MEMORABLE SCENES. DGPARTIENT
JAKARTA , Sept. 16 -~ Thousands of Cemonstrators stormed the British anbessy in Jakarta today. Stones were thrown through © the windows. Slogans denouncing the new Federation of. Malaysia filled the air. The police fired tear gas. Through it all
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Major Roderick ("Red Rory"). Walker, the assistant Military Attache, went on playing the bagpipes.
‘He marched up and dowr outside while stones whizzed past his head. ‘The police chief and the leader of the demonstrators both begged him-to stop. A policeman tried to Crag hin behind a pillar. But he broke away and went on piping
-His gesture delighted British Ciplomatists when they | heard of it in Singapore... One said: At least we have come out of ‘all this nonsense with dignity."
oN pom WORKERS 3 FROTE Oo AUFLAT ION ml ia DEBLEI -— ‘More than 100,000 demonstrators, carrying red banners merched to the Perliament House on September 15 to he} protest aceinst antipeoples policies of the Nehru Government. | 8 Demonstrators drawn from all parts of the country carried . on placards with such slogans es "Nationalise Banks," "Nationalise -Oil Companies," "Nationalise Foreign Trade," "Increase Dearness Allowance 25 Per Cént," "Down With Corruption," "Change Anti- People Tax Policy," "Scrap Compulsory Deposit Schene," etc. we “mhe “eréat narch," first of its kind sinte India achteved independence, was organised by the Communist varty of India § LOPT_ 7 It proved a success far beyonce the expectations of the orgenisers themselves. On »ehalf of the marchers, the Communist ‘MP's presented a "great petition" to the Speaker of the House of the. People signed by more than 10,000, 000 citizens. protesting against rising prices and demanding immedia ite relief. A Fraja Socialist iiP quippec in the House: “Since when one-time revolutionaries heve become petitioners?"
Sloszans were celiberately @esirned to conform to the present CPI line of critical support to the Nehru regime end to avoid any cirect criticism of Nehru's basic policies. . But it was obvious that the "creat march" was undertaken by the CPI's national chairman, . S.A .Dange, a staunch Khrushchevite, ‘under pressure from left-wing and centrist currents within the party. The success of the demonstration must be attributed to the growing popular ciscontent ceceinst the bourgeois regime _ which has. cleverly exploited the Sino-Indien border dispute to. heap an unbearable tax burden on the workers and peasants.
The military expenditure hes been doubled, taxes on fixed dncome groups heve been raised 200 to 300 per cent anc all wage earners.are being forced to forego 5 to .10 per cent of their meagre incomes under a scheme called "Compulsory Devosit Scheme." Prices of essential commodities have shot up 25 to 50 per cent. auring the last one year. There have been country-wide strikes
and demonstrations against the tax policy of the Government.
There was in fact a spectacular general strike of nearly 1,000,000 industrial workers and office euployees in Lombay City on August 20, initially sponsored by the Socialist party. but later supported by other opposition parties. The CPIcontrolled All-India Trade Union Congress equivocated at first but supported the strike at the last moment when it was obvious that it was going to be a tremendous success. But the Congress Government in the State ruthlessly suppressed the strike by -resorting to mass arrests of leaders and recruiting of blacklegs f{scabs/ to run the transport and municipal services.
In accordance with its policy of critical support to Nehru, the CPI has held aloof from mass action against the Government, thus helping the extreme rightists to channelise popular discontent along reactionary lines. When the various opposition parties in Parliament brought a non-confidence motion against the Nehru regime, the CFI group remained neutral during voting.
Prime Minister Nehru recently reshuffled his Central Cabin-~ et, ostensibly as a move to permit some of his. senior colleagues to take up responsible party posts. In effect this led to the exclusion of certain unpopular rightist figures like Finance . Minister Desai and Food Minister Patil from the Union Goverfiment. ~The Cabinet reshuffle came in the wake of mass demonstrations . against a Government decision to undertake joint air exercises with the American and British forces and set up a "Voice of Anerica" transmission station in Calcutta. An agreement to this effect is being revised now and micht even be scrapped.
In the circumstances the cabinet reshuffle looked like a leftward shift. Actually the Nehru regime has moved very close to Washington since the Sino-Indian border war.
The Soviet press hailed the reshuffle as a triumph for "progressive forces" and a rout of the reactionaries. The Khrushchev bureaucracy has offered massive economic and even. military aid to India, including building a new steel plant turned down by America and financed by the Fourth Five Year Plan to the tune of Rs. 500 crores /$1,000,000,000/7. The Dangeite leadership naturally harps on the same tune and even claims that it was responsible for the dismissal of the rightist Ministers from the Cabinet, a fact which is hotly denied by Nehru himself. —
In the face of growing mass discontent, India's new Finance Minister Krishnamachari has announced some minor concessions in the tax policy and also relaxation of an omnibus Gold Control Order banning the use of gold above 14-carat purity, which has
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rendered jobless more than 2,000,000 goldsmiths all over the country. There is also a move to pay higher dearness allow- “ances to public servants.
.: All this helps the CFI to foster illusions about the Nehru regime and its progressive character. Also in view of the failure of the left wing within the CPI to put forward an alternative line of militant action, the Dange leadership appears to have _ emerged considerably stronger after a period of prolonged faction struggle. A leftist faction in the West Bengal unit of the CPI ~has: been defeated in its move to split the party on the basis of the present Sino-Soviet ideological controversy. The centrist tendency led by Kerala's E.MN.S. Namboodiripad (former general secretary now undergoing medical treatment in Moscow) has opposed the leftist move to split the party. This has given a decisive majority to the Dange faction within the leadership in the ‘present internal struggle.
“Although Dange toes the general line of the Khrushchev “bureaucracy in the polemics against the Chinese CF, he is shrewd enough to understand that an image of complete subservience to Moscow would undermine his own position in the eyes of the Indian masses. Of late he has been more vocal in his support to the “Pogliatti line of “polycentrism" in the world Communist movement...
- Ata recent workers' rally in 1 Bombay, he said, "We shall not be dictated to either by the Soviet party or by the Chinese party; we shall pursue our own line in relation to our country and if we find we are wrong we shall correct ourselves."
Addressing the "ereat march" in New Delhi on September 13, he said, "If we do not set our demands by peaceful means we shall use force."
; This might sound Gemogogic but it also reflects the rela~ tionship of forces within the CPI. In face of the witch-—hunt by the right reactionaries there is a tendency among the party ranks to close ranks. Also the CPI made a cemonstrative move by publishing all the cocuments in connection with the Sino- Soviet controversy, including all the Chinese documents. A serious ciscussion has been initiated. This is indeed a healthy sign.
Another significant development is that most of the CP leaders arrested for their alleged pro-China views last November have been released in all States except Bengal and Maharashtra. Some leaders of the Revolutionary Communist party(1) in Bengal and a few Socialist trade unionists in Bombay are still detained. a a ee i ee re (1) Kanai Pal, an RCP member of the Bengal Legislative ‘Assembly, is still under detention. He is a Trotskyist.
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| STRIKERS TORTURED IN SPAIN
On September 26 the Kennedy administration and the fascist <2 ‘regime of dictator Franco issued a joint declaration announcing ~ -the renewal of American military bases in Spain for another five vears.. —
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Among other items in the declaration:
"The United States Government reaffirms its recognition of the importance of Spain to the security, well-being and development of the Atlantic and Mediterranean areas. The two Governments recognize that the security and integrity of both Spain and the United States are necessary for the common security."
The document provides for "appropriate" action in case of a "threat to either country." The "two Governments" state that they have "reaffirmed their friendship and mutual trust, and their determination to establish a close co-operation in order to strengthen the common defense. . . They have reaffirmed their recognition of the common dangers, and their determination to maintain a close working relationship on all matters affecting their common interests and security.”
' The blood with which this pact of mutual understanding and friendship was signed was provided by the long-suffering Spanish workers. An indication of conditions in Spain can be gathered from the report published below. The source of the report, in underground circles in the fascist-ruled country, asks that it be given the widest possible publicity. It deals with the repression in Asturias where the miners are on strike.
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The principal head of the repression is a captain of the Civil Guard, Fernando Caro, 28, a native of Melilla /Moroccg/, son of an army colonel, who until recently was a captain of the Civil Guard in Malaga. It was because of his talent as a torturer that he was transferred to Asturias. One of his assistants, well-known for his cruelty, is Corporal Perez, a Galician.
On September 3 at four o'clock in the afternoon, a miner, Rafael Gonzalez, 36, died at police headquarters in Sama de Langreo following torture.
The same day at the same place another miner, Silvino Zapico,. 34, was castrated (presumably by the system in general use of burning the hair and skin in the genital area). He is in a hospital in grave condition. This miner was accused of
- being a “Communist." His wife, similarly accused, was submitted to having her head. shaved.
Still another miner, whose name we have not yet learned, is also in the hospital in: grave concition from burns in the genital area..
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A miner, likewise unidentified, was sent to a mental hospital, suffering from a nervous ‘breakdown cue to torture.
Vicente Baragana, who lives in the Lada, a quarter of Langreo,. was reduced to:sexual impotency by burning of the testicles during a torture session. (This may refer to the unidentified miner mentioned above.) . Ss
Alfonso X., a former watchman at the Fondon mine, retired because of silicosis, who is at present a cashier in an insurance. company, Previsora Bilbaino, was.savagely beaten during the Lo strikes last. year. This year a after his arr rest he was tied up -° Ir tv tT BharehewmbS atten: by CoBpowal ” Pérez ii the presence of his"wifevr’”
The wife was incapable of enduring the sight. She attacked the corporal.
- Leaving the unconscious husband, the corporal. beat the woman brutally. She is at present in prison in Oviedo, her head shaved like many other wives of Miners.
5 ‘Her husband was released later in the day to a certain Senen in bad condition. After taking the victim home, Senen, a fellow worker, called a doctor. The tortured body of the worker was in such shape that the doctor said he scarcely knew where to- begin.
Antonio japico of Lada was brutally manhandled. His cheek-
bone was broken and his’ mouth torn open curing torture. He is in the hospital. a
Jeronino Fernandez Terente, married and father of a son, and Jesus Ramo Teva, together with ten other miners are now in “the Carabanchel prison at Madrid after having been brutally mistreated.
Everardo Castra, married and the father of three boys, is in La Cadellada, a provincial mental hospital, following the ferocious torture inflicted on hin. (This may be the person un- ‘identified epove.) He had climbed up the rainspouts of the Duro Felguera Company to paint the slogan, "The people will avenge a ner Wueaget yes Franco, MULOGLEL + hn oe ayn oe enema oe age
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Surpised by the Civil Guard while he was doing this, he was ‘ordered to climb down. ‘The miner had the coolness to reply, "Wait until I finish." He was terribly beaten.
Tina Martinez, who lives in the quarter of La Jocara in Sama de Lancgreo, was tortured and her head shaved, Her husband has been in prison since the strikes last year.
Juan Alberdi of Lada was arrested along with another miner nicknamed "Chocolatina." To amuse himself Captain Fernando Caro ordered them to fight each other. Since the fight, naturally, was not carried on in earnest, the torturers of the Civil Guard took over and completed the beating which the two miners had sought to evade. Later they were brought before Captain Caro who ironically reproached them, "But what beasts you are to beat each other like this!"
A woman, whose name has not yet been learned, tried to escape the ill treatment they were preparing to inflict on her at police headquarters in Sama de Langreo, by revealing that she was pregnant. Captain Fernando Caro punchec her with all his force in the stomach, shouting, "One Communist lessi"
It should be added that this captain wears sport clothes to “work more comfartably during his “interrogations.” co
Out of the miners-who have been arrested, the whereabouts of more than five hundred is unknown. Some sixty miners of Hullera Espanola in the Aller basin asked for death in order to end the torture and bad treatment,
On September 10 twenty miners were arrested at the Camocha mine in Gijon. They were brought to police headquarters where they were beaten until three of them lost consciousness.
Maria del Rosario Garcia, 55, was arrested for lodging a miner, her brother-in-law. On being asked where she was being taken, they replied, "First to police headquarters and then to jail. a
If companies not on strike hire a striker, they are punished by a first fine of 1,000 pesetas, a second of 6,000. On the third offense the place is * padlocke
Captain Fernando Caro utilizes an "original" system to select his victims. He calls in the watchmen of a mine and orders each one to bring in five men to go to work Since they Generally show up the next day without any recruits, the captain asks them whom they went to see. The watchmen report the names of the miners who did not respond and Captain Caro orders these
men to be brought in immeciately and then begins the session of torture.
On Saturday morning September 4 some 50 per cent of the miners went down into the Camocha mine. Once inside the workings they ceciced that rather than come out and expose then- | selves to the police repression they would stay in the mine, but “without working. Although they had made no preparations for this tactic, most of the miners agreed to accept the collective decision. They stayed in all day and nizht. The demonstration did not end until Sunday morning. The police reaction to this move is not yet known.
"In recent weeks a wave of -violence hes swept the Asturian basin," declares a leaflet signed by "A group in the trade-union opposition." An Asturian correspondent writes, "The people are both angered and terrorized." _ Our informants add that the above report barely indicates what is going on in Asturias.
This is the information that has reached us up to now. Naturally there is some lack of precision in details in view of the conditions under which nevs must be gathered. All the reports end with appeals for national and international. golidar-ity, asking in particular that the whole civilized world denounce the atrocities being committed in Asturias.
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