ON EL SALVADOR Jenny Pearce (author of Under the Eagle) El Salvador Solidarity Campaign

Scan page 5

within the PLO and abrupt shifts of position by Yassir Arafat.

Another strong voice • of opposition to any deal along the lines of the Reagan plan has come Labour Movement for Palestine: c/0 ≤ Mansions, Holmlei London N16. mpaig Carltor Road, East, the need for labour movement solidarity with the Palestinian struggle and for political clarity within that »struggle remains stronger than ever. the emergence of popular opposition; and in doing so to prevent the Nicaraguan revolution having a l "knock on" effect on other struggles now being waged in If the US could produce a situation of civil war in Nicaragua four years after the defeat of Somoza, it would deal a blow to the morale of the left wing forces currently battling against dictatorship in El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras.

It would also further reduce the comparatively small flow of arms and material assistance from Nicaragua to the guerrilla fighters of the FMLN in El Salvador. And it could pile added pressure on the Cuban leadership and their Soviet backers, who have shown themselves reluctant to become in any way directly involved in the Salvadorean conflict and only to a limited extent committed to material aid for Nicaragua.

Secret document

In this context, Reagan could hope - if all turned out according to plan - to press for a regional settlement, in which the weakening US position in EI Salvador coula be offset by holding several thousand guns to the heads of the Nicaraguan leadership. Salvador.

Significantly the recent visit to Mexico of US Secretary of State George Schultz saw him accompanied by Treasury. Secretary Donald Regan. Mexico is $80 billion in hock to the Western bankers, and despite strenuous US denials that this factor is being used to pressurise them into compliance, there is no doubt that the US delegation will have explored every possibility of bringing the Mexicans into line.

At present Mexico - together with Panama, Colombia, Venezuela and the Dominican Kepublic - is pressing for a negotiated settlement involving the guerrillas in El Salvador: This is also the line of the Second International: In each case the main fear behind their advocacy of this policy is that the US-backed regime in El Salvador will be overturned by the armed guerrilia struggle, and trigger a new wave of militant resistance throughout Central and South America.

Key to the Mexican plan is the present leadership of the Salvadorean opposition PDR, whose objective falls far short of socialist revolution and is limited to establishing a cross-class reformist government.

The FDR is based in and' runs its financial administration from Mexico - ind has long appealed