Democratic Palestine : 19 (ص 29)
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- Democratic Palestine : 19 (ص 29)
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These two alternatives can be equally
difficult to implement in the Chile of
today, for several reasons. First, the
opposition movement is truly broad
and well organized, with organizations
grouping literally all sectors of the
masses, from workers and students, to
shantydwellers. Second, this bredth is
backed by a strong unity of the major
left parties. Left unity is expressed on
the mass level via the Popular Demo-
cratic Movement, and militarily via the
FPMR. Third, Pinochet’s economic
policies and political intransigence has
inclined the bourgeois, centrist opposi-
tion towards united action with the
popular forces. A spokesman for the
FPMR summed up the situation in an
interview with Granma (Havana,
August 3rd), «The popular movement
has reached such proportions that
merely cosmetic, superficial change
that doesn’t address the needs of the
majority is not possible. That’s why we
think that the FPMR is a valid option
for the masses now that the fight
against the dictatorship has taken a
qualitative shift.»
So far, Pinochet himself has only
responded to these realities by rhetoric
about the «war between Marxism and
democracy» (sic) and the need for laws
«to attack terrorism definitely»,
appealing to Reagan’s pet themes.
However, with Chile’s economy in
shambles, the US administration may
be taking a hard look at cold facts, in
hopes of finding a more clever way of
-suppressing the mass movement.
Pinochet’s downfall would simulta-
neously mean the demise of the Chi-
cago Boys’ neoliberal economic policy
which the US imposed on many a ‘third
world’ country, especially in Latin
America. Chile was planned as the
showcase for the ‘wonders’ of comple-
tely ‘free’ enterprise in the age of
monopoly capitalism. Today, the
‘wonders’ are so apparent that Chile
cannot pay its foreign debt. The indus-
trial sector has actually regressed as a
result of the privileges granted to
financial circles tied to imperialism.
Still, production is rising more than
consumption, i.e., Chilean workers
produce goods for export, to pay the
foreign debt, while the decline in real
wages erodes their own buying power -a
new form of plunder, especially since
the debt was incurred by private enter-
prise. There is no more free education,
for the poor are only intended as a
cheap labor reserve. Agriculture is
reverting to the latifundia system due to
the reversal of earlier agrarian reform.
According to the trade unions, 30% of
the population is unemployed or under-
employed - the best way to keep wages
down.
The US’s treasured economic model
for Latin America has backfired. Even
middle class strata, who originally
supported Pinochet, are feeling the
pinch and joining the opposition.
Pinochet’s demise would be doubly
uncomfortable for the US at a time
when Latin American countries have
joined together across political boun-
daries,,in rejecting the debt burden
imposed on them by imperialism.
«WE WILL MAKE JUSTICE»
The Palestinian revolution feels a
special affinity with the mass struggles
in Pakistan and Chile, as with all
people struggling against injustice and
imperialism. Pakistan’s proximity to
the Middle East means that events there
will affect the Arab national liberation
movement. Pakistan supplies conside-
rable military manpower, including
technicians, to the reactionary Arab
regimes. Zia himself fought with King
Hussein’s forces in the September 1970
massacre against the Palestinian people
in Jordan. A blow to Zia’s regime could
weaken Arab reaction and
imperialism’s leverage in our area.
Conversely, it could give a push to the
Arab national movement. —
In the case of Chile, we have the
same enemies - imperialism, Zionism
and reaction, concretely manifest in
Israeli arms sales to Pinochet.
Moreover, like revolutionaries all over
the world, we can draw many lessons
from the Chilean experience. In 1973,
there was a negative lesson about the
impossibility of peaceful transition to
socialism in view of the refusal of the
bourgeoisie and international imperia-
lism to relinguish power. Today, the
lesson being projected is more opti-
mistic. In Chile we see the potential of
the mass movement when backed up by
the unity of the left forces and the cor-
rect use of revolutionary violence.
In the July general strike, the vio-
lence of Pinochet’s henchmen reached
the grotesque as they doused with
gasoline and set afire two young Chi-
leans who were trying to photograph a
demonstration. One of the _ two,
Rodrigo Rojas, 19-year-old student and
journalist, died. Several thousand Chi-
leans braved the regime’s teargas to
gather for his funeral where a student
leader pledged: «We will not ask for
justice, we will make justice.» @
8th Non-aligned Summit
Veo
The 8th summit of the Non-Aligned Movement, held the first week of
September, marked the movement’s 25th anniversary. Since its foun-
ding meeting in 1961 in Beograde, the movement has grown from 25
member states to 101, and now represents 2/3 of the world. The
movement grew out of the struggle against colonialism, so it was only
natural that the 8th summit focused on eliminating the vestiges of this,
as found in the cruelest possible form in apartheid South Africa.
The summit’s being held in Harare,
Zimbabwe, emphasized the changes
that have taken place since the move-
ment was founded.Originally conquered
by the archcolonialist, Cecil Rhodes,
Harare, misnamed Salisbury, was the
capital of the renegade settler-colonial
state, Rhodesia. In 1980, as the result
of a persistent people’s war, the racist
regime was abolished. Harare again
became a capital for the African
people, in free Zimbabwe, on the
frontline against the racist regime in
Pretoria. Robert Mugabe, who
assumed the chairmanship of the Non-
Aligned Movement at this summit,
started his political career as a freedom
fighter, becoming leader of the ZANU
liberation organization and then the
first elected prime minister of Zim-
babwe after liberation. Thus, the
summit’s location and chairman both
served to stress the abolishment of
apartheid as the main issue, put on the
agenda by the African masses’ escala-
ting struggle.
* reR E
® es. ah i
Mugabe with Nicaragua’s President Ortega
—>
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