Official celebrations of the first anniversary of the new Sri Lanka Republic at the Caylon High Com minion on Tumday were completely disrupted by the appearance of supporters of the Caylon Solidarity paign. The latter laid wreaths in Tamil and ala on the steps of the High Commission, axposing that those reactionary organisations and indihared to praise the achievements of the regime were in fact drinking to the pod of the 25,000 youth murdered by the regime The prialing in April, 1971, What was to have been & smug sail satisfied public relations stunt for the regime was attactively frus trated by the CSC demonstrators. The last thing the Cevionese officials were expecting was a situation where they would have to explain away the Government's regretive and mur cerous po Icies. The IMG, as one of the organisations supporting the Caylon Solidarity Campaign, also sent along a delegation with a wreath in memory of those murdered by the A spacial bulletin with information about the matsacre and an analysis of the beckground to it has been produced by the CSC. This and further information, details of speakar, ete, can be obtained by writing to: CSC, 9 Dennington Park Mansions, London N.W.6.
During the night of 14 May West German police raided the offipes of the Maoist "New KPD" group in all the major cities, marched dozens of flats, and took away a large quantity of material. They also arrested a member of the KPD, Jurgen Horlemann, under the Criminal Conspiracy Act.
The Political Bureau of the GIM, German section of the Fourth Intarnational, has issued a statement de nouncing these acts and the series of repressive measures preceding it, which included the break-up of a KPD May Day demonstration of some 600 by thousands of police. As in last year's witch-hunt against the Red Army Fraction, the aim of the state apparatus is repression against the left as a whole, The accupation of the Bonn Town Hall in protest: against Thieu's visit, an action in which the KPO was not supported by other groups, was used as a pretext to taunen tre repression The reasons for the repression are to be found in the development of the ciass struggle, The sabrisation policy of the SPD/EDP government, designed to lower real wages, maker it harder for the trade union burnaceracy to sell a policy of conciliation to the rank and file, A series of industrial atruggles — Hoesch, democracy and 'class peace", has long been Mannesmann, BASF and the printers' dispute - has undermined the credibility of the trade union leader ship and helped lay the basis for intervention by revolutonares. It is the development or a revalutionary leadership in the working class that the re. pression is designed to stop.
The German CP, tor whom the over-riding need of the moment has been that there should be "socisi peace for Brezhnev's visit to Brandt, has refused to give even tokan support ta the KPD. The GiM stateto be divided by either tre manoeures or Dour gecisie, the CP's machinations or the political mis-. takes of the KPD iself, and speals for united action against he thrar to outlaw any section of tha workers" movement, Bengali peasant Mader Maulana Bhashani, still on hunger strike and in a critical condition, has rejectad Mujib's appesis to break his strike. He is demanding food for the people, as thousands starve to death; the bringing to just ce ot those responsiom tor the thirder of trade union and oppositonist waders; the ruskiny A bugging device planted by police was dis. covered during a security check at a recent conference organised by the Swiss section of the Fourth International, the LMR (Revolutionary Marxist League), near Lausanne. One might have thought that the discovery of the device, hidden in a false ceiling of the conference hall, would have been a little embarrassing for the government; the mote so since such procedures are specifically forbidden by Swiss law. But in a statement on 10 May, admitting that the bugging had federal authorisntion, the Department of Police and Justice went on to say that the protection of the law did not necessarily apply to the LMR, an organisation tending to subvert democracy and social order, which does not exclude the resort to illegal means to achieve this".
The LMR - one of whose leading comrades has recently been brought to trial for discheying an order to cease political activity at Lausanne University — has beeu subject to harasment and constant surveillance for some time. A full-scale judicial inquiry has now been opened into its legal status on the grounds of its alleged "subversive character"
Switzerland, according to bourgeois myth one of the greatest success stories of parliamentary renowned as a centre of international espionage and counter-espionage Now, as the post-war years of class harmony come to an end throughout Europe, it is obvious that the Swiss bourgeoisie huve themselves learned a few lessons from al the activity The dangers of repression are all the more acute in Switzerland because no less than 30% of its active workers are immigrants. Many ment, however, calls on all left organisations to refuse are from southern European countries, especi ally Italy and Spain, and have no democratic rights in Switzerland. One of the reasons for the bourgeoisie's move against the LMR is the fact that in the short period of its existence it has consistently fought to unify the entite working class — the natire workers of the Italian, French and German speaking areas of Switzerland, and the immigrant workem. The strugele to defend the LMR now becomes al extremely important concero for the socialist movement in Europe as a whole.