Cost of living jumps, unions are attacked so Argentine workers take towns: Military in a crisis

WE BRING IN JOHN SPENCER A WAVE of occupations, st and militant anti-govern demonstrations has thrown Argentine military regime crisis.

In at least two provincial areas, workers have taken over their towns demanding the resignation of provincial governors and an end to the repression against the trade unions.

The rocketing cost of living, combined with the repressive anti-union measures and growing unemployment, is leading to a head-on clash between the military regime and the powerful Argentine working class.

On Friday, in retaliation, president Alejandro Lanusse froze all trade union bank accounts and demanded that the unions keep out of the political arena.

The unions had threatened the military junta with 'violent revolution' unless they showed respect for 'the will of the people'.

The confrontation followed the take-over of the city of General Roca in the southern province of Rio Negro. The local people set up a breakaway 'provisional government' and broke off relations with the provincial military governor to deal directly with the central government.

They demanded the resignation of Vicente Requijo, an extreme right-wing officer who is the strong-man of the Rio Negro. Requijo sent in the Sixth Mountain Brigade to suppress the uprising.

Brigade commander General Alberto Numa proclaimed . his readiness to put down any further manifestations 'by all means possible Elsewhere in the Argentine niners took over the town of Malargue in southern Mendoza province and declared that 'there is enough dynamite to blow up the whole locality if our protests are put down with violence'.

The entire region is on strike following the occupation of the town by troops of the National Gendarmerie. The miners decided to take over the town to fight the closure of a local manganese Student demonstrations and battles with the police have taken place in a number of main towns, including Tucuman, ikes nent Students arrested in Tucuman escorted by troops AROUND THEEWORLD Hanoi envoy forced into new 'peace initiatives' XUAN THUY, head of the North Vietnamese delegation, arrived in Paris yesterday to prepare for the resumption of the peace' talks on Thursday.

Thuy, who. travelled from Hanoi via Peking and Moscow after consultations with the Hanoi leaders, is said to be ringing back 'new initiatives' Washington is guardedly hopeful that the new round of talks will lead to what Nixon terms 'serious negotiations' the preparation of a dirty compromise at the expense of the Vietnamese revolution.

The Americans and their South Vietnamese puppets withdrew from the Paris talks on May 4, and began an intensive round of diplomatic manoeuvring aimed at isolating Hanoi with the aid of the Moscow and Peking bureaucrats.

They are now hoping that the diplomatic pressure, combined with the blockade and bombardment of the North, will have included the required "flexibility in the attitude of the North Vietnamese leaders.

Chou En-lai, Chinese premier, made an ominous statement on Sunday demanding that the US government end its war of aggression against Vietnam 'at an early date through serious negotiations'.

This formula, noted, is exactly Nixon's demand. Popular Front agreed A NATIONAL convention of the French Socialist Party yesterday endorsed the common programme drawn up by Socialist and Communist Party leaders in preparation for the National Assembly elections next year.

The programme was endorsed unanimously at the weekend by a Communist Party convention attended by 1,200 delegates.

It is an attempt to revive the infamous Popular Front of the 1930s which united Socialists, Radicals and Stalinists in supPentagon papers trial opens THE TRIAL of Daniel Ellsberg connection with the the secret Pentagon Papers was due to open in Los Angeles yesterday.

The two men are accused of 'stealing, embezzling and converting to their own use' one of the 15 copies of the top-secret history of the Vietnam war. The indictment claims this action DECEMBER 3 tatively fixed as General Election West German crisis, according it should be parallel with has been tenthe date for a to break the parliamentary to an official There are indications, however, that the long-awaited attack on the old imperial capital of Hué may begin about the same time as the Paris talks open.

The town has been under heavy bombardment from liberation artillery in the surrounding countryside.

At the same time, the thrust of the South Vietnamese pupper forces towards Quang Tri, north of Hué, is causing alarm among some of the more far-sighted US advisers.

They fear that the light resistance so far encountered by the South Vietnamese troops is designed to lead them into a trap and that once in Quang Tri they will be blasted by the liberation artillery. port for the government of Leon Blum.

It contains the most timid reformist measures with the aim of diverting workers' militancy and perpetuating parliamentary illusions. Since the agreement was drawn up, the Communist Party has concentrated on explaining how 'reasonable' it is.

The agreement accepts continued French membership of the Common Market, the Bonapartist presidential system in only slightly modified form and calls for the nationalization of 'key! industries, totalling less than 1 per cent of private capital.

'defrauded' the nation and violated the Federal Espionage The Pentagon Papers were published by the New York Times' and constitute a damning indictment of the total cynicism of US imperialist policy in IndoChina. By prosecuting Ellsberg and Russo, the administration wants to prevent further leakages of similar 'classified' documents.

spokesman in Boon. The election, a year ahead of schedule, necessary because the ruling coalition's majority the in Bundestag has fallen to none.