The Conference of Nationalist. Organizations of the Portuguese Colonies, to which the MPLA, the most important Angolan liberstion movement, is affiliated has issued a statement in Rabat, Morocco, denouncing the fornation by Roberto Holden, president of the UPA, of a ‘Angolan Provisional Governnent'. The CONCP describes this move as a 'new bluff to the advantage of Portuguese colonialism' and appeals to world opinion 'not to take seriously this irresponsible gesture by this selfstyled nationalist leader.' The CONCP statement also announces that the Provisional Governiuent of the Republic of Algeria through its vice-president Ben Bella, has conmitted itself to render unconditional assistance to the MPLA, Meanwhile in Leopoldville the MPLA has issued a statement renewing its appeal for the formation of a National Liberation Front, echoing the denunciation of UPA's political leadership made recently by the UPA coumander-in-chief, and accusing Roberto Holden of the crime of receiving money from Portuguese planters in exchange for safeguarding their plantations, Portuguese Guinea: The African Party for the Independence of Guinea
and Cape Verde PAIGC, which is affiliated to the CONCP, has issued a communique warning world opinion that the mounting violence against the nationalist movement in Portuguese Guinea threatens a new colonial war, On March 13 the Portuguese colonial Gestapo, the PIDE, raided 2 house in the suburbs of the colony's cmpital, Bissao, and arrested three of the occupants, including the president of the party Rafael Barbosa and a menber of the central committee Mamadou Toure. They are at present held by the PIDE and their lives are in grave danger, These arrests follow a series of repressive measures including the burning of villages, massacres of farmers, systevatic torture of inprisoned nationalists, refusal to provide medical treatment to suspected nationalists. The PAIGC accuses the Portuguese colonialists of ‘nurder, by means of injection of poisonous products, of nationalists in the hospitals of Bissao and Bissora, This criminal practice has resulted in the deaths of more than a dozgen victins, of whom four were pregnant women,' Another practice is 'the addition of doses of poison to medicines sold in the pharmacies of Bissao destined for custouers reputed to be enemies of the colonial regine,.' The communique concludes: 'In drawing the attention of world public Opinion to these crimes, which clearly confirm the retrograde and genocidal character of Salazarist colonialism, the PAIGC, faithful to its program and to the just aspirations of our people to liberty, peace and progress, and obliged to reply with violence to the criminal violence of the Portuguese colonialists, restates its firm determination to accomplish its duty, to develop our national liberation struggle, and by all necessary means urgently to liberate our African homeland from the foreign yoke and win back the dignity of our people'. The struggle for liberation in the Portuguese colonies is now reaching a new point of intensity. This struggle has becone the focal point of revolution on the African continent, and calls for active solidarity from revolutionary socialists everywhere. Conrades are asked to raise the question in their organizations. Protests should have a threefold character: i) Directly against the Salazar government; 2) Against British support for Salazar, the supply of arms, etc. 43) Against any attempts to confuse the struggle by introducing the idea of United Nations intervention in the Portuguese colonies. Most urgent of all are protests to: The Governor General of Portuguese Guinea and the Portuguese Exbassy in London, to save the lives of the imprisoned Guinea nationalists including Rafael Barbosa, president of the PAIGC.