The Socialist Issue 236

MANY THOUSANDS of working people's jobs may be at risk but still the bosses arrogantly ignore all calls for restraint when it comes to ensuring their own creature comforts.

By Bill Mullins

Bob Diamond, a chief trader for Barclays Capital, received £10 million in Christmas bonuses taking his earnings to £13.75 million for the year. When The Mirror asked him to confirm his pay out, he could "only grin" (and no wonder).

He's not the only boss to get huge new year handouts. As the rest of us prepare to tighten our belts, other Barclays Capital traders got bonuses of between £5 million and £10 million each. Another 100 of their traders found £1 million each in their Christmas stocking.

Last year tens of thousands of workers were thrown on the dole after their firms collapsed or carried out huge cutbacks. But according to the Labour Research Department, 14 directors from these collapsing companies paid themselves huge 'golden goodbyes' of between £1 million and £5 million for taking their companies to the brink of receivership.

Take Lord Simpson, a Labour peer who oversaw the collapse of the once mighty Marconi company (which used to be called GEC). His fellow directors voted to pay him a £3.5 million pay-off and it was only public outrage that forced the Marconi board to pay him less.

The same capitalist press which viciously attacks "greedy" South West Trains workers for daring to strike to defend their living standards is very muted in its criticism of the greedy bosses.

A few years ago, in response to public opposition to the scandal of payoffs like this, the Greenbury committee told the bosses they had to "cool it" and give smaller pay-offs. Big business of course completely ignored this committee's findings.

Under the capitalist system the bosses will always look after themselves first, second and last when it comes to sharing out the rewards created by the sweat of the working class.

We shouldn't be surprised at this. Instead we should organise the fightback against the bosses and their system. Join us in fighting for a socialist society.

Public Service Not Private Profiteering

Renationalise the railways!

THE STRIKES by staff working for South West Trains (SWT) and the overtime ban by Scotrail staff, are keeping the sorry state of Britain's privatised railways in the news. Combined with the rail fare increases of up to 17% announced by some companies, it is no wonder that support for the renationalisation of rail is growing.

Scotrail workers are refusing to work their rest days. The train companies' reliance on long working hours is shown by the cancellation of a quarter of all Scotrail services. And the main Glasgow to Edinburgh route is running with two trains an hour instead of four.

Rail union RMT members at SWT were on strike on 3/4 and 7/8 January, affecting many routes in south east England.

TERRY ADAMS, a PCS member, visited the picket line at Wimbledon and spoke to SUSAN ELLIOT, a guard. She told him:

"All 48 guards here are solidly in support of the strike. Only a handful of others have gone in. It reflects the anger and concern of our members against low pay, long hours and low morale."

CHRIS MOORE visited Waterloo station on 4 January and spoke to RMT pickets. Pickets explained: "Members feel the pay deal offered to station staff is totally unacceptable. On paper 16.7% sounds good, but spread over three years it doesn't become a very good offer. SWT has made it clear to all staff that if you're not a driver you'll not get the same pay-related deal.

"It's become clear that all station staff will not get above 4% because we're non-essential staff, (this includes train cleaners, platform staff, customer care and revenue staff). That's infuriated all station staff. The general feeling coming from above is you either accept it or that's going to be it. It's like a dark cloud hanging over our heads. Staff feel undermined and angry.

"All staff are behind the strike, 75% voted in favour of action and the strike is solid, drivers are also right behind us in this dispute. From the public we've had buses hooting in support and passengers supporting us."

As Chris stood on the picket line a woman passenger came up and donated £10 to the strike fund.

Renationalise the railway network under the democratic control of rail workers and users.
Rich shareholders who made fortunes out of privatisation should get no compensation. Small shareholders, especially Railtrack employees, should get compensation on the basis of proven need.
For a massive increase in investment in the railways to improve safety and services.

What We Say

Euro - Workers Will Pay The Price

A NEW word - europhoria - has been invented by the media to describe the launch of the euro.

Now that notes and coins have been introduced without any major mishaps in the 12 countries of the eurozone, pro-euro sections of the media are predicting a positive future for the single currency.

The Mirror even described the euro as 'sexy'. Euro supporters are hoping that 'euro creep' (gradual familiarity with the currency) will shift public opinion in Britain in favour and speed up a decision about joining.

The technicalities of the euro's launch may have gone smoothly but its future is likely to be much rockier. The economic backdrop is one of global recession affecting every part of the world simultaneously.

The Socialist has consistently argued that economic, social and political pressures will eventually cause the euro project to break down. The fact that the single currency is now a concrete reality doesn't change this perspective.

The tumultuous events in Argentina graphically expose what could happen to the euro in the future when economic policy is pursued regardless of the economic interests of individual capitalist states.

The Argentinian peso was pegged to the dollar for ten years. This drastically reduced inflation. But maintaining the peso at an artificially high level contributed to a deep recession which has lasted nearly four years.

Faced with mass movements of workers and the middle class, the Argentinian ruling class have been forced to abandon the link with the dollar and devalue the peso in the hope of manufacturing an economic recovery and restoring social stability.

It's not difficult to imagine the capitalist representatives of one of the weaker eurozone countries - rocked by economic crisis and mass protests - deciding that their own interests are better served by breaking away from the euro and reintroducing their own currency. The existence of a single currency means that this would have a dramatic and profound effect, but it would not make it impossible.

As in Argentina, it will be the workers who will pay the highest price in Europe - in or out of the single currency.

This break-up scenario is not the one that British bosses envisage. The majority of British capitalists, particularly those in the export sectors are in favour in principle of adopting the euro at some stage. They fear that multinational investment will be reduced if Britain stands outside and that economic decisions will be increasingly taken by eurozone countries with the British capitalists on the outside.

They are however divided about when would be the right time. They are particularly worried about entering with the exchange rate too high. The launch of the euro has brought some of these differences to the surface again and they are reflected in the division between Blair and Brown. In Italy the Foreign Minister has resigned over the euro, showing how these divisions can have political repercussions.

It is impossible to say whether a referendum about adopting the euro will take place in Britain next year or even in this parliament. But the euro will continue to be an important political factor and could, if Blair risks a referendum, even become the catalyst for workers' growing discontent about the economy, the state of public services and issues such as the renationalisation of the railways.

Whatever happens to the single currency, the European Union remains a capitalist club against the interests of the working class. We are in favour of European unity - but unity of the workers in defence of their rights and for a democratic, socialist federation of Europe.

Rough Justice Backs Oliver Campbell

THE SOCIALIST Party has actively supported the campaign against the wrongful murder conviction of Socialist Party member Oliver Campbell. Fellow party member Tim Harris has played a key role in the campaign.

Chris Moore

So it was good to see Oliver's injustice highlighted on the Rough Justice TV programme recently.

Rough Justice outlined the lack of evidence to support Oliver's conviction, how the police abused Oliver's mental disability and how key evidence and information was either not presented to the jury or was manipulated. The programme calls it a mistake, but all indications point to a deliberate frame-up.

In July 1990 during a robbery in Hackney, London, a shopkeeper Mr Hoondle was shot and killed. Two men described by witnesses as around five foot ten inches tall, one wearing a baseball cap, committed this crime.

Five months later Oliver, a gentle giant at 6 foot 3 inches, whose only previous crime had been to vandalise a telephone box, was arrested because he'd owned a similar cap. For eight hours after his arrest, despite having learning disabilities, he had no legal representation. This included four hours of police questioning, with on five occasions no police records.

A psychologist concluded Oliver was susceptible to police pressure. The police insisted they'd find incriminating forensic evidence, including his fingerprints on a drink can found at the crime and his hair in the baseball cap. Neither was found.

Oliver eventually got a solicitor. But at the crucial time of his 'confession', his solicitor was not present, despite specific instructions to be called.

Oliver's 'confession' said he'd dropped the hat in the shop, this did not happen. He talked of a string holster for the gun, later dismissed as impractical by experts. He can't even describe the gun or what happened to it later. In fact Oliver has never fired a gun in his life.

This confession came 25 minutes after Oliver and a police officer had chatted on the way to the cells. His foster mum who was at the interview said it sounded like a 'news story'. Oliver has since retracted this confession. But the trial judge allowed it to go to the jury without a caution due to Oliver's mental disability.

Oliver's co-accused even gave a written account that Oliver was not involved and named the culprit. The jury never knew this.

A forensic expert concluded the shot was fired by a right-handed person, Oliver is left-handed. No witnesses originally identified Oliver, yet three months later one changed his mind.

The TV team was clearly shocked by this case. Kirsty Wark handed a letter to the Home Secretary stating Oliver "should not have to wait a moment longer for justice". The Socialist Party backs this and also calls for community accountability and control of the police with prosecution for corrupt officers.

Write to Oliver Campbell MV3344, HMP Hollesley Bay Colony, Woodbridge, Suffolk IP1 3JS.

Kashmir Crisis

Regional Powers Threaten New War

TONY BLAIR'S shuttle diplomacy to resolve the longstanding Kashmir crisis that has brought India and Pakistan to the brink of war has been an abject failure.

Even as he tried to defuse the political tension, shelling continued along the disputed Line of Control forcing 50,000 to flee their homes. And while the prospect for an immediate war has receded in recent days the border remains on a hair-trigger as the military build-up continues.

India's Prime Minister AB Vajpayee has effectively taunted Blair by pointing out that while the West ruthlessly pursued its 'war on terrorism' against Osama bin Laden and the Taliban in Afghanistan, Western imperialism has not taken a similar stand against Islamist terrorist groups in Jammu and Kashmir operating from bases in Pakistan. It was such groups who are assumed to be responsible for the deadly attacks on the state legislature in Srinigar and on the Indian parliament in Dehli.

However, while the governing BJP-led Hindu nationalist government in India has adopted the moral high ground in accusing Pakistan of state-sponsored terrorism, it conveniently ignores the widespread brutal repression it is carrying out in occupied Kashmir, which has led to 35,000 deaths in the last decade.

The BJP-governing coalition faces important state elections next month and is therefore keen to whip up anti-Pakistan, Indian nationalism.

Moreover, the Indian ruling classes have enjoyed a significant shift in the balance of power in the region with the overthrow of the Pakistan-supported Taliban regime and the arrival of the Northern Alliance forces in Kabul. Indian government and Northern Alliance officials have been cementing relations in recent weeks. The new Afghan leader Karzai, a Pashtun speaker, has long championed an independent Pashtun state, laying territorial claims to Western Pakistan.

Imperialist pressures

Having supported the Western coalition, Pakistan's General Musharraf has responded to US pressure by arresting Islamist 'Jehadi' militants belonging to the Jaish-e-Mohamed and Lashkar-e-Tayyiba organisations who are fighting guerrilla campaigns in Kashmir against Indian occupying troops.

Musharraf has also won support from Western leaders by calling for dialogue and talks to resolve the Kashmir crisis.

At the same time, responding to domestic pressures, he drew a distinction at the recent Nepal Asian summit between terrorism and what he calls "legitimate resistance and freedom struggles".

Pakistan has also reminded the Indian government of its failure to hold a UN-backed referendum on Kashmir's future status. Pakistan is confident that the 70% majority Muslim population would seek to remove themselves from Indian control.

But while the two regional nuclear powers jockey for diplomatic advantage, the plight of the working masses in India and Pakistan and in Pakistani- and Indian-occupied Jammu and Kashmir is ignored.

Both ruling classes want to exploit the land and the people of Jammu and Kashmir which has led to the militarisation of the country. And while millions of dollars are wasted on armaments, millions of people suffer from desperate poverty, unemployment, disease and a lack of basic services.

This is what the capitalist system has to offer at the start of the 21st century - no democracy, no future and no hope. As The Socialist warned at the start of the Afghan war, there can be no imperialist solution to the problems in this part of the world which does not result in further destabilising a volatile region. Indeed, many Pakistani Taliban supporters have now returned from Afghanistan and are keen to militarily pursue their fundamentalist aims.

Only by overthrowing capitalism and feudalism and establishing a democratic socialist society can the working masses and rural poor in Kashmir and throughout the region have a viable future.

The building of such a movement is the task of socialists who support the ideas and programme of the Committee for a Workers' International (CWI - the socialist international organisation to which the Socialist Party is affiliated) - a task which our members in Kashmir, Pakistan and India are resolved to complete.

A History Of Conflict

August 1947. India gained independence after strikes, mutinies and hunger strikes forced British imperialism out of the subcontinent. But divisions between Hindus and Muslims, a legacy of British imperialism's divide and rule tactics, led to the partition into India and Pakistan and numerous skirmishes over disputed areas.

October 1947. Kashmir, then ruled by a maharajah (prince) was invaded by Pakistan and then India. War lasted until 1949 when the "line of control" - the border between Indian-occupied (IOK) and Pakistani-occupied Kashmir (POK) - was established. Pakistan gained one-third of Kashmir.

1962. India's war with China leaves China in control of part of Kashmir claimed by India.

1971. India and Pakistan's war over the secession of Bangladesh (the former East Pakistan) saw heavy fighting in Kashmir, ended by new ceasefire and new line of control.

1989-90. Troops fired on independence protesters in IOK which came under direct rule from the Delhi government. India and Pakistan came close to a nuclear "exchange" over Kashmir.

1999. The Kargil mountain war. Tensions escalated over the long disputed "line of control" as crisis-racked nationalist governments in India and Pakistan - both now nuclear powers - came to the brink of all-out war again.

Jammu & Kashmir:

54 Years Under Occupation

SINCE THE independence of India and Pakistan in 1947 the masses of both Indian-occupied Kashmir (IOK) and Pakistani-occupied Kashmir (POK) have suffered greatly in wars and skirmishes between the ruling classes of the two occupying powers.

The capitalist rulers of the newly independent states were at loggerheads from the start. In 1947 Maharajah Hari Singh, the Hindu ruler of the mainly Muslim Kashmir, was uncertain which state to join but Pakistan occupied Kashmir, while in retaliation Indian troops seized the capital Srinagar until Hari Singh made the state part of India.

A ceasefire in 1949 divided Kashmir between India and Pakistan and set up a "line of control" which, despite minor changes, still separates IOK from POK. Most Kashmiris support independence to some degree. 72% of the mainly Muslim Kashmir Valley's population wanted independence in a 1995 poll.

But India's rulers have made IOK into an armed encampment, especially after the huge protests of up to a million demanded self-determination in Srinagar in 1990.

Pakistan's military rulers have used the permanent Kashmiri crisis to bolster arms spending, particularly at times when Pakistan was not an essential part of US imperialism's strategy. At other times, US leaders looked the other way - for example when Pakistan began its nuclear programme. Pakistan also uses Kashmir to offer lucrative contracts to retired top army officers.

While these elites get ample rewards, the vast majority of Kashmir's 13 million population get nothing but bombs, kidnappings, murders and poverty.

The masses of India and Pakistan also suffer. In both countries arms spending far outweighs spending on such basics as health and education. Both countries have six times more soldiers than doctors with hundreds of millions having no access to basic medical services.

Now the destabilisation of the area after the war in Afghanistan has brought new dangers to this conflict.

Crisis In Argentina –

The Masses Move Into Action

WITH FIVE Presidents in less than two weeks, Argentina faces the deepest crisis in its history. The cancellation of elections convened for March and the installation of the Peronist Senator Eduardo Duhalde as the new President, will not stabilise the situation as DIMITRI SILVEIRA in Buenos Aries, Argentina and ANDRE FERRARI in Sao Paulo, Brazil explain.

PRESIDENT DUHALDE and his wealthy backers are terrified of the effects of devaluation of the national currency - the peso - and of maintaining the embargo on withdrawing more than US$250 a month from bank accounts. This could provoke a "mega-cacerolazo" - mass protests characterised by people banging their empty pots and pans.

Their fears are well justified. The main feature of the crisis has been the tremendous power of the masses. The generalised popular uprising that took place on the 19/20 December put the final nail in the coffin of the right-wing government headed by President De La Rua and economy minister Cavallo.

Eight general strikes followed the election of De La Rua in 1999. Mass picketing blocked the streets, and factory occupations and mass "cacerlazos" were used by the masses to unite employed and unemployed workers and other oppressed people.

Adolfo Rodriguez Saa, elected President by parliament following the booting out of De La Rua, could not keep himself in office for more than one week. His populist rhetoric, his attempt to achieve a "ceasefire" and open a dialogue with the mass pickets, the trade unions and the Madres de la Plaza de Mayo (Mothers of the 'Disappeared' - see below) together with his promises to re-establish a minimum wage and create one million jobs, all came to nothing.

Splits at the top of the regime caused by the mass pressure from below bought down Saa. Now the ruling class is trying to take the initiative and has cancelled the March elections and put Duhalde in power until 2003. The votes of the Peronists (PJ), the UCR (the Radicals, a liberal capitalist party) and FREPASO (a centre capitalist coalition), gave Duhalde a majority in the legislative assembly.

Duhalde has attempted to put together a "government of national salvation" to try and overcome the divisions within the Peronists. This is an attempt to find a way out of the dead end in which Argentina finds itself as a result of the economic crisis. Duhalde is attempting to balance between the different political forces.

Some sections of the population initially hoped that a government of "national unity" would offer a way out but there is now no hope of this.

The crisis of the Argentinean capitalist regime has now reached an extremely deep point. With Duhalde in crisis there are now few alternatives from the capitalist class.

The alternatives from the centre-left such as API (Action for a Republic of Equals) around the Deputy Carrio is gaining more support because of his high profile in opposing corruption. In fact, if new elections were held now it is possible that Carrio would win. He remains an 'emergency reserve' for an even more desperate situation. Carrio (a dissident of the Radicals) and the ARI continue to support calling fresh elections although he has not openly opposed Duhalde.

The socialist Left in Argentina, despite being fragmented, won over 1 million votes in the 14 October elections last year and three socialist deputies were elected to the federal parliament. the Left has grown in support since then.

A unified candidate of the Left, possibly headed by the Deputy Luis Zamora (ex-Deputy of the old MAS - a large Trotskyist party which fragmented in the 1990s), would certainly win a big vote. One reason the vote for the Left would grow is because new elections would take place against the background of further mass mobilisations and the defeat of the government in the streets by the masses.

Making the poor pay

The economic plan to be presented by the new Minister of the Economy, Jorge Remes Lenicov, will have a profound impact on the life of thousands of Argentinians.

The Chamber of Deputies voted overwhelmingly to back Duhalde's emergency economic plan. As the BBC tersely stated: "This plan is about jumping off a cliff."

The government has also raised the prospect of state intervention in bankrupt companies.

The impact of the crisis has forced Duhalde's government to halt the 'neo-liberal' or 'free market' capitalist policies which typified Argentina in the 1990s. The plan represents a move back towards more classical policies of Peronism and of state intervention. However, they will not solve the crisis nor solve the problems facing the working class and middle classes.

There will be a reduction in purchasing power with the devaluation of the peso and price increases.

And although the devaluation of the peso will have a positive effect in stimulating exports, against the background of a world economic recession the perspectives for the Argentinian economy are not very favourable. The measures taken will force the working class and middle class to pay for the crisis.

"We do not want more of the same," was the chant of the days of struggle on 19/20 December. Duhalde represents "the same".

The end of currency parity does not change in essence the economic policy that will try to save the big speculators by punishing the workers. Sooner or later the masses will again return to the streets against the government policies.

The Argentinian economic crisis is a reflection of the structural crisis of capitalism in a semi-colonial country which has been recolonised by imperialism.

The only alternative that offers a way out for the poor is anti-capitalist and socialist. This programme must be based upon:

Anger and discontent with the economic situation will provoke new mobilisations. The socialist Left must clearly reject and oppose the parliamentary coup that the installation of Duhalde represents and campaign for a continuation in the struggle by the masses.

The trade unions also must call an indefinite general strike to overthrow Duhalde and force the convening of new elections to a Constituent Assembly to transform the economic and political basis of Argentina.

These demands can only be realised with the independent organisation of all oppressed layers - workers, unemployed, the youth, pensions and students.

Rank and file committees with elected delegates from all workplaces need to be organised to take the struggle forward and distribute food to the hungry from the big supermarkets on an organised basis.

A national assembly of workers' delegates, public employees, unemployed, students needs to be elected. All delegates should be subject to recall and not receive any privileges.

Socialists must also work for the formation of a new, mass workers' party with a socialist programme.

The 19/20 December "Cacerolazos"

ARGENTINA, IN the last few weeks has passed through a situation with clear elements of a classical revolutionary crisis. The high point of the mass movement was 19/20 December. Massive contingents of unemployed and under-employed led assaults on the supermarkets to take what was necessary to feed their hunger. Hundreds of such raids took place throughout Greater Buenos Aires.

The "cacerolazos" followed by mass demonstrations of workers, unemployed and sections of the middle class forced Cavallo to resign. Very soon the demonstrators were chanting: "All of them must go - not just one".

On the morning of the 20th the battle of the Plaza de Mayo began. Tens of thousands of demonstrators confronted the police in an attempt to reach the Palacio de Governo. The youth played the key role in this confrontation. Amongst them were the 'motorboys' - young motorcyclists who are amongst the most exploited group of young workers. At the end of the day which resulted in nearly 30 deaths and hundreds of injured or taken prisoner, De La Rua resigned and was forced to flee the Casa Rosada by helicopter.

The lack of any leadership from the trade union confederations resulted in an unorganised intervention by the working class in this struggle. Both the CGT and the CTA union federations ended up by calling off a general strike and were not present at the most critical stage of the conflict.

At the same time some sections of the leadership of the National Assembly of Pickets were also absent because of a wrong, passive estimation of the movement. The movement also took a big part of the socialist Left parties by surprise.

It was at this moment of revolutionary crisis that the oppressed workers were drawing deep political conclusions. The bureaucratic leadership of the CGT trade union federation was strongly criticised by the activists in the protests. In many localities the poorest sections began to organise themselves autonomously and called the protests themselves.

These powerful demonstrations by the working class drew behind them the middle class and provoked splits amongst the ruling class.

It plunged the political regime into crisis and created the conditions for a genuinely revolutionary way out of the crisis.

The crucial element necessary to develop this process is the building of a genuinely revolutionary socialist alternative. It is to assist in the building of this socialist alternative that the CWI intervened in the recent protests in Argentina and will mobilise its parties in solidarity with the Argentinean workers.

What is Peronism?

PERONISM IS the 'populist' and nationalist movement named after the army officer Juan Domingo Peron who led a military junta between 1943-1946.

Peron built a social movement with support among the trade unions by demagogically attacking the rich 'oligarchy' of landowners and bosses. He was elected President in 1946 and again in 1952.

Social reforms were financed by the favourable economic conditions which existed in Argentina then but at the same time he attacked the interests of the working class.

Deposed by the military in 1955 and exiled to Spain, he returned in 1973 during a period of massive social upheaval and assumed the presidency, but died in 1974.

In 1976 the military again took power and thousands of left-wingers were 'disappeared' (Their relatives - 'Mothers of the Disappeared' - have campaigned for justice in the central square in Buenos Aries, the Plaza de Mayo, ever since.) The military junta under General Galtieri collapsed in 1982 following the Anglo-Argentine war in the Falklands Islands/Malvinas.

In 1989 the Peronist candidate Carlos Menem was elected President but he abandoned social reforms and instead pursued neo-liberal policies, including the dollarisation of the peso and privatisations - the roots of the current crisis.

The Socialist 11 January 2002	Kick Out The Greedy Bosses
Kick Out The Greedy Bosses	MANY THOUSANDS of working people's jobs may be at risk but still the bosses arrogantly ignore all calls for restraint when it comes to ensuring their own creature comforts. By Bill Mullins
Renationalise the railways!	Public Service Not Private Profiteering: THE STRIKES by staff working for South West Trains (SWT) and the overtime ban by Scotrail staff, are keeping the sorry state of Britain's privatised railways in the news. Combined with the rail fare increases of up to 17% announced by some companies, it is no wonder that support for the renationalisation of rail is growing.
Euro - Workers Will Pay The Price	A NEW word - europhoria - has been invented by the media to describe the launch of the euro.
Rough Justice Backs Oliver Campbell	THE SOCIALIST Party has actively supported the campaign against the wrongful murder conviction of Socialist Party member Oliver Campbell. Fellow party member Tim Harris has played a key role in the campaign.
Kashmir Crisis: Regional Powers Threaten New War	TONY BLAIR'S shuttle diplomacy to resolve the longstanding Kashmir crisis that has brought India and Pakistan to the brink of war has been an abject failure ... A History Of Conflict: August 1947. India gained independence after strikes, mutinies and hunger strikes ... Jammu & Kashmir: 54 Years Under Occupation: SINCE THE independence of India and Pakistan in 1947 the masses of both Indian-occupied Kashmir (IOK) and Pakistani-occupied Kashmir (POK) have suffered greatly in wars and skirmishes between the ruling classes of the two occupying powers ...
Crisis In Argentina: The Masses Move Into Action	WITH FIVE Presidents in less than two weeks, Argentina faces the deepest crisis in its history. The cancellation of elections convened for March and the installation of the Peronist Senator Eduardo Duhalde as the new President, will not stabilise the situation as DIMITRI SILVEIRA in Buenos Aries, Argentina and ANDRE FERRARI in Sao Paulo, Brazil explain. The 19/20 December "Cacerolazos": ARGENTINA, IN the last few weeks has passed through a situation with clear elements of a classical revolutionary crisis.... What is Peronism?: PERONISM IS the 'populist' and nationalist movement named after the army officer Juan Domingo Peron who led a military junta between 1943-1946...

Kick Out The Greedy Bosses