The gathering of tens of thousands of people in Florence last November and in Paris from 12 – 15 November this year marks a big step forward for the struggles against corporate globalisation and imperialist war. This year to the war-mongering of Bush has been added an all out offensive launched by the governments of the EU against our social gains and civil rights. The increasing involvement of working class militants from the trade unions, the Communist parties and even oppositional wings of the socialist parties should be welcomed. So too should leaders of these parties when they are actually fighting neoliberalism and war. Those participating in governments that are carrying out these policies or waging these wars should not be welcomed.
In Florence one great positive step was taken – to call a day of Europe wide antiwar action as part of a campaign to stop Bush and Blair’s attack on Iraq- February 15.. Though we did not succeed in our objective we mobilised upwards of twenty million people worldwide and made the names of theses two scoundrels stink to high heaven . Exposed by the very results of their victory (no WMDs, mounting Iraqi resistance) Bush and Blair will have difficulty repeating the process, at least in the next few months.
But we have an equally dangerous enemy here “at home” in Europe, one that is attempting to slash to pieces our social rights and public sector services and jobs. One whose long term purpose is to create an imperialist superstate to rival the USA and act as a fortress against those asylum seekers and “economic migrants” fleeing the wars and economic misery engendered by global capitalism and imperialist war.
A number of Italian and French trade unions are proposing a day of action- including one day general strikes in March next year. This is an important initiative and it needs to be spread to the whole of Europe. It needs to be campaigned for with the utmost enthusiasm by the entire anticapitalist and labour movements. In countries like Britain, Sweden and Germany with Labour or Social Democratic governments this will not be so easy as in France, Italy and Spain where right-wing governments are in power. The majority of the trade union and political apparatus in engaged in preventing a fightback against the neoliberal attacks of “their own” parties in power.. In Britain the union leaders will use the existence of Margaret Thatcher’s draconian anti-union laws which outlaw economic solidarity strikes let alone political or general strikes.
So in these countries rank and file trade unionists must launch a huge months long political campaign in the unions, in the workplaces and on the streets for an all out campaign against privatisation, cuts in social gains, student grants , pension rights. The best way to do this is by building local and national social forums or councils of action which draw in the trade unions and all the social forces represented at the ESF. Such a campaign must make it clear that we need not simply a one day action after which the union leaders go off to negotiate each their own compromise with the EU governments.
We need to agree in mass rallies that we reject ALL privatisation, ALL cuts in pensions and welfare benefits, ALL restrictions on union and workplace rights, all racist and undemocratic measures building “fortress Europe". We demand that the central authorities of the EU as well as the governments, withdraw all measures enforcing or promoting these policies- immediately and unconditionally and we want an escalating campaign of direct action up to and including a Europe wide general strike to win our demands in full and open up the road to ANOTHER EUROPE- that is a SOCIALIST UNITED STATES of the continent, open to all, helping the global south to liberate itself from imperialism.
What structural changes do we need if the ESF is to make any move in this direction?
We need to shake off the shackles of the Porto Alegre principles. They were never agreed democratically by any body representative of the movement, though they are presented as a pr-condition of participation in the ESF.They forbid the open participation of political parties in the ESF. They forbid any decision making, any public representation of the views of the ESF/WSF. On parties of course there should be no privileges for them but no undemocratic bans or enforced dishonest disguises either. Masks off! Only thus can people drawn for the first time to the ESF know who is who and what they really stand for. Only thus can they judge their proposals and their capacity for carrying them out.
We need to shake of the ban on taking decisions by a democratic majority, providing their has been a full and open debate. Why should a minority- maybe even a tiny minority- prevent us from taking action or adopting common goals in our various struggles. Insistence in consensus or unanimity ties us to the lowest conceivable common denominator and often to no actin at all. If we stick to this the ESF will exhaust itself as a huge and expensive talking shop. It will not survive OR it will fall into the hands of the union, municipal, (disguised party and NGO officials) and publishers who pay for it and control the key decisions from behind the scenes.
Already rumours are rife of sharp conflicts within ATTAC France and amongst the organisers, between the reformist Parti Communiste Français (PCF) and the centrist Ligue Communiste Révolutionnaire (LCR). The former wish to use their financial and municipal control to win a dominating presence in the forum- one they have certainly not earned on the battlefields of the anti-capitalist, class struggles of the past three years.
This highlights one of the problems of making the ESF (and the WSF) into a huge jamboree of speeches and seminars, which require vast resources (6 million euros this time) to run. Only big reformist municipalities can afford this and it would be naïve to imagine that “s/he who pays the piper calls the tune” does not apply or at least is not attempted. The sheer unwieldiness of the ESF (and the WSF) can be used and is used to block any possibility of democratic decision making. Whether this is done in the name of libertarian and autonomist principles (consensus) or out of a reformist bureaucratic desire not to be committed to any radical ACTION, the result is the same. Impotence!
In the last two weeks before the Forum opens and once it begins we need to ensure the maximum participation of ranks and file trade unionists, members of youth organisations and political parties as well as the broad layers of non-party activists from the mass antiwar and anticapitalist mobilisations. With these forces we can stop any takeover by the reformist bureaucrats. But to do so means to name them and shame them, to fight them openly and call on everyone to do so. To do so only private meetings, or in oblique references will not do.
The gathering in Paris needs to debate the alternative strategies, the alternative programmes that many have put forward over the past year. But we also needs to continues the coordinated struggle again the warmongers Bush and Blair, their occupation of Iraq and the terrible threat of further ethnic cleansing now hanging over the Palestinian people if they refuse to surrender to the mass murderer Ariel Sharon. We need as well to launch a campaign against “our own” pseudo-pacific EU leaders over their social attacks mentioned above. For this the meeting of the Assembly of Social Movements and Actors is critical.
It came into existence precisely to escape the Porto Alegre straight-jacket on decision making. But even it has no clear, open and democratic way of submitting resolutions, and debating them (speeches against as well as for). In Florence the ASM was really huge and enthusiastic rally, though it did endorse the call worked out behind the scenes at the European Coordination.
This year the ESF European co-ordination should adopt proposals to take major steps towards creating an annual democratic decision making assembly. It should call on unions, parties, social forums etc, to send delegates to it but at the same time it should encourage the formation of local and national social forums which can give the rank and file activists of the movement a voice and delegates in the European Assembly. Then next years assembly can be a broadly representative but also a body capable of decisive action on a number of different issues.
The European Anticapitalist Left bloc, which includes both the LCR and Rifondazione comunista (RC) is discussing a common Europe -wide slate for the elections to the European Parliament. If this is not to be just an vote catching charade then the platform it adopts must be integrally tied to the campaign for direct action against the EU rulers offensive. Nor can it be a block with parties which are planning to enter coalition governments with social democrats who will carry on these neoliberal attacks and support the USA’s war on terrorism.
Who are we referring to? Why, to Fausto Bertinotti and the RC leaders. They should be challenged on their plans to enter into a second Ulivo coalition with the Democratic left and the rump of the Christian Democrats. If they can only reply with evasive, weasel words then we know where they are going. Any fellow travelling with them to the Euro-polls will mean being complicit in this project. We need to demand of all the representatives of the mass workers parties present (in light disguise) – will you pledge yourselves here and now not to enter into governments which carry out rather than fight against the capitalist class? If they will not then the tens of thousands in Paris can judge their anti-neoliberal rhetoric at its true worth.
We in the League for the Fifth International , as our name suggests, see this as a step forward towards a new mass International, capable of fighting global capital and US and EU imperialism. Linking up the European body with similar bodies on all continents- we believe that we can and must adopt a series of measures – a strategy for replacing capitalism with socialism (a programme), the creation of national sections of what will become a united world party of social revolution