AROUND THE WORLD SPANISH STATE Women against violence MORE THAN 2,500 women participated in three days of meetings organized around the theme of Violence Against Women, sponsored by the Coalition of Feminist Organizations in the Spanish state on December 4, 5 and 6, 1988, in San Diego de Compostello, Galicia. The mere presence of so many women, drawn from every region in the Spanish state, testifies to the remarkable health, vigor and militancy of the women's movement and the political space it has carved out in recent years.
More than thirty reports enabled those gathered to get an idea of the broad array of institutions that have an effect on the socialization of children. One of the themes raised was violence against women in the workplace, and the Women's Secretariat of the CCOO (Workers' Commissions, the trade-union confederation with links to the Communist Party), described workplace harassment in the following terms: "...a problem that is not named, that is not mentioned in statistics, that is not documented, nor defined, nor ruled on".
Three proposals were made after this report. First, that women report these attacks,
Around 250 delegates and observers were present to vote on documents covering the political situation, women's liberation, and the construction of a revolutionary party. One thing they could certainly provided a very high level of disvolvement of the LCR's members in all the major working class struggles taking place in France today.
The major area of contention for the competing platforms, whether they supported the general line of the outgoing Central Committee's political theses or not, concerned the LCR's involvement with and attitude towards the ex-Juquin committees, most of which have now been transformed into an organization called the Nouvelle Gauche (New Left).
The general line of the political theses presented by the outgoing CC majority was approved by a clear majority of votes (55.3%), but the congress was much more divided on the theses on the construction of a revolutionary party.
One grouping of the outgoing majority received largest minority vote of 38.86%, line of the political theses but not with the line taken over the last few months in the ex-Juquin committees, got 13.74%. The largest tendency opposed to the majority line won 25.12%, and another, 12.78%.
AROUND THE WORLD
Pinally, two smaller groupings received 5.68% and 2.08% respectively. The new 55-member Central Committee was elected on a proportional basis according to the support for different positions.
The other major discussions were around texts presented on women's liberation work and feminization of the LCR. The document of the Women's Secretariat was adopted by a 52% majority, and the delegates voted to elect a minimum of 30% women onto the Central Committee (36% were actually elected), with the aim of reaching gender parity by the next congress.
Unfortunately, against the decisions of the congress, a few comrades from "Tendency 3" (represented by two delegates) decided to leave the LCR and join the Nouvelle Gauche, which they saw as the only existing framework for a political recomposition to the left of the traditional workers' parties.
Now that the show is over, the real task of continuing to build an active force to intervene in the workers' movement and French political life must be resumed. The League Communiste Révolutionnaire will be standing independent candidates in the forthcoming municipal elections, and organizing a campaign around the European elections — against the Europe of the bosses, of austerity, of unemployment and armaments. * and no longer stay silent; second, that the OBITUARY unions take this theme up as a regular part Max Geldman (1905-1988) of their daily activities; and third, that the reports become more public, not restricted ON DECEMBER 23, 1988, a memorial meeting was held in Los Angeles for to the workplace where they occurred. comrade Max Geldman, dead at the age of 83, after literally a lifetime of
Although it was clear that much progress revolutionary commitment. many speakers, both trom Solidarity, the revohas been made in bringing domestic vio- lutionary organization in which Max was active even in the last few weeks lence and rape out of the shadows of the of his life, and from the Socialist Workers Party, his former party, gave "private" and into the public sphere, it was moving commentaries on his life of activism, and read some of his equally obvious that many public institutions still do not take sexual harassment Max was born in Jacobovitz, Poland, in 1905, and came to the United seriously, and that the government's re- States at the age of eight. He adapted to the new country quickly, and sponse of endowing women's commissari- studied hard at school. Although he had to leave school at thirteen to ats, information centers, and battered work and help support his family, he never lost his desire for learning, women's shelters is no more than a band- managing to take night courses in Philosophy, History and English at the aid. The fact that violence within the home New York City College. After finding Max Eastman's Russian Revolution has been officially recognized is, of course, in a bookstall, he became interested in the socialist vision of a world free a gain for the women's movement, but the from want, misery and violence, and eventually dedicated his life to the women's commissariats have not made inquiries more efficient, and the shelters do His life spanned the working class and progressive struggle of the twennot cover existing needs. tieth century, from the Sacco and Vanzetti defense campaign in the 20s,
Nonetheless, the outcome of the meeting to organizing the unemployed in Minneapolis in the 30s, to the civil rights was upbeat, as women reaffirmed their self- and anti-war struggles of the 60s, to pro-choice demonstrations in the activity, and celebrated the movement that has permitted so many new ideas, reflec- His organizational ties were just as consistent to his principles. After tions and actions to grow. They ended by first joining the Young Communist League in 1926, he quickly saw the endorsing the general strike called for De- process of degeneration taking place, and before even reading Trotsky's cember 14 (see IV 155). * draft program, decided to join the Communist League of America, forerunner to the SWP. After his expulsion in 1983, he began the search for a FRANCE new revolutionary direction that would protect the continuity of revolutionary Marxist thought. He helped found Solidarity, and both he and his LCR congress wife Shevi made an invaluable contribution to that newly conceived THE Revolutionary Communist League, (LCR, French section of the Fourth International), held its ninth congress from January 19-22 in St. Denis, near Paris.
fight for such a world.
organization.
ten. *
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27
Deepening economic crisis forces Jaruzelski
International Viewpoint #156 • February 6, 1989 highly precarious situation. The aim of the reform is to at least partially give nomenklatura members the legitimacy conferred by genuine ownership."
This phenomenon is not new. What has changed is the scale. In a telephone interview, Andrzej Gwiazda, one of the founders of the independent union and vice-chair of Solidarnosc when it was legal, said:
"We are seeing a generalization of phenomena such as the creation by several directors of limited companies taking exclusive charge of selling all the products made by the factories that they man-
THE FAMOUS ROUNDTABLE around which Jaruzelski's right-hand men were supposed to sit along with
Solidarnosc leaders has been reinstalled in the Jablonna
Palace near Warsaw, after being dismantled last fall.
There is renewed talk of legalizing the banned union under certain conditions, as well as an agreement on a social pact enabling the regime to carry through its economic reform.
CYRIL SMUGA
HE ANNOUNCEMENT of the
T opening of negotiations between
General Jaruzelski's team and the Solidarnosc leaders around
Lech Walesa and Jacek Kuron is no bolt from the blue. The regime's crisis has reached a point of no return:
• An economic crisis, with falling production, galloping inflation (60% in 1988, according to official estimates) and growing difficulties in meeting the interest on the foreign debt.
• A political crisis within the bureaucracy shown by the resignation threats made at the last Central Committee Plenum of the Polish CP by the four main leaders of the regime (first secretary and chief of state Wojciech Jaruzelski, premier and Politiburo member Mieczyslaw Rakowski, as well as ministers of the interior and defense Czeslaw Kiszczak and Florian
• A social crisis, of which the recent strikes in Elblag and Lodz are only the
• A crisis of social control, with the revival after the spring and summer 1988 strikes of independent mass structures of
Solidarnosc in the factories, the weakening of ties between these structures and the union leadership grouped around Lech
Walesa, as well as the appearance of groupings seeking to replace this leadership. In this context, the Rakowski government has chosen to accelerate the restructuring of its power base.
The government's objective, tacitly supported by the imperialist bourgeoisie and the IMF, is to integrate the country's econ-
28 omy more into the world market and, together with this, to open the way for the growth of a new private sector.
It is clear that such a reform will result in increased exploitation of the workers and the closing of many unprofitable enterprises — in short, in worse conditions for the workers.
In order to carry through this project, the regime needs the explicit support of recognized working-class leaders, who are the only ones capable of heading off an intensive social explosion. This is the meaning of the proposal for negotiations formulated by the recent CP Central Committee Plenum.
The regime suggested that there was a possibility of legalizing Solidarnose if the union leaders pledged to prevent a blowup, in particular a spread of strikes, over two years; supported the economic reform project; worked to increase production; condemned "extremists"; and promised not to accept material aid from Western unions.
Depriving Solidarnosc of political independence
In short, the proposal was for no less than "normalizing" Solidarnosc, as Rakowski said to the Plenum, by depriving it both of political independence (through the signing of a social pact) and material independence (through ending international trade-union aid).
In a telephone interview, Jozef Pinior, leader of the Polish Socialist PartyDemocratic Revolution (PPS-RD), noted: "Up until now, the nomenklatura has owned the country without having the attributes of ownership, which created a age... The managers thus profit from their positions and from the public infrastructure to pocket income from selling state production to other state enterprises. This is robbery."
### Solidarnosc activists should organize
A similar view was taken by the Working Group of the National Commission of Solidarnosc in a document drawn up in December and republished in mid-January in the official weekly Polityka.
"Thanks to the support of the US State Department, the policy of an understanding and reform has gotten the upper hand....The understanding in question has to be one by which the group ready for compromise... will get political concessions in exchange for guaranteeing the economic interests of the system. That means a commitment on the part of the opposition groups to keep the society from rebelling against a decline in its standard of living and therefore against an increase in exploitation. The economic reform, as can already be seen, means transforming the state enterprises into limited companies formed by individual.,, Private organizations and
Therefore, the Working Group is calling on Solidarnosc activists to fight for wage increases everywhere, to organize union groups in the limited companies and in the private sector.
Lech Walesa has said that he is ready to negotiate, and this agreement was confirmed by National Executive Commission (KKW) of Solidarnosc. This does not mean, however, that the Solidarosc leaders are ready to accept all of the regime's conditions.
The KKW resolution stresses in particular the need to protect the interests of society [i.e., the masses] harmed by the economic reform and to respect Solidarnosc's statutory framework.