AROUND
THE
WORLD
EGYPT Women's association dissolved ON MAY 1, 1991, Nawal Es-Saadawi, the well-known writer and fighter for women's rights in the Arab region and Egypt took part in the International Tribunal in New York which judged American president George Bush for war crimes in the Gulf War, in the presence of 500 fig ures from the antiwar movement in the US and throughout the world.
During the war, the Solidarity Association of Arab Women (ASFA), which she founded in 1982, condemned the annexation of Kuwait, while supporting Iraq in the face of the imperialist onslaught. In February 1991, Nawal Es-Saadawi took part in the initiative that brought together women and feminists from throughout the world on a boat that brought food, medicines and messages of support for the Iraqi people. On her return to Cairo she spoke of her shock at what she found in her own country, whose government had slavishly supported the imperialist war effort: "I am amazed by what I am hearing and reading in the newspapers...] feel as if I am living in one of the states of the US" (El Ahaly, July 3, 1991).
On June 15, 1991, the deputy-governor of West Cairo decided to dissolve the Egyptian section of the ASFA, which had won legal status from the Ministry of Social Affairs in 1985 after three years of existence. The Association was only informed of the decision to dissolve it a month after it was taken without warning or inquiry. The official pretext is "the discovery of financial irregularities".
The real reasons for the dissolution, clear at the congress and was hailed as a positive feature of the organization by a series of interventions at the congress by some of the best known leaders, including Cossutta. It was no accident therefore that the speeches of two members of the former DP, Giovanni Russo Spena and Livio Maitan, the latter known as a Trotskyist, were among those that received the most applause. * 3. According to the above-mentioned survey, 532 delegates came from the ex-PCI, 113 from other political formations and 56 had had no previous party affiliation. which comes after a series of warnings, are clearly political. The authorities have several times informed the ASFA that the law of 1964 prohibits organizations that talk about "politics" or "religion". The Association has also had to obtain the permission of the ministry to hold its congresses.
The opposition — the nationalist parties, women's organizations, human rights' organizations and the opposition press — have protested against this attack on democratic rights. However, it has had less to say about the fact that the banning is one more blow to the cause of Egyptian women. However, the message is clear; the legal liquidator of the ASFA, a social affairs official, is none other than the president of the Association of the Women of Islam, which has been given the ASFA's property, which consisted of contributions by militants.
Nawal Es-Saadawi has appealed to the Council of State, and many lawyers have offered their services to defend the association. An international campaign is underway to demand the lifting of the ban. — Luiza Maria * SPANISH STATE Crisis of the United Left THE coalition of the United Left (Izquierda Unida - IU), in which the Spanish Communist Party (PCE) plays a dominant role, is on the verge of breaking up, following the resignation of its general coordinator, Julio Anguita (who is also general secretary of the PCE).
The IU's problems stem from conflicts within the PCE itself: these began after the failed coup attempt in the Soviet
ITALY / AROUND THE WORLD Union in August 1991, despite the fact that the party had clearly condemned the putschists (see IV 213). A minority within the PCE, around the historic leader Nicolas Sartorius, profited from the situation to launch a campaign, supported by the general secretary of the Workers Commissions (CCOO) Nicolas Gutierrez and by the leadership of the Catalan party, the Unified Socialist Party of Catalonia (PSUC), for the dissolution of the PCE into the IU. These dissidents also wish to distance themselves from "Communism" which they consider an error. They claim, moreover, that the maintenance of the structures of the PCE will lead to suspicion that the latter is manipulating the coalition — they believe the image of the PCE to be negative, above all after the events in the Soviet Union.
In November 1991, the crisis broke out in broad daylight: the Valencia section of the IU decided to register itself as a political party, despite the protests of Anguita, who was beaten in the election for the presidency of the coalition. The latter then resigned his post.
Anguita argues that the IU must be a sovereign and pluralist organization, a federation of parties, and that the PCE should recognize the discipline of the IU while remaining, for the moment, an internal current with its own ideology and propositions (he does not rule out the ultimate "extinction" of the party, which would take place in a "natural fashion"): Anguita also rejects any perspective of the IU's entering the Socialist International.
The majority of the PCE seems to be closing ranks behind its general secretary: the minority, behind Sartorius — who says hẹ no longer wants to be seen as a "Communist" but simply as a "democrat" — is continuing the fight for the transformation of the IU into a political party.
The crisis of the IU will not be immediately resolved: if Anguita and the PCE majority try to impose their conception, they could deal a mortal blow to the unity of the coalition. But behind the debate over the future of the IU is the struggle over the future of the PCE: between those who wish the party to take a social democratic turn and abandon all reference to radical social change and those who, in words at least, remain attached to such a 7 reference point. *