AROUND THE WORLD
AROUND
THE
WORLD
ISRAELI STATE Suspended sentence for Warshawsky ON November 7 Michel Warshawsky, a militant of the section of the Fourth International in the Israeli state was sentenced to 30 months imprisonment. The case arose out of accusations that the Alternative Information Centre (AIC), for which with a "terrorist organization", the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. The only charge upheld by the court to back up this accusation was that the AIC had published a brochure, allegedly of PPLP origin, advice on how to deal with interrogation and resist torture.
The sentence — and the absurdity of the charges — had a big impact on the democratic movement in Israel, who saw it as a warning, and on international opinion. The protests have had their effect. Warshawsky has been set free, and the sentence is now suspended, but it remains necessary to fight for the complete suppression of the sentence. * SOVIET UNION Independence perspective for People's Front THE SECOND CONGRESS of the Latvian People's Front made some changes in its program. The only one noted in the international press was the adoption of the perspective of an independent Latvia. In its October 28 issue, the West German left daily, Tageszeitung, published an interview with Andrejs Pentelejevs, a member of the leadership of the Latvian Front. He explained the change on the question of independence as follows:
"We did not want any longer to hide our real objective. But we are realists, and we know that this goal can only be achieved in the long term. The precondition for this is that the entire Soviet Union change. In other republics also People's Fronts have been formed that seek independence. Only when all the republics get a real right of self-determination and can form a federation in accordance with their wishes can there be a solution for Latvia also. 26 would like to stress that we he uni inter- A special Baltic road is quite unlikely. I est in cutting our economic and cultural ties with the rest of the Soviet Union, or with Russia. They will continue to be
On the question of whether an independent Latvia would be only for ethnic Latvians, Pantelejev said: "The development runs in the opposite direction. A year ago, the Front made an error, raising the slogan of 'Latvia for the Latvians.' Since then, we have realized that we can only succeed together with the other ethnic groups. We have established guarantees for the nonLatvian population in our program. After initial mistrust, more and more Russians are participating in the People's Front. The future Latvian Republic will be a multi-cultural state...Already we can see more ethnic pluralism. The first Jewish college in the Soviet Union was opened on September 1 in Riga. For the first time also, there is a school for Polish-speaking people." * ALGERIA Trotskyists seek legalizaTHE Socialist Workers Party (PST), formerly the Revolutionary Communist Group (GCR, a sympathizing organization of the Fourth International), has applied for legalization in the context of the new law on multi-partyism adopted by the Algerian national assembly.
This law, one of the gains of the popular uprising of October 1988 (see IV 150 and 151), remains tainted by restrictions, such as that forbidding affiliation to an international organization. Moreover, the government, which must give the green light to any legalization, retains a great deal of arbitrary power.
The PST is, except for the Socialist Vanguard Party (PAGS), a Stalinist party identifying itself with the "left" wing of the Algerian government, the only party adhering to Marxism which has up to now demanded legalization. We reproduce below the essence of an article devoted to the PST which was published in ElMoudjahid, (30 October 1989), organ of the governing party, the National Liberation Front (FLN).
"The PST was created following the events of October 1988, after having operated as a clandestine organization since 1974, under the name of the GCR. (...)
"The PST is a communist party of the far left which works for the creation of a classless socialist society and an economy independent of the hegemony of capitalist imperialism. It proposes the non-payment of the foreign debt; the industrialization of the country and the expansion of the public sector; the democratization of education; the rehabilitation of the Amazigh [Berber] language...In sum, a program that "no bourgeois current' can realize, in the words of spokesperson Salhi Chaw-
"The PST, furthermore, is not a section of the Fourth International (it was only a sympathising groups as the GCR), which is not allowed by law. The PST is opposed to this "anti-democratic" law. The spokesperson denounced the economic, cultural and educational crisis that the country is now undergoing, and did not forget to criticize bourgeois capitalism and anarchic liberalism privileging a layer of private parasites. The PST is for secularism 'since religion is a private matter.' The separation of church and state is in the interests of religion itself. As for the private sector, Mr. Salhi said: 'we do not want to murder it, but our long term project is for the collective ownership of the means of produc-
"The PST is the second communist party to demand legalization, joining the PAGS, with which it has fundamental differences. 'We are revolutionary communists, who fought in the armed struggle for the independence of our country, which was certainly not the position of some
Communists. Do not forget the history'
"The PST intends to publish a weekly paper El-Khatoua, an undertaking that it will find difficult to carry through financially, since there are no business people in the PST. 'No doubt, this is a matter of personal affinities' as the spokesperson said." *
Stop Press — Czechoslovakia CZECHOSLOVAK human rights activists, Anna Sabatova and Petr Uhl were arrested on Sunday, November 19. They are accused of fabricating information about an alleged death of a student after beatings by police during the November 17 demonstration. Dissident sources are continuing to insist that the student, Tomas Smid was killed, although the regime is disputing the claim.
It is also reported that the Charter 77 democratic movement has called for a general strike next Monday to protest repressions.*