Reagan pulls out of visit

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Together we (groupa) I SHE DOES 4 STUOCATA Articles by Tony Benn; naren Talbot, NUS Executive on 'The year ahead'; Tony Dale, paper of Socialist Students in NOLS. Avanade Andy Bennet, DSU, Dunelm House, New Ehvet, Im: Copies 10p each. Take a bulk order to sell! STUDENT NOLS NC and lots more. 1 SIÜDENTS THATCHER! EVERY THIN I TRAriKIL WEIGHING up conflicting advice from contending sections of his White House staff, Ronald Reagan last week called off his controversial visit to the bloody Philippines dictatorship of President Ferdinand Marcos.

Vivid and embarrassing memories of Jimmy Carter publicly toasting the Shah immediately before the Iranian revolution were one factor inspiring those who argued against Reagan's visit.

Other factors were the sheer scale of the threats to Reagan's safety as mass demonstrations have grown against Marcos and his US sponsors (whose military and economic aid fuel the military repression on the islands), as well as scepticism towards Marcos amongst increasingly vocal sectors of US public opinion.

But some advisers also estimated that a cancellation of the visit, though damaging in the short term to Marcos, could also have a useful dampening effect on mass demonstrations, by denying the opposition forces a new and unifying target.

Other, hawkish, elements looked with alarm at the prospect of the State Department taking its distance from yet another bulwark of US interests, bemoaning the consequences of Carter's abandonment of Nicaraguan dictator Somoza in 1979.

Meanwhile a new dimension to the struggle in the Philippines is the growing economic crisis.

The Filipino peso has been devalued - and is widely predicted to fall again in value by another 30 to 50%, while foreign investors get cold feet and the country's $15 billion of foreign debt begins to look increasingly insecure.

Marcos has been forced to crack down hard on the working class, and hardest upon on the lowest paid, in a series of measures designed to minimise inflationary pressures after the devaluation. A price freeze on a number of commodities is linked with a delay in the overdue increase in the minimum wage.

Unions are already demanding pay increases of up to 40%.

There is no disputing the potential scale and scope of the opposition to Marcos: but as a cross-class movement ranging from business leaders to students and trade unionists it lacks any coherent programme or policies.

The best-known opposition politician, Benigno Aquino, whose murder provoked the latest wave of protests, was a bourgeois politician with links to the CIA.

It is certainly a measure of the level of repression required by the Marcos regime that it felt obliged to stage the clumsy murder of Aquino, and has used such heavy-handed tactics to repress its critics from the Makati financial district.

But under the current conditions of radicalisation it is essential that a working class leadership be developed for the struggle against dictatorship: only such a leadership can carry through the struggle for policies that will meet the needs of the country's workers, students and peasants.

Mexico

WHERE would the Mexican government stand if the CIA. backed 'contras' in Nicaragua were to carry out their threat to sink Mexican oil tankers delivering crude at Puerto Sandino?

The Honduran-backed 'contras', encouraged and financed from Washington, announced on October 7 that they have placed mines in the waters around Nicaragua's oil port.

Mexico is the country's only oil supplier — and if the claim is not a bluff, then it may not be long before a tanker is sunk.

Yet Mexico is also a supplier of oil to the USA - courted by US Presidents Carter and Reagan; aud as the most power. ful capitalist class in the region it is also committed to seeking a 'political settlement' to the war in El Salvador in alliance with other bourgeois governments through the Contadora group.

For the CIA to be implicated in the scuttling of a Mexican tanker would further complicate US relations with Central and Latin America: would Ron ald Reagan make speeches denouncing the "cold-blooded murder' involved?

Argentine A 24-hour general strike called by Argentina's Peronist-dominated trade union federation brought industry and transport to a grinding halt last week.

The strike centred on demands for wage increases to keep pace with inflation - currently running at 335% a year.

According to union leaders, nine million teachers, drivers, bank workers, civil servants an airline staff supported the strike. Voice of Solidarnoec is pablis fortnightly by NSZZ Sale nosc. Subscription rates are for six months [UK] and 510 six months [overseas). Cbeq and postal orders payable NSZZ Solidarnosc abould sent to the NSZZ Soldha Information Office, 314 Gray's Inn Road, Loadea WC 8DP. Tel: 01-837 9464.

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Kinnock: will he act as a popular packaging for Hattersley's "policy develop The process of sifting and educating the Left is still going on All photos JOHN HARRIS

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