ILC International Newsletter
Number 18
March 17, 2003
Weekly information dossier published by the
International Liaison Committee -ILC,
Please contact :
International Liaison Committee -ILC, c/o Parti des travailleurs - 87,
rue du Faubourg Saint-Denis,
7510 Paris France
phone : (33 1) 48 01 88 28 fax : (33 1) 48 01 88 36
e-mai l - eit.ilc@wanadoo.fr
********************
Contents:
- Introduction
- New signatures to the International Labour Statement Against War in
Iraq
- Against the War: Switzerland, Spain, Italy, Former Yugoslavia, Britain,
Algeria
- March 8th: Message to Women, Burkina Faso
- ETUC, co-regulator in the European Union.
- Germany: Unions do not sign a proposed "employment pact"
- Brazil: Editorial of Revolution Youth
- Dialogue, review of discussion between Arab and Jewish activists of
Palestine.
********************
Introduction:
We are writing at an hour when people all over the world are facing
increasinly difficult times. The first in line are the Iraq people, who
are being subjected to a genocidal attack in the form of the Bush
administration's filthy war for oil.
The International Liaison Committee for a Workers' International has
been fighting for months and years for workers' rights and peace.
For weeks on end, the ILC has been mobilizing working people on all
continents through the «International Labor Movement Against War»
committee that was set up at the International Emergency Conference in
Paris this past January 23rd and 24th. The ILC has been an active
supporter of US Labor Against War (USLAW) and has played an important
role in gathering endorsements for the «International Labor Declaration
Against the War in Iraq» -- a statement that has been signed by
international, national, regional, county and local unions, representing
more than 130 million trade unionists all over the world.
The International Liaison Committee will continue this combat.
In this grave hour, it seems appropriate that we re-publish a passage
from the Manifesto Against War and Exploitation, which was the founding
text of the ILC in January 1991 in Barcelona, on the eve of the Gulf War:
«War -- together with the massacres, famine and epidemics that follow
in its wake, can only mean a severe reversal for human civilization ,
perhaps even a mortal blow. ...
"We the people, the international working class, know what we are
talking about: governments, whatever their political
tendency, governments under orders from imperialist powers, are going to
try to undermine and reverse all social rights and conquest in the name
of national unity to support the war. ...
"We are aware that things will not be easy in the future. A
world is crumbling apart.
"Considering that it is our duty to fight and help the working
class and people everywhere in their own struggle to save humanity from
war, we hereby reassert our faith in workers' capacity worldwide,
"- to free themselves from the chains of exploitation and
oppression,
"- to set up a world where fraternal cooperation between nations
and workers will replace barbarism,which is on the increase every day.
-
"Governments , take heed of the people's revolt.
Down with war!»
**************************
Switzerland
Unanimous Resolution of the National Committee of the Federation of
Civil Services (SSP)
Against the War and the Sanctions
Meeting on 7 March 2003, the National Committee of the Federation of
Civil Service Trade Unions (SSP-vpod)
- Confirms its opposition to the war which is threatening the Iraqi
people. Whether declared unilaterally, or by a coalition, or by the
United Nations Security Council, this war is unacceptable.
Therefore, the SSP National Committee:
- Urgently requests from the Swiss Federal Council:
o that it unilaterally violate, for reasons of humanitarian urgency, the
sanctions, which are severely afflicting the Iraqi people and have
already claimed over one million victims. The Swiss Federal Council must
send food and medicines as soon as possible;
o that it close Swiss airspace to all military aircraft of countries
involved in the agression against Iraq;
o that it remove from the armament programmes all purchases of military
equipment from the USA and the UK.
- The National Committee supports the strikes staged by the youth in
case of the outbreak of war and invites the teachers to support them.
-The National Committee calls on its members to organize protests on the
work sites (extented breaks, walk outs Š) on the day following the
outbreak of war.
-The National Committee invites all members and all the personnel
working for the civil services to take part in the demonstrations
against the war scheduled locally the day after the outbreak of war, and
in Bern on Saturday following the opening of a shooting war.
Adopted unanimously
*************************
Spain
Mass Protests Against the war and Against Aznar
On Saturday 15 March, Madrid's city center was flooded with masses of
demonstrators in numbers that could not be foreseen: The people --
workers, youth, citizens -- all shouted their demands:
No War!
No War, with or without the UN!
No War!
Aznar Step down!
Two tables were used by our comrades of Información Obrera to gather
1,000 signatures demanding Aznar's resignation.
The government claimed that some 700,000 demonstrators took to the
streets in Spain to oppose the war on 15 March. This was a ridiculous
estimate, if we consider that for the government there were 20,000
demonstrators in Barcelona, when even the local police had counted
300,000.
These huge actions occurred even though no broad call like the one for
the 15 February protest had been issued.
In several cities, like in Barcelona, where no call for a demonstration
had even been issued, mass demonstrations took place to an extent never
seen before.
The fact is that, despite all the obstacles and maneuvers to distract
people, millions of protesters took to the streets with a single
objective: No War!
On the following day, Aznar all the same, met Bush in the Açores to
support the war and to obtain Bush's support. Banners in Madrid's
city center read : «Who does Aznar represent? Bush, or the
peoples of Spain?»
While the PSOE's general secretary and the coordinator of the United
Left were telling Aznar to listen to the citizens, the demonstrators
were demanding the resignation of the government.
At the end of Barcelona's protest, a journalist of TVE (the official
television network) denounced in the name of the entire editorial staff,
the pressures put on the professionals from the managers imposed by the
government.
********************
Correspondent
Italy
700,000 Protesters in Milan on 15 March 2003
700,000 protesters took part in a national demonstration on Saturday 15
March "against the war and for workers' rights" organized by
CGIL in Milan.
That was the largest demonstration ever seen in Milan: three separate
contingents marched across the city streets before joining together at
the station square.
In his closing speech, the CGIL secretary, Epifani, said: "the
government must be aware that the very minute the war is declared, this
country will come to a halt".(...)
In addition to the slogans against the war, the workers protested
against the layoffs, for the defence of article 18, the public schooling
system, contracts, health system.
The activists of the ILC in Turin and Milan put up a banner of their
organization and gathered signatures for the international declaration
of US Labor Against War.
Correspondent
********************
New signatories on the USLAW-initiated International Labor Statement
Against War in Iraq
National organisations:
Brazil: United Workers Confederation (CUT)
Local organisations:
France:
FO union in Atomic Energy Commissariat, Saclay (Essonne)
SNTRS-CGT, in the Space Astrophysics Institute (Orsay)
Local branch of CGT unions, Aubenas (Ardèche)
FO Nord du Lot branch.
**********************
Former Yugoslavia
Press Communiqué
Following the assassination of Serbia's Prime Minister, Zoran Djindjic,
the government has proclaimed a state of siege; the Organisation for
Labour Politics (a member of the ILC) immediately issued this communiqué.
The state of siege is actually a declaration of war against the Serbian
people and not against the mob.
Several days before the decree, the minister for privatisations had
attacked the press, guilty, according to him, of leading a campaign
against the privatisations and reporting on the labour actions of
resistance. He had demanded from the press that they be loyal and
cooperative.
Does the Serbian government really need a state of siege, with tanks and
censorship in order to cope with 200 mobsters?
Who is going to believe this?
Can the police minister believe this?
Must the people submitted to censorship believe it?
Bush's and Carla del Ponte's cynism has gone too far. Who can
think that the peoples of the Balkans are so stupid as to believe this?
The war which shattered Yugoslavia had started immediately after the war
in Iraq in 1991. Now a state of siege is decreed in Serbia during
the last preparations for an attack against Iraq.
In reality they are declaring a new war on us as part of Bush's multiple
wars «against terrorism».
Milosevic had never been able to abolish the rights of workers to go on
strike. Nor will the epigones.
P. Imsirovic, secretary of Labour Policy.
*********************
Great Britain
On February 28th, when British Parliament debated about war, 122 Labour
Members of Parliament voted against Blair's war proposal. 40 abstained.
Tory votes allowed a majority against war.
Herewith you will find the resolution adopted by a Labour Party local
branch:
This branch meeting is taking place in a world situation which is
particularly serious, with potentially disastrous consequences. Hundreds
of millions of people around the world are seized with anguish at the
prospect of a dreadful war on Iraq that is being prepared at this very
moment.
As shown by the mass demonstrations around the UK on 15 February, the
working population in this country has clearly rejected this war. Trade
unionists, Labour Party members, Labour Party voters constituted the
backbone of the demonstrations on 15 February.
On 26 February, the House of Commons debate on war resulted in one of
the most unprecedented revolts since the Second World War, when the
majority in favour of military action by a Labour government was secured
by the Tories.
The Labour government is organising the drive to war, the government
that is working hand in glove with Washington is a Labour government,
whose electoral majority took to the streets to oppose the war. Tony
Blair and the New Labour government relied on the Tories to save it in
the House of Commons vote on an issue that challenges the views of the
Labour electorate.
It is clear that Tony Blair and this government have no mandate for war.
By insisting on pushing for this war, Tony Blair and New Labour are
destroying the Labour Party. More than 60,000 members have already
warned that they intend to leave should war break out, and the May local
council elections are likely to see a huge vote against Labour because
of this issue.
This branch therefore condemns Tony Blair's actions in continuing to
push for war, and supports Labour MP John McDonnell's conclusion
expressed in Glasgow that Tony Blair has to choose whether he leads the
party of war or the Labour Party, and the proposal for a recall
conference of the Labour Party in order to defend the founding
principles of the party and seek peace in international affairs through
democracy and solidarity.
Resolution passed at 13 March meeting of Cockington & Chelston
Branch Labour Party
********************
Algeria
The two demonstrations called by the PT were banned. They turned into
gatherings under top security surveillance, surrounded by a barricade.
Anyone who stepped out of the barricaded areas was quickly pushed back
by the hefty armed forces deployed according to the Interior Minister's
diktat to prevent any show of support for the Palestinian or Iraqi
people.
On the second international day of mobilization against the Iraq war,
called for March 15, in Algiers, the PT organized a joint action with
the MSP (party which participates in government) on Thursday, March 13,
2003 (weekend in Algeria). The daily Le Qutotidien d'Oran (March 15),
which covered the demonstration, reported: "As planned and
announced, the forces of order prevented the solidarity march with the
Iraqi people called by the MSP and the PT. May 1st Square (where the
march was to begin) was surrounded and blocked off from the early hours
of the morning. Barriers were set up around a small area... to contain
the demonstrators and prevent them from marching."
The activists at the antiwar gatherings cried out: "We are all
Iraqis ! Bush, Blair, Aznar, child murderers!""
It should be noted as well that several demonstrations which the PT
tried to organize in various regions of the country were banned, except
two which were tolerated in the West (Oran) and the East (Annaba) of the
country, which regrouped hundreds of workers and youth to say no to war,
assimilating the government's silence to complicity and criticizing it
for banning and preventing any citizen demonstrations.
Intervening in this gathering, the MSP president Nahnah declared:
"It's a shame that the Arab regimes have remained silent, while the
world's people are mobilizing". Louisa Hanoune, PT spokesperson,
declared: "We are with Iraq and Palestine... The Americans want the
oil and to destroy the country", and added", Blair and Aznar
are disavowed by their own citizens". She also denounced the
banning of demonstrations, qualifying them to "gagging the people
to silence" and mentioned that, even in Israel, 15,000 people took
to the streets to say no to the war in Iraq.
Correspondent
********************
Burkina- Faso
March 8: International Women's Day
Message to All Women of Burkina Faso
On the occasion of March 8, 2003, the supporting organizations send you
their fraternal greetings and wish you a successful commemoration.
What is March 8?
March 8 is a day of memory. In fact, women the world over remember today
that over 150 years ago, on March 8, 1857, the women textiles workers
were fiercely repressed by the police in New York, in the USA, while
demonstrating for better working conditions and the recognition of
citizenship. In August, 1910, the German activist Clara Zetkin, proposed
a 2nd International Conference of Women Socialists in Copenhagen,
Denmark, to declare this day International Women's Day for the conquest
of their rights. Since then, this day has been celebrated in countries
the world over.
In view of this historical overview, March 8 is a day of reflection and
commitment to struggle. This year we have placed this commemoration
under the following slogan: "Women and armed conflicts".
The current international context requires urgent reflection about
the role which is ours in the fightback and preservation of peace.
The realities which exist both regionally and internationally is not
encouraging:
- Violence in Côte d'Ivoire tainted with xenophobia;
- Armed conflicts in Central Africa and in the Africa Great Lakes region;
- Imminence of American imperialist aggression against the Iraqi people,
and this despite the numerous denunciations and organized resistance
around the world.
- This situation preoccupies us and brings us to react, because during
armed conflicts women and children, the least powerful, are often
innocent victims.
All this barbarism, we know, is due to the competition between bourgeois
factions to take control of the state, and also to the imperialist
powers' quest to control the world, to take over all the goods and
wealth of the peoples. Almost everywhere in the world, the people are
mobilizing to denounce the wars of destruction and human degradation and
death of innocent people in the name of capital.
"No blood for oil", cried thousands of Americans on streets of
New York and Washington. We do not want this destruction and degrading
war.
Our war is elsewhere. It is against poverty, against exclusion and
against injustice.
In fact, three years after the beginning of the Strategic Framework of
Struggle Against Poverty (CSLP in French), and even though the
macroeconomic growth figures are often positive as presented by the
authorities, 45% of the population is on the verge of poverty, due to
the endless restructurations/liquidations of firms and their train of
jobs losses.
All of this while an tiny minority lives in grotesque and insulting
luxury.
In this third millennium and at a time when science and technology have
reached extraordinary heights, what is the situation in Burkina Faso?
- Regarding health care: entire populations, including those of
the cities, don't have access to drinking water. Endemies and epidemics
which had been eradicated (tuberculosis, onchoerosis) are reappearing,
and the health of mothers giving birth is a main concern.
- Regarding education: the Burkinabé school system is handicapped by a
number of factors: a plethora of students in classes at the primary
level, multiple grade classes, split schedules, etc. In secondary school,
there is a dire lack of teachers (deficit of 1,100 teachers in
2002-2003). As for the working and living conditions of teachers, the
disaster surpasses their simple numbers.
- Convinced that justice and equity can be achieved, we want to make
March 8, 2003 a day of solidarity with all women who are victims of
violence.
- In Solidarity with the women of Palestine who are watching their
children fall beneath the barbarism of the monster Ariel Sharon;
- In Solidarity with the women of Iraq who live in total fear in the
face of the American armada which is ostensibly deployed in several Gulf
countries, they and their children who have paid the price of an unjust
embargo for the last decade;
- In Solidarity with the women and men of Côte d'Ivoire who have been
submitted for months to the horrors of xenophobia and hatred;
- In Solidarity with our own in Burkina Faso, with all those who have
lost a loved-one due to violence and whose distress is compounded by the
total impunity granted to their henchmen;
- In Solidarity with all the children whose childhood have been stolen
from them, particularly by being prematurely enlisted in the draft and
whose only toys are guns!
We, women of Burkina Faso, we say no to the fascist and barbarous wars.
Halt to xenophobia!
Rise up to our right to bread and freedom!
Onward in our fight for peace!
For the under-signed organizations:
Tara TOPAN / KEBAYINA
Zata NANA, CGT-B secretary for Women's Issues
Fatoumata KONATE, President of Women and Children - MBDHP
*****************
Bulletin of the International Liaison Committee for a Workers'
International (ILC) Women's Commission
The ILC's Women's Commission has informed us that an international
bulletin will be edited next week. It will report-back on the March 8
international mobilizations around the appeal: "Women Against War".
It will include reports from correspondents in Algeria, Togo,
Burkina-Faso, Brazil, Uruguay, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri-Lanka,
Portugal, Spain, Germany, France...
********************
The ETUC: What does it mean to the "Co-Regulator" of the
European Union
On March 11, the ETUC (European Trade Union Confederation) called to
demonstrate throughout Europe. The activists and leaders of trade unions
were given a proposal from within their organizations. It is interesting
to look at the events and dates leading up to this action that the ETUC
has tried to understate.
Act 1: November 19-20, 2002
The ETUC Appeal
The ETUC Executive Committee called for a demonstration on March 21
throughout Europe by calling for "the possibility of a European
system of industrial relations which... reinforces the role of social
partners, including as co-regulators, according to European Union
procedures" (note: texts translated from the French).
What does this mean? The rest of the text explains.
Act 2: November 28, 2002
ETUC and the European Employers adopt a common programme
A summit called "social dialogue" was held under the
presidency of Romano Prodi, president of the European Commission. During
the summit the ETUC and the European employer groups adopted what they
called the "Work Programme for European Social Partners
2003-2005". This joint ETUC-European Employer program was saluted
in a extravagantly elogeous terms by the European Commission which
refers to a "veritable qualitative step forward in the history of
European social dialogue". And what is included in this work
program? Among the objectives fixed, are the following "actions":
"Report on the actions of social partners of member-states to
implement the major guidelines of employment."
Implementing the guidelines for employment? Once again, what do they
mean here? This guidelines have been set every year by the European
Commission since the Luxembourg summit of 1997. The most recent, in
2002, include:
- "The systems of social welfare benefits, taxes,
professional training must be reviewed and adapted... in order to set up
measures destined to incite the unemployed or inactive to look for and
to accept employment." This proposal made by the European Union (the
PARE in France and other workfare-type initiatives), oblige workers to
accept any and every kind of job, odd job or training program.
-
- "The member states, and sometimes the social partners, will
develop policies aimed at prolonging the active participation of workers
in the job market in order to improve the ability of elderly workers..
to stay longer at work". So, extending the length of retirement
contributions in order to gain the right to full retirement compensation.
- "The social partners are invited to negotiate and implement, in
every appropriate way, agreements aimed at modernizing the organizing of
work, including various flexible work schemes", and, as a model to
be generalized, the guidelines call for: "the annualization of work
time" and "more flexible work contracts". In short,
flexibility and deregulation.
It is clear that by deciding to implement these guidelines, the ETUC and
the European employers receive the applause of the European Commission,
which even says: "With this program, the social partners are in a
position to influence the Commission agenda in the area of social policy
and employment."
Influencing the agenda? Let's continue.
Act 3: March 19-20, 2003
The European Conference which no one talks about
In a press release announcing the mid-term revision of the European
Commission political and social agenda, the European Commission
announced on February 13, 2003: "To ensure that all actors and
participants, including the European Parliament, member states, Social
and Economic Committee, Regional Committees, social partners (the ETUC
and European Employers' Association), the NGOs, local and regional
authorities... can contribute to evaluating the implementation of the
agenda until no, the Commission is organizing and importance conference
on March 19 and 20, 2003."
Preparing this conference:
- It therefore took place on the eve of the "Eurodemonstrations"
of the ETUC. The European Commission published a communiqué on February
6, stating, among other points, as objectives "a progressive
increase of about five years of the effective average age when people
stop working in the EU".
And regarding the new phase of European strategy for employment, another
document of the EU commission, also submitted to the March 19-20
conference, points out that "flexibility should be continued and
encouraged", asking for a "strong commitment of the social
partners" and inviting "the organized social partners
nationally to contribute to the success and implementing of the
guidelines in all areas."
In short, the national trade unions are called upon to implement the EU
policies of flexibility, the prolonging of the age of workers before
retirement and deregulation.
Act 4: March 20 and 21
The Summit of the 15 European Heads of State
The summit of the 15 European Heads of state and government was held in
the wake of the conference of revision of the social policy agenda.
Notably on the agenda was: "the new European strategy on employment;
two linked reports: the health system reform and the retirement reform".
In other words, under the cover of the war, a major attack against all
social gains is in the works. And the summit, as we've just seen, was
"prepared upstream" by the ETUC and the European Employers.
This is the meaning of the ETUC as a co-regulator of the European Union.
Is this the real content of the demonstrations which were called for
March 21?
Article appearing in Infomations Ouvrières N° 580, March 12, 2003
*******************
Germany, March 3, collapse of the talks between "social partners"
aimed at adopting an "employment pact".
An event of utmost importance has just occurred in Germany. The attempt
to make the trade unions sign - during a meeting on March 3 between
government, unions, employers - a new version of the "employment
pact" failed.
The DGB (German confederation of trade unions) representatives were
called for an "emergency meeting" to abandon the right to
freely negotiate collective bargaining agreements, which, when they are
renewed, is a time in Germany of major mobilizations and memorable
strikes, like, for example, in the metal works sector. It was asked of
them to accept a wage limit policy as well as the multiplication of
"opening clauses" of collective bargaining agreements, in
order to make a decisive step forward on the road towards flexibility
and deregulation of the workplace. Finally, they were asked to approve
the proposal of the Schroeder government's Economics Minister, W.
Clement, to eliminate the main measures of a law protecting workers
against layoffs.
In what conditions does this take place?
In France as in Germany, the pressure of war to "put things in
order", which, for financial capital, means accompanying the war,
is growing.
4.7 million unemployed: a record since Kohl
In the last eight months since the quick fall of the dollar exports from
Germany, the main manufacturing exporter in Europe, have literally
"collapsed".
83 100 new unemployed in February... 4, 705, 000 unemployed, almost the
figure reached in 1998 under the Kohl government. This is the occasion
for the CDU-CSU (the right which was beaten during the last national
elections) and the BDI (national industrial employers associations) to
lash out to demand the government to totally deregulate the job market,
like the International Monetary Fund and the European Union require. For
the president of the BDI, which encourage delocalizations to the East (Poland,
Baltic countries, Czech Republic..) things are clear: "The
degradation continues on the employment front to force the government to
control the unions". Everything is here.
On the government side, the Economics Minister W. Clement took to the
offensive, in particular on the file concerning unemployment to
liquidate workers' rights and challenge the prerogatives of trade unions.
He has drawn against him the anger and protests of workers, trade
unionists and Social-Democrats.
On the even of March 3, the press reported upon the hesitations at the
trade union leadership level.
One thing is sure: the immense masses of metal worker trade unionists,
and the leadership of IG-Metall, including its president Zwickel, and
finally those of the civil service, with Verdi and its president Bsirske,
convinced all the other unions to refuse to sign.
This is the current situation in Germany.
The workers did not vote for the policies of Wolfgang Clement, which
accommodate the CDU-CSU and the employers, when he asserts: "Work
laws must be revised", which means that the law protecting workers
against lay-offs must be repealed. His arrogance knows no bounds when
taking the following example: "A fundamental overhaul is needed, we
will no longer pay for unemployment, we will create work... If a young
man from Lower-Saxony is offered job in Bade-Wurtemberg.., he must
accept this job and, if he does not do so, he must expect to receive
sanctions". These are the words of an SPD government minister,
which claims to be both a Social-Democrat and a "trade unionist",
and the promises he offers the youth of our country. Who can accept this?
It was so incredible that even a commentator of the liberal newspaper
Die Zeit remarked: "this is not what one would expect of a
Social-Democrat".
It is possible, in fact, for a social-democrat, for a trade unionist, to
allow Clement to continue to represent for a minute longer the SPD, its
history, or even more generally the history of the labor movement?
This is what K; Wieschügel, secretary of the construction workers union
said, publicly stating the obvious: "I'll bet that the SPD will be
social-democratic enough to put an end to the absurd proposals of
Clement".
This is what trade unionists, SPD militants, members of the SPD workers'
commissions have said and voted in hundreds of motions, resolutions and
delegations to the SPD leadership.
Correspondent
********************
Brazilian Newspaper Revolution Youth
Mobilize the entire planet! Unite and Fight Against War!
"We must keep in mind the political questions that the entire world
is asking. Has the fightback against war continued the massive
mobilizations which led to the Brazilian elections? Never has the
international political struggle taken on such importance, be it in the
work place, the schools, neighbourhoods, markets, bus stops...
everywhere people are discussing the war and the struggle against it.
In Europe, Asia and Africa, and on the American continent, millions are
mobilizing against the War. A giant shockwave is rising against the war.
All are saying, like the manifesto of American artists and intellectuals
"No to war, not in our name"!
Trade union committees and students are organizing demonstrations in all
cities. Like a docker trade unionist said on the West Coast of the USA,
Clarence Thomas, at the International Emergency Conference against War
which was held in Paris on January 23 and 24: "Opposition to war
has taken on unprecedented scope. Trade union leaders have the duty to
inform workers, because the first victims are always the children of the
working class".
On March 5, a university strike was held in the United States, Australia
and in Spain (we have information at your disposal upon request).
Thousands of students took to the streets with their banners against war
by saying: "books, not bombs"!
In Brazil, the youth are uniting to say: "the war will not
win" "no pasarán"
In Rio Branco (AC), Revolution Youth participated in organizing an
evening against war at the Federal University of Acre. 150 students
attended the event. In Sao Paulo, a youth committee against war prepared
various initiatives and made a giant painted poster of 200 m2 to be hung
downtown on March 8. Activities of all sorts were prepared for a youth
festival against war.
Throughout Brazil, the priority is to put of posters, paint murals,
demonstrations, gatherings, festivals against war.
War? No!
The Youth want jobs, education, leisure and art!
The war which is planned for Iraq lays the foundations of the White
House's plan to turn the world into a "protectorate" under the
aegis of the American army. The means at their disposal are obvious: the
policies of devastation. Taking control of the wealth of peoples is part
and parcel of the plan.
The "protectorate" policies are designed to cater to the
appetites of multinationals. Today, it is Iraqi oil which is at stake.
Tomorrow, it will be the Amazon's biodiversity. How else can one explain
the fact that during the 8 years of F.H. Cardoso government, 4 CIA (USA
espionage agency) bases where set up in Brazil?
In this situation, we cannot remain silent. They intend to deny us of
any future by taking away our right to a job with recognized rights.
They want to deny us the right to real studies with qualifying degrees.
They try to push us into the world of drugs to destroy us physically and
alienate us mentally. Violence and hunger are our daily bread and
the result is this system of social exploitation called capitalism.
The only alternative for us is: total peace among the world's people and
their right to self-determination. We do not accept the so-called
humanitarian wars under the aegis of the United Nations (UN).
With or without the UN we are against war and for peace.
Brazil, Iraq, Central America, war is international!
Revolution Youth has demonstrated from the outset against war. Just like
we have been with all those who imposed defeat on the IMF (International
Monetary Fund), by bringing the PT (Brazilian Workers Party) to the
presidency of the Republic. The emotional content of the mass
demonstrations that took to the streets on the evening of the PT victory
was the aspiration for change of a people which can no longer bear
exploitation and oppression. The people voted for Lula against the
warmongers. Today, more than ever, Brazil must rise up as a whole to say
no to war, no to the FTAA (Free Trade Agreement of the Americas that the
US government wants to impose upon the entire continent of the Americas)
and no to the IMF, by raising our demands and organizing around the
defence of our rights."
Editorial of issue n° 3 March, 2003
**********
Dialogue
Trimestrial discussion review of discussion between Arab and Jewish
activists of Palestine. Edited in Arabic, Hebrew, English and French.
Declaration of Initiative Committee which took the responsibility of
launching the review in June, 2002.
We, Palestinian and Israeli activists decided to publish in common a
review conceived as a space of free discussion of crucial issues which
the populations of Palestine are undergoing.
We took this initiative on the basis of a declaration which we are
reproducing below. The initial signatories of this declaration formed an
Initiative Committee which took the responsibility of launching this
review. The publication of the first issue is planned for June, 2002.
The review will appear in Arabic, English, French and Hebrew.
The initiative committee asked Pierre Lambert (Paris) to take the
responsibility of editing the review. The Committee took the political
and editorial responsibility of the content of the articles to be
published in it.
In a world deeply shaken by the most tragic events, the bloody events
which have continued to shake Palestine cannot be isolated from the
overall world situation, but at the same time have their own and
dramatic specificity.
Palestinians and Israelis, we have joined to discuss and debate the
anguishing problems we are confronted with, and we have decided to
inform you of our reflections and a proposal that we would like to make
you.
Periodically, since the foundation of the State of Israel (1948), the
need for two states sharing Palestine has been put forward. The
Palestinian people have had to experience the fact that since 1948,
expulsions, refugee camps and also Israel colonial settlements have
continued to multiply.
Each and every one of us is aware of the tragic realities, confirmed in
the international press:
"The fifteen months of Intifada have destroyed the quasi-totality
of the Palestinian infrastructures, forced tens of thousands of people
to flee - the young and education who were destined to become the future
leaders of a Palestinian State and the possessors of capital, who were
to build an economy worthy of its name - and ruined the lives of
hundreds of thousands of people." All of Sharon's policies are
concentrated in the destruction of all the Palestinian infrastructures:
"Armed tanks have crushed such vital installations for the
Palestinian population as irrigation systems in Jericho, the entire
sewer system in Ramallah and schools in Tulkarem." The press,
including the Israeli press, has reflected the skepticism about any
future perspective of two coexisting states: "None of the military
tactics used has reduced the number of terrorist attacks: neither the
curfew, nor the demolition of homes, nor the tearing out orchards, nor
the targeted assassinations, nor the incursions into autonomous
territories, nor the checkpoints of highways of the Left Bank or Baza,
nor the humiliations, nor, finally, placing Arafat on house arrest.
These policies of destruction are all the less efficient that they
"paralyse" the services of the Palestinian security services,
generally included to fight against anti-Israeli attacks. In these
conditions, the prospect of peace negotiations have appeared to become
more than hypothetical." (Dany Rubinstein, from Haaretz)
Whether one condemns or agrees with the "solution" of two
states, i.e. a Jewish state (Israel) formed in 1948 and a Palestinian
state which has yet to see the light of day, no one can deny the fact
that the consequences of such a hypothetical "solution" have
proven to be deathly. All those who are favourable to the two-state
solution are obliged to acknowledge this. Is it biased to assert that
the events have shown, day after day, the extent to which the solution
consisting of forming two states is impossible and is in no way a
genuine solution? All observers have been obliged to acknowledge this.
And so, in the French weekly Courrier International, Marc Sadhié wrote
(January 3, 2002) that "even more serious (than the balance sheet
of fifteen months of Intifada) is that the Intifada has definitively
broken the last taboos. The Israeli press is not hesitate to evoke the
transfer of populations, the annexation of the autonomous Palestinian
territoriesŠ. What can be done? Create a binational state? End the idea
of the existence of a Jewish state at a time of globalisation and the
mixing of peoples and cultures?" To conclude: "The
international mediators cannot find remedies to these essential
questions".
For our part, we are convinced that there is only one real solution,
that which consists of forming on the entire territory of Palestine a
Palestinian Republic guaranteeing equal rights for all.
We believe that any real solving of the Palestinian question requires
that the right of return for all the exiles forced out of Palestine must
be an integral part of any positive solution.
March 15, 2002
Elie AMINOV, Yoav BAR,
Fayez ATALLA, Yehuda KUPFEMAN,
Mohamed SAID, Youcef SMAIL,
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