E. German dissidents are freed

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ON January 24 Ulrike Poppe and Baerbel Bokley were released after a month in prison and charges against them dropped.

Arrested on December 12 last year, they had been charged with having "passed on" information which was "detrimental" to the State. They might have drawn a sentence of up to twelve years.

The reason for Ulrike's and Baerbel's arrest is most probably that they are peace activists.

In early 1982 their signatures appeared on a petition to Party leader Erich Honnecker, signed by 150 other names. It protested at new legislation which empowered the army to extend conscription to women at times of "national emergency"

Since that time the two women have been closely involved in the emergent unofficial peace movement.

THE TRIAL of Olga Medvedkova will probably commence in Moscow on Saturday February 25. The verdict is almost a foregone conclusion and Olga is prepairing herself to receive a labour camp sentence of two to three years.

The trial is of ominous significance for the fledgling independent Soviet peace movement. The proceedings against Olga Medvedkova may well indicate that the Soviet state has decided upon a policy of the judicial liquidation of the Moscow Trust Group.

THRILLER writers have always known how to use The Reading of the Will... the' mystery-making will by which a bequest goes to an unexpected quarter; the will which uncovers the hidden loves and malevolences of, or reveals something else quite unexpected about, its author.

George Wigg was one of Labour prime minister Harold Wilson's main lieutenants in the mid-1960s, when Wilson's government was squaring up to launch an attack on trade union rights. The recent reading of his will revealed something very unexpected about Simpson Along with other women activists they contributed to the formulation of a feminist analysis of the arms race and to discussions on the role of women in East German society.

Their analysis and activities contrasted with the official state truth which insists that the party is the custodian of peace and detente. In reality the party is intensifying the already high levels of militarisation in East German society.

Also, of course, the unofficial women's movement shed light on the East German state's claim to have achieved genuine social equality for women.

The arrests of Poppe and Bokley came after they had met Barbara Eichorn, a member of British END and a university lecturer in the GDR.

The authorities alleged that Baerbel and Ulrike had expressed anti-GDR resentiments in conversation notes with Barbara.

The last action of Baerbel and Ulrike prior to their arrest was to be among the signatories of a letter to the West German Bundestag protesting against its ratification of the decision to deploy Pershing missiles.

Their release was probably obtained by persistent protests to the party leaderships by members of the Western peace movements. US troops in El Salvador ARGENTINA'S Senate is currently debating a new trade union law which has already been approved by the lower house of parliament.

Paralleling the current Tebbit/King legislation in Britain, the law provides for state intervention in the unions to secure formally more HONG KONG'S economy has been reviving as an agreement between China and Britain over its future looks closer.

l'erms may be announced as early as this spring. They are likely to include the return of Hong Kong to Chinese sovereignty, but with a very large degree of autonomy, democratic elections.

What makes it slightly different from Britain is the nature of the trade union bureaucracy.

Argentina had a Socialist Party, anarchist groups, and a trade union movement as early as the 1890s. But the populist military regime of Juan Peron smashed up that old labour allowing a free market capitalist system to remain there.

Beijing and London intend to put together a deal and then present it as an accomplished fact to the people of Hong Kong.

But last week even the 'unofficial' members of Hong THE hypocritical outcry from the US and from right-wingers in Central America about democracy in Nicaragua has backfired.

Now the right wing opposition parties in Nicaragua are demanding that elections be put off.

Sandinista leader Daniel Ortega announced on February 21 that presidential and national assembly elections would take place on November 4 this year, earlier than previously expected.

He also announced an extension of the amnesty for counter-revolutionaries.

Press comment has linked the election date with the US presidential contest. The Sandinistas want to have the strength of an election victory behind them before they face Ronald Reagan returned for a second term.

No one doubts dinistas will win. movement in the 1940s.

It created a new trade union movement, very much linked with the state - something like the Mexican union movement, which is a component part of the party which has run the Mexican state for some 60 years.

The top union bureaucrats Kong's Legislative Council hand-picked business bigwigs - called for the people of Hong Kong to have a say. • Working-class socialists in Hong Kong have demanded the right of the people of Hong Kong to decide their own future through a freely elected Assembly.

They have also reduced the voting age to 16. This move has especialy enraged the right wing, which complains that the schedule does not allow them sufficient time to campaign.

The Conservative Party may boycott the poll.

The election schedule is part of a whole recent turn of policy by the Sandinistas which also includes such things as an agreement with other Central American governments -including El Salvador's! -to stop any subversion based in one government's territory and directed against another.

The Sandinistas probably see this as a way of calling the US's bluff. For sure it is a dangerous way of playing with the struggle of the FMLN in El Salvador.

Yet, whatever the Sandinistas' motives, the calling of the elections can only be of benefit to the possibilities of working-class socialist activity in Nicaragua. are notoriously corrupt and closely connected with sections of the top ranks of the armed forces.

That makes the Radical government's moves more of a parallel to the measures taken by US government agencies against gangster leaders in the US unions.

As in the US, it would be unwise for rank and file trade unionists to trust in the government. Rather, they should say: 'Hands off the unions. We'll clear out the gangsters ourselves' The Radical Party, historically, has had scarcely less close links with the military than the Peronists. And the union laws are part of a package which will include wage controls.

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Olga Medvedkova