African Victory

THIS WEEK the United Nations followed the lead of 70 nations in recognizing the newly independent Guinea-Bissau. The United States, with characteristic indifference, abstained from the General Assembly roll-call vote.

Liberation was no small feat for the revolutionary African Party for the Independence of Guinea and the Cape Verde Islands, which mobilized opposition to Portuguese domination of the nation's blacks. The PAIGC freed Guinea-Bissau from the yoke of four centuries of Portuguese colonialism that continues to oppress Mozambique and Angola.

In abstaining from the U.N. vote of recognition for Guinea-Bissau, the U.S.--which will celebrate the 200th anniversary of its independence from British colonialism in three years--once again betrayed the principles of its founding fathers. The Nixon administration again demonstrated its subservience to the big business interests that profit at the expense of the black populations of African nations and find themselves threatened by the fall of Portuguese domination and its systematized racism.

But Guinea-Bissau is free, and the struggle to liberate the other Portuguese-held nations of Africa lies ahead.