The Lon Nol regime is on the verge of collapse. A creation of Washington from the start, it has throughout its existence been totally dependent on U.S. military and economic aid. But it seems even that is not enough to save it now.

Reacting swiftly to a new political indictment of his dictatorship, Nguyen Van Thieu’s national police raided the offices of nine Saigon newspapers that were publishing the indictment February 2 and confiscated their press runs and printing plates. The statement had been drawn up by the opposition movement led by the Reverend Tran Huu Thanh.

During the next two days, mostly in predawn raids, the regime arrested twenty-four journalists and editors as “Communist agents.” Five newspapers were shut down.

The Pentagon took another step toward open intervention once again in the Indochina war when it doubled its airlift of supplies to the Lon Nol regime February 15.

The Khmer Rouge insurgents have now virtually blockaded the Mekong River, Pnompenh’s main supply line. For the first time in the war, they have mined the river. They have also stepped up heavy artillery fire from the banks, which are almost totally under their control.

In a new escalation of its war threats against Vietnam, Washington issued a bellicose statement January 13 warning that North Vietnam “must accept the full consequences of its actions” in “turning from the path of negotiation to that of war.” A State Department spokesman declined to elaborate on what the “full consequences” might be, but more concrete indications of Washington’s intentions were soon provided.

Following the liberation of Phuocbinh, capital of Phuoclong province, by the forces of the Provisional Revolutionary Government on January 7, the hawks in Washington came out in force. Not only did they issue threats, some veiled and some not-so-veiled, but the White House and the Pentagon have set to persuade Congress to step up allocations for the war.

“Violence hit the streets of Cairo today after a demonstration by 1,000 industrial workers against low pay and high living costs developed into a full-scale riot... Washington Post correspondent Michael Tingay reported from Cairo January 1.

“The central security forces arrived in truckloads to quell the rioters, who tore up paving stones and smashed windows, halting traffic and disrupting Cairo’s Liberation Square and the surrounding areas near Egypt’s Parliament building and ministries.”

Assembled in St. Louis for the fourteenth national Young Socialist Alliance convention December 28-January 1 were some 1,000 YSA members, friends, activists in social struggles across the United States, reporters, international guests, and... agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, their presence sanctioned by court order. (See article elsewhere in this issue.)

Preparations for the fourteenth national convention of the Young Socialist Alliance included an important legal battle to protect the civil rights of participants at the gathering.

On December 13, fifteen days before the convention was due to open. New York District Judge Thomas Criesa granted a motion of the YSA for an injunction against Federal Bureau of Investigation plans to spy on the gathering. The injunction prohibited FBI agents or confidential informers from “attending, surveilling, listening to, watching, or otherwise monitoring” the convention.

Under the impact of the worldwide economic crisis, a new wave of struggles broke out in Asia in 1974. No country remained insulated, but the effects of the crisis could be seen most dramatically in the semicolonial countries. Already ground down to a subsistence level by imperialism, the workers and peasants there have been hardest hit.

For millions in Asia the spiraling inflation and developing recession meant not merely hardship but starvation. Famine on a massive scale threatens whole populations. On the Indian subcontinent hundreds are already dying each day.

Using an attempted coup as the pretext, Bolivian President Hugo Banzer Suárez decreed a sweeping series of measures November 9 to clamp down hard on opposition to his shaky military regime.

As part of the “new order,” the general outlawed all political parties, labor unions, and student and business associations. Heavy penalties were set for any public or private institutions that engage in political activity.