[LAST month a poster was put up in…]

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LAST month a poster was put up in Prague University protesting against the siting of new Soviet missiles. Students were asked to register their support by scrawling peace signs on the wall around the poster.

Apparently, the poster stayed up for several hours before being noticed by the university management, and the police took it down. By the time it was removed, hundreds of signs had been scrawled around it indicating strong support for the sentiments it expressed.

More generally in Czechoslovakia, public dissent is often being expressed at civil defence lectures and official rallies. ''Communist" Party propagandists find themselves facing abuse and hostile questioning. Audiences no longer accept setpiece speeches with unquestioning docility The strength of popular opposition is such that Party papers have printed letters against the new missiles. The government has been forced to beef up its propaganda efforts to justify stationing of the missiles while at the same time issuing assurances of the Warsaw Pact's commitment to disarmament.

All this is modest and even miniscule by Western standards, but it is tremendously important nonetheless. Since the Russian invasion of 1968 Czechoslovakia has been politically docile and the regime amongst the most repressive in the Soviet bloc. For this level of opposition to be expressed publicly on such a subject there has to be a tremendous volume of popular feeling against the siting of the Soviet missiles in Czechoslovakia. Democrat and ex-president Duarte, and ARENA leader D'Aubuisson.

A Duarte victory would please US policy-makers because they could dress it up as a victory for the moderate centre. Yet Duarte was president in 1980-2, and showed neither the ability nor the inclination to curb the activities of the death squads.

At a recent press conference Duarte seemed to be trying to outdo D'Aubuisson, saying that he would never negotiate with the Left.

A D'Aubuisson victory would mean that any last restraints placed on the activity of the maniac Right would be swept away, and thousands more would die. It would be a tricky position for US imperialism, but ultimately they would have almost certainly back D'Aubuisson.

In the words of a State Department adviser talking about the Cuban dictator Batista 30 years ago, 'I know he's a son of a bitch, but at least he's our son of a bitch'.

As an FMLN militant pointed out in a newspaper interview last week, the choice facing the Salvadoran people in this election is between repression or reform/

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Socialist Organiser no.172 March 29 1984 Page 5