Pinochet’s plan to
codify fascism |

Chilean fascist junta leader
Pinochet last week added a
note of blatant theatre to his
brutal, oppressive military dic-
tatorship. Since seizing power
on Sept. 11, 1973, the generals
have smashed any vestiges of
democracy, murdered and
kidnapped thousands of pat-
riots, destroyed the country’s
educational system,» re-in-
stalled the multi-nationals and
exiled millions of people.

In short, Chile groans under
one of the most open fascist
military regimes on a continent
repleat with military juntas.

Last week Pinochet an-
nounced Chile will hold a ‘‘free

. election”’ ... in 1997!

This not being enough, on
Sept. 11 this year, the junta will
change the Chilean constitu-
tion to codify fascism, and one
of. the new rules will name
Pinochet president until 1989.
Then the regime will name a
president until 1997. Then, ac-
cording to this scenario, the
people will be ‘‘permitted to
vote’’.

The demolition of Chile’s
political, cultural, labor and

educational traditions carried

out by the junta in seven years
is to continue under the new
“‘constitution’’ for another 17
years.

Political parties, trade
unions, student organizations
are banned. A network of
police and military (and para-
military) groups keeps tight

INTERNATIONAL FOCUS

reign on any dissent. This, too,
is to continue under Pinochet’s
plan.

But the dictator leaves out
one vital ingredient — the Chi-
lean people and their heroic,
fighting history. Reaction to
Pinochet’s plan has been a

‘swift condemnation and the

Struggle to restore democracy
will go on.

Hitler’s Third Reich was dg-
signed to last 1,000 years.
Pinochet’s plan to maintain
and tighten the fascist noose
around the Chilean people will
also surely fail.

New members of
the Reagan team

A small news_item recently
confirmed what many of us
suspected about the ‘‘new
look’’ Republican Party. The
GOP recently found that it had
nominated a former nazi and

self-proclaimed white sup-.

remist as its congressional
hopeful in one Detroit district
and then discovered an inmate
in a mental hospital was the
party’s standard-bearer in an-
other district.

Not all that surprising. The
Republican base is narrowing
steadily to the extreme ultra-
conservatives in the U.S. It’s
1980 program is right out of
1880; it has been overrun with
“‘born again’’ religious, right-
wing fanatics.

Ronald Reagan’s political
philosophy, somewhere to the
right of Ghengis Khan, reflects

this trend. The nazi candidate,

who: tapes hate phone mes-

sages, is a fitting addition to the ©

Some light at the
end of the tunnel

Now that the Olympic boy-
cott is over, the grain boycott
found to be a flop and the pious
din condemning the USSR’s
action in Afghanistan has
been milked dry, the British
House of Commons Foreign
Affairs Committee has issued a
report calling the Soviet action
“‘defensive’’.

The 11-man all-party group
wrote the Soviet response
“‘sprang from a policy essen-
tially defensive in inspiration”’
and that the USSR ‘‘will not
tolerate very unstable condi-
tions on any frontier.”

Isn’t that something? What,
then, is the anti-Soviet cam-
paign based on? Who are the
so-called Afghan freedom
fighters? Was, in fact, Af-
ghanistan the victim of a
U.S.-China subversion and
destabilization program?

If the Soviet action is defen-
sive, what was it defending
against? Could it be, as this
paper has argued, the USSR

’ responded to a real threat to

the independence of its Sioa goe aos

neighbor which was scheduled so anaes

by Washington to go the route Principat port

of Chile? : Populated places
When the dust settles and EPoonea

the propaganda barrage col- -

lapses, Canadians, too, will
discover they are the victims of
a well-orchestrated effort to
re-plant anti-Soviet fear and
hatred into their lives. Let’s
hope they also see how it un-
folded and who carried it out —
and why.

Boat people
or Air people?

Carter’s Navy — otherwise.
dubbed by an ever-eager press
the Freedom Fiotilla — caught
the imagination of the media.
Ships of all kinds plied the wat-
ers between Cuba and Miami.

Helicopters loaded with
cameras buzzed overhead
shooting dramatic pictures of
the fleet as it brought Cubans
to “‘freedom’’. But then the
story began to break down.
Hundreds of refugees wound
up in U.S. prisons; many
rioted against rotten treatment
by U.S. authorities.

And the corker: for the sec-

ond time in four days some of -

these people hijacked aircraft
back to Havana protesting
they couldn’t find work in the
U.S.

And this embarrassment in
an election year?

PHOTO — PANORAMA/DDR

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The path to socialism

A reader writes: “‘Can a revolution
be accomplished through parliament
alone? Although parliamentary struggle
is necessary and useful, I don’t fully
realize how political power is finally
won by the working class in a peaceful
revolution.”

This question is becoming more per-
tinent in these times as the system of
capitalism sinks deeper. into an
economic, social and political crisis of
its own making with every passing day.

* * *

The first point to make clear in reply-
ing to this query is that history knows of
no social revolution; i.e., the transfer of
political power from one social class to
another, that has been successfully car-..
ried through without some measure of

violence. Bearing this salient fact in —
mind the peaceful path to socialism can |

only be envisaged in terms of relativity.
As for instance, the absence of civil
war.

For the working class and its dem-

ocratic allies to achieve political power .

without having to engage in civil war is.
a most desirable objective to aim for.
However this question is not decided

by the workers alone. And not even in

the first instance. The initiative to
launch such punitive action rests with

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—AUGUST 22, 1980—Page 6

Marxism-Leninism in Today’s World

the class holding power. For it is that

_ Class that controls.the means to wage

war. It would be naive indeed to expect
the capitalists, particularly the giant
monopolies,
power and privileged positions in soci-
ety without a fierce struggle to maintain
such power or, privilege.

*

Keeping the ana in mind the & con-
cept of a peaceful road to socialism has
to be understood not just as a. parlia-
mentary struggle with the aim of win-
ning a parliamentary majority. It has to

_ be understood as a militant and skillful

combination of parliamentary and
extra-parliamentary struggle with the

- aim of winning a people’s majority

pledged to implement a program of
basic economic and social reforms.
Such a majority would represent an
anti-monopoly majority and its’ pro-

gram of reforms by the very nature of ~

our capitalist society . be directed

against the giant monopolies and

multi-national corporations.
In other words such a majority would
be an anti-monopoly coalition. Its pro-

gram at this stage would be an anti-

to- surrender political .

monopoly program. It would not be di-

rected at capitalisin. as such. The

strategical aim: being that of isolating

the monopolies and giant corporations

through a far-reaching program of

democratic control and nationalization.
* * *

Here it is important to stress that the
decisive element in the struggle to iso-
late the giant monopolies are the strug-
gles of the working people around their
economic, social and political aspira-
tions. This is the decisive factor deter-
mining the course of social
development.

The defeat of the monopolists re-
quires unity of the working class and
other democratic forces in a political
alliance. Such a political alliance will be
democratic, anti-monopoly and anti-
imperialist, based on the working class,
the national and democratic forces in

French Canada, the farmers, the mid- .
dle strata and the non-monopoly —

capitalists, in short all those affected by
monopoly policies. Such a political al-
liance based on a multi-party govern-
ment, including the Communist Party
and, desirably, the New Democratic

_ that capitalism is obsolete and stands a5”

of the hands of the capitalist class and

__ property. The majority of workers will

_ achieved by the anti-monopoly state

Paity's will have the task of elaborati
and implementing a comprehen
program of economic and social
development, including measures 10
achieve full employment and rising i’
ing standards. a

* * *

‘Experience gained in the all-side 4
struggle for the anti-monopoly govern
ment, and the resistance to it, will bring
home to the majority of working people

an obstacle to progress. It will become
clearer that only socialism can free the
forces of production by taking then out

making them publicly-owned sce

come to understand that only in this
way can the people fully satisfy their
material and cultural needs and
aspirations. |

The political and social advances

will open the possibility of a peaceful _
transition to socialism. It will also make —
possible.the utilization of parliament to
advance to socialism. There will exista_
possibility of a united working class and
its democratic allies achieving the tran-
sition to socialism. without civil war

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