AROUND THE WORLD
Congo Brazzaville STUDENT PROTESTS
The decision on November 6 by the Congo-Brazzaville Council of Ministers to set up a competition for highschool graduates applying for higher education grants, about 600 French francs (around 80 US dollars a month) sparked a wave of protests among high-school students.
On November 6 and 11, major school student demonstrations took place to protest these measures, which were carried out by the regime in the name of austerity. These were severely repressed
In solidarity with the high-school students, the students of the University of Brazzaville took this occasion to express their discontent about other measures imposed by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) that suspendec hiring by government departments.
The support of the university students paved the way for a broadening of the strike mobilization on November 12, 1985. The protest took on such force that the regime decided to close the schools in the municipality of Brazzaville for about a week.
On November 13, the chief of state launched an attack on "reactionary" forces that he said had recently exhibited a "feverish activity, as demonstrated by their vain and mad attempt to exploit the naivety of certain elements" of the Congolese
This implied amalgam with politicians ousted from power is a classic procedure to try to discredit the mobilization of youth for their own
The reaction of the regime was all the more violent - the army reportedly opened fire, wounding many people - inasmuch as this mobilisation of the youth revealed a deeper crisis.
In a country where there were 650,000 high-school and university students in 1984, or one third of the total population, these events have illustrated the gap between the corrupt team in power that bandies around Marxist and Leninist terms and the youth and people who are subjected to the bitter realities of a neocolonial system fraught with economic and social crisis, as in all the countries of Black Africa.
In this case, the crisis has been aggravated in particular, by the falling price for oil (see "The Effects of the 26
"Goldrush' on African Neocolonial Economies" by Claude Gabriel in International Viewpoint, No 22,
Representing 90% of exports, the oil team in power a bit of maneuvering
The projects for building up the economic infrastructure that were conceived in the atmosphere of the oil boom could make the Congolese appear to some extent as serious people to the popular masses looking for concrete achievements. income and falling oil prices were to burst these bubbles. Nonetheless, these projects had the effect of drawing the onto a slippery slope indebtedness, leading to increased dependence.
Officially, the Congo's foreign debt amounts to 4 billion dollars for a total population of 2 million. At this level, the "Marxist-Leninist" proclamations of the Congolese leaders have little effect on the neocolonial mechanisms, which have the result that the country's still being exploited by French companies and the Congo is a member
This situation has now been aggrav-
IMF's determination to impose an austerity policy requiring the Congolese leaders to take very ated the crisis of the neocolonial education system. The backwardness from the French model under the Third Republic has now been combined by the IMF with a freeze on hiring in public employment. latter is swollen, but in the present state of affairs, it is the only prospect for many students.
Given the percentage of the population in school, which is one of the highest in the Third World, the educsystem may in the coming months become a particularly acute focus of the crisis of Congolese society. SOLIDARITY
At the end of October, the Tunisian government launched a large-scale offensive against the workers movement by attacking its predominant trade-union organization, the Union Generale des Travailleurs Tunisiens (UGTT General Union of Tunisian Workers).
After several months of escalating repression, the government sent its police and the ruling party's militia in to occupy the offices of the UGTT in most of the country, including the capital. Dozens of trade-union cadres
The secretary general, Habib Achour, was put in rative" detention.
Sections of the proletariat, especially the southern part of the country resisted the regime's offensive, unleashing a series of general strikes and organizing the defense of the trade-union headquarters. response having been weak in the rest of the country. International solidarity moreover, has been negligeable.
This is why, after having launched its offensive, the government has been able to maneuver with the majority of the trade-union bureaucrats in order to get them to accept its repressive intervention into the internal life of the
Although in "administrative detention," Habib Achour has been kept in the leadership of the union, but he has been replaced as secretary general. The autonomy of the UGTT has been flauted, and the regime will take advantage of this to push forward the projects that have been imposed on it by the International Monetary Fund situation, however, has not The workers retain a fighting potential that the trade-union bureaucracy, moreover, account of in its negotiations with the
More than ever, they need solidarity from the world workers and movements, especially
The Fourth International calls on the workers organizations to offer solidarity as soon as possible. It is necessary to call for the release of the jailed trade-unionists, the evacuation of the repressive forces from the union headquarters, and complete restoration of the independence and liberties of the trade-union
Bureau of the United Secretariat of the Fourth International INTERNATIONAL VIEWPOINT 1985 The 1985 collection of International Viewpoint is now available. There will only be a very limited number, so rush your orders in now.
The cost for each collection including postage is 120 French francs or £ll or 15 US dollars. International Viewpoint 13 January 1986
Belgium POS OFFICES RAIDED Four persons, including Pierre Carette, the alleged leader, suspected of belonging to the CCC [Fighting Communist Cells], an extremely violent and ruthless terrorist group of dubious principles and origins, were arrested in Belgium in mid-December. Immediately after this, the minister of justice, Gol, one of the principal figures in the rightist government, sent police to search the headquarters of the Brussels branch of the Parti Ouvrier Socialiste (POS), the Belgian section of the Fourth International.
At 5 am both uniformed and plainclothes police entered the party headquarters and bookstore. They broke open the doors, turned everything inside upside down, and took away a typewriter.
The following is excerpts from the editorial from the front page of the December issue of La Gauche, the French-language paper of the POS
An initial result of the anti-terrorist hunt. Carette and his gang have just been nabbed in the GB-Quick in Namur. It was not the special commandos or tanks that got the CCC. It was a well staged operation by the judiciary police that trapped this enigmatic organization. It is quite clear today how Gol has managed to exploit the psychosis that he himself reinforced. He did this in order to move toward strengthening the state at the expense of democratic freedoms.
Already Gol is moving his pawns forward. He is broadening the circle of repression. While the successful arrest of Carette shows exactly where to look for the terrorists, Gol is aiming his blows in another direction, as in Operation Mammouth, which was focused on the left of the workers movement.
Despite the amalgams that are being made of some general "extreme left" or "the violent elements," the POS has nothing to do with terrorism. There is nothing "criminal" about it.
We are a party that fights out in the open, not hidden behind any mask. We want to win the majority of the working class through a battle of ideas. We present our views regularly to the working people through our newspapers, our leaflets, our pamphlets and our public meetings. Since 1977, the POS has participated in all the elections - parliamentary, municipal, provincial and European.
Our activists are not in hiding. They are not making bombs. They are ordinary men and women among
International Viewpoint 13 January 1986 ordinary men and women, well known by thousands of people. They hold positions of leadership in the unions, in the women's movement, in the youth, in the movement for peace, in the fight against apartheid and in the struggle to defend a free and socialist Nicaragua against the state terrorism of Reagan.
From the moment that the CCC planted its first bomb, 14 months ago, we expected that Gol and his gang would strike at our party. Because we know from the experience (continued from page 28) the three unions in which revolutionists still hold key positions - the BGWU. the CIWU, and the AGWU.
The instrument for this operation is the Seamen and Waterfront Workers Union (SWWU), which has long been led by a bureaucracy linked to the
The SWWU started by prepursuing its activities in the port of the complicity of the and the employers, the SWWU managed in some workplaces to win the bargaining rights away from the BGWU. enterprises are now complaining that the SWWU has done nothing for them.
Layoffs (40% of the workers are unemployed) have greatly weakened
After the invasion, the airport workers, in particular, who had been organised by the BGWU, were laid off. And the workers subsequently employed by the US firms that continued the construction of the airport could not join unions.
In all, the BGWU has lost half its members (1,200 out of roughly 2,400). The AGWU virtually ceased functioning shortly after the invasion. And the SWWU sought to extend its base to the
Subsequently, the AGWU has reunion of the former dictator, Eric Gairy, which was agricultural workers.
On the other hand, the CIWU has kept the same number of members as before October 1983 (about 5,600), and has formed new locals.
The AIFLD's second objective is to take over the leadership of all the unions. It has accomplished this end in the Technical and Allied Workers Union by taking advantage of the forced exile of the union president, Jim Wardally, and the imprisonment of its vice-president, Chester Humph-
Today, the TAWU is the biggest union on the island. On the other hand, the AIFLD has failed in the in other countries — as Gol himself did - that terrorism whose origin and practice in this case are extremely dubious - is always used as a pretext for attacking the anti-capitalist left of the workers movement.
Thus the special commandos and tanks in our cities today are not aimed at the terrorists but at the social struggles that the workers will wage tomorrow against this iniquitous government. And yes, our party will be present in those struggles, alongside the workers. Public Workers Union and in the Grenada Union of Teachers.
Nor has the AIFLD been able to take over the Trade-Union which remains overall left leaning, and condemns the SWWU's disloyal activity. In 1985, Anselm Debourg, a former member of the NJM and president of the CIWU, was elected
The president is Basil Harford of the Public Workers Union.
At the May 1 demonstration, which brought out 3,000 workers, that is, more than the preceding year, Basil Harford distinguished himself by mak-
He denounced the anti-working class policy of the bosses, the government budget, extradite Chester Humphrey. this speech, he was removed from an important post he held in the Ministry prevented him from attending the annual meeting of the International Labour Organisation.
AIFLD, the government and the employers are working together. The latter are trying to take back what they had to give under the Maurice Bishop government. Arbitrary firings, intimidation and threats are common.
Despite the laws left from the revolutionary regime, some employers are refusing flatly to recognise the unions. The government takes an attitude of to smile on both the unions it is negotiating with the latter. And it is advising them to give nothing to the
The government has let it be known that trade union activities will not be permitted in businesses set up by the
The government's policy is, in fact, being entirely dictated by
The decision to extradite Chester Humphrey shows this clearly. This is highlighted still more by the deputy premier, Jones, paid two Ministry of Justice officials 10,000 dollars in US money to speed up the extradition of Chester Humphrey. wants to keep him from fighting in th TAWU against the minions of AIFED.