AROUND THE WORLD
Netherlands Anti-NATO solidarity WITH THE encouragement of the 1985 END [European Nuclear Disarmament] conference in Amsterdam, a solidarity initiative has been started up in the Dutch peace movement with the anti-NATO movement in the Spanish state. The Socialistiese Arbeiderspartij (SAP — Dutch section of the Fourth International) is deeply involved in this project.
On December 14, a conference on Spain and NATO was held in Rotterdam, with the collaboration of Wim Bartels (international secretary of the IKV [the main national peace organization in the Netherlands]) and Ludo Bijkelenkamp from Pax Christie.
At the conference, a statement of solidarity with the anti-NATO committee in Madrid was adopted. The committee has been holding a hunger strike to press the demand for a clear and decisive referendum on the question of NATO membership.
The conference resulted in a petition campaign, in which peace organizations, political parties, trade unions, and individuals are being asked to sign the following statement:
"The signatory organizations and individuals support the demand of the Spanish peace movement - Spain out of NATO and U.S. bases off Spanish territory. We think that Spain's withdrawal from NATO is important because a further integration of the country. in NATO will mean a reinforcing of the military blocs in Europe. This would be at the expense of detente and the breakdown of the blocs in Europe. Our own struggle against the deployment of cruise missiles in the Netherlands is precisely for that [that is, detente and breakdown of the blocs].
*Together with the Spanish peace movement, we want to work for a European peace policy. Shortly, a referendum will be held in Spain on membership in NATO. We call on the Spanish people to say 'no' to Spanish membership in NATO."
Among the initiators of this petition are the peace organizations Pax Christie, the Samenwerkingsverband stop de neutronen-bom, and Vrouwen tegen kernwapens; the political parties: the SAP, PSP [Pacifist Socialist Party], the PPR [Political
Intornational Viewpoint 10 March 1986-
Party of Radicals] and the CPN [the Dutch Communist Party]; and individuals such as Wim Bertels and the members of parliament belonging to the above-mentioned parties.
Along with the petitioning, money is being collected to publish the text of the petition as an ad in the Spanish daily El Pais a week before the referendum is to be held (that is, the second week in March).
This initiative should highlight the fact that the peoples of the Spanish state are not going to be isolated from the rest of Europe if they vote against NATO. Czechoslvakia Charter 77 THE Czechoslovak civil rights movement Charter 77 has announced its spokespersons for 1986. They are the literary critic Jan Stern, the programer Martin Palous, and the long-time Charter activist Ana Sabatova, who is linked to the socialist wing of Charter 77. In 1972, Ana Sabotova was sentenced to three years in prison for participating in leafleting for a boycott of the parliamentary elections.
After the imprisonment of her husband, Petr Uhl, who was released in 1984 after five years in prison, she lived for many years with two policemen stationed in front of her door and with a constant escort of secret police. •
Was Tun, February 20, 1986 United States Socialist Action anniversary SOCIALIST Action, one of the organizations in the United States with fraternal links to the Fourth International, held a public meeting on January 18 to celebrate the second anniversary of its paper, which has the same name. About a hundred people attended the meeting, which took place in a hall in aunion building.
Two leaders of Socialist Action spoke. Comrade Jake Cooper talked, in particular, about the fight waged by the workers of the Hormel packinghouse company, who face a violent antiunion campaign. Editor Alan Benjamin made a balance sheet of two years of the paper.
Two trade-unionists also spoke -Seymour Kramer, a delegate to the San Francisco Labor Council; and Al Lannon, president of the International Longshoremen's and Warehousemen's Union Local 6.
Gustavo Acosta spoke for the Salvadoran FMLN. In particular, he denounced the massive bombing of the zones controlled by the FMLN and launched an appeal for solidarity.
Finally, Bob Hernandez spoke, on behalf of Roberto Vargas from the Nicaraguan embassy in Washington, who could not be present because of other commitments. "The Nicaraguan revolution," said Hernandez, "has made enormous advances. But we have also made mistakes. The revolution does not just want friends who congratulate it for good things it has done. It also wants friends who can help it think more deeply about the problems facing it."
The Bureau of the United Secretariat of the Fourth International sent a message of congratulations to Socialist Action, which was read by the presiding committee. 0 West Germany Greens take Kohl to court PRELIMINARY hearings on a complaint against West German chancellor Helmut Schmidt were begun by the Coblenz tribunal on February 24. The head of the incumbent rightwing government was charged by a Green party deputy, Otto Schily, of giving false testimony in the Flick affair [involving payoffs to politicians by a West German trust].
Kohl was said to have lied to the parliamentary investigating committee of the Mainz regional diet when he denied that the Flick group had made illegal donations to a phoney association set up as a cover for the Christian Democratic Union. Otto Schily also filed a complaint accusing Kohl of concealing another donation of 55,000 marks.
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