FEATURES

By A. ALARD

Today in Latin America, government leaders, like so
many specialists, never get tired of repeating the fact that
they are facing a crisis with a chronic illness called the
external debt. The considered opinion of many states-

men and learned people is based on the fact that prices of

almost all basic export products including oil, have fallen
to their lowest levels in decades. Economists attribute
this fall in basic prices to the reduction of demand in the
United States and the protectionist measures it has
adopted by closing their: markets to Latin American
products.

There are forecasts. for a major commercial deterior-
ation in Latin America this year and perhaps even for the
next 10 year period, as well as predictions that recovery
in the area of trade will be slow and uncertain. In the long
term, financial recovery of Latin America will depend in
part on inter-regional commercial expansion and the
reduction of dependency on raw materials.

Before the collapse of oil prices which affected
Ecuador, Mexico and Venezuela, the weakness of pro-
ducts such as sugar, tin, copper, meat and grain was
slowing down the recovery in the indebted countries in
addition to the deep recession which affected them at the

With a colossal foreign debt and falling prices for its
products, Latin America faces a chronic illness.

LATIN AMERICA’S |
HUGE DEBT CRIS!

-

beginning of the 1980s. Many economists attribute the
fall of basic prices to the reduction of demand in the
United States, which in 1984 absorbed billions of dollars
in. Latin American products. When the American
economic recovery lost its momentum, protectionist
measures were instituted: American markets were
closed to Latin American products like steel, textiles,
oil, footwear, and rum.

News Analysis

According to the United Nations Economic Com-
mission on Latin America (CEPAL), the total commer-
cial income of the 23 Latin American countries which
had increased by $10-billion in 1984, was reduced in 1985
to $5,600-million. This loss therefore cancels out any
gain for the region which would have meant the ability to
obtain better economic conditions for the payment of the
debt. The total debt for Latin America is now $368-bil-
lion.

The commercial deterioration for this year will be
even greater. Mexico and Venezuela will lose at least
$7,200-million in oil-tanker income, while Peru and
Ecuador, with less exportation, will lose $550-million.
Agreements to establish a world sugar price have failed,
severely affecting the economy of Santo Domingo.
Bolivia’s economy is bound to tin, a raw material which
is now in decline. At one point, it depended on tin for
more than 50 per cent of its income, but the mineral price
continues to fall and production for the world market is
at a standstill.

Bolivia has suspended all payments, miners are out of
work and President Paz Estenssoro has declared that
‘the era of tin is finished’’. Subsidies established by the
U.S. and Europe for the production of local meat and beef
has lowered the world prices for a product which is vital
for Argentina and Uruguay. Argentina had hopes for new
markets but suffered a setback when Egypt cancelled a
principal contract for the purchase of 50-million tons of
meat.

Copper, the mainstay of the economies of Chile and
Peru, continues to see its current price at its lowest since
1980 and there are doubts that the price will ever recover

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its former level. This year, only coffee prices have tl
mainly as a consequence of a severe drought in B
and what could have been a help to both Brazil
Columbia and the payment of their debts may comet
nothing because overproduction may bring a fall

prices.

In 1985, U.S. imperialism brought forward the Bake!
Plan as a strategy for Latin American debt payment.
the three-year, $20-million package, to be subject
International Monetary Fund rules, is scarcely enou
to cover the growing interest payments on Latin Ame
ca’s foreign debt or with falling prices for raw materials.

As far as a renegotiation of the debt is concerned, the
United States has said they will only accept it on@

*‘case by case”’ basis.

The figures for 1985 show a deso

ate panorama: falling trade prices, deteriorating WO
commerce and growing interest rates.

As CEPAL has put it: ‘Whatever the solutions ma
be to relieve the payment of the external debt, its
tical feasibility will be related to the degree of sacrifice
which both the debtor and creditor countries are willing

to make”’

SS

Linking racism
and the system

FIGHTING RACISM, Gus Hail,
International Publishers, New
York, 1985, 312 pp. cloth $21,
Paper $7.45.

Fighting Racism, by Gus Hall,
general secretary of the Com-
munist Party, USA makes a much
needed contribution to the strug-

‘gle against racist ideology and

practices. Drawn from speeches,

articles, books and pamphlets —

spanning 40 years — as well as
documents and reports to the
Communist Party’s National and
Central Committees, Fighting
Racism contains a wealth of his-
torical material on the struggle
against oppression within the
heart of imperialism.

That communists have played a
leading role in the struggle for so-
cial progress under the most
difficult of conditions — ‘‘in the
belly of the beast’’ — is obvious.
But most importantly, the Com-
munist Party, USA, must be
commended for its initiative in
recognizing the necessity of, and
advancing, the fight against ra-

~ around the world:

cism as a struggle in its own right.

Racism is inherent to capitalist
exploitation, and along with anti-
communism, serves to justify
imperialist aggression and plun-
der — this is clear from historical
experience. The point that is
stressed in Fighting Racism is that.
racist ideology and practices are
central to the power of the
monopolies and their tentacles
‘‘Anyone in-
terested and involved in building
anti-monopoly movements must
be helped to understand that the
struggle against racism is a pre-
condition for the success of such
an anti-monopoly development.”’
(p. 208)

The central argument advanced
is that the fight against racism is a
struggle for social progress on
many fronts: it is a matter of basic
human rights; it is a matter of ad-
vancing the moral stature of
humankind; it is a question of sci-
entific truth and its advancement;
it is a matter of advancing the na-
tional interests over the interests
of the exploiting class — but most
importantly, racism ‘‘is against

10 e PACIFIC TRIBUNE, APRIL 9, 1986

the self-interests of all workers
and working people’. Using
numerous examples, Gus Hall
shows that racism has served in
the long run, to lower the wages
and worsen the working condi-
tions of all workers while pro-
viding the corporations with a
source of super-profits.

For these reasons, the first sec-
tion of Fighting Racism deals
specifically with the influence and
effects of ‘white chauvinism”’ on
the Left, the working class and
the Communist Party, USA. Is-
sued as a pamphlet in 1971 enti-
tled *‘Racism, the Nation’s Most
Dangerous Pollutant’, this sec-
tion makes an essential contri-
bution to the development of a
critical scientific style of work in
the struggle against racism. It is
emphasized that ‘*We are not in-
terested in false images. We are
not interested in having a good
record on paper. Our funda-
mental interest is in the elimina-
tion of the ideological pollution of
chauvinism in the ranks of white
Americans and the elimination of
the seepage into our Party. To us
the struggle against racism and
chauvinism is rooted in the very
fabric of our political, theoretical
and philosophica! makeup’’. (p.
20)

This chapter makes a crucial
political point: that no democratic
movement or organization in a

society permeated by racist
ideology and practices can be
completely free of its influence.
Correctly understood, the strug-
gle against racism must be ad-
vanced by, and through the work-
ing class and progressive move-
ment as a whole. Any capitulation
to racism — whether it takes the
form of paternalism, lack of initia-
tive and continuity in the struggle
against racism, insensitivity to the
issues and experiences specific to
racist oppression, as well as si-
lence, omission or passivity on
the part of those that do not ex-
perience racism in its most direct
and blatant forms — only serves
to divert, divide and weaken the
progressive forces. Indeed, any
acceptance of the false notion that
racism is not central to the power
and super-profits of the monopoly
corporations only serves to
weaken the development of the
anti-monopoly fightback. As Gus
Hall points out:

The test in the struggle against
racism is not in abstract rhetoric,
not in the formulation of general
demands ... the test is carrying
on concrete struggles on concrete
issues. The test is winning these
struggles ... In a more general
sense, the test is how effectively
we are able to use these concrete
struggles to destroy the ideo-
logical influence of racism ...
This is the yardstick. This is the

test that we must apply to they
work alenewy member of our Pat
ty. (p. 22)

The remainder of Fighting Re
cism deals with the relationships
between the anti-racism stru
and the struggles for peace, equal
ity, justice, the extension
democracy — the furthering
anti-monopoly movements.
sential to this is the clarification!
the links between racism $
class exploitation under capi
ism. It is evident from receat U.
history that when leaders int
Civil Rights and Black Liberatio®
movement advanced the undef |
standing that racist oppression j
inextricably bound up wil
capitalist exploitation, af
imperialism they became an it]
creasing threat to the ruling cit)
cles in the U.S. and imperialism
as a whole. This is crucial for the
appreciation of the courage
determination of all progressives
in the struggle against: reaction
and in particular, the tremendous
responsibilities that communi
have in the progressivg my
ment.

Fighting Racism Ae a lo
way toward advancing that s'
gle. It serves us both as a guide
action and as a wealth of ex
ence necessary for winning
fight to rid our world of racism
national oppression, war
exploitation. — John Mc¥i