order guard for the USSR. Its world revolution was inevitably leaderships which did not blindly background. staff of the relegated to the guneral
the COSATU unions are putting forward tran role, will advance their own class and cocialist demands within that struggle. Indeed many of socialist demands. The ANC of a unitary one-nation state. The which thenrised the existence of different nationalities, and which provided his rationale In South Africa today, the struggle for na- Butthe workers, now powerfully organised in made unions playing an increasingly leading programme itself states that 'South Africa has a developed capitilist economy, but it also fies in the face of the proclaimed aim of the "colomalism of a special type theory is a mit- mur image of Verwoerd's grand apartheid, tional and democratic demands predominates. for the establishment of the Bantustans. fact the with contradication our contiment have in fact turned out to be authoritarian: indeed some of them are headed capitalist and socialist oriented countries... it cal of one party states and admits that in both is used to provent, among other things, the democratic organisation of working people in This is not to say that all one parly states in by the most human leaders who passionately title. The ruling clique in Benin has also decided that it is no longer Marxist/Leninist and the Mengistu regimo in Ethiopia has replaced Cuhan and East European military But his criticism is not whole-hearted. Slovo, in his document, Is somewhat criti- either political or trade union organisations believe in the democratic process! advisors with Israelis. offensive is led by the African National Con- : And on page 2 The bon to the programme, we find The national SACP adopted in 1989 Path to Power sup- But is this really the case? In the introduc- guard workers" party - the South African movement and of lo the conception of the vanguard role of the sues of great importance to the future of the He claims that in some instances the SACP anticipated glasmost. This applies particularly CP. He urgues that the programmne of the ports his position thal a communist party does not carn the title of vanguard merely by special importarice to developments in Africa: gress in revolutionary alliance with the van Communist Party... Proclaiming it:
of the working class; the establishment of a have the chance to lest out if genuine socialism are not separate but com- Apartheld in its present make for can and will be ended withoul the end of capitalism: But the full icalisation of national and democratic workers' state in South Africa: Then we will Page 10 struggle for national and democratic demands can only be achieved by the victory struggle the socilism succeeds or fails. demands #nd sitional. bined *his critique of Stalinism is in line with the general probably to make the SACP more acceptable to join trend of "Eurocommunism', and part of its aim was in the negotiations with the Pretoria regime" parently not passionacly enough to pennis declared his Marxisteninism and is deser- mined to establish a one-party state, 18 a Close their poople a freo choice of government. Afler all, Kaunda, Joe Slovo's bost in Zamhia, is one of the benevolent Heads of a one-party state, and Zimbabwe's Mugahe, Who has now ally of the ANC crucial to any radical social transformation bot social and political situation in each country. the vanguard revolutionary forces will assume it can only play is revolutionary role to the full if it is organised. under the guidance of Marxism/Leninism. depending on the actual i variety of organisational forms, the highest small in number the African working class is SOCIALIST OUTLOOK no 24, May 1990 In that section of the programme which deals with developments in the independent African states, the as- Communist Party is the leading politi cal force of the South African working sumed status of "vanguard party is re emphasised time and again: *
German socialists debate the FEATURES Ohre нето way forward the United Socialist Party Berlin; ANNETTE SEESE, a PATRICK BAKER spoke (VSP) from Mannheim in East and West Germany United Left (VL) in East STEINAU, a member of on the meaning of the member of the Fourth elections in the GDR. International and the three socialists from to BJORN KRUGER, a recently interviewed SOCIALIST OUTLOOK member of the VL in Leipzig; and LARS
ingly in favour of unification, they felt that heterogencous. Then as people swung increas- couldn't take seriously a group which did not had no political profile at all, they are too might have a good programme, but it's too AS. They didn't do much work around the elections - they didn't have good slogans like Forum Is good, but if they won the elections Also, at the beginning of the demonstrations, things to many people - a discussion forum, At the first mectings in the factorics when they were invited, workers asked What is your coonomic policy?' and they replied We don't have one - we want to work one out with you Workers were incredulous - they have an economic programme. What New Forum mostly offered was self-activity - and BK: There was a view that New Forum they had to vote for West German-style par- ties. The ones who didn't agree with that tended to vote for the party that opposed and that wasn't New Forum, it was the PDS. This also affected the VL - poople said it the CDU or SPD. People said "Yes, New the name New Forum could mean many unification and had the strongest apparatus - Hey couldn't get our country our of its crisis'. SOCIALIST OUTLOOK no 24, May 1990 then gave them 40 percent support, but they won only 2-3 percent in the alections. weak, so we'll vote PDS. or a new government. this was not enough. "Evan people who built workers' councils in the factories voted COU* tive effects to get a West German standard of in the long, or evon medium, term. In the next popular argument that said We must go Even democracy but simply because they thought can carry this through. We shouldn't make the that they had to accept some short-term nega- not an electoral base that could he counted on AS: I think that thore's a certain amount of irrationality at the moment: there's a very through this bad period, bocause then our conomy will he healthy, and that's why we should be logical and vole for the party that BK: I think the result ef the election simp- ly shows the extent of polarisation in thie didn't do so out of devotion for Christian living in the long term. But these people are I think that we can expoct hig population Most people who voted CDU people who built workers" councils in the fac fears being expressed: unemployment, rents going up, property being repossessed; given pretence at trying to defend previous gains. big demonstrations in Leipzig? Opinion polls that, which seems quite a popular feeling. that It had in October/November during the didn't vote for the parties that made some It's still quite surprising that more people badly compared with the level of support SO: Why do you think New Forum did so this agony mistake of prolonging tories also voted CDU. BK: There was no general difference be- tween the election programmes of the SPD and the CDU. The only difference was that the CDU said that unification had to be car- as possible. People tended to think that the only way of solving East Germany's problems was to unify with West Germany in order to get their standard had to vote for the party in charge in West Germany - the CDU. They had a very clever clection camplign - saying 'If you vote SPD, you won 1 get a plennig to invest in the GDR AS: The right also campaigned around the members of the Socialist Unity Party (SED - the Easi German Communist Party); so if you yole SPD, you are voting for your previous ing over the cost that East Germans are going to have to pay for unification such as the high cost of toodstuffs. For many, voting PDS was a way of expressing their fears of the fu of living: So they felt that to acheive this they line that hall of the SPD were previously BK: Since February fears have heen grow SO: In the media you could see a lot of these SO: Didn't the Party of Democratic Socialism a few weeks bafore the opposite result was (PDS) - the renamed Communist Party - do SO: First, why do you think the Chris- Social Democratic Party (SPD), when quite well, considering their image? up scoring so much higher than the tian Democratic Union (CDU) ended ried through as soon West Germany. economy' Page 11 enemy. ture.
pendent organisation, participating in the round table discussions and putting forward tions they allied with the Greens - but because the Groens were at the top of deputies, and refused to allor any of these seats to the women. The women have left demonstrations, women began to play an im- portant rule and organised a women's group in New Forum. Then they formed an inde- But popular consciousness around the issue isn't very high - the groups are mainly composed of academics, However I think there are possibilities of growth. In the elec- each list, they got all 8 the alliance as a result any of quite left-wing policies: rebuild their base, using our anti-fascist tradi- an import from the Republikaner - we have our own fascists! In December and January attempts by the SED/Stasi to lons. Many people reacted by dismissing the extreme right as solely SED election propaganda. But chero is a real danger - young whiles have certainly been physically #tacking the 'Autonom' squallers' movement, and other young left-wingers; they have also AS: The GDR extreme right is not solely FEATURES there were have won the political leadership, they haven't built up a proper political structure nation- wide. The Social Democrats have more of a AS: I think the process of unification will be speeded up. However, although the CDU real base. I think that the CDU and the SPD SO: In terms of the results of the elections, whether it's a coalition or whatever. What it seems as though some fom of govern- do you think the results of this will ba? ment led by the COU will be the result, CDU need the SPD in coali- will work together to ensure an cfficient cconomic in tegration - that's why the tion; they have the ap- paratus, but they didn't have
Berlin have joined the United Left while still organising in- and linked to the church or very consistently. Under the SED Iesbian and gay groups hut couldn't campaign publicly - now they're becoming more Women's groups from dependently. Lesbian and gay groups exist - independent, many to the elections? What SO: What has been the reac- tion of the left in West Ger- Is the VSP's perspective? prescribed, Women's weren't ореп. the East German COU leader Maziere: cannot deliver on electoral promises BK: I think this is a with a question that is difficult to answer - even for the CDU: the pace is too rapid even for them. We now have two of living and productivity half as high as exodus, standards of living have to be raised through a massive investment in the infrastruc- ture. But you won't find many capitalists that want to invest in projects which are so much influence before. other. In order prevent a mass Germanys, one standard the
LS: The movement of Oc- quite a lot of demoralisation - much of the West German len had a 'campist position - not just the CP. They tended to defend the East European states in gencral - not just against capitalism. them as a whole, hureaucracy included. The movement in the GDR destroyed this picture - and now there is cists, the perspoctive of a new Greater Germany', and so on. At the start of the mass movement against stalinism in the GDR the the PDS will organise in West Germany - but ex-maoists, Social Democrats, the Greens. capitalist restoration, the growth of the fas left didn't really react - dadn'1 give much sup- porL. Now there is a discussion over whether Tober/November caused but also defending tried to take over demonstrations. Still, were not in a 1933-rype situation - they don't have the economic situation to fuel their support in BK: The cloction results had disastrous ef- Iccis on the VL. From the beginning it made the error of orienting almost exclusively to the clections, The results of those elections left demoralised, But the strategy hasn't changed local clections, which will have the same result - with a real danger of splits or dissolu- tion. T think it's important to adjust our ac- Livity towards real movemenis - in the around them - now the VL is concentrating on the May 7 SO: What are the perspectives of the United Left after the elections? the same way. BK: In East Germany there is no force which is capable of mobilising powerful op- position to the project of a unified Germany in pose it but I'm sceptical about whether they are in a position to do anything about it - and I don't chink that the projoct of a neutral Get- NATO yet Of course the Russians will op SO: One question this raises is that of NATO Germany which showed majority support in the West and 90% in the East. MATO is now there was a poll over the idea of a neutral pathetic government. Has this been taken up in East or West Germany by the peace and the Warsaw Pact. A few months ago in a much stronger position with a sym- insecure.
some of the Greens hope to organise with This demoralisation bus also affected the we were opposed to the bureaucracy as well as capitalist resioration; but there was some hesitation, and lack of clarity. I think some of the VSP will want to build an organisation with the United Left: it remains to be seen on what programme. We need to prepare for the struggles that will come - 1 think there are particular possibilities around anti-militarist work - perhaps something like the Swiss cam- VSP - it didn't sufficiently support this move: ment either. We weren't on the wrong side - Page 12 paigh to abolish the army: them and win influence! other groups - New Forum, Democracy Now. workplaces, around peace and ecology, and 50 AS: In Leipzig we have heen meeting with women's groups - to discuss how we can work together on a local level. Most workers aren't open to left groups, so i think we need AS: Before there was only the DFD - the Women's Democratic Alliance - which only organised coffee mornings, and small groups to try to work with other groups around par- women's and lesbian and gay movements in particular issues. But during SO: Can you say something about the on - lowards grassroots activists: East Germany? licular issues? many will be a particular focus. Of course in the next period there will he many struggles, but I think they are likely to be straightfor- ward workers* struggles - workers have other LS: I think that the question of disarma- ment will be very important. 1 think that there could he a new peace movement in West Ger- many, much more radical than in the carly 1980s. I think that it will be important for the East Germans too - maybe it's true that at the moment people don't see it as the main issue. but I think there's an opportinity to build up so: is the extreme right, which seems to be fuelled by the Republikaner, a real threat? SOCIALIST OUTLOOK no 24, May 1990 issues to care about before disarmament an anti-militarist consciousness.
sacked Labour leader Shimon Peres from the government, whereupon the other Labour regime in its handling of the intifada quite clear, argued that negotiations would lead in. Labour, meanwhile, stepped up the pres- sure on Shamir to come lo the negobating tahle Unable to reach agrcement Shamir Crisis in Jerusalem as Bush evitably to a Palestinian state turns on the pressure Umon threatened to change its emigration policy, the US waned that it would not Financs soltle- ment beyond the 1967 green line', and the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO). together with the Arab states, announced a country is nicedeil for a great migration, Al FEATURES Soviet By Benjamin Cohen unimechately: most fore. The first was when news broke of a heralded as a rebirth of what was fast be- Two issues in the last six months have brought the crisis within Zionism to the mass immigration by Jews from the USSR to Israel, which the Zionists coming a dying project. LENA
cabinet ministers resigned. Two days later, a vate of no confidence was passed in the Knes- caretaker Prime Minister. On April 11th a special session of the Knesset was held to ratify Peres's government, which he formed after several days of bartering with the religious fundamentalists and the right At the set (parament), transforming Shamir into a vious: he thinks that the Soviet Jews are the means by which the occupied Wost Bank and Gaza Strip can be annexed, the two and a half "intifada) crushed, and IsracTs regional strength con- solidated, Addinionally, the threat of a mass The link made in Shamir's mind is ob campaign to oppose the immigration. year old Palestinian uprising (ahe However, the cuphoria was quickly muted after the second major new event the collapse of the coulition government of the Labour and Likul Parties, as a result of the failure of thie two bloes to reach agreement on conditions for Israeli-Palestinian talks scheduled to open in Thas highlighis the crucial relationstop be- Caro with American and Egyptian backing
plan for Israeli-Palestinian talks. The US is keen to maintain the stability of the Zionist last minute, two rabbis withdrew their voles. I was American pressure which tore the coalition apart, the government was unable to roach agreement on acceplance of the Baker and Peres was back to square one. Likud's arch hawk. who quit the government transfer of Palestinians to neighbouring Arab States, an idea which has gained ground over But Shamir's hardline stance was never enough for Industry Minister Ariel Sharon, ar- chitect of Ihc 1982 Lebanon invasion and in protest at Shamir's readiness to negotiate the last two years, is increasingly real twcen the Zionist State and US imperialism, as ties, which extended through the whole Zionist well as sharply lustrating the squahhles be The temporary unily of the two ruling par wcen the main factions of the Zimist Teader shin over who will best defend Israel's in tegrity as a lowish stale.
framed mn An Isracli government actively involved in helping to secure these aims would be a let- state and neutralise the Palestinian resistance, Washington and Jerusalem that requires hefty SOCIALIST OUTLOOK no 24, May 1990 through a diplomatic process concessions from the Palestinians. with personally selected representatives of the Palestinians, Ironically, this came in the wake of Labour Minister Exer Weizmann's dismiss- with the PLO. Sharon, who has made his dis gust at the moderation' of the occupation al irom the cahmet for unauthorised contacts years. But discord arose when Likud Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir declared that a large tions over the influx of Soviet Jews; some analysts have estimated that there will he wound 300,000 new arrivals in the next three camp: was the consequence of greas expecta Page 13
light of the compression of pogrom against the Jewish It may soem odd, in the woman in Moscow, carving a Star of David onto her breast with a flicknife, or from within Peres himself admitted as much when he said that the issue was not anti-semitism, but emigration. This statement came a few days after entry visas, campaigning instead for direct keeping with the demands of Zionist colonisa- semitism, whether it comes from Pamyat, whose thugs only recently assaulted a Jewish flights between Moscow and Tel Aviv. In tion, Israel is not interested in fighting anti- community in Leningrad. threatened Pamyat the state apparatus. it becomes clear that working class Orientals ence of the Zionist state. With unemployment in Israel now standing at 120,000, the Oriental Jews are beginning to express resistance to the ty to Zionism (in the last thirteen years, this has heen expressed in a vote for the right wing and the religious parlics). However, when compared to the situation of Ashkenazi Jews, have had a rough deal throughour the exist- divided from their Palestinian counterparts both by superior living standards and by loyal FEATURES dialogue since late 1988, when Yasser Aralal tion. The US Stage Department has realised that there is no alterative Palestinian cader- ship to the PLO. Whether the PLO will accept a pax americana is already a subject of debate has taken full advantage of the crisis of stalimism to reassert US global dominance. Im- portantly, this does not mean bypassing the PLO, with whom the US has engaged in shaky. declared his acceptance of the "two state' solu- rifie boost to the Bush administration, which co present himself as a trusted friend for the movement inside and outside cerned with gaining support from its moves. Pores has always been keen сОП- Zionist ally for such diplomatic Palestine; the US is chiefly
people gathered in Tel On April 8, 100,000 Aviv to demand a new huge public protest against the country's system of sentation, which grants a the Knesset 10 every party that gams one терте- more than two ycars of mobilising Israclis is elec- loral reform. Peres's fran- tic efforts to build a new crisis into throc weeks, that the issuc currently aroused percent of the vote. proportional government scal in Celebrating the first year of the inititada: demonstrators in London influx of Soviet Jewish Immigrants, Maipen, PRLESTIUAN STATE Israchi society towards the Soviet the contrary in the media, shows no sign of letting up. Also of sig- nificance is the growing resentment felt hy the underprivileged strata in Taken Ingether, these two ele- ments could well transform the na- The unfolding crisis in the Zionist Imperialism, simultancousiy opens up new vistas for the class struggle in the region. The most important factor is, of course the intifada which, despite periodic warnings to of the US, although Washington is hesitant as to whether he will deliver. State, which is accentuated by its in- creasingly uncasy alliance with US Jewish immigrants. Imperialism.
pearance of the Arab national lists from the Yet abolition of the one percent direshold would, in all likelihood, lead to the disap- Knesset In essence, it is not electoral proce- whose support the main Zionist blocs have with the intifada. Certainly, the large parties would have much to gain if electoral reform was realised: bor the protests are not expres sions of support for either Labour or Likud. Rather, they signify the anger Icht by Israelis, the majority of whom are secular, at the dis- proportionate influence of the religious parties, tion since the Peace Now rally condemning the massacres at the Sabra and Shatilla refugee camps in Beirut in 1982, and much bigger than any of the demonstrations held in solidarity electoral system - Israel's biggest demonstra- desperately been trying to win. emigration is, though, a consequence of the wave of anti-semitism. provided the US with an important bargaining chip in its dealings with the stalinists. Gorbachev's leniency on would follow in a militant traditiom that goes back to the 1950s, is the last thing the Zionists lem of Soviet Jows. It should be remembered that in the 1970s. Soviet Jews, facing a fresh neighbourhoods "The massive immigration from the Soviet Union will arouse an outburst of fury from the Unrest amongst the Oriental Jews, which munist League (Israell Section of the Fourth need. But that in itself will not solve the prob the newspaper of the Revolutionary Com inhabitants of the distressed and the devclopment towns... Internatiónal), notes: against IMF imposed cuts in Hashemite-ruled source of the PLO, and it has served as a model to the working class in the surrounding Arab states (witness last year's uprising cunity to consolidate the popular institutions of direct democracy which they themselves have Jordan, and the mass demonstrations, brutally ture of the conflict in Palestine beyond the mar- row Framework of diplomacy. The very fact of the intifada means that Palestinian statchood is not something which can be compromised. In- deed, the structures that direct the intifada are those of a state in the making; a state, moreover, whose citizens, through the struggle of the last two years, will have ample oppor- The intifada is also the principal energy (teated.
tinian people there will be a demand passes in the West Bank and Gaza Page 14 for a Palestinian state: every day that diplomatic and revolutionary solutions to the question of Palestine will continue to Firstly, the lension between disrupt the equilibrium of Zionism. Secondly, as long as there is a Pales- dure that is at fault but the institutionalised Whatever the outcome of the next few months, two basic facts will remain un- power of the rabbis in the Zemist state. Strip is a reminder of this. "the structures that direct the intifada are those democracy which they themselves have created" whose citizens will have ample opportunity to consolidate the popular institutions of direct of a state in the making; a state, moreover, Despite the fact that most Soviet Jows want to go not to Israel but to the US, the Zionists o maintain the racist policy of not granting have succeeded in persuading the Americans the issue is not so much whether the LISSR new foreign policy required for perestroika; will allow Jews out, as who will let them in: tradictions of Zionism. Most perceive it as an crushed, in Algeria in 1988). Yet Isracl has remained intransigent, and the principle ques= tion now facing the Zionists is how long such One indicator is the internal struggle in 15- rael itself, which graphically exposes the con SOCIALIST OUTLOOK no 24, May 1990 As a working class born of a colonial process, Israeli workers are strong: ethnic overtones, and it is one ethnic battle, between the dominant and the subordinate Oriental majority. In fact. it is a class struggle, albeil with which displays the somewhat unique Ashkenazi (European Jewish) minority natare of the Isracli working class. a stance can be maintained.
developments in looks at recent In the following two articles on Irish polltics, GEOFF BELL shifts In Tory Ireland: are the times a-changing? No change yet for the Birmingham Six - or for many Irish political prisoners in British jalls
movement government policy, and LIAM MAC UAID examines the changes in the Republican SOCIALIST OUTLOOK no 24, May 1990 And how many of the British Al a rough guess less than 10 per Peter in a series of interviews marking his first hundred days In office. Brooke had been exiled to the North of Ireland thought of as a political lightweight und so it came as a surprise when he heaten, second that he would not use the word "Never" in reference to talks with the IRA, and he recalled that the same word was used by a British gotten; third, that it was likely he would talk with Sinn Fein in the On behalf of Sinn Fein, Martin McGuiness later described Peter Brooke as the first such British government minister "with some real populace could answer that question? сель That is very relevant, and will Brooke, and he made his controver- after being chairman (sic) of the Tory Party and failing to win over the mas- was said the things he did: first that it was with EOKA in Cyprus and was later for- unlikely that the IRA could sial remarks last Novemher, interviews he negotiations his name event of an IRA ceasefire. ses to Thatcherism. about Until these be retumed to. Anyway; minister day, if many things change, he just in Ireland, and for those British with a brief for it the minister responsible is Labour (ves Lahour 1) polity gets down to bracing itself rates and the fall and fall of Margaret North of Ireland7 How many, even of Soviet armies withdraw from Eastern Europe, hut in government minister responsible for of Sinn Fein... and all hell breaks spokesperson on Ireland and Dr Pais- ment minister responsible for the as this, could answer that question without thinking? Or answer it at all? Treland.. in Ireland, the British the north caster hit says that some might talk to elected representatives Well, at least all hell breaks loose denounced by such stalwarts of red, white and blueism as Mr K. Mc- ley of the Democratic Unionists. Everyone else says he's talking sense. Then the storm passes and the British against poll tax protesis, the disin- tegration of the NHS, huge mortgage Thatcher. And forgets about Ireland, For instance, who is the govern an informed, educated and politically aware readership of a magazine such cold, the Namara Joose. from has been changed... The modes of thought of men, the whole out- look of affairs, the grouping of violent tremendous change... But as the deluge subsides and the waters fail short we see the Tyrone emerging once again. The integrity of their quarrel is one of unaltered in the cataclysm which The words came from Winston Churchill, speaking in the House of Germany marches towards unity, the "Great empires have been over- turned. The whole map of Europe partics, all have encountered dreary steeples of Fermanagh and the few institutions that has been Commons in 1922, büt could seem as fitting today. The world changes, African armed smigglers come in GEOFF BELL takes a look developments in Ireland, and asks readers some searching questions. dissolves, pronouncements on at the most recent has swept the world" government Union