AROUND
THE
WORLD
TUNISIA
Trial of six adjourned
ON October 13, 1991, six young people, some of them high school students, were arrested at Sidi Bouzid, in central Tunisia, while distributing leaflets outside a high school (see /V 216, November 11, 1991).
founder of the Sandinista Front. At 2 a.m. the next morning, an explosion destroyed the mausoleum built to Fonseca.
The following night, a series of reprisal explosions shook the capital, Managua. The office of the mayor, Arnolodo Alem-
AROUND THE WORLD na, who was widely held responsible for the attempt on Fonseca's mausoleum, was completely destroyed. Radio Corporacion, a far right station, was put out of action. The headquarters of a number of right wing parties were also attacked. Three Nicaraguan right wing deputies have demanded that Daniel Ortega, general secretary of the Sandinista National Liberation Front, be brought to trial for "instigation of and association with criminals". Rodolfo Meijia Ubilla, William Frech and Daniel Tate Nelson, deputies for the Constitutional Liberal Party, claim that Ortega could receive thirty years in jail if found guilty on these charges.
Ortega has responded by publicly renouncing his parliamentary immunity, saying that "with such accusers, there is no need for defenders! These are the same charges with which Somoza accused me
Beaten by police and guards after their IV/Inprecor goes East arrest, they appeared in court on November 13, 1991, accused of illegal association and of holding an illegal meeting.
On November 6, the six were released and their trial adjourned to December 17, 1991. As shown during the Gulf War, the Tunisian government is susceptible to international pressure and it is currently trying to improve its international image. It is thus necessary to continue the pressure for the acquittal of the Sidi Bouzid six.
Protests should be sent to the Minister of the Interior at Tunis, with a copy to the Tunisian League of Human Rights (fax: 216-1-79 54 66). * CZECHO-SLOVAKIA Appeal against screening law
Дето 1901 г
THE first issue of Intervzglyad, the Russian language sister publication of International Viewpoint, came out last month in Moscow. saMe 2 pro The 36-page issue includes articles by Daniel Bensaid on Leon Trotsky, and by Ernest Mandel on economic alternatives.
Sixty two years after Trotsky was banished from the Soviet Union, heralding the massacre of the militants of the Left Opposition by Stalin, IV sends its greetings to the new journal!
The new publication will be distributed by left wing
OVER
100 members of Czecho-
Slovakia's Federal Assembly have signed a "Statement of the Group of Deputies for
Study and Support of the Charter of Fundacampuses. The next issue is already in the pipeline and should appear before mental Rights and Freedoms" against the so-called screening ["lustrace"| law adopt-
The Fourth International's work in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union is ed by the Assembly on October 4, 1991 also shown by the quarterly publication of Czech Inprekor (see the logo below),
(which is aimed at purging from the and by the existence of reviews aligned with our current in Poland and the foradministration alleged collaborators of the former secret police, the StB, and effec-
Meanwhile, IV continues to do its best to give the fullest possible coverage to tively anyone who held a position of its readers of the changes underway in the former Soviet bloc, and, to this end, responsibility in the old Communist Parkeeps contacts with many correspondents there.
ty— see /V 216).
To help us spread our ideas in these countries, and to enable us to sustain
The statement points out that the law is and improve our reporting on the region we need your help. Donations can be in contradiction to the country's Charter of
Fundamental Rights and Freedoms, adopted on January 9, 1991, which states that
2 rue Richard Lenoir, 93100, Montreuil, France
"citizens shall have access to any elective
Details of how to make payments are the same as those for IV, contained in and other public office under legal conditions".
NICARAGUA
Far right provocations
COMMEMORATIONS were organized throughout Nicaragua on November 8, the anniversary of the birth of Carlos Fonseca, the end of the year.
mer East Germany.
IV/PEC- mention "Fonds Est"
the box on page 2.
11. Cista groups and individuals in many of the USSR's cities and sold on university duben 1991
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International Viewpoint #218 • December 9, 1991
AROUND THE WORLD and for which I have been imprisoned seven times".
He has also challenged Alfredo César, currently President of the National Assembly, to renounce his parliamentary immunity so he can face accusations that his electoral campaign was financed by the CIA. * UNITEDSTATES "War on drugs" questioned A RECENT report from the InterAmerican Commission on Drug Policy — a private group of experts from Canada, Bolivia, Colombia, Mexico, Peru and the United States — has called for a radical shift in Western drug policies. The report, released in June of this year, concludes that US drug programmes which concentrate on suppressing the supply of cocaine, marijuana and heroin have actually exacerbated the problem.
The increased role of the military in drug enforcement in Colombia and Peru, for example, has led to human rights violations that have weakened popular support for anti-drug programmes. Stepping up police activity has not reduced the number of addicts, but has increased the risk factor for pedlars, causing prices to rise. The growing number of addicts, in turn, have ben driven to crime to pay for what they consume.
The experts charge that the US has been wasting billions of dollars on a largely meaningless and sometimes counterproductive "war on drugs" rather than attacking the actual problem: US domestic consumption of narcotics. While 70% of the US$11.6 billion federal anti-drug budget for the fiscal year 1992 is earmarked for law enforcement. international actıvities and border interdiction, only 30% is set aside for education and treatment (information compiled from Far Eastern Economic Review). * SOVIET UNION October Revolution celebrated ON November 7, 1991, for the first time since 1917, the Soviet Union did not celebrate the victory of the October Revolution. However, in the capital, in response to the call of the Moscow Union of Workers (a trade union of a conservative orientation) 6-8,000 people demonstrated their continuing attachment to the popular revolution of 1917.
The mayor of Moscow, Gavril Popov, had forbidden any rally, under the pretext of avoiding confrontations with the inevitable "counter-demonstrators"; the latter ultimately amounted to no more than 200, which illustrates graphically the difficulties the liberals face in mobilizing, and the disorientation of their supporters. However, at around 9 a.m., a lively crowd gathered on one of the boulevards around the centre of Moscow.
While around half of the demonstrators seemed to be over 40, young people, and adolescents in particular, were also numerous. The tone of the rally was fraternal and the slogans and banners were, for the most part, not demanding a return to the Stalinist past, being mainly directed against the anti-socialist changes imposed by Yeltsin and his team.
The demonstrators then headed off in the direction of Red Square in a spirited atmosphere of defiance. After negotiations with the police who were guarding the bridge giving access to the Kremlin, the stewards of the demonstration diverted it so that it entered Red Square from a side street.
Many of the participants were opposed to this detour, arguing that the centre of the city still belonged to them and that not everything had yet been sold to the for eigners. Young people participating in the demonstration sold the first issue of Intervzglyad, the Russian language sister publication of International Viewpoint (see ad on previous page!). * new left review
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PADUNOV, in a vivid account of guerrilla commodification, explain why astrology, detective fiction and pornography now loom so large in Russian culture.
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