Saturday, April 30, 1968
1988 1988-02Read it in the scan (PDF at ETOL), page 3 →
Read from the scan by machine and not corrected: expect misread words, and now and then a caption or a line from a neighbouring story. For anything you quote, read the scan.
Scan page 3
Procita Park Thrnunh the Mission District Dolores Park The San Francisco Mobilization for Peace, Jobs and Justice is organizing a mass protest demonstration for April, 30, 1988. The four demands listed on the leaflet above have mobilized over 150,000 people during three consecutive years of Through the Mission District spring actions.
This observation is consistent with what Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev stated last year when he pledged to help the United States promote "regional stability" throughout the world in exchange for an arms treaty today-and trade agreements tomorrow.
These goals were given a further boost by the Reagan/Gorbachev summit meeting last December. Gorbachev enthusiastically promoted the Central America peace plan process, thereby conceding the right of the United States to "negotiate" the internal affairs of Nicaragua.
This slight has not escaped attention. The Sandinistas may be forced to negotiate and make concessions because of grave imperialist pressures, but they have not delegated this right to others-and that includes Gorbachev.
Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega, for example, in an interview with the French daily Le Monde (Dec. 15, 1987), highlighted the negative consequences for Nicaragua of the summit agreements between Reagan and Gorbachev.
"With the signature of this treaty," Ortega said, "the United States can now feel itself free to do whatever it wishes to Nicaragua. Strengthened by his new image, President Reagan can attempt to deal a mortal blow to Nicaragua without this calling into question the treaty signed with the Soviet Union."
What is the result of all this confusion? The answer is clear—not one national peace demands.
It is, of course, understandable that the anti-nuclear weapons issue should be highlighted, since June 11 coincides with the Third United Nations' Special Session on Disarmament. But it is a serious error to omit a demand against U.S. intervention in Central America.
The U.S. Peace Council, in particular, insists on excluding a Central American anti-intervention demand from a June 11 action. The U.S. Peace Council, which wholeheartedly supports the Central American peace plan, apparently expects that the plan will resolve the U.S. war against the workers and peasants of this region.
Organizers for June 11 will be meeting in New York City on Feb. 6-7 to determine the character and slogans of the actions. Hopefully, they will reconsider and adopt a clear stance in opposition to U.S. intervention in Central America.
Whatever happens in the short term, one thing is certain—the anti-intervention movement must recover its political balance before it can effectively launch massive national actions so desperately needed to stay the hand of the warmakers. •