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mi las su he Ter Sy be pa he ILL the Reagan adminisation sanction the carnage a full-scale Israeli invasion West Beirut and the lughter of the Palestinian ices bottled up in there?

Even if the US governent vigorously opposed ch an invasion, could it act mly and swiftly enough to strain the Zionist regime fore the PLO were exterinated?

These are among the fficult questions facing O leaders as they calculate eir few remaining options ider the ever-present guns Zionist air, sea and land ICeS.

There is no way they can ilitarily escape from their st stronghold, which is rrounded by vastly perior forces. The halfarted support they ceived at first from the rrian armed forces has been aten down or withdrawn. o other Arab regime is prered to offer them military ilp.

And the Zionists have :en able to mount a mility offensive of undisguised id indiscriminate brutality Lebanon with hardly any the anticipated outcry ound the world.

Truly the Palestinians Last Friday, while Zionist forces blitzed Beirut, Haig sent an ultimatum not to the aggressors - but to the PLO, demanding they surrender! It was Haig who instructed UN representative Kirkpatrick to veto the French resolution calling for a Zionist withdrawal from Beirut.

It was a move that further antagonised and embarrassed the influential Saudi Arabian leaders who have been pressing (possibly with the backing of veiled economic threats) for the US to restrain the Israeli government.

And it proved to be Haig's last decision as Secretary of State. His surprise resignation was followed by the appointment of George Schultz, a former Nixon cabinet member and an executive of Bechtel - a monopoly with extensive contracts in Arab countries.

This abrupt turn in the situation has been seized upon as a step forward even a "victory" - by the PLO, heralding a sharp shift in US policy. tion in Tel Aviv, some 20,000 strong, was the largest left wing protest ever held in the country.

It has run alongside the unprecedented holding of news conferences by reservists released from duties in Lebanon, who have strongly denounced the war; and even former Chief of Staff, General Mordechai Gur has described the two weeks of fighting as "pointless"

It is possible that such a combination of pressures may restrain Begin from the wages ITALY'S industry was stopped last Friday 25th by an eight hour strike against the unilateral decision by bosses in big and medium private industry to cut back the 'scala mobile' (sliding scale) - the agreement guaranteeing regular cost-of-living wage increases.

Nearly half a million workers marched on a trade union • demonstration in Rome.

Franco Grisolia of the LOR, an Italian socialist organisation, told us:

Further attack "The strike was followed on Tuesday 29th by a further cancellation of the sliding scale - by bosses in the public sector [i.e. the companies part-owned by the state!.

'Some 40% of the Italian working class were affected by the first attack on the sliding scale, and now another 15% are affected.

"'Also, the bosses in the commercial sector are likely to follow suit.

Strike "'The metalwork ers' unions responded tr with a two-hour strike.

" This move by the bosses confirms that the June 25 strike was not sufficient to have any immediate political result.

'But it could have a positive effect - not so much in immediate political results, but in galvanising working class militancy.

'In the months of struggle to come, the trade union activists will have a feeling of strength from the demonstration. Or possibly they will, at least: it's too soon to be definite.

No policy 'There was à wide spread of mobilisation, from different areas and different sectors of industry.

"'The problem is that the trade unions have proposed absolutely • no further action.

"As for the LOR, the central element of our policy is the need for linking up the struggles and blacking. Right now the key problem is to beat back the bosses' offensive - it's not the working class that is on the offensive, but the bosses.

•We have to combat the view put by the right wing in the unions -especially the Socialist unions [Italy's unions are divided into three federations, 'Communist', , Socialist and Catholic], and afterwards we can see about the sliding scale.

"We argue that the fight to defend the sliding scale must go ahead now, alongside the fight on the wage agreements."

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march war in Tel Aviv