IV429 - October 2010

The strategy of the European stability plan, imposed by Angela Merkel, the European Commission and the other governments of the Union, was welcomed with enthusiasm and submission by the Portuguese government. The Socialist Prime Minister, Jose Sócrates, aspires to be recognized as the best pupil of the European Union and for that he counts on the support of the entire Right.

The violent repression aimed against the Red Shirts which took a dramatic turn in April and May has not put an end to the Thai crisis, even if it has put an end to the popular mobilisations in the capital, at the price of at least 89 officially recognised deaths, some 2,000 wounded, hundreds of incarcerations, generalised censorship and so on.

The first round of the Brazilian presidential election was held n the 3rd of October 2010. Despite her long lead in the polls, Dilma Roussef, the PT candidate, described by Lula as "by voting for her you are voting for me" did not achieve a first round victory. The second round will be held on the 31st of October. Commentators are questioning whether the PT candidate will in fact win. In this reslution adopted on the 15th of October the PSol outlines its position for this second round.

Since last May, the situation in France has been marked by the mobilisation against the pension law. Days of mobilisation succeed days of mobilisation, the movement against pension reform continues to develop and put down roots. It is the confirmation of a profound movement massively rejecting not only the pension reform but more broadly Sarkozy’s anti-social, racist and authoritarian policies as a whole. But also the injustices accumulated and accentuated by the crisis, whether among the young or among wage earners.

A series of conflicts and strikes have affected a large number of manufacturing plants in China since May and June 2010. In a country whose labour force is the largest in the world (estimated at about 300 million people) and which represents a huge market, labour disputes are quite frequent, though they rarely get attention from the western media. According to the official Chinese magazine “Outlook Weekly”, there were 280,000 labour disputes in 2008 and they increased by 30% during the first half of 2009 compared to the previous year. The new attention focused on the conflicts of May and June is undoubtedly not fortuitous. These conflicts may be indicative of changes that should be analyzed.

The political situation in France is dominated by the mobilization against the proposed reform of the pension system. This reform is at the heart of Sarkozy’s austerity policy. Although it is presented as an obvious demographic necessity, it is meeting increasing opposition in public opinion.

Although the Italian political crisis is obviously interlaced with the international economic crisis, which has already gone on for two years, this fact is completely absent from the political debate, which focuses on the unexpected appearance of the crisis of Berlusconism and its centre-right alliance. Unforeseen, of course by all those who have made Berlusconi the spectre to hide the reality of relations between classes and the drift to the right of our country. Thus one of Berlusconi’s most loyal allies, the President of the Chamber of Deputies, Gianfranco Fini, has abandoned him and his party to found a new organization, Futuro e Libertà(Future and Freedom). For the Italian right this is a shock, because the infallibility of the leader is thus questioned and a serious crisis - even if it is not, yet, a governmental crisis - announces the end of a cycle, that opened by Berlusconi himself with his entry on the political stage in 1994.

In September 2010, the Philippines section of the Fourth International, the Revolutionary Workers’ Party (Mindanao) (Rebolusyonaryong Partido ng Mangagawa-Mindanao or RPM-M) held its party congress. The Fourth International was represented by one French and one Dutch member. A historical note by Pierre Rousset sets the scene.

These greetings were brought to the Second Congress of the RPM-M by comrade Roman representing the Fourth International.

Europe is in crisis, and we are living through one of the worst anti-social and anti-labour offensives of our recent history, a crisis that is being used as backdrop for the justification and implementation of a “maximalist” neoliberal agenda, delivered through the IMF and its structural adjustment plans. Attacks and adjustments which meet with timid responses from the left (apart from Greece), with the majority of political and social organizations proving stunned in a nightmare that seems to have no end view.