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A dossier of weekly information published by the September 4, 2007 Issue 251 ----- Introduction: The International Tribunal on Katrina just took place in New Orleans from August 28 to September 2, 2007. In this issue you can read the message from Daniel Gluckstein, coordinator of the ILC, to the Tribunal. In our upcoming issues, we will publish the report of the proceedings, the decisions taken, and the messages from different countries that were sent. Algeria: We are publishing testimonies from militants of different generations on the occasion of the 17th anniversary of the founding the Workers Party. Bangladesh: Faced with the mobilization of the students of Bangladesh since August 20, the "temporary" government that came out of a military coup d'etat, supported by the U.S., responds with repression. Brazil: Last July 6, the federal government received a delegation headed by the United Workers Confederation (CUT); this is a new stage in the campaign for the truth about the assassination of the trade union activist Luiz Anderson. Romania: Solidarity with the imprisoned mineworkers and their families! Support the ILC! Subscribe! ----- Table of Contents p.1: Introduction ----- Contact: Informations internationales **********************
Fraternity! Newspaper of the Workers Party (PT) 17th Anniversary of the Workers Party In the last issue of the ILC International Newsletter, we published texts from Fraternity, the Workers Party's newspaper, concerning the commemoration of the 17th of the Algerian PT. This week you will find testimonies of activists of different generations who explain the reasons that led them to join the party. Testimonies of activists of different generations Louisa Hanoune Though our party has its immediate origins in the OST [Socialist Workers Organization], it is part of a long continuity because it has its roots in the decision of Mustapha Benmohamed to join the PPA after the May 8, 1945 massacres and his campaign to find international solidarity for the Algerian cause. After his release from prison, following the proclamation of independence, he went to France and immediately sought to constitute a political organization because for him the struggle of the Algerian people integrated the demand for democracy. In 1965 a first cell abroad and at home was constituted, composed of unionists and workers. In 1974, the CLTA (the Liaison Committee of Algerian Trotskyists) was the first political regroupment to fight for the recognition of Tamazight.
We have undergone periods of individual and collective repression, such as 1983, which was the deepest and most serious and which hit all the opposition political currents. We were freed thanks to a national and international campaign. The OST worked underground - as did all currents opposed to the one-party system. But its activists organized publicly in united action to advance the democratic struggles. Thus, the OST was a cofounder of the first Human Rights League in 1985 and an association against the foreign debt in 1987. The activists of the OST, including myself, were among the founders of the first association of women in May 1985, which fought for equal rights.
----- Endnotes 1) Read the excerpts of the appeal and the introductory report at the congress, published in Issue 250 of the ILC International Newsletter. ----- Youcef Tazibt The events of October 1988 that shook the country opened an era of political opening. It was a moment where all the democratic and social questions were pushed into the limelight. It was in this period that I learned of the OST. Though there existed other so-called left organizations that posed democratic questions, such as Tamazight, in my eyes only the OST posed these questions correctly because it put it in a national framework. After October 1988, there was a generalized mobilization of the masses, workers, and students. The youth mobilized almost permanently and the marches brought out millions of citizens. The OST and then the PT took part in these struggles. At the university, the activists organized with the students against the counter-reforms at the university, against the selection. During this period, for example, an activist who sold less than 150 issues of the paper was unsatisfied; the citizens in their struggle were that eager to find solutions and explanations for what was happening in the country. This is the generation of comrades Djafi,Hamid, Krim, and others. I can say that though all moments of the political situation are important, this was an important period of mobilization. After the end of the electoral process and the war of decomposition that followed, a brutal blow was dealt to this extraordinary movement. During this extremely difficult decade, the party led a policy of preservation, fight for the defense of the nation, with the priority of the reestablishment of peace and the end to the bloodbath. ----- Fatha Nesira It is with great emotion that I have come today to give my testimony on the occasion of the 17th anniversary of the Workers Party. Essentially, I was a sympathizer of the PT in the 1980s, when the organization was underground. At the era it was a group of activists and since then the organization has not ceased to overcome obstacles and has transformed itself into a real independent workers' party, a party for national sovereignty, democratic, political, and union rights and for equal rights for men and women. I began to take part in the struggle of the PT in a period where I was personally touched by the aberrations and injustices of the family code, which reduced women to second-class citizens. I found in the PT unconditional support; I found in the PT the strength to resist and I learned to win my rights and the rights of my children. Since I joined the PT I have not ceased to learn how to struggle for my rights as women, as a worker, and as a citizen and I learned that the struggle is one, it is collective, because that is our strength. I learned all this in the PT. ----- Mohamed Meziani My membership in the party began in December 1994. The congress of the UGTA, in which two other union comrades from Tizi-Ouzou were present, took place at the same time. At the same time, from the end of 1994 to 1995, meetings of the national contract took place in Rome. These were the reasons that led me to join the Workers Party: the struggle for the preservation of the public sector and the struggle for the reestablishment of peace through a political solution. Before I joined the party, I was in contact with activists who sold me Workers Tribune and with whom I discussed the program of the party. And I would like to add that one of the first points with which I agreed was the non-payment of the foreign debt, which is not a debt of the Algerian people. ----- Rezki Yaiche The first time that I heard about the Party was when I was in high school. At that time I was organized in the coordination of high-school students in the Wilaya of Tizi-ouzou. We aimed as high school students to organize ourselves to demand the right to build a student center, that is, the right to build independent student organizations at the schools to demand better conditions. We organized a gathering on May 19, 1998, which brought together thousands of high school students to the Ministry of Education; the demonstration was repressed by the armed forces. The only political organization that supported us through its members at the sit in was the Workers Party. Also, it was the only party that continued to give us support afterwards. Personally, I was immediately taken by the policies of the Workers Party because it responded to all my concerns as a youth and Algerian who yearned for peace. This led me to join and organize in the Workers Party. ------ Nadia Chouitem My first concrete contact with the Workers Party was with its student organizers in 1993-94, when I was a student unionist in Tizi-ouzou. At each meeting and action I saw that the PT expressed clearly the demands of the students and that it was in the vanguard and that it respected the student union as a united framework to fight for the demands of the students. In addition to the public positions of the PT, the positions and actions of its student activists was very significant for me; at the age of 23 I decided to join the party and to fight for the program of the party. After that, I dove into the defense of the students and I learned a lot from the party, particularly how to fight in a collective manner for the common interest. ----- Press Review Louisa Hanoune pays homage to Mustapha Benmohamed The Workers Party celebrated yesterday its 17 years of existence on the national political scene Š a public event was organized in Algiers. Several delegations from the four corners of the country came and famous people, such as Sidi Said [secretary-general of the UGTA trade union federation], participated. In the discussion were testimonies of activists of different generations who spoke of the stages of the party and the actuality of its program. Louisa Hanoune recalled how the Workers Party came out of the Socialist Workers Organization (OST) to affirm that "the PT is the result of underground activism for many long years." She paid homage to Mustapha Benmohamed, for fighting for independence and democracy since 1945. Yesterday's conference was also an occasion "to open a discussion between all the militants of the party and to give the perspective of a democratic discussion between all Algerians," she specified. Sidi Said, general secretary of the UGTA, invited by the PT, also spoke. It was the first time he participated in such a conference and he affirmed that he feels "close to the PT, which is part of the family of trade unionists," specifying that "the PT and the UGTA have always taken common initiatives, even if they were often done discreetly." In his opinion, the policies of Louisa Hanoune have always been positive because they both have always fought for democracy. "I am convinced that collective action is the only means to deal with the globalization that nobody today controls," he underlined.
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The following message was sent by Daniel Gluckstein, coordinator of the International Liaison Committee of Workers and Peoples (ILC), to the International Tribunal on Katrina. It was read to the Tribunal plenary session by Prosecution Team coordinator Kwame Kalimara and submitted to the Tribunal Judges for the record of the Tribunal proceedings. This message was also submitted to the national and international media that were covering the Tribunal.
Message to the International Tribunal to Judge Those Responsible for the Ethnic Cleansing and to Bring it to an Immediate Halt Dear Friends, Dear Sisters and Brothers. It's with great regret that, for reasons totally beyond my control, I was prevented at the last minute from attending the International Tribunal on Katrina at which I was given the honor of sitting as a judge. As you know from the start, the International Liaison Committee of Workers and Peoples, of which I am coordinator, and the Workers Party of France, of which I am General Secretary, have brought their unconditional support to the proposal to build this tribunal. For the International Liaison Committee of Workers and Peoples the appalling situation inflicted upon the New Orleans's Black population since Hurricane Katrina is an irrefutable indictment of all those who decided to leave the New Orleans and Gulf Coast people stranded, to submit them to wholesale devastation, to repression and then to an unmitigated operation of ethnic cleansing. This recent persecution of the New Orleans Black population is but one more link in the chain -- in that long chain of oppression, genocide and persecutions aimed against the Black population.
From South Africa to the United States, to the Caribbean, to Rwanda, the assault leveled against Black people does not come from any malediction. It derives from the regime of exploitation and oppression which assails all the peoples, all the workers, all the oppressed.
It's an encouragement for the oppressed and exploited the world over who are organizing to do away with the regime of exploitation founded upon the private ownership of the means of production, for the liberation of workers, youth and peoples of all continents from the chains of exploitation, war and oppression. On behalf of the International Liaison Committee of Workers and Peoples, of the Workers Party of France, iand n my own name, I send you wishes for full success in the Katrina Tribunal proceedings. Daniel Gluckstein, *************************
Stop the repression against the youth of Bangladesh! Free all the imprisoned students! Wave of arrests in Bangladesh The representatives of American imperialism arrogantly display their goal to control the destinies of every people. In Dacca, the capital of Bangladesh, last August 12, at the seminar on the theme "Democracy, Governance, and Security Reform," the American representative affirmed in front of the representative of the "temporary" government: "Bangladesh has entered, since January 11, into a period of unprecedented reforms." (Source: Website of the U.S. state department) This was the date of the military coup d'etat that allowed for the installation of a "temporary" government that suspended all freedoms, prohibited the activity of trade unions and political parties, and proceeded to make a wave of arrests. Since that date, the privatization process has been accelerated in all domains. The Chittagong port has begun to be privatized, despite the long national and international struggle against this. Wages have been frozen. This is what the representative of U.S. imperialism praised: "The state of emergency has allowed Bangladesh to have a formidable opportunity to write its future. Š The United States has deepened its support for the intermediary government during the state of emergency." But the Bangladeshi nation wants to live. And despite this difficult situation and the blows dealt, the working people, the youth, and the peasants are not crushed. All it took was an incident at a soccer match for a mobilization of thousands of students to erupt. Today they are faced with violent repression. This situation demands the development of international solidarity to demand that all the imprisoned students be released, that the army leave the universities, and that the universities be re-opened. Democracy demands that the new wave of arrests that is touching all the trade union leaders and political parties immediately end and that all the political parties and trade unions should be able to freely implement their activities. ----- Faced with the mobilization of the students of Bangladesh since August 20, the "temporary" government that came out of a military coup d'etat, supported by the U.S., responds with repression. On the campus of the University of Dacca, the capital of Bangladesh, on August 20, an ordinary soccer game took place. The seats were filled with students and university workers. All of a sudden, the military grabbed three youth and one of their professors. Immediately, the students organized a demonstration to protest these aggressions. The revolt of the student youth exploded in the following hours in all the universities of the country, gaining the support of the population; the government responded with repression, announcing "severe measures against the agitators," closing universities, decreeing a curfew. A worker was shot at a demonstration on August 22 in Rajshahi, in the Northwest of the country. There were hundreds of wounded; journalists and photographers were systematically excluded by the military and the police. On August 22, a strike was called in all the schools of the country. Through unceasing demonstrations, the students demanded the removal of the army and the police from the university campuses, where they have been stationed since the coup of January, the end of the state of emergency, the punishment of the military men responsible for the violence, state coverage for the wounded and the return to democracy. Expressing its solidarity with the students, the union of teachers of the university of Dacca (DUTA) also demands the removal of the troops from campus. The administration of the university met with the government; faced with the depth of the revolt, which had spread throughout the country, the latter was forced to announce the removal of the troops from campus and the opening of an inquiry into the military personnel involved in the conflicts. But on Friday August 24, the government arrested Harun ur Rashid, the head of the faculty of social sciences as Dacca, and numerous trade unionists. A wave of repression has hit the students - 5,000 of them have been arrested. All the universities and colleges of the country were closed for an undetermined period. The student youth has always taken an active part in the political life of the country since independence. In attacking the youth, the "temporary" government aims, with the army, to crush all the workers of Bangladesh and their organizations. To do this, it receives the support and unconditional help of American imperialism. The youth and the workers of Bangladesh should receive the support of the youth and workers of the world. ----- Let us multiply the number of letter sent to the Bangladeshi authorities Protest message to the "temporary" government of Bangladesh Ninety youth who met on August 26, 2007 at a youth conference addressed a solidarity message to the Federation of Revolutionary Youth of Bangladesh and a protest message to the "temporary" government of Bangladesh. We are reproducing the text below. We, students and young workers of France, were informed of the army's actions against the demonstrations of tens of thousands of students, leading to the establishment of a curfew for several days in the big cities of your country and the arrests of dozens of students and five professors, who were demanding the removal of the army from the university campuses. We condemn the measures taken by your government and we demand that you satisfy the demands raised by the majority of the demonstrators, namely: The removal of the army from the campuses; The release of the arrested student leaders and professors; The end to the repressive measures We hope that you will accept these demands, which are the simple expression of democratic rights for the Bangladeshi people." To send your own protest letter, write your messages to the Embassy of Bangladesh 39, rue Erlanger, 75016 Paris (fax : 01 46 51 90 35). Send a copy to the l'Entente internationale des travailleurs et des peuples, 87, rue du Faubourg-Saint-Denis, 75010 Paris. **********************
Last July 6, the federal government received a delegation headed by the United Workers Confederation (CUT) A new stage in the campaign for the truth about the assassination of the trade union activist Luiz Anderson One year ago, the trade union activist and Fourth International militant, Luiz Anderson was assassinated in Rio de Janeiro (Brazil). The investigation into this odious crime has still not produced any results. In the face of this unacceptable fact, a demand for an interview with the federal government in Brasilia was registered by the CUT and the Committee for the Truth About the Assassination of Anderson Luiz. The investigation on the assassination of Luis Anderson must not end in the same results as all the preceding ones. For this to happen, it is necessary to remove the investigation from the hands of the police of Rio de Janeiro, the scene of the crime. For one year, nothing has been found, not a single clue. This is the common process for all the crimes committed against unionists and landless peasants. These are uncovered crimes whose perpetrators remain completely unpunished. This is why the delegation met on July 6 with the Minister of Justice, Tarso Genro, who promised to intervene with the authorities of Rio de Janeiro to demand that the investigation be transferred to a federal level. Led by national leaders of the CUT Quintinio Severo (General Secretary), Rosae Silva (Secretary on Union Policy), and Julio Turra, the delegation was also composed of Luis Fernando Miranda, director of Sintrafrios-RJ (the union of food workers), Christiane Granha, from the Committee for the Truth About the Assassination of Anderson Luiz, Aline Correia Batista, widow of Anderson and the sister Michele Santa. The delegation was received by the Minister of Justice, Tarso Genro, who was accompanied by the General Director of the Federal Police, Dr. Paulo La Cerda. Quintinio Severo explained that the CUT solicited a meeting at the time when Dr. Marcio Thomaz Bastos was Minister of Justice, because she was preoccupied by the assassination of comrades such as Anderson Luiz whose investigations led to no results and he registered with the ministry a report on the recent assassinations of trade unionists and death threats addressed to them. "The assassination of a trade unionist cannot be considered as an individual case, because it affects all those who fight for workers' rights and that is why we demand that the Ministry of Justice take measures to assure that the investigations are accompanied by the federal police." In the conclusion of the interview, Tarso Genro promised to directly speak with the governor of the state of Rio de Janeiro, Sergio Cabral, and the governor of Rio Grande do Sul, Yeda Crusius, to mandate them to have the federal police participate in the investigation of the assassination of the ex-president of Sintrafrios and the ex-director CONTAC-CUT. The delegation felt that the reaction of Tarso Genro was positive, particularly the interest he showed in rapidly finding the culprits, declaring, "If this case is cleared up, then other cases of assassinated unionists can also result into conviction of the culprits, preventing in this way new crimes against the representatives of the workers." The Anderson committee was just informed that a meeting took place between the minister of justice, the governor, and the chief of police of the state of Rio de Janeiro. Both were informed of the July 2 meeting and the transfer demand. The response of the civilian chief of police was that he'd designate a specific person to investigate the case of Anderson but that if the federal police entered into the investigation the police of Rio would leave. The federal Minister of Justice, Tarso Genro, accepted this proposal. As the Anderson committee underlines: "We already know that in the hands of the police of Rio there will be no advances. That is why we call for the continuation and intensification of the campaign on the governor Cabral for him to ask for the participation of the federal police in the investigation. To this end, the committee has demanded a meeting with the State governor." ----- The Message from the ILC Relaunch and amplify the international campaign for the truth on the assassination of Anderson The ILC, from the beginning, has responded to the appeal of the CUT and the Committee for the Truth on the Assassination of Luiz Anderson by calling on an international level for all the workers' and democratic organizations and activists to demand the arrest and punishment of those culpable for this odious crime and today it calls for the re-launching of a campaign directed at: - The Brazilian federal government, president Lula and his Minister of Justice, Tarso Genro, for them to take full responsibility for the investigation until the arrest and punishment of those guilty, on whatever level they may be; - The Rio governor, Cabral, for him to ask for the participation of the federal police in the investigation. Daniel Gluckstein, Coordinator of the ILC Send your motions and messages to: - Sr_Luis Ignacio da Silva Lula, president of the republic, Palacio
do Planalto, Brasilia, DF_70150-900, Brazil Send copies to: - Committee for the Truth on the Assassination of Anderson Luiz Sintrafriro-RJ, rua Ibituruna, 14, Maracana, Rio de Janeiro, RJ_20 271-020 - Entente internationale des travailleurs et des peuples, 87, rue du Faubourg-Saint-Denis, 75 010 Paris, France. eit-ilc@fr.oleane.com *********************
Solidarity with the imprisoned mineworkers and their families! From July 5 to July 2007, a delegation of three French doctors met in Romania, with a representative of the ILC. Authorized by the Minister of Justice of the country, after several weeks of campaign, they were able to visit in the jails the imprisoned mineworker leaders. Let us recall that Miron Cozma, Constantin Cretan, Dorin Lois and Vasile Lupu were sentenced to heavy prison sentences for having implemented their union duties, through organizing a march of the mineworkers against the privatization and mine closures in 1991 and 1999. The International Labor Organization (ILO) addressed the Romanian government last May, demanding the immediate opening of an investigation concerning their trials. The life of the prisoners, who are caged up in unsanitary conditions and among regular prisoners, are in danger. On January 11, 2007, Ioenel Ciontu, the former union director of the Livezeni mine died in prison following serious health problems; the plea for him to be released for health reasons had been rejected. The delegation of doctors, after the examination of the four prisoners, sent a report to the Ministry of Justice, demanding that they be immediately released for health reasons. In February 2007, union leaders from Germany, France, and the ex-Yugoslavia decided to constitute a fund of workers' solidarity to assure material aide to the families of the prisoners. The payments made for months by unions and activists of France, Germany, Switzerland, Brazil, etc. allowed again this summer for a sum of 500 Euros to be paid to the family of each of the prisoners. The solidarity funds once again calls on all the activists and workers' organizations. By aiding the families of the imprisoned families and maintaining the permanent protest campaign directed at the Romanian government, we are defending the rights of the trade unions, as guaranteed by the ILO, throughout the world. You can send your payments (or CMO) via check to: Solidarity Fund (Romania) c/o Entente internationale 87, rue du Faubourg Saint Denis 75010 Paris.
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