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Runway'. He is facing charges the November 15, 1981, are attempted coercion of demonstrated el m m
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The Union for Protection of Nature, Committee for Basic Rights and Democracy, the Committee for Solidarity with A.Schubart, the Republican Union of Lawyers in Hessen and the Union of Trial Lawyers in Hessen have signed a common appeal outlining the case, and demanding that Schubart is acquitted and his job restored.
West German
youth
against cuts
"Jobs not Bombs -All Out to the demonstrations on 23 October!". That was the headline of the latest issue of the West German revolutionary socialist youth paper roter Maulwurf (Red Mole). The comrades from the local Maulwurf groups participated in the big anti-austerity demonstrations of that day throughout West Germany. With 150,000 participating in Stuttgart, 100,000 in Dortmund, 60,000 in Frankfurt, and 50,000 in Nurnberg these were the largest trade union demonstrations in West Germany for years. They took up slogans against the new Christian Democrat-Liberal government and against the minister for social services, Norbert Nlum, in particular.
This issue of the newspaper roter Maulwurf is the fourth to have appeared The first came out for the 300,000 strong demonstration against nuclear weapons in Bonn on October 10, 1981. Since then Maulwurf groups have been set up in eight cities in West Germany, with a total of around 70 people. Militants from the local groups have been active in the peace movement, in housing actions, and in the movements of solidarity with Central America and with Solidarnose in Poland. The Maulwurf groups, in a summer camp in the Emsland region of northern Germany, to undertake with also discussed what autumn activities comrades from their sister organisations Rebel (Netherlands), Jeune Garde Socialiste (Belgium), and Maulwurf (Switzerland).
During October the Maulwurf groups held a series of meetings to commemorate the 15th anniversary of the death of Che Guevara. These were attended by 200 people in Freiburg, 100 in Hamburg and Munich, and 25-50 in the other cities where they were held. 1,000 people also came to a rock concert held after the meeting in Freiburg.
The main work the Maulwurf groups have put forward for the autumn is to strengthen their work inside the trade unions, in the schools, and in particular inside the peace movement. In November there will be "weeks of action" by all the local peace groups in West Germany. In December demonstrations to all the localities where the new US nuclear missiles will be deployed in 1983. To participate in these, the Maulwurf groups have launched a campaign on the slogan of "Jobs not bombs, " with the demands that all government spending on missiles and conventional weapons should be stopped, that new jobs should be created by expanding social spending, and that massive jobs training programs for young people should be introduced
These campaigns, and the autumn meetings that were held, show the progress made in working to establish a revolutionary socialist youth organisation in West Germany in the last year.
Save the lives
of Kuttimani
and Jegan
Two young Tamil nationalists, Kuttimani and Jegan, have been sentenced to death in Ceylon on the basis of confessions extorted by sentence was handed down by one of the special courts set up by the Prevention of Terrorism Act, which do not recognize the rights of the defense established in common law.
The rule that defendants cannot be convicted on the basis of self-incrimination is one of the fundamental principles of common law, on which Ceylonese jurisprudence is also based. It was established precisely to eliminate the practice of extorting confessions by torture.
This attack on the democratic rights of the Tamil people, who make up 11% of the population of Ceylon and are concentrated in the plantation country in the north, comes in the framework of a general offensive against democratic rights by the right-wing United National Party Government.
The* Revolutionary Marxist Party (RMP), Ceylonese section of the Fourth International has called for a massive campaign to save the lives of Kuttimani and Jegan and to win the release of all motions of protest should be sent to J. R. Jayewardene, Colombo, Sri Lanka.
The following statement was adopted October 12 by the Bureau of the United Secretariat of the Fourth International. The death sentence imposed by a Sri Lankan court on two young Tamil nationalists - Kuttimani and Jegan — who were tried under the draconian Prevention of Terrorism Act is yet another in a long series of attacks on the Tamil nation by successive Sri Lankan governments. The oppression of Tamil speaking people over many decades resulted in the emergence of a movement calling for the establishment of a separate state of Eelam in their traditional homelands. The continual harassment and virtual occupation of the Tamil areas by the state security forces as well as frequent racial pogroms unleashed on the Tamil-speaking people resulted in the growth of a resistance movement which recognised the need for self-defence against state-sponsored violence.
Kuttimani and Jegan have been singled out for execution in order to intimidate and terrorise those who support the right of self-defence and advocate the right of self-determination by the Tamil nation in Sri Lanka.
The trial itself was an obvious frame-up. They were denied the jury trial which is officially open to every person charged with a serious crime in Sri Lanka. Moreover their convictions were entirely based on 'confessions' exacted whilst they were being held in an army camp and by means of torture.
At their trial witnesses gave detailed evidence of the manner in which they were tortured by the army and the police. They were repeatedly beaten, hung by their feet, metal rods inserted in their anuses, forced to inhale choking powder etc. Despite this and despite the fact that the Court of Appeal had in an earlier case accepted the charge that violence had been used against suspects held under the Prevention of Terrorism Act, the court held that it does not appear probable that' the two accused had been assaulted or tortured. It is well known that the torture and third degree methods of interrogation are used by the police in Sri Lanka.
Even the trial judge, however, admitted that these youths had been held in a "secluded and a lonely place' , without access to friends, relations or lawyers' and 'amongst armed and unarmed without knowing how long they would be in custody'. And he went on to consider whether those facts themselves would not make the alleged statements accused inadmissable in evidence. But he concluded that the provisions of the Prevention of Terrorism Act did not permit him to make that ruling
Tamils in Sri Lanka have been subjected to a long series of repressive measures. These began with the disenfranchisement of the 1.2 million plantation workers in 1948, and the imposition of Sinhala, the language of the majority, as the official language. In the recent past the frequenthe intensity of anti-Tamil pogroms have increased. Twice within the last five years — in August 1977 and June to August 1981 - Tamil people have been brutally attacked and their property racist mobs organised and encouraged by the ruling United National
The Fourth International draws attention to the fact that these racist attacks in particular and Sinhala chauvinism in
general have greatly increased after the the outcome of this strike was a big
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1 Year Countries Surface mail Air mail Europe • 175 FF 195 FF Asia 175 FF 270 FF Middle East 175 FF 195 FF Africa 175 FF 240 FF North Africa (Algeria Morocco, Egypt, Lybia,...) 175 FF 195 FF The Americas 175 FF 240 FF
6 months Countries Surface mail Air mail Europe 95 FF Asia 95 FF Middle East 95 FF Africa 95 FF North Africa (Algeria, Morocco, Egypt, Lybia,...) 95 FF The Americas 95 FF FF95 US Dol. 16 Can Dol. 19 FF105 £10 US Dol. 19 FF130 £12 US Dol. 22 Can Dol. 26 FF145 814 US Dol. 25 Can Dol. 29 FF175 $16 US Dol. 31 Can Dol. 37 FF195 £18 US Dol. 37. Can Dol. 40 FF240 S22 US Dol. Can Dol. 49 FF270 £25 US Dol. 47 Can Dol. 55 26 traditional working class party in Sri Lanka, the Lanka Sama Samaja Party, abandoned its class independence and adopted a class collaborationist perspective. It abandoned at the same time its demand for citizenship rights to Tamil plantation workers and parity of status for Sinhala and Tamil.
The policy of racial discrimination and repression followed by the UNP government today is part of their attack on the Sir Lankan workers and peasants and the oppressed masses in general. The government is at one and the same time seeking to set Sinhala and Tamil workers and peasants against each other and to erode human and democratic rights in order to facilitate the interests of imperialism and
The Revolutionary Marxist Party, Sri Lanka section of the Fourth International, has consistently opposed the racist policies of successive capitalist governments in Sri Lanka and stands for the self-determination of the Tamil nation up to and including secession. Furthermore it defends the right of the oppressed Tamil nation to take whatever steps are necessary to defend themselves against racial violence.
The United Secretariat of the Fourth International condemns the death sentence imposed on Kuttimani and Jegan and calls upon the Sri Lankan government to rescind the hanging immediately, to release all political prisoners and to repeal the Prevention of Terrorism Act.
The Tamil bourgeois parties and politicians, such as the Tamil United Liberation Front - have been proved to be bankrupt in the face of continued repression of Tamil speaking people and also to have sacrificed the interest of the Tamil masses to their narrow parliamentary ends. This places a heavy responsibility on the shoulders of the workers and peasants of Sri Lanka to struggle against the discrimination and oppression directed against the Tamil-speaking people.
Ceylon workers
win important
-victory
The workers at the Paranthan Chemical Corporation plant in nothern Ceylon won a major victory on September 6 after a ten-month-long strike, one of the most determined actions in the history of the Cevionese labor movement.
This strike had a broader significance for two reasons. First this is a nationalized company, and the right-wing bourgeois governments that have ruled the country during the last decade had succeeded in seriously undermining the union movement in the state sector. So, victory for trade union rights in the state
Secondly, the strike took place in the Tamil area and offered an example of the unity of workers of both the Senhalese
The main demands of the workers were the following:
1. Reinstatement of all banned trade-union leaders and other workers associations with trade-union action in the
2. Restoration of the trade-union offices situated in the factory premises.
3. The right of "casual" to belong to trade unions and their right
4. No victimization of trade union officials by indiscriminate transfers.
basis of these demands, they voted unanimously to launch the strike on November 27, 1981.
The attempt of the bosses to victimize trade-union officials was defeated. All the "permanent" workers on strike, including the fifteen branch union leaders of the
Merchantile Union reported for work on September 9.
The question of the "casual workers" was not settled by the strike, since the general situation in the state sector was under the shadow of the presidential elections that have since taken place. In Ceylon, tremendous powers are concentrated in the hands of the president.
The CMU organized a picketing campaign in support of the Paranthan struggle in Colombo and its suburbs in April 1982. When it became clear that the strike would be prolonged, the CMU organized a one-day general strike on July 14, 1982. Later, the week beginning August was declared to be "Paranthan Struggle Week" by the CMU. This period was marked by several short stoppages of work by thousands of CMU members, mass picketing campaigns, a second one-day general strike, and a mass rally in Colombo on August 27, 1982.
### Bombay strike
On October 18, the strike by 250,000 Bombay textile workers entered its tenth month. Despite the long war of attrition against the government, which is the target of the strike, the workers' morale reportedly remains high. Many of them have been able to survive only by going to live with relatives in the countryside
The workers are demanding pay parity with heavy industry, an evening-out of the annual workload, and standards for working conditions throughout the industry. They are also demanding the scrapping of the reactionary Industrial Relations Act and recognition of their union.
The textile workers participated actively in the August 19, 1982, street demonstrations in Bombay, sparked by discontented policemen. As a result 26 workers are in jail. Repressive attacks on the strikers are increasing.