Stalinists Back Argentine Junta!

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There should be absolutely no doubt for any class conscious militant, let alone aybody claiming to be a people in tour years, is a brutal agent of imperialism hell-bent on destroying the political and economic organisations of the proletariat. It would seem a self-evident truth.

However, it is not so for the Stalinists of the Argentine Communist Party.

Indictment

As an indictment of the extraordinary treason practiced to this very day in Argentina by the Stalinists we reprint extracts taken from an interview with a leading member of the Argentine CP.

There coul be no more elo quent vindication of Trotskyist politics, no more cynical Stalinist betrayal of those thousands that have died in the cause of the working class.

The French philosopher Bernard Henri Levy interviewed Roberto Vallarino, Central Committee member of the Argentine CP for the Spanish magazine Camilo 16.

How do you see the balance of forces within the Armed I'd say, very generally, that on the one hand there are ultra-reactionary Pinochetist elements and on the other there are progressive elements with democratic tendencies. This is the fundamental reality which no analysis can ignore, Who are these progressive elements?

If you want names, I'll name them: Videla, Massera, Agosti, Suarez, Masson, for example.

other words, you're referring the entire leading apparatus the Junta?

Yes, in a certain sense. But I must emphasise that we are dealing with progressive elements and tendencies. This means definitely and conclusively that the present Argentine government is a progressive It is a government which contains progressive elements which in effect occupy the leading positions within it.

Do you support the Junta'!

Not directly. It would be better to talk of critical support. In sum, you believe it is a mis take to equate Videla with A classic adventurist mistake which can only take the Argentine people backwards.

Backwards in relation to what?

In relation to the recent successes of the democratic and workers movement.

For example?

Well, for example the fact that Argentina today has commercial relations with all countries independent of he ideological orientations of its governments. But don't forget that there exist Pinochetist elements which are opposed to this. Progressive therefore means trade with the USSR?

In this case it means putting relations between states on the basis of peaceful coexistence. Don't the violations of human rights worry yo?

Naturally they do. 71 of our own party militants have disappeared.

Out of a total of 15,000 disappeared persons according to Amnesty International.

That is an exaggerated number which doesn't square with reality. Moreover you have to be very careful with the problem of human rights as to where you draw the dividing line. This is interpreted differently by left and right.

When the USSR opposed any condemnation of Argentina in Not only is the leadership divided politically but also very few sections of it are uncontaminated by political or financial scandal.

The usefulness of faceless Premier Francesco Cossiga in the last few months has been that, among the main leaders, he was almost alone in not being known for any specific scandal.

Rare commodity

In fact he was not known for anything-except for having a vague reputation for moral uprightness" (a rare commodity among leading Christian Democrats).

In the last two weeks all that has changed. Everyone has now heard of Cossiga-and, no doubt, he wishes they hadn't.

Because he is now at the centre of one of the biggest of all the many scandals of Italian politics-the Donat Cattin affair.

Until recently Carlo Donat Cattin was one of the two vicepresidents of the Christian Democrati part. = boze atatlisted isade: #e FRieD an agreement with the Communist Party.

He resigned in embarassment from this elevated position when it was revealed that his son Marco was being hunted by the police as an alleged left-wing terrorist, specifically a member of a group called Prima Linea (First Line).

Cossiga is under fire because he is alleged to have tipped off Donat Cattin (the father) that his son was being sought.

Cossiga denies the tip-off Argentine Junta the UN, was this a left position?

Naturally. If this were not so our people would be isolated and this would strengthen the Pinochetist gang. and has been exonerated once by a parliamentary committeebut by only a narrow margin, thus constitutionally allowing a form of impeachment in parliament.

The Stalinists seized the opportunity to further embarass the Christian Democrats a few days before the local elections.

CP leader Berlinguer says the CP will proceed in parliament against Cossiga (who Berlinguer's cousin).

The whole procedure reeks of opportunism.

On the one hand the CP was trying to produce a smokescreen to cover its own dismal failures in control of the main municipalities since the last municipal elections in 1975.

On the other hand the CP is trying to present itsell as the main enemies of lett terrorsm in Italy, suggesting that the Christian Democrats really connive at it.

Although in the aftermath of the elections the CP may well wish to soften the site:

Se up once again to the bourgeoisie in parliament, it has now probably opened up a Pandora's box of scandals which it will be hard to close again.

At least the mud slinging allows the CP to battle it out with the Christian Democrats without ever having to talk about programme.

If forced to do that the CP would be obliged to reveal its political bankruptcy and total inability to offer Italian workers any way out of the effects of i the growing slump.

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Marxist, that the Videla dictatorship, which has murdered over 25,000