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Gordon Brown's First Full-Scale Budget:
Serving the Unbridled Ambitions of the Rich Not Those
of the British People
On the 19th Anniversary of RCPB(ML)
The Troubled Situation in Kosova
Protest Movement against Cuts in Health Care
The Aim of the Movement to Defend and Safeguard the Future of the NHS
Disabled People's Movement Lobbies Parliament
Campaign to Save the Kent & Canterbury Hospital
Lobby of Frank Dobson, Secretary of State for Health
The Financial Attacks of the Rich on the Living Standards of the Sick Must Be Deflected
3,000 Years of Mining in Cornwall Come to an End
Protests against Unemployment in Germany
The Endorsement by UN Security Council of Resolution on Iraq
Militant Demonstration against Madeleine Albright
Number 1 Issue of CASWI Newsletter
Helms-Burton Act Still Under Attack
A Celebration of the Life of Paul Robeson
Gordon Brown's First Full-Scale Budget:
THE CHANCELLOR painted his Budget on March 17 as a "once-in-a-generation", a "modernising" Budget. He claimed that the "prudence" of the Treasury is for the purpose of meeting the people's priorities, and that the "ambitions of the British people are once again the ambitions of the British government," claiming that by its measures the Budget "advances both enterprise and fairness, a Budget that has set new ambitions for Britain". It is the mark of this government that it was brought to power to head off the movement for social change, to attempt to snuff out the aspirations of the working class for socialism and to serve the ambitions of the financial oligarchy to compete in the global market, under the signboards of a "New Britain" and "Making Britain Great Again". The Budget of March 17 further takes the Labour government down this road, a course that could not be accomplished without demagogy of the highest order. That this Budget serves the working class and people, that it is one of the most significant events in this Parliament, is a big hype that all the bourgeois media have been involved in, as is the claim that it will get people into work, "making work pay", and giving them a "ladder of opportunity". The Budget cannot and will not alleviate the ill of unemployment, the fellow traveller of the capitalist system, nor is this its aim. Nor can its "reforms" reverse the situation where the rich are becoming richer and the poor poorer. In his maiden speech to the House of Commons in 1983, Gordon Brown claimed that the then government's philosophy was that "the rich must get richer by way of tax cuts and the poor must become poorer to ensure true prosperity". This is not a philosophy, it is an irredeemable feature of capitalism, as any index of wealth and poverty will show. But governments have a part to play and the Labour government is playing its role today with a vengeance. It is paying tribute to the rich. For the second successive month, in February the Treasury made a record repayment of public sector debt. Its debt repayment of £1.87 billion was the highest ever February repayment. That brings to £12.17 billion the amount of repayment in 1998. The amount of debt interest to be paid to the financiers in 1998/99 is, as it was in 1997/98, £24.6 billion. This compares with public spending in 1998/99 projected by the Budget of £13.07 billion by the Department of Education and Employment and £37.17 billion by the Department of Health. The Chancellor also cut corporation tax to 30%, having reduced it from 33% to 31% in his first Budget, ensuring the capitalists pay £1.5 billion less per year in taxes, which is to say that this is an extra pool of money available to them while the people foot the bill. And the government is lowering the standard of living of the people. The welfare-to-work programme, the New Deal, these are designed to force people, especially women and the young, into taking jobs at slave-labour rates of wages, while forcing those unable to find work further into poverty and driving down the level of wages in society. It is reducing the standard of living by withdrawing social programmes. Everyone knows, for example, that the "extra" £500 million promised in the Budget will do nothing to solve the growing funding crisis of the NHS, and is prompted by the announcement that waiting lists have grown almost 100,000 to 1,262,000 since the election of the Labour government. Students are being impoverished and fewer are moving to further and higher education with the imposition of tuition fees, student loans and so on. Indeed it is the boast of the government that it is undershooting the public spending target it inherited from the Conservatives for this year by £1.5 billion. In crowing that the Treasury is interested in the "long-term", Gordon Brown is saying that the people must wait for ever for their claims to be met, but that it is essential that the rich be paid now so that they can become competitive in the international market, and that the working class and people must pull together with their employers to make sure that this is so. This is the meaning of "a Budget that has set new ambitions for Britain", which "advances both enterprise and fairness". Such a Budget cannot bring about a "healthy economy", nor can it bring jobs in a system where more jobs are continually being lost than are being created. It will only add to the crisis. A radical rupture is needed in society, in which the starting point is to stop paying the rich and immediately put into place budgetary and fiscal measures for increasing investments in health, education and other social programmes so that more is being put into the economy than is being taken out, reversing the present situation. The solution to the crisis cannot be found within the framework of the capitalist system, but through a socialist planned economy in which the people are sovereign. Gordon Brown's Budget not only aims to satisfy the ambitions of the rich to compete internationally, but is intended as a road block to the working class elaborating and fighting for its own independent programme to lift society out of the crisis. |
On the 19th Anniversary of RCPB(ML)MARCH 16 marks the 19th anniversary of the founding of the Revolutionary Communist Party of Britain (Marxist-Leninist) in 1979. Workers' Weekly greets this auspicious anniversary, since the Communist Party is the number one and decisive subjective factor in preparing the conditions for revolution.It was on the occasion of the rally marking the 15th anniversary of RCPB(ML), on March 19, 1994, that the Central Committee released its draft document There Is a Way Out of the Crisis for discussion and elaboration. This was a bold step by the Party to establish its general line for this period. The line of march of the Party has not wavered since that time. The task RCPB(ML) has set to Improve the Content, Extend the Readership of Workers' Weekly is consistent with and arises out of the work to draft the general line and strengthen the Party, and the Party is mobilising all the forces for the success of this work, which it is accomplishing. |
ON 9 MARCH, the Foreign Secretary, Robin Cook, announced that Britain had
taken the lead in calling a meeting of the so-called "Contact Group"
countries, the US, Britain, France, Germany, Italy and Russia, in order to
intervene in Kosova in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. According to the
statement issued after the meeting, the Contact Group's main concern was to end
the "violent repression" of Kosova's Albanian population by the
government in Belgrade, which has led to an estimated 80 deaths or more since
the beginning of March. The Contact Group not only condemned the violence in
Kosova, it also took steps to impose economic, military and other sanctions and
to issue threats to the Belgrade government, as well as outlining its own plans
for a settlement of the future of Kosova.
It must be remembered that the Contact Group, which was first established in
order to organise military intervention in Bosnia, has no mandate to act in
this manner, or to issue such threats, which are not dissimilar to the recent
actions of Anglo-American imperialism against Iraq. The interference of the big
powers in the Balkans has not in the past brought peace to that region, but on
the contrary exacerbated national tensions and brought about a chaotic
situation which they have exploited in order to jockey for strategic advantage.
British troops, for example, still occupy Bosnia, where over £2 billion of
"aid" has been invested in the last five years. The troubles in Kosova are being used in the same manner, and the Contact Group's statement makes clear that even if the current repression ceases Belgrade will still be expected to act according to its dictate. What is more, the Contact Group is using the Kosova crisis to step up external interference in neighbouring Macedonia and Albania. Already, however, differences are emerging within the Contact Group, with Russia unwilling to weaken its close relationship with Serbia by immediately implementing economic and military sanctions. The troubles in the Balkan region have their origins in and have been stirred up by imperialist interference. It was in 1913 that the Kosova region was detached from Albania in the carve-up of Europe at the Conference of the imperialist powers in London, and annexed to the kingdoms of Serbia and Montenegro. The status of Kosova and the national rights of the Kosovan people were never really sorted out under Tito and the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia that emerged after the Second World War. As is well-known, the former Yugoslavia became and remains a cauldron of imperialist interference after the collapse of the Soviet Union and the demise of pseudo-socialism in Eastern Europe, which has precluded the peoples exercising their sovereignty in a peaceful fashion. The actions of the British government must be seen in the context of its aim to make Britain a leading force in the Balkans, part of its general aim to "make Britain great again" in the global arena. The actions of the Contact Group with Britain at the head are not designed to bring peace to the people of Kosova nor to recognising their national and social rights, nor those of the other peoples of this region. This can only be brought about by ending foreign interference in the Balkans and leaving the people to settle their own affairs. |
Workers' Weekly continues to receive reports about protests and actions against cuts in health care and about people voicing their concern about the future of the health service. These actions are rarely reported in the national press, though the local newspapers on the other hand often report actions in their locality where people are getting organised. We call on all our readers to add their weight to these protests and in particular to send in reports to Workers' Weekly and write and encourage others to write on the concerns and aims of the movement against the cuts. We print reports on a number of such actions |
AS IS CLEAR from the experience of everyday life, the movement against the cuts in the health service and to safeguard its future is developing. This is especially so in the context that the previous government of the Conservatives, which was popularly seen to favour the needs of the monopolies and the rich, was replaced by the Labour government, which promised change. However, this is increasingly seen to be, and is in reality, an illusion. This has led to a situation where people are led to the conclusion that action must be stepped up, not only against the cuts in health care, but against a broad anti-social offensive on public services. At the same time, since the trade union leadership, for example, is quite satisfied that a Labour government is in power, the actual leaders of the movement in general come from anywhere but the big trade unions. They and others put pressure on the movement that it should be kept to tactics of lobbying and begging the government to halt the cuts, while others attempt to play a disruptive role by pushing their own aims. But since the government is firmly committed to applying business criteria, and "consultations" with the people and health workers and professionals is seen to be a sham whereby "funding" or the lack of it is invariably the bottom line, many people are beginning to realise that the right of all members of society to the health services they need without discrimination cannot be achieved by expecting the Labour government to change the situation. This raises the question of how the health service can be defended and safeguarded and of how this struggle can accomplish its aims and achieve victory. This is the vital question. What must be recognised is that the public services, including the health service, are being increasingly put directly into the hands of the wealthy. This is so with Labour as much as, if not more than with the Conservative government. Objectively privatisation, PFI, the public-private partnership, the subservience of the health service to the pharmaceutical, construction, and other monopolies all these serve the reality of the present stage of capitalist society whereby the rich demand that the whole society pay tribute to them and the government is ensuring that it does so on a continuous basis. People are coming up against the reality that the Labour government cannot be forced back towards the left, and that its protestations of care for the people are masking an entirely different agenda. Indeed, some Labour politicians on seeing the power of the movement are openly taking a stand against it. This underlines that the starting point to unite the movement and ensure its advance is the demand to Stop Paying the Rich Increase Investments in Social Programmes! From this follows the demand for a moratorium on debt servicing and repayment, and that funds are ploughed into the NHS so that it is planned to meet the people's needs and ensure that health services are equally available to all at the highest standard, as an integral part of a society that recognises and meets the claims of all its members on it. |
ON TUESDAY MARCH 10, over 1,000 disabled people representing disabled
peoples organisations lobbied Parliament. The protest opposed the continuing
cuts being imposed by the Benefits' Agency on disabled people's living
allowances and demanded a commitment from the government not to cut benefit
levels and a suspension of the Benefits Integrity Project, a benefits
assessment body which is removing and reducing benefits to disabled people.
During the lobby no such commitment was given by the government.
The lobby came at the same time that the mental health charity Mind
released a poll in which 630 disabled people with mental health problems took
part. The survey showed how worry over the proposed changes are already leading
to a deterioration in their mental health and that people said "that the
changes would lead to increased isolation, social exclusion and depression, as
well as missing out on the basic essentials such as food and heating". The fact that the government is aiming public sector cuts against Britain's 6.5 million disabled people shows how far New Labour is preparing to go in its anti-social offensive which has the aim of dismantling the benefits system so that these funds can be diverted to fund increasing payments to the monopolies and financial oligarchy. |
THE TUC WOMEN'S CONFERENCE was held this year between March 11 and 13 in
Scarborough, under the theme Recruiting for women's equality.
During the afternoon debate on March 11, TUC General Secretary John Monks
addressed the conference at the invitation of the TUC Women's Committee. Most
of his speech was devoted to telling delegates that legislation on the
recognition of trade unions was one of the best guarantees of moves to equality
for women. During the question and answer session following his intervention,
among other questions, delegates expressed concern over the right of employers
to refuse a ballot on recognition for a union for three years after a previous
failed claim, and the fact that under the TUC's proposal for union recognition
if 50% of the work force request, this could also be used by employers to
de-recognise present workplaces who had union membership of less than 50%. This conference, the first since New Labour took office, reflected the situation facing women today, that they are continuing to experience a broad attack on their economic, social and physical well-being in spite of this change of government and that it is the women themselves that must take up the fight to change this situation in their favour. Also, the conference highlighted the fact that this situation cannot be changed by having limited aims such as just for trade union recognition, or some other workplace legislation. |
PROTEST MOVEMENT AGAINST CUTS IN HEALTH CARE |
|
ABOUT 100 health staff, patients and people from the local community joined a lobby of the Health Secretary, Frank Dobson, when he visited Whipps Cross Hospital, East London, on March 9. They were protesting about plans to cut local health services by some £14.5 million, and demanding a halt to cuts in the health service. During the visit, the Health Secretary was presented with a petition signed by over 4,500 local residents and staff calling on him to intervene to prevent cuts in local health services. In a press release of March 10, the Joint Staff Consultative Group of the Forest Healthcare Trust report that when six representatives of unions and staff met the Secretary of State when he visited the Hospital, where he was opening a Special Care Baby Unit, he said he could not make any promises about health service funding and certainly could not promise there would be any more money. However, the press release concludes, health staff and the local community are determined to ensure that cuts to vital services are resisted. |
Workers' Weekly has received an issue of a newsletter entitled Up Surge on the attacks on health care in Yeovil, Somerset. As well as articles "The Closure of the Marwick Day-Centre Will Not Dampen Our Spirit" and "Is Avalon NHS Trust Trying to Completely Monopolise Mental Health Care Facilities in the Yeovil Area?", the newsletter carries an article under the above title which we reprint below. It was a Labour Government under Atlee which, emboldened by the tremendous achievements of the anti-Nazi-fascist Second World War, instituted the Beveridge Report which stated that benefits should be paid as of right and not according to some callous counting of possessions as characterised the benefits system of the 1930s. As far as the sick were concerned this was a breakthrough since you need much more money when you are ill and savings cannot be rebuilt through working. For fifty or so years it mainly held sway, with the additional un-means tested benefit of the Disability Living Allowance being brought forward in the last decade. If there was a progressive cause to which benefit savings were being put, then the sick might be willing to see what self-sacrifice they could muster but New Labour or New Tory is emphatically a party of the rich which Tony Blair's glitteratti parties emphasise as does the upward surge of the Stock Exchange. We call upon all working people to resist these attacks, bearing in mind that the sick were mainly working before their illnesses, which can come out of the blue. See red not blue. |
LETTER TO THE EDITOR |
March 4 was a day of action against fees called by the NUS, the main
element of which was a lecture boycott. At the University of Manchester, a
leaflet and poster campaign was backed up by announcements in the refectories
and at the beginning of a couple of lectures. Many lectures were cancelled and
tutorials were rearranged. The issue of the loss of the maintenance grant was
also raised.
Pickets were placed at the doors of four or five of the most important
buildings, and the lecture boycott was fairly successful. A lecture in one
building, which was supposed to take place with something like 300-400 students
actually had a turn-out of only 3 (although it still went ahead!) Other good
points were the closure of the physics building and the turn-out of students in
the arts building. Some other areas were more mixed: the other sciences
especially had a lecture strike participation of only 50-60% at times. Overall,
the percentage was probably somewhere between 60% and 80%, which isn't bad. An emergency general meeting of the union was called and the number of students present was about 150, though less than the 500 needed for an EGM quorum. The third part of the action was a march to the town hall. On this march there were nearly 400 students. Students from Manchester Metropolitan University joined the march. This number of students marching through town together on a demonstration called at short notice with limited publicity is no small achievement, I think. Once the town hall was reached, there was a spontaneous "invasion" of the building, and a room was occupied for a short while. From this, a group of local MP's have agreed to meet with a delegation of students. Student from Manchester |
Press Release of The Campaign for Human Rights in Turkey,
launched by the Liverpool Dockers' Shop Stewards' Delegation to Turkey, July
1996: 20-3-98
|
The following is reprinted from the Cornish World Bulletin of Saturday, March 7, 1998. Yesterday a silent vigil was held in the rain outside the gates of South Crofty mine, Redruth, Cornwall as the mine prepared to close down. The miners came to grass this morning after the final shift at the last tin mine in Cornwall, the UK and Europe. So ended one of the longest and greatest continuous industrial ventures in the world. The pumps at the lowest levels (470 fathoms) have been turned off and the mine is already filling with water. The remaining pumps will be kept on for a further two weeks. Sons have followed their fathers for generation after generation into the mines of Cornwall to bring out all manner of the earth's wealth from tin to uranium. The greatest industry was copper mining when Cornwall supplied most of the world's demand. With the end of mining has gone the end of another two hundred jobs in Cornwall. As the men walked down the road for the last time most of them knew it was very unlikely that they would ever work again. Already over forty, they were going to join the thousands already unemployed in the Camborne-Redruth area. It has one of the very highest unemployment figures in the UK and Europe. Today has been a rallying call. The first Cornish Mining Gala has been held. Miners from Crofty were joined by friends from Geevor and other mines, the Camborne School of Mines, councillors and supporters, pensioners and babes in pushchairs. In two separate marches from the rugby clubs of Camborne and Redruth the processions were led by Cornish bands and marched to a marquee outside the gates of the mine. Here many friends comforted each other, had a beer and a pasty and joined in the celebration of Cornish mining. The Gala is expected to become an annual event, later in the year. The mining industry has seen setbacks before. Miners have lost their lives in terrible disasters, mines have gone bankrupt and the whole industry faced economic pressures in the mid-19th Century. Then the miners found employment in the very mines which had put them out of business at home. They went where the work was. 150,000 Cornishmen worked in mines all over the world, displaying the skills that had been instilled in them over the generations. With memories of hardships left behind in Cornwall many made lives for themselves and their families in their newly adopted countries. No such opportunities exist today. Many of the Cornish overseas descendants know that their ancestors emigrated as miners. They have always had the comfort of knowing that their mines continued in Cornwall. That feeling of stability has now ended. The mines of Cornwall have joined those around the world where countless thousands of men have found themselves out of work. |
IN JANUARY, the unemployment rate in Germany reached a record high of 12.6% of the active population. Since 1991, the unemployment rate has doubled, affecting over 4.8 million people according to official unemployment figures. In east Germany, the unemployment rate is 21.1% of the active population, while in west Germany the rate is now 10.5%. The February figures showed that the jobless rate remained unchanged at the post-war high record of 12.6%. On February 5, 50,000 people, for the most part unemployed, protested in 200 towns and cities on the publication day of the new official figures for unemployment. The demonstrations were called by the Coordination Office of Trade Unions Initiatives of the Unemployed, the first demonstrations on a national scale of the unemployed since the beginning of the 1980s. The next action took place on March 5 which was also successful. The Coordination Office plans to continue their actions every month on the publication day of the unemployment figures up to the next election in Germany. The record unemployment came as it was also announced at the beginning of this month that German net wages and salaries fell in February for the first time since 1949, while corporate profits continued to rise. May 8 is being planned as a day of joint action in both France and Germany against unemployment. |
It has been announced a May Day Festival is once again to be held in London this year. It is to take place on Sunday, May 3, under the heading "London Mayday '98 for Democracy and Respect". The venue for the 1998 festival will be Finsbury Park, London N4. London Mayday '98 is presented by London trades unions SERTUC (the South East Regional TUC), London GMB, T&GWU Region 1, UNISON London Region and Battersea and Wandsworth TUC. |
ON MARCH 2, the United Nations Security Council adopted a resolution to end the weapons inspection crisis. The resolution also put an end to many of the sanctions imposed on Iraq at the conclusion of the 1991 Gulf War. Under the terms of the resolution, Iraq will be allowed to expand its exports of oil to a level of $5 billion per year. The money will be used to buy much-needed food and medicine. The UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) has reported that more than 1 million people, including 560,000 children, have died in Iraq over the past seven years as a direct result of the UN sanctions. The Iraqi government has stated that the damage its oil industry has suffered from being virtually shut down since 1991 will make it impossible to pump its reserves at maximum capacity. The UN is now considering allowing Iraq to use some of the proceeds from the exported oil to repair its equipment. The US government, obviously upset that a peaceful resolution to the crisis had been negotiated by UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, did everything possible, short of using its veto, to block passage of the resolution by the Security Council. The US, with Britain's full support, insisted on the right to launch automatic military strikes against Iraq if the terms of the agreement were violated. The other three permanent members, France, China and Russia, refused to accept such conditions. Eventually a compromise resolution was agreed to in which Iraq is threatened with the "severest consequences" if it fails to allow weapons inspectors full access to presidential palaces. However, the resolution specifies that any use of force in that event would not be automatic and would require approval from the Security Council. Despite this, US representatives and military leaders are continuing to threaten "immediate" air strikes if the agreement breaks down. The Security Council resolution marks a clear setback for the US policy of "gunboat diplomacy" and unilateral policing of UN resolutions and indicates that there are very serious contradictions between the big powers on this question. The resolution is also a victory for the Iraqi people, who now face the prospect of an end to the UN-created famine in their country. However, the continuing arrogance of US leaders makes it clear that they have not abandoned their designs to impose their dictate according to the fascist logic that might makes right and they still constitute a serious danger to the people of Iraq, the Middle East and the entire world. |
UNITED NATIONS arms inspectors earlier this month successfully completed the first check of sites in Iraq since the crisis. They praised the Iraqi government's "terrific spirit of co-operation". The UNSCOM team was led by Scott Ritter, a former US Marine who Iraq has denounced as an American spy. The UN commissioner responsible for the inspection of Iraq's eight presidential sites, Jayaantha Dhanapala from Sri Lanka, arrived in Iraq on March 11. Richard Butler, the chief UN weapons inspector, is also to travel to Iraq this month. Under the accord reached by UN Secretary General Kofi Annan and the Iraqi government, US and British diplomats are effectively excluded from escorting arms inspectors. Under the accord, UNSCOM undertakes to respect the legitimate concerns of Iraq relating to national security, sovereignty and dignity. |
A conference is taking place on March 21 in New York to further the movement in the United States to end the US war threat against Iraq and lift the sanctions. It follows from a demonstration of 5,000 people in New York and other American cities on February 28, which was the culmination of 300 anti-war activities during February. Among the scheduled speakers are former US Attorney General Ramsey Clark, and activists are also attending from other countries, including Britain. "We will build up the anti-war movement as long as the US military build-up in the Gulf continues. There is a real possibility that the US will create a new fabrication or provocation designed to justify a huge crippling military bombardment of Iraq," said Ramsey Clark. |
A MILITANT DEMONSTRATION denounced US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright
when she arrived for bi-lateral talks with Foreign Secretary Robin Cook on
Monday, March 9, in London. The protesters also handed out leaflets denouncing
Madeleine Albright to passers-by. The demonstration was organised by The
Campaign Against Sanctions and War on Iraq (CASWI).
In a press release headed Albright not welcome in London! the organisers
point out: Albright and Cook were forced to stand in embarrassed silence before
the international press "photo opportunity" while protesters chanted
slogans against the war threats and sanctions blockade on Iraq, and then had to
listen while CASWI Co-ordinator Hugh Stephens addressed them with the following
statement, which was recorded by a number of the TV and radio stations in the
full and clear hearing of Albright and Cook themselves:
"Madeleine Albright first made her mark upon world public opinion by
remarking that the death of more than half a million children in Iraq is 'worth
it' to control the region. What irony that someone who utters such sentiments
about children dying in their mothers' arms for lack of medicine and nutrition
should arrive for talks on the day following International Women's Day! "Further, she has, along with other US and British leaders, systematically misrepresented the situation regarding the United Nations and international law, and has fostered the false claim that it would be 'legal' under existing UN Security Council resolutions for the US and Britain to attack Iraq any time they feel this would be in their 'national interests'. "This is precisely the kind of behaviour which the entire structure of post-war international law was designed to prevent. It amounts to making a statement of criminal intent to breach the international peace. Robin Cook, who is a lawyer, knows this perfectly well and should dissociate himself from this US standpoint immediately." |
The Campaign Against Sanctions and War on Iraq (CASWI) has published its Newsletter Number 1, dated March 14, 1998. In explaining what CASWI stands for, the newsletter writes: "The threat to bomb Iraq have not yet ceased, and even after Annan's agreement, the US and British build-up in the Gulf has continued. The statements of Clinton, Blair and other US and British representatives that they would be prepared to attack Iraq without UN authorisation have amounted to statements of criminal intent to carry out aggression. Their claim that US and British 'national interests' could justify such aggression challenges not only the authority of the United Nations but the entire conception of international legality." It goes on to say: CASWI aims in particular to sustain the network of groups and individuals who have worked during February 1998 on the series of Saturday demonstrations and other anti-war and anti-sanctions activities during that tense and difficult month. The aims of CASWI are expressed in the slogans used on its leaflets, namely Iraq: No more war threats! Lift the sanctions!" The newsletter carries a lead article Don't wait for the next crisis! in which it points out that the sanctions blockade that silent weapon of mass destruction continues to claim many more victims than the bombs ever did. |
TWO years after the approval of the anti-Cuban Helms-Burton Act to reinforce the 36-year-long blockade, world-wide condemnation is growing, even within the United States itself, without that signifying any reduction in its effectiveness or the criminal economic sanctions against the island. In effect, since March 12, 1996, the U.S. administration has executed a whole package of additional measures in a fruitless attempt to liquidate the Cuban revolutionary process. Thus, while promoting in the UN Security Council and other international forums the blockade's legally binding nature and encouraging other countries to restrict their trade and credit relations, the United States is denying aid to nations wishing to cooperate in the completion of the nuclear power plant under construction for peaceful ends in Cienfuegos province, and opposing Cuba's entry into international financial organisations. That government is likewise maintaining its policy of reducing payments to any institution that approves loans to Cuba, as is the case with the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, the International Finance Corporation and the Inter-American Development Bank. It has also put into practice Title II of the Helms-Burton, consisting of a plan for Cuba's colonial absorption, and describing how the United States would take possession of the island. The White House admits that the Helms-Burton Act has not brought about the hoped-for changes, but the only move Washington has made up until now in relation to the overall application of the legislation is to temporarily defer for six-month periods the possibility of U.S. courts arraigning persons or enterprises investing in Cuba, as established in Title III, precisely on account of the strong international condemnation it has provoked. Without any doubt, new voices are daily added to the world clamour for an end to a U.S. blockade condemned by the overwhelming majority of nations, as confirmed for five years in a row in the UN General Assembly vote (143 in favour and three against) for the resolution demanding an end to the embargo. Archbishop Bernard Law of Boston, who enjoys much prestige in his country, has called on President Clinton to designate a special commission to draft a new policy toward Cuba and, in the immediate future, has suggested that the U.S. leader should allow direct flights between the two countries, authorise greater access for U.S. citizens to the Caribbean island and completely suspend the Helms-Burton Act. While the anti-Cuba mafia in Congress is demanding fresh sanctions in recognition of the act's failure a House hearing in early March confirmed the existence of an opposing and irreconcilable position defended by members who are demanding the lifting of the blockade on medicines and food. Canada, one of the United States' principal trade partners and at the same time a severe critic of the Helms-Burton Act, a position paralleled by the European Union, has recently reiterated that the act has shown itself to be a failure and affirmed that it has begun to isolate the United States from the rest of the world. Canadian Foreign Minister Lloyd Axworthy was incisive in his comment that when the Pope begins to say that the embargo is incorrect, Helms, Burton and company should wake up to what the world is telling them. While on a four-day visit to Havana, Wayne Smith, former head of the U.S. Interests Section in Cuba, acknowledged that there is a steadily growing current in the United States to lift the embargo against the sale of medicines and foodstuffs, and increasing opposition to the blockade in its totality. Smith travelled accompanied by Claiborne Pell, ex-chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and retired General John Sheehan, former head of NATO. In his turn, Italian Deputy Foreign Minister Rino Serri, who likewise recently visited Havana, also criticised the U.S. act, recalling that his country has always opposed extraterritorial legislation, considering them to be an invasion of national autonomy. GRANMA INTERNATIONAL, March 11, 1998. Havana, Cuba |
It has recently been announced that there will be a conference and
exhibition at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) in London from
April 16th to 18th to mark the centenary of the birth of Paul Robeson, the
famous American singer and actor. The conference will include film, music and
contributions by many of those who knew and worked with Robeson during the time
he spent in Britain. The organisers point out that Paul Robeson is remembered
not only as a great artist, but as one who "took a clear political stand
and refused to compromise his principles".
Robeson, the son of a former runaway slave, became an internationally known
artist in the 1930s when he was residing in Britain. During that period he
increasingly identified himself with anti-imperialist struggles in Africa and
China, with anti-fascism and the International Brigade in Spain and with
support for the construction of socialism in the Soviet Union
Paul Robeson was greatly influenced by the struggles of the working people in
Britain and sought to use his great talent in the service of the people. He
stated, "The artist must take sides. He must elect to fight for freedom or
slavery." It was in this context that he participated in the plays
performed in the Unity Theatre in London in the 1930s and which led him to
perform for working people throughout Britain and in many other countries. In his later life in the US, Robeson became a prominent leader of anti-racist struggles, fought uncompromisingly against imperialism and the threat of war and defended the then existing socialist camp. As a consequence, he was persecuted by the US government, which at the height of his career prevented him from leaving the country and attempted to silence him. Despite such persecution Robeson remained staunch in his convictions and his aim to put culture and his talent in the service of the people. It is these characteristics that will always be associated with his life and work and which will be remembered in this year of the centenary of his birth. |
A Celebration of the Life of Paul Robeson (1898-1976)Thursday, Friday, Saturday, 16 18 April, 1998 Lecture Theatre, Brunei Gallery, SOAS Thornhaugh Street, Russell Square, London WC1H 0XG Speakers include: Hakim Adi, Bill Alexander, The Rt Hon Tony Benn MP, Stephen Bourne, Lloyd Brown, Andrew Faulds, Trevor Philips, George Shepperson, Marika Sherwood and others Admission: £5 and £2.50 concessionary rate, per day The School can be reached easily from Russell Square, Goodge Street, Euston, Euston Square and Tottenham Court Road underground stations. Enquiries to 0171-323 6254 |