[THE Salvadorean government is launching an offensive against…]

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THE Salvadorean government is launching an offensive against the left wing FMLN guerillas jointly with the army of neighbouring Honduras - an army built up in recent years by massive US aid - and with US advisers.

This is a response to a FMLN offensive over the last month described by the well-informed Latin America Weekly Report as "by far the most ambitious in the three year old civil war" The FMLN- has scored its "biggest territorial gains since hostilities began"

The military escalation has been accompanied by proposals from the FMLN and the associated political mover condi Th al ha: shoul and tl be as as it so Th dor is paigni The n leader absolu tions Consti has al talks 1 ermo throug An an ment, the FDR, for tional negotiations. le negotiations proposs been officially colddered by the regime he US. But it may not much of a non-starter eems. le Church in El Salvafor the first time camng for negotiations. notion from right-wing Roberto D'Aubuisson Itely rejecting negotiawas defeated in the ituent Assembly. esident Alvaro Magana pparently been having with FDR leader GuillUngo, unofficially and çh intermediaries. id a recent speech by nbassador Deane Hinton to Salvadorean businessmen, hinting that US aid might be restricted if the regime did not polish up its human rights record, must reflect US pressure to open the negotiations option.

Deal

The military escalation may thus go together with a political deal by the bourgeois FDR leaders at the expense of the radical goals of the FMLN fighters. The FPL, a major component of the FMLN coalition, reported to have signed the negotiations proposal only under pressure and to be unwilling to abandon its strategy "prolonged people's war' EL SALVADOR 1-691r ACCORDING to the Financial Times (November 18), Bolivia's union federation, the COB, is planning a general strike on December 1 against the austerity policies of the new left coalition government.

Meanwhile the Supreme Court has summoned three of the country's former military rulers to appear before a military court on charges of illegal dealing in semiprecious stones.

After 18 years of nearly continuous military rule, and under pressure of a general strike call by the COB, Bolivia's generals handed over in early October to a coalition. government including Communist Party ministers and members of the bourgeois nationalist party MNRI. The government is headed by MNRI leader Hernan Siles Zuazo.

Balancing . *The coalition was faced with an almost impossible political balancing act, which already seems to be running into trouble.

On November 5 it announced a package including:

* sweeping devaluation of the peso and currency controls;

* price increases - 150% on electricity (though less in poorer districts), 60% on cooking fuel, 180% on petrol, and 50 to 150% on fares;

* a much more limited (42%) rise in the minimum wage.

It has also introduced worker directors in nationalised industry.

Siles explained anxiously «We would have liked to give more, but it's impossible" and finance minister Ernesto Aranibar urged trade unionists to "adapt themselves to real possibilities"

But many COB workers must be well aware that the package signifies the 'popular unity' government doing the international bankers' work for them. The Bolivian government is currently negotiating with the IMF over the country's huge foreign debt, on which it is technically in default.

Another important figure behind the scenes is Argentina. Chiefs of the old military regime have fled to Buenos Aires, but the Argentine government has signified its will to cooperate with Siles. It has offered immediate payment of $85 million debts due from Argentina to Bolivia, together with rescheduling of $ 600 million owed by Bolivia to Argentina. Bolivian government representatives have recently visited Buenos Aires, asking for the Bolivian generals who have fled there to.be kept under surveillance and for the size of the Argentine military mission in the Bolivian capital La Paz to be reduced.

Siles' coming to power was heavily backed by the major capitalist powers, who had come to see the military rulers as an unreliable gang of crooks. But now it has to satisfy the international bankers; try to maintain its credit with the working class; and simultaneously fend off the danger of a new military coup.

The time for which it can walk this tightrope looks like being short. If the Bolivian workers tie their fate to this government, they face disaster. An independent course towards a workers and peasants' government is vital.

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Socialist Organiser no. 110 November 25 1982 Page