Letters

Above the rest

Please find enclosed a donation for the Summer Offensive. I realise I’m only a faint-hearted fellow-traveller, firmly ensconced in my armchair, but I wish you every success in reaching your target and improving the Party’s ‘fitness’.

Your paper stands out above the rest (especially after reading Socialist Worker, etc for several years), and whilst it may not be a very scientific analysis, if Partisan considers you ‘neo-Trotskyist’ and Workers Power use the old ‘Stalinist’ put-down, then you must be doing something right. It’s a shame that Open Polemic haven’t stuck around.

Robert Whitfield
Carlisle

Against fascists

On June 12, 13 and 18 1996, Enrico Ruggieri, a famous Italian rock star, together with Fango and Stelle Tour, will be performing at Le Palais, 242 Shepherd’s Bush Road, London W6, at 8.30 pm.

This event is organised by the so-called Gli Amici della Musica Italiana (The friends of Italian music), which also organised the contested performance of Italian jazz musician Romano Mussolini, son of Italian dictator Benito Mussolini.

The official sponsor to the concert is the accommodation agency, Meeting Point, of Roberto Fiore and Massimo Morsello, the Italian fascist terrorists sentenced in Italy respectively to nine and ten years for subversive association and organising the armed gang NAR (Revolutionary Armed Nuclei).

Naturally, Gli Amici della Musica Italiana is the cover-name used by Meeting Point to organise musical events. Cover names are a recurring feature in the activities of Meeting Point. In fact they use the name of Force One to run an employment agency and Linea Diretta to run a travel agency. They have also set up a network of agencies throughout Europe (Eurotres in Madrid, Easy London in Rome, etc) to attract young people to come to London, where they can provide short-term accommodation in about 40 properties with 2,000 beds for at least 10,000 people a year. Their turnover is thought to be over £2 million.

Meeting Point is also trying to cash in on the European Championship by selling tickets for Italy’s matches in conjunction with CIT (Italian Tourist Centre - 90% state-owned).

Traditionally, London has always been a safe haven for Italian fascists running away from the courts. We believe that the time is ripe to say, ‘Enough is enough!’

We invite all sincere democratic and anti-fascist forces to:

• Boycott and protest against any activity organised by Meeting Point and similar fascist organisations;
• Collect and exchange information regarding fascist organisations and activities;

Prevent fascists and racists having the chance to spread their sick ideas.

Italian anti-fascist link, Anti-neoliberalism London committee, Communist Refoundation (Italy) UK branch

Argentine justice

The Argentine government of Carlos Menem and the provincial governments, the police and the legal system of Argentina are escalating their repression. They are responding to the social problems and the protests of workers pushed by the crisis and the application of the economic plan dictated by the International Monetary Fund. The real level of unemployment is 25% in a country which has practically no unemployment benefit. In these conditions sectors of workers are resisting and struggling: resisting the closure of private factories, the loss and deregulation of public sector work and demanding the payment of unemployment benefit.

Over 300 workers are facing charges brought against them because they have been active in protests and demonstrations throughout the country. Meanwhile those who carried out tortures and assassinations as part of the military dictatorship, such as the murderous Captain Astiz, are at liberty.

Horacio Panario and Alcides Christiansen are imprisoned in the province of Neuquen and Oscar Martinez is charged in Tierra del Fuego. They have become ‘test cases’ for the government and the repressive legal system, facing a possible ten-year jail sentence.

The government is applying laws inherited from the passed military dictatorship. It is also using a charge called coaccion agravada, which has tremendous repressive consequences. It means that the organisers will be held responsible for any disturbances which take place on a demonstration - initiated many times by the police.

Over 1,000 unemployed and their families held a peaceful demonstration called by the Unemployed Workers Coordination. The UWC had won a subsidy for the unemployed, but the provincial government, because of the cut-backs demanded by the central government, decided to stop the subsidy.

Arrests were made at the demonstration, including members of the Movement To Socialism (MAS) and the Socialist Workers Movement (MST), on the charge of ‘co-accion agravada’, which carries a ten year sentence with no bail. This law was used by the military dictatorship against the guerrillas and their supporters. Today the government uses the same laws against the mobilisations and struggles of workers. The use of this law is done in an arbitrary way which transcends the normal judicial processes. The judge has refused to receive the declaration of Panario or consider the testimony of the defence.

On March 31 1995 in Ushuaia, capital of Tierra del Fuego, engineering workers marched to the capital in protest against the closing of a factory. The police attacked the demonstration.

In April the police mounted an assault of workers in occupation of the Continental factory which led to the death of one worker and numerous injuries and arrests. The judiciary tried to blame the death of the worker on Oscar Martinez.

We are asking trade union, labour movement, human rights and political organisations to demand the release of all working class leaders - and in particular the release of Alcides Christiansen, who is on hunger strike, and Horacio Panario.

On May 24 Alcides Christiansen began a hunger strike demanding: His release and the release of Horacio Panario and the cessation of persecutions; The punishment of those responsible for the killing of workers and youth; The ending of all repression and police attacks on workers.

Please write letters of protest to: President Menem of Argentina, c/o The Argentine Embassy, 53 Hans Place, London SW1.

International Socialist League
British Section of the International Workers League