13.02.1997

Picket against Fujimori

Roberto Fujimori, the President of Peru, was in London between January 9 and 11. He came to Britain to attract foreign investments and to try to receive support for his hard-line policy towards the guerrilla forces which took 72 VIP hostages. Diplomats and businessmen gathered to hear Fujimori at the London School of Economics.

Despite the semi-secret character of the meeting, with only a few hours of preparation a very successful picket of around 100 people was organised. Most were LSE students and Latin American exiles.

The Workers International League/Liaison Committee of Militants for a Revolutionary Communist International, the Spartacist League, the Socialist Worker Student Society, Socialist Outlook, the LSE Labour Party, the Socialist Labour Party, the Revolutionary Communist Group and Workers Power also came to the picket. There were some clashes with the police, who tried to arrest one comrade.

The main demands were against the terrible conditions of the 5,000 political prisoners (who may be imprisoned until the end of their lives in “living tombs” without access to the radio, TV or literature and with only one half an hour visit per month) and for their unconditional release; for the cancellation of the foreign debt and the renationalisation of the privatised companies, etc.

In his speech Fujimori claimed that the “terrorists” and not the army killed 25,000 Peruvians. Every single human rights organisation would agree that the overwhelmingly majority of political assassinations in Peru are committed by the army and the paramilitaries. He claimed to be one of the best democrats of the world, despite the fact that Peru has the world’s worst record for political disappearances, that he dissolved the congress and expelled every homosexual from the Peruvian diplomatic corps.

The BBC and Peruvian and Japanese TV filmed the picket. A very solid and combative action was organised in less than 48 hours. We congratulate the Latin American exiles, the LSE students and Poder Obrero friends for this excellent initiative.

Helena Torres