AROUND THE WORLD
Zambia Government retreats FOR THE first time since the country's independence in 1964 large-scale rioting : has forced the retreat of the government on the question of prices and the standard of living. It is in the copper mining region that spontaneous demonstrations have just pushed back the project to double the price of maize flour. It is a sufficiently rare event in Black Africa to deserve attention.
Of course the regime explained that the riots were • demonstrations of "hooligans" manipulated by "neocolonialist" forces.
In Zambia 90% of foreign currency returns come from copper exports, and it has been hit head-on by the fall in the price of red metal and by the crisis in the market resulting from the world recession. Furthermore, its foreign trade is dependent on commercial relations with nearby South Africa.
President Kaunda's regime proclaims itself socialist-humanist, and yet remains a completely classical example of a neo-colonial regime -repressive, autocratic and corrupt.
Zambia's relations with the imperialist market do not justify the fact that the richest 20% of the population share 57% of the national revenue, while the poorest 20% only account for 4% of it. They do not explain why agriculture and the peasants have been left aside, why the country. side is emptying so that consequently almost half the Zambian population is concentrated in the towns. doesn't explain why, out of 18 state farms each with a surface area of 20,000 hectares, only three show any semblance of production according to an official inquiry.
Music-hall socialism and whiteelephant projects combine to justify a policy designed to profit an elite and arrogant bourgeoisie. In certain areas, as a result both of a dearth of means of transport and storage and of ineffective trading, a quarter of the harvest is lost. But at the same time Zambian Airways has acquired on lease a huge DC-10 carrier; UNIP, the single party, is building itself a sumptuous office block; and the mining company ZCCM has just moved to Lusaka into a luxurious building lined with marble.
This is why the population has 26 had • enough of being told about sacrifice and austerity in the name of socialism and the national interest.O Canada Anti-intervention conference MORE THAN 140 people took part in the Toronto Anti-Intervention Coalition (TAIC) conference, held on November 15-16, 1986. Participants represented different sectors of the international solidarity movement in Toronto, the peace movement, church groups, student organizations and the labour movement. There were also representatives from cities in Southern Ontario, Saskatchewan, British Colombia, Montreal and the United States.
The conference began with a call for action against United States intervention in Central America. In his opening address, the TAIC chairperson emphasized that "the Pentagon's use of the term low-intensity war is an attempt to hide Washington's involvement in a full-scale war" The conference's aim was to rally all social protest movements across Canada against US intervention. Consequently, TAIC put an emphasis on rallying the entire peace movement around a clear anti-war position. The conference also demanded that the Canadian government go on record against US intervention.
TAIC put forth a plan for action to achieve these goals: cross-Canada demonstrations against intervention on May 9; to support the April 25 demonstrations against intervention in Washington by sending a delegation; a campaign demanding that the Canadian government condemn United States intervention and increase aid and trade with Nicaragua.
The key conference debate centred around the plan to hold a panCanadian demonstration against intervention in Central America on May 9. All the speakers emphasized the need to conduct united mass actions and to better coordinate our work across Canada.
Finally, all the delegates present approved the TAIC plan for action with some changes, and formed an Ad Hoc Liason Committee with representatives from TAIC and other Canadian cities, with a mandate to publicize the conference's plan for action and help build May 9 on a pan-Canadian basis. It is essential that the entire labour, peace and solidarity movement take up the call and organize demonstrations against US intervention in Central America this coming spring. D
Alain Bernatcher/Barry Weisleder Britain Alliance for socialism THE SECOND "Building an Alliance for Socialism" conference organized by supporters of the newspaper Socialist Action in London on November 22/23 drew over 600 people.
The conference was opened by a range of British and international speakers. Joining Member of Parliament Tony Benn on the platform were Marc Wadsworth of the Labour Party Black Section, Ann Pettifor from the Labour Women's Action Committee, John Ross for Socialist Action, striking printworker John Lang and speakers from the South African ANC and the FMLN/FDR of El Salvador.
Tony Benn captured the mood of the weekend when he said that what people were interested in discussing was not rhetoric but the systematic hard work that the left was doing. This sentiment, and the theme of building an alliance for socialism, was given flesh and blood by the wide range of speakers and workshop discussions.
Saturday afternoon saw Linda Bellos, leader of Lambeth Labour council, Betty Heathfield of Women tor end t Against Pit Closures and Ann Pettifor leading a discussion on the way forward for women in the labour movement. Simultaneously, workshops were being held on justice for mineworkers, the fight for sanctions against South Africa and for British withdrawal from Ireland.
These were followed by sessions on the strategy of ANC, Thatcherism and the Social Democratic Party, why Britain must withdraw from NATO, Labour's youth movements, the teachers' strike and Chile since the coup.
Sunday saw workshops on the politics of Sinn Fein led by Sinn Fein councillor Padraig O Maolchraoibhe, fighting the witch hunt of the left in the Labour Party, lesbian and gay rights and on nuclear power. International Viewpoint 26 January 1987
Central America, Palestine, the fight for full employment and the environment were also discussed.
The highlight of Sunday afernoon was undoubtedly the session on the fight against racism, attended by around 300 people. The leader of Haringey Labour Council, Bernie Grant, spoke on the need for selforganization and positive action for Black people inside the labour movement and in local communities. While concentrating his speech on the situation in Britain, he made an appeal for an international perspective in fighting racism and oppression:
"When we talk about attacks on Black people and about defending the Black community, as far as Black people are concerned we're talking about the international Black community. Unless South Africa is free then Black people in this country are not going to be free." Britain Viraj Mendis must stay! AFTER LIVING in Britain for 13 years, Sri Lankan-born Viraj Mendis is being threatened with immediate deporation by the Home Office. Viraj had his final appeal against the deportation decision rejected by Tory Immigration Minister David Waddington on December 18. Since then, he has taken refuge in a church in the Hulme area of Manchester, a predominantly Black and poor area, where the majority of the local people are supporting his campaign against deportation. Viraj explained:
"The British government wants to deport me to Sri Lanka because of my political activities, because of my involvement in anti-deportation campaigns in the fight against racism and the immigration laws. In Manchester, the campaigns against deportation have reached a national significance and have been successful the last three years.
"The immigration laws are made in such a way that I can be deported, just because I am Black. At the moment, 50 Black people are deported each week.
"The Home Office will now go to the extreme to deport me to Sri Lanka, where I will face persecution and perhaps execution. Even if I am not a Tamil, I have for many years as a Sinhalese communist supported the Tamils' right to self-determination and their right to use armed struggle in order to achieve that."
The Viraj Mendis Defence Campaign has won broad support both in Britain and internationally to prevent this deportation, but more is urgently needed in order to force the Home
Office to reverse its decision.
Protest letters can be sent to: David Waddington, Home Office, Queen Anne's Gate, London SW1 OAA. Copies of letters should be sent to the defence campaign, which can be contacted c/o North Hulme Centre, Jackson Crescent, Hulme, Manchester M15 5AL. Donations to the campaign are also needed.
Finn Jensen USA Socialist Action convention DELEGATES and guests from all over the country attended the second national convention of Socialist Action at the end of November.
Socialist Action was founded three years ago, and is in political solidarity with the Fourth International. Since then, it has consolidated branches in many parts of the USA.
In a wide-ranging discussion, delegates spoke of SA's participation in building mass-action protests against apartheid and the US intervention in Central America. The San Francisco anti-war coalition's successful work in bringing tens of thousands of people into the streets was put forward as a model for the national anti-war and anti-apartheid demonstrations proposed for April 25 of this
Convention reports also noted SA's role in helping to provide food caravans and to build solidarity for the Hormel strikers.
In the political report approved by the convention, SA national committee member Carl Finnamore emphasized that an unprecedented potential exists to mobilize the labor movement in political protests.
An international report, given by Socialist Action editor Alan Benjamin, highlighted the recent struggles in countries as diverse as South Africa, Poland, Haiti, the Philippines, France and throughout Latin America.
An international rally was held the same weekend around the theme of struggles in Central America and Europe. Carmen Olivares, a Nicaraguan journalist, spoke on the struggle against the US-backed contras. There were also reports from SA members who had recently visited Nicaragua and El Salvador.
Other speakers at the rally included Al Lannon, president of warehouse workers Local 6, ILWU; Ralph Schoenman, who spoke on the fight for socialist democracy in Poland; and Claudio Giuliano, who gave greetings to the rally from the United Secretariat of the Fourth International.
... continued from page 28 even greater practical meaning. Under the impetus of the present situation, the Chinese people must, through broad mass mobilization, force the authorities to grant immediately the following demands:
1. Release the Democratic Movement activists who have been arrested now and in the past and guarantee them a normal life.
2. Pledge that the population can enjoy freedom of expression, publication, assembly, association, freedom of movement and to demonstrate, and that the nation must provide sufficient resources and facilities so that people can exercise these freedoms.
3. Change the electoral law, guaranteeing the people's right to elect their representatives and to be elected as representatives. National representatives and the assemblies of peoples' representatives at every level must everywhere be selected through popular democratic vote.
4. That the members of official bodies be democratically elected in people's assemblies or assemblies of people's representatives. The members of official bodies must be subject to popular control, enjoy no prerogatives and be subject to recall at any time. A system of rotation must be set up.
5. Eliminate the system of direction by party committees. Democratic self-management must be set up, based on assemblies of representatives of organizations in the factories, enterprises, agricultural collectives and the schools.
6. Eliminate one-party dictatorship. Freedom for parties. Every party must enjoy equal rights. Call for unity
We call on the people of the country to unite, to form national organizations to fight for democracy, to put an end to bureaucratic despotism and to achieve socialist democracy through a long-term struggle.
We appeal to our compatriots in Hong Kong, Taiwan, Macao and overseas to offer active solidarity to the struggle of the people in the Chinese homeland fighting for democracy and for advancing the democratization of China.
The fight for democracy has already advanced a long way in Asia, Europe and Latin America. The people's forces are growing steadily throughout the world.
We are convinced that the Chinese people and all the oppressed peoples of the world will march together, mutually reinforce each other and win full liberation.
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International Viewpoint 26 January 1987