Great Britain is determined on a bloodbath in its efforts to take the Malvinas from Argentina. In dispatching 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 mobilize 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 U.S. military action against the revolutions in Central America and the Caribbean.
This is not Thatcher's war alone. The U.S. government has fully associated itself with this operation and other imperialist powers are complicit through their sales of arms to Britain, their 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 recognized where their fundamental interests lie.
The decision to dispatch the third largest fleet in the world, to launch 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.
The Fourth International fully endorses the urgent appeal of Fidel Castro in his capacity as chairperson of the Nonaligned Movement to help halt "Anglo-American aggression." Fidel Castro has correctly pointed out that this war has "become a lesson for all Third 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 mobilize 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 recognized without reservation.
We salute the Argentine workers for their rapid mobilization in defense 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 proimperialist 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 opposition 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 maintaining 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 mobilization 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 aggressor.
The need to defend the Malvinas has come into contradiction with the proimperialist 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 intransigence against the 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 organization, press, and association as well as all 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 of 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 aggression. They will be won through mass mobilizations. 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 underhanded 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 organizations, struggling for their rights, mobilizing against imperialism, the Argentine masses will come to finish off the military dictatorship.
Each day, with the Argentine national anthem, the words of Jose Martí resound more loudly: "listen to the sound of our breaking chains." Every day longer that this people is tied down and gagged gives the British enemy and its allies a supplementary advantage.
The Fourth International will fully commit itself to mobilizing the broadest solidarity with Argentina against this aggression. We fully support the mobilization of the Latin American peoples in solidarity with Argentina.
The Fourth International calls upon European and North American workers to fight to end their governments' blockades and economic boycotts of Argentina and to halt military aid to Margaret Thatcher in 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 antiwar movement are perfectly right to demonstrate to demand a halt to all North American aid to this bloody colonial war, which can only reinforce Washington's warmongering course.
The Fourth International calls on the British labor and anti-nuclear-missiles movement to struggle against the chauvinist hysteria whipped up by the capitalist press. We also call for the broadest possible mobilization 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 ultrareactionary 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!