AROUND
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"For love, for life and for liberation" MORE THAN a quarter of a million people demonstrated in Washington on Sunday, October 11 for equal rights for and gay men and against the and discrimination they currently suffer in the United States. The huge march was the highlight of five days of events organized by a broad-based national coalition, around the slogan "For love and for life, we're not going back!" (see IV 125). The success of the actions signalled the opening of a new stage in the battle for lesbian and gay liberation.
From early the same morning, demonstrators unrolled a gigantic quilt on Capitol Mall, made up of two thousand patchwork squares each containing the name of a dead AIDS victim and with an object sewn on or an embroidered picture symbolizing their life.
On June 30 this year, Supreme Court judges voted to affirm that laws against "sodomy" were constitutional, a decision that boosted both anger and support for the October actions. So, on the Tuesday following the demonstration, over two thousand protestors gathered outside the Supreme Court in a civil disobedience action (it is illegal to demonstrate there). According to Le Monde (October 15), over 600 of the protestors were arrested by police who, in a disgusting display, put on leather gloves before making the arrests.
An important initiative was taken during the days of action with the establishment of a lesbian and gay congress, with 350 people attending an initial meeting to help coordinate political activities nationwide.
In spite of the success of these actions in bringing heterosexism and the plight of AIDS victims onto the public agenda, the US Senate voted on October 14 to cut off federal funds for AIDS education programmes that "promote or encourage" homosexual sex. Their decision was prompted by the publication of a comic book showing safe sex bejust one illustration of the uphill fight facing the movement.
As one of the organizers of the days of action, Kay Ostberg, said: "We've come to Washington to show our visibility, but also our strength, our anger, our resilience and our hope. This civil rights movement has come of age politically, and we are not going back to the days of silent suffering. We are here to demand an end to discriminaSRI LANKA Accord won't bring THE DEAL concluded between Sri Lanka's president JR Jayawardene and Indian prime minister Rajiv Gandhi on July 29 has already turned the terms of the conflict between the Sinhalese dominated Colombo government and the Tamil rebels upside down twice. statements by Fourth Internationalists in the region made before the outbreak of fighting between the Tamil Tigers and Indian forces. The first excerpts are from Marxist Outlook, the Englishlanguage magazine of the Inquilabi Communist Sangathan, Indian section of the Fourth International:
"For revolutionaries in India, the central task must to be point out the [Indian] hegemonistic implications of and the fact that it has been imposed on the militants. Opposition to India's hegemonist regional aspirations must be unconditional....
"Does it follow then that Indian revolutionists, since they cannot at stage say that they are for the Accord, must oppose it? It is not for us to take such a stand. We can only affirm that we fully support the oppressed Tamil people's right to define their political future and to give them support in this respect...In that sense although we oppose the imposition of the Accord we must continue to back the efforts of the legitimate representative organizations of the Sri Lankan Tamils to take the steps they see fit to secure their
In a statement issued September 25, the Revolutionary Marxist Party, a sympathizing group of the Fourth International in Sri Lanka, declared:
"We do not consider that the Peace Accord.... will ensure either the liberation of the Tamil people of the North and East or guaranteed peace and stabil-
AROUND THE WORLD ity in the country as a whole. The essence of this agreement is the creation of a new division of power between the Sinhala and the Tamil bourgeoisie....
"Although the more backward sections of the Sinhala capitalist class are to create the impression that agreement was imposed the Indian bourgeoisie, in fact this is not the reality. JR Jayawardene made this agreement because he realized that he was not capable of suppressing the Tamil resistance movement in the North and East militarily.
"The Indian government wanted to sign this accord because they wanted to prevent American and other imperialist forces from getting a foothold in the country [the Sri Lanka government received military aid from Israel and South Africa], and by preventing the establishment of a separate Eelam state it helps to weaken separatist national movements in India.
"The most important lesson that will be drawn from the Tamil resistance movement is the fact that it was to bring to its knees the Jayawardene
The statement concluded that in offering at least a temporary respite to the Tamil people, it could create a "limited democratic opening", and continued:
"In this context progressive and left organizations in the South should make every effort to build a united front on a minimum programme with similar forc-. es in the North and East....This would undoubtedly create the conditions for re-emergence of the class struggle in the North and East." * IRELAND Stop the use of plastic MEMBERS of the United Campaign Against Plastic Bullets (UCAPB) are presently visiting Europe in an effort to awaken public opinion to protest against the British Army's indiscriminate use of plastic bullets in the streets
Rubber, and subsequently plastic, bullets have been used by the British Army in the Six Counties since 1970. Despite an official report from the US Law Enforcement Administration describing these weapons as having an extremely high probability of causing "severe injury", the British government still describes
This description is belied by the facts. Sixteen people have been killed the introduction of rounds" and many more injured. Despite British Army regulations, been frequently used at close range and victims in the chest or head area. This "anti-riot" weapon is widely
October 26, 1987 • International Viewpoint
AROUND THE WORLD used in peaceful situations.
Seven of the victims have been under 16 years of age. In the majority of cases the families of victims have received substantial amounts in compensation and a vindication of the total innocence of the victims. Yet only one member of the security forces has ever been charged with unlawful use or killing, and he was acquitted!
In just one case, Nora McCabe was shot as she went to buy a packet of cigarettes at the end of the road. Canadian television had filmed the incident and the video was produced by the lawyers for the McCabe family. As is common, large (but undisclosed) compensation was made but no prosecuted. The policeman who on oath that the soldiers had been aiming at "rioters" further down the street was promoted
UCAPB was formed by relatives and victims after the death of the fourteenth victim, John Downes, in 1984. Despite condemnations of the use of these weapons by Irish politicians and bishops and a vote in the European parliament in 1982 banning the use plastic bullets in the European community (a motion opposed by the 42 British Tory Euro-MPs and the Ulster Loyalist Euro-MP Enoch these deadly weapons continue to wreak their havoc. This could well extend to England, Scotland and Wales, where all police forces have now been equipped of protest against the use of plastic bullets should be sent to the Home Secretary, Douglas Hurd, House of Commons, Westminster, SWI, GB with copies to the Labour Party spokesman for Northern Ireland at Walworth Road, London SE17, and the United Campaign for Plastic Bullets, c/o 195 Whiterock Road, Belfast 11, Northern Ireland. *
Erratum
APOLOGIES to our readers for the following errors, which occurred due to transcription problems caused by our ancient dictaphone.
(Perhaps someone could donate us a new one?)
• The article on Denmark,
"Surprise setback for austerity government" in IV 126: a) 2nd col.,
5th para should read: *It comes from a split in the CP in 1958 [not
1985] *; b) 3rd col., 5th para should read: "The CP gained [not got] 5,000 votes...
• The article on the Philippines,
"Assassination of a militant" in /V
127: the final paragraph should read: "On September 21, tens of thousands demonstrated.... * International Viewpoint • October 26, 1987
SOUTH AFRICA Get the sHell out. THE ANGLO-DUTCH oil giant Shell has adopted a secret plan, code-named "Neptune", to defend itself against the international boycott campaign organized by anti-apartheid activists.
According to the Observer on October 4, a confidential report commissioned for the company by Washington consultants Pagan warned Shell that "it was in danger of facing a worldwide boycott campaign" (See news short "Boycott busting" in IV 116.) Pagan are now spying on organizations such as the British Anti-Apartheid Movement in an attempt to sabotage the boycott campaign.
The Boycott Shell campaign is currently strongest in the USA and Scandinavia, but is growing in Britain, Belgium and Ireland. Dave Craine of
SHELL OIL boycott!
WANY-
Embargo, the campaign's British section, writing in the September/October issue of International Labour Reports, explained the stakes of the campaign:
"The Royal-Dutch Shell Group is one of the world's biggest companies.... Shell is the market leader in South Africa's strategically vital oil sector, with $400 million in assets and major investments in coal mining, metals, chemicals and gas....Shell admits to providing 20% of the fuel needs of the
South African military and police - a barrel every 20 seconds. It also provides methanol for military aircraft and raw materials for napalm, nerve gas and defoliation agents....
"Cyril Ramaphosa, general secretary of the National Union of Mineworkers, has condemned Shell's union-busting practices and its treatment of Black workers [Shell jointly owns the coun try's largest refinery and the Rietspruit coal mine]."
Dave Craine also reported that an international week of action will be held from November 7-14 to "emphasize local authorities' role in the boycott, including a disinvestment appeal by mayors from around the world." * BASQUE COUNTRY Bayonne demo against raids LAUNCHING extensive raids in the French Basque country at the beginning of October, the Chirac government stepped up its collaboration with the Spanish authorities in the campaign to crush the militant Basque nationalist movement. In its October 8 issue, the Paris daily Libération described a protest demonstration in the French Basque center of Bayonne, a large one for the small French Basque popula-
"At 6pm traffic was stopped in Bayonne. In compact blocs, the CRS [riot police] blocked all the streets leading off the Place de la Liberté. The demonstrators were lining up. There were a lot of them, a thousand, perhaps. Megaphones blared. Alain Krivine, leader of the Ligue Communiste Révolutiondeclaration of war against the Basque
"The crowd moved a hundred meters toward the first stage of the demonstration, the resting place of René Cassin [a leading human rights figure]. The CRS blocked the exits, although the demonstration had been authorized by the prefecture....
"People were forbidden to pass. Three red warning grenades were fired. In Basque and in French, demonstrators
*Fascists, you are the terrorists,' 'Police out, Basques in the country.' There was a final warning. The demonstrators retreated to a pedestrian street. The commissariat had promised to leave the way prefecture [the march's destination]. march's starting point, singing the fighting song, 'Come, come Basques.' They could not reach the sub-prefecture. In the meantime, the forces of order changed their mind. The demonstration was declared illegal, the authorized march route was banned." *
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