DOMINICAN REPUBLIC_
because of the high levels of arms spending. The result is an upward thrust of interest rates in the US driving up the value of the dollar. And the higher the dollar goes, the deeper into the quicksand this pushes the countries that owe debts in dollars.
IMF dictates spark explosion
And now the IMF, which is controlled by the US, is demanding that dominated countries, such as the Dominican Republic, tighten their belts until they choke in order to balance their budgets! That's the real provocation.
By demanding that the negotiations
The Dominican Republic police and army killed more than two hundred women and young people in attacks on the crowds demonstrating ernment run by the Dominican Revolutionary Party, a member of the Social Democratic Second International, proved its reliability to the IMF and the imperialist banks. Andre DUBOIS
For months, the PRD government had been negotiating a new agreement with the IMF, after it had already submitted to the IMF in 1982. On April 19, the Dopresident, Jorge Blanco, announced that the government had accepted the IMF's conditions. regime - which trims its sails to suit the demands of imperialist finance capital, the multinationals and the small layer of Dominican rich - simply capitulated.
The president hoped to be able to take advantage of the Easter holiday to avoid a mass reaction and defuse the discontent. But he lost his bet. On April 23, the People's Struggle Coordinating Committees in two neighborhoods - Capotillo and Simon Bolivar, in the northern part of Santo Domingo - issued a call for a demonstration. The response was immediate and vast. In the capital, as well as in the cities of San Cristobal, San Francisco de Marcoris and Barahona, tens of thousands of working people came into the streets. They demanded breaking off the negotiations with the IMF, freezing of the prices for necessities and establishment of a minimum wage of 250 pesos with automatic cost-of-living increases.
This outburst of desperation by impoverished and hungry people struggling to survive was seen by the Social Democratic government as a "provocation." So, it ordered its repressive forces to open fire. By this, also, it undoubtedly hoped to show the military how tough it could
The world capitalist economic crisis hit the Dominican Republic rather late. But when it struck, the impact was brutal. Today, it is estimated that the real unemployment rate is around 32%. About 58% of the part of the population defined as economically active is considered to be suffering from both unemployment and underemployment. Thus, out of a total population of 6 million, less than a million have a real job. Some 46% of the population is illiterate.
In 1980, it was estimated that a family of five needed 500 pesos a month to live on. But the minimum wage is only 125 pesos. Moreover, for the last four International Viewpoint 21 May 1984 ears real wages have steadily melted way under the impact of growing in-
Now, in the spring of 1984, the IMF is going to impose measures that will have the following results for the masses of working people: a wage freeze, going hand in hand with a drastic increase in the prices of necessities (more than 300% for Nestle's powdered milk, 500% for medicine, 50% for bread); slashing of the already meager social spending (education, health, various forms of social assistance); increased unemployment provoked by the reduction of state investment; a new wave of bankruptcies by small and medium enterprises in industry and agriculture; and the elimination of a lot of subsidies designed to cushion the effect of rising food prices.
Still worse, it was projected to decontrol prices for petroleum products in June, with all the indirect effects this would have on the cost of transportation, electricity and so forth, when the prices of services have been steadily climbing. Finally, a sharp devaluation of the Dominican currency would give imperialist capital greater control over the economy, since the imperialists would be able to take more goods for less dollars.
The IMF imposed these measures as the condition for making new loans that would enable the Dominican Republic to repay the imperialist banks, which in past years have provided credit at nearly usurious rates.
But that is not all. US budget deficits are skyrocketing, among other things, with the IMF be broken off, the Dominican workers and peasants directly challenged this shameless imperialist exploitation and the complicity with it of the Dominican ruling party.
Since March, a mass movement had been taking form in the Dominican Republic. Hunger marches multiplied, for example, in the capital, which as the result of the rural exodus, has swollen into a concentration of 1.4 million inhabitants. The bulk of this population is made up of occasional workers ("Chiriperos"), street sellers, semiproletarians, masses of unemployed youth and pauperized workers. For months these poor masses had been showing their readiness to mobilize. Dozens of people's organizations (neighborhood committees, People's Coordinating Committees) launched struggles for limited demands -better water and electricity supply, transport, health care and, most recently, a freeze on prices
In March 1984, the five labor confederations (1), including the General Confederation of Workers (CGT), which is the backbone of the labor movement and the class-struggle wing of it, called for a "great national day of protest against hunger" on April 7.
The first congress of the Independent Peasant Movement (MCI), held March 22-25, reflected big steps forward in or ganizing the poor peasant masses independently of the various bourgeois parties and state institutions. The fight against the measures dictated by the IMF and cooperation with the CGT were central themes in the congress.
So, the protest movement and the mass rebellion that occurred in late April were based on a build up of forces that had been going on for a whole period. It was thus not by chance that immediately following the first clashes on April 23, the five labor confederations, including those linked to the ruling party, called for a general strike. On May 1, despite the imposition of martial-law measures, they managed to hold a successful day of protest. The breadth of the movement is
The Trade-Union Coordinating Committee includes the CGT; the CUT (United Confederation of Workers), linked to the Communist Party: the CASC (Autonomous Class-Struggle Confederation), controlled by the Christian Democrats: the General Union of Dominican Workers (UGTD), linked to the PRD but led by a section of the party that is in opposition to the president; and the National Confederation of Dominican Workers, which is controlled by the right.
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shown also by the lining up of peasant, student and peasant women's coording committees behind the trade-union organ-
BRAZILzations.
The April 23 and 24 events opened a new stage in the class struggle in the
Dominican Republic. The repression was