There are a number of things you can do to support the Namibian Mineworkers' Union. Protest against the firing of the workers and the failure of the company to negotiate in good faith by writing to Newmont Mining Corporation, 200 Park Ave., New York, NY 10166, USA. Demand an end to South African intervention in the strike by writing to State President P.W. Botha, Union Hall, Pretoria, South Africa. Messages of solidarity can be sent to the Mineworkers Union of Namibia, Box 1566, Windhoek, 9000 Namibia. *
(From the US trade-union magazine Labor Notes, October 1987.J SPANISH STATE Accords with Uncle Sam FORTY THOUSAND people demonstrated on Sunday, October 25, in Madrid against NATO. The anti-NATO movement is in good health, despite the attempts of Felipe Gonzalez and a part of the PSOE [Spanish Socialist Party] to undermine it by concealing the truth about the accords with Uncle Sam on the US military bases in the Spanish state.
This question continues, moreover, to sow discord in the PSOE. Some of the party's notables demonstrated alongside the Communist Party and the Workers' Commissions.
The US still has 12,345 soldiers and 1,669 civilian employees, as well as 196 airplanes, based on Spanish state territory, in accordance with a decree signed under the dictatorship in 1953. *
[From the October 29 issue of Rouge, paper of the French section of the Fourth International.] CUBA Debate on economy THE ITALIAN Communist Party daily l' Unità, in its October 21 issue, reported a public debate between representatives of the Cuban and Soviet Communist parties in the columns of the Soviet magazine New Times. The article, datelined Mexico 17 City, was by the paper's correspondent, November 9, 1987 • International Viewpoint
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Massimo Cavallini.
The Soviet writer Vladislav Chirkov, Cavallini wrote, presented a strong indictment. "Despite the good climatic conditions, his article says in substance that the government has still not succeeded in solving the problem of feeding the population. Almost 30 years after the revolutionary victory, it continues to resort to a system of rationing. Moreover, the productivity of labor is quite low. A third of the enterprises are operating at a loss, although the socialist countries buy Cuban raw materials at prices much higher than those prevailing on the market. The country has not managed to meet its international financial obligations."
Even these accusations were not enough for the Soviet writer, Cavallini stressed: "Chirkov's criticism even touches on one of the most sacred aspects of Cuban policy — defence. The Soviet journalist said that the government is spending sums on this out of proportion to the size of the country."
Carlos Rafael Rodriguez's reply in New Times was said to be "elegant in form but biting in substance." The Cuban leader wrote, according to Cavallini, that Chirkov had "succumbed to the temptation to repeat the generalities of US Cubanologists" by stressing only negative aspects that are "objects of criticism in Cuba, as well." The accusation of low productivity and the poor profitability of the enterprises was certainly a a real element, but they were described in superficial and anti-historical terms.
"The same accusation," Rodriguez said, "could be easily leveled against the Soviet economy, if you compared it to that of Japan, Sweden or the United States." As for defence, Rodriguez added, "there could be similar disagreements about whether or not the US intends to attack Cuba," but "the Cubans prefer a strong desteve Bel -ouC Г. HELLO JAMES! 10L.000 HELLO JASPER HELLO JULIAN! HELLO HELLO JULIAN! HELLO JAMES GEORGE! HELLO
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COr fence." Cavallini concluded with the following comment:
"It is hard to say whether the polemic is intended to end with this short, sharp exchange or to be broadened. After years of unquestionable successes, the Cuban economy is in fact in a delicate phase. Its model of economic development, based on favorable conditions of exchange with the Comecon countries, seemed to have reached a reached a limit in the past year. Owing to the fall of the dollar, the collapse of the oil price and and the poor yield of agriculture, the country has entered into a severe economic crisis. Since the middle of last year, Castro has seemed to confront the situation by taking an opposite tack to the rest of the socialist world. Many liberal reforms initiated at the start of the 1980s have been cancelled, and the emphasis has been shifted back to centralizing the management of the economy, to the role of the party, and — almost in a return to the "idealistic' phases of the 1960s — to revolutionary morality.'
"This is probably the real background to the polemics initiated in New Times. On October 8, commemorating the death of Ernesto Che Guevara in Pinar del Rio, Castro invited 'the socialist countries also to study Che's economic thought.' Many people interpreted this invitation as a veiled criticism of Gorbachev's reformism." Undoubtedly the Italian Communist Party also has its own angle on polemics over such issues between the Cuban and Soviet leaderships. * SWEDEN Garment workers victory AFTER a week-long strike, 270 garment workers at the Malmö Strumpfabrik company won a big victory on September 16.
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The firm were forced to completely retreat, and to re-employ the chair of the union, Bengt Svensson, that they had fired. They had been threatening to fire him for some time, because of his commitment to improve working conditions and low wages.
The workers at the company had become famous all over Sweden after a TV film had shown their terrible working speed and low, piece-work wages, often in extreme heat and bad conditions.
Bengt was dismissed on the pretext of causing a worker to switch off her machine for 18 minutes so that he could talk to her, thereby causing "a halt in production". '. He was also accused of "slandering" the company in a local radio programme.
Under Sweden's labour laws, companies should have verifiable reasons for dismissing a worker. On the other hand, even if the Labour Court finds that the dismissal is illegal, the company can get rid of the worker by paying a certain amount of compensation, specified in law. The dispute escalated after the company sued 143 of the garment workers for "illegally striking"
The strike received wide support from trade-union branches all over Sweden within a matter of days. A national meeting of 500 workers representing between 200,000 and 300,000 workers to discuss the fight around the coming contract negotiations (see article on page 6) became a forum to spread solidarity.
It was the determination of the strikers, and the growing solidarity from other unions, that forced the company to back down. Both Bengt and the union received damages, and the legal action against the 143 workers was withdrawn. "If we had not won, who would then dare to work as a union official?" said the garment workers. * Catharina Tirsen Cartoons by Steve Bell, from "The IF Chronicles", Methuen, London
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