upplément au W217 de " Quatridme Internationale "
~ Puplished Ly the International Secretariat of the Fourth International ~
March 6, 1963
IMPRISONED PERUVIAN TROTSKYIST ON HUNGER STRIKE
| LIMA, Peru, Feb. 25 -- Ismael Frias, a leading Peruvian + Trotskyist, was placed in Carrion hospital at El Callao, a stburb j of this city, after a 2l-day hunger strike in Peru's notorious | El Fronton prison. Although the authorities made no statement, it ‘| was learned that Frias' condition was fair.
He was arbitrarily arrested January 5 in the nationwide witeh-9 “2 . bunt that’ swept up some 1,200 trade unionists, intellectuals and edical political figures.
'
Erowr-Mrt6. the concentration camp at El Sepa, Frias was later.
erred to the grim dungeons of El Fronton. — . ‘
the labor movement into the El Sepa camp, included Carlos Howes, Jorge Zegarra and Abraham Zevallos. They were later released.
. Frias belongs to the wing of the Trotskyist movement adhering to the International Secretariat of the Fourth International; the others to the International Committee. The two sectors have joined forces in fighting against the witch-hunt which was unieased by the dictatorial military junta. They report that despite the be dade the Trotskyist. movement.in. Peru is. growing in size and nfluence.
In the tangled mountainous areas where the descendants of the Incas live, Trotskyism is especially strong because of its role in helping to organize sizeable guerrilla forces.
(For a good round up about the peasant struggle in Peru under the leadership of the Trotskyist Hugo Blanco see the February 25 Militant. To obtain a copy write The Militant, 116 University Place, New York 3, N.Y.)
i
‘
Other Trotskyist leaders, herded with hundreds of members of" >
a ee r * . c i . : m * Fo . -eoe rs of ey
soe hee, “s . we,
" Y THE TRULY ABOUT ALD TO ALGERTA'S WAR ORFHANS
PARIS, March 4 -- Few people care -~ really care --- it seens, about the fate of Aigeria's war orphans. Rich America and. prosperous France have slipped inspired stories into the capitalist press that they are about to give all kinds of help to Algeria, which will include help, it goes-without saying, to those most desperately in need. Not in any rush, however. In the modern world of nuclear strike capacity, atomic counterfore and the balance. of terror, what is so pressing about sending food and clothing ta- North Africa?
Some radicals ~~ even some socialists -~ who pride themselves on their capacity to sympathize with human suffering, display an attitude that is not much different. They seem to find it inconvenient to organize even a small campaign of aid. Perhaps they count on the imperialists doing the Job after all.
Thus it would appear that Algeria's war orphans, the tens of thousands of the most pitiful victims of history's most savage colonial war have been abandoned by the outside world and are even being disregarded by certain officials in Algerie itself.
These are the facts that came out in a press conference held by Mlle. Djamila Bouhired, Mme. Zohra Bitat and Abderrahmane Naceur March 1 in Algiers as reported in the March 2 edition of Al Chaab. These three young people head Algeria's national organization for war orphans "El Djil Bl Djadia." =
"We are at our wit's end.”
"We don't have financial or material means."
“We suffer at times from failure of the public powers to understand." , . These three statements, said Al Chaab, constituted the theme of the press conference.
"We called this meeting with the press," Mile. Bouhired declared, “in order to make clear the numerous problems and the very limited means faced by our organizetion, which is very isolated. There is one thing on which everything focuses -- 1t's the publicity in the press. In brief, they talk about collections among the brother Arab countries amounting to seven billion francs (14,000,000). This is false. Nothing has come to us up to now except promises. We were promised aid about as follows: 200 million francs ($400,000) from Egypt, 300 million ($600,000) from Traq, 65 million ($130,000) from Syria, and 600 million ($1,200,000) from Kuwait. But this never went further than the stage of promises.
As for richer and more powerful countries, these were not even mentioned in the conference. If help from Arab countries ends cnly
Bene in promises, what can be expected fre imperialist powérs? Or from "socialist" countries whose corern for "peacefyl coexistence" with a country like France scarcely }:rmits them to Axtend a helping hand toward a country like Algez1? f
"We have at present in El Djil 1 Djadid," the three officers of the organization reported, "2,059children, divided among 15 centers. The cost for each one of ‘iem is around 800 francs ($1.60) a day. During the days of >lonial rule, social centers had 1,700 francs ($3.40) to expend or each child, a difference of 20 per cent, and to this must be adad our lack of material means. On this subject we would like to inicate that there are things which we could turn to use in our lunes for young people that are _ mildewing on the docks in Algiers c) other places. We find it difficult to explain,we aren't pezr1tted to take what we need there." . why oe
The most anguishing problems -1e not in the capital or other big centers but among the youth ir the interior. "It is there that the families hit hardest by the wa’ oxist and it is there that the greatest number of orphans or mala justed children are found and it is in getting at the suurce of Ihe ills that the means for curing them can be found. But without men. nothing can be done. It is & question of life or death." .
In reply to what thg¢ press mistt do about the situation, cne of them said: "Our aim/in meeting {th you today was to raise 4 ery of alarm. We don't Imow how we will be eble to get along if the pubiic powers don't come to ow sid. We propose to organize a national and international campaitn. We count on the entire press to defend our cause and to let people know that our organization is an organization for chiléien and that children have rights w@ must respond to. We invite you {fo visit our centers the better to judge the truth about our activities. . The Minister of Youth and | of Sports refused to grant us certain means without any valid ‘reason. We repeat then, we count ca the press to take an active part in the defense of these child:‘on who form part of the framework of the regonstruction of the sountry and the building of socialism." /
-For those who feel someting should be done to help Algeria's war orphans, the address is: Association El Djil Bl Djadid, Haut Mont D'Hydra, Chemin de 1a Mefleleine, Aigiers, Algeria.
. DE