IV spoke to Gisela Hürliman, a member of the PSO and of the JSR - Provo (Revolutionary Socialist Youth), who has been a member of the national secretariat of the campaign of the Group for a
Switzerland without Arms (GSsA) for
German Switzerland since January
1989. The interview was conducted on
If, along with those who have a longer term strategy, we can hold our positions, I believe it will be possible to interest these young people in other subjects and in politics in general. Even if Swiss youth are in general apolitical, they are sensitive to questions about the Third World. A lot of them have discovered that it is not enough to give development aid because a lot more wealth is being transferred from the Third World to the industrialized countries than is going in the other direction. They know all about the laundering of drug money and so on.' We must show them that we have comprehensive answers at the national and
Swiss military have used to justify the ever growing defence sector.
The astonishment that followed the handing in of the 100,000 signaless washed out society. That is why the government is afraid of the movement, because it challenges the foundations of the pact between the Swiss people and government. • What has the attitude of the Swiss Socialist Party (SSP) been?
A real debate in the ranks of the Socialists has erupted in the media. The bourgeois parties threatened to throw the social democrats out of the government if they did not come out against the initiative. That would mean the end of, or at least a serious challenge to, the "magic formula" that has existed for 30 years.
I was at the SSP Congress which took place in an exciting and excited atmosphere. The young socialists hoped that their party would call for a vote for the initiative. The party leaders, rather more pragmatic, tried to head off the real dangers of an explosion. They wanted to maintain at least an appearance of unity. They proposed two rounds of voting. In the first, each delegate would take a personal position on the initiative. In the second the delegates would vote on what position the SSP should take when the vote came. The first round revealed a large majority in favour of the initiative, but the second decided that the SSP should take no position on the vote. It was like a balloon suddenly deflating. • What are the campaign's perspectives?
The danger is that everything will stop after November 26. A lot of young people have become politically active for the first time and have had a rather positive experience around a very radical theme. 1989 international levels to the problems of society.
Already, in several places, in Basel, Bern, Luzern and above all in on Switzerland, its history and on the role of the army in the second world war, the history of neutrality, the myth of neutrality and so on. Each week they are organizing meetings, either as the JSR — Provo or as the GSsA. The initiative also takes up the theme "Switzerland is pursuing a global peace policy".
With this formula it is also possible to discuss models of society. You can think what could be done with 10b francs per year — more money for pensions, for social security, for protection of the environment and so on. But you can also say that a global peace policy demands a different foreign policy, for example towards South Africa, by boycotting the apartheid system. Another foreign policy means another internal policy, another society and that raises the question? What type of society do we want? We are now able to discuss socialism with young people. Many have realized that it is not only as a sale that a it is ciety. 1. Elizabeth Kopp, the Justice Minister, was obliged to resign from the govemment five days after her election to the Vice Presidency by parliament on December 7, 1988. Informed of an inquiry into Sakarchi Trading about the laundering of drugs money, she was accused of having warned her husband to leave his functions as vice president and legal councillor to this firm. Furthermore, two parliamentary inquiries have been launched into the doings of some of her close collaborators and Rudolf Gerber, the Confederation's public prosecutor, head of state security, and coordinator of police inquiries into drug trafficking.
right of popular initiative that exists only in Switzerland. The film chose the GSsA's initiative as an example, demonstrating that we were even able to call for the abolition of the army. The violent reactions to this film focussed media attention on the movement.
The nearer we get to November 26, the more people are getting involved in the campaign. The total number of people who subscribe to the campaign's journal or who send money regularly is about 7,000 which is 4,000 more than last year.