Planning a reception for Reagan

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MAKI THATCHER BACKS SALVADOR BUTCHERS Fariney Sorinkarity speakers hom • Pp4,6 IT doesn't take a genius or a left winger to work outthat the elections this weekend in El Salvador are an irrelevance and a charade.

Even Denis Healey has worked that out. He has termed the elections "a macabre farce". European governments, reluctant to give credence to the proceedings, have almost all refused to send observers. Even Canada has refused to participate. -The sole veneer of respectability for the "elections" is lent by the presence in El Salvador of two representatives of the Thatcher government. From a bullet-proof, closely guarded hide-out above the capital they will do their best to portray the election as a serious exercise. They will be assisted by fellow observers from reactionary regimes in Egypt, Uruguay and Venezuela.

At a time when the Duarte junta in El Salvador is plainly losing the military OVA MI aru struggle againsi wue left wing FMLN guerrillas, and Ronald Reagan is losing the struggle for popular support for his policies in. Central America, such a political endorsement from the British Tory government acquires an added importance.

Of course any notion of the election being democratic is patently absurd.

The countrv is under the ALAC heel of a military junta among whom are three of the Generals who rigged the last elections in El Salvador in the 1970s. Under vicious martial Pm.inn thoro ia total MAnA censorship of the meala.

This official censorship was remiurceu laov » ~J nd lact week bv the murder by right wing or government forces of four Dutch journalists.

Trade union activity is illegal and the names of opposition politicians are published on right wing and army 'death lists'.

In anch conditions. participation by the Demo- LULL cratic Revolutionary Front (FDR), the political coalition closest to the workers and peasants of El Salvador and the guerrilla fighters of the FMLN is plainly impossible.

The contest has therefore become one between the figurehead civilian president, Napoleon Duarte and his Christian Democratic right - the open representatives of the death squads' and paramilitary Duarte' main rival, Major "Bob" D'Aubuisson has been described by a former US ambassador .. TTC amhaccadar as a 'psychopathic kler. ne 1211-is calling for more US milita invalvement. A "hot reception" is planned for President Reagan when he visits Britain in early June.

The Reagan Reception Committee is organising a picket on Monday June 7, and a lobby of Reagan's speech to Parliament the including supplies napalm,, promising "pacify the country crushing all forms opposition.

The US government has pinned its hopes and strategy upon Duarte. If his hold is weakened in the elections, and he is forced to shift further to the right, or is displaced by D'Aubuisson, then the difficulties faced by Reagan in maintaining the US war effort in El Salvador would be redoubled.

But if the elections pose problems for Reagan and his puppets, they offer nothing but further suffering to the workers and peasants of El Salvador. Duarte's regime has already slaughtered 30,000 civilians and created 600,000 refugees in the last two years.

The junta's policies can now serve only to increase this toll of bloodshed and intimidation. US "advisors" are recommending the army be doubled in size to 50,000 men - a step that could only be accomplished with increased involvement of troops from Latin American dictatorships and the US military aid from the USA.

This is no simple matter for Reagan. Despite a huge and continued propafollowing day.

Sponsored by about 40 Labour MPs - including Tony Benn, Neil Kinnock, Michael Meacher and Ernie Roberts, and with broad labour movement support, the Reagan Reception Committee is an ad hoc group formed specifically to mobil ise for the days around Reagan's visit.

Under an appeal headed "We Don't Want Reagan's Bombs. We Want Jobs". the committee says:

*President Reagan and his advisors condemn the brutal suppression of trade union rights in Poland and yet, with blatant hypocrsy, they increase their financial support to the dictatorial regime in El Salvador, which daily sanctions murder and torture.

President Reagan is coming to Britain because he knows he can find full support for his policies from the Tories, who themselves are prepared to spend£10 billion to buy the American Trident missile system.

We believe that the colossal sum which is being spent on arms should be spent on more hospitals, schools, better housing and bringing down the level of unemployment.

We don't want bombs, we want jobs. We want peace, not nuclear holocaust.

Further details of the committee's activities can be obtained from PO Box 51, London SW10. ganda offensive aimed at •convincing the American people that the war in El Salvador is essential to stem "communist revolution" in Central America, opinion polls indicate growing opposition to US involvement.

The latest polls show a 2-1 opposition to Reagan's Central American policy. only 16% in favour of increased military aid to El Salvador, and over 60% of *Americans convinced that Reagan is headed towards a new Vietnam.

With 40% believing Reagan will soon send US troops to El Salvador, even the anti-communist leadership of the AFL-CIO trade union confederation has come out against such a policy.

If this popular opposition were directed towards the building of mass mobilisation and concrete trade union solidarity action, it would be easily possible to halt Reagan's war effort dead in its tracks.

The workers' movement in Britain must play a part in this struggle by mobilising against Thatcher's brazen support for the war, and by supporting the mass protests against Reagan's forthcoming visit.

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no.78 March