Protests Grow As U.S. Deepens Intervention in El Salvador U.S

Black party hits Salvador aid 3 TH£ Reagan's hypocrisy on Poland. 5 Rail workers vs. MX missile 14 A SOCIALIST NEWSWEEKLY/PUBLISHED IN THE INTERESTS OF THE WORKING PEOPLE VOL. 46/NO. 7 FEBRUARY 26, 1982 75CENTS Protests grow as U.S. deepens intervention in El Salvador U.S. rulers' 'We're losing debate move the fight,' toward war says junta The Reagan administration is facing BY FRED MURPHY mounting troubles in El Salvador. De "We are losing the fight with the spite massive U.S. military aid, the jun guerrillas in the countryside," Salvado ta there is rapidly losing ground to the ran President Jose Napoleon Duarte ad rebel forces. And domestic opposition to mitted February 15. U.S. intervention in El Salvador is The next day, U.S. Defense Secretary growing apace. Caspar Weinberger said on NBC's "To This combined pressure is beginning day" show th~t there is "considerable to produce cracks and fissures within danger" Duarte's government will fall without stepped-up U.S. military and economic aid. EDITORIAL Weinberger insisted that Washington will not allow this to happen, and echoed Secretary of State Alexander Haig's re U.S. ruling circles on how best to pro cent declarations that the administra ceed in trying to thwart the victory of tion will do "whatever is necessary" to the Salvadoran revolution. prevent a victory by the Salvadoran Salvadoran troops in training at Ft. Bragg, North Carolina. Reagan adminis • Trade unionists demonstrating freedom fighters. tration has also prepared military operations aimed at Nicaragua and Cuba. against Reagan's economic policies readily pick up chants opposing El Sal Top U.S. general visits vador intervention. As Weinberger spoke, the top U.S. • The National Conference of Catho military commander in Latin America, Ford'-s pFoposed auto pact lic Bishops declares opposition to guns Lt. Gen. Wallace Nutting, was arriving for El Salvador's junta. in El Salvador for a first-hand look at • Members of Congress, from both the U.S.-b.01ekedjunta's deteriorating si tightens squeeze on workers parties, report strong public sentiment tuation. against deepening involvement in that U.S. diplomats in El Salvador are now BY ELIZABETH ZIERS as a way of saving jobs by moving to country. Three congressional delega worried that the millions of dollars DETROIT, February 16- Ford Mo ward a shorter work week. tions fly down there to check the situa worth of aircraft, arms, and ammuni tor Company and United Auto Workers Further job losses will come from tion, clearly suggesting they don't take tion Washington has been pouring into (UA W) negotiators agreed February 13 plant closings. The contract proposal on the administration's word for it. that country will not be enough to turn on a new contract - seven months be ly specifies that plants will not be closed • A New York Times editorial char the tide. fore the current one expires. for two years because of "outsourcing" acterizes Reagan's "certification" of hu "At issue," correspondent Raymond The exact contract language won't be -shifting production to outside suppli man rights in El Salvador as "cynical Bonner reported in the February 17 revealed until February 20. Initial sum ers. But the company can come up with humbug." New York Times, "is whether the Sal maries of the proposed pact, however, any other excuse it wants to shut plants. • A Los Angeles Times editorial sug vadoran military can absorb more make it clear that Ford is demanding At the Dearborn Assembly Plant, gests that instead of sinking deeper into equipment and whether it has enough that its workers give up previously won many Local 600 members on both shifts the "bloody quagmire," an attempt at a officers to fight a guerrilla war." Bonner gains and even more jobs. reacted with hostility to the proposals. negotiated settlement might be the wis continued: Under the new, thirty-one month con But others said they want to see the full er course. "American officials estimate that the tract, UAW members would lose: contract before deciding. The pressures confronting the Reagan Salvadoran Air Force has the personnel • all paid personal holidays (the pres Bargaining committeeman Rudy Nel administration were dramatically illus to fly only 6 helicopters more than the ent contract provides nine PPHs a year); son said, "It will be hard to sell in this trated when Cable News Network 14 already supplied by the United • three cost-of-living raises (deferred building. It has nothing for the younger videotaped three U.S. "advisers" in ci States, far fewer than needed. The en until late 1983 and 1984); workers. But I believe it will pass with vilian clothes carrying M-16 rifles in El tire 500-member student body of the • the 3 percent annual productivity the membership as a whole because Salvador. The film was shown on televi Salvadoran military academy is going raise; many on layoff won't vote." sion stations across the United States through accelerated officer-training in • the December bonus holiday. The proposal does include a crumb February 11. Reagan was forced to the United States." In other words, those Ford workers thrown to laid-off workers. Ford will put swiftly order the head "adviser" to leave The troops already trained by U.S. ad lucky enough to have jobs will lose two $70 million into the depleted supple El Salvador within a week. "Oral repri visers in El Salvador have achieved no weeks of paid days off a year and go mentary unemployment benefits (SUB) mands" were given the other two offic victories against the rebels. Instead, more than three years with virtually no fund. But 92,000 Ford workers have lost pay raises. their jobs. For those eligible to receive ers. they have carried out massive slaugh~ Washington's problem in El Salvador ters of the civilian population in the New workers will be hurt even worse. SUB, the $70 million will last about five They will start with 85 percent of regu weeks. , began twenty~three years ago - in Cu countryside. ba. lar pay and reduced benefits. It will take And Ford's profit sharing promise The Cuban revolution of 1959 proved 400 more massacred them eighteen months to get to parity doesn't amount to much. to be the first socialist revolution in the with other Ford workers. The company is now losing money. Nearly 1,000 peasants in Morazan western hemisphere. The gains of that The union got almost nothing in re Even if it could repeat its most profita province were massacred by the U.S. revolution have been an inspiration to turn. Ford promises to share profits and ble year, 1978, the profit sharing formu trained Atlacatl Brigade in December. the oppressed and exploited throughout not close plants for two years, under cer la would only return about $200 to each During the second week of February, Central and South America and the tain conditions. The company says it worker- much less than is being given this elite unit swept through Usulutan world. will guarantee 50 percent of the pre up under the new contract. province, the scene of recent r~bel ad vious wage to laid-off workers with at But estimates are that Ford will save Since the workers and peasants came vances. According to a UPI dispatch least fifteen years seniority - if they as much as $1 billion from the conces to power in Cuba, U.S. capitalism has printed in the February 17 New York agree to take any job offer at a Ford sions for the life of the contract. worked unceasingly to isolate and crush Daily News, Salvadoran "government plant anywhere in the country. At a meeting in Detroit of the UAW them. Its lying propaganda charge that officials, who asked not to be identified, Rank and file response to the tenta Skilled Trades Council, union President Cuba is exporting subversion is a cover said surviving peasant refugees told tive contract is mixed. Local 36 Douglas Fraser said, "How the Ford for its real concern- that the victims of them security forces had massacred members at the Wixom, Michigan, Lin workers will react, I suppose, is prob colonial oppression in Central and about 400 civilians after a sweep" coln Continental Assembly Plant ex lematical." South America will follow the Cuban through Usulutan. pressed hope the deal would save jobs. Objections to the settlement and to the example. Army brutality in the countryside is But it won't. In fact, the Wall Street practice of granting concessions in gen Back in 1965 when a popular rebel convincing more and more Salvadorans Journal estimates that 3,000 more jobs eral were raised by some delegates to lion developed in the Dominican Repub to actively participate in the war being will be lost by giving up the paid person the conference. lic, the Johnson administration, without waged by the guerrilla fighters of the al holidays. International union officials will have Continue~ on Page 18 Continued on Page 2 PPHs were won in the 1976 contract Continued on Page 2 U.S. deepens intervention in El Salvador Continued from Page 1 the legal draft age is 18." ment 'cannot win without troops from stituent assembly - which will name a Farabundo Marti National Liberation The resort to such drastic steps is one the United States-or from someone,' a new president - is scheduled for March Front <FMLN). sign that the Salvadoran armed forces non-American diplomat said." 28. The FMLN already enjoys the support are beginning to fall apart. Bonner also Plans for such direct intervention are Leaders of the political parties and and cooperation of tens of thousands of reports concern among diplomats in El already well advanced.

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