states rights over the Federal Government?
Behind the rise of Reagan lies the profound crisis in confidence experienced by the majority of Americans in their government. The betrayal of Vietnam, the Angolan bluff, and the irrefutable meddlings of the CIA in the affairs of other countries, together with the worst recession and racial polarisation since the war on the domestic front, pose immense problems for the twin parties of capitalism.
The main difference between the two parties in this election is that the Republicans, particularly Reagan, take clearer positions than the Democrats on major issues such as detente. For Reagan, 'it is time to "eyeball" the Russians'. This places Ford and Kissinger in an embarrassing and conciliatory position towards their right flank. Kissinger's African visit, coming a week before the Texas primaries, did little to enhance Ford's chances; he was unable to capture a single delegate out of the 96.
Vociferous One of Reagan's most vociferous campaigns in the Texas primary concerned the question of the Panama Canal. Latin America is the US's second largest trading partner, and within that Panama ranks fifth.
One section of the multinationals see their long-term interests best served by a negotiated settlement in the Canal Zone. As Ambassador Ellsworth Bunker put it: "If we try to maintain the status quo, we will face mounting hostility in both Panama and Latin America - and a possible loss of the very interests we want to preserve (quoted in The Nation, 3 April 1976).
Reagan, however, carefully advised by right-wing ex-president Arnulto Arias, is holding firm on America's rights to the Zone: "Personally I would tell this tinhorn dictator friend of Fidel Castro's [Panama's General Torrijos] that we bought it, we paid for it, and we are going to keep it. Columnists Evans and Novack have echoed Reagan with references to 'Panama's Now issue with artices on lay, rortu gal, Spain, Japan, India, Venezuela, Britain and Argentina. sup plus op pop trom Red Books, 97 Caledonian Rd, N.1.
ANITA BENNETT The crisis in the US Republican Party deepens daily as President Ford tries to keep afloat after a series of losses in key primaries.
to jail Angela Davis - get to such a position? Is the country taking a fast lurch to the right, back to the days of Barry Goldwater and turbulent leftist dictator. But this conclusion might be challenged by those currently protesting against Torrijos' expulsion of leftist professor Miguel Antonio Bernal from Panama.
What Panama shows very vividly is US imperialism's new uncertainty after Vietnam on how to maintain its domination over such colonial countries. The objective remains the same, but the ruling class differs on the tactics needed to achieve it. And this is only one of the dilemmas facing the Republicans during this election year.
Another much touted issue is detente. Here, Reagan's position doesn't differ too much from that of Democratic front-runner Jimmy Carter, who thinks that detente is under attack 'because of the way it is exploited by the Soviet Union'. For both of them the Cold War is still on. One very clear example is their position in Israel, which both parties regard as a key test for the US in facing up to the Russians.
And as can be seen by the Jewish Defence League's bombing of the Soviet Embassy, the Zionist lobby is not insignificant in the US. New York alone has a larger Jewish popuprimarily Zionist - than the state of Israel.
But if the elections can even claim to be about issues, the most important is perhaps the most unspoken and unmentioned: bussing. Not one candidate of either major party has unambiguously endorsed court-ordered bussing.
Carter's remark about 'ethnic purity' was no slip, but most black people couldn't care less about Carter's opinions about their 'purity" at a time when they are increasingly unemployed and physically attacked against a woman's right to choose.
gates needed to nominate a presidential candidate in Kansas City this summer stands at 1130. To 331. The best advice the latter's presidential. But even the most reactionary voters, many of them turncoats from the Wallace camp Georgia, know that a candidate how 'presidential he looks. campaign into a single issue crusade The number of Republican deledate Reagan has won 426 to Ford's aides can give him is to look more in places like Alabama, Indiana and must nave some answers, no matter pectively.
LETTERS In looking at the American elections, Marxists do not take sides with either of the two parties, but seek to bring out those very class League issues that the candidates seek to hide, such as the true state of the economy and the capitalists responsibilities for unemployment and inflation - to say nothing of the political questions raised by the struggles of women and oppressed minorities. In a later article we will cover the campaign of Peter Camejo and Willie Mae Reid, SWP candidates for president and vice-president res### AUSTRALIAN RAIDS New moves are being made to frame the Australian Trotskyists of the Communist On 30 April police carried out armed raids on the homes of CL members with warrants to search for explosives. While charging one comrade with posessing stolen goods, the police also alleged that ne nao been invorved in a consoir acy to assassinate a newspaper proprietor, a TV director, and a Liberal Party Minister.
These raids are a clear attempt to pick off leading militants at a time when working class opposition to the Fraser Government is growing. Hands off the absence through medical unfitness - a physical condition directly ascribed by the court-appointed medical advisors to the conditions in which she had been held prisoner If it is right that Utrike Meinhof did kill herself, then in these circumstances it is hardly surprising: she was facing a
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Readers outside the US can only marvel at the success of Ronald Reagan over the incumbent president. How did the former cow- boy - once head of the red-baiting Hollywood Screen Actors' Guild, and more recently the Governor of California who helped