================================================
01 Der Rufmord an Bülent Öztoplu
von: ECHO <echo@non.at>
================================================

Der Rufmord an Bülent Öztoplu

Ein prominenter Migrantensprecher und Mitglied des österreichischen
Menschenrechtsbeirats soll nach Deutschland ausgeliefert werden - wegen
eines dubiosen Haftbefehls aus Mannheim. Die angebliche Tat liegt 17 Jahre
zurück

von BERND PICKERT

Bülent Öztoplu, 41, ist so etwas wie Österreichs Cem Özdemir. Der
Geschäftsführer des Vereins "Echo" (www.echo.non.at) ist der prominenteste
Migrantenvertreter. Als Experte gehört er auch dem Menschenrechtsbeirat des
Innenministers an und kann unangemeldet in jedem Polizeirevier etwaigen
Vorwürfen gegen Beamte nachgehen.

So war es bis zum 12. September diesen Jahres. Da ersuchte ein angeblicher
Reporter des Revolverblattes Krone bei Öztoplu um einen Interviewtermin.
Stattdessen erschienen 20 schwer bewaffnete Polizeibeamte und verhafteten
den "aggressiven Gewalttäter" (Polizeivermerk) in seinem Büro und ließen ihn
drei Wochen in Auslieferungshaft sitzen. Der Grund: Öztoplu würde seit 1984
wegen des Vorwurfs des versuchten Totschlags vom Landgericht Mannheim per
Haftbefehl gesucht.

Öztoplu, damals wie heute türkischer Staatsbürger mit Wohnsitz in Wien, war
in der Nacht vom 13. auf den 14. April 1984 in Mannheim in eine Schlägerei
zwischen drei Türken und drei Deutschen geraten. Die türkischen Männer
riefen um Hilfe, Öztoplu griff ein, plötzlich zog einer der Deutschen eine
Pistole und schoss. Öztoplu wurde ins Gesäß getroffen und lief zur
Polizeiwache Mannheim-Innenstadt, um Anzeige zu erstatten.

Was Öztoplu nicht wusste: Bei den drei Deutschen handelt es sich um
Zivilbeamte der Mannheimer Polizei. Nach eigener Darstellung hätten sie sich
gegenüber den drei türkischen Männern deutlich zu erkennen gegeben, nachdem
es zu einer Rempelei und Beleidigungen gekommen sei. Beim Versuch, die
Männer festzunehmen, hätten diese sich gewehrt, Messer seien im Spiel
gewesen. Tatsächlich trugen zwei der Beamten Schnittwunden davon. Nur: Auch
die anderen beteiligten türkischen Männer suchten Zuflucht im Polizeirevier
Mannheim-Innenstadt - ein zumindest untypisches Verhalten für flüchtige
Straftäter. Öztoplu erstattete Anzeige gegen den Polizeibeamten, der auf ihn
geschossen hatte.

Öztoplu wurde rund einen Monat in U-Haft gehalten und dann gegen eine
Kaution auf freien Fuß gesetzt. Öztoplu fragte, ob er nach Wien zurückkehren
dürfe - und erhielt mit Datum vom 26. Oktober 1984 eine Notiz der
Staatsanwaltschaft Mannheim, die Haftbefehle gegen ihn und die anderen
Beschuldigten würden aufgehoben, die Kaution zurückgezahlt und es sei
beabsichtigt, alle Verfahren "wegen Unaufklärbarkeit" einzustellen. Das
Schreiben liegt der taz vor. Öztoplu erhielt seinen Pass und kehrte nach
Wien zurück.

Seither versuchte Öztoplu drei Mal, ein Visum für Deutschland zu bekommen -
erstmals im Dezember 1984, um seine Strafanzeige gegen den Polizeibeamten
weiterzuverfolgen. Mit Datum vom 24. 1. 1985 erteilte ihm die deutsche
Botschaft in Wien einen abschlägigen Bescheid. "Die Stadt Mannheim hat keine
Zustimmung erteilt", heißt es zur Begründung in dem Schreiben, das der taz
ebenfalls vorliegt. Zum vorläufig letzten Mal versuchte Öztoplu 1991, ein
Visum für Deutschland zu bekommen, beim deutschen Konsulat in Istanbul -
Fehlanzeige.

Inzwischen war gegen die drei ursprünglich Beteiligten der Schlägerei ein
Verfahren durchgeführt worden: Am 16. 12. 1985 verurteilte sie das
Landgericht Mannheim (Az (1) 2 Ks 9/84) wegen gefährlicher Körperverletzung
und Widerstands gegen Vollzugsbeamte zu Haft zwischen einem und zwei Jahren.
Der Vorsitzende Richter Müller vermerkte nach dem Visumantrag Öztoplus 1991
handschriftlich in der Prozessakte: "An einem Visum sind wir überhaupt nicht
interessiert. Sollen wir dies dem Konsulat telefonisch mitteilen oder die
Sache ruhen lassen? Plötzlich haben wir ihn und können ihn, besonders jetzt,
nicht brauchen!!" Daneben eine handschriftliche Eintragung mit der Nummer
des Istanbuler Konsulats und "Anruf getätigt 8. 3. 91", gezeichnet Folkerts,
Beisitzende Richterin. Auch diese Vermerke liegen der taz vor. Bis August
diesen Jahres. Da habe man erfahren, dass Öztoplu sich womöglich in
Österreich aufhalte, erklärt ein Sprecher des Landgerichts Mannheim der taz,
und einen internationalen Haftbefehl ausgestellt. Merkwürdig.

Gegen eine Kaution von umgerechnet 43.000 Mark ist Öztoplu derzeit frei und
wartet auf seine Auslieferung. Doch sein Ruf ist dahin. "Sie wollen mich
fertig machen", sagte Öztoplu der taz. Der Vorsitzende des
Menschenrechtsbeirats, Bernhard Holzinger, betreibt bereits den Ausschluss
Öztoplus. Damit wäre einer der schärfsten Kritiker der österreichischen
Polizei mundtot gemacht.

taz Nr. 6585 vom 27.10.2001, Seite 10, 151 TAZ-Bericht BERND PICKERT

taz muss sein: Was ist Ihnen die Internetausgabe der taz wert? Sie helfen
uns, wenn Sie diesen Betrag überweisen auf: taz-Verlag Berlin, Postbank
Berlin (BLZ 100 100 10), Konto-Nr. 39316-106

© Contrapress media GmbH
Vervielfältigung nur mit Genehmigung des taz-Verlags

================================================
02 "Auf fremden Mannes Arsch ist gut durchs Feuer reiten"
gepostet von: <fewor@no-racism.net >
================================================

"Auf fremden Mannes Arsch ist gut durchs Feuer reiten" Martin Luther
Es ist eine Sache mit tollen Sprüchen von Wien aus die Palästinenser zum
Kampf gegen Israel zu ermuntern, eine ganz andere Sache ist es, die Intifada
zu erleiden. Karl Pfeifer hat einen Artikel zusammengefaßt, der ein reales
Problem der palästinensischen Gesellschaft unter den Bedingungen der
Intifada zeigt.
Ein auf Kompromiß beruhender Frieden mit den israelischen Nachbarn würde auf
beiden Seiten Blut sparen und wäre im wirklichen Interesse beider Völker.
Auch dann, wenn einige österreichische Kiebitze enttäuscht wären, dass die
Palästinenser einen "falschen Frieden" akzeptierten. Denn ihrer Meinung nach
ist die Intifada, "gleichzeitig auch Vorbild und Anstoß für alle jene Kräfte
der Welt, die die Interessen des einfachen Volkes vertreten, den Kampf gegen
die neoliberale Globalisierung als globale Intifada gegen den westlichen
Kapitalismus und Imperialismus zu führen." (Aus einem Aufruf der AIK zu
einer Demo)

Der geheime Exodus aus den palästinensischen Gebieten

Unter diesem Titel erschien in der in Zürich erscheinenden Wochenzeitung
"Tachles" (19.10.01) ein informativer Artikel von Uriya Shavit und Jalal
Bana über die seit Beginn der Intifada wachsende Zahl von in den Westen
auswandernden Palästinenser.
Im palästinensischen Gebiet gehört heute ein Einreisevisum für ein
westliches Land zu den am meisten gefragten Gütern. Zwischen Juli 2000 und
Juli 2001 beispielsweise haben 2004 PalästinenserInnen ein
Einwanderungsvisum für Australien beantragt, verglichen mit ganzen 130
Bewerbern im Jahr zuvor. Die kanadische Vertretung in Ramallah schickt
Immigrations-Kandidaten zur Botschaft in Tel Aviv. Vor der Intifada erhielt
die Botschaft im Durchschnitt 25 Bewerbungen pro Woche, doch seit Ausbruch
der Gewalt hat sich diese Zahl verdoppelt. Nach Angaben der Botschaft sind
die an Kanada interessierten PalästinenserInnen zu 90% IngeneurInnen und
PharmakologInnen - Berufe, die in Kanada hochgefragt sind. Unter den
restlichen 10% befinden sich viele Buchhalter.
Auch die USA sind ein beliebtes Wunschziel. In den Monaten der Intifada hat
sich die Zahl der Bewerbungen für Touristen- und StudentInnenvisa um fast
60% erhöht. Zwar ist die Nachfrage nach der begehrten "Green Card"
gewachsen, das Ausmaß hält sich aber in Grenzen. Über die Zahlen sind keine
genauen Angaben erhältlich, denn die USA fürchten mögliche palästinensische
Vorwürfe, sie würden mit den Israeli kollaborieren und die Palästinenser zum
Verlassen der Gebiete ermutigen.
Mehr PalästinenserInnen denn je versuchen politisches Asyl in einem
westlichen Lande zu erhalten - auch dies ein Hinweis auf die zunehmende
Emigrationswelle. Wer politisches Asyl erhält, darf auch dann auswandern,
wenn er die für die reguläre Immigranten in ein bestimmtes Land geltenden
Kriterien (abgeschlossene Ausbildung, jung, Beherrschung der Landessprache
oder Familienbeziehungen) nicht erfüllt. So ersuchten zwischen Juli 2000 und
Juli 2001 140 PalästinenserInnen die Australier um Gewährung des
Flüchtlingsstatus, verglichen mit nur 19 im Vorjahr. Die norwegischen
Einwanderungsbehörden sprechen seit Ausbruch der Intifada von einem Anstieg
von 50% der Gesuche von PalästinenserInnen um politisches Asyl.
Die Angaben über die wachsende Zahl der auswanderungswilligen Palästinenser
sind nur ein Indikator für das Phänomen. Viele der PalästinenserInnen, die
emigrieren möchten, besitzen einen ausländischen Reisepaß, der ihnen den
Umzug ins Ausland erlaubt, ohne ein Visum zu beantragen. Einige reisen für
eine kurze Periode ins Ausland, um sich über die Möglichkeit der Emigration
im jeweiligen Land zu informieren. Wiederum andere verfügen über einen
jordanischen Paß und haben Freunde oder Familie im haschemitischen
Königreich, was ihnen erlaubt, jederzeit dorthin zu reisen.
Einfach nicht mehr da
Das Phänomen der Auswanderung macht sich vor allem in den Gegenden von
Betlehem und Ramallah bemerkbar, wo bis zur Intifada viele wohlhabende
palästinensische Familien gelebt haben. Die meisten der Auswanderer sind
Christen. Viele kamen im Glauben an den Friedensprozeß aus dem Ausland
zurück und investierten Geld in den Gebieten. Doch das sehr langsame Tempo,
in dem die palästinensischen Behörden Institutionen und rechtlichen
Strukturen schufen, welche das Funktionieren von Unternehmen gewährleisten
würden, haben sie enttäuscht.
Das peinlichste an der gegenwärtigen Auswanderungswelle ist für die
Autonomiebehörde die massive Zunahme der Gesuche um politisches Asyl.
PalästinenserInnen, die in den Genuß dieser Gunst kommen wollen, müssen
beweisen, daß sie von den palästinensischen Behörden verfolgt werden. Also
wird die Autonomiebehörde in hunderten von Gesuchen der Verletzung von
Menschenrechten bezichtigt. Die Anschuldigungen werden nicht veröffentlicht,
denn die Einwanderungsbehörden im Westen fürchten um die Sicherheit der
Gesuchsteller und ihrer Familien.
Seit Beginn der Intifada habe, wie Bassam Eid erklärt, seine
Menschenrechtsgruppe unzählige E-Mail-Anfragen von Konsulaten,
Immigrationsbüros und palästinensischen BürgerInnen, die Auskunft über
Menschenrechtsverletzungen der palästinensischen Autonomiebehörde verlangen.
Diese Information sei nötig, um Gesuche für politisches Asyl zu untermauern.
Zusammenfassend meinte Eid: "Mir ist als ob die palästinensische
Gesellschaft allmählich stirbt. Sie hat keine Ahnung, was um sie herum
geschieht. Jeder will, was der Nachbar hat. Ist jemanden die Auswanderung
nach Australien gelungen, will auch der Nachbar dorthin emigrieren. Ich
denke, wir stehen vor einem seriösen Problem, das nur aus Angst nicht an die
Öffentlichkeit gebracht wird":

================================================
03 Palästinasolidarität in Österreich
gepostet von: <fewor@no-racism.net >
================================================

Noch ein paar Worte über "friedensbewegte" Palästinasolidarität in
Österreich
Von Karl Pfeifer
Während einer Solidaritätsdemo kritisierte Susi Jerusalem, Gemeinderätin und
Landtagsabgeordnete der Grünen in Wien "die einseitige Berichterstattung der
Medien und forderte ein Ende der gezielten israelischen Mordanschläge auf
Zivilisten und insbesondere Kinder. Auch sie wies die Diffamierung des
palästinensischen Befreiungskampfes als terroristisch zurück und betonte im
Gegenteil seine Legitimität".
(www.antiimperialista.com/de/view.shtml?category=2&id=1001751812&keyword=+)
Tatsächlich, vergleicht man gewisse österreichische Medien, insbesondere das
Fernsehen mit den entsprechenden deutschen Medien, dann muß man zum Schluß
kommen, daß österreichische Medien über Vorkommnisse, die mit dem Konflikt
Israel-Autonomiegebiete zu tun haben, sehr oft unausgewogen einen Standpunkt
gegen Israel einnehmen.
Susi Jerusalem verwechselt aber - nicht zufällig - Ursache mit Wirkung. Es
gab Verhandlungen vor mehr als einem Jahr und der israelische
Ministerpräsident Ehud Barak machte der palästinensischen Seite ein weit
reichendes Angebot, das vor ihm kein israelischer Politiker gemacht hatte.
Jasser Arafat glaubte mit einer Intifada noch mehr Konzessionen erreichen zu
können und ließ die inhaftierten Terroristenführer frei, mit dem Resultat,
daß es zu mörderischen Anschlägen gegen israelische Zivilisten kam. Nach dem
die Autonomiebehörde der Aufforderung Israels, die namentlich bekannten
Terroristen zu verhaften nicht nachgekommen ist, reagierte Israel mit
gezielten Angriffen gegen diese.
Bis heute ist es die Methode wütender Antisemiten den Juden Ritualmorde zu
unterstellen. Die grüne Politikerin Jerusalem unterstellt Israel gezielte
Mordanschläge gegen Kinder, was natürlich auf der guten alten Tradition von
Schuldumkehr beruht. Wenn also Halbwüchsige große Steine und
Molotovcocktails auf israelische Sicherheitskräfte werfen, dann sind für
die Konsequenzen diejenigen verantwortlich zu machen, die dazu auf der
palästinensischen Seite ermuntern bzw. dies tolerieren.
Als die palästinensische Polizei unlängst in Gaza mit Steinen angegriffen
worden ist, gebrauchten sie ihre Schußwaffen und es gab auch Tote. Kein Wort
des Protests kam von den üblichen Protestierern hierzulande.
Susi Jerusalem "betont die Legitimität" der palästinensischen
Terroranschläge, denen Dutzende israelische Zivilisten, darunter Kinder und
Halbwüchsige, in der Tel Aviver Disco und der Jerusalemer Pizzeria vor ein
paar Monaten zum Opfer gefallen sind. Ist das grüne "Friedenspolitik"?

Im Falle Jugoslawien, waren fast alle österreichischen Grünen - mit
Berufung auf die Vergangenheit - gegen eine militärische Intervention. Wenn
es aber um den Kampf gegen Israel geht, dann befürworten einige Grüne
diesen. Da glauben sie sich nicht mehr an die österreichische Vergangenheit
erinnern zu müssen. Ein wahrlich selektives Geschichtsbewußtsein.

Am 22. Oktober kam es in einem Außenbezirk Jerusalems zu einer Schießerei.
Ein Palästinenser schoß zuerst auf seinen ehemaligen israelischen
Arbeitgeber, mit dem er einen Disput hatte, dann wahllos auf Passanten, bis
er von einem israelischen Soldaten erschossen wurde. Und in solchen
Tragödien könnte man auch hier - wenn man sich wirklich für die Menschen
interessieren würde - erkennen, wozu die palästinensische Politik, des
"desto schlechter, um so besser" führt. Viele Palästinenser können ihre
Familien nur ernähren, wenn sie in Israel arbeiten. Kommt es aber zu
Gewaltausbrüchen, verbietet Israel aus Sicherheitsgründen Palästinensern aus
den Autonomiegebieten die Einreise. Das ist ein Teufelskreis, eine Tragödie.
Vielleicht hat auch dieser palästinensische Täter seine Tat begangen um als
"Märtyrer" für seine Familie ein Einkommen zu schaffen.
In einer von Fritz Edlinger - dem keine Freundschaft für Israel unterstellt
werden kann - herausgegebenen Zeitschrift lese ich: "Eine offenkundig andere
Art internationaler "Unterstützung" wird en Palästinensern während der
jüngsten Ereignisse aus Bagdad zuteil. Vor dort werden wöchentlich
Hilfskonvois in die besetzten Gebiete gesandt, und Familien erhalten für
jeden "Märtyrer" bis zu USD 15.000 von der irakischen Baath-Partei."
(International 3/2001)
Das ist eine interessante Nachricht: Die irakische Propaganda und die
hiesigen Nachbeter werden nicht müde, auf das Schicksal der irakischen
Kinder hinzuweisen. Für Propaganda findet das irakische Regime immer viel
Geld, für die eigenen Kinder aber offensichtlich nicht.

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AKTIONEN UND ANKÜNDIGUNGEN
><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><

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04 Widerstandslesungen
von: el awadalla <el@awadalla.at>
================================================

Widerstandslesungen - Programm 1. 11. bis 22. 11. 2001

1. 11. 2001
116. Widerstandslesung
Frigga Karl (Bericht von einer Reise nach Pälestina im Sommer 2001)
Loretta Musumeci (Heavy Rider - drei Frauen fahren mit dem Rad von
Triest nach Istanbul, Teil 8)
Dieter Schrage (Die Tortenbäckerin - eine Geschichte aus Genua; Gedichte
zu Lainz) Gabriele Müller-Klomfar
Karel Sternlieb
Eugen Brochier (5. Teil der Lesung aus "Morgengrauen" von Charles
Ofoedu)
und andere

8. 11. 2001
117. Widerstandslesung
Wolfgang Altvatter
Andreas Pecha (Friedensbüro)
Loretta Musumeci (Heavy Rider - drei Frauen fahren mit dem Rad von
Triest nach Istanbul, Teil 9)
und andere

15. 11. 2001
118. Widerstandslesung
Manfred Rudolf (Berichte über das Leben von AfrikanerInnen in
Österreich)
Eugen Brochier (6. Teil der Lesung aus "Morgengrauen" von Charles
Ofoedu)
Loretta Musumeci (Heavy Rider - drei Frauen fahren mit dem Rad von
Triest nach Istanbul, Teil 10)
und andere

22. 11. 2001
119. Widerstandslesung
Marius Gabriel
Eva Dite
Loretta Musumeci ((Heavy Rider - drei Frauen fahren mit dem Rad von
Triest nach Istanbul, Teil 11)
und andere

--
widerstandslesung jeden donnerstag von 17 bis 19 uhr bei der
botschaft der besorgten bürgerInnen, 1010 wien, ballhausplatz 1a.

http://www.awadalla.at/el/kalender

================================================
05 Fußmarsch "Walk for Justice": Gerhard Pfefferer - Tagesberichte
von: Conte di Ferro <conte.di.ferro@aon.at>
================================================

Fußmarsch "Walk for Justice" : Gerhard Pfefferer - Tagesberichte

Tagesbericht Sonntag 21.10.

Sonntag 07.30h vor dem Eingang des BMJ, mein Fahrer, meine Gattin, ich
und----- niemand! Etwas später kommt Andreas dazu! Gehe davon aus dass einige
möglicherweise beim falschen Eingang sind aber die werden schon anrufen!
Gegen 08.15h gehe ich dann mal los, schliesslich hab ich einen Termin in Strassburg und
keine Zeit einen Kaffeeplausch zu halten. Wenns sonst schon niemanden
interessiert, mich schon!
Kurze Zeit später ruft EWGRA an und sagt mir dass Ewa mit dem Taxi kommt
wegen dem Schlafsack! Mein Fahrer wartet auf sie.
Wenig später erfahre ich über den bunten Teil der Krone von den
Segelflugkünsten unseres Ministers! Schön für Ihn! Ein Reporter sagte mir es
wäre sinnlos an die Medien e-mails zu versenden, die bekämen hunderte und könnten nicht
alle lesen. Frage mich nur ob es nicht sinnvoller wäre e-mails zu lesen als
sich darum zu kümmern dass irgendein Vogel im Segelflieger hockt und das um
unser Steuergeld, aber es sei Ihm vergönnt, warum nicht. Hätte ihm die Krone
eine Seite gewidmet und auf der zweiten das Manifest veröffentlicht, hätte
sie wenigstens noch den Anschein eines Informationsmediums erweckt.
17 Kilometer und 1 1/2 Stunden später auf der Hütteldorferstrasse holt mich
der Begleitwagen ein. Zwischendurch hatte ich mich bei der Lugnercity
darüber geärgert dass irgendwer die Thujen aus den Töpfen gerissen hatte,
mittlerweile hab ich mächtig Durst bekommen und bin froh dass er da ist.
Über den Auhof und Purkersdorf gehts aus Wien hinaus auf die 44er,
die ersten Blasen machen sich bemerkbar, kann nicht eruieren obs schon
welche sich oder erst werden. Untertullnerbach und Pressbaum werden mir
unsymphatisch, die zwei Orte ziehen sich wie Kaugummi.
In Pressbaum hält plötzlich ein silberner BMW auf der gegenüberliegenden
Strassenseite und der Fahrer frägt mich wo ich hingehe--nach Straßburg---aha
und woher kommen sie?---vom Justizministerium! Fenster hoch und weg war er!
?????????????
Kurz vor Neulengbach verspätetes Mittagessen, im Lokal wird gerade umgebaut,
die Speisekarte ist immens, desswegen probier ichs mit Ham and Eggs! Mir ist
Saukalt, hab zuerst geschwitzt und jetzt die Jacke ausgezogen. Meine Beine
haben sich recht gut gehalten, hatte anfangs die Vermutung dass sich ein
Krampf in der rechten Wade einstellen würde aber er blieb bis jetzt aus.
Nach dem Essen weiter ist die Hölle, die ersten 500 Meter wie ein
Behinderter, die Füsse brennen wie Feuer, die Muskulatur der Beine ist
völlig steif.
Nach einem Kilometer gehts wieder halbwegs, schmerzhafter sind die
Bergabstrecken. Gegen Abend durch Böheimkirchen durch habe ich das Gefühl
nur mehr zu schleichen, ich spüre meine Beine überhaupt nicht mehr. Irgendein Koffer hat
hier Gehsteige eingebaut jeder kommt mir beim rauf und runtersteigen wie der
Watzmann vor, beim runtersteigen knicken immer meine Knie ein. Auf der
Landstrasse ist es einfacher, stur auf die weisse Linie und einfach einen
Fuss vor den anderen. Bis St. Pölten will ich noch, was ich gegen 19.00h auch schaffe.
Beim Schlafengehen komme ich zuerst vor Schmerzen nicht aus den Stiefeln und
dann vor Schüttelfrost fast nicht ins Bett. Bilanz: 61km, 4 10 Schillig
grosse Blasen am rechten Fuss, 3 10 Schilling grosse Blasen am linken Fuss
und eine in der größe einer halben Handfläche am rechten Fussballen.

Montag 22.10.
Am Morgen gehts etwas besser, das Fieber ist weg, die Blasen sehen zwar
nicht gut aus aber was solls. Mit anderen Schuhen wirds schon gehen, mein
Bruder hat mir gestern noch die Beine massiert also kann ich die auch wieder
halbwegs bewegen. Von St. Pölten gehts weiter auf der B1 Richtung Melk. Nähe
Melk Mittagessen die Schmerzen werden immer ärger, nur nicht stehenbleiben sonst
kann ich nicht mehr weitergehen und muss mich wieder einen Kilometer
eingehen bis die Füsse so taub sind dass ich sie nicht mehr spüre.
In Melk über die Donaubrücke und dann am Donauufer entlang, treffe ein
Deutsches Ehepaar mit Fahrrädern, die mich nach dem Weg nach Melk fragen,
die wissen gar nicht was sie mir antun wenn ich jetzt stehenbleiben muss, ich
sags ihnen trotzdem. Als sie sehen dass ich mir ein wenig schwer tu mit gerade
stehen fragen sie nach und ich erzähl ihnen die Sache. Plötzlich greift der
in die Tasche und drückt mir zwei 50 Markscheine in die Hand und meint die würde
ich doch wohl noch brauchen! Bitte mehr Deutsche in Österreich!!!!!!
Der Weg neben der Donau ist noch viel schöner, eine Raupe überquert den Weg,
die hats sicher schwerer wie ich und eine Gottesanbeterin begleitet mich
auch ein Stück.
Der heutige Tag endet in klein Pöchlarn. Mein Fahrer will durch die Wachau
zurück nach St. Pölten ins Quartier, ich mit der Fähre über die Donau. Keine
Ahnung wo wir dann gefahren sind. Am Abend kommt die Ärztin aus
Windischgarsten und sieht sich die Bescherung an. Zwangspause!!! Erste
Diagnose: die Blase am Ballen droht nekrotisch zu werden und das Gelenk droht sich zu entzünden
ausserdem kommen die Fieberschübe von der Erschöpfung und ich habe akuten
Flüssigkeitsmangel. In der Nacht gehts mir beschissen, muss dauernd
erbrechen.
Gott sei dank-deswegen hab ich tatsächlich einen Tag Pause gemacht sonst wär
ich weitergegeangen. Am Pausetag kommen mir dann wieder die Geldsorgen in
den Sinn, Büromiete, Telefon, Strom insgesamt rund 20 000.-- es wird besser sein
ich geh ganz schnell weiter dann denk ich darüber nicht mehr nach. Eine
Beschwerde ans OLG Linz schreib ich auch noch schnell.

================================================

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MELDUNGEN UND KOMMENTARE
><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><

================================================
06 Offene Mail zu Neutralität!
von: lobo solar <lobos@chello.at>
===============================================

Ich werde mich erkundigen, ob die Aussagen Hr. Schüssels bezüglich
Neutralität - Mozartkugeln sich mit dem Eid auf die Österreichische
Verfassung, den er als Bundeskanzler ablegen mußte verträglich ist und trage
mich mit dem Gedanken ein Spendenkonto zu gründen, um eine derartige Klage
einreichen zu können.
Bitte um Unterstützung zu dieser Idee, es wär mir sehr angenehm, wenn ich
als armer Arbeitsloser nicht in erster Reihe stehen müsste und Sie diese
Idee aufgreifen könnten.

lobosolar
lobos@chello.at

PS: die F hab ich weggelassen, weil ich sie nicht für demokratisch halte und
die ÖVP dazugenommen, damit sie auf ihren Häuptling einwirken im Rahmen der
Verfassung zu bleiben.

was ist Neutralität?
Es scheint, daß unser Bundeskanzler eine grundlegend andere Sicht zu diesem
Verfassungs-Gesetz-Österreichs hat, als ich und die meisten
Normalverbraucher, die ich kenne! Und ich denke das könnte man doch auch
mit einer Volksabstimmung klarstellen, was die Österreicher dazu meinen.
Ihr wollt mir einreden ich sei ein Chaot? Ich versteh die Welt und in dem
Sinn mein Heimatland nicht mehr, wenn ich hier der Chaot bin!!!!

================================================
07 Stmk/Neutralität/Schüssel/KPÖ
von: Parteder Franz <Franz.Parteder@stadt.graz.at>
================================================
Tel. 03 16 / 71 24 36
Fax 03 16 / 71 62 91
email: kp.stmk@kpoe-graz.at
KPÖ Steiermark
Lagergasse 98a
8020 Graz

Samstag, 27. Oktober 2001
Presseinformation der KPÖ Steiermark
Knittelfeld: Bekenntnis zur Neutralität
(Während Kanzler Schüssel über Mozartkugeln sprach)

Mit etwa 150 TeilnehmerInnen war die Festveranstaltung von KPÖ, Kinderland
und GLB am Nationalfeiertag in Knittelfeld ein eindrucksvolles Bekenntnis
zur Neutralität. Zu gleichen Stunde, in der Bundeskanzler Schüssel seinen
schnoddrigen Mozartkugelvergleich für dieses Verfassungsgesetz vom Stapel
ließ, wies der Salzburger Völkerrechtler Univ. Prof. Michael Geistlinger an
Hand des Textes der entsprechenden UNO-Resolutionen nach, dass der Krieg der
USA gegen Afghanistan darin keine Rechtfertigung findet und dass die
Überfluggenehmigungen für US-Flugzeuge daher verfassungswidrig sind.

Auch der steirische KPÖ-Vorsitzende Franz Stephan Parteder betonte in seiner
Ansprache: "Wenn Österreich nach dem Willen der Mächtigen nicht einmal mehr
in einem Krieg neutral sein darf, dann wird unsere Verfassung mit Füßen
getreten."

================================================
08 STOPSPOT! festival
von: uschi reiter <uschi@prairie.at>
================================================

Fuer alle die das Event STOPSPOT! nicht live im OK mitverfolgen koennen.
Hier die mp3 stream links.

----

some changes in the FirstFloorRadio setup of the STOPSPOT! festival in
linz.aut-

new!temp mp3server adress --> FirstFloor is
http://home.synetworks.com:9000

possible oversea relay serv:
http://first.thing.net:8000/

live cam:
http://cyclop.ok-centrum.at/view/view.shtml

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
todays programme
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

19.30-3.00 CET

kern-woeginger
porter ricks
rechenzentrum
techno-animal!
t.raumschmiere.

+todays rec. sets

andreas berthling.stilluppsteypa.michael stavoestrand

+yesterdays rec. sets from.

tape.sheriff.goem

================================================

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DIE ANSCHLÄGE, IHRE URSACHEN UND FOLGEN
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================================================
09 Links zum Krieg
von: "Red Pepper" (www.redpepper.org.uk)
================================================

Aus "Red Pepper" (www.redpepper.org.uk), November 2001:

The 'nuke the towel heads' corners of the internet may have been doing good
business since 11 September, but the left's usual peacenik suspects have
also been out in force. Znet at www.zmag.org offers a good one-stop shop
for all the Noam Chomsky, Robert Fisk and John Pilger you can digest.

The Common Dreams News Centre at www.commondreams.org and the Transnational
institute, www.tni.org/wtc/index.htm both carry good selections of articles
calling for restraint, aid for Afghanistan, respect for civilians and a
major rethink of US foreign policy.

Discussions under the heading 'Justice not War' are drawn together at
Foreign Policy in Focus, www.fpif.org. Documents include a 'New Agenda to
Combat Terrorism', which argues for strengthened international justice,
protected civil liberties and a re-assessment of the global socio-economic
and political conditions that provide fertile ground for terrorist
ideologies.
The Socialist Alliance's (SA) coverage at www.socialistalliance.net offers
an impressively international selection of perspectives stretching from NGO
leaders in Pakistan to journalists in Nigeria. The SA also links to the
pro-democracy Revolutionary Association of Women of Afghanistan,
www.rawa.org, whose warning to the US about arming the warlords (jehadis)
of the Northern Alliance is yet to be picked up on a large scale by
activists.

The 'Terrorism Law and Policy' report on the University of Pittsburgh's
'Jurist' site, jurist.law.pitt.edu/terrorism.htm, aggregates resource
documents and discusses the legality of various potential responses other
than US-led military action. The Global Policy Forum at
www.globalpolicy.org carries a selection of press articles discussing the
role of the UN and international law.

"It's war - but it doesn't have to be dirty", one in a typically thoughtful
selection of articles by Michael Ignatieff on the Carr Centre for Human
Rights Policy, www.ksg.harvard.edu/cchrp, is also worth a read. He builds
up an argument for a "discriminate, proportional and restrained" response,
but challenges liberal commentators to fully acknowledge the "nihilism" of
the terrorists' mindset.

If you're panicking about Armageddon, try www.thecommunity.com/crisis.
Among statements from various Nobel Peace Prize winners, the Dalai Lama
writes to George W. Bush: "I am sure you will make the right decision", he
assures. No need to worry, then.

================================================
10 WORKERS POWER GLOBAL WEEK
von: newswire <harvey@lrci.fsnet.co.uk>
================================================

WORKERS POWER GLOBAL WEEK
E-newswire of the LRCI
27 October 2001
Subscribe to: newswire@workerspower.com
http://www.workerspower.com

============================================================
>> WELCOME TO ISSUE #67
Workers Power Global Week is the English language e-newsletter of the LRCI.
To unsubscribe mail to: unsubscribe@workerspower.com. Please forward this to
a comrade.

============================================================

>>AFGHANISTAN: HOW SHOULD WE DEFEND AFGHANISTAN?
>>ANTI-WAR MOVEMENT: ITALY
>>ANTI-WAR MOVEMENT: SWEDEN
>>ANTI-WAR MOVEMENT: ISRAEL
>>ANTI-WAR MOVEMENT: BRITAIN
>>IRELAND: IRA DESTROY WEAPONS TO PRESERVE SECTARIAN ASSEMBLY
>>IRELAND: REFERENDUM ON ABORTION PROMISED NEXT YEAR
>>ITALY: AFTER GENOA WILL THERE BE A "HOT AUTUMN"?

============================================================

>>AFGHANISTAN: HOW SHOULD WE DEFEND AFGHANISTAN?
Workers Power Global, London

In the conflict now underway between the US-led coalition and Afghanistan
then we side unequivocally with all those which actually defend the country
against these attacks < including the Taliban and the al Qa'ida militias. We
are in favour of the victory of all these forces over the US and British
attackers. A victory for imperialist forces would be the greatest evil for
the population of the whole world.

The Taliban, Osamah Bin Laden and his allies in Algeria, Egypt etc, are
certainly a great evil for the people of Afghanistan and these countries.
Certainly we stand for their defeat or overthrow by the progressive social
forces of these countries, with the aid of similar forces worldwide, not by
the intervention of the imperialist powers.

The latter will not intervene to promote democracy but to promote super
exploitation of these countries by themselves and in order to install or
support just as much local dictatorship and of whatever type that can best
ensure this.

Obviously in normal circumstances we give no support to the Taliban regime
in its internal struggles with its reactionary Islamist opponents such as
the Northern Alliance. Furthermore we want to see a victory for the
progressive opponents of the Taliban: the working class, the intelligentsia,
women, oppressed nationalities or ethnic groups fighting for liberation.

We want to see the downfall of the dictatorship at the hands of Afghans.
This internal class struggle, we believe, should be "permanent" until
councils (shoras) of electable and recallable delegates based on the working
class the poor peasants and the urban petit bourgeoisie finally seize and
hold power.
The Taliban are a reactionary bourgeois Islamist force. As such they are a
dangerous enemy of the working class which needs to be opposed by force.
While further studies on the nature of the Taliban are necessary at the
moment we should not characterise them in public as a fascist force.

But now in this current conflict we favour a victory for all resistance to
the imperialist forces<including those of the Taliban and we advocate that
all progressive opponents of the Taliban take military action in common with
them against the imperialist attack.

Whilst this almost certainly means a temporary suspension of offensive
military action against Taliban forces it does not preclude self-defence,
nor a political struggle to win the population away from the Taliban, which
is what the united front policy is all about in any case. If the Taliban
regime seriously begins to crumble during the war it may again require
offensive action to remove it in order to resist imperialism.

But we are not dual defeatist< i.e. we do not say a plague on both your
houses< even in this situation. This would be to equate an imperialist with
a semi-colonial country and make a nonsense of the whole theory and
perspective of imperialism. We defend Afghanistan< a semi-colonial country
against an attack by an imperialist country, no matter what the character
of the semi-colony's political regime. "dual defeatism" is de facto no
defencism at all.

Nor can we condition the defence of Afghanistan on the prior overthrow of
the Taliban. This would be to overthrow our unconditional support for a
semi-colonial country in a war with an imperialist one. Effectively it
renders defencism platonic. If carried out< "first overthrow the Taliban"
<would mean that (whatever you said) that you were striking at those who
were fighting the imperialist attack whilst it was going on. Thus
objectively you would not be defending Afghanistan but aiding its
subjugation<whatever your subjective intentions.

Likewise we are for the defeat of the USA, Britain etc, < whatever the
political character of its regime (bourgeois democracy, Labour government's
etc). This is because the question of internal regime has a secondary,
derivative character in general and in circumstances of war, no bearing on
the question of defencism and defeatism.

Nor does this mean renouncing the goal of overthrowing the Taliban as soon
as possible. What is does mean is renouncing is any block or alliance with
imperialism, such as the Northern Alliance is doing today, or even
neutrality towards the imperialist attack < which for as long as it
asts< is the greater danger.

Defencism is based on objective criteria< i.e. we want one sort of state (a
semi-colony) to win in a war with another sort (an imperialist one) because
of (a) the effect this will have to strengthen or weaken the imperialist one
(b) the encouragement this will give to all kinds of resistance to
imperialism and to the class struggle in the defeated imperialist country.

The question of what regime the semi-colony has is not at all decisive, a
point Trotsky made vehemently in the examples he gave in his struggle with
dual defeatists in the 1930s (Morocco, Ethiopia, China, Brazil). The fact
that the regimes within the few semi-colonies still at odds with imperialism
(the rogue states) are all repulsive to western public opinion (Iraq, North
Korea, Afghanistan, Libya) with only Cuba popular, outside US right wing
circles. should not be allowed to cloud our judgement.

Nor should the difficulty or unlikeliness of a united front due to
dictatorship over the working class. This is true in all the examples given
by Trotsky and in most of those where the MRCI and LRCI have taken this
position before

The Taliban's dictatorial regime and murderous attitude to all forces
independent of, let alone in opposition to them will enormously weaken the
defence of Afghanistan. A united front agreement could not practicably be
struck in such conditions. Nor indeed could this be done with any regime
that placed limitations on the political independence of the working class
and revolutionary communist forces. Therefore we call for the formation of
independent workers and peasants' militias to defeat the imperialist attack
and to defend the masses against Taliban repression.

But the effects of imperialist attack and any significant anti-imperialist
mass mobilisation by the working class, poor peasants and other progressive
forces could force the Taliban into a united front or result in the
defection of many Islamists to the consistent anti-imperialist forces. If
the workers and peasants could overthrow the Taliban either locally of
nationally, without thereby leading to the immediate victory of imperialism,
we would urge them to do so.

In any event revolutionaries must fight for an anti-imperialist united
front, including within this a fight for the arming of whole people, for
democratic rights, for equality for women, for an end to the persecution of
national minorities and for the waging of the most effective struggle
against the imperialists.
Should the Taliban regime disintegrate under the pressure of Pakistan and
imperialism then the revolutionaries have to stress the importance of no
compromise with imperialists, total opposition to any "coalition government"
imposed by them and fight for its overthrow by the workers and peasants as
soon as possible.

But today, it is simply a matter of saying IF the Taliban (and others like
al Qa'ida) actually fight the US and UK armed forces then we want to see
them defeat the invaders. We want to see the US planes shot down: we want to
see US Special Forces or the SAS units shot up by them. Yes even by the
Taliban despite all their horrible actions in the past and the present.

Finally, in the semi-colonial world in general and in the Arab and Islamic
countries political Islamists will probably mobilise en masse against the
US/NATO intervention. Workers, peasants, socialists must not only mobilise
independently but they should advocate a united front against imperialism
and could actually unite in action with Islamist forces if the latter allow
for the independent democratic participation by workers organisations.

MORE ON THE WAR AGAINST AFGHANISTAN SEE:
http://www.workerspower.com/wpglobal/afghanwar7oct.html
http://www.workerspower.com/wpglobal/lrcionwtc.html
http://www.workerspower.com/wpglobal/afghanoil.html
http://www.workerspower.com/wpglobal/Talibanandwest.html

============================================================

>>ANTI-WAR MOVEMENT: ITALY
Workers Power Global, Milan

Thirty thousand people took to the streets of Rome on 27 September in an
anti-NATO and anti-war demonstration. It proved that Italian militants and
youth are are carrying on the tradition of Genoa. Even more so the 200,000
strong Perugia-Assisi march of 14 October proved the point.

It is certainly true that this latter march is a historically reactionary
one. It has been organized by Franciscan monks since 1961 and is aimed at a
utopian catholic peace between bombers and bombed.

Not for nothing was the clergy deeply concerned that this year's
demonstration could take on an altogether different, anti-imperialist and
anti-war content. Which it did. Never before has that demonstration
attracted so many people, the vast majority of whom were once again youth.

Despite the intentions of its reactionary organizers, and despite
concessions to the clergy's demands to keep the militancy of demonstrators
under control, this was a massive anti-war demonstration.

The Perugia-Assisi march suggests that hundreds of thousands of Italian
youth are still on a Genoa footing and have not fallen foul either to
"anti-terrorist" propaganda, to pacifism or to despondency.

Indeed, on 25 October thousands and thousands of secondary school students
from all over Italy were out on the streets to demonstrate against the war,
against increased military spending and against cuts in education. The
schools will once again be the focus of attention when a one-day national
strike of teachers takes place on 31 October.

============================================================

>>THE ANTI-WAR MOVEMENT: SWEDEN
Workers Power Global, Stockholm

Last Saturday there was a second major demonstration in Stockholm against
the war. It turned out to be somewhat smaller than the first one, about 2
500. Speakers included people from the Left Party, MP Eva Zetterberg, who
said that her party fully supports the measures taken by the EU "against
terrorism".

The Left Party is in favor of the UN taking control of the
situation with peaceful methods; the party constitutes together with the
Greens the right-wing of the anti-war movement.

Other speakers were from the CWI, who also took the opportunity to launch
the new International Socialist Resistance banner. The CWI section is taking
a neutral position between the imperialist forces and the Afghans forces who
put up resistance. They want us to put our trust in the international
protest movement and the labour movement of the region. They have started a
polemical fight against the AM, on mailing lists and in their paper, where
they accuse us of "supporting" the Taliban. They have no understanding
whatsoever of critical support or the anti-imperialist united front.

The CWI is toghether with the Worker Communist Party of Iran the main
force slightly to the left of the center in the movement. The center
consists of the Socialist Party (USF) and reformists and Stalinists. The SP
have now together with the CWI been convinced that the AM is taking
advantage of the situation and coming forward as the leading and organised
force of those who are consistently anti-imperialist. The USFI is also
neutral in the fight and would like to see the defeat of the imperialist
forces, but not at the hands of existing forces in the region.

The rest of the centre is made up of different Stalinist groups, solidarity
groups and left reformists. They are mainly anti-American, but dislike the
burning of US and UK flags, which we have done on several occasions. Like
the Left Party and the Greens they all look, more or less, to the UN and
"peace loving forces" of all sorts.

In the center we also find the Swedish Afghanistan Committee, which started
as a Maoist support group of the Mujaheddin who fought the Soviet forces. It
is now one of the major NGOs working with organising schools, medical care
etc. in Afghanistan. Their position could be characterised as militant
pacifist with a heavy stress on the humanitarian side of the conflict. The
fact that they are participating in the movement is a big help, since they
have expert knowledge on the situation inside the country. They have a great
reputation among the general public and is considered to be on the side of
those in need.

The AM have a high profile in the movement with its contingents in the
demonstrations. So far the AM contingent have been supported by more than 50
people. We have our own banners and Revo flags, and our loudspeaker are used
for consistent and militant chanting: "Defend Afghanistan", "Stop the
bombings", "International solidarity figting unity of the working class",
"Smash US imperialism", slogans against Bush and slogans in English, notably
"One solution: Revolution".

There are other forces around Revo, like people
from Globalisation from Below and Democratic Alternative (sort of serious
anarchist group based on ideas from Murray Bookchin, also present in
Norway). But the rest of the left in the movement are not very clear on the
war, but is instinctively drawn to AM initiatives.

At the demonstration on the 20th we sold 65 copies of the new AM paper with
the appeal from the League, the TF and the Greek group, the League's
statement on the attack on WTC, and the questions and answers on the war.
The Revo comrades sold 70 copies of their new paper ("Hands off
Afghanistan!" on the cover).

Apart from the demonstrations, the AM and Revo organises other activites in
relation to the war. Several Saturdays and Sundays a number of AM/Revo
comrades have agitated with leafletting and paper sales at the main square
in Stockholm with interesting results and a number contacts. The Revo group
is also organising the same sort of activites in Uppsala, where they hope to
form a group soon.

This week are the Week of the Left at Stockholm University, during which the
left groups represented in the student body at the university is holding a
number of meetings and debates. On Wednesday AM held a meeting, made
possible by invitation from Radical Left. The Radical Left organises people
from the more serious eco-anarchist milieu.

At the moment especially since Gothenburg that sort of people are open
towards our "bold positions" positions which they are not always
supporting. Eduardo spoke at the meeting, which attracted more than ten
non-AM people. The CWI was present with one of their full-timers, who didn't
make a very good
intervention. (On Friday there is a debate on Democratic Socialism were the
AM again have been invited together with the Young Left, Democratic
Alternative and other groups).

One thing has to be said about the libertarian and not so libertarian
Autonomen (like AFA): they are keeping their heads down and very few of them
are taking part in the protests. They are probably politically confused and
hiding after Gothenburg (further arrests were made last week).

The coming Saturday will see a third major demonstration. The focus will now
be the US embassy. The AM were accused of terrible things only ten days ago
for wanting to protest outside the US embassy; now the CWI is taking the
initiative to march against the embassy. For once, they are tailing the
left.

MORE ON THE WAR AGAINST AFGHANISTAN SEE:
http://www.workerspower.com/wpglobal/afghanwar7oct.html
http://www.workerspower.com/wpglobal/lrcionwtc.html
http://www.workerspower.com/wpglobal/afghanoil.html
http://www.workerspower.com/wpglobal/Talibanandwest.html

============================================================

>>ANTI-WAR MOVEMENT: ISRAEL
By Workers Power, Israel/Palestine

In the past weeks, three demonstrations against the imperialist war took
place: in Tel Aviv, Jerusalem and Haifa.

On the 24 October around 50 peace and anti-war activists demonstrated in
front of the defense ministry in Tel-Aviv (HaQirya, the Israeli defense
headquarters). On the demo participated the Communist Party, the Peace
Block, the Israeli Communist Forum, the Socialist Workers League, the LRCI
and others.

The Israeli Zionist "left" refused to participate in the demo. The only
parliament member was the chairman of the Democratic Front for Peace and
Equality (DFPE) and the member of the political bureau of the Communist
Party, Muhammad Barke.

The Israeli anti-occupation movement today faces a double challenge:
resistance to the murderous occupation of Palestine by Israel and opposition
to the imperialist war against Afghanistan. This is a very difficult
challenge.

Naturally many people see, as does George Bush, that the two issues are
intertwined. The intifada and the repression of the Palestinians for decades
has nurtured the grievances of many Arab and Islamist anti-imperialists, as
well as those who destroyed the World Trade Centre.

Likewise many in the West Bank and Gaza support Bin Laden, if not before, or
even when his followers carried out the 11 September atrocities, then now
when he and Afghanistan are under attack by the same White House that has
been a constant source of support and hardware for the Zionists in Israel.

But for the left inside Israel the matter is not so clear cut.

The anti-Zionist left does not speak with one voice over the war against
Afghanistan. All condemn the imperialist war against Afghanistan, but most
of them do not seek the defeat of the US-led armies. All of them are against
the imperialist war, but many of them insist that even if you are against
the oppression you should not be for the oppressed.

Those who seek to reconcile Palestinians to the state of Israel in the form
of two states are also keen to reconcile the Taliban to the USA. But their
position is no more realistic for this war than it is for the Palestinians.
We will strive to draw both the Palestinian masses and the anti-Zionist
Israeli left towards a common position of opposition to the war and to the
active defence of Afghanistan, seeking the defeat of the USA.
A defeat for it there will be a tremendous blow against Israel too and
strengthen the intifada.

FOR MORE ON ANTI-WAR MOVEMENT SEE:
http://www.workerspower.com/wpglobal/antiwaruk.html
http://www.workerspower.com/wpglobal/antiwarSweden.html

FOR MORE ON PALESTINE AND THE INTIFADA SEE:
http://www.workerspower.com/wpglobal/resonintifada.html

============================================================

>>ANTI-WAR MOVEMENT: BRITAIN
Workers Power Global, London

A drive to war inevitably brings overblown rhetoric about national unity,
patriotism and the need to stifle dissent, even as our governments
supposedly act in the name of freedom and democracy. But Tony Blair and co
will be relying on a good deal more than media self-censorship to
marginalise opposition to the war drive.

Home Secretary David Blunkett has pursued his own reactionary agenda since
the World Trade Centre attacks - not only a crackdown on refugees, but the
threat of identity cards for the rest of us in order to access the most
basic of services. Under the proposal floated prior to Labour Party
conference, any seriously ill person could have turned up at hospital
without an ID and been refused admission.

Even without sections of the media instilling paranoia and whipping up an
anti-Muslim backlash, it does not require much imagination to see how an ID
card scheme would license the police to revive the discredited "SUS" law and
target people from visible minority communities.

Blunkett has backed down from this pet idea - for now. But Labour's record
on civil liberties suggests it could well come back as part of the long-term
"war against terrorism". Blair's beloved "free world" has become a whole lot
less free since he took office in 1997.

The danger signs were already there when Labour were in opposition. Labour
shadow ministers helped draft the notorious Criminal Justice and Public
Order Act 1994 (CJA), which vastly increased the police's powers of stop and
search. Once elected Labour were happy to leave this appalling legislation
on the books, unamended.

The beauty of the CJA, to our rulers, was that it enabled police to stop,
search, and detain merely on suspicion that persons might be about to create
a public disorder. In effect, it severely curbed the right to demonstrate.
The police used it on Mayday (though many of their actions were actually
illegal)and around the recent Labour conference demo, where "Wombles"
(anti-capitalist militants)were summarily arrested prior to the event.

Under two authoritarian home secretaries, Blair's government has
reinforced the CJA with even more draconian legislation. The legal arsenal
now includes the Crime and Disorder Act 1998, the Criminal Justice
(Terrorism and Conspiracy) Act 1998, the Regulation of Investigatory Powers
Act 1999, and last year's Terrorism Act.

The Criminal Justice Act 1998 set another frightening precedent: it enabled
courts to convict a person for belonging to a proscribed (banned)
organisation merely on the evidence of a senior police officer. Repeat: you
are a terrorist because a copper says you are. In addition, the act
instructs juries to treat a suspect's refusal to answer "relevant" questions
as corroboration of the police officers' evidence.

Ever since the Pentagon developed the internet more than 30 years ago,
governments have worried about the potential use by "subversives" of
electronic communication. In proposing censorship, politicians have raised
the bogeyman of fascist websites - but it is the left they're really after.
Seattle confirmed their worst fears - a mass protest organised largely over
the net.

Labour's Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 1999 gave MI5 huge new
snooping powers over the net - direct access to ISP data, for example, and
the right to demand encryption (coding) keys. Under this legislation, which
made a mockery of the freedoms supposedly conferred by the Human Rights
Acts, a person can be charged for receiving an illegal message even if they
don't know who sent it - and if anyone reveals, even to a partner, that they
have been asked for an encryption key, they can be jailed for up to five
years!

Of course, there's still the good old phone - if you can find one that isn't
being listened to. Phone tapping has increased markedly in recent years. In
part this has been due to MI5's need to find work for itself after the end
of the Cold War. Under new anti-terrorism legislation, Labour are likely to
give the police the right not only to tap calls but to use the transcripts
as evidence in court.

The Terrorism Act 2000 proscribed a long list of organisations and included
a significant redefinition of what constitutes a "terrorist." Anyone merely
proposing the overthrow of the state by force, or even any form of attack on
an individual, property, or communications system, is now a terrorist for
the purposes of British law. Hackers can be terrorists; likewise, destroyers
of GM crops; people who smash up McDonalds; members of revolutionary
socialist groups. If national security dictates, then all such individuals
and organisations can be declared illegal overnight. Premises can be invaded
by police without a warrant.

Blunkett's new proposals go even further. Anyone thought to have knowledge
about "terrorists" will be liable to arrest and prolonged questioning
without charge. Banks will be forced to reveal details of suspected
"terrorist" accounts.
There can be no doubt that the developing anti-war movement will face
attacks under already existing legislation and from the state's covert
spooks, all in the name of defending freedom. Snooping on CND activists and
attempts to undermine militant trade unionism were well-known long before
Stella Rimington published her memoirs about being Britain's spy chief.

As the experience of the war in Northern Ireland illustrates, once
"anti-terrorist" measures have become familiar and acceptable, they can
become a part of routine policing. Not so long ago, the image of military
police defending the Labour Party's conference from peaceful demonstrators
would have been dismissed as paranoid fantasy. Now it is reality. The state
has drawn an equal sign between "fundamental terrorists" and anti-capitalist
activists.

The imperialist powers have grown ever keener to harmonise immigration and
anti-terrorist laws - drawing in those lesser nations which have not
attracted a significant "terrorist" threat. The WTC attack will be seized on
to justify new repressive measures not only in the US and UK, but throughout
the EU. But every attack on civil liberties confirms just how insecure the
"New World Order" really is.

FOR MORE ON ANTI-WAR MOVEMENT SEE:
http://www.workerspower.com/wpglobal/antiwaruk.html
http://www.workerspower.com/wpglobal/antiwarSweden.html

============================================================

>>IRELAND; IRA DESTROY WEAPONS TO PRESERVE SECTARIAN ASSEMBLY
Workers Power Global, Galway

Earlier this week the Provisional Irish Republican Army destroyed part of
its weapons arsenal in order to prop up a Unionist dominated institution
which was about to collapse. It has been hailed as an historic step. And
indeed it is - backwards!

For 80 years the IRA fought a guerrilla campaign to unite Ireland, which had
been partitioned in 1921 by the British and Unionist protestant minority in
the north-east of the island.

For most of the intervening years the guerrilla war was desultory and indeed
by the late 1960s the IRA was fairly moribund. The civil rights movement in
Northern Ireland came into existence which demand equal rights for the
catholic minority in the sectarian statelet.

The Unionist state and its police (RUC) smashed them in 1969 and out of the
ensuing conflict the IRA was revitalised. In part this was because Catholics
thought the IRA may provide some protection against pogroms and in part
because they agreed with their goal: the repression convinced most working
class Catholics that the sectarian state could not be reformed and that
their only salvation was to join a united Ireland.

A fierce mass struggle in the years 1969-72 ended with Stormont (the NI
parliament with an in built protestant majority and an apparatus of
discrimination and repression) being brought down and direct rule from
London instituted.

Between 1972 and the mid-1990s the IRA's several hundred fought a guerrilla
war. 3600 people have been killed, 1500 or so catholic civilians, the
victims of RUC, loyalist paramilitaries British Army violence.

Throughout these years British socialists has a duty to support the struggle
of the anti-unionist minority against repression and in clashes between the
IRA and the RUC or British army, support the victory of the IRA. Ireland had
been partitioned against the clear and expressed will of the majority of the
people of Ireland in 1920-21 and the very existence of British-ruled and
Unionist-run six county statelet was an affront to democracy.

Nevertheless, socialist revolutionaries did not at all agree with the IRA
(and their political wing Sinn Fein) about either the shape of a united
Ireland nor how to fight for it.

Sinn Fein/IRA saw in the rulers of the Republic in the south natural allies
in the fight for a bourgeois and capitalist (even if based on small scale
co-operatives) Ireland. Socialists saw them as exploiters of the mass of the
working class in the south and the natural allies of the British in securing
partition.

The IRA was a self-selected elite military group. Lightly armed, highly
sophisticated in its clandestine organisation, and astute in organising a
mass of support in the Irish diaspora to help finance its struggle.

It acted on behalf of the anti-unionist, not through them. They often left
them unprotected against RUC violence in the Catholic areas, because the
nature of their guerrilla war often took them out of their communities.
Tit-for-tat retaliation for attacks was the norm not self-defence.

Most importantly they distrusted the power of the working class, both
employed and unemployed, preferring to keep them as a resevoir of electoral
support not as the mass social force to be mobilised in the workplace and on
the streets to smash the appratus of repression.

Consequently, the IRA could not beat the British militarily, even if it also
proved that the British could not isolate and crush the IRA.

By the late 1980s the Sinn Fein leadership led by Gerry Adams internalised
this fact. But instead of turning to mass revolutionary socialist politics
as the basis of a new strategy they effectively gave up on their stated
aims. In 1994 the IRA declared a ceasefire, renewed in 1996. The Good Friday
Agreement of 1998 embodied the political capitulation of physical force
republicanism:
In it Sinn Fein recognised the sovereignty of the British over Northern
Ireland and the veto of the Unionists on progress towards a united Ireland.

More, it agreed to set up and help run a purely sectarian Assembly of all
parties which signed the GFA, a body based on a sectarian head count and
checks and balances between "different communities", thereby
institutionalising, rather than breaking down, social, cultural, religious
and political divisions between Catholic and Protestant workers.

But the Irish "peace process" between 1998 and this week was marked by
perpetual crisis, the source of which was the insistence that the IRA
actually destroy its arms (rather than just lock them away) so that the NI
state and British could assume once again a monopoly on the means of
violence and so neuter any attempt to engineer social and political change
by using the threat of a return to violence.

In the last few months alone we have seen the suspension of the Assembly,
renewed talks in Britain (Weston Park) between all the GFA parties, renewed
Loyalist sectarianism and finally increased military operations by
republican splinter groups.

In short the failure of the 1998 GFA, the 1999 elections to the Assembly and
the two years of the functioning of the power-sharing Executive failed to
resolve the underlying issues that gave rise to the 1969-72 social explosion
and ensuing guerrilla war.

The Assembly has merely been a show case for "sectarianism" rather than
overcoming it. As a result constitutional unionism and
nationalism/republicanism has weakened to the benefit of loyalist
paramilitaries and republican splinter groups during the last year.

Roughly three processes have been at work in recent months:

o A resurgence of constitutional Unionism seeking unconditional and
unilateral disarmament by the IRA as the price for Unionism's continued
participation in the devolved institutions. For most of the year the UUP has
moved further and further to the right, issuing more and more ultimatums to
the SF/IRA that they actually destroy weapons and not just put them in
sealed bunkers. The growth of support for lumpen Loyalism and anti-GFA
forces within the unionist population had led to stronger influence of
Donaldson wing of the UUP. Trimble's position as leader was weakened further
by results of the general elections in June which revealed a sharp fall in
support for the UUP and an increase for Paisleyites.
Thus as a concession to these forces, in July Trimble resigned as First
Minister, forcing the British to suspend the Assembly twice rather than
allow it to collapse and force re-elections. This path is resisted by most
parties and the British since it would almost certainly result in an
increase in DUP and SF votes and seats at the expense of the UUP and SDLP.

In October Trimble attempted to remove SF from the Assembly executive.
Failing, he submitted the resignations of his three UUP ministers on 18
October in a further attempt to force SF/IRA's hands over weapons.

o The second process has been rise of violent sectarianism by Loyalists
against the Catholic community. The UDA publicly renounced GFA in July
after most of their prisoners were released under GFA terms, and sectarian
attacks on nationalists mounted (including murder of two teenagers),
followed by pipe bomb and street attacks in September and the first murder
of NI journalist ever (by LVF). Also in early September there was an
orchestrated Loyalist campaign of intimidation of Catholic parents and
schoolchildren in North Belfast. All this led NI secretary to warn UDA and
LVF that there ceasefire would be "derecognised" unless they ceased: further
attacks however led Reid to finally withdraw recognition of the UDA/LVF
ceasefire in mid-October.

o The third process has been noticeable developments within republicanism.
SF and IRA have remained committed to the GFA and the Assembly, opposed to
its suspension. But they refused to be bounced by Blair, Clinton, Ahern or
Trimble into unilateral moves on weapons' destruction without significant
further reforms on the RUC, de-militarisation including some British troop
withdrawal' and the functioning of the Assembly. The Weston Park in the
talks in the summer failed to come up with any and so the IRA refused to
make a major move on weapons beyond an "increased engagement with the
decommissioning commission", announced in August.

At the same time and related to the weaknesses of the GFA and disillusion in
SF/IRA the Real IRA increased its operations in NI and started them in
Britain. In June last year they carried out their first attack in Britain -
the bombing of Hammersmith Bridge in London. In January this year, a massive
roadside bomb was discovered in Armagh. It was packed with more than
1,000lbs of explosives and was designed to ambush the security forces. In
March, the Real IRA exploded a car bomb outside the BBC at White City,
followed in August by a further bomb in Ealing, London. In addition there
have been a series of audacious attacks against Crown forces in the six
counties.

On the other hand, the increased collaboration of the RUC and Gardai has
scored a whole series of successes against the Real IRA especially in the
last few months. And we can expect a qualitative new level of clampdown on
dissident guerrillas of all kinds now in the aftermath of September 11th and
the beginning of IRA de-commissioning. In fact this is already under way.
The South and British forces has already effectively isolated and corralled
and contained them. They will now in the context of the IRA surrender have a
new ally in making sure they are not a serious threat to the Good Friday
Agreement.

The "peace process" clearly entered a critical phase after the general
election. What then explains the timing of the "historic" decision of the
IRA on 23 October to confirm that they have destroyed some weapons and
explosives the first time ever a republican group has voluntarily done so?
The events on 11 September in New York and Washington clearly left their
mark. Republicans were put on the back foot in the USA; funds are drying up,
political support for SF in Congress and in USA Irish community has ebbed
away all a function or fall-out from "the war against terrorism".

But events before this need to be dialed in. The arrest of SF's
representative to the FARC in Colombia earlier in the summer (one of three
"terrorist groups" on Bush's Colombia list) prefigured the events after 11
September and created problems for SF in the USA.

But in addition, we have to say that the pressure of Blair, Unionism,
Clinton/Bush on Adams and McGuinness to destroy their arms was intense and
incessant. And for SF the GFA and the Assembly was the only game in town,
their commitment to its success complete.

While a return to guerrilla war was unthinkable, the crisis in the
functioning of the Assembly meant that political support for the GFA was
ebbing. So they had to try to convince the IRA to make the required
concession to get Trimble and the UUP back into the Executive. Clearly,
Blair and Trimble demanded that the IRA jump first, which they have done.
But equally clearly, a deal has been done whereby once the IRA made a move,
a process of reciprocal demilitarisation of crown forces would start, the
Assembly would be rescued and further legislation on Patton reforms of the
RUC tabled.

The significance of this new step is immense. Not so much militarily as
politically. The unionists can argue that they no longer make concessions
with " a gun pointing at their head". A crackdown on loyalist paramilitaries
can be expected.

Military observation posts in South Armagh are already being dismantled,
these hated provocations in the heartlands of republicanism. Further
prisoner release will occur. All this will be rightly welcomed by the
anti-unionists. But they will not remove the underlying structures of
discrimination and repression.
In the short term there is still the issue of Loyalist paramilitary violence
against the Catholics. The pipebombs are not likely to stop.

More than ever the Catholics will be dependent on the RUC and army for
protection. In the medium term, the Assembly is unlikley to be able to
transcend its sectarian character, making unionist obstruction to every
attempt at gaining more social justice for the anti-unionists very
difficult; rather it will prove the site of frustrated ambitions.

In the longer term Gerry Adams hopes that the 40%of Catholic voters can one
day become a majority, a referendum held on whether to join a united
Ireland, a prospect likely to be met with pre-emptive violence and legal
challenges from the unionists.

In short if there is peace, it will not be one in which justice reigns. What
is the alternative?

Immediately there is a need for immediate withdrawal of British troops and
the disbanding of the RUC; both causes violence and collude in that of
loyalists. And there is a need to fight on the streets, through mass
organisations of struggle for them strikes and demonstrations.
There is a need for cross community organisation in the workplace and
city-wide that is controlled by the workers themselves and which fights for
better pay and conditions, against closures and sackings, and against
privatisation and for democratic rights for all the citizens of Northern
Ireland.

And against the Assembly there is a need for a democratically elected and
convened all-Ireland constituent assembly, based on one person one vote and
not weighted to reflect hardened sectarian divisions. This constituent
assembly should then debate and decide on the constitution of the island,
one country or two and what degree of autonomy for sections of the
community.

Socialist revolutionaries will fight for such an assembly to be based on the
sovereign power of the working class and poor farmers and a programme that
seeks to overthrow capitalism throughout Ireland and destroy its state
machine.

FOR MORE ON THE IRISH PEACE PROCESS SEE:
http://www.workerspower.com/wpglobal/Irishpeaceprocessdec2k.html

============================================================

>>IRELAND: REFERENDUM ON ABORTION PROMISED NEXT YEAR
Workers Power Global, Galway

The Irish Prime Minster Bertie Ahern announced recently that there is to be
a referendum on abortion in early spring of next year before the general
election.

What is being proposed is that a new amendment be inserted into the
constitution that will in effect reduce a woman's rights in favour of the
foetus. Its aim is to roll back the situation that exists at present where
it is lawful for a woman to have an abortion in this state if she is
suicidal. This was the Supreme Court Ruling in the X case in 1992, when the
case of a pregnant fourteen-year-old victim of rape came under scrutiny,
under pressure of mass action on the streets.
The new amendment and proposed corresponding legislation (to be incorporated
into the constitution also) would change this, further copperfastening the
Catholic Church's position on abortion in this state.

All the major Dail parties are in favour of this proposed amendment bar the
Labour Party who will campaign for a No vote. Fianna Gael are calling for a
delay of the months on the abortion vote, ie the referendum. They are only
doing this as a manoeuvre, to ride out dissent in a section of FG youth and
a "bourgeois feminist " section around MEP Nora Owen.

This does not mean, however, that they will be arguing for a woman's right
to choose, although a motion to this effect was passed successfully at a
recent Labour Party conference against the wishes of the leadership.
(Disgracefully Ruairi Quinn later said that a conference vote did not carry
weight and a leadership had no obligation to implement it.)

We've had two referendums already on abortion in the past twenty years, 1983
and 1992, neither of them addressing the real issues facing women in
present-day Ireland. And even the limited concession that arose out of the X
case, which the government tried to roll back in 1992 and failed, which no
government has had the courage to legislate for since, is now again under
attack. The proposed amendment allows for abortion only "at an approved
placeSwhere that procedure is, in the reasonable opinion of the
practitioner, necessary to prevent a real and substantial risk of loss of
the woman's life, other than by self-destruction".

So in a new X case scenario, it would be unlawful for a teenage rape victim
who is suicidal to have an abortion. Similarly if there were another C case,
a health board's hands would be tied. The C case occurred in 1997 when a
teenage traveller, raped and pregnant - a ward of court - was allowed to go
to Britain for an abortion, accompanied by a social worker from the Eastern
Health Board, despite the parents objections. The X case was cited as
precedent.
If this amendment is approved the morning-after late-late pill (RU 486)
would be permanently banned.

What is behind the government's introduction of this proposed abortion
referendum?

Fianna Fail is focussed on winning the next election and they know they will
not get a majority on their own. Even with the PD's in coalition this time,
they were still reliant on the votes of Independents to see them through a
full term in office. They are adamant they will never form a government with
Sinn Fein short of de-commissioning, so they therefore need to keep the
independents on board. Although the four independents Blaney, Fox, Healy-Rae
and Gildea have voted with Fianna Fail on almost every issue during the
lifetime of this Dail, nevertheless, they have made it clear that the quid
quo pro for their continued support is a referendum on abortion.

In addition, there was the recent humiliating defeat for the Yes vote in the
Nice referendum. The government plans to hold another referendum on this
issue in the not too distant future, this time pulling out all the stops for
a Yes vote. A small but not inconsiderable constituent of the No vote in
last June's referendum came from the right wing conservative Catholic lobby
and it is this constituent of the electorate that the government hopes to
win over in a new Nice referendum; to that extent the abortion referendum is
a sweetener.

Meanwhile, more than six thousand women with unwanted pregnancies travel to
Britain every year for abortions. This cynical referendum proposal will do
nothing to ease their plight and in fact will make it worse if successful,
for the important concession won from the Supreme Court in the wake of the X
case would now be eroded. Every right thinking person must campaign and
argue for a resounding No in this referendum. But we must not stop there.
For the only way a woman can truly have the right to choose is for abortion
to be made available on demand, freely and legally here in this country.
Only then can we ensure it is not just a service for the rich but will
accommodate the needs of working class women as well.

FOR MORE ON OPPRESSION OF WOMEN SEE:
http://www.workerspower.com/wpglobal/womenlist.html

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>>ITALY: AFTER GENOA WILL THERE BE A "HOT AUTUMN"?
Workers Power, Milan

When the the right wing won the Italian general election on 13 May, prime
minister Silvio Berlusconi immediately announced his government's intention
to forge much stronger links between Italy and the United States. At the G8
meeting in Genoa in July, Berlusconi confirmed Italian support for the new
round of star wars even though this was not on the agenda and he had not
received a mandate from the parliament to support the project.

Following the glitzy gathering in the red zone, George Bush did a tour of
the Roman Forum, called in on the pope, and then publicly praised Berlusconi
for his successful business career.

The honeymoon wasn't long in ending. As the extent of the police terror at
Genoa became ever more apparent on a worldwide scale, the American press was
among those who criticized the unprecedented resort to repression. Since
then, Berlusconi has been using his vast majority to pass all kinds of laws
which effectively depenalize the crimes for which he and any number of his
deputies are being investigated.

Cooking of company books is now no longer an offence; links between foreign
and home based corruption cannot now be investigated; people who sent money
abroad to avoid taxes are now offered bonuses instead of criminal charges
and jail sentences. And once again all this is under the watchful eye of any
number of important national and international publications and television
transmissions, The Economist, The New York Times and The Washington Post and
the BBC included.

Thinking that America's chauvinistic and bully-boy response to the
terrorist attack on the Twin Towers had provided him with some type of
fertile terrain on which to begin spouting supremacist garbage, Berlusconi
made the astonishing announcement that western civilization and culture are
superior to those of the eastern world.

This flew in the face of George W's diplomatic endeavours to get broad
support from Arab countries for his campaign against Afghanistan. As if this
weren't bad enough for Italo-American relations, the law passed by
Berlusconi to block investigations of his and his cronies' foreign bank
accounts and lurid transactions stood in sharp contrast to attempts by Bush
to intervene in Bin Laden's financial empire. Small wonder, then, that the
Italian knight in shining armour has been kept at arm's length, and his
country does not appear on the list of "friends of America" in Bush's
addresses to the nation.

From Genoa to Afghanistan it is clear that the international prestige of
Italian imperialism has been profoundly shaken. But so too has the prestige
and credibility of the main force helping to keep this overtly corrupt
government in power-the former Stalinists turned liberal social democrats.

Still reeling from the collapse of Stalinism and from its own period in
government, the Democratic Left has now had to face the rise of an enormous
anti-capitalist movement which is successfully bidding for the hearts and
minds of Italian youth.

The DL has been unable to straddle in any credible way between its eagerness
to attack the movement because of its anti-capitalist thrust and its attempt
to have influence in it in order to make sure it is derailed. Having said it
would participate in the 21 July demonstration in Genoa, it backed out at
the last minute following the carabinieri murder of Carlo Giuliani the day
before. Most recently it voted in favour of America's war against
Afghanistan and then participated in the Perugia-Assisi Peace March on 14
October.

The Democratic Left's schizophrenia will not and cannot go away. Its
upcoming extraordinary conference in November will see it move further to
the right when Piero Fassino is elected secretary. Like his sponsor, party
president Massimo D'Alema, Fassino is a former Communist Party functionary
and bureaucrat. And like D'Alema, Fassino recognizes the legitimacy of the
Berlusconi government.

He argues that the left's task is to "challenge it on the theme of
modernization". The working class base of the DL will therefore be further
demobilized as the "challenge" to Berlusconi is conducted with useless (and
more often than not flattering) speeches in a parliament where the right
wing has a huge majority.

In the meantime, the "modernization" of Italy (ie. a legislated shift in the
class struggle in favour of the bourgeoisie) will, like the war, go ahead
ratified by D'Alema and Fassino who in fact began that "modernization" and
supported the NATO war against Serbia while they were in government.

It was rightly pointed out by Luca Casarini, leader of the white overall
movement, that these warmongers are the same people who accuse the
anti-globalisation movement of being "violent". But while Casarini and
social forum spokesperson Vittorio Agnoletto have recently enjoyed
relatively high profiles in the newspapers and on television; and while they
have been coherent and principled in their defence of the anti-capitalist
movement against government, police and social democratic attempts to
criminalize it, it is difficult not to believe that they, too, have felt the
pressure of the anti-movement propaganda campaign.

During the Perugia-Assisi march, for example, Casarini was at the back of
the demonstration, deliberately keeping a low profile so as not to go
against the calls of the clerical organizers to avoid transforming the
demonstration into a politically oriented one. This meant that when
Democratic Left politicians were being rightly harassed, booed and insulted
by other demonstrators, the social forum militants and leaders were not
present.

But there are also objective reasons for the present defensive stance of key
mass movement figures. If there is one thing that reveals the reactionary
nature of the terrorist attack on the Twin Towers it is the fact that it has
radically shifted attention away from the anti-capitalist movement and has
lent no amount of legitimacy to the reactionary governments that the
anti-capitalist movement was exposing with its militancy.

Gone from press, television and radio reports is the focus on police
brutality in Genoa. Back in the limelight as the guardian against
international terrorists is the organizer of police terror in Genoa,
minister of the interior Scajola.

The overall response of the Genoa social forum has not, however, been all
bad. It should be noted, first of all, that the Genoa social forum no longer
exists. It is now the Italy social forum, made up of various local social
forums located on the national territory. These local forums have both their
positive and negative sides.

On the one hand, they allow political and organizational participation
without having to travel long distances; on the other, they can be and are
being used by right wing elements of the movement as centres for the
promotion of localism as an end in itself.

They want to avoid mass demonstrations which they consider too
"confrontational" and which, as they see it, distract attention from the
"real issues". At the national congress of the social forums in Florence on
20 and 21 October, organizations such as Arci, Legambiente and Rete Liliput
argued against the anti-WTO demonstration to be held on 10 November in Rome.
This is because it will be held on the same day as the pro-war demonstration
called for by Berlusconi.

It looks like there will be no "hot autumn" in Italy, and this despite the
hot air of the main union leaders during the summer. One reason for this,
however, is that the present government is moving slowly on this particular
front, and has not yet made any major structural moves against the
historical gains of Italian workers.

But the issues are there, and are being taken up by active (though minority)
sectors of the workers' movement in alliance with the anti-capitalist
militants and masses of students. It is the job of socialists to cement this
alliance and expand it to include the bulk of the workers' movement which
remains demobilized by passive and opportunistic union leaders and by
treacherous warmongering social democratic politicians.

FOR MORE ON ITALY SEE:
http://www.workerspower.com/wpglobal/italianpage.html

FOR MORE ON GENOA SEE:
http://www.workerspower.com/wpglobal/genoabalance.html

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Redaktionsschluss: 27. Oktober 2001, 22:00 Uhr
Diese Ausgabe hat Petra Steiner
zusammengestellt


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