SOUTH AFRICA • AROUND THE WORLD guideline could not fail to raise problems of exclusion.
Elijah Barayi, chair of COSATU and leader of the miners' union, said again during the mid-May special conference: "We firmly urge all of those who genuinely want peace and security...to look forward to the future in terms we have spelt out through the Freedom Charter." 2
Some newspapers have even judged that the ANC leadership seemed less committed to the Charter than the currents linked to them in COSATU. It is far too soon to draw conclusions on this point. But it seems at least quite positive that some shibboleths are starting to fade. The sectarian conceptions of the united front were defeated at the COSATU congress. It was proposed to open an anti-apartheid conference "on the basis of disciplined mandates, democracy and free and open debate."
Discussion will aid unity and solidarity
Obviously the question of unity will raise problems of interpretation. At the time of the congress, various points of view were already being debated. The final document took the form of a compromise. The Weekly Mail reported, moreover, the remarks of a delegate who thought "it allows for COSATU, together with its allies, to draw up a programme of action that will be consistent with its support for the Freedom Charter, while at the same time giving the executive a mandate to invite groups such as NACTU and the Five Freedoms Forum." 3
Other resolutions may smooth the way in the future for unity initiatives, such as the decision to form Industrial Area Committees that could organize the local communities around campaigns led by the unions.
On the NACTU side, the new debate on unity should discourage dogmatic responses of refusing to participate on the grounds that some white liberal formation or other was involved. Exposing what the liberals
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WESTERN EUROPE Youth discuss European anti-militarism THE Juventudes communistas revolucionarias (JCR, the revolutionary youth organization in the Spanish state in political solidarity with the Fourth International organized a debate on June 11 and 12 around anti-militarism in Europe. Young people also attended the meeting from Portugal, Switzerland, France and the Netherlands — all countries where military service is compulsory for young men. A public meeting in Madrid was also part of the weekend's activity.
In the Spanish state, the campaign of the civilian anti-military movement has really grown, especially through the Mili-KK movement, which denounces the principle of military service and opposes civilian services recruiting objectors. The movement fighting for democracy in the barracks disappeared gradually during the 1980s, but the mobilizations against NATO and for peace have created the space for a renewed denunciation of the army among young people. One of the extremely interesting aspects of this movement is the feminist structures that exist inside it, which put forward their own denunciation of the macho values pervading the military.
The weekend meeting also discussed anti-military activity in Portugal, where recent accidental deaths in barracks have again sparked off a critique of the conditions of military service. In Switzerland, there is currently a campaign for a referendum to abolish the army; in the Netherlands a small union exists among conscripts; and in France the tradition of soldiers' committees continues.
In spite of the big differences that exist between the various anti-military movements in Western Europe, it is necessary to find common ground for collaboration because the bourgeoisie is seeking to gradually unify some of its military objectives, as witnessed by all the debates around common European defence.
The conditions of youth conscription, chauvinist and militarist values continue to contribute young people rejecting the army and its leaders. * SOUTH AFRICA Keeping apartheid ticking over A DENSE network of complicity and backscratching between South African and Swiss capital exists. The information has been carefully covered up. Secret Swiss business is becoming the Helvetian redcross for apartheid! It is certain that if the
EXCUSE ME.
are looking for in a grouping has to be done
WHICH WAY in front of all the participants and not by declarations from the outside.
TO THE
If it is confirmed that participating in
UNEMPLOYMENT such a conference is not conditional on accepting the discipline of the Chartist cur-
LINE?
rent, there would seem to be no reason left why NACTU and all the formations of the
South African left should not get involved in order to defend their point of view.
If these new political developments are confirmed, there is no doubt that this will greatly aid the solidarity movement abroad by knocking down the arguments, good and bad, that have traditionally been put forward to support claims that only one or another current in the Black movement should be supported. But, for the moment, this is only supposition. *
2. Weekly Mail, May 20, 1988.
3. The Five Freedoms Forum is a grouping around a democratic project promoted by white liberals.
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YOU'RE IN IT. June 27, 1988 • #144 International Viewpoint
AROUND THE WORLD • F I NEWS truth about this came out in the press,
Swiss public opinion would demand to see the accounts of the companies, banks and insurance houses that have been so well the South African group Rembrandt". Dunhill and Montblanc are also part of Rembrandt. Today, the two de-luxe watch firms of Piaget and Baume & Mercier have become a "Must" for apartheid. ["Must" is the tradename of Cartier's most exclusive collection.] Platinum, gold and diamonds are keeping the Swiss/South African duo going; Rembrandt and Piaget are their two main accomplices. * concealed.
Swiss investment in South Africa is considerable. No Swiss bank or multinational has ever opposed the laws of apartheid. Since apartheid was established after the NEWS FROM war, no Swiss company has ever refused to implement the rules for South African factories that demand separate canteen and THE FOURTH toilet facilities for the "different races".
But "cooperation" is not all one way, and South African capital has found juicy INTERNATIONAL openings by investing in Switzerland in the various well-known de-luxe industries that have an international market
Since April 1988, the South African firm Rembrandt, the fourth largest financial group in the country, got its hands on the second biggest group of de-luxe watchmakers in Switzerland. The Swiss/South African alliance was henceforth ruled like a precision time-piece. Under the leadership of some young upstarts, the watch industry declined and money began to be invested in platinum, gold and diamonds. In the middle of the 1980s, prices plummeted. Competition in de-luxe watches
Then, the French group Cartier arrived on the scene. It took control of Piaget, with a financial operation conducted through Piaget Holding International SA and Holding Luxco (Luxemburg), who had controlling interests in Dunhill, Montblanc (pens) and Cartier.
"The Johannesburg daily, The Star, recalled that the principal shareholder in Cartier, with 46.5% of the capital, the London-based Rothman's International group (tobacco), was itself one-third controlled by
4
CANADA Gauche Socialiste/ASA fusion TWENTY-NINE delegates from Quebec and English-Canada participated in the unification convention of Gauche Socialiste and the Alliance for Socialist Action in Montreal from May 20-23. The climax of the convention was the founding of a new organization, a sympathizing section of the Fourth International in the Canadian state, which adopted the name Gauche Socialiste/Socialist Challenge. The new organization will have bases in Montreal, Quebec City, Sherbrooke, Saint-Jérome, OttawaHull, Toronto-Hamilton, Winnipeg, Edmonton and Vancouver. It will continue to publish the newspapers of the founding organizations: Socialist Challenge (in English) bi-monthly; Combat Socialiste (in French) monthly; and the French-language theoretical magazine Gauche Socialiste three times a year.
The founding convention adopted the texts of six documents, submitted jointly by the leaderships of the two founding organizations, covering the following issues: revolutionary strategy in the Canadian state; the contemporary political situation; and the tasks, structures and Declaration of Principles of the new organization. The convention was concluded with the election of a Central Committee, comprising 11 comrades from Quebec and seven from English-Canada. Several people applied to join the new organization at the end of the convention.