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A dossier of weekly information published by the ------ Introduction Pakistan: The All Pakistan Trade Union Federation (APTUF) announces that its Deputy General Secretary, Farid Awan, has been freed.
China: The congress of the Communist Party of China, which took place from October 15 to 22, 2007, reaffirmed the path of reforms begun 20 years ago. The dramatic consequences of these reforms raised much discussion in the Chinese CP, particularly concerning the liquidation of state enterprises and the ever growing penetration of foreign capital. Algeria: "At a moment where, like never before in history, the country has all the financial means to make a break with the policies destroying the industrial fabric, as dictated by the international financial institutions, leading to privatizations and regression, our country is at a crossroads." India: Terror against the people of Western Bengal, who oppose the establishment of a Special Economic Zone. Bangladesh: On Friday, November 16, the south of Bangladesh was hit by a terribly violent cyclone, the effects of which went as far as the capital, Dacca, almost 200 kilometers away. Subscribe to the ILC International Newsletter! ----- Table of Contents ------ Informations internationales ***********************
The Süddeutsche Zeitung: "It's the end of the grand coalition" On Monday, November 12, Muntefering, vice-chancellor of the SPD and Minister of Labor of the "grand coalition" government of the CDU-CSU and SPD. This led to worries and surprise in the summits of the German Federal Government and in the business world. La Süddeutsche Zeitung (November 14) summed up the situation in these words: "It is the end of the grand coalition. Nobody knows how much longer it will last. Many until the end of the legislature, that is, until 2009. But this is not guaranteed. In short, it is the end of a barely fruitful collaboration." Essentially, the "grand coalition" has been dealt a death blow. Muntefering was the successor named by Schroder; he was the main artist of the "agreement" signed in November 2005 between the CDU-CSU and the SPD to create the "grand coalition" government; and was the spokesperson for the "cost what it may cost" cap set by the 2010 Agenda. In stepping down, he reached the conclusion of the disavowal inflicted on him by the SPD congress a few days before. During this congress, Kurt Beck, the president of the party, worried about the growing chasm between the ranks and the leadership, fought for the SPD to give some sign of turning to the left in its politics. As modest as the "corrections" to the 2010 Agenda are, changes which were widely approved by the ranks, particularly concerning the indemnity of the elder unemployed, Muntefering ferociously opposed him. He was defeated. It is not an exaggeration to say the crisis facing the "grand coalition" government is rooted in the pressure of the working class expressed through a thousand and one channels by unionists, members of the party, structures of the ranks, and the workers commissions to push the SPD and its congress to the left. Two years later, thus, after having been constituted in conditions of crisis, the "grand coalition" government - which was praised throughout the European Union as the governmental form capable of surmounting the division of society into classes - is dead. It was the victim of the resistance of a working class that has not been defeated on the terrain of the class struggle or on a political leave, even if its leaderships have prevented it from using all its strength, at this point, to force the government to retreat on the reform of health and pensions and the privatization of public services. Weakened from the beginning, Merkel prudently followed in the footsteps of Schroder. She implemented the "reforms" that have begun. But this wasn't enough. The demands of the European Union, with a Euro at 1.5 dollars and a barrel of oil at 100 dollars, prevented her from stopping there. Thomas Edners, owner of Airbus, demands in Germany (and in France) a terrible hardening of the Power 8 plan, "conceived on the basis of one euro for 1.35 dollars, when in reality it was 1.5. Germany, which has already liquidates its public oil, water, electricity, telecommunications, and mail enterprises must go all the way. It must get rid off the Bahn (railway) immediately. But this question shook the SPD congress, which decided to prohibit the leadership from taking any decision without first a special congress. The strike of the conductors and the support it has received say much about the period that Germany has entered into. All the governments of the European Union are in a panic because the government of the "grand coalition" is dead. Correspondent. ***************************
For this to happen would mean either having the Turkish army take on the American forces or, to the contrary, joining its occupation and passing an agreement to go further than it has gone so far (for example, accepting to fight on the side of the U.S. army against Iran). This is the trap American imperialism has set for Turkey. Our comrades in the Party of Workers Fraternity analyze the very dangerous situation developing today in Turkey. ----- The trap set by American imperialism leads Turkey to dismantlement A Letter from the Party of Workers Fraternity As a result of years of a policy of subordination to American imperialism, the Turkish army receives much of its equipment from the United States and is integrated into NATO. The U.S. calls us a "strategic ally." But, recently, this "strategic ally" has given the green light to several cross-border operations, from regions under its control, against Turkey Those who look for a solution from the United States are blind and those who cooperate with the United States are traitors. To say things even more clearly: More than ever, there is a contradiction between the existence of the Turkish nation-state and the interests of American imperialism, with its project of the Greater Middle East. This is not really about defence of secularism and anti-secularism; nor is it about the opposition between the AKP (1), the CHP (2) and the MHP (3), the presence of the DTP (4) in the Parliament, nor, of course, the Kurdish question. As in the case throughout the world, the United States cannot tolerate the existence of a Turkish nation-state.
Decaying capitalism, that is, imperialism, divides the world into regions called "useful" and "useless." In doing so, it dislocates all the nations. We should resist this reactionary perspective. First of all, this means we must reject being governed from Washington and Brussels. In other words, we need an Assembly that rejects their orders, that is, a National Constituent Assembly. Such a Constituent Assembly should cut all links with NATO, the IMF, the World Bank, and the European Union, in order to establish national sovereignty.
We all know what followed. Moreover, the fact that Saddam repressed the Kurds and Shiites of his own country preceded his fall. Our National Constituent Assembly should declare the country to be the common patrimony of the Turks and Kurds, in order to escape the provocative maneuvers inside our country. If this Assembly, to establish national sovereignty, breaks all links with imperialism, gives our Kurdish brothers all fundamental rights, drops the question of the scarf, and, of course, gives the working class the right to freely organize, particularly into its trade unions, then the threat against the dismantling of the nation will be avoided. If we don't head down that path, we will be led to catastrophe. If this is not done, any other alternative will lead to the full control of U.S. imperialism over our country! Forward to the National Constituent Assembly! Istanbul, 8 November 2007 ----- Endnotes 1) Party in power, which claims to be "moderate Islamic" but which in reality is the direct agent of imperialism 2) Republican People's Party, a nationalist party that claims to be "social-democratic" 3) Party of Nationalist Action, an ultranationalist party. 4) Party for a Democratic Society, a Kurdish party. ***************************
"November 1, 1954 -- November 1, 2007: Long live a united, free, and sovereign Algeria!" Editorial of Fraternity, the newspaper of the Algerian Workers Party, October 2007 After the commemoration of the massacres of October 17, 1961, during which hundreds of Algerians living in France perished, the Algerian people are ready to celebrate the 53rd anniversary of the outbreak of revolution, on November 1, 1954. More than one million and a half Algerians gave the ultimate sacrifice, their life, in the struggle for the Algerian people to win national independence, after 132 years of oppression and colonial exploitation and seven long years of struggle and ferocious oppression. It is clear that this heroic sacrifice has enabled our country to have escaped disintegration despite a century of blood, horror, and destruction. Yes, despite the atrocities, isolation, and the criminal shock therapy of the IMF and the World Bank, which used the crisis to set off another war against the Algerian economy, the workers and the youth have not been torn -- and nothing irreparable has been inflicted. Of course, the after-effects are still there and the wounds were not closed yet because the country did not completely leave the tunnel. Numerous victims are still waiting for help and normal political rights for all have not yet been reestablished. Who would dare claim that the majority of the people who have faced this double war have not lived up to their responsibility to preserve the nation from dislocation? Independence for the Algerian people means peace, bread, land, freedom; it means all the attributes of national sovereignty to develop the country, in order for the needs of the immense majority to be met -- education, health, housing, and work. Where are we today? At a moment where, like never before in history, the country has all the financial means to make a break with the policies destroying the industrial fabric, as dictated by the international financial institutions, leading to privatizations and regression, our country is at a crossroads. Because, on the one hand, large public spending is being used on realizing base infrastructures and, on the other hand, the liquidation of our national industrial and agricultural tissue continues due to the submission to the European Union and the WTO, in the framework of a comprador policy of Direct Foreign Investment (IDE). Our youth, which makes up the majority of the people, is totally desperate because of the lack of real jobs and social housing: the only perspective provided is El Harga, gangs, drugs, suicide, and terrorism. The industrial workers are worried about their enterprises, which Temmar has slated for privatization and closure. Of course, the new wage structure for public sector workers is part of a will to improve their fate. But this cannot stop the perpetual rise in prices of basic goods because of the state's disengagement. Thus, 53 years since the outbreak of the revolution, 950,000 families have nothing to survive on, 15 million Algerians are not covered by social security, and half a million children are under-fed. And the ministers of labor, industry, and commerce want to liquidate all the conquests of the revolution and national independence. Gains like health care face an unprecedented offensive. Can Algeria survive such a Tsunami when already its social tissue is cancerous? Should the integrity of the nation be taken down by the policies of privatizations/closures and pseudo-reforms? The voices of "globalization" tell us this devastating course is "inevitable." Should we resign ourselves to seeing our country be killed, thus betraying the memory of the martyrs who freed us from colonial exploitation and oppression? Our predecessors, convinced of the legitimacy of the aspiration of the Algerian people for freedom, did not back down in the face of a powerful colonialism. And they won. The state of the world demonstrates precisely that the survival of the peoples, nations, and human civilization itself are at stake and only resistance and united mobilization can save humanity from the barbarism created by the rotting capitalist system. Moreover, the particular example of the renationalization of the hydrocarbons, among other decisions, shows that if the will is there, no policy is irreversible. Thus, the PT MPs supported the Finances Law of 2008 to defend the Algerian nation and the material bases that found it, against foreign pillage, desertification, and deregulation. This same perspective guides the PT in all circumstances. For the first time, it is fully participating in the municipal and Wilaya elections, under the campaign slogan, "national sovereignty is the guarantee for local development." The PT's goal is to use this campaign to push for the widest possible mobilization for a united, free, and sovereign Algeria. Louisa Hanoune October 24, 2007 ************************ Cynthia McKinney candidacy in the 2008 presidential elections "We need a Reconstruction Party" While the press of the world deals with the U.S. elections only from the angle of the duel between the two main Democratic candidates, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, the readers of the ILC International Newsletter know that for several months there has been a struggle in the United States by Black activists to build a real independent representation for the oppressed: a Reconstruction Party. A first step was taken through the candidacy of Malcolm Suber for Municipal Council in New Orleans last month. This struggle has just seen an important national development: Cynthia McKinney, former member of the U.S. Congress from Georgia, has announced that she is running for president in 2008.
----- Statement by Cynthia McKinney "As a former Member of Congress for the people of Georgia, I would like to declare my support for the formation of an independent Reconstruction Party in the United States. "I strongly believe that the Gulf Coast Reconstruction Movement must move to its next and logical phase, which is the contest for political power if we are truly to have a just and equitable reconstruction of New Orleans and the Gulf Coast. The facts on the ground clearly demonstrate that we cannot rely on failed politicians and failing political parties which were complicit in the lack of preparation, the failure to rescue, and the continued refusal to advance the right to return for hundreds of thousands of people who continue to be displaced. "A Reconstruction Party is needed to address the myriad problems of institutional racism, class domination, historical poverty, and sexism which plague working people throughout this country. "During my election campaign, I will work with Black and working class activists to help get this Reconstruction Party off the ground through Local Organizing Committees and a National Organizing Committee for the Reconstruction Party. "I welcome the formation of these committees for a Reconstruction Party and urge them to get fully behind my "Power to the People" national electoral coalition for 2008. "Signed/ Cynthia McKinney" ***************************
Western Bengal Terror against the people, who oppose the establishment of a Special Economic Zone Calcutta, the capital of Western Bengal, one of the biggest cities in India - with 15 million habitants - was put under curfew on November 21 following demonstrations repressed by the police and the army These demonstrations were officially qualified as "fundamentalist" and made up of "Muslim extremists." The reality is different, even though some elements that raise the banner of "radical Islam" sought to use the situation to their advantage. The demonstration was called by a "Forum of all the minorities of India", grouping together Muslim and Buddhist organizations, to protest the "brutalities" of the State government concerning the peoples of the region of Nandigran. What is the origin of this bloody conflict - 34 people have died because of it in 6 months - between the authorities and the peasants of the Nandigran? The government of Western Bengal is lead by a "left" coalition dominated by the Communist Party (Marxist) of India. The Prime Minister, Baddhabeh Bhattargargue, is one of the leaders of this party. The Indian government, for its part, rests upon an alliance between the two Communist Parties and the Congress Party. Throughout the country, there are promoting a policy of the multiplication of "special economic zones" - areas where financial benefits are given to the corporations and where the labor laws of the country are not respected. The "left" government of Western Bengal has been one of the most zealous implementers of this policy. Using an 1894 colonial ordinance, it seeks to buy, at low prices, the land belonging to the peasants, in order to turn it over to the corporations. This is the casein Nandigran, south of Calcutta. The peasants have mobilized against the turnover of their land to a petro-chemical corporation. A union of agricultural workers of Western Bengal just sent the National Commission of Human Rights of India a report, from which we'll look at a few facts. On March 14, the police, accompanied by elements of the PC, led a deadly assault on the village, killing several people; it was an "operations of terror aiming to punish the people for having opposed the establishment of a special economic zone." In the face of a protest that won the support of the country and the mobilization of the independent workers organizations, the authorities did not dare to go further. But on October 27,the report explains, "a new assault began, which continues to the day, November 11.... In effect, after the first assault was blocked by a demonstration of peasants, several villages were burned down, forcing out over 15,000. When a group of famous academics and activists, on November 8, sought to come to Nandigran, they were insulted, though the PC thugs were left alone. One of the leaders - and member of Parliament - of the CP (M), Laxman Seth, told the members of the PC 'to kill or be killed. Today, that is the only solution.'" While Nandigran has thus become a veritable "war zone," in Calcutta, on November 11, a big protest demonstration bringing together thousands of people was severely repressed by the police and the army. After this, the curfew was established. Today, it is the very unity of the country that is threatened. Correspondent *************************
A terrible cyclone hits the people of Bangladesh On Friday, November 16, the south of Bangladesh was hit by a terribly violent cyclone, the effects of which went as far as the capital, Dacca, almost 200 kilometers away. The region that was directly hit is very fertile and populated region. Thousands died in the first hours alone. The list of the dead continues to grow; today, the number is 10,000. This is a true catastrophe, which threatens a large fraction of the population. Over 740,000 homes have been damaged; almost 3 million are homeless, without resources, and often without drinkable water. The ocean water ravaged the crops, particularly the rice; over 30,000 hectares were damaged and 260,000 cattle were killed. Bangladesh, a country of 140 million people, ranked one of the poorest countries on the planet, despite the diversity of its agriculture and the richness of its sub-soil, a country pillaged by the multinationals, bled by the foreign debt, is today governed by a military regime supported by Washington. This natural catastrophe, beyond the immediate destruction, will have nothing but terrible social consequences for the workers, paid 15 Euros a month, and poor peasants. The government of the United States, after having announced it is sending war boats into the waters of the Bengal coast, declare that it will send 2.1 million dollars, that is, the equivalent of 20 minutes of occupation in Iraq. The ILC stands on the side, in these dark days, of the militants of the Democratic Workers Party, an organization that has participated in the activities of the ILC ever since its founding, and reaffirms its solidarity with the workers of Bangladesh. In particular, the ILC sends its solidarity to the comrades of the
town of Khulna, which was ravaged by the cyclone.
The stakes of the 17th congress of the Chinese Communist Party The congress, which took place from October 15 to 22, 2007, reaffirmed the path of reforms begun 20 years ago. The dramatic consequences of these reforms raised much discussion in the Chinese CP, particularly concerning the liquidation of state enterprises and the ever growing penetration of foreign capital. Thus, a letters signed by 17 former leaders of the CP warn of a possible collapse of China. Here are excerpts of the China Bulletin published in France. Editorial The opening to reforms. It is an undisputable fact: For years, the big financial institutions and Western governments have demanded and accelerated the opening to reforms. The authorities have not ceased to implement these openings. An expert on China from an American foundation writes, " In China, the state remains deeply and extensively entrenched in the economy despite three decades of economic reform. Today, the state sector accounts for more than 35 percent of GDP; controls the nation's largest corporations; monopolizes key industries such as banking, power generation, and natural resources; owns trillions of dollars in fixed assets; and makes hundreds of billions of dollars in new investments each year. Xinhua writes « Among the country's 500 biggest indigenous companies ranked by the China Enterprise Confederation and the China Enterprise Directors Association for 2007, 349 or 69.8 percent are state-owned or state-controlled » So what are these reforms? All the bastions that remain outside private control lust be privatized and be fully integrated into the laws of the market. A ferocious battle is underway between social property and those who want to dismantle this in favor of the private ownership of the means of production. A recent report explains: "Over 3,000 cement workers in the town of Erlangmaio, near Jiangyou City in the central Chinese province of Sichuan have been on strike for more than two weeks following the takeover of their company by French multinational Lafarge , in a deal valued at over RMB 300 million; The deal was approved by the central government in Beijing as part of a wave of mergers and foreign takeovers in the cement sector. As part of the compensation deal workers will lose all entitlements to their pensions, social insurance and medical insurance, even if they have worked for this former state-owned company for over 20 years. It is reported that these terms were a prerequisite for the takeover from Lafarge's side." Evidently, to destroy what was built by the people through innumerable tragedies can only provoke violent reaction and resistance. Some media have reported about this. The Financial Times wrote: "The best outcome for Mr. Hu is that he succeeds in fully establishing his authority at the 17th congress, breaks the political gridlock and boldly moves forward with long-delayed reforms. He may have no other choice. No Chinese leader wants the congress to be the last party before the storm." Has Mr. Hu Jintao succeeded in accomplishing this task? What are these "long delayed reforms"? An anti-monopoly law was adopted in the Assembly on August 30. From now on, any merger or acquisition of a Chinese enterprise by a foreign company will be the object of study. This satisfies the chambers of commerce in China and the United States. Why? They consider this law as a "positive step in the development of a market economy" and "the establishment of a fully competitive regime." "Of the policy decisions that must be made quickly, exchange rate reform tops the list", wrote The Financial Times. US Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson urged China to allow its currency to appreciate against the US dollar. Nobody actually thinks this will solve the American commercial deficits or the jobs lost in the United States. The purpose, rather, is to oblige the authorities to put the Yuan fully on the global market and thus make it the object of speculation. Imagine a floating Yuan subject to market speculation. In the U.S. subprime loan crisis, the housing loans with a variable rate, over 20 billion dollars were lost by the American banks. But the Bank of China also declared at the end of August that it had invested close to 9.7 billion dollars in speculative housing funds. Over 68 billions of Yuans after losing 158 billion dollars, the Bank of Industry and Commerce of China affirms that it remains with 1.2 billion in funds linked to the sub-prime loans. All these "reforms" are leading to catastrophe. Was this the last "congress before the storm"? ----- DOCUMENT The letter of the 17 The Shanxi black brick kiln case shows that there are many dark sides of our country that run completely counter to the socialist system and communist ideology. For example, mining accidents that have occurred constantly for years have claimed the precious lives of many good workers. The private coal mine owners take advantage of these workers to squeeze out millions and millions to fund their own luxury cars and residences-some of the large enterprises owned by the wealthiest men increase by billions every year. If these things continue to develop unhindered, will we still be building a socialist system?... For instance, the state-owned enterprises, which many of us have worked hard for several decades to build, have been undermined by a variety of methods, sold off or even given away for nothing, becoming what is euphemistically called collective enterprises, although they are in fact private. Former party secretaries and plant bosses become big capitalists, while continuing to act as party members and secretaries. Is this consistent with The Communist Manifesto and the Communist Party's founding principles? Needless to say, in the whole country, the vast majority of SOEs were also developed bit by bit through the hard work of hundreds of millions of working people under the leadership of the CPC Central Committee. Now, the majority of property rights does not belong to the people and have become the property of private owners. We still have a lot of large and medium-sized state-owned enterprises that can be managed well. There is no reason to be auctioned to foreign enterprises only for them to grip our domestic market and squeeze our national economic development. The media recently reported that the state will allow foreign capital to enter the Chinese military industrial enterprises and purchase shares in joint ventures. Workers and farmers have lost their status as masters, and the workers are either temporarily laid-off or permanently unemployed with modest compensation. New land exploitation of the farmers and rich peasants, which we uprooted in the 1950s, has already begun to occur in rural areas. In the process of economic reform, the top-down style of growing corruption, degradation of many leading cadres, and betrayal of the motherland and the people runs rampant. There are countless concerns and troubles occurring every day, and the list goes on: bubbles in the stock market, increased prices, removal of factories without guidance, resettlement of people, speculation of real estate, soaring prices; In addition, the low-end exporting policy has led to low-wages and exploitation of workers, high energy consumption and heavy pollution, etc. More seriously, some localities defy central orders, and do not report to the central government or simply ignore instructions from above. The illegal black brick kiln scandal exposed us to very serious problems regarding the future of the Party and the country, which we should now face without hesitation. This is the "cause" we are working for. Is it possible that we have digressed to the wrong road, which will lead us elsewhere? Comrade Deng Xiaoping once said that if reform and opening leads to polarization, it is obvious that we are digressing. Digression is nothing but a mistake and the road of capitalism. Reform and opening have already been occurring for so many years, and yet the above social issues are only becoming more serious with development. Why do we still insist on the wrong things? We can currently say that the Party and government have seriously detached themselves from the people. Precarious is China's socialism! Looking at the current facts, we have to confess that China's reform is heading towards changing public ownership to private ownership and socialism to capitalism. If the 17th Party Congress continues firmly down this path, a Yeltsin-type person will emerge, and the Party and country will tragically be destroyed very soon. How did this problem begin? The answer lies in 20 years of implementing the wrong policy guided by wrong ideology. We cannot solve the fundamental problems only by adding a few social welfare policies and imprisoning some corrupt officials if we are not able to break ideological restraints, correct the privatization of the reform policy and change the wrong regulation that allow capitalists to become Party members. ----- Another open letter to the leadership of the CP 170 retired senior cadre denounced the current government's economic policies as unfair toward the working class and harmful to the environment, adding that they had departed drastically from the original socialist values of Mao Zedong. Li Chengrui, 85, a former director of the National Bureau of Statistics, saying, "Before I die, I want to express my views. Why can't we debate freely? Marx was not afraid to debate" (AFP, October 15). *********************
Update! The All Pakistan Trade Union Federation (APTUF) announces that its Deputy General Secretary, Farid Awan, was recently freed Through a phone communiqué with the headquarters of the ILC, the leaders of the Pakistani trade union federation, on the morning of November 26, informed us that Awan had been freed - but that the charges leveled against him in the framework of the state of emergency were not dropped. Hundreds of trade union activists remain in prison. The APTUF asked the ILC to make known its thanks to all those, throughout the world, who mobilized to demand the liberation of Farid Awan. In only a few days, hundreds of messages from trade unions and activists from all continents (Afghanistan, Germany, Bangladesh, Brazil, Burundi, Cameroon, Spain, the United States, France, Gabon, Great Britain, Guadeloupe, India, Iraq, Italy, Philippines, Republic of Maurice, Senegal, Switzerland, Sri Lanka) were sent to the Pakistani authorities. Delegations were organized to embassies in Paris and Madrid. The APTUF also informed us that, in the difficult situation created by the state of emergency and the wave of repression, the workers' movement has not given up. On November 14, on the initiative of the APTUF, gatherings and meetings took place in the factories or at their entrances and in the industrial centers of the country, "demanding the release of the trade union activists, judges, and lawyers who have been imprisoned; the end to all limits on trade union activity; and the reestablishment of the freedom of expression." At the same time, the workers' movement looks to unite. In response to a proposal by the APTUF, the Pakistan Workers' Confederation, which regroups in a united front several trade union organizations, met and wrote a common declaration. It states, in part: "The trade unions proclaim together: the workers' movement wants democracy. They launch an independent appeal to defend workers' rights and to defend the country against any foreign intervention. The Pakistani people have the right to determine their own future. The workers should have the right to freely organize into their own organizations." The APTUF calls on everybody to continue in all countries the campaign for the release of all the imprisoned activists.
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