MIM Notes 35                    Jan 23 1989 

Oppression around the World


U.S. HAS AIDED CAMBODIAN REBELS

As part of its global campaign against all Soviet-supported 
governments and rebels, the United States has supported rebels 
in Cambodia (Kampuchea). The program is a covert $12 million a 
year in aid.

The figure was cut to $8 million a year this year by Congress 
because of corruption in the program. Military officers in 
Thailand had stolen $3.5 million of the aid. (New York Times, 
10/31/88, 2)

The stealing of U.S. aid, which also happened extensively in 
U.S. aid to the contras and Marcos, is typical in the aid of 
the U.S. to the Third World because the U.S. relies on shady 
and unpopular characters to do its dirty work. The U.S. 
imperialists are unable to administer an aid program with 
popular support and vigilance. Luckily for the people of the 
world, U.S. military aid can never be as effective dollar for 
dollar as the resources spent by a people's liberation war.

UPI DENOUNCES LATIN AMERICAN POLITICS IN OPEN

In a supposed news article, the United Press International 
(UPI) stated its opinion of politics in Latin America. 
"Besides his other headaches, President-elect  George Bush 
will to (sic.) have to deal in Latin America with a new crop 
of troublesome politicians, including leftists, populists, 
radicals and freaks." (Tampa Tribune Times, 11/27/88, 21)

That was the first paragraph of the story.

The story refers to Chile's President Augusto Pinochet as 
supported by "conservatives" in Chile. (Fascists or right-wing 
authoritarians would be more appropriate.) (Ibid.)

AP SOUNDS ALARM ON PERU

The Associated Press ran an article which portrayed Peru as 
ungovernable. "'We are in the middle of total chaos. There is 
a complete lack of government,' said labor leader Flavio 
Rojas." (St. Petersburg Times, 11/26/88, 3a)

The article noted the worst recession this century, inflation 
of 1200 percent, food shortages, lack of drinking water in 
Lima and other industrial bottlenecks.

"'Our country is a mess . . . There are these long lines and 
then the deaths from terrorism. No one can restore order to 
Peru.'" (Ibid.)

The AP article follows a trend in bourgeois journalism that is 
reversing the early tendency to dismiss the Sendero Luminoso 
as irrational and liable to fold imminently. Now the bourgeois 
press is concerned about Peru. (See the New York Times, 
7/17/88, and LA Times writer Abraham F. Lowenthal reprinted in 
Hartford Courant, 10/30/88, d5)

U.S. CALLS AFRICAN NATIONAL CONGRESS (ANC) "TERRORIST"

On January 10th, 1989 the Pentagon issued a report that listed 
the ANC as one of the 52 "'more notorious terrorist groups.'" 
(New York Times, 1/14/89, 3) The State Department repudiated 
the characterization after initially approving of it.

The apartheid regime applauded the initial report.

The State Department has flip-flopped repeatedly on its 
characterization of the ANC which is the pro-Soviet armed 
liberation group in South Africa.

BURMESE PEOPLE REVOLT

"The armed forces, which formally reasserted power on Sept. 18 
with a rampant abuse of human rights and the killing of at 
least 1,000 demonstrators." (New York Times, 1/9/89, 1)

In a complicated situation that MIM has a dim understanding 
of, government troops have also had their hands full with 
guerrillas from national minorities. The ethnic group Karens 
operate on the border with Thailand.

The Karen rebels overrun government outposts. According to a 
Burmese government official, fighting to reclaim the outposts 
cost 444 lives in the past three months alone. (AP in Ann 
Arbor News, 12/30/88, c6)

Comrades who can forward insightful articles on the current 
revolt in Burma to MIM should do so.

IMPERIALISTS DUMP TOXIC WASTES IN AFRICA

To dump toxic waste in Africa costs up to $2500 a ton in the 
imperialist countries, but in Africa it can be as little as $3 
a ton.

For this reason Guinea Bissau agreed to a five-year contract 
with European dumpers at $120 million. Guinea Bissau's annual 
gross national product is $150 million. (New York Times, 
7/17/88, 1)

As a result, Nigeria has established the death penalty for 
those who agree to accept toxic wastes. The Ivory Coast has 
established large fines and prison sentences for the same 
purpose. (Ibid., 10)

UNREST BUFFETS ALGERIA

"The rioting began the night of Oct. 4. By the time it 
subsided five days later, about 250 people had been killed, 
most of them youths. About 1,000 people had been wounded and 
3,000 arrested, unofficial reports said. Other reports have 
spoken of as many as 500 dead. The government has refused to 
issue casualty figures.

"The demonstrators were protesting food shortages, high 
unemployment, sharply rising prices for consumer goods and the 
growing gap between the haves and the have-nots. . . . Damage 
here [Algiers--ed.] and in other cities was heavy." (New York 
Times reprinted in St. Petersburg Times, 10/16/88, 25a)

SOUTH AFRICAN CAPITALISTS DIVIDE SLIGHTLY

"The chief executive of South Africa's largest commercial bank 
has decided to leave the country for a post in Europe." (New 
York Times, 1/17/89, 1)

Christopher J. Ball reportedly found that the relations of 
production in S. Africa were holding back the forces of 
production as Marx would say.

"'He was discouraged by the ceiling that Government policies 
had placed on the country's growth rate.'" (Ibid.) In other 
words its hard for the economy to go anywhere when 80% of it 
is not allowed to take its full role in the economy.

Ball had given $40,000 for an anti-apartheid ad. The regime 
found it unwise to arrest him, but the action apparently 
seemed scandalous. (Ibid., 4) 

IRAQI KURDS REPORTEDLY FACED CHEMICAL WARFARE

After the cease-fire with Iran, Iraq's military turned its 
attention to the Pesh Mergas, guerrillas claiming to support 
Lenin but not the Soviet Union. Kurds are a national minority 
spread through Iran, Iraq, Turkey and elsewhere. In both Iran 
and Iraq, many are engaged in revolution to establish their 
own country.

The Kurdish guerrillas are generally receptive to Marx, Lenin 
and Mao, but it appears that the Pesh Mergas are not Maoist.

Iraq drove 60,000 Kurds into Turkey with its chemical warfare. 
Several thousand eventually went to Iran. According to a 
Turkish government official, care of the Kurds will cost 
Turkey $38 million in the next year.

Meanwhile, thousands of Turkish troops themselves are engaged 
in their own battle with Pesh Mergas in the southeast. (Los 
Angeles Times reprinted in Ann Arbor News, 12/27/88, c1-2)

THIRD WORLD DEBT AND RECESSION KILL 500,000

A UN report says that 500,000 children died last year because 
of the effects of Third World debt and recession. 900 million 
people live in countries experiencing economic decline -- most 
of Africa and much of Latin America.

"In the world's 37 poorest countries during the last few 
years, health spending has been cut in half, while education 
spending declined 25 percent, the UNICEF report said." (UPI in 
Boston Globe, 12/20/88, 7)

25% of children in Nigeria, Pakistan and Papua New Guinea are 
born underweight. "Laos had the highest rate of underweight 
births with 39 percent, while the lowest rate of 4 percent was 
reported in the Netherlands, Norway, Finland and Sweden.

"In the United States and Britain, 7 percent of all children 
born were underweight, compared to 6 percent of children in 
Canada and the Soviet Union." (Ibid.)

Marx turned out to wrong that the gap between rich and poor in 
Europe and the United States. However, the capitalist world is 
still proving him right on the whole.

Marx made the controversial prediction that the more 
capitalism progressed the more absolutely immiserated the 
international proletariat would become. In other words, the 
economic conditions would become worse for the proletariat.

When one examines the facts above, the hunger situation and 
the increasing tolls of capitalist wars, Marx turns out to be 
correct.



SOCIAL DEMOCRATIC DEATH SQUAD STARTS IN PERU

The Rodrigo Franco Command is the name of a new group that 
takes paramilitary actions on behalf of the ruling party APRA. 
It kills Senderos, conservative critics of the regime and 
journalists.

The regime claims to be seeking to shut down the group, but 
the death squad has inside contacts in the highest levels of 
the APRA government. The regime has made no arrests in 
connection with the death squad. (New York Times, 12/4/88)