[The political leaders of Zimbabwe, guerrilla armies, Joshua…]

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The political leaders of Zimbabwe, guerrilla armies, Joshua Nkomo (ZAPU) and Robert Mugabe (ZANU) went to Malta on Monday to see if the imperialists would rescue them from political eclipse.

The imperialists, David Owen and the US representative Andrew Young, went to Malta on Monday to see if Nkomo and Mugabe would help them from being outmanoeuvred by racist Premier Ian Smith.

Stooge lan Smith went to his internal settlement talks on Monday in the hope of signing an independence agreement with the stooge black leaders Chief Chirau (a paid servant of the white racists) and the renegade nationalist leader the Rev. Sithole.

They went to the talks because they hope Smith and the racists will give them some political power which, given their record of betrayal, they could never get from the Wednesday 8 February 8.00 pm East Oxford Communit!

Centre, Princes Street

COVENTRY Tuesday 7 February 8.00 pm Old Dyers Arms Spon End, Coventry black masses.

The third party to these talks, Bishop Abel Muzorewa, stayed at home. He says that is because one of Smith's aides called him a 'liar' Stall the talks But others say it is because British Foreign Secretary told him to stall the talks until after the Malta meeting since the British and Americans want to include him alongside Nkomo (and perhaps Mugabe) in their own rival neo-colonial solution.

So that is where all the characters stood as the curtain rose on what may be new act in Zimbabwe's drawn-out independence saga.

As we go to press it seems unlikely that very much can happen in Salisbury before some clear message has come from Malta.

Opposition

Both Owen and Young set out with statements of opposition to a Smith/ Muzorewa internal settlement 'because it would cause more bloodshed"

PRESS

LIVERPOOL unday 12 Februar! 8.00 pm Mitre, Dale Street LONDON Friday 10 February 7.30 pm New Theatre, LSE Houghton Street London WC2 Plus FILM 'Salt of the Earth' By this they mean it would provoke so much hostility from the black masses that the stable neocolonial solution they are looking for could not be maintained.

Owen and Young are now trying to persuade Nkomo and Mugabe to accept the British/American plan.

This means the disarmament of the guerrillas, and erection of an 'interim' British military dictatorship under Field Marshall Lord Carver.

This would be followed when all seems well by the installation of a client black government (probably under Nkomo and Muzorewa).

They will no doubt threaten that if Nkomo and Muzorewa refuse them they will support Muzorewa deal imperialist troops Muzorewa the Smith/ and use necessary Nkomo and Mugabe Zimbabwe liberation forces to crush the guerrilla armies and their supporters.

Whatever permutation finally results from the present complexes of talks and deals, there is no doubt that it will have to be subsequently fought and overthrown by the Zimbabwean masses.

Compromise

Any peaceful settlement must represent an abject compromise with imperialism either indirectly through Ian Smith or directly with Owen and Young.

Trotskyists must fight in the British Labour Movement for maximum moral and material support to any forces in Zimbabwe prepared to resist the imposition of a neo-colonial sell-out. behind the banners of Provisional Sinn Fein, with some 300-400 supporters.

A contingent of some 30 Workers: Socialist League members and supporters shouted slogans demanding the withdrawal of British troops from Ireland and self-determination for the Irish people.

A short distance away a rival march comprising a variegated display of centrist and self-proclaimed "Trotskyist" groups mustered a rather smaller number of supporters.

Morale booster

Meanwhile in Derry a 3,000strong march organised by the Provisionals was treated to a glimpse of a new morale-booster in the form of the rapid fire M60 machine gun.

While this show of bravado indicates the ingenuity and tenacity of the republican fighters it is a poor attempt to substitute for the development of programme to mobilise the Irish working class in the struggle for self-determination for the trish people.

But while the republican forces find themselves reduced to reformist agitation combined with individual military actions against British imperialism, reactionary forces in Britain are demanding a still more rigorous crackdown on anti-imperialist forces.

Tory spokesman on Ireland, Airey Neave has now hinted at plans to remove democratic rights from Irish workers in Britain:

. Using Eire premier Lynch's recent opportunist speech on Ulster as a pretext, Neave said:

«We've granted special privileges to about a million Irish citizens in this country, they know that Britain is fair and democratic"

Racist laws

He claimed that the attitude of the Lynch. government could cause the question of Irish citizenship to be reviewed under the already blatantly racist immigration laws.

In conclusion, Neave said that Britain had already suffered insults and accusations from the Republic and:

.. We're no longer going to bear these insults with a stiff upper lip"

This speech should be seen for exactly what it is, a further Tory threat to the already limited democratic rights of Irish workers, especially those who have the audacity to criticise Britain's 'fair and democratic' behaviour in Ulster.

These Tory threats must be resisted by the whole trade union