AROUND THE WORLD
AROUND
THE
WORLD
MEXICO Step up solidarity for Garcia A MEMBER of the Mexican section of the Fourth International, José Ramón García, kidnapped on December 16, is still missing (see /V 157). His comrades believe that he is still alive but not being released because his captors fear that he will reveal compromising facts about the police and the government. Therefore, it is important to continue and extend the campaign to force the para-police gangsters to let him go.
On February 25, the Partido Revolutionario de los Trabajadores (Revolutionary Workers' Party, Mexican section of the Fourth International) organized a forum on the case in the town of Cuautla, in the state of Morelos, where José Ramón lived and where he was a candidate in the March 1988 municipal elections. It was a notable success, as was reported in the Mexican daily Jornada of February 27.
Some 2,500 people participated, of whom 250 represented trade unions, community organizations, universities and other institutions. The forum was chaired by Rosario Ibarra, Ifigenia Martínez and Ana Santander, who demanded the reappearance of José Ramón, the release of all political prisoners, an end to all measures of repression and respect for human rights. Delegations came from Puebla, the Valley of Mexico, Morelos, Chiapas [in the far south], Guerrero and San Luis Potosi. In all, 82 organizations and 50 peasant communities were represented.
José Ramón's companion told the forum that he was the "first missing person" under the new government of Salinas de Gortari. "He has been kidnapped and held for 72 days, he has 'disappeared' because he fought as a democratic candidate, supporting Rosario Ibarra [the PRT's presidential candidate] and in solidarity with Cárdenas [the main opposition candidate]."
A day of international protest will be held
Appeals for José Ramón's release and protests can be sent to the following ad-
• Carlos Salinas de Gortari, Palacio Na-
• Fernando Gutiérrez Barrios, Secretario de Gubernación, Bucareli 99, Mexico DF;
• Antonio Riva Palacio López, Goberna24 More as. dor, Palacio de Governación, Cuernavaca, International Viewpoint #159 • March 20, 1989
Copies and other information on international solidarity initiatives should be sent to International Viewpoint. * SRI LANKA UNP makes electoral history THE FOLLOWING report on the recent Sri Lanka general elections is from the February 26 Issue of Clarity, a magazine published in Bombay:
The ruling United National Party [UNP] has won an absolute majority, winning 125 out of 225 seats in the general parliamentary elections held last week.
While the dominant opposition Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) ended second with 67 seats, the Eelam Revolutionary Organization (EROS), known to be close the LTTE, [Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam] took the third position with 13.
Though the TULF [Tamil United Liberation Front, the old parliamentary nationalist formation, now including four parties] won the TULF itself was virtually rejected by the island's Tamils. All its leaders, including party general secretary A. Amirthalingam, failed to make it into
The second largest opposition group after the SLFP in the new parliament will be the minority group from the Tamil northeastern province.
Besides EROS and the TULF, the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress — another minority group - has won four seats in the
The UNP created electoral history in the island by being the only party to be returned to power in two consecutive general elections. Until now, the islanders had consistently changed the government at every
However, the party's majority would be considerably smaller in the new parliament than in the dissolved Houses in which it had 140 out of 167 seats, having won a landslide victory in the 1977 general
Besides the UNF and the SLFP, the Mahajana Eksath Permanuna (MEP, a leftwing split off from the SLFP) and the leftist United Socialist Alliance won three seats each in the central and southern parts of the island, while all other parties drew a blank. [For a discussion of these parties, see the interview with Bala Tampoe in /V 143, June 13, 1988]
The traditional left parties, including the Lanka Sama Samaja Party and the Communist Party of Sri Lanka, have suffered a near total collapse.
Most of the preferential votes cast by the voters for this group went to two of the three militant groups that fought the election under the TULF symbol - the Eelam People's Revolutionary Liberation Front (EPRLF) and the Tamil Eelam Liberation Organization (TELO).
The third group, the Eelam National Democratic Liberation Front (ENDLF) failed to make it to parliament. * End the State of Emergency! THE STATEMENT below was adopted unanimously on October 24, 1988, by the biennial congress of the Ceylon Mercantile Union (CMU):
This Twentieth Delegates' Conference of the CMU considers that the UNP [United National Party] Government bears the prime responsibility for the armed violence that is prevalent not only in the North and East, but also in the South and other parts of Sri Lanka today. This situation has developed under the State of Emergency that the UNP Government has imposed and maintained continuously for over six years, following the postponement of the general election that should have been held in 1982 under the Constitution established by the UNP Government itself in 1978.
Under Emergency rule, the working people, the student population and the rest of the people of this country have been subjected to the suppression and restriction of basic democratic rights and to state terrorism. In addition, certain political parties have been proscribed. Even a genuine trade union, like the Public Service United Nurses' Union, was proscribed, when the nurses went on strike in April 1986. The proscription was lifted only because the nurses courageously continued their strike, and following national and international trade-union protests.
Thousands of people have been deprived of their liberty, even for years, under Emergency regulations and/or the Prevention of Terrorism Act. Large numbers have been tortured and many of them have been killed in custody. Only a small proportion of those taken into custody have been charged with offences and brought before the courts.
Thousands of people have been killed in police and military operations against the groups of youths who took to arms against the State forces, in the struggle for a separate state (Tamil Eelam) in the North and East. Massacres have also taken place in reprisals for their attacks on the armed forces.
A similar situation has been developing in the South, especially after the Indo-Sri Lanka Agreement was signed on July 29, 1987, and Indian armed forces were brought into the North and East, to secure
March 20, 1989 • #159 International Viewpoint the surrender of arms by the rebel groups, under the Agreement. The situation in the South has been attributed to the resort to armed violence and political terrorism on the part of a "military wing" of the JVP, this year. Whether the armed violence is to be attributed to a section of the JVP alone, or whether other forces are involved in or responsible for this violence, it is difficult
Despite the efforts of the Indian Army for a whole year, the armed group known as the LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam) has not yet laid down its arms, and it continues to exercise considerable influence amongst the civilian population in the
In these circumstances, this Delegates' Conference is of view that the UNP Government cannot restore peace in this country, and that it may resort more and more, to the use of the police and the armed forces to maintain its rule.
On the other hand, this Delegates' Conference does not consider the replacement of Mr. J.R. Jayawardene as president and/or the replacement of the UNP Government by some other government, through a presidential election and/or general election, will provide the people of this country with a way out of the present crisis. Neither the Sri Lanka Freedom Party, nor any combination of parties that are likely to participate in a presidential or general election, can be expected to restore peaceful and democratic conditions in this country, having regard to their political and class char-
Nevertheless, this CMU Delegates' Conferences considers that, right now, the wishes of millions of people in this country to be rid of UNP rule, under a State of Emergency, with a long-out-dated and utterly unrepresentative majority in parliament, should be permitted immediate expression through a general election. As a step towards the restoration of peaceful and democratic conditions in this country, in the state of unrest and violence that now prevails, this Delegates' Conference of the CMU accordingly calls for:
• The ending of the State of Emergency and the dissolution of the parliament
• The holding of a general election, and not a presidential election, to elect a new parliament that should change the present reactionary Constitution immediately after its election, to get rid of the provisions for a president vested with the entire Executive
(The CMU carried out a successful token general strike in support of these two demands on October 27, 1988.)
This Delegates' Conferences makes this call now, recognizing the difficulty for the working class, in its present politically divided and largely unorganized state, to bring about the restoration of peaceful and democratic conditions through mass action led by the working class, and to prevent a military dictatorship or a state of anarchy arising out of the present situation.
This Delegates' Conference, therefore considers that it is essential for the Union to strive to strengthen, extend and unify the organized forces of the working class to face up to this situation effectively. With this end in view, this Twentieth Delegates' Conference resolves that the Union should, in the first place, educate its own ranks, and organize the thousands of other workers who can be organized in the Union. It should also join with trade union and other organizations that are willing to campaign for the restoration of the democratic rights of the people and the protection of human rights, on the basis of which alone can there be peace and justice for our people.
In the furtherance of these objectives, this Conference recognizes the urgent necessity of the working class for an "independent and democratic political organization of its own," as was recognized
MAYBE WE NEED A STRONGER PAINT...
AROUND THE WORLD
WERE DEFENDING A
LEFT -IN-THE-LURCH WING
GOVERNMENT.
70=
Cartoon by Austin by the Eighteenth Delegates' Conference of the Union in November 1984. This Conference also considers that the Workers' Party of Ceylon that was inaugurated on December 9, 1984, pursuant to a resolution adopted by the Eighteenth Delegates' Conference, can serve as the foundation for the building of such an organization.
Bala Tampoe (General Secretary,
CMU) *
USSR
Independent press in
Lithuania
AN ARTICLE IN Pravda on February 22 cast a jaundiced look at the growth of the press of the independent movements in the
"The means of information in the hands of Sajudis [the Lithuanian People's
Front] and other organizations already include more than 40 publications with an average press run of more than half a million copies.. [The Lithuanian population numbers about 3 million]. They are actively op-
CRANT icism as provocations inspiring hostility to the
Communist Party and the Soviet organs.",
AIRCRA
MAINTA
AREA-K
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