News Reports.
"Civic Society" meets in Bosnia Over 500 participants came together in Tuzla from 20-22 October, for the fourth Assembly of the Helsinki Citizen's Assembly, a mainly-European network of "civic" and human rights activists.Tuzla Civic Forum organiser Vehid Sehic set the tone for the meeting in his opening speech, asking whether or not "Europe is dying, here in Bosnia". Other Bosnian participants, including Circle 99 from Sarajevo, and the Zenica Civic Forum used this rare opportunity to discuss with Serbian democratic and pacifist activists. A large majority of participants stressed the importance of continuing to defend the idea of a plural, united Bosnia-Herzegovina, despite the obvious difficulties ahead. Such a defence, they resolved, must include a right of return for refugees and displaced persons (or a fair compensation), and the prosecution of war criminals. Many said that humanitarian and development aid must be distributed according to criteria which contribute to cooperation and union, rather than to separation of the various ethnic and political components of Bosnia. Participants from the territory under the control of the Bosnian government were optimistic that such a policy would contribute to the weakening, in the not too distant future, of Radovan Karadzic's "Serbian Republic" in Bosnia. These same participants also signalled their growing unease with Croatian President Franjo Tudjman, who recently
News Reports... told Figaro newspaper of his desire to
bring the Moslems "under [his] wing" so as to "westernise them". According to Bernard Dréano of the French HCA delegation, the conference "was also preoccupied with the internal evolution of the part of Bosnia under the direct control of the legitimate government (Sarajevo, Zenica, Tuzla, Bihac), where the majority of the population, and not just the Moslems, live. Of course, the SDA party of [Bosnian President] Alija Izetbegovic has hegemonic temptations, and contains active radical currents (more Bosnian-Moslem nationalist than Islamic fundamentalist). But as a whole the "SDA regime" respects pluralism and democracy... "When the dynamic major of Tuzla, Selim Beslagic, came to greet the departing delegations in the early hours of morning, each of us was conscious of the importance of the work still to do to realise the commitment we have made to civic society... This conference attracted significant support from the liberal wing of the European establishment. Tadeusz Mazowiecki chose this event to make his first public statement since he resigned as UN Reporter on ex-Yugoslavia. "Even if the political solution does not divide people", he argued, "Bosnia-Herzegovina will not manage to overcome its divisions if civic society remains weak and divided. It is therefore of crucial importance that the international community makes aid to civic society a priority in the reconstruction project." The conference was also attended by Hans Koshnik, European Union-appointed Administrator of Mostar, US Ambassador Peter Galbraith, and the British actress Julie Christie. * IAN) 34 International Viewpoint December 1995
CIA: $0.5 bn. on covert action The CIA will have spend $0.5 billlion on covert action in 1995, in Iraq, Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union, according to CovertAction magazine. Smaller sums will also be spent in Afghanistan and Angola. Most covert operations in the post-Stalinist region resemble the CIA's 1980s hundred-million dollar per year Poland programme - lavish but targeted distribution of tax machines, printing presses, and computers. So there is little probability of a Congressional inquiry. CIA agent Fred Woodruff was killed in April 1994, riding in a car with the Head of Security of President Edouard Shevardnadze. Georgian dissidents suspect that proRussian circles had exposed CIA aid in building an independent Georgian security force to block Russian influence in the Republic. Some money is certainly being spent in Bosnia, too. European media have repeatedly alleged that the US is secretly training and assisting Bosnian government ("Moslem") forces, and providing them with satellite intelligence It sometimes takes years before the extent of CIA interference in a country is known. The agency probably spent $US 500,000 per year in Ethiopia between 1981 and 1986, but media coverage was almost nil. * Based on research by John Pike, published in CovertAction Quarterly Number 51. CAQ can be reached at 1500 Massachusetts Ave. NW #732, Washington, DC 20005 USA fax (202) 331-9751, mail <caq@igc.apc.org> French Trotskyists ask government for $400,000! The Revolutionary Communist League (LCR) is applying for 2m francs from a government programme which finances the activities of political parties. To be eligible, the LCR (French section of the Fourth International) must collect at least 10,000 individual donations, totalling at least 1m. French francs ($200,000). At least 500 of the donations must come from elected representatives of local, regional or national government. If it meets these conditions by 31 December 1996, the government will match these funds with a 2m. FFR contribution. After a slow start, the campaign is picking up speed. The results so far: 588,687 FFR from 5,082 donors, including 285 counsellors, mayors and deputies. Source: Rouge, 16 November 1995. For more details contact the LCR: 2, rue Richard Lenoir, 93108 Montreuil, France. tel. +33.1.48704222, fax 48592328 50th Anniversary of Japanese SDP Many question marks hang over the future of "the party which anchored one side of Japan's post-war political spectrum" (Nikkei Kezai Shimbun) as it enters its 51st year. Back in 1945, the party platform saw the party as representative of the working class, striving to secure political liberty for the people, establish a democratic system, oppose militarism, and eventually replace capitalism with socialism. Out of the deep confusion that gripped Japan after its defeat in World War Il, the Socialists emerged advocating rehabilitation and reconstruction, a
review of the war's causes, and a "fresh start" as a "peaceloving nation". But US occupation and the cold war meant the party was immediately plunged into ideological conflict, and an intense internal struggle for the soul of the party. The lett, supported by government and public sector trade unions, did for a time have considerable influence in the party leadership. The party split in 1960, over the issue of extending the Japan-US security treaty (those who left founded the Democratic Socialist Party). For many years the party seemed confined to permanent opposition, and a slow decline in popular support. According to The Nikkei Weekly, the dissolution of the pro-Socialist General Council of Trade Unions of Japan (Sohyo) and its replacement by the "more centrist Japanese Trade Union Confederation (Rengo) in 1989 sent the Socialists into a terminal decline. The end of the Cold War also brought an end to what could be called its domestic equivalent - a political system characterised by Socialist opposition to the conservative policies of the Liberal Democratic Party". That role is increasingly played by the omnibus opposition group Shinshinto. Source: The Nikkei Weekly
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Obituary: David Cooper
David Cooper, a veteran socialist and member of Socialist Action, died on Sept. 29, 1995, after an eightmonth fight against cancer. He was 76 years old. According to Dave, "One of the first events I attended was a memorial service to honour two strikers killed by the cops. Over 10,000 workers massed in the streets... Minneapolis in 1934 was a city where the workers had confidence in their leaders and the leaders had confidence in the workers. There was a kind of electricity in the air." Dave's parents had left Czarist Russia around 1905. They were the only Jewish family in town and were often the victims of prejudice. More than once, the boys defended themselves with their fists, even after Dave lost his right leg to a football injury at the age of 13. At the University of Minnesota, he became the president of the campus Socialist Club. He was also a member of the executive committee of the Minneapolis branch of the Socialist Workers Party. He graduated in 1942, and for a year, he taught social studies and American history in Litchfield, Minn. He was fired after telling his students that in years to come they would be ashamed of the cartoon distortions of the Japanese that were popular at the time. He moved to Chicago, where he married Eleanor Hirsh. Cooper became vice-president of the local Congress for Racial Equality (CORE) committee. He was fired again, after being arrested during a demonstration against the Rev. Gerald Smith, a well-known racist and reactionary Cooper then became a salesman at Weiboldts department store. He joined the fight of the retail clerks for representation against the existing company union. But when the company union won the election, he joined it and waged a successful campaign to affiliate to the Building Service Employees International Union (BSEIU), part of the American Federation of Labor (AFL). Cooper was elected local (branch) president, but was later expelled from the union in a red-bating scare (this was the beginning of the Cold War) In 1951, Dave and Eleanor moved to Los Angeles with their children. Dave became a manufacturer's garment industry, a position he held for many years. He was elected to the board of directors of Pacific Coast Travellers and eventually became the organisation's president. In recent years he became one of the country's few honest commodity Cooper was an active member of the SWP for many years. Later on he became a tounding member ot Socialist Action and a member of its National Committee. He was instrumental in Los Angeles in organising the Labor Alliance Against Concessions, an umbrella organisation that actively supported striking pilots, retail clerks, flight attendants, Teamsters, anc others. He remained politically active to the end of his lite, dedicating much of his time to the tight against Proposition 187, the racist anti-immigrant California ballot measure of 1994. There was a sense of steadfastness and principle in Dave Cooper. His optimism was profound yet gentle, steeled as much in his natural empathy for human beings as it was in socialist principles By Mark Harris, with research by Eleanor Cooper. Note 1. My Brother, My Comrade: Remembering Jake Cooper, Walnut Publishing, 1994
International Viewpoint December 1995 35
News Reports.
ON 6 NOVEMBER, BUS DRIVERS IN ESBERG ENDED THEIR NINE month strike against Ri-Bus, a company which had taken over the city's buses only to sack their drivers, for refusing to accept wage cuts and authoritarian management. The strike was sold out by the leadership of the unskilled/semiskilled workers' federation, SiD. Behind the back of the drivers, SiD leadership struck a deal with the union of bus company owners. This deal meant not only that RiBus kept their contract, but even letting the scabs stay, with a dozen jobs being offered to the original drivers at the manager's discretion. SiD leaders argued that this was all they could threatening to redirect trade union fees to sustain the strikers. But with their own trade union federation joining the opposition, and each driver having accumulated debts of 80-90,000 kr. to the union, the drivers decided to call off the strike in an orderly manner.Hundreds of shop stewards met again in Copenhagen a few days betore the decision to end the strike, and voted a resolution in protest against the capitulation by the SiD leadership. As a salute to the struggle of the Esbjerg bus drivers and as a promise of continued resistance, a 500-strong picket and demonstration was organised on the following
Danish bus get, and that the bosses' union had promised to refrain from wage cuts in future contracts on public services.
Although the hard struggle of the Esbjerg bus drivers and their supporters has real strike sold out positive spin-off results for other workers, this betrayal concluded a bitter defeat for those concerned. The conflict started after Liberaldominated local government handed Esbjerg's buses to Ri-Bus, owned by some of their friends. Eighty-two bus drivers were sacked after 17 days of strike in February. Their struggle soon took on the character of a test. The Danish bosses union acted correspondingly, pumping some 67 million kr. into Ri-Bus, to cover their loss due to the daily pickets. The solidarity movement peaked on 20 April, when 250,000 private and public sector workers struck in sympathy. Even if sympathy strikes were not repeated, a turn-out of 500-1,000 made the picket effective on days of action in Esbjerg. And a series of regional and national shop stewards conferences during the conflict marked a progress in the level of working class solidarity.
News Reports.
Denmark is not the only country where workers experience the "opening" of public markets as a tool for slashing wages and working conditions. That is why several days of action were dedicated to international solidarity. Bus drivers' unions in Britain, Sweden, Germany, and above all Norway sent delegations to the mass pickets. Norwegian and other unions contributed financially to the strike fund. Since April, the "real Esbjerg bus drivers" and their supporters have had to face anti-union attacks ranging from daily police violence and media slander to the final stab in the back by the top union bureaucracy. Hundreds
Harassment of activists (or supposed activists) included the two month detention of three trade union militants. Incidents of buses getting their windows smashed, or the painting-over of a scab's were blown out of proportion, in order to criminalise the conflict. At the same time, a campaign was waged against the trade unions over their financial support to the bus drivers, and their organization of pickets. Danish labour February! Several unions and work places responded to the SiD sell out by offering to "adopt" bus drivers and even
Saturday. No buses left the garages that day. The fight over Esbjerg city buses had an immediate warning effect on politicians all over the country, putting a brake on privatisation projects at the local level, at least for the time being. But Social Democratic policies today still include selling off state enterprises and generalising "free competition" in services like telecommunications and transportation, along EU guidelines. The Ri-Bus conflict highlights the growing gap between Social Democracy, adapting to neo-liberal ideology, and the live forces of the trade union rank and file. Local unions led by left Social Democrats played an important role in extending solidarity but in the end proved unwilling to keep up the mobilisation because it was becoming an embarrassment to the Social Democrats, in govemment with two small Liberal parties. Also, unions have put up verbal resistance, at best, to the budget agreement concluded on 30 November between the Nyrup government and the Conservative Party. This package deals a heavy blow to the unemployment insurance system and sets out to impose harsh labour discipline in the form of compulsory, low paid job and training schemes. FOR THE FAR LEFT AND MANY TRADE UNION MILITANTS WHO have been involved in solidarity work, the main goal is now reorganising the trade union left. A healthy, dynamic trade union left will only be rebuilt as a result of more struggles and at least some victories. Wage workers who are confronted with privatisation or lay-offs in the future must be able to rely on immediate support. A number of active work place branches have started to build a network which can meet this challenge, independently of their union bureaucracies.One of the supporters of this initiative is Karl-Erik Petersen, shop steward of the Esbjerg bus drivers through out the conflict. At a recent seminar on European Workers' Struggles organised by the SAP (Danish section of the Fourth International) Petersen was asked why he was still a member of the Social Democratic Party. "Come next election, I won't be!" he answered. Three of the active bus drivers have joined the Unity List (a broad alliance of left socialists, revolutionary Marxists and communist reformers).