36

[introduction.]

p We continue publishing the replies to the WMR questionnaire prominent political leaders and statesmen sent in at the close of 1987.’ The questions were:

p 1. What would you describe as the greatest political accomplishment —and, conversely, the greatest disappointment—of 1987?

p 2. Last year the 70th anniversary of the October Revolution in Russia was commemorated throughout the world. What aspects of the struggle fought over the past decades do you believe should be preserved and developed and what should perhaps be abandoned?

3. What do you expect from 1988 concerning the advancement of the developments and the overcoming of the difficulties you have referred to?

37

Michael O’Riordan
National Chairman, Communist Party of Ireland

p 1. TO begin with, there was the epoch-making encounter between Comrade Gorbachev and President Reagan, from which the world expects a momentous breakthrough on the paramount issues of peace and disarmament. Besides, I would note the successful holding of the International Meeting (Moscow, November 4-5) of 178 delegations of communist, workers’ and social democratic parties, national liberation movements, ecological and other organisations—the largest and most representative meeting of world forces that stand for peace, social progress, national freedom and the harmonisation of relations between man and nature. It was indeed a tremendous gathering brought together on the initiative of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union for an appropriate honouring of the 70th Anniversary of the Great October Revolution of 1917.

p Convened on an international level, it has great potentialities for the unity in action of all progressive forces in each national situation. The Meeting was neither dominated by any political power or state. The approach on a basis of equality of all, big or small, was introduced by the Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev when he said, "We do not claim a monopoly on the truth." The participation of the other delegations was certainly in the same spirit. The full fruits of the International Meeting have yet to blossom.

p My greatest disappointment was the outcome of the Referendum on Ireland agreeing to sign the Single European Act of the European Economic Community. Ireland is a member of the EEC—the only member which has a state policy of neutrality and has no connections with NATO. In our party’s view, membership of the EEC is a threat to our neutrality, and endorsing the Single European Act further jeopardises such. However, we believe that despite that our Irish people can be rallied for the cause of peace and national sovereignty.

p 2. The past year was not only the year of the 70th anniversary of the Great October Revolution, it was also the year after the holding of the 2.7th Congress of the CPSU in which there was more and more application of the decisions of the Congress of February-March 1986. Perestroika and glasnost were innovations which many did not at first understand fully and it took until the time of last year for such to be demonstrated in practice that led to a fuller comprehension. Now more and more people understand that, as Mikhail Gorbachev said in his report to the jubilee meeting marking the 70th anniversary of the Great October Revolution on November 2, 1987, "The purpose of perestroika is the full theoretical and practical re-establishment of Lenin’s conception of socialism, in which indisputable priority belongs to the working man with his ideals and interests, to humanitarian values in the economy, in social and political relations, and in culture”.

p As to what should be left behind in the past year—they are the forms of struggle that divide the Irish people and therefore logically and objectively help to perpetuate British imperialist presence in Ireland. In every 38 significant struggle of the Irish people for social, political and national liberation, our Communist Party of Ireland, since its foundation date in 1933, has played an active part. Our party is not opposed to armed struggle. Indeed, many of our members in their time have taken up arms in the struggle for Ireland’s independence and against fascism in Ireland, Spain and during World War II. As we have consistently pointed’out we do not agree with the form of struggle conducted by the Provisional IRA— because it does not advance the necessary unity of class forces which is basic to the achievement of Ireland’s unity and independence from all forms of imperialist domination.

p 3. The major event of 1988 will in fact consist of a number of happenings. The year 1988 will mark the 75th anniversary of the Great Dublin Lock-Out of 1913. Around that anniversary we will be organising a number of events that will highlight the national and international character of the Irish workers’ struggle then and their relation to the contemporary world. That strike began when a number of workers were sacked because they had joined the newly formed Irish Transport and General Workers’ Union (now the largest trade union in Ireland). In an organised counter-stroke Dublin’s tramway workers struck suddenly on August 26,1913. That was the day on which began the capital’s fashionable society week, the Annual Royal Dublin Horse Show. At 10 a.m. precisely, the drivers and conductors left their trams on the streets after affixing to their coat-lapels the union badge with its ’Red Hand’. Then began a bitter class struggle with the employers ‘locking-out’ all those in other employments who had joined the new union.

p The battle was to rage for over seven months. On one side were ranged 400 of the big Irish employers, on the other were 30,000 workers under the leadership of ’Big Jim’ Larkin. It was a combat that was marked by extreme police brutality, and from it emerged a workers’ armed force, the ’Irish Citizen Army’ which three years later participated under the command of James Connolly in the Irish Revolt of Easter 1916.

p We intend to honour the occasion particularly emphasising the role of Lenin in that great Irish class battle. A bare two weeks after its beginning Lenin gave the international working class movement the first picture of what was happening in Dublin. He wrote, under the heading of ’Class War in Dublin’, of how, in the capital of Ireland, "the class struggle, which permeates the whole life of capitalist society everywhere, has become accentuated to the point of class war".^^2^^

p We will also include much more about Lenin and Ireland in 1913 and Ireland’s reaction to him shown in the action of ’Big Jim’ Larkin who on June 24, 1925 went to Red Square to pay homage to the dead Lenin. Larkin was to describe his feelings on that occasion when he wrote in the columns of the Irish Worker on the first anniversary of Lenin’s death: "The capitalist governments of the world and the paid defamers and the licensed liars may spit out their venom, may continue to lie and malign and even caricature the Bolsheviki and their leaders and their teacher Lenin, but he who laughs last laughs best.”^^3^^

p It is in that spirit that we will honour the historic battles of the Irish working class in 1988. What is good for our working class is good for our 39 country. As the other outstanding leader of the 1913 struggle said, "The Cause of Labour is the Cause of Ireland and the Cause of Ireland is the Cause of Labour”.

p  ^^1^^ See WMR, No. 1, 1988

p ^: V. I. Lenin, Collected Works, Vol. 19, p. 332.

 ^^5^^ Irish Worker, January 24, 1925.

Kalevi Sorsa
Vice-President, Socialist International

p 1. After a decade of relative immobility several signs of rapid change may be noticed. The United States and the Soviet Union have concluded an agreement eliminating a whole category of missiles from nuclear weapon arsenals. This solution is especially significant with regard to quality: it contributes to strategic stability by eliminating such nuclear weapons that both parties have considered means of limited nuclear war. It is also encouraging to note the preparedness of the great powers to start limiting strategic weaponry on the basis of the Reykjavik summit meeting.

p The burden of the arms race and the responsibility brought forth by the threat of nuclear war will oblige the great powers even in the future to seek permanent solutions to consolidating security.

p One of the most encouraging signs has been the renewed recognition of the significance of the United Nations in striving towards solutions of difficult regional crises and maintenance of collective security. I have acquainted myself with great interest with General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev’s extensive proposals concerning the strengthening of the status of the UN in the maintenance of international peace and security, which were published in Pravda and Izvestia on September 17, 1987. We share Secretary-General Perez de Cuellar’s wish that all members of the Security Council give every support to efficient activities of the UN. ’A friend in need is a friend indeed’, says the proverb, and the UN needs friends now.

p The world is one. The encouraging progress which can be noticed in measures of immediate security—in disarmament—has not reflected in eliminating the roots of violence, the structural inequality. We have not found sufficient solutions to the situation of the developing countries.

p A common feature in the problems of East and West, North and South is that we see more clearly common action as a prerequisite for their solution. Or, the other way round, we realise that solutions cannot be achieved by single, unconnected measures.

p This fact is clearly exemplified in the work of the Socialist International. Both aspects were simultaneously brought forth in the latest Council meeting in Dakar. The UN special session on development and disarmament, which convened just before the Socialist International meeting, created special chances for that.

p Progress in disarmament does not only release economical resources but 40 also lays a foundation for a broader understanding, a wiser use of intellectual resources.

p 2. I had the honour to be an invited guest at the 70th anniversary festivities of the Great October Revolution in Moscow. It was an event that did not only emphasise the history of the Soviet Union but also created a new dialogue, the full importance of which is still too early to assess.

p A wide range of political parties and movements were represented. The discussions between the two main streams of the labour movement, the Social Democrats and the Communists, were frank and opened new perspectives. The active participation of many member-parties of the organisation I represent, the Socialist International, became an important step in enlarging relations.

p One of the first decrees of the Soviet regime, the Lenin Decree on Peace, contains the nucleus of the foreign policy doctrine of the Soviet Union. The ideas presented in it were naturally aimed in the first place at finishing the war, but the principles of relations between the peoples have endured. The value of cooperation based on equality is naturally emphasised when a tangle of problems cannot be solved by one-sided action. This is the situation today even more than 70 years ago.

p 3. Predicting is difficult, particularly predicting the future, said one of our politicians. I would therefore rather answer the question of what I want the coming year to look like, what kind of future I want to work for.

p I hope that the process of disarmament which has begun with great expectations will lead to notable extension, especially with regard to nuclear weapons. At the same time we must secure that disarmament in one section does not lead to growth of armament in other sections. Work for nuclear-free zones is of essential value in this respect. Extension of the arms race to space or, more emphatically, to naval areas must be prevented. I see the activity of people against the arms race as important and adding to the pressure for disarmament.

p I see multilateral consultation as the only possibility to dissolve the structural inequalities between the North and the South. I support all measures aimed at increased efficiency of the United Nations.

p It is my opinion that one channel in this work is the Socialist International, which has considerably increased contacts with ideas and partners.

p ’Peace and bread’ is still an attractive plan of action.

p Salvador Clotas
Secretary, Federal Committee, Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party
(SSWP)
[and]
Alejandros Sercas
Secretary, SSWP Federal Committee

p 1. Important steps were taken in 1987 along the road of peace and international detente. Positive results were achieved at the talks between the two great powers, the Soviet Union and the United States, in nuclear 41 arms limitation. We would also like to stress the significance of the Guatemala accords reached by five Latin American countries concerning the establishment of durable and lasting peace in Cental America.

p As to Spanish politics, we would first of all note the local elections whose outcome was favourable to our party.

p Terrorism is one of the more difficult problems of concern to the Spanish people. We were reminded of its gravity by a terrible crime—a bomb explosion in a big supermarket in Barcelona. The bomb, planted by the ETA, the organisation of Basque terrorists, killed innocent people. Terrorism is condemned by different political forces in Spain. Political parties and the government are conducting talks to reach agreement on joint action to solve this acute problem.

p 2. We hold that the October Revolution which turned 70 in 1987 produced a tremendous impact on the development of Europe and the world.

p 3. One should hope that 1988 will settle many local and regional conflicts that are still raging—be it the conflict between Iran and Iraq or the situation in the Middle East or in Central America. Their settlement would be of enormous importance for peace and detente.

p While on the subject of the international situation as a whole, it is important to stress that the hopes born of the US-Soviet agreement are emerging as a powerful force which is sure to influence subsequent developments. Once change gets under way, it is not easily checked. We are referring to people’s innermost sentiments. Hundreds of millions in the East and in the West reject the arms race and yearn for peace. And it will not be difficult to deceive the hopes that have been born. World public opinion will exert a steadily growing influence on the policies of governments.

p ’

p We trust that the accords reached will not remain in isolation but will be followed up. The levsels of nuclear and conventional armaments should be reduced on the basis of verifiable agreements. This will pave the way to genuine peace and make it possible to defuse the confrontation between the blocs.

p We believe that 1988 will be marked by a retreat of the conservative forces. Public opinion in the West and in the East is beginning to turn away from conservative ideas.

p In our view, the changes under way in the Soviet Union will exert a considerable influence on the international climate. Openness and frank coverage of all that is actually happening make it easier for countries with different political and economic systems to maintain relations. Everywhere, in the East and in the West, ideas of renewal are defeating conservative thinking, and this creates good conditions for closer cooperation of the forces advocating progress and detente.

We are at an important historical juncture. A new leaf is being turned, and we hope that a new and better chapter is beginning.

42

the party
Torture Did Not
Break Them

p Prague, December 17,1987

p To the Chief Prosecutor of the Republic of Turkey, Ankara

p The Editorial Council of World Marxist Review, an international periodical published by 70 communist and workers’ parties of different continents, expresses its indignation and protest at the arbitrary and brutal treatment of Haydar Kutlu, General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Turkey, and Nihat Sargin, General Secretary of the Workers’ Party of Turkey. Upon their voluntary return home from political exile, they were seized, imprisoned and subjected to humiliating interrogation and torture. We demand that our comrades be released immediately and granted all rights enjoyed by the citizens of a modern democratic state, and that the disgraceful ban on communist activities in Turkey be lifted.

p L’HUMANITE has published a photograph of Haydar Kutlu and Nihat Sargin. It was taken on November 16, 1987, just as they stepped off the plane at Ankara Airport. They were accompanied by a group of communist parliamentarians from West European countries which included Efstratios Korakas, Central Committee member of the Communist Party of Greece and member of the Greek Parliament. Five minutes later, despite the protests of the parliamentarians and of the public that gathered at the airport, the two general secretaries were rudely pushed into a police van and taken to the building of the national security service. There followed three weeks of anxiety and alarm: neither lawyers nor journalists were allowed to see the prisoners. It turned out that the alarm was well justified: in December, as he emerged from the Procurator’s Office to be taken to Ankara’s central prison, Nihat Sargin shouted, “We’ve been tortured!" Their lawyers said that the two prisoners were stripped naked and subjected to electric shock, hosed with ice-cold water, hung by their feet and injected with psychotropic drugs. In violation of the law, the records of the interrogation sessions were not presented to the defence lawyers until the end of December.

p The prosecutor of the national security court charged Haydar Kutlu and Nihat Sargin on six criminal counts—establishing illegal organisations, subversive activities and propaganda, maligning the President of the Republic, etc. If found guilty, they may be sentenced to more than 70 years in jail.

p Protests against the arrest of the courageous patriots have been spreading in Turkey and abroad. Demands for their release have come 43 from representatives of the European Parliament, from the public and from political parties in many countries. For example, the CPSU Central Committee has adopted a statement which expresses the Soviet Communists’ support for Comrades Haydar Kutlu and Nihat Sargin and solidarity with the struggle of Turkey’s Communists and other Left democratic forces.

p Shortly before they flew to Ankara, Haydar Kutlu and Nihat Sargin granted an interview to Vladimir Shelepin, a WMR staff member. By that time it had been announced that two important decisions had been taken by the leaderships of their parties—that they would merge to form a United Communist Party of Turkey and that both general secretaries would return to Turkey to fight for a legally held constituent congress of the new party and for its right to work in the open.

They were aware of the risk they were taking. They knew, from past experience and from eye-witness accounts, what it meant to be imprisoned in Turkey. Finally, they knew that their health was not all that robust. But in the interview that follows, nothing indicates fear—only a quiet confidence that their cause is just and a desire to present objectively some of the lessons their parties learned on their way to unity.