NEWS FROM
THE FOURTH
FINEWS 1968 - Twenty years on THE TWENTIETH anniversary of 1968 has stimulated a series of debates in Italy that will probably go on throughout the year. The daily and weekly press, both of
INTERNATIONAL MIDDLE EAST Support the Palestinians' THE PEOPLE of the occupied territories have been confronting the occupation forces directly since December 9, 1987. We are witnessing an actual insurrection of the Palestinian people for their national rights. This uprising has been backed by massive participation of the working people and traders in the general strike.
The occupation forces are stopping at nothing in order to break the mobilization — the "beatings policy," repeatedly opening fire on demonstrators, searches of entire neighborhoods, arrests of thousands of people, "systematization of torture."
To date, dozens of people have been killed, and hundreds wounded, including many women and children. Doctors report dozens of cases of miscarriages of pregnant women affected by a new gas that the occupation forces have been firing into homes.
Curfews on neighborhoods, villages and towns have become the main method used to break the population's will to struggle. In the Gaza Strip, 350,000 people have lived under a curfew for around three weeks. The town of Nablus and its surrounding area (200,000 people) have been subjected to a curfew for two weeks. Some refugee camps have been under a curfew virtually since the start of the events more than two months ago. One of the aims of the curfews are to starve the population.
On February 7, the mayor of the town of Tulkarem made an appeal for help. Because of the curfew imposed on his town, the population lacked bread and milk. Moreover, the population of the refugee camps, which has been in the front rank of the general strike, suffers from chronic malnutrition, and this has been aggravated by the curfews. To counter the curfew policy and maintain the strike, the struggling population urgently needs financial aid. An international campaign is necessary today!
Committees to fight the occupation have been formed in several places in Israel, and are developing many activities to support the population of the occupied territories distribution of leaflets in the big Israeli cities, fund collections, sending shipments of food and medicines into the refugee camps, organizing demonstrations, publicizing the acts of brutality committed by the occupa-
These committees are made up of Arab and Jewish activists belonging to new political organizations, as well as of activists of the Sons of the Village movement and the Revolutionary Communist League [the section of the Fourth International in the Israeli state]. These committees have taken on the task of delivering all the funds collected to the popular committees that are organizing the struggle in the occupied
The Committees to Fight the Occupation can be contacted through the following addresses: Rémy Mendelzweig, 20a Sport St., 34574 Haifa (Tel: 972-4-384965); Marcello Weksler, Post Box 26163, Tel Aviv (Tel: 972-3-658567). * NETHERLANDS Dutch youth congress THE ACTION PLAN of the outgoing leadership, entitled "Advance Against the Stream" was adopted at the recent congress of Rebel, the Dutch Fourth Internationalist youth organization. The congress chose a new leadership consisting of seven men
An important part of the Action Plan is organizing international solidarity. In the coming months, Rebel will conduct a fundraising campaign for Sayco, a South African mass youth organization. In the summer months, the central task support for the Nicaraguan youth organization, the Juventud Sandinista.
Another important part of the plan consists of activities to improve the position of young people in the Netherlands. For April 11-15 a national week of action against the Deetman's educational policy is planned. In May, various branches are organizing evenings on the draft.
Finally, the Fourth International youth camp is on the agenda. If will be held this year in France. Rebel is organizing a campaign to build for the summer camp.
Rebel would not be Rebel if it were not up to its neck in other actions. Some examples — Pink Saturday, the national anti-apartheid demonstration around June, women's day, the national demonstration against nuclear energy on April 23 in
Guest speakers were a representative of the JGS, the Fourth Internationalist youth organization in Belgium, the Palestinian Ibrahim al Baz, and a representative of the Juventud Sandinista. *
[Abridged from the March 2 issue of Klassenstrijd, paper of the Dutch section of the Fourth International.] the bourgeoisie and the workers' movement, have devoted many pages and sup plements to the argument. (For example, Il Manifesto has begun publishing a special monthly supplement that will continue until December). Moreover, innumerable debates, lectures and roundtables have al-
The Lega Communista Italiana (LCR, Italian section of the Fourth International) published a supplement to the February issue of its paper, Bandiera Rossa, and has organized a series of meetings to discuss the significance of the crisis capitalist society went through at the end of the 1960s and the prospects for revolutionary struggle in capitalist Europe 20 years later. This initiative has achieved a notable success, one of the most significant scored by the organization in recent years.
Very well-attended meetings have been held in around 50 cities and university centers, in particular in Turin, Bologna, Lecce and Rome. In many cases, representatives of other organizations in the workers' movement and left intellectuals have spoken. For example, in Rome, the chair of the Democrazia parliamentary group, Franco Russo, speakers. In Turin, Costanze Preve, a Marxist philosopher spoke; and in Bologna a member of the Regional Council elected in the Green slate.
The campaign culminated in the meeting held in the great hall of the Milan Center on February 28, which was attended by more than 500 people. The introductory report was given by Lidia Cirillo from the Political Bureau of the LCR. Livio Maitan gave the concluding summary. Other speakers included: Alain Krivine from the French LCR; Luigi Vinci from the leadership of Democrazia Proletaria; Rocco Papandrea, a FIAT worker; and Piergiorgio Tiboni, from the Milan Secretariat of the the CISL Confederazione Italiana Sindicati Liberi, Italian Confederation of Free Trade Unions] metalworkers' union, the FIM. *
REBEL
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March 21, 1988 • International Viewpoint
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