Hugo Chavez, the president of Venezuela, called for the creation of "the Fifth Socialist International as a new organisation that fits the time and the challenge in which we live, and that can become an instrument of unification and coordination of the struggle of peoples to save this planet”.
President Chavez addresses conference of left parties.
Australian socialist Federico Fuentes, a conference participant, reports:
Appearing below are eyewitness reports from Fuentes and his fellow socialist from Australia, Kiraz Janicke, along with a conference declaration titled "The Caracas Commitment" and a supportive analysis from a Fourth International activist in the French New Anti-Capitalist Party.
Chavez said it would be a new body without manuals and impositions, where differences were welcome. He criticised the practices of the old Communist Party of the Soviet Union, which imposed its dogmas such as “socialism in one country” on its satellite parties internationally...
Chavez said the new international should reject the failed projects of “real socialism” and social democracy. It should embody the spirit and heritage left to humanity by the founders of the first four internationals. It should also incorporate the ideas of past Latin American revolutionaries.
It has to be an international to confront imperialism, and defeat capitalism, said Chavez. He said it was necessary to work together to create a manifesto to spell out the content of “socialism of the 21st century”.
Chavez gave a swift and sharp response to a delegate’s interjection that there already exist organisations for left coordination. There exist many spaces for discussion, said Chavez, but none for concrete action. “We have wasted a lot of time, we continue to waste time, looking for excuses to justify our inactivity”, said Chavez. “I consider such behaviour to be a betrayal of the hope of our peoples.” The unity of left parties is needed, “but [of] parties that are truly left”.
Decisions of Socialist Worker-New Zealand
On 29 November 2009 the central committee of Socialist Worker-New Zealand unanimously decided:
● The Caracas decision to move towards forming a Fifth International is of "world historic importance". Such a Fifth International will "boost the legitimacy and organisation of socialism around the world" at a time when global capitalism in terminal decay threatens the existence of humanity through climate change, mass poverty and imperial conflicts.
● Consequently, Socialist Worker-New Zealand will do all we can to support the April 2010 global left meeting to form a Fifth International.
● Socialist Worker-New Zealand is looking to send two delegates to the April conference. We are launching an appeal to raise funds for their return air fares to Caracas. You can support our appeal by making an electronic payment to Socialist Worker's bank account 115350-0685890-11 or posting a cheque (marked "Socialist Worker") to PO Box 13-685, Auckland.
● Socialist Worker-New Zealand will be talking with other socialists in New Zealand about the April 2010 global left conference. Our aim is to cooperate with all those who, like us, support the formation of a Fifth International.
● Socialist Worker-New Zealand will be urging socialists in other lands, including the International Socialist Tendency to which we are affiliated, to likewise back the formation of a Fifth International.
Solidarity,
Grant Morgan
International secretary
Socialist Worker-New Zealand
PO Box 13-685
Auckland
New Zealand
grantmorgan@paradise.net.nz
+64 9 634 4432 (10am-10pm NZT)
See also Labour Party Pakistan endorses Fifth Socialist International process.
2 comments:
Do you not worry that, what with the opaque nature of Chavez' rhetoric that this is a false dawn?
Especially since the man declares it must be an International to defeat capitalism, and yet he hasn't bothered to do this in his own country? Not to say that it's up to him, but it's clear that he does not trust the workers as he should, and instead of arming them and disbanding the forces of the bourgeois state, permits said forces to repress workers on strike or in protest.
I find your assumption that everything the Venezuelan bourgeois state does is with the permission of President Chávez interesting.
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