Kurdistan Crackdown

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of black terror in Kurdistan; led to the overthrow of the with more executions of mili. Shah's dictatorship, the Shah's tants from the Kurdish Demo. massive army was never Khomeini's army has now moved deeper into Kurdistan to extend the hold of reaction over Iran.

But the advances made this week by the armed forces do not mean that the Kurdish rising has been crushed.

Although all the Kurdish towns are now in the hands of the army, these gains were not the result of military victory over the Kurdish fighters.

In Mahabad and the other towns, Kurdish forces offered only token resistance to give cover for a major withdrawal öf their armed fiahters.

Exodus

As the Iranian army rolled in, Kurdish inhabitants moved out in one mass exodus after another, heavily depopulating every town. In particular, armed militants pulled out to regather in rural areas and continue the struggle with their conventional methods of guerilla warfare.

And a five-day arms amnesty in Kurdistan brought a grand haul of only six firearms handed in to the government forces!.

These new conditions give fresh opportunities to khomeini's hangman, the Ayatollah Khalhadi. Defying calls to retum to Tehran. Khalhadi is deepening his reian cratic Party and other forces.

A e name time the WAVe of reaction has produced attacks by armed. gangs on Kurdish villages, with 46 people massacred in one such pogrom at Garneh.

The development of the war in Kurdistan so far has shown quite dearty the strength of Khomeini's army. Battered and demoralised by the revodutionary struggles which Firing squad in action in Kúrdistan disbanded and destroyed.

At the first opportunity, Khomeini himself sought to rebuild a unified weapon of reaction from the scattered fragments.

His success can be judged by the campaign in Kurdistan, where the army machine was able to operate in a coordinated and efficient manner despite guerilla attacks from Kurdish forces and disaffaction and even mutiny in its own ranks. Today the army has become one of the main props of the Khomeini's rule, holding him up in his drive to impose absolute dictatorship on the masses of Iran.

At the same time, it still represents a dangerous threat to his power, ready to step in if Khomeini proves unable to establish the authority of Islamic reaction and preserve Iran as an area of profitable exploitation for capitalism.

Khomeini

Muscles

Since 1972, Cuba has been a member of Comecon, the Moscowdominated international economic alliance.

But it has not been part of any formal military alliance with the Soviet Union, and so remains entitled to membership of the conference of non-aligned nations. • The power of this position has been very plain during the week-long Havana conference when, having disposed of Tito's opposition, Castro was given the opportunity to show off his muscles in front of 90 or more countries against an unexpected attack from the imperialist giant itself.

In what looks like yet another diplomatic blunder, the Carter administration decided to attempt to discredit Castro's position in the non-aligned conference by "discovering" 3,000 Soviet combat troops in Cuba.

Their presence was finally given away to the US spy sattelite, it seems, by their soccer pitch!).

It is almost certain that these troops have been in Cuba for the last ten

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•INIEKNAIIUNALOF REACTION Dettie Clinton reviews "The Spiral', a new film on Chile, to be shown for 3 weeks at the ICA Cinema, The Mall, London SW1 as There are 2 major weaknesses in The Spiral-which is an extremely good film about the events which precaded the Chilean coup 6 years ago, bringing General Pinochet to The film, at 2 hrs 25 minutes is too long. This makes it impossible to use the film as the introduction to a discussion in a meeting. This problem links in with the film's other weakness which is the failure to pin-point, let alone draw out, any lessons of the betrayals of the Popular Unity government of Allende and the criminal positions of the The blurb put out with the film describes it as the 'definitive' film of the situation leading up to the coup. In many respects this claim holds true. The role of imperialism, working through such companies as ITT, is traced; so are the moves of the right in Chile, and the machinations of the army; and so too are the responses in the working class and the mobilisations of the petit-bourgeoisie. But the Labour leaders are not dealt with in their contradictory role power.

CP leadership. between workers and capital.

The film however makes a good starting point from which to draw out the lessons of the Popular Frontism in Chile which led to the massive defeat of this highly organised, combative working class.

The film opens with Allende 'speaking his prophetic words in December 1970:

"They will have to riddle me with bullets to stop me furfilling the programme of the people."

This speech was delivered in the stadium which was to become in September 1973 a contEntiation camp.

CIA Jubilant scenes are shown on the election of the Popular Unity government in 1970. The criminally tragic sogan of "The people united will never be defeated" rings out through the The film is divided into 7 parts which grind on to the coup and the military junta taking over.

Part 1: The plot shows the attempts by the right-wing in collusion with the CIA, the International Telephone and Telegraph Company and the Kennicot/Anaconda Copper Company to destabilize the government through planned economic sabotage to try and siop the confirmation Allende as the president by parliament on October 24.

• A mass exodus of' money abroad creates chaos and a new right-wing group "Fatherland and Freedom" is formed.

Political assasinations begin with the most notable being General Schneider.

• Imperialism justifies its intervention by arguing the need to safeguard American: capital investments.

El Mercurio Kissinger caustically states that we (imperialism) won't allow a country to go communist because of the "stupidity" of the people.

The CIA use El Mercurio, the paper it finances, to pump out its propaganda.

BAR felt able to overthrow governments, dispatch troops and crust workers anywhere in the wortd with impunity.

In fact some of these interventions are shown in Part 2The Game-in Cuba, the Bay of Pigs invasion, in Santo Domingo and in Saigon.

.. The massacres in Chile were coldly calculated over a period of years.

Games

In 1965 the game Politica' was devised by the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy in Cambridge, Massachusetts. • The game uses the government, the major political parties, the urban oligarchy, the middle class, the proletariat, foreign capitalists, local embassies and the armed forces in an imaginary country with a strong copper industry as a model to explain how to engineer a coup d'etat in a country during a period of class confrontation:

Chile was the working out in practice of this 'game' The history of first British then US domination is also sketched out.

The Chilean government is shown to be well aware of the machinations of imperialism.' Allende makes an impassioned speech at the UN shortly after his election, telling of the ,aggression perpetrated against the economy.

This is increased, as we see in Part 3 (The Front) when the government nationalises the copper industry and a total of 91 major companies.

Using Swiss business men, an attempt is made to flood the market with copper and force the price to rock-bottom on the London metal markets.

The World Bank cuts credit to Chile, The newspapers and the television, which was still controlled by the Christian Democrats because of a law safeguarding jobs, swing into full support for right wing anti-government Land Reform 47% of the land was unused but when reforms were proposed to end this the landowners - destroyed machinery and crops, set up road blocks and moved cattle to Argentina:

Farm workers did not sit back. They organised strikes and occupations of the land. councils and had to fight both the landowners and the government who continually attacked their haste' and "impetuousness' and tried to legally hold them back.

•Throughout the life of the Popular Unity government the workers developed their organisations.

Minister

The left wing group the MIR were shown to be organising the peasants to take over land.

This became harder after Mias, a CP member, was made Minister of the Interior.

He reversed the previous positions on pushing ahead with land reform and coined the slogan 'Consolidate to move forward":

The urban workers, too, however, strengthened their organisations.

They set up cordons which included also non-unionised sections, including. women in the communities.

The squators living in slums in the outskirts of the cities developed their own administrations and milltias.

During the shopkeepers' strike, when the workers at the government distribution agonof September 14.

The film can be hired in Other Cinema - fee £35. cies took control of distribution, workers committees to hunt out and prevent hoarding were set up. Left wing students put their labour at the disposal of the working class.

Meanwhile the flotsar and jetsom of political life were being mobilised. • The famous pots and pans demonstration of housewives blazed the trail for the right.

80% of women did not work outside the home. The CD made great play for them.

Right-wing studente ocoupied Santiago university and demonstrated against the 3000 Chlieans were 'educated' in the Institute for Free Labour in Virginia.

An association of protes. sionals CUPROACH claiming 50,000 members was formed and exProsident Eduardo Frai came to the fore again.

Castro visited Chile In 1971 to try to bolster the govern. ment's tattered imago but is condemned In the flim for giving the fasciste a onure round which to organiso.

More and more youth ware gathered together by the farcists.

All thin la displayed In Part 4 (The Move) loading up to the Blow in Part 5, the truckownere strike, in Ootober 1072.

The US fleet was convenAllende could say was "We are the government but we do not hold all the power.".

The Weapon' being forged in Part 6 shows the history of the Chilean Army and Kennedy's counter-insurgency training programme for South America.

The machlavellian influence of General Viaux grinds away in the background.

Finally the right closes ranks to form the 'Democratic Confederation! • In June 1973, an army unit attacks Santiago. This is the dress rehearsal.

' Loyal Forces"

Allende calls on the 'peoplé' "rely on the loyal foroes".

The working class leadership still put forward no pollcies to defend the independent otrength of the working class ag, workore and peasant militias. Their The Church leade the attack on the Educational Reform Plan and rallies support for the right.

new government on 9th August which Includes 4 military men.

The "Fatherland and Frap. dom" group call for sabotage and over 250 attacks on government property are made, partie. ularly on the communicationa systems.

General Prats rosigns and Pinochet takes over.

By this time inflation is ot 424%. A copper atriko taken place for • 41% Inoremo In wages on top of the 100% promised to all workers.

The truckowners strike agsin. A purge of all government sympathisers in the navy is carried out.

On the 3rd Anniversary of the Popular Unity government 1 million people demonstrate in the streets. Counter demonstratlons and assarinatione follow.

The scone is sot.

Collaboration

On 10 septamber 1973 the alr force bombed the Presiden. tial Palace and the military junta took over.

Although the flim makers say that they reject the view that the brutal outcome in Chile was a traglo Inevitablilty, le often seems to bé presentad as such.

Even to say: "tho Implloit message in that the splie of resotion and terror aould have been halted, but only if the organisad foroes of the Lott had united around a revolutionary propramma."

missen out the cruclal point.

The real problem was the way that the Sociallet Party and Communiet Party leadership tied the Chilean working clane to the treacherous class collabora.

tion of the Popular Unity and eaboraged attempts to forgo an Independent revolutionary road.

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