NEWS FROM
THE FOURTH workers and students from socialist or Christian origins.
so the militant continuity, that was an "obsession" with Emile, was assured.
The existence of the Belgian section today is due in good part to the role
POLAND /FI NEWS ting after reading the "Theses on the Second Stage of the Reform' presented by the government, and the 'Position of the Solidarnosc union on the situation and the avenues of transforming the Polish economy', is one of a very clear coming together of the concep- INTERNATIONAL tions of both parties. This concerns above all the establishment of market mechanisms in the economy....A certain meeting of ideas has taken place on the question of workers' self-management.
"In the government's "Theses,' you no longer find generous — even general - statements about this similar to those contained in the 'Orientations of the Reform' in 1981. The present document reveals the strategy of a slow retreat, the disappearance of certain elements of self-managing controls. Solidarnosc, for its part, has taken a much less determined stand on self-management than in the resolution of its congress....
"The most disturbing thing is the question of social protection. I do not share the optimism of the two documents as regards the results of a radical 'marketization' of the Polish economy....In the 'Position of Solidarnosc,' you find nothing on this but the sliding scale. If it were not for the stamp 'NSZZ Solidarnosc,' no reader would imagine that this was the position of a union.... A departure from the spirit of the 1981 reform
WESTERN EUROPE International youth THE FOURTH summer camp of youth organizations in political solidarity with the Fourth International was held in July in the mountains of La Verna, Italy, 60 kilometers from Florence.
The camp followed the student mobilizations in Europe last winter — notably in France, Spain and Italy - and proved to be a big success, with over 800 participants. A good number of these were not members of the youth organizations involved. The camp was therefore an occasion to bring together young people only recently
The camp lasted a week, and its programme included forums and exchanges of experience in the recent struggles, as well as commissions where more emphasis was given to information and political elaboration.
The South African revolution was a central theme, including led by an Italian representative of the African National Congress (ANC), as was the subject of Central America, with participants from the Sandinista Youth and the Salvadoran FMLN. Among the many commissions, one was also held on the Middle East with Palestinian militants from the occupied territories. The questions raised by the oppression and struggles of women were also a central feature of the dis-
A morning was given over to problems of sexuality and AIDS, a subject that particularly affects young people given the moral crusades being led by some goverments.
The camp was particularly successful for the Italian youth organization, Rivoluzione, who had one of the biggest delegations with nearly 200 par-
The work that these comrades did in constructing the camp site and the facilities out of practically nothing was exceptional. The success of the camp will undoubtedly help to build Rivoluzione and the other organizations that participated. yout
OBITUARY
"To sum up, I think that from both sides we are seeing an evolution that Emile Van Ceulen (1916-1987) represents a departure from the spirit of the 1981 reform. The new conception OUR BELGIAN comrade Emile Van Ceulen, aged 71, died on July 28 this is much more one-sided. It puts the year. He was one of the Fourth International's longest-standing militants, who stress on the market and private prop- played a very important role in the history of the POS/SAP, the Belgian secerty, on individual competition, increasing material differences. It favors From the time of his joining the Trotskyist movement in 1934 to the present absolute economic constraint to the day, Emile Van Ceulen fought for the ideas that gave a purpose to his life: the detriment of social cooperation.... struggle against exploitation and oppression in all their forms and the fight for
"In my opinion, this evolution is more in the way of thinking of the Emile Van Ceulen belonged to a generation that became involved in revoluelites than of the social base. It does tionary politics after the experiences of the October revolution, the rise of not leave much chance for reform. fascism and the consequences of the capitalist economic crisis. It was after Every compromise in this framework Hitler came to power, and in its turn Austria "fell" in 1934, that Emile Van will be fragile, if it is not accepted by Ceulen began his life as a militant. At that time, there were few in the left who the main social groups. You can see understood the worrying evolution of the Soviet Union, the "homeland of looming up the dramatic problem of socialism". Our comrade belonged to those conscious militants who did unthe renewal of the social mandate of derstand, disgusted by social democracy but refusing to blindly follow the the Solidarnose structures. Until this is Comintern. They therefore became members of Trotsky's Left Opposition. done, documents such as the 'Position From 1944 to 1971, Emile played a major part in the Belgian section. Around of Solidarnosc' will reflect the opin- him was built the JGS (youth organization of the Belgian Socialist Party), a ions of elite groups selected more or left wing that was to win a majority against right social democracy in 1954.
The formation of the Ligue révolutionnaire des travailleurs (Revolutionary
These debates in Solidarnosc testify Workers' Party) after the youth radicalization of the late 1960s — later to beto the latent identity crisis that the come the POS/SAP — fused three generations of revolutionary militants, movement has been going through for years, and also retlect an essential preoccupation of the Polish workers. *
24 2. Tysodni Mazowze, No. 212, May 20,1987.
International Viewpoint • September 14, 1987 tion of the Fl.
a world-wide socialist revolution.
played by Emile Van Ceulen. *
----- pull-quotes on this page -----
4