AROUND THE WORLD
The Dutch Fourth Internationalists campaign for the Euroelections nuclear deterrent. In the Groen Progressief Akkoord program, there is a vague story about the need to break from both blocs, Nato and the Warsaw Pact. But there is no direct demand for the Netherlands to get out of Nato.
Even the word "socialism" does not appear. Therefore, we do not call for giving preference to either the PvdA or running candidates in the June 17 elections for the European parliament.
The Dutch section,
Workers Party, is not standing candidates, but it is running a campaign focused on the elections.
The activity and objectives of the SAP were described by the campaign manager, Rene Visser, in the May 16 issue of Klassenstrijd, the
SAP's paper. The following is an abridged translation.
Q. The SAP is campaigning around against the missiles, a people's strike that the European elections, and calling on people to vote for the Groen Progressief
Akkoord [the Dutch analogue of the
German Greens] or the PudA
But the objective of this campaign is to strengthen the struggle that is being waged in the various countries against austerity and militarization.
So, it's a campaign against the Common
Market and Nato. We are using the election campaign to promote as widely as possible the idea of international solidarity and international actions.
At the moment, the most important thing for the union movement in Europe is the struggle being waged by some West
German unions - IG Metall and IG Druck und Papier - for a 35-hour week with no cut in pay. It is a fantastic thing that in a period of economic crisis the West German workers have gone on the offensive like this.
It's not just the German bosses that understand what is at stake in this fight.
In every European country, the bosses are keeping a close eye on how this struggle turns out. Wim Kok [head of the biggest
Dutch labor confederation] has finally seen correctly that if the trade-union movement loses in Germany, then we in the Netherlands will also be thrown back for years as regards shortening the workweek.
But when you see that, obviously you can't just stand by and watch.
The union movement has to build solidarity with the German workers.
The best way to do this, of course, is to take up the fight for the 35-hour week here.
The second focus of the SAP's campaign is the fight against the installation of the Cruise and Pershing missiles in the various countries.
In recent years, a massive peace movement has developed
We think that it is very imin Europe.
portant to move ahead to internationally coordinated actions.
The Danish teachers' union has launched a plan for a European people's strike
International Viewpoint 18 June 1984 could include students, self-employed and
We want to use our campaign to propagate the idea for such an initiative as broadly as possible.
A third issue we want to take up is the growing racism in Western Europe and the situation of the immigrants. all, there are about 15 million immigrant workers in the region. They are being deprived of the most elementary democratic rights. Most of them for example will not be able to vote in the European elections.
Q. What sort of vote exactly is the SAP calling for?
A. These elections are a very important test for the [right-wing] Lubbers' government. The CDA and VVD [the government parties] face growing resistance to the austerity policy. In particular, the peace movement has pushed the government into a corner. As of now it could not survive a definite decision to install the missiles. So, the CA and the VVD want to come out of these elections looking as strong as possible. So, we are calling for a vote against the government.
We call on people to use these elections to demonstrate their opposition to the July Package [new austerity measures ] by voting against the parties that support
Our poster says "Left vote, vote PvdA or Groen Progressief Akkoord."
That doesn't mean that we support the programs of the PvdA or the Groen Progressief Akkoord. We have a number of
The PvdA has a position for the 35-hour week but with a cut in wages. It claims that unless the workers accept this, it will weaken Europe's competitive position relative to Japan and
The program of the Groen Progressief Akkoord on social and economic questions is not much different from that of the PvdA.
On the question of the missiles, the PvdA is against deployment of the new missiles but for maintaining the Nato the Groen Progressief Akkoord.
Q. The SAP did negotiate with the Pacifist Socialist Party, the Communist Party and the Radical Party over running a common slate however.
There were no real negotiations. Naturally, we would have been very happy to have a common slate with these parties. We knew that that would not be easy, in view of the many differences of opinion that there are. So, we thought about a common election program of a few points, a sort of minimum program on points such as a consistent struggle against the austerity policy, the fight for the 35-hour week, opposition to deployment of the new nuclear missiles, and the fight against racism. Beyond this, every party would have the room to promote its own views.
The CPN, PSP and the Radicals did not want to bring us into the negotiations. They said that would only make the operation more difficult. We had a discussion about it with Fráns Jansen, the vicechairperson of the PSP. The PSP was willing to give us a place on their slate. But we found it wrong that we were not allowed into the negotiations. We said, "OK, we're not turning that down outright. But our final decision will depend on what your program looks like." To be honest, we were shocked with the final result. We had not expected the PSP and CP to make such concessions to the program of the Green platform. As I said, it doesn't even mention the word "socialism."
Q. But what sort of campaign is the SAP going to run now?
A. For a party such as ours, the financial barrier to running our own slate is terribly high. Just the registration fee would have cost us 18,000 guilders [about 9,000 dollars]. We just don't have the money to run our own slate.
About 2,500 copies of the special issue of Klassenstrijd in which this interview is to appear will be printed. In addition, we are putting out a poster with the slogan "For a Socialist Europe" with our call to vote for the PvdA or the Greens. In various places, we are organizing forums to which we are inviting other left parties. We think that discussion is very important, precisely because we have to fight
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together against this government's austerity policy.
Throughout our campaign we want to show the sort of role a party such as the SAP can play in the day-to-day struggle, in the fight for socialism.
A lot of people agree with our ideas, but hesitate to join us because we are still so small. But even though the SAP is small, it can be seen to be playing an important role in the mass movement.
Take the Cruise missiles. Since we are active as a party both in the peace movement and in the trade-union movement, we stand at a key junction point. Our people in the trade-union movement have worked very hard in the past period to get the unions to actively oppose the missiles. Our people in the peace movement had direct access to the union movement through the work of our party.
On October 29, our slogan was "After the demonstration, organize a strike."
that. Fortunately, practice proved otherwise. Obviously, it is not just because we worked hard that the May 10 strike was a success. But in various places we made an important contribution to the success of the action.
Moreover, in the successful high school strike at the same time, Rebel, the revolutionary youth organization linked politically with us, played a crucial role.
Rebel is one of the driving forces in building Weapons.
In the coming period, we will throw all we can into helping to assure that the actions against the July package are as massive as possible. In the FNV rallies throughout the country, we are pushing forward our proposals strongly. That is, we are calling for a strong campaign to inform people of the effects of this government's policy, rallies in factory canpolitical instability throughout the 32 Counties. Reagan's upcoming Irish tour coupled with the Coalition's undermining of Irish neutrality is already opening up that door. It would not be surprising if Nato military aircraft were the first to inaugurate Knock Airport runway.
We were also told 12 years ago that EEC membership would foster prosperity among the Irish people and break our economic dependence on British markets. Instead joining the EEC has led to chaos. Industrial development has ground to a halt and almost total reliance on multinationals has meant massive unemployment, deskilling of workers and destruction of indigenous Irish industry.
Agriculture is also in a mess and EEC membership is responsible. It was supposed to bring a bonanza. Instead it has created financial ruin among small farmers, indebtedness and bankruptcy. The crisis of the milk super-levy indicates
A lot of people thought that we were
The trade-union movement in the crazy.
Netherlands would never do anything like come up for debate in parliament.
teens on May 29, and a one-hour warning strike against these measures when they
• that the major EEC powers don't give a damn about Ireland's national economic interests. They have no qualms about shoving more Irish workers onto the dole and more small farmers into bankruptcy.
Only a national economic plan based
People's Democracy declaration on European elections on the actual needs of Irish workers and small farmers will get us out of this mess. This means a socialist transformation of society. This is the practical necessity facing the Irish working class today.
This is the kind of programme which
Sinn Fein candidate in the European elections in the
Danny Morrison,
Six Counties in the North of Ireland still occupied by Britain, explained to International Viewpoint (No 51, would be a referendum on the national question'.
true in the North, and the aim of the Sinn Fein campaign will be to highlight the national struggle in the South as well.
vant after the recent publication of the much-heralded New Ireland
Forum report by the Southern political parties and the bourgeois nationalist SDLP from the North, which offered no new solution but more repression of the nationalists in the North.
People's Democracy, Irish section of the Fourth International, played a central role in the 1979 European elections in organising Bernadette Devlin McAliskey's campaign in the North centred on support for the political prisoners in the North of Ireland. On this occasion, the decision of
Sinn Fein to stand nine candidates in all, one each in the three constituencies of Dublin, Munster and the North, and three each in the constituencies of Connaight/Ulster and Leinster, offers the opportunity for anti-imperialists throughout the country to cast their vote.
Danny Morrison, a national vice president and already an elected representative, the Sinn Fein candidates are local activists in the anti-imperialist and workers movements.
The declaration below by the National Committee of People's Democtheir support for Sinn Fein, was published in the April racy, outlining issue of their newspaper Socialist Republic.
The upcoming June BEC elections will have an important significance for the struggle against Britain and for their
Irish puppets throughout the 32 Coun
The elections will be used by all ties.
the capitalist politicians to bolster their declining credibility among working people already impoverished by unemployment and cuts.
Thatcher's Tory programme offers only increased unemployment and repression for workers in the 6 Counties.
The Coalition [government in the South,
Fine Gael and the Labour Party] offers exactly the same. A further feature of the contest will be the flagging attempt of the SDLP [Social Democratic and Labour
26
, April 23, 1984) that the election
This is particularly This is particularly releAside from Party] to mislead the anti-unionist population in the 6 Counties into supporting a restructuring and strengthening of imperialism through the Dublin New Ireland Forum.
Twelve years ago Fianna Fail and Fine Gael would have us believe that EEC membership would lead to Irish unity. We know now that other capitalist states would only become involved if they felt Britain was falling down on the job of preserving capitalism in Ireland
In the same way the US intervened in Vietnam and Grenada when lesser capitalist powers were unable to maintain imperialist rule in those regions, so Nato is already looking on anxiously at the the anti-imperialist movement has to formulate and fight for in the EEC elections. As the major anti-imperialist organisation, Sinn Fein standing in all constituencies in the 32 Counties has both an excellent opportunity and major responsibility to build all-Ireland workers unity against the twin evils of repression and austerity. None of the other parties offer any reason why Irish workers should put their trust in them. This includes those parties who are socialist in words and collaborators in action. Therefore Sinn Fein offers the only real alternative. In building support for their candidates it will be important for Sinn Fein to turn their campaign outwards along the lines of the H-Block movement to gain the attention of the mass of organised workers. It will be necessary to involve the best activists in the campaign.
Fundamentally it will be vital to build an all-Ireland political fightback against partition and all its evils. In particular fighting the SDLP in the 6 Counties means not only ousting them as the chief representatives of the nationalist people, it means counterposing to the sham Forum a concrete political alternative. This means an all-Ireland Constituent Assembly. This can provide the means by which all the workers, small farmers and oppressed people of Ireland can determine their future and the future of this island
International Viewpoint 18 June 1984
The debates of the 3rd congress masses by subjecting the workers move- text of the European elections campaign.
real organisational progress. In the editorial of Combate Socialista, No 44 of April 1984, the PRT defined its position on the IU grouping:
'Our objectives in Izquierda Unida are in two fields: the electoral terrain of the Peruvian PRT The Partido Revolucionario de los Tra- ment to the leadership of the petty bourbajadores (PRT, Revolutionary Party) Peruvian section of the Fourth International held its third congress since its foundation in 1978 on March 3-4. delegation of the United Secretariat of The agenda included a balance sheet of the orientation and activity of the party, an analysis of the national political sitthe political/organisational project for building the party at this stage, and election of a central committee of 15
The discussion on political reorientation decided by a large majority of the central committee last December, was the central point of the congress. orientation led to a self-criticism of the past orientation of the PRT and to the decision to ask to join the Izquierda toral means and a policy of reforms. programmatic axis is an alliance between the popular and workers movement and the middle and national bourgeoisie?
As for the initiative of the minority group around Raul Castro Vera in calling - and announcing in the press before it even happened — a parallel congress with derisory participation, this fooled no one
In the end it only 'misled' the editors of Tribune Internationale, the monthly journal groupment of the Parti Communiste Internationaliste in France, who were particularly interested in making public a version that had no basis in real fact in their April 1984 issue.
After the congress, the PRT launched a new formula for its monthly journal, and that of workers struggles. In relation to the first, and as far as the shameful attitude of a section of the left is concerned, we have to say that the revolution is not a straight line, revolutionaries cannot choose their path by ignoring reality. There are only two possible attitudes for elections, either we use them or we boycott them. Using the elections should help to educate the masses and develop Izaquierda Unida into a motor force for the workers struggles. Politically, there is a dialectical relationship between Izquierda Unida and the mass organisa-
The integration of this front in the mass organisations will make it possible to build a powerful workers and popular movement which can resist the bourgeois offensive and, starting from that point, begin to undertake revolution-
International Viewpoint,
Unida (IU, United Left), a structure which groups almost all the trade-union and political organisations identifying with the workers movement. (1) The documents proposed by the outgoing French LCR 'Rally against Austerity' leadership were all approved, either unanimously or by a big majority.
On the eve of the congress, four minority members of the outgoing central committee of the PRT organised a split. These comrades were opposed to the political reorientation decided last December, and thus organised a tendency for the congress. From the point at which it was clear that they had not succeeded in winning a majority of party members to their point of view, they disputed the legitimacy of certain norms of representation for the congress, and
These norms of representation had, however, been settled on the basis of a unanimous agreement in December, and thus before the formation of this minority tendency. In any event, the right of the minority to present its positions at the congress and to challenge the delegates elected if it thought necessary, was perfectly respected. minority did not do this because it knew full well that its orientation ported by only a minority of the delegates at the congress, as well as among the
Moreover, the minority members, as they themselves stated, were not in the least prepared to accept the discipline of the congress insofar as, according to them, the new orientation of the PRT represented a political break with past principles. In a text that they circulated after the congress, these militants in fact characterised the IU as la political front under reformist hegemony, which preaches conciliation and adapts to the level of consciousness of the most backward International Viewpoint 18 June 1984
Combate Socialista, and opened a new central headquarters, demonstrating a The Revolutionary Communist (LCR, French section of the Fourth International) held a 'Rally Austerity and Capitalist Europe' at the Le Bourget airport near Paris on the weekend of May 26/27.
The event brought together some 3,000 members and sympathisers of the LCR to discuss and debate in forums on many different aspects of the present attacks on workers standards of living. The forums ranged from those on different sectors of industry such as cars, the post office, etc., through those discussing the attacks on particular sectors of such as women, young people and immigrants, to those on particular issues such as combatting the governemployers' dustrial restructuring, or the peace movement and opposition to the imperialist
Colourful displays of photographs and text explained the Central revolutions, the activity of the peace movement throughout Europe, the present attacks on women, young people and immigrants and many
A number of other French left groups were also invited to provide stalls and participate in the weekend of debates. Many anti-imperialist groups were also present with stands: the Anti-Apartheid Movement, Central American solidarity committees, Irish solidarity organisations the Chile solidarity committees, etc.
The weekend was projected in the con-
January 16, 1984, for the self-criticism of the Thus, a central feature was the Saturday afternoon rally of workers from all over Europe speaking about the struggles they are presently involved in. form were comrades from the Italian and Spanish LCRs who spoke respectively of the recent battle to defend the price. indexing of wages in Italy organised at rank and file level through the factory councils, and the struggle against the Spanish government's plans to restructure the steel industry. Colin Lenton, of the union, spoke of the present bitter struggle of the British miners' union, against threatened pit
Jakob Moneta, a member of the German section and former editor of the IG Metall newspaper, explained the present struggle in West Germany for the 35-hour week.
Particularly warm and vigorous applause greeted Lautaro Sandino, a member of the Sandinista youth organisation, who has recently completed a tour of Europe organised by the youth organisasolidarity with the Fourth International, and Eloi Machorro of the Independence Front of New Caledonia. LCR leader Alain Krivine recently visited this French colony in the Pacific Ocean where he was enthusiastically received by the Independence Front.
The rally closed with the contribution of Fourth International leader Ernest
The weekend as a whole closed with the Sunday afternoon meeting addressed by Alain Krivine and Arlette Laguiller