Mass mobilisations against of the FOURTH INTERNATIONAL
May 27, 1982
Reagan the warmonger
• FRANCE: More than 20,000 de- participation of the Solidarity commit- noted by the French press.
monstrators marched across Paris June 5. The systematic boycott by the mass media, pressure from the Socialist Party and the abstention of the Communist Party could have meant a small and marginal demo. However, this was the strongest anti-imperialist demonstration for many years. The lead banner demanded: 'No to the arms race, no to the oppression of the peoples'.
Despite the last-minute withdrawal of the Parti Communiste Internationaliste, the agreement between the Ligue Communiste Revolutionnaire (LORFrench section of the Fourth Internatees with Central America and the anti-nuclear committee-to the formation of a broad majority in the demonstration around the slogans: against 'Reaganla-guerre'; support to the Central American struggles; against the Versailles summit of the wealthy industrial countries; against French imperialism; and for the withdrawal of French troops from Africa and from the overseas departments and territories.
Particularly dynamic and colourful were the contingents of the LCR and its associated youth organisation, the JCR. These contingents grouped about a third present, a fact
Among the personalities who addressed the rally after the demonstration was Hugo Blanco, leader of the Partido Revolucionario los Trabajadores, Peruvian section of the Fourth International. He was vigorously applauded when he denounced the intervention of the USA into Central America.
• ITALY: Almost 150,000 people gathered in Rome on June 5. The most impressive delegations came from the south, particularly from Comiso, Sicily, where construction work on Cruise missile bases is to begin shortly. Comiso has become the rallying cry of all the actions against the arms race in the penin-
'Comiso does not want to become another Hiroshima' declared the lead banner of the contingent. The demonstration was particularly combative, particularly in the contingents of the Lega Communista Rivoluzionario-Italian section of the Fourth International-and Democrazia Proletaria, which centred their slogans against NATO and against American aggression in Central America.
Despite the efforts of the Communist Party (PCI) and the Proletarian Unity Party (PDUP) to keep equal balance between the denunciation of imperialism and of Soviet policy, large sections of the Young Communist Federation and the CP took 'Reagan the warmonger'
The mobilisation was smaller than that of last October. There were two reasons for this. Firstly the PCI and PDUP through the 'Committee For Peace' did everything they could to restrict the mobilisation and give it a symbolic and pacifist character. The other is that Italy was paralysed by a general strike the previous Thursday which had already brought hundreds of thousands of workers out into
BELGIUM: 10,000 people demon-
• strated at
Antwerp on June 5 against the installation of Cruise and Pershing missiles, the first step towards unilateral disarmament. This was organised by the Flemish Committee against Nuclear Arms. Some delegations from Wallonia also joined it.
The LRT/RAL (Belgian section of the Fourth International) participated in the demonstration with its own slogans without having signed the appeal for bilateral disarmament which served as the unitary platform for the demonstration.
IRELAND: Irish CND mobilised 10,000 for its demonstration in Dublin on June 5. Members of People's Democracy (Irish section of the Fourth International) participated in the march which was called on slogans defending Irish neutrality, opposing nuclear weapons and opposing Reagan.
GREAT BRITAIN: 250,000 peo-
• ple attended the rally organised by the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament in London on June 6. Over half participated in the three feeder marches which converged on the park from the south, west, and north of London. That morning the Greater London Council declared the region a nuclear-free zone, joining over 130 other local councils who have made that decision, including all those in Wales.
The action was sponsored by the national leadership of the Labour Party. Many local Labour Party and trade-union branches were represented with promiment contingents from the Transport General Workers Union, the Fire Brigade Union, the National Union of Mineworkers, and the healthworkers unions, presently involved in a pay dispute, with banners: *Jobs not Bombs, pay the
However the most notable feature of the demonstration was the masand lively youth contingent within the 1,000 strong contingent of supporters of Revolution and Challenge (newspapers sponsored by the International Marxist Group, British section of the Fourth International) was prominent. This contingent took up the slogans 'British out of Malvinas' Central America', 'Down with Reagan'.
The demonstration was a blow for the Thatcher government, showing that the Falklands effect' in has not succeeded in completely turning the tide in her favour. CND was able to continue to build this massive demonstration through its activity in opposition to the war in the South Atlantic. Many of the speakers at the final rally, including Tony Benn, and Arthur Scargill of the miners union, expressed their opposition to the Falklands/Malvinas war.
NFREE
GA
HOLLAND: Over 5,000 people demonstrated in Amsterdam on June 10 against the new nuclear missiles and US intervention in Central America. The demonstration was supported by all the left-wing parties, the Central American solidarity committees and the peace organisations. However, these forces were reticent to build a militant demonstration with an anti-Reagan, anti-American cha-
The previous weekend Rock against Reagan' concerts in Nijmegen and Amsterdam had drawn over 6,000 people.
The IKB (Dutch section of Fourth International) and the youth organisation Rebel formed a contingent of 200 with the slogans 'After Nicaragua the whole of Central
"Their struggle, our struggleinternational solidarity'.
WEST GERMANY:
• a million people demonstrated in West Germany on June 10; over 400,000 in Bonn at the time of the NATO summit, 40,000 in West Berlin and others in smaller demonstrations around the country, in the biggest-ever organised action in
The Bonn demonstration was organised by a coalition of pacifist, Christian, ecological, Central American solidarity, and political organisations Pershing 2', 'No Neutron Bombs' on arms limitations', and
'Solidarity with the colonial revolution, Turkey, El Salvador'.
Prominent in the demonstration was the slogan of the East German peace movement 'Swords into ploughshares'. The GIM (German section of the Fourth International) marched in a contingent of several hundred with many young people around the slogans 'Out of NATO', Salvador, Turkey, and Solidarnosc, tain out of the Falklands', and for solidarity with the East German peace move-
The demonstration was a real signal that the peace movement is broadening and there is a growing impact of the East German peace movement which is stimulating debate on what demands should be
The trade unions who were previously very hostile to the movement are beginning to retreat and did not, as they did last October, forbid trade unionists to participate. Over the last few months there have been a number of initiatives by trades unionists around the slogan 'Jobs not Bombs'.
USA: A million people marched on
• June 12 in New York at the time of the UN special session on disarmament in a demonstration called on the demand for an immediate bilateral freeze on nuclear weapons. The demonstration was a striking affirmation of the growth of the peace movement and the fear felt by many that the US is heading towards a large-scale war. This demonstration was very broad and heterogeneous with many people drawn onto the streets for the first time by their fear of nuclear weapons and their desire for a halt to the arms race. A current, including the Socialist Workers Party-American organisation in solidarity with the Fourth International-organised around slogans that opposed the wars
'Not a man, not a cent for Washington's wars, 'US out of Central America, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Cuba, Grenada', "Israel out of Lebanon'.
The enthusiastic response to slogans of the 'Jobs not Bombs' type illustrated the concern felt about the social offensive in the States, and how this is related to the war drive.
Central America was an important theme of the demonstration. ences to El Salvador were enthusiastically greeted, as was the representative of the FDR who spoke at the rally outside the
Also speaking was Isabel Letellier, widow of the murdered Foreign Minister of the former Allende government in Chile, who explained the efforts of the US state department to bring down that government and how they would try to do the same in Nicaragua.
Representatives movement included the Reverend Ben Chavis of the National Black Independent Political Party and a speaker from the National Black United Front who opposed the wars that the US is involved in now, in Central America and in Lebanon.