Caribbean follies.

FOR YEARS Moscow has convened international "youth conferences" stage-managed to celebrate boy-meets-tractor and denounce U.S. imperialism. Recently the U.S. attempted its own youth propaganda offensive--a gatherine og some nine hundred young people representing a hundred or so more or less democratic countries. They gathered in the delightful environs of Kingston, Jamaica. The goal was to affirm Western values in opposition to Communism.

Unfortunately, organizational control of the conference fell into the hands of one Roy Godson, heretofore unknown. Ideologically speaking, Godson may fairly be described as a social democrat in the Willy Brandt sense of the term, and, at age 42, he has given a new twist to the term "youth leader."

Athwart the resistance of a group of U.S., Latin American, and European conservatives, who called themselves the "Liberty Caucus," Godson orchestrated a conference declaration that endorsed international regulation of modern technology (meaning what?), rejected the "extreme concept ... which regards private ownership of property as an absolute right" (meaning what?), called for the West to divest its holdings in South Africa, and stated that "the strugle for liberation is a duty for all" (except when it comes to Cuba). There is more. The conference declaration stated that "compulsory repayment of loans by indigent countries" constitutes a barrier to development. And more still. It is not aggressive ideologies but "the existence of arsenals of nuclear weapons [that is] a threat to peace and freedom."

A competing resolution by the Liberty Caucus, which stated that political, regilious, and economic freedom were basic human rights, was voted down in three key committees and hooted at by Third World delegates. Oddly enough, the Soviet Union was not criticized even once in the final declaration.

Equally striking was the fact that at a conference held to promote the values of democracy, key conference officials were appointed, not elected. In protest, near the end of the conference, 15 delegations (including most U.S. conservatives) walked out.

All of this went widely unreported, as the media viewed it all through rosy glasses, and, needless to say, the U.S. footed most of the bill for this Jamaican farce (nearly $3 million). The majority of those present agreed that in the interest of "peace and global friendship" these tropical jamborees should be held more often.

By comparison, at least Club Med has some sort of integrity.