Stage for War Moves
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DECEMBER 11, 1981 75 CENTS VOLUME 45/NUMBER 46 A SOCIALIST NEWSWEEKLY/PUBLISHED IN THE INTERESTS OF THE WORKING PEOPLE U.S. drive to isolate Cuba sets· stage for war moves Washington steps up Nicaragua blockade threat By Larry Seigle America," which has recently been The Reagan administration has leaked to the press, the Reagan ad stepped up its efforts to prepare the ministration asserts that Cuba has political ground for a military move made the island of Grenada "a virtual against the advancing revolutions in client," and Cuba's "immediate goals the Caribbean and Central America. are to exploit and control the revolu A relentless barrage of threats, accu tion in Nicaragua and to induce the sations, and attempts at provocations violent overthrow of the governments is aimed at justifying military opera ofEl Salvador and Guatemala." tions that have already been mapped According to an article on the docu out. ment in the December 2 Washington On November 28, Secretary of Post, the circulation of the report is State Alexander Haig claimed that "part of an administration drive, in Cuba has "40,000 to 50,000 mercen cluding public statements by its high aries deployed abroad" posing a est officials, to depict Cuba as an in "threat to peace and stability" on a creasingly dangerous menace to in world scale. ternational stability." Haig accused the Cubans of engag According to the Post, "Haig and ing in "subversion, propaganda, and other senior administration officials interventionism" in El Salvador, have refused to rule out military or Guatemala, Honduras, and Colom other action in Central America. bia. He denounced the Cubans for Discussions on the matter within' top providing aid to the revolutionary levels of the administration are re government in Nicaragua. ported to be at a sensitive stage." The secretary of state did not offer any evidence to back up the charges On Novembe"r 30, Edwin Meese III, of Cuban "interventionism." Cuban the White House counselor, called in President Fidel Castro has repeatedly reporters to explain that earlier assu challenged Haig to offer proof of his rances from President Reagan that accusations against Cuba - a chal the administration has "no plans for lenge that Washington has pretended putting Americans into combat" did not to notice. not rule out direct U.S. military moves. "What the president has said 'Secret' report leaked is that we are not sending American Nicaraguan militia on march last month. Country remains mobilized to defend Sandi In a "classified" report entitled forces into any country. Other ac- nista revolution against U.S. intervention. ·"Cuba's Covert Activities in Latin Continued on page 4 Polish cops break up student sit-in By Suzanne Haig This is the most serious attack The Polish government has stepped since March, when police beat up up its attacks against Solidarity, workers and farmers in Bydgoszcz. the 10-million-member independent . On November 22, police broke up union, as strikes by workers, farmers, the initial meeting of a newly formed and students continue. political discussion club being held at On December 2, more than 1,000 ri the Warsaw apartment of J acek Kur ot police battered down the campus on, a major advisor to Solidarity. gates of a Warsaw firefighters' acade my and broke up an eight day sit-in Although no one was arrested, and by 340 cadets who are demanding ba activists were able to move their sic academic rights and want to be ex meeting to the Solidarity office, police cluded from use in police actions. conducted a five-hour search, and Kuron was ordered to appear for A crowd of 7,000 angry workers,-se questioning at police headquarters. parated from police by Solidarity "workers' guards" shouted encour On November 26, Solidarity agement to the cadets and jeered the members were arrested for plastering cops, calling them "Hitlerite lackeys up uncensored posters in Plock and and dogs." Chorzow. Twenty-five people in Chor While the government claims there zow, a big industrial center in Silesia, were clubbed and beaten by police. were no injuries when the cadets were removed, a member of Solidarity; who Workers have threatened to strike unless the authorities responsible are read an account of the attack to the crowd, reports that shots were fired prosecuted and the workers released. and tear gas and truncheons used At. a November 27-28 Communist across gates of Warsaw University. against the students. Continued on page 17 dents across Poland are on strike. In Our Opinion VOLUME 45/NUMBER 46 DECEMBER 11, 1981 CLOSING NEWS DATE-DECEMBER 2 Where the fight for peace begins today In Mid-November, thousands participated in headway today in Central America and the tradictions, and political conflicts that threaten U.S. campus teach-ins against the threat of nu Caribbean. and preturb international relations, until a new clear war. Thousands more have demonstrated Cuban leader Fidel (jastro pointed to this in economic order is established in the world to in this country against the MX missile, the neu an October 24 speech: "Why do they want these promote the peoples' all-round development and tron bomb, and the draft. arms, not just nuclear arms, but conventional reduce inequality among nations. Encouraged by the massive marches in Eu ones as well?" Castro asked. "The current world economic situation is rope against U.S. nuclear weapons, these pro "The enormous cost of the arms race is not on characterized by the notorious inequality exist tests in the United States signal deep concern ly the result of strategic nuclear weapons but al ing between developed and underdeveloped with Washington's escalating militarization so of a considerable increase in conventional countries. Hundreds of millions of human be and the threat it poses to humanity. weapons: bringing battleships back into active ings, in countries comprising more than three Today, that threat is posed in an immediate service, building more aircraft carriers, more fourths of the world population, live in poverty, way in Central America and the Caribbean. The landing .craft. go hungry and are the victims of illness and ig U.S. government openly states it is preparing "In short, the United States is preparing for a norance. military moves to turn back the popular revolu policy of interventionism throughout the "As long as this dramatic situation suffered tions there. Alerting opponents of U.S. nuclear world." by the great majority of mankind is not solved weapons to this danger can help mobilize new Yes, the U.S. rulers do intend to fight wars. through the implementation of new world eco forces against U.S. military intervention in Ni And they are building up their armed might in nomic relations based on equity and justice, lit caragua, El Salvador, Guatemala, Grenada, and Europe as further nuclear blackmail against the tle progress will be made towards effective and Cuba. Soviet Union, in order to facilitate the use ofthe lasting peace." On November 30, the United States and the massive U.S. military forces against the colon Today, the workers and peasants of Central ial revolution. Soviet Union began talks on limiting nuclear America and the Caribbean are on the front weapons in Europe. Two weeks earlier, Presi Today, Washington needs to fight the same lines of that battle for "effective and lasting kind of wars it has fought ever since World War dent Reagan had given a speech posing as a man peace"- in their struggles to get the imperial II - against workers and peasants around the of peace. But Reagan had insisted that the So ist boot off their necks so they can achieve a so viet Union remove its existing medium-range world trying to throw off imperialist and capi cial and economic order based on their own missiles from Europe in exchange for the United talist domination. needs, not on private profit. The coming con In the last thirty-six years: the United States States not expanding its own missiles on the has gone to war against Korea and Vietnam; it frontation there with U.S. imperialism has continent. enormous ramifications for the millions who has sent troops to Lebanon, the Dominican Re These events received extensive, front-page public, and more recently, Iran; it has backed have marched in Europe and the United States for peace and against the threat of nuclear war. coverage in the capitalist media. mercenary invasions of Guatemala and Cuba. By contrast, the very real steps toward a U.S. Today, Washington's sights are fixed on Cen They have a direct stake in mobilizing against the immediate danger of war that exists today: military move in Central America have been tral America and the Caribbean. But the rest of downplayed by the same media. the world is not "at peace" either. Washington first and foremost, the preparations now under But there is no question that the plans are pro has stepped up its economic strangulation of way for U.S. military aggression against Cen ceeding. On November 30, White House Coun Vietnam; its surveillance flights and.provoca tral America and the Caribbean. sel Edwin Meese III again confirmed that a tions against North Korea; its threats against The greatest responsibility falls on the U.S. blockade of Nicaragua or Cuba- an act ofwar Libya and Iran; and its support to South Africa's working class. The revolutions in the colonial ~is one of several military options the United murderous raids on Angola and Mozambique, and semicolonial world, and the rising comba States is considering. and to Israel's terror against the Arab peoples. tivity oflabor from Western Europe to Poland to Reagan's nuclear saber-rattling in Europe, The roots of war today and the path toward Japan, are buying time for the U.S.