National solidarity:
Wellington Stagecoach workers and other
Tramways members pledged solidarity and offered financial support. Public support was overwhelmingly high
despite the disruption to travel for several days. But this level of solidarity
has not yet been enough to win what the drivers want.
Strike committee:
All up meetings must elect strike committees
to run the struggle, between the all up meetings. Every member must have the right to speak at
all-up meetings.
As
a consequence of past defeated struggles the Tramways union was split. The
majority of workers stayed with Tramways while others went to BEES (Bus
Employees Enterprise Society), Akarana Drivers Association, and some to the Engineers
Union.
Breakaway unions weakened the workers ability to fight.
The
BEES tried to find a legal solution without success. Akarana scabbed on
previous strikes years ago. Akarana had signed a new contract without referring
to the majority of drivers in the union – undermining the Tramways union’s ability
to negotiate, and to win a strike. An
injury to one is an injury to all – scabbing is an injury to all of the working
class. Scabbing divides the strength of
workers.
These groups are now re-united for negotiations as well as on the picket
line and striking together. But is this
unity one of strength or has it just poured polyfiller into the splits between
workers? All drivers should be members
of the Tramways Union! Those who are not should join now!
Demand Tramways Union opens the books and declares how much their
officials are paid. Officials pay should
be on the same scale as workers. We know
these officials have political affiliations, including to the Labour
party. Opening the books will make all
political donations transparent.
Demand all donations are voted on at the all-up meetings.
Build a new union on a new constitution based on:
open books, recallable officials, a standing delegates committee, and regular all-up members meetings.
Elect all officials at all-up meetings on a
show of hands.
Mass Pickets:
Through a telephone tree the strike
committee can organise mobile pickets prepared to strengthen or set up a picket
at short notice in case of any threat to the picket lines. They can also use
the mass media to organise – radio stations can be used to send messages around
the community, broadcasting a need to strengthen a picket at short notice.
Strike Funds:
A task of the
strike committee is to distribute a ‘strike wage’ and donations according to
workers need. Build a strike committee
with support funds, paying a strike wage to workers and organizing real relief
within the striking workers. Organise receipt books on the picket lines to
account for donations and help distribute them fairly. For a strike committee centre at each depot
picketline, and in between strike action
and pickets, at the union office.
CTU role:
Council of Trade Unions’ president Ross Wilson
volunteered to support the struggle by playing a support role in negotiations. This is the job of the strike committee, not
a top official committed to building partnerships with the bosses! The CTU
should build mass pickets of all union members!
Lets see some real support! If striking drivers got regular donations
into their strike funds collected from 30,000 CTU members at only $1 each per
week – that would make a strike fund! That would be the real sort of practical
support that could assist workers to win this fight. Let us see money &
muscle, not the mouth coming from the CTU!
International Solidarity:
Put the Tramways union
website: www.tramways.org.nz
under the control of the union rank and file and use it to make links with the
international working class. Stagecoach
is an international company. Workers in
Public Ownership:
Taken back under worker’ control, transport
planning can end the daily commuting grind. Return the buses to public ownership!
No compensation for stagecoach! No subsidies to local, national or
international capitalists! For workers councils to run the transport system and
organise bus routes and timetables.
Labour Government:
In the run up to the election, the Labour
party will want to keep a lid on workers struggles. That will mean that union officials who are
Labour party members will be prone to selling out, and may need throwing
out. Demand that all negotiators are
up-front about their party memberships.
Be prepared to replace Labour party members in the negotiation
team.
Defend workers taking
industrial action:
When workers take any form of industrial
action (eg. refusing to cash in) and are sacked for taking that action, the
rest of the workforce must demand any individual victimised is
re-instated. Do not abandon individual
workers to the processes of industrial law or mediation. The legal road is the
bosses road. In
An Injury to One is an
Injury to All! When a worker is isolated from other workers
they are vulnerable to being picked off by the bosses. Don’t accept any sackings without a workers’
controlled review committee – don’t accept workers being labelled “trouble-makers”
by bosses or their lackeys. Do not
abandon your workmates, be prepared to strike until victimised workers are reinstated.
Strike Support:
Drivers need to organise a community strike
support committee. Working class
communities can rally around in defence of our fellow workers and public
services – a recent example was the support committees at the fire stations,
when the fire fighters were in struggle. A weakness of striking workers has
been the type of go-it-alone “staunch unionism”
that is not ready for support and help from other workers.
Workers strength is other workers, we need
to communicate with one other.
Ritchies' drivers:
The NDU covers Ritchies' workers, however
this group of workers has already settled for a lower rate (see box). This divides
A
community led strike support committee - Unite to fight!
A
living wage! No broken shifts: workers
control of shifts and rosters!
A
4 day (32 hour) working week. Social
wages – free & quality education and healthcare.
Return
buses to public ownership, without compensation, and under workers
control.
Recent
events involving public naming and attacking of pedophiles and alleged
pedophiles show an increasing anxiety and fear amongst the community but what
are these fears really about, who benefits from their promotion and are they
grounded in fact?
In the last month there have been two
incidents involving the subject of pedophilia which have gained national
attention in the media.
The first involved
a man who had been released from jail after serving a sentence for sexual
offences against children. He moved to
Blackball on the west coast of the
There use to be a
principle (albeit largely fictional) that once a person had served there time
they should be allowed to have a chance to get on with their life. But even the pretense of this principle seems
to have gone out the window when it comes to certain offences.
Statistics show
that sexual offenders have one of the lowest rates of re-offending of people
who go to prison. You wouldn’t know that
from the way the media and police carry on.
If they are to be believed then every sex offender is a walking time
bomb ready to grab the nearest child.
When burglars, car
thieves and drug dealers are released from prison the media and cops aren’t out
there warning the community (nor should they be). But a special case is made for sex offenders.
The other important
fact to remember about sex offenders is that most sexual abuse occurs within
the family. The stranger offender is relativity
rare.
The other incident
which has occurred more recently was an anonymous leaflet sent out in the
This sort of
incident would not have happened ten years ago.
Is this happening now because there are so many more sex attacks on
children by people? No, the rates of
these types of offences have remained mercifully low.
The media were, or
course, quick to wring their hands and display a great concern about people
taking matters in to their own hands.
The irony is that they are part of the whole problem. They are quick to stir the pot when it suits
them.
The case of the
person in the IHC home illustrates how quick some people are to jump to
conclusions and then feel they have the right to make allegations and even go
further by distributing their poison.
How have we got to
this point in 2005? Surely in these rational
times one would have thought that such witch hunt tactics would garner no or
little support. But the reality is we do
not live in rational times. We live in a
time when there is much fear and uncertainty.
The term witch hunt
comes from the famous witch trials of
These two witch
hunts are just two examples (perhaps the best known) but there are countless
other examples of such panic attacks. At
the same time McCarthy was hunting for communists there was a huge gay moral
panic in
We could go on and
on with examples of such panics and witch hunts. In our own time it is not just pedophiles and
alleged pedophiles who are the target of witch hunting. We can’t forget it is election year and so
it’s time to have a go at immigrants again.
Winston Peters and Rodney Hyde are particularly good at finding a
potential terrorist lurking behind every tree or at the very least some
overstayer who is going to take the job off a hard working kiwi bloke or
blokess.
And it isn’t just
Act and New Zealand First who push this poison.
National has jumped on the bandwagon and the Labour government fearing a
public backlash has joined the heartless brigade.
Who really benefits
from these sorts of witch hunts and are the public really just a bunch of pitch
fork waving yokels who will be roused to attack their neighbour on the mere
suspicion of them being an illegal immigrant or pedophile?
Fortunately there
are many people (perhaps the silent majority) who are not sucked into this sort
of panic. Not long ago a man was
released from prison and ended up working in a library in
Even the recent
events in Blackball where the media assured us the Whole community seemed to be
united against this person was not all black and white. A public meeting called to voice concerns was
attended by about 50 people. Blackball
is small but not that small.
There are many
people like those mentioned above in
The real agenda of
the new right in pushing hysteria on these issues is to divert people away from
the real enemy, the capitalist system. The abuse of children is a product of a
system that founds itself on the exploitation of people. It is this system which keeps the bourgeois
family alive, where family life is a source of gender oppression and repression
of the rights of children. It is capitalism that leads to the abuse of
children, be it sexual, physical or emotional.
There will be no end to the suffering of children until there is an end
to capitalism.
As Marxists we must
consistently identify the real enemy and speak out against these witch hunts at
every opportunity. We must also strive
to point out that the real enemy is the capitalist system which is the real
cause of exploitation whether it is against children or adults.
Who’s Making Poverty?
‘Making
Poverty History’, http://www.makepovertyhistory.org
and the ‘Live 8’ http://www.live8live.com
campaign of ‘80’s ‘Live Aid’ promoter, Sir Bob Geldof has captured the media
headlines. It always was the biggest blockbuster around. Billions spent while
billions die. Who needs a Terminator when you’ve got Brad Pitt campaigning for
So
Bush and Blair have persuaded the G8 to ‘forgive’ 18 African states’ $40
billion in debts (equivalent to 20 days Pentagon spending). What happened to
the poorhouse? Isn’t
The
fact is the West isn’t giving up on debt. When the new World Bank head, Paul
Wolfowitz is a key player you can be sure of that. http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,15606684%255E601,00.html
The
imperialists are recognizing that their global interest does not depend on
actually eliminating the human race, but exploiting it. Dead people do not
produce much surplus labour. Born-again liberal Jeffrey Sachs puts the case
well. Western aid needs to be increased to sustainable levels. If the
It’s like the poor law, you create a bread
line for people who work. If they don’t work they fall below the bread line.
While it’s easy to blame the neo-colonies of
Brendan
O’Neil makes this point about MPH.
“.
. .The first thing to note is that Make Poverty History, even by its own
admission, will not make poverty history. Indeed, that is not, strictly
speaking, its aim. Its goal is to eradicate extreme poverty by putting pressure
on nation states to ensure that the Millennium Development Goals - which every
member of the United Nations officially endorsed in 2000 - are met.
The
first Millennium Development Goal on poverty is to cut by half the proportion
of people living on less than one dollar a day by 2015 - which, if achieved,
would still leave hundreds of millions of people living below the one-dollar
threshold. The World Bank has set up a website dedicated to explaining and
winning support for these Millennium Development Goals, and even that site
admits that achieving goal number 1 would not make poverty history. '[W]hile
poverty would not be eradicated, [it] would bring us much closer to the day
when we can say that all the world's people have at least the bare minimum to
eat and clothe themselves', the site says. …Even if Make Poverty History is
successful in pressurising governments to stick to their Millennium Development
promises, half of the world's poor will still live on less than a dollar a day
and half will still 'suffer from hunger'. In short, poverty will not be history
- far from it. The other Millennium Developpment Goals - relating to making primary
education available to more children and reversing the spread of HIV-AIDS and
the incidence of malaria - are also notable for their lack of ambition.
.
. .Live 8 is little more than the pop wing of G8, and Make Poverty History is
little more than a management committee making sure that America, Britain,
France and the rest push through their Millennium Development Goals. There is
little radical or even independent about Make Poverty History and Geldof's
coinciding global pop jamboree. They might consider themselves punkish and
edgy, but these pop and rock acts are merely shouting at the world powers to do
what they had already planned to do - slowly and incrementally eradicate only
the worst instances of poverty and starvation in the world today. Bob, Bono and
the rest simply provide the soundtrack to officialdom's slothful anti-poverty
campaign.” http://www.spiked-online.com/Articles/0000000CABA8.htm
Klein
goes one step better. Aid is not enough. It doesn’t touch the roots of poverty.
She says
“Bob
Geldof and the Make Poverty History crew have called for a million people to go
to
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Columnists/Column/0,5673,1503527,00.html
Unfortunately
for Klein, the Nigerian people, the Bolivian masses, and the Iraqi oil workers,
poverty is NOT the result of the wrong, bad news neo-liberal polices of the
West. Poverty is the ONLY policy for capitalism. As Marx proved, Capital’s
wealth is the masses immiseration. It
cannot be fixed by simply ‘forcing’ (how?) the ‘multinationals’ to change
policies. Their profits dictate that Africa, Latin America and
The
illusion that poverty can be negotiated out of existence is the illusion that
capitalism can be reformed. These are
the illusions that hold back the independent, armed organizations of the
workers and poor peasants in
000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000
British Election Leftovers
The
recent election in the
A Repectable result?
On the left voters
were faced with a large array of socialist and Marxist candidates, maybe too
many which may have led to many people opting not to vote at all. Given that the
Some of the left
(such as the Socialist Workers Party) hailed the results as a victory for the
left, choosing to focus on one of the few seats where Respect did well. George
Galloway’s victory in Bethnal Green and Bow was seen as a great victory for the
left and the anti-war movement.
However, as the Weekly Worker pointed out, this was not
so much a victory for the left but rather a victory for “the largely phantom
right (Muslim) wing in Respect” which “sets the parameters.”
Popular
Front
However, what Respect represents is a popular front
and the danger of the left being captured by the right. The left should be
seeking to win right wing Muslims to a socialist agenda, not forming a party
with them and bowing and scraping to every reactionary principle put forward by
them. The Socialist Workers Party showed
by its actions in Respect how ideologically
bankrupt and opportunist they are. As
the main drivers behind the party they have been prepared to move any remaining
principles they had out of sight in order to achieve a tiny bit of electoral success.
There is no future
in this sort of popular frontism that obliges the left to bury its
programme. The left must focus on a programme
which they put to workers without trying to sanitise it for opportunist
reasons.
If Respect didn’t do as well as the SWP
like to think it did, the results for other parties on the left were even more
dismal.
The Scottish
Socialist Party dropped from just over 3% in the 2001 election to less than 2%
in this one. This was partly to do with
the divisions within the party over the forced resignation of Tommy Sheridan.
Scargill’s
Socialist Labour party got an average return of 1.14% and Peter Taft’s
Socialist Party dropped from an average of 2.11% in 2001 to 1.57% in the seats
in which they stood this time.
All in all, not
much comfort for the left which raises two major questions. Why can’t the left capitalize on worker disenchantment
with Labour and score better results? Secondly,
is it even worth putting up candidates if you are a Marxist or supposedly
Marxist party?
Why
don’t workers vote ‘socialist’?
One reason left
parties do so badly is that
Having said that,
it is legitimate for the left to push for proportional representation as the current
system is so manifestly undemocratic in the
Probably the main reason is that like Respect the ‘socialists’ all acted like
they wanted to get voted into parliament to reform capitalism.
Because there was no chance of this and
workers knew the election was going to be closer than the previous one, Blair
managed to frighten them into voting Labour in case their vote for a left party
bought about a Tory victory. This brings us to the second question. Is it worth left and pseudo left groups even
bothering to put up candidates at all?
Watered down electoral ‘socialism’
For revolutionaries
who know that parliament has to be overthrown it is still important to use
elections to put your revolutionary agenda in front of people and try to convince
them that there is an alternative to what passes for so-called democracy in countries
like the United Kingdom and New Zealand.
The Weekly Worker reports that the Socialist
Party claimed that their leaflets reached 700,000 households and their fighting
fund was increased. However,
revolutionaries must make it clear to voters that you have no faith in
parliamentary democracy to delver the goods for workers.
But the Socialist
Party doesn’t stand in the British election to put forward a genuine revolutionary
platform. It stood as part of a Socialist Green Unity Coalition. Its program
can be found here http://www.socialistunitynetwork.co.uk/activate/sguc.htm
What do we find in
response to privatisation? Not a call on workers to occupy workplaces under
workers control but a bland statement against privatisation. The public sector
unions threat to strike on election day against Labour’s pension plans, or the
Rolls Royce workers call to occupy and nationalise the plant facing closure,
should have been turned into the key electoral planks.
What do we find on
the
What do we find on
racism and the targetting of immigrants? This was the most salient issue during
the election. It saw a section of Muslims back Respect, but it also saw more white workers back the proto fascist
British National Party. We do not find any call for workers to mobilise in
defence of migrants, or to strike against racism in the workplace.
Instead of ‘open
borders’ or ‘smash immigration laws’ which are policies that organised labour
can fight for, we have ‘recognition of migrant workers rights’. How might these
rights be recognised? SGUC MPs will vote for legislative protection of migrants
rights of course. Here we have the classic watering down of a socialist program
to that acceptable to workers who still have illusions in parliament.
Tactical Support for bourgeois workers parties
There is always the
temptation to water down the program because in putting up a revolutionary
program workers might well say, “Why should I vote for you if you have no faith
in the system and are unlikely to win in any case?” This is a valid question. At the moment most workers still harbour
illusions in social democracy being able to deliver the goods. Labour Parties were set up to convince
workers that they could get socialism via the parliamentary road. Despite
decades of betrayals, the lack of any alternative road finds most unions and
workers still desperately clinging on to these parties.
While that is the
case revolutionaries must offer tactical support to get these ‘bourgeois
workers’ parties elected so they can be further exposed as anti-worker. Lenin
spoke of this ‘critical support’ tactic as supporting the British Labour Party
like a “noose supports a hanged man”. By standing as revolutionaries and
offering the support of a ‘noose’ to Labour parties, we can win workers to a
revolutionary program.
This tactic has
been turned into a long-term strategy in countries like the
However, though
these bourgeois workers parties have moved a long way to the right, as yet no such
revolutionary splits have led to the formation of mass revolutionary parties.
No
tactical support for New Labour!
The left in
New Labour has been
a key US ally in the war of terror and the invasion of
One of the latest
schemes is to get people to carry identity cards. This idea was dropped because it was so
unpopular but has managed to make a come back with the Government trying to
frighten people with the spectre of a terrorist and illegal immigrant behind
every lamp post.
In summary, it is
necessary to stand against such an openly anti-worker party, but only if it is
on a genuine revolutionary platform and one which is honest. There is no future
for workers if they enter into opportunist popular fronts with other candidates
and other agendas which can in no way be seen as supporting a genuine left
platform. Workers need a revolutionary workers party that fights to overthrow
parliament and uses elections to expose the fraudulent claims of all
parliamentary parties.
In Class Struggle # 60
we criticised the Australian Democratic
Socialist Perspectives’ cheerleading for Chavez. We print a rejoinder by one of
its members and our reply [see ‘Venezuela and the Cuban Road to Socialism’ http://redrave.blogspot.com As we point out
the DSP is aligned to the Castroites who are influential in the World Social
Forum and play a treacherous role in the mass struggles in Latin America (see
article on Bolivia in this issue). It also has some influence on some reformist
currents in Aotearoa/NZ, and may be the model for a future ‘socialist alliance’
between between the SWO and Matt McCarten. To expose the treacherous role of
this organisation today we print here a short history of the DSP by the Communist Left of Australia which
traces its degeneration from a self-declared Trotskyist group in the 1960s to
its present pro-Stalinist, pro-Castroist position as the ‘Democratic Socialist
Perspectives’ inside the Australian Socialist Alliance. It is a sorry tale.
The
origins of the Democratic Socialist
Party of Australia go right back to a split in the post-war self-claimed
‘Fourth International’ between the majority United Secretariat, and those who supported Michel Pablo known as the
International Marxist Tendency. In
Whilst there was an organisational break with Pablo over political
questions, both groupings had the same fundamental methodology. In Pablo's ‘new
world reality’ history was seen as an inevitible process that would
revolutionise reformist, stalinist and even bourgeois nationalist parties.
Therefore both sides of this split no longer saw the need to build independent
Trotskyist parties.
Both groupings were thoroughly loyal to the Australian Labor Party (ALP) practicing long term entry work (deep
entrism). John and Jim Percy, foundation leaders of the Democratic Socialist
Party, were then
The grouping around Socialist
Perspectives, founded the Campaign for Nuclear disarmament which became the
Vietnam Action Committee when
Inside this group there were differences over organisation. The Percy
brothers were known for their belief in strong centralised organisation. On the
other hand, the ‘New Leftists’ very influential at the time, opposed
organisation, equating it with bureaucracy. New left meetings were often
chaotic and bureaucratic (lacking structure certain stronger members tended to
dominate). The older Trotskyists (MacDougall and Gould) were fearful that a
more defined organisation would threaten their long-term entryism in the ALP.
Their
youth group Resistance became very
successful, organising high school students against the war and the Student
Underground. During 1968 there was a significant growth in activity and
membership. They also received a degree of notoriety because of their support
for the NLF in
A
number of splits occurred over organisational issues. The most significant of
these being in 1970 was with Bob Gould who opposed Resistance being defined by
political demands. Gould split away taking with him about one third of the membership.
Both supported protest movements and an orientation to the Labor Party. The
real difference was priority. This is shown by their support for Bob Gould as
Socialist Left delegate to the 1971 Federal ALP Conference. In NSW the Percy group
won hegemonic control over the Socialist Left within the Labor Party which
never grew (in NSW) significantly beyond the radical left.
Bob
Gould claimed the Third World Bookshop as his property because he was the legal
owner and put in more money than others. The Percy majority pointed out that
the Third World Bookshop was established as a bookshop for Resistance and Bob
was in the minority. Within six months, Gould had lost most of his supporters
to the variant of the so-called "Fourth International" called the International Committee led internationally
by Gerry Healy.
Out
of all this the Percy grouping renamed itself as the Socialist Youth
Vietnam War
Now
being fully aligned with the SWP-US, they took on its theoretical heritage,
such as
The
priority of SYA became the Moratorium
against the Vietnam War. They fought for a coherent single-issue one-point programme:
‘Out Now!’ They opposed calls for ‘peace’ or ‘negotiations’. They opposed the
Moratorium being based around support for the National Liberation Front.
They
opposed any orientation to draft resistance or against conscription. They
opposed the slogan "stop work to stop the war" arguing that this
underestimated the strength of the protest movement. They supported strong
centralised and regular marches and opposed decentralised ones. They opposed
the Vietnam Moratorium becoming multi-issue.
Their
opposition to the ‘solidarity with the NLF’ slogan came from both the right and
left. For revolutionaries, the point of internationalist solidarity is to
sharpen the struggle against ‘ones own’ country by calling for its military
defeat. This the SYA didn't do. They deliberately avoided taking a military
stand in what was an imperialist war with the conscious purpose of mobilising
as broadly as possible. According to SYA ‘theory’, which they still agree with
today, the might of numbers i.e. public opinion, forces governments to act.
This they counter-posed to direct action by the working class. Their strategy
amounted to populism and public opinion. Bourgeois forces were welcomed as part
of the mass movement. This apparently was "their contradiction and not
ours".
They
sounded left when they opposed the strategy of the Vietcong, correctly
identifying this strategy as stalinist. They made the link between Stalin's
theory of socialism in one country and the NLF call for peace talks. Of course
class struggle anti-imperialist solidarity must mean a break from Stalinism.
But the SYA opposed identification with Stalinism as it might scare off
bourgeois liberal antiwar opponents and narrow the movement. This is a right
wing opposition to the ‘solidarity with the NLF’ demand. They have since
changed their analysis and now consider the NLF to be Leninists who pursued a
revolutionary strategy.
SYA
adhered to the theory of neo-capitalism. According to this theory capitalist
crises are over, and issues such as alienation were now more relevant in
creating a revolutionary dynamic. In the late ‘sixties and early ‘seventies in
prosperous
In
all these issues they pursued the same method — mass action around single-issue
demands. They were, seen as conservatives, especially during the mass movement
against the South African racist Springbok rugby tour. Virtually everyone else
involved supported physical disruption of that tour.
In
short, SYA were a Labor Party loyal league with a minimalist programme oriented
to radical middle class protest politics.
In
1972, the economic crisis hit. Class issues came to the forefront. The Liberals
moved some reactionary anti-working class legislation known as the ‘Lynch Laws’
bringing about an upsurge of militancy in the metal industry, the ‘movement for
workers control’. This resistance continued after the Whitlam-led ALP was
elected in November '72. During this upsurge of working class struggle the SWL
were basically irrelevant. A group of Ernest Mandel supporters left its ranks
no doubt itching to get involved in class struggle as opposed to student protests.
They constituted themselves as the Communist
League.
A
key issue in the split was what attitude to take to the ALP. In his recently
published book John Percy has suggested that the difference was merely a
tactical one of formulating their critical support. However if one reads SWL
leader Jim McIlroy in his commentary on the 1974 Federal election, it is very
clear that the SWL considered voting Labor to be a matter of principle, as
opposed to tactics, since Labor was the working class party to be supported
despite its leadership.
During
the Whitlam years the SWL may have abstained from the militant working class
struggle, but there was plenty of student and mass movement activism for them
to build their league. They formed the Women's Abortion Action Campaign, a
single issue campaign. They were prominent in defending the Palestinians in
resolutions debated within the Australian Union of Students. They recruited
some from the Communist Party of Australia – Dr Gordon Adler being the most
prominent. But basically, they consolidated their organisation. In the climate
of militancy during that period they were considered conservatives within the
left. The Communist League described their paper as ‘The Women’s Weekly of the
Australian revolutionary left’.
They
entered into many significant debates with the CPA Stalinists on international
issues such as
The
1975 Federal Election saw them stand candidates for the first time. They have
stood in almost every election since. Previously they were known to have
opposed standing for parliament on principle, arguing that it was a barrier to
their fight against the Labor leadership. The '75 election occurred after the
sacking of Whitlam by governor General Sir John Kerr and his replacement with
an interim Fraser government. Working class militancy and anger was immense.
The left were extremely active. Of all the left groups the SWL was the least
involved with the justifiable anger felt within the working class. They made a
splash with prominent and colourful posters around protest issues (Women’s, gay
and black rights) calling for a Labor government pledged to socialist policies.
This, in a situation were a revolutionary general strike was being seriously
and widely demanded.
In
February '76 they renamed themselves the Socialist
Workers Party. Of course this spelt out that they were to have a prominent
presence outside the ALP. But they were still liquidationist. A few years later
Bob Gould was to point out that ‘supporters of Direct Action were virtually
indistinguishable from the official Left in NSW Young Labor, the Radical Leadership Group’. Gould at
least had a faction which demanded ‘socialist policies’ (of the reformist
variety). The RLG and therefore
‘supporters of Direct Action’ did
not!
As
with their
By
renaming themselves as a party and their turn to the working class, the SWP did
form a sort of pole of attraction among sections of the far left. They won over
some former members of the syndicalist
Melbourne Revolutionary Marxists and some former CPA members. They were on
the road to winning back those who split to form the Communist League which was
seen to be failing in its efforts to build an organisation,
They
were still strongly involved in protest politics. In the Timor Moratorium
movement and the anti-uranium movement they intervened as they did against the
Vietnam War. They had a single-issue broad populist approach. From these
movements they recruited. But they didn't recruit from the movement for civil
liberties in
The
turn to the working class was unsuccessful in terms of results for effort. The
ex-student radicals joined the unions to form rank-and-file oppositions. While
a few militants were won the class composition did not significantly change.
And in no union were they a serious left pole of attraction. On the whole they
opposed economic protectionism but sometimes made opportunist adaptations to
link up with militants who were protectionist (Victorian Builders’
But
they did have some ideological influence on the left. This resulted from the
CPA Stalinists rabid turn to the right. In the major unions where the CPA had
significant influence, the perspective of workers control of the early
‘seventies was replaced by overt class collaborationist protectionism. The CPA
promoted all sorts of ‘Peoples’ Economic Programmes’ (PEP) basically to get the
government to ‘save manufacturing’. The
logic of this was the selling-out of class struggle, as the bureaucrats did
with the Prices and Incomes Accord which they negotiated before Bob Hawke came
to power.
The
SWP was a pole of attraction because they were the most prominent opponents of
the stalinist social patriotic schemas promoted by the "left" union
bureaucrats, supported by large sections of the rank and file and sections of
the academic left. However the SWP had an analysis which did not correspond to
the reality of Australian capitalism. For the SWP, there was no fundamental
restructuring away from manufacturing to mining nor any significant
intervention by foreign capital. The reality was that during the ‘seventies,
‘eighties and ‘nineties whole sections of manufacturing collapsed, including
shipbuilding, the car industry, white goods and the BHP steelworks in
The
Communist League shared a roughly similar analysis and there was joint work in
opposition to the PEP. This facilitated their reunification. The Communist
League were instructed to rejoin by leaders of the United Secretariat such as
Ernest Mandel.
Subjective revolutionaries joined the SWP because they
perceived the need for a numerically strong party which identified with
Trotskyism (irrespective of its flaws). Many were purged by the Percy
leadership whose lesson from their previous CL experience was to deal with
potential troublemakers. But some remained as members. But what these leftists
were joining was a party collapsing into Stalinism at a rapid rate of knots.
With every crisis of Stalinism that occurred during the next twenty years, the
SWP took one step further in a Stalinist direction.
In 1979 there was a third Indochina war when
When
the Soviet Union sent troops to
SWP
Australia was formed in solidarity with SWP-US and therefore considered
The
SWP-US was also enthusiastic, uncritically hailing these revolutions and their
leaderships. They also made a reassessment of Trotskyism, consciously breaking
from it. But the Australian SWP went even further along the Stalinist road than
the North Americans did.
For
the Australian SWP, Castro was not an ‘unconsciousness Trotskyist’ but a
‘conscious Leninist’. Trotskyism, they now argued, was a sectarian deviation
from Leninism. They repeated the Stalinist slander that Trotsky ‘underestimated
the peasantry’. Basically they were arguing for a Stalinist strategy for the
third world. One leading SWP member at their Social Rights Conference argued
that if Trotsky's line had been pursued, the Chinese revolution would never
have been won!
The
Australian SWP then reassessed their analysis of the Vietnamese revolution. The
Vietnamese Stalinists too became ‘conscious Leninists’. In doing this they
stabbed in the back the very significant Trotskyist movement that had a strong
base amongst the Vietnamese proletariat. They rehashed the same Stalinist
slanders which they had refuted when argued by Denis Freney, the notorious
Pabloite who became a Stalinist. They have since established friendly relations
with the Vietnamese Workers’ Party and invite speakers from the Vietnamese
Embassy to their conferences.
Of
course this blatant turn to Stalinism led to a break not only from the SWP-US,
but from the United Secretariat which they considered a roadblock to their efforts
to regroup third world Stalinists. Here there is a clear logic. If the Sandinistas, Castroites etc. are
revolutionary, then why have a Fourth International? Mandel and Co could not
junk the old Trotskyism, or rather identification with Trotsky, so easily. So
the SWP liquidated the fundamental class line between Trotskyism and Stalinism.
As a result of this international break, Australian supporters of the United
Secretariat and of Sean Matgamna (now called Workers Liberty) left the SWP.
Internationally
the SWP was pursuing alliances with left Stalinists. In
The
organisation called CPA at the time was heading to the right rapidly. And many
SPA trade union officials were joining in. The logic of CPA strategy was to
make an alliance with the Hawke government called the Prices and Incomes Accord. Under the Accord workers sacrificed wages and conditions in exchange for
minor reforms which workers would normally expect from a Labor government
anyway. The Accord divided the
Australian left but the only official to have opposed it openly was Jenny
Haines, a supporter of Bob Gould. But it was SPA policy to oppose the Accord.
The
SPA stood by its principles and expelled the overwhelming majority of its trade union base, including prominent
party leaders. They lost not only one third of their membership, but the
significant membership in terms of trade union influence. Making an alliance
with the SWP gave them a bit more clout and assisted their influence amongst
young people. The SWP gained some contact with unionists. Their joint efforts
meant more effective election campaigns.
Their
main campaign was the Social Rights
Manifesto. The title speaks for itself. Rights is a bourgeois concept and
their Manifesto was for rights under capitalism. What this showed was that in
terms of the Australian situation, the SWP and SPA had approximately the same
minimum programme. The SWP called their demands ‘transitional’ and argued that
the process was continuing. SPA called the Manifesto the first stage of their
two stage revolution.
The
SWP and SPA were also allies in the peace movement. Both opposed the right
stalinist and liberal bourgeois view that ‘both superpowers’ were responsible
for the arms race. SWP and SPA put the blame on imperialism and were clearly
better in their variant of the popular front. Eventually there was a division
of labour with the right Stalinists organising Palm Sunday, and SWP/SPA running
the Hiroshima Day protests. Of these two the right popular front was the more
popular.
All
this stalinist maneuvering was too much for the SWP-US who formed a faction in
The
SWP-US and its supporters also objected to the Australian SWP's support for
cold war right wingers at Polish solidarity rallies and its support for a
Croatian nationalist organisation known as the Croatian Movement for Statehood (HDP).
Was
HDP a former fascist Croatian organisation moving to the left or an adaptation
by the fascists to co-opt the left?
Either way it was unsupportable. The HDP, even with its left face,
recognised the fascist government of Pavlevic whose dictatorship was backed by
Mussolini during the Second World War. This fact alone made it thoroughly
unprincipled, in fact treacherous, for revolutionaries to give it any positive
recognition irrespective of its left rhetoric, genuine or otherwise.
The
Hawke Government went to the right and started attacking unions. In response
there was a national rank and file movement called Fightback which the SWP was active in. Fightback split into two wings. Some known as
The
Maoist-led Builders Labourers Federation
was under attack by the Hawke Government
at the Federal level, and by the Cain
Labor government in
Understandably
there was strong hostility amongst militants towards Labor. The SWP opposition
to Labor also intensified. In 1987 they even endorsed the bourgeois Australian Democrats. They argued that whilst the
Democrats were a bourgeois party, they supported progressive movements and were
to the left of Labor on social services and welfare issues, and could be given
critical support. At the same time the
Greens were growing rapidly. So the name of the SWP paper Direct Action was changed to Green
Left Weekly.
The
Gorbachev liberal bureaucratic leadership of the
Meanwhile
the SPA was going in the opposite direction. They wanted to hang onto as much
of the Breshnevite past as possible. So there was a strain on the alliance. The
SPA was then oriented to the Chinese leadership. The bloodshed of
The
DSP then oriented to the fast degenerating Communist Party of Australia who
were aiming to develop a new party in what was called the ‘New Left Party
Process’. The CPA were reassessing the Accord but hadn't broken from it. But
the CPA did not reciprocate the DSP’s advances, and chose to degenerate in
alliance with old pro-Accord ex-SPA bureaucrats. The DSP has tried to fill the
vacuum left by the CPA degeneration.
The
most recent party building maneuver has been the Socialist Alliance formed similar to the one in
What
started off as a joint electoral bloc around minimal demands with equal
participation by the various groupings has become virtually a DSP front. The
DSP has now become renamed as Democratic
Socialist Perspectives and has no public presence apart from the Socialist
Alliance, though its youth group Resistance still has an open presence. The
During
the eighties, the pin-up boys for the DSP were the Sandinistas. They ‘reassessed’
Trotskyism and abandoned it on the basis of the Sandinistas' ‘success’. Had
they any integrity they would have re-assessed their position in the light of
the Sandinista’s failure. This they haven't done. Today they have replaced
cheerleading the Sandinistas with cheerleading Chavez in
Another
piece of DSP treachery has been its support for Australian troops in
This
is only an overview of the whole SWP/DSP history of liquidation and treachery.
Essentially what started off as an attempt to establish Trotskyism on the basis
of student radicalism against the Vietnam War, degenerated into a pro-Stalinist
grouping, organisationally opportunist, and whose only principle appears to be
cheerleading Stalinists and building a party distinct from Labor (but not
reformism). They are good at tapping into youth and student radicalism.
Whilst on some issues, they find Trotsky's analysis appropriate, when it comes to drawing fundamental class lines they clearly stand with Stalin, especially in imperialist dominated countries euphemistically called the ‘third world’.
Many DSP members are good activists in their unions. The DSP presents itself as a strong and confident organisation. But it is the Stalinist principles which are decisive. For the sake of the revolution, these must be thoroughly broken from. The only revolutionary banner is the red banner of proletarian internationalism. The revolutionary tradition is that of Leon Trotsky and the Fourth International. On the basis of this tradition a new revolutionary international must be built.
Long live the
revoltionary program of the the workers,peasants, miners and students of El
Alto!
FOR the
NATIONALISATION OF THE HYDROCARBONS!
OUT WITH
For
WORKERS’ MILITIAS AND A WORKERS’ AND PEASANTS’ GOVERNMENT!
The
masses of Bolivian workers and peasants have begun a new revolutionary
fight. This uprising has not come out of
the blue. It takes place just weeks after the Ecuadorian workers and students,
rising up as an independent mass, demolished the pro-imperialist government of
Gutiérrez, shouting “Que se vayan todos”
[“all go away" the cry of the Argentinazo of 2001] not only against the
bourgeois institutions, the bosses’ parliament and the politicians, but also
against the Stalinist, Maoist and Castroist leaders that helped to elect
Gutiérrez as President and that, along with World Social Forum, continued to
defend him.
The
renewed revolutionary uprising of the masses of Ecuador and now in Bolivia, the
struggle of the workers and students in Nicaragua and Costa Rica, the revolt of
the students in Chile, the build up of workers and students struggles in
Argentina, are the anti-imperialist response of the Latin American masses to
the intensified attacks by imperialism. The revolutionary uprisings in Bolivia
and Ecuador in Latin American; Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan in Eurasia; the heroic
resistance of the Iraqi masses and the resurgence of anti-imperialist struggles
in Afghanistan in the hearts of these Yankee protectorates, pose a challenge to
the fragile stability created by imperialism with its victorious
counter-revolutions.
These
events in
The
workers and peasants, with the miners in the front line, once more rise up with
the central objective: “Nationalization of the gas without compensation, out
with Mesa, close down Parliament”
But
the passing of the law far from calming the situation has stirred it up. From
Monday May 16, the revolutionary masses have taken to the streets, with
pickets, roadblocks, general strikes like that of the teachers, and barricades,
raising the slogan of the moment: ¡nationalization without compensation of the
gas and oil, down with
Since
Monday the 16 there has been no halt to the demonstrations in
On
the 20 of May, El Alto stopped for 24 hours, blocking the Freeway, and once
more tens of thousands led by the miners were mobilized in
In
February 2003, the cry was “Fusil, metralla,
With
this experience, the masses have not only confronted the government of
For
one and a half years, the treacherous leaders made truces and pacts with the
new government. The national bourgeoisie,
with Evo Morales at its head, used the enormous mobilization of masses to
increase its share of the gas royalties. Today, with this third revolutionary
uprising, the workers and farmers are trying to break out of the containment
pacts made between their leaders and the different bourgeois groups, and to
free the masses to directly confront the capitalists in
Therefore,
on one side of the barricades are the mine owners and its puppet government;
the Castroite leadership of the COB (Solares) and Evo Morales, who represents
the national bourgeoisie in negotiating an increased share of the oil wealth at
the expense of the Bolivian masses. On the other side of the barricades are the
revolutionary masses of workers and farmers who raise the demands “Out with
In
the same way, on the bosses’ side of the barricades are the members of the
World Social Forum, supporting
The
bourgeoisie is divided on how to defeat the masses that once more rise up to
complete the revolution. Again the treacherous leaders of the masses are called
upon to betray the masses’ struggle.
Facing
the new revolutionary offensive of the masses the bourgeoisie is divided. One fraction,
the bourgeoisie of Santa Cruz, Tarija and the Medialuna, where most of
the oil and gas reserves are found, are campaigning, with the support of the
oil companies, for much greater regional autonomy. On the other hand, there are two other
fractions advancing different policies to try to prevent that the masses from
throwing out
One
fraction of the bourgeoisie, with
Another
fraction of the bourgeoisie tries to abort the revolutionary uprising of the
masses by promoting a nationalistic way out.
That’s
why Solares has said: "If there were an honest military man like Hugo
Chávez, I would support him" (Clarin, 20/05/05). But the lesson of
The main objective of i.e.
Castroite leadership of the COB and of Evo Morales is to prevent the
masses from throwing out Mesa, destroying the mine owners regime, winning the
rank and file soldiers in the army, and creating dual power organs capable of
making an insurrection. For that reason, all their forces are used to prevent
the miners, workers, farmers and students who have been struggling for ten days
against the police and army, from taking the Plaza Murillo in La Paz, the seat
of Parliament.
The
treacherous leaders fear like death that the workers and peasants will take the
same road as that of the workers and oppressed people of
For
that reason, in the different regions and departments the bureaucracy has
decided against a massive march to La Paz, but only to send delegations of the
COD's [Departmental sections of COB] and
COR's [Regional sections of COB] and the Civic Committees [FUJEVE] headed by
bureaucratic leaders whose task is to restrain the masses and to withdraw them
from the Plaza Murillo. All the
bureaucrats of the COB, COD, COR's and FUJEVE that converge on La Paz, although throwing some dynamite
"puppies", have only one objective which is to stop the masses from
taking the Plaza Murillo and the Parliament.
For that reason, Evo Morales called for the roadblocks to be lifted and
a truce until Monday 30 of May.
That
fraction of the bourgeoisie that is trying to revive the puppet parliament – to
meet in session while surrounded by the miners, workers and peasants who have
returned to occupy La Paz and face the police defending the Plaza Murrillo and
the seat of Parliament – seeks to divert the masses by calling for new
presidential elections, referendums or
for a Constituent Assembly, to prevent that the masses from carrying through
their demands to bring down Mesa and parliament and open up a revolutionary
crisis in the regime.
Meanwhile,
the officers of the armed forces are on alert over the "danger of the
disintegration" of the regime. What
deceit: the real disintegration of the
Bolivian nation has been caused by the capitalist gangs –the oil companies and
the national bourgeoisie. It has been
caused by the national bourgeoisies of Latin America that, hanging on the apron strings of the oil companies like
Repsol, Petrobras, British Petroleum, and Totalfina, try to profit from the
plunder of the natural wealth of
It
is the insatiable drive for superprofits by the imperialistic monopolies and
the native bourgeoisie that continues to oppress the Bolivian nation. The only class that can unite the nation and
end the oppression and “disintegration” is the working class, leading the poor
peasantry, and creating its own government, with its own militias, reviving the
best traditions of the heroic revolution
of 1952.
The
Armed Forces, at the moment, remain on alert to defend the bourgeois state and
safeguard its security, prepared if necessary to drown the revolution in blood
if they cannot otherwise contain or divert the revolutionary advance of the
masses. But the bourgeoisie will only
resort to open repression if all else fails, because it is aware that to do
could lead to another massacre like that which led to the downfall of Goni, and
run the risk of splitting the army so that the conscripts would mutiny against
the officers. This is the greatest danger posed by the revolutionary uprising
of the masses because, since, in the last instance, whoever controls the army
rank and file, wins. If the bourgeoisie retains control, it will suppress the
workers and peasants uprising with blood and fire. If the workers and poor
farmers win control, the workers militias will be reinforced by soldiers
committees.
Long
live the revolutionary program of the democratic base of the COR of El Alto and
of the miners: down with
The
strong revolutionary upsurge that has erupted in
The
masses, betrayed by the truces and pacts which their leaders used to prop up
This
resolution and this program voted by the COR of El Alto is a slap in the face
of the liquidators of Trotskyism and the reformist left of
Some
months ago, during the March events, the bourgeoisie claimed that there were
‘soviets’ in El Alto. They were not mistaken.
The COR of El Alto, coordinating and representing workers, miners, students,
teachers, unionists, drivers and all of the masses in struggle in that
revolutionary city, acting independently, called for an indefinite general
strike, for armed pickets and militias –a call that was taken up by the COD in
Oruro and other cities – creating the most advanced and authoritative
organs of the masses in struggle. It is
without a doubt the highest point reached in the creation of workers organs of
dual power that is now being strengthened and extended. There is no more urgent task than to develop,
extend and centralize the organs of self-determination and self-defense of the
militant masse in preparation for the insurrectionary seizure of power.
The
COD, the peasants’ organizations marching from Caracollo towards the La Paz, ,
and all workers, peasants and students organizations that are engaged in
struggle, must elect and sent delegates
of the rank and file, mandated and recallable, to the COR of El Alto!
In
the dynamite charge of the miner, in the stones of the picketers, there are
already the embryos of the workers’ militias called for by the resolution of El
Alto. It is necessary build them
urgently because the army generals have warned that the revolution means ‘the
disintegration of
With
thousand of delegates of the rank and file workers and peasants meeting in El
Alto, it is necessary to build a ‘soviet-type’ organ that represents the
legitimate and democratic expression of the will of the vast majority of the
Bolivian people. That organ would be the only one with the authority to create
a provisional revolutionary government of workers and peasants supported by the
organs of direct democracy of the masses, workers militias and soldiers
committees. The government would nationalize without compensation the gas, oil
and mines, and place them under workers control; break with the IMF; distribute
the best land to the poor peasants; nationalize the banks without compensation
and under workers’ control; create a single state bank that grants cheap loans
to the small peasants; make a general wage rise and a sliding scale of wages
and working hours; and provide free public quality health and education for the
workers and the people.
This
revolutionary workers’ and farmers’ government is the only one that can
guarantee the unity of the Bolivian nation. It is the only one that can realize
the most advanced form of bourgeois democracy, such as a truly free and sovereign
Constituent Assembly. And it will enable the peasants to learn from their own
experience that the most democratic of the bourgeois republics it nothing but a
cover for the ruthless dictatorship of the bourgeoisie, and that the Workers’
Republic, born out of the self-organization and the arming of the workers and
peasants in struggle, is the only way to realize their demands for land and to
break with imperialism.
Build centralized and armed organs of dual power,
in which the revolutionary party can fight for the program that is necessary
for the victorious revolution!
The
crisis of revolutionary leadership of the proletariat is acute facing the new
uprising of the Bolivian masses. The collaboration
with the counter-revolutionary leadership of the renegade Trotskyists reveals
in its true light their total bankruptcy. POR Lora, in 1952 supported the
“progressive" bourgeois Paz Estenssoro and the MNR (Military Revolutionary
National) government, breaking all connection with the program and strategy of
Trotskyism. In 1971 POR Lora supported General Torres and the class
collaborationist front (FRA). Today it is in the counter-revolutionary camp in
the third Bolivian revolution.
We are on the threshold of decisive battles. The
revolutionary uprising of the masses begins to break the strangle hold of the
treacherous leaders. The counterrevolution forces are preparing to abort or
smash it. It is a race against time to
build the internationalist revolutionary party that can lead this uprising to
the victory of the workers and farmers.
In order to close overcome this crisis and build a
true proletarian revolutionary party, the key is to extend the program of the
El Alto workers and peasants so that organs of direct democracy and of dual
power (councils or soviets) extend across the whole country. In those class struggle organs, the programs
of all those who claim to represent the working class and its interests can be
put to the test of experience of the workers and farmers who can then get rid
of their treacherous leaders. In those organs the alliance of the working class
with the poor farmers can can develop a unified command and break all
subordination to the different bourgeois fractions. Inside these organs a small nucleus of
revolutionaries, fighting uncompromisingly against the treacherous leaders,
explaining at each point who are the workers’ allies and enemies, convincing workers
of the correct program through their own experience, can create the
revolutionary leadership needed to win.
The
forces necessary to create a revolutionary party already exist. They are the
miners, the poor workers, farmers and revolutionary students of El Alto who
have voted for a revolutionary program.
They are the miners, the workers and the farmers who, in
We
call for a united struggle of the whole Latin American working class: Not a cubic centimeter of gas or oil must
leave
The
pro-imperialist bourgeoisies of
Not
a cubic of Bolivian gas or oil must leave that country, if is it not authorized
by a provisional revolutionary government of workers and peasants! This must be
the common cry of the workers of
The
struggle of our Bolivian brothers and sisters is a slap in the face to Chavez,
who has decided that Venezuelan oil’s not for the Venezuelans, but for Bush to
enable him to fuel the military machine to kill in
The
Castro bureaucracy – which has opened up the first Latin American workers’
state to imperialist companies – is on the same side of the barricade as
Chávez, Repsol, Kirchner, Lula and Tabaré Vázquez, against the Bolivian
revolution. It did the same in 1973,
preaching the "peaceful road to socialism" in
The
revolutionary uprising of the masses in
To
achieve this, the most important task of workers and exploited people in Latin
America, is to oppose and defeat all the regimes and governments that support
What
the exploited people of
Against
the revolutionary uprising in
As
revolutionary internationalists we alert the workers of
It
is necessary that the Chilean working class - whose bourgeoisie profits from
the oil pipeline from
The
organizations who have signed this declaration declare that it is our duty as
to devote 100% of our forces to the revolutionary struggle for victory of the
workers and farmers of Bolivia, and to take to the workers and mass organizations
in the countries in which we are based, the resolution that “not a cubic
centimeter of gas or oil leaves Bolivia for the imperialist monopolies”, and to
adopt as our own the revolutionary program of the workers and farmers of El
Alto who are in the vanguard of this heroic struggle.
Long
live the uprisings of the masses in
The
revolutionary uprising of the Bolivian masses is not alone. Their allies are
the workers and students of Ecuador who, like Bucaram and Mahuad yesterday,
threw the US lackey and poster boy of the WSF Gutiérrez, into the waste-basked
of history; they are the workers and peasants who threaten another uprising in
Ilave, Peru; they are the rebellious workers and students of Nicaragua and
Chile; they are the militant vanguard of the labor movement in the US, the
Million Worker March Movement that stands against the killer Bush’s war.
They
are the Afghan anti-imperialist fighters that are resisting the humiliations
they have suffered under Bush’s occupying troops, and the anti-imperialist
fighters of the
The allies of the
proletariat and exploited people of
The
workers and oppressed people of Latin
America, the United States, of the Middle East and Central Asia; these are the
allies of the Bolivian workers and peasants who march on the revolutionary road
of October!
The
renewal of the revolutionary uprising of the masses in
Build
the World Wide Party of Socialist Revolution, to provide the working class of
To
make revolutions in
The
liquidation of the Fourth International into Stalinism began in 1948 with the
adaptation of pabloism to Tito who was called an "unconscious
Trotskyist", and with the entry of the pabloites into the communist
parties. Today, the liquidators of
Trotskyism have been subordinated to the Castro bureaucracy under the
ideological authority of a leader of the Cuban PC Celia Hart Santamaría. She,
with the collaboration and support of the renegade currents of Trotskyism, appeals to the legacy of Leon Trotsky, falsifying
it in order to conceal the continental policy of class collaboration of
Castroism and the completion of the process of the restoration of capitalism in
The
liquidators of the Fourth International have abandoned the struggle for
socialist revolution. Some openly like
the United Secretariat in
Today,
the revolutionary program of the COR of El Alto is a new test that serves to
separate the reformists, liquidators of Fourth International from the
revolutionaries. On one side of the
barricade of El Alto, are those fighting to implement their revolutionary resolutions in action, to
defeat the government and create a regime like that of 1952 based on the dual
power of the armed masses that is capable of taking state power. On the other side of the barricade are those
on their knees before the "patriotic" generals, or before those who
seek to defend the bourgeois parliament and constituent Assemblies in order to
salvage the collapsing regime of the mine owners.
The
theory and the program of Trotskyism have passed the test of history. The opportunist liquidators of the Fourth
International have gone over to the camp of the World Social Forum.
The
healthy forces of Trotskyism and revolutionary workers organizations, have
begun to rally our forces and to regroup in the Liaison Committee for an
International Conference. The objective
must be rebuild the World Party of Socialist Revolution on the base of the
program foundations of the Fourth International from 1938-40, to equip the
Bolivian, Ecuadorian working class, of Latin America and the world, with the
revolutionary leadership that they deserve, with true insurrectionary parties
of struggle that give programmatic expression to the historical objective of
the proletariat and lead if to victory.
The
revolutionary organizations who have signed this declaration call on all the
healthy forces of Trotskyism to commit 100% of our forces to the victory of the
Bolivian revolution and to combine to make an International Conference, on the
base of revolutionary history and a correct program founds a transitional
international center of principled Trotskyists and revolutionary workers
organizations with the objective to found the World Party of Socialist Revolution
as a centralized force to confront the counter-revolutionary leaders of the
liquidators of the Fourth International.
·
Long
live revolutionary struggle of the workers and exploited people of
·
Long
Live the uprisings of the masses in
·
Long
live the
·
The
revolution lives in the workers and peasants of El Alto!
·
Down
with
·
For
a National congress of the COB and the farmers organizations; for workers’
militias and soldiers’ committees!
·
For
a Revolutionary Provisional Government of
workers and farmers to nationalize the gas and petroleum, and to impose
all the demands of the working class and the Bolivian people!
·
Down
the truces, pacts and class collaboration with the bourgeois governments of
Lula, Kirchner,
·
Not
a cubic centimeter of Bolivian gas or petrol for Repsol, Petrobras, Totalfina,
or British Petroleum, or for their small partners, the national bourgeoisies of
·
Down
with the TLCs, NAFTA, FTAA and Mercosur of the exploiters! For a Federation of Workers’ and Farmers’ Republics of South and
·
Long
live the anti-imperialist fight against Bush’s war by the dock workers of
Oakland in the United States, because in the awakening of the North American
working class the lives the possibility of the final triumph of the revolution
in South and Central America!
·
Against
Stalinism, social democracy, all reformists and liquidators of Trotskyism! For an International Conference of the
healthy forces of Trotskyism and or revolutionary workers organizations!
International Trotskyist Fraction-Fourth International/
Communist Workers Group (NZ)
THE BOLIVIAN REVOLUTION MUST PREVAIL ITS
VICTORY IS THE TASK OF THE WORLD WORKING CLASS!
To all the organizations who call themselves
Principled Trotskyists and to all the revolutionary workers organizations of
the world!
Unite and centralize the enormous revolutionary class
solidarity that has awakened in the world proletariat in support of the heroic
combat of the oppressed masses of
From the harbor workers of
We call on the workers of the United States, of Spain,
France and England to attack the interests of the Chevron Texaco, Exxon,
Repsol, Totalfina, and British Petróleum, the real super-exploiters of the
workers and the people of Bolivia, and backers of the fascist bands of Santa
Cruz, just like they organized the plunder and killing in Iraq, Afghanistan,
Palestine and the Middle East. Living off the breadcrumbs that fall from the
table of the exploiters, the privileged workers’ aristocracy and bureaucracy of
the imperialistic powers betray the workers by supporting the regimes that
create wars to plunder and oppress the peoples of the world. To ensure the
victory of the Bolivian revolution the working class of the
The Central American workers and peasants, making the
anti-imperialist struggle of the Bolivian and Latin American workers and
peasants their own, will be able to renew their resistance to the FTAs and FTAA
with which US imperialism and its national agents oppress them and condemn them
to poverty. A victorious workers and peasants revolution in
The gangs of imperialist lackeys in the O.A.S. and the UN
are preparing to lead the counter-revolution in
This struggle to reconstitute proletarian internationalism
in the world working class, destroyed by decades of social democratic and
Stalinist treachery, must be taken up by all those who fight to defend the
legacy of the III and IV revolutionary Internationals. In particular this the
duty of the Principled Trotskyists who fight against all the treacherous
leaders and agents of finance capital and imperialism, including the renegade
Trotskyists who destroyed the Fourth International, who are today all grouped
together in the World Social Forum. So that the world proletariat can live, the
Bolivian and Ecuadorian revolutions, the Iraqi resistance, and the
revolutionary centers of Uzbekistán and Kirguiztán, must prevail. So that the
humanity can live, imperialism must die!
Internationalist Trotskyist Fraction–Fourth
International / Communist Workers Group (NZ)
June 10 2005
We Fight for Socialist Revolution!
We fight to overthrow Capitalism
Historically,
capitalism expanded world-wide to free much of humanity from the bonds of
feudal or tribal society, and developed the economy, society and culture to a
new higher level. But it could only do this by exploiting the labour of the
productive classes to make its profits. To survive, capitalism became increasingly
destructive of "nature" and humanity. In the early 20th
century it entered the epoch of imperialism in which successive crises
unleashed wars, revolutions and counter-revolutions. Today we fight to end
capitalism’s wars, famine, oppression and injustice, by mobilising workers to
overthrow their own ruling classes and bring to an end the rotten, exploitative
and oppressive society that has exceeded its use-by date.
We fight for Socialism.
By the 20th century, capitalism had
created the pre-conditions for socialism –a world-wide working class and modern
industry capable of meeting all our basic needs. The potential to eliminate
poverty, starvation, disease and war has long existed. The October Revolution
proved this to be true, bringing peace, bread and land to millions. But it
became the victim of the combined assault of imperialism and Stalinism. After
1924 the
We fight to defend Marxism
While
the economic conditions for socialism exist today, standing between the working
class and socialism are political, social and cultural barriers. They are the
capitalist state and bourgeois ideology and its agents. These agents claim that
Marxism is dead and capitalism need not be exploitative. We say that Marxism is
a living science that explains both capitalism’s continued exploitation and its
attempts to hide class exploitation behind the appearance of individual
"freedom" and "equality".
It reveals how and why the reformist, Stalinist and centrist misleaders
of the working class tie workers to bourgeois ideas of nationalism, racism,
sexism and equality. Such false beliefs
will be exploded when the struggle against the inequality, injustice, anarchy
and barbarism of capitalism in crisis, led by a revolutionary Marxist party,
produces a revolutionary class-consciousness.
We fight for a Revolutionary Party
The bourgeois and its agents condemn
the Marxist party as totalitarian. We say that without a democratic and
a centrally organised party there can be no revolution. We base our beliefs on
the revolutionary tradition of Bolshevism and Trotskyism. Such a party, armed
with a transitional programme, forms
a bridge that joins the daily fight to defend all the past and present gains
won from capitalism, to the victorious socialist revolution. Defensive
struggles for bourgeois rights and freedoms, for decent wages and conditions,
will link up the struggles of workers of all nationalities, genders,
ethnicities and sexual orientations, bringing about movements for workers
control, political strikes and the arming of the working class, as necessary
steps to workers' power and the smashing of the bourgeois state. Along the way, workers will learn that each
new step is one of many in a long march to revolutionise every barrier put in
the path to the victorious revolution.
We fight for Communism.
Communism stands for the creation of a
classless, stateless society beyond socialism that is capable of meeting all
human needs. Against the ruling class lies that capitalism can be made
"fair" for all; that nature can be "conserved"; that
socialism and communism are "dead"; we raise the red flag of
communism to keep alive the revolutionary tradition of the' Communist
Manifesto of 1848, the Bolshevik-led October Revolution; the Third
Communist International until 1924, the revolutionary Fourth International up
to 1940 before its collapse into centrism. We fight to build a new, Fifth,
Communist International, as a world party of socialism capable of leading
workers to a victorious struggle for socialism.