GENERAL PINOCHET Unile chose September this the seventh anniversary the military coup which overthrew Allende's Popular Unity government, to bring in his latest attempt to nion. Under threat ori fool international sixty-day prison sentence, Chileans went to the military-controlled polling stations to vote for a new constitution.
This constitution has been met with the international derision deserves. It Pinochet in power for at least the next eight years, and allows him a further period of office UP LO 1997. the eight-year "transition period to democracy. Pinochet . can veto any decision of Congress, or dissolve Congress, or simply rule witnout it under a 'state of mobilisation' 'state of siege', 'state of emeraency or 'state of catastrophe'. Torture HOne demnation of this constitution, and of the increased repression in Chile over the last six months (highlighted nere bv the torture student Claire Wilson), is important in showing Pinochet that his cosmetic trappings of democracy' cover for a dictatorial Following nouncement of the now He stated th constitution on August, dinating committee was formed of the left parties with the addi. tional involvement of the Christian Democrats. •Through this unity, major demonstrations of protest at the constitution and Pinochet's rule took place, the largest. demonstration since the coup at the end of August when Christian Democrat leader Eduardo Frei addressed a rally of over 6,000 further 30,000 people filled the streets outside.
A major anomaly in Chile's situation is the position of Britain, now Pinochet's • greatest Western friend. Nicholas Ridley, Foreign Office Minister for Latin America, has repeatedly demonstrated the extent to which Britain will go in efforts to improve relations and opportunities with Chile. Claims Throughout this year he has contradicted the evidence and claimed that? the human rights situation the an in Chile has improved.
believe Sheila was tortured, and now ic excuses the torturing OT Claire Wilson by saying she is only 'accidentally (she English father but was born in Chile).
The National Executive Committee of the Labour Party has declared that the next Labour government will reimpose all embargoes sanctions against Chile until democracy is restored. is enough. We should not be prepared. to spend the ot the Tory government being supporters of Pinochet. tatorship, the mass •have power.
The Sandinista dustry owned by and his the of the economy St FSLN, particular principled stand within the Socialist International, is to be applauded. In this framework, dive linke must build direct with the Nicaraguan peo. ple at all levels.
We must work for a labour movement delegation • CO preferably as part of an integrated visit to the whole of Latin America, in order to set to rights the TUC's US Marines sadly misintormea statement on Nicaragua.
Such a The authority had said that the Bolingbroke and other hospitals where the prospect of 2.5 million unemployed, the call for a boycott of goods for Chile can be complemented with a campaign to work for Nicaragua instead.
Defending from the threat of foreign intervention. is vital. • US support for the military-civilian in Salvador and its war of genocide against the people may well lead to direct intervention, either by the through the provision of arms finance and political support for an invasion by the One of those arrested a worker at George's Hospital, was suspended America and allowed to overturn the hard-won victories of the people of Nicaragua, it will feel able to do the same throughout the rest of the continent when the time comes. . On the other hand a defeal for the United States in Central America would be a victory for the workers throughout America.
BUILD LINKS THE PEOPLE!
STOP US INTERVENTION IN EL SALVADOR!
ingbroke, rather than St. Benedicts. This seems likely to have been a Freudian
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(joint secretary Campaign)