Great Britain is determined on a bloodbath in its efforts to take the Malvinas from Argentina. In despatching 100 ships and 26,000 soldiers, it has decided to sacrifice the lives of hundreds of Argentine and British soldiers. It is using some of the most sophisticated armaments in the world against a semicolonial country. The British task force carries nuclear weapons. The Fleet commander has power to use these 'in case of emergency'.
This is the lengths of barbarity to which British imperialism is prepared to go to defend its interests against the oppressed peoples of the world.
The International Executive Committee of the Fourth International calls on all the workers, peasants and oppressed of the world to mobilise in support of the Argentine people against imperialism and colonialism.
British action in the South Atlantic is the most dangerous threat to world peace today. It is a cover to the stepping up of US military action against the revolutions in Central America and the Caribbean.
This is not Thatcher's war alone. The US government has fully associated itself with this operation and other imperialist powers are complicit through their sales of arms to Britain, the logistical support, their economic and military boycott of Argentina and their continued diplomatic support for Britain's action throughout the war. Reagan has made it clear that he 'will not allow' a British defeat. All imperialist ruling classes have quickly recognised where their fundamental interests lie.
The decision to despatch the third largest fleet in the world, to lauch a military invasion to recapture the islands and to bomb the Argentine mainland if necessary has nothing to do with the hypocritical claim to be defending the British inhabitants on the Malvinas.
This is a war against the peoples of Latin America. Neither Britain nor the US can allow any colonial country to assert its rights. To do so would encourage all peoples of the region in their fights to overthrow the reactionary oligarchies that rule them today and throw out their imperialist backers.
The specific importance of the Malvinas is the access they give to the resources of the Antarctic, to the oil that has been discovered around the islands and the strategic position that the islands occupy in the South Atlantic.
Britain's war against Argentina is not between 'democracy' and 'military dietatorship'. It is between an imperialist power and a dependent country.
Britain's open aggression has triggered off a growing wave of hatred against London and Washington—the two imperialist powers which have dominated the region for many years.
The battle for the Malvinas against imperialist aggression reinforces the impact of revolutionary advances in Central America and the Carribbean throughout the Latin American continent.
The Fourth International fully endorses the urgent appeal of Fidel Castro in his capacity as chairperson of the Non-Aligned Movement to help halt 'Anglo-American aggression'. Fidel Castro has correctly pointed out that this war has 'become a lesson for all 3rd World countries which defend their sovereignty and territorial integrity' whatever their political regime.
We agree with him that 'this is the hour of Latin American solidarity'. The Fourth International will work to mobilise the widest possible solidarity in Latin and Central America with Argentina against this aggression. We call for active and unconditional support for Argentina. In this war Argentine sovereignty over the Malvinas must be definitively established and internationally recognised without reservations.
We salute the Argentine workers for their rapid mobilisation in defence of Argentine sovereignty over the Malvinas.
The recuperation of the Malvinas by the Argentine military junta coincided with the national aspirations of the Argentine people against British imperialism. The pro-imperialist Military Junta had reached a real low point of discredit and isolation after six years of bloody repressive policies against the Argentine working masses.
The action recuperating the Malvinas was carried out only days after a demonstration of tens of thousands of workers who demanded 'Peace, Bread and Work'. This was an expression of a strong awakening of the masses. The Junta's action aimed to divert the growing wave of popular oppostion against the failure of its brutal repressive policies. But the Argentine working masses enthusiastically supported the recuperation of the Malvinas while at the same time maintained their independence from the Junta. They acted in this way because Thatcher's war is a war against the Argentine people as a whole.
The mobilisation of the Argentine masses against the imperialist attack will break the barrier of all the junta's vacillations faced with imperialism, freeing all the potential force needed to crush the agressors.
The need to defend the Malvinas has come into contradiction with the pro-imperialist positions of the Junta. It has already been obliged to withdraw from Washington's plans to involve it in imperialist intervention in Central America.
For many years Argentine workers have carried out heroic resistance to the economic and repressive measures of imperialism executed by the military junta. Today faced with the open attack of British imperialism they must demand intransigeance against aggressor. At this critical time any weakness is an obstacle placed in the way of the anti-imperialist energies of the Argentine people, a betrayal of the national cause.
Therefore it is more urgent than ever to guarantee the greatest freedom of organisation, press and association as well as other democratic rights. We support the demand for accounts to be settled on the fate of the 30,000 'disappeared'. These militants have proved themselves in the struggle against imperialism. They will be in the front ranks in the struggle against British aggression. Freedom for the political prisoners and the return of the exiles are more necessary than ever. These measures would strengthen the Argentine people against aggession. They will be won through mass mobilisations. The workers and oppressed should not bear the enormous costs of the war. The aggressors and exploiters must pay-British and North American interests must be expropriated in order to strike another blow against imperialism and aid the Argentine people.
Anglo-American aggression has changed the conditions of the Argentine people's struggle for their just demands. The Argentine workers, correctly, have no illusion that the junta will take measures aiming to build a more effective resistance against imperialist aggression-its barbarous repression justifies this defiance.
That is why the battle against imperialist aggression does not imply any truce with the Junta or any concessions on the independence of the workers and peasants in the struggle for their demands.
The Fourth International denounces the underhand moves of the United States to set up, if possible, a new government in Argentina totally subordinated to their interests and even more repressive.
But in strengthening their organisations, struggling for their rights, mobilising against imperialism, the Argentine masses will come to finish off the military dictatorship.
The Fourth International will fully commit itself to mobilising the broadest solidarity with Argentina against this aggression. We fully support the mobilisation of the Latin American peoples in solidarity with Argentina.
The Fourth International calls upon European and North American workers to fight to end their government's blockades and economic boycotts of Argentina and to halt military aid to Margaret Thatcher under whatever form. Neither the Argentine masses nor the victims of the Junta's repression will benefit at all from these governments' support to Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan.
The workers of Western Europe, Australia, New Zealand and Canada have no interest either in supporting the alliance of their own exploiters against the Argentine people.
The working people of North America and the developing anti-war movement are perfectly right to demonstrate to demand the halt to all North American aid to this bloody colonial war which can only reinforce Washington's war-mongering course.
The Fourth International calls on the British labour and anti-nuclear missiles movement to struggle against the chauvinist hysteria whipped up by the capitalist press. We also call for the broadest possible mobilisation for the withdrawal of the British Fleet.
We denounce the support of the principal British trade union leaders and the Labour Party to Margaret Thatcher's war. Any victory against Argentina will be the signal for an increased offensive against the rights of British workers themselves. A British defeat by Argentina would, on the contrary, constitute a powerful encouragement in the struggle against British imperialism and will strengthen the struggle to kick out this ultra-reactionary Conservative government and strike a blow against Ronald Reagan's warmongering.
The real allies of British workers are the workers and exploited, oppressed Argentine masses.
DOWN WITH BRITISH IMPERIALISM'S DIRTY COLONIAL WAR!
IMMEDIATE AND UNCONDITIONAL WITHDRAWAL OF BRITISH ARMED FORCES FROM THE SOUTH ATLANTIC!
END IMPERIALIST BOYCOTTS OF ARGENTINA!
LONG LIVE INTERNATIONAL WORKERS SOLIDARITY WITH THE EXPLOITED AND OPPRESSED OF ARGENTINA AND CENTRAL AMERICA!
THE MALVINAS ARE ARGENTINE!
International Executive Committee of the FOURTH INTERNATIONAL May 27, 1982