WORLD PROTEST, REPRESSION INTENSIFIES By KERRY McCUAIG Mass mobilization against Chilean dic- tator Augusto Pinochet has reawakened after a five month lull. The repression of recent days has meanwhile been the fier- cest since rampages by the army against striking copper miners just over a year ago. Over 3,000 people have been ar- rested in the first half of the year, the highest figure since the coup, and demonstrators have been killed in daily confrontations with the police. Anti-fascists protests swept the coun- try on the eve of the 11th anniversary of the U.S.-backed military coup that brought the junta to power and murdered socialist president Salvador Allende. Pinochet used the anniversary to an- nounce the armed forces will remain in power until at least 1989. He also ex- tended, for another six months, the “State of Threat to Internal Peace” which empowers him to expel or send into exile anyone threatening ‘‘public order’’. Prepared for renewed protests Pinochet had warned that heavy mea- sures would be taken. In late August nine civilians were killed in four different in- cidents in clashes with police. Protest leaders charged that the killings were done in cold-blood to discourage people from taking part in the demonstrations. In the week following the killings the government charged 10 opposition lead- ers with trying to overthrow the regime. The 10, including former Foreign Minis- ter Gabriel Valdes, were charged in con- nection with their role in organizing the protests. Priest Murdered On Sept. 4, the first of the two scheduled protest days, a French Catholic priest was found murdered in his study and another priest was later wounded by police. The priest’s killing has brought relations between the church’s hierarchy and the junta to an all time low. : Father Andre Jarlan had been a popu- lar figure in his working class parish where he ran a job rehabiliatation pro- gram. In protest of the murder, the arch- bishops of Concepcion and Copiago can- celled the annual Te Deum, a religious- patriotic right held on Sept. 18, Chile’s independance day. The conservative archbishop of Santi- ago Juan Fresno resisted government pressure to cancel Jarlan’s funeral, which turned into a mass demonstration in the city’s main square. The murder shocked Chile’s Catholic majority and alienated support amongst the middle class. Frenso refused to cave into a government ban on broadcasting the events over the church-owned radio station. Opposition newspapers and magazines were closed for the week. Al- though most of the bans were later over- turned by the courts, the publications are still prevented from publishing photos. School children joined the activities by boycotting classes and for the first time shop keepers staged a half-day shutdown to protest the regime. Independent truc- kers, whose strike 11 years ago had been part of the sabotage against the Allende government, refused to drive during the two days. Repression was fierce as opposition leaders attempting to gather in down- town Santiago on Sept. 4 were set upon with dogs, tear gas and water cannons. - 8 e PACIFIC TRIBUNE, OCTOBER 3, 1984 Unity needed to oust Pinochet The chief of the copper workers union Adolfo Rodolfo Seguel was targetted and severely beaten. Chile’s copper workers remained on “the job during the protest obviously fear- ful of a repeat of the violence against them during their strike last year. In Vina del Mar, a Pacific Coast resort 88 miles west of the capital, police fired tear gas canisters to break up a march by 600 people who visited the local cemet- ery and threw ‘flowers on Allende’s grave. Unemployment 36 Per cent After 11 years of Pinochet, Chile faces the worst economic-political crisis in its history. Unemployment is 36 per cent, wages being at $20 a month. A cabinet shuffle is in the offing to deal with the country’s stagnating economy and rumors abound that the discredited ‘Chicago Boys’’ (followers of restraint economist Milton Friedman) will be brought back. Their monetarist policies are credited with wrecking Chile’s indus- try and saddling the country with an unpayable $18-billion debt. Copper, Chile’s main export, has reached a low in the market, and the country needs $2 billion in new funds just to-meet its interest payments. Another devaluation of the peso is a certainty. The short-lived economic recovery, which never made it into the destitute barrios, is over. Quoted in the U.S. Daily World, Sept 11, Juan Campos Vega, Mexican deputy and general secretary of the Popular Socialist Party Youth said there is ~ PINOCHET HAS DuG A PONKER IN THE EARTH 4 THAT H°LOS HIS VICTems CHILEAN WORKEKS BuiLp KIS TOMBSTONE LIGERTY URS. 4.64. MO agreement among the opposition forces that ‘‘Pinochet has got to go. But differ- ences still exist as to the road to take to defeat the dictator’. Campos Vega had just returned froma fact finding mission to Chile and Uruguay where he met with all the sec- tors of those countries’ opposition. Commenting on the possibility of a na- tional strike announced by Chilean workers, Campos Vega said that while everyone agrees to its importance, dif- ferences exist as to whether present con- ditions in the country are ripe for such action. si The Mexican deputy would not number Pinochet's days, but he is con-_ vinced that the only means of defeating — the dictator lies in the unity of all opposi- | tion forces. ‘‘Popular pressure will force — the opposition parties to come to an agreement,’ he said. ‘‘Unity of the anti-dictatorship forces is the only solu-— tion in Chile.” The Hadash front charged that Israel’s newly formed government “‘is by no means one of ‘national unity’ as claimed, but is a government of national disas- ter.” Tawfiq Toubi, deputy general sec- retary of the Communist Party of Israel criticized the new government on behalf of the Hadash front, during the Sept. 13 debate in the Knesset (parliament), which overwhelmingly accepted a Labor-Likud coalition. On Sept. 10, Labor Prime Minister- designate Shimon Peres had won a 70 per cent vote of approval after a six-hour debate by his party’s central committee for an agreement to joint rule with the right-wing Likud. The agreement mandates a rotating premiership, with Labor Party head Peres to rule for the first 18 months and Likud chief Yitzhak Shamir to hold the post during the following 18 months. Other cabinet posts will be evenly di- vided between the two parties. The social-democratic Mapam party withdrew from Peres’ Labor-Alignment in protest over the coalition saying the bargaining had “‘given birth to a monster with two right hands’.. In addition to the six Mapam Knesset members who broke the Labor Align- ment; the Hadash front, the Liberal Civil-Rights Party and the Progressive Peace List also voted against the govern- Israel: from bad to worse | ent. An outspoken member of the Labor Party, Yossi Sarid quit Labor to join the Citizens Rights Party. Together they will form a 16-18 vote center-left opposition. The fascist Tehiya and Meir Kahane also refused to support the coalition be- cause it wasn’t far enough to the right. Toubi charged that the new govern- ment ‘“‘is an expanded and even more extremist new edition of the previous rul- ing right-wing war and annexationists Likud regime, practically based upon the same political foundation.” He said the Labor Party could have easily formed a stable anti-Likud government together with its former al- lies of the Labor bloc and all other anti- Likud member of the Knesset. Outside the conference hall where Labor leaders were finalizing the details of the coalition, Peace Now activists pro- tested against Labor helping Likud per- petuate its rule. They accused Peres of exonerating Shamir for the disastrous Lebanon war and the economic crisis. Symbolizing the whitewash was the appointment of former Defence Minister Ariel Sharon to the post of minister of trade and industry in the new cabinet. Sharon, the architect of the Lebanon in- vasion two years ago will also serve in Peres’ smaller ‘‘inner cabinet.”’ In re- turn, Sharon promised to “‘forgive Labor for trying to remove him from office’ after the Sabra and Shatila massacres in |} Sept. 1982. Former Labor Foreign Minister Abba | Eban criticized a Labor-Likud ‘‘balanced parity’? saying it guarantees political immobility and paralysis of any |} possible peacemaking process. Indeed, |} the new unity government will be dead- |} locked on most policy issues. ai True to Toubi’s warning that the \| Peres-Shamir government would be ex- | tremely anti-labor, Yitzhak Modai, the |} new finance minister, announced Sept. | 16, a $1-billion cut from the $22-billion |} budget as a first step in many austerity |} moves. ee | The government also announced a |} nine per cent hike in the price of gasoline |} and increases in currently subsidized foods. The Israeli currency, the Shekel, |} has been devaluaded by nine per cent. |} The U.S. dollar will now buy 397 |} shekels, up from 364. bn || Annual inflation is at 400 per cent and |} the debt to foreign countries has risen to |} $21-billion — the world’s highest per |} capita. Prices in August rocketed by 16.5 |} per cent, an Israeli record. || Economic analysts say the U.S. forced the current measures as a |} requirement for Israel to receive more |} loans and financial assistance from the Reagan administration. The deed done, Peres is off to Wash- |} ington Oct. 8, to collect his reward.