Towards a step forward for the European peace movement
This stepping up of the wardrive has been aided by the counterrevolutionary policy of the Soviet bureaucracy. Every day the Kremlin entangles itself more in the trap of the arms race by responding to the American arms buildup with its own ruinous and ineffective build up. The Soviet bureaucrats have just announmovement activists will meet in Perugia,
Fifteen hundred peace
Italy, July 17 to 21.
This is the third international conference for nuclear disarmament, following those in Brussels 1982, and Berlin 1983. (1) On the agenda will be a number of important discussions for the future fight
Particularly important will be the discussion of the Mediterranean and
Nato, as well as solidarity with struggles in the Third World and Eastern
Europe (see following article). One of the main discussions will also be on the evolution of the international situation and the 'strategies of opposi-
', given the latest American initiatives. This is a debate in most of the European peace movements.
These decisive questions have, to be sure, provoked divergences, often deep ones.
Such controversies testify to both the seriousness of the peace movements and their decisive place in the current strategic debates in
But, above and beyond this aspect, what has to be discussed is how to find the ways to wage a vigorous campaign in the autumn with huge unified mobilisations centred on opposition to the deployment of
Cruise and Pershing missiles and the demand for those already installed
The stunning success of the self-organised referendum in West Germany on June 17, supported by more than five million of those who voted in the European elections, bears witness to the immense support enjoyed by the peace movements. (See box.) The scope of recent actions in Britain, the Spanish state and the Netherlands points to the same conclusion:
it is possible to build enormous demonstrations in October 1984!
Revolutionary Marxist activists of the peace movement, and a delegation of the United Secretariat of the Fourth International, will take part in the Perugia conference, defending their own analysis of the different questions under discussion.
But, above all, they will argue against all those who wish to challenge it, for the necessity and the possibility of building determined mass actions against the war and austerity plans that the governments of capitalist Europe are trying to impose.
Jacqueline ALLIO and Jean-Louis MICHEL
Ronald Reagan declared in Dublin, just before the London summit of the seven imperialist powers, that 'he
"prepared to halt and even reverse" the deployment of US-built medium range nuclear missiles in Western Europe if the US and the USSR could reach a satisfactory arms-control agreement'. (Time, stated that the US had no intention of sending American Marines to the Gulf.
Has Reagan the warmonger changed his
If anyone would like to think so, they are going to be disillusioned! Imperialist spokespersons have always been quick to make soothing speeches when they think that they can gain any thing that way.
And this is an election year in the United
States, after all. To be convinced of the
American president's real intentions, it is enough to compare these words with a series of facts that tell quite a different
There is the new provocation by the
Pentagon, for example, which now claims
International Viewpoint 16 July 1984 that the 572 Euromissiles planned for installation will not be weigh the Soviet missiles, American generals are affirming their determination to install more. Or, take admission of the American government that it might well go beyond the Salt II agreements on the number of multiple warhead missiles if 'the international situation and the security needs of the United States' require it. Or the decision to speed tip the second phase of Pershing installation in West Germany. adoption this spring by the Nato planning commission of seven new major convenweapons programmes. insistence by the American defence secretary at the Brussels summit last month, that the other imperialist powers of the Atlantic Alliance increase their contributions to the Nato budget, in particular to meet the growing costs of beefing up and expanding American bases in Europe.
The US's recent military success in intercepting an intercontinental warhead is not very reassuring either. no doubt that the Reagan government, raising the spectre of the Soviet 'menace' once again, will use this 'first' to put ced an increase in the number of nuclear submarines off the American coast. have forced the people of East Germany and Czechoslovakia to accept an increasing number of engines of death on their soil, announcing the deployment of new missiles in East Germany. They repress all those who try to organise independently of the official committees fight for peace.
These bureaucrats practise the art of
Did not Konstantin nenko call on the Americans to show 'a will to negotiate' after the success of their anti-ballistic missile in order, as he said, 'to prevent the militarisation of space'? But hadn't he threatened Bettino Craxi, the Italian head of government on a visit to Moscow, that if the Western powers launched a nuclear attack, Union would make Italy a desert? Mass actions against austerity and wardrive
It is obvious that, in the West and in the East, the peace movements can only count on their own activity to stop the criminal offensive of the imperialists and to defeat the policy of the bureaucracies, who have got themselves caught in this framework of military competi-
After the failure of the anti-war movement to stop the deployment of the missiles, and the arrival of the first Cruise and Pershings in Europe, many predicted the death of the movement, it would never survive such a blow. However, the movement continues to live and organise. While the Easter marches this year were not quite as big as last year, there have been the activities of the last few weeks to illustrate the vigorous popular response to the imperialists policies.
On May 10, almost a million Dutch people supported the strike under the slogan 'No to the missiles; No to the July 1 packet' (a reference to austerity meas ures limiting unemployment benefits). Almost 200,000 British people demonstrated in London on June 9 against Reagan around the theme 'No to missiles; No to austerity. In Madrid, it was the shout 'No to Nato; Bases out' that rallied half a million in the streets on June 6. And the people of West Germany proved, on the day of the European elections,
International Viewpoint,
More than 5 million in West Germany said 'No' to Pershing and Cruise on June 17
On June 17, 58 per cent of the West Germans who voted in the European elections also took part in the 'self-organised' referendum organised outside the polling stations by the co-ordinating committee of the peace movement.
Following the example of the other European movements, to hold 'selforganised' referendums in schools, workplaces and localities.
To do intensive counter-information work among the people to answer the pro-Atlantic Alliance propaganda of the bourgeoisie.
their massive rejection of Chancellor Helmut Kohl's defence policy.
In West Germany, the participation in the referendum organised by the national co-ordinating committee of the peace far exceeded the organisers
More than 84 per movement cent of those who participated in the referendum, that is more than 5 million hopes. Fifty-eight per cent of those who people, supported the following statement:
voted in the election for the European
I am against the deployment of Pershing and Cruise. I demand that the governparliament responded to the question ment take measures to ensure that the process of deployment is halted immediately asked in the 'self-organised' referendum and that the medium range missiles already installed are immediately removed.
outside 18,000 polling stations. Of these,
This would imply a stop, a 'freeze' on nuclear rearmament and should bring
84 per cent approved the text of the about disarmament measures in the East and the West, particularly the removal of referendum (see box). This represents all short and medium range missiles stationed in, and aimed at, Europe.' more than 5 million people, equivalent to the number of signatures collected in is the refusal to accept as inviolable - for hospitals, child care and schools five years for the Krefeld Appeal, against the Nato decision in December 1979 on policies that aim to make the oppressed particularly - has been almost chopped the deployment of the missiles.
The very diversity of these various actions shows that the missiles movement is no longer limiting itself simply to rejecting the deployment of the missiles.
It is clear that the aims of anti-missiles activists are coming more into alignment with those of the workers movement, as it fights against the closure coal mines in Britain, against challenge to the sliding scale of wages in
Italy, and for the 35-hour week without loss of pay in West Germany.
At the root of these workers' actions and exploited pay for the desire of the capitalist minority concerned to defend their rate of profit. The activists of the peace movement are also more and more driven to draw the connection between the imperialists' war drive and its social and financial implications. The scandal of world military spending, blandly put by the press at almost 1,000 billion dollars in 1984, cries out.
In Britain, where the Thatcher governan economic gramme openly attacking jobs and social gains, and where the public sector budget away by years of cuts, the 20 per cent rise in military spending for 1984 can only provoke widespread anger and insupport for the slogan 'Jobs not bombs!' the No to the American bases' in the Spanish state is not only the desire of the peoples of the peninsula to decide their own fate, but also the realisation that the pro-Nato policy of the government led by socialist Felipe Gonzalez, inevitably will, and has, led to a formidable rise in defence costs. 2,150 billion pesetas (14 billion dollars) to reorganising the army between now
'No to Nato, Bases out!' On May 20, 350,000 people formed a human chain in Barcelona. 500,000 people marched for peace in Madrid. paign started last autumn and built up on the basis of an ascending series of mobilisations throughout the country. These days of action marked an important advance for the anti-war movement on several levels. given the number of people who participated actively. tion on the peace coordinating committees, these mobilisations. Another was the politicisation of the movement, the participants being more conscious that these actions directly confronted government there was a radicalisation of a large sector of the movement, which went beyond pacifism to anti-militarism.
This campaign, axised around three essential points — the question of Nato, the American bases and military spending •Western defence' as well as those of 'national defence'
Confronted with this mass activity, the government of socialist Felipe Gonzalez who, before he came to power, undertook to organise a referendum on the question of Nato, found itself in an extremely difficult position. on his promises and abandon the proposal of a referendum for fear of the reaction of broad sections of the workers and peace movements that are questioning the government's economic and social policies. defeat if he organises such a vote. Thus he is trying to gain time and reach a consessus in parliament. He does not even exclude the possibility of calling for a vote of confidence in the Cortes (parliament), thereby threatening to dissolve the assembly if he is put into a minority on his positioff of keeping the Spanish state in
The movement for peace is thus called on to play a decisive political role in the coming period. The Liga Comunista Revolucionaria/Liga Kommunista Iraultzailea (LCR/LKI, section of the Fourth International in the Spanish state, which is fully involved in the movement throughout the country, proposed the following essential tasks for the peace movement:
- To safeguard its independence and the slogans around which unity was forged, that is: 'No to Nato! American bases out! No to the military budget! Anti-imperialist solidarity!'
- Demand a referendum on a clear proposal for leaving Nato, in order to put an end to the government's manoeuvres.
Consolidate the peace organisations and their co-ordination, and to organise actions this autumn similar to the human chains in Barcelona and Saragossa 14
On June 3,
This was the culmination of a cam-
One was the numerical growth,
Another was the consolidawhich appeared as the main actors in
- openly challenged the arguments of
Gonzalez cannot renege
But he knows that he runs a big risk of
The question of who is go... for all this is more and more cu..ent among the population, and opens the way for taking up other questions than that of simple nuclear weapons. There is also the question of conventional weapons, given the size of the budget allocated to
There is the question nuclear energy, as shown by the response of the Spanish peace movement to the successful struggle against the Lemoniz nuclear power station by the Basque anti-nuclear movement.
There is the question young people and the unemployed also, as they are the first affected first concerned by the savage cuts made in the social budgets to pay the costs of maintaining the 'balance of terror'. What course for the movement?
In this situation, although problems of what course to follow are not new, they are at least more acute than previously. Despite its strength, the antimissiles movement was not able to stop the deployment of Cruise missiles in Britain or Italy, nor of the first Pershings in West Germany. The decision of the Dutch government to postpone the installation of Cruise missiles on its soil until 1985 is not a thoroughgoing victory, although it is a conjunctural retreat by the government in face of the massive protests. Each side is trying to win time in order to get its views accepted.
The anti-war movement is confronted with the following problem: what should be done now? How to go on? At this
International Viewpoint 16 July 1984
tion, in particular the liberal" sections of
This goes along with the bourgeoisie.
pressure within the movement to get the
'nuclear freeze' adopted slogan as a strategic perspective, as opposed to the
THEPA220 demand for unilateral disarmament.
Thus, Mient Jan Faber, leader of the
Ecumenical Council for Peace (IKV)
in the Netherlands, has stated that 'the movement is not realistic, that it is not constructive because it is sticking to the letter of its original position: 'Not two, not one, not a single Nato missile. Mary Kaldor of the British European Nuclear Disarmament (END) movement dreams of 'a truly defensive non-nuclear Western defence'. This is at the same time as the imperialist alliance is stepping up its war preparations; in the non-nuclear sector! And how many others are there who, although less well known, put forward perspectives that would be no less dangerous for the peace movement if they were to be adopted?
Anti-missiles protest in Athens during European summit in December 1983 (DR) stage of activity and debate there are different answers.
For some, including revolutionary Marxists, the movement, far from having exhausted all its potential, can and must continue to grow and gain strength through mass actions on precise objectives, such as opposition to the installation of new missiles, demanding the removal of the missiles already installed, or the demand for bases to be closed and foreign troops withdraw. For this current, this is the best way to create a move favourable relationship of forces and to hig. light the fact for very broad sections of public opinion, that militarisation and austerity policies are being implemented by the ruling class against the wishes of the majority of the peoples of Europe.
The European anti-war movements should thus continue on the path they have followed up till now by organising mass actions. The surest way for these movements to achieve an advance toward peace is for them to force their own governments to take practical measures of disarmament. This can be done through street demonstrations, strikes or referendum-type initiatives that offer a way for huge majorities to express their opposition to war-drive policies.
On the other hand, for others, the present situatio.. reems dangerous because they see no way out of it. They are searching for a 'reasonable solution'. In other words, some arrangement with the forces who support increasing militarisa-
Activists should decide
Whether these proposals come from independent personalities or reformist leaders of workers organisations, they have a common basis — fear of a movement developing that no one would control and whose political dynamic would lead it into open sharp confrontation with the Western European states. This is what explains the manoeuvres of the Italian Communist Party. For months and months, it tried unsuccessfully to prevent the movement launching a campaign for an official referendum on the missiles question.
The deliberate refusal of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) in Britain to fully mobilise for the anti-Reagan demonstrations on June 9 should be seen in the same context. This paranoia is all
200,000 West German protestors formed a human chain in October 1983 (DR)
the more frenzied since the peace movements in several countries have begun to make links with workers' struggles.
At the end of the day the terms of
END
SILL
International Viewpoint 16 July 1984
ALON
TOEN this debate can be summarised as follows: Who should decide? Who in fact decides today in the so-called democratic societies? And, more especially, who will decide within the movement on course to follow in the fight for peace?
There is nothing to be feared in the verdict of really democratic assemblies of the peace movement, any more than there is any reason to worry about majorities making 'unrealistic' decisions. Quite the contrary, we should rely entirely on those who are mobilised in the fight for peace, on the workers and youth, to exercise a check on the choices that the capitalist governments are trying to impose on us. As for those who are making so much noise about democracy' - provided it does not go too far - they will resolve nothing. Everyone can put forward their point of view, make their proposals for action and be judged by those who have worked to build the peace movements and their work, and who represents its gains.
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PEACE ALL OVER THE WORLD PAIX DANS INDE C
After the decision
NETHERLANDS
The building plans have been prepared and are lying in the offices in the Witteveen and Bos te Deventer engineering firm. The specific jobs are ready to be contracted out. That is logical, since the Nato scheme called for the work to begin by July 1984.