MIDDLE EAST / EUROPE
Health has no price
THIS autumn has seen massive mobilizations of French nurses and other health workers. These they were for or against Shamir, since the latter seems to be playing the only game that matters for the Israeli left - the one dictated by the
White House. The right, who demonstrated two days later in response to a call from colonists' and far right organizations, was certainly clearer; it knows that it can only gain by upping the bidding and denouncing the alleged capitulation of the government. In fact, some members of this government were on the platform at this demonstration, as the crowd shouted "Death to the Arabs!"
Meanwhile the Palestinian population is well aware that it can expect nothing from the Madrid conference. This is even true of those who support the decision by the Palestinian National Council to accept the draconian, not to say humiliating US conditions and attend a conference at which all discussion on Israeli withdrawal from the West Bank and Gaza is ruled out, knowing that the dice are loaded and that Madrid will resolve nothing.
The mood among Palestinians is a mixture of anger and despair, and a new wave of attacks can be expected, one of whose aims will be to remind those presently negotiating in the name of the Palestinians in the Occupied Territories that they have no mandate for bargaining away the intifada. This latter, even if it has marked time over the past year, remains the sole means by which the Palestinians can finally obtain the recognition of their right to self-determination.
Michel Warshawsky * therefore our categorical rejection of the attempts to pass off the American liquidationist project and we oppose it. At the same time we will oppose the attempts to falsify our people's will by pretending that the majority in any sort of body has approved the liquidation.
In reality the make-up of these bodies is submitted to the bureaucracy which is out of touch with the will of our people and does not represent it. In order that these organisms express our people's will, their composition would have to reflect its real will. From this point of view, we demand and consider it necessary that the National
[the Palestinian
"parliament")
Organization's reflect all the sectors of our people whether at home or in exile, and that the princirepresentation proportional adopted for its members.
2. We proclaim our complete and outright rejection of the liquidationist plot and the American conspiracy in its totality.
3. We consider that the existence of our people, which comprises nearly six million people, and its just cause, with the support of all free and honourable men in the Arab and Islamic world, are the best support for our struggle and our liberation jihad. By giving a decisive "no" to the capitulation plot, our people removes from this conference the power to cover up the liquidation of our cause, and undermines it with the aim of making it fail by all means and ensuring the continuity of the revolution and the armed struggle, drawing inspiration from the fighters in Lebanon who overcame the Multinational Force [inter-imperialist forces sent to Lebanon in 1982] and forced the [Israeli] occupation forces to retreat to the frontier strip.
4. The weak-kneed leaders falter and submit to the desires of the Americans, opposed to the rights of our people; but the people does not falter. It is on this basis and with the support of the masses of our people that we assert our determination to carry on the struggle to foil the liquidationist plot, in order to open the way for the Palestinian choice of jihad and liberation struggle, until the liberation of our country and the establishment of our state, and until our people is reunited on its blessed land with its capital in Jeru salem, symbol of our national and religious values and of our civilization, our struggle and our jihad
5. The proposed American formula for the resolution of our cause is nothing othcise of the legitimate right of return of our people to their country. self-determination and the establishment of the Palestinian state on its sacred national territory, Palestine... * developments can be seen as the continuation of the nurses' mobilizations that occurred in 1988. Three years ago, a wave of nurses' mobilizations swept across all of Europe. In France, this "white shirt autumn" (so-called because of the uniforms nurses wear) culminated with a demonstration on October 13 that saw more than one hundred thousand nurses and other health workers take to the streets. Apart from its size, scope, and dynamism, three elements of this remarkable movement were particularly notable.' PATRICK DEBREST
T HE first was the appearance on
the political scene of new social groups consisting of a new generation of women wage workers. Their slogan was "Ni bonnes, ni nonnes, ni connes", (We are neither cleaning ladies, nuns [who traditionally worked in hospitals], nor idiots). Behind this fundamental demand of being "recognized", were various other aspirations that cannot be reduced to the simple desire to obtain a stable and recognized professional status. It also signaled the massive entry into the labor market of women wage workers whose jobs had been traditionally considered not only as supplementary incomes, but also as jobs particularly suited to the supposed "nature" of women.
In struggles in sectors as diverse as nursery staff, administrative personnel, social services, or finance and social security, jobs filled mostly by women, this argument had been used to undervalue the worth of these jobs and justify low pay.
The second element of this struggle concerned the crisis in the health sector and its main pillar, the public hospitals. A restructuring of public health services was and is occurring on a European-wide
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6
Waiting for the upturn
IS THERE an economic recovery or not? The optimists have been pre dicting an easy end to the American recession and thus a possible global upturn. Alas| The American market is not behaving according to plan, remaining mired in stagnation. Sidney Jones, the joint secretary for eco-