Part 8 - DW062 001 030 008

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(Cont'd from p. 7) have been rushed there. FROLINAT have killed and captured many soldiers, shot down a Jaguar fighter and liberated the town of Abi, 260 miles North East of the cap- ital city of Najamena. The French are also deeply imp- licated in the recent coup that overthrew the progressive govern- ment of Ali Salih in the Indian Ocean Pepublic of Comoros. Robert Denard, a French mercenary who served with the Katangese gendarmes in the early 1960s, arranged the coup and is the effective power in the new government. France refuses to hand over the Comoro territory of Mayotte and also main- tains troops in Djibouti despite "granting" it "independence". The island of Réunion is still a direct colony. There are large French garrisons in Senegal and Ivory Coast, which act as bases for aggression. France is also the only country to openly supply the racist South African regime with arms. Whilst French intervention in Zaire had a limited progressive role in that it helped to beat back the Soviet-engineered invasion, this does not mean that Marxist- Leninists support the Zairian reg- ime or the motives of the French. Their intervention is goaded by the desire to keep a hold on their Shaban supplies of copper, industr- ial diamonds, cobalt, uranium, radium, gold, zinc, tin, nickel, chrome and manganese. Moreover Marxists do not support a regime with 70 per cent infant mortality in its capital city whilst its leader is the second richest head of state in the world. France and other second world countries should be supported when they take steps to counter ther superpowers, especially social imperialism, but we must not forget that the basic nature of imperialists does not change and what motivates the French intervention in Africa, primarily is the need to preserve their superprofits by which they maintain their exploitation of the people at home and abroad. The The policies of the French in Africa show that it is not enough merely to give lip service to Chairman Mao's theory of the three worlds -- it must also be understood. This means we must grasp the real nature of the second world and build the international united front against superpower hegemonism through struggle and not through yielding to the more backward and reaction- ary components of the united front. ** IRAN Iranian students in Britain org- anised protests against the visit of the fascist Crown Prince to "attend the Ascot races" with the Queen. The British imperialists have been firm supporters of the regime of the Shah ever since they put him in power to prevent the national democratic revolution. The "Labour" Government has praised the Shah's fascist policies (for example, Minister of Defence Mulley's speech in Tehran) and an arms deal worth £750 million has been signed. This "visit" coincides with a renewed revolut- ionary upsurge of the Iranian people. NO WARPLANES FOR INDONESIA ! British Britain has agreed to sell 8 Hawk Ground Attack/Trainer Air- craft to the military govern- ment of Indonesia. These planes, valued at £25 million, are by British Aerospace and are able to carry weapons like roc- kets and cluster bombs. What is wrong with this sale? These warplanes will be suit- able for use in the brutal Indonesian government is waging against the people of the former Portuguese colony of East Timor. At least 30,000 troops are being deployed in this war, and the jets could play a cruc- ial role in the future offensives designed to overcome the resis- tance of the people led by FRETILIN. 100,000 people, 1/6th of the population, have been killed in East Timor. The aircraft could also be used against the Free Papua Movement which is fighting for the liberation of West Irian. The sale of these warplanes will strengthen a repressive regime that holds tens of thousands of political pris- oners. The Indonesian govern- ment came to power by murdering a million communists, democrats and patriots. Freedom of the press is non-existent, arbitrary arrests occur constantly and student demonstrators have recen- tly attacked and detained. This sale exposes the phoney concern for "human rights" the British Imperialist govern- ment who have to approve econo- mic aid and arms exports. Not only has this "labour" govern- ment approved the sales but Britain "grants" Indonesia more "aid" than it does any other non-commonwealth country. Requests for more information, offers of help in the campaign to stop the sales and financial contributions to:- British Campaign For An Inde- pendent East Timor, 40 Concannon Road, Brixton, London SW2. MUTINY PAPERS "LOST" The government says that it "cannot find" the records of inquiries held into the British Army mutiny at Etaples in 1917. Army minister John Gilbert has told MPs that the records were probably destroyed years ago. The mutiny was caused by army brutality and sparked off by the shooting of a soldier by military police. Troops captu- red the commanding Brigadier and his officers and threatened to burn them to death unless their demands were met. Later all the officers were thrown into the river. The leader of the revolt, Private Percy Toplis was later branded an "outlaw" in Britain. In 1920 he was shot dead in a police ambush and was buried in a "paupers grave" at Ullswater in the Lake District. The revolt is the subject of a recent book, "The Monocled Muti- neer" by William Allison and John Fairley. Whilst the lives of imperialist bigwigs and Kings and Queens are recorded in minute and sycophan- tic detail, the "loss" of the Army papers on this mutiny shows to what lengths the ruling class will go in order to suppress and distort the glorious history of struggle by the British working class. We must fight to redis- cover and protect our history! POLICE-- Youth Club Raided The black community in Brix- ton has lodged strong protests against the most recent acts of police harassment of youth raids on the Railton community centre on the evenings of 24th and 25th June. Police, includ- ing members of the elite Spec- ial Patrol Group thugs, arrived at the centre on 24th on the pretext of looking for a youth who had attacked a policeman. A black clergyman said, "More than 30 police came in and started walking around, trying doors, before they even spoke to the leader of the cen- tre...if they do this when there are more young people then noth- ing will stop a riot." A leader of the centre said, "I spoke to one of the policemen who came in on Friday night, but while he showed me his identif- ication about 15 more were going around like a bunch of commandos. I appealed to the police but their attitude was so hostile. They took 2 of our helpers away and 2 members who had just dropped in before the disco started." This was the fourth police raid on the club in recent months. Arrogant racist police commander said, "We were look- ing for this man, who we now believe to be a black man, in the obvious places, that is, those places where black people congregate." The Brixton police force is notoriously racist- this is shown not only by famous cases such as the "Railton 3," but also by the many hundreds of arrests of black youths on trumped up "sus" charges-suspicion of "loitering with intent to com- mit an offence," a catch-all charge which could make a person standing in a bus queue liable to be arrested! However, the police are not getting all their own way- the black community is organizing against "sus" and West Indian youth are fighting back against racist police attacks. They know they are here to stay in this country, and they won't stand for racialism, Nazi att- acks or police thuggery! This paper, "New Age," is a paper of and for the working people of Britain. We welcome contributions from our readers. Com- ments and criticisms can be very valuable in helping us to improve the paper; information and articles are also very useful. Readers can also help by sending financial cont- ributions and subscribing (£2 a year), which will help us put the paper on a firm financial footing; selling the paper is first and foremost a political job-if readers buy a few extra copies of each issue to sell, they will be making a contribution to the struggle to build a revolutionary movement, with, in the future, a single revolutionary party of the working class at its core. Please send all subscriptions to: "New Age," October Books, 4B, Temple Court, LIVERPOOL 2. "New Age" is published by the COMMUNIST WORKERS' MOVEMENT (C.W.M.), a young Marxist-Leninist organ- ization of revolutionaries in Britain, which be- lieves that the building of a revolutionary party Our programme, a short general statement of our views, is available from the above address at 15p post paid. Copies of "New Age" are 20p post paid. Please write for details of reductions for bulk orders and discount for shops.

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