Craving for: -
taw materials

At the beginning of this century, U.S. economic inter-
| sts in Latin America were already vast and far-reach-

(Braden Copper Mining Co., Kennecott Corp. and
Anaconda Mining Co.) controlled 100% of the copper
mining industry. “e :
_ American oil companies were in the process of obtain-
‘Ing Concessions granting them drilling and exploitation
“Tights over Venezuela’s vast oil fields. Steady growth in
American economic penetration gave way ‘to tighter
Political and military control of the continent. In fact,
this was.a moment in which U.S. interests throughout
the continent in mining, electricity and oil alone totalled
- OVer $2-billion. 3 .

The almost absolute control and dependence of Latin
American economies on the fluctuations of the American
economic system meant that when the stock market
crashed in New York in 1929 every country on the
continent was thoroughly ruined. :

In 1925, a nationalist government took office in
Nicaragua. The new administration put forward plans
for the industrialization of the country, abandonment of
the U.S.-imposed one-crop system (banana), and moved
to nationalize American fruit companies.

Faced with a sudden threat to its interests, the United
States quickly dispatched a Marine expeditionary force
which overthrew the menacing government, appeinted a
puppet regime and proceeded to occupy Nicaragua for
eight years until 1933.

But the occupation army encountered resistence: A
31-year old peasant leader rose up in arms against the
U.S. intervention and rapidly succeeded in organizing a,
_ Tag-tag army of peasants and urban poor that inflicted
heavy losses to the well-armed and well-equipped

at home and abroad, for his cause. - :
General Augusto César Sandino, whom French poet
. Henri Barbousse dubbed ‘‘The General of Free Men’’,
and from whom the present Sandinista Revolution takes
its name and inspiration, successfully waged Latin
Enee S first modern guerrilla warfare against. U.S.
ps.

Marines, gathering at the same time ample support, both

ing. In Chile, destined to become the world’s third |
est producer of copper, American corporations |

Chile’s vast copper resources remained under U.S. control until 1973. when Chilean president Salvador Allende

introduced a bill calling for their nationalization. It was for this reason that Allende had to go.

As a result, the United States found itself forced to
seek a negotiated solution to the conflict.

In 1933, General Sandino was invited by American
ambassador Arthur Bliss Lane to hold a pourparler with
the U.S.-appointed Commander-in-Chief of the army
the Marines had created, trained and equipped — a

Backgrounder
Fee SN ESSE TO POET ee ei OS aie Sea See
colonel by the name of Anastasio Somoza Sr. Sandino
accepted and walked into an ambush.

As Somoza and the American ambassador sipped
wine in front of Sandino’s bullet-ridden body, the brutal
dictatorship began.

Forty-five years later, the Sandinista National Libera-
tion Movement succeeded in fulfilling General Sandino’s
dream of a free Nicaragua.

If we reflect on the reasons behind American expan-
sionism and intervention throughout this century in
Latin America we will find that the United States
economic system is far from self-sufficient. On the con-
trary, it has become highly fragile because ofits extreme
dependence on foreign raw materials and natural. re-
sources. :

Similarly, industries and corporations do not invest to

provide services and goods to the country’s population
— this is a means, rather than an end — but to maximize
profits. But expansion is limited, and _ irrational
development can only travel so far before it collapses

_underthe sheer weight of exhausted markets and dwindl-

ing raw materials and natural resources.

The United States, for example, has to import
one-fifth of its copper and one-half of its zinc. Jumbo jets
and B-52s cannot be made without aluminum, and
aluminum cannot be made without bauxite. The U.S.
has almost no bauxite.

The large steelworks of Detroit, Pittsburgh and Cleve-
land have trouble finding sufficient iron ore in the Min-
nesota fields, which are about to run out Nor does the
U.S. have enough manganese and must import one-third
of all the iron ore and manganese it needs.

Jet engines cannot be made without nickel and
chromium, and the U.S. has no significant amounts of
either..Highly resistent steel alloys could not be made
without tungsten. The United States imports one-third of
its tungsten. This is, of course, without speaking of
American dependence on foreign supplies for energy,
the results of which today dramatically underscore what
has just been discussed above. In short, we see a system
where steady supplies of raw materials and natural re-
sources from abroad mean much more than the healthy
exchange of goods between nations.

The Globe and Mail is beyond doubt a
most tricky manipulator of facts when it
comes to vital problems of peace or war.
The lead editorial of its February 24 issue
“The Brezhnev strategy’ is a real
smoothie, depicting Soviet President
Brezhnev as a wolf in sheep's clothing
out to con western European public opin-
ion as to Soviet long-range aims in that

Alfred Dewhurst —

Marxism-Leninism Today

The Globe’s tricky manipulation of facts

Globe report these concrete proposals
made by the Soviet head of state before
being so presumptuous as to ‘‘analyze”’
them? Was it because it didn’t have ac-
cess to them? No, that couldn’t have
been the case. For there were more than
600 media correspondents from 58 coun-
tries in Moscow to cover the Congress. |
Surely the Globe had its own corre-

part of the world.

* hm

While noting that Brezhnev's remarks
appear to be conciliatory, the editorial
proceeds to cast aspersions at the Soviet
leader's intentions as follows: ‘The
Brezhnev speech managed to touch de-
_ ftly on some of the issues on which

Washington policy has been viewed with
vings at the other end of the alliance

tion, intermediate-range missiles in
Europe, militarization of the Persian
Gulf region, and détente in general.’’
(ouremphases)  —

The editorial alleges that he
(Brezhnev) has ‘‘lubricated the skids
under the American-west European rela-

_ tionship with a dab of soft soap.”’ It goes
on, however to assure its readers:
‘“‘There is no reason to fear that Euro-
pean NATO: governments themselves

- will be greatly misled by this Brezhnev
strategy. But Western public opinion,
which sets the limit within which
governments can manoeuvre, may be
more susceptible. Or so Mr. Brezhnev
seems to think.’’ (our emphases, A.D.)

* x *

In this vein, the editorial banking on

| (NATO, A.D.) — strategic arms limita-

the lack of knowledge of the actual con-
tent of the Soviet president’s speech,
pretends to analyze the proposals to pre-
vent world nuclear war advanced in his
report to the 26th Congress of the Soviet
Communist Party. The author of the
editorial could, of course, feel secure in
the knowledge that Globe readers would
have got precious little information about
the Soviet proposals from the pages of
that paper, nor from the pages of any of
the monopoly-controlled press.

We give below a summation of the ac-
tual proposals for confidence-building
and disarmament contained in Presi-
dent Brezhnev’s report not carried by
the Globe.

ia. tec,
— Advance notice of naval and air

exercises as well as large-scale troop

movements applied to the entire Euro-
pean part of the USSR, providing the
Westem states also extend the con-
fidence zone accordingly. :

— To continue relevant negotiations
with the United States without delay, on
the limitations and reduction of strategic

armaments preserving all the positive ©

elements that have so far been achieved
in this area, providing that the negotia-

_ tions can be conducted only on the basis

of equality and equal security.

— To negotiate limitation of any type
of weapon, including banning the naval
Trident missile system and a correspond-
ing system in the USSR.

— To negotiate limiting the deploy-
ment of new submarines of the U-S.-
Ohio type and similar USSR types, and
banning modernization of existing and
the development of new ballistic missiles
for these submarines. :

— To negotiate a moratorium on the

‘deployment in Europe of new medium-

range nuclear-missile weapons of the
NATO countries and the Soviet Union.

— To establish a competent inter-
national committee composed of the
most eminent scientists of different
countriés, which would demonstrate the
vital necessity of preventing a nuclear
catastrophe.

— To call a special meeting of the UN
Security Council with the participation
of the top leaders of its member states in
order to search for ways of improving the
international situation and preventing
war. .

ae ae

The question arises, why didn’t the

spondent there? If it didn’t that was its
own fault.

The only conclusion we can draw from
this deliberate blackout of one of the
most newsworthy events of the year, is
that the Globe did not want its readersto |
know about the Soviet proposals. For |
such knowledge would help scotch the
big lie of a ‘‘Soviet threat’’. The same can
be said about the other monopoly dis-
pensers of news including CBC radio
and television.

* * *

The only reason the monopoly-con-
trolled media did not acquaint its readers

_and listeners with the concrete proposals

made by President Brezhnev to prevent
nuclear war, is because the ruling corpo-
rate elite of the West does not want
negotiations with the Soviet Union on a
basis of equality and equal security.
What the Wester elitists want is military
supremacy, no matter what the costs and
dangers involved.

There is only ore way to put an end to
such evil manoeuvring on the part of the
U.S. and other Western powers. That is
through an aroused public opinion de-
manding meaningful and equal negotia-
tions now!

PACIFIC. TRIBUNE— MARCH 20, 1981—Page 5