AROUND THE WORLD
International Viewpoint 8 December 1986
Western Europe SOCIALIST FEMINIST FORUM THE SECOND gathering of the European Forum of socialist feminists, following that organized in Copenhagen in 1985, took place in Hamburg, West Germany on the weekend of November 7-8.
The main theme of the weekend was "Women and restructuring labour" This was discussed from a number of different angles. The starting point, emphasized in the short descriptions situation in into the labour market. At the same time it was also recognized that the crisis is forcing employrestructure the in ways which have particular effects from women's entry into the workwhat jobs, with what expectations; their role in the workforce and their relationship to it as a worker and through the family situation; to how women workers can be affected by the experiences of redundancy.
The subject was also tackled from the point of view of the relationship between women, the state and their place in the labour market, including a contribution on the work of the European parliament in this respect.
These discussions indicated interesting work being done by define themselves feminists today. This label covered a broad range those in parties and those not. parties in a number of countries, left groups, including revolutionary
The 110 women at the conference the conference was limited to one language, English, was a higher attendance from northern Europe. It was generally agreed that the experience reflected in the conference was one-sided in being overwhelmingly that of white European women, and that the particular experience of immigrants, political refugees or of Black Europeans, those who are born and bred for example in Britain and identify as Black British, 26 was lacking. Positive steps to overcome this are to be made for the next forum.
The planned diseussion on socialist feminist perspectives on a European scale did not lead to any conclusions other than to organize a third socialist feminist forum, probably in the Spanish state in November 1987. The papers of the Hamburg conference will be published in Britain. France STUDENT STRIKES ON THURSDAY November 27, more than 500,000 university (high school) students across France demonstrated against Alain Devaquet's proposed reform of higher education, mobilizations since 1968 with several universities the movement spread in days, so that by Monday ember 24 there was a general student strike throughout the country, with hundreds of thousands of students from the lycees joining it. Numbers on Thursday's demonstrations were estimated at 30,000 in Grenoble, 40,000
Toulouse, 25,000 in 30,000 in Lyon, 20,000 in Bordeaux ... the list goes on. There were at least 300,000 on the Paris demonstration, which forced the debate proposals to be put back a day to Friday 28th.
Most of the students demonstrations were aged between 15 and 20, and for many of them it was their first political involvement. In the students are reluctant to see the strike as overtly "political" and are wary of possible attempts to manipulate their movement. But in the slogans on the marches and in their to some attacks by the extreme right, the influence of the anti-racist campaign amongst youth
Devaquet's proposed law, which dence" of the universities raises the whole question of their financing. Its most striking effect would be that students who passed their Baccalaureat would no longer be automatically entitled to enter higher education, introducing a system of selection depending on the faculty applied for. There are numerous smaller attacks on the present organization of higher education and the position of foreign students is also under threat.
In introducing the law, however, the government had not anticipated the sort of opposition it is coming against. On Thursday night, immediately following the demonthe national student coordination met and called for the strikes to continue. Occupations of the being planned from Monday and a national demonstration has been called for December 4. An appeal for support from teaching staff
All the indications at the moment are that the strike is continuing to grow and that the determination of the students, as well as their confidence in their ability to throw out the new legislation, is stronger than DEBT RESOLUTION IN LATIN AMERICA, October 23 was a continent-wide day of action against the debt, following a similar protest last year. In Mexico, of the biggest Latin American debtors, there was a large-scale mobilization of trade unions and mass organizameetings and round-table discussions
The following resolution was adopted by a trade-union panel which brought together the trade-union organizations independent of the government. It is taken from the newspaper of the Mexican section of the Fourth International, the Revolutionary Workers Party (PRT), Bandera Socialista, October 26, 1986.
On February 21, 1986, President Miguel de la Madrid proposed to bring the payment of service charges on the foreign debt into line with the counreal capacity to pay. Seven months later, he announced the renegotiations of the same debt that has increased still more and will reach 110,000 million US dollars in 1987. Mexico will then be the most heavily indebted country in the world.
This debt, and the obstinate determination to pay this astronomical sum, indicates an increasing dependence on imperialism; a policy that means lowering workers' real wages; an official rate of 15 per cent unemployment; a constant increase in inflation; rising prices for goods and services;
decreasing social spending on health, education, housing; attacks against the union rights; and cuts in social benefits.
The model of development chosen by the government, so-called industrial reconversion, has simply meant reclaiming that modernization inevitably the streets. There are many different examples: the steel plants of Monterey, Dina, Acros, Aeromexico, Renault, Ficar and so on. This has been accomplished by a so-called reconversion, meaning the super-exploitation of the workforce and changes in the production process with the stated aim of increasing productivity. To this should be added the continued rejection of increase in wages and social
What is more, it should be emphasized that many public and private the complicity of corrupt trade unionists and official factory inspectors, have used these redundancies to get rid of independent trade unions, leaders of democratic organizations
The organizations taking part in the trade-union panel propose to the peoples', peasants' and tradebattle for the following objectives:
La policy that gets the country fore suspends obligatory payment of the foreign debt and interest payemergency wage rise of 50 per cent and the establishment of a sliding scale of wages; against redundancies and factory closures; for 56 hours pay for a 40-hour week and unemployment insurance;
* respect for collective agreements and trade unions;
* respect for the workers' rights guaranteed by the constitution. Book review MEMOIRS MEMOIRS of a Radical Rank and Filer by Ben Stone, 7.95 dollars, Prometheus Press, Box 318, Gracie Station, New York 10028. 188 pages Reviewed by Gerry Foley).
A long-time member of the American Socialist Workers Party (SWP) has published memoirs covering the decade of the 1940s and 1950s in the history of the Trotskyist movement in the United States. The book helps to fill a gap by giving a personal account of part of the all-too-thin generation that maintained the continwity of the American radical movement between the upsurge of the 1930s and the new waves of radicali-
International Viewpoint 8 December 1986 zation that began in the 1960s. The author, Ben Stone, also writes about of the more notable labor leaders in recent times, a leader of the painters' union in cisco who was assassinated.
The book offers a number of portraits of rank-and-file as well as of the leaders inspired them. In that respect, it is rather in the tradition of a work like the biographies of and communist leader, Zeth Hoglund, especially the volume Glorious Time), which tried justice to the many people who had to strive and sacrifice to build a party of working people, a new historical also gives some interesting New York's Lower URNG COMMUNIQUE democratic president of Guatemala, has just rejected any perspective of dialogue with the Guatemalan revolutionaries regrouped in the Guatemalan (URNG). By demanding condition for any discussion that the revolutionaries lay down their arms -which they, of course, categorically refuse to do - the government is driving towards a purely military solution. position, caught between cratic aspirations of a reinvigorated mass movement (see International Viewpoint No. 1986), and the intransigence of a military hierarchy that considers any negotiations with the insurgents would be a de facto recognition of the guerrillas and a betrayal of the army. The following communique from the URNG was put out at the end of
To the people of Guatemala and to international public opinion: After ten months of a new civilian government, it is necessary to demand without delay that the president keeps to his promises made during the election campaign. The time has come not to present successes or spectacular results, but the political guidelines that the government intends to follow.
Proclaiming with a big fanfare proposal to begin a process of democratization is not enough to get such a proclamation translated into governmental policies and measures.
Far from having seen changes in the power structures and decision-making armyl, there has been growing reagainst the civil populastandard of living have deteriorated alarmingly, all sorts of obstacles have been put in the way of trade-union freedom, the various they have called for changes in the forces, the disappearances and assassinations continue and thousands of refugees are still stranded in other countries with no hope of
The military high command, with trying to annihilate the revolutionary movement and terrorize the population. In the face of this political extremism, the revolutionary forces of the URNG have had to maintain their military activity.
Instread of putting all its efforts into establishing real democracy, the government is content to reiterate its appeals for the laying down of arms. But this has already lasted too the people cannot wait its political will for dialogue and discussion on the minimal condition of a democratic process. We equally emphasize that there exists the possibility of a real political solution, but in any event that is not the path the government is taking.
AL-MITRAQA: Revolutionary communist review for the Arab region.
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Dossier on Islamic Fundamentalism;
The new programme of the CP of the USSR.
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