¡ News Reports... News Reports..
Left wins Volvo union elections The broad left Union Opposition (UO) has won an overwhelming majority of votes in trade union elections at the Volvo car plant in Gothenburg. "The Social Democrats have never suffered a defeat this large in a local union election" commented Göte Kildén, a leading member of the coalition. "Members are not just dissatisfied not only with the local union bureaucrats [which UO has been challenging for 20 years now]. They are also clearly dissatisfied with the austerity policies of the country's social democratic government." Kildén, a member of Sweden's Socialist Party (Fourth International), was re-elected unopposed as chairman of Volvo Union Group (local) #34. UO candidates won 85% of votes in local #34 (three out of four workers participated in the election) and 71% in local#31, where participation in the ballot was virtually total (almost all workers in the plant are union members). Three locals have elected members of the revolutionary Socialist Party (Fl) as chairmen. Peter Lindgren, Stockholm. * Stop the War Chechnya! The European left should support opponents of the Chechnen war, and demand that their governments freeze loans to Russian until it withdraws its troops from the rebel territory. This is the central conclusion of a recent appeal by Denmark's Socialist Workers' Party (SAP). "The end of the [Chechen] war cannot wait for negotiations between the Russian government, who is responsible for the war, and the dubious regime of [Chechen President] Dudaev", the appeal argues. forward... is an immediate and un-conditional withdrawal of all Russian troops from Chechnya." The appeal calls for a halt to all IMF and other international loans to the Russian government, until Russian troops withdraw from Chechnia. The appeal also stresses the importance of building a Russian and international peace movement. The development of the Russian left-wing can be judged by whether it promotes the war resistance, or not." According to SAP member Søren
Søndergaard, a member of the Danish Parliament for the Red
Green Alliance, the Western peace movement should also help Russian and Chechen opponents of the war express their views and mobilise against the war inside the Russian
Federation. "Ending the war is the only way Russia can send a message of peace to her neighbours, and start the peaceful reconstruction of her economy, for the benefit of the people, says Søndergaard. *
Watch out for the anti-terrorists
France's "Vigipirate" special policing plan, introduced last autumn (fall) was not established on the basis of any published law, Henri Leclerc writes in the February issue of Le influential League des droits de l'homme (Human Rights Monde Diplomatique.
League) points out that "It was never stated what "vigilance"
was involved, or which "pirates" were targeted. The government said that the plan was based on internal memoranda, virtually unknown, vaguely identifiable, and covered by secrecy legislation. We thought they meant memoranda from 1978. We were wrong. It has just emerged that the regulations in question are based on non-published
1995 instructions of the Prime Minister and the General
Secretariat for National Defence.
"The vast measures undertaken on the basis of these regulations have been a direct intervention in the daily life of tional Viewpoint March 1996 citizens. Some 13,800 soldiers were mobilised, and three million people stopped by police or army patrols. This in a country where the freedom of movement is founded on the freedom to pass anonymously. Some 21,450 people were interrogated, 19,972 were refused entry to France, and 2,324 people were expelled. In short, a generalised surveillance operation of those sectors of the population judged dangerous. A "cleaning" campaign, aimed above all at the foreign-born population, suspicious by definition. "Anti-terrorist" judge Alain Marsaud, now Member of Parliament, has seen his dream come true. A judicial "Task Force" has been created The military language is no harmless coincidence. Judges hidden out of sight, cocooned in security measures, in a strict hierarchical system, ruled by a
Chief Judge; a section of the state prosecution service virtually cut off from the traditional structures, but with a direct relationship with the Minister of the Interior..." *
One hernia one vote?
UPS is the world's largest package-delivery service (1994 sales: $19.5 bn.). "Big Brown" is also the largest corporate giver to congressional races in the USA. ($2.6 million in 1993-4). According to Time magazine, UPS is leading a corporate charge to gut enforcement programs at the Occupational Safety and Health
Administration, created by Congress in 1970 to protect workers from injuries on the job. UPS is lobbying hard for bills... that would curb OSHA's power to issue citations and fines for infractions of hundreds of rules and regulations. The sweeping change would transform the agency from a watchdog on safety matters to a toothless 'adviser to industry." The 1995 on-the-job injury rate among UPS's 350,000 workers was 11.5 cases for every hundred workers. The national average for transportation companies is about nine cases per hundred employees. A growing number of injuries are the direct result of UPS's February 1994 decision to increase the weight limit on delivery parcels from 70 Ibs (32 kg) to 150 bs (68 kg). No wonder that "No employer has been a more in-your-face foe of OSHA than UPS", comments Time. In December 1995 the company created a coalition of 250 business and trade groups which has already stifled OSHA's attempts to develop a standard aimed at reducing the incidence of inflammatory wrist ailments triggered by repetitive motion..."
According to Citizen Action, top benefactors from the UPSled anti-OSHA coalition are all Republicans. The list is headed by Tom Delay (TX), Newt Gingrich (GA) and Bob Livingston
(LA). At least $3.6 million has been paid to members of the
House of Representatives, to encourage them to make further cuts in occupational health and safety legislation. Every cent is legal, under America's electoral legislation.
UPS's massive political contributions "make perfect sense"
admits Kenneth Holland, Political Scientist at the University of
Memphis. "If you are in an industry like this one that is heavily affected by federal regulation, obviously you have a tremendous incentive to contribute as much as you can." *
Source: Time, 26 Jan 1996, Citizen Action
Left regroupment in Australia
Schisms are more frequent than mergers on the revolutionary left. So it makes a refreshing change to see three far left organisations moving towards unity. Since late 1995,
Solidarity (Australian sympathising organisation of the Fourth
International), has been engaged in joint work and discussions with supporters of Communist Intervention (part of the international LIT regroupment) and the Australian Militant group. Whilst the final outcome of this process is not certain, we hope it will culminate in regroupment in a disciplined, yet multi-tendency Marxist organisation. Whilst there may be
important differences on some theoretical matters, there is a real convergence of views on matters of Australian politics. The new joint commission of the three groups has recommended that representatives of Cl and Solidarity be elected to the Militant Melbourne branch committee (supporters of the other tendencies already attend Militant's branch meetings) and to the editorial board of Militant magazine. We will also relaunch the former Cl magazine Red as a quarterly news and analysis/theoretical journal of the three tendencies. Comrades in each organisation are convinced that a fused organisation would be a powerful pole of attraction on the left. It could attract hitherto unattached activists, and lead to further mergers with other left organisations. It may then be possible to form a revolutionary workers' party. * John Tully, Red editorial board (Solidarity rep.) Contact: Solidarity, PO Box 1638, Collingwood, Victoria 3065
Ernest Mandel Seminar
An international seminar on Ernest Mandel's contribution to Marxist Theory will be held in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, on 4-6 July. For further details contact International Viewpoint, or the International Institute for
Research and Education, tel. +31 20/6717263, fax
6732106, e-mail < iire@antenna.nl> Fi Solidarity with Zapatistas The International Executive Committee (IEC) of the Fourth International, in continuity with its solidarity activities with the EZLN and the struggle of the Mexican people, calls on the members, groups, sections and sympathisers of our international current everywhere to redouble their efforts in the strengthening and best possible co-ordination of this work. The IEC proposes the following orientation points for our work: • Participation in those national groups and initiatives which are already working in solidarity with the EZLN, in the widest and most unitary manner possible. • Discuss the Mexican situation, the significance of the Zapatista struggle, and their proposals, in the leadership bodies of our groups and sections. In these discussions, we should prioritise questions of our participation in solidarity. • Through our press, to spread information about the situation in Mexico, as well as the various solidarity initiatives that have been undertaken in the various countries. Concerning the EZLN proposal to organise an "Intercontinental meeting for humanity and against neoliberalism" [page 19] in Mexico, from 27 July to 3 August, the IEC resolves to: • Ratify the decision of the Bureau of the United Secretariat of the Fourth International which welcomes the Zapatista initiative, and requests our participation in this event as an international current. • Distribute, within our organisations, the EZLN appeal. Recommend that our organisations try to send delegations to the meeting. • Distribute the EZLN appeal in the social, trade union, political and cultural organisations where we are active. Try to persuade these organisations to support and participate in the organisation of the intercontinental meeting. • Call on our European organisations to involve themselves in the preparation and realisation of the continental preparatory meeting, which will take place in Berlin in April (as agreed by the 5th European meeting of solidarity committees, in response to the EZLN proposal. *
Networking
# personal selection of Internet services, from the editors of International Viewpoint and our German sister magazine Inprekorr Absolutely, positively 'NON'! On Bastille Day 1995, a non-profit progressive Internet provider, called PlaNet NZ placed computers in public places all round New Zealand, and enabled the public to transmit their thoughts about French nuclear tests to two lesser-known E-mail addresses: Albert Roussel (Director of the French Atomic Energy Commission) and French President Jacques Chirac. A special E-mail address <chirac@ wtgn.planet.co.nz> was also set up to collect a "hard copy" of protest messages, so that they could be delivered to the French Embassy in the traditional way. Alliance Party leader Jim Anderton was among those who signed the initial message ("Absolutely, positively "NON!) which spread rapidly across the Internet. "The response was absolutely overwhelming", says PlaNet NZ National Secretary Peter Hall-Jones. "Within seconds the first messages had started rolling in, and they're still coming. In all, about 3,000 messages have been received, many of them with several signatures." Local activists and progressive internet providers admit that the real significance of this electronic mobilisation is still dawning on them. No placards, no leatlets, no posters, no megaphones. Not even a rhyming chant. People sat down at public terminals in a state of sheer delight. "They had a direct link to Chirac, and an opportunity to put their case in full, as best they could." reports NZ Monthly Review. "They treated this with respect. The messages were well considered, and people often conferred in groups in advance, working out the best lines of argument, the wittiest ways of putting their case, or how to say it all in French. And once they clicked the SEND' button they could walk away (in the case of the on-line terminals) knowing that their message was in France before they got out the door". Source: NZ Monthly Review No. 353, PlaNet NZ. Contacts: NZ Monthly Review, PO Box 13, 483, Armagh, Christchurch, New Zealand. PlaNet NZ Wgtn, PO Box 6218, Wellington, New Zealand Web addresses Solidarity: http://www.labornet.org/solidarity/solid.html (multi-tendency revolutionary socialist feminist regroupment in the US working for socialism from below) Red Pepper:http://tigerden.com/~berios/redpepper.html (British magazine for the 'non-aligned' left) The Europeen counter network: http://www.xs4all.nl/~tank/ecn/ For light relief, you could always try the revolutionary art on <http://burn.ucsd.edu/> Our reviewer judged the page "seriously wie rd, but with some interesting stuff from black organisations." International Viewpoint list server This service enables you to receive International Viewpoint articles as they are translated into English. Several weeks earlier than they are available in paper form! To add your name to our list server (electronic mailing list), send a message reading "subscribe fi-press- JANEDOE@TROTNET.COM" to the following address: <100666.1443@compuserve.com>. Replace " JANEDOE@TROTNET.COM " by your own E-mail address. For a trial period only, this service is free of charge. Send your contributions and questions about this column to <100666.1443@compuserve.com>
International Viewpoint n° 275 35
Defending Over 600 women and men gathered in downtown Boston recently to
commemorate the first anniversary of the 30 December 1994 attack on the Planned Parenthood Health Center and Preterm Clinic in Brookline, Mass. which killed two and injured five workers. The event, which was organized by the National Organization for Women (NOW) in abortion Massachusetts, renewed demands for safe, legal abortion available to
Ellen Convisser, recent president of Massachusetts NOW, admitted that there was "some increase" in police protection of clinics after the rights shootings. But she also noted that (avowedly pro-choice)
Massachusetts Governor William Weld's main attempt to address the issue has been to meet with Boston's Cardinal Bernard Law, an outspoken opponent of abortion rights. The Cardinal called for a moratorium on anti-choice protesting outside clinics following the murders, but rescinded the ban some six months later.
The protests continue unabated, while Cardinal Law proclaims that both sides of the abortion debate must come together to "find common ground." "Where is the common ground?" Convisser asked, "when one out of five women in this country have no access to abortion?"
According to Convisser, legislative action over the past year will further restrict abortion access. Bills that have already been approved by Congress and are under review by the Senate include: • A ban on a rarely used late-term abortion procedure • A measure that restores funding and accreditation to medical-training programs that do not teach abortion • The so-called International Gag Rule, which blocks aid to international programs that provide abortion information and services. • A ban on abortions for women at overseas military bases, even if they pay for the services themselves • A law denying insurance coverage for abortions for federal employees. "There are tremendous attacks on us from all sides," said Convisser, but she stressed the sense of renewed purpose in the pro-choice movement over the past year. She reminded the audience that "not one progressive measure has occurred in a vacuum - it has always been pushed forward by a social movement."
Planned Parenthood clinic worker Susan Webber also emphasized the strengthened solidarity among the prochoice community since the Brookline attacks. She urged the demonstrators to maintain a visible presence outside clinics.
Local 26 of the Hotel and Restaurant Workers Union has long been active in the pro-choice movement in Boston, providing facilities. phonebanks, and transportation for activists. Its president, Dominic Bozzotto, reiterated Local 26's support. "We're a pro-choice union since 1981." Bozzotto said. "Women can never be free... if the most important part of that freedom - choice - cannot be exercised every day. We're not scared; we're not going to hide; we're in this fight until we win freedom of
A message of solidarity was also delivered by Diane Dujon, an activist for welfare rights in the Boston area. Dujon characterized welfare reform as "violence against women and children" and asserted that "this is not an attack on welfare recipients - it's an attack on the whole labor force. We must resist!"
Following the rally, an evening memorial service was held, as well as a candlelight vigil in which over 300 people lined Beacon Street between the two clinics.
The "One Year After" event was extremely successful in drawing participants together to commemorate those who have been killed or injured for their dedication to defending women's right to abortion. Even more important, the event succeeded in conveying a sense of hope, courage, and determination that will be sure to inspire further pro-choice action. As Marge Piercy concluded in her poem, "To Two Women Shot to Death in Brookline, Mass.," " which she read at the rally: "We will make each other strong./ We will make each other safe./ There is no other monument." By Jacqueline Boyle
Source: Socialist Action (USA) #1/1996