AROUND THE WORLD
Italy Attacks launched on left ON SEPTEMBER 18, Italian police agents arrested Saverio Ferrari, a member of the National Secretariat of Democrazia Proletaria (DP). The arrest took place in Rome in the headquarters of the organisation. The police arrested five others at the same time, one of them a woman. In the days following a further 13 people were arrested and imprisoned.
These people are accused in relation to two events which took place in March 1975 and March 1976. In March 1975, one of the leaders of the fascist Youth Front, Sergio Ramelli, was attacked in Milan whilst on his way home. He was attacked by a group of people who were never identified. Struck by blows from an iron bar, Ramelli died in hospital two months later. In March 1976, again in Milan, a bar was ransacked leaving three people seriously injured.
According to the instrueting magistrates, the responsibility for these two attacks lies wth the combat section of Avanguardia Operaia, a far left organisation which participated in the setting up of Democrazia Proletaria. Three of those accused are still members of the latter organisa. tion whilst the others are no longer politically active.
According to the Italian press the accusations have been made on the basis of testimonies from repenters' (former supporters of the armed struggle). The same sources also indicate that some of those arrested have confessed to participating in the above mentioned episodes.
Democratizia Proletaria issued a statement of protest and has convened a press conference to denounce these arrests. It categorically denies any responsibility by the three members and demands their immediate release. Saverio Ferrari has begun a hunger strike.
The statement reads; "The enquiry in which Saverio Ferrari has been implicated concern events which took place a long time ago and in fact represents an attempt to rewrite, reconstruct and criminalise the history of the opposition struggles of the Last twenty years ... The anti-fascist mobilisations of the 1970s brought into activity very large layers of the
International Viewpoint 14 October 1985 population and was one of the essential conditions for the safeguarding of democracy in our country. This heritage is too important to be brushed aside by a judicial enquiry. Democrazia Proletaria, which was fromed in 1977-1978, and which, since its inception, has conducted democratic and non-violent activity, estimates that it is important today to defend the heritage of millions of anti-fascists of that time!
The Revolutionary Communist League, Italian section of the Fourth International, expressed its immediate solidarity with Democrazia Proletaria and has issued a statement demanding the release of Saverio Ferrari and the other people in prison. It explains, among other things that, *These arrests represent an attempt to bring to justice the experience of the Italian left in the 1970s and to attack all those involved in any way on the side of the workers in struggle and to intimidate antifascist militants who are not prepared to observe passively the shameful operation of a fresh revaluation of fascism and fascists.' France SOS - Racisme FOLLOWING their successful mobilisation at Place de la Concorde in Paris, when a quarter of a million young people (many of them immigrants) thronged the streets, SOS-Racisme, the French anti-racist campaign, has decided to launch a European wide action. On December 16 young people from places such as Stockholm, Oslo, Copenhagen, Hamburg, Amsterdam and Brussels along with others from every area of France, will be arriving in Paris as the culmination of the European Tour for Equality'.
SOS-Racisme has issued an appeal to all immigrant and anti-racist organisations in Europe to support this action. In it they state that; *...from October 21 to December 15 a huge "European Tour for Equality" will be organised. In every European capital, in every town in France, we appeal to all individuals, and all organisations to prepare to organise, to welcome and to link up with the demonstrators who will be bringing with them "the Charter for Equal Rights". . June 15, 1985 gave us all great hope. Now we must transform these efforts, transform the terms of the debate on immigration, even, and go forward and open up the road for a Europe of Equality ..' For further details about the campaign contact SOS-Racisme 19, Rue Martel 75010 Paris. Portugal Elections underway THE FALL of the Center Bloc, a coalition between the Socialist Party and the main bourgeois party, the PSD, after two years in government, provided a breathing space for the working people. The outgoing cabinet had managed to apply the most right-wing policies we have seen since the ouster of the Salazarist dictatorship on April 25, 1974.
The parliamentary elections on October 6 have offered an opportunity for discussing austerity and its effects, for reorganizing the resistance of the masses and of the trade unions. They will also be the first round in preparations for the presidential elections that are to be held on January 5. And the question of the presicential succession has already become a fundamental factor of instability for the regime.
In these conditions, the Partido Socialista Revolucionario, Portuguese section of the Fourth International, decided to intervene in these elections. It is running candidates in all the election districts, thereby obtaining TV aná radio time comparalle to the big bourgeois or reformist parties.
In all, the PSR is running 330 candidates, of whom more than 100 are women. The PSR slates also include, as independent candidates, a large number of activists coming from other traditions and from other currents.
For example, twenty of the candidates are from the Grupo Quarto Internacional (Fourth International Group, which broke away from the LST (Socialist Workers League), the Portuguese organization affiliated to the international current led by Moreno the LIT, International Workers League). The LST is a dying organization and is not running in the elections.
In particular, the PSR slates include representatives of all the main far left currents in Portugal from the MES (Left Socialist Movement) to the UDP (People's Democratic Union). These broad slates represent an important step forward for the PSR.
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