AROUND THE WORLD / GULF CRISIS
A long and fruitful debate took place al the meet-
This was the first public meeting ever organized
In Eastern Europe by the Fl. *
AROUND
THE
WORLD
ECUADOR Indian uprising IN RESPONSE to the celebrations of the 500th anniversary of the "discovery" of America, the Confederation of the Indigenous Nations of Ecuador (CONAIE) — which was formed in 1986 and brings together 29 organizations — issued in 1988 a programme for a campaign entitled "500 years of Indian resistance." The campaign aims to be "the strongest possible political expression of the mobilizing and fighting capacity of the Indian organizations." This objective has been fulfilled, if the unprecedented size of the national Indian uprising that took place June 4-10, 1990, during the Ecuadoran general elections, is anything to go by.
Entitled the "Mandate for the defense of the life and rights of the Indian nations", a list of 16 demands was presented in May to the social democratic government of Rodrigo Borge. The demands centre on agrarian reform, constitutional recognition of the Indian national question and compensation for ecological damage done by oil companies.
The government turned a deaf ear, so 200 Indian leaders staged a peaceful occupation of the San Domingo church in the Ecuadoran capital, Quito, on May 28. CONAIE called for actions in support on June 4-6, 1990. Churches were occupied, roads blocked, towns blockaded, hacien-
Blanco, a leader of the peasant movement in Peru between 1958 and 1963, was elected Senator at the June 10, 1990 elections. As a member of the Party of Mariateguist Unity (PUM) Blanco was part of the list which also figured Javier Diez Canseco, Carlos Malpica and Andres
Overall these elections represented a big setback for the Peruvian Left. Nonetheless, the Peruvian people, above all peasants, were ready to put their trust in revolutionaries who have shown they are prepared to fight, such as Hugo Blanco.
The candidature of Alberto Fujimori led to a big debate in the United Left (IU), of which the PUM is a part. The IU called for a vote for Fujimori to defeat right-winger Mario Vargas Llosa. However Fujimori has immediately embarked on an austerity drive of the sort that Llosa would have implemented if he had been CZECHOSLOVAKIA Monopoly capital IN THE September 19, 1990 issue of the Respekt, the paper's editors raise their eyebrows over the reaction of an Ameri-
Warburg Pincus, to a plan to break up a state marketing conglomerate,
The Americans are claiming that someone in the Czechoslovak government
Gulf crisis:
actions
and
reactions
PALESTINE Mass support for Iraq THE Palestinian masses of the West Bank and Gaza have shown overwhelming sup port for Iraq in the Gulf conflict. Explicit support for Saddam Hussein has been expressed on their demonstrations. Part of the explanation for this is the close relations between the leadership of the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) and Iraq, but the main reason, of course, is that the Iraqi dictator is confronting Israel's main benefactor, the United
At the same time, the Palestinian masses feel a strong hostility towards the Gulf Emirs, who are viewed as flunkeys of imperialism, all the more because most Palestinian workers (unlike the bourgeoisie) in the Gulf suffer all kinds of persecu-
The United Patriotic Leadership of the Intifada, in which the main Palestinian organizations supporting the Palestinian uprising are found, has issued a statement which stresses the need for mobilization against the imperialist intervention. The statement explicitly refuses to take any position on the occupation of Kuwait.
At the same time the West Bank's Palestinian notables — whose most prominent representative is Faisal al-Husseini das occupied and big demonstrations
The Borge government has no intention
Trotsky commemorated in Berlin of accepting the Indian demands. Nonetheless it has been unable to directly
MORE than 200 persons were present at a meetattack this movement. Indians make up ing on September 22 in East Berlin called by a working group of supporters of the Fourth Interna-
40% of Ecuador's population and 80% of the rural population. Since 1979 they tional in East Germany to commemorate the 50th have had the right to vote, which they had anniversary of the assassination of Leon Trotsky.
previously been denied on the grounds
The subject of the debale was. "Trotsky's contribution to Marxism". The meeting was introduced that they were illiterate.
by Ernest Mandel representing the United Secre-
After army intervention had caused a death and some dozens of wounded - as tariat of the Fl. Other participants were Thomas well as hundreds of arrests — the govern-
Klein, the United Left's deputy in the Volkskammer ment has heeded the advice of the Bish-
(East German parliament), comrade Czollek, the ops' conference and the Bishop of president of the organization Die Nelken (the Car-
Riocamba and opened negotiations. * nations) and a representative of the Communist
Platform inside the PDS (the ex-Communist Party).
PERU
Hugo Blanco elected Sena-
LONG-TIME Trotskyist militant Hugo promised them that Staviva would remain a unit, and that breaking it up would reduce its value by $45m. would go to court, and "decide whether from the point of view of society it would be profitable to state property."
Or whether from the point of view of Warburg Pincus it would be profitable to destroy a ready-made monopo-
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25
International Viewpoint #192 • October 15, 1990
GULF CRISIS — have come out for an "Arab solution" to the crisis, including an Iraqi withdrawal from Kuwait, at the behest of Jordan's King Hussein. *
JORDAN ON August 7, 1990, a group of Jordanian revolutionary Marxists issued a statement
"The Iraqi action objectively represents a challenge to the historic project of imperialism to divide up the region....
"Any illusion in the nature of the Iragi dictatorship and on its abilities, notably in the case of a conflict with imperialism, would have serious consequences for revolutionaries; for the Iraqi bourgeoisie cannot mobilize the masses of the region, in the first place the working class, and thus prepare the defeat of imperialism.
"It is necessary to struggle for the formation of workers and peasants' militias against the imperialist offensive and for the election of an Iraqi-Kuwaiti constituent assembly as the basis for the union of the two countries, and, in the other Arab countries, to boycott and strike at imperialist interests as well as putting pressure on the Arab regimes to support Irag." * ALGERIA On September 26, 1990, the Algerian Socialist Workers Party (PST - Algerian supporters of the Fourth International organized a public meeting on the Gulf. At the start of the conflict it issued a declaration in which it emphasized: "Of course, Saddam Hussein has no right to Kuwait — he has no mandate from the Kuwaiti masses and does not represent the Iragi masses.
"This war started a few months away from the promulgation of a new constitution, through which Saddam has promised to establish a multi-party system. The first result of the war is to draw the Iraqi population behind its leader — at least temporarily. "The popular sympathy for Saddam throughout the Arab region shows the 26 persistence of anti-imperialist aspiratior espite all the defeats and disillusior
"What is at stake is not to "defend the holy places against the strangers', but to defend the sacred right of the peoples of the region to determine their own future, and control the wealth of their territories without imperialist intervention. have the right to fight against all the dictatorships, such as in Iraq or Egypt, but also against the reactionary monarchies, such as Kuwait and Saudi Arabia."
The statement underlined the effect of the blockade on the Iraqi people. * FRANCE
A DEMONSTRATION against war in the Gulf drew over 5,000 people in Paris on September 29. The demonstration had support on the left, including young workers from the CGT trade union, the Greens and the far left. A nationwide day of action is being prepared for October 20.
Meanwhile, an opinion poll published in Le Monde (October 3, 1990) found that, while 71% supported French involvement in the Gulf, 83% believed that " no cause, however just, was worth a war" and that it was "always better to negotiate or find a compromise even with an aggressor like Saddam Hussein." * HOLLAND OVER 3,000 people demonstrated
Amsterdam on September 22 calling for an end to the intervention in the Gulf and the recall of the Dutch ships. The demonstration got wide media coverage. The committee that organized this action now hopes to draw in broader forces in particular from the peace movements and the
Voices have also begun to be heard in the trade union movement questioning the costs of the war and an independent Womens' Union has taken positions against the wardrive. A further demonstration is planned, and the committee is considering what to do if war breaks out. New Dutch ships will be dispatched in November, and this may provide a focus for antiwar action. *
BRITAIN (CORRECTION) THE 5,000 strong antiwar demonstration in London on September 15 reported in the last issue of IV (#191) was called by the Committee to Stop War in the Gulf. The Committee has the support of left Labour MPs, the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, the Greens, and Plaid Cymru (Welsh Nationalist party among others. The Committee is also calling further action for November 24.
The conference of the Green party on September 22 and 23, voted against any action in the Gulf outside the United Nations and explicitly opposed war. *
THE following statement was adopted at the October meeting of the United Secretariat of the Fourth
International, a worldwide
Trotskyist organization. DOCUMENT