AROUND
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BASQUE COUNTRY GAL attack A BASQUE Fourth Internationalist was attacked on May 30 in San Sebastian/ Donosti by two men who claimed to be policemen and carved the initials of the parallel police murder gang, GAL (Grupos Antiterroristas de Liberación), on his arm.
Txerra Iriarte, a member of the Liga Kommunista Iraultzailea (Revolutionary Communist League), the Fourth Internationalist organization in the part of the Basque country in the Spanish state, opened his door at 9.30 in the evening, thinking the two were neighbors. They forced their way into his home with pistols. They undressed him, forced him to lie on a bed, and questioned him about supporters of ETA, the Basque revolutionary nationalist organization in the neighborhood. They demanded the names of those who had been to Nicaragua, as well as those of an ETA activist killed by the police a year ago. They also questioned him about a Basque industrialist kidnapped by ETA. All the while, they beat and threatened him.
Before they left, they told him "We'll leave you marked so that you will know who we are." They carved a swastika and
On the Spanish-state level, the Liga Comunista Revolucionaria (LCR) and the Moviemento Comunista issued a joint communique stressing:
"This attack comes in the context of attacks recently in Burgos and in Granada on public meetings by the committees supporting Herri Batasuna's campaign for the European elections....These acts take place at a time when sympathy and the campaign of solidarity supported by our parties [both the LCR and MCE backed the Herri Batasuna campaign] has been growing steadily.
"We will not waver in our support for the Basque people's movement and the national resistance in its fight for amnesty and recognition of the right to self-determination. ISRAELI STATE Arms industry THE SIZE of Israel's arms industry was described in an article in the June 15 El Pais on the tug of war over the production of the fabulously expensive Lavi fighter plane, to which Washington has expressed its opposition.
"Last October [with Vanunu's revela-
AROUND THE WORLD tions], the world learned that Israel has been building atomic bombs for 20 years in the Dimona factory in the Negev, and that it has almost certainly begun already to build thermonuclear weapons.
"Israel is also in the list of the ten major producers of conventional arms. Its production amounts to a value of $2,000 million a year. Weapons make up a quarter of its total industrial exports.
"The United States is Israel's main customer, buying $500 million worth of weapons a year. Between 500 and 700 million are exported annually to another 50 countries, often in surreptitious ways. Among the more dubious buyers are, or have been, the Argentine military junta, South Africa, and the Nicaraguan contras, through Honduras.
"Israel also trades arms produced by other countries, as revealed by the Irangate case....
"The arms industry employs between 60,00 and 100,000 workers, about 7 per cent of the country's labor force. There are 800 authorized arms dealers, most of them retired officers." * AUSTRIA Homelessness on the increase EVEN IN one of the most "social" capitalist countries, homelessness is a crying social evil, Die Linke, the paper of the Austrian section of the Fourth International, noted in its May 20 issue. It began an interview with Peter Wandaller of the Bundesdachverbands für Sozialinitiativen [Federal Umbrella Organization for Social Initiative Groups]
E APy THE WORLD the initials of the GAL in his arm.
The following day, the LKI denounced the attack to the press, pointing out that "it is one in a long chain of attacks by the GAL," and was "a typical terror operation. The...impunity with which the GAL acts, the toleration of it by the state bodies, as well as the manifold obstacles that have been put in the way of investigation...are a revelation of the cowardly character of a contaminated democracy.
A call for a protest demonstration in San Sebastian/Donosti was signed by the LKI, Herri Batasuna, the EMK [the Basque affiliate of the Communist Movement of Spain (MCE)] Aizan! [Listen Woman!], the Gestoras Pro Amnistia [the revolutionary nationalist defence committees], the Women's Assembly, the Anti-nuclear and Ecological Committees, Jarrai [the youth organization of Herri Batasuna], Kemen [Vigor] and Izaultza Taldeak [Revolution Groups:
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1 7 June 29, 1987 • International Viewpoint
AROUND THE WORLD by asking: "The United Nations has declared 1987 the Year of the Homeless. What effect has that had for Austria, and to what extent does homelessness
Wandaller answered: "The UN Year of has meant absolutely nothing for Austria. Like all UN years the present one will pass without leaving a trace....
"We estimate that in Austria today, there are 10,000 homeless people [in a population roughly equal to London or New York City]. Along with this, there is latent homelessness, that is thousands of people are living in poor and overcrowded housing.
"Homelessness is the last the marginalization process that begins with the loss of work, continues with the loss of housing through family conflicts and ends with living street. That this process of pauperization is increasing is shown by the growing number of court dispossession orders and utility arrears."
Die Linke asked whether there were other causes of homelessness besides the economic crisis. Wandaller replied: "This problem is not only connected with unemployment. There is also a problem in the distribution of accommodation. In Austria, there are 360,000 empty dwellings and tens of thousands of homeless. So, there are enough dwellings, but there are too few lowrent ones, with the result that the lowest stratum of the population can no longer get housing on the free market. That is why we are demanding that the state offer cheap housing."
Over a million people in Austria live International Viewpoint • June 29, 1987 under the poverty line, Wandaller explained. "These are people who have to make ends meet on 5,000 to 6,000 schillings a month (about $100). Of about 500,000 are in work but earn less than than 7,800 schillings gross. Then there are 300,000 sioners, who have to live on 4,800 schillings. Then there are 70,000 who live on welfare, and 50 percent of the jobless, who do not get more than
Moreover, now the main capitalist party is in power and pushing for aus-
"If the policy of dismantling nationalized industry and 'budget consolidation' is carried through, the number of homeless will continue to rise, the projections for unemployment in the coming year and a half already predict a jobless rate of 8 to 8.5 per cent. Thus, the process of impoverishment will sharpen." * PEACE MOVEMENT END convention THE Sixth END International Peace Convention will take place July 15-19 in Coventry, England. Over 1,500 peace activists are expected from more than 30 countries. Past conventions have been in Brussels, West Berlin, Perugia, Amsterdam and Paris - next year's will be in Sweden.
At past END conventions there has been a debate between those who believe in "detente from below" and stress action and solidarity with the oppressed, and those who believe in "detente from above" and "dialogue" with those who hold political power or a possibility for holding it, i.e., mainly social-democratic or Stalinist
The mass demonstrations through Europe against the installation of Cruise missiles in the early 1980s gave the END conventions a real and lively base and forged links with other movements. For example, the women of Greenham Common and COMISO drew a parallel between the struggle against war and the fight against sexism, and went on to express solidarity with the women of the South Pacific who opposed the testing of nuclear weapons.
An important link in the conventions has been that with the independent peace groups of Eastern Europe. These have made their position clear that there can be no peace in Europe without a movement for democracy in
This position, of course, which those believing in "detente from above" find difficult to accept, wedded as they are to attaining peaceful coexistence between the existing regimes, East and West. Much of the END International Liaison Committee's time this year has been taken up with an acrimonious argument about the nature of the Gorbachev proposals, and there has been talk of splits and an end to the conventions.
The main discussion has been over whether or how to invite official peace Stalinist states, in view of the Gorbaand whether they should be invited to speak and, if so, where on the agenda. A compromise
Since the arrival of Cruise missiles in Europe, the Western peace movement has had to become more political. It has had a tremendous effect on public awareness and consciousness but has failed so far to achieve the removal of any nuclear weapons.
Many activists are working through the traditional left organizations of the social-democratic parties. Others operate in new parties such as the Greens, and yet others remain independent and stick to day-toand solidarity tions. The convention provides a forum, mainly in work shops, for all those disparate elements to discuss to-
Anyone interested in attending the END Convention should contact their national peace movement or write directly to Martin Butcher, CND Office, 22-24 Underwood Street, London NI 7JG. Telephone: London 2504010. *
Dave Spencer