Want tendency disgraced itself, and its retensions to Marxism, all for a withdrawal of the British fleet to support the demonstrations called in this basis. In reality they placed nemselves on the right of Tony Benn nd Judith Hart.
Bipartisan Socialist Organiser, quivocating on the question of Argennian sovereignty during the war, carThe lesson of the events for the hole of the left is that if you give an ach erialism, then you will suffer political U11 opposing your efeats. Thatcher rewarded Foot and he Labour leadership for uiescence by kicking them in the teeth.
The same principles hold true for he other central problem for British imperialism, where the Labour Party lso pursues a bipartisan policy - the ontinued occupation of the North of reland. The Falklands war was a terrile warning to the labour movement. Getting on with the "bread and butter' ssues of domestic politics, while the uling class is running rampant with var hysteria only prepares the ground or bigger and worse defeats.
promised elections in 1984.
fulfilled.
policies, legal.
Other piceipitale defeat by refusing to Then, Confederation regime regime after 11:3.83) record levels own industrv telt the pressure. between falling demand, their acrates companies.
their own banks houses of cards ... ONE YEAR after the attempt to reclaim the Malvinas through invasion, the Argentinian military regime is on its last legs.
Faced with an escalation of workers action the regime has 1983 and a transfer of power in But there are few signs that the workers trust these assurances or will wait to see if they are The workers offensive against the regime reached a new peak on Monday 28 March when a 24 hour national strike, called for better wages and to protest at the government's economic brought the country almost to a halt, despite being declared ilThe economy has gone into furdecline since the in the Malvinas. was to distract attention from the crisis that General Galtieri ordered the invasion of the Malvinas on 2 April 1982.
succession of political strikes called by the General of (CGT) threatened to bring down the military established in 1976. That introduced the 'Chicago' economics of Milton Friedman.
The results were traumatic. According to Andrew Thompson (Times 'Interest rates shot up to attracting speculative capital from overseas which built up the foreign debt. Meanwhile domestic saueezec cheap import and unbearably high interest 'At home financial empires were built by buying and selling banks and Speculation flourished and millionaires appeared overnight, financing their own companies with creating massive As banks. and companies went bankrupt the government was forced to devalue the peso and in 1981 inflation shot back up to three figures.
Critics within Argentina describe Mothers of Argentina's 'disappeared' demonstrated in Buenos Aires the policies as wanting Argentina to its original role as a primary commodity exporter "de-industrialising" the country?
The size of Argentina's foreign debt, already rocketing from its 1975 level of $8000m, was hoisted by the S40, 000m. These clear symptoms of s of the war lo a stupendous declining 'dependent industrialisaits third world neighbours in the Nonported Argeerinats claim as the ported Argentina's claim Malvinas, calling for negotiations between London and Buenos Aires to resolve the dispute.
This new diplomatic alignment by Argentina is reflected in the coolness of relations between the in the apparently reduced role Argentina is playing in repressive activities in America.
But the military junta has by no means changed its spots. Despite ofdeclarations that the Argentinians serving in Honduras are 'to return mèrcenaries evidence in the Observer (6.2.83) showed that high ranking Argentinian diplomats are playing a central role in the present counterrevoluuonary Western Dy cluding from Rolls-Royce supervised the installation of gas turbine engines in the four warships currently being built for the junta in West Germany.
handed over to the junta in January. The ships are armed missiles, for which British Aerospace is listed as the sub-contractor respon sible for the radar-homing equipment.
US and The cosmetic changes in Argentina's foreign policy are paralleled with similarly small changes at home. While those most directly responsible for the Malvinas defeat have been replaced the essential continuity of the only in the slowness in returning to civilian rule. The coalition of the two parties wno measures. government operations The junta is also being militarily Europe, British The first of these frigates was with Exocet Port Stanley prominence.
they Malvinas regime has been demonstrated the opposition, the Multipartidaria, raised the demand that the transfer of power should be no later than 12 October.
The government have decreed that elections should take place on 30 October, but the current joke is that another decrée will be made finishing October on the 29th.
The significance of the delay is so that the heads of the armed forces traditionally appointed at the end of each year would be in place before the civilian government took power, able to monitor and if necessary veto its In the meantime there is still no answer to the question posed ever Thursday by the courageous women who demonstrate in the Plaza Mayo outside President Bignone's palace demanding to know the fate of the 25-30,000 people 'missing' since the military took over.
The workers movement is beginning to recover from the defeat of 1976 through the recomposition of the movement. Both the moderate (Azopardo) and militant (Brasil) factions of the CGT combined in last week's national strike.
But it was the Brasil faction who led last Thursday's demonstration to commemorate the demonstration 0l 30 March last year when the antidemonstrations were heavily repressed, on the eve of the Malvinas invasion.
The anniversary of the invasion has been commemorated by the junta calling for a Malvinas day on 2 April. But no major public events were held to mark the occasion and certainly the embittered veterans of the campaign now organising campaigns to expost the appalling treatment that rank and file soldiers have received since the defeat, were given no was said of these who went to fight that had no political education unlike the seasoned militants who had participated in the struggles against repression before 1976.
However the bitter fruits of the defeat, the accelerating social and economic crisis and the retusal of the regime to grant ans significant concessions, mean that an explosion of these two elements when combined can not be far away.
Socialist Action 8 April 1983
Socialist Action 8 April 1983