[The following statement, signed by the editorial board, appeared in the August 23 issue of Avanzada Socialista, weekly newspaper of the Partido Socialista de los Trabajadores (PST-Socialist Workers party) of Argentina. The translation is by Intercontinental Press.]
We are on the brink of a reactionary putsch owing to the fact that the workers movement has not responded to the political, social, and economic crisis with mass mobilizations. Although the masses have not been defeated and have emerged victoriously from the June general strike, they have been pulled offstage because of the brake of the trade-union leadership. Thus, the stage is dominated by actions of terrorist groups, by criminal provocations of fascist gangs, and finally by attempts at military "solutions."
This situation represents a grave threat to the workers movement and to all bourgeois-democratic institutions.
The Government Is Responsible
The military appears to be divided, discussing different plans. Events show that variants from full-scale Pinochetism! to supposedly "constitutionalist" solutions are being juggled. In the latter case they aim at toppling the president and promise to respect the parliament, the political parties, and the electoral system.
In our view all such variants embody a most serious danger for the workers.
We have not the slightest doubt that the Peronist government is responsible for the current crisis and for maintaining the superexploitation of the workers movement-now under the guise of layoffs—and that it must be changed for these reasons. But only the working class, that is, the overwhelming majority of the country, has the right to carry out such a change. And it has its own way to do it: a mobilization demanding the president's resignation, the installation of a tradeunion representative elected in the parliament as president of the nation, and the subsequent calling of a constituent assembly. As we see it, this is a working-class route to a democratic solution, which uses institutions to serve the working class and which can be carried through, we repeat, if the working class as a whole is mobilized to fight.
The Workers Movement and Democratic Institutions Are Threatened
But this is not the route of the military putschists and the capitalists. In their case-even when they say and think that all they want is the president's resignation and that then they will respect the workers movement and democratic institutions-by unleashing the putschist machinery they put in motion an uncontrollable monster that will probably turn more and more to the right.
That is the lesson taught us by all military coups. The case of the Onganía coup is a difficult one to forget. When Onganía brought down the Radical government he summoned the trade-union leaders, offering them participation, respect, and consultation in exchange for their support. The trade-union leaders put on their neckties, attended the inauguration, and said, "We have to stand aside until the dust settles." The results are well known: We suffered one of the worst dictatorships of our history.
To open the doors to the putschist machinery, no matter how many promises it brings with it, is to collaborate with a terrible danger. However rosy a picture is painted of the coup, it will very soon try to show its true deadly image. Then it will be much more difficult, requiring much more sacrifice and struggle, to topple it.
Those sectors of the parliament, the people's parties, and even the trade-union leadership that support the putschists on the basis of the just demand for Isabel's resignation should know that they are running the grave risk of liquidating themselves, since the coup can end up smashing the parliament, the political parties, and the CGT.+
Let's Halt the Coup Now by Calling and Organizing the General Strike
Only a vigorous mobilization of the workers movement can defeat the mortal danger of a coup, and at the same time provide a response that will finish off the current government, which is responsible for the crisis and the superexploitation of the workers movement.
We call on the CGT, the unions, the coordinating committees, and the entire workers movement to incorporate this fundamental political question into their struggles and to prepare a general strike to be launched in the face of any sign that a coup is beginning. We call on factory and trade-union membership assemblies to demand the following of the trade-union federation:
• A general strike of the CGT against the outbreak of a military coup.
• Against the firings and wage freeze. For the CGT to push for the implementation of its plan."
Iran Has $4 Billion Deficit
Iran's much-publicized stockpile of "petrodollars" has been depleted. The shah admitted in an interview with the Kuwaiti Al Siyassah that Iran, the world's second largest oil exporting country, has a deficit of $4 billion. The shah said the deficit was caused by the drop in oil production, rising prices of industrial goods, the decline in purchasing power of oil revenue, and Iran's domestic economic projects. He said that he would seek loans to cover the deficit.
Notes
1. A reference to the repression following the September 1973 Pinochet coup in Chile. Tens of thousands were killed and jailed in its aftermath and all democratic rights were abolished.—IP 1184
2. General Juan Carlos Onganía came to power in a coup in June 1966, overthrowing the regime of Arturo Ilia. -P Arturo Illía.—IP
3. Unión Civica Radical-Radical Civic Union.- IP
4. Confederación General del Trabajo-General Confederation of Labor.—IP
5. The coordinating committees are composed of trade-union militants' organizations from differ. ent companies in a given region. They began to spring up during the strike in Villa Constitución in March.-IP
6. In mid-July the CGT issued a plan to deal with the economic crisis in Argentina. Among other things, the plan calls for a price freeze, periodic wage adjustments to deal with inflation, the nationalization of foreign trade and banking, and credit for companies in financial trouble.—IP