Histories of the four Internationals

Venezuela’s president Hugo Chavez [right] has called for the formation of a Fifth International to unite socialists around the world. The previous internationals were places of debate and action, established to strengthen the international socialist movement. Dan Swain of the British Socialist Workers Party (SWP) has writen a breif history of each one, arguing that we “can learn an enormous amount by studying them”.

The First International was forged in struggle On 28 September 1864, delegations of workers from different countries met in London to form the International Working Men’s Association. This was later known as the First International. The Second International: From class war to imperialist slaughter Divisions over the question of revolution led to the break up of the First International. The same problem was also of decisive importance to the fate of the next attempt to unite socialists across borders. The Socialist International, known as the Second International, was established in 1889. The Third International: Revolutionary hope crushed by Stalinism When the parties of the Second International voted to support the First World War many socialists were left uncertain about what to do next. From the carnage of the war, however, came a beacon of hope that inspired millions across the world. A revolution in Russia put workers in control in October 1917. The success of the revolution inspired the creation of Communist Parties across Europe. The Fourth International: Keeping the flame alive Leon Trotsky, one of the leaders of the Russian revolution, opposed Joseph Stalin’s increasing stranglehold on the Soviet Union and the Third International. As a result he was exiled from Russia. In 1938 he gathered together a small number of his supporters to form the Fourth International. You can read the full articles here on UNITYblog.

Securing disaster in Haiti

By Peter Hallward January 21, 2010 Source: Haiti Analysis Nine days after the devastating earthquake that struck Haiti on January 12, 2010, it’s now clear that the initial phase of the US-led relief operation has conformed to the three fundamental tendencies that have shaped the more general course of the island’s recent history.[1] It has adopted military priorities and strategies. It has sidelined Haiti’s own leaders and government, and ignored the needs of the majority of its people. And it has proceeded in ways that reinforce the already harrowing gap between rich and poor. All three tendencies aren’t just connected, they are mutually reinforcing. These same tendencies will continue to govern the imminent reconstruction effort as well, unless determined political action is taken to counteract them.

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Haiti, a very brief history

By David
Here’s the briefest summary of Haiti’s inspiring and tragic history I can manage. For more details, check out the links in the previous posts. Inspired by the French Revolution’s proclamation of “Liberty, Equality, Fraternity” black slaves in the French colony of Haiti rose up and fought for their freedom. The British tried to take advantage of the chaos, and invaded with 90,000 troops, the former slaves defeated them. Napoleon – who had conqured Europe – tried to re-impose slavery, his army was beaten too. And in 1804 Haiti was free. Haitian freedom fighters had fought with the American revolutionaries against the British. But the USA’s slave-owning elite didn’t return the favour, instead they ganged up with the French and British to impose trade and investment embargoes. Eventually the Haitians were forced to agree to pay the French “compensation” for the “property” they had lost when the slaves freed themselves. Since then Haiti (like so many other poor countries) has been in debt to European and US banks. Haiti was invaded and occupied by the US in 1915 and 1934, and suffered under a succession of brutal, US-backed dictators. The current government is part of this pattern. During the latest coup in 2004, the elected president, the hugely popular left-winger Jean-Bertrand Aristide was kidnapped by US troops and left stranded in Africa. UN “peacekeepers” backed the new regime and shot Aristide’s protesting supporters. Although the current government won elections, they were neither free nor fair. Not only was Aristide in exile, but his party – which still has the support of most Haitians – was banned from standing. Now there are fears that the government and its US bakers will exploit the tragedy to impose a “disaster capitalism” programme of free market reforms and political repression.

Haiti Links from GPJA

For those wanting to look more in depth at what is happening in Haiti, and the background to the current disaster, the latest Global Peace & Justice Auckland newsletter has an extensive summary of on-line articles. The West’s role in Haiti's plight http://links.org.au/node/1462 Haiti Disaster Capitalism Alert: Stop Them Before They Shock Again http://www.naomiklein.org/articles/2010/01/haiti-disaster-capitalism-alert-stop-them-they-shock-again Greg Palast: History of a Haitian Holocaust http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL1001/S00101.htm Haiti – The Price of Freedom By Carolyn Cooper – The US refused to recognisethe new Haitian republic and imposed an embargo that lasted until 1862. In1915, the US invaded Haiti to protect its economic interests and remained inoccupation until 1934 http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article24432.htm Haiti: A natural and human-made catastrophe combine http://www.greenleft.org.au/2010/822/42255 Disaster Imperialism in Haiti by Shirley Pate http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/2010/pate170110.html Patrick Cockburn: The US is failing Haiti – again http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/patrick-cockburn-the-us-is-failing-haiti-ndash-again-1869539.html A must watch from Al-Jazeera: “Most Haitians here have seen little humanitairian aid so far. What they have seen is guns, and plenty of them... It looks more like the Green Zone in Baghdad than a centre for aid distribution.” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0F5TwEK24sA&feature=player_embedded He ended years of brutal regime. Now an exiled ex-president wants to be the saviour again. By Andrew Buncombe. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/discovered-by-columbus-built-by-france-ndash-and-wrecked-by-dictators-1869513.html Is the Haiti Rescue Effort Failing? By Danny Schechter, AlterNet. http://www.alternet.org/story/145226/is_the_haiti_rescue_effort_failing/?page=entire Haiti Smashed, Diaspora Shaken, Deportations Frozen By Michelle Chen http://www.naomiklein.org/articles/2010/01/haiti-smashed-diaspora-shaken-deportations-frozen Haitians plead: `Where is the help?' http://links.org.au/node/1466 Haiti – a kinder gentler imperialism http://liammacuaid.wordpress.com/2010/01/17/haiti-a-kinder-gentler-imperialism/ CNN: A working hospital in Haiti: “Cuban medical personnel are giving medical attention ... six to seven hundred patients a day, several dozen surgeries a day...” http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xbw37c_a-working-hospital-in-haiti_news Relief Efforts in the Shadow of Past “Help”: Moving from crimes-as-charity to actual support for Haiti by Dan Freeman-Maloy http://www.socialistproject.ca/bullet/297.php Cruise ships still find a Haitian berth – Luxury liners are still docking at private beaches near Haiti's devastated earthquake zone http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/jan/17/cruise-ships-haiti-earthquake US Corporations, Private Mercenaries and the IMF Rush in to Profit fromHaiti's Crisis http://www.alternet.org/world/145279/us_corporations%2C_private_mercenaries_and_the_imf_rush_in_to_profit_from_haiti%27s_crisis/ Haiti earthquake: US ships blockade coast to thwart exodus to America http://snipurl.com/u4z72 Haitian Earthquake: Why the Blood Is on Our Hands By Ted Rall http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article24391.htm US accused of ‘occupying’ Haiti as troops flood in: France accused the US of “occupying” Haiti on Monday as thousands of American troops flooded into thecountry to take charge of aid efforts and security. http://snipurl.com/u4ma7 Haiti, Again? Phyllis Bennis – The marginalisation of the UN and the militarisation of the US aid effort in Haiti reflect how the humanitarian needstake a back seat to the Pentagon's priorities. http://www.tni.org/article/haiti-again Debt is Haiti’s real curse – Eric Toussaint and Sophie Perchellet of the Committee for the Abolition of Third World Debt (CADTM) explain how Haiti wasforced into a debt trap from its founding. http://socialistworker.org/2010/01/20/debt-is-the-real-curse

What’s happening in Haiti?

One of best sources of on-the-ground interviews and reports I’ve seen are coming from US internet radio and TV network Democracy Now, which has several reporters in Haiti.

Speaking to Democracy Now, Dr Evan Lyon – currently working at the Port-au-Prince General Hospital – contradicts mainstream media reports that violence from Hatian people themselves is holding up the relief effort:

One thing that I think is really important for people to understand is that misinformation and rumors and, I think at the bottom of the issue, racism has slowed the recovery efforts of this hospital... And there are no security issues... And there’s also no violence. There is no insecurity.

Also from Democracy Now, reporter Sharif Abdel Kouddous, describes why why some Haitians are getting angry at the way they are being treated by US and UN military and some aid agencies:

Yesterday, when we were in Léogâne, we were—we came to an area where a helicopter from a Mormon charity had landed. It was on the ground, and there was Haitians all around, young and old, waiting for food to be handed out. This helicopter took off, off the ground, and began throwing the food down at the Haitians. It did not distribute it when it was on the ground. They threw the food from the air. These were packets of bread that they were throwing.

It ignited just fury and indignation on the ground by the people there. They began screaming. One man started crying. He said, “We are a proud people. We are not dogs for you to throw bones at.”

It was a scene that I will never forget. And it really illustrates the problem with aid distribution here and the relief efforts here, that they are—they are not seen as people. As Haitians keep saying, they say, “This can happen to anybody. How would you like to be treated in this way?”

Writing in UK Times, author and aid specialist Linda Polman sites similar examples and argues ‘Fear of the poor is hampering Haiti rescue’. [Hat tip to www.socialistunity.com].

British blog Lenin’s Tomb has also taken up this issue in a series of posts, here and here.

Protest report: Respect the rights of Tamil refugees

By Priyaksha Pathmanathan On Monday 18th January, 30 Aucklanders representing half-a-dozen organisations protested outside the Australian consulate as part of a seven-country international campaign. They were demanding that the Australian Government take responsibility for 254 Tamil asylum seekers sailing for Australia who were turned back to Indonesia after the Australian prime minister asked the Indonesian Navy to intercept their boat. Similar protests took place in Indonesia, Australia, Canada, United States, England and Malaysia on the same day. Organisations supporting the Auckland protest included the Indonesian Human Rights Committee, Socialist Worker-New Zealand, Human Rights Network and the Workers Party. Local protest organizer Priyaksha Pathmanathan said “This was an important first step in making this issue visible in New Zealand and I hope that more could be done by countries to address the root causes of the many conflicts that are causing people to get into dangerous situations in their desperate need to seek freedom” As part of the Australian Government's ‘Indonesian Solution’, Kevin Rudd personally requested that the Indonesian Navy intercept and stop a boat carrying 254 Tamil asylum seekers from entering Australian waters. Monday marked 100 days since the Tamil asylum seekers refused to leave the boat for fear of being locked up in an Indonesian detention centre or being deported back to Sri Lanka. This fear was confirmed when Gunasekaram Sujendran voluntarily stepped off the boat to visit his sick mother in Sri Lanka and was imprisoned without charge upon arrival in Colombo Airport. A repeat of the event occurred when eight asylum seekers left the boat on a promise by Indonesian officials to have UNHCR access; However these eight men were thrown in Indonesian detention cells where they were interrogated by the Sri Lankan Navy and officials. Health and Hygiene on this boat is poor, with more than 200 people sharing one toilet. Many on this boat are sick from diarrehea and other preventable diseases. There are 31 Children on board, including a little baby who was born in the bunker in the last stages of the war in Sri Lanka in 2009 and who has just turned 1 on the boat. There are 27 Women without basic needs, one of which a woman who is 7 months pregnant on this boat. Without access given to UNHCR to process applications, media or family members, the protest comes amid the escalating human rights abuses that are occurring on the boat. One which caused uproar was the preventable death of George Jacob Samuel Christin who died due medical negligence by the International Organisation of Migration (IOM) and the Indonesian Navy. The Auckland protesters stood outside the Australian Consulate at Viaduct Harbour Basin with placards, urging the Australian Government to respect the rights of refugees as a signatory to the UN Refugee Convention. They also requested the New Zealand Government to uphold its duty as a signatory to the Refugee Convention. Protesters chanted “In the jail or on the sea – Respect the rights of the refugee” Addressing the crowd, Maire Leadbeater from Indonesian Human Rights Committee “There can be no doubt that Tamil citizens of Sri Lanka have reason to fear persecution as most have had their lives disrupted by extreme violence and internal displacement. International law enshrines the principle of ‘non-refoulement’, explicitly prohibiting the forced return of refugees to areas where their lives are potentially in danger” she concluded by saying “I am happy to be part of this important contribution to what’s being an international human rights issue to what’s becoming one of a desperate humanitarian crisis. New Zealand should also be aware that it has a region responsibility to assist with the plight of genuine asylum seekers” “We are public witnesses for Tamil asylum seekers fleeing civil strife who are trapped on a boat in Indonesia and cannot speak for themselves," said Grant Morgan from Socialist Worker. “It is legal to seek asylum in any country, but this international law is being violated by the governments of Australia and Indonesia, with covert backing from the New Zealand government. The actions of these governments is not only immoral but also illegal.” Green MP Keith Locke, who was out of the Auckland and could not make it to the protest, sent this message: “I congratulate those present on this vigil today for highlighting the tragic plight of the Tamil asylum seekers on the boat off Merak. They are suffering terribly. On behalf of the Green Party I have been pushing for New Zealand to take some of these asylum seekers, along with Australia. This is the only just response New Zealand can make to the crisis caused by the persecution of Tamil people in Sri Lanka, which has led to so many people fleeing on boats. I will continue to push our government on this matter.” See also: Protest illegal actions against Tamil asylum seekers And, background information at the end of this post

Talking Seattle, ten years on

Looking at this article from ten years ago reminded me just how exciting and inspiring Seattle and the birth of global anti-capitalist movement was. It occurs to me that there’s a lot for the left in general, and the climate justice and eco-socialist movements in particular to learn / remember about how the Seattle protests and the subsequent global movement nited a diverse range of activists – notably the ‘Teamster Turtle Alliance’ of trade unionists and environmentalists – who recognised neo-liberal capitalism as the common enemy. So I’ll be kicking off a discussion / workshop at Climate Camp on the topic: “Ten years after the ‘Battle of Seattle’, what can the Climate Justice activists learn from the Global Anti-Capitalist Movement?” Hope to see you there.

David

***

by John Charlton from International Socialism Journal, Issue 86, Spring 2000 Only a couple of months after the event the word ‘Seattle’ has acquired a new meaning. It is where ‘we’ kicked the system. The word pops up in India when power and port workers come out on mass strike against privatisation. ‘Is it the Seattle effect?’ asks a newspaper. The internet is replete with articles analysing its meaning. I posted a questionnaire on the internet between November 1999 and January 2000. The responses I received, along with personal testimonies and articles, became the basis of this piece.[1] That a turning point in the struggle against the excesses of world capitalism should take place in Seattle is not without its ironies. Seattle has been lauded as a hub of the burgeoning economies of the Pacific Rim. A boom town of the 20th century’s last quarter, ‘Seattle’ is almost a metaphor for high-tech consumption. It is the home of Boeing, of Microsoft, and those symbols of galloping consumerism, the Starbucks coffee shop empire and Nike, just down the road. A place to live in grace and comfort. All this explains why the Clinton administration wanted to take the World Trade Organisation to Seattle. Yet there is a downside. In the liberalisation of the global economy US domination may have may have increased, but millions of American workers have been victims of the shrinkage of basic industry, its relocation and the intensification of exploitation in the workplace. For some time the cynical and corrupt leaders of the labour unions have been under pressure from their members to organise a fightback. They chose Seattle because their public profiles would be enhanced in the glare of the international media circus surrounding the WTO meeting. There is another twist which should not be lost. The new millennium was being ushered in by the system’s leaders and its media on an extravagant tide of hype. Millions of new shopping opportunities were being heralded via the cyber-supermarket. But their party was ruined in the virtual home of e-commerce. A fightback starting in Seattle has yet another lovely resonance. The city was the location of the only general strike in US history so far. In 1919, in the crisis following the end of the First World War with the US government attempting to smash the Russian Revolution, Seattle workers struck. Jeremy Brecher wrote:

Anger, hope and militance grew as in a pressure cooker. Nowhere did this radicalisation go further than in Seattle. The radical IWW and the AFL Metal Trades Council co-operated in sponsoring a Soldiers’, Sailors’ and Workingmen’s Council, taking the soviets of the recent Russian Revolution as their model.[2]

This forms a nice backcloth to the events of November and December 1999.

‘Think the WTO is bad?... Wait till you hear about capitalism!’ – placard

Seattle hit the international media on Tuesday 30 November, but events were moving in the previous week. Mitchel C wrote, ‘No matter where you turn, rallies, teach-ins and other events are exploding out of the pavement. I went to the International Forum on Globalisation that occurred Friday and Saturday... Tickets were sold by Ticketron. Around 2,500 people participated, the huge auditorium filled to capacity for two days, 9am to 9pm... Sunday, 1,500 people took to the streets in a wonderfully colourful and peaceful (if raucous) procession, hundreds of giant puppets and mass performance theatre against genetic engineering and the WTO, drummers beating on makeshift instruments, an army of genetically engineered corn, another “army of forested trees, fighting against the evil soldiers of the New World Order”.’ Damon, Pittsburgh: I got on a Greyhound bus in Pittsburgh at 3am the morning after Thanksgiving and travelled two and a half days to Seattle to join the protests against the World Trade Organisation. I arrived to see tens of thousands of activists from the widest range of causes I’ve ever seen in one place, united around a common concern – their desire to have a say in the decisions that affect their lives, otherwise known as democracy.

‘The senators who ratified the WTO treaty should be tried for treason’ – placard

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Venezuela’s Chavez calls for '5th International' of Left Parties

by Kiraz Janicke Venezuelanalysis.com 23 November 2009 Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez called for the formation of a “Fifth International” of left parties and social movements to confront the challenge posed by the global crisis of capitalism. The president made the announcement during an international conference of more than fifty left organisations from thirty-one countries held in Caracas over November 19-21. “I assume responsibility before the world. I think it is time to convene the Fifth International, and I dare to make the call, which I think is a necessity. I dare to request that we create my proposal,” Chavez said. The head of state insisted that the conference of left parties should not be “just one more meeting,” and he invited participating organizations to create a truly new project. “This socialist encounter should be of the genuine left, willing to fight against imperialism and capitalism,” he said. During his speech, Chavez briefly outlined the experiences of previous “internationals,” including the First International founded in 1864 by Karl Marx; the Second International founded in 1889, which collapsed in 1916 as various left parties and trade unions sided with their respective capitalist classes in the inter-imperialist conflict of the First World War; the Third International founded by Russian revolutionary Vladimir Lenin, which Chavez said “degenerated” under Stalinism and “betrayed” struggles for socialism around the world; and the Fourth International founded by Leon Trotsky in 1938, which suffered numerous splits and no longer exists, although some small groups claim to represent its political continuity. Chavez said that a new international would have to function “without impositions” and would have to respect diversity. Representatives from a number of major parties in Latin America voiced their support for the proposal, including the Movement Towards Socialism (MAS) of Bolivia, the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN) of El Salvador, the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN) of Nicaragua, and Alianza Pais of Ecuador. Smaller parties from Latin America and around the world also indicated their support for the idea, including the Proposal for an Alternative Society (PAS) of Chile, New Nation Alternative (ANN) of Guatemala, and Australia’s Socialist Alliance, among others. Sandinista leader Miguel D´Escoto said, “Capitalism has brought the human species to the precipice of extinction… we have to take control of our own destiny.” “There is no time to lose,” D’Escoto added as he conveyed his support for the proposal of forming a fifth international. “We have to overcome the tendency of defeatism. Many times I have noted a tendency of defeatism amongst comrades of the left in relation to the tasks we face,” he continued. Salvador Sánchez, from the FMLN, said “We are going to be important actors in the Fifth International. We cannot continue waiting – all the forces of the left. The aspiration of the peoples is to walk down a different path. We must not hesitate in forming the Fifth International. The people have pronounced themselves in favour of change and the parties of the left must be there with them.” Other organisations, including Portugal’s Left Block, Germany’s Die Linke, and France’s Partido Gauche expressed interest in the proposal but said they would consult with their various parties. A representative of the Cuban Communist Party described the proposal as “excellent,” but as yet the party has made no formal statement. Many communist parties, including those from Greece and Brazil, expressed strong opposition to the proposal. The Venezuelan Communist Party said it was willing to discuss the proposal but expressed strong reservations. The Alternative Democratic Pole (PDA) from Colombia expressed its willingness to work with other left parties, but said it would “reserve” its decision to participate in an international organisation of left parties. Valter Pomar, a representative from the Workers Party of Brazil (PT), said its priority is the Sao Paolo Forum – a forum of various Latin American left, socialist, communist, centre-left, labour, social democratic and nationalist parties launched by the PT in 1990. A resolution was passed at the conference to form a preparatory committee to convoke a global conference of left parties in Caracas in April 2010, to discuss the formation of a new international. The resolution also allowed for other parties that remain undecided to discuss the proposal and incorporate themselves at a later date. Chavez emphasised the importance of being inclusive and said the April conference had to go far beyond the parties and organisations that participated in last week’s conference. In particular, he said it was an error that there were no revolutionary organisations from the United States present. The conference of left parties also passed a resolution titled the Caracas Commitment, “to reaffirm our conviction to definitively build and win Socialism of the 21st Century,” in the face of “the generalized crisis of the global capitalist system.” “One of the epicentres of the global capitalist crisis is the economic sphere. This highlights the limitations of unbridled free markets dominated by monopolies of private property,” the resolution stated. Also incorporated was a proposed amendment by the Australian delegation which read, “In synthesis, the crisis of capitalism cannot be reduced to a simple financial crisis, it is a structural crisis of capital that combines the economic crisis, with an ecological crisis, a food crisis and an energy crisis, which together represent a mortal threat to humanity and nature. In the face of this crisis, the movements and parties of the left see the defence of nature and the construction of an ecologically sustainable society as a fundamental axis of our struggle for a better world.” The Caracas Commitment expressed “solidarity with the peoples of the world who have suffered and are suffering from imperialist aggression, especially the more than 50 years of the genocidal blockade against Cuba…the massacre of the Palestinian people, the illegal occupation of part of the territory of the Western Sahara, and the invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan, which today is expanding into Pakistan.” The conference of left parties also denounced the decision of the Mexican government to shut down the state-owned electricity company and fire 45,000 workers, as an attempt to “intimidate” the workers and as an “offensive of imperialism,” to advance neoliberal privatisation in Central America. In the framework of the Caracas Commitment, the left parties present agreed, among other things, to: • Organise a global week of mobilisation from December 12-17 in repudiation of the installation of U.S. military bases in Colombia, Panama and around the world. • Campaign for an “international trial against George Bush for crimes against humanity, as the person principally responsible for the genocide against the people of Iraq and Afghanistan”. • Commemorate 100 years since the proposal by Clara Zetkin to celebrate International Women’s Day on March 8, through forums, mobilizations and other activities in their respective countries. • Organise global solidarity with the Bolivarian revolution in the face of permanent imperialist attacks. • Organise global solidarity with the people of Honduras who are resisting a U.S.-backed military coup, to campaign for the restoration of the democratically elected president of Honduras, José Manuel Zelaya and to organise a global vigil on the day of the elections in Honduras, “with which they aim to legitimise the coup d´etat.” • Demand an “immediate and unconditional end to the criminal Yankee blockade” of Cuba and for the “immediate liberation” of the Cuban Five, referring to the five anti-terrorist activists imprisoned in the United States. • Accompany the Haitian people in their struggle for the return of President Jean Bertrand Aristide “who was kidnapped and removed from his post as president of Haiti by North American imperialism.” See also Message from Socialist Worker-New Zealand to PSUV founding conference.

Hugo Chavez: "Universal people's unity to give life to a new internationalism"

Statement by Hugo Chavez, President of Venezuela

The International Meeting of Left Parties held last week has a great importance. For two days, November 20 and 21, 53 revolutionary organizations from five continent met in Caracas. I congratulate the PSUV (United Socialist Party of Venezuela) because it fully performed its role as organizer.

The paths toward socialism have opened again: The left is obliged to deeply think over itself. The debate of ideas is decisive to avoid mistakes that distorted and weakened the socialist cause in the XX century. in the XXI century, socialism should be turned into, as Mariategui foresaw, a heroic and sovereign creation of each people and, of course, the universal people's unity to give life to a new internationalism.

I want to call the attention of my fellow countrymen and women to the unanimity of this meeting regarding the installation of U.S. military bases in Colombia. There is a state of common awareness of the terrible threat they represent to Venezuela, the South American region, and Our America.

This meeting was a reaffirmation: The Bolivarian Venezuela is not alone; we have more company than ever.

Honduras: Uprising defies coup regime as repression grows

From: Green Left Weekly In the article below, Federico Fuentes, from the Green Left Weekly Caracas bureau, provides an overview of the brutal repression of the coup regime and heroic resistance against it occurring right now in the Central American nation of Honduras. Fuentes has conducted daily interviews with leaders of the Honduran resistance since September 21, and a series of daily articles since then can be read here. A September 25 audio interview with Democracy Now! journalist Andres Conteris, from inside the Brazilian embassy where legitimate President Manuel Zelaya has been, can be heard at LatinRadical

Video clip of the mass resistance in Honduras to the coup. Created by Daniel Suárez Music by El Sup, "Dignidad Rebelde".

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Videos: Honduran people rise up, face repression

Residents of Hato de Enmedio, Tegucigalpa, take control of their barrio. September 22: Protests outside the Brazilian embassy, where legitimate President Manuel Zelaya is, being violently broken up by police From Green Left Weekly website

Honduras: Street battles rage, coup tries to repress pro-democracy uprising

Australia’s Green Left Weekly is running ongoing coverage on the dramatic developments in the struggle for democracy and justice in Honduras over the coming days. Four reports, from September 21 - 24, are published below. Updates will continue on the GLW website.

President Manuel Zelaya

Honduras: Zelaya returns — the people celebrate Federico Fuentezs, Caracas September 21 — “Telgucigalpa is one big party”, said Dirian Pereira, member of the international commission of the National Resistance Front Against the Coup in Honduras, speaking to Green Left Weekly over the phone from the Honduran capital. President Manuel Zelaya, who was overthrown by a military coup on June 28, returned to Honduras and took refuge in the Brazilian embassy in Telgucigalpa. Thousands of people have gathered in the capital to welcome him back almost three months after the military kidnapped him at gunpoint in the early hours of the morning and flew him into exile in Costa Rica. Mass resistance on the streets from the poor majority, demanding “their” president return, has continued unabated since. From the Brazilian embassy, Zelaya called for the Honduran people to celebrate on the streets. The coup regime responded by announcing a curfew. “The people are totally ignoring the curfew”, Pereira said.

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Caracas to host world meeting of left parties

by Federico Fuentes, Caracas from Green Left Weekly 9 September 2009 Caracas will play host to one of the most important international gatherings of left parties in years, when delegates from across the world meet for the First International Meeting of Left Parties in November this year. The meeting has been called by the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV), a mass revolutionary party headed by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. The gathering was agreed upon at the recent Sao Paulo Forum (FSP) held in Mexico City over August 20-22. There, the PSUV delegation presented the proposal to organise an international meeting of left parties. The FSP was first established in 1990 at the initiative of the Workers’ Party (PT) of Brazil. At the time, the PT had a good reputation on the international left. It was forged out of the workers’ struggles against the Brazilian dictatorship and had developed into a mass workers’ party that spoke of the need to break with capitalism. Since then, the FSP has evolved in a reformist direction, although several important revolutionary parties such as the Cuban Communist Party continue to be involved. Some of the member parties — like the PT — are now in government in Latin America and are carrying out policies they once strongly denounced. The new call by the PSUV for an international gathering of left parties comes in a different context. In August 2007, Chavez said it was necessary to convene ``a meeting of left parties of Latin America and organise a type of international, an organisation of parties and movements of the left in Latin American and the Caribbean”. He added that “there is a resurgence of the consciousness of the peoples; the movements, leaders and leaderships of this new left, of this new project, this need to continue to grow”. There is a revival of socialist ideas that, at least in Venezuela, has become embodied in the actions of millions who are fighting to create “socialism of the 21st century”. Millions more people worldwide look to Venezuela as proof that revolutionary change is possible. The challenge is to see how this force can be organised, in each country and internationally, into a powerful force capable of defeating capitalism. See also Message from Socialist Worker-New Zealand to PSUV founding conference (12.2.08)

Service delivery protests rock South Afrcia

Residents of Thokoza, Johannesburg demand better lives. Photo: Shayne Robinson, The Star. Found here.

Protests about the delivery and cost of services such as housing, water and electricity, living conditions in poor / working class communities and strikes by council workers have rocked South Africa over the past few months. UNITYblog interviewed Claire Ceruti, editor of South African socialist magazine Socialism From Below about the protests. Claire also provided us with the following article by Alan Goatley. When and why did these protests start? Who is protesting and what are they protesting for? The details of each protest differed. Some were organised by local ANC branches, some by local organisations with no political affiliation. But in general the protests took place in poorer parts of South African townships. The general demands are for electricity, water and better living conditions. For example in the area of Thokoza hit by the protests, people are still using ‘long drop’ toilets [hole in the ground]. Women there told us that before the protests, children dumped a puppy into one of the toilets. They fear a child could be next. Behind this is a deeper feeling of having been left out. Some protestors spoke of a sense of being neglected by their local councillors despite having voted in elections since 1994. The timing of the elections is related to the election of a new president, Jacob Zuma, who is widely believed to represent a shift to the left in the ruling African National Congress, or at least to be beholden to the communist party and the trade unions. His election raised expectations for change and increased people’s confidence to take to the streets, partly because they hope this government will side with them. Usually the target of the protest is not Zuma but local government.

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UK wind turbine workers occupy for people & planet

A workers’ occupation to save jobs and the UK’s only wind turbine factory is uniting trade unionists and eco-activists. The actions of the Vestas workers are challenging two major myths of market capitalism: that there is nothing workers can do in the face of recession, redundancy and economic crisis, and that the free market can solve the climate crisis. The surge in solidarity from around the world shows where the solution to these crises lie: international solidarity and unity between the workers’ rights and environmental movements. UNITYblog urges readers to spread news of the occupation far and wide and to send messages of solidarity to: http://www.blogger.com/savevestas@gmail.com Vestas workers occupy: 'A fight for jobs and the planet' from Socialist Worker UK Workers at Vestas, the UK’s only wind turbine manufacturer, occupied their factory in Newport, Isle of Wight on Monday evening against plans to close it. Dave is one of the ­occupying workers. He spoke to Socialist Worker on Tuesday. We’ve occupied our factory to save our jobs -- and to save the planet. Six hundred people work here. That many jobs going will have a devastating effect. But there’s even more to it than that. We need renewable energy if we’re going to stop global warming. When the government says it wants green energy and green jobs, it’s criminal that it’s closing Vestas. I’ve worked here for a year and a half but some people have worked here for eight or nine years. We had a meeting on Monday where we talked about what to do. We decided we were going to go for it. People thought, “It’s now or never”. We went in as two teams, from both sides of the factory. All of the doors were locked – apart from the front door! We’ve taken over the offices. This is the control base of Vestas on the Isle of Wight and across the south. There are 30 of us in here. The managers are threatening not to give us any redundancy money at all. They say the payroll is in here and they can’t get to it. But we’re not going to be intimidated. We can see everyone demonstrating outside. There are about 100 to 150 out there now, which is great. We’ve had messages of support from workers at Visteon and Prisme. Workers from the factory opposite and other factories around here have come over too. Support messages are coming in from all over the world. We’re really grateful for them all. And if you can get to the Isle of Wight, that’d be even better.’ Profits come first for bosses Vestas proudly states that, “With a 20 percent market share, and 38,000 wind turbines installed, Vestas is the world’s leading supplier of wind power solutions.” This is not out of concern for the environment. As Vestas chief executive Ditlev Engel said after he took over, “The business had been run by people who were idealists rather than dollar-based.” In 2008 Vestas’s global profits increased by 51 percent to £575 million. And the first three months of this year saw a 70 percent increase in profits to £50 million. The company accounts reveal that last year the 13 directors and executives shared £9.45 million in wages and bonuses. Links

• Occupation blog: http://savevestas.wordpress.com/
• Vestas dispute: Red and green coalition forms to fight wind plant closure

For international co-operation based on refounding Marxism for the 21st century

Below is the speech delivered by Daphne Lawless, leading member of SW-NZ, to the World at a Crossroads conference in Sydney, Australia, 12 April, 2009. The conference was a gathering of socialists from all over the world. See http://www.worldatacrossroads.org/ Comrades and friends, thank you for a wonderful time. Thank you in particular to our hosts from DSP and Resistance who've made this huge thing happen. Y saludos revolucionarios a nuestro/as compañero/as latinamericano/as. I've had a wonderful time. Not used to so many people who agree with me! Not on everything - but on essentials. In 21st century socialism, no more space for socialist identity politics - "I'm a trot/maoist/state cap/I love Cuba". The only question is: are we building organisations which can help lead the struggle for a new world beyond the corporate market? I think we should bring back idea of "scientific Marxism". Not Stalinist-style mechanical materialism but the scientific method. Essence of that? Experiment. Try things. If it fails, no problem, try something else. Lenin said "the mark of a revolutionary is not never making mistakes, but learning from them." What we don't have any space for any more is the opposite of scientific Marxism: sectarianism or "religious marxism". Sectarianism doesn't mean being rude to other leftists. It's a wrong idea about the class struggle. It means treating Marxism as a religion. A religion, as Marx puts it, is something that helps you deal with the world as is, rather than change it. Sectarian Marxism treats socialism as a "revealed truth" which can't be tampered with. It bases itself on a set of idea, or a revered prophet, which can't be challenged. So it's elitist as well – we the enlightened will teach the masses and become their leaders. You can't experiment in a religion. That's called heresy and blasphemy. People like that are CAST OUT and not invited to parties. The survival of the group – with the "right flavour of ideas" – is the most important thing. And political activity is ritualised – instead of going to Church on Sunday, or mosque on Friday, the sectarians sell their papers on Saturday, or wherever. Most importantly, their world shrinks. The world that Marx saw was a huge world full of the teeming millions of the oppressed and exploited under capitalism. For the sectarians, the world revolves around perhaps a few hundred "professional activists" and union officials. If your world is shrinking, as the great American writer Robert Anton Wilson said, it means your intelligence is decreasing. Sectarianism is not politics. It's a lifestyle choice. It's Easter, so religious quote – the programme was made for the struggle, not the struggle for the programme. If the struggle's not working, change the programme – change the organisation if you have to. Don't be afraid. For example, back home sects yell at RAM [Residents Action Movement] because we don't use the word "socialism". IT'S ONLY A WORD. It's not magic. I defy anyone to read RAM's programme and tell me that it's not pointing the way to a post-market economy. We don't use word socialism because workers don't know what it means any more. Different strokes. Socialist Alliance here uses the word. In France, they've decided they've got space for an anti-capitalist broad party, not just anti-neoliberal. Good on them. Hope it works. But we make our own calls. SW believes that broad parties will wither and fail if they don't have a committed source of revolutionary ideas, strategy and practice. But – and this is really important – Marxist groups are doomed to wither, fail, turn in on themselves, become useless sects with no hope of relevance, if they're not right at the centre of broad popular movements reaching out to workers and all the oppressed and making practical action right here and right now. And if those movements don't exist, we have to help make them happen. We were bashed for initiating RAM rather than being parasites on a union or a broad-left formation started by someone else. Apparently it's "not what socialists do" to actually organise the class, but to wait for someone else to do the hard yards and then fight for leadership of it. Newsflash comrades – if your sect has 400 or 4000 members but still acts like a religious community rather than a political party, then it's still a sect. Irrelevant to actual workers, you know, the people who make history? But scientific Marxists need to continually experiment to see if it works. And you can only do that by talking to the working class, by reaching out into their communities, by joining them in their struggles, by offering ideas and programmes which make sense in the here and now but point somewhere better. Marx said: "Communists do not form a party opposed to other proletarian parties". Marxists are supposed to merge with the class vanguard, to test and therefore improve Marxist theory. We are NOT the class vanguard ourselves unless we prove to be so in practice! Sectarianism says that the theory as it stands is absolutely perfect, and therefore Marxists have the right to be leaders of the struggle – we ARE the vanguard, in other words, even if we're totally isolated from the actually existing struggle. Therefore, anyone who argues with Marxism or opposes the Marxist group – so say the sectarians, are enemies that need to be defeated. This is the attitude that has led Marxist groups to destroy broad left formations rather than lose control of them. That's not science. That's holy war. Sometimes our theory will be wrong and we will have to amend it. We should learn from our allies, our opponents, even from our enemies. In Venezuela – great example. Hugo Chavez is leading a revolution which is pretty much being made up as it goes along. That's not a criticism – it's how it has to be. Where we're going, there are no road maps. Chávez and his comrades learn from the example of Cuba, from Marxist theory, from the new generation of radical thinkers coming out of the States and Europe, but he experiments and sees what happens. Big secret of psychology – you are what you do. If you persuade yourself that "objective conditions do not permit anything real to happen, so best to build our tiny group in an activist ghetto", then quite certainly they won't. If you believe that they might work... well, they might not. But what are you concerned with – truth, or protecting your reputation and self image? Truth ONLY comes through contact with the real world of horrible jobs. Success ONLY comes through experiment. Materialism teaches that words and ideas are only real things when backed up with action and concrete things in the real world. "Socialism and revolution" are just words. The movements represented here are putting content to the word "socialism" again – and it's a different content than that of the Berlin Wall, the gulags, and of authoritarian capitalism like we have in China. That's the real meaning of "struggling for a programme", as Trotsky said. You can't give leadership by lecturing. Only by giving ideas which have practical action and are "real" to the majority of workers. You have to earn leadership, every day, in practice – you don't deserve it because you're the chosen ones with the right ideology. Science and the class struggle don't observe national boundaries. So we need some kind of growing international co-operation. Not like sectarian "internationals" united by a profession of faith. We must have international co-operation based on common practice – on common practice of Marxists and revolutionaries determined to build broad mass forces opposed to neo-liberal capitalism. But also based on refounding Marxism for the 21st century, from top to bottom. Conferences like this are a start; so are things like the new Ecosocialist International Network. Let's keep experimenting; let's keep swapping notes on our successes and failures; and let's keep growing together in practice, and thus in theory that actually is worthy of the name "Marxism for the 21st century". ¡Venceremos!

NZ socialists sign-up to Belem Ecosocialist Declaration

The Belem Ecosocialist Declaration (see below) is bringing together a network of international socialist activists. This is a very positive development in the struggle to bring ecological, social and democratic sanity to the world. 

The Declaration was prepared by a committee elected for this purpose at the Paris Ecosocialist Conference of 2007. That committee consisted of Ian Angus, Joel Kovel, Michael Löwy, with the help of Danielle Follett. 

The Declaration is now being promoted widely around the world. Activists are being asked to sign-up to the Declaration as individuals. 

The following New Zealand activists have so far signed their name to the Declaration: Don Archer, Bronwen Beechey, Grant Brookes, Joe Carolan, Vaughan Gunson, Bernie Hornfeck, Peter Hughes, Greg Kleis, Daphne Lawless, Grant Morgan, Len Parker, Paul Piesse and Tony Snelling-Berg. 

The Belem Ecosocialist Declaration

“The world is suffering from a fever due to climate change, and the disease is the capitalist development model.”

— Evo Morales, president of Bolivia, September 2007

Humanity’s Choice 

Humanity today faces a stark choice: ecosocialism or barbarism.

We need no more proof of the barbarity of capitalism, the parasitical system that exploits humanity and nature alike. Its sole motor is the imperative toward profit and thus the need for constant growth. It wastefully creates unnecessary products, squandering the environment’s limited resources and returning to it only toxins and pollutants. Under capitalism, the only measure of success is how much more is sold every day, every week, every year – involving the creation of vast quantities of products that are directly harmful to both humans and nature, commodities that cannot be produced without spreading disease, destroying the forests that produce the oxygen we breathe, demolishing ecosystems, and treating our water, air and soil like sewers for the disposal of industrial waste. 

Capitalism’s need for growth exists on every level, from the individual enterprise to the system as a whole. The insatiable hunger of corporations is facilitated by imperialist expansion in search of ever greater access to natural resources, cheap labor and new markets. Capitalism has always been ecologically destructive, but in our lifetimes these assaults on the earth have accelerated. Quantitative change is giving way to qualitative transformation, bringing the world to a tipping point, to the edge of disaster. A growing body of scientific research has identified many ways in which small temperature increases could trigger irreversible, runaway effects – such as rapid melting of the Greenland ice sheet or the release of methane buried in permafrost and beneath the ocean – that would make catastrophic climate change inevitable. 

Left unchecked, global warming will have devastating effects on human, animal and plant life. Crop yields will drop drastically, leading to famine on a broad scale. Hundreds of millions of people will be displaced by droughts in some areas and by rising ocean levels in others. Chaotic, unpredictable weather will become the norm. Air, water and soil will be poisoned. Epidemics of malaria, cholera and even deadlier diseases will hit the poorest and most vulnerable members of every society.

The impact of the ecological crisis is felt most severely by those whose lives have already been ravaged by imperialism in Asia, Africa, and Latin America, and indigenous peoples everywhere are especially vulnerable. Environmental destruction and climate change constitute an act of aggression by the rich against the poor. 

Ferment in Nepal: A dynamic vortex of revolutionary change

by Bill Templer

from LINKS – International Journal of Socialist Renewal 3 January 2009 One remarkable laboratory that discussion in much of the world’s progressive press tends to neglect is the dynamic vortex of revolutionary change in Nepal. Since spring, Nepal has something that may be making genuine history: a Maoist people’s movement, that, led by the CPN (Maoist), and the struggle of the People's Liberation Army over a decade, has come to state power through the ballot box. As Tufts University historian Gary Leupp wrote last April: “It ought to be the ballot heard 'round the world. It ought to be front page news. This moment may in the not distant future be seen as another 1917, another 1949.”

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The Belem Ecosocialist Declaration

“The world is suffering from a fever due to climate change, and the disease is the capitalist development model.”

— Evo Morales, president of Bolivia, September 2007

Humanity’s Choice Humanity today faces a stark choice: ecosocialism or barbarism. We need no more proof of the barbarity of capitalism, the parasitical system that exploits humanity and nature alike. Its sole motor is the imperative toward profit and thus the need for constant growth. It wastefully creates unnecessary products, squandering the environment’s limited resources and returning to it only toxins and pollutants. Under capitalism, the only measure of success is how much more is sold every day, every week, every year – involving the creation of vast quantities of products that are directly harmful to both humans and nature, commodities that cannot be produced without spreading disease, destroying the forests that produce the oxygen we breathe, demolishing ecosystems, and treating our water, air and soil like sewers for the disposal of industrial waste. Capitalism’s need for growth exists on every level, from the individual enterprise to the system as a whole. The insatiable hunger of corporations is facilitated by imperialist expansion in search of ever greater access to natural resources, cheap labor and new markets. Capitalism has always been ecologically destructive, but in our lifetimes these assaults on the earth have accelerated. Quantitative change is giving way to qualitative transformation, bringing the world to a tipping point, to the edge of disaster. A growing body of scientific research has identified many ways in which small temperature increases could trigger irreversible, runaway effects – such as rapid melting of the Greenland ice sheet or the release of methane buried in permafrost and beneath the ocean – that would make catastrophic climate change inevitable. Left unchecked, global warming will have devastating effects on human, animal and plant life. Crop yields will drop drastically, leading to famine on a broad scale. Hundreds of millions of people will be displaced by droughts in some areas and by rising ocean levels in others. Chaotic, unpredictable weather will become the norm. Air, water and soil will be poisoned. Epidemics of malaria, cholera and even deadlier diseases will hit the poorest and most vulnerable members of every society. The impact of the ecological crisis is felt most severely by those whose lives have already been ravaged by imperialism in Asia, Africa, and Latin America, and indigenous peoples everywhere are especially vulnerable. Environmental destruction and climate change constitute an act of aggression by the rich against the poor. Ecological devastation, resulting from the insatiable need to increase profits, is not an accidental feature of capitalism: it is built into the system’s DNA and cannot be reformed away. Profit-oriented production only considers a short-term horizon in its investment decisions, and cannot take into account the long-term health and stability of the environment. Infinite economic expansion is incompatible with finite and fragile ecosystems, but the capitalist economic system cannot tolerate limits on growth; its constant need to expand will subvert any limits that might be imposed in the name of “sustainable development.” Thus the inherently unstable capitalist system cannot regulate its own activity, much less overcome the crises caused by its chaotic and parasitical growth, because to do so would require setting limits upon accumulation – an unacceptable option for a system predicated upon the rule: Grow or Die! If capitalism remains the dominant social order, the best we can expect is unbearable climate conditions, an intensification of social crises and the spread of the most barbaric forms of class rule, as the imperialist powers fight among themselves and with the global south for continued control of the world’s diminishing resources. At worst, human life may not survive. Capitalist Strategies for Change There is no lack of proposed strategies for contending with ecological ruin, including the crisis of global warming looming as a result of the reckless increase of atmospheric carbon dioxide. The great majority of these strategies share one common feature: they are devised by and on behalf of the dominant global system, capitalism. It is no surprise that the dominant global system which is responsible for the ecological crisis also sets the terms of the debate about this crisis, for capital commands the means of production of knowledge, as much as that of atmospheric carbon dioxide. Accordingly, its politicians, bureaucrats, economists and professors send forth an endless stream of proposals, all variations on the theme that the world’s ecological damage can be repaired without disruption of market mechanisms and of the system of accumulation that commands the world economy. But a person cannot serve two masters – the integrity of the earth and the profitability of capitalism. One must be abandoned, and history leaves little question about the allegiances of the vast majority of policy-makers. There is every reason, therefore, to radically doubt the capacity of established measures to check the slide to ecological catastrophe. And indeed, beyond a cosmetic veneer, the reforms over the past thirty-five years have been a monstrous failure. Isolated improvements do of course occur, but they are inevitably overwhelmed and swept away by the ruthless expansion of the system and the chaotic character of its production. One example demonstrates the failure: in the first four years of the 21st Century, global carbon emissions were nearly three times as great per annum as those of the decade of the 1990s, despite the appearance of the Kyoto Protocols in 1997. Kyoto employs two devices: the “Cap and Trade” system of trading pollution credits to achieve certain reductions in emissions, and projects in the global south – the so-called “Clean Development Mechanisms” – to offset emissions in the highly industrialized nations. These instruments all rely upon market mechanisms, which means, first of all, that atmospheric carbon dioxide becomes a commodity under the control of the same interests that created global warming. Polluters are not compelled to reduce their carbon emissions, but allowed to use their power over money to control the carbon market for their own ends, which include the devastating exploration for yet more carbon-based fuels. Nor is there a limit to the amount of emission credits which can be issued by compliant governments. Since verification and evaluation of results are impossible, the Kyoto regime is not only incapable of controlling emissions, it also provides ample opportunities for evasion and fraud of all kinds. As even the Wall Street Journal put it in March, 2007, emissions trading "would make money for some very large corporations, but don’t believe for a minute that this charade would do much about global warming." The Bali climate meetings in 2007 opened the way for even greater abuses in the period ahead. Bali avoided any mention of the goals for drastic carbon reduction put forth by the best climate science (90% by 2050); it abandoned the peoples of the global south to the mercy of capital by giving jurisdiction over the process to the World Bank; and made offsetting of carbon pollution even easier. In order to affirm and sustain our human future, a revolutionary transformation is needed, where all particular struggles take part in a greater struggle against capital itself. This larger struggle cannot remain merely negative and anti-capitalist. It must announce and build a different kind of society, and this is ecosocialism. The Ecosocialist Alternative The ecosocialist movement aims to stop and to reverse the disastrous process of global warming in particular and of capitalist ecocide in general, and to construct a radical and practical alternative to the capitalist system. Ecosocialism is grounded in a transformed economy founded on the non-monetary values of social justice and ecological balance. It criticizes both capitalist “market ecology” and productivist socialism, which ignored the earth’s equilibrium and limits. It redefines the path and goal of socialism within an ecological and democratic framework. Ecosocialism involves a revolutionary social transformation, which will imply the limitation of growth and the transformation of needs by a profound shift away from quantitative and toward qualitative economic criteria, an emphasis on use-value instead of exchange-value. These aims require both democratic decision-making in the economic sphere, enabling society to collectively define its goals of investment and production, and the collectivization of the means of production. Only collective decision-making and ownership of production can offer the longer-term perspective that is necessary for the balance and sustainability of our social and natural systems. The rejection of productivism and the shift away from quantitative and toward qualitative economic criteria involve rethinking the nature and goals of production and economic activity in general. Essential creative, non-productive and reproductive human activities, such as householding, child-rearing, care, child and adult education, and the arts, will be key values in an ecosocialist economy. Clean air and water and fertile soil, as well as universal access to chemical-free food and renewable, non-polluting energy sources, are basic human and natural rights defended by ecosocialism. Far from being “despotic,” collective policy-making on the local, regional, national and international levels amounts to society’s exercise of communal freedom and responsibility. This freedom of decision constitutes a liberation from the alienating economic “laws” of the growth-oriented capitalist system. To avoid global warming and other dangers threatening human and ecological survival, entire sectors of industry and agriculture must be suppressed, reduced, or restructured and others must be developed, while providing full employment for all. Such a radical transformation is impossible without collective control of the means of production and democratic planning of production and exchange. Democratic decisions on investment and technological development must replace control by capitalist enterprises, investors and banks, in order to serve the long-term horizon of society’s and nature’s common good. The most oppressed elements of human society, the poor and indigenous peoples, must take full part in the ecosocialist revolution, in order to revitalize ecologically sustainable traditions and give voice to those whom the capitalist system cannot hear. Because the peoples of the global south and the poor in general are the first victims of capitalist destruction, their struggles and demands will help define the contours of the ecologically and economically sustainable society in creation. Similarly, gender equality is integral to ecosocialism, and women’s movements have been among the most active and vocal opponents of capitalist oppression. Other potential agents of ecosocialist revolutionary change exist in all societies. Such a process cannot begin without a revolutionary transformation of social and political structures based on the active support, by the majority of the population, of an ecosocialist program. The struggle of labour – workers, farmers, the landless and the unemployed – for social justice is inseparable from the struggle for environmental justice. Capitalism, socially and ecologically exploitative and polluting, is the enemy of nature and of labour alike. Ecosocialism proposes radical transformations in: 1. the energy system, by replacing carbon-based fuels and biofuels with clean sources of power under community control: wind, geothermal, wave, and above all, solar power.

2. the transportation system, by drastically reducing the use of private trucks and cars, replacing them with free and efficient public transportation; 3. present patterns of production, consumption, and building, which are based on waste, inbuilt obsolescence, competition and pollution, by producing only sustainable and recyclable goods and developing green architecture; 4. food production and distribution, by defending local food sovereignty as far as this is possible, eliminating polluting industrial agribusinesses, creating sustainable agro-ecosystems and working actively to renew soil fertility. To theorize and to work toward realizing the goal of green socialism does not mean that we should not also fight for concrete and urgent reforms right now. Without any illusions about “clean capitalism,” we must work to impose on the powers that be – governments, corporations, international institutions – some elementary but essential immediate changes:

• drastic and enforceable reduction in the emission of greenhouse gases,
• development of clean energy sources,
• provision of an extensive free public transportation system,
• progressive replacement of trucks by trains,
• creation of pollution clean-up programs,
• elimination of nuclear energy, and war spending.

These and similar demands are at the heart of the agenda of the Global Justice movement and the World Social Forums, which have promoted, since Seattle in 1999, the convergence of social and environmental movements in a common struggle against the capitalist system. Environmental devastation will not be stopped in conference rooms and treaty negotiations: only mass action can make a difference. Urban and rural workers, peoples of the global south and indigenous peoples everywhere are at the forefront of this struggle against environmental and social injustice, fighting exploitative and polluting multinationals, poisonous and disenfranchising agribusinesses, invasive genetically modified seeds, biofuels that only aggravate the current food crisis. We must further these social-environmental movements and build solidarity between anticapitalist ecological mobilizations in the North and the South. This Ecosocialist Declaration is a call to action. The entrenched ruling classes are powerful, yet the capitalist system reveals itself every day more financially and ideologically bankrupt, unable to overcome the economic, ecological, social, food and other crises it engenders. And the forces of radical opposition are alive and vital. On all levels, local, regional and international, we are fighting to create an alternative system based in social and ecological justice.

For more information and to see all current signatories to the Belem Ecosocialist Declaration go to http://www.ecosocialistnetwork.org/

Maori Party opposes FTA with China

Press statement: Hone Harawira,
Foreign Affairs spokesperson
1 April 2008






The Maori Party caucus has confirmed that they will oppose the Free Trade Agreement with China.

³There are many reasons why we oppose it,² said Foreign Affairs spokesperson Hone Harawira, ³but I guess you could sum it up by saying we support fair trade, rather than free trade.

³Like everyone else, we¹ve got big concerns about China¹s lack of respect for human rights and the environment, but we¹re also worried about our own government¹s unwillingness to take these issues up with China. Until we see progress, we will oppose this deal,² he said.

³On another level, Free Trade Agreements compromise our sovereignty by overriding domestic law,² said Harawira, ²and if China¹s repression of Tibet is any indication of their respect for the rights of indigenous people, then Maori have every right to be wary of giving them any special privileges here.

³We also recall fighting against other international trade agreements which would have breached the Treaty of Waitangi,² said Harawira, ³and we¹re concerned that the lack of consultation with tangata whenua means that this one will breach the Treaty as well.²

³And I¹m surprised at how quiet the unions seem to be about this, given that these agreements normally lead to a lowering of work standards and wage rates in the smaller nation.

³Although we¹re told there may be benefits for Maori, the downsides in terms of compromises to our sovereignty, threats to the status of the Treaty, the impact on work standards and wage rates, and China's lack of respect for human rights, indigenous rights, and the environment, mean the downsides of any Free Trade Agreement with China are simply unacceptable at this time,² said Mr Harawira.