IV327 - January 2001

The silence of the Israeli peace camp during the last month has been widely reported in the international media, as well as the return of many of its main spokespersons to the bosom of National Unity and uncritical support to the criminal acts of the Israeli army and the Labour government.

The present Intifada is based on a number of political realities that form a framework within which we can understand more fully the events of the past five weeks in the Palestinian occupied territories. Before beginning an analysis of these realities, however, it must be clearly stated that the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza is solely responsible for the Al-Aqsa Intifada.

It seems that recent events are leading to the implementation of an Apartheid regime in the State of Israel, and the completion of a comprehensive Apartheid reality within the borders of Israel and in the Occupied Territories.

Sundown Saturday, October 7th. Doha neighbourhood, just south of Bethlehem. Droves of people have been making there way up this dilapidated hillside to pay their respects to the family of Mustapha Fararjeh. Fararjeh, 22,was killed two days earlier. A group of 25 masked men march into the funeral tent. This is the Tantheem.

A European conference involving a series of parties and movements of the radical left was held in Paris on December 4-5, to coincide with the European Union (EU) Summit under French presidency.

At the beginning of December, preparing for the Nice counter-summit the Ligue communiste révolutionnaire (LCR, French section of the Fourth International) acted as host to the second European conference of the anti-capitalist left in Paris. Around forty representatives of left parties and united left formations from eight countries attended. Groups from three other states sent apologies. The following text was released as a press statement at the end of the conference.

At its November 2000 meeting the International Executive Committee (IEC) of the Fourth International (the world-wide organisation of revolutionary socialists) discussed a draft resolution on "Socialism and ecology" which will be debated at the 15th World Congress of the Fourth International.

Humanity has faced ecological problems at other times, but these have taken on a new urgency nowadays due to their scope and gravity. Damage to the environment often has an irreversible impact on man and nature and the ecological crisis on the horizon at the dawn of the 21st Century is endangering the lives of millions of people.

The most striking fact about the November 2000 elections is that they were a statistical tie (for Congress as well, virtually). The most interesting question is what this shows, if anything, about the state of functioning democracy.

Chanting and cheering, tens, hundreds and thousands of women demonstrated in 159 countries during the second and third weeks of October. The World March of Women Against Poverty and Violence was a huge success - although ignored by the media of almost all countries.