NEWS FROM
THE FOURTH
FI NEWS ary left (see IV 110, 8 December, 1986). The following solidarity message was sent to its recent congress from the United Secretariat of the
Dear comrades of BISIG, on the occa-
INTERNATIONAL FRANCE LCR conference discusses presidential elections THE MAJOR discussion at the May 2831 congress of the Revolutionary Communist League (LCR), French section of the Fourth International, dealt with the crisis of the French Communist Party and the opposition current (the Rénovateurs) growing within it.
The French workers' movement is undergoing decisive changes, and a recomposition is beginning to take shape. The LCR congress adopted the following motion by 70% of the delegates, covering the conditions and bases on which the LCR could support a candidate from the Communist opposition in the 1988 presidential elections. [The resolution has been slightly shortened for space reasons.]
1. In the run up to the presidential elections, the LCR congress considers that a candidate is needed to wage a campaign on the following program:
• Support for the demands, for building the struggles and for unity to defend social security, jobs and wages; opposition to the proposed changes in the Citizenship Law; support for equality and democratic rights for immigrants, women and youth; support for the public schools; for independence for Kanaky; for peace and disarmament.
• Commitment to keeping a candidate of the right from being elected, promoting a dynamic of unity, and calling on all left candidates to pledge clearly, from the start of the campaign, that they will withdraw in favor of the one in the best position after the first round. For a new majority of workers' parties and a government based on it. 1981-86 experience [the period of the Union of the Left government]. Support for a real change and not just administering austerity. No coalition with the bourgeoisie, its politicians or its parties. Dissolution of the National Assembly. For workers' demands to be met in full, and for a working-class solution to the crisis. A policy of breaking with capitalism and opening perspective of socialism.
To this end, the LCR is taking all the necessary steps (gathering the of 500 mayors on a nominating petition and launching a fund drive) to put up a candidate immediately.
2. The congress considers that a very broad accord is possible including the essential points of the above program for a unitary candidate to wage campaign. This concerns forces such as Lutte Ouvrière, the United Socialist Party (PSU) and the Movement for a Proletarian Party (MPPT). But a new possibility is that the crisis of the Communist Party will lead to the presentation of a presidential candidate from the Communist opposition (the Coordination Nationale des Communistes Rénovateurs).
The congress considers that, in the present situation, such a candidacy would be the most desirable one. From now on, the LCR will work towards this possibility.... In the opinion of the LCR such a candidacy should put
• An intransigent defence of the interests of working people against capi-
• An emphasis on the urgency of defeating the right and blocking the extreme right, and a pledge to withdraw for the best-placed left candidate.
• Support for all forms of united mobilization and self-organization of
• Opposition to all forms of cohabitation or collaboration with the right.
• A critical balance sheet of the Union of the Left and an affirmation of the need for a socialist solution to the
In the event of such a candidacy, the LCR will seek the best forms of organization at the base and at the top to bring together most those currents and activists who agree with such a move, and to assure that such a campaign will be the expression of a collective will embodied in a common platform. Such a campaign would also be a practical test of the possibilities for the emergence of a new revolutionary political force. * PHILIPPINES Greetings to Bisig congress BISIG - Bukluran sa Ikauunlad ng Sosyalistang Isip at Gawa — is a grouping of socialists occupying a distinct place in the Philippine revolutionsion of your national congress of June 7, 1987, we send you our most fraternal greetings.
The evolution of the situation in the followed by everyone all over and fights for socialism. Your country with a tradition of popular struggles going back many years. After 14 years of hard resistance against the power of martial law, the fall of the Marcos regime in February 1986 represented a great victory against dictator-
However, we know how these cious democratic conquests mass action remain fragile. The revenging right and sectors of the army have not stopped to threaten the menace of a coup d'etat. Bloody repression continues to periodically hit peasants' strike in factories and processing zones. Trade-union freedom and the rights of popular organizations have not been fully recognized. most urgent economic and social measures in favor of the urban and rural poor have yet to be implemented, bewith genuine land reform.
In these conditions, you, together with other revolutionary and progressive forces, continue to carry on a long and difficult struggle which demands the affirmation of international solidarity in an active way. This solidarity is all the more necessary as imperialist powers intervene directly in the political and economic life of your country. The use of the debt as a means of pressure, and the US bases, represent serious attacks on popular and national sovereignty. The United States supports an army that has not been seriously purged. In concert with the Aquino government, it has committed considerable resources to implement new conceptions of counter-insurgency, nourished by the experience of "lowintensity conflicts"
Much more than being a key economic zone, the Philippine archipelago represents a major geo-strategic stake in the eyes of the imperialist powers. For progressive forces and the international workers' movement, it should become just as important in terms of solidarity. It is this unitary and mili- 2 tant solidarity toward the struggle of the peoples of the Philippines that the Fourth International appeals for. It is this solidarity, without conditions, and 7 respectful of the proper identity of your organization, that we wish to express in this message. * 'June 15, 1987 • International Viewpoint
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4
IRELAND
Britain's
political
murder
THE MASSACRE of eight IRA men and the ruthless murder of a passerby on May 8 in the village of Loughgail by the British elite killer unit, the SAS, illustrated the terms of the conflict in Northern Ireland.
The victims were local people. Their deaths were mourned by their neighbors. Most of them had lived like other ordinary people in the area until they were cut down by a special force trained and equipped by a great imperialist power for scientific murder anywhere in the world where it considers that it has interests at stake. GERRY FOLEY
HAT FULLTIME IRA fighters were involved could only have survived if they were sheltered and fed by families in the area who did so at great risk to themselves. The sister of one of those killed, Padraig McKearney, said that her brother would have wanted her to thank all the people in Tyrone and the border counties who "took him into their homes and their hearts" while he was on active service. Padraig McKearwas an escapee from Long Kesh. He chose to remain in Northern Ireland and remain active in the fight against the British forces.
Padraig McKearney's death also illustrated the continuity of the fight against the British forces in Ireland and 2 the sacrifice that has maintained it. One of his brothers, Tommy McKearney, is serving a life sentence in Long
8 Kesh concentration camp.
the point of serious illness or death in the first H-Block hunger strike, the one that was called off when the prisoners thought that the British authorities International Viewpoint • June 15, 1987 would grant their demands. Another was killed in an IRA operation 13 years ago. His sister is a fugitive.
At the age of 17 Padraig McKearney government building in his home town of Moy that his grandfather had blown up almost 100 years ago. second H-Block hunger strike, I met and talked to the elder McKearneys. They are quiet people of great dignity.
In the biographies of the Loughgall martyrs, the fact stands out that these people were highly regarded by their neighbors. In the funeral of Paddy Kelly in Dungannon, the priest described
"an upright man, a truthful man, a man who loved his family, his Irish culture and his country." Jim Lynagh, one of the eight who lived across the border in the formally independent part of Ireland, had been elected to the Monaghan Urban District Council in 1979. Before that he had been badly injured in a bomb blast in 1973 and then served five years in Long Kesh.
### RUC surrounded funeral
The republican paper, An Phoblacht, "repeatedly raised by RUC [Royal Ulster Constabulary] detectives interrogating people....They offered massive bribes to set Jim Lynagh up and vowed that they would kill him before next
The republican paper described the devotion of the large crowd at the private funeral of Eugene O'Kelly:
"The silent crowds ignored the heavy force of RUC men which proceeded the cortege. Heavily-armed RUC men also surrounded the grounds of the hill-top
The building was packed to overflowing for Requiem Mass and outside, mourners waited. Only a British army helicopter fractured the stillness of this remote spot.
"The cool air and sunshine repeatedly gave way to torrential downpours and biting hail, but the people stood motionless, with angry dignity seeking what shelter they could from each other from the tall, swaying trees enclosing the graveyard."
Two of those killed HOW ARE at Loughgall YOUR
AFGHANS? neighbors of Martin Hurson, one of the Hprisoners who An Phoblacht said
"Seamus was arrested and frequently singled out for beatings by the crown forces. But his carefree nature and ability to bounce back in the face of pressure was an important characteristic which often sustained him in the next feet years as an active service volun-
Speaking at the funeral of 24-year old Tony Gormley, Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams stressed: "In Loughgall on Fristrangers came. These strangers weren't the Volunteers of Oglaigh na hEireann [the IRA]. Tony Gormley, a young man from this parish...wasn't involved in terrorism, wasn't seeking a military career, wasn't seeking any gain or advantage over his fellow citizens in this country."
The eight IRA men were killed during an attempted raid on the RUC station at Loughgall. The British forces apparently had information about the operation. An SAS unit was lying in wait when the IRA unit began its attack. It had the site surrounded, and opened fire when the IRA unit began its move. The withering barrage also killed a motorist passing by. According to the republicans, the IRA unit had no chance to shoot back, and the wounded men were executed where they lay. For a number of years, the British forces have ap peared to follow a policy of executing out of hand people caught involved in IRA operations, even unarmed people carrying out logistical tasks.
Since the British forces do not face a professional army in Northern Ireland, these shootings amount to a political policy of terror against the nationalist youth. They are the crowning touch of a massive deployment of repressive forces and continual harassment and provocation of young people in the nationalist areas.