U.S. hedges on S. Africa, backs Nicaragua 'takeover'

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Lockout at USX The U.S. government is prepared to back a "takeover" of Nicaragua by the contras, President Reagan revealed in a recent interview with the Mexican newspaper Excelsior.

Reagan's threat will be bolstered this month when Congress puts the final touches on legislation authorizing $100 million in aid to the contras. Additional "contingency funds" are earmarked for the EDITORIAL CIA, which will supervise the contra operation. And U.S. Green Berets will be sent to Central America to train the contra forces.

By giving the green light to an escalation of the U.S. war in Central America, the Democratic and Republican politicians are defying the wishes of the American people. Polls show that people in this country are opposed to aid to the contras by a two-to-one majority.

The government has also chosen to ignore public opinion on the question of ending apartheid in South Africa. Congressional leaders are reportedly hoping to arrange a compromise bill authorizing mild sanctions that would be acceptable to the White House.

But even the "tougher" sanctions already approved by the House of Representatives will have little effect in stopping apartheid. None of the bills before Congress are anywhere near as punishing as the U.S. trade embargo of Nicaragua.

Both the House and the Senate have pointedly excluded sanctions on "strategic" WITNESS FOR PEACE minerals from South Africa-such as platinum, manganese, and chromium— which comprise the largest sector of U.S. imports from that country. And neither the House nor the Senate has called for a freeze on South African assets in the United States—as was done, for example, to Iran.

Both houses of Congress have avoided discussion of sanctions against the pene -tration of South African finance capital into this country. South Africa's Anglo America corporation, for example, has used the superprofits it gained from apartheid to become the largest foreign corporate investor in the United States.

Both the House and the Senate refuse to consider taking punitive actions against third countries that act as intermediaries in transporting South African goods to the United States. As an official of The Diamond Exchange recently told the press, "We can get as many diamonds as you want to buy from Israel, from Holland, from anywhere that does business with them [South Africa]. Not to worry."

Political publicity show

The sanctions bills before Congress are mainly for public show—to attempt to reassure voters in November that the (continued on page 13) USX SUX Tina Beacock socialist AChOr