[Ever since the general strike • July forced…]

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Ever since the general strike • July forced President Isabel feron's right-wing government to withdraw its plans for masave wage-cuts, a military coup as been a major danger. This danger has in no way receded Mince the abortive Air Force boup of December 18-23rd.

The armed forces have been divided only about what form the poup should take. The ultra-right as envisaged a coup to impose pomplete military rule combined with savage general repression of all ppposition on the lines of the Chilean junta.

"MODERATES"

The 'moderates' wanted to overthrow the government of Isabel Feron but to govern jointly with Bon-military politicians combining some freedom of political organration in the centre and on the fight with an intensified campaign Dí repression against the left, especially the two major guerrilla groups, the ERP (People's Revolationary Army) and the Montoniros (part of the left-wing of the Peronist movement), who are now apparently working together.

The conflict in the military led do a crisis in August when the 'moderates' won control under General Videla, the present Comsander in Chief, who is in close Fiance with the right-wing opposition Radical party.

The attempted coup on December 18th. was the work of part of Tee defeated ultra-right group in the -Air Force. A small group of officers Further evidence has been building up in recent weeks, since the so-called attempted coup of 25th. November, of the repressive measures being taken against the Portuguese revolution by the Azevedo regime and its military backThe aftermath of the 'coup' has been followed by repression of every kind. Many hundreds of leftists, not just from the army, are now in prison, though few of them have been named. In the Azores, Communist Party leaders are claiming that they have to work underground in the same way as under At the same time, the Azevedo government has introduced a series calling themselves the Blu Cc idor Commandos demanded lat the military overthrow Peron nd take full power.

RELUCTANT The rest of the military moved siowly and reluctantly to subdue the revolt, hoping that it would in any case precipitate Peron's resignation. But when her disillusioned supporters in the leadership of the CGT called a general strike, the military leadership took steps to bring the rebels to heel, stressing however, that they should not be regarded as defeated and themselves openly demanding Peron's immediate resignation.

The Peron clique has been forced to agree to advance the presidential elections due in 1977 to October 1976. This is not enough for the President's opponents who hope to unseat her before this.

BIDING TIME

The military seem to be biding their time a little longer to see if the present Senate investigations into corruption in the Ministry of Social Welfare - previously run by Peron's sinister advisor Lopez Rega and still in the hands of his henchmen - will lead to her impeachment.

Aside from these scandals, Peron faces charges over having signed a cheque for 750,000 dollars made out by a Peronist charity to her own personal account. It was, she says, a 'mistake'.

The stench of corruption of Peron's regime has brought outdealing with the economic crisis by attacking the conditions of the working class.

There are to be public spending cuts and some rationing, while price increases are to be allowed.

At the same time efforts are being made to "boost exports' especially in textiles, but there have been great fears expressed at the possible introduction of import controls in Britain, where 80% of the textiles are bound.

The political changes being introduced are also of considerable importance. The dissolution of the Armed Forces Movement and of COPCON do not indicate an end to military dictatorship. They do sho however, an attempt to strengthen the rule of capitalism.

The political parties, especially

SPLIT

The enormously powerful metal workers' union (UOM) has recently split down the middle, with Victor Calabro (who is also Governor of Buenos Aires) leading a breakaway faction opposed to Isabel Peron. The Peronist UOM leader has himself been forced to distance himself somewhat from the President.

Similar pressures face the leaders of other unions as the workers find that the general strike victory of July has been hollow since real wages have been slashed by the continuation of rapid inflation (over 300% in 1975). It is estimated that workers living standards have fallen by 15 to 30 per cent in the :232 Rebel airmen patrolling the abortive coup attempt. the PPD and the Socialist Party, will be given legal powers to go back on the 'platform of constitutional accord' signed in April last, and to form a government with greater pretences at democratic and legal support.

The promised elections, like the EEC referendum in Britain and the General Election in Australia, will be fought 'on ground chosen and dictated by the capitalist class.

The working class and peasants in Portugal will only guarantee their revolution by building their own organisations, factory and tenant committees, which have remained intact since 25th. November. They must demand that their leaders take the power, and if they will not, they must build a leadership that can push them aside and do so itself. last six months (40% for state employees).

The growing splits in the unions follow the major and irrevocable split last year of the Peronist Justicialist Party. The breakaway left wing of the movement has established the Authentic Party with close links with the Montoneros guerrillas.

In the face of the extreme dangers facing the working class of Argentina this left-wing of Peronism offers no way forward. Its political keynote is a demand for a return to the policies of General Peron! Its methods combine the left words and parliamentary and electoral manoeuvres of the Authentic Party (declared illegal by Peron on December 26th) with the provocative and costly military adventures of the Montoneros (even though recently the guerillas have linked some of their activities to the worker struggle - for instance, the kidnapping of the Mercedes executive released last week was successfully linked to the concession of the demands of striking workers in the Mercedes plant). streets of the Argentinian capital during their Argentinian The struggle of the American ruling class against African national independence received a major setback when on December 19th., the Senate voted to halt CIA expenditure in Angola.

The CIA's latest counterrevolutionary escapade, the funnelling of money and arms to the reactionary FNLA and UNITA through the "friendly" neighbouring government of Zaire, was long an open secret. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger fended off criticism by claiming that American funding was in temperate response to growing Soviet intervention.

Kissinger's claim had two defects. First, the sides in Angola are On December 24th the Montoneros and the ERP staged a desperate raid on a military barracks in which about 70 of their members are reported killed.

A second raid, two days later, apparently to recover the bodies, led, it is reported, to the death of well over 100 more guerillas. This is the way, not to build a revolutionary movement, but to waste and destroy the strength and political power of the working class along with the lives of courageous militants.

INDEPENDENCE

The struggle must be fought to break the working class from its links with Peronism, and establish its clear political and organisational independence of the employers and the state. In this, the fight for a sliding scale of wages and for armed workers' defence squads based on factory committees to defend the workers' movement against ultra-right attacks must be centrai points of programme. the disarray of the American ruling class. While all sections of the bourgeoisie wish to defend America's stake in international capitalist exploitation, some are frightened by the prospect of fighting another Vietnam from an economically weakened position, and with a discontented and militant working class breathing down their necks.

It is this fear which moved the Senate to curb CIA activity. President Ford's public statement about "loss of credibility" and Kissinger's back-room manoeuvres were not the use of Defence Department money for clandestine operations in Angola.

The Chinese Stalinists, supporters of the FNLA until the tide be-

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CO of 'austerity measures' aimed at

repression ntinues

enough to keep the Senators from forbidding, by a vote of 59 to 22,