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SOUTH AFRICA Save the lives of the Sharpesville Six! A CAMPAIGN has been launched to stop the execution of six Blacks sentenced to death on the charge that they had "a common purpose" with those who killed a Lekoa Black town councillor, Jacob Dlamini.
The latter lost his life on September 3, 1984, the first day of the rent protests in the Vaal Triangle that sparked the wave of Black rebellion that has continued since. Their appeal was rejected in early December. Lawyers for the six announced in mid-January that they were launching an international petition campaign for clemency for their clients. They said that calls for clemency had already come from the governments of the United States, Canada, Japan, Australia, Norway, Sweden, Austria, Switzerland and the countries of the EEC. In South Africa itself pleas for clemency have come from the South African Council of Churches, the Southern African Catholic Bishops' Conference, the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU and the National Council of Trade Unions.
The six condemned to death are Majalefa Reginald Sefatsa, 30 years of age; Reid Malebo Mokoena, 22; Oupa Moses Diniso, 30; Theresa Ramashamola, 24; Duma Joshua Khumalo, 29; and Francis Don Mokgesi, 29. The lawyers quoted portions of the appeal judge's verdict to the South African Weekly Mail which show, albeit in tangled legal jargon, that they were sentenced to capital punishment on the basis of a nebulous charge confirmed essentially only by the testimony of one person.
"In the case of these accused it is perhaps debatable whether a causal connection beternationa
VEWPOINT
SPECIAL INTERNATIONAL
WOMEN'S DAY ISSUE
Issue number 135, February 22
Please send in additional orders for this issue as soon as possible tween the conduct of each, individually, and the death of the deceased had indeed not been proved, but in the case of others it must be accepted without doubt, in my opinion, that no causal connection can be found to have been proved. This is particularly obvious in the case of Mokoena and
"I shall therefore assume for the purposes of my judgement that it has not been proved in the case of any of the six accused/convicted of murder that their conduct had contributed (as a cause) to the death of the deceased."
The judge went on to say: "In the present case I am dealing with the position of the six accused who have been convicted of murder solely on the basis of common
The ruling also stated that the defendants were implicated mainly by the evidence of a single witness: "For that reason alone his evidence should have been treated with great caution." In general "conspiracy" laws are among the most iniquitous instruments of repression in capitalist countries. In South Africa, this legal "principle" seems to have been drawn out to the ultimate, deadly absurdity. * MIDDLE EAST Appeal to the Socialist International IN AN OPEN LETTER, Mattityahu Peled, a member of the Israeli parliament for the Progressive List, called on January 3 on the social democratic world organization to try to persuade its adherents in Israel to oppose the deportation of Palestinians from their homeland. Peled wrote:
"I find it necessary to write to you urgently, concerning the plans of Defence Minister Yitzchak Rabin to carry out a deportation of Palestinians from the occupied
"Mr. Rabin seems fond of this method of deporting Palestinians without any form of trial. During Menachem Begin's term in office, the use of deportations was stopped; but Rabin reintroduced it in 1985. Recently, he declared himself, on the Knesset [parliament] floor, to be 'proud' that he had deported more Palestinians in three years than the Likud [right-wing] did in seven.
"On this very day, the army authorities, under Rabin's guidance, have issued deportation orders against nine more
AROUND THE WORLD
"I urge you to exert any influence you may have upon Rabin, who — as a leader of the Israeli Labor Party — is your fellow member of the Socialist International. He should be stopped from carrying out this plan, which is inhuman, which is contrary to the Geneva Convention of 1949 (of which Israel is a signatory and which will sharpen the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
"Should these deportations take place, still more hatred and bloodshed might follow. I hope that you will make all possible efforts to help prevent this from happening."* IRELAND Protest against mass FIFTY THOUSAND homes in the formerly independent part of Ireland were raided in November, allegedly in search of IRA arms dumps. At a conservative estimate of five people per household, 250,000 people, one eighth of the population of the state, were affected, almost one person in ten. No arms were found, other than a tiny number of pistols and shotguns. The homes of many trade-union and community organization leaders were hit. When challenged, the police said that they were using lists of persons active in the protests against the treatment of republican prisoners in the Northern Ireland in 1980-81.
At the time, there was little response to the raids. But on January 21 in Dublin, a united front meeting was held in the hall of the Irish Distributive and Allied Trades Union (IDATU) in Dublin to try to begin a fight a fightback against the escalation of repression. It was chaired by Ann Conway of People's Democracy, the Irish section of the Fourth International, whose home was
The platform included John Mitchell, chair of IDATU; Michael Farrell, author of
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books on the history of the Northern Ireland state and one of the original leaders of the Northern Ireland civil rights movement; as well as a representative of the republican political organization, Sinn Fein, and of the campaign against extraditing political refu- gees to the North. Mitchell stressed the treacherousness of the Fianna Fail party now in power, which has a more nationalist and populist image than the other main bourgeois party, Fine Gael. Farrell pointed out that the raids were an all-Ireland operation coordinated be- tween the Dublin and London govern- ments, and were part of rapidly growing collaboration. It was in this context, he said, that a British surveillance plane had flown deep into the formally independent There was already evidence that British forces were being allowed to cross over the border. Proposals were raised from the floor for organizing protests against the ex- pected rejection of the appeal of the people 25 railroaded to prison in the witch-hunt that
nio Lombardi, circolo Mondo Nuovo Co- Univ. *
AROUND THE WORLD followed the Birmingham bombing in Eng-
The hall was filled with activists, a great many of whom had not come together since the end of H-Block campaign. * Abortion rights campaign takes off OVER 25,000 people took part in demonstrations in Britain on January 16 and 21 against MP David Alton's attempt to restrict the time-limit for abortion to eighteen weeks (see /V 131). On January 16, nearly 15,000 people participated in demonstrations, pickets, meetings and lobbies of members of parliament's offices held in every major town and city in a local day of action against the Alton Bill.
Fight Alton's Bill (FAB) has been set up to defend the 1967 Abortion Act against this latest attack. This Act allows a woman access to abortion up to 28 weeks if two doctors agree that there is a danger to her physical or mental health if she continues with the pregnancy. Six thousand women a year have abortions in Britain after eighteen weeks. About 20 per cent of these come from abroad - mainly Ireland and the Spanish state.
Alton's bill is the fifteenth attempt since the 1967 Act came into effect to amend it restrictively. In many ways it is the most dangerous: the anti-abortionists are more united than previously. It attacks the issue of time-limits, perceived as a weak spot of the pro-choice movement. comes at a time when the labour movement is dominated by "new realism" — the idea that it is not possible to win through mass mobilizations of the working class and
On Thursday, January 21 FAB called a national day of action in London, and four thousand students marched against the bill. Young women will be particularly affected by any restriction on the time-limit because, through poor sex education or irregular menstruation, they may not realize until late in the day that they are pregnant.
Thousands lobbied their MPs on the day of action, while a packed rally listened to Labour MPs, trade unionists and feminists explaining why they are opposed to the bill. Speakers from the Spanish state and Ireland explained how women are forced to come to Britain for abortions because of the more restrictive laws in force in some other parts of Europe. Militants in the health unions, currently involved in action against Thatcher's cuts, sent greetings to the rally. One fifth of all late abortions are carried out on women who approached their doctors before their twelfth week of pregnancy. Cuts in the health services, and the legal requirement to have the agreement of two doctors, cause many delays in abortion operations and lead women to re26 fion so the caried out by charities and. sort to the private sector: half of all aborInternational Viewpoint • February 8, 1988 private clinics.
Over 5,000 women joined in a torch-lit demonstration on the evening of January 21. Chanting slogans in support of a woman's right to choose, they marched through central London to show their determination that the right-wing will not succeed in pushing back the gains women made in the
The Alton Bill has now passed its second reading parliament, with some Labour MPs voting for the bill and against party policy in support of a woman's right to choose. These MPs must be forced into line on party policy before the third reading of the bill. The fight is now on in the Labour Party, the trade unions and in the streets to build for the national demonstration on March 19 -called jointly by FAB and the national trade-union federation, the TUC — to deINTERNATIONAL Moscow Trials Campaign THE CAMPAIGN to clear the names of the accused in the Moscow Trials has been collecting signatories from all over the world (see IV 129 for full appeal and list of signatories). In this latest list of further supporters, a notable new signatory is that of Bruno Kreitsky, ex-chancellor of Austria and vice-president of the Socialist International. You can contact the campaign c/o Michael Löwy, 34 rue des Lyonnais, 75005, Paris, France.
Latest signatories:
Argentine: José Aricò.
Australia: Joyce Stevens, exec. cttee CP; Peter Murphy, CP nat. cttee.; Navis Robertson, Coalition for Disarmament and Peace; Bob Brown, MP; Chris White, dep. gen. sec. union federation South Australia; Peter Davidson, unionist; Denis Day, unionist; Chris Ray, unionist; Jo Vallentine, senator; Laurie Aarons, CP leader.
Austria: Joseph Cap, sec. Young Socialists (JS); Bruno Kreisky, vice-pres. Socialist International, ex-chancellor; Leopold Spira, ex-CP leader; Peter Pilz; Andreas
Canada: Bruce Allen; Bruce Kidd, Toronto Univ.; Rilt Prinsep; David Jaffe; Domenico Binetti.
Chile: Belarmino Elgueta Becker, ex-MP; Sergio Grez, Centre for Political Stud-
Egypt: Bachir El Sibai, author.
France: Denis Berger, Université Paris VIII; Michel Riot-Sarcey, historian.
Guatemala: José Manuel Fortuny, ex-
Hong Kong: Chan Cheong, Kwun Tong District Board; Editorial Board of October Review; Lee See, sec. RCP.
Italy: Patrizia Arnaboldi, MP Democrazia proletaria (DP); Giovanni Russo Spena, nat. sec. DP; Luigi Vinci, DP leader; Antoseuza; Nicola Avruscio; Gino Dieni; Raffaele Ferrelli; Antonio Ferri; Giovanni Peta; Vito Benigno; Rocco Morano; Vittorio Lombardi; Francesca Longo; Paolo Goffo; Derek Boothman, Perugia Univ.; Walter Pittoni; Manuela Caposciutti; Stefano Tanci; Giangabriele Vertova; Grazia Paoletti; Franco Toscani; Ivana Vidotto; Massimo Vitti; Augusto Illuminati, Univ. of Urbino; Peter Kammerer, Univ. of Urbino; Angelo Trento, Univ. of Marerata; Antonio Melis, Univ. of Siena; Saverio Tutino; Prof. Luciano Canfora.
Mexico: Gilberto Rincon Gallardo, gen. sec. PMS; Valentin Campa, ex-president SP; Arnaldo Martiniez Verdugo, ex-gen. sec. CP; Herberto Castillo, pres. cand. PMS; Cuauhtemoc Cardenas, pres. cand.; René Aviles, ed. El Burro-Excelsior; Huberto Bas, asst. ed. Uno mas Uno; Efraim Calvo, MP; J Cota, MP; Alejandro Galvez, ed. Criticas de la Economia politica; Miguel Angel Granados Chapa, ed. Jornada; Jaciel Montaya, MP; Pablo Pascua Moncayo, MP; Camillo Valenzuela, MP.
Spanish state: Wilebaldo Solano, ex-
Turkey: Mehmet Ali Aybar, ex-leader Workers' Party and Party of Socialist Rev. olution, member of Russell Tribunal; Alev Ates, leader ASIS union (DISK); Murat Belge, ex-prof.; Ismail Besikçi, sociologist; Cenan Bisakçi, unionist; Ugur Cankoçak, unionist; Yasar Kemal, author; Rifat Kendirligil, leader ASIS (DISK); Ertugrul Kürkçu, leader Party/Liberation Front; Keman Nebioglu, leader GIDA-IS (DISK); Aziz Nesin, author; Ahmet Zeki Okcuoglu; Metin Özek, Istanbul Univ.; Emil Galip Sandalci, author; Ali Sirmen, collaborator Cumhuriyet; Muteber Yildirim; Mustafa Sönmez, author; Prof. Bülent Tanör; Sirin Tekeli, women's movement leader; Mine Urgan; Gündüz Vassaf; Ragip Zarali, au-
USA: Isak Arbus, pres. Holocaust Survivors Assn.; Prof. Jeffrey Brotz, Univ. of California; Prof. Paul Breines, Boston College; Robert Brenner, ed. board Against the Current; Prof. Howard Brick, Univ. of Arizona; Sheila Delany, Simon Fraser Univ.; Joseph Dorinson, Long Island Univ.; Gloria Esenwein, Cincinnati Nuclear Freeze; Leslie Evans, Centre for Pacific Run Studies; Prof. Richard Greeman, Univ. of Hartford; Ronnie Gilbert, singer; Janice Jackson, sec. Cincinnati NOW; Deborah Jordon, Cincinnati Nuclear Freeze; Allan Hunter, American Institute; Asst. Prof. Henry Lesnick, CUNY; Prof. Frank Leutriachia, Duke Univ.; Norman Mailer, author; William Mandel, broadcaster; Asst. Prof. Kathleen MacCormick, Carnegie Mellon Univ.; Prof. Bertell Ollman, New York Univ.; Grace Paley, author; John Ranz, exec. sec Holocaust Survivors Assn.; Max Rosenfeld, ed. board Jewish Currents; Pete Seeger, singer; Mark Sharron, Ed. D.; Rowland Watts, pres. Workers' Defense League; Laurie Weir & Jacek Lisiewicz, architects; Prof. Howard Zinn, Boston
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