AROUND THE WORLD
USA
AIM
US Demonstration against war-drive THE US bombing of Libya just four days earlier gave particular urgency to the massive April 19 demonstration organized by the [San Francisco] Bay Area Mobilization. The Mobilization is a coalition of labor, peace, anti-apartheid, church, nuclear-freeze and anti-intervention groups.
More than 25,000 people, according to the May Socialist Action newspaper, marched in support of four demands: End US Intervention in Central America and the Caribbean; Jobs and Justice, Not War; Freeze and Reverse the Nuclear Arms Race; and No US Support to South African Apartheid.
A sudden surge of opposition to the attack on Libya, which could not have been foreseen by the organizers of the demonstration, was evident among the marchers, who carried such signs as "Stop the Lies, Hands off Libya."
Many of the speakers at the rally that concluded the demonstration condemned the bombing, which they placed in the overall framework of US aggression, particularly in Central America. Socialist Action quoted such speakers as Abdeen Jabara, vice chair of the Arab Anti-Discrimination League, who said: "I join here today the families of the American hostages held in Lebanon in condemning the Reagan administration's bombing attack on Libya."
Jane Gruenebaum, executive director of the Nuclear Weapons Freeze Campaign, told the receptive audience: "Our bombing of bibya was an aggressive act of war. it did not lessen the threat of terrorism."
A featured speaker, John Henning, secretary-treasurer of the California Labor Federation, made the connection between the Reagan administration's oppressive domestic policies and its interventionist foreign poliey. He said:
"On the domestic front, we still suffer from 32 million Americans living in poverty. Thousands of homeless live in the streets of America. In foreign affairs, we see the reflections on the militarized foreign policy. We see it in the situation where we deplore terrorism in the Middle East and yet foster and sponsor it in Latin America ... Just this week we have seen the reflection of that policy in the bombing of Libya."
Union support of the demonstra26
CAREFULLYONLY AT NICARAGUA!
### GUATANAL HONDURAS
OSA NICARAGUA EL SALVADOR tion was broadly based and strong, according to Al Lannon, president of International Longshoremens and Warehousemens Union [ILWU] Local 6 and a mobilization coordinator. He said:
The Mobilization is endorsed and supported by every Bay Area labor council, by the ILWU and by dozens of local unions." Confirmation of his statement was provided by the large labor contingent that included striking cannery workers from Watsonville, California, and members of United Food and Commercial Workers Local P-9, which has been on strike against the Geo. A. Hormel & Co, in Austin, Minnesota, since August 1985 (see IV, No. 96, April 7, 1986). The march was led by the striking TWA flight attendants who were hailed by the onlookers.
A number of speakers addressed the issues of US intervention in Central America. Gustavo Acosta, a representative of the Revolutionary Democratic Front (FDR) of El Salvador, protested the deepening US aggression in Nicaragua, El Salvador and Honduras.
A Nicaraguan, Carmen Olivares, attacked the US government's role in supporting the contras. Referring to the Sandinista Army's defence of the revolution she concluded: "We are fighting and we will go down fighting. And they will have to kill each and every one of us, because we won't give it up." Marta Alicia Rivera of the National Association of Salvadoran Educators (ANDES) appealed: "In the name of 60,000
Liff working people who have died in El Salvador, we are asking you to work hard to stop the US economic and military intervention in our country."
The anti-apartheid contingent was composed of hundreds of college students from Bay Area campuses. Their support for the struggles of the South African people was voiced by Pedro Noguera, the president of the student government at the University of California, Berkely.
"Throughout the nation," Noguera said, "students are taking action for divestment, action against apartheid." Summing up themes of the day, he added: "They [students] are becoming aware of the need to be part of a broad-based movement that is going to bring about change; that will make it no longer possible for our government to make war against Nicaragua or the people of Libya."
The April 19 Mobilization was only half the size of last year's demonstration. Socialist Action attributes the falloff in participation to several factors, a primary one being the lack of a national moblization this year. The turn toward electoral politics and the effort to get "progressive" democrats elected to the House of Representatives this fall were cited as major reasons for the de creased participation both nationally and in the Bay Area. Nevertheless, April 19 once again indicated the potential for mass independen actions against US governmen policies.
International Viewpoint 19 May 1986
Senegal Statement on Libya THE FOLLOWING statement was issued in Dakar, Senegal, on April 17, 1986, by a spectrum of Senegalese parties, including the Organisation Socialiste de Travailleurs, the Senegalese Fourth Internationalist organization:
When the peoples of the world and the great majority of governments have expressed their disapproval of the Reagan government's aggression against Libya, the Senegalese people and international public opinion have been shocked by the silence maintained by the president of the Organization of African states.
The acting president of the OAU has remained deaf and dumb in face of the urgent appeals from African heads of state and government who have called on him to take initiatives against this unprecedented criminal action, in particular to call an emergency summit of the heads of state of the OAU.
This attitude of the president of the OAU is arousing legitimate questions and concern. In fact, the American raids on Tripoli and Benghazi have opened a dangerous era for national security and sovereignty in Africa.
By this action, the Reagan government has given a warning to all the peoples and governments of Africa and presented them with the following ultimatum: Submit without reservations to the will of the United States or face the constant threat of aggression.
Reagan's warning is clear: Any people, country, or government in Africa that shows inclinations to independence from the United States will suffer aggression in one form or another, as has already been the case in Central America, notably in Nicaragua and Grenada.
It is a clear realization of what is at stake that explains the depth of the popular condemnation in many countries and the forms of the protest demonstrations.
Facing this situation of exceptional gravity, the parties signing this statement, faithful to their principles of support for the right of all peoples in the world to independence and sovereignty:
- Condemn with all their strength Reagan's aggression against Libya;
- express their sympathy and firm support for the Libyan government and people against Reagan's gunboat diplomacy;
- call on all the peoples of Africa and of the world, all the anti-imperialist and democratic organiza-
International Viewpoint 19 May 1986 tions to undertake and continue actions in a united way that bring the American government to reason;
- express their astonishment and indignation at the guilty silence of the acting president of the OAU;
- demand an emergency meeting of the OAU summit to take the concrete solidarity measures with the Libyan government and people that are required.
For their part, the signatory organizations have decided to take initiatives to enable the Senegalese people to express their indignation and concrete solidarity with their sister people of Libya and its government. Signatories included the Organisation socialiste de travailleurs, the AJ/ MRDN [An Jeff: movement revolutionnaire pour une democratie nouvelle, Maoist), the LCT [Ligue Communiste de travailleurs, associated with the Lambert current], the LD/MPT [Ligue democratique, split from PAI in 1970s], the MDP (Mouvement democratique et populaire, the bourgeois nationalist party of Mamadon Dia], PAI [Parti africain d'independance, Stalinist], PDS [Parti democratique senegalais, bourgeois opposition party led by Abdoulaye Wadel, PPS [Parti populaire senegalais, led by Dr. Oumar Wone/ and UDP [Union democratique et populaire, Maoist]. O South Africa AT&T pulls back... An official of American Telephone & Telegraph Co. (AT&T) announced on April 15 in Washington, DC, that the firm had decided to reduce its trade with South Africa. It will maintain essential telephone communications with that country, although it will break off some special services between the two countries.
The giant American corporation (it reported sales of more than 35,000 million dollars in 1985 according to Fortune magazine) projects a gradual end to its purchases of such rare metals as platinum and palladium from South Africa. Both metals are widely used in the manufacture of electronic equipment.
Platinum is the single most important US import from South Africa. In 1985, AT&T made purchases of 5,500 million US dollars from the South African company, Impala Platinum Ltd. Those contracts will not be renewed in 1986. AT&T, however, does not admit to any necessity for relying on the Soviet Union, the only other supplier of platinum, because of its capacity to recycle its current stock.
Among other steps that the American company plans to take are the stopping of sales of computers to South Africa and the breaking of a contract it has had with the Olivetti Co. for the sale and distribution of AT&T equipment in South Africa.
Anti-apartheid activists consider AT&T's decision to be the most important of all the measures that have been taken recently by American corporations to put pressure on the Pretoria government and to distance themselves from the apartheid regime. These measures include the CocaCola Corp.'s appeal to the South African government to free Nelson Mandela and to negotiate with the African National Congress. ...Alcan disinvests THE CANADIAN company, Alcan Aluminium, announced in Montreal on March 21 that it had concluded an agreement with the South African corporation, Tongaat-Hulett. Alcan will sell to Tongaat its 24 per cent interest in Hulett Aluminium of Durban, South Africa. With this transaction Alcan will have liquidated its last remaining interests in South Africa.
ALACH THE BUSION HERALL S.AFRICA REFORMS 27