GULF CRISIS
Stens forward for antiwar movement
S INCE the end of August there have been demonstrations in most of the big cities of the Spanish state (see IV 190). On September 16, a number of actions took place throughout the country, at the call of a national committee against the imperialist intervention. Some 400 to 500 people demonstrated in Madrid, several hundred in Cadiz (against the departure of conscripts). The committee has drawn in most of the far left, along with peace, anti-militarist and women's groups. The Communist Party (hiding under the label of United Left) has finally come out clearly for the recall of the imperialist troops, but is manoeuvring over the question of united action. The CP was involved in the preparatory committees for September 16, but pulled out of joint activity over the inclusion of an appeal for insubordination. The Young Communists were nonetheless present on the demonstrations. SOME 3,000 people attended a meeting in New York on September 13 to call for which some activists in the Coalition consider is insufficiently critical of Iraq. AMID rumours of a right-wing counter-demonstration, plans are under way for a united anti-war demonstration in Amsterdam in Holland on September 29. Efforts are being made to involve the major Dutch peace movement in this action. THE West German far left has organized a series of meetings with the Communist Party and unions, including the powerful metalworkers union, demanding the recall of the NATO troops from the Persian Gulf and against the West German government's support for the war-drive. For the West German government to send forces to the Gulf legally it would be necessary to change the constitution, which forbids the deployment of West German armed forces outside NATO territory. A BIG demonstration is being plarned in Belgium out of a meeting to be held on October 5. This initiative is being supported by big Flemish and Walloon peace movements, the Flemish Greens and other an end to the US -led an end to the ITS -led wardrive. Actions have also taken place in many US cities. On September 18 a National Coalition for Peace in the Middle East was formed, drawing in activists from throughout the USA. Leading figures from the Rainbow Coalition, associated with the Rev. Jesse Jackson took part in the meeting, although not as official representatives of the Rainbow Coalition. There was a discussion at the meeting over Whether to include the call for Iraqi withdrawal from Kuwait in the platform - this was finally included by a 2-1 vote.
The Coalition is drawing up plans for a rapid response in case war breaks out, and is considering how to mobilize for the October 20 demonstrations called by a New York-based group,
Workers block military deployment
MORE than 4,000 tons of military equipment, including armour, has been leaving the French port of Toulon since September 20. But the dispatch has been disrupted by a strike by sailors from the largest French trade union federation, the CGT. closely tied to the French Communist Party (PCF). The sailors stopped work to condemn the requisitioning of civilian ships and their crews for the war.
The CT's national ports and docks federation has condemned the decision to use merchant vessels and requisition merchant crews for milltary ends. * It has called on "the port workers to refuse to be a part of decisions dictated by the log-
Ic of war."
Furthermore Corsican sailors affiliated to the
Independent natlonalist union, the STC blocked the sailing of a car ferry from Bastia to Marseilles for four hours, demanding a daily risk payment of
1,224 francs.
These are the first significant signs of the workers movement taking practical steps to resist the "logic of war" entered Into by President Mitterrand.
While the CT has stated that "In the Gulf affair, there is no justification for the over-armament of the region, nor the requisition of civilian ships and their crews" , the CGT and the PCF continue to demand the application of the United Nations resolutions, Including those on the blockade of Iraq. Meanwhile, a demonstration for the recall of French forces took place in Paris on September 8, drawing 5 about 2,000 people, mostly from the far left. *
GULF CRISIS
Tunisia — popular support for Iraq
THE bulk of the population and opposition forces have taken up a position of support to Saddam Hussein to one degree or another. Arab nationalist sentiment has revived.
A "Committee against aggression and in support of Iraq" has been formed on the initiative of the General Union of Tunisian Workers (UGTT) the single union centre in which the whole left, including the Trotskyists are participating. Public meetings, leafletting and demonstration have been taking place throughout the country. Trade unions have been refusing to handle British and American goods.
The government has maintained a position of embarrassed neutrality. The
Arab summit in Cairo has been boycotted, but the August 14 demonstration was repressed. At least 46 fundamentalists and 14 militants of the far left were arrested and a far left journal, Elbadil has been provisionally closed down.
The government is not the only one to have been walking the high wire. The Communist Party will pay for snubbing Arab national feelings by losing a part of its base. The fundamentalists, meanwhile, are torn between their pro-Iraqi supporters and their Saudi paymasters. They have swung about wildly, from denouncing the invasion to supporting Saddam Hussein, and from justifying the Saudi's appeal for imperialist aid to denouncing the presence of the "eaters of pork and drinkers of alcohol" in the holy places. For each leader, a different position! *
(JRCL) has been organizing pickets and protests — as yet small — demanding no arms and no money for the intervention. A organizations, including the SAP/POS, Belgian section of the Fourth International.
The Gulf crisis has sealed the break between the Flemish social democrats (SP) and the peace movement, in which the SP once played an important role. In 1987, the SP led an active campaign against military participation in the mili-
On September 14, the Japanese government voted $3b in money plus material support for the wardrive. Under the existing Japanese constitution, Japan cannot send troops to fight abroad. However, there is said to be discussion within the government about changing this.
The Japanese far left, including the Japanese section of the Fourth International demonstration in support of these demands is planned for October 7. The Japanese Communist Party supports these demands but has yet to take action. The Socialist Party on the other hand has supported the Japanese government line.
Nonetheless opinion polls indicate that around 50% of Japanese people do not support their country's involvement in the Gulf crusade * tary escalation in the Gulf.
anese section ot the Fourth International
Gulf crusade *
This time it has been swallowed up by the Holy Alli-
The end of Swedish neutrality?
ance. IN Britain, an antiwar demonstration in London on September 15 drew over 5,000 people, receiving coverage on national TV and radio. The Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND), the main British peace organization, was divided over the call for the immediate withdrawal of troops, supported by the Campaign Against War in the Gulf (CAWG), the main force behind the demonstration. The bulk of the demonstration was made up of the far left and independents, although Labour MPs and Ken Cameron of the Fire Brigades Union spoke from the platform. A conference against the war-drive is being planned by CAWG and pickets of the US Embassy are being held. JAPAN has been under great pressure from the United States to get involved in the imperialist 6 intervention in the Gulf.
Sweden was the first country in the world to publicly adhere to the UN sanctions against Iraq. In the big mass media, however, an intense campaign has been waged to draw Sweden even further into support for the Imperialist mobilization. In the first weeks of August, for instance, conservative politicians and bourgeois mass media attacked the Soclal Democratic government for "cowardice" , since it was not Immedi-
Lately prepared to send troops to the Persian Gulf.
The government's answer was to send 50 million crowns (85m) as financial aid to the refugee camps in Jordan. At the same time, however, it declared that it would be willing to send troops later as part of a UN contingent.
In spite of right wing criticism of this measure, it can in no way be pictured as a radical step from the government. For a country so proud of its policy of non-alignment, for a Social Democratic party world famous for Its support for third world aspirations and "North-South dialogue" . the present alignment behind imperialism's campaign is quite conspicuous.
it also reflects a general right wing turn of foreign policy, following the current campaign to bring Sweden Into the Common Market. Some weeks ago, the director of Volvo, P. G. Gyllenhammar wrote an article arguing in favour of abandoning the traditional policy of neutrality. His pretext was Iraq but his immediate goal was to speak in favour of EC membership.
There have been very few voices publicly challenging this view. Early in the conflict representatives of the Left Party (VS - formerly the Communist Party) supported the UN measures. The editorial of the party paper also greeted the new "vigour" shown by the UN, only regretting that the USA cannot be seen as "reliably" defending human rights.
The Socialist Party, the Swedish section of the Fourth International has argued against Swedish participation in the war elforts, even in the disguise of the UN. A decJaration from the party national committee denounces the UN sanctions as another form of maintaining Imperialist control over oil resources and military strategic positions. The SP however stresses that this does not mean support for the Iraqi dictatorship or its assault on Kuwait and raises the demand that Hussein's troops are withdrawn from Kuwait as well as Kurdistan. *
International Viewpoint #190 • September 17, 1990