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Special to the Tribune

ATHENS i is the hottest month

of the Greek summer; last

year, however, the politi- cal barometer reached a boiling Point. On July 15 the young King, acting in accord with the Americans, the military junta, the reactionary ERE (National Radical Union) and a group of Conspirators — ministers in the then government — threw out the legal prime minister, George Papandreou, and plunged the Country into a deep constitu- tional and political crisis.

For 70 days without pause the People demonstrated on the Streets and, one after the other, brought down the governments Which the Palace had set up.

Py Finally, when a majority was achieved” for the present pre- Mier, S, Stefanopoulos, no seri- Ous observer was left in any doubt that behind the parliamen- tary facade the personal power a the King had been establish-

A year has elapsed and the nals has deepened. High prices Play havoc with wages and sal-

ari€s; strike actions steadily in- Crease,

The farmers “march” to the

towns on their tract ctors draped with black flags.

pollne government imposes new Sey and daubs the countryside. with slogans against. Commun-

. Political barometer

A scene which may be seen in the Greek countryside.

The open demonstrations against the “July coup” (as the king’s action against the Papan- dreou government in July, 1965, became known) has been suc- ceeded by a “ferment” in depth which puts in question the role of the Palace, the oligarchy and their foreign supporters.

More than 5,000 citizens have been summonsed “and “dragged before the courts. — many of

of the King.” The coffee shops where Greeks spend endless hours bristle with the sound of popular discontent.

Taxicab men, in the rich lan- guage that is all their own, curse the powers that be. House- wives shopping in the markets are not flattering in their refer- ences to “Mrs.” Frederika! (the queen mother).

Agents of the government and

the aid of police, of the admin- istrations of the labor centre of Athens and many other places, after expelling the most impor- tant affiliated organizations for “Communist activity.”

But the workers are intensify- ing their opposition and_ plan- ned to make the July 15 anniver- sary (of the Palace coup of 1965) a headache for those who

organized the coup last year.

Sweet geography of hunger

By GABRIEL MOLINA

Pe Jujuy and Salta, three provinces in north- _ _ east Argentina on the Boli- Via border, are commonly known as the area of hunger. Paradoxi- Cally, this mountainous area is the most extensive and econo- Mically important zone of the country,

It is also the. most densely Populated, the most poverty- Stricken. It is the region where

the Indian population is concen- trated. -

The geography of the north- fast is a sweet geography of hunger. Ninety percent of Ar- 8entina’s sugar is grown there.

This is also the area of the Sugar barons, who make up a national and foreign oligarchy which obtains its wealth by wringing the calories out of the _ Workers. : :

The-history of the conflict be- tween the oligarchy and the workers in northeast Argentina is long. In 1949 a strike lasted 42. days. In 1959 a guerrilla 8roup called “Utumurus” was Organized, and Jater wiped out

by the Frondizi government.

In 1961, some 30,000 peasants,

The coup which put Gen. Juan Carlos Ongania into office as provisional president of Argentina has replaced what was a more or less democratic structure with a military structure. Civilian provincial governors have been replaced by military governors; the Congress Supreme Court, provincial legislature and political parties have been dissolved.

All universities except the University of Buenos Aires have been closed and La Plata University has been occupied by mili- tary force. The administrative council of the University of Buenos Aires protested against the military coup and declared itself

to be in permanent session.

Thirty-two local bodies of the Communist Party and other popular organizations have been shut down in Buenos Aires, and 14 Communist activists have been imprisoned. The Com- munist Party has denounced Ongania as' the “trusted man of the U.S. Pentagon.” It urged the workers to compel the military to retreat, to win a broad, democratic coaliton government.

on horseback, participated in a hunger march. Sugar plantations such as the Santa Lucia were occupied in 1962. In 1964 a Peo- ple’s Guerrilla Army was organ- ized in Salta — it was subse- quently wiped out and its lead- ers were executed.

In 1963 and 1964 the sugar harvest in Argentina increased until it reached a volume of about a million tons. This was caused by actions of the United States, which forced the price of sugar in the world market to

rise as part of the U.S. campaign of economic pressure against Cuba.

Sugar exports from Argentina jumped from 33,000 tons in 1962 to 340,000 tons in 1963, then de- creased to 46,000 tons in 1964.

For a time, there was a bonan- za in the sugar-production zones. These riches, of course, went into the coffers of the Ledesma Sugar Co., the San Martin del

Tabucal and other companies such as the Panchillo, in which

the Cuban millionaire, Goar Bes- tre, has interests.

The sugar investors thought the United States would reward them for the efforts they had put into expanding sugar pro- duction in 1963. But Congress ‘instead reduced the Argentine sugar quota from 64,000, to 21,- 000 tons.

Thus, when the price on the world market sagged to a little over two cents per pound, a crisis developed, which resulted in decisions to reduce this year’s harvest from 1,250,000 tons to between 640,000 and 900,000 tons,

This put the sugar workers into desperate straits in the Tu- cuman., They were forced to take direct action, to occupy the roads and some of the 27 sugar

. mills in the area,

In order to subsist, the people of Tucuman had to group to- gether to make community meals in community pots.

A congress in defense of the living standards of the people was organized. It demanded no limits on the sugar harvest, the payment of back salaries and even seizure of the sugar mills

zations planned new demonstra- tions around the demand for im- mediate and free elections.

The para-state (as the Greeks call the mechanism of the re- actionary Right which controls the state machine), which in fact governs Greece, confronts the tremendous social and poli- tical movement by resorting to fascist methods.

Every morning the Right-wing press calls for the dissolution of the Democratic Lambrakis Youth, because “it exercises ter- rorism against the security police and the Right.”

Step by step the return is pro- moted of a regime of the Kara- manlis tyranny, which the peo- ple condemned two years ago in the elections of Feb. 16, 1964.

The American Central Intelli- gence Agency is playing an im- portant role in this. It is obvious that the Americans, alarmed by the de Gaulle “mutiny,” the blow against NATO, and their grow- ing isolation, are struggling to maintain and extend their posi- tions in Greece, to use these positions as a springboard

_ against the countries around.

As Greece enters the second year of its deep crisis, the poli- tical barometer foretells new storms as the slogan “free elec- tions”, which will sound the

‘death knell of the Palace coup —

and its political aims, gains ever more ground as the only pos-

which had been occupied by the people by force. It demanded direct worker-peasant participa- tion in the industrialization of the sugar producing process.

The response of the Illia gov- ernment, which has subsequent- ly been replaced by a military dictatorship, was to promise re- pression by force.

Hunger and poverty are spreading throughout the Tucu- man; but the militant workers do not intend to endure it.

July 29, 1966—PACIFIC TRIBUNE—Page 5

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