AROUND THE WORLD
International Viewpoint 23 March 1987
South Africa Amon Msane arrested
MSANE, the chief trade. union steward at the 3M company's
Johannesburg, was arrested 19 while supporting a supermarket being held in an unwithout charges under South Africa's emergency law.
Msane spoke at a conference organized by the US publication, Labor Notes, last November. (See IV No. 111, December 22, 1986.) At the conference, New Directions for Labor, he emphasized the importance international solidarity and cooperation among workers who work for the same multinational corporations.
Previously, Msane led a strike of South African 3M workers in support of 3M workers in New Jersey whose plant was being closed.
This is the second time within the last year that Msane has been arrested. Last summer, he was held for a month after his return from the trip to the United States. He was released after widespread protests to the South the 3M company. to publicize the messages of protest to South African embassies to demand Msane's release. should also be
Detroit, Michigan 48220. Czechoslovakia Charter activist on trial PALACH PRESS, January 22 of Petr Pospichal, a 27year old Czech worker from Bro, Moravia and a Charter 77 activist.
3, Pospichal charged with the criminal offence of subversion of the Republic, under an article of the penal code which carries a prison sentence of 3-10 years and possible subsequent sur26 the words of the indictment, alleged to which has not been ascertainat least from midout of active public oreiin particularly Polish - and domestic, in whose production he participated, and made the contents of these documents, notably so-called Informace o Charter 77 and others, known to a wider circle of young people... and established active contact with the Polish hostile
"Solidarity", as well as with hostile persons in the
Czechoslovak emigre circles abroad."
The Committee for the Defence of the Unjustly Prosecuted (VONS)
have issued an international appeal calling on labour movement, human rights and religious organizations to take up Petr Pospichal's case, particularly organizations in other Eastern
On February 12, in Prague and
Brno, a Committee for the Release
Petr Pospichal was established religious figures, writers and so on. Several members are staging hunger strikes to draw attention to his case.
Council of Solidarnose issued a declaration protest-
Pospichal's arrest expressing their affinity with activists. Included among other Eastern European organizations to express their solidarity was the independent Polish peace movement, Freedom and
This case is of particular importplace, it will not only be Charter 77 and VONS who will be in the dock cooperation between Czechoslovak and Polish democratic oppositions and the basic principle of the right of East European citizens to travel between their countries and access to information about each other. To convict Pospichal on these charges would mean a violation of the principle of "detente embodied in the
It is believed that one of the main for the trial sentence is that the Czech government is increasingly worried about the growing exchanges, and even cooperation, between Charter 77, Solidarnosc other opposition groups in Hungary and East Germany.
This cooperation was highlighted last October when 122 prominent dissidents from these four East European
La joint statement commemorating
Hungarian revolution. (See IV No. 108, November 10. Marxism vs liberalism
A PACKED meeting of over 600 people at the University of Louvain on February 17 listened to a highpowered debate around the theme of whether Marxist or free enterprise ideology was the best basis for combatting the capitalist crisis.
were both well-known economic theorists. Ernest Mandel, a leading member of the Fourth International and its section, the POS/SAP, and and writer defended a materialist analysis of the crisis and the need for a working class response.
opposing corner was Paul De Grauwe, a specialist in monetarist economics.
covered a wide area, centering around the argument of "who should pay for the crisis?" and was registered as a great success by the student organizers, the Werkgroep Andere Keonomie - Alternative Economics Working Group. Fight racism rally "FIGHTING racism, defending Labour and campaigning for socialism" was the theme of the first public Forum on January 16 in London.
The rally was jointly organized by of Labour Parliament MPs) and the Labour Party Black Section organization of Black people in the Labour Party that is officially recognized by the LP leadership.
Over 600 people came to hear a broad range of speakers, including leader of Lambeth council Linda Bellos, Gul Zarina Khan from the
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International Viewpoint 23 March 1987
Black Section leader Arthur Scargill National Union of Mineworkers and MPs Tony Benn, Eric Heffer and Jeremy Corbyn. There were also other speakers from various defence campaigns, and from the Women's Action Committee in the Labour Party.
The meeting was important in two respects. First, because of the vital need for the most united and broad campaign against racism both inside the labour movement and in general, particularly in the context that a general election could be declared at any time this year by the Tory government. As Linda Bellos explained: 'In every general election in living memory, the Tories have played the race card. Let us hope that this platform presents a change. The change is that Labour isn't going to play it as well."