A new world situation
A NEW PHASE OF THE WORKERS' AND SOCIAL
MOVEMENT
1 The new phase
Since the end of the 1990s, a turning point in the world political
situation has put new phase of activity, programme, strategy and organization
on the agenda of the workers', social and popular movements.
This turning point is the result of four
factors:
1
the development of the inherent contradictions of the new globalized mode of
capitalist accumulation;
2
social resistance to the dominant classes' offensive;
3
the emergence of a new wave of radicalization through movements against
capitalist globalization, particularly in a series of sectors of youth; and
4
in Latin America, a peasant, indigenous, and youth radicalization which is
changing the relationship of forces. The new governments in Brazil and Ecuador,
the electoral breakthrough in Bolivia, the radicalization of the Chavez
government, and the mobilizations in Argentina and Peru are evidence of the
political and social instability of the transition toward larger class
confrontations. The paradox we must resolve is that this radicalization is
taking place in a context where the revolutionary left is weak.
[…]
6 Reconstruction of the mass movement and
the anti-capitalist left
[…]
In Argentina, the revolutionary process
emerged directly from the crisis in which entire sections of the economy
collapsed, following a long-term application of neo-liberal policy
prescriptions. In this case the battle for survival drove the working class and
poor (and middle classes) to struggle and organize themselves. This
mobilization against brutal neo-liberal policies clashes with capitalist
globalization through the foreign trans-national corporations, the IMF and the
constant intervention by US imperialism. The Argentinazo is the spark point in
Latin America where the rise of mass movement is affecting several countries
(Venezuela, Uruguay, Paraguay, Peru...).
The peasant movement is one of most
important actors in this anti-capitalist mobilization. The Brazilian MST, the
CONAIE (National Indigenous Confederation of Ecuador), the French Peasant
Confederation, and other movements organized in the international network Via
Campesina play a key role in the fight against the WTO and neo-liberal
commercial order, not to mention the Chiapas peasant and indigenous movement
under the leadership of the EZLN, which was in the vanguard of the
anti-neo-liberal struggle, organizing the 1996 Intergalactic Conference against
Neo-Liberalism and for Humanity.
[…]
In rebuilding the mass movements and the
left, attention must be paid to the decisive presence of peasants and
indigenous peoples in Latin American countries such as Paraguay, where we see a
rise of mobilization and struggle for land; Brazil, where the MST is demanding
radical agrarian reform; Bolivia, with the peasant coca producers' struggle and
the electoral breakthrough of the MAS (Movement for Socialism); in Ecuador
where the CONAIE (National Indigenous Confederation of Ecuador) through its
political expression, the Pachakutik Movement - New Country, is part of the
current government and is a fighting front against neo-liberalism.
[…]
THE CONTRADICTIONS DESTABILIZING THE NEW
IMPERIALIST ORDER
[…]
3 Latin America faced with US imperialism
Latin America is experiencing a very
exceptional situation, especially in South America. It combines the depths of
the socioeconomic crisis and growing political/institutional instability with
the intensity of a broad and radical social resistance. The process of liberal
counter-reform has lost legitimacy, especially following the eruption of a
popular rebellion in Argentina, and the crisis of bourgeois political
leadership is deepening. A mood of civil disobedience and insurrection has
taken hold in many countries in the region. The election of Lula in Brazil and
Gutiérrez in Ecuador, as well as the strong electoral showing by Evo Morales in
Bolivia, are all signs of the backlash against neo-liberal policies and the
bourgeois parties' crisis of credibility and attrition. The current period of
the class struggle is clearly transitory in nature, marked by an open-ended
battle between revolutionary and counterrevolutionary focuses fighting for a
more favourable correlation of forces.
It is too soon to assess the impact
throughout Latin America of the electoral victory of Lula and the PT. Since
both the party and its candidate have for years represented the country's
social movements, their victory is a source of renewed hope and may help spark
a cycle of social struggles in Brazil and beyond. Weighing against such a
scenario is the new Brazilian government's self-declared
"moderation", its broad alliances with sectors of the dominant
classes, decision to at least initially attempt seamless change while
sustaining many of the policies of the Cardozo administration, and appeal for
voters to "be patient". Meanwhile, with public disappointment with
the Lula government growing as the administration consolidates its politics of
"moderation", the end result could be a demobilization.
U.S. imperialism is fine-tuning its
strategy with two key objectives in mind: the economic recolonization of Latin
America along with the realization of a hemisphere-wide free trade plan (FTAA,
Plan Puebla-Panama, foreign debt, complete subordination to the IMF and World
Bank); and a military/repressive response to any popular struggles and
resistance (Plan Colombia as well as military bases, DEA and CIA operations
throughout the region). Washington's counterinsurgency strategy for the
Americas includes a number of multilateral initiatives aimed at developing a
Latin American intervention force that would act as a sort of
"anti-terrorist" armed wing for the OAS. The institutional
manifestations of this strategy have already begun to take form. The OAS has
been given new life under the paradigm rubric of "democratic
solidarity" that has been devised for the region (e.g. the Inter- American
Democratic Charter approved on September 11, 2001, in Lima) that focuses on
"the defence of human rights" and good "regional governance".
Meanwhile, repressive institutions are being modernized, the terrorist impunity
of the State is guaranteed along with the need to "cleanse" society
of "disposable elements" (as in Argentina, Colombia, Guatemala,
Chiapas, Argentina and Brazil). This style of Inter- American governance is
tailored to establish the right to intervention, trampling on the concepts of
non-intervention and respect for national sovereignty that are still deeply
engrained in many countries whose entire history has been marked by struggles
against imperialist and other forms of foreign intervention.
The socio-economic crisis of what is
often termed the neo-liberal model as well as the crisis of subordinated
regional projects (Mercosur, Andean Community of Nations, Central American
Common Market) intensified following the financial crises of 1997-1998, and
Washington's push for the FTAA. This "new colonial pact" implies a
massive transfer of all manner of resources into the hands of huge imperialists
concerns (industrial - commercial - financial groups) and their hand full of
local partners. This project incorporates monstrous corruption and the
parasitic behaviour of a ruling class that prefers U.S. or Swiss bank accounts
and those of offshore fiscal havens to investing in their own country. The transfer
of wealth is such that it decimates entire social layers, leading to an
unprecedented concentration of wealth, social disaster, economic/financial
crises and increasingly protracted recessions. The resulting shock implies
industrial ruin in countries such as Argentina that had achieved relative
degrees of development. The region's potential has been dismantled as
capitalist globalization, along with the demands of imperialist countries and
their multinationals, oblige these "underdeveloped" countries to
contract their economies in the logic of "structural adjustment" and
foreign debt servicing. Virtually everything has been privatized or is still on
the auction block: everything from oil reserves, water and electric power
utilities, land, mines, ports and health services. Forty-six per cent of Latin
Americans now live in poverty, with more than 40 per cent experiencing
unemployment or underemployment.
The bourgeois elites' crisis of
legitimacy and governability has prompted the imposition of social-control
mechanisms and laws as well as a curtailment of 'civil society's' democratic
rights. The supposedly democratic state is increasingly assuming the
authoritarian features of a police state, repressing any sign of protest or
civil disobedience. This crisis of the current phase of capitalist
globalization-the neo-liberal paradigm-and the failure of 'modernizing
underdevelopment', are among the key factors underlying of this loss of
legitimacy and of cohesion in the prevailing discourse. Consumerist promises have
lost their lure for very broad sectors of the 'middle classes', who instead are
increasingly drawn into the ranks of the militant opposition as they take to
the streets and cast protest votes or abstain from electoral participation.
This crisis has extended to the arena of 'representative democracy'.
Institutionality has been breached by the democratic struggles of the masses,
which in the past three years have brought down a succession of presidents
elected or re-elected at the polls, or imposed by legislative bodies.
The checklist of Washington's objectives
agenda appear clear: to crush the new rise of popular combativity, the breadth
of civil disobedience, and the radical character of the social struggles; to
reverse the revolutionary process opened in Argentina; to co-opt, neutralize or
directly sabotage the Lula administration in Brazil; to defeat Colombia's armed
insurgency and ensure access to the country's oil; to destabilize the
government of Chávez owing to his nationalistic discourse and alliance with
Havana; to crush the Zapatista resistance in Chiapas and that of the indigenous
communities, peasants, settlers and trades unionists who oppose the plunder of
the Puebla-Panama Plan; to maintain the blockade and inflict final defeat on
Cuba; to create conditions of 'democratic stability' that assures the reach of
U.S. capital as it disputes control of the region's markets with the European
Union.
We are witnessing a revival of popular
mass struggles, a reorganization of the social movements and a re-emergence of
class consciousness. This means the worst part of the period of setbacks is now
behind us. Although problems of fragmentation and confusion remain, this
process of outright recovery, in which there is an widening socialization of
the diverse experiences of struggle, has a broad and radical character, linking
demands and programs that incorporate economic, social, political, democratic,
ecological, cultural and ethnic components. This process was not halted by the
ideological intoxication of the attack on the Twin Towers and the terrorist
campaign of imperialism and its media pundits. On the contrary, social
polarization was accentuated following September 11, 2001. The argentinazo and
the popular revolt against the attempted coup d'etat in Venezuela, as well as
the growth of massive protests, strikes and caceroleos in Uruguay, and the
increasingly broad radical struggles in Paraguay and Bolivia, confirm this new
period of class struggle.
In these struggles by social movements,
programmes and demands emerge that become visible as anti-neo-liberal, but
which are part and parcel of the anti-imperialist and anti-capitalist dynamic
of the resistance. The long list of examples includes movements and struggles
like those of the Coordination for Defense of Water and Life in Cochabamba, the
Chapare coca farmers, and the peasant marches in Bolivia; the Ecuadorian
CONAIE; the MST in Brazil; the Zapatistas in Chiapas; the mobilization
organized by the Democratic Peoples Council of the People in Paraguay; the teachers,
students and Mapuches in Chile, the Vieques squatters; and the public employees
and popular movements in Colombia. The innumerable mobilizations of trade
unionists, peasants (who have found a fundamental driving force in Via
Campesina), unemployed workers (the example of the piqueteros has extended to
several countries), the black and women's movements, activists for human rights
and against impunity, students and neighbourhood activists, and even community
radios all articulate the varied dimensions of this resistance that contains
incipient elements of a counter-offensive. The resurgence of indigenous
struggles-their organizations and demands-has been another outstanding
dimension of this process, especially since the protests sparked by the 500th
anniversary of the conquest of the Americas. Equally significant is the
resilience of the armed insurgency in Colombia, faced with an unrelenting war
whose victims number in the tens of thousands.
All these struggles - which by no means
are confined to the periphery of 'social outcasts' or de-proletarianization',
nor can be characterized as struggles of an amorphous and eclectic 'multitude'
lacking class points of reference - extend to ever broader sectors of the
exploited classes, and intersect with the growing movement of resistance to
capitalist globalization, the solidarity campaigns and networks, and big
confrontations against the international financial institutions that mark the
emergence of a renewed internationalism, whose massive expression has extended
from Seattle to the World Social Forum at Porto Alegre. It is in this
rebellious movement that a new radical social left is emerging that
participates in the class struggle, leads rebellions, challenges the
relationship of forces, and is daily engaged in the construction of a latent
'counter power'.
The argentinazo has accelerated this
recomposition of the popular movement as well as its radicalization. It
represents a decisive historical event in the course of the class struggle in
Latin America. And although one should not underestimate the capacity of the
bourgeoisie and imperialism to organize a counter-revolutionary outcome (or
repressive intervention such as that of June 2002) the force of the popular
movement is slowly establishing new forms of self-organization, and
rank-and-file democracy.
There is a thread running through the
mass struggle in Argentina, and throughout Latin America, with the protests in
Seattle and Genoa, with the movement against capitalist globalization, as well
as with the insurgencies, civil disobedience, protests and the formidable
radicalization of ever broader layers of youth on a world-wide scale. In Latin
America, this process especially includes women who are workers, unemployed,
and heads of households, who play an essential role in the recomposition of a
radical social left.
The extreme polarization of the class
struggle sharpens the relationships and the debates within the Latin American
left regarding what strategy to follow. More importantly, it helps to narrow the
gap between social resistance and an alternative political project, while the
need to link them in a strategic perspective of taking power assumes a new
sense of urgency. The schematic understanding of 'reform or revolution' must
today give way to the urgency of reform and revolution to "transform the
prevailing order", as Rosa Luxemburg proposed.
A gap also continues to widen between the
radical left, with its unquestionable commitment to confronting and breaking
with the established order, and that part of the left whose strategic
perspective is now limited to competing for power within the confines of
existing institutions. This dichotomy cuts across the government of Lula in
Brazil and that of Gutiérrez in Ecuador, and may well confront the Frente Amplio
in Uruguay; should this hypothesis be confirmed even if at this stage the
predominant option of these governments remains neo-liberalism.
Nevertheless, in Latin America the
dimension of the crisis and imperialist dominance has acquired such magnitude that
the space for 'progresismo' needs footnote has evaporated. The disastrous
experience of the government of the Alliance in Argentina is the best example.
And when there appears a timid process of nationalism and social populism, as
in Venezuela, the right, the reactionary sectors of the Church, the military
and the multinationals move to destabilize it with the backing of imperialism,
ultimately radicalizing the situation.
Documents : International Committee
Reports
On Venezuela
February 2005
Venezuela is experiencing a revolutionary
process characterized by partial break with the former regime in the political,
economic and social spheres, as well as a partial break with imperialism.
Venezuela is on the path towards social transformation, with the hope of
linking this project to other transformations across Latin America.
The development in recent years of very
significant public health projects, literacy and school enrollment campaigns,
the prioritization of forming cooperatives, agricultural reform and reforms to
the commercial fishing system are all important signs of the social priorities
driving this process.
In the international realm, Venezuela has
decided to confront US imperialism (rejection of Plan Colombia, rejection of
FTAA, refusal of US soldiers on its territory, closer ties with Cuba,
condemnation of imperialist wars). Venezuela is becoming more and more of a
point of reference for the global justice movement.
Popular mobilization is a decisive
element that has made these political breaks possible: whether fighting the
coup d'Etat in April 2002, or carrying out the community organizing that makes
all the social programmes (education, health, housing, water, etc.) possible.
The process is unfolding within a
framework of repect for bourgeois democratic institutions. Despite the efforts
to transform the state, the institutions remain marked by clientelist and
corrupt practices, which are an obstacle to the policies decided by the
government.
The revolutionary process has not yet
become a revolutionary victory for the oppressed classes. The resistance has
come from the Venezuelan right, but also from certain sectors of the 'Chavist'
majority. The process is still disputed between revolutionary dynamics and
tendencies oriented towards loyally managing capitalism.
- Undertake a campaign of information and
solidarity with the Venezuelan revolutionary process: open a web page dedicated
to Venezuela on our FI sites; political and trade union exchanges; publicity
for the positive results in terms of social transformation; importance of the
Venezuelan experience that we can distinguish from the social-liberal option;
and the fundamental importance of popular mobilization, if one is willing to
confront the ruling classes.
- In the context of our solidarity with
the Bolivarian revolution, we support the sectors that make the radicalization
of the revolution the central axis of their political intervention. We will
make contact with these sectors in order to plan political co-operation, to
invite them to our international meetings, and to discuss with them our
conception of party-building and the role of an international.
- The World Social Forum in 2006, which
will hold one of its parts in Venezuela in January 2006, will be a key moment
for the global justice movement to strengthen its links and express its
solidarity with the popular organizations in Venezuela.
- Our comrades should get involved in
activities linked to the Bolivarian process, like the Congress of People's
Power and the World Festival of Youth (August 2005). We intervene in our trade
unions to promote the new trade union federation, the UNT, and trade union
solidarity actions including where possible inviting trade unionists to
solidarity activities.
- We propose to contribute to the
Venezuelan process our best experiences in participatory democracy, in
particular through collaboration with our Brazilian comrades.