POLAND / AROUND THE WORLD selves invested with a historic mission.
Paradoxically, the election of Lech Walesa thus bears witness to a growing rejection of the theme he has made his own - that of the return to capitalism. For all that, in this election none of his opponents have presented an alternative to this choice. Not even the ex-apparatchik Stalinist student Wlodzimierz Cimoszewicz, whose programme stipulated "an indispensable privatization of a large part of productive capital". Social discontent, of which the strikes in the mines and in urban transport on the eve of the first round were the expression, has thus not been able to
AROUND
THE
WORLD
CHAD Coup d'etat ONCE again, Chad has returned to the headlines. Idriss Deby, former commander in chief of the army of Hissan Habré, has just overthrown the latter after a lightning war launched from the frontier zones in the east of the country. In the course of a few weeks the capital Ndjamena has fallen — troops loyal to Habré were incapafind an electoral expression. It is a time bomb that the new President must dismantle and which could weigh on the struggle for his succession opened inside Solidarnosc.
The immediate stake will be to preserve the internal democracy of the Polish trade union, put in danger after the attempts of its national leadership to muzzle the leaderships of the combative branches (miners and urban transport workers) on November 20, as well as the national agreement of the workplace commissions (the "Network") on November 7. * Sudan...the regime in Ndjamena suddenly ceased to be "democratic" and "legiti-
But the cynicism does not stop there. The victory of the Deby group has led to the discovery that nearly 700 Libyan prisoners had been trained by the Americans, under the protection of Habré, to launch terrorist actions in Libya. After the fall of the capital, a lightning operation ment.
Finally, all the independent trade unions — in electricity, health, national education, higher education, posts and telecoms - have gone into action. These are unions that have broken in the course of the years with the official regime-controlled trade union.
They have now decided on a wave of general strikes: the first on December 1415, the second between December 18 and 22, and then an indefinite all-out strike starting on January 9.
Their aim is to beat back the government and win a reduction in taxes, the price of basic necessities and of some other products.
Notice of the strike was given before the municipal elections, at which time the government made its first concessions, the suppression of an extra tax which involved taking 5% off income.
A social conflict of the highest importance is developing in Senegal. The coordination of opposition parties has decided to actively support the strike. The idea of a political mass strike is gaining support; appeals are being made to shopkeepers and transport workers to help bring the country to a standstill. The corrupt and enfeebled Abu Diouf regime (a member of the Socialist International) is sinking deeper into crisis.
JAPAN:
Trotsky symposium About 30 Japanese scholars of economics, history, literature and politics organized ble of resisting and Habré himself precipitately left the country.
anniversary of the assassination of Leon
In 1986 France and the United States
Trotsky. The meeting was held at the Uniintervened to defend the Habré regime against a coalition between certain Chadi-
Soviet scholars were present: V. Billik (histoan groups and Libya. The stabilization of rian); V. I. Startzev (editorial staff of official the situation, after the deployment of the
CPSU history); A. V. Pantzov (Institute of imperialist forces had permitted the
History of the International Workers' Movedefeat of the Libyans, was then hailed as ment); A. M. Podschekoldin (CPSU Institute the victory of a certain national legitimaof Marxism-Leninism); and E. Kotelenets (P.
cy in the face of totalitarian threats. How-
Lumumba University). Other guest particiever, the French forces based in Chad pants were B. Kagarlitsky (USSR); P. Broué were ordered not to intervene this time,
(France); Bala Tampoe (Sri Lanka); E. Voland the so-called democratic regime of
Habré has collapsed like a house of cards.
Why has the French government sions on November 2 and 3, and over 400 allowed the collapse of a regime as "legitcame to hear speeches by Volkov, Broue, imate", in its eyes, as that of Habré? How
Startzev and Kagarlitsky on November 4.
has Paris been able to explain that, having
Discussions were held around four topics:
waged as costly a war as that of 1985-86
"Trotsky on culture"; "Trotsky on Asia"; "Trotto defend its Chadian ally of the moment, sky's perspective on the crisis of world capinothing has been done to support him this allowed an American plane (registered with NATO forces) to land at Ndjamena and to take a group of these Libyans away to an unknown destination. The White House, usually so prompt to denounce international terrorism, has for the moment made no comment. * SENEGAL Rising tension THE call for a boycott of the recent municipal and rural elections from all the opposition forces in Senegal was largely heeded. The consensus among the opposition is that there was a turnout of about 15%. Even so, the government has not hesitated to make extravagant assertions about the turnout, claiming 75% in Dakar and 90% in some places.
Since then, tension has mounted a symposium to commemorate the 50th versity of Tokyo on November 2-4. Five kov (Trotsky's grandson - Mexico).
About 200 people attended the discustalism in the 1930s"; and "Trotsky and time?
The Chadian state is an abstract construct and imperialism accords it a legiti.
macy when it needs to do so. Because organize the symposium, and many JCP
Paris has an account to settle with Washmembers were in the audience, but the JCP ington in this region, because it seeks a
26 new relationship with Libya, because it is preparing for a possible crisis in
At the start of December, the schools were on strike and school students' protests were systematically broken up with tear gas, as is the custom. Students have been holding regular general assemblies in order to launch a similar moveperestroika".
Several notable scholars associated with the Japanese Communist Party helped about the event. *