Reagan's Dictators

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Demonstrate September 11 1pm Clerkenwell Green REAGAN'S dictators in Central and South America face mounting opposition. And our solidarity can help the fight against them.

Augusto Pinochet, the blood-drenched butcher of the Chilean labour movement, seized power almost ten years ago. But his chances look slim of surviving in power much longer than the tenth anniversary of the military coup which overthrew Chile's NO SMOKING Yor spelt your name wrong on the a ppli cation form".

The Cowley witch-hunt:

O'Mahony democratically elected Popular Unity government in September 1973 and then went on to pulverise the Chilean labour movement.

Last week saw the fourth big anti-government demonstration since a campaign against the regime began four months ago, with the first national day of protest organised by the copper mine workers' federation. Many of those who supported Pinochet's coup now call for his resignation. A broad coalition - the Democratic Alliance - has been created by political parties ranging from the Christian Democrats to Allende's Socialist Party.

This movement began with demands for reforms; it has escalated in a few short months, and now tells Pinochet to get out.

Pinochet is forced to tolerate the Democratic Alliance, which is trying to convince the bourgeoisie and the armed forces that they now have a safe alternative to military rule.

Even the US. ambassador in Chile, Mr James Theberge, has added his voice to the chorus of condemnation. He told a Chilean publication: "We are convinced that democracy is the system wanted by the great majority of Chileans".

To Pinochet this must sound like the voice of treachery and ingratitude.

The US government's CIA deliberately set out to "destabilise' Chile, and helped mastermind the coup in 1973. Pinochet was their boy. He got his political programme from the CIA, his economic strategy from Chicago. * And right now, in Central America, the US continues to support the bloody regimes in El Salvador and Guatemala, and to threaten Nicaragua, where the US-sponsored Somoza regime was overthrown four years ago.

US naval exercises off the coast, and a massive build-up of US troops and rightwing exiles on the Nicaragua-Honduras border, are threatening and trying to intimidate the Sandinista regime. Inside Nicaragua, ex-Somozist thugs have been on the rampage in border areas.

The best answer to the US sabre-rattling in Central America would be the overthrow of Pinochet - not by way of a 'palace coup' which would put the Democratic Alliance in power, but by the workers and peasants of Chile.

The Chilean labour movement has been reviving in the last few years, as the most savage repression of the middle '70s eased off and some trade union action became possible. The present agitation opens the road to complete that revival.

On September 11 the Chile Solidarity Campaign is organising a demonstration to mark the tenth anniversary of the coup and demand No More Chiles!' A big turn-out will send a powerful message of solidarity from the British labour movement to the Chilean working class and the rebels in On September 11 the Chile Solidarity Campaign is organising a demonstration to mark the tenth anniversary of the coup and demand 'No More Chiles!!. A big turn-out will send a powerful message of solidarity from the British labour movement to the Chilean working class and to the rebels in Central America.

advisor El Salvador

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EDTORAI Socialist Organiser, 18 August 1983 Page

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