Fall mobilizations show
PEACE than those against Reagan in May, and that the results differed notably from city to city and among various nationalities.
One factor that kept the numbers down in the Atlantic coast regions continuing impetus in particular was heavy rain, although spirited participants in the demonstration of 5,000 in Bilbao shouted, of peace movement
"La lluvia de Felipe no nos derrite y la de Fraga no nos apaga! (The rain of Felipe [Gonzalez] will not melt us, and the rain of Fraga [Ibararne, the rightist leader] will not extin-
MASSIVE DEMONSTRATIONS in the Netherlands on October 26 and November 1 against deployment of the missiles and throughout the Spanish state on November 10 against NATO showed both the continuing strength of the peace movement and a growing need for more conscious organization and longer-term perspectives. GERRY FOLEY
In the Netherlands, the demonstration by the militant wing of the peace movement, timed to coincide with the presentation to the premier of the petitions against the deployment of the missiles, was an impressive success, despite the opposition of the moderate leadership of the national coordinating committee, the KKN (the Komitee Kruisraketten Nee - Committee Against the Cruise Missiles).
The KKN leaders not only directly called on people not to participate in the militant demonstration, they even changed the time of the rally at the Houtrusthalle in the Hague to keep people from participating in both events. As it turned out, the latter maneuver backfired. Birger Sorensen, correspondent for Klassekampen, the paper of the Danish section of the Fourth International, wrote from Amsterdam:
"Some 15,000 people chose to demonstrate their determination to continue the struggle. It was not the left wing of the peace movement that was left with a small following, but Mient-Jan Faber and company -with about 5,000 people, which seemed a small number in the gigantic Houtrusthalle."
Among the main organizers of the demonstration were the SAP (Socialist Arbeiders Partij - Dutch section of the Fourth International) and the militant peace group BONK.
At the conclusion of the petition campaign, 3.7 million people signed against the deployment of the missiles in a country with a total population of about 14 million.
On November 1, an estimated 150,000 high-school students struck against deployment of the missiles.
The SAP paper, Klassenstrijd, commented: "The call for the strike issued by the national organization Jongeren Tegen Kernwapens (Young People Against Nuclear Weapons), which includes of the left youth organizations, as well as a lot of unorganized youth. Although this organization is part of the the Cruise Missiles, strike was organized entirely on its own initiative. It was all done by volunteers, without a penny in subwith a contact network 150 local groups and many individstate, Combate, the paper of the Spanish-state section of the Fourth International, reported that in general the November 9-10 demonstrations were larger than those of December 2, 1984, but smaller 'NATO - no. Bases out...
RAN
BASES LET
In the Basque country, the actions suffered from tionary nationalist organization, Herri Batasuna, did not participate. Furthermore the Communist Party; Euzkadiko Ezkerra (a moderate group of nationalist origin); and the CP-dominated union, the Workers Commissions, held small diversionary demonstrations. But in Pamplona, considerably larger than the 3,000 in
In Madrid, 20,000 people took part in marches on November 9 and about 300,000 in the big demonstraon November 10. That was than twice the December 2, 1984, figure, but less than the half that demonstrated Reagan. Combate wrote that, none-
"it was the largest demonstration against the policies of the government yet, since presence of the emperor of the galaxy
In Barcelona, about 30,000 people formed up to spell out "Nato, out; neutrality; referendum" in the Catalan language. About 70,000 participated in the subsequent demonstration. That was a bit more than last December but far less than the half million that demonstrated against Reagan. "A big factor was inadequacies building the action, with propaganda Combate wrote.
"We have to continue to stress that despite the opposition of the majority of people to NATO, there is no automatic guarantee that masses of people will come out to protest. Daily work has to be continued in the neighborhoods, towns, factories, and schools ... It is necessary to continue strengthening links with other social movements (unions, feminist groups, international solidarity movements) and with the parties and other groups opposed to Spanish membership in NATO. In this way we will assure that the next demonstrations coming up in February are much more massive than those on November 10."