WORLD

Uniting the will of the

people against Pinochet

By A. ALARD

In April, Pope John Paul will visit
Chile asspart of his South American tour
and during the past few months the Pino-
chet regime has been busy trying to pre-
sent a decent face to the world with a
series of measures aimed at showing his
government is initiating democratic re-
forms in preparation for the 1989 plebi-
scite which was promised under the 1980
fascist constitution.

In reality nothing has changed in to-
day’s Chile.

The new Law of Political Parties ex-
cludes Left parties. The opening of the
electoral register is nothing more than a
new chance to perpetrate a gigantic
fraud. The regime’s relations with the
Catholic church remain tense. Workers
are handcuffed by a new labor plan
which ensures super-exploitation.

Wages remain below the 1970 level.
Unemployment, misery and hunger in
the poblaciones is the daily lot for mil-
lions. The housing situation has deterior-
ated. The education system has been
virtually destroyed, thousands of
teachers are jobless. University budgets
have been slashed. Health care problems
remain unsolved.

Against this background Pinochet st-
rives to secure his political grip until
1989, then to extend it by fraud. This is
the real meaning of so-called political
laws he wrote in cahoots with other mili-
tary commanders.

Fascist Rigging
In a public declaration last month, the

_ Communist Party. of Chile charged that

all this “‘does not deal with any move
toward democracy, as it pretends.

‘‘What it is really trying to do is con-
solidate and institutionalize fascism and
enforce, against all odds, the 1980 consti-
tution. With this aim,’ the CPC explains,
‘tan archaic electoral system has been set
up, designed to prevent even the most
modest strata of the population from vot-
ing. The Law of Political Parties, which
excludes Communists and all parties of
the Popular Democratic Movement
(MDP), refers only to those parties which
the regime authorizes, and these are
open to full control under a mandatory
obligation to make members’ names pub-
lic, leaving them open to government
pressure and persecution.

‘The working class and people have
no recourse but to raise the level of
struggle for its demands and, at the same
time to demand from all democratic sec-
tors that they assume the creation of an
alternative to the dictatorship as a duty.”

Seeking Unity

Communists and their allies in the
MDP have endorsed documents along
with other Left parties in which they can
find agreement with the opposition to put
an end to the dictatorship. In. their de-
claration, the CPC said that whoever re-
jects alliances and pacts with them and
the MDP place themselves in favor of the
dictatorship.

With this in mind, the CPC “‘proposes
to seek other formulae as well. We pro-
pose the formation of a group of person-
alities, with or without a party, repre-
sentatives of the democratic spectrum,
persons with certain authority having the
confidence of the people, in an effort to
promote a minimal kind of agreement.

“This will open the door to coopera-
tion and will permit other organizations,
to have their separate agreements. Thé’
Civil Assembly has shown this to be a
workable solution. We are seeking some
agreement in our actions among other
parties, even though such actions might
develop separately.”

‘‘We favor the political departure of
the junta and we are trying to facilitate
this from the only possible base: the
unity and struggle of the masses for the
destruction of this fascist institution.

People’s Right

‘*Violence in its present form has its
origins in the dictatorship and can only
end with it. The right and duty to put an
end to fascism has been established.
There is consensus for the use of all
forms of struggle which will help attain
victory. We consider knowledge of mili-
tary skills, preparation of military lead-
ers and development of a policy for men
entering the armed forces to be the duty
of a revolutionary party. ,

‘*But there would be no need for this,
nor will we ever resort to violent action
when the will of the people is able to
express itself freely and democratically.
But the determination by Chilean reac-
tion and imperialism to impose its will by
armed violence in turn imposes the
obligation to act, and to support those
who act ... because the people have a
right to defend themselves.”’

The CPC expressed its readiness ‘‘to
cooperate with all opposing forces to put
an end to this dictatorship, to reach
agreement along basic lines for a future
democracy and together assume respon-
sibility to help realize these aims.

‘*We propose to come to an immediaté
agreement with the political project out)
lined by the Civil Assembly,”’ the CPC
continued. ‘“‘We believe the demands)
advanced by the National Workers:
Command in its recent plan, which i
cludes. wage and salary increases, must
form an integral part of that agreememl |

The CPC said the immediate task fa
ing all opposition forces is rejection 0
the new, fraudulent, fascist elector
laws and the formulation of new law? \
which would allow the election of an ef |
fective and representative electord ‘
body. As well, “‘we must unanimous} t
reject the Law of Political Parties as I
legal monstrosity,”’ the CPC said. |

‘‘On this basis, it is possible to form 2 ,
accord with the entire people, a mov!
ment toward truly free elections, nov
and without Pinochet, in which a Prest
dent of the Republic, a Constitution®
Assembly or National Congress with
constitutional powers can be elected. |

‘“*We can and must assure a united pla!
of action to mobilize the country behi
the attainment of agreed upon goals. Th
way we will achieve this is throug?
mobilization and cooperation ...”’

Aid to Mozambique urged

—

- Spanish workers, students}

3 call for end to bases

MONTREAL — Conservative MP Walter
Maclean urged the Canadian government to
answer an emergency appeal from the United
Nations for immediate action to stave off a fam-
ine facing four million in Mozambique.

Returned from a week-long fact-finding mis-
sion to the Southern African state last month,
Maclean acknowledged that the main source of
Mozambique’s difficulties is the South African
government. Since the former Portuguese colony
won her independence in 1975 it has faced terror-
ists, known as the Mozambique National Resist-
ance (MNR) who are sponsored and directed
from the government of South Africa.

“The main way we can help Mozambique is to
tell South Africa to get off her back,” the Windsor
MP told an anti-apartheid conference which met
here this month.

The report of the 14-member delegation con-
sisting of journalists, politicians and non-
governmental aid representatives depicts a nation
torn apart by war. Some 250,000 Mozambicans
have already died from war-induced famine,
while 3.54 million others are considered by the
United Nations to be at risk.

Per capita GNP has dropped from $240 U.S. to
$140 over the past six years; 250,000 have fled the
country as refugees; 38 per cent of Mozambique’s
14-million people have been dislocated by the
war; the MNR has destroyed 42 per cent of all
health posts and infant mortality has increased to
325 per thousand in many areas.

Canada has some links with Mozambique.
Government aid totals about $10-million annu-
ally. Agencies such as Oxfam and CUSO sponsor
works, in addition to trade unions and solidarity
groups who finance projects.

The delegation sees Mozambique as a key
player for Southern African peace and stability.
Her geo-political position, including excellent
ports as a gateway to the sea for her land-locked
neighbors, makes Mozambique an important
member of the South African Development Co-
ordination Conference. Formed in 1983 to break
their economic dependency of South Africa,
SADCC’s eight members have established co-
operation in energy, agriculture, industry and
transport between states with very different ideol-
ogies.

The report urges Ottawa to boost its five year
$125-million aid package to SADCC; to concen-
trate and co-ordinate its efforts in Mozambique;
to assist in mega-projects such as power line con-
struction and to increase its pressure on South
Africa by imposing economic sanctions.

Africa watchers have raised concerns over
External Affairs’ increased interest in Mozam-
bique, speculating that concentrated aid to the
area may be a means of placing a wedge between
Maputo and the rest of SADCC.

The crisis situation in the country has height-
ened since the imposition of an austerity package
by the International Monetary Fund and the con-
troversial death of President Machel in a plane
crash over South Africa last October. Machel was
killed only weeks after proposing a united military
strategy by the front line states. Under the prop-
osal a state atacked by Pretoria could expect the
military assistance of her neighbors.

U.S. imperialism has been out to sabotage
SADCC since its inception, recognizing the pivo-
tal role it can play in bringing apartheid to an end.
It would not be the first time that Canada has
ventured as emissary into an area where the U.S.
could not tread. '

8 e PACIFIC TRIBUNE, MARCH 25, 1987

the seventh in seven years.

MADRID — Just hours before
the arrival in Spain of U.S. De-
fence Secretary Weinberger,
March 15, over 100,000 people
marched in protest in front of and
against the Torrejon de Ardoz
U.S. military base, 20 kilometers
from the capital.

Weinberger is in Spain to press
the Gonzales government to re-
tain four U.S. bases there, but the
Spanish Prime Minister has made
it clear he wants two of them, in-
cluding Torrejon de Ardoz,
closed. Hit by a wave of strikes
and demonstrations by Spanish
students and workers, and under
heavy pressure from Spain’s

peace movement to keep he
referendum promise to reduce
U.S. military presence, Gonz

is faced with the choice of eithe!
closing the bases or losing all ©
dibility with the voters.

Washington has finally realize!
that Gonzales is not bluffing.
U.S. thought the promise to © 0 /
the bases was a vote-getting a
for the referendum which t
Spanish government has no 18

tion of keeping.

The Torrejon de Arde!
demonstration is the seventh

— ual evel

seven years — an ann vil

_