A dossier of weekly information published by the International
Liaison Committee of Workers and Peoples
June 6, 2006
Issue 186
INTRODUCTION:
Geneva: In a few days, on Sunday, June 11, the 13th Conference in Defense
of the ILO Conventions and Trade Union Independence, organized by the
ILC, will
take place in Geneva.
In this issue, we are publishing a contribution from Roger Sandri,
"Trade Union Movement or Superstructure." He writes, "The
international trade union movement is at the center of a transformation
which tends to be imposed by the forces of imperialism. The question
is raised again: Should trade unions remain class organizations, in
charge of defending the workers' specific interests, or should they
be transformed into a ´societal´ movement, an institution
of ´world governance´?"
Italy: You will find in this issue an interview with Lorenzo Varaldo,
head of the "No the European Union, For Democracy, Public Services,
and the Unity of the Republic" slate in the Municipal elections
in Turin on May 27 and 28.
Turkey: A correspondent has sent us news on the Tupras Belongs to the
People Movement against the privatization of this refinery and for its
renationalization.
Bangladesh: We are publishing an article on the growing protests, "The
socio-political situation is on the verge of serious civil unrest."
Afghanistan: You will find below the article "Troops Open Fire
on a Protest in Kabul." The ILC calls on all to send messages demanding
the liberation of the 200 workers and youth imprisoned after the protests
in Kabul.
In the upcoming issues, you will receive the complete report on the
Geneva Conference.By subscribing to the ILC International Newsletter
you can support the struggle of the ILC.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS:
p. 1: Introduction
p. 2 - Italy: Interview with Lorenzo Varaldo
- Turkey: Tupras Belongs to the People Movement
p. 3 / 4 / 5 / 6 - France: "Trade Union Movement or Superstructure,"
a contribution from Roger Sandri
p. 7 - Bangladesh: The Socio-Political Situation is on the Verge of
Serious Civil Unrest
p. 8 - Afghanistan: Troops Open Fire on a Protest in Kabul Message
Contact:
Informations internationales
Entente internationale des travailleurs et des peuples,
87, rue du Faubourg-Saint-Denis -75010 Paris - France
Tel: (33 1) 48 01 88 28
E.mail : eit.ilc@fr.oleane.com - Site : www.eit-ilc.org
********************
ITALY
The Municipal Elections of May 27 and 28: An interview with Lorenzo
Varaldo, head of "No to the European Union, For Democracy, Public
Services, and the Unity of the Republic" slate in the Turin municipal
elections
ILC: What is your take on the Municipal Elections of May 27 and 28?
LV: They confirmed the elections of April 9 and 10, which kicked out
Berlusconi. The Unione (1) triumphed in many cities, including Turin.
But these elections pose all the questions that we raised with our slate.
Millions of Italians voted to end the policies of Berlusconi, who Prodi
-- as the president of the European Commission -- dictated policies
to for five years. Prodi has just constituted his government and announced
his program for the next 100 days. He didn't speak at all of abrogating
the Biaggi law, which -- together with the Treu law, which was adopted
when he was Prime Minister -- considerably developed precarious labor.
He didn't speak of abrogating the Morrati laws which destroy public
education. Even worse, he confirmed that he intended, this year, to
lower corporate tax rates by 5 percentage points.
Our list posedvarious question: Is it necessary to accept all this?
Was it for these policies that the workers kicked out Berlusconi? Isn't
the root of the problem the fact that Prodi has declared that he intends
to "very quickly implement the directives of the European Union"?
Can we accept that all the parties of the Unione -- members of the
government, such as DS and the Communist Refoundation Party, whose Sinistra
Critiqua (2) current and its two senators gave their vote of confidence
to Prodi and his program -- approve all the new budget cuts and all
these policies?
And we posed another question: Isn't the reason that Chiamparino (the
DS mayor of Turin) cuts funding for the public parks, cuts jobs at the
maternal school, and privatizes, due to the fact that he belongs to
a coalition that implements the policies of the European Union?
ILC: And your list?
LV: 445 Turin citizens cast their votes for the list in a very chaotic
and muddled up election, with 37 lists competing. Our slate was totally
ignored by the written media and granted a few brief moments on TV.
The 445 voters know exactly what they voted for. Among them, 201 live
in the area where the comrade who led the list is a school teacher.
The comrades had hundreds of discussions with other candidates, with
parents and teachers; they collected endorsements and organized meetings.
It is the same in other neighborhoods where the list campaigned around
a school and around the market place where they went leafleting. The
list got 50 votes in the Mirafiori Fiat area.
The 445 voters, the 37 candidates, the very numerous workers who supported
the list, the 120 who attended the public meeting organized by the list
are a very important starting point to organize a force in this country
around the national committee set up in the meeting.
To all those who voted, the 400 who bought Tribuna Libera (the newspaper
of the ILC partisans in Italy), the 120 who attended the meeting, the
70 first signatories of the appeal "Let us organize in the National
Committee", the comrades answer: "Let us organize, subscribe
to Tribuna Libera, let us regroup in our neighborhoods to continue the
discussion and help mobilize to defend and reclaim our rights and democracy."
A proposal was made to prepare a delegation to Chiamparino to reopen
all the places in the outdoor center, to put an end to the waiting lists
at kindergartens and child-care centers, against privatization and to
make the municipality recover all the out-sourced services.
-----
Endnotes
(1) Coalition of the principal "left" parties (including
the Communist Refoundation Party) and center parties, led by the former
president of the European Commission, Romano Prodi
(2) The equivalent of the LCR (Krivine-Besancenot) in Italy
**********************
TURKEY
The Tupras Belongs to People Movement
Our correspondent sent us some information concerning the campaign
of the Tupras Belongs to the People Movement.
In ILC International Newsletter Issue No. 182, we published the appeal
of this movement which fights against the privatization of the Tupras
refinery and demands the renationalization of this enterprise, one of
the most important enterprises in the country. The Movement is supported,
in particular, by the union of the enterprise and the whole oil sector.
The ILC launched an appeal to all its supporters to support this struggle.
We organized an open forum of the movement on Sunday, May 28. Trade
unionists (a member of the Executive Committee of Petrol-Is, the President
of Hava-Is; the civil aviationunion which stands strongly against privatization;
and a member of the national leadership of another union, Kristal-Is),
plus academics and intellectuals, plus representatives of political
movements participated as opening speakers in the forum. The forum was
quite a success.
We made the following decisions:
- to enlarge the committee of the movement;
- to organize local committees in the four towns where there are refineries
of Tupras and to hold similar forums in those spots (Aliaga, Batman,
K'r'kkale and Kocaeli);
- to aim at organizing meetings in Aliaga and K'rklareli;
- to try to make the goals of the movement appear in as many newspapers
and media as we can and to get support from all possible circles;
- after an effective campaign on Tupras, to transform the movement
into a campaign which says All Public Properties Belongs to the People;
- to widen the signature campaign and to develop the internet site.
We will be holding another meeting of the enlarged committee of the
movement this Sunday and we will try to fix the date for the first local
forum to be organized (in Aliaga). We would like an ILC member or an
ILC delegation to participate in this forum. This will probably be held
near the end of June.
We have received from Germany a very nice solidarity message. Thanks
for the ILC support. We will keep on informing you when decisions are
taken.
************************
13TH CONFERENCE OF THE ILC IN GENEVA, SUNDAY, JUNE 11, 2006. 11 AM to
17 PM, Conference Room 9, 11 Varembré st.
A Contribution from Roger Sandri:
Trade union movement or Superstructure?
This is a dilemma the trade union movement is still faced with today
-- as it has in the past. The trade unions are first and foremost and
by definition class organizations.
As soon as it arose, at the same time as industrial society, the trade
union movement built itself and its structures with the determination
to defend the interests of the workers who gave the trade unions a mandate
and, more generally, of all workers, in other words of all those driven
by the power of capitalism, by its material demands and its logic of
exploitation, to sell their only property: their labor power, whether
physical or intellectual.
Between the 19th and the 21st centuries many things have changed. On
the one hand living conditions have evolved considerably, as a result
of the class struggle waged against rising capitalism, but on the other
hand the stage of capitalism we are living through at the moment is
a brutal reminder that the system of exploitation based on the extraction
of surplus value can only make things worse.
For many modern sociologists or commentators, the working class, the
proletariat, social classes, the class struggle, and capitalist exploitation
itself are all outmoded concepts, in a society where the favorable influence
of globalization and the world economy prevail.
Everywhere, when you consider the figures, you have to admit that today
the system based on the exploitation of labor power by the capitalist
mode of production has never been so powerful.
We have had the opportunity in the past to publish figures provided
by the ILO itself, which reveal that poverty is hitting an ever increasing
number of people throughout the world.
For some time, the populations of the so-called Third World ranked
first in the poverty list. Today, however, millions of workers in industrialized
countries face unemployment, casual work and poverty. "Relocations
"and "offshoring" make up for the declining rate of profit
by transferring production to low-cost countries, thereby increasing
the exploitation of labor power in these countries and encouraging widespread
destitution.
The example of China, based on an allegedly "communist" liberal
and authoritarian system, provides the most vivid demonstration. In
this case, industrial, commercial and financial activity is undertaken
outside the country as capital is bought and money invested, which in
no way benefits the workers where such investments are made. It is especially
the case in Africa, when the manufacturing methods completely disrupt
the local economy, based, for example, on cotton and textile processing.
Chinese workers gain no advantage from such expansion, which only benefits
the nomenclature linked with the totalitarian regimes and the western
multinational companies, and companies from Japan and Korea, which have
invaded China.
The ILC continues fighting this global system of exploitation, even
if this exploitation is concealed by the dramatic rise of appearances
of all things immaterial, which, with the complicity of an increasingly
uniform worldwide media network tends to show us the flashy veneer of
more and more elaborate exploitation.
It is important to recall that the capitalist mode of production cannot
live unless it feeds on surplus value and the buying of labor power.
The present crisis is characterized by the development of a ficticious
economy, based on financial speculation. The fact remains that this
financial base keeps feeding on the exploitation of labor power bought
at the lowest possible cost.
Disorders results from this situation, because the masses' purchasing
power is plummeting everywhere.
To counter this phenomenon, social reactions can be seen in every country,
in various forms, depending on the origins of the attacks and national
traditions.
In France, the riots that broke out in several suburbs of large cities
and which were followed by impressive demonstrations that forced the
Chirac-Villepin government to withdraw the youth employment contract
(CPE), reveal, broadly speaking, a much more serious social situation.
In any case, whatever the outcome, it can be considered that we have
now entered a period of great unrest. In consequence, the trade union
movement, because of its historic responsibilities must more than ever
before make its presence felt on the ground of the class struggle.
* * *
Since the 1989 uprising, imperialism, and above all US imperialism,
tends to attack the political framework of Nation-States to substitute
them with cosmopolitan "spaces", based on the universal character
of individuals brought together in communities based on religion, ethnicity
and various interests; such spaces are in charge of the "problems
of society."
The purpose of setting up such a system is clearly to erase -- at best
to put in the background -- the capitalist relations of production and
the contradiction it generates, principally, the exploitation of labor
power.
The governing bodies of worldwide policies play a major role in the
working of the world economy, in the generic sense of the word, and
almost reduce state policies to the status of vassal state's policies.
Regional structures, such as the EU, Mercosur, Nafta, Asean, etc. act
as subsidiary elements of the central dome consisting of the IMF, the
WTO, the OECD, together with the UN and its institutions, which tend
to become a smoke screen of this construction. The mission that is assigned
to them is to build the "new world governance."
"Governing" implies "State." "State,"
in the democratic sense of the word, implies "counterbalances",
in the name of the balance of opposites defined in the 18th century
by Montesquieu, the author and member of the Académie Francaise,
in "l'Esprit des lois " (The Spirit of Laws).
In contrast to those democratic principles, the present tendency is
based on a global movement, which is neo-totalitarian and excludes any
form of challenge.
The function of the State is to be reduced to the "royal prerogatives":
the army, the police, and the law. As for the "social balance",
it would be implemented by "Non Governmental Organizations."
The latter are known to have assumed an important role, especially in
developing countries, first of all in Africa, where their strategy has
been to privatize States, thereby complying with the dictates of the
"Washington Consensus," which makes financial aid dependent
on the complete privatization of public services. It has led to the
ruin of many small producers who have to rely on public funds provided
by the State. The best example of this can be found in Mali with the
"Compagnie Malienne du Département textile."
* * *
Consequently, the international trade union movement is directly affected
by this evolution, inspired by global and societal precepts.
To return to this text and its title "Trade union movement or
superstructure," it should be said that the international trade
union movement is at the center of a transformation which tends to be
imposed by the forces of imperialism.
The question is raised again: should trade unions remain class organizations,
in charge of defending the workers' specific interests, or should they
be transformed into a "societal" movement, an institution
of "world governance"?
In several articles I have been able to express and explain this danger.
Since then, several elements have confirmed our concern.
At the recent French CGT convention, international leaders took the
opportunity to meet to prepare the Vienna International Conference which,
on November 1, 2006, is set to proclaim the birth of a new "International
Trade Union (as it is to be called for the moment).The ICFTU and WCL
are to vanish from the trade union scene. As you read the various documents
published so far, you realize that a lot of difficulties are far from
being resolved, on the role of the "Professional International
Federations" and "trade union regions." The unification
of the two historic currents, the "social democrats" on the
one hand and the "social Christians" on the other is also
far from being achieved.
At the time of writing, there emerges a line that expresses a profound
change, compared with the traditional class orientation. In fact, the
idea is to prepare the "world trade-union movement" to be
integrated on both the political and material level into the structures
of the budding world governance. All this has to be related to the reform
of the UN, in which the NGOs have an institutional role. We have to
hammer home the point that in many respects the NGOs have become instruments
of the privatization of States, as explained in the "Washington
Consensus," particularly in the area of public services, social
services, health-care services, as they assume, according to accepted
terminology "missions of public services."
Added to this are several related elements which confirm our worries.
One of them is the situation created in the aftermath of the split
which occurred within the US trade union movement.
The ILC International Newsletter sums up the background:
"At the end of July 2005, at the congress of the AFL-CIO in Chicago,
four big union federations announced that they were leaving the AFL-CIO,
the mass union federation united fifty years earlier. With three other
union federations, they decided to form the Change to Win coalition,
under the leadership of Andy Stern, because -- as Stern put it -- the
workers´ movement is still too wedded to the "outdated concept
of class conflict." The leadership of Change to Win has become
the main supporter in the United States of the fusion of the ICFTU and
the WCL and for collaboration between Capital and Labor."
In the article published by the ILC International Newsletter, comrade
Alan Benjamin reveals that in an interview with Lenny Mendonca published
by the global think-tank McKinsey & Co. and reprinted in the Feb.
27, 2006 issue of Epoch Times, Stern explained his view on such partnerships:
"SEIU's goal for 2006 is to go global and to bring unions and corporations
together as 'partners, not enemies,' Stern told Mendonca. 'I think that
what we're going to see happen within ten years, if not sooner, is a
convergence of a global labor movement, a global corporate responsibility
movement, and nongovernmental organizations."
As is noted by Alan Benjamin, the use of the language of the "New
World Governance" is quite emblematic, as Andy Stern goes on to
say:
"Employers need to recognize that the world has changed and there
are people who would like to help them provide solutions in ways that
are new, modern and that add value to companies. ... A partnership between
labor and corporations would be a step toward the intended goal."
And Stern concludes:
"On the other side of the coin, union members have to understand
that companies are not their enemy, but must think about increasing
shareholders' wealth. ... Labor should ask itself, 'how can I contribute
to meeting those [shareholders'] expectations in a way that also meets
mine'?"
And of course, Andy Stern takes on the AFL-CIO leaders, especially
John Sweeney, who is accused of being "wedded to "outdated
concepts of class conflict."
Andy Stern's position was to be formulated again at the international
meeting that preceded the CGT Conference, which brought together all
the leaders of the international trade union movement. The minutes give
a brief account of the speech made by Jean Louis Moynot, former member
of the CGT's NEC:
"I'm speaking to introduce a project. Globalization challenges
the relevance of the national framework in which we were trained. The
trade union movement still lacks most of the instruments needed to respond
to the challenge. A bridge must be built between every-day activity
and our ambitions for the world. Something original must be brought
to the redefinition of the world. We should move on from the national
level, which trade unions are accustomed to, to the regional level.
The trade unions should avail themselves of the enhancement provided
by associations, experts, NGOs, to build the project which is called:
the social question in a global economy. Regional teams must be created."
This project is the product of exchanges with Gabaglio and enjoys the
support of Ryder and Thys, Moynot-Stern, all united!"
All the arguments developed above can be found in every country, in
different forms, concerning job status, to long-life job security, and
compulsory membership to a trade union. All totalitarian regimes have
relied on such concepts to establish workplace community, which fits
in with a system of "organicism" decreed at the top and spreading
into civil society on the basis of the subsidiarity principle.
* * *
France, confronted with the social problems everybody knows about,
is also seeking a system that should revive trade unionism and at the
same time determine its place in society.
This is not a new subject. The same is true in the USA, as in many
European countries, as in most industrialized countries. Due to the
demands of globalization, the trade union question is posed, as it will
be in Vienna on November 1st.
In France, the authorities, the employers, the political parties, whether
left-wing or right-wing, have always turned their attention to the future
of the trade unions, to lament their "small membership," which
is however in contradiction with their strong influence within the working-class
as a whole, with their role as a force to be reckoned with.
French trade unionism has its own story, resulting from the movement
of ideas, the product of the 1789 French revolution.
As they consider that small membership forces trade unions to compete
with each other and always try to outdo each other, the state and the
employers are always seeking means to integrate the "protesters"
either into the State machinery or into the corporate structure, and
most often into both.
Each period of the social and political history of France has been
marked by integration attempts that inevitably undermine the trade union
movement, the need to be independent from governments, employers and
political parties of all hues.
The French trade union movement is still characterized by deeply rooted
class consciousness, even though Christian trade-unionism has done its
utmost to deny reality, in favor of community spirit.
In this age of globalization, the same questions resurface. The French
government has given two well-known public figures the responsibility
of writing two reports.
One is called the "Chertier report." It was presented in march
2006 and deals with "the organization of social dialogue."
The other one, called the "Hadas-Lebel report" is about the
representativeness of trade unions and public funding.
The "Chertier report," in charge of reorganizing the "social
dialogue," intends to make use of the "Conseil économique
et social" (CES) in which all the trade unions and employers' federations
participate, and which has at the moment only an advisory function.
It would be given a deliberative function and the task of working out
a "public social order." Even if the power to take political
decisions is not clearly finalized in the report, it is obvious that
the reasoning that underlies the report is bound to lead to such a move.
When the report comes to the "transformation" of the Conseil
économique et social, it says that there would be a review of
its formation and it would in particular be composed of three groups:
the employers, the workers, and civil society.
Consequently the workers, represented by their trade unions, are excluded
from "civil society," in the same way as the organizations
representing employers. This is more than ambiguous, to the extent that
it confirms our concern about the transformation of trade unions into
institutional superstructures cut off from their natural constituency:
the workers.
From that point, the trade union movement -- whose historical approach
stems from the division of society into social classes that have contradictory
interests -- would become an instrument of "governance" in
a given geographic area. It would be given an organicist function, the
task of transcending the class struggle in the name of common interests,
if we can refrain from calling them community interests.
The "Hadas-Lebel report," which deals with the representativeness
and the funding of trade unions, puts forward a material supplement
to the political orientations expressed in the "Chertier report"
on "social dialogue." It leads the State to impose on trade
unions a structural, material, financial and therefore political framework
and to assign to them a position above "civil society." And
there, only NGOs would be entitled to act.
The whole process is expected to promote the rise of a third sector
called the "social economy" which would reinforce the privatization
of the State and would in a universal way be perfectly in line with
the "Washington Consensus," the doctrine that plans the action
of world capitalism and imperialism.
On world level, neither the UN, nor for that matter the ILO, can escape
this movement creating a "civil society," in which NGOs are
given an increasingly crucial role.
What we fear is that the future "International Trade Union Confederation"
might join this universal world organization.
We must never stop repeating that, more than ever, civil society is
not a homogeneous block. It is divided into social classes that have
antagonistic interests.
It is therefore essential that the trade unions in charge of defending
the workers ' specific interests refuse any integration into corporate
organization, the State or the governing bodies of world governance.
The creation of a new international trade union is a major event, which
has countless repercussions for millions of workers worldwide.
Consequently, our responsibility for what will come next is all the
greater.
Roger Sandri
29th May 2006
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Contact: Entente internationale des travailleurs et des peuples
87, rue du Faubourg-Saint-Denis 75010, Paris, France - Tel: (33 1) 48
01 88 28 - Fax: (33 1) 48 01 88 36 - E.mail: <mailto:eit.ilc@fr.oleane.com>eit.ilc@fr.oleane.com
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BANGLADESH
"The socio-political situation is on the verge of serious civil
unrest": Correspondence
The socio-political situation is on the verge of serious civil unrest.
Already direct confrontation and civil disobedience has begun. The government
has failed to provide for the basic needs of the people. The peasants
are deprived of all kinds of agricultural necessities. Seeds are in
short supply, fertilizers are not available, and there is a dearth of
irrigation facilities due to the acute shortage of power supply. During
last four-and-a-half years of BNP rule, they could not add a single
watt of electricity to the national grid, on the other hand, many of
the the existing production units have been closed due to the lack of
proper maintenance. The so-called donors like the IMF, the World Bank
and the ADB did not give any loans for this sector. Their prescription
is the total privatization of the power sector. The capital also experiences
the same power shortage, industrial production declined by 30%. To type
and send this small report took me four hours, because I had to go through
6 power load shadings.
Prices of daily essentials -- including food -- are sky high. Scarcity
of fuel is unprecedented. In one word, life is just miserable. Unemployment
rose to its peak due to the closing of industries. The people´s
backs are to the wall. The main root of this situation is the unprecedented
corruption and plunder by the ruling party, their accomplices and even
the MPs and ministers. The laws taking the advantage of the weakness
of the government have become more ferocious. They are extracting money
from the people not only by intimidation, they are now directly involved
in robbery.
This unbearable situation prompted the people to form local action
committees and start total civil disobedience in various parts of the
country.
The first incident occurred in Daulatpur Kustia, when the sugarcane
producers refused to supply their product to the sugar mills. The government
tried to take away the cane forcibly and the peasants resisted. In the
process, three peasants were shot dead by the police.
The second and third incidents occurred in Kansat Rajshahi. The authorities
could not supply electricity for months, nevertheless, the consumers
were forced to pay certain minimum charges and meter rent. The people
in that area agitated against these fees. The government and the local
member of the parliament (BNP) tried to suppress the movement by force.
Police and paramilitary forces were used. On the first occasion 10 persons
were killed. At that time, with the assurance of the ministers, the
agitation was stopped temporarily. People waited for one month but nothing
was done. The people started a new movement, this time more violent.
They chased the local M.P and declared him persona-non grata in the
area. Again the ruling clique deployed the police and paramilitary forces.
To quell the movement, the armed forces killed eight villagers, but
the movement could not be stopped. Ultimately the government had to
back down and accept all the demands of the people of that area. Power
supplies have been made regular (depriving other areas), minimum charges
and meter rent abolished, all criminal cases withdrawn, and compensation
for the families of the dead were guaranteed.
The fourth incident occurred in the vicinity of the capital. People
of the Demra area had not received water supplies for months. People
were facing acute power shortages. The authorities never took any measures
to mitigate the suffering of the people. People came out of their houses
in the tens of thousands and blocked all the roads in the eastern part
of the city. The local MP -- who is a god-father of the terrorists --
appeared in front of the people with a dozen of his thugs. Instead of
appeasing the people, he ordered the police to open fire. He himself
and his thugs started beating the mob. But the crowd chased the MP,
the thugs, and the police. The police retreated to a safer place and
the MP fled the scene; but he received a real beating.
The occupation of the road by the people stayed in place for twelve
hours. Hundreds of vehicles where damaged and gas stations were attacked.
The army was deployed to supervise the supply of drinking water. After
twelve hours of siege, the agitation has calmed down -- but this may
only be temporary.
The hole country is now like a sleeping volcano: At any moment there
can be serious irruption. But the political parties have miserably failed
to side with the spontaneous uprising of the masses. The government
miserably failed in all respects. The state has become non-existent.
There is no law and order. Terrorism, killing, robbery, extortion is
rampant. On the other hand, extra-judicial killing in the name of encounter
and cross-fire by the police and special forces goes on unabated.
All the opposition political parties of the fourteen party alliance
and many other parties and groups try to kick out the government. The
demand for reform of the caretaker government and the election authority
is yet to be met. The Prime Minister agreed to dialogue, but formed
a committee with the fundamentalists and anti-liberation forces. Both
the parties are determined.
The controversial chief election commissioner prepared a voter list
which is full of fictitious names. All the opposition parties and intellectuals
rejected the list. The bogus nature of the list can be seen, for example,
in one area where the number of voters is more than the population.
Today, the 10th, the 14 party staged a big rally and picket against
the voter list.
The next big anti-government movement has been set for the 5th of June.
The Dhaka siege program is declared for that day. There will be a big
confrontation on that day.
The government is still determined to privatize the container terminal
and the Chittagong Air Port. But every time, it remains unsuccessful
due to opposition from our party and the Mayor of Chittagong.
The Asian development Bank (ADB) put a vicious condition -- the total
privatization of the railways --on their loan. The IMF and World Bank
pressure for the privatization of the power sector. A high powered IMP
team is now in Dhaka. Beside meeting with the government, it met with
Awami League chief Hasina. European Union leaders and all western diplomats
are very active. The newly appointed ambassador of the United States
is advocating the privatization of ports, terminals, and oil and gas
sectors.
********************
AFGHANISTAN
Troops Open Fire on a Protest in Kabul
Message from Afghanistan
La LRA (Left Radicals of Afghanistan) -- an organization fighting for
socialism -- has sent us two messages; we are producing excerpts below.
The first letter deals with the events in Kabul on May 29, when the
NATO coalition forces (comprised of American, British, French, and German
contingents) under U.S. command, had to face a true popular uprising:
"On May 29, at 8 AM, a military convoy coming from the Bagram
base demolished or damaged more than 30 vehicles and injured more than
50 people. According to the witnesses, the convoy was speeding, so much
so that certain witnesses accused the drivers of being under the influence.
NATO soldiers then opened fire.
This was also the case with the protests the next day in the center
of Kabul. 87 protesters were killed and 256 wounded. Two hundred youth
and workers were incarcerated.
The LRA sends its deep condolences to the victims and their families.
We fervently condemn the barbarous act committed by the coalition led
by the U.S.
We call on all workers´ and anti-imperialist organizations in
the world to demand the liberation of the imprisoned protesters."
In another declaration, the LRA recalls that:
"Last week the US and coalition forces under the name of ISAF
(Assistance and Cooperation) heavily air attacked civilians in the Panjwai
district of Kandahar
province."
Of course, it is not the first time that the US led forces have targeted
civilians: this has taken place in Ghazni, Konar, Pakteya, Khost, Jalalabad,
Helmand, and Nooristan ...
Karzai arranged a trip to the USA to discuss with Bush the plans for
the US military operations in Afghanistan. Karzai asked Bush for the
US operations to be conducted under the command of Afghan army or, at
least, the US command headquarters should inform Afghan authorities
before launching military operations but, Bush did not respond positively
to Karzai's demands.
Because the occupation forces are in the control of US forces, all
major policies and plans have been set in Washington. Karzai is a puppet
of the US. ...
Now, even children know that Afghanistan is now an occupied country.
.... Now the people of Afghanistan say that there is no difference between
the Soviet Union invasion and US-NATO one. There is no difference between
Karmal and Karzai: both of them were/are puppets brought to power by
occupiers. The USA, because of its own strategic interests, invested
in Afghanistan for three last decades.
Mujahedin, Jihad, Osama, Hekamatyar, and the Taliban all are the products
of imperialism. ...
The last bombing in Kandahar must be wake up call to all those who
still think that their troops in Afghanistan are fighting against terrorism.
... We call on all Left and anti imperialist parties and forces around
the world to campaign against the war in Afghanistan and force their
governments to withdraw their troops from Afghanistan. ... We strongly
demand the withdrawal of all foreign troops from Afghanistan!
Left Radicals of Afghanistan (LRA)
Jalalabad- Afghanistan
May 26, 2006
-- Messages calling for the liberation of the 200 imprisoned workers
and youth after the Kabul demonstration should be addressed to:
President Karzai: rafiullahiawede@hotmail.com
And to the Ministry of the Interior: Imashal@yahoo.com
Send a copy to Left Radicals of Afghanistan (LRA) Ir-afg @yahoo.com
and the ILC eit.ilc@fr.oleane.com
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