The Turn of the Screws

With each passing week, as the screws are slowly turned down, Juan Peron's Argentina looks more like a fascist-type dictatorship. Last week Peron & Co. twisted the screws tighter in three fields.

LABOR. In Buenos Aires' suburbs one morning, a series of explosions boomed out; rails were ripped up and a bridge damaged. Commuter trains were stranded; thousands were late getting to work. The demonstration was staged by members of La Fraternidad, the brotherhood of engineers and firemen. Bulldozed against their will into the Peronista General Confederation of Labor (C.G.T.), they were striking for the freedom of their union. To Peron, who regards Argentine labor as his permanent prop and personal property, the uproar was acutely embarrassing: first he tried to ignore it by blaming the disturbances on "alien" (i.e., U.S.) influences. Then he had to face facts and invoke emergency powers making strikers subject to military law. That worked, but labor had had one more good look at iron heel.

EDUCATION. Rich Buenos Aires Province (pop. 4,500,000) got the details of a new plan of operation for all public schools "to ensure the perpetuation of the [Peron] revolution by means of a new education." Among the principles to be taught: "the conviction that Peronistas must carry out Argentina's historic mission." History, geography, economics are all to be brought into line. This move to shore up the regime by forced indoctrination of youth--a classic dictatorial technique--did not pass without protest. Cried Senator Ricardo Gonzalez: "This government . . . now wants to contaminate the very wellsprings of the Argentine spirit."

JOURNALISM. Since the murder of La Prensa (TIME, March 12, et seq.), Buenos Aires' last surviving independent daily is La Nation--proud, conservative, accurate. Argentines who hunger for honest news instead of government pap now queue up at the paper's office at 6 a.m. to buy the few extra copies available (Peron controls the newsprint and holds the circulation down to 180,000 daily). Dealers sell copies for 25 times the normal price. When La Nation reported last week's rail strike factually instead of parroting the government line, the Peronista press and radio launched a vicious attack on the paper. Recalling that La Prensa had been similarly attacked for objective reporting of last January's rail strike, observers wondered whether this might be a prelude to a final assault on La Nation.

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