CWI Summer School 2009

I was one of around 350 members of the CWI who met in Belgium this week for our annual European school. Despite having been a member for a while now I’ve never managed to get along to one of them before. And I have to say I feel really stupid for not doing so because if it has been anything near as good as it has been this year then I have really being missing out.
The school was split up into several discussions with big plenary sessions on the situation in the world, one focussing in more detail on the situation in Europe and one on building the Committee for a Workers’ International. There were also several sets of commissions on various topics and for the contents of all of these sessions I would direct people to the excellent report on the CWI website http://www.socialistworld.net/.
I went along to the commissions on Africa, Marxism & Science and Racism & the far-right and I have to say the debates in these were excellent. The one thing that really stood out in all of them was how many really capable young members we have in all the various sections, for example:
In the Africa commission there were several contributions on the finer points of countries that I’ve never discussed before such as Algeria as well as some really interesting points made on the role of China in Africa. In the Marxism and Science discussion some important points about dialectics were discussed and in the Racism and the Far-Right session the bravery of the comrades in Northern Ireland in defending Roma families in Belfast was discussed as well as the equal bravery of the Swedish section in defending our members against around 11 attacks in the last year and a half.
But the week was also an opportunity to relax and I’m proud to say I was on the winning team of the yearly football match, with England & Wales & Irish sections beating the rest of the CWI 5-1. And most of the school had a good laugh when a senior member of the CWI managed to lock themselves in the lavatory.
On a more serious note the school showed the tremendous progress being made by the CWI, obviously one of the main highlights was the election of Joe Higgins to the European Parliament which is already leading to the further development of the Irish section of the CWI as well as allowing us the ability to work more closely with other left groups in Europe. The growth in the England and Wales section also shone through, particularly as a result of our recent leadership of several important industrial disputes, with the recruitment of important layers of workers and trade unionists. The fusion between the former CWI section and another group in Brazil to form the new CWI section Liberdade, Socialismo, Revolucao. The growth of the CWI in new areas, especially Malaysia was also discussed. Even where we are experiencing a really difficult objective situation at the present time in Sri Lanka due to the civil war, we are still managing to function despite state harassment and death threats against our members.
If this sounds like I’m mostly going on about how great the CWI is then you are right. One of the points raised in the discussion was how quite a lot of the times we are too modest about the work we do around the world, of course we publicise what we do, but there’s also a lot more that goes unreported. I have to agree, I think I have underestimated how important the CWI is until this week. Due to the history of our organisation in Britain and with England & Wales being the largest section to a certain extent I think I thought of the International as sort of tagged on to our section. But this week has shown me that we make a serious difference to the lives of ordinary working class people in many areas of the world and it has made me really want to commit myself to living up to example that members of the CWI are setting around the world.

Sri Lanka - United Socialist Party leader on death list, Days of victory celebrations humiliating all Tamils

From the CWI wesbite http://www.socialistworld.net/, picture is of the death list

by Elizabeth Clarke, CWI

The Committee for a Workers’ International has received a copy of a vile communication put out by Sinhala chauvinist hate-mongers in the wake of the defeat of the Liberation Tamil Tigers of Eelam. Amongst the portraits of those they want killed are NGO activists, Indian politicians and five Sri Lankan politicians including Siritunga Jayasuriya, Secretary of the United Socialist Party (CWI Sri Lanka).

As readers of this site will know, the USP has maintained a courageous stand in defence of the rights of all Tamil-speaking people and for a united struggle against land-lordism, capitalism and imperialism with socialist policies. It has had its criticisms of the methods and approach of the LTTE, but has spoken out against the war-mongering of the Rajapakse regime and the slaughter of thousands of Tamil civilians. It has also spoken out against the vast and inhumane camps in which the government is holding prisoner hundreds of thousands of refugees.
“They are not just celebrating a military victory over the LTTE,” Siritunga said in a statement, “But a communalist victory over the Tamil nation. It is a humiliation of all Tamil-speaking people, including in the Hill Country, in the South and in the East.
“No Tamils are enjoying this so-called victory except the three Judases who have sided with the Rajapakse government – Thondeman of the Ceylon Workers’ Council based in the tea plantation area, Karuna (the ex-Tiger leader, now a minister) and Douglas Devananda (the Tamil politician expected to become the stooge Chief Minister of the northern ‘province’ of Sri Lanka).
“My name is being mouthed by ministers on the TV and shouted by frenzied people in the streets. I am being labelled as a “traitor”, as “unpatriotic” and even as a “coward” who should be killed. All this because we speak out against this chauvinistic, autocratic government.
“We fear for the lives of the people in the camps – many of whom will die without food, water and medical attention. Young people will be accused of LTTE sympathies and be ‘disappeared’ by the regime…In this way the Rajapakse government seeks to ‘solve’ the national question. We have been challenging him to say what his political ‘solution’ is and he stays silent. We will pursue our demand for equal rights for all Tamil-speaking people to the end.
“We will not be silenced by death threats and insults. The Sinhalese workers and poor people who are celebrating today, imagine that peace means prosperity and a better life for them. They will not only be expected to suffer more deprivation to pay for the government’s war debts and for the capitalists’ crisis, but the emergency powers of the government will be used against any who try to organise strikes and other actions. Our party is struggling to survive against the onslaught of propaganda being thrown against us. We welcome the international solidarity campaign launched in Tamil Nadu earlier this year and urge it to continue its work.
“We also ask all readers of this horrible news to consider supporting our party in one of the darkest periods in its history. We will prepare for a new period of united struggle against this dictatorial government and against the capitalist system that spawns war and oppression, of which we have seen more than enough.”

Donations to assist with urgent measures necessary defend the USP and its secretary, Siritunga Jayasuriya, against physical attack should be sent to Campaign Sri Lanka.

Donate on line (add the words 'Campaign Sri Lanka' to the comment box) or send cheques to Campaign Sri Lanka c/o Committee for a Workers' International, PO Box 3688, London, Britain, E11 1YE.
For a new article on the latest situation in Sri Lanka go to http://stoptheslaughteroftamils.org/

Socialism 2008 - Where Now For The Bolivian Revolution?

The penultimate of my reports from Socialism 2008. Yes I know the event was over a month ago but it’s taken me a while because of how busy I’ve been. The finally post will be a review of the new book from Chinaworker.org which is a collection of articles about various things there.

This session had about 35-40 people in attendance and was addressed by Tony Saunois for the CWI and Annoukai?? (I’m not entirely sure its’s spelt that way) from the Bolivia Solidarity Campaign.

Announkai spoke first and she began with some general points about Bolivia’s history. She noted that unlike Venezuela, Simon Bolivar is not regarded in such a good light because only 5% of the population were counted as citizens when he created the country. She also pointed out that Bolivia is about half the size it was when it was created due to British armed Chile taking over the wealthy costal area full of Copper mines.
She noted that the main development of the economy was based around silver mines – because they were used to work these means lead to the indigenous peoples surviving much better in Bolivia. The Spanish created their own capital, Sucre, near the copper mines and built there the first university in the Americas to educate the children of Spaniards.
Tin eventually became the staple of the economy and the capital moved again to La Paz.
She then talked about the 1952 revolution. She pointed out that this revolution gave the indigenous population political rights, led to the reorganisation of the army and created the COB with what Annoukai called a transitional programme. Also the banks and some of the main industries were nationalised.
It also brought the MNR to power, but this was a pro-capitalist government that benefited from the revolution – their leader was actually out of the country when the uprising took place.
The miners had always been the most organised section of the population, and it was this section of the population that had to be defeated to introduce neo-liberal policies.
Privatisation – called capitalisation – was sold as the basis of developing industry, but led to several struggles.
In 2000 there were the Water Wars, in 2003 there were the Gas Wars in Cochabamba and El Alto (a slum near the capital, La Paz) and these struggles led to Evo Morales being elected with 54% of the vote as the first indigenous president of Bolivia.
On a final note to her contribution, Annoukai said she thought that if it hadn’t been for the support of Venezuela, Cuba and the Argentinian left Bolivia would have been facing a civil war much sooner.

Tony began by reiterating the importance of 1952 in Bolivia and the Water & Gas Wars, posing them in both cases to be revolutionary movements that have led to reform. Prior to Morales election there was an element of Apartheid in Bolivia which still prevails to an extent in the Media Luna. However, unlike Venezuela a revolutionary tradition runs through Bolivia which is better organised, especially the miners and ex-miners.
Then Tony talked about the situation that developed in Bolivia earlier this year. He said that it almost reached the situation of a civil war, with a constitutional coup attempted in the Media Luna. However, a 100,000 mobilised to defend the electoral minority there and this movement checked the counter-revolution. He also pointed out that Morales got an even bigger majority in the recall referendum than when he was elected with 65%, and compared this to the figure Allende obtained which was 44-5% at best.
He said that Morales had taken some steps, but not gone far enough. At all stages he has tried to negotiate with the right rather than seriously mobilise the masses and in a similar way to how Chavez did has called for a more humane ‘Andean Capitalism’.
Tony also talked about the proposed new constitution for Bolivia which has revived the possibilities of carrying through the 1953 agricultural reform more fully and pointed to one of the reasons this being needed due to the extent that bonded labour still exists in the Media Luna. However, over 200 amendments have been made to the proposed constitution which will be put to the vote on January 25th and this has made the reforms vague and will disappoint people.
In his final points Tony noted how the revolutionary movement as developing over quite a long period of time, in Bolivia since 2000 and also that because Bolivia is one of the poorest countries in Latin America it would be hit hard during the economic crisis.

There were various contributions from the floor, but the most interesting (and only one I fully wrote down) was from a comrade who had visited Cochabamba recently saying that he felt that the masses are beginning to tire of Morales, and especially the fact that always tries to negotiate with the right wing.

Annoukai then came back pointing out that the unions are in effect the main social organisation in Bolivia with unions even for children who clean shoes. She pointed out some gains of the revolution being the increase in life expectancy and literacy. She also said that she thought that talking about ethnicity in Bolivia is quite devisive given that there are around 32 potential different nationalities in the country.
She also talked a little about Morales saying that he had forced two generations in the army to retire which she thought was a blow to the right and also that she saw the revolution in Bolivia as being more of a bottom up revolution compared to Venezuela’s top-down one. She also stated that Morales takes a living wage (does he?) and for some reason decided to compare him with George Galloway in this respect (who certainly doesn’t take a living wage to my knowledge).

Tony starting in his reply by saying that the neighbourhood committees in Bolivia are very important, potentially these could take over power. He said there was also a history of left centrism in the country, of not going over from words to deeds. He also noted that there is serious opposition to Morales on the left in Bolivia and that MAS is less bureaucratic than the PSUV, although it is also a much looser organisation too. He concluded by saying that it may not be towards Bolivia we will be looking over the next few years, due to the economic recession he thought that struggles in Mexico, Chile, Brazil and Argentina will come to the fore.

India: Mumbai Mayhem

This is a statement from the Indian section of CWI, New Socialist Alternative

Defeat the terror of communalism and capitalism

The horrific terror attack in Mumbai on 27 November must be condemned on all counts. It took place at the usually crowded CST railway station and six other prime locations killing at least 140 people (the figures are likely to reach 200 or more) and injuring hundreds. The "Deccan Mujahidin" an unknown Islamic terror group, has claimed responsibility.
Our hearts go out to those families, relatives and friends who are gravely affected by these heinous acts, carried out by whatever group or organisation. The government of Maharashtra and concerned authorities should immediately compensate those families who have lost their beloved. We are sure that all communities, be it Hindu, Muslim or Christian, are terror struck, not just in Mumbai, but the entire country. Democratic workers' organizations, trade unions and local organisations of all communities should organise defence against terrorism alongside a struggle against capitalism, landlordism and imperialism.
Since the 9/11 Twin Tower attacks in America, terror attacks have been on the increase in India. Governments in New Delhi, notwithstanding what party is in power, have closely allied themselves with Washington, culminating in a highly controversial nuclear energy (weapons) deal. In recent months, every major city of India has witnessed such atrocious attacks, killing dozens if not hundreds of innocent people.

Communal polarisation

Capitalist governments around the world have followed the same policies as the American administration under the tutelage of the universally hated George Bush, to completely alienate Muslim people by labeling them as terrorists or as potential terrorists. In India, the historical communal divide has been further strengthened by this undeclared communal profiling of minorities especially Muslims.
State governments led by the BJP, or the congress-led UPA government at the centre, are directly responsible for the disaffection among the youth, particularly those from the Muslim community, who, though in small numbers, are joining the ranks of these desperate terrorist outfits.
It has become a pattern for India's establishment to either put the blame on the culpable ISI (Pakistan's Intelligence) or on their favorite whipping boys – the SIMI (Students' Islamic Movement of India) to demonise them in the eyes of the ordinary people. This by no means absolves from responsibilities the monstrous groups which practice the methods of terror. Their activities strengthen the Hindu right wing extremist communal forces and the state machinery which will only use the opportunity to trample upon the rights of the working people in particular and human rights in general.

Hindu fundamentalist terror's hidden agenda

Left wing radical columnists such as Ram Punyani and Subhash Gatade have extensively written on the phenomenon which has come to be known as the 'Saffron Terror' of the Hindu fundamentalist organisations. The recent blasts Malegaon (in Maharashtra) which led to the arrests of Sadhvi ( saint) Pragya Singh and her two associates, puts a question mark on the whole theory of Jihadist terror itself.
The thuggery of Raj Thackeray of the Maharashtra Navnirman Samithi (MNS) which is terrorising migrant labour in Maharashtra state coming from Uttara Pradesh, Bihar etc. is no less terror than the allegedly Islamic terror.
Vishwa Hindu Parishad's (VHP) rabble rouser, Pravin Thogadia, and the infamous Narendra Modi, 'Gujarat's Hitler', are known for their communal politics, bordering on fascism. These Hindu communal 'celebrities' must also be brought to book. Even today, it sends a chill down the spines of millions of Muslim people to remember the mass terror, - rape, murder and looting - that was perpetrated against the helpless Muslims in Gujarat during the 2002 Godhra riots.
Whether it is the mass terror of the Sangh Parivar (RSS and its family) – Rashtriya, Swayamsevak Sangh) comprising of the BJP, VHP, Shiv Sena, MNS, Sanathan Sanstha, Durga Vahini, Bajarang Dal, Abhinav Bharat, Akhila Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad, Rashtriya Jagaran Manch, Hindu Raksha Samithi etc, criminalising and brutalising the whole of society, or the individual terror tactics of Islamic Jihadist groups, they are polarising an already divided society. They will propel society further into the blind alley of hatred and revenge and possibly lead to a civil war situation.
Statistics and facts reveal that neo-liberalism and communalism have fed on each other to serve the interests of capitalism in India. From 1991, the aggressive neo-liberal offensive has had friendly co-operation from rising Hindu communalism; the 1992 destruction of the Babri Mosque in Ayodhya did derail and divert the attention of the working class movement from the real issues of Rice and Sāmbhar – Roti and Sabji.

Class unity and Class Action now!

The honeymoon enjoyed by Congress has visibly come to a sudden end. The mandarins in the south block of Delhi, who, until recently, were basking in the glory of an unprecedented boom and the aura of the Nuclear deal with Washington, are scrambling for scapegoats both economically and socially. The shrill tones with which the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has warned India's "neighbours" of the costs, points to the desperation of the Indian establishment. An attempt to drum-up jingoism by some dramatic antics may have been crossing the minds of the powers-that-be to save them from an electoral rout in the ongoing provincial round of elections and, more importantly, in the general election in the middle of next year.
The BJP and its henchmen organisations who are preparing for a national come back in the next general election will use the present atmosphere of grief and despair to whip up a communal backlash to take advantage of the social crisis.
The already set-in recession in the economy is preparing to further devastate the lives of the working poor, peasants and the middle class in the coming weeks and months. The coming period demands all the combativity the working class can muster to defend the interests of the workers and poor. Class unity is the need of the hour. We urge workers, be it Hindu, Muslim, Christian or Sikh, to be vigilant and united to thwart any attempt to divide their class on bloody communal lines.
The trade unions, workers and community organisations must act to defeat these sinister attempts to divide and rule to rake in political profits.

We demand:-

• Justice for those affected and meaningful compensation to victims and their families
• Area committees of workers and poor to defend the blast and riot affected areas.
• No to terrorism!
• Common, united struggle of workers and poor for justice, against exploitation and poverty.
• No trust in the official state forces. The right of the lower ranks of the police and auxiliary forces to belong to trade unions and elect representatives to the area committees.
• Capitalism breeds communalism and terrorism. Dump it!
• Democratic socialism is the only answer
• Congress, BJP and all other political parties defending capitalism offer no choice at all
• Build a new mass workers' party
• Fight for a New Socialist Alternative
  

Socialism 2008 – Review – Socialism and Left Unity by Peter Taaffe (2008)

Whilst this isn’t really a session at Socialism 2008, this book was launched there and is a critique of the ideas and methods of the Socialist Workers Party (SWP). It does take up some of the points that were debated in the session at Socialism 2008 on Building a Revolutionary Party (of which there is a video of on the Socialist Party website - http://www.socialistparty.org.uk/articles/6614).

The book begins with some general points about why the Socialist Party (SP) thinks debates on the methods and ideas of organisations are important for serious attempts at left unity. The first section proper discusses the origins of the SWP and the Socialist Party and their ideas in relation to Stalinism – particularly criticising their idea of the USSR and other states as being state capitalism and the problems with this definition. The next chapter begins with focussing on how these ideas led to problems after the collapse of Stalinism in the early 1990’s and their idea of this decade being “the 1930’s in slow motion”.

It then moves on to discuss the approach of the SWP towards the anti-capitalist movement – in particular their use of the slogan – another world is possible - compared to the SPs – a socialist world is possible. It also takes up Trotsky’s transitional programme, what the SP believes to be the misapplication of the idea of transitional demands.

Next up is the attitude of the SWP to the rest of the left – its role in relation to the Socialist Alliances and also the role of its sister organisation in Germany. To this the approach of the SP is contrasted with that of the SWP, particularly how the SP argued for a federal approach in that organisation with the SWPs ‘rule or ruin’ approach. It then deals with the RESPECT saga too. This area is then dealt with again later in the book in a section entitled “United Front Today and the Left in Germany”.

The book then goes discusses a few incidents in the trade unions in the 90’s before taking up disagreements in the PCS and NUT between the SP and the SWP. The section after this discusses the SWP’s anti-fascism work – after discussing the successes of the Anti-Nazi League – it critiques what the SP believes were some of its failures – it’s “Don’t vote Nazi” slogan which leaves open the possibility of voting for other capitalist parties and the lack of democracy within that organisation and then deals with the role of Unite Against Fascism in recent years.

The final section deals with the internal regime of the SWP, in particular the use of top-down bureaucratic methods when dealing with serious disagreements inside the organisation giving examples of the expulsion of their US sister organisation and in relation to break up of RESPECT and then contrasts this with the SP and the CWI.

Although the book is a critique of the SWP and many of the arguments may be familiar to people already, the book touches on many other points which are of interest to anyone on the left in terms of history, theory and various movements. The debate on revolutionary ideas, organisation and methods will become increasingly important and this book is worth reading for anyone who agrees with the necessity of this, especially current members of the SWP.

Socialism 2008 - The Fourth International and After

Before I begin i'd like to give a heads up to some other general reports of Socialism 2008 - there are one's at A Very Public Sociologist, Socialist Party Devon, The Nation of Duncan and The Revolution Decides - if there are anymore that want plugging let us know! (by the way, some of this is a little simplifed but i'm trying to draw out some of the main points made) On a completely different note - maybe we should have a Socialist Party Bloggers meeting next year at Socialism during one of the breaks?

The final session I went to on the sunday was the one on the furth international. Disappointly or nor, there were none of the ultra-left groups there that i had expected. However, we were treated to a leadoff which breifly summarised the history and degeneration of the first three international working class organisations and then Niall Mulholland outlined the emergence of the Fourth International (also referred to as FI).
It had been the defeat of the German working class with the rise of Hitler to power in 1933 which had led Trotsky to break with the Comintern. Although him and other had been expelled, the International Left Opposition created in 1930 (the Russian Left Opposition had already existed for 7 years) saw itself as trying to reform the Comintern and as an expelled faction.
The Fourth International was launched under difficult conditions. It supporters were under attacks in Russia and abroad by the GPU - several of the main supporters of the Fourth International were executed prior to the conference or in the next few year afterwards - Leon Sedov. Rudolf Klement, Erwin Wolf and Trotdsky himself to name a few. But Niall said that the conference was justified by continuing the marxist political programme which the Comintern had moved away from.
The organisation's difficulties didn't stop after the conference. The outbreak of WW2 led to a crisis in one of it's strongest sections, the US SWP, with some of the leaders capitulating to petty-bourgeois ideas over the USSR. The war also scattered the forces of the Fourth International, this was especially so after the assination fo Trotsky. However, there were some acheivements during the war - particularly in Britain by the WIL and RCP organising workers.
But a whole range of political and historical debates where thrown up by the end of WW2. Trotsky had argued that there would be an upsruge in struggle after the war - which did occur, however, as Niall put it, there was a counter-revolution in democratic clothes led by the CP's and Social Democracies. Flying in the face of the situation some of the leaders of the Fourth International argued that the war would continue and that Eastern Europe couldn't be Stalinised. This was criticised by Ted Grant who put forward the best positions in relation to these events and it is the organisation around the Militant that he helped found from which the Socialist Party developed from. We were part of the FI until 1965 - criticisng the illusions of some of the leaders fo the FI, like Mandel and Pablo, had in Tito, Mao and Castro. Although all these regimes differed from the USSR, none were healthy workers democracies. At that time we were based only in Britain, but by linking up with Marxists in other countries (namely Ireland, Germany and Sweden) we launched the Committee for a Workers International (CWI) in 1974 - the Committee part was deliberate as we didn't see ourselves as the whole of the new international (and still don't at this stage - we are far too small despite now being present in over 40 countries)

I didn't make that many notes on the discussion and my contribution came out all wrong. However on of the things in the sum up did interest me and that was on the fact that Trotskyism did build a base for itself in some countries - Bolivia (post on that session coming soon) and Sri Lanka. Now I would really like to read up on Sri Lanka as what Niall alluded to in his leadoff was quite interesting - the NSSP had built up a strong presence in the workers movement there but under the influence of the FI had squandered this by joining a bourgois government - indeed Niall alluded to its capitulation being aprt of the reason for the civil war that rages to this day. There were also more points that I didn't properly take notes of. However, Phil from AVPS was sitting next to me and his notes seemed much fuller on the discussion so hopefully he'll post on that.

Interview with Cindy Sheehan - Anti-war Mom Calls For New Party, Polls 17% Against Nancy Pelosi

From the CWI website. For me the 17% that Sheehan won is the bright spot of the election (better than Nader's 0.5% - but that still equated to half a million votes - and i was happy with 271 votes in Bangor). Obama has mobilised thousands but he remains a president for the Democratic Party, a pro-capitalist party and will only be forced to implement some of his most leftwing policies under the pressure of the movement he has intiated. A new party, like what Sheehan is calling for will help this along immensly (although the name First Party is a bit rubbish). It will be a good beginning and is well worth discussing.

Ty Moore, Socialist Alternative (CWI in USA)
“I will never concede defeat”, announced famed anti-war mom Cindy Sheehan after receiving an impressive 29,951 votes – 17 percent – in her insurgent bid for Congress. Sheehan took on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, architect of the Democratic Party’s betrayals following their 2006 takeover of Congress. The campaign faced a media blackout and Pelosi refused repeated calls to debate Sheehan. But supported by dedicated volunteers, Sheehan became just the 6th independent candidate in California history to overcome the restrictive ballot access laws, raised over $500,000, and mounted a serious campaign.
Sheehan came to national fame during her August 2005 protest outside Bush’s ranch, after her son Casey, a serving US soldier, was killed in Iraq. Hoping to end the war, Sheehan supported the Democratic Party in 2006, when they won a sweeping victory in the mid-term congressional elections on promises to end the war and reverse Bush’s corporate agenda.
But in the first months of 2007, the Democratic majority voted to expand funding for the Iraq War, and Sheehan made a decisive break from the party. In a speech launching her independent campaign against Pelosi, Sheehan explained: “An electorate disgusted with the policies of the Bush regime put the Democrats in the majority in Congress in November ‘06. We voted for change, however Congress, under the Speakership of Ms. Pelosi, has done nothing but protect the status quo of the corporate elite and, in fact, since she has been the Speaker the situation in the Middle East has grown far worse, with Congress’ help... That is not what we elected them to do!”
The interview
On a recent trip to San Francisco, I was able to meet up with Cindy Sheehan and her campaign manager, Tiffany Burns, in their downtown office. It was October 13th, three weeks before election day. We discussed their campaign, but I was especially interested in Sheehan’s recent declaration to launch a new party following November 4th.
“Ever since I left the Democratic Party, and even before, I was writing about how there is not much difference in the two-party system,” Sheehan explained to me. “I’ve seen a lot of energy around Ralph Nader’s campaign, around Cynthia McKinney’s campaign and certainly I see it in my campaign everyday. I see that all three of us basically stand for the same things. Even Ron Paul (a candidate for the Republican nomination who combined opposition to the Iraq war with a right wing, anti-worker programme) revolutionaries, who are anti-imperialist – some of them don’t really understand [Ron Paul’s] full programme… that certainly was a huge movement. Instead of having such disparate people trying for the same thing, why don’t we join our movements together to make an even bigger movement, to maybe have a viable third party.”
In a previous interview, Sheehan had reportedly already decided to name the new formation the “First Party.” My concern, I explained, was that simply declaring a new party, with a name and programme already picked out, could alienate other forces who would want to be part of the process. “I never said I would just form a third party,” Cindy responded. “I said I was going to use the energies of the movement to bring it together. My idea is to call it the First Party.” Cindy also explained, “Right now it’s just an idea. I’ve talked to McKinney about it. I’ve talked to people in the Nader campaign about it… After the elections, win or lose, I’m committed to bringing in all the voices.”
Campaign manager Tiffany Burns added that “we want to have a gathering and really create a space for people to come together and have a sense of what would the party look like, who would it represent, who wants to be a part of this, very soon after the elections, because we have to capitalize on the energy coming off of the elections.”
Is now the time?
There have been many failed attempts to build new left and working class parties, I pointed out. But big business’s two-party system in the US has proven more impervious to political challenges any other system in the modern capitalist world. What is different today?
“The independent movement is the fastest growing category in this country,” Sheehan explained. “Independents are the second most registered group in San Francisco... The abuses of the last eight years have awakened people who thought before that maybe there were two choices, at least an appearance of a choice. But they have seen the Democrats betray the country, the constitution, and their base over and over again. So I think that now is the time to strike with the ’First Party’ movement.”
I began to ask: “With the economic crisis and bailout, which Pelosi played an instrumental role in passing…” Cindy interrupted: “She didn’t just play an instrumental role, she jammed it down everybody’s throat. I mean she was the terminator of politicians at that time. She was like, ‘we are going to pass this mother f***er no matter what happens.’”
“The economic crisis is what is really motivating people, because it’s touching their lives, it’s not far away… [The new party] will of course be a party for the working class, and very pro-worker, pro-labor, pro-democratic structures. Not like the SEIU Andy Stern model. True organizing, true participation… There is not a true choice in the national picture – there is just the appearance of choice. It’s façade over substance. It’s imperialism, it’s capitalism, and it’s crumbling. No matter what they do to save it, it’s still crumbling. And I think people are going to start getting it.”
Movement building
Our conversation moved to a discussion about party building. Among the central mistakes of the Green Party, I argued, is their narrow focus on running candidates instead of devoting resources to initiating protests and community struggles. While plenty of individual Greens are active in antiwar groups, environmental campaigns, etc., the party itself rarely attempts to become an organizing center for non-electoral struggles, allowing Democratic Party-aligned groups to dominate most social movements unchallenged.
Sheehan seemed to agree. “A new party has to be diverse and it has to be a movement. It can’t just be people with registration cards walking around saying sign up for our party. It has to be something that the people will feel will actually help them. I think the Green Party is a wonderful conception, but it’s not about movement building – it’s about getting people elected. It’s not going to be a viable third party until it becomes a movement. And if people who are disaffected want to come and help us…”
“You know, we’ve had several people leave our campaign because they were only focused on getting elected, and that’s not what our campaign is about,” Sheehan finished. Burnsalso explained how they are taking “a completely different approach to a political campaign. But we’ve been really successful, which is frustrating to people who are in electoral politics, who have a cookie cutter method to getting elected, to running a campaign. We’re not just a campaign who shows up with leaflets to antiwar rallies, we’re organizing and leading them as part of our campaign tactics.”
“Our anti-war base left us”
After gaining national fame for her camp outside Bush’s Crawford, Texas ranch in 2005, Sheehan became a darling of mainstream anti-war groups and within liberal Democratic Party circles. She accepted a position on the Progressive Democrats of America advisory board. And as Burns explained, “Cindy has been approached many, many times about running. From the second she became a household name everybody thought, ‘Oh, she’d be a great Democratic candidate.’”
However, once she broke from the Democrats, “Everybody that supported Cindy before she decided to run totally turned their back on her. Our anti-war base left us when the groups that should have supported Cindy, and supported her before when she was fundraising for their groups or speaking the anti-war message without calling out the Democrats… every one of those groups totally abandoned her. There were lots of groups who just flat out said: ‘We wish you were running as a Democrat.’”
Imagine what would be possible if the social movement organizations – the unions, antiwar groups, civil rights and community organizations, the environmental movement, etc. – broke from the Democrats and dedicated their resources building a new party for working people. Tiffany made a similar observation: “And so we have been able to raise $500,000 in spite of not having access to the membership of those [anti-war] groups. We probably would have been able to raise exponentially more if we’d been able to reach those members.”
Opposing Obama
Both Sheehan and Burns had a lot to say about pressures to water down their campaign from fair-weather friends on the liberal left, most of whom abandoned Sheehan after she broke with the Democrats. “At every single event we’ve gone to since Cindy became the candidate, whether an antiwar protest or a community event, they all say, ‘Oh this can’t be a political event,’” Burns explained. “They want her because she is the peace mom, they want a name draw, but they won’t identify her as a candidate, they don’t want her to speak about why she’s running, who she’s running against, and that all has to do with not wanting to challenge Pelosi and the Democrats… You know, this is an intentional campaign that is about bringing down the two-party system and about bringing down the most powerful Democrat in Congress… If you don’t want us to say that, then we’re not going to be there.”
“The most political decision we have,” Burns said, is walking “this fine line of not alienating everyone who will vote for Obama but also support Cindy… Not in any way, shape, or form have we ever said anything supportive of either mainstream presidential candidate. Cynthia McKinney is the co-chair of our campaign, and we’ve done lots of work with Ralph Nader too… The first article [Cindy] wrote against Obama, we got so much criticism from people who thought they had a lot of political insight, who thought she was committing voter suicide. That was a year ago. But we said that Obama is just going to move to the political center, everybody knows that. The voters you think we’re alienating are smart too. They’re going to see that. And that’s exactly what’s happened. So a lot of those people who a year ago just thought Cindy was an asshole have come to agree with her.”
The campaign
I asked Tiffany about how the campaign itself was going: “We started with a very small, concentrated volunteer base. Now at times we’ll have like 40 people, but those 40 people are doing the work of 400 people. At times we’ll have 100 people come in over a weekend and do things. So it ebbs and flows… We have 60 dedicated phone bankers from across the country. We have a campaign staff of four people, and seven paid interns, and half a dozen volunteers who might as well be staff. And a normal weekend we’ll have 20-25 volunteers to help us table, do neighborhood walking. These people are much more dedicated than the average volunteer.”
“We just crossed the $500,000 mark last week. That’s phenomenal! That was from a list of 8,000 people that we started with. You know,” Tiffany said proudly, “I think there were expectations that we would only raise $50,000. We didn’t have any infrastructure or party backing.”
The Cindy Sheehan campaign signed another year’s lease for their downtown San Francisco office. They have already announced plans to challenge Pelosi again in 2010, but Sheehan hopes that by then a new party will be up and running, with candidates across the country running for Congress and other offices. Whether Sheehan’s project succeeds or not remains to be seen. There are many potential pit-falls. But the coming years will no doubt provide more opportunities than ever for the American working class to develop its own political voice.

Sri Lanka - Twenty five years of war and conflict - Socialists fight in Eastern elections

Yes, another repost - this time from the CWI wesbite www.socialistworld.net - but yet again another story connected with human rights - regualr posting wil resume shortly.

Srinath Perera, United Socialist Party, CWI, Sri Lanka
The Sri Lankan government is engaged in a war against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam in the north of the country. This year marks its 25th anniversary. This war has cost more than 70,000 lives and billions of rupees of the country’s national wealth.

Both sides have had ups and downs in the conflict and no one has emerged victorious. In 2002 the then prime minister, Ranil Wickramasinghe, and the ‘Tigers’ entered into a ceasefire and the war was halted. Though negotiations were started to find a political solution to the problem they broke down amid accusations by both parties of violating the ceasefire. There was no progress towards negotiations to find a political solution to the Tamil national question. The present president, Mahinda Rajapakse, who came to power in November 2005 on a Sinhala nationalist platform, virtually went back on the ceasefire agreement and again started military attacks in late 2006.

The Sri Lankan military was able to capture Tiger-held areas in the East mainly due to the split in the ranks of the Tigers in that province last year. The president formally abrogated the ceasefire agreement in January this year.

Now the government has started a large-scale military offensive in the North to capture the Tiger stronghold in Wanni and Rajapakse has publicly stated that he wants to get Prabhakaran, the elusive leader of Tamil Tigers, “dead or alive”! This points to the thinking of government leaders that they can crush the Tigers by eliminating their leadership.

However, the present offensive which is in its fourth month now has not yielded any significant gains for the government. The president once spoke about a military victory in the North by the Sri Lankan New Year, which was in mid-April, and the military leaders now give deadlines of August and the end of the year, which indicate that the Sri Lankan military is still far away from capturing the Wanni

The government is hell bent on silencing any opposition to its strategy and programmes. Government and military leaders are labelling left party and trade union activists, human rights campaigners, journalists and media organisations and institutions as ‘traitors to the nation’. Physical attacks and threatening calls are carried out to intimidate such people.

Human rights are violated openly and armed groups closely working with the military are abducting people, mainly Tamils, for ransom. Disappearances, abductions and extra-judicial killings are reported almost everyday, however the government or the police have not taken any meaningful steps to alleviate the situation.

At the moment, the government’s main anger is directed towards the journalists who expose corruption involving top government politicians and military leaders. Twelve journalists, the majority of whom are Tamil, have been killed in the last two and a half years and several others physically attacked. The printing press of one newspaper which is critical of the government was set on fire inside a ‘high security zone’, indicating the military involvement therein. People very much suspect that these death squads operate with the connivance of the defence secretary, Gotabhaya Rajapaksa, a brother of the president who has vociferously denounced all those who utter even a word against the war or corruption involving the government and military leaders.

Economy
In the mean time, the economy is in dire straits. The war is eating into the state coffers and the government is very very lavish in spending for the war while the ordinary masses are left to fight a loosing battle for their day to day survival. Inflation was around 24% in the last two years and 23.8% in March of this year according to Sri Lanka’s Central Bank. The price of commodities such as rice and milk powder have sky-rocketed during the last six months and the government has not done anything proper to alleviate the suffering of the people.

While the crisis in the world economy and steep rise in the price of oil have contributed to this situation, people are very much angry about it. They blame the rulers as this is mainly due to the inefficiency and mismanagement on the part of the government, comprised of 108 cabinet ministers, probably the biggest in the world. Nevertheless, the main opposition parties and trade union leaders have done nothing against this situation apart from issuing statements. Most of the trade union leaders are allied with the ruling coalition and they do not want to do anything against the government which according to them is engaged in a war to save the country from “terrorism” (of the ‘Tigers’). The working and poor people have been lured to support the war and to believe that the government would make the situation better by ending the war in a very short time.

Bogged down
It is clear, however, that the things are not going to be that easy. At present the government has been able to muster some popular support especially among the majority Sinhalese for its war effort, mainly on the basis of capturing the East and on the promise of the eliminating the Tiger “menace” in the north and the rest of the country within a few months. The Sri Lankan forces seem to be bogged down in a long drawn out war despite their claims of a large number of Tiger casualties. The Air Force has now started bombings in the north even at night. A considerable number of civilians including children have been killed or injured in the past month alone. The LTTE has mounted heavy resistance to the Sri Lankan military offensive in the North and has been almost able to halt the advancing army. While the Tigers undoubtedly have been subjected to heavy attack, causing considerable loss to them, the military is trying in vain to hide the number of casualties among their own ranks, which are not a few by any means.

Unless the government forces are able to gain a significant result within the next two or three months, their support base in the South will begin to evaporate. As the economic burdens get to bear down more and more on them, they will begin to question the wisdom of military leaders hitherto unchallenged by anybody apart from the Left. And people will get war weary. If it were not for the Tigers’ attacks on innocent civilians in the South, such as what seems to have been their work in the bus bombing at Piliyandala on April 25, there would not be much support for the war which is mainly propped up by the ultra-nationalist party of the Buddhist monks (JHU) and the Sinhala nationalist radical petty bourgeois party, the JVP.

Socialist demands
The USP is calling for an immediate end to the war and the beginning of negotiations to find a political solution to the national question of the Tamil people - a vestige left behind by the British colonial rulers. We call upon the government and the Tamil Tigers to respect the human rights of all the people, especially the right to life and the right to freedom of expression. While we cannot have any hope in the Sinhalese ruling class, which is very backward and parasitic, we call for the active involvement of representatives of workers and poor in any negotiations. Only through such participation can the true aspirations of the ordinary masses can be taken into consideration.

United Socialist Party stands in Eastern elections

Elections for the Eastern Provincial Council are to be held on 10 May and the USP is the only left party standing in them. The ruling United People’s Freedom Alliance and the main capitalist opposition United National Party are trying to deceive the people in the East. The Area is comprised of all three communities - Sinhala, Tamil and Muslim – with roughly one third of each. The UPFA is contesting in alliance with the TMVP Tamil People’s L- the split away group from the Tamil Tigers which is still carrying arms and openly acting in collusion with the Army. The UNP is allied with the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress party, which has had the support of the majority of the Muslim people there.

The United Socialist Party is fighting on a platform of an end to oppression and discrimination against Tamil-speaking people, the recognition of a Tamil homeland in a merged North and East of the country with adequate safeguards for the Muslim community, a united struggle of all the people against war, poverty and exploitation and a socialist alternative.

Although the possibility for a free and fair election is very slim with the TMVP’s intimidatory power, the USP is providing the only alternative voice to a people hitherto subjugated by the barrel of the gun.

News Release
Just after this article was written, we received the following statement from the United Socialist Party (CWI in Sri Lanka):

Subramanian Nagularaj, leading candidate of the United Socialist Party for the Batticaloa District in the provincial council elections to be held an 10th May was attacked by alleged Pillayan group (TMVP) members in the heart of Batticoloa town at around 9.30 a.m. on Saturday, 26th April 2008.

Nagulraj and his supporters were distributing leaflets at the main city centre when two men who came on a motor bike assaulted him with their hands and snatched the bundle of leaflets from the candidate and rode away.

The Batticaloa Police was at first reluctant even to entertain the complaint of Nagulraj and only after information was given to the Colombo headquarters they recorded it. However no action has yet been taken to apprehend the suspects.

We are demanding a prompt and impartial inqury on this incident. This proves again this election is being conducted in a state of fear and intimidation by armed groups acting in collussion with the government authorities.

Solidarity at Xmas

A few days ago, I thought i'd write a post on something to do with xmas, though i wasn't sure what. But today, I got thinking about the whole christian thing of thinking of those less well off etc, which was particularly brought on by the local amnesty international society deciding to write christmas cards to political prisoners. I don't advocate writing xmas cards to everyone though, although i may not necessarily agree with them being imprisoned, my focus will be on working class fighters and revolutionary socialists - as i've little time and i'd rather focus my energies on those most likely to make a difference to ordinary working clas people around the world. For socialists, i think it's important to think about comrades who are not free (I mean relatively free, of course we're all still living in a capitalist world). So below I'm putting up some links to various comrades who are either in prison or have been threatened in some way or another.

Firstly, there are the three student comrades in Nigeria who will be in prison (although they have been granted ridiculous bail terms. I've reported several times on these comrades, and even being involved with some solidarity action in bangor. These comrades still are held with ridiculous charges and will be in prison until new year.
http://www.chinaworker.tk/en/content/news/318/

Secondly, there are activists in Malaysia and members of the Malaysian Socialist Party who have been arrested and charged for protesting, a clear contravention of their democratic rights. Protests are requested as they will be up in court soon.
http://www.socialistworld.net/eng/2007/12/17malaya.html

Thirdly, there is a trade union activist and swedish member of the cwi, Bilbo Goransson who is threatened with explusion from his trade union Kommunal, after helping organise a mass demonstration in Sweden this September.
http://www.socialistworld.net/eng/2007/12/19swedea.html

Fourthly, students in Iran have been detained after protesting earlier this month. Find out more
http://www.socialistworld.net/eng/2007/12/22irana.html

Almost finally, Tommy Sheridan has been charged with perjury (from his court defeat of Murdoch's News of the World). More info is provided in the article but it is clear this is a collosal waste of resources.
http://www.socialistworld.net/eng/2007/12/19defena.html

Finally, some good news, Socialist Alternative is reporting that the Tulwika teachers who last month took part in a walkout against the wars in afghanistan and iraq, have been saved from being fired, which is great news for anti-war activists, although a student is still being suspended and the school has issued somekind of warning to some of the teachers. For more see
http://www.socialistalternative.org/news/article13.php?id=677

anyway, i think i may go back to irregular posting. i've kinda being doing that anyway and it seems to get people to comment more on stuff too.

Wikipedia

I expect most people will have heard of wikipedia, the online free encyclopedia. I happen to be a fan of it and have contributed to several topics myself. I guess i'm just drawn to the idea of such a large collaborative project. Lately, i've been editing some of the criminology and committee for a workers international articles.

Anyways, the English version is en.wikipedia.org, and the list of articles i've either started or helped develop is http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Votemoose.

I was alos wondering what other people think of wikipedia?

Chinaworker.info

This is just a quick message about one of the CWI's international website, chinaworker.info which was set up in support of workers struggles in China and is really worth checking out. Apart from some of the articles on Chinese History which are quite interesting, it features reports of workers struggles in China which we simply don't hear about through the mainstream media. To get to it follow this link

http://www.chinaworker.info/cgi-bin/index.cgi?action=

Socialist Alternative Radio

I have to admit I like good ideas, and what I'm going to describe is one of them. Comrades in the CWI in Boston, MA in the US have launched Socialist Alternative Radio, to spread the ideas of socialism and marxism across the airwaves. And it's a damn good listen.
Generally speaking the typical show has a look at the previous weeks news, an interview with an activist of some kind (has varied from the Green candidate for governor in Massachussets to other members of the CWI across the US to striking workers), various music, book and film reviews and solidarity anouncements for the local (Boston) area.
So if you're bored on a journey for a couple of hours (like I am a lot), download this to your MP3 player (if you're lucky enough to have one) and listen along. It can be downloaded from http://www.wmfo.org/index.html every week, or listened to live there (or in Boston of course). Just go to Schedule on the site menu and then find Socialist Alternative Radio and click last show.