BY GYLFI PÁLL HERSIR

REYKJAVÍK, Iceland - Only a few days after the United States government bombed Iraq, Laura Garza, Socialist Workers candidate for vice president in the United States, addressed the issue at a Militant Internationalist Forum here. "The alliance the U.S. government was able to build in the Gulf War five years ago is no longer there," she said. "Washington does not and never has supported any of the Kurds; no human rights issue is involved," she added, agreeing with the view of one forum participant who pointed out the devastating consequences of the U.S. led embargo on Iraq.

Garza met workers in the fish freezing plant Grandi during their lunch break September 10. "I am on tour to European countries to discuss with working people the situation we face, such as the attacks on social benefits," she said, inquiring about the situation of a conflict between health service doctors and the state. The doctors employed at public health centers had collectively resigned from their jobs to put pressure on their demand for higher wage instead of getting a big portion of their wages paid per task they perform.

"I think the doctors should have the right to strike," a woman replied. "The present situation is intolerable," another woman said and explained a situation where a child with painful wound on his hand had to wait three hours in a hospital emergency room to see a doctor. "Maybe this is the system they want," she added "where the rich can pay and the poor can wait."

Garza spoke to classes at three high schools. At the MH school, much of the discussion was on the issue of abortion and lesbian and gay marriages. Garza defended women's right to abortion after the teacher questioned the moral issues involved. A journalism student at the FA school later interviewed Garza for Vera, the Women's Slate political party's monthly journal.

Garza was interviewed by two daily newspapers. Morgunbladid, the largest daily associated with the Independence (Conservative) Party, printed a news story under the headline "Cuba, an Example For the World." Dagur-Tíminn, a liberal newspaper, published an interview with Garza on the election in the U.S. and other issues, under the title, "I Would Not Call It Democracy."

During the tour, six people signed up for the 14th World Festival of Youth and Students in Cuba 1997.

BY BIRGITTA ISACSSON AND CATHARINA TIRSÉN

STOCKHOLM, Sweden - Papa Sowe, a leader of the Friends of Patrick Nadji Committee, kicked off a Militant Labor Forum on the U.S. elections here August 6. Patrick Nadji, originally from the Ivory Coast, was murdered by a Nazi youth on Sept. 9, 1995, in Klippan in the south of Sweden. Sowe urged forum participants to join a demonstration on September 9 in Klippan to commemorate Nadji and attend final arguments in the Supreme Court trial of the man who killed him.

"We want to campaign together with others who want to act against injustices," said Laura Garza, Socialist Workers candidate for vice president of the United States.

Garza described how Clinton has been the most effective U.S. president at cutting away at social rights that workers won 60 years ago. Garza also described how Clinton's law-and-order campaign is part of a bipartisan attack on democratic rights. "This is similar to how the rulers use the murders of the children in Belgium to push for the death penalty," she commented.

Republican Robert Dole, Garza said, presents himself as the candidate addressing the real economic worries of working people today, by calling for policies to promote faster capitalist growth. "There is just one problem," she said. "It won't work. It is not possible to have long-term capitalist expansion when the problem is there are too many products on the market to sell at a profit."

While in Sweden, Garza also talked with Scania truck workers in Sodertalje and spoke to a meeting of 25 youth in Jakobsberg, a suburb north of Stockholm. She addressed high school students at the Spanga gymnasium and met aerospace and auto workers at factory gates. Two Spanish-language radio stations interviewed the SWP candidate.  
 
 
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