Part 6 - DW062 001 028 006

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6 are the main force protecting ARAB STRENGTH Lebanese independence. GROWING OPPOSITION It seems clear that the attack on Lebanon was plan- ned a long time ago. However, because the Israeli govern- ment is now seen to have re- jected the peace initiative of Egyptian President Sadat, it is now more isolated than ever before in the face of world public opinion. Moreover, this expansionist policy has provoked increas- ing disillusionment and resis- tance among the Jews of Israel. For a long time the Zionist state had been able to mani- pulate public opinion within Israel, but there are signs that this is no longer working. Many soldiers in the Israeli army are sick with what is obviously an unjust war. U.N. ROLE A further complication is provided by the United Nations forces it was brought in under the terms of Security Council resolution no. 425, composed by the USA, which is extremely vague. This calls for preventing armed elements from entering Lebanon. But of course the Israeli aggressors are al- ready there. Apart from (1) the PLO and (2) the Israeli army, which are the main contenders, the different military forces in the Lebanon include (3) the UN force made up of several different national contingents, the most important being French (4) the patriotic Lebanese forces which are fighting shoulder-to-shoulder with the Palestinians (5) the Lebanese army under the control of President Sarkis (6) the Arab force, introduced during the recent civil war, which is mainly made up of Syrians and effectively under Syrian con- trol (7) various right-wing militias, mainly composed of Lebanese Christians, which are prepared to sell out to Israel. Israel is apparently aiming at a triple division of Leba- nese territory: (a) the bor- der area between Lebanon and Israel, to be controlled jointly by Israel and the right-wing Lebanese militias (b) north of this area and to the south of the River Litani under international control (c) to the north of the Litani under Syrian control. Obviously this would mean that there would be no place left for the Palestinians. The PLO have accepted the presence of UN forces, but do not accept the Israeli inter- pretation of the UN presence, i.e. exclusion of the Pales- tinians. The PLO sticks up for the point of principle that they have a right to fight the Israeli troops, since the UN force is nowhere near strong enough to do this. Syria is preparing to resume negotiations for a "settle- ment" of the Arab-Israeli "dis- pute" under the patronage of the two superpowers, is not at all anxious to be drawn into a conflict with Israel, and has been using the "Arab force" to prevent Palestinian rein- forcements from entering the area. Other Arab governments such as Iraq often express very pro-Palestinian sentiments but have in practice been very half-hearted in their support for the Palestinian cause. But the tendency to compro- mise in the face of aggression is not the main tendency. Thus Syria has acted to prevent the main forces of the Lebanese right-wing from launching an attack from the north against the rear area of the Palestinian-Lebanese patriotic forces north of the Litani River. The Arab people are an op- pressed nation with a bitter hatred of imperialism, and are part of the Third World. Because of this immensely strong popular tide, the governments of Third-World countries would be swept away if they did not take a fairly resolute anti-imperialist stand. NEW STAGE OF REVOLUTION The different Arab govern- ments have various strong and weak points in their foreign policy. Under the influence of the great popular movement of the Third World, they should be capable of surmoun- ting their differences and taking a fairly correct anti- imperialist line. It is becoming more and more clear that the militant struggle of the Palestinians which at the moment is inter- linked with the Lebanese people's fight to defend their independence is a frontline engagement in the struggle by the Arab people and the Third World as a whole against im- perialism and particularly the two superpowers. Victory in this conflict will take the international revolutionary movement to a higher stage. BRITISH WORKERS SUPPORT PALESTINIAN PEOPLE Workers at the Prestcold engineering factory in Hill- ington, Glasgow, have sent a petition to the AUEW Exec- utive demanding action over the Zionist aggression agains st the peoples of Palestine and Lebanon. It reads, "We protest at the Is- raeli invasion of Lebanon, which follows a year of raids and bombings of Pales- tinians and Lebanese (unrep- orted in the Tory press). We call upon the EC to support the just struggle of the Palestinians for the re- turn of their homeland. We ask the EC to oppose the Zionist aggressors by campaigning for blacking of all Zionist transport and goods, and the raising of a fund for medical aid for victims of Israeli aggress- ion." The engineers have al- ready sent the proceeds of a collection for medical aid. NO SURRENDER IN MIZORAM The Indian government has broken off talks with the guerrillas of the Mizo National Front who have been waging peoples war for 12years for the independence of their homeland. This was because the guerillas had correctly refused to lay down their arms whil st talks took place. Lebanese demonstrate in Beirut in solidarity with the Palestinians during the fighting in Jordan in 1970 SOVIET SOCIAL-IMPERIALISM MOVES IN ON IRELAND The government of the Irish Republic is giving "serious consideration" to a "generous offer" by the Sov- iet Union to build a zinc smelter worth more than £100 million. This smelter would process ore from the 85 mill- ion tonne lead-zinc ore body at Navan, naar Dublin. The social-imperialists would be repaid in guaranteed low- price refined zinc. The ques- tion being considered by the Fianna Fail government is merely what proportion of the total output of refined zinc should be handed over to the Kremlin bosses. This deal shows the com- prador or "gombeen" nature of the Irisn capitalist class; they will willingly sell their country not only to British imperialism but also to any other imperial- ism if it will help them stay in power. It also shows that the Soviet Union is no socialist country, but an imperialist power that exports capital in or- der to reap super-profits. FRANCE Aftermath of French elections UNIFIED M-L PARTY SOON IN FRANCE In the recent National Assembly elections in France, the coalition of openly right wing parties held onto power, resisting the challenges of the phoney "left" coalition of social-democrats and "Communist Party of France revisionists. The French Marxist-Leninist parties, the Marxist-Leninist Comm- unist Party of France (PC MLF) and the Revolutionary Marxist-Leninist Communist Party of France (PCRMLF) stood together in the elec- tions under the name "Work- er and Peasant Union for Proletarian Democracy." Un- like all the bourgeois par- ties of "left" and right, they participated without illusions in bourgeois dem- ocracy, not primarily to gain votes but to help pro- pel the class struggle for- ward and as part of the struggle to unite the French Marxist-Leninists. Whilst all the other parties ignored work among the immigrant workers who could not vote, the Marxist- Leninists intensified their activities amongst them dur- Continued over.

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