Undoubtedly, the most important event in this pre-election period is Herri Batasuna's decision to stand and to campaign throughout the Spanish state [in the European elections]. Elections that seemed destined more than a steam bath for delapidated politicians have taken on considerable interest. A good indication of this is that the government has opened up the throttle of its disinformation machine what consequences this may have in the medium term, but the experience in itself is positive.
Finally, we are going to take part in an electoral campaign that will have a major impact and in which we will be fighting for a credible objective, gaining the necessary number of throughout the state to send HB deputies to Strasbourg. In order to do this, we will try to concentrate the thousands of potential protest votes against the government's policies that exist from Puerto Real to Reinosa, in the factories, neighborhoods and towns.
We know that we are going to find people with a spontaneous sympathy for Herri Batasuna. But we are also going to encounter many barriers, blind strong negative reflexes,
Moreover, we are aware of the fact that campaign for a vote for another organization such as Herri Batasuna. In fact, we have important points of agreement with Herri Batasuna, including those that make up the program for these elections. But we also have very important and well-known disagreements.
Of course, an election campaign is not an appropriate place to raise differences. On the contrary, the most correct and effective course is to defend the program on which we have agreed, in particular solidarity with Euskadi, and to argue that voting for Herri Batasuna is the most thoroughgoing way of expressing all the desires and reasons for opposing the government's policy.
It will not be easy to do this after so many years of anti-Basque black propaganda and in the midst of the barrage of intimidation and blackmail that the government will surely unleash. But these are problems that a revolutionary to spread prejudices against Herri
Batasuna.
lems, even when it is a revolutionary are determined to do so. *
A clear revolutionary political formation always raises prob-
SOUTH AFRICA organization has to deal with. And we program Free Moses Mayekiso
We think that it is a very positive thing in itself that Herri Batasuna has decided to campaign throughout the and Amon Msane! state, and in particular, that it has come to the revolutionary organizations, such as the Movimiento Comunista and our party, seeking in a sincere and respectful way an agreement to get our support for the campaign.
An agreement was reached on a clearly revolutionary program, the only one that firmly opposes the political, military and economic institutions of capitalist Europe and which also includes solidarity with Euskadi, defence of the right of self-determination, soldarity among all peoples and all workers in the Spanish state. ment we are going to to form unitedfront committes Batasuna slate, whose activities will be directed by the organizations that make up the committees in each locality.
The committees will invite Herri Batasuna to present its political views in a series of rallies and meetings, and they will make every political and material effort to assure that the campaign gets the maximum results in terms of getting out its message and winning votes.
We are not unaware of the difficulties that this campaign will have to confront. But this is an opportunity wage a broad campaign of solidarity with Euskadi, which is one of the most important tasks of revolutionists in the present political circumstances. It is also an opportunity for common work between revolutionaries throughout the Spanish state and Herri Batasuna. We International Viewpoint • June 1, 1987
• ionists, Moses Mayekiso and 'WO LEADING Black trade un. Amon Msane, are in jail for their union activities.
Moses Mayekiso is the general secretary of the Metal and Allied Workers' Union (MAWU). He and four other members of the union have been charged with high treason and sedition. The case will come to court in August, and if they are found guilty the penalty could be death by hanging, or indefinite jail sentences.
According to a MAWU communique, the indictment includes Mayekiso's activities last spring, when he travelled overseas to raise support for striking workers at BTR Sarmcol. (See IV 119, May 4, 1987.)
Moses played an important role in the founding of the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) in late 1985, and was one of the organizers of the two-day general strike in the Transvaal in November 1984.
He was detained for these activities, but the charges were later dropped and he was released. In March 1986 MAWU members staged a successful national strike for his release from an-
After returning from a union solidarity tour to Scandinavia on June 28 last year, Moses was detained again and charged under the Internal Security
Act. He was held in solitary confinement until January this year.
British trade-unionists and Labour Party members have signed an appeal calling for Moses' immediate release. Among the many signatories are union general secretaries Jimmy Knapp (rail), Alan Tuffin (building workers), Harry Conroy (teachers), and Labour Members of Parliament Tony Benn, Dennis Skinner, Jo Richardson, Brian Sedgemore, Bob Clay, Jeremy Corbyn and Claire Short.
### Solidarity needed urgently
Amon Msane, a member of the Commercial, Catering and Allied Workers of South Africa, is another political prisoner in Botha's jails. He is the chief steward at the 3M Company near Johannesburg, and is being held at Modderbee prison. (See IV 116, March 23, 1987)
Solidarity campaigns calling for the release of these prisoners are urgently needed, in particular for Moses and his comrades because of the gravity of the charges.
Messages of support can be sent to:
• COSATU, PO Box 1019, Johannesburg 2000, S Africa; and to
• MAWU, 6th Floor, Angus Mansions, 268 Jeppe Street, S Africa. *
Rajiv's
fading
star
SINCE THE 1970S, bourgeois rule in India has been running into more and more political crises. The following report from Bombay, written before the suspension of the Punjab state government, describes the rapid besmirching of the country's new regime. M NAVID