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MARCH 23, 1979 50 CENTS VOLUME 43/NUMBER 11 A SOCIALIST NEWSWEEKLY/PUBLISHED IN THE INTERESTS OF THE WORKING PEOPLE Carter pours' arms, 'advisers' into Yemen Front-page headlines across the country are "advisers" would also be sent. mosphere is reminiscent of Vietnam in 1963," hailing President Carter as a "peacemaker" in Speaking before a House Foreign Relations where the first U.S. combat troops were also the Middle East. But under cover of the Israeli­ subcommittee, Crawford bluntly declared that called "advisers." Egyptian agreement Carter announced March the Carter administration is willing to go to In pouring tanks and jets into North Yemen, 13, Washington is driving ahead with prepara­ war over its interests in the oil-rich Arabian Carter made a point of using, for the first time, tions for war. peninsula, where border fighting broke out his presidential "emergency" authority to by­ With a U.S. naval task force already sta- February 24 between North and South Yemen. pass congressional review of arms shipments. For more than two weeks Washington has He cited "national security interests." been bristling with threats about "drawing the The elaborate media hoopla about Carter's line" in the Middle East by inflicting a defeat trip and the new "peace" agreement has been An editorial on South Yemen and its Cuban defenders. (See consciously used to divert public attention background article on page 10). from the escalating U.S. military involvement Planting even a few "advisers" in the war that is part and parcel of the Mideast deal. tioned off Yemen, and with massive shipments zone, of course, establishes a wedge that can of U.S. arms being airlifted into North Yemen, be used to widen U.S. involvement. • Billions of dollars worth of additional U.S. Deputy Secretary of State William Crawford State Department officials, according to Rep. arms-paid for by U.S. taxpayers-are to be announced March 12 that 300 U.S. military Les Aspin (D-Wis.), "are saying that the at- Continued on next page Iranian women on the march Equal rights protests push revolution forward TEHRAN, March 8-'Freedom for women-freedom for society,' says demonstrator's sign. See page 4. In Our Opinion VOLUME 43/NUMBER 11 MAR. 23, 1979 CLOSING NEWS DATE-MAR. 14 By neutralizing the Egyptian army as a threat to Israel, the pact helps free Israeli No to censors! forces for intervention throughout the region . As Washington escalates its military build­ ... Mideast It encourages the Zionist regime to under­ up it also moves to impose new curbs on civil Continued from page 1 take new assaults against Lebanon, Syria, and liberties, including freedom of the press. shipped to both the Israeli and Egyptian re­ perhaps Jordan. Even as Carter was being A significant step in this direction was gimes. hailed in Washington March 13, Israeli ar­ taken when the Justice Department obtained • The administration is floating trial bal­ tillery was pounding southern Lebanon and an injunction March 8 barring the Progressive loons about establishing U.S. military bases in gunboats were shelling the town of Damur, magazine from publishing an article on the hydrogen bomb. the Sinai Peninsula. just five miles south of Beirut. • The Pentagon is openly considering the The proposed treaty reinforces the disposses­ The censorship order, which violates the creation of a U.S. "Fifth Fleet" in the Indian sion of the Palestinian people from their First Amendment, will be appealed by the Ocean. homeland and the denial of their national magazine. • In keeping with these moves, Carter has rights. It was the first time the federal government raised the military budget to a record $135 As if to underline this fact, Israeli troops in had sought such a prior restraint order since billion and has opened the biggest congres­ the occupied West Bank shot and killed two it failed eight years ago to prevent the New sional discussion since Vietnam on the possi­ Arab youths who were participating in a York Times and Washington Post from pub­ bility of reintroducing the draft. demonstration March 14 against the agree­ lishing the Pentagon papers. Standby Selective Service Administration ment. The present move strikes a particularly (draft) directors have already been appointed Enlisting Egyptian President Sadat's aid sinister note in that the government motion is for each state, and Carter has asked for against the Palestinians will not suppress based on a section of the 1954 "atomic secrets" increases in selective service funding for both their struggle, which has just been given act. That measure was enacted in the witch­ 1979 and 1980. tremendous inspiration by the Iranian revolu­ hunt hysteria following the executions of The March 13 statement by Army Secretary tion. The most fitting answer to Carter's deal Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, who were falsely Clifford Alexander that the "official position" was a rally of more than 100,000 in Tehran convicted of passing such alleged secrets to the of the army is that the draft is not needed "at March 13. Soviet government. this time" merely reflects the hesitancy of The crowd cheered a Palestine Liberation It was already established back then that these moves. Carter knows the young people of Organization representative who said, "Carter Washington was simply lying when it asserted this country remain overwhelmingly opposed has come to the Middle East to organize new it had an "atomic secret." The laws of physics to fighting and dying for imperialism in the attacks against the Palestinian and Iranian are not a U.S. monopoly. Middle East or anywhere else. revolutions. We warn Carter, he will be The present "secrecy" claim is patently The deep antiwar sentiment among Ameri­ squashed under our feet." nonsense. The government makes no charge can working people is precisely why Carter against the author of the article, which report­ must cloak his war policy in rhetoric about Carter justifies his military build-up as an edly describes how a hydrogen bomb works. peace. answer to "Soviet expansionism." But as the He gathered his information legally from Iranian revolution so powerfully demon­ Washington's real intentions were spelled sources available to the general public. strated, the instability of such neocolonial out by the editors of the Wall Street Journal regimes as those in Jordan, Egypt, and Saudi The Justice Department action is not an March 9 when they wrote: "If we want to Arabia is caused by social inequality, oppres­ isolated one. insure the stability of the Middle East and the sion, and exploitation that drives the workers In the past several years, reporters have security of our friends, there will be no substi­ and peasants to revolt. It is not the product of been jailed for refusing to disclose confidential tute for an actual U.S. presence in the area." Moscow "subversion." news sources. Police have been given the green When the Wall Street Journal talks about The "energy crisis" is yet another theme of light by the courts to raid newspaper files for "stability" and "security," it is talking about Carter's propaganda. The arrogant implica­ "evidence." "securing" U.S. corporate interests and "stabil­ tion is that whatever the needs and decisions izing" pro-imperialist regimes against opposi­ The government's concern in this case is not of the people of the Middle East, U.S. corpora­ tion from their own people. That's what the to keep the lid on military secrets. It is to lay tions have a right to their natural resources­ U.S. government went to war in Vietnam over. the basis for hiding from the American people oil in particular-and the right to ensure the That's what it was unable to do in Iran to save more and more of the facts about Washing­ "security" of those resources. the shah, thanks to the American people's ton's counterrevolutionary drive for world opposition to any more foreign military adven­ Above all, Carter's Mideast deal aims to give domination-a drive that increases the risk of tures. political cover to the use of U.S. military forces atomic holocaust. The revolution in Iran-and fear that the in the name of "peace" and "national secur­ Even the compliant big-business news media example of the Iranian people will be followed ity." are liable to print information damaging to the elsewhere-made Washington desperate both Right now Carter is pushing toward a mil­ capitalist government-not "military secrets," to build up its own military forces in the area itary confrontation in Yemen. The alarm must but facts about its reactionary policies. That's and to wrap up the Egyptian-Israeli deal. be sounded. The response of the American what cannot stand the light of day. And that's This pact has nothing whatsoever to do with people should be: why the government seizes on such flimsy peace. It is a counterrevolutionary alliance Hands off Yemen! pretexts as the Progressive article to further that is part of a war policy. U.S. out of the Middle East! chip away at freedom of the press. The Militant Militant Highlights This Week Editor: STEVE CLARK Associate Editors: CINDY JAQUITH ANDY ROSE 3 Newport N-• 1trlke Emergency appeal for Marroquin Busmess Manager: ANDREA BARON 4 Iranian women Editorial staff: Peter Archer. Nancy Cole, Fred With a deportation hearing set for Hector Marroquin Feldman. David Frankel. Osborne Hart, Shelley 5 'Militant' ~alee on April 3, notables supporting his right Kramer, Ivan Licho, Omari Musa. August N1mtz, 6 March 8 women's action Harry Ring, Dick Roberts, Priscilla Schenk, Arnold to political asylum have issued an urgent Weissberg. Matilde Zimmermann 7 'Weber' Clle appeal.

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