Report from CWI World Congress 2007
The international fight for socialism
The Socialist Party in Australia is affiliated to an international organisation called the Committee for a Workers’ International (CWI). In mid January the CWI held its World Congress in Belgium. It was attended by Socialist Party members Stephen Jolly, Tony Mason and Anthony Main. Below, Anthony Main reports on some of work of the CWI in the different regions of the world.
Delegates and visitors from 28 sections of the CWI, covering every continent, came together to discuss the events of the period just gone and the perspectives for the year ahead. The congress also discussed the crucially important topic of building the forces of socialism worldwide.
Since the last CWI congress in 2002 it was clear that we have made some significant gains in several countries including some where we play an important role in the labour movement. This report will attempt to give a brief overview of some of our work.
Africa
Africa is a continent with some of the worst examples of abject poverty in the world. The CWI has an important base in Africa with a section in South Africa and a section in Nigeria. Our section in Nigeria, The Democratic Socialist Movement (DSM) is the second largest party in the CWI and the largest Marxist party on the African continent. The DSM has played a leading role in the recent struggles against fuel price increases where a series of general strikes have shaken the country.
However the trade union leaders have refused to use this opportunity to remove the government which can only be described as a military government in civilian clothes. The union leaders called off a general strike at the last minute in late 2004. Since then the working masses and poor in Nigeria have lost a certain amount of confidence and this has led to a downturn in struggle.
Nigeria is a country where 70% of the population lives on less than $1 per day and unemployment is over 30%. There is almost no better example of the failure of capitalism to be able take society forward as in Nigeria. The DSM is one of the only organizations in Nigeria posing the urgent need to fight for a socialist transformation of society.
Given the weaknesses of the union leaders and the vacuum that exists on the left the DSM has been able to win significant authority amongst workers and has built a high profile in the country. The CWI hopes to build on this base in Africa and expand to the many other countries that are in desperate need of parties raising a socialist alternative.
Asia
The region of Asia, encompassing a massive part of the world, is one where the CWI has been putting in a lot of work in recent years. The CWI has sections in Kazakhstan, Pakistan, Kashmir, India, Sri Lanka and Australia as well as supporters in places like New Zealand, Malaysia and Japan.
Our section in Kazakhstan, Socialist Resistance, has been doing magnificent work in the face of brutal state repression. A major campaign they have been involved in is the ongoing struggle of the Almaty shanty town dwellers. It is not uncommon for members of Socialist Resistance to be regularly jailed or bashed by police.
Pakistan is also a country where our members do heroic work under very difficult circumstances. The position that our Pakistani section has built in the unions is very impressive. In fact several of our members played a leading role in 2005 telecommunications strike against privatisation.
Sri Lanka was a country which the congress discussed in great detail. It is here where members of our section, the United Socialist Party (USP), are most at risk of loosing their lives in the course of fighting against war, oppression and for socialism.
Siritunga Jayasuriya (Siri), the general secretary of the United Socialist Party arrived at the world congress only a day after an attempt was made on his life. Siri was to chair a rally, which had been called against the civil war and against repression and poverty, when it was attacked by over 100 armed thugs. Disgustingly a government minister led the attack. The majority of people in Sri Lanka stand opposed to the escalating military clashes between the Sinhala state forces and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (Tamil Tigers).
It is because the USP stands principally for the right of self-determination of the Tamil and Muslim minorities that Siritunga and the USP have been targeted with death threats and attacks. The CWI will do all that is necessary to ensure that internationally the struggle of the minorities and the oppressed in Sri Lanka is highlighted and supported.
North America
In North America the CWI has sections in the US and Canada. In the US our section, Socialist Alternative, has been extremely active in the anti-war movement and the movement against Bush.
In particular, it has helped to initiate and lead school students’ strikes against the Iraq war. Several student strikes have been organized across the country to protest against the war and military recruitment in schools. It is these and other protests that have helped highlight the situation where money is being directed away from jobs, healthcare and education and into the war budget. Socialist Alternative has also played a role supporting the struggles of auto workers and in the immigrant rights movement that swept the US in early 2006.
The building of the CWI in ‘the belly of the beast’ of world capitalism is an extremely important task.
South America
In South America we have sections in Brazil and Chile as well as a new group in Venezuela. We have also made recent interventions into the developing situation in Bolivia. In Brazil our section, Socialismo Revolucionário (SR), works within a broader formation called the Party for Socialism and Liberty (P-SoL). SR members were heavily involved in the recent P-SoL presidential election campaign where Heloisa Helena received 6.6 million votes. This result shows the potential for a genuine socialist alternative to the Lula government’s neo liberal reforms. As part of the campaign SR also stood a candidate for state MP in Sao Paulo were we also ran a very successful campaign.
The CWI section in Brazil has more than doubled in size over the last two years and is now moving to become a genuine national organization. We now have a base in Sao Paulo state as well as branches in Rio de Janeiro, Parana, Sergipe and Ceara. SR members are campaigning inside P-SoL for the party to be not only an electoral party but to also be a campaigning organization that fights with workers and peasants in their day to day struggles.
In one of the most exciting developments for the CWI in recent years we have also begun to build an important base in Venezuela. Our group in Venezuela is currently playing an important role in the running of a union of hospital workers. We hope to build on this work and put forward a programme within the labour movement that ensures that the important gains made so far by Chavez are not taken back by the threats of counter- revolution.
Europe
The CWI has sections in most countries across Europe. In Ireland our section, the Socialist Party (SP), has played a key role in organizing migrant workers. In 2005 SP uncovered a major scandal of migrant worker exploitation. A multinational construction company, GAMA, was found to be underpaying it Turkish workers to the tune of millions of Euros. SP helped to organize strikes and raised the issue through our MP in the Irish parliament. The Turkish workers won a magnificent victory and highlighted to Irish workers that instead of migrants being used to undermine wages and conditions in a ‘race to the bottom’ it was possible to win decent pay for all workers.
One important issue that was discussed at the congress was the issue of working class political representation. With the collapse of the old ‘communist’ parties and the shift to the right of the social democracy it is a problem world wide that working people don’t have parties that represent their interests. The CWI fights for new mass workers’ parties to be founded. In a number of countries in Europe we are involved in such initiatives.
In England and Wales and in Belgium the CWI is involved in campaigns for the establishment of new workers’ parties. In Belgium CWI members helped to organize the founding conference of CAP (committee for another kind of politics). This conference brought together more than 600 people including many trade union activists.
In Germany CWI members were involved in the establishment of the WASG – the new left party in Germany. As well as building this new formation CWI members were forced to wage a serious battle arguing for the organization to stand firmly against cuts and privatisation. CWI members argued against the WASG merging with the PDS. The PDS is currently part of regional coalition governments that are carrying out attacks on working people.
In Berlin, CWI members successfully argued that the Berlin WASG should stand independently of the PDS in the recent regional election. Despite a bitter battle the Berlin WASG went ahead and stood, receiving an excellent 52,000 votes. CWI member Lucy Redler was at the head of the Berlin WASG list. Unfortunately due to limited resources, this was not enough to get Lucy elected but showed the potential for a genuine socialist alternative to the policies of neo liberalism.
In many other areas of Europe the CWI is going from strength to strength. Greece is a perfect example of this. Our membership in Greece has grown by the hundreds in recent years with the section doing fantastic work amongst students and migrant workers.
The reports above have only been able to give a taste of the work of the CWI in some of the regions of the world. It was noted at the congress that never at any other time in human history has the gulf between rich and poor been so large. Capitalism has well and truly exhausted its usefulness and it now in fact an obstacle to further development. Whilst tiny minorities of people live obscenely rich lifestyles, for the vast majority of people on the globe it is a hand to mouth existence.
In contrast socialism would use the world’s enormous resources and human potential to build a society that would share the wealth that working people create equally. This is what the CWI is fighting for on an international level.
With capitalism being a global system it is vital that socialist resistance also be organized on an international scale. Whilst the CWI’s forces are still relatively modest it is our aim to lay down the basis for a mass socialist international that will be an important weapon in the fight against capitalist and imperialist domination.
