In a first comment on the right wing victory, the editorial of Internationalen, the weekly of the Socialist Party (the Swedish section of the Fourth International), characterized Werner's statement as shit", fooling nobody but himself.
"The ND is digging itself deep into the establishment revolt is canalized by the brown-blue right and the right of the priests and by nearly one million abstentions. The "red-green coalition" dreamed of by LP leaders (SD-LP-Greens-Centre)
lost 663,000 votes (the LP itself 72,000)
and is smashed. The LP leadership itself is unable to shake off the historic millstone of Stalinism. This must be characterized as a severe defeat. All efforts to comfort people who have worked hard during the campaign with fairy tales will only rebound in the long run.
Broad base for rightist solutions
"It is not wise to hope the bourgeois politicians will perform harakiri. No amount of political chaos among the bourgeoisie can help the fact that there exists a broad base for right wing solutions in any constellation they choose, directed against workers, low income earners and
"Let's look the truth in the eyes. We are facing the time of the wolves. The harsh reality is that the left is not yet capable of forming a strong pole of attraction within the disintegration and growing polarization of capitalist society. Let's not have the slightest doubt on what is at stake and the intentions of the right. Socialists, LP social democrats, green activists, anti-racists, radical women and youth activists... unite in resistance everywhere where the blows are striking. Away with sectarianism and suspicion! Unity in plurality for the workers interests or split and stupidity facing the right. This is how the question will be put.
"But at the same time we must try to learn what has been in order to face what is coming. In these times when the left/ right notion has become confused, and where the fall of Stalinism is tearing down many things that were self-evident for old-style Communists, it is necessary to scrutinize our own messages and goals. What is ruled out by history, what is still standing and what must be added in order to make socialism once again the liberation movement of exploited and downtrodden? These are the questions we must answer in the coming battle." *
THE WORLD
ZAIRE
Corruption and "chaos"
NUMEROUS observers have spoken of "chaos" in relation to the crisis now gripping Zaire. There is without doubt nothing worse for a state than to see its own troops, discontented at not being paid, invading and pillaging the towns - followed in this by a population exhausted by repression, economic crisis and penu-
The state of Zaire has for a long time been a skeleton state; Mobuto's autocracy has only ever been a caricature of power. Brutal force and generalized corruption have acted as methods of government for 26 years. If it seems now that the last resources of the regime are exhausted, it is the extreme weakness and confusion of the opposition which, in its turn, feeds the chaos, and no social and political force appears capable today of filling
Imperialism is fully aware of this. The decision to once again send French and Belgian troops to "assure the security of no longer seems intended to save the Mobuto regime as
The International Monetary (IMF) has long since given up on negotiating anything with Kinshasa; the principal Western powers have given up hope of any structural reform of the regime. Paris, Brussels and Washington will now issue many communiqués expressing their profound "concern" that the current crisis will undoubtedly
But how many thousands of murders has the Mobuto regime committed since 1965, under the protection of its American, Belgian and French friends - the regiment which has just revolted in Kinshasa was commanded by French offi-
The foreign troops will without doubt then proceed to the evacuation of the 10,000 western residents of Kinshasa — there are some tens of thousands throughout the country - who have greased the wheels of the machine, at all levels, for the foreign companies, for their own profit and for that of the regime. The latest intervention is twenty six years of complicity with crime
SWEDEN / AROUND THE WORLD by the "democratic" West. *
MAURITIUS
Landslide victory for bourgeois coalition
THE recent general election in Mauritius saw two big right wing coalitions competing for the vote of the electors; that of the outgoing government, comprising the
Mauritian Socialist Movement (MSM)
and the Mauritian Militant Movement
(MMM), and that of the Labour Party
(PT), allied to the Mauritian Social Democratic Party (PMSD). In reality, the two groupings were indistinguishable in economic policy, as well as relations with imperialism and the role of the Mauritian
Free Trade Zone.
The outgoing coalition had demagogically tried to appear as less authoritarian and more populist than its adversaries.
MSM-MMM front won a crushing victory with 56.77% of the votes and a majority of parliamentary seats — the PT-PMSD lists won 39.23% of the votes, 4% going to other lists.
A similar electoral tidal wave took place in 1982, in favour of the opposition essentially MMM); this time it is the outgoing government that has won.
This confirms that, in a situation of full employment and accelerating industrialization, the workers can, to a considerable extent, lose sight of the class references still present ten years ago; the polarization of votes between the two bourgeois lists is the expression of this.
In this context, the Parti Militant Travayer (PMT) took the decision to put forward candidates in six seats and to campaign for the defence of working class and democratic rights.
This list was the sole independent workers' expression during this campaign. One of the candidates of the PMT obtained 1.24% of the votes and another 1.15% Following the victory of the outgoing government, the Parti Militant Travayer insisted again on the necessity of rebuild ing an independent workers' movement It is, on the other hand, unfortunate that the revolutionary left did not succeed in mobilizing on a unitary basis in the course of this campaign. The other organization of the indepen. 27
Army coup in Haiti
ON MONDAY September 3C, 1991, following some bloody confrontations, the chief of staff of the Haitian army, Raoul Cédras, who had been appointed by the new president, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, seized power in
International Viewpoint #214 • October 14, 1991
AROUND THE WORLD and already this year five stateless Palestinians were deported from Lebanon to Syria (where they were arrested) under the terms of a new security treaty between the two states.
Protests should be sent to Danish the country. Aristide was arrested by the putschists, before leaving the country under the protection of the French embassy. At the time of going to press, there remains great confusion about the situation in Haitl.
The claims by the military that Aristide had the intention of installing a
"new dictatorship" and the promises of a rapid return to constitutional normality are the commonplaces of any coup. The fact that the United States has condemned the coup does not necessarily prove elther that it has clean hands in the affair. But numerous questions remain. Why did the army, which had remained quiet during the attempted coup by the "macoutes" which preceded Aristide's assumption of power in January 1990, act now? Could the Haltian army, and above all its current leaders, who are close to the
United States, act without, at least, the consent of US imperialism -which, It should be remembered, still keeps its Marines al the Guantanamo base in Cuba?
Yet Bush's official declarations are increasingly firm — aid will be suspended and the junta will not be recognized. Moreover, French imperialism is trying to profit from this affair to increase its influence in Haiti in the event of a return to power of Aristide. At the same time, this army coup should surprise no one who was aware of the limited room for manoeuvre that Aristide has enjoyed (see /V
211). He was confronted by a state apparatus and an administration trained under Duvalierism; he had no real majority in the Assembly, no real party; his trusted supporters were not in the majority in his own government; an economic crisis is raging and the Haitian bourgeoisie is profoundly parasitic; the absence of an organized mass movement also weighed heavily. Finally, the "de Duvalierization" of the army, which has certainly been weakened by the different coups of the past few years, was limited to the retirement of six of its top leaders - while soldiers with close links to the United States were placed in key posts — and an attempt to put the rural police under the control of the Minister of the
Aristide is currently in the United States; after having appealed to the
Organization of American States, which will send a mission to Haiti to demand that the military leave power and has refused to recognize the
Junta, he will address the Security Council of the United Nations.
However muddy the circumstances of the coup, the tasks of socialists are clear — to demand the departure of the millary junta and give total support to the Haitian people. - Cecilia Garmendia. dent Mauritian left, Lalit, chose, in the name of the "danger from the far right", symbolized in its view by the PMSD, not to weaken the governmental coalition by putting forward a candidate. * DENMARK Palestinians wage against mass deportation THE Danish government is threatening 125 stateless Palestinians with deportation to Lebanon, where they face persecution by the Syrian authorities or different militias (See /V 211).
Seventy have sought refuge in a Copenhagen church, an action which has made national headlines and has mobilized trades unionists, religious people, artists and writers in their support.
The Socialistisk Arbejder Parti (SAP — Danish section of the Fourth International) organized a demonstration on Septem28 ber 12 sponsored by 16 Copenhagen trade union chairs and vicars, which attracted about 700 people around the slogans "Withdraw the expulsions!", "Lebanon is no safe country!" and "Asylum for the Palestinians threatened with deporta-
While a parliamentary majority has now spoken out against the expulsion of the Palestinians, the decision remains in the hands of the Minister of Justice, Conservative hard liner Hans Engell.
Behind the current wave of expulsion orders lies an extreme tightening of asylum policies. Since 1989 Palestinians have no longer been automatically grant-
Many of the Palestinian refugees are former members of Fatah or other PLO groups which the Syrian forces have tried to stamp out in order to ensure their hegemony in Lebanon. Some are wanted by different militias for desertion.
Amnesty International and Danish Refugee Aid (a semi-official organization) have documented the fact that the Syrians control airport arrivals and departures, embassies or to the Ministry of Justice, Slotsholmsgade 10, DK-1216 Copenhagen K.
Copies and other messages should be sent to Asylaktivisterne, Blaagaardens Medborgerhus, Blaagards Plads 3, DK2200 Copenhagen N. * FOURTH INTERNATIONAL Eighth summer camp held in Czechoslovakia MORE than 750 young people from all over Europe participated in the 8th international summer camp of revolutionary youth organizations in solidarity with the Fourth International, held this year at Hradec Nar Moravici in eastern Czechoslovakia. Around 40% of the youth present were attending their first Fourth International summer camp and almost 50% of the participants were not members of revolutionary youth organizations.
For the second time, delegations of youth from Eastern Europe participated in the camp, and this year the content of the debates and political exchanges marked a clear advance, the question of feminism and women's oppression in particular coming to the fore.
This year, the political programme was essentially axised around the upheavals in eastern Europe and their economic, political and social consequences in the new
Europe; the transition in the East, the formation of the Europe of the Single Act, nationalism and socialism, not forgetting the problems of the Third World. The week ended with a day devoted to our revmanagement and democracy.
The success of the eighth camp shows what it is possible to do despite limited resources and above all faced with the ideological and economic offensive of imperialism, in the East as in the West.
The new Europe demands that revolutionaries, if they wish to win youth to their project, adopt a new practice of which international meetings like this are, without doubt, one of the possible forms. *