IV357 - March 2004

The International Committee of the Fourth International, elected at the World Congress in February 2003, had its first plenary meeting this February. This particularly well-attended meeting had a full agenda.

The results of yesterday’s general election, held under the impact of the massacre of 11 March and the doctoring of information by the PP, represent a considerable defeat for the PP and success for the PSOE.

The fourth World Social Forum was unquestionably a political success, as attested to by the commentaries and impressions of almost all its participants.

At its fourth annual gathering, held January 16-21, 2004 in India’s poverty-ridden financial hub of Mumbai, the World Social Forum (WSF) radicalized its demands and extended its reach and inter-group cooperation.

RESPECT - the Unity Coalition, a new pluralist and socialist political coalition in England, was founded in London On Sunday January 25, 2004 at a convention of 1,500 activists. Respect will stand in the elections for the European Parliament and the London Assembly which will take place on June 10.

The greatest mass movement of our age has brought us together. We have marched in unprecedented numbers against war, against racism, and in defence of democracy and civil liberties. Our views are shared by millions, often a majority of the people in this country. Yet no establishment politician, and very few elected representatives of any kind, will lend their voice to this movement.

Socialist Democracy, a tendency within the Workers’ Party (PT), held its VII Conference on 21-23 November 2003. The focus of the conference debates was the new situation in Brazil with the election of Lula: a critical evaluation of almost one year of the government led by the PT, the impact on the social movements and on the Workers’ Party, the strategic debates underway over alternative programmes and in relation to the decisive question of party building in Brazil.

We publish here an interview with Brazilian socialist senator Heloisa Helena, recently expelled from the ruling Workers’ Party (PT). The interview was published in “Jornal do Brasil”, February 8, 2004. Heloisa has recently been involved in establishing a coordination for the creation of a new left party.

The path taken by Canadian corporations and their parties, which dominate official politics, began as a response to capitalist crisis and has continued as capital aggressively pursues its class interests in the context of the competitive pressures of the global economy.

It is to the great credit of militant building workers in Australia that over 30 years ago they nailed their green colours to the mast and insisted that ecology was as much the concern of workers as wages and conditions.