Japan pact

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To thé accompaniment of denunciations thundering from the Kremlin, the ruling Chinese bureaucracy has signed a treaty of friendship with the government of Japan.

The wrath of the Russian bureaucracy has been provoked above all by the 'anti-hegemony' clause.

This declares that neither China nor Japan seeks hegemony (i.e. political domination) over eastern Asia or any other region, and that both oppose attempts by any other state to achieve such hegemony.

Far from standing as a condemnation of imperialism, this clause is understood by all parties as an attack on the foreign policy of the Soviet Union.

The fury of the Kremlin clique has been equalled and surpassed by the jubilation of the Peking leaders-and of every section of imperialism.

Like the major Japanese companies which paid for national advertisements to welcome the signing, the imperialists are enraptured by the economic significance of this 'friendship' Individual deals and general negotiations are increasing at a compound rate which reveals more starkly every day the threat posed to the nationalised property relations in China by the actions of the

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Crowds welcome returned, exiled Trotskyist' Hugo Blanco.

What is your position governmental demands?

We think that the Constituent Assembly was a gain by the masses to the extent that they had forced the government to retreat somewhat from a hard policy.

And it presented the possibility of a democratic opening.

We decided to participate in the elections to the constituent assembly putting • up independent class candidates.

All this was not government's plans.

And even less was it part of the government's plans that the left should take advantage of this to beome the second force in the elections. Also the elections to the Assembly didn't serve their purpose in disorienting the struggles of the workers since the teachers have been on strike for -0 days: there are 35.000 public health workers on strike and also there is a sizeable section of miners on strike.

The government's plans couldn't prevent these struggles. On the contrary, the workers see the Constituent Assembly not only as a gain, but they are beginning to see the possibility of confronting the government itself.

So our position consists of this: how are we going to take advantage of this situation, this workers' upsurge, the Constituent Assembly itself elected by popular vote, to call for the overthrow of the government which has been completely repudiated?

There is unity among the masses. The voting. was a vote against the military junta. Even the ultra-right centres its campaign against the military junta.

In this situation we put forward the demand for a provisional government of the Consituent Assembly, on the criterion that this demand is the best to accelerate the fall of the dictatorship.

Class independence

Does this imply there can be bourgeois ministers in such a government?

No, we are opposed to any bourgeois ministers. We will put forward the demand for a government of class independence.

But we have a contradiction in thè Constituent Assembly. The right has a majority. But it has that position by virtue of a campaign waged against the present military government. When we counterpose the Constituent Assembly to the military government, PRESS, Wednesdai August 1978 Perunan President Bermuder.

the right comes out as a camouflaged defender of the government.

We say to APRA: we have to overthrow the government, we have to demand "down with the dictatorship".

But they then say: NO, because now there is no dictatorship: because from the moment that they called the elections to the Assem bly, there was no longer a dictatorship.

And they also say: yes, we are for removing the present government from office, but first of all let us draw up a new constitution and hold general elections and get rid of the government in that way.

The first thing for them now is the constitution which would take at least a year; then there will be general elections and so on.

Our pressure on them is to say: You were elected on a programme of opposition to the military government, but you haven't offered any solution. So we say to them, let us confront the dictatorship, and we put forward our solutions to the problems.

That is going to help ensure that the 2 million votes which went to the right are channelled into a genuine confrontation with the •military junta and towards a way out of the crisis.

That is our tactic and that's how we are tackling the concrete political situation.

Of course, at no point do we say that the problems can be resolved through the Constituent Assembly, but rather they must be solved by the mobilisation of the working class on its demands. But the Assembly is a concrete tactical question which we have to deal with.

Enrique Alvares We print here an interview with Enrique Fernandez, a Peruvian worker and a leader of the Peruvian metal workers' union, who was elected in June as a member of Peru's Constituent Assembly.

He has had a long experience in the trade union and political struggle in Peru and is a member of the Socialist Workers' Party (PST), a sympathising section of the "Unified" Secretariat of the Fourth International.

The majority of the PST leadership supports the "Bolshevik Tendency" within the USFI.

What are the main union federations?

There are four: the CNT, which is with the Christian Democracy; the CTRP (the Federation of Workers of the Peruvian Revolution) which was set up by the government; the CTP which is dominated by the APRA; and the CGTP which is controlled by the Communist But each of them is divided. In the CNT there is a large faction (also Christian Democrat) called the Christian Trade Union Movement.

The CTRP is split from the CTRP ( Limal: the latter are the people of the PSR. The CTP remains intact but it doesn't represent anyone; it has lost even its traditional strength in the textile industry.

And the CGTP has split in two as well as a result of the split in the Communist Party. Also there are now many independent trade union federations in particular countries.

A unitary co-ordinating body of the trade union federations has been set up. It is called the CUL (Unitary Struggle Command).

It was set up specifically to fight the division. It was set up to organise the general strikes of the last year.

It includes the CGTP, the CTRP (Lima) the CNT and the independent federations which don't belong to any of the four federations. The CUL led the general strike of July 19, 1977.

There was a problem with this CUL. A large section of the vanguard took an ultra-left position and tried to expel the CP from the joint command, organising another national strike on September 20 to demand the re-employment all those victimised after y 19. But no-one went strike; it was a failure.

Disciplined

Does that mean that the CP is still the key to the success of a general strike call?

It's not determining but it is key. Because the CP can do nothing without the rest. The working class is very disciplined.

So. still, if the CGTP sars Don t ioin the national strike thed a large section of the working class will not do so. But there are now large sectors which have broken with it.

basis split in the CP?

Basically there are no political differences. Witat happened was this: after July 19 the government issued a decree sacking all the organisers of the general strike -6,000 workers' leaders.

In my union, for instance, all the leaders were . Among the 6,000 were members of the CP. And they put pressure on the CP leadership to organise another strike to demand their re-employment.

But since the leaders of the CP still had the line of negotiating with the government-and in particular after the banning of all political publications they wanted to negotiate the legal appearance of their weekly paper-they made an agreement with the government not to organise strikes.

But there was strong pressure from the sacked CP militants and the split was between those who were for and those who were against the strikes.

The so-called 400000 ... 2200M. ...: (Majority) supported more strikes and the CP (Unidad) _named after the title of their paper -was against.

But in spite of that there are really no political differences between them. For instance I see a good deal of the main leader of the CP (Majority) Jose Chavez because he is also in the metalworkers' union.

He, for instance, is very concerned about the question of Soviet aid.

He says that when the Soviet Union realises that they have the majority and most of the workers' leaders then the assistance will come to them. That's why they took the name 'Majority' But since the Soviet Union still supports the idea of the newspaper appearing and negotiations with the government they carry on sending the aid to the CP (Unidad).

The actual struggle has not been about the political differences but about this question of money and the party apparatus and so on.

Both the CPs, for instance, say that Hugo Blanco is a traitor and a CIA agent. The CP (Majority) is in the UDP which announced only a week before the elections that Blanco was a CIA agent who had provoked the repression in the countryside.

What other committees are being formed within the workers' movement?

Whenever there is a strike the first thing that is done is to form a coordinating committee. For example there was recently a strike in a textile (nylon) factory in the Central Highway:

Since the workers lived nearby and all were known by the local people, all the Striking Peruvian teachers demonstrate other sectors of the population supported * them and joined together in a very strong march with three or four days of confrontations with the police and so on. The whole population got up to support this strike.

Assemblies

These kinds of committees which are formed in the struggle are called coordinating committees, or sometimes support committees OI struggle committees (that's the commonest name), or in some places they are even called people's assemblies. ..

The problem of the name doesn't matter very much. The important thing is that they perform more or less the same function whatever they are called-the function of supporting the They are integrating committees because they integrate not only the demands of the workers on strike or in dispute, but also the other demands of the people in the zone.

And such committees become recognised because the authorities are forced to negotiate with them.

In Arequipa that lasted 8 days and they won. There, there was a committee to cut the cost of livingagainst the increase in prices of basic commodities.

In what sense did struggle win?

They won because the government brought down the prices. For example, in Arequipa things cost one price and in Lima another, higher, price. And it's still carrying on like that.

Hasn't that provoked similar committees in other cities?

Yes, yes. But there has so far been no victory. In Lima for instance the trade unions are putting forward isolated strikes rather than a united strike. That's why at present in a factory, I don't merely say "Go on strike" but "Let's push forward the National Strike"

National Strike. National Strike. The demands have to be made as a whole.

That is the new dynamic of the class struggle in Peru. Although the workers are divided amongst various trade unions federation, the demands are being made in a more cohesive way

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one of the Fleet Street the Express was pavers can call on if shut hundreds of thousands of neatly set for h The national newspaper Victor Matthews industry is heading for the the central planks of the possibility of a total shuf- employers' strategy were down through a lockout as revealed-a complete Fleet the employers become more Street-wide lockout and a and more anxious about the joint multi-million pound massive wave of disputes fund in which individual which broke out early this capitalists combine to fight year and which shows every Fleet, Street workers sign of increasing. together.

The fund works by a his share o by Sun journalists, two of system of pledges which any urnalists, two of system of pledges which any during the di As hundreds of socialist and republican workers marched -through London last Sunday to mark the seventh anniversary of mith's "Until this evidence was uncovered, many people were saying that the massacre could have been the work of the Rhodesian Selous Scouts" , declared a BBC TV news reporter last week, in one of the biggest frame-ups yet attempted in the Zimbabwe guerrilla war.' Pointing to two dead African guerrillas stretched out for photographers in the sun, the reporter-Ian Smith (sic)-announced that Smith's armed forces had discovered. 'conclusive evidence' that these men were part of Robert Mugabe's ZANU forces-and that these same forces had carried out the sensationalised murders at the Elim Pentecostal mission a few weeks ago. ¡MON internment, further evidence was being spotlighted to show the brutality of British military rule.

In particular, Republican Sun inurnalists 'nego- Sun journalists 'negotiated' a 5% productivity deal last week to put the final stamp of failure on their earlier pay strike.

The strike led with blind ignorance and totally ignoring political questions has nevertheless struck another blow against the Fleet Street employers.

In the waké of the strike vaké of the strike News last week publicised the scandalous: case of john McCallister whe has been held on remand in Northern Ireland for. 22½ months, after being detained in Britain under the so-called "Prevention of Terrorism" Act.

After six days of the seven day period of interrogation permitted under. the • Act, McCallister was charged with causing an explosion in Belfast.

The only evidence against him was his statement extracted during detention. And, two years later he still has not been brought to trial.

The practice of using prolonged remands as a substitute for open internment-which was formally "'ended" in December 1975-has sharply increased since 1976.

. But while these means are used to mete out savage and Lugalet.

The fund works by a instant jail without trial to those accused of violence against British imperialism, there is of course a near-complete silence on the army's daily intimidation and violence against the Catholic population.

The police report on the army murder of 16-year-old John Boyle has only now gone to the Northern Ireland director of public prosecutions, under conditions of mounting scepticism as to the army version of the killing.

It is reported that despite army claims that Boyle was pointing an Armalite rifle at them, the boys fingerprints have not been found on the gun.

And, according to the Sunday Times a post-mortem report shows that Boyle was shot in the back of the head by the imperialist troops.

Behind the whole

one of the Fleet papers can call on down by a dispute.

It is similar to one put together by provincial newspaper managements (and used during the Darlington closed shop last year) but on a very much larger scale.

TV reporter Sally Hardcastle in a series of skilfull interviews with the Fleet Street moguls in 'The Editors' last week, drew out the strike breaking plans by nudges, embarrassing silences and evasions.

Victor Matthews, owner of the Daily Express and the Evening Standard, and a proprietor who openly declares his editorial control, was reported to have been refusing to put up his share of the money during the dispute because torture* minister Roy Mason's conscious directive to the occupying forces to shoot first and ask questions afterwards, which has led to a sharp increase in army • murders in recent months.

The decision of the United Troops Out Movement to focus on Mason's role in Ireland by calling a demonstration through his Barnsley constituency is therefore a correct move which can potentially take forward the struggle on Ireland within the Called. for Saturday / October at 1pm, the demonstration commemorates the tenth anniversary of the major Civil Rights march in Derry, and takes up the call for Prisoner of War status for Irish prisoners of war, (though it fails to demand an amnesty for political prisoners), repeal of the "Prethe Express was selling hundreds of thousands of extra copies every day that the Sun was shut down.

He agreed that a meeting had taken place between all the Newspaper Publishers Association bosses and, asked about the joint shutdown said:

"If that was the right course it is possible that it could have been there ... I think it was considered. yes... It was early days".

Looking thoroughly unhappy about the turn the interview had taken, Matthews said:

"It is easy enough to say that we are all going to close, but it is a lot of money...

Pressed further on the fund, this latter-day Beaverbrook revealed his love of free information.

"I think that financial arrangements that newsvention of Terrorism" Act, an end to media censorship of the war in Ireland, the withdrawal of British troops and self-determination for the frish people as a whole.

But curiously the march organisers do not include the most obvious demand . at allthe demand that Labour Party branches, GMC's and union branches fight for the expulsion of butcher Mason from the Labour Party for his role as chief torture master in Ireland.

This demand offers a tangible way for British workers to take up the Irish struggle within the labour movement and test out the anti-capitalist credentials of their 'left' talking leaders, like Arthur Scargill, President of the Yorkshire Area NUM which has its headquarters in Barnsley. which Sally Hardcastle which Sally neatly set for him by introducing the question of the fund as if it was a well-known fact.

Asked how much aid the paper had been given, he replied:

"We have received a great deal of it and some more of it was promised"

He made it clear that neither the Mirror (which is not in the NPA) or the Express had paid up.

The only conditions for managements agreeing to pay up was that they agreed that the dispute was one on which the management should stay firm and as Lamb correctly remarked:

"I suspect they are all about to run into the same problem"

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nternment lives on-drive out butcher Mason. Sun strike reveals plans for union-busting lockout