AROUND THE WORLD
Full rights for Tamil refugees a breach in the social security system that we have won.
So, what do the "refugee benefits"
government offers to? It does not take long to list them: - shelter in a residence center where
The communalist warfare waged against the international the Tamil population on Sri Lanka by a chauvinist Senhalese government has led to an influx of Tamil refugees into a number of European countries, in particular France, Britain, and the Netherlands. The governments have begun showing an anxiety to get rid of the Tamils. The fact that a lot of them are highly political and radicalized people undoubtedly a factor. In Britain and the Netherlands in particular, Tamil refugees are threatened with being sent back to the tender mercies of the Sri Lankan government.
In the Netherlands, this question has become an issue, with the small left parties in parliament opposing expulsion, the Labour Party (PudA) divided and even the Christian Democrats showing hesitations. In a speech to the PudA Council on June 15, the chairperson of the party, Max van den Berg, compared the attitude of the government to the. Tamils with the attitude of prewar Dutch governments to German Jewish refugees. In both Britain and the Netherlands, Fourth Internationalists are actively defending the Tamils. The following article is from the June 5 issue of Klassenstrijd, the paper of the Dutch section of the Fourth International.
The West European governments are class. These are not our borders.
You also hear the argument that the economic situation does not permit us to accomodate a large number of refugees. That depends on what you consider important. In West Germany over the years, they have let in a lot of East Europeans. The Vietnamese "boat people" are practically invited to come to Europe. Israel is able to bring in a large number of Africans.
Another argument is that the Tamils could be better "accomodated" in a camp in Sri Lanka or India than in Apeldoorn. That costs less and "they remain in their own culture." But putting people in a camp is no solution. That is temporary. The problem is to assure a decent life for the refugees, and everyone knows that
The government has created a special rule for the Tamil refugees denying them the right to social welfare. This slides over an important point. The law guarantees the right to social assistance to all those who need it. The decision of the minister excludes an ethnic group from benefitting from the social assistance law. Thus, the parliament has opened the way for discrimination against all sorts of groups. This is not only an attack on the right of asylum but they can sleep, wash, sit, and cook. - "pocket money" (20 guilders [about US 4 dollars] a week) - insurance against the costs of illness and legal liability. - Payment of special expenses that in the minister's judgement are necessary and cannot be met by other means can be made after the filling out of detailed forms.
What is not permitted by the ruling is visitors to the residence centers. Moreover, instruction in the Dutch language is not considered "a special expense in the opinion of the minister," nor is the cost of telephone calls.
In the view of the minister, the Tamils are an alien element in Dutch society and should remain so, so that they can be expelled. In fact, everything is being done to make it impossible for the Tamils as a group to defend their interests. But this tactic has been only partially successful.
In Apeldoor, an association of Tamil refugees has been founded. Organizations such as the Vereniging Vluchtelingenwerk Nederland, the Tamil Dutch Solidarity Association, and the support committees are playing an important role in building the first contacts with the Dutch people. by Arend de Poel doing everything possible to restrict the number of Sri Lankan Tamils taking refuge here. Against the background of this attitude on the part of the govern-
FULL AMNESTY NOW FOR SACKED AND IMPRISONED MINERS ment, Wijnaendsts parliamentary commission came to the conclusion in four days that the south of Sri Lanka is safe enough for the refugees.
In the meantime, too many newspapers and human rights organizations to list have said that there is no security for the Tamils, and that they are fleeing because the slaughter in the Sri Lankan civil war is continuing.
Despite the refutation of the argument that there is no real threat to the Tamils, other bad arguments, some of them racist, continue to muddy the waters. You hear that the Tamils are "economic refugees, "whatever that may mean.
In the first place, that is not true, and in the second, if it were, so what? The capitalists keep a free hand for exploiting the underdeveloped countries, and they have set up border police in order to be able to maintain control of International Viewpoint 15 July 1985
BRITAIN The campaign for amnesty for miners sacked and imprisoned during the 19841985 strike is now well underway and messages of support and donations from the Labour movement internationally are urgently requested. There are still 671 miners who have not been reinstated and eighty miners are serving their prison sentences.
The left-wing Campaign Group of Labour Party MPs (members of parliament) has decided to introduce Amnesty bill into the House of Commons under which all those who were fined or imprisoned as a result of their activities during the strike will be given a pardon which will wipe out all their sentences. The bill has no chance of being passed at the moment, but the MPs hope it can be the focus for a campaign throughout the Labour Party and the trade unions.
Meanwhile an all-Party committee of MPs has recently come out with an implied criticism of the employers the National Coal Board, for its intran sigent and blanket stand against reinstatement. It recommends that each case should be looked at on its merits
In most areas the NUM is working jointly with support groups campaign ing for amnesty and Women Against Pit Closures (WAPC) groups are making this their main campaign.
Donations can be sent to Miner Solidarity Fund, Account No 30000009 the Co-op Bank plc, West Street Sheffield, Great Britain.
----- pull-quotes on this page -----
NETHERLANDS
Fourth Internationalist wins
Joe Harrington, a member of People's Democracy, section of the Fourth International, was votes cast was 4,870.
elected to the Limerick City Council in the June 20 The highest polling candidate of Fianna Fail, the is the first time PD has bourgeois opposition party, got 489 votes. The top elected anyone to local government in the formally candidate of the ruling Fine Gael party
IRELAND.
Irish local elections.
and the total number of valid got 448. The
Labour Party candidate got 452, and the Sinn Fein independent part of Ireland.
Harrington ran in a three-seat district, winning the second highest number candidate got 177. Harrington received many of the of first preference votes (all figures here from candidate's being out- proportional representation system allows voters to
June 24 Irish Times). He got 589 votes, distanced only by Jim Kemmy, a right-wing Social cast ranked preference votes, which are distributed as
Democratic politician with a local machine and a the higher preference vote candidates are elected or national profile, who got 1,281 votes. There were eliminated.)
Gerry FOLEY
Joe Harrington is a well-known and respected community in the activist
South Hill area of Limerick city, a former union organizer, a member of the Trades Council, and a leader of the fight against the government's attempt to impose a water tax. He received an impressive vote of confidence from his neighbors. But he did not wage a fight centered on local issues.
The opening statement of his campaign (Socialist
Action, No. 7, April) said:
"The local elections take place on
June 20 against a background of growing democratic rights, attacks on standards and increased with Britain's oppression of the Northern minority. Working class people are under severe attack from the rich and powerful.
The unjust PAYE [pay as you earn] system, the Water Tax, the cuts in Health and other services, employment are all aimed at inflicting a decisive defeat on the working class.
"In this context, these are ordinary elections. Many people intend them to hit back at the governusing ment and we agree with this. However, more than this is required. We say these elections must be used to boost the working class fightback already underway.
"All over Ireland workers are fighting back. Factory occupations like Atari are common. Community groups have mushroomed in the campaign against Service
Charges. There was strong opposition to the repressive Criminal the campaign against plastic bullets [used by British troops in the North for "crowd control"] and strip searches in Armagh jail where women political prisoners are held in the North] have gained wide support. The northern minority continues to spearhead the struggle against British imperialism in Ireland."
The statement ended: "The election
Joe Harrington, socialist, to the City Council a major breakthrough for working class not because of anything he achieve in what is, after all, a fairly powerless body but because it would signal a fighting response to the attacks of the rich and powerful from dependence on politicians .. Joe asks not just for your votes but for a commitment to fight for a better life in a Workers Republic." The national question
The raising of the Irish national question by the PD campaign particularly important contribution in the context of Limerick politics. This is one of the areas in Ireland where consciousness of the national struggle is the lowest. Left politics in Limerick has traditionally been dominated by workerists and economists who struggle, or outright oppose it, as in the case of Kemmy.
In fact, Irish politics in general has been afflicted by a cleavage between social and national fighters, since question has been identified with a military struggle and the prospects for winning that, let alone producing concrete gains for the working seemed remote. At the attempts to achieve economic improvements by going around the national question have failed.
The result of this unresolved contradiction is that rather large right-wing sects have developed in Ireland that seek to avoid the national question by talking about "socialism" and "working-class independence." The biggest one on the national level is the Workers Party, which had its origin votes. (The Irish in a current in the Republican movement that turned in a right, economist
Unfortunately, these little to remove these from around the neck of the was a small but important gain in this
Dublin, the Workers Party increased its vote from 3.1% in the 1979 local elections and 6.7% in the 1982 general elections to 7.3%.
Sinn Fein got a significant vote in Dublin, 4.7% for the Dublin Corporation That indicates that it is a major contender for the protest vote, since there is little tradition of voting Republican in Dublin. In the more strongly Republican border counties, it got 11% in Leithrim and 12% in Monaghan. But there was no indication of real momentum, let alone a breakthrough. These results show how far Sinn Fein is from offering an electoral alternative in the South.
On the other hand, Harrington's results show what can be achieved in the present conditions by leaders of local struggles. Politically, he is the most advanced. But there are many such fighters emerging across Ireland. In the present situation, a united slate of such fighters is probably the only thing that could offer a real alternative. (On this and other questions related to the local government elections, see the interview with John MeAnulty in the inside pages.)
SUBSCRIBE
NOW!
International Viewpoint 15 July 1985
----- pull-quotes on this page -----