AROUND THE WORLD
50 cities in the United States, demanding the judge halt the unconstitutional intervention by the courts into the functioning of the SWP and throw Gelfand's suit out of court.
Scores of union officials, civil rights leaders, farm protest figures, women's rights fighters, civil libertarians, and representatives of political organizations spoke or sent messages.
Among the union officials who stated their support for this First Amendment
Defend South African trade unions! principle were Anthony Mazzocchi, former vice-president of the Oil, Chemical and Atomic Workers Union: Victor Reuther, retired director of United Auto Workers International Affairs Department; David Dyson, national staff representative of the Amalgamated Clothing and Textile Workers Union and secretary to the National Labor Committee in Support of Democracy and Human Rights in El
Mazzocchi stated, "This case threatens to establish the precedent of government interference in any political organization, from the NAACP to NOW [National Organization for Women] to the Labor Committee for Democracy and Human Rights in El Salvador." claim that the SWP has been taken over by the government "flies in the face of all the activities of the SWP."
Georgia State Representative Julian Bond and U.S. Congressman Ronald Dellums also joined the defense effort.
Dellums declared, "Judicial interference in the internal affairs of a voluntary organization jeopardizes the right of free people to organize politically independent of government intrusion is a basic right which must be preserved."
Lardner Jr., one of the 10 Hollywood writers who were jailed during the witch-hunt of the 1950s, also de-
In July of this year, William Smith, a Los Angeles attorney, sent a letter to a number of lawyers urging support for the SWP's fight. Smith is active in the fight to block reimposition of the draft and has handled the legal defense of men who have refused to register for the draft.
"Chances are, Smith wrote, may not of heard of [the Gelfand case]. And even if you have, if you are like I was, your reaction may have been to dismiss it as irrelevant. Or simply another unimportant struggle between sectarian groups. But I decided to take the time to look more deeply into this case. did I became convinced there are some very signficant issues at stake."
After describing the case, Smith explained, "Gelfand had behind him some very powerful backers. seemingly unlimited funds, he was able to use the power of the court in an attempt to destroy a legitimate political organization."
Getting out the word about this case and the stakes involved remain a necessity if this attack on democratic rights is to be defeated and the Healyite disruption operation dealt a sharp blow.
The South African regime has just carried out a frontal attack on the whole of the independent trade-union movement. This has taken place after the failure of the regime's elections to the coloured parliaments which massively boycotted by the oppressed. people of South Africa.
The 48-hour general strike, on November 5 and 6, which came after riots in the Transvaal and Port Elisabeth townships, was an important success for the mass movement. This strike was called by several organisations, on a united front
The call was made by the independent trade unions as well as by political organisations such as the UDF -United Democratic Front and the National Forum (see IV, No 60, October 1,
The call for a further general strike in the Transvaal for November 12 and 13, confirms once again the vital role of the workers' movement and within that, the role of the trade unions in the struggle against the apartheid regime.
The regime has straightaway reacted by attacking the main trade-union federation FOSATU, which has 130,000 mem-
The president of the federation, Chris Dlamini, was arrested on November 9, and the president of the textile workers' union affiliated to FOSATU, Bangi Solo has also been arrested. Thousands of strikers from the state-owned SASOL factory (liquifying of coal) have been sacked en masse. They are mostly members of the FOSATU chemical workers'
The international workers' movement has a heavy responsibility to show solidarity with these workers in struggle. These trade unionists have already made several international links. Dlamini was a guest of the British TUC at its congress in September. • FOSATU itself sent a delegation to the last congress of the French CFDT (SP-led trade-union organisation), that was held in Metz. FOSATU also has official contact with the German trade-union confederation, the DGB, and with the Swedish and Dan-
Action must be taken by trade unions and political parties worldwide. telegrams should be sent to the South African embassy in your country or to the South African government in Pre-
In attacking the trade unions, the regime is attempting to role back the gains of the entire independent trade-union movement. Messages of support and links should be made internationally with all the main unions and political organisations fighting for their rights. We publish below a list of such organisations inside the country.
Main Unions
Federation of South African Trade Unions (FOSATU), 2-5 Central Court,
Street, Durban 400lor World Center, 48 Railways Street, Jamesof Unions of South Africa Lekton House (7th floor), 5 Wenderes Street, 2000 Johannesburg. Building, 3 Beverley Street, Athlone
African Food and Canning Workers' Unions, P. O. Box 2678, Cape Town
South African and Allied Workers' Unions (SAAWU), 94 Tasman Centre, 122 Victoria Street, Durban 4001.
Black Municipal Workers' Union, P. O. Box 23027, Joubert Park 2044.
Cape Town Municipal Workers' Association, P. O. Box 49, Athlone 7780.
Political Organisations
United Democratic Front, P. O. Box 274, Salt River, Cape Town.
National Forum, 115 Fleetway House, 208 Bree Street, Johannesburg 2001. Defend the Balangoda 18 In Sri Lanka, the case of the Balangoda 18 continues (see IV, No 60, October 1, 1984). The case came up for a hearing on October 4, but was postponed till December 13 because the Attorney General had not decided what to do with these suspects! Meanwhile, they have to to report to the Balangoda police station once a fortnight.
Letters of solidarity and protest to the government are now coming in.
In Denmark, about thirty prominent activists, including ten MPs and the
International Viewpoint 26 November 1984
mayor of Copenhagen signed the following statement:
•We the undersigned have been informed about the arrest of T. Upali Cooray and 17 others on June 15 in Balangoda and about the approaching case against them. We want to protest against the arrest and the arbitrary use of the emergency regulations that infringe on the legal protection and democratic rights. We want as well to protest against the undemocratic harassment of plantation workers, who should have full rights to meet and to discuss problems regarding their work and trade union affiliation.'
A similar statement calling for the dropping of the charges was supported in the USA by several trade unionists, civil rights leaders and antiwar activists including, most notably, Professor Noam Chomsky and Rev. Ben Chavis (Director of the United Church of Christ Commission for Racial Justice). Congressmen John Conyer, Walter Fauntroy, Charles Hayes and Morris Udall also signed the statement.
In Australia, Andrew Honey, State Secretary of the Western Australia region of the Federated Rubber and Allied workers union has protested to the Sri Lankan government.
And in West Germany the head of the protestant church and the South Asia Bureau in Kassel have sent their support.
Letters of protest should be sent to President J. R. Jayewardene, President's House, Colombo, Sri Lanka. Copies of these letters and messages of support and donations should go to Balangoda 18, 53 Rajamalwatte Road, Colombo 15, Sri Lanka.
major concerns that people have. But the wounds that the people have suffered are deep. The killing of Maurice Bishop and others is an inexcusable and inexplicable event, which has nearly fatally wounded the progressive movement.
We are going to struggle, we are going
We are fighting not only local reaction, but we are fighting United States imperialism, which is directly interfering in the affairs of our country, by establishing the New National Party and providing tremendous economic reand manipulating the state to ensure the neo-colonialist approach and outcome to the general elections
We are not a temporary phenomenon. Maurice Bishop's spirit will guide our work in proletarian internationalism. will guide our work as patriots. guide our work to see to it that the working people come to realise that United
Advance in campaign to detena Basque national movement The first united mass demonstration in Bilbao on October 20 to protest Mitterrand's turning over Basque political refugees to his Social Democratic colleague Felipe Gonzalez was a powerful success.
The October 26 issue of Zutik, the paper of the Liga Komunista Iraultzailea (LKI - Revolutionary Communist League, the section of the Fourth International in the Basque country of the Spanish state) reported:
"There is no reliable way to calculate how many people were in the human flood that filled the streets and sidewalks of Bilbao on Saturday. Egin [the radical nationalist paper] said 30,000. Deia [the moderate nationalist paper] said "tens of thousands." El Pais [the liberal bourgeois paper published in Madrid] said "anywhere from 20,000 to 50,000." The organizers wisely did not try to give a figure but only said that it was "perhaps the biggest demonstration in recent times." corded the groups that came from Catalonia, Madrid, the Valencian Country, Galicia, Cantabria, Andalucia and other regions was perhaps the most striking feature of the October 20 demonstration."
The demonstrators faced problems, however, similar to the ones faced by participants in the Irish H-Block demonstrations:
"Dozens of buses were held up on the access roads to Bilbao at police checkpoints, probably long enough to keep thousands of people from participating in the demonstration."
Lucio Gonzalez wrote: "I talked with political leaders, unionists, young people, old people, with the women who come out every Tuesday on the Plaza de Mayo to demand the release of their children and that the 'missing persons' be produced. They are known as the 'distraught mothers of Euskadi [by analogy with "Las locas de la Plaza de Mayo," the International Viewpoint 26 November 1984
Argentine women who protested the "disappearance" of their children throughout the dark years of the murderous dictatorship]."
A representative of Auzolan, a coalition including the LKI and a radical national current that ran in the last elections for the Basque parliament, said:
"It's a good thing to have unitedfront actions such as this; they bring together more people."
Herri Batasuna, the political organization supporting ETA-Militar has in the past been reluctant to accept a broad united-front framework, arguing that it is the front.
A unionist from ELA, the trade union organization associated with the moderate Basque nationalist Partido Nacionalista Vasco, said:
"The workers want to live in freedom, and the working class of this province is in the streets today demanding a free and Basque-speaking Euskadi." He asked that
Gonzalez take note that PNV, Euskadiko Ezkerra [another moderate formation] and the Workers Commissions [CP-dominated] have given their members the go-ahead to come out to the demonstration." especially impressed by the women between the ages of 45 and 65 who claim to have been fighting for freedom for Euskadi since time immemorial who were demanding 'peace and work and our ancient independence.' Instead of providing jobs, they are building jails....the soldiers of the people are not terrorists but gudaris [Basque warriors]....
"There will be another rally on November 11 against the extraditions in the Cine Acteon of Valencia, like the one held last Sunday in Santiago de Compo-
The campaign is continuing in Europe and the Americas and an International Congress on the Identity of the Minority Populations of Europe is being which will probably be held next
States imperialism does not have any of the solutions necessary for our country. They have failed in Salvador, they have failed in Jamaica, they have failed and are failing in Grenada. It will take us some time to be able to get the working class movement together but we will win with-
Q. Would you like to add anything? For example, in relation to international
A. Of course, during our visit to Paris and to Europe last February, we were able to cement friendships and cooperation with the people of Western Europe. Of course, you in Europe recognise that the policies pursued by the United States in Western European countries are threatening the peace and security of your own countries. At the same time, you realise that in pursuing our policies, we have recognised the important and pivotal role that Europe can play, in acting as a buffer, as a shield and guarantee from being swallowed up by the United
We ask you to stand firm with us for the real human rights of our people. We ask you to stand with us so that you can help us to build our independence. Stand with us so that we can ensure that we do not fall victim of United States hegemony. Stand firm with us as a people fighting to build our country, in our own image and in our own likeness, we are doing no more, or no less, than is the right of all nations according to the charter of the United
We ask you to celebrate our impor with us; organise rallies, try to influence the ordinary worker, the student, the intellectual, the professional elements, all democrats and progressives to rally behind the tiny country, Grenada, one of the tiniest countries in
We do not love liberty the less because we are small; because we are poor does not mean that we do not know what freedom is. In this our greatest danger, we ask for your militant solidarity and support.
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gle hard to redeem the name of the progressive movement in the eyes of the people and to recover the social and economic gains the revolution brought to the people of the country. Thirdly, of course, as a part of our independence we want to
Revolutionary leaders resume the fight rid ourselves of foreign military occupation forces in the country and establish the political life of the country once again.
To someone who has lived in Grenada, has experienced the life of the revolution and also the death of the revolution, where people were so turned off, so dis-
The left in Grenada is slowly rebuilding itself.
Kendrick Radix, an ex-official of the New Jewel Movement (NJM) and exminister of justice in the revolutionary government agreed to do the following exclusive interview for International Viewpoint.
was conducted on October 26, 1984. (See also inside pages.)
Question. The Maurice Bishop Patriotic
Movement hesitated a long time before finally deciding to participate in the December 3 elections.
What will be the main themes of the election campaign and what are the objectives of the
MBPM?
Answer.
The Maurice Bishop Patriotic
Movement was established on May 29.
It was to mark the fourteenth anniversary of African Liberation Day being celebrated in Grenada, as well as marking the fortieth birthday of Maurice
Bishop. A number of things had to be done before the party was established
In January of this year we set up the
Maurice Bishop Memorial Foundation.
This foundation had the task of creating a climate once again that was favourably disposed to revolutionary tendencies as well as to hold the ground in the face of the propaganda onslaught which was organised by the CIA in Grenada consequent to the invasion of our country.
At the same time there was the campaign of slander against the former revolutionary leadership including the prime
Maurice Bishop, minister, the other ministers and other leading revolutionaries.
At the same time negative propaganda was being directed at the life and work of the revolution. So the balance of opinion in the country turned decidedly