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abortion bi Syrian President Assad with Cuban leader Castro Picket against Queensland anti-union laws, London 1977 ;

Still unable to put a foot right either at home or abroad, President Carter has blundered into yet another embarrassing mess over the Cuban "boat people"

As cold war anti-commun ist propaganda, his invitation to reactionaries to leave Cuba and come to the USA might have seemed like a good idea at the time: but as a practical realify. in which tens of thousands of criminals, unskilled workers and ageing professional pcople have herded across the Florida Straits to add themselves to the last-growing US unemployment figures, the move is a sure-fire loser.

Even the bourgeois press has been forced to admit that at least 20% of the now arrivals are criminals and layabouts whose chiet impact on the US will be to depress average carnings of junior employees in the organised crime rackets in the area.

And even the most optimistic estimates show that the numbers involved, while indigestible for the USA, are far from disastrous for the Cuban economy.

Carter Indeed only 100,000 out of a rotal population of 10 million are thought likely to leave-a mere 1% of the population.

This is scarcely a propaganda coup for Carter. Nor are his desperate and belated etforts to stem the tide of immigration with increased coastal patrols, heavy fines and other restrictions.

Meanwhile the kind of social tensions being exacerbated by this disastrous gimmick were indicated by the Miami riots, in which the hand of fascist elements in barbaric attacks on seek: and orientals could be dearly deracted.

In Miami itself unemploymen: in the black ghetto areas Is esilmated as high as 36% in some parts. This, however, is a not uncommon figure in other US cities.

With the recession now well under way in the US and mass lay-ofts In the car industry, Carter must have fingers crossed that the Miami events are not repeated in the black ghettoes of Detroit and elsewhere-at least before the Presidential many drawbacks and disadvantages. But the new balance of forces in S.W. Asia created by the presence of 80,000 Soviet combat troops on the borders of iran and Pakistan has had the side effect of dramatically enhancing Moscow's influence throughout the entire region. ..

A clear indication of this new situation was last week's conference of Islamic foreign ministers in Islamabad.

Of course there were some well-publicised setbacks for the Soviet bureaucracy: in particular a contingent, ot Afghan rebols, brought in to the conference as part of the Iranian delegation, were allowed to address both a closed session of the conference's political committee and a press conferencethough they were not recognised as a formal delegation.

And the January conference demands-for the withdrawal of tai s The Queensland state government, notorious for its repressive anti-union legislation, has failed in its attempt to ram through an anti-abortion bill even more draconian than that of John Corrie in Britain.

Proposed by state premier Mr. Bjeike-Petersen, the bill would have restricted abortion strictly to women facing death or likely to commit suicide as a ON Afghan rightist Soviet troops from Afghanistan and the right of the Afghan people to choose their own government-were upheld.

But these minimal gestures were, in the words of Iranian Foreign Minister Sadeq Gotbzadeh, "the least we could do".

They were not backed up by any substantial support to the war being waged by "the right wing Afghan rebels: even a measly £11 million hand-out result of giving birth-and only then after securing the consent of three doctors!

Bjeike-Petersen's original draft even excluded abortion for victims of rape or incestthough he eventually climbed down on those in the face of huge protest.

But his vicious bill failed to win support from the rank and file of any of the state's three main parties.

Instead it incurred the outright opposition not only of the Australian Medical Association, but also of tour of Bjelke-Petersen's own government ministers, who joined with 11 back bench supporters of his coalition to secure its defeat in Parliament by 40 votes to 35.

a two-nation ministerial committee with the task of seeking a political solution to the situation in Afghanistan.

Contacts

The committee is composed of ministers from Iran and Pakistan, and-despite the fury of the Afghan rebels-is expected to make contacts with the Soviet-installed Barbrak Karmal regime in Afghanistan itself.

' In this respect the decision, while formally pressing the case for an immediate and unconditional Russian withdrawal fits in neatly with Karmal's recent offer of talks with Pakistan and Iran on a non-aggression agreement.

The Pakistani regime, in particular, has increasingly formed the view that US imperialism, however willing in theory, unable in practice to offer military defence of the bourgeois regimes in S.W. Asia against what they see as a looming Soviet threat.

The Pakistan government was particularly enraged that the US imperialists, in the wake of the Afghan invasion, offered only $400 million in aid as a bribe for the transformation of Northern Pakistan into a frontline base for the Islamic guerrillas to operate across the border.

This was rejected-as a sum large enough to compromise General Zia's regime as a US puppet in the eyes of the masses, but not large enough to facilitate serious military defence against Soviet forces.

Since then, the US administration has obstructed credit arrangements to Pakistan involving some $200 million.

Correctly suspicious of such cynical allies, and respecting the evident military strength of the Kremlin, Zia's regime has spearThe IMF this week showed its approval for Turkey's Demirel government by extending $1.625 billion special drawing rights over the next three years.

Imperialism's interest in Turkey is based on the need for a firm foothold of support in an area of the world where the movement of the masses has left it with no really stable ally.

The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development has pledged $1.16 billion to Turkey for this year alonebut many of the OECD nations were expected to hold back release of their pledges, until steps to "legitimise" and render permanent its occupation of the entire city. of Jerusalem, the Saudi minister at Islamabad pointed to the contradiction between unlimited US support the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan.

The influence of the PLO delegation at the conference was heightened by this tactor, and also by the dramatic rise in the resistance of the Palestinian people in the occupied West Bank against their Zionist oppressors.

And the PLO (which on the fifth day of the conference declared its support for the Turkey had reached deal with the IMF.

The latest extension of credit, should be seen as an indication of approval of government policies, in particular the January economic package which included a 33% devaluation, consumer price rises of 100%, attacks on nationalised industry and incentives to foreign investors.

But the IMF clearly wants more than this. Support for the Justice Party government is based on the willingness shown by Demirel to launch a huge attack on workers struggling to defend their basic rights and living standards.

The workers movement government in South Koreathe Islamabad conference is testimony to its slackening hold in the vital Gulf region.

Conspicuously it was faraway Morocco which led the pro-US lobby at the conference.

The voice of "realism" which once led the reactionary Islamic regimes • to look exclusively to imperialism for support against the oppréssed masses in their own countries, now increasingly urges them to seek a political deal with the Kremlin Stalinist bureaucracy, which has emerged as the predominant force in the area both willing and able to restrain revolutionary struggles. internationally r must be t to the threat posed ti Turkish masses.

DON'T LET TURKEY BECOME ANOTHER CHILE Workers Socialist League Pamphlet Price 30p including pep From WSL, BM Box 5277, London WCIV 6XX

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END STAIRS AIN" O: Laurence Sparham,

for the Zionist occupation of Palestine and its opposition to