Cia Operation Exposed

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O'Leary quits Up against imperial laws Fighting for IN A chill warning to anyone who might underestimate the determination of the Reagan administration to roll back revolutionary struggles in Central America, Newsweek magazine has uncovered a major CIA operation aimed against the Sandinista regime in Nicaragua.

A major expose published this week points to the build-up of CIA forces in Honduras and their links with former members of the notorious National Guard of deposed Nicaraguan dictator Somoza.

The operation is supervised by US ambassador to Honduras, John D Negroponte, infamous for his activities in Vietnam, and selected for his utterly unscrupulous dealings with torturers and butchers.

Also involved are top figures in the Honduran military apparatus, and a squad of 20 'advisers' sent by the Argentine military junta, who (contrary to reports during the Falklands war) have continued their activities without interruption.

The Newsweek report is plainly published now in order to "blow the whistle' on what it judges to be a dangerous and potentially embarrassing adventure.

It alleges that a mixed force, comprising Miskito Indians, miscellaneous reactionary. forces inside Nicaragua itself, and gangs of Somocistas financed from Miami, is being pieced together by Argentine and CIA instructors in ten bases.

Apparently the operation began under the guise of intercepting supplies of arms from Cuba and NicarDavid Norris of the National Gay Feder ation in Southern Ireland spoke to Will Adams GAY Plans by the US against Nicaragua, parallelling the Bay of Pigs operation against Cuba in 1961, have recently been exposed. Harry Sloan reports.

agua to the guerilla fighters of El Salvador, but it has since escalated to a wholesale perspective of sabotage and hit-and-run strikers against Nicaraguan targets, with hopes of toppling the Sandinistas and establishing a right wing government.

They leave no room for doubt as to the politics of such a regime. One CIA protege is quoted as saying:

"Čome the counter-revolution, there will be a massacre in Nicaragua. We have a lot of scores to settle. There will be bodies from the Negroponte... infamous RIGHT border to Managua [the capital] "

Somoza's National Guard had long been a byword for bestial terror until they were routed by the Sandinistas in 1979. And despite talk of restoring "democracy? in Nicaragua, the CIA operation has made no links with the more "moderate' counter revolutionary current involving renegade Sandinista Eden Pastora and former coalition junta member Alfonso Robelo - relying instead solely upon the blood-lust of the Somocistas.

Pigs

It is partly this - bringing the danger that the counter-revolution will be as isolated and fall as flat as the CIA's catastrophic 'Bay of Pigs' adventure against Cuba in 1961 (see pp.10-11) - which alarms Newsweek. But the authors also warn that the operation could unleash unexpected probl ems in Honduras itself, where at present a delicate facade of a civilian presidency conceals the brute reality of military rule.

But American efforts to destabilise the Sandinistas by military and economic means appear to be well advanced. The US-owned fruit monopoly, Standard Fruit, whose banana operation was one of the biggest employers in Nicaragua, has announced that it is to withdraw from the country. The economy remains firmly on the rocks, with the Reagan administration losing no chance to increase the level of disarray.

Which makes it even more laughable for the antiWhat is the current legal position for lesbians and gay men in Ireland?

Lesbians aren't • specifically covered by the law, as in England, except on the question of custody of children for lesbian mothers. There have been a number of cases of discrimination on this.

For gay men we have the position as in England before 1967 (when laws were passed legalising rested conditions. Tere 1861 Offences Against the Person Act, which made buggery illegal, and the 1885 Labouchere Amendment to it, which extended the Act to cover acts of gross indecency (which in practice means any male gay sex), still apply in full to the Free State. These laws were passed by an imperial parliament and have never been discussed by the Free State parliament except one time when Noel Browne put down a question at our prompting.

Under De Valera's 1937 Constitution of the Free State all imperial laws, i.e. laws passed while England controlled Ireland, remain in force except where they conflict with the provisions of the constitution. We argue that this law conflicts with sections 40 and 41 which cover human rights, right to privacy, right to equal treatment, etc. communist Newsweek to warn that another outcome of the CIA adventure is that:

"The Sandinistas have used the attacks as an excuse to spend an estimated $125 million on defence this year"

The Sandinistas want no such excuse - and can plainly ill afford such money.

Jointly

But with full-scale military manoeuvres, involving the US army, navy, and air force, jointly with the HondWe're currently taking this up through the Supreme Court. If we lose there we'll go to the European Court of Human Rights. In view of Jeff Dudgeon's case (Jeff Dudgeon is a gay man from the North of Ireland who took the British government to the European Court of Human Rights and won his case which has forced the British government to change the law on homosexuality for the North of Ireland) we feel we have a good chance of winning in Strasbourg.

What is it like to be gay Ireland?

This depends very much on class and economic position. For professional people with secure jobs it is quite easy to be openly gay. For workers in places such as public transport coming out at work is very difficult. Some of our members have come out at work - this is very important for changing the attitude of their workmates.

I fought in my union -the Irish Federation of University Teachers - to put a motion to the Irish Congress of Trade Unions committing all affiliated unions to defending gay workers. The motion was passed in July this year. I found the blue collar unions generally took a better stance than the white collar uran armed forces, scheduled for the Nicaraguan border areas in December, there is no question that the threat they face is a real and growing one.

The best defence against such attacks is both the arming of the Nicaraguan workers and peasants in local-based defence squads, and the arming of other forces in struggle against imperialist-backed regimes in This is the first time any such motion has been passed. Next year we hope to build on this motion by putting a motion committing the Education Officer to prepare a programme of education on the problems of gay workers.

So far this year there have been four anti-gay murders of gay people in Dublin and Cork. Some of the parks in Dublin which used to be used for cruising are now very dangerous for gay men to enter at night. Gangs of young men wil lure gay men into the bushes, beat them up and rob them.

I see two main reasons for the rising incidence of attacks on gay people. One is the recession. For young unemployed people robbing gay men is a fairly easy source of income. The other is the ideology of the Catholic Church. The Church argues that homosexuality is a grave sin. This provides some excuse for gay bashing.

The medical profession generally takes a conservative attitude on homosexuality. Homosexuality is still classified as an illness. There have been cases of gay people being treated for their 'illness"

There is a small but growing commercial gay scene, mainly in Dublin. These have no political @1924 PANTON IANLY NOWE THE instability of the Fianna Fail government in the 26 Counties, which depends on the parliamentary votes of the so-called Workers' Party to stay in office, has inevitably kept politics in the Republic at the simmering point.

For the Labour Party the prospect of an election 'any commitment to gay rights.

What are the activities of the National Gay Federation?

We take legal action -both trying to change the law and taking up cases of individuals.

We run a counselling service, offering sympathetic advice to gay people.

We campaign through political parties, trade unions and the media for better treatment for gay people.

• We also have a social side. We run discos at our centre every night. These provide a safe place for gay people to socialise. It also means that, unlike the commercial gay scene, the revenue from gay people's recreation goes into the fight for gay rights. We also show gay films.

What is the involvement of lesbians in the NGF?

Thursday evenings "at the centre are women only. This me. ns that the disco and counselling service that evening are run by and for lesbians. Of the 18 members on the Executive Council of the NGF, three are women. I estimate about 10% of our members are women.

There is also a separate lesbian campaign, Liberation for Irish Lesbians, which we work with. time now poses sharply the questions that has dominated the Party's life for the last dozen years: coalition.

The alternative to Fianna Fail is a coalition of the Labour Party and Fine Gael, a conservative party with thin veneer of liberalism.

Labour has formed coalitions with Fine Gael three times since 1973. But the Labour Party rank and file has time and time again challenged coalition, at a cost of successive purges.

The abortive coalition formed between Labour and Fine Gael last year opted for a savagely monetarist and anti working class approach to the chronic problems of the Irish economy, and was brought down because of it. A mood developed in the Labour Party rank and file, and the affiliated trade unions, questioning the whole philosophy of coalition.

Renegade

At the Labour Party conference last week, the Party leader, Michael O'Leary, a renegade leftist and many times a minister, was repudiated when he asked for support for a new coalition. A 'compromise' was carried to put the motion to the Party if and when it becomes an option.

One unqualifiedly good result is that O'Leary has resigned as leader and left the party, perhaps to join Fine Gael. However, the Parliamentarians will certainly try to manoeuvre the party into a coalition. Dick Spring, elected by the Labour TDs [MPs) to replace O'Leary as leader, is an open supporter of coalition.

Frank Higgins

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the Party --NOW -or never?

women little reference to work in that. as one THIS year's Greater London Labour Women's Conference took place on Saturday 30 October at the University of London Union.

The conference seemed much better than last year's. It had a Standing Orders Committee, albeit unelected, who had written standing orders and organised a good agenda.

However, many things haven't changed. The Greater London • Labour Women's Committee still replies to every debate just before the vote.

Things have improved slightly in that the proposer now has the right of reply. However only one person exercised this right, so all but one of the debates ended with the last word coming from the committee.

The real frustration of this conference and other Labour Women's Conferences, is that the motions passed have little chance of getting anywhere.

They may be discussed and referred to some other committee, next year, or not at all. There are too few THE BLIND alley of a womwomen holding important posts in the Labour Party to fight for any of the demands made by women. And it was clear from the Annual Conference that men are not only not prepared to fight for greater representation of women in the Party, but are quite prepared to fight to oppose it.

It is all right to pass token motions on abortion and child care, but they don't want to encourage women to take an active part in decision making.

This frustration was reflected in the number of motions and amendments in the organisation debate.

It was also the subject of the Women's Fightback fringe meeting at lunchtime.

Both the debate and the fringe meeting held an important message. If we want to see our most basic demands adopted as party policy and truly fought for, we must gain more power within the party itself.

This was the longest and most heated debate of the day, with several Militant supporters speaking against women.

The line put by outgoing all or some of the motions for positive discrimination but in the end all the resolutions were carried.

There were two important composite motions on social provisions and the National Health Service.

The first covered two areas. It called on the Parliamentary Labour Party to introduce legisiation to change the way in which pay, tax, social security and pensions are awarded, where women are often defined as dependents.

The second part called for action specifically on the issue of unemployment benefit and a woman's right to work. Most importantly it proposed that a leaflet be produced publicising the discriminatory aspects of the Rayner report, and that this be sent out to Labour Party Women's Sections who should undertake to distribute it in benefit offices and centres for the unemployed.

The National Health Service composite condemned the vicious policies being pursued by the Tory government against the NHS. little reference to It called for united action to reverse the cuts and secure a decent wage for Health Service workers.

Both composites were carried.

Next year's conference will, I think, be much that, as delegate pointed out: changed from this year's, with the newly elected Standing Orders Committee making some much needed changes in the structure of the conference.

The 200 Asian workers, mainly women, on strike for union recognition at Randi's quilt factory in Smethwick, have been receiving help with picketing from local Labour Party members.

Some of the Labour Party members, stewards at BL, have been helping the in

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TOMBOFTHE UNKNOWN ADVISOR

Rose Chapr reports