Second, it was a significant meeting because it was the first time that leaders of the Black community and Obituary Juan José Gonzalez
WE RECENTLY learnt of the death of comrade Juan Jose
Gonzales, "Alvaro" of the PRT,
Mexican section of the Fourth
International. He died suddenly at the age of 35 from a heart attack.
Juan Jose was of Colombian origin. He had been active for years in building • the PRT and was a member of the Central Committee for several years and of the Political
Bureau over the last year. In 1985 he participated in the 12th World
Congress of the Fourth International as one of the delegates of traditional left leaders in the Labour Party had organized such an event jointly. In the words of Tony Benn: "What we have seen tonight is the shape of the politics of Britain in the 1990's." South Africa Boycott busting SHELL OIL, the US branch of the Royal Dutch Shell Group, has engaged the services of a company in order to defend itself against the boycott campaign by anti-apartheid activists in the USA.
The company is known as Pagan International and was involved in breaking the five-year long boycott campaign against the food multinational, Nestle, in the "Babykiller" scandal.
Pagan International is especially active in the USA, but its magazine, International Barometer, has also gathered information about anti-apartheid movements in Western Europe.
Last summer, Shell Oil signed a contract with Pagan in which it was agreed that Pagan would provide chem with research reports about the various groups involved with developments in South Africa. The initial contact was made at the beginning of last year, soon after the start of the boycott campaign in the US. Last February, Pagan International sent a letter to 110 companies in Western Europe and the US, offering its services in the fields of «research, analysis and the reviewing of themes which concern the business community" ', meaning the investigation of the activities of action and pressure groups who direct their activities against multinationals.
In 1982, Rafael D Pagan jr., managing director of Pagan International, addressed the Public Affairs Council in New York on "The struggle against the critics of multinational capitalism" . "Our objective is to separate the fanatical activist leaders -those who deny that free enterprise institutions have a legitimate role to play in the development of the third world - from the large majority of their followers - decent, concerned people who are prepared to judge us on the basis of our openness and our usefulness. Moreover, we should strip the activists of the moral authority they receive from their alliances with religious organizations." L tional as one ol the delegates or the PRT.
His main activity was in solidarity with the Nicaraguan revolution and the revolutionary movements of Central America and the Caribbean. As director of the journal Panorama he had often travelled to El Salvador, Nicaragua, Guatemala, Honduras and Panama. During one of these trips in 1985, he was kidnapped by the Nicaraguan contras on the Atlantic Coast. The Sandinista government obtained his release in exchange for prisoners.
In November 1986 Juan Jose was again in Nicaragua to join in the celebrations for the twentyfifth anniversary of the founding of the FSLN.
We join the comrades of the Mexican PRT in paying tribute to his political activity, his courage and his serenity, and share their painful loss.
Notebooks for Study and
Research
ISSUE NUMBER 2 of the Notebooks is now available. The first edition of this Marxist educational series contained a study by Ernest Mandel on "The Place of Marxism in History". The second edition is the first of a two-part study of the
Chinese Revolution by Pierre Rousset.
This deals mainly with the Second Chinese Revolution, that of 1926-27, which ended in the disasters at Shanghai,
Wuhan and Canton. It includes, in addition, a brief chronology of the republican revolution of
1911 led by Sun Vatsen; a review of little known facts about the 1921-24 period (during which the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and the Kuomintang were actually able to collaborate), and an analysis of the long-lasting effects of the defeat, notably the formation of the so-called red or "soviet" zones with their red armies; and the rise of Mao within the CCP. A final chapter entitled "The quest for the Chinese road" examines the problem of adapting Marxism to non-
European societies. These topics usefully complement the works of Trotsky and Harold Isaacs on China in 1926-27.
In Part Two (issue number 3 of the Notebooks), the author will examine to what extent the
Maoist project of the early 1930s was applied in the reality of China in the 1940s, and its contribution to the victory of 1949.
Single copies of the Notebooks are 20FF, £2, or US$3 SO. A subscription for 9 issues is 180FF, £18 or US$31
(surface mail). Add 20% to cost for airmail. Payments in French francs preferred.
Cheques to Pierre Rousset. Mail to: CERINSR, 2 rue Richard Lenoir, 93/08 Paris, France.
(Please write for information on bulk orders.)
27
International Viewpoint 23 March 1987