AROUND
THE
WORLD
THIRD WORLD DEBT Berlin, Paris, Houston.... THE success of the demonstration and concert held in Paris on July 8 of last year (see /V 168, July 31, 1989), coming after the demonstrations of September 1988 in Berlin against the meeting of the IMF there, showed the possibility of a prolonged campaign for the cancellation of the third world debt. This has been followed up, with initiatives planned in several countries for the time when the summit of the world's seven richest countries takes place this year in Houston, Texas. The "Bastille Appeal", launched by the unitary collective that organized the July 8 demonstration in Paris, denounced the worsening of the pillage and impoverishment of the third world, and demanded the immediate and total cancellation of the debt, which overwhelms the people, encourages the dictators, and smothers national. In Greece, the NAR, an impormembers of the Communist Party and the Communist Youth, and the OKDE, Greck section of the Fourth International, have supported the appeal. In Italy, Democrazia Proletaria has asked for the support of other sections of the left. In Spain, the appeal is beginning to be circulated.
In both West and East Germany, support is strong. Even in Houston, during the meeting of the Seven, a countergovernmental representatives of the peoples of the poorest countries of Central America, organized by the International League for Human Rights and the Libera-
Peoples. Demonstrations already anticipated in Mexico, Bolivia, Chile and Brazil, but also in Senegal with the support of the revolutionary group And-Jef and the OST (Senegalesc section of the Fourth International). Demonstra-
AROUND THE WORLD Belgium, the coilectives plan to organize rallies.
In Berlin, left organizations in both East and West are planning a demonstration and an international concert to be held in the city on June 23. What better place to organize an initiative with delegations coming from all over Europe symbolizing the common struggle of the peoples of East and West, in solidarity with the peoples of the third world against the summit of the seven imperialist powers? It is crucial that the solidarity of the peoples, of the workers, be affirmed, at a time when the bankers and the IMF are withdrawing their capital from the third world after having pillaged it and subjected it to drastic austerity plans, and prepare to subject the peoples of Easter Europe to the same mechanisms and win new markets which they hope will be more profitable.
Daniel Ortega has summarized it well; "there is another wall to overthrow, that of the third world debt". The recent popular uprisings in Gabon, Niger, the Ivory Coast and Senegal has shown the urgency of the campaign. In France, the Collective against the Debt has solidarized with thesc demonstrations provoked by the weight of the imperialist debt, and has denounced the responsibility of the French rulers. During these hunger riots, Jacques Chirac, former prime minister, declared that "multipartyism is a luxury for the countries of the third world", and the French government expelled a Gabonese oppositionist. For these "democrats", the struggle for democracy and against the single party democracy.
In France, support has grown - around the writer Gilles Perrault are grouped numerous artists, writers, intellectuals,
AL- MITRAQA no. 7 but also all the anti-imperialist and third the Communist worldist organizations,
May 1989 - January 1990
Party, the CGT (the biggest trade union
Revolutionary communist journal for the Arab region.
federation), the SNES (a teachers' union), the Green Party's European representalives, the anti-racist organizations MRAP,
FASTI, and SOS-Racisme, a number of
Socialist deputies and personalities, the
League of Human Rights, and so on.
In Latin America support is strong in a number of countries, notably in Mexico
PRT, the Mexican section of the
Fourth International, but also C. Cardenas, leader of the Democratic Revolution
COB, the trade union federation), Brazil,
Colombia (all the left organizations), Haiti (the Independent Federation of Haitian
Workers), Martinique and Guadeloupe.
In black Africa, trade unionists have pledged the support of their organizations in more than 10 countries, and support has also come from movements of opposition to the existing regimes. The appeal has been signed in Morocco and Algeria.
tions are being discussed in Algeria,
Greece, Italy and Spain. In France and
CONTENTS
* PALESTINE: The third year of the Intifada. Interview with Dr.
George Habash, followed by a commentary
* LEBANON: The snowball
* MOROCCO: The situation and tasks of revolutionaries - a document from the Revolutionary
Communist Circles of Morocco
* TUNISIA: The Tunisian
Communist Party, from its foundation to its self-dissolution
* ERNEST MANDEL: Glasnost and the crisis of the Communist stops when it turns against their imperial-
* ist interests.
Subscription for three issucs: in France 60FF, for other countries
In Belgium, a unitary collective has been created grouping numerous forces, the Communist Party, Socialist deputics,
Greens, solidarity committees, and the
POS, Belgian section of the Fourth Interwrite to AL - MITRAQA
Viewpoint - sce inside front cover.
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27 April 9, 1990 • #182 International Viewpoint