NDE International Monetary Fund are FMI -hunger, misery and inflation. IN THF MID-1970s Latin America seemed a bleak place for the working class and socialism. Army coup followed army coup, as the workers were defeated.
The Brazilian were securely in power, and had not been since the army coup in 1964. The Chilean army power in 1973.
Peron was overthrown the army in 1976 in Argentina.
And following the defeat of the Tupamaros guerrillas, L'ruguayan authorities created a brutal dictatorship. The flood of Latin American exiles to Larope reflected this series of defeats for the working In 1983 the whole of Amenice hates HCW Everywhere the dictatorships are bemg challengea by a new upsurge of working class protest.
The reasons for this turnaround in -e situation are not Despite the economic problems in the atranced capitalist world, many Je Latin American economies atually growing in the early 1970s. Coday their situation is catastrophic CLOO C CION camatically demonstrated in chronic sects. with Brazil owing the internaozal financiers something 555.000m. Mexico $30,000m teeina $40,000m. During sce :es of the sixties and early dEié. ire major Latin American aderment a DEEIE albeit a =0c0e: ci TIUIT icE.
cas. 'The workers united will never be defeated'. Brazilian metal workers on strike last week against austerity proposals imposed by the International Monetary Fund. The government proposes wage increases of only 8 per cent over the next two years, wheras inflation is 120 per cent (!) annually. In Portuguese the initials for the which the workers say stands for 'Fome, Miseria, Inflacion' stitutions Welt and the economies has not generals into the United States.
challenged took The end result is Isabella America remains foreign by debt is equal to its abroad. In Mexico, the discovery investment during the 1970s. had oil industry a devastating blow.
massive masses throughout the continent.
Latin Sulualivl. ICCOS Ol and middle classes hit.
hard to find.
years. Mexico power of the average doubled.
being repeated, inflation Luliaway the Peru, 300 per cent in Argentina).
considerable The expansion Brazil. ez== =e scaroship in Chile jor Western banks and financial in- hit happy loans so long as the interest mounted : expanded. Then medl s s came the 1974-5 international receshas not yehich the erorid econo us recovered 'Reaganomic' policies of high interest rates have sucked investment funds nent.
that Latır with giganțic debts but a colanse of in- with dustrial production to finance them. tionaries. Today, the interest on Brazil's foreign yearly earnings of oil led to a positive orgy of industrial But the world recession has dealt the Mexican ums brocess das restuecn anuae assault on the living standards of the Chile, the extreme monetarist policies of the Pinochet regime have added to the misery of the effects of the world and both the working class have been hard any In Brazil unemployment in the main industrial centre Sao Paulo has rocketed, while real living standards years delined bico pee put chasing purchasing worker talen a catastronhic 40 per cent in the last year, while the price of bread has In Argentina and Peru the same process of falling living standards is but in concert with (55 Der LOil Such a huge assault on the living standards of the masses is bound to lead to a response. Most dramatic of all has been the response of the working class in the Sao Paulo district of a *ek. and the morement against See problem for the rulers of the Aerian dictatorships is this: === é 5o000 est. ahich has all third colulse disproportionately hard, time when the working class moverecovering Irom defeats, and when mass. movement ls growing Taler lilan reccullg. The consequence is bound to be an explosive social and political situation.
Moreover, this coincides with the outbreak of a regional revolutionary war in Central America, which promotes and inspires the whole working class mass movement across the contiThe impact of the Central American revolution has been most strongly reflected in Mexico, where millions of workers actively identify the Central American revoluIt the United States pushes forward its plans and organises an inva sion of Nicaragua, or if the revolution in El Salvador is successful - • both of which seem likely the continental repercussions will be enormous, just 'they were after the victory of the Cuban revolution. America arethus ina rap between tie ruling classes Latin world recession and the rise of their own working class. But the attitude of the major represențatives of western capital seems tu Kelv lo give then respite. This month's visit to Brazil by a delegation ot the International Monetary Fund merely resulted in demands tor more austeritv as tne price for re-negotiation of the debts.
Two crucial DIULCSSCS dominate the political scene in most of the countries where the dictators ruled in the 19/0s the growing TONE OI class independence of the working moves towards a democratic opening a n0 BarLe hesitating Dy ine bourgeuisic The problem for the working class is that in many Latin American countries the first step of constructing a party independent of the bourgeoisie has not been taken.
The biggest advance in overcomof the workerc (PT), metalwork ersis seme naco da Silas same piuces reflected in the one million votes received by the Mexican Trotskyists in the 1982 general election, where there is yet no mass workers party.
In Brazil and Uruguay the process of returning to civilian rule has gone somne way. resulted major DOS LOI parlics have elections.
In Uruguay the party most closely associated with the dictatorship ('Par tido Blanco') decisively lost the 1982 elections to elect preparing a return of party ment. In the December 1982 elections in Brazil the party associated with th dictatorship (the 'Social Democratic Party) lost tion party ine brazillan Democrallc Movement (PMDB).
The significance of these results is not that a mass workers' challenge at the electoral level looks like being successful in the near future, but that the transition to democracy will. if com pleted, and a working class revival. Burdened In Bolivia, burdened debt, such was the degree of workers' mobilisation that in 1982 the militar! dictatorship voluntarily handed over powerrto acvam coveramenl Democratic Popular Union coalition, which bourgeois nationalist currents and the Communist Party This civilian government is caught between applying austerity measures, and the pressure of the working class movement Lemeo o c o vian miners. All nullar y to come back to power tals to keen the under control In Argentina the military have announced elections for October 19o3. seven years arter tne coming lo power of the SIUCUOl miniate ed300000 is in rthn ne tinian foreign debt is $30,000. Employment Colull!
has fallen 30 per cent since 1974 dictatorship was struck a heavy blow bunDOlcaseS ILkas problems, as op- by general barracks'.
conventions governto the bourgeois opposiits inevitably encourage dissent the crucial task to consider anome country wiln an enormous lorelgi DalILC tion. If (UDP) protest includes left circumstances and in particular the time, the back to power it the UDE preparin economic continent.
This military and the dictatorshir which ruins. hundreds The by its bungling of the Malvinas war, despite the mass popular support for the struggle against Britain Argentinian politics is dominated nuu barle Codiilio!. 'Mulitpartidaria' which negotiating with the regime the conditions for a 'return of the army to the Unfortunately, the dominant party of the Argentinian working class, the Peronist Party, is part of this coalition together with a gaggle of bourgeois parties. But the combativiPeronist union federation the CGT, wok necass. remains intact. Peronism. as soon as a civilian government comes to power, will be more and more torn between working base its bourgeois leadership. The construction of a working class party on the lines of the Brazilian PT - perhaps by splitting the Peronists • remains One dictatorship which is refusing Many 'democratisation tocess is or comse wd mn cluc . But Pinochet's days are numbered. . The reouncne or atrduc umon movcuicul and the reorganisation of the political reached advanced stage. Repression has not been an eftective weanon in crushing all ODDosIPinochet himself remains oblivious to the growing strike and movement, Chilean bourgeoisie probably will not. And if the Chilean bosses won't act then the dictatorship will fall in the worst of all — under the impact of a workers' uprising.
No one should underestimate the crime being committed against : the working class and peasantry of Latin America by world imperialism. The crisis means hunger, disease, illiteracy and infant mortality It means untold millions unemployed It means misery without end for a is the social order that Reacan detends when he sends hi gunboats to blockade Nicaragua. But it is impossible to inflict this agony on OI millions of people without a response.
The years of easy "c:t-e :** dictators are ove:
has been widely Socialist Action 29 July 1983
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ing this problem has been taken in Boril, sita the constr led.