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Man: Test, test, test, test, test.
Woman: (unintelligible under man) What does that mean? That means that the kids got four hundred dollars worth of glasses that they don’t see any better than they did–
(tape edit) (Pause)
Man: Test, test, test, test, test.
(electronic buzz) (Pause)
Jones: The Republic of Cuba and the Soviet Union walked out of the banquet in Peiping, because of accusations by China that they were causing Africa to be responsible– that their efforts of liberation would be responsible for a thermonuclear war.
Charges have been placed against the Soviet Union by Western NATO officials that eleven top generals of the Soviet Union – USSR – plan in an– an immediate invasion of Namibia and to establish a base– a military base on Cape Verde Islands.
The Soviet Union has said this is absurd, but oftentimes the most dangerous period in history can be when both powers are speaking in terms overtly of peace, because President [Josip Broz] Tito of the non-aligned Third World communist nation of Yugoslavia said the mutual distrust between the Soviet Union and USA cannot help but lead to Third World War. He said United States has little options but to get out of Africa, and yet they have no means of sustaining their economy, said Tito, without the vital mineral resources of Africa. The Soviet Union could not be true to its policies of liberation, said Yugoslavia, if they were to remove themselves from Africa. So President Tito – 86-year-old president of Yugoslavia, freedom fighter of the first magnitude against the Nazis in World War II – sees the friction as a point that cannot be resolved, that will inevitably lead to World War III, a nuclear war. He’s also greatly concerned about the friction that exists in non-aligned movement party congresses. He is hoping to be able to step up party meetings of the non-aligned socialist Third World nations, because he said there are imperialist efforts to divide the Third World nations, which are important– he said the non-aligned nations are important to the balance of power, if world peace is to be preserved. (Pause)
It is said by Western imperialists in the NATO, that the Soviet top generals are meeting secretly presently in Africa and will (unintelligible word) out a invasion of Namibia by force of arms, if South Africa does not keep its word and free Namibia by December 31.
For the first time, blacks set in without any official status or voting power in the assembly in Rhodesia. Not much to report in terms of any real success, but it’s the first time blacks have been able to set in a national assembly, due to the racist policies of the Rhodesian government. Rhodesian president, illegal president, racist, fascist Ian Smith, said that there will not be any going back on the majority rule that he has promised to give to black Rhodesia or Zimbabwe by December, end of this year. (Pause)
Namibia may yet get unilateral independence, because of the swelling tides of support that are growing in African neighbors– neighboring nations and the solidarity, the unity of the people within Namibia. That is the essential that has kept us alive here, and enabled us to progress, grow and be successful. In unity only is survival and strength.
There is an effort by the South African fascist regime, upheld by our tax dollars and US monopoly capitalism, to have illegal voting registration to try to eliminate many blacks from the upcoming elections. SWAPO however is powerful – Southwest African Peoples Organization – and is resisting these efforts of the Union of South African apartheid concentration camp system to exist [exert] its will any longer than this year, upon the brave people of Namibia.
A powerful earthquake of seven points nearly on the Richter Strait– uh, Richter Scale struck (struggles over pronunciation) Salonica, uh, in Greece. Over one thousand buildings were completely and utterly destroyed. The number killed, injured and dying have not been able to be determined at this point. The earthquake from Salonica– Salinca, rather, in Greece was felt and da– dam– damage as far away as Bulgaria and Yugoslavia.
[Anwar] Sadat continues to defend the crackdown upon his people from his critics. As you know, his ambassador to Portugal has resigned and been demanded to be recalled for criminal trial because of saying Sadat is just another dictator like [António de Oliveira] Salazar was in Portugal and the fascist Generalissimo [Francisco] Franco was in Spain and [Adolf] Hitler was in Germany.
America leaves open a policy of monitoring – (pause) It’s not clear what the news is saying on this – monitoring the situation between the Soviet Union and the USA. Apparently they’re– news is trying to say that the doves have won in rhetoric at least for the moment in United States. Europe says USA is over-reacting. That is, the European capitalists are trying to calm down the bellicose Washington uh, imperialist. But – so says BBC – it’s only a victory in rhetoric, in words. In deeds, the USA continues to build up its imperialist designs. Soviets and Cubans will see that as weakness, said the USA. But no (Pause) possible assessment can be made at this time. It is a dilemma. The USA has always followed a Cold War brinkmanship policy. Europe is demanding that Vance– Secretary [of State Cyrus] Vance put out peace feelers and offer renegotiations, and this is being resisted by Washington, because they say that the Soviets and Cubans will see it as weakness and uh, move in. But all the intimidation efforts have not worked, said the Europeans. The old Cold War tactics have not worked. The Soviets have not backed down, and neither the Cubans. And the Soviet– the uh, European members of NATO, the puppet NA– uh, North Atlantic Treaty Organization, (pause) have said that somebody’s going to have to give, or it’s going to be a nuclear war.
Emergency economic problems have caused Washington Interdevelopment– uh, Interdevelopmental Bank and the Caribbean Bank and the World Bank to call on members of the Caribbean nation to meet in an emergency secret session over economic depression in the Caribbean. Guyana honored it by a low level cabinet official Frank Hope [Guyana Minister of Finance]. It’ll be attended by Dr. [Eric] Gairy of uh– who visited our Temple in San Francisco, of Grenada, the beautiful island there, the socialist administration of Jamaica will have a representative, and the social demo– democratic government of Barbado– Barbados will also have a representative in the upcoming meeting this week in Washington.
The Red Brigade has struck again. After the new arrest of members of the Red Brigade, who truly practice armed struggle against finance capitalism and U– US and world imperialism, have been able to get through in broad daylight and kill the head of the secret police anti-terrorist unit. Antonio Esposito was shot to death before the eyes of many and his guards in an open public bus. The Red Brigade members escaped and got into a car behind and have not been captured. Simultaneously, they struck at a cruel and inhuman prison warden in Yudine, Italy– Udine, Italy who has practiced torture against prisoners. He was shot also, and also two of his guards were killed. In neither case were members of the Red Brigade caught. (Pause) So Italy is in a state of turmoil, even to such a degree that the Communist Party of Italy that’d been a revisionist have been forced out to criticize the past president, as you know, Leone– uh, Giovanni Leone, and charge him with fraud, misuse of tax dollars and uh, other c– crimes against the people. The Communist Party had been silently acquiescing and going along. So contrary to the revisionist thinkers, the armed struggle, called terrorism in Italy, has brought considerable results.
Members of the public have been demanded to be present by the attorney general, Shahabadeen [Mohammed Shahabadeen, Minister of Justice] in Guyana to hear the opposition parties and the churches speaking against the referendum. The judge gave a stern and terse warning to the lawyers that they would be charged with contempt, that he would not allow any further indiscipline amongst the lawyers that should be acting in a professional manner, as the public hearings begin to heat up over the upcoming referendum on July 10 [to replace a British Westminster constitution with a socialist one]. The Guyana Council of Church head, Paul Tiddiman [phonetic], who has not been a particular friend, we were able to calm him down when he wanted to do us harm by uh, reminding him of something we knew about him through our intelligence– he has resigned suddenly without any explanation as the head of the Guyana Council of Churches. He was a North American white man who had settled here. The Guyana Council of Churches also refused to participate now at Linden in a conference over the referendum. They strongly oppose the referendum.
Dr. [Cheddi] Jagan has bre– been rejected in his request to meet at Port-of-Spain in Trinidad that is a rightwing government, in a meeting of CARICOM leaders, who are attempting to break away from CARICOM and form a more egalitarian economic unity. But the government of Trinidad has refused Dr. Jagan any opportunity to land or to move about. Thus this restricts uh, the opposition, Dr. Jagan of the Peoples Progressive Party, considerably, said Guyana Broadcasting Studios.
Two Rice Board officials have been charged and are held on two hundred and fifty dollar bail – low-level officials – for stealing rice. Also, two transport good bondsmen similarly are being held on two hundred and fifty dollars bail for attempting rice from the Rice Board’s warehouse.
Muhammad Ali continues to praise the Soviet Union as he departs. He said it’s the most fantastic nation on earth. (Pause) Probably he will go back to the same kind of hell that other black people are now facing in USA at all levels who are not speaking out at all, like he is. Mr. Ali – Muhammad Ali – is an idealist Muslim who believes in God, and if he had any realistic judgment, he would know he was in trouble. I’m sure he has not assessed the kind of trouble he’s in.
Farmers are being accused by the Guyanese government of trying to sell moisture-spoiled corn that has in excess of 22 percent moisture in it. The Guyanese government– the s– the Guyanese Stock and Feed uh, Limited has allowed 14 percent moisture, but they are going to crack down on the farmers for trying to trick the public, the general public.
This is, I presume, the major highlights of the news.
Zaire continues to have rebel activity.
The USA is stymied. A Senate bill has been passed– US Senate passed a bill requiring the United States to suspend aiding any country that has assisted terrorists. It also requires that [U.S. President Jimmy] Carter will have to meet with them every six months to report if in any way he wishes to suspend that rule for allies essential to supporting U.S. imperialism. The State Department and Carter had opposed the bill. He will say– uh, it is said the State Department and Carter’s answer, is that it shows that the United States is more concerned about its national interest in this rightwing move by the U.S. Senate than it is about terrorism itself. The complexities of the bill, Guyana Broadcasting Studio did not make clear, but said it was a further repressive act. Nonetheless, we are not surprised at that, because you– repression is the name of the day.
I would like to give you a brief analysis of the great black man of history in his new book that’s published, though he’s been dead for some time, he died 95 years of age. He decided to leave and go back to Africa in Ghana and take citizenship, he gave up his U.S. citizenship. It’s just been published, On the Importance of Africa in World History, by the Black Liberation Press. I will give you a synopsis of it.
Throughout his 95 years, W.E.B. duBois, who founded the NAACP and really gave black pride and unity to the USA, devoted his life to the liberation of Africa and to the study of black history. If one were to try to name the key figures in southern Africa support work in this century, W.E.B. duBois – that’s spelled d-u, capital B-o-i-s – name would certainly be at the top of the list. An anti-racist, anti-imperialist, a Marxist-Leninist, Communist, duBois has written volumes of material. Four of his shorter works have recently been compiled by Black Liberation Press in a highly-readable, attractive looking booklet form. The booklet is ideal for study groups and should be considered a must for all activists who are trying to save USA from fascist takeover– direct fascist takeover. It’s already a fascist state, de facto. All those concerned for activists in the African solidarity movement should read it. The graphics, drawn mainly from the works of Tom Feelings, give life to the centuries-old African struggle against white domination– capitalist domination. The first essay, a 1915 work called “The African Roots of War, ” written by W.E.B. duBois, outlines the relation between racism, economic exploitation, colonialism, and imperialism, providing a clear analyses [analysis] of many of the aspects of imperialism before that term was in general use. According to Black Liberation Press, this essay was among the research material that Vladimir I. Lenin, a founder of Communism and the October Revolution in the Soviet Union, in the true vanguard of world liberation, used to help him with his path-breaking imperialism, the highest stage of capitalism. He got it from reading his major work on imperialism, Lenin’s work on imperialism, was much of the uh, basic thinking of W.E.B. duBois. The real secret of that desperate struggle for Africa is the vast natural resources that Africa offers, duBois writes. He later goes on to delianate [delineate] the world conditions which make Africa the central point of imperialist rivalries, in the process also touching on conditions in Asia and the Americas. But W.E.B. duBois thought that nuclear war would come over Africa, because it’s the richest continent left on the world.
DuBois points out how racism is used to divide Third World countries and workers within the capitalist countries, and to promote an ideological cover-up for Africa’s plunder. The rising demands of the white laborer, not simply for wages, but for conditions of work and voice in the conduct of industry, make industrial peace difficult, duBois writes. The working men have been appeased by all sorts of essays in state socialism on the one hand, and on the other hand by public threats of competition by colored or black peoples’ labor. By threatening to send English capital to China and Mexico, by threatening to hire black laborers in America, as well as by old-age pensions and accident insurance, we gain industrial peace at home at the mightier cost of war abroad and genocide of our black brothers and sisters who are killed off on starvation wages or slave conditions. Only the aristocracy of labor gets to share in the spoils of Africa’s plunder, while unskilled workers – white or black – still form a large threatening, and to a growing extent, revolutionary group in advanced countries, duBois continues. Even more graphically than Lenin, duBois outlines the extent of imperialist exploitation of Africa. To aid their pillage, Le– uh, duBois notes, every resource of science and the opiate of religion is used against Third World people. In a characteristically impassioned plea for peace, duBois again characteristically does not fail to criticize the racism of many in the peace movement of the time, charging that unless the racism is abandoned, the struggle for peace is virtually meaningless and hopeless. Our duty is clear, duBois concludes. Racial slander must go. Racial prejudice will follow. Steadfast faith in humanity must come. The domination of one people by another without the other’s consent, be the subject people black or white, must stop. The doctrine of forcible economic expansion by U.S. imperialism over subject peoples must go. Religions, hypocrisy, occultism, and all other world thought, must stop. In this great work, who can help us, said he, who better than the 25 million grandchildren of the European slave trade, spread through the Americas and now writhing desperately for freedom and a place in the world. And of these millions, first of all, the ten million black folk of the U.S. – which have now grown to 22 million since he wrote it – now a problem, then a world salvation they could be, if they unify.
The second essay is a 1931 work entitled “Africa: Its Place in Modern History.” The essay succinctly and concisely deals with many of the issues presented in Walter Rodney’s How Europe Undevelop– How Europe Underdeveloped Africa. It provides the history of Europe’s plunder of Africa. Walter Rodney is, by the way, a Guyanese, a very strong writer and socialist. It provides the history of Europe’s plunder of Africa through the slave trade, and later the rip-off of natural resources and human labor. Because it is readable, short, to the point, and encompasses a lengthy period of African history, this work is especially good reading for newcomers to the African solidarity movement.
The final two essays of W.E.B. duBois, who I met personally and got to know in the McCarthy Era, when only 25 people would show up to see him in Indianapolis, Indiana. He wrote, Africa in the battle against colonialism, racism and imperialism, and on the need for socialism, are speeches offered in 1958 and 1959 respectively. In the second speech, he speaks of his experiences in the Soviet Union and the Peoples Republic of China, commenting on– at length on the great strides made in the Soviet Union and in China, particularly between his first visits in 1936 and his second in 1959. Fortunately, he died before he saw– could see the painful foreign policy practices of the Peoples Republic of China.
The pamphlet also has a pitting– fitting introduction by a Guyanese historian, Rodney, originally printed in Monthly Review as a tribute to Vladimir Lenin. The essay sets the tone for the selections by refuting the charge that Lenin was not concerned with Africa because he made so little mention of it in imperialism. Rodney’s study not only provides an excellent preface to duBois, but clearly refutes the reactionary nationalist position that followed by some Third World leaders that Marxist-Leninism is a white boy ideology.
The pham– The pamphlet closes with a call to revolutionary struggle by Mohamed Babu – B-a-b-u – a leader of the Zanzibar fight against imperialism, as well as a key statement made by W.E.B. duBois two years before his death in 1963. Said he, Communism, the effort to give all men what they need, and to ask of each the best they can contribute, this is the only way of human life. It is a difficult and hard end to reach, but in the end, communism will triumph. I want to help bring that day.
And so he did. A brave man, founder of the NAACP, he did that. He gave his life – all of his 95 years – in the struggle. He was behind every major development, you might say, of black success in USA. He founded the NAACP. People want to forget that and not give him his proper credits, but he was the greatest organizing force in USA. But he gave up on USA, saw nuclear war coming, knew absolutely that blacks would be exterminated, and genocide would come, and said that blacks would have to return to Africa. And he spent out his remaining years in Ghana, where he died at 95 years of age, giving up his citizenship, denouncing USA and its imperialism and its racism.
A terrible crime has been committed against one Joe Noah [phonetic] in New York area. He was taken by a white gang of thugs, and was beaten severely. And this is only one of many things that never get reported. Then they cut him open and kept him in a apartment – abandoned apartment – pulled out his internal organs, stretched them on poles, he was beaten and then shot, through the legs. He was left to die after six days in this condition, and no one bothered to even take note of his cries for help. That’s the indifference of the big cities of USA and the racism run rampant, not in the South, but in the– one of the most liberal, progressive cities – so-called – New York.
In closing the commentary of the news before we go back to work, step up our production, because I’m asking observers to even be more keenly aware and to take note of those who produce, to reward them, and those who do not, so that we can bring them up, because we’re killing our people when we don’t. We’re depriving them of their chance to get here for liberty.
How the fascists murdered Victor Jara. Victor Jara, the famous Chilean national singer, who we’d like to hear his music right after I finish, was bestially killed by the junta, the CIA put in power with our tax dollars, that should cause all of us terrible guilt. He had been singing for the workers, the humble farmers and miners, from the copper and saltpeter mines, and the students knew well and sang his songs as well, together with the Quilapayúns, a group of singers well known also outside of Chile, which he had founded. He traveled throughout the country to make the humble people familiar with the Popular Unity program, leaving his family for the call of the Popular Unity, which was a democratically-elected Marxist government front under Dr. [Salvador] Allende, that proved that democracy cannot keep. A democratically-elected communist government will always be overthrown, unless communism causes them– a takeover of the military and the business elements. Neither the revolutionary content of his songs nor his untiring practical activity for the United Popular– the Popular Unity government, were forgiven him by the fascist and the U.S. CIA. Together with 5000 other patriots, he was detained for weeks in Santiago’s National Stadium, where this ardent patriot and member of the central committee, Marxist, was tortured before his life was wiped out. Witnesses have told the public how Victor Jara – it’s spelled J-a-r-a – died. He was brought to the National Stadium, used as a concentration camp. He brought along his faithful friend, his guitar, his guitar, and began to sing. The detainees took up the melody of labor and socialism, though the guards threatened to open fire. On the order of an officer, the soldiers cut off fingers, and pulled out fingernails, and finally, Victor’s hands, but he kept on smiling. He could accompany himself no more with his guitar. Nevertheless, he carried on the song in a weakening voice. With a rifle barrel, they broke Victor’s skull, and then they hanged him in front of a tribune, in order to quell or deter the other detainees in the concentration camp that were being held in the national football stadium.
Thus ends the news and commentary. Keep in mind our enemy, keep in mind our blessings of a socialist society that’s kept strong by one thousand united. You could never have peace that you wouldn’t go to jail in USA. Here you can. You’ve seen me free everyone that’s been attacked here and back in USA. Unity gives us strength. Work will give our people liberty. If we don’t, if we continue to waste and don’t save, and think of ways of making money, murder is what we’re doing. Some people’s chances for freedom will be killed.
I love you.
End of tape
Tape originally posted July 2014