Christic suit will continue

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SOCIALIST ACTION AUGUST 1988 13 By JEFF MACKLER On June 23, 1988, a federal district court decided to dismiss the Christic Institute's long-running lawsuit against a "secret team" of professional terrorists working for the U.S. government.

The lawsuit, filed by Christic Institute chief counsel Daniel Sheehan, sought $17 million in damages stemming from a CIAinstigated 1984 bombing in La Penca, Costa Rica. The bombing severely injured journalist Tony Avirgan (a plaintiff in the suit) and killed eight others.

Federal Judge James King ruled, just four days before the trial date, that the case "lacked sufficient evidence." The ruling was characterized by the Christic Institute as "an outrageous claim, since the judge himself threw out key evidence without a hearing."

For example, evidence exists to prove that John Hull, a large landowner in Costa Rica, is a CIA agent running a drug/arms depot for the contras. Yet, according to attorneys for the institute, Judge King "failed to cite key witnesses like John Hull for contempt" when they walked out of their depositions.

Top government officials feel threatened by the suit, which has the potential to expose the whole intricate network of ruling class-sponsored terrorism. The cover-up actually began in 1987, as part of a bipartisan decision to limit the Iran/Contragate hearings to an exposure of underlings like Oliver North.

But the glaring inconsistencies and omissions of the Contragate hearings were re-raised by the Christic lawsuit. It was necessary to quash the case, especially since the trial was due to take place at the same time that the national election campaign reached a crescendo.

Recent investigations lead directly to the doorstep of Vice President George Bush. In May, sworn testimony was submitted implicating former Deputy CIA Director Theodore Shackley in political assassinations and other crimes, which were carried out when he was employed by thenCIA Director Bush in 1976.

"In the last two months," the Christic Institute asserts, "our investigation exposed a direct link between the vice president's office, three of the defendants, and an illegal arms supermarket in Honduras funded by drug money."

The Christic Institute will seek to reverse Judge King's ruling before the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta. In the meantime, the institute is asking supporters to continue fundraising efforts, publicizing the facts of the lawsuit, and protesting the U.S. government's cover-up.

For more information, write the Christic Institute, 1324 North Capitol Street, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20002.

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Frederick Engels on the barricades in Elberfeld, Germany, in 1849 his lord and to justify the "god-approved" system of economic slavery.

The growth of trade The methods of production under feudalism kept improving slowly over periods of several centuries. New ships and improved methods of navigation eventually allowed commercial exploration and trade for luxuries for the lords and the church. To pay for these imports, the lords intensified the exploitation of the serfs and developed mining and small manufacturing industries.

Soon refugees from serf revolts, along with dissatisfied craftsmen, established towns and cities outside the lord's influence. Trade began to grow between towns: peasants would trade surplus food for clothing or other commodities. Craftsmen were stimulated to make and sell a wider and improved variety of products.

But trade and communication were hindered by the semi-independent feudal kingdoms which demanded tariffs and passage fees. The new bourgeois class was carefully restricted from hiring labor by the guild system, which was essentially a monopoly of production for the benefit of a few skilled craftsmen.

The cultural and social norms of loyalty to the lords and church were being undermined for the needs of the new exploiters, the bourgeoisie, who viewed the nobility as parasitic and socially useless.

In Europe the revolutionary conflicts in the late 1840s signalled the completion of this change to a new capitalist society,