NEWS FROM THE FOURTH INTERNATIONAL WESTERNEUROPE Euro-election results ELECTIONS for the 518 seats in the European parliament were held on June 18, with a number of the Fourth International's sections standing candidates and participating in slates:
• In Belgium, the Socialist Workers' Party (POS/SAP) won 10,116 votes in Wallonia (compared to 10,471 in 1984). In Flanders, the section participated in a joint slate, the Regenboog, which won 26,471 votes. This alliance also included the Belgian Communist Party (KPB); Doorbraak, a wing of the Christian workers' movement; and a series of well-known cultural, intellectual and trade-union personalities.
In spite of the unitary nature of the Regenboog campaign, it was still unable to make a real breakthrough as an alternative left force, in spite of some significant results, notably 1.4% in Antwerp and 1.1% in Ghent. Nevertheless, the Regenboog slate was able to show that it represented a real perspective to the left of the Socialist Party. The other main far-left organization, the Belgian Workers' Party (PTB, of Maoist origin), refused to participate in the Regenboog and its vote fell generally.
• In Italy, the list presented by Democrazia Proletaria included comrades from the Italian section of the Fourth International, the Revolutionary Communist League (LCR). The slate won 1.3% of the vote. but The slate won 1.3% of the vote, but lost support in Rome and Milan to the Greens' "Rainbow" slate, which won 2.4%. (This latter list was supported by some of DP's leaders -see /Vs 163 & 164.)
• In Greece, the International Communist Organization (OKDESpartakos) won 7,500 votes, or 0.1%.
• In Portugal, the comrades in the Revolutionary Socialist Party (PSR) won 32,000 votes, or 0.8%, winning 4,000 votes more than in the previous Euro-election. Their results included 4,000 votes in Oporto and 8,000 in Lisbon, where they won votes at the expense of the UDP, an organization of Maoist origin, whose vote fell from 80,000 in 1984 to 44,000 in this election.
• Finally, the Revolutionary Socialist Party in Luxemburg practically doubled its vote, with just over 0.6% of the poll. * 9 July 31, 1989 • #168 International Viewpoint
-FRANCE Anti-imperialism? Ça ira! AN ESTIMATED 30,000 people marched through the centre of Paris on July 8 demanding the abolition of the third world debt, and an end to colonialism and apartheid in South Africa. The target of their indignation was the summit of the leaders of the world's seven richest coun tries that took place on July 14-15 in Paris, an event which many saw as an insult to the memory of the French Revolution.
The demonstration, supported by a wide range of organizations and individuals (see /V 166), represented a massive united mobilization against imperialism. The largest contingent on the march — over 5,000 people — was that of the Ligue communiste révolutionnaire (LCR, French section of the Fourth International) and its sister youth organization, the JCR. In the evening around 200,000 peo-
US Spanish language a ple enjoyed a free concert at the Place de la Bastille. The following day militants met to discuss and hear speakers on the three themes of the protest, among them Portugal's Otelo de Carvalho.
The spontaneous enthusiasm of the march and concert were a welcome contrast to the pompous and elitist official celebrations of the bicentenary of the French Revolution which took place the following weekend.The mobilization was widely discussed in the French media and stirred debate in the ranks of France's ruling Socialist Party. French President Mitterrand was reportedly angered by this challenge to his pose as a friend of the third world.
At the end of the weekend well-known French writer Gilles Perrault announced the launch of an international appeal aimed at bringing together "the vast movement on every continent in favour of the cancellation of the debt". * A "security threat"!
MARK CURTIS, a member of the Socialist Workers' Party sentenced to 25 years on trumped-up charges of burglary and sexual assault, has been refused the right to receive material in languages other than English, even language manuals and dictionaries, by the prison authorities.
Curtis, who speaks Spanish, worked in a plant where there were many Spanish-speaking workers. He was badly beaten up by police at the time of his arrest because of his association with Hispanics. A campaign of protest against this prohibition has forced the prison officials to retreat. The following article is from the June 23 issue of The Militant, a weekly that reflects the point of view of the Socialist Workers' Party:
On June 13, authorities at the state prison in Anamosa, Iowa, finally turned over his Spanish-English dictionary and 501 Spanish Verbs to political frame-up victim Mark Curtis...Prison officials had argued that non-English materials are a "security" threat because the prison does not have the personnel to review such literature.
"This victory in the fight to allow Curtis and other prisoners to receive written materials in languages other than English is a result of the international protest campaign we've waged for the past month," said Defense Committee leader John Gaige.
"This success should cause all of us to redouble our efforts to flood the warden's office with protests demanding that Curtis — and all prisoners — be allowed all non-English language material of their choice, including material that had been previously denied."
Protests should be addressed to: John A. Thalacker, Warden, Iowa State Men's Reformatory, Anamosa, Iowa 52205. Copies to: Attorney General Thomas J. Miller, Hoover State Office Building, Des Moines, Iowa 50319; Paul Grossheim, Director of the Department of Corrections, Capitol Annex, 523 E. 12th St., Des Moines, Iowa 50309; and the Mark Curtis Defense Committee, Box 1048, Des Moines, Iowa 50311.
USSP Bureaucracy faces widening crisis GORBACHEV's reform project seems to have reached a turning point with the miners' strikes. In interviews broadcast over Soviet TV on July 20, strike leaders indicated that they had no intention of disbanding the strike committees. GERRY FOLEY
HE miners' action comes in the context of a general crisis of perestroika and reflects it. In the last period, statements by Soviet officials have more and more acknowledged that there is disappointment with the reforms. In an interview in Pravda of July 17, for example, Minister of the Interior V.V. Bakatin, while defending perestroika as the only solution, pointed to a generally worsening social situation:
"Legal, financial and [labor] contractual discipline has fallen. Crime has increased. At times, outrageous economic waste has appeared... The cooperatives milieu has offered new possibilities for criminal elements. Speculation has increased shortages. Inflation is growing....A sharp social differentiation according to income has begun".
"Polarization and differentiation accelerating"
In his June 18 report to the Central Committee, Gorbachev himself said: "The fact is that criticism and discontent with perestroika are growing. A polarization and differentiation...is accelerating."
In this context, the Soviet chief has tried to present the demands of the miners as in effect calling for a speedup in perestroika. One demand of the miners, however, Gorbachev felt compelled to challenge openly. In his report to the Central Committee on July 18, he noted that the strik10 ers were demanding the suppression of certain cooperatives. "Shutting them International Viewpoint #168 • July 31, 1989