ILC International Newsletter
Issue
n.º 4
Contents:
p 1: Presentation
p 2: Appeal from Women Against the War
p 3: No to War Workers Platform (Belgium)
p 4: Movement of the demonstration of 500 against the social Europe (France)
p 5: The oil spill: the government is responsible for it (Spain)
p 6: The Defense of Claude Amegavi (Togo)
p 7: Interview with Tivin Silva (Sri Lanka)
p 8: ILC publications and calendar
***
Presentation
As we indicated in the presentation of the bulletin Number 1 of the ILC
International Newsletter, "the national bureau of the Workers Party,
which received a mandate to coordinate the activities of the
International Liaison Committee of Workers and Peoples, has taken the
decision to circulate all the documents that describe the activities of
the organizations that are part of the ILC."
The bulletin has been conceived as a means to transmit documents
received in their entirety, the publication of extracts being avoided (with
some exceptions), so that each correspondent of the ILC can use these
documents according to his or her needs. The texts are published in
English, French and Spanish.
Our desire is to facilitate the distribution of the texts that we
receive as quickly as possible, in order to widely present the
information that the deceptive international press hides or deforms
according to its own needs.
Thus, the production of bulletin # 3 was supported by eleven
correspondents and collaborators. The results are exciting. We sent a
call to correspondents in all of the countries of the ILC for them to
send us their analyses, position statements, the documentation of their
interventions and actions and their calls to solidarity. Informations
Internationales of France has presented the responses of the ILC to the
call from the striking firemen's union of Great Britain and to the call
from the workers of Liaoyang, in China. It presented the call to youth
of the entire world against the war, the call from Ukrainian youth, and
the call "Not in our name" from the American and French groups
against the war.
The ILC International Newsletter will continue to become the echo of
your positions and calls, in order to contribute to the formation of the
chain of international resistance to the war and the operation.
According to the traditions of financial independence of our
international conferences, this bulletin will be self-financed through
its distribution and its subscription.
Appeal from Women Against the War
WE WOMEN FROM ALL OVER THE WORLD, WE WHO GIVE LIFE, WE SAY THAT WE DO
NOT ACCEPT THIS BARBARISM:
NO TO THE WAR, NO TO THE GENOCIDE OF THE IRAQI PEOPLE
We stand with all those people around the world, in the United States,
in London, Berlin, Paris, Lahore, Florence, who are demonstrating to say:
"No to war", "No blood for oil", "Not in our
name".
On 21 February 2002, in Berlin, The International Women's Conference
launched an appeal to the women of the world:" We stand against war
and for peace and democracy. No to war in Afghanistan or any other
country targeted by the US for a long-term war. War has never taken
humanity forward. It has only ever brought about the destruction of
lives, security, hard-won rights and freedoms."
A few months after the bombings, the tragic facts are there for all to
see, and we cannot accept them: "An Afghan woman dies every twenty
minutes due to complications during pregnancy". According to
UNICEF, 87% of such deaths could be avoided. It attributes those deaths
to the limited access to health services and to the small number of
hospitals and healthcare centres intended for women. "The
2002 opium harvest will unfortunately be one of the best of the decade."
Le Soir in Brussels called it a "1.2 billion euro gold-mine".
We reject the fate that Bush and his allies have reserved for the
peoples of the world
Women all around the world know that a new war against Iraq would mean a
massacre of the Iraqi people, a war against all peoples, and in
particular against the Palestinian people, who have already suffered
massacres, bombings and tank-assaults.
As was said by the 30,000 artists and intellectuals in the United States
who signed the "Not in Our Name" appeal, "The Bush
administration (.) arrogated to itself and its allies the right to rain
down military force anywhere and anytime. The brutal repercussions have
been felt from the Philippines to Palestine, where Israeli tanks and
bulldozers have left a terrible trail of death and destruction."
This long-term war is a war against all the peoples of the world,
including the peoples of the United States and Europe, where civil
liberties and hard-won rights are being threatened.
We call on women and trade unionists the world over, their organisations,
in very country and on an international scale, to take every initiative
to mobilise and to say
First Signatories:
Algeria: Louisa Hanoune, PT Deputy in the National Popular Assembly (APN);
Zoubida Kherbache, PT Deputy in the APN; Khadidja Naili, PT Deputy in
the APN; Germany: Carla Boulboulle; - Brazil: Misa Boïto, PT; - Chile:
Julia Requena Castillo; - Spain: Isabel Cerdá Martín; Mónica Casanova;
Rebeca Prieto; Angelines González; Eva Cobo; Eva González; Isabel
Pizarro; Yolanda Martínez-Mahíllo; - United States: Nancy Wohlforth,
Executive Committee, AFL-CIO, San Francisco; Millie Phillips, editorial
board, "The Organizer"; Denise D'Anne, SEIU, LOCAL 790 (for
id. only) - Francia: Marie Claude Schidlower, ILC Women Workers
Commission; Marie Stagliano, Women Workers Commission of the Workers
Party; Véronique Pepers, trade unionist ; Michèle Simonnin, trade
unionist ; Dorothée Meyer, Professor of Conferences; Yann Perrotte,
trade unionist ; Jacqueline Mazzola, Gynecologist, Béatrice Sylvain,
trade unionist ; Marie-Edmonde Brunet, trade unionist in education;
Jean-Claude Loew, trade unionist ; Nicole Bernard, trade unionist ; Séverine
Grandvaux, studant; Sylvette Chevalier, trade unionist ; Nicole Florence,
President of the Continuations Committee of the Tribunal Against Child
Labor; Clarisse Delalondre, trade unionist , EDF; Isabelle Banny, trade
unionist , Longwy; Marie Josée Alliot, doctor, trade unionist ; Nicole
Boulfroy, ethnologist; Florence Widmer, trade unionist , Instituto
Gustave Roussy - Céline Yassine - Great Britain: Joanna Watt, professor
at the University of Leeds, Marion Palister, journalist, National Union
of Journalists(NUJ); Sue Wilks, University of Leeds; Kaisa Immoen,
University of Leeds; - Pakistan: Rubina Jamil, President of the APTUF,
and of the WWO (Working Women's Organization); Portugal: Ana Paula
Amaral, Carmelinda Pereira; - Philipines: Norma G. Binas, KMU-Filipionas;
- Switzerland: Simone Girodo, ILC Women's Commission, trade unionist ; Hélène
Grand, deputy to the POP of the canton of Vaud.
This call is an initiative of the Working Women's Commission of the
International Liaison Committee of Workers and Peoples, which has
organizes, along with the Continuations Committee of the Open World
Conference of San Francisco and the German Organizing Committee for the
International Conference in Berlin, "against deregulation and for
labor rights for all".
The Working Women's Commission of the ILC invites to you to sign this
call and to adopt all the initiatives of mobilization against the war.
This commission is already preparing for the 8th of March of 2003, an
international day of mobilization against the war and for the rights of
women, in the anti-war traditions of the labor movement. You can send
your signatures to the International Liaison Committee for Workers and
Peoples. Working Women's Commission. C/o Parti des travailleurs, 87 rue
du faubourg Saint Denis 75010 Paris email: eit@wanadoo.fr
NO TO WAR - LIFT THE EMBARGO ON IRAQ - NO MONEY FOR OIL
MONEY FOR HOSPITALS, FOR THE RIGHT TO HEALTHMONEY FOR SCHOOLS, FOR THE
RIGHT TO PUBLIC EDUCATION, FOR PUBLIC SERVICES
FOR PEACE, DEMOCRACY AND SOCIAL JUSTICE, FOR WOMEN'S RIGHTS
I endorse this appeal.
Name:
Country:
Address:
Position/Organisation:
Tel: email:
Send your endorsements to the Working Women's Commission - ILC c/o Parti
des travailleurs, 87 rue du Faubourg Saint Denis 75010 Paris, France
***
Belgium
We published the extract of the editorial "Return Back?" from
the newspaper Tribune des Travailleurs (Belgium), that takes up the
question of the war in Iraq. (...) The member countries and candidates
countries of the European Union just met in a Summit of NATO in the
Prague, where the dominant question was the preparation of the war
against Iraq. "The European continent thus advances more quickly
towards its reunification in the bosom of the Atlantic Alliance under
the command of the United States, than in the bosom of the European
Union, states the newspaper Le Monde in an editorial.
Whereas in the government rainbow, some have pronounced themselves
against the war (like the leaders of the PS and Ecolo), in the high
economic spheres of our country, they do not hide their position.
According to Peter Vanden Houte of the BBL, "a war in Iraq, if it
is developed favorably, would not necessarily be a catastrophe for the
world-wide economy." And, he adds further on, "the war appears
rather as an opportunity" (La Libre, 11/22/02)
"The war is an opportunity."
What worker, what youth, what pensioner could think even for a moment
that it is a perspective that opens a worthy future of such name?
Everybody knows that the war is always against the people, their goods,
their rights. Everybody knows that the war, even though it is being
developed in Iraq, creates in each country that commits to it, a
propitious climate for the destruction of rights. A threat that, on the
other hand, evokes Tony Blair in England against the strike of the
firemen clearly. This strike that threatens to extend to other sectors
of the services public puts to the daily routine the aim of the
Thatcherism whose continuity has been assured until now by Tony Blair,
who disregarded the mandate he received from his voters. In France, this
26th of November, strikes and the great public workers demonstration in
Paris indicates a will to resist the social retreat that the
Chirac-Raffarin government wants to impose.
In Belgium, the workers of the Stib, thanks to their strike, just
obtained the withdrawal of the restructuring plan, while the CGSP of the
RTBF demands the freezing of a similar plan and has just withdrawn from
the negotiations of the social pact. In the iron and steel industry,
before the more and more precise threats of closures, the people in
charge of the metallurgical FGTB of Lieja have just opened the
possibility of a return to the public statute of Cockerill Sambre Lieja.
To this legitimate demand for the safeguarding of jobs, Wallon minister
Kubla (MR) responds as such: "We will not turn back" and adds
that, in any case, Europe would not agree.
Must it then be accepted that jobs and social and rights continue
disappearing? Must it be accepted that they "will not turn
back" and that we must continue to suffer under this policy? Nobody
can accept that (...)
***
Italy
Fiat: 250.000 demonstrate in Naples, November 30th
Read in the Republic (December 1, 2002):
"They open to the courtship the workers of Fiat of Termini Imerese,
who carry a placard which reads "No to the shutdown, general
strike".
They are 250,000, an uninterrupted tide that blocks the center of Naples
over two hours, to the call of the CGIL "For the development of
Mezzogiorno, against the budget."
"We do not want to negotiate the transference of production from
one factory to another (...) I ask myself how the government does not
realize that a country that has already given up the chemical industry,
computer science and telecommunications, is already in decline, the
Secretary General of the CGIL, Epifani, declared.
La Repubblica makes this commentary: "The entire country is
demonstrating that which the regionalization would divide, but which,
however, the CGIL sets out to maintain united. "Naples calls out to
Milan", says Epifani, "announcing that the next demonstration
will take place in Milan". "Naples is Milan, the South is the
North", triggering an avalanche of applause. Epifani adds in the
direction of the government: "You will not win gain the game by
trying to divide the country against the citizens and the workers".
La Repubblica indicates that, under the command of the CGIL, is the
left, Fefondation and the Greens. There is also Sergio Cofferati and the
president of the Campanile. There are the anti-globalization activists
with signs: "Freedom for Caruso". Epifanio, in the tribune,
requests a new examination of dossier, since if a State is mistaken, it
should have the valor to admit it.
***
The European Union and the CES (ETUC) are against union independence
The political movement of the Manifesto for union independence has been
constituted from the initiative of militants of the CGT and the CGT-FO.
The movement adheres to the ILC. It publishes a bulletin, one of whose
articles we are publishing extracts.
Information and discussion bulletin from the political Movement of the
Manifesto for Union Independence.
The union organizations transformed into co-legislators
The second major proposal in the matter of social issues in Europe from
the report adopted by the Economic and Social Council is formulated
thus: "Continuing the improvement of the social and economic
agreement". What does this formula hide? We can read in the report:
"Through their common declaration, on the occasion of the summit in
Laeken, the European social agents have expressed their desire for the
unified and more coherent organization of a macroeconomic dialogue in
which the economic and the social are not two separated dimensions, but
on the contrary, two elements that depend on one another and, by the
same token, are reciprocally influenced. In continuity with the summit
of Barcelona (March of 2002), the Commission, in its official notice of
June 26, 2002, finishes by arguing in favor of a better organization of
the social and economic dialogue and proposes to the council the
creation of a tripartite annual summit of agreement for growth and
employment:
"The Commission:
- supports the reinforcing of the agreement between the social agents
and the European institutions on economic and social policies and
proposes to create new "tripartite social summit", designated
to concentrate the contributions of the social agents within the
framework of the strategy of Lisbon;
-
- - it wishes to reinforce the participation of the social agents in the
open processes of coordination, especially by consulting with the social
agents before writing the directives proposals for employment, so that
they can contribute to them under the best conditions."
-
The Economic and Social Council supports the proposal submitted by the
Commission to the Council which supposes the creation of this summit and
desires a positive answer on the part of such, so that their preparation
can assure the next summit in spring occur in the best of conditions.
Therefore, the union organizations, via CES, become an integral part of
the tripartite social summit to act "within the framework of the
strategy of Lisbon" and to "contribute" to the
elaboration of the directives for employment (they have already seen
what they represent)
What else is this if not transforming the union organizations into
co-legislators? And all of this in the name of the "strategy of
Lisboa"? But what is this strategy of Lisboa, which is being
converted into a symbol of the "European social model"?
We return to the conclustons of the European summit of Lisboa in the
days of March 23 and 24 of 2000. And so we rely, once again, on the
facts.
- Point 17: "The European Council demands of the Commission, the
Council and the member States, considering their respective competition
(...) that they accelerate liberalization in sectors such as gas,
electricity, postal services and transportation. And the same with
respect to the use and the management of airspace "
-
The strategy of Lisbon is, in the first place, this: the brutal
acceleration of all the privatizations of the public services, whose
consequences we see now in France especially with the EDF-GDF. And would
they have to integrate the union organizations in this strategy? It is
understood that the European Commission and the Chiefs of State have an
interest in it, in view of the opposition of wage-earners to the
privatizations, such as was expressed the past 3rd of October. But the
role of an independent union organization cannot be, in any way, to be
inserted into a similar strategy of privatization. Let us continue:
- Point 23: "To reduce the fiscal pressure that weighs on labor, in
particular on the unskilled and scantily compensated work." It is
exactly the policy followed by all the successive governments in all the
countries of Europe, that seeks, in name of the reduction of fiscal
pressure, to lower taxes on societies and, simultaneously, to exonerate
the social quotations owed by the bosses, the latter not representing a
fiscal pressure, but a part of the deferred wage.
-
- - Point 26: "To introduce into the schools, education centers,
companies and research establishments, collaborations for knowledge
acquisition that is beneficial for all."
-
Speaking clearly, it is about leaving all primary education in the hands
of the employer's associations, and this in all of Europe. And they
would have the union organizations, through an annual tripartite summit,
be integrated into this policy of the destruction of diplomas and the
qualification?
- Point 8: "The social agents must be associated more closely with
the elaboration, the application and the continuations of the
appropriate directives".
-
We have seen before what they suppose these directives. Can the fact
that the union organizations are associated more closely to a similar
regression of all the rights be taken as a "social model"?
There would be much to say about other aspects of the point of view
adopted by the Economic and Social Council during its session of
Wednesday October 23, 2002.
But there are reasons to be worried by its reach, since what is at stake
is the way in which the future European treaty, prepared by the European
Convention presided over by Giscard, wants to integrate union
organizations and to question the sovereignty of the national
confederations. Therefore, more than ever, we are in the hour of the
combat in defense of union independence.
***
Spain:
The Oil Spill: The Government is Responsible
Editorial from Información Obrera, # 117, December 2, 2002
Two hundred thousand Galician citizens invaded the city of Santiago on
Sunday, December 1, in the largest demonstration in the historic memory
of Galicia, summoned by the of fishermen's unions, by different popular
organizations, among them nationalistic parties, organized around the
collective "Never again", to which the PSOE was added at the
last moment.
Throughout all Galicia, from baccalaureate students to the
"percebeiros" from the Coast of the Death, they occupied the
city of Santiago pacifically to demand that the Aznar government and the
regional government of Fraga take responsibility. Shouts for their
resignation were heard repeated times in the courtyards. These shouts
were accompanied by the demand for solutions, since for 30 successive
years oil tanker shipwrecks have been seeding death and destruction in
the Galician coast. Galicia lives in large part from the fishing and
derivative industries. The proclamation read at the end of the
demonstration said: "Never again; you will no longer disregard this
S.O.S. from a people tired of holding on and suffering. The Galician
people have said enough, we demand solutions and demands from the
beginning that you finish with what is not a natural catastrophe: the
Aznar government and the regional government of Fraga. In effect, these
governments are responsible. Why?
The facts that motivate the rage of the Galician people:
… From 3 in the afternoon on the 13th of November when the breach of
the Prestige takes place until the following morning, when the ship
appears along the coast, the Government does nothing.
… At no time did the Government send a team of experts to examine the
hull of the Prestige to issue a verdict. Nonetheless, the Administration
has qualified personnel.
… The Government made the decision to send the Prestige into high
seas, with the result of multiplying the disaster: 20,000 metric tons of
fuel today stretch out over Galicia and bordering regions. The operation
was done by private companies, after lengthy negotiations with the
shipbuilders, because the Government does not have tugboats.
… Once on high seas, the Government left the ship in the hands of the
shipbuilding company, which, based on its interests, turned the boat
towards the south, which caused, with reason, the indignation of
Portugal. Meanwhile, the Fragas and other high level leaders went
hunting with the well-known shipper Fernandez Tapias, pioneer in the
dismantling of the Spanish naval sector. Good heirs of the customs of
Francoism.
… The Minister of Promotion, Alvarez Cascos, was on another hunting
outing, and the Minister of the Environment, Jaume Matas, dedicated
himself to his electoral campaign in Balearic.
… Minister Rajoy, days later, went to Galicia to give a press
conference denying that there was an oil spill. And he prohibited all of
the professionals of mass media, whether public or controlled by the PP,
from mentioning those words.
… Meanwhile, Aznar meets with French president Chirac inŠMalaga (on
the other end of the country) saying that everything is under control
and that he is going to take suitable measures, like for example moving
the single-shell oil tankers 200 miles away from the coast. But 7000
boats carrying dangerous material border the Galician coasts.
The responsibility for the policy:
All this leads us to consider another level of responsibilities: the
naval, marine and coastal policy that the successive governments develop
within the framework of the European Union. Let us remember: ten years
ago, when the catastrophe of the Aegean Sea ship occurred, the then-
socialist minister Josep Borrell promised that a European director would
be indicated who would put a boundary on the deregulation of marine
traffic.
Today, the apologist of Opus Dei, Loyola de Palacio again has promised a
European directive.
But directives already exist: those of World Trade Organization,
accepted and applied by European Union and governments of the European
Union, which have permitted in twenty years for the practical totality
of the Spanish fleet merchant to be privatized, and navigate today with
flags "of convenience" (Panama, Liberia, Bahamas, etc.) in
order to elude taxes, not to respect any labor regulation or agreement,
nor to fulfill the safety measures the more elementary, for example the
necessity of double hull for fuel and petroleum transports.
The ships implied in the last disasters all flew convenience flags.
According to the experts, this is key. What would it cost the most
advanced countries to prevent these types of boats from trading or to
register the boats of their companies in those countries? Nothing: it is
just that this is the base of the globalized economy.
Yes there are, then, directives of the European Union: to deregulate and
the law of the jungle in the seas in benefit of limitless speculation.
On top of this, Spain is not counting a decontaminating boat, nor on
barriers that are suitable or of sufficient amount, nor on qualified
personnel to confront these situations, nor on measures to control
anything. Because they must apply the restrictions of the stability pact
and it is necessary to dedicate money to the armament effort of NATO
demanded by Bush (the Eurofighter fire house that fell in Toledo costs
72 million euros alone).
Loyola de Palacio returns to ask us to have confidence in the EU:
Confidence in those who organize the destruction of our rights? The
solution that the European police preach is that there is "more
controls" and above all the power to be able to act against the
captains of the boats. Following the old tradition of attacking the
sailor to save his responsibilities. And pretending that is possible to
control the chaos that they organize.
The Informative Cutback
In order to be able to elude its responsibilities, the Government of the
PP has started up an authentic information censorship, a step further in
the cutback of liberties that has presides over its recent performances.
Thus, the director of Merchant Marines has sent a note to the
dependencies of the marine captains, having prohibited them from making
declarations-to the point that not even the captains can receive
information on all of the types of civil employees.
The same has happened to the workers of the Galician public televisions.
As much those of the autonomous channels as with the TVE, in Galicia
they are denouncing, through their company committees, the pressures
exerted by the directors to try to diminish the reach and the
prohibition of the term `oil spill´. They have even produced incidents
with those affected that sometimes reject the presence of the measures.
The Authentic Misfortune:
Aznar, Fraga and the European Union
At the same time as the demonstration of Santiago, 250,000 workers
pronounced in Seville their protest of the total withdrawal of the
decree of reform for unemployment protection and the restitution of the
PER, the agrarian subsidy that 300,000 day laborers in Andalusia and
Extremadura receive.
It is the popular outcry that carries on the general strike of June
20th, to which today the Galician workers, young people and fishermen
have been added who, justly, consider the government responsible.
"The same Sunday, the president of the Xunta de Galica, the 'ex'
Franco supporter Fraga, says that now it is necessary to make an effort
to palliate the consequences of the disaster and not to look for
political responsibilities." From Corfú (Greece), where Aznar met
with the directive council of the Center Democrats International, which
only attended his homologous Portuguese, Aznar declared ': I want to say
that it seems to me exaggerated, seems to me out of place, sincerely, to
blame a government for the catastrophe that has taken place. Usually
this is not done,"
Zapatero, Secretary General of the PSOE, said recently that we will have
to wait for the elections of 2004 to change the government.
The workers of all the country, the students, the farmers, who cannot
continue holding on, justly raise the issue: it is not possible to face
any catastrophe with governments at the service of the multinationals,
of the speculators, who demand the application of the directives of the
European Union and the dictates of the World Trade Organization. The
workers demand of their unions, of their parties: no truce, no support
for the Aznar government. The misfortune, the authentic misfortune is
that we must support a tyrant like Fraga, a person like Aznar and that
our destinies are in the hands of the directives of Brussels.
***
Togo:
National communiqué # 6 from the Committee for the Immediate and
Unconditional Freedom of Claude Ameganvi, Yaura Tiguena, Takana Bayesa
and of the jailed journalists
With the support of ADDI CAR CDPA CDPA-BT CPP PARTI DES TRAVAILLEURS SDT
UDS-TOGO UFC
After the eight day postponement that took place in the hearing of the
14 of November of 2002, Claude AMEGANVI and Julien AYI appeared again
November 21 of 2002 at 9am, before the Court of Appeals of Lomé,
presided over by the lawyer Yaya ABDULAYE, President of said Court.
The lawyers of the Defense Collective, to which the lawyer Hélène
Rubinstein-Carrera was added, from the University of Paris, alleged,
among other irregularities concerning the charges, in particular:
- 1°) that they ignored the summons of the Public Ministry, something
that was not stated in the summary, although the Fiscal of the Republic
has appealed (to the maximum) the ruling of the Court of First
Instance of September of 2002, before the lawyers appealed,
on their part, the ruling from September 16, considering the sentence
for the accused to be excessively merciful, being four months of hard
time in jail and 100,000 Francs for actions that Claude Ameganvi, for
his part, has never conceded to and which no proof has corroborated.
It all served for nothing, as the President of the Court insisted that
the Vista be held, whereas the General prosecutor described the request
for postponement as "delaying" and the Chalim lawyer, from the
prosecution, was even allowed to intervene, although the prosecution had
not presented an appeal, to consider the reason invoked for the
postponement to be "weak"!
Relieved for the time being of some of the points of procedure, the
defense asked for a suspension of the session, which was granted.
After the postponement, the condemned were required to appear.
Claude AMEGANVI reiterated the fundamentals of his previous depositions,
declaring himself innocent and emphasizing that from the beginning of
this case his rights as a citizen had been trampled upon, and that he
"requires, with the greatest solemnity, the postponement of the
trial".
The President of the Court continued in its view, to the contrary, that
the Vista must continue, and he thus interrogated the accused himself.
Then, an extraordinary and theatrical blow took place, which anywhere
else would have radically altered the course of the trial, allowing in
fact for the pure and simple freedom of Claude Ameganvi.
In effect, to the precise and urgent question of the President of the
Court being asked where he had seen Claude Ameganvi for the first time,
the main and in fact only prosecutor of Secretary-Coordinator of the
Workers Party, Julien AYI, affirmed clearly and in plain language that
he saw him for the first time on the police premises, the 6th of August
of 2002, which triggered an authentically explosive reaction from the
public.
The declarations having been done during the interrogations of the
"instruction", he remembered clearly that he had already said
that he had done it "forced by the police", before stating
that had signed in his "cell" two acts without having read
them at all.
The General prosecutor, Mr. Gbanyagba, after having tried clumsily when
interrogating Claude Ameganvi to establish the existence of a more or
less regular relation between he and Klu Nevame, extracted in a forced
manner the conclusion that between the two there was a convergence of
thought in the act considered to be an attack on the honor of the Head
of the State. Also he tried to demonstrate that the evoked article 67 on
disturbance of the public order was effectively the application to the
defendant in this trial, evoking three decisions:
- 11-27-2000 when the Court of Notsé condemned a defendant to 12 months
for having poisoned a well;
-
- 11-19-2000 when the Court of Sokodé condemned another one to 60
months for witchcraft once this crime was recognized;
-
- and 8-16-2000 when the Court of Lomé condemned the persons who had
burst into the Communitarian Center of Bè (lome ') to disperse a press
conference.
-
From this argument he asked for 36 months for disturbance of the public
order and six months for attacking the honor of the Head of State.
The Chalim lawyer, the lawyer for the civil part of the trial, illegally
intervened as he had presented and appeal. He surmised that a document
published about the fortune of the Head of State at a time in which the
population is submerged in misery constitutes a molotov cocktail
destined to cause a social explosion and that, therefore, the crime of
disturbance of the public order is clearly just since, according to him,
the intention to provoke existed. Also according to him, article 67 had
the broadest application and was not applied only to the anthropophagic.
He closed requesting the thirty six months for disturbance of the public
order and six months for attacks on the honor of the Head of State.
Once again, as if anything was worth the trouble if they could clear
their client, Claude Ameganvi's defense lawyers followed one another at
the podium, supported by legal arguments and concrete facts, they fought
to request the unconditional freedom the defendant.
The President of the Court declared the case ready for sentencing, which
will be dictated the 28th of November of 2002, although the last
appearances in the courtroom should have led to his immediate
liberation.
Claude Ameganvi, declared innocent by the facts and the declarations of
the only witness of position, continues to be held in jail for almost
four months now.
Claude Ameganvi, who from the beginning of the process has proclaimed
his innocence constantly, runs the risk of an increase in his sentence.
Claude Ameganvi is freed of all responsibility by the testifying witness
and the co-defendant, but the threat of a sentence of forty two months
in jail weighs over him.
Will Togolese Justice once again close its eyes to the truth and remain
deaf to the law?
Will Judge Yaya Abdulaye dare to increase the pain of an innocent man
who already was condemned unjustly?
In light of the precedents, it makes sense to fear the worst.
Therefore, the National Committee for the immediate and unconditional
freedom of Claude Ameganvi, Yaura Tiguena, Takana Bayesa and the jailed
journalists,
- reminds national and international public opinion that the fight for
the immediate and unconditional freedom of Claude Ameganvi is far from
finished;
-
- reiterates its calls once again to reinforce the mobilization to
continue and to multiply, now more than ever, the position statements
and the initiatives, and to intensify the campaign of signature
gathering for the freedom of the prisoners;
-
- again exhorts the political parties, union organizations and human
rights defense organizations, as well as the associations and all
individuals in favor of justice, democracy and peace, and to the entire
population of Lomé and its surroundings, to return, more and more
massively, to the Palace of Justice of Lomé on Thursday, November 28,
at 7am to hear the verdict that Yaya Abdulaye is going to emit.
-
Written in Lomé November 25, 2002
By the National Committee, the Coordinating body members:
Emmanuel BUAKA (CDPA-BT); Mensanvi BOGLA (CPP); Kofi-Kuma HODOUTO
(Le Front ADDI - CAR - CDPA - UDS-TOG0 ); Narcisse N'KADJAOU (Workers
Party); Brim Hamadou DIABACTE (UFC); Koko François GAYIBOR
(Associations in Defense of Human Rights); Tétévi Norbert
GBIKPI-BENISSAN (Trade Union Organizations); Gahoun HEGBOR (Collective
of Defense Lawyers).
***
Sri Lanka:
Privatization and the division of the islands are linked
Tilvin Silva is Secretary General of the Popular Liberation Front (JVP)
of Sri Lanka.
He explains for our bulletin the position of his party in the face of
the situation which his country is in today.
We are confronted by two problems. First, is the privatization. Most of
the state agricultural companies have been sold. In order to gauge what
this means, it is necessary to know that 94% of the industrial sector
belongs to the private sector.
The deficit of the country is today of 134,000 million rupees. In order
to solve the problem, the State tries to sell the buildings that belong
to it. It sells the state companies. In fact, in name of the
globalization, the intervention of the State is disappearing in all the
sectors.
In the country 23 major private companies have closed their doors. Ten
textile companies have closed already, which entails the loss of 46 000
jobs in that sector. In fact, the North American multinationals buy land
pertaining to the State, and the entire economy is under the control of
the multinationals.
The phenomena is similar to that which it is possible to see in
Argentina and Mexico.
The second problem is the national question. In Sri Lanka a separatist
movement, the LTTE exists. The Government, supported by Norway and the
leaders of the United States, has reached an agreement with that
movement to divide the country. Imperialism wants to divide to the
working class using ethnic issues. The United States wants to
appropriate for itself the port of Trincomalie in the East of the
country because it is in a strategic position in the Indian Ocean. They
want to debilitate our country, and for that reason they try to create
two states, to divide the nation state. The artificial creation of a
Tamil state would lead to a situation identical to the one of Palestine.
If those problems are considered globally, the privatization and the
division of the island, it is possible to consider that Sri Lanka will
become a new colony. For our part, we consider that the national problem
cannot be solved without relating it to the other problems of the
country. It is necessary to defeat the imperialistic colonization.
In our country a problem of national discrimination exists. In order to
solve it, we must establish a regime that allows for the restoration of
equal rights for all, for all the components of society, for the
minorities. Which implies an authentic democracy and equality of rights.
To fit us to a problem, the one of the official language, the
Constitution has recognized Ceylonese and Tamil as official languages of
the country. But the recognition of the Tamil language has never been
truly respected, and neither has the Ceylonese. English plays an
important role in the affairs of State.
Our position is to recognize all of the languages, including English,
abolishing the idea of one single official language of the State.
In the economic terrain, there is a lack of equality of rights among all
the communities. The bourgeoisie cannot do it. They can only obtain an
anti-imperialist regime.
Our party, the JVP, has taken a position in that sense. For that reason
we are slandered by the government, which is a coalition government.
There is a president of rights that comes from the opposition (PA) and a
government of rights that has a majority in the parliament. This
cohabitation is an advantage for the people, it balances the power in
the country.
We have 16 regional deputies in the parliament, 25 advisors, 215
councilmen and control a city council in the south of the country. The
Government tries to discredit to us. There is a movement of repression
against us. They have attacked some of our party locals and some have
been set on fire. We need to collaborate with the progressive movements
of Asia of the South and worldwide.
The unions that existed in the public sector have been debilitated by
the development of the market economy from 1977. Nevertheless, there is
a movement that groups unions against the privatizations, and a union
federation is being formed.
With the other parties, we have held a protest in October against the
privatizations, and we seek to develop international relations to free
this fight.
***
ILC International Calendar:
February, 2003: International Railroad Workers Conference Against
Railway Privatization (Paris-France).
March 8, 2003: International Women's Day Against the War and Defense
May, 2003: Western Hemisphere Conference Against the FTAA (Sao Paulo -
Brazil).
June, 2003: International Trade Union Conference In Defense of the
Conventions of the ILO.
June, 2003: International Conference In Defense of Public Education.
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Checks should be made out to the Manifesto
WE WOMEN FROM ALL OVER THE WORLD, WE WHO GIVE LIFE, WE SAY THAT WE DO
NOT ACCEPT THIS BARBARISM, NO TO THE WAR, NO TO THE GENOCIDE OF
THE IRAQI PEOPLE
We stand with all those people around the world, in the United States,
in London, Berlin, Paris, Lahore, Florence, who are demonstrating to
say: "No to war", "No blood for oil", "Not in
our name".
On 21 February 2002, in Berlin, The International Women's Conference
launched an appeal to the women of the world:" We stand against war
and for peace and democracy. No to war in Afghanistan or any other
country targeted by the US for a long-term war. War has never taken
humanity forward. It has only ever brought about the destruction of
lives, security, hard-won rights and freedoms."
A few months after the bombings, the tragic facts are there for all to
see, and we cannot accept them: "An Afghan woman dies every twenty
minutes due to complications during pregnancy". According to
UNICEF, 87% of such deaths could be avoided. It attributes those deaths
to the limited access to health services and to the small number of
hospitals and healthcare centres intended for women. "The
2002 opium harvest will unfortunately be one of the best of the
decade." Le Soir in Brussels called it a "1.2 billion euro
gold-mine".
We reject the fate that Bush and his allies have reserved for the
peoples of the world
Women all around the world know that a new war against Iraq would mean a
massacre of the Iraqi people, a war against all peoples, and in
particular against the Palestinian people, who have already suffered
massacres, bombings and tank-assaults.
As was said by the 30,000 artists and intellectuals in the United States
who signed the "Not in Our Name" appeal, "The Bush
administration (.) arrogated to itself and its allies the right to rain
down military force anywhere and anytime. The brutal repercussions have
been felt from the Philippines to Palestine, where Israeli tanks and
bulldozers have left a terrible trail of death and destruction."
This long-term war is a war against all the peoples of the world,
including the peoples of the United States and Europe, where civil
liberties and hard-won rights are being threatened.
We call on women and trade unionists the world over, their
organisations, in very country and on an international scale, to take
every initiative to mobilise and to say
NO TO WAR - LIFT THE EMBARGO ON IRAQ - NO MONEY FOR OIL
MONEY FOR HOSPITALS, FOR THE RIGHT TO HEALTHMONEY FOR SCHOOLS, FOR THE
RIGHT TO PUBLIC EDUCATION, FOR PUBLIC SERVICES
FOR PEACE, DEMOCRACY AND SOCIAL JUSTICE, FOR WOMEN'S RIGHTS
I endorse this appeal.
Name:
Country:
Address:
Position/Organisation:
Tel: email:
This appeal was produced on the initiative of the Working Women's
Commission of the International Liaison Committee for a Workers'
International (ILC). The ILC, together with the San Francisco Open World
Conference Continuations Committee and the German Organising Committee,
co-organised the Berlin Conference Against Privatisation and
Deregulation and For Labour Rights For All.The ILC's Working Women's
Commission invites you to endorse this appeal and to take every
initiative to mobilise against the war. Following in the anti-war
tradition of the labour movement, the Commission is already preparing 8
March 2003 as an international day of mobilisation against the war and
for women's rights.
Send your endorsements to the Working Women's Commission - ILCc/o Parti
des travailleurs, 87 rue du Faubourg Saint Denis 75010 Paris
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