Momentum grows for April 30 demo

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Over 8000 antiwar activists —mostly young people demonstrated in San Francisco on March 26 to protest the presence of U.S. troops in Honduras.

SAN FRANCISCO—Seven major anti-intervention protests in 11 days climaxed here with a march and rally on March 26. It was the country's largest demonstration against the airlifting of U.S. troops to Honduras.

Activists in the Bay Area's Mobilization for Peace, Jobs and Justice are hopeful that last month's strong outpouring of protest will continue-culminating in a mass march and rally planned for April 30.

The March 26 event was part of a National Day of Emergency Protests to End The U.S. War in Central America, which was organized around the demands: Bring U.S. Troops Home from Honduras; End U.S. Support for the Death Squad Government in El Salvador; and No Contra Aid.

Protesters assembled at the San Francisco City Hall and marched past the U.S. Army Presidio military base to a rally of about 8000 people on the nearby Marina Green.

Two of the speakers at the rally were cochairs of the Mobilization for Peace, Jobs and Justice: Albert V. Lannon, president, IL WU Local 6; and John George, a member of the Alameda County Board of Supervisors and the Bay Area Free South Africa Movement.

The march was sponsored by three national organizations, the Committee In Solidarity with the People of El Salvador, the Nicaragua Information Center, and the Pledge of Resistance, in conjunction with the major local coalition, the Mobilization for Peace, Jobs and Justice.

Organizers of the March 26 demonstration, although enthusiastic about the turnout, had originally expected more people to participate. The press's praise of the Nicaraguan cease-fire accord probably lulled many potential protesters into thinking that the war is ending.

Support for April 30 The Mobilization, however, will continue to energetically build the April 30 march and rally, which has been planned since December 1987. The demonstration has been called around the demands: No U.S. Intervention in Central America; End U.S. Support for South African Apartheid; Freeze and Reverse the Nuclear Arms Race; and Jobs and Justice, Not War.

The march will go through San Francisco's predominantly Hispanic neighborhood, the Mission District, and will have a lot of Afro-Latin musical groups, dancers from the Carnaval Latino Festival, and a large contingent of farmworkers participating in the march.

A special train will bring protesters up from San Jose. Busloads will come from CHICAGO-By a two to one margin (289,000 to 141,628), Chicago voters passed a non-binding referendum opposing the use of the Illinois National Guard in Central America. The referendum was initiated and organized by the National Guard Out of Central America Coalition, an alliance of local peace, antiwar, and solidarity groups. Salt Lake City, and carpools are being organized from San Diego and Sacramento. New endorsements come in from peace, labor, and community groups every day. The Northern California District Council of the Service Employees International Union recently endorsed and donated $500 to the Aldermen Jesus Garcia and Danny Davis sponsored the resolution in the Chicago City Council, which led to the referendum being on the ballot.

Six Illinois National Guard units have been involved in road construction in Honduras—ostensibly to ease travel to markets for peasants, but also easing travel for military vehicles. Illinois Governor Jim Thompson sent the Guard to Central America at Reagan's request. Legally, the president is the ultimate authority with regard to deployment of the National Guard, which explains why the federal government has given the Illinois National Guard over $566 million in new equipment and arms— not exactly the needs of a local militia. Mobilization.

The Mobilization has had regular working-committee meetings to organize fund-raising, publicity, logistics and recruitment of volunteers as well as other aspects of the Mobilization's work.

It's crucially important to build on the Joe Ryan/Socialist Action Minnesota Governor Rudy Perpich, who refused to send the Minnesota National Guard to Central America (but did send the Guard to Austin, Minn. to break the P-9 strike against Hormel), is currently in court challenging the president's authority over the Guard.

The Chicago press virtually ignored the issue, stressing the referendum's advisory nature. The Chicago SunTimes ran a vicious editorial claiming that—on this issue—people's advice wasn't needed. As the 3200 American GIs sent to Honduras can tell you: people's advice on either this issue or the issue of contra aid has never been heeded by the bipartisan consensus for war in Central America. has been built in the last week. Unfortunately, U.S. imperialism still has many options left-especially if the antiwar movement believes that "peace is at hand."

That is why the Mobilization has distributed over 100,000 leaflets, including Spanish-language leaflets, and leaflets addressing the concerns of the labor movement, the homeless, and AIDS patients. T-shirts and buttons have also been produced to help raise money for the demonstration and to build this important march and rally. To contact the Mobilization, telephone (415) 626-8053.

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dollars of military supplies for the contras.

The military escalation prompted immediate protests in 200 U.S. cities. The largest emergency actions occurred in Boston and San Francisco, where 7000 demonstrated in each city just three days after the airlift of troops.

Nonetheless, the anti-intervention movement was caught off guard. With few exceptions, local protests were not very large. There was no effective national coordination because there was no nationally authoritative coalition in existence.

Effects of Arias peace plan A number of false assumptions contributed to the demobilization of the movement over the last several months.

First, many activists believed that an end to the war was just around the corner. Serious illusions exist in the Arias peace plan. It is not generally recognized that Costa Rican President Oscar Arias continually places demands on the Nicaraguan government which reflect contra objectives.

Arias has, for example, demanded that the Sandinistas separate control of the army from the government. What government in the world would tolerate such a suggestion?

Second, some major national anti-intervention organizations further confused the situation by relying on Democratic Party liberals to bring peace to Central America. Amazingly, several major national anti-intervention organizations supported a recent $30 million "humanitarian" contraaid package proposed by House Speaker Jim Wright (D-Texas).

The lack of an authoritative coalition that could call mass-based nationwide anti-intervention protests makes the movement more dependent on this dead-end strategy.

Cease-fire poses new challenge The cease-fire agreement signed on March 23 between the government of Nicaragua and the contras is a desperate move by the Sandinistas to gain a respite from the devastating impact of the U.S.-funded war.

But the terms of the truce continue in the tradition of the Arias peace plan which, itself, has been used to extract more concessions from the Sandinistas. The contras will, for example, be able to keep all their weapons, be given safe haven inside sections of Nicaragua, and be permitted to receive "humanitarian" supplies all through the 60-day truce period.

The contras will never voluntarily give up their weapons because they realize that the gains of the Nicaraguan Revolution can not be reversed by talk alone.

In fact, the terms of the agreement are extremely generous to the contras and pose serious dangers to the Nicaraguan Revolution. [See accompanying article by Alan Benjamin on page 1.J

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Chicago rejects Guard in C. America