Grenada Maurice Bishop's 'New Jewel Movement'. recognise unions.
local reactionary torces assassination attempt on Bishop comes as no surprise. West Germany and Hamburg. ground' for the arson attacks.
Turkey ject to torture which, in three cases, ended in death.
sexual organs, lips and feet. Algeria TWENTY-FOUR workers, by students to be educated in their own culture.
in the Arab language.
AROUND THE TWO people died and 20 were wounded when an attempt was made at a political rally on 20 June to assassinate Maurice Bishop, Prime Minister of the Caribbean island of Grenada. The attempted assassination comes in the wake of hysteria whipped up by the United States government and the bourgeoisie in the Caribbean against the government of The 'New Jewel Movement' came to power 15 months ago by overthrowing the corrupt and dictatorial regime of Eric Gairy. Gairy ruled the country through his notorious 'Mongoose Gang' of thugs. Since the revolution, the old regular army has been swept away, and a new 'Peoples' Revolutionary Army' and a popular militia set up in its The prices of the three basic commodities - rice, sugar and cement — have been reduced with the establishment of a National Importing Board. Secondary school fees have been reduced, and a youth programme for reconstruction set up. A tremendous boost has been given by the regime to the self-organisation of the masses, through the setting up of trade unions and legislation which compels employers to The popularity of the New Jewel Movement, the radical measures it has taken, and the close links that Bishop has established with Cuba, have all contributed to the hostility towards the Grenadan revolution on the part of the US and Agallist this background the AN estimated £90,000 worth of damage was caused after three arson attacks on Family Planning centres in Bremen The centres are run by Pro Familia, a non-profit making organisation financed largely by Government and local subsidies, which has 135 centres throughout West Germany.
The attacks follow a campaign against abortion launched by the Catholic Church in Germany assisted by right wing doctors and politicians. Jurgen Heinrichs, head of Pro Familia, last week charged this alliance of 'preparing the AMNESTY International has stated that torture in Turkey has now become 'widespread and systematic' and that those arrested by the police and martial law authorities were subAn Amnesty research mission visited Turkey last month and its findings have just been published. The human rights agency reported the case of a 17-year-old woman who was interrogated and tortured for two days, including being tied to a wooden cross suspended from a wall while electric shocks were administered to her fingers, head, stomach, students and trade union militants are facing trial in Algeria arising out of the struggle language and The background to the trials goes back to the start of last year when a general strike by 'arabist' students broke out in support of 'arabisation' of courses and the ending of discrimination in employment for graduates with diplomas Despite government repression the movement spread 'FORWARD works of Walter and the unity Guyanese, African workers.' This was the from a rally organised by the Workers Alliance held last Saturday in London in memory of Walter Rodney.
Rodney died on the night of 13 June as he left a Working. Peoples' meeting in Guyana. been told was a walkie-talkie set exploded on or beneath the seat of his car. The person from whom he received the package, a former army sergeant, has since disappeared.
Marxist and historian, ticularly works on the movement and on wice re wen to work a. zania. In 1974 he returned to his native Guyana, on the northern coast of South America, where he later became a leading member of the WA, a grouping which has united opposition in the country to the corrupt ruling People's National Congress.
• коапсу WPA member to die violently in Guyana in the past year, two former Peoples Progressive Party has also died suspiciously, as well as a priest who was stabbed to death by thugs from the House of Israel, a right wing pseudoreligious body notorious Jim jones sect. and likewise backed by the government.
Police ment of the left have become systematic, together with government paid armed thugs, are regularly used to break strikes.
Forbes Burnham Opposition have •cel Criminal Law Bill was rushed through this year, a number of offences longer tried by jury.
Rodney had been on trial with others last month on a frame-up charge of burning down the headquarters of the Peoples? National Congress.
the Rodney of the Indian and message Peoples' (WPA)
Georgetown, A package he had a Marxist writer became parwell known for his Rastafarian Africa, is now the third similar to the Walter Rodney arrests and harassand the military, years of Forbes 1973.
sations under a policy operative socialism'.
and sugar.
Although There is no doubt that his murder was part of a concerted attempt by the government to - Silence all op peression is ind tionames unsavoury rule Burnham's PNC, political financed and put in power in 1964 by the CIA in order to pre- Despite vent a victory of the Moscow- $135m backed PPP, and kept in power by rigged elections in 1968 and Despite coming to power tion is declining through an alliance of foreign wards the PNC was pushed to The undertake large-scale nationaliof 'co- rising, This involved nationalisation of 80 per cent of the economy, including strikes, the major industries of bauxite these nicasuits to this situation of half-way stage to socialism, simply economic transferred ownership Instead of benefits to the Guyanese people, there is now a parasitic layer of state func- has who economic power through state patronage and privileges, and power through. increased state repression.
an injection of against the United States during the lifetime of the Burnham regime, the crisis of the economy is deepening. Produc real growth in the economy fell by 25 per cent between 1975 and 1977.
balance of payments deficit is worsening, prices are WPA and unemployment stands at 35 per cent.
An increasing number of notably the 19-week strike in the sugar industry, indicates the response of workers Since its formation in 1978, the Workers Peoples' Alliance gained a mass following and has organised meetings of thousands. Its policies of a united anti-imperialist front of all revolutionaries and a broad-based anti-dictatorial alliance repression have succeeded in uniting opposition to the Burnham regime.
The WPA has emerged as an alternative to the policies of the Moscow-oriented parties in the Caribbean.
It is the rapid growth of the in Guyana which has caused the regime to resort to its present brutal methods of repression to try to destroy it. Maximum SUDOUR and solidarity is needed against these attempts and to ensure that the struggle continues.
combined wit In reCol
on Berber culture it was banned by the government.
and injuries.
security' court. They face up to 20 years in prison.
Minister of Justice, Lahcene Soufi, Algiers, Algeria.
Socialist Challenge 26 June 1980 Page 12 and at the end of last year in Tizi Ouzou, secondary school students went on strike over the demand for the teaching of the Berber language and culture. When, this April, the Tizi Ouzou students invited a writer-poet to hold a conference The students responded with a strike which soon spread to the whole of the area and took on general strike proportions. Savage repression followed with hundreds of arrests Further strike action secured the release of most of those held but 24 left-wingers are now to be tried before the 'state An international appeal has now been launched on behalf of the 24. Letters of protest should be sent to:
they . were steps which have property foreign interests to They sugar newspapers therefore and under which the world market.
Walter volved crippling
compensation the local have not altered the domination of the economy by bauxite and rice, and dependence on capitalist export markets and its subjection to fluctuations on The measures have also in . of former owners and were carried out with such bureaucratic ineffi ciency that production has actually fallen in these industries. SOUTHERN African and Latin America feature in this week's issue of Intercontinental Press/Inprecor. A special feature is the document recently-achieved unity of Guatemalan revolutionaries Of equal interest is the publication of a statement by the Peruvian PRT, assessing the results of the recent election campaign in which Hugo Blanco became a member of parliament.
Single issues 40p including postage. Subscription rates: £6 for 24 issues. Orders and cheques/postal orders to Intercontinental Press, PO Box 50, London N1 2XP. which is the basis for the
third largest five helicopter gunships have arsellal have been established. Determination to prop up the problems.
tions.
explained, nature of the army. four years, while wages have remained static But, as the commentator in the film noted, someone is making money. El Salvador is the producer coffee in the Any opposition to these depressed conditions has been met by severe repression by the regime. But this won't be enough to hold back the struggles of the El Salvadoran masses The US government recognises what it is u against and the consequences for the region at a time when the Nicaraguan revolutionary process is deepening. Carter has just sent a further 36 military advisors and 100 marines. Thirty- used in Vietnam -been recently added to the regime's Finally, four new American military bases.
According to Rafael Menjiver, the determination of the masses and the new-found unity of the opposition forces will make US efforts regime difficult, while government's military forces have their own Menjiver estimated that the army has been losing 600 soldiers a month in deserAs Hector Ogueli, another speaker on tour disintegration the Ei Sature of the a for A arises be worse and arises because of the