BACKYARD MUST ...U.S. spreads "Big Lie"

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8 SOCIALIST ACTION NOVEMBER 1986 (continued from page 1: “More on Nicaragua,”) deception was discovered because a 19-yearold Nicaraguan soldier held a shoulder rocket launcher steady enough to down a CIA aircraft that carried three U.S. citizens aboard.

The one survivor, Eugene Hasenfus, identified an extensive web of CIA agents, Salvadoran military officers, U.S. Embassy officials, and private mercenaries illegally funded by Washington-all working under the direction of officials operating at the highest levels of the U.S. government.

Vice President George Bush's top aide was in direct contact with the mercenaries, and Bush even admits to meeting with the CIA agent Hasenfus describes as his boss. Yet immediately after Hasenfus was captured, the government claimed, "We don't know that guy."

In addition to these two episodes, the American people were dealt another low blow when President Reagan rejected Premier Gorbachev's plan to abolish all ballistic missiles. The reason: Reagan adamantly refused to confine the "Star Wars" project-the next great leap in the arms race—to just laboratory research.

The Strategic Defense Initiative or "Star Wars" plan involves placing hundreds and perhaps thousands of anti-missile weapons into orbit. This would give the United States the capacity to knock out Soviet missiles while in flight. Of course, the rationale for militarizing space is that it will protect the American people from a "Soviet first strike."

But the truth—once you get through the "body of lies"—is that such a "defensive" system would make launching a "first strike" extremely attractive to the U.S. warmakers. Theoretically, "Star Wars" would mean that the United States could destroy any retaliatory missile attack by the Soviet Union.

It would also give the United States the ability to attain the pin-point accuracy needed to destroy hard targets like ICBM silos, nuclear-missile submarines, and the command and control centers of the Soviet In short, "disinformation" aside, "Star Wars" is an offensive system-not a "defensive" system.

Why the U.S. lies The U.S. imperialists cannot satisfy the demands of the world's workers and peasants for political democracy, an adequate standard of living, and land reform. In 83 poor countries, 3 percent of the landlords own or control four-fifths of the land Washington must use force to enforce these class divisions and to intimidate the world's poor. Inevitably, massive social revolutions develop out of these conditions.

Hence, the imperialists must use their military superiority to achieve their political objectives of stopping social revolutions which threaten capitalist profits. The U.S. government either directly intervenes, as in Grenada, or it threatens and destabilizes, as in Nicaragua.

Revolutionary struggles for self-determination like in Nicaragua and the Middle East become conflicts where the imperialists use the threat of direct military intervention to extract substantial political concessions from the oppressed.

Washington demands, for example, that the FSLN government in Nicaragua negotiate with the CIA contra murderers. It also demands that the Palestinians give up their claim to their homeland—to the establishment of a democratic, secular Palestine.

The military arsenal of the United States is essential to accomplishing these goals. But the government's arsenal of weapons is also reinforced by an arsenal of lies. "Disinformation" plays an important role in disorienting and confusing public opinion, thus making it more difficult to mobilize mass opposition to U.S. policies.

Widespread protests against military interventions, mercenary funding, and assorted destabilization campaigns would jeopardize U.S. imperialist interests. The capitalist class in this country is still haunted by the specter of then-President Richard Nixon looking out the White House window to observe 1 million anti-Vietnam War demonstrators.

Government deception is a policy The American people have become accustomed to government "double-speak," especially since the Watergate days. At that time, government documents showed that lying to the American public was official policy for decades.

The modern nuclear era was, in fact, ushered in under a cloud of secrecy and deception. The government purposely hid the fact that the Japanese sought surrender campaign of lies is to divert attention away from the cause of the problems confronting working people. Focusing attention on the alleged dangers to the American people posed by Nicaragua, Libya, and the Soviet Union takes the heat away from the real enemies at home.

The standard of living of the working class has been steadily eroded. Wage rates in major collective-bargaining agreements reached new lows in 1985 and again in the first three months of 1986, when a record low 0.8 percent increase was registered.

And there are millions of Black and Latino youth unemployed. The seemingly low official figure of 7 percent unemployment (this figure excludes those who are no longer looking for work) is higher than at any time during the 1950s and 1960s.

Profits in the second quarter rose $5.6 billion after taxes, the highest level in two years. Next year's proposed federal budget has allocated over $275 billion, the largest amount ever, for the military. This will further increase the profits of the war industrialists.

Now that's worth getting angry about.

But instead, working people are fed lies which channel their frustrations against other workers. One example is the steady diet of anti-immigrant propaganda coming out of Congress, such as the recently approved Simpson-Rodino immigration bill. to change society—working people, the unemployed, farmers, students, and youth. They are the majority who have no interest in financing and dying for "Star Wars" or for the contra mercenaries.

Even after the extensive government propaganda campaign to whip up support for Reagan's stance at the Reykjavik meeting, the majority of Americans still registered their opposition to some major aspects of U.S. policy.

Major polls indicated 61 percent believed that the CIA was involved in illegal contra aid schemes; 66 percent opposed contra funding; and 54 percent supported Congress' override of Reagan's veto of South African apartheid sanctions.

Linking this sentiment with the demand for jobs will place organizers of peace, jobs, and justice protests in the best position to appeal to the millions who are suffering under the worsening affects of the capitalist crisis.

The government's "disinformation campaign" is built on a pack of lies. It will not be sufficient to stop the inevitable massive reaction against the harsh realities of war, austerity, and unemployment.

Major labor, church, and anti-intervention groups are already discussing how to build massive national protests in the spring of 1987. This development is sorely needed and should be encouraged by all those interested in pushing back the strikebreakers and warmakers.