Milan saw its largest student and youth demonstrations since the 1986 movement. About 15,000 people participated. The demonstration was called by the FCI, the Communist Party youth organization, the youth of Democrazia Proletaria and the Revolution Youth Organization (OGR), which has a revolutionary Marxist orientation and is in political solidarity with the Liga Communista Rivoluzionaria, the Italian section of the Fourth International. The OGR played a prominent role in the course of the demonstration, and its slogans were taken up widely in various sections of the procession. * SOUTH AFRICA Protest at brutal repression ANOTHER protest on International Women's Day was that of women from Fedtraw, the Federation of Transvaal Women. Around 500 women converged on the Chamber of Mines in Johannesburg to hand in a memorandum that charged that South Africa's repressive laws were made to protect "your interests as business at the expense of human rights and democracy". The personnel at the Chamber of Mines offices refused to receive the women, allowing only a few copies of the memorandum to be thrown through a crack in the door.
The protesters went on to the British consulate offices, where they met consulgeneral John Massingham. The Weekly Mail of March 14 reported that the Fedtraw memorandum "accused the British governemnt of presenting a 'false front' to the international community when working towards resolving the South African problem; charged that the country's repressive laws were passed to protect British interests in South Africa; and slammed the British government for remaining silent when 17 extra-parliamentary organizations were banned.
"Amid the strains of hummed freedom songs filtering through the consulate's closed doors, the women demanded that Massingham make clear Britain's stand in the face of the 'continuing repression' in South Africa.
After Massingham's pathetic reply in the form of justifying Britain's anti-sanctions position, the Weekly Mail report continued: i•We are not here for rhetoric,' said a Fedtraw representative. What does Thatcher say as a woman and mother about the plight of women in South Africa?'"
The International Herald Tribune of March 9 reported that later police broke up the demonstration, briefly detaining seven press photographers and cameramen. The same edition of the newspaper carried a photo feature on its front page including the Johannesburg demonstration, a women's rally in the Philippines where women carried banners saying "Military aid = violence against women", and Palestinian women demonstrating at a refugee camp in Sidon. * WESTERN EUROPE Anti-racist campaign ANTI-RACIST and anti-fascist activists from seven Western European coun tries met in Stockholm for a European Anti-Racist Conference on Feburary 57 (see report in /V 137). The following statement was issued from the meeting:
Concerned by the rise of racism and fascism in Europe, by the conditions imposed on immigrant workers, by the restrictions placed on the right to asylum, the organiza-
tions present examined ways of combatting together racism and of promoting equal rights in Europe. They decided:
1. To do everything in their power to establish a movement which would assume the form and slogans enabling it to become a large-scale movement against racism and for equality.
2. To take all the initiatives necessary to promote the emergence of a majority antiracist current among young people across Europe: by creating base committees in schools, colleges, universities, neighbourhoods and factories.
The delegates of each country have decided to organize initiatives appropriate to the situation in their respective countries within the framework of a European Day of Action on April 23 (on the eve of the French presidential elections). On that day, anti-racist, anti-fascist and minority organizations will organize action to:
a) Draw international attention to the dangerous rise of racism and the spread of fascist ideas in France in the shape of the National Front, whose leader Jean-Marie Le Pen is a candidate in the French presidential elections. There is a similar growth in other European countries.
b) Highlight growth in racist government policies which lead to increasingly restrictive immigration laws and the inhuman treatment of refugees, especially from the so-called third world, who seek shelter in Europe from terror, persecution and death.
c) Focus attention on the violent and criminal activities of racist, fascist and neoNazi organizations in Europe who seize on the climate created by state racism to raise the temperature of hatred generally and who are closely involved in building terrorist, often armed, organizations.
3. To work towards a mass mobilization of organizations next autumn before the European elections in order to achieve the following goals:
a) Free entrance into Western Europe.
b) Equality of rights for immigrants and refugees.
c) Freedom of movement for immigrants and refugees within each country and from one country to another.
d) Full voting rights for immigrants and refugees.
4. To call for a European day of initiatives and anti-racist and anti-fascist mobilization, also calling for equal rights in each European country on March 21, the symbolic date of international action against racism in homage to the victims of South African apartheid.
Anti-racists and anti-fascists from Sweden, Norway, Denmark, France, Belgium, West Germany and Britain call on trade union, democratic and minority organizations and on all those who oppose all forms of oppression to support us in our activities.
We see these actions as only the first step towards a united mass movement against racism and fascism in Western Europe and for a Europe which can be a safe haven for refugees. *
AROUND THE WORLD • NEWS FROM THE FI
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INTERNATIONAL
Copenhagen celebration of 50th anniversary of the Fourth International
THE REPORT that follows on the upcoming commemoration in Copenhagen of the founding of the Fourth International has been condensed from the March 10 issue of Klassekampen, the paper of the Socialistisk Arbejderparti (SAP), Danish section of the Fourth International:
MANY guests from all over the world are expected in Copenhagen on May 14 for the celebration of the fiftieth anniversary of the
Fourth International.
The Copenhagen meeting is an all-Scandinavian
4. Internationale affair. One of its features will be a presentation of the campaign of the Socialist Party, Swedish sec-
1938-88 tion of the Fourth International, for the September general election in their country. It expects to do even better than in the last general election, where
INTERNATIONALI it increased its vote four-fold.