The campaign against the Vietnam War here developed in similar ways to the movement in the US. Of course Australia was a junior partner, and tagged along behind the US. But the Australian ruling class had its own aims and ambitions and interests in South-East Asia. In 1964 the Australian government introduced conscription to provide the cannon fodder – the “death lottery”: birth dates were balloted to determine who would be called up. In 1965 they sent the first contingent of troops to Vietnam.

The crimes of rampaging capitalism today are all too visible. Susan George’s talk last night, the talks and panels today, have given us many reminders. We’re here BECAUSE we’re conscious of this. And we’re also conscious, and perhaps a little afraid, of the tremendous financial, military, ideological resources at the disposal of the ruling classes.

A delegation of prominent intellectuals and civil libertarians presented a petition with 2,000 signatures to the Iranian Embassy in Washington on November 22 demanding the release of Vida Hadjebi Tabrizi and Dr. Ali Shariatti – two of the many writers, intellectuals, and artists now in the shah’s jails.

Utilizing the assassination of the Spanish premier, Admiral Carrero Blanco in December 1973, the Franco regime has cooked up a frame-up of some of Spain’s leading intellectuals.

On September 16, three days after more than ten persons were killed in the bombing of the Bar Rolando, a Madrid cafe, the police arrested some eight persons. Among them was Genoveva (Eva) Forest de Sastre, a psychiatrist and one of the country’s bestknown feminists. She is married to Alfonso Sastre, one of Spain’s leading playwrights.