[THE Tories are going to war same time…]

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THE Tories are going to war same time as the Tories are to try to save Britain's failing sending the navy across the THE Tories are going to war to try to save Britain's failing prestige as a world-exploiting power. That is their concern: not the fate of the Falkland Islanders, and still less any objection of principle to the military dictatorship in Since World War 2 the British ruling class has lost its big patches of red on the map, as millions in the former colonies have demanded, fought for, and won the right to rule themselves. But Britain's bosses still lean heavily on economic super-exploitation of the 'Third World' The 50 biggest British industrial companies currently do 43% of their total production abroad, and, while profits in Britain are low and stagnant, their overseas profits are booming. The overseas profits of British financial companies have gone up 160% over the last two years.

A good chunk of this plunder is vulnerable to seizure by nationalist governments. And so the British bosses need to prop up their crumbling reputation as a big power.

That's why the fleet is sailing. Thatcher's first aim is probably to put pressure to make the US and EEC use their much greater economic and military weight to save Britain's face. But the Tories are also prepared to go ahead with the horrors of war.

All the British working class is likely to get from this war is increased cuts or tax demands. (Just getting the fleet to the Falklands, with no more, will cost £50 Behind the hollow 'Sendthe-gunboats' bluster is sordid hypocrisy. At the same time as the Tories are sending the navy across the Atlantic, supposedly to defend the Falklanders, they are taking British citizenship away from over 400 of them through their Nationality Act.

Those Falklanders have already lost their right to enter Britain through the Immigration Acts - passed after other British citizens were threatened by dictatorships elsewhere!

Dark-skinned

When British citizens in Uganda and Kenya were deprived of their rights by vicious regimes, there was no talk of sending the troops. Instead, they were reluctantly allowed to slip into Britain, while, to the tune of a great racist outcry, the legal trapdoors were shut to stop other citizens following.

But then these were darkskinned British citizens, and racist British governments did not consider that their prestige was at stake.

Some 1,000 British families in Diego Garcia, in the Indian Ocean, had an even tougher deal. They were deported by Britain itself, after a 1966 deal which handed the island over to the US as a military base. They were dumped in the slums of Mauritius, and only just recently got half of the compensation they claimed.

Hypocritical

Hypocritical also is the sudden fury against Argentina's fascist junta' . British governments (Tory and Labour) have happily traded and sold arms to Argentina since the 1976 coup, and not w the Tories are seeking aid against Argentina from Chile and South Africa!

In the cross-fire between itish arms in British hands 1 British arms in Argentine hands, the Falklanders will be the first to suffer. The best evidence, indeed, is that the islanders whom the Tories claim to be acting for don't want an invasion.

Kenneth Clarke of the true-blue Daily Telegraph reported from the Falk lands:

"Almost everybody 1 spoke to did not want the British task force to invade unless the islands could first be evacuated"

Other messages from the islands indicate the same feeling.

The islanders will be the first to suffer from a war. And second will be the British and Argentine working classes last year and 100% this year, according to the International Monetary Fund. 15% of the population is unemployed.

Generals

In 1981 the country had three successive presidents, all military. In March 1981 General Videla was replaced turn was replaced in December by Galtieri.

There have been continual struggles by students and working class alike in spite of continued repression. All factories and trade unions have held strikes against the government and its economic policies.

There has been growing opposition by the different business sectors who fear the reaction of the working class.

Conservative Party leader Francisco Manrique in February of this year said:

"Either this situation is resolved quickly or the solution will come from our streets". . His declaration followed the murder of a young female member of the PST (Socialist Workers Party of Argentina).

Trade Unions Political parties, trade unions and all sectors of the community strongly condemned the government and laid the blame for the crime at the door of the government. A street demonstration of 30,000 chanted "the military government is going to end"

All these elements led the Argentine government to tion and uniting the Argentine people.

As a Trotskyist, I say we should be against a war between Argentina and Britain over the Falkland Islands because it would mean death and misery for the working class.

A war will neither resolve nor change the economic or political situation in Argentina.

For this reason 1 believe that:

1) The CGT (Argentine trade union confederation) should call for a general strike against a war and against the Military Government.

2) The British trade mon movement should support the Argentine working class movement and repudiate the declarations of war by the Tory government and the Labour Party.

3) The Falkland Islanders should be the ones to decide what they want.

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Socialist Organiser no. 79 April 15, 1982. Page 2 Page

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imploy its invasion tactic, thus diverting public atten-