AROUND THE WORLD
### CORSICAN
NATIONALIST ORGANISATION BANNED On September 27 the French Council of Ministers announced the dissolution of the Consulte des Comites Nationalistes (CCN - Consultation Bureau for the Nationalist Committees) in Corsica. This measure was taken as a result of the assassination of Pierre-Jean Massimi, general secretary of the General Council of Upper Corsica on September 13. This act was claimed by the Front de Liber-
For two years the French government raised in Corsica by the arrival of the left
It has preferred to set up a rump assembly which maintains the power of the clans and their men, whether of policy has kept Corsica in a state of economic under-development.
The dissolution of the CCN will not solve any of the problems that created popular discontent in Corsica. contrary, the government is taking responsibility for the spiral of violence.
Every worker has the right to criticise the methods and the orientation of the CCN. We ourselves have done so on several occasions. But what the government wants to get today is criminalisation of the nationalist struggle, for it to be consigned to clandestinity. Faced with this iniquitous decision, solidarity is not to be haggled over.
Light must be shed on the conditions in which Orsoni was assassinated, and on the activities of the various police services in Corsica. The manoeuvres of the right can only be thwarted under these conditions.
The CCN is a political current which has a right to exist. Its dissolution ridicules democratic freedoms. We call on the workers of this country to reject this precedent and to reaffirm the right of the Corsican people to self-determination.
SECOND CONFERENCE OF ation Nationale de la Corse (FLNC -National Liberation Front of Corsica) LATIN AMERICAN AND CARIBBEAN WOMEN on September 22. The FLNC itself was banned in January 1983, and the CCN established as a legal nationalist organisation.
In International Viewpoint No 37, 3 October 1983, we carried an interview with two leaders of the CCN. Here we print the editorial statement of Rouge, newspaper of the Ligue Communiste Revolutionnaire (LCR - French section of the Fourth International on the banning of the CCN in its issue dated September 30 - October 6.
The government has just established a serious precedent: to ban an organisation because of its opinion. The Consulte des Comites Nationalistes (CCN) has been dissolved because it shared the ideas of the Front de Liberation Nationale de la Corse (FLNC), its aims, and because it was a legal cover for its militants. word, because it is nationalist and rejects the policies carried out by the left in Corsica since May 10, 1981.
The militant nationalist, Guy Orsoni, was assassinated in June. Since that time the CCN has accused the French state of having been involved in this murder, in particular Joseph Franceschi and Massimi, former co-ordinator of the Francia group (the Corsican expression of the Service d'Action Civique (SAC), [a grouping of ultraright gangs established by de Gaulle to defend Gaullism' through internal spying, murders, etc., dissolved by Mitterrand]).
Rather than shed some light on a death, about which the police services, obviously, have something to say, Defferre, minister for internal affairs, has chosen repression and the reign of the arbitrary.
The LCR holds to its show of solidarity with the militants of the CCN. 24
We publish here extracts of an account of the second conference of feminists from Latin America and the Caribbean which took place this summer in Peru. This report was published in Combate Socialista, paper of the Revolutionary Socialist Party (PSR) - Colombian section of the Fourth International).
"All the hands, all the voices, all the blood can be songs in the wind, sing with me, sing, my American sister.. With this song, which will make Mercedes Sosa live for ever, the vigorous applause of 600 women of different nationalities closed the four days of discussion of the second feminist conference of Latin American and Caribbean women which took place in Peru. These four days were punctuated by agreement and disagreement, problems and pleasures, laughter and tears, confusion and hope.
The biggest delegations, each of about 60 women, came from Colombia, Chile and the Dominican Republic. This diversity allowed a real assessment to be made of the true state of the feminist movement in the Latin American continent. It is a social movement which is still at the stage of propaganda, which is looking for its identity through diversity. The most interesting aspect of this conference was precisely the expression of the different conceptions and nuances which run through the feminist movement.
However, perhaps with the aim of trying to please everyone, the sisters who hosted the conference organised 18 workshops around the central theme: patriarchy. It should be noted that many women took up this problem in their contributions and tried to overcome it by proposing a discussion entitled "What has happened in feminism from Bogota (where the first conference took place) to Lima?' During this discussion some progress could be made in looking for unity, beyond the initial differences.
While the plenary session did not discuss all the conclusions from the differ ent commissions, this initiative, and others, succeeded in at least getting a general consensus on the adoption of motions of solidarity with the people and the women of Nicaragua and Salvador, with the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo in Argentina, with the democratic movement and feminists of Chile. Greetings were addressed to the Latin American conference of solidarity with Central America and the Caribbean which took place in Bogota in the same period. And support was expressed for the strug gles of the peoples of the world for their liberation. The proposal was also adopted of a continent-wide housewives strike on September 1, 1984.
The maturity displayed in the response to sectarian attempts to divide or manipulate the conference was also remarkable. These attempts came from women who do not call themselves feminists. There were on one side comrades who considered that the revolution and socialism would completely resolve the oppression of women, and that feminism should therefore adopt precise class positions. On the other hand there were all sorts of teachers and researchers who considered this conference as a sort of laboratory of experience, and did not hesitate to explain they were not feminists.
As can be seen, a lot of things happened during this gathering, and we can still ask how worthwhile some of them were. But, at the end of the day, we can say it was a rich experience, with many different aspects, whose influence will make itself felt on each participant, at a personal level as well as the different women's groups and in the women's movement as a whole, in the period between now and the next conference, which will take place in Brazil in 1985.
ABOUT TURN OF SWEDISH
SOCIAL DEMOCRATS
ON SOUTH AFRICA 'It's a scandal that the government allows Sandvik Ltd. to invest fresh money in South Africa in a situation of increased through our own trade-union and political battle, not as a by-product of the investments in South Africa.
I earnestly believe that our trade-union members understand it is untenable to at the same time fight for international trade union solidarity in general and defend increased profits from Sandvik activities in South Africa.'
These words then reflected the feelings among many social-democratic members and leaders.
The social-democratic government's about turn in this issue - coming after a number of other shifts of position on issues like trade policies, investment allowances and weapon export compared to its six years in opposition - is sure to create new irritation and tensions with many of its members who have to defend it. Solidarity with the anti-apartheid and popular struggle in South Africa is an important political issue in Sweden, now as before.
repression.
These were the very words of Carl THE INTERNATIONALE IS NOT JUST A SONG Lidbom, social-democratic member of Parliament (now Swedish ambassador in France), when the bourgeois coalition government a couple of years ago planned to allow the Sandvik steel trust to invest 900,000 Swedish kronor in South Africa. Then these plans were stopped.
Now, one year after the new social-democratic government led by Olof Palme returned to power, it has just decided to allow three Swedish firms, Sandvik, SKF and Fagersta, to invest 12 million Swedish kronor in South Africa. This is despite widespread opinion in Sweden demanding a total boycott of investment in, Africa. A number of political organisations, trade unions and religious organisations support this demand
In words the social-democratic government still clings to the law - instituted in 1979 - that forbids investments other which replace worn-out machines and aims at repairing material already on the spot. It also claims that the investment allowance is far from the sum demanded by the three firms. (In
But obviously, Swedish firms have a thousand and one ways to disguise new investments as just replacement of old material, and the government knows that. It explained this itself in those very words to earlier bourgeois governments. At that time central and local social-democratic leaders also made very sharp comments about "light-hearted' investment permissions.
For example, Elisabeth Lindelof, responsible for the international activities of the social-democratic organisation in Sandviken (where Sandvik is situated) then explained:
It cannot be right that we improve our conditions here through an increase of suffering among our South African comrades. Our jobs here must be secured of conspiracy to commit violence its September 22 issue, Klassekampen, the weekly paper of the Danish section of the Fourth International, published a roundup of the international solidarity campaign on behalf of Joergensen. The article follows.
Overnight, the name Karl Joergensen became a household word, and not just in Denmark.
hundreds of miles to the north of the Arctic Circle, in the Swedish center of Kiruna, heard about The same was true of workers at the other end of Western Europe,
These are only a couple of the places socialist workers sent protests against the jailing of Karl Joergensen. How was it that protests could come from such distant places?
Was this by chance, because some socialist worker happened to read about it in Norrbottenskuriren or in Milan in l'Unita and decided to take it up?
No, there was an organized campaign. The Internationale is not just a song but also a party, a living working world party.
Socialistisk Arbejderparti (Socialist Workers Party - SAP) is the Danish section of this party, the Fourth International. It sent information about the persecution of Karl Joergensen to all other sections of the Fourth International, asking them to make protests and to try to get other sections of the workers movement to do the same.
This is the background to the fact that when socialists met in very many foreign cities at the end of August and the beginning of September, the same name was on the agenda - Karl Joergensen.
### SWEDEN
So, people in northern Sweden could read on September 2 that something had happened at the Danish consulate in Lulea, which is at the far north end of the Sea of Bothnia. The mass-ciruclation journal Norrbottenskuriren A protest petition was deby a delegation to the Danish vice consul on Tuesday afternoon. petition, received by Vice Consul Arne Nyman, protested against the imprisonment of the Danish dock worker Karl Joergensen and demanded his immed-
"The delegation and the small demonstration held outside the consulate while the petition was being delivered were organized by the Socialist Party (Swedish section of the Fourth International)."
The appeal from the SAP was taken with the same seriousness in a lot of other cities in Sweden. Socialist workers were clear that it was their duty to do what they could to get their Danish comrade
In Linkoeping, kilometers to the south of Lulea, there is a big SAAB-Scania factory. The Danish vice consul in the city got a protest petition from a group of workers at the
The statement ended as follows:
we collected money at SAAB in Linkoeping to support
the Austrian National Confederation of local court in Berlin. However, the case the striking dock workers. We have not forgotten what happened then, and we will not forget Karl Joergensen either. He is one of our people. Release Karl Joergensen."
The same thing happened in many other Swedish cities where Denmark has a consulate and where the Party has a branch - Goeteborg, Malmo, Oerebro, Visby.
### ITALY
The Lega Comunista Rivoluzionaria (Revolutionary Communist League, Italian section of the Fourth International) held a rally on the Via Varchi in Milano. The campaign was taken into the big FIAT and Alfa-Romeo car factories and union leaders in these factories sent protests.
### ICELAND
The Icelandic section of the Fourth International, the Fylkingar Byltingarsinnadhra Kommunista, prepared a protest resolution for the Reykjavik membership meeting of the general workers union, Dagsbryn, the biggest union in the country. It was adopted
"Il exige la liberation de Karl Jorgensen et la levee de toutes accusations qui pressent sur lui, the language is different but it was the same demand that came from all the other places - release Karl Joergensen and drop all the charges against him. This was the statement of the Bureau of the Ligue Communiste Revolutionarie, French section of the Fourth International.
### NETHERLANDS
De Ruiterkade 139 is the address of the Danish consulate in Amsterdam. is not known as a place for demonstra-
So, it attracted some attention on Arbeiderspartij, the Dutch section of the Fourth International, held a demonstra-
"We eisen de onmiddelijke vrijlating van Karl Jorgensen en de intrekking van alle aanklacten die tegen hem zijn inge-
The Dutch comrades also took up the question in the union at the ADV shipyards and in the trade-union youth orat the Fokker airplane facBoth groups sent protest state-
The Gruppe Revolutionaere Marxisten, Austrian section of the Fourth International, campaigned to get the other workers organizations to send protests. Statements in support of Karl were sent by the chairperson of the youth organization of 26
Labor, the Catholic youth, and many others.
### SWITZERLAND
At Thunderstrasse 95 in Bern, the Danish ambassador got a statement of protest from the Socialistische Arbeiter-
Ouvrier/Lega Socialista Operaia, Swiss section of the Fourth International.
USA
Intercontinental Press, which is produced by the Socialist Workers Party of the United States but circulated widely internationally, called for sending protests right away to the Danish minister of Justice.
The Internationale is not just a song or ing, fighting organization.
### FRENCH TROOPS
OUT OF CHAD! Wednesday September 7, thousand people marched through Paris opposing French intervention in Chad and calling for the immediate withdrawal of French troops from Chad.
The demonstration was called by the
Revolutionnaire, French section of the Fourth International, together with the French revolutionary organisations the PCI (Internationalist Communist Party) and Lutte Ouvriere (Workers struggle).
This is the only protest action against French imperialism's intervention has taken place. The Socialist Party and Communist Party support the policy of the Mitterrand government, although the CP calls for the troops to be forces of dissuasion only, to put pressure on the
DEATH OF TURKISH
REFUGEE SHAKES WEST GERMAN GOVERNMENT The death of the 23-year old Turkish political refugee, Kemal Altun, in West Berlin on August 30 has provoked a sharp crisis in the West German government.
Altun's extradition had been demanded by the Turkish government. Originally he had been charged by them with the murder of a former ultraright member of parliament, a charge carrying the death
Later this was changed to aiding and abetting the assassination.
Political asylum in West Germany had already been granted for Altun by the was being reopened by the government at the request of the Turkish government, and it was while waiting for the further hearing of this case that Altun jumped to his death from the sixth floor of the Berlin court building.
This tragic event came also at a time when the West German government was criticised by the UN High Commission for Refugees for the treatment of refugees in the country.
There are some 1.7 million Turks in West Germany, whom the government would like to see leave the country and return to Turkey. The minister of the interior, Zimmermann, has drafted a law to this effect, and has been in discussion with the Turkish government to come to an agreement on this. For this reason he seems prepared to sacrifice Altun, and the other sixty Turks facing extradition, to ensure good relations with the Turkish government.
The opposition Social Democratic Party has thus attributed the 'political and moral responsibility' for Kemal Altun's death to the government. Greens have demanded that Zimmermann, the subject for much criticism because of his projected laws on the 'repatriation' of refugees, and on strengthening police powers in demonstrations, should resign.
The criticism of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, who also cancelled a scheduled visit to the country, and who, moreover, had intervened on behalf of Kemal Altun, has caused intense embarrassment to the government. particularly the Liberal Party partners in the coalition.
IMPORTANCE OF US COPPER MINERS STRIKE A bitter struggle is being fought by copper miners in Arizona On July 1, some 2,300 copper workers employed by the Phelps-Dodge Corporation went on strike in protest against the employers attempt to drastically cut workers living standards.
The company wants to in effect take away cost of living allowances (COLA) from union contracts, and establish a dual pay scale whereby workers hired after the signing of the new contract would permanently be paid 10 per cent less than those already employed
This proposed contract went even further than the concessions already won by the largest copper producer, Kennecott, in their new contracts, which are usually used to establish the basis of new contracts throughout the industry. Although the copper producers failed to get agreements like those in the steel industry, giving a reduced rate of COLA and a 1.25 dollar per hour wage cut, they did get a wage freeze, more flexibility in work rules, and reduction in retirement benefits.
The following article from the September 30 issue of The Militant, a weekly newspaper reflecting the views of the Socialist Workers Party in the US, explains the importance of the struggle in broader terms than the defence of workers living standards alone. It has been slightly shortened. Malik MIAH
The Arizona copper unions need the all-out support of the organized labor movement; Chicano, Native American, and Black movements; women's rights and farmers organizations; and others opposed to union-busting and boss violence
Since July 1, 13 copper miners' unions against the state's largest copper employer, the Phelps Dodge Corp. Phelps Dodge is herding hundreds of scabs into the mines to break the strike.
Its attempt to destroy the unions, as the air traffic controllers union in 1981 when he fired all the striking workers and then blacklisted them from the industry, is being backed by Democratic Gov. Bruce Babbit, the National Guard, state police, cops, courts,
Striking workers are facing immediate eviction from company-owned homes. The courts are limiting pickets and issuing injunctions against the unions.
neighborhoods and attended segregated schools.
It wasn't until a strike in 1946 that equal pay for equal work was formally won. Even then the bosses continued to pay most Chicanos lower wages. Chicanos and Native Americans were also segregated into the unskilled, dirty, and most dangerous jobs.
This racism imposed on the work force by the bosses brought down the wages of white miners too. It wasn't until the mid-1950s that the unions led a struggle to give the Southwest miners parity with their counterparts in other parts of the
Significantly, the central leaders of the major strikes and battles after World War Il for equal pay and parity were Chicano, Mexicano, and Native American workers. This explains why the history of the Chicano and Native American fight for equality in the region is tied to the fight for unionization. hand. That rich history remains a part of the mine workers memory.
This is why other organizations led by Chicanos such as the United Farm Workers and Arizona Farm Workers (AFW) unions are backing the copper miners'
The role of women in the strike has also been significant. Four days after the strike began a women's auxiliary was
The auxiliary provides food, medical, their families. It is open to all women who support the strike.
Its effectiveness can be partially measured by the response of helps Dodge. They recently set up their own scab women's auxiliary.
The active leadership role of women in the strike and in solidarity efforts shows the potential to win from women's rights organizations such as the National Organization for Women and the Coalition of Labor Union Women.
The key to victory, however, what the organized
So far the AFL-CIO Executive Council and. the 28 union-member Non-Ferrous Industry Coordinated Bargaining Committee - led by the United Steelworkers of America (USWA), the largest union on strike - have expressed solidar-
The Non-Ferrous Committee is urgits 100,000 members to donate a day's pay per month to the Copper Re-
While these steps are positive, much more is needed. Labor showed in Washington on August 27 and in the September 5 Labor Day parades that it can mobilize tens of thousands of workers. It has the capacity to organize a massive solidarity campaign that could make a difference in the strike. Such a mobilization would send a message to helps Dodge and the other employers that the union movement is serious about winning
"right-to-work" laws are the cover for these union-bust-
The stakes in this confrontation go beyond the small mining towns of Ari- 'JOBS NOT TANKS' zona. They will affect future battles of labor against the bosses, particularly if the copper unions are destroyed. THEME OF SWISS ELECTION CAMPAIGN
Moreover, the fight is not just a worker-employer confrontation. oppressed nationalities — Chicanos, Mexicanos, and Native Americans — who are the big majority of the work force and component of the striking A defeat of their union would be a blow to their fight for self-determinaand for equality, freedom, and
Women, as well, would suffer greatly by a Phelps Dodge victory. They only began to enter the mines in 1969 after a successful law suit that documented sex-
These features of the battle are why more and more the strike is taking on a broader social character. and their families in the mining towns have no place else to go. Some have lived there three or four generations and have raised their standard of living through the efforts of their unions. They don't want to go backward, and won't without a serious fight.
It was not that long ago in fact that Jim Crow segregation was prevalent in the mining towns. As recently as the 1960s, and in some towns the early 1970s, Chicanos, Mexicanos, and Native Americans were using different lunch, locker, and change rooms and lived in segregated and social services for needy strikers and The Workers Socialist Party (SAP/PSO/ LSO), Swiss section of the Fourth International, is standing over one hundred candidates in the national federal elections this month. PSO candidates will be standing in the cantons of Geneva, Vaud, Aargan, Baselstadt, Zurich, Zug, Schaff-
Where possible our comrades have formed an electoral bloc with other left organisations to present a clear choice to the electorate between left and right, between those who support the present course of increasing militarisation and arms spending pursued by the Swiss government, and those who do not.
Electoral agreements have been reached in some cantons but not others. example, in Geneva the Geneva Socialist party has decided to call for a vote for the three lists of the PSO, the Socialist and the Parti du Travail (PdT).
Zurich, an electoral bloc has been formed between the PSO, the PdT and the POCH (Workers Party of Switzerland), while in Basel the PdT refused to
The main theme of the PSO election campaign is against the increase in milithe strike. tary spending, and the decrease in social
This is summed up in their main slogan, 'L'AVS et des emplois, pas
That is, retirement pensions
This refers to recent moves to restrict retirement benefits, and a decision to spend £1320 million on several hundred new tanks for the Swiss Army! Switzerland the present imperialist militarisation drive is very much reflected in the country. Great play is presently being made of the need to be able to win any war that Switzerland could become
In the newspaper of the PSO, La Breche, on September 10 Andre Meylan explained, 'In official Swiss circles it is very badly seen to attack the
One can cast doubt on a certain number of things — the tactical finesse of Rudolf Friedrich for example — but absolutely not military policy and its greed
The PSO has already been attacked in the bourgeois press for its challenge to this policy, but the results of the elections will show how much the population as a whole regards military policy as a "sacred cow' that cannot be touched.
Police repression against a demonstration in Wroclaw (DR)
Romaszewski were members of the Solidarnose leadership in the Warsaw region. Romaszewski was also elected to the national commission of the union during first congress.
Within Solidarnosc, they always declared themselves in favour of trying to reach a compromise with the regime in