnam or of
the war to other areas."
McNamara's fall demonstrates how
greatly the power of the military has
grown in national affairs. They are in
the ascendancy in shaping government
policy at the behest of the most reckless-
ly aggressive imperialist forces among the
ruling class. Now, even Eisenhower, de-
spite his warning against the danger of
the “industrial-military complex" at the
end of his administration, is peddling
their arguments.
Johnson has plunged ahead without
letup in Southeast Asia since he ordered
the first bombings of North Vietnam in
February 1965. Now, according to certain
of his friends, McNamara himself is wor-
ried lest further escalation provoke a
confrontation with the Soviet Union or
China. His dismissal can only be viewed
as an alarm signal in every capital not
vassalized to Washington.
It will surely intensify the un-
popularity of the president and his war
among the American people and spur the
antiwar movement to more vigorous actions
against his disastrous course in Vietnam.
JOHNSON'S NEW EXPERIMENTS LEAD HIM INTO SOME STRANGE ALLEYS
Johnson is "experimenting a great deal now with new techniques" in his efforts to counteract the precipitous decline in his popularity on the eve of a presidential election year, James Reston of The New York Times has reported.
The experiments include an attempt to create a new "image." His success at this was so great on the very first try that the president was forthwith awarded the Oscar as the greatest ham actor to
yet trod the boards in the White House.
Johnson is also playing around
with some political experiments in obvi-
ous hope of coming up with something new
to break his losing streak. Thus he re-~
cently floated a trial balloon in witch-
hunting.
Three Republican congressmen,
Gerald R. Ford, Leslie C. Arends and
Frank T. Bow revealed November 28 that
at a White House briefing on October 24, Johnson had read a document that persuaded them that the massive October 2l antiwar demonstration in Washington had been organized by "Hanoi."
The report was about "meetings between the protest leader, David Dellinger, three or four other antiwar leaders, and Vietnamese Communist officials."
In a dispatch from Washington about this, New York Times correspondent Fred P. Graham reported:
"The Johnson Administration has rejected requests by the House Republicans to release the report or otherwise document the charges, saying that to do so would fuse a 'McCarthyist' witch hunt."
A Justice Department "spokesman" when questioned about the charges of a Hanoi plot, referred to a statement made by a high government official at a Pentagon briefing the day before the demonstration. In the briefing, the official said that while the National Mobilization Committee to End the War in Vietnam, which organized the protest, did contain some Communists, “we have no evidence that the Communist party is in control of or in charge of the rally and march."
"In Copenhagen," continues the Times, "where he is attending the Vietnam International War Crimes Tribunal, Mr. Dellinger readily conceded that he had met with Communist Vietnamese officials. But he branded as ‘absolute nonsense' the charge that the Vietnamese had influenced the course of any protest rallies in the United States.
"He said it had worked the other way around -- that he had urged them and leaders in other countries to stage rallies to coincide with those in the United States. He added that he had been out of the country and had not even participated when the initial plans for the Oct. 21 rally were made at a meeting of antiwar leaders here on May 17.
The most significant items in this episode are (1) the idea of probing for a reaction on a witch-hunt gambit, (2) having Johnson himself undertake this; (3) doing it with full recognition that what was being toyed with was nothing less than a revival of McCarthyisn.
It was exactly like a pyromaniac striking a match and saying, "This could
set the house on fire; but we refuse to
do that because it would be pyromania."
The most ironic aspect of this
little test run staged by Johnson, is
that he himself wants to get together in
a secret confab with the person whom he
considers to be the most powerful figure
in the Communist world. Here is the in-
side dope as reported by Newsweek [Decen-
per 4 issue]:
"President Johnson wants a meeting
next spring with Communist Party boss
Leonid Brezhnev, who is now reckoned to
be the first among equals in the Soviet
hierarchy -- and LBJ has his Kremlin ex-
perts looking into the best way to ar-
range a summit. LBJ was encouraged to
seek the meeting after he received a let-
ter ten days ago from Aleksei Kosygin...
in which the Soviet Premier expressed
alarm over the state of Soviet-American
relations. A summit talk, besides clear-
ing the international air, would largely
benefit LBJ in an election year. The
President's popularity rose markedly
after his Glassboro talks with Kosygin
last summer. Soviet diplomats in Washing-
ton say they're in favor of a Johnson-
Brezhnev summit. They hold that no prom-
inent GOP Presidential candidate will be
able to do more than LBJ to end the Viet-
nam war. In fact, most Republicans, the
Soviets argue, may well advocate escala-
tion. Therefore, many political analysts
maintain, the Soviets would prefer to
see LBJ remain in the White House."
One of the reasons Johnson's popu-
larity rose temporarily when he met Kosy-
gin at Glassboro was that ordinary people
hoped the two would be able to come up
with some formula to end the war in Viet-
nam. Another reason was that Johnson's
success in inveigling Kosygin into a
confab seemed to indicate that his policies
were impressing the Soviet government --
he had them eating out of his hand!
Would a repeat performance prove
sufficient, if it were timed correctly,
to put Johnson over with the electorate
as less of an evil than a Goldwater who
might get the U.S. involved in a war in
Vietnam?
Johnson is desperate enough, it
seems, to give it a whirl -- even if it
leaves him open to the charge from some
McCarthyite in or around the White House
that the very idea of having a little
Communist popularity rub off on the pres-
ident of the United States is nothing
less than a plot hatched in Moscow.
===== p1000 ===== -1 ,000-
ONE IS MISSING FROM THE NINETEEN
By Pierre Frank
A very restrained communiqué in Pravda November 25 informed the world that eighteen Communist and workers parties which took part in the “consultative gathering in Moscow in March 1965" have decided "to convoke, in February 1968, a consultative gathering for a collective exchange of opinions on the problems relating to convoking an international conference of Communist and workers parties."
The objective of the latter conference would be to "consolidate the unity of the Communist parties, as well as... the cohesion of all the socialist and democratic forces, in the struggle against imperialism, for the national and social liberation of the peoples, for peace in the world."
One could say that the formulation includes solidarity with the Vietnamese people. But shouldn't that be made the central point in order to decide what international actions to undertake and how to conduct them?
let us, however, leave this aside, no matter how essential it may be, and examine the question in its general aspects. The last international conference, of the 18, was held in 1960. It found no solution to the Sino-Soviet conflict.
Five years passed before, in March 1965, a first "consultative meeting" could be held; and, after that, it will have taken a good deal of time for it to meet again, three years later, to hold another “consultative meeting" which will discuss the possibility of convoking an international conference.
Now, as everyone knows, the "unity of the Communist parties" is far from growing stronger with the passage of time. Thus the communiqué was careful to avoid mentioning that at the "consultative gathering of March 1965" there were 19, and not 18 parties, that the Cuban Communist party was thus not included in the convocation for February 1968.
This is not too surprising in view of the hostility to Cuban policies and the conference of the Organization of Latin-American Solidarity shown by the Soviet leadership via articles by Latin- American bureaucrats published in Pravda.
The restraint in the communiqué, too, doesn't this indicate that the signers have few illusions as to the results to be expected from the March 1968 gathering? But in face of the attacks they have been subjected to by the Chinese, they could not remain completely passive.
It is probable that the March 1968 gathering will in its turn give birth to something quite insignificant. Stalinist monolithism is indeed dead; the bureaucratized parties will not be able to create the unity, the cohesion about which they talk so profusely.
Unity, international cohesion is not being prepared in the "consultative gatherings" of the Stalinist bureaucrats grown tired and gray in the harness. It is being prepared in the actions for Vietnam like the one organized October 21, in which hundreds of thousands of persons, particularly the youth, mobilized, not for "peace" but for the victory of Vietnam.
Such actions, and the participants in them, are converging toward and will finally fuse politically with the program of the October 1917 revolution which the Fourth International has carried on since the Communist International passed away.
. VITALE WRITES ON ZIONISM AND THE ARAB WORLD
(The following review of a 32-page pamphlet, "La cuestién judia, el sionismo y el mundo 4rabe" (The Jewish Question, Zionism and the Arab World),* by Iwis Vitale, a well-known figure in the Chilean left, has been translated by World Outlook from the October issue of Punto Final, a pro-Cuban magazine published in Santiago, Chile.]
* * *
* Published by Impresora Delta, Santiago, Chile. 1967.
A controversial subject which Vitale analyzes -- “why the conflict was a genuine test that revealed the disorientation existing in the ranks of the left in contrast to the homogeneity among the bourgeois parties." Taking Zionism as the target of his attack, in view of the role it plays as the ruling political movement of Israel, the author sets out to demonstrate the falseness of its arguments, insisting that his criticisms are directed against it and not against the Jewish people. Vitale presents the Arab-Israeli conflict "not in the abstract and outside
===== p1001 ===== -1,001-
of time, but in a concrete historical context: in the epoch of colonial and social revolution."
On the basis of a number of facts that make the document interesting, the pamphlet ends with a series of conclusions which we summarize as follows: (a) imperialism has carried on a permanent aggression against the Arab peoples; (b) one should defend, not the governments, but the conquests of the Egyptian people; (c) the defeat of the Arabs was a victory for imperialism and a setback for the world revolution -- it strengthened the "dirty war" being waged by the United States in Vietnam and improved its position for an attack against China; (d) the course of the military operations showed
that the pro-imperialist government of
Israel was calculating on taking the ini-
tiative; (e) "the policy of the Soviet
bureaucracy was just as vacillating as in
the Caribbean crisis of 1962 if not more
so"; (f) the Arab governments, incapable
of achieving unity because of their bour-
geois pplicies, displayed complete ab-
sence of coordination; (g) the vanguard
workers of the Arab countries have wit-
nessed the fact that unity is not feasi-
ble under religious slogans but only on
the basis of an intransigent class line.
In short, a thoughtful contribu-
tion on a problem of our time that has
been the subject of impassioned debate.
Every studious person should include it
in his library.
GUATEMALAN GUERRILLA GROUPS WORKING TOGETHER
By Antonio Valdés
A recent interview with Nestor del Valle, Guatemalan delegate to the Organization of Latin-American Solidarity Totas) conference, contains encouraging news about the relations between the two guerrilla groups operating in Guatemala. The interview appears in the September-October issue of OCLAE [Organizacién Continental Latinoamericana de Estudiantes], the magazine of the organization of the same name, whose headquarters is in Havana.
Valle's discussion in the interview is a general one. He outlines the firm commitment of his organization, the FAR [Fuerzas Armadas Rebeldes], to the OLAS perspective of armed struggle as the only road to power, and sharply exposes the reactionary character of the "reformist" Montenegro regime in Guatemala.
Valle's comments on the relations of the FAR with the MR-13 [Movimiento Revolucionario 13 de Noviembre] reflect the efforts being made to unite the revolutionary forces in Guatemala. It is an encouraging development away from the period of sharp factional disputing between the two movements, which got a lot of notice at the Tricontinental Conference in Havana in January 1966,
in reply to the interviewer's question “about the differences between FAR and the MR-13 Movement led by Yon Sosa," Valle replied:
"Our differences with the comrades
of MR-13 have been largely overcome. Our
commander, César Montes, has squarely
confronted this question, emphasizing
the general problems of the war [against
the regime] and the negative character
of these differences at a time when a
common enemy as strong as imperialism
is attacking us both, while we ourselves
attack one another internally.
"Every time we speak with them we
try to stress the points that unite us
and play down those that divide us. We
have reached the point where we exchange
experiences and information, coordinate
our work in the mountains and the city
better, and help each other materially.
This approach is sufficient. We shall
continue discussing and working with
then.
"For example we consider them men-
bers of the national committee that rep-
resents Guatemala at OLAS and when we
next talk with them, we will inform them
of the steps taken here, the importance
of the conference, and the efforts that
we have made and will continue to make to
strengthen the unity of the revolutionary
movement in Latin America.
"With the comrades of MR-13 we
struggle against the puppet regime and
imperialism: that in essence unites us."
-ST,. KITTS LEADER FOUND INNOCENT
William Herbert, leader of the People's Action Movement, and six of his followers were found innocent November 27 of conspiring to overthrow the government of
St. Kitts-Nevis-Anguilla by force. The
charge was armed attack on the Basseterre
police station June 10 in a move by An-
guilla to secede.
===== p1002 ===== -1,002-
CAAMANO REPORTED TO HAVE "DISAPPEARED"
Col. Francisco Caamafio Defio was reported November 28 to be missing from his diplomatic post in London. His wife said he vanished in mid-October after he left for Spain via the Netherlands. Presumably he met with foul play.
Caamafio was thrust into a position of leadership in the 1965 uprising in San Domingo which was crushed through the massive intervention of U.S. troops sent in by President Johnson. Caamafio agreed to go into exile as a leader of the left.
Gen. Wessin y Wessin, a militarist of the Trujillo days, was one of the few ultraright figures to also go into exile
BOLIVIAN GENERALS "DISCOVER"
At the beginning of November Bolivian army chief, General Ovando, announced that Che Guevara's diary would be auc-— tioned off in the near future. One Paris publisher offered $100,000 before he drop~ ped out of the bidding. Then the generals hit a snag.
Apparently some questions arose about the right of the Bolivian government to sell the private papers of the slain guerrillas. Probably a squabble also broke out inside the government as to who would collect the booty if Guevara's diary were sold.
Finally Barrientos issued a proclamation that the auction would be carried through and the pay-off would go to the army:
An Agence France-Presse dispatch from La Paz November 24 reported that "The Bolivian government has issued a decree authorizing the army to sell Comandante Ernesto 'Che' Guevara's field journal to 'the highest bidder.' The decree stipulates that documents found on the guerrillas become the property of the armed forces. Several offers, running up to very high amounts, have been made by publishers in the United States."
The decree was followed immediately by a full-scale "merchandising" campaign. A November 25 United Press International dispatch reported that Barrientos had suddenly "discovered" evidence in the diary of "an evident falling-out between Mr. Guevara and Premier Fidel Castro."
"Without giving the dates of the entries," the dispatch continues, "General Barrientos said in an interview that several remarks in the diary seemed
in a show of impartial treatment of both
right and left which, it was claimed,
would help stabilize the situation in
the Dominican Republic.
Recently there have been repeated
rumors that Gen. Wessin y Wessin is pre-
paring to return to the island. This
could lead to another explosion of popu-
lar anger in which there would be heavy
pressure on the Balaguer government to
permit the return of Caamafio. The ques-
tion now being asked is, did the secret
political police decide to get rid of
the popular leftist leader as a preven-
tive measure?
NEW SENSATIONS IN CHE'S DIARY
ironic or critical toward Mr. Castro."
Such an unlikely possibility would
naturally vastly increase the value of
the document to American publishers. In
view of the notorious record of the
Bolivian government for fabricating
"proofs" and adding "details" to materi-
al in its possession, who knows what
amazing political secrets will be dis-
covered in Che's diary before it is final-
ly auctioned off at a suitably inflated
price?
But Che's diary may be only the
beginning. Having got hold of a good
thing, Barrientos appears only too happy
to supply a steady stream of literary
remains of the guerrillas he murdered.
The "gorillas" are assiduously
spreading the rumor that they have in
their possession another notebook of
Guevara's, even more sensational than
the diary.
David F. Belnap writing from La
Paz in the November 27 New York Post
suggests some of the juicy contents of
the new "find":
"Best guess is that the mystery
notebook contains some surprising names
and perhaps provides a tipoff to under-
ground Castro Communist movements hither-
to unsuspected in other parts of Latin
America."
Belnap reports that both United
States and Latin-American “intelligence
sources" have seen the notebook. Undoubt-
edly this, too, will go on sale when the
bidding has sufficiently warmed up.
===== p1003 ===== -1,003-
CASH REGISTER BELLS FAIL TO RING OUT FOR SVETLANA
A gloomy Christmas seems in store for the publishers of the Twenty Letters to a Friend, authored by the most sensational literary find of the year, Svetlana Alliluyeva.
According to Newsweek [December 4], "To the surprise and occasional pique of booksellers around the country last week ...-Cthe book] was proving to be one of the major publishing disappointments of recent years. Everyone had presumed that because Svetlana was Joseph Stalin's only daughter and an intimate witness to the family life of one of history's bloodiest tyrants, her reminiscences would automat-— ically make a runaway best seller."
But the owner of a small bookstore in Chicago, Stuart Brent, whose reaction was held to be typical, was reported as saying, "That book is as dead as the trash in my wastebasket."
A first edition of 125,000 copies was printed. So far, the publishers managed to place 115,000 in bookstores. But the cash registers did not begin pealing. Samuel Sheridan of Grosse Pointe, Michigan, said: "Never has a book fallen so flat on its face." He has sold just one out of the twenty-five copies in his store.
The author is reported to have received the highest price ever paid for a single manuscript -- somewhere around two million dollars.
This is about double what Eisenhower is reported to have been given for his memoirs on the eve of entering the White House. Even taking into account the inflation of the dollar since Eisen-
1,000 STUDENTS PROTEST AT
More than 1,000 students demonstrated at the Moabit Courthouse in West Berlin November 24 as one of their number went on trial for allegedly throwing a stone at a cop last June.
When the students tried to break through a police cordon at the courthouse, the cops turned a water cannon on then, despite freezing weather -- it was snowing at the time.
Fourteen students were arrested. Traffic was blocked around the courthouse for more than an hour.
The defendant, Fritz Teufel, 24, is being tried for "sedition." He was arrested June 2 during a demonstration against the shah of Iran. Another student,
hower got his check, Svetlana seems to
have been considered by the publishing
world to be a much more impressive
writer.
One of the explanations offered
for the low sales is that the book was
killed by the extensive publication of
serials in the newspapers and Life maga-
zine. Everett Noonan, manager of a book-
store in Beverly Hills, California,
thinks it is due to the disappointing
quality of the book. "If the book was a
good description of what Stalin was like
we would be selling it out. But all she
says is that my heart belongs to daddy."
There is still an outside hope
that Christmas sales may register a rise
in the book's popularity. After all, it
is not easy to find a more perfect ex-
ample than is offered by Svetlana of the
American Way of Life where hard work
receives its just reward.
In accordance with this image,
most of the American press have pictured
Stalin's only daughter in the most favor-
able light -- like a true princess. An
exception is Esquire, "the magazine for
men" (or the men's room). It was not en-
tirely respectful. The November issue
used a full-color portrait of Svetlana
on the cover, but put a black mustache on
it exactly like Stalin's. And the promo-
tion department attached a label: "Exclu-
sive and Unauthorized: HOW SVETLANA FLED
COMMUNISM FOR AMERICA AND FOUND GOD, HAP-
PINESS AND TWO MILLION DOLLARS."
It was a case, it seems, where the
editors succumbed to the temptation to
let truth, for once, win out over beauty.
"SEDITION" TRIAL IN BERLIN
Benno Ohnesorg, was shot to death by a
detective during that demonstration.
A week before Teufel went on trial
the detective was acquitted of a charge
of negligent homicide.
Teufel said he regarded the shah's
visit as a "low comedy," in which "the
public is justified in throwing eggs and
tomatoes if the performance does not sat-
isfy them." He denied that he had thrown
a stone or committed any other violence.
He has been held in the Moabit prison for
all but four weeks since June 2.
Teufel said the contradictions of
modern society became evident to him when
he entered the Free University and began
to read socialist literature.
===== p1004 ===== -1,004~
STOKELY CARMICHAEL'S MESSAGE ON CHE GUEVARA
[The following is the text of a dispatch from Conakry, Guinea, reporting Stokely Carmichael's reaction to the death of Che Guevara. Previous to this, only a brief statement (which may have been but a part of the original) was carried by the press wires under an Algiers dateline. This was quoted in World Outlook November 10.
{The Conakry dispatch is undated but was printed in the November 26 issue of the English edition of Granma, the official organ of the Central Committee of the Communist party of Cuba.]
* * *
Conakry (Teéfilo Acosta, special Prensa Latina correspondent). -- "With the death of Ernesto Che Guevara, it is our revolutionary duty to create Vietnams inside the United States," stated Stokely Carmichael in a message to the black people of the United States.
Carmichael, who asked Prensa Latina and Radio Havana Cuba to publicize his message, pointed out: "Guevara died the way we all should die: fighting imperialism, weapons in hand."
The message, given to this reporter in the capital of Guinea, reads as follows (in a retranslation from the Spanish):
"Brothers and sisters:
"With the announcement of the death of Brother Che Guevara, the imperialists have begun to think that our struggle, not only inside the United States, but also around the world and especially in Latin America, has been liquidated.
"They, the imperialists, have begun to laugh and celebrate. They think today, as they thought in the past, when they killed Brother Malcolm X, that our movement in the United States will come to a standstill. How wrong they are!
"Inspired by Malcolm X's blood, millions of young Afro-Americans came forth prepared to fight and fulfill their revolutionary mission.
"The death of Che Guevara places a responsibility on all revolutionaries of the world to redouble their decision to fight on to the final defeat of imperialism. This is not the time for tears but for combat. This is not the time to make long speeches dedicated to Che's memory, but a time for practical, courageous action on all anti-imperialist fronts.
"If imperialism believes that by killing Che Guevara it can hold back revolution in Latin America and the rest of the world, imperialism is sadly mistaken. From Guevara's blood will arise new revolutionaries, and we who already are revolutionaries will become stronger, staunch~ er, braver.
"Che Guevara died the way we all should die: fighting imperialism, weapons in hand. His example, like that of Malcolm X, like that of Patrice Lumumba, spurs us on in the fight and gives us strength to continue this struggle, which we shall win.
"Che Guevara has left us his example; he has left us his ideas, embodied in his historic letter to the Tricontinental Organization, which constitutes a guide for the blacks of the United States, for the fighters in Bolivia, in short, for all revolutionaries on this planet.
"Che's letter is very important for us. The slogan which he coined -- to create one, two, many Vietnams -- is the best way for us to help our brothers in Vietnam, who are fighting for all of us.
"This letter has given many of us inside the United States the strength to create Vietnams there. We are certain that our fight is to be waged in the streets of Detroit, New York, Chicago, Washington and Philadelphia, that our struggle is taking shape inside the United States, where we are exploited and oppressed.
"With the death of Ernesto Che Guevara, it is our revolutionary duty to create Vietnams inside the United States. Che explained clearly that there is no need to talk more, that the contradictions in the world are clear, and that the time has come for each to take his place in the fight.
"This is exactly what Malcolm X said: the time for words has passed. Now it is the time to fight.
"They died fighting. And we, from now on, will also die fighting.
"For me, it is difficult to speak about the death of Che or the death of Malcolm X, since it seems to me they are with us, since the causes for which they fought and died are the same causes for which we are fighting.
"That is why -- in essence -- Che Guevara is not dead. I do not wish to speak of Che as if he were dead. It would not make sense. His ideas are with us.
"I never met Che Guevara in person,
===== p1005 ===== -1,005-
but I know him. And I know him even better now. The important thing is to realize that his ideas are with us, and that is why we are prepared to go on fighting. Let imperialism know that his physical death will be avenged.
"To my brothers in the United States I say: Black Power for all, from South Africa to Nova Scotia. When the world's 900 million Africans stand up to announce their presence in the Third World we will bring down imperialism and we shall win victory."
HOW THE VIETNAMESE SAVE THE WOUNDED AND BURNED
In its issue of November 25, the Paris daily Le Monde featured on its front page an interview of unusual interest, describing how the Vietnamese people have organized their medical services to meet the gigantic problem which they faced as the target of American military night.
The interview was granted by the North Vietnamese minister of health, Dr. Pham Ngoc Thach, to Dr. Escoffier- Lambiotte during a trip to Europe to testify before the second session of the International War Crimes Tribunal at Copenhagen.
Dr. Escoffier-Lambiotte asked Dr. Thach about the losses being suffered.
"The losses," replied Dr. Thach, "are actually quite low and this is because of a tight, disciplined organization that is universally accepted, because it is based on a moral ideal profoundly rooted in the people. They know that they are defending their land, their factories, their jobs, their freedom and
VIETNAMESE freedom fighters defending their land against the aggression of the mightiest military power on earth. They have written one of the most heroic pages in human history. Equally heroic are the determined workers and peasants who have kept up production in face of the napaln, high explosives and fiendish antipersonnel devices dumped on them by U.S. planes. One of the most moving chapters written by the people of this small land is their success in maintaining and expanding medical services into a vast network active throughout the entire countryside.
===== p1006 =====
===== p1007 ===== -1 ,006-
their lives, and it is easy to understand, in view of this powerful motivation, why this life-saving discipline is rigorously followed.
"The directives given out arise from continuous research and experience which is ceaselessly renewed and ceaselessly adapted. At present ninety percent of the wounded or killed, which we have suffered, were outside of their shelters. The policy of constructing trenches and individual shelters is efficacious, unanimously followed and applied.
"The same holds true for the evacuation of the cities. The first raid on Hanoi in October left 200 victims, killed and wounded, by fragmentation bombs in many instances. In the last raids of the series we had practically no losses. In the meantime we had proceeded to evacuate all the populous quarters, sending the people to the village cooperatives; the city dwellers were welcomed there by the officials who organized lodging and activities for them. Rescue workers acconpanied the evacuated populations."
Dr. Thach explained how the medical services are organized:
"Kach village, each factory, each community, has a health network composed of a health officer, a nurse and a mid-~ wife. Each village infirmary has an underground operating room and equipment enabling them to handle ordinary surgical cases (fractures, flesh wounds, etc.) and in addition countering such things as shock among those who are gravely wounded.
"We don't have sufficient reserves of blood in all these scattered infirnm~ aries; so we battle against losses of liquid through transfusions of serum and electrolytic adjustments, and we likewise employ with success the methods of traditional medicine, utilizing extracts from local herbs.
"We evacuate to the better equipped centers only the gravely wounded who require considerable care. In Quang-—Binh, for instance, where we suffered relatively high losses, eighty-three percent of the wounded were taken care of on the spot and only seventeen percent had to be evacuated to the district hospitals. In these cases transportation is handled by two men bearing a stretcher."
Asked about the danger ics, Dr. Thach said that this had been successfully overcome through massive use of vaccines and careful general hygiene and sanitation. of epiden-
Hasn't this required large amounts of vaccines? Who furnishes them?
"No one. We manufacture them ourselves and our reserves are sufficient.
"During the first two years of the war in 1965-66, we produced more than 100 million doses of vaccines....Our centers for manufacturing these obviously could not remain in the cities; we moved all of them and completely reconstructed them in the heart of the forests where they are operating at full capacity. In addition we have worked out new techniques adapted to our particular situation; thus in the case of Sabin vaccine against polio, yours can be kept only under refrigeration. Ours must be transported on foot from village to village; it can be kept for a month at ordinary temperatures.
The interviewer wondered if this required unusual help by doctors and technicians from abroad in view of the flood of new problems.
"Up to now we have not had a single foreign practitioner. It is possible that we will eventually accept such aid, but it will only be symbolic.
"In 1955 we had one doctor for every 150,000 inhabitants and one health officer for every 100,000 inhabitants. In 1965, we had one doctor for every 8,000 inhabitants and one health officer at least for every 2,000 inhabitants.
"We followed a policy of intensive formation of doctors in all the provinces; this year we now have several medical schools installed in the provinces in the heart of the forests, with all their research equipment, training materials and libraries. In six years, every province will have its school. Today, one-fourth of our doctors are women and we estimate that in six years women will constitute eighty percent of the medical corps.
"The health officers likewise are mainly women. They complete a short threeyear course, but each year they go on to a new level of skill. Thus in 1965 we made a fantastic effort to prepare them for surgery. The plan to improve the level of surgery started in August 1964, at the time of the first bombings. At the end of 1965 everything was ready, men and materials, to face the daily problems.
"The health officers are able to handle simple surgery (fractures and flesh wounds) and shock, and we have simplified and codified a certain number of techniques which are satisfactory and correspond to our particular needs.
"Thus for fractures, we utilize an old method of traditional medicine which uses splints of bamboo that maintain conmplete mobility of the joints. We have also found that the bacillus subtilis constitutes a remarkable preventive treatment for infection and an excellent healing
===== p1008 ===== -1,007-
agent for burns and wounds. We manufacture it on a massive base and utilize it systematically.
"Our results are satisfactory, since the mortality rate for wounds among civilians due to bombings is lower than that among the American troops during the Korean war."
The interviewer observed in a footnote that bacillus subtilis is used in the West mainly against intestinal infections and as a complement in the use of antibiotics. "The results obtained in Vietnam," he added, "are extremely interesting and merit wider research and study here.
The Parisian doctor asked the following question: "The prodigious organization of the American military medical services has been described many times. Based on speed and mobility, the helicopter, the portable hospital installed in a few hours, almost immediate evacuation to the rear, it has meant a very low nortality rate. You lack technical means of this kind. On the military level what is your organization like?"
"Our methods," replied Dr. Thach, "are diametrically different. We answer the American mobility with our organizational stability and Vietnamese rigidity.
"In place of taking the wounded to the doctor, we take the doctor to the wounded. We have one nurse for fifteen men, and when it is necessary to transport casualties we do it with the help of stretchers carried by men to the underground hospitals.
"Moreover, we have many more civilians wounded than soldiers. In two years our health service developed ten times more than during the ten preceding years of peace and it is at present infinitely more developed than the military medical service. The results obtained through this organization are good and I can cite by way of example that in one of the provinces that has been the hardest hit by air raids, Quang-Binh, in two years we have had only four cases of tetanus. The percentage of infections among civilians as well as soldiers is in general very low.
Concerning burns from napalm and poisoning from chemicals used by the U.S. forces, Dr. Thach had this to say:
"In the provinces near the border, five to ten percent of our wounded are from napalm burns. You know that these burns leave frightful keloidal scars, a great deal like those observed after the explosion at Hiroshima. Napalm is dropped by plane in ‘jet containers' and is utilized in bombing our towns.
"The same holds, with less frequency, for phosphorous and magnesium, the latter sent by shellfire from the marine artillery and those who have gone beyond the seventeenth parallel. We treat these burns with the classical methods -- struggle against shock, dehydration, electrolytic imbalance, occluding dressings, antibiotics, and systematic use of bacillus subtilis. We have neither a blood bank nor a skin bank."
The chemical war conducted by the U.S. has likewise faced the Vietnamese with problems. Casualties, particularly from the defoliant chemicals, are treated with both modern and traditional methods.
The final question was as follows: "Doesn't this people, which sees death every day, burns or mutilations, whose towns, villages, factories and roads are razed or destroyed, which has seen so many years of horror and grief from the war, doesn't this people want peace at any price?"
Here was Dr. Thach's answer: "'Peace' should not be an empty word. For us it can only be a synonym for independence and freedom. The desire for peace is immense, but our people are ready to go to the end. Almost all of our fishing industry has been destroyed, but as against this our agricultural productivity is higher than ever; we have more than 1,000 cooperatives producing close to five tons of cereals a hectare and in which seventy percent of the labor has been taken over by the women. Our survival is assured; and the difference between survival and life is the freedom for which we are struggling and without which peace could have no meaning.
"Principles have become a tradition among us, and peace is a question of principle.
"No discussion with the Americans is possible until the bombings and all the acts of war against the DRV LDemocratic Republic of Vietnam] are halted unconditionally. If this is done, then a discussion could be envisaged."
SURVIVORS OF GUEVARA FORCE EVADE BOLIVIAN ARMY TRAP
The Barrientos dictatorship admitted November 29 that the survivors of the guerrilla group led by Che Guevara had managed to slip through an army trap and disappear in lowland jungles along the Beni River. The army officials claimed that only five men survived the battle in which Guevara was wounded and captured.
===== p1009 ===== -1,008~
SARTRE'S OPENING SPEECH AT COPENHAGEN HEARINGS ON U.S. WAR CRIMES
[The second session of the International War Crimes Tribunal, the body of distinguished public figures initiated by Bertrand Russell, held its first meeting in Copenhagen on November 20.
CIn opening the hearings, Jean- Paul Sartre, executive president of the tribunal, made the following remarks. ]
x * *
So the second session has begun. I would remind you that we have three principal accusations to consider:
-- Have the American forces used or experimented with new weapons, or weapons forbidden by the laws of war, such as gas, special chemicals, etc.?
-- Have Vietnamese prisoners been subjected to inhuman treatment, in particular, torture or mutilation, forbidden by the laws of war?
-~ Have there been unjustified reprisals against the civilian population, in particular, execution of hostages?
-- Have camps for forced labor been created, populations deported, or other acts committed which contribute to the annihilation of the population and which can be legally characterized as acts of genocide?
I do not think we need here reconsider our aims, or the problem of the legitimacy of the Tribunal, because all that has been explained at length during the first meeting. I will limit myself to responding to our guest of a moment ago by saying that if there is no American here to defend the position of the American government, it is because the American government, which was invited several times to send a representative, refused to send one. Therefore it is not that the Tribunal is one-sided, but that it cannot bring the accused here by force. We asked them very nicely to come, and they have not come. However if in essence there is no dividing line between the first session and the second session, if we renounced our intention to have a single session, it is because it would have been too lengthy, and under too difficult, and too costly, conditions. But the two questions to which we responded in the first session are tied to the three questions which we are going to consider this time.
In particular, when we speak of the bombing of civilians, of the systenatic and deliberate bombing of the civilian population, we have at hand something which was proved during the first session, something which we have condemned, something which since the