AROUND THE WORLD
CONGRESS OF THE
ITALIAN FOURTH INTERNATIONALISTS
The Lega Comunista Rivoluzionaria held its second congress March 25-28 in Milan. Under the name Gruppi Comunisti Rivoluzionari (GCR) the Italian section of the Fourth International had previously held 21 national congresses. Some hundred delegates participated in the conference.
Delegations from other far left organisations were also present; from the PUP (Proletarian Unity Party), DP (Proletarian Democracy), and Lotta Continua per il Comunismo (Struggle Continues for
As one of the press statements of the LCR explained, the debate centred three themes:
- the form and programmatic content of the fight against austerity and for a workers alternative the characteristics of the workers trade-union movement's struggle against the social pact, and for a trade-union movement based factory committees the commitment of the LCR to revolutionary struggles in Central America, and support to the Polish workers
The campaigns mentioned in the third together with those against the worsening standard of living and education for young people in the last few months, have led to the formation of groups of young revolutionaries in a number of cities. Organisationally independent, they nevertheless declare their political solidarity with the LCR.
The LCR plans to participate in the legislative elections which will take place
The LCR has branches in the main cities in the north and centre of the country, but remains very weak in the south, apart from in the industrial centre orient towards the new youth radicali- of Taranto. Communism). A delegation from the LOR (Revolutionary Workers League), against rearmament, solidarity with the of a central committee of 25 comrades.• who are having discussions on fusion with the LCR was also present, as was the LSR (Revolutionary THE ICELANDIC ELECTIONS which, having participated in the formation of the Parity Commission of Moreno 'A DANCE ON THE EDGE OF A VOLCANO' and Lambert after they split from the Fourth International, has since taken an independent position towards all international organisations. A leader of the FIM (one of the metalworkers unions) of Milan, and a representative of the factory committee from Alfa Romeo were also present. All these delegations, with the sole exception of the LSR, gave greetings to the conference, taking up the political themes being debated.
Some of the major Italian daily papers, and one of the national television channels, mentioned the holding of the con-
The main independent radio station in Milan, Radio Milano Popolare, gave a lot of information about the conand broacast interviews with
The public part of the conference was the first two days. These were given over to discusssion of the reports given on behalf of the Political Bureau by Franco Turigliatto and Elettra Deiana which centred on the political situation and the state of the trade-union movement respectively. Preparatory texts had also been circulated throughout the organisation. The debates did not bring out any major differences, and the texts were finally adopted unanimously, or almost
The following two days were only open to delegates and members of the outgoing central committee. devoted to a debate on the balance sheet of activity since the previous conference, and a report on the political and organisational perspectives for the years to sation on the themes of the struggle debt and inflation in Iceland have lent the April 23 elections to the "world's oldest parliament" more than usual international interest.
Inflation has been a chronic problem of the tiny Icelandic economy. now nearing 70% a year. The foreign debt equals half the entire national in-
The government that has been in office for some years includes one of the two main workers hubandalag (People's Alliance, a party that has a Stalinist element in its back-
But the right made gains in
In its April 16 issue, the British business magazine The Economist viewed the Icelandie situation with alarm, "the country slides ever deeper into debt, the electorate is being invited to take part in what looks like a leisurely dance on the edge of a volcano."
The Fylking Byltingarsinnadhra Kommunista (FBK - Revolutionary Communist League), Icelandic section of the Fourth International, is calling for a vote for the workers parties. The editorial in the March 27 Neisti, the FBK paper, said:
"In Reykjavik, the Fylking will vote for the Althydhubandalag and calls on its supporters to do likewise. places we do not think there is sufficient reason for people who have voted for one or another workers party before to vote for another one now."
In the previous general elections in the 1970s, the FBK ran candidates.
The congress ended with the election This time, it decided not to. Neisti explained the decision as follows:
"In those years, the so-called left movement existed. It was first and foremost radical students and intellectuals who were drawn into radical struggles in 1967-73, who gave impetus to the Vietnam Movement, the Peace Movement, the radical feminist movement, the Maoist groups and the Fylking itself...
"This movement is now dispersed and many of its former members who did not join the Fylking are now seeking other solutions either in the Althydhubandalag, the Kvennaframbody (women's party), or the Bandalag Jafnadharmanne (populists)....There has not been another student movement that has involved people in political struggle.
development...weakened the Fylking, since it was part of this movement and tried to relate to it. For example, the resolutions at our thirtythird congress sought to strengthen this old left movement. The Fylking never tried to break loose from it....
our most recent congress, we decided to face up to this development by turning away from the old left movement and building the organization in the workers movement and among young high-school students unspoiled by the prejudices and desperation of the old left movement. These are the changes and the kind of building the Fylking must take on in the next period. It is this work that will best buttress the Fylking to take part in future elections..."
RELEASE LIU SAN QING
AMERICAN BASES ISSUE IN GREENLAND ELECTION CAMPAIGN The April 12th elections in Greenland for a new Landsting (local parliament) ended in a dead heat between the two major political parties — the Siumut and the Atassemi-social democratic Siumut, which has controlled the local government of this Danish "autonomous province" since the last elections in 1979, lost one seat and now reached only 42% of the votes. Its right-wing competitor, the Atassut, got 46.6% of the votes. The two parties got an equal number of seats
The biggest electoral surprise however was the "new-comer", the Inuit Ataqatigüt, which conquered two seats with
The Inuit Atagatigiit has taken a clear stand against Greenland's membership of the Common Market. It has declared that it is for a "rupture with Denmark"
dismantling of the American bases in Greenland."
The party is thought to have won a large percentage of the 16% of the elecvoted for the first time, apparently in a more nationalist way than the electorate in general.
In all, some 30,000 Greenlanders participated in the elections (around 80% of those entitled to vote).
During the election campaign it was
In December 1981, Liu San Qing, a long time activist of the solidarity movement the Chinese Socialist Democracy Movement in Hong Kong went to Canton in the People's Republic of China to visit the families of activists of the Democracy Movement who had been hit by the wave repression launched by the Chinese government in April 1981.
Since that time nothing more had been heard of Liu, despite extensive enquiries by his family and the Defence Committee that was set up. This was reported in International Viewpoint No 11, July 19, 1982, where his name was spelt Lau San Ching in the Hong Kong style.
On March 30, the Defence Committee announced that Liu had indeed arrested and sentenced to ten years im-
This information was given orally to Liu's father by the senior authorities of the Court of Justice in Canton, where Liu's father had gone to find out more about the fate of his son.
verdict nor the exact date of the trial have been made public. The Chinese authorities have stated that close relations will be able to visit Liu San Qing in about one month, and that his father will be informed of the opportune time through the Hong Kong government.
Last October the Hong Kong government informed Liu's father, and the Defence Committee, by letter, that Liu had been detained for "illegal activities'. This information had come from the Chinese government through the British embassy at Peking. The Chinese government considered that, although Liu San Qing is a citizen his trial related to the internal affairs of China. However, it is obvious that Liu has been condemned for the support he has given to the Chinese Socialist Democracy Movement by his activity in Hong Kong.
The Defence Committee is calling for actions to demand his release, and for the veil of silence over his sentence, and the charges against him, to be lifted. They call for messages of protest to be sent to the government of the People's Republic of China, and to the Chinese embassies in different countries.
revealed that the United States is ex- DUTCH REVOLUTIONARY YOUTH panding and modernising its bases in
COMMITTED TO OUST GOVERNMENT Thule on the west coast. This was done behind the back of the Greenland popula-
The local government leaders also claim that they knew nothing about
The president of the Landsting, pastor Jonatan Motzfeldt, said at of the election campaign that it is "condemnable that nobody in the local Greenland government has been informed by the Americans or by the Danes".
This exposure would have increased the support for the Inuit Ataqatigit, which during the election campaign most denounced the American influence in Greenland and the present type of economic and political relations with
Siumut and Jonatan Motzfeldt have explained that they will continue to govern in spite of the lack of an ab-
It has turned down Siumut-Atassut government at least for the time being. might also be pushed to try to re-nego-
Greenland-Denmark trade ments to give a larger share to Green-
The Dutch revolutionary socialist youth organization, Rebel, held a congress February 26-27.
congress decided by majority vote to set two central priorities for the coming period: the fight against the lowering of wages for youth and cutbacks in unemployment benefits, as well as the struggle against the deployment of the new U.S. missiles in the Netherlands.
During the congress, was held under the title " 'Rebel' Against the Crisis and for Socialism," was attended by about 150 people.
The rally was opened by a speaker representing the Salvadoran liberation front. There were also speakers from the Socialist Young Guard, the Belgian revoyouth organization; and the French Revolutionary Commun-
The congress decided that the political focus of the organization's work for the coming period would be the fight to oust the bourgeois Lubbers government.
"In our paper and our actions we must continually repeat that this government has to go, that in our actions and mobilizations we have to strive to make sure that government does not remain in office until the next regularly scheduled elections.
"Our alternative to the Lubbers government is not a new coalition between
Social Democrats and the Christian Democrats but a government of the workers parties based on the struggle of the labor movement and the mass movement, a government that will keep the missiles out. For our work in the coming period, two things are important.
"The first is to promote unity...
"The second is to put forward anticapitalist demands....
"The best way to get people to oppose the Lubbers government and to build actions against this government is to play an active role in fighting around the central political issues around which the struggle will be organized."
27