of the liberation fighters, the US government has decided to up its military aid for the hated dictatorship in El Salvador.
is being rushed to prop up the regime which - over the past year alone - has murdered 12,000 At the same time, it is busy ships in the area to defend the El Salvadoran regime. troops have crossed the borders into El Salvador and a further 3000 are in readiness under the supervision of US advisors.
AID Faced with the growing advance Over 12 million dollars in cash, military "advisors" and equipment workers and peasants in cold blood.
mobilising other military dictator500 Honduran WORRIED Last December, under mass public pressure, the US government was forced to cut off its aid to the El Salvadoran regime. This followlowed the report that 4 US women had been murdered by the dictatorship's right-wing death squads.
President Duarte's regime is now under such pressure from the liberation forces, however, that the US government has decided to rapidly reverse its former position.
Ignoring public opinion, it is rushing support to its political puppet. The excuse given for this change in policy was that neighbouring Nicaragua had openly backed the liberation forces and had sent in troops. Even the Times has pointed out that this was a lie.
What clearly worries the US rulers is the mass support for the liberation forces (FSLN) which launched the insuuectionary struggle in early January. Within days of its offensive, whole cities and areas of the country had fallen into their hands.
On January 11, Santa Ana -the second largest city in El Salvador - had become a stronghold of the guerrillas. The following day, Chalatenango fell into their hands as did a string of towns in the northeastern province of Mor azan. In the capital itself, mass uprisings took place in all the work ing class suburbs on January 11-12.
Even sections of the junta's army have begun to desert. On January 11, for example, Lt. Col. Ricardo Navarrete of the National Guard announced over the radio Continued on page 8.
CLP)
The latest jobless figures are a scandal. At 2.4 million, they are the highest in the post-war years. A ne ever mnese "official" figures don't tell the full story.
They mask the fact, for example, that over 600,000 are on government training courses that maousands or woncu haven't signed on and that a further 400,000 are on short-time in industries ike textiles and engineering. The real figure is closer to three million.
Planned cuts in social services will push it still higher. being number three in the arms spending league, thousands of teachers, building workers and cleaners will be cast on the scrap-heap.
DELIBERATE The aim of the Tory jobless strategy is only too clear. Thatcher hopes that a mass pool of unemployed will demoralise workers and keep wages down. it is calculated, will boost profits and allow British firms to modernise and become more competitive in world markets.
There is evidence that her strategy is having some success. British Leyland boss Michael Edwardes, for example, has been able to ram home pitiable wage increases of 5 and 6.8 percent because, as Brian Withers (T&GWU regional official) puri, ne is taking davantage or tne 2.5 million out of work to rule by fear".
UNION-BASHING It is not only wages that the Tories are out to cripple. It is also the power and strength of shop-floor organisation. Again, British Leyland is a case in Over the past year, the Edwardes management has sacked convenor Derek Robinson for speaking out against their plans and suspended eight workers - last December - for fighting the latest speed-up proposals.
Leyland has been able to get away with victimising union activists by Corby workers march against plant closure. This, threatening to close the whole plant down, if strike action occurs, and putting the whole workforce on the dole.
MilL ANI While notching up a few successes, as at Leyland, however, there is little sign of demoralisation setting in. again, workers have shown their willingness to fight back. From the steelworkers' strike last year to the spontaneous action by Longbridge workers last December - striking against the sacking of the eight - there has been no lack of mutancy.
What has been lacking is firm action on the part of the union leaders. Far from relying on the militancy of the rank and file, they have given in before management threats and thus headed off any protest. anus nas been true at saiish Leyland, the British Steel Corporation and Fords.
It has also been reflected at the national level. In 1979, TUC leader Len Murray called the one million unemployed figure a "disgrace" fact that it has now more than doubled, Murray has refused to initiate any campaign against the Tories' industrial strategy. Protest actions, combined with calls for a Labour government in three years, have been the limit of his opposiHon.
CAMPAIGN Time and There are signs, however, that the situation is changing. pressure from union members. the Labour leaders were forced, last November to call a mass rally against the jobless total which mobilised 150,000.
They have further been forced to extend this into a series of regional demonstrations starting with one in Glasgow on February 21. The climax of the campaign will be the massive Liverpool to London march sponsored by the NorthWest TUC, starting on May Day.
to contemplate industrial action, this marks a major step forward. such ac tions should be mobilised for everywhere and the labour leaders pressured Despite the into seeing them as an ongoing campaign to get this government out of office.
THIRD PARTY? party".
one aim only.
Under mass REACTION Although the TUC leaders have refused ion is seen as doubly dangerous. As Tony Benn recently put it: "It will give encouragement that a process of Weighall of the NUR - who also democratic change can be carried through the whole of society". control.
Fearful of a challenge to their privileges, this is why the Fleet Street press is desperately boosting the "gang of four" and moving in FIGHT behind their calls for a new "centre Talk about an alliance between the Liberals and Labour renegades, the rash of public opinion polls to show how popular a new party would be, have one aim and They are an attempt to confuse and divide the labour movement, to provoke new splits to ensure that Labour has little chance of election next time round.
Such pressure, it must be admitted, has already had an effect. It has not only given a new lease of life to the "isolated gang of four" who would otherwise have disappeared into the wilderness.
It has already began to influence a layer of the right-wing MPs who still remain in the party. Bending under the Fleet Street campaign, figures such as Michael Foot and Roy Hattersley have said they intend fighting for a reversal of the democratic decisions of conference.
They have been backed up in this SOCIALIST ACTION this by certain trade-union leaders - such as Duffy of the AUEW and fear the implications of democratic They are clearly worried that the Blackpool decisions create a precedent which might disturb their cosy and bureaucratic control over their own unions.
Such pressure may have had an effect upon a number of Labour MPs and union bureaucrats opposed to the growing influence of the rank-and-file in decision making. But it has had little effect on workers up and down the country bearing the brunt of the Tory policies - on those on the dole, those fighting cuts in social services, Blacks fighting racist laws and women fighting attacks on their rights.
If the Labour Party is to consolidate its victory in the period ahead -and fight off the challenge from the "gang of four" - it has to root itself ever more firmly among these layers of working people.
It can only grow if it shows, in practice, that it is prepared to champion their interests by class-struggle methods. It is by building mass opp osition to unemployment, by giving support to Labour councils fighting the cuts, by pioneering the struggle against anti-Black laws etc, that it will gain in strength, deepen its support and isolate the Tory-backed Labour renegades.
----- pull-quotes -----
major victory for democracy