PEACE MOVEMENT.
European movement meets The fourth convention of the campaign for European Nuclear Disarmament (END) took place on July 3 to 6 at the free university in Amsterdam. More than 1,200 people from Western Europe and other areas attended. The official peace committees from Eastern Europe, no doubt remembering what they went through in Perugia the year before, refused to participate in this meeting (see International Viewpoint No 61, October 15, 1984).
Furthermore, many independent peace activists from Eastern Europe were refused visas to come to the conference. Like the previous meetings, the conference gave only a very distorted picture of the reality of the peace movements, with many activists, unconvinced of its usefulness failing and the Third World, was the most interesting especially because of the contributions from peace activists in the Philippines, South Africa and Nicaragua who were present at the convention. A decision was taken to set up an 'embassy' of the peace movement in Managua as well as a coordinating structure on the issue of Central America within the peace movement. Peace activists from Norway have launched an appeal for a peace march in Central America for the end of the year.
Overall, however, it is important to draw attention to the timid approach of many of the members of the liaison committee (which organised the conference) who were guided by a pessimistic view of the situation although several of them did pose real questions about of mem aid pose tea questions about the future of the movement and the need to broaden their field of activity. The problem was that for them 'activity" means discussion and not action as such.
On the other side it is important to stress the very dynamic role played by the women throughout the convention. In an address to the convention, they stressed the need to link the struggle for peace with the struggle against austerity especially given the enormous expense of the Eureka and SDI projects. They also talked about their disagreement with the way the debate had been conducted so far. They decided to organise a network of peace movement women and delegates from the Mediterranean countries will be organising a meeting in Rome next December around the theme of the social effects of militarisation.
Altogether the number of initiatives proposed showed that most of the participants in the convention want to go far beyond the simple exchange of ideas proposed by the organisers. The trade unionists present set up a permanent coordinating group and will be publishing a bulletin under the auspices of the CND trade union group. The youth decided on a week of action from 21 to 27 October, 1985, under a common banner with Youth CND taking on the publication of a liaison bulletin. The varied nature of these proposals is partly a reflection of the richness and heterogeneity of the movement at the international level. But it is nonetheless true that it ought to have been possible to map out perspectives for action, even limited ones, around the theme of Star Wars or in support of the movements in the Netherlands and the Spanish State faced with important challenges which will have repercussions for all the peace campaigns.
Another convention will be held in 1986. Its usefulness will depend a great deal on the ability and above all the willingness of the organisers to plan discussions in such a way that the convention can come out with joint actions to mobilise all the different movements.
to turn up. Jacqueline ALLIO
Having said all this it is true that this convention came at a time when all the peace movements in Europe are beginning to redefine themselves following the deployment of the missiles, a process which highlights the international character of the anti-war movement.
In the opening session, apart from speakers from the two countries who symbolise resistance - the Spanish state and the Netherlands — the floor was given to an independent peace movement activist from Hungary and to a representative from the Marshall Islands who was a spokesperson of the movement for a nuclear free and independent Pacific.
The latter speaker insisted that a determined mobilisation could roll back the US government's offensive and gave the example of the successful anti-nuclear movement in the Pacific region, which, created in 1982, had managed to force the US to close down some of their bases in the region and to stop nuclear testing. The movement is following this up by stopping boats transporting nuclear arms.
Each day of the convention was organised around a central theme. The first day was given over to the peace campaigns in the West. The introductions brought out once more the hetero. geneity of the different movements. For example, the scepticism of one activist from West Berlin was rebuffed by the combativity of the representative from the Madrid Anti-NATO Commission. One activist from the US recalled how much the mobilisations in Europe affected the anti-war movement in her country which was axised both against nuclear arms and against intervention in Central America. Explaining her lack of faith in anything coming out of the summit negotiations, she insisted on the need to develop a movement at the base, around concrete actions, which is the only thing that Reagan will ever understand'.
The spokesperson of the British CND, as with most of the other participants stressed the new challenge International Viewpoint 29 July 1985 posed by the Strategic Defence Initiative (SDI) for the future of the movement (see International Viewpoint No 75 May 6, 1985). This concern, which was reaffirmed in the debates in the commissions was not, however, translated into proposals for action on this theme as also happened on the NATO issue. This was left to the Dutch movement, who have decided to organise a conference in the Netherlands with the anti-NATO movement for December 14.
The second day of the convention on relations between the peace movements in the East and the West left many so feeling dissatisfied, partly because of the difficulty of taking the discussion any further in the absence of those mainly concerned. But there were some interesting forums, for example on the type of solidarity that the western peace movements should develop in relation to Solidarnosc. It turned out that efforts made since the previous year by peace activists of several countries including West Germany, France and Italy, in particular had begun to bear fruit. This was due to several bilateral meetings between the underground Solidarnose, Charter 77, the Hungarian Dialog group, and the Moscow Group for Trust. This was shown by the number of written contributions sent by various groups to the convention and in the response to the Prague Appeal launched by Charter 77 last March. This text examined the significance of a nuclear free and democratic Europe within the framework of the existing social systems.
Following the forum which took place in West Berlin last February a further meeting is envisaged in Milan in February, 1986 with the object of discussing the role of the Helsinki agreements to which peace activists in Eastern Europe are always referring. The aim is also to draw up a platform on the main points of agreement for the establishment of a European peace movement, East and West.
The third day, given over to relations between the western peace movements
WOMEN'S LIBERATION -
• for example, has made statements