Archive for the Category 'International'
Second general strike of the year on March 2
Trade unions in Northern Cyprus declared 2011 as the “year of social existence.” The world economic crisis has forced the government in Ankara to carry out neoliberal attacks against the rights of the working class in Northern Cyprus. The first general strike of this year was on January 28. The general strike took on an anti-colonial character: At the strike rally, banners against the Turkish occupation forces were held up. Then the verbal attacks against the people of Northern Cyprus began, both by the Turkish government and by Turkish fascists in Cyprus. On March 2, a second general strike will take place, and we want to analyze this movement from a Marxist point of view in order to develop perspectives. »»»»
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A balance sheet of the congress of the New Anticapitalist Party (NPA) of France
The first congress of the New Anticapitalist Party of France (NPA), held last weekend in Montreuil just outside Paris, ended in a dismal failure. None of the platforms presented was able to win a majority. The outgoing leadership – including the spokesman Olivier Besancenot and historical leaders such as Alain Krivine – barely got 41.8% of the votes for their orientation document. It was not even possible to produce a joint declaration by the congress due to strong disagreements between the main platforms: Platform 3 (PF3) or the ‘unitary platform’, which is in favour of an agreement with the reformists at any cost, that is with the Parti de Gauche (Left Party) of Jean-Luc Mélenchon, former minister in Lionel Jospin’s social democratic government, and the French Communist Party (PCF); Platform 2 (PF2), called the ‘identity platform’ by the bourgeois press, which wants a candidacy of Olivier Besancenot for the 2012 presidential elections and proposes to return to ‘the NPA of its origins’ and to orient towards the workplaces; Platform 1 (PF1), which vacillates between PF3 and PF2 on the electoral issue and defines itself as ‘anticapitalist’ and ‘unitary’. As a result of this lack of definition, seven members of the outgoing leadership decided to join the Parti de Gauche. This occurs in the context of a loss of adherents, who went from about 9,000 at the founding congress two years ago to about 3,550 who voted in the electoral assemblies prior to this congress [1]. »»»»
Interview with Vincent Duse and Danièle Cobet
In the National Congress of the NPA last weekend, Platform 4, in which the militants of the FT-CI in France participate, got 3.7% of the delegates’ votes, and from now on, will have 6 members in the national leadership (CPN) of this party. We interviewed two of them: Vincent Duse, a worker and union activist of the CGT at the Peugeot Mulhouse factory, and Danièle Cobet, a student and worker with an precarious job situation, a militant of the FT-CI. »»»»
What are the Perspectives for the Revolution in the Arab Countries?
In the past two months, millions of people in Tunisia, Egypt, Jordan, Yemen, Algeria and other Arab countries have gone out onto the streets against dictatorial regimes. These regimes, in power for decades (23 years in the case of Tunisia, 29 years in the case of Egypt), have been shaken. Massive police forces and secret services (180,000 police and spies in the case of Tunisia, 1.8 million in the case of Egypt) were unable to contain the revolt. The Tunisian president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali was forced to flee the country on January 14, while the Egyptian president Mubarak had to resign on February 11. »»»»
As we go to press, the revolutionary process that has opened in Egypt appears to be entering a decisive phase. This is the most important of a series of uprisings that are sweeping through different countries in the Arab world: in Tunisia, Jordan, Yemen, Morocco and Algeria, where the opposition has called for a general strike and demonstrations. »»»»
An alarm signal for the arab autocrats and the imperialists
The impact of the first revolutionary fall of a dictator in the Arab world in this century has reached not only the Maghreb and the Near East, but all the European governments are now extremely worried by the evolution of the situation. The process that led to the fall of Ben Ali goes back a long way. It is the Tunisian expression of an accumulated popular anger, intensified by the effects of the world economic crisis on the semi-colonial periphery against the regimes that arose from processes of winning independence. Decades ago, these regimes ceased to rely on vague nationalist rhetoric or invoking Arab socialism, to go over completely to being the best servants of imperialism and of its neo-liberal, privatizing offensive in recent decades, with everything that implies in terms of destitution and oppression for the subordinate classes. »»»»
The League for the FIfth International attempts to expel RIO members from the New Anticapitalist Left (NAL) of the Czech Republic
The Prague group of the Revolutionary Internationalist Organization (RIO) formulated an open letter which named the current problems of the New Anticapitalist Left (NAL) in the Czech Republic. Our aim was to start a constructive debate about the future direction of the NAL and the work of all left-wing groups (RIO and also the League for the Fifth International, LFI) in this organization. »»»»
8 South Korean Labor Activists Face 5-7 Years in Prison
While we have important political differences with the SWLK and the initiators of this solidarity call, we unreservedly condemn the attempt by the South Korean state to persecute left communist activists for their political work. This kind of political repression by the capitalist courts can only be stopped by mass action of the workers and youth. Yet as internationalists we also support legal attempts to force the South Korean state to drop all charges. »»»»
Open Letter to the League for the FIfth International
Dear comrades,
for many years, the Czech members of the League for the Fifth International (LFI) and the Czech members of the Revolutionary Internationalist Organization (RIO) have worked side by side in different campaigns (such as the No Bases Initiative and Students Against Racism). In addition to our friendly personal relations, we have always had similar political positions, since we are the only two left Trotskyist groups in the Czech Republic. »»»»
After years, the first revolutionary process in an Arabic country is underway. Ben Ali’s Tunisian regime does not know what to do to curb the mobilization of the masses — unleashed because of the rise in prices of basic products — who, after yesterday’s announcements, are demanding his resignation. In Tunisia, a new revolutionary process is taking place, in which the vanguard is not Islamist, a process from below of young college graduates that are unemployed, lawyers, workers from industrial and mining cities, a two-hour general strike called for January 14, among other actions. »»»»
Manuel Georget and Vicent Duse speak in an interview about Platform 4 for the congress of the New Anticapitalist Party (NPA)
Manuel Georget and Vincent Duse are two of the most important workers’ representatives of Platform 4. Georget is general secretary of the CGT EGP Dreux and trade union delegate of the Philips Dreux TV manufacturing plant. The factory has recently been closed down after years of battle against layoffs and relocation, which ended with a short experience of production under workers’ control last January. Georget was a member of the Ligue Communiste Révolutionnaire (LCR), the forerunner of the NPA, for nearly 30 years. He headed the NPA slate in the Eure-et-Loir department in the last regional elections and is a member of the Collective for a Revolutionary Tendency (CTR) coordinating body. Duse is a worker at the Peugeot factory in Mulhouse, where more than 10,000 workers are employed, and for 10 years was the general secretary of the CGT in the factory. He is a member of the National Political Committee of the NPA and of the CTR coordinating body. »»»»