Matic policy of divide and rule' was followed whereby the Turkish Cypriot ruling class were encouraged to become the allies of British imperialism against the aspirations of the Greek Cypriots for national liberation.
When the right-wing Greek Cypriot EOKA began its campaign of armed struggle against British rule and for unification with Greece (enosis, British forces co-operated closely with the ultra-right Turkish Resistance Movement (TMT). It was the failure of AKEL, the Communist Party massively supported by the Greek Cypriot working class. to take an active part in the anti-colonial struggle and lead the masses on a clear platform for independence drawing the Turkish workers into the struggle, that enabled EOKA to play a divisive role and maintain the struggle within the bounds of imperansm Cyprus finally became an 'independent republic in 1960. Its so-called independence was to be guaranteed by Turkey, Greece and Britain — all three were allowed to keep troops on the island, with the British retaining the large Sovereign Base Areas at Dhekelia and Akrotiri. Cyprus was thus kept firmly within itical prisoners Last week Spain's Prime Minister, Arias Navarro, made it clear that the regime has no intention of giving up its dictatorial power even after the dictator, Franco, has left the scene.
In a tough speech to Spain's phony Parliament, Arias warned that it was necessary to prepare for the departure of Franco as head of state. But he insisted that Franco would be followed by the successor the dictator has himself appointed - Prince Juan Carlos, who would take over as King.
Arias also spelled out exactly what this would mean: "Let no one be deceived. Let no one think that we are going to ease up on the reins of the principle of authority. There will be no truce with subver sion. We will not vacillate in applying the remedies, whatsoever those remedies may be, to guarantee fully the order which the Spanish people have been enjoying for nearly four decades.
Meanwhile Arias police are continuing their wave of terror in the Basque countrv in order to ensure this continued rule of fascist 'order'. Arrests are occurring daily, and preparations are still being made for the trial and legal murder of Basque militants Garmendia and Otaegui. In response to this continued repression the workers' commissions of the Basque country have called for a boycott of the state controlled trade union elections, and a call has been issued for a hunger strike of polClearly the Spanish dictatorship tions over their wages and working conditions by other workers.
PICKET List armies. Only the effective independent arming of the working class and peasantry can achieve that, and start tilting the balance against imperialism. The organisation of this armed defence should be one of the main tasks of socialists in Cyprus ago is about to open, with the prosecution asking for sentences totalling more than 100 years for some of those charged!
whether it is being head ed up by an ancient General or a shiny new King - can only maintain itself by the most brutal repression. But increasingly all sorts of different layers of the Spanish people are showing their determination to resist the regime and its repression.
doctors employed in hospitals run by the Ministry of Labour. They are demanding the right to free and independent negotia The latest news is that the Government has given the doc tors an ultimatum that those who do not immediately return to work will be sacked. In a number of the hospitals a movement of solidarity with the striking doctors is being organised the visiting Spanish National Dance Company to protest at the trial of the El Ferrol workers, the trial of Garmendia and Otaegui, and the repression in the Basque
india/ireland When i was in Delhi a few weeks back there was considerable speculation as to what particular rabbit Mrs Gandhi would pull out of her hat in order to win the next elections, which are due in 1976. There was talk of a brief war with Pakistan, more nuclear explosions, more annexations a la Sikkim, etc. Not even the most violent opponents of the Congress Party imagined that press censorship would be imposed, the constitution virtually suspended and the bourgeois oppositionists imprisoned.
The determination of Mrs Gandhi to stay in power has impelled her to undertake measures which are both unprece dented and mark a turning point in Indian politics. the first time since the withdrawal of the British that the parliamentary opponents of the regime in power have been subjected to mass arrests.
CROCODILE TEARS
We should, however, not be swept along by the hysteria of the bourgeois press in Britain. The same newspapers which shed.so many crocodile tears at the impending demise of 'Indian democracy' quite happily support dictatorships such as Indonesia, Singapore and Brazil.
Furthermore, while the arrest of 900 largely right-wing oppositionists creates a flurry in Fleet Street and on the TV, there has been very little mention of the 30,000 political pris oners who have been crowding Indian jails since 1967-68. Many of the latter have been tortured and subjected to humiliating treatment at the hands of the police.
The reason? All these prisoners belonged to, or were sympathisers of the Communist Party of india (Marxist-Leninist) - in other words, they were committed, in their own confused and naive fashion, to the replacement of capitalism in India by socialism. Two of these prisoners, Gowd and Bhoomia, are due to be hanged in a few weeks (the first official political hanging in India since the execution of Gandhi's assassin) unless the sentence is commuted.
Clearly the declaration of the state of emergency was brought about by a combination of factors, of which the defeat suffered by Mrs Gandhi in Gujarat at the hands of the ring to them.
red weekly 3 july 1975 right-wing opposition was more significant than her own defeat in a court case. The main leader of the People's Front, JP Narayan subsequently called for open defiance of the law, thus giving the Government its opportunity to declare a state of emergency and arrest the opposition.
BANKRUPT "COMMUNISTS' The growth of the opposition to Congress which has mushroomed over the last tew years was captured by the right-wing because of the failure and bankruptey of the major communist parties, the CPI (pro-Moscow) and the CPI(M), which were both characterised by their commitment to parliamentary methods. While the CPI backed Mrs Gandhi, the CPI(M) decided to throw in its lot with the bourgeois opposition.
As a result the latter's leader has also been arrested.
Given the fact that there is a continuous social crisis in India (45 per cent of the population - 380 million people - live below subsistence level), and that the CPI and CPI(M) failed to make an impact, it is hardly surprising that JP and his supporters made advances. Despite the image of JP pres ented in the British press ('pacifist', 'honest', 'democrat' etc) he is an effective if slightly senile right-wing demagogue. An old admirer of the former Pakistani military dictator Ayub Khan, JP once stated quite seriously in private that India too would be better off under a military regime. In this context his constant appeals to the Indian army to intervene and "defend the constitution' have a slightly familiar and nasty FASCIST INVOLVEMENT The second major right-wing politician is Morarji Desai, who is staunchly pro-American and a firm believer in free enterprise as opposed to state intervention in industry. He split from the Congress after Mrs Gandhi became leader of the party because he regarded her as too left-wing! But the major organised force is the fascist Jana Sangh: It has been fascist organisers who have given some semblance of organisation to JP's movement, provided JP himself with a guard, and stewarded his demonstrations. West Bengal. as a warning to Mrs Gandhi than anything else. of national movements. the vicious repression of their strike last year.
The odd person out in the alliance is the CPI(M). This party, which split from the CPI in the 1960s, is now disting uished from its parent organisation mainly by the fact that the latter has the franchise from Moscow with all the political and financial benefits that that entails. Concentrating exclusively within the parliamentary arena, the CPI(M) decided to align itself with the forces opposing Mrs Gandhi in order to win the elections in Kerala and possibly even Despite the growth of support for JP it would be foolish to assume that the Indian capitalist class, which is the most stable and most experienced of all colonial bourgeoisies, has decided to stop backing the Congress Party. The Indian Congress has loyally served the interests of its class, and provided the best possible form for preserving the rule of capital in India. The Indian capitalists are aware of this, and to switeh horses suddenly is not something that they are prepared to do, particularly when the alternative would be less stable. Certainly small sections of the capitalist class - particularly the rich farmers — are backing JP, but even they do so more STRENGTHENING OF STATE Given the lack of meaningful communist opposition it is extremely unlikely that the state of emergency will be maintained indefinitely. For if parliamentary democracy and its instituations were to be disbanded totally, then the only alternative form of bourgeois rule would be the Indian army, and a military dictatorship in India would sound the death-knell of the Indian federation and give rise to all sorts What we are seeing in India is the continued strengthening of the powers of the existing state and its institutions in order to prepare for future struggles. Naturally we are opposed to all such anti-democratic measures - not for the sake of Mr JP Narayan and his fascist friends, but out of solidarity with the tens of thousands of political prisoners already rotting in indian prisons, and the hundreds of railway workers and their families living in miserable conditions after
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CONTINUES® - Spanish Prime Minister