25¢ No. 449 25 March 1988 "Rambo" Reagan Sends.Inthe·82nd Airborne Smash Yankee Imperialism in Central Americal The 3,200 u.s. troops Ronald Rea­ gan dispatched to Honduras March 16 were a big step up the escalation ladder Defend Nicaragua-Complete, Extend the Revolution! in Central America. Inventing the pre­ text of a supposed "invasion" by Sandi­ nista Nicaragua, this war move was a convenient means to distract attention from the indictments offour ofthe Iran/ Contragate conspirators announced that same day and to stampede Con­ gress into voting for aid to Reagan's contra terrorists. The administration's all-purpose ploy also helps undercut the Democrats' Arias "peace" plan, and per­ haps a whiff of gunpowder would rally voters to the Republicans. But mean­ while, there are four battalions of the United States Army's Rapid Reaction Force (two each from the 7th Light Infantry Division and the 82nd Air­ borne) poised along the Nicaraguan border. They won't intimidate the San­ dinistas, but they're available for what­ ever provocation the lame ducks in the White House dream up: a border skir­ mish, "restoring order" in Panama, you name it. In the streets of America, Reagan's dispatch of U.S. troops to Honduras was met with an outburst of demon­ strations (see article below). The pro­ tests were only a taste of what would happen in this country if large-scale U.S. military intervention were attempt­ AP/Wide orld ed. And they intersect divisions in the Nicaraguan women, arms in hand, march on International Women's Day to honor Sandinlsta hero Nora Astorga ruling class over Nicaragua. For the and defend the revolution. ' Democrats, it was another shootout at Credibility Gap with an administration military person who thinks [sending defeat in Vietnam, the liberals think ocratic" foreign policy. In contrast, we that runs on lies. At the Pentagon, troops] is a good idea" (Washington Reagan's cowboy act has flopped 'and Trotskyists seek to smash Yankee im­ reaction was unanimously negative: one Post, '17 March). The generals are still want to clanit up, and the reformist left perialism, calling on American workers top official said, "I don't know-of any gun-shy over the U.S.' humiliating tags along with their calls for a "dem- continued on page 12 Reagan's War Moves Provoke Coast-to-Coast Protests A wave of protests has swept the shipped out joined pacifist demon­ country against Reagan's sending U.S. strators; one soldier's pregnant wife troops to Honduras. Within hours, carried a sign reading "Stop the Lies." thousands of demonstrators have hit the The breadth and depth ofthe Ameri­ streets, demanding "U.S. Troops Out" can population's opposition to Rea­ and "No Contra Aid" everywhere from gan's bloody mass murderers in Central Washington, New York and Boston America is clear in this instant response. through Cleveland, Minneapolis, Chi­ And U.S. troops aren't even involved in cago and scores of other cities, to the direct combat yet-these protests are San Francisco Bay Area, where angry only a hint ofthe explosion that a direct protests have escalated daily in some of U.S. invasion of Nicaragua would' the most volatile street demonstrations ignite. Many of the protests were or­ since the Vietnam War. The growing ganized by pacifist groups like Pledge of ; Bay Area actions have been greeted by Resistance, and the familiar tactics of , many who recall those '60s protests and "civil disobedience" have been played today have sons or even grandsons they out in many cities, with hundreds v 00 fear will be swept up in another bloody, arrested for blocking traffic, sitting in at San Francisco, March ,18-Spartacist League at the SF Federal Building losing "Vietnam." At Fort Ord, some military recruiting stations, and so on. protesting U.S. troops to Honduras. anxious wives of the soldiers being continued on page 13 / Thatcher's Death Squads Hit IRA The following article was adapted from Workers Hammer No. 96 (March 1988), newspaper of the Spartacist LeagueIBritain. Margaret Thatcher's Britain is carry­ ing out a systematic policy of cold­ blooded execution of Irish Catholic militants. On 6 March, three unarmed IRA members-Sean Savage, Mairead Farrell and Daniel McCann-were assassinated by British commandos in Gibraltar. Mairead Farrell, aged 31, was imprisoned for ten years from 1976 to 1986, during which time she led protests against the brutal strip searches of Republican prisoners; McCann, 30, was a leading IRA member; Savage was only 24. Then, on 16 March, as the coffins of the murdered IRA members were being lowered into the grave, a crazed Orange fanatic rained grenades and gunfire into the crowd of thousands of mourners. Three people were killed instantly and more than 50 wounded, some critically. People scrambled to flatten themselves on the wet ground; hysterical mothers AP threw themselves upon their children to March 16-Mourners at Catholic Milltown cemetery duck for cover as crazed Orange terrorist pours gunfire and shield them; blood-drenched victims grenades into crowd, killing three. were thrown into cars from the funeral procession and rushed to a hospital. Catholic Belfast were burning, as out­ the crowd. The outraged crowd dragged pendent (8 March) reported: "Accord­ Hundreds of youth chased after the raged youth hurled Molotov cocktails. the two men away and they were ing to a source formerly in a key position killer and began beating him, until And three days later, the funeral shortly despatched. Now the arrogant at the Army's HQ Northern Ireland, Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) procession for one of those killed at the British rulers who only a week earlier when the SAS is committed there is nor­ police arrived 15 minutes' after the earlier funeral was itself attacked, as a assassinated the three IRAers in Gib­ mally an understanding that no prison­ bombing to take him away. car driven by two gun-wielding plain raltar are hypocritically screaming ers will be taken." By nightfall, cars, trucks and buses in clothes British soldiers rammed into . bloody murder. Northern Ireland is While nothing can be believed from on the boiling point, with the flames the lying accounts of the bourgeois of anti-Catholic terror and sectarian press, if there is any truth to the story violence being stoked by Thatcher's that the three IRA members were con­ Class War Against Colonial War death squads. British troops out of sidering an attack on the Royal Anglian Ireland now! Regiment, such an attack-unlike the The U.s. military intervention in Cen­ British intelligence in collaboration indefencible, indiscriminate bombing at tral America poses the urgent need for with Spanish police had McCann and Enniskillen several months ago-would labor action against Reagan's war moves, Savage under surveillance for months. clearly have targetted the armed forces In 1924-26, the Frenchgovernment (which When, on 6 March, the IRA members of British imperialism which have been for a time included the reformist Socialist parked a car and began to walk toward oppressing the Irish people. The British Party) waged a savage colonial waragainst the border, British agents tracked them military installation on Gibraltar is part the Rif guerrilla forces fighting for the on foot and shot them to death. By of a chain of listening posts operated by independence of Morocco. The French Monday morning, the' government's GCHQ at Cheltenham; the Rock itself Communist Party sought to aid this na­ story-reported as fact in the press­ has been tunnelled to house NATO cen­ TROTSKY tional liberation struggle by waging class LENIN was that the car contained a 500-pound tres and even a mock-up of Belfast side war on the home front. Below is a bomb which had been defused by a con­ streets to provide training for British statement summarizing the revolutionary campaign ofthe Communists, who raised trolled explosion and that the IRA troops awaiting transfer to Ulster. the slogan "immediate peace with the Rif." members were "believed to be heavily armed." However;. Foreign Secretary Smash the .RUe! Along with this slogan, the Party raised that of withdrawal from Morocco, British Troops Out of Ireland! recognition of the Rif, and proposed the following measures: boycott of war Geoffrey Howe later announced that manufacture and transport, preparation of a 24-hour general strike, and same day that the car did not contain a Two weeks to the day before the fraternization at thefront. The maneuvers of the Painleve governmentin preparation bomb at all and that "Those'killed were 6 March assassinations, Aidan McAnes­ for its offensive (the peace offer to Abd el-Krim), the passing of the Socialist Party subsequently found not to be carrying pie, a 24-year-old election worker for into opposition in order to disorient public opinion, have made necessary much arms." In other words, it was cold­ Sinn Fein, was shotto death by a British greater precision in explaining <Jur slogans. blooded murder! soldier at an army checkpoint in We can no longer raise the slogan of immediate peace without cAticizing the The British bourgeoisie did' not Aughnacloy, County Tyrone, North­ imperialist peace proposed by Painleve or the peace under a [League of Nations] bother to conceal its glee over this ern Ireland. McAnespie was on his way mandate proposed by the Socialists. We must denounce this before the workers as bloody crime. Snapping to attention, to buy sweets before the start of a local two specimens of imperialist peace..... Labour's foreign affairs spokesman football match. On 5 March, the funeral The Party has raised the slogan of a 24-hour general strike, It never thought that George Robertson "congratulated the for IRA veteran Brendan Burns-who out of this strike, ofgreater orlesser magnitude, could miraculouslycomea definitive security forces" and went onto howl for was killed with fellow IRA member peace or revolution.