This is the only slogan in line with the partial self-determination of the Palestinian people on the West Bank and in Gaza. It is the immediate goal of the uprising which could take the form of the free democratic election by the inhabitants of these territories of governmental self-determination organs. It is around these slogans - combined with that for the right of the entire Palestinian people to self-determination — that we will fight to organize active solidarity with the struggling Palestinian masses. * Hands off the Kurdish people! THOUSANDS of Kurdish civilians were killed on March 16-17 by poisonous gas delivered by Iraqi forces during an offensive by Iranian troops, supported by Kurdish nationalist guerrillas. Whole communities seem to have been exterminated. On March 25, the United Secretariat of the Fourth International, issued the following statement on this atrocity, which ranks with the atrocities of the two world wars of this century and of the US intervention in Vietnam. ONCE AGAIN the dictatorship of Saddam Hussein has resorted to the use of chemical weapons, this time against a civilian population. By diffusing deadly gas in the Kurdish town of Halabja and its environs, the Bagdad regime has shown, if this were not already clear, that there is no limit to its barbarism, especially when it is directed against other nations.
Once again, the Kurdish people has been the victim of the barbarism of its national oppressors. The new atrocity committed by the Ba'athist dictatorship is another in a list series of outrages against the Kurdish people, including those perpetrated by the Turkish, Iranian and Syrian regimes.
Subjected to these four dictatorships, the Kurdish nation is one of the most oppressed in the world. Not only is its right to independence and national unity denied by its oppressors but even the simple exercise of its cultural rights and its right to self-government in its territories.
The national emancipation of the Kurdish people is tightly bound up with overthrowing the oppressor regimes. In particular, the people of Kurdistan in Iraq and Iran need to unite their forces against the Bagdad and Tehran dictatorships, which are now busy savaging themselves in a war whose murderous madness continually grows worse.
The Fourth International unreservedly supports the right of the Kurdish nation to self-determination, as well as the struggle of the Kurdish people against its national oppressors, regardless of the policy of the 8 various leaderships of this struggle in Kurdistan. * International Viewpoint #138 • April 4, 1988
AROUND THE WORLD ITALY March 8 demonstrations INTERNATIONAL Women's Day in Italy was marked by a whole series of demonstrations in which students played a prominent role. Demonstrations were held on March 8 in 40 cities, and according to the daily press (in particular the Communist Party paper l'Unitá ), nearly 200,000 university women took part in them.
One of the dominant themes was denunciation of sexual violence against women. Incidents of rape were reported a few days before the Women's Day demonstrations in Rome, for example, and a law on sexual violence is presently under discussion in the parliament. In Milan, mobilization by women was given impetus even before the latest demonstrations by the brutal murder of a young woman last November in one of the neighborhoods of the city.
In Rome on the same day there were two demonstrations. The first, in the morning, brought out about 15,000 high-school students. The second, in the afternoon, was built by various groups, associations and organizations. It brought out an even larger number, about 20,000. Some contingents carried placards expressing solidarity with the struggle of the Palestinian women.