AROUND THE WORLD
Netherlands Tamil hunger strike TAMILS FLEEING communalist terror in Sri Lanka have not found much hospitality in West Europe. A number have been admitted into
Netherlands. But under right-wing government of Ruud Lubbers, the Dutch authorities at best their misery. A reporter for Klassenstrijd, the paper of the Dutch section of the Fourth International, told the story of Tamils involved in recent protests in the May 7 issue of the paper.
When I arrived in Lochem, the Tamils were in the fourth day of a hunger strike, the ultimate protest. They were lying around hopelessly on matresses in the common reception rooms. Of the 93 refugees here, 64 have gone on hunger strike. The women and children have not. Two have had to give up the action, one with a stomach illness, the other a diabetic.
"If we had known what the system in the Netherlands held, we would never have come," said one of the hunger strikers.
The Tamils are protesting against the "bed-bath-bread system" [that is, minimal maintenance]. "Tamils are treated in a different way, not like other political refugees. We are not allowed to live on our own. We cannot study or participate in sports. We get no facilities whatsoever."
### FRESH FRUIT
CONTAiNS NO ARTIFiCIAL JUST A BIT OF RADIOACTIVITY! APPiTIVES,
Since the system was introduced last April, they have protested many ament but nothing helped."
On April 10, the "Tamil question" was to be discussed in parliament. Then the debate was posponed until April 18, and then again until April 23: "On April 23, we expected a lot. But then in the evening we heard Brinkman say on the TV that there was not going to be any change in emotional. They lost control."
In Lochem 20 windows broken. A vacuum cleaner suffered a like fate. But when I came, there was nothing more to see. The day after the outbreak, the Tamils, with the help of Dutch friends, had cleaned
"They are still helping us, even after the events on the night of April 23. We have explained how that happened. It was an emono food in protest against the government. We want to protest in a peace
One of the helpers took me around. Five toilets and two showers for 93 inhabitants. Between noon and 1:00 in the afternoon - most Tamils try to sleep as long as possible to waiting - long lines form in front of the toilets and showers....
The Tamils get twenty guilders a week [about 10 US dollars]. But that has to pay for everything. razor blades, shampoo, trips to the Hague to protest •. one guilder put aside for the committee. And
00 letter once a week costs 2.5 guilders. Then most of the refugees have to send some money to their families in Sri Lanka, who went deep into debt to buy the tickets that got them out of the country.
Contact with the families at home is difficult. "For two months we have gotten no letters. We used to get two a month. The problem is in Sri Lanka, where the authorities delay every. thing."
The situation in Sri Lanka has gotten worse. "They are bombing from helicopters in the north of the island. People are migrating to the coast to get out of these areas."
The letters do not make the conditions any more cheerful. One of the young men did not come out of his bedroom for a week after he heard that a family member's bakery was burned down....
One of the Tamils housed Lochem saw his mother beaten
In the meantime a lot of Tamils have left the Netherlands. beginning, there were 3,000 Tamils here, now only 1,200 remain."
Most of the refugees - 150,000 -have gone to India, where they are better received than in the Netherlands. But because of shooting by the Indian navy, it is hard to get there. "For us, it was not hard to get to East Berlin. From there, everyone went to what countries they could." One per cent of the refugees are in the Netherlands. Some 20,000 are in France and Tamils have also gone to Switzerland, Sweden and Norway.
"We have been told that the special system is only for a short time. But it has already lasted more than a year. We have no future. West Germany 'Socialist' nuclear power? SINCE THE Soviet Union has a major nuclear power program, the Moscow-loyalist Communist parties have had to try to defend nuclear power against the strong opposition to it among the left and in the peace movement. The West German CP is one of the most servile CPs, and it had the additional misfortune of being in a country that got heavy fallout from Chernobyl. The following comment on its evident embarrassment is from the May 15 issue of Was Tun, the paper of the German section of the Fourth International.
International Viewpoint 2 June 1986
Anyone who has watched the wiggling of the DKP [German Communist Party] and its paper, Unsere Zeit, over the Chernobyl affair has a hard decision to make -whether to laugh or cry. Since the DKP is obliged to defend the interests of the ruling bureaucrats in the USSR and East Germany, it has backed "socialist" nuclear power, which, in contrast to the "capitalist" variety, is supposed to be entirely "safe " Naturally, it was hard to square this position with the disaster at Chernobyl.
the DKP-Unsere Zeit's first that the USSR plans to deliver a nuclear power plant to Libya. The purpose of this is so that Libya can save on oil (so it can export more to the USSR?).
The ambassador even added: "The accident in Chernobyl is not such an unusual thing." In other words, "to make an omelet, you have to break some eggs."
That make the weather map much more exciting for us in Europe. The wind also often comes from the South. Denmark Another painful bite IN SCANDINAVIA also the effects of the offensive to roll back social the Danish section of the Fourth International, reports a blow that could cause a lot of pain.
"We are against an unsound law that will result in unsound teeth.
"The government wants to privatize municipal dental care, despite the fact that we have an outstanding system that has reduced the number cavities in children's teeth by half."
That is the message from the municipal dental clinic assistants, who throughout the country are protesting against the government's bill on children's dental care. This bill has gotten its first reading in the parliament and is heading for the second.
The assistants argue that the government's bill will mean:
Spoiling all the work that has been done.
- Reducing the age limit for children's dental care to 16.
- The system of dental care in our opinion will mean that parents will not be able to get free dental care for their children, " John Lund told Klassekampen. He is the chairman of the clinic workers' [HP] branch in Copenhagen.
"The bill proposes to give 'free choice to parents, so that they can decide whether they want to send their children to the municipal dental clinics or to their own dentist. And with the economic problems the municipalities have, you can expect that they are going to save on the dental services, so that in reality there will be no choice." France Martine freed AFTER THREE months in prison, Martine Toulotte was released May 20. Martine, a member of the LCR (Ligue Communiste Revolutionnaire - French section Fourth International), was held with. out trial after being charged with "harbouring wanted men". This ridiculous charge arose four years after Martine had put up some Lebanese visitors (see IV, No. 98, May 5, 1986, for a full report).
The campaign launched by LCR to free Martine undoubtedly secured her release, supported as it was by national personalities, trade unions and political parties of the left. International solidarity was also expressed in the form of messages of support to Martine from many organizations and individuals. she was released, Martine said: "the solidarity campaign has been decisive. All the people who helped me, for the most part strangers, could see that there was an organization and
So, response was to argue that Western propagandists wanted to exaggerate everything in order to discredit so-
Martine Tulotte is greeted by friends on her release (DR) cialism and distract attention from Western nuclear armaments and war mongering.
Nonetheless, both in shouted protests against the relevant passages in the speech of the party chair Mies and in letters from readers to Unsere Zeit, some critical voices were raised.
In order to reassure such critics, the May 13 issue of Unsere Zeit published a discussion of the editors with "experts," which minimized the disaster but could not entirely deny it.
Their dubious conclusion was that despite everything, nuclear reactors are necessary in the USSR, just not in West Germany.
In the meantime, the Soviet ambassador in Tripoli has announced
International Viewpoint 2 June 1986 for young people will be abolished.
government's
"The comrades outside who would not let me down. It was tremendous!"
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