Mexico Falls to the Wolves

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President Lopez Portillo with his predecessor FOREIGN CAPITAL'S SHARE IN LEADING FIRMS IN SELECTED INDUSTRIES, Matthies, Transnationale Unternehmen in In 1960-70 foreign investment (including reinvested profits) was 5% of total investment in Mexico. The Mexican state was responsible for about one-third of total investment.

Mexican electrical workers head march against pro-government union leaders and US Mexican oil workers: recession has cut revenue

MEXICO'S debt crisis has caused alarm in vèry different quarters, for very different reasons.

Wealthy international bankers are worried about $80 billion owing to them.

Mexico is gong to pay the interest on these loans -and at over-the-odds rates - but will make no repayments on principal this year or next. The bankers are concerned about their total of $465 billion loans outstanding to "Third World' countries, many of them much worse off than Mexico.

While the bankers are worried about their balance sheets, many of the people of Mexico are worried about basic survival.

One of the Mexican government's first crisis measures was to cut subsidies on basic goods. On August 2 electricity prices went up 30%, the price of tortillas and bread 100%, and petrol prices 67%.

With inflation running at about 90% a year, the mair trade union federation ICTM, linked to the ruling •Institutional Revolutionary Party', PRI) has agreed to delay any across-the-board wage demand until the end of the year. It would be vulgar to ask the government for a rise when the public sector has no money', said one CTM leader.

Cooperation

Even the non-PRI unions, who according to the Guardian, 'originally planned a mass march this week to demand an immediate 50% salary rise, will now parade in Mexico City to 'defend' the nationalisation of the banks' Such cooperation is important to enable the government to carry out the austerity measures which will be demanded by the IMF.

Mexico finds itself short of dollars to pay its debts as a result of years of borrowing on spec. Mexico's industrial production grew by an average of 9.1% a year in 1960-70 and 6.6% • 1970-80. To finance the expansion - especially the big imports of machinery and equipment necessary for it - Mexico borrowed.

It was a workable ecoMARTIN irisis.

Echeverria nomic strategy, as long as the rapid industrial expansion, and the growth of Mexico's oil, income, kept abreast of the growth of debt and payments due on the debt. But as soon as Mexico stumbled, the moneylending wolves would be on it.

Now Mexico has stumbled. Oil prices have weakened. The world capitalist slump has restricted its exports. Interest rates - which during much of the 1970's were less than the rate of inflation, making borrowing cheap - have soared The state budget deficit increased. The Mexican peso - which from 1954 to 1976 had had a fixed exchange rate with the US dollar - lost value, making Mexico's dollar debts more expensive in pesos. The government tried to stave off the problem by more borrowing - which only made the crisis worse.

The crisis in turn makes it more difficult for Mexico's capitalists to find cash for investment and for imports - and thus creates a vicious circle.

Mexico is not the worst off of the world's poor countries. On the contrary, it is one of the success stories of Third World development. Its current crisis shows just how fragile and partial that success is.

The ground for capitalist development in Mexico was cleared by long revolutionary struggles in 1911-25, consolidated by the radical reforms of the Cardenas government in 1934-40. Cardenas expropriated the railways and the British and US-owned oil companies, and pushed through a sweeping land reform.

He reorganised the ruling party (now called the PRI) as a coalition of four "sectors' _ the unions (CTM), the National Peasant Confederation, a military 'sector' , and a "popular' sector.

Stable Unusually for Latin America, Mexico's governments - invariably PRI governments - have been relatively stable, have spent very little on military purposes (what Mexico spends on the military, as a percentage of national income, is one-tenth of what Britain spends), and have used the state effectively as a driving force for capitalist development.

By 1980 Mexico's industrial production ranked it 10th among the world's capitalist powers -ahead of the Netherlands, Belgium, and Sweden.

The dependent character of this development is indicated statistically by the fact that by level of manufacturing exports Mexico ranks only 26th -but for all that, the share of machinery, equipment and other manufactures in Mexico's exports rose from 8% in 1960 to 36% in 1979. the It's a success story been for multinationals the which have invested heavily in Mexican industry - but not so much for the Mexican people.

70 per cent of the workforce is unemployea or gets only occasional and casual work. About half the population exists on or near bare subsistence level, untouched by the industrial development. The average infant mortality rate is as high as China's.

Inequality of incomes is acute and increasing. The poorest 20% of the population get only 3% of the national income. Real wages have dropped as industry has risen. Official Mexican sources estimate a 38% drop in the real income of the poorest 40% of the population between In 1980 Mexico attracted more net direct private investment, and more publie and publicly guaranteed long-term loans, than any other country in the world. Of the 300 biggest manufacturing enterprises in Mexico in the early 1970's, some 40-odd or 50-odd per cent of the capital was foreign-owned [mostly US].

So the result of Mexico's development is the enrichment of a small elite in Mexico itself, and a big flow of profits and interest to the bankers and bosses of the US, while the mass of the people of Mexico are stuck in poverty.

Austerity The latest decrees of the Lopez Portillo government are partly measures of national self-defence, but partly also preparations for implementing the austerity plan that will be imposed by the bankers of the IMF.

The private banks, now nationalised, have | been making huge profits. $12 billion of foreignonalised oilfields currency (mostly dollar) accounts in Mexico's banks have been converted by decree into peso accounts at a low official rate Industry Food and Chemicals Vehicles Metals Metal manufacturin 300 biggest firms in manufacturing 3010 LA NUTRA SARA, PALLO MOOKING domination of Mexican economy US Klaus

Mexico 1958 Mexico 1977 Britain 1979

(Sc lurces 1967 Debt (billion)

Debt service as % export income 24% of exchange, and exchange controls will 'be imposed. This will block the flight of capital from Mexico estimated at S22 billion over the last two or three years. Many Mexican bankers and bosses have denounced the measures, and in Monterrey are planning a one-day protest lock-out.

But the bank nationalisation - carried out with full compensation -is not comparable to the oil expropriation of 1938. The Financial Times points out:

'If the PRI is to keep control, it must whip up enough patriotic and nationalistic fervour to allow it to implement the stringent economic programme which the IMF is now preparing.

MEXICO, 1972 firms Other • Mexican foreign state 14 20 9 13 10 24 8 11 (Source.

ER.

LU! • El

INCOME DISTRIBUTION

Poorest Richest 20% 5% 63% 3% 58% 7% 39%

Bank, K.Matthies, Transnational U!

nehmen in Mexi DEBT 1976 1980 1982 37% 60% 32% 'This in turn is a major reason why the Government nationalised the country's private banks and took such pains to portray the takeover as a revolutionary and populist measure.' Independence One banker told the Wall Street Jounal: "The leftists seemed to have won the conceptual battle, but the conservatives have won the operational battle for now.' The struggle by Mexico's workers to find a voice independent of the PRI is a long and difficult one.

But it has started. And it is the only way to free Mexico from the exploitation of imperialism and of its own ruling class.

Percentages of total capital Mexican private 16 16 32 (Sourcessame)

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Socialist Organiser no.100 September 16 195: i7zr = International News nternational News International News Arab rulers exploit PLO •efeat Turkey's two years of state terror Begin with Reagan - they need each other THIS September 12 marks the second anniversary of the military coup in Turkey. For the working people in he country, these twe years of military rule have been an unprecedented period of impoverishment On taking power the Generals unleashed a reign of terror, crushing all opposition and imposing a grim and harsh dictatorship. The parliament and government were immedately dissolved, to be replaced by the Generals' National Security Council. The constitution was dissolved and rule by decree became the order of the day.

All democratic institutions were either suspended, banned or dissolved, including political parties, trade and professional associations, the trade union confederation DISK and numerous trade unions.

In 'military operations' that followed the military coup, thousands of trade unionists, socialists and potential opponents to the regime were rounded up and interned. Torture, savage beatings, arbitrary sentences by military courts and all forms of intimidation awaited the 100,000 political prisoners, while thousands fled into exile in Europe and the Middle East.

Especially ruthless measures were taken against the Kurds in Turkey. The Generals hurriedly mobilised extra army divisions to crush any possible resist. ance in North Kurdistan Phone From the Turkey Solidarity Campaign Information Bulletin TSC is a broad-based, democratically organised campaign. All decisions are made in National meetings by members and representatives of affiliated organisations, including many trade union and Labour Party branches.

Local committees organise meetings and publicity events, and raise funds.

Please help us by joining TSC and subscribing to the Turkey Information Bulletin.

and to stifle the national and democratic aspirations of the Kurdish people. Secessionist movements were picked on for a particularly avage repression.

Devaluation

The austerity programme dictated by the IMF and aimed at rationalising the economy and opening it to foreign capital has resulted in the devaluation of over 200% of the currency, an inflation rate of 50-60% and a protracted economic ..RON? PHIL HABIB HERE... I THINK BOTH SIDES The recent bankruptcy of the country's leading broker house with a deficit of £0.5 billion has sent the financial establishment into turmoil and has accelerated the crisis. Payments of foreign debts have had to be rescheduled once again because of the country's inability to meet its commitments.

A series of mass show trials against the 52 leaders of DISK, the Underground Miners Union, the 30 leaders of the Turkish Peace Association, the Teachers Association, as well as a number of Turkish and Kurdish political organisations are being staged. 4,000 defendents in these trials are charged with 'subversion' and face the death penalty.

Diversion

As the Generals approach the second anniversary of the coup, they are attempting to divert attention from their increased repression with promises to return Turkey to democracy in the next year. Last month the Consultative Assembly, nominated by the Junta, approved the new constitution in principle by 135 votes to one. The draft is expected to be ratified by the Junta in September.

But the form of democracy the Junta proposes with the new constitution is rigid and authoritarian. For the generals, 'democracy is only a facade in their drive to establish a lasting repressive regime in Turkey; the constitution providing them with a legitimate basis for the de-facto extension of military rule.

The Junta's constitution has already been called the 'restoration of the Sultanate taking back Turkey 106 years' by a former cabinet minister, and Dr. Sever Tenolli has described it as 'a constitution that is against even the most basic human rights. Not democracy but only fascism can be established with it' THE BLOODY Israeli invasion of Lebanon and the defeat it inflicted upon the PLO and the Lebanese Left has — as hoped by the American imperialists brought a substantial shift in Middle East politics.

First President Reagan was able to float a US 'peace plan' without it being rejected by any of the major Arab leaders.

Then, only days later, the summit meeting of Arab states and the PLO in the Moroccan capital of Fez came up with its own 'peace plan'. This, Like the Reagan scheme, offers de facto recognition of the right to exist of the Zionist state of Israel.

The Lebanese invasion successfully combined the task of weakening the Palestinian resistance while exposing the hollowness of the rhetoric of the 'rejectionist' Arab states, who failed to lift a finger in any significant action to defend the PLO.

Inpotence The overwhelming superiority of the Zionist military machine has also revealed the impotence of the Syrian land and air forces in Lebanon to continue the struggle without external support. Syria's vocal opposition to any deal with Israel has therefore been undermined.

Under these conditions the more overtly reactionary and pro-imperialist Arab regimes - of Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Tunisia, and Morocco - have been given the excuse they wanted to step up the pressure for a political settlement with the Zionists and their imperialist sponsors.

The eight point plan THE underground leadership of the illegal Solidarnosc trade union confederation in Poland. has issued further calls for demonstrations against the martial law imposed by the Stalinist regime.

On September 30, Solidarnosc supporters are call. ed upon to commemorate those gunned down by riot police during the demonstrations on August 31.

On October 21, they are urged to mark the second anniversary of the formal registration of Solidarnose as a union, in the wake of the momentous strikes of 1980.

And further peaceful demonstrations are called for on the 64th anniversary the Fez summit calls for:

• Israeli withdrawal from all Arab territories occupied in 1967, including Jerusalem.

• The dismantling of Zionist settlements on these territories.

• Guaranteed freedom of worship.

• The recognition of the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination and of the PLO as the Palestinians' sole legitimate representative.

• The West Bank and Gaza Strip to be placed under UN control for a transitory period.

• The establishment of an independent Palestinian state, with Jerusalem as its capital.

• A UN guarantee of peace among all states the region.

• UN guarantee of respect for these principles.

The plan goes further than Reagan's proposals of Polish independence, November 11.

Warning against provocations particularly appropriate in the wake of the Polish embassy siege in Switzerland _ the Solidarnose leaders urge supporters to ignore all calls to action not sanctioned by the Provisional Coordinating Committee [TKK] or by regional union leaders.

THOUSANDS of prisoners 'suspected' of belonging to the Palestine Liberation Organisation or to the parties of the Lebanese Left are being held by Israel.

By Israeli reckoning, a doctor in a PLO hospital, or teacher in a school set up by HARRY examine: plan' (see last week's Socialist Organiser) in that it calls explicitly for an independent Palestinian state (opposed by both the US and Israel); and it tails to make any explicit reference to Israel.

But Reagan's scheme called for the establishment of 'Palestinian self-government' on the West Bank and Gaza, in association with Jordan: and the Fez plan calls only for Zionist withdrawal from the territory invaded in 1967 - thus implicitly recognising the long-term continuation of a Zionist state, even though its borders are not defined so large as might have been expected before, and the summit confirms the ascendant influence of pro-US regimes in the Arab world.

This does not mean, however, that the Begin government in Israel is satis-, fied. It has branded the BOLIVIA'S military junta, last week informed the world's bankers that their economy cannot even pay the $10.2 million in interest immediately due on the country's $4 billion external debts.

The official economy has run profoundly into crisis with the recession having produced a collapse in prices of Bolivia's tin exports. But at the same time the illicit cocaine trade - largely run by the army top brass. - is booming.

the PLO in the refugee camps, is also a 'terrorist"

Many eye-witness reports have been collected of prisoners being beaten to death or shot in cold biood. Most of the prisoners are held in camps in south Lebanon, crowded into tents on bare le Fez plan as worse than the previous tentative Arab plan drawn up by the Saudi monarch King Fahd. And it has vociferously denounced the Reagan initiative.

On the ground - or rather in the air over Lebanon - Israeli forces have stepped up the pressure on the Syrian troops and miss. ile placements dug into defensive positions in the Bekaa Valley - plainly hoping to force them into a further retreat.

But Begin plainly recognises the potential impact of the Reagan plan on Israel voters and on the 'Jewish lobby' in the USA - both of whom are far more willing than Begin to contemplate exchanging the West Bank and Gaza for a longer-term peace treaty, and more reluctant than Begin to defy the wishes of US imperialism.

Israeli 'Labour' leader Shimon Peres has declared his support for the Reagan plan and offered to fight an election on the issue. Begin has responded by anguished complaints that Reagan is attempting to overturn his government.

Pointing out that it is "known US practice" to try to topple governments which do not suit it, Begin accused Reagan of "gross interference" in Israel's affairs. "Our American friends must remember that Israel is not Chile and I am not Allende" ', be added.

Reagan of course is attempting not to oust Begin but to convince him and his Zionist colleagues of the way in which their interests - and those of imperialism - can best be served by a grand alliance of the forces of reaction against the oppressed and exploited Arab and Jewish working classes.

According to the Finaneial Times one of the leading cocaine traffickers a few weeks ago "offered to pay off the national debt out of his own pocket in exchange for government favours"

And in April bankers were irritated at rescheduling $450 million in loans to Bolivia when they knew that 'the Bolivian narcotics and military fraternity could easily have paid this money out of their current bank accounts" (FT. September 11).

ground. There are no sanitary provisions, and diseases are becoming epidemic.

It seems that the Israeli authorities want these people to die.

An international campaign to save them should be organised urgently.

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ilist Organiser no.100 September 16 1982 Page 6 The second strand of ana aaverusing. tills arive orwara by wom- aigning due bat Labour's strategy is to Doubtless, such a lead en has been met by Parl- legal abortion on demand, challenge sexual discrimin- from the top is long over- iamentarians putting for- and don't need telling that ation at work. This idea is due. But this is where the ward legislative proposals "legislation is necessary" emphasis of Labour's on what they see as best We want a firm, precise Subscribe!

Organiser no.100 September 16 THE CHAPTER on 'Women and women's rights' in the Labour Programme 1982 notes that 'over half the population are women" - and proceeds to devote four pages to us, or 1.5% of the total programme.

Still, this is over twice as much attention as is paid to gay rights. And in these four pages, and in some 30 other references (six more than the number to 'public ownership'), Labour commits itself to some very important reforms.

Important — or obvious, and not enough? And 'commits itself to' - or 'expresses good intentions on'?

Consistently, the programme links the achievement of women's equality with our right to paid employment: surely a victory for the 'Women's Right to Work' campaign. The Tories' philosophy that married women have no right to a job is attacked, and the way in which women especially have suffered from Tory economic policy is condemned: female unemployment, cuts in social services turning women into unpaid carers for the elderly, disabled and sick, discrimination in welfare benefits, etc.

Stereotyping

The programme, quite rightly, sees this discrimination as further enforced by sexual stereotyping, in the trade unions (though not, apparently, in the Labour farty!), in the media, in advertising, and in an all-pervasive general attitude.

To right this, Labour proposes three main strategies.

First, the Programme addresses itself to women's position in the home.

Child-care facilities must be expanded, and paid employment reorganised to stop sole responsibility for child-care falling conRates: £5 for three months, £8.75 for ix months, and £16 for a year.

Bundle of five

each week: £12 for three months.

Bundie of 10: £21 for three months.

Secantes Ing s0. Z3 trade La London te so2 sistently on the woman.

The Tories' policy of paying child benefit monthly will be reversed; local authorities will be expected to providé suitable facilities for battered wnman tn eask rafias from TULLEL We DOCA IELUGE HUMI their 'marital homes'.

There will need to be & shorter working week, better paid parental leave, and more flexibility of working hours (part-time work, job sharing, etc.).

A vital omission is the necessary guarantee that shorter working hours are achieved without loss in pay. And also omitted from the whole Programme is an adequate policy to make sure there are any jobs available at all, for women or for men, flexible or inflexible.

The proposed reforms would be a big step forward for married women, but we can't let Labour deal with us as if we are all married, or potentially 80. Certainly the programme makes provision for single parents by promising to make child and single-parent benefits realistic and weekly. But 'major expansion of child care facilities' is a woolly phrase compared with the demand for free 24 hour child care facilities which is what women need.

And child care, although an enormous part of the problems that tie women to the home and define their role in capitalist society, isn't all. Rearranging working hours so that a husband can help look after the children is all very well, but it won't help if all it does is liberate women to go shopping and cook that same husband's tea. The demand for free 24 hour child care facilities must be linked with a programme for access to communal laundry "and cooking/ eating facilties, for women to be liberated from domestic drudgery.

taken quite far.

FOR the first time in his political life sexual politics were on the agenda in the Labour Party in a major way, Bootle M.P. Allan Roberts said recently.

He was speaking at the national Gay Festival, held in Sheffield over the August Bank Holiday weekend. Over 500 lesbians and gay en men attended the event, which, as usual, was almost totally ignored by the media.

The festival was signifiant for lesbians and gay polax = de country and the fo: Gas IT IL TN 5E32 225 TE discussions were well attendFor once it is realised that stereotyping begins in school, and Labour pledges to work towards redressing the sex balance among teachers, eradicating sex bias from textbooks, and "giving girls and boys equal learning experiences to develop all types of capabilities and interests"

The most far-reaching proposal, however, is for the introduction of 'nositive action plans'. These will be begun by civil service and government contractors, and expanded to include local authorities, other employers, and training and educational bodies.

'Their aim is to remove the job segregation that follows from : traditional stereotyping in recruitment, education and training. It will be backed up with a code of practice to control both serism and reinforcement of serual stereotyping in the media ed, with around 100 people packing the meeting addressed by Allan Roberts.

He said that a lot of people who had not previously joined the party were now joining and a lot of other people were leaving because of the hardening of its commitment to socialist politics. 'It is all for the good, he stated.

It was very important not only that the Labour Party addressed itself to gay rights, but also that gays. were involved in the party in orde: to change society. He seei is the only way F:it = = :: members exconcern over the •E.C.'s decision not to implemen: proposals in The JENNY FISHER looks at what's on offer for women in Labour's WOMEN FIGHTBACK march for jobs of programme falls down.

The document is full of references to "building on the Sex Discrimination Act". But surely the experience of this piece of legislation has shown that legislation in itself, no matter how well-founded, doesn't work to change attitudes.

Where are the suggestions to bring women into Dolitics so that they can have their own influence on forming the legislation that affects them — even in the limited form of the attempts made by the Greater London Council and Islington council women's committees?

Labour women have shown, by the doubling of the number of delegates at this year's Labour Party Women's Conference, that they want to be at the meetings and involved in the decisions about the politics that shape their lives. And Rights Gay Men and Women' discussion document. Anger was voiced about the proposed moves to counter the illegality of homosexuality in the armed forces and merchant navy and the dropping of the commitment to implement the Campaign for Homosexual Equality's draft Sexual Offences bill, which would ensure the end of all legal discrimination.

John Shiers of L.C.G.R. told people at the meeting that the organisation intended to fight these discriminatory proposals through to total victory. L.C.G.R. would be mounting a lobby o: the party conference in an attempt to increase delegates" awareness of discrimination against gays and to urge the conference to amend the N.E.C. statefor women.

The Labour Programme. admits that the Sex Discrimination Act and the Equal Opportunities Commission haven't succeeded, but does not draw the conclusion that Labour may be using the wrong methods. Instead, they seek only to use these same methods more extensively!

Legislation is important. But a party which identifies politics purely with parliamentary legislation will change little Anerace DULLEDD depends on women organising, and using the strength this gives them by fighting together.

Why not rush through proposals for Labour Party workplace branches (and workplace women's sections?) which would give women workers a structure to organise with?

The focus on legislative proposals, to the neglect of the other conditions for change, is evident in the third strand of the Programme. Labour recognises that comparing a woman - - AL -1 worker's pay with a male worker's is not very effective, given the concentration of women in certain jobs which are low paid for everyone.

So Labour will introduce the concept of equal pay for work of equal value, to help women who are not able to compare their jobs directly with a man's.

Good. But who will assess the 'value' of jobs? The same "impartial' industrial tribunals.

The woolliness on childcare is matched by a lack of clarity on abortion:

... legislation is necessary to ensure that all women have a right of choice in the termination of a pregnancy, within the time limits currently allowed by legislation. We shall give priority to improving NHS facilities... 8o that choice can be effective wherever the woman lives""

Women have been campaionino for vaare for fras ment to get a commitment to full equality.

Fringe meeting

The organisation has also arranged a major fringe meeting on Tuesday September 28, at the Cliff Hotel, Blackpool, to be addressed son, Ken Livingstone and Peter Tatchell. A speaker from the Gay Youth movement and the Judith Williams Defence Committee will also attend the fringe meeting.

In recognition of the importance of this year's conterence for gays, Gay News, the country's only national gay newspaper will be producing a special Labour party conference edition.

from LCGR commitment that introduce a law".

The promise to improve NHS facilities sounds very positive. But it must be remembered that the standard of the NHS has been severely eroded by years of Tory (and Labour) cuts. Will Labour give a pledge to restore all these cuts immediately, and to improve facilities much, much further still? If not, aren't the promises about effective choice just empty words?

Not coherent It's as if the Labour Party is making a genuine attempt to use its future legislative power to improve women's situation, where women's problems have been spelled out and made obvious to the Programme's authors, but lacks any coherent analysis of why women are oppressed (from which measures which follow) or how the resources to change society can be mobilised (from which a strategy to make the measures practically possible would follow).

This is apparent from the emphasis on how legislation decided by the (men in) Parliament can help, at the expense of encouraging women to organise and be influential themselves.

Marriage, and therefore monogamous heterosexual relationships for women, is not questioned at all as a legal, economic, and social institution, despite a willingness to reduce the discrimination for women within it.

One major promise is to end the financial discrimination against married women by taxing married people separately. But here too there is little to make us confident that this is more than a good intention which of course a future Labour government wil find 'impossible' to implement because of 'priorities' ', 'lack of Parliamentary time', 'the crisis', 'the difficult situation' , or some other reason.

'Our aim" , says the Programme, "is to create a very different society, in which women are no longer oppressed"

The Programme seems rather to suggest that, far from 'creating a very different society', all the Labour Party seriously intends to do is tamper around a bit with this one.

The Programme assumes that legal improvements are what's needed to remove women's oppression. But the society where women are no longer oppressed must, above all, be defined by women.

What is needed can only be defined and fought for by mass organisations of women: it is this which the Labour Party must encourage. And it must also consider whether the kind of society which no longer oppresses women is in Parliament's power o grant.

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mocrac Socialist Organiser no.100 September

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Women in struggle