IV458 - March 2013

IV 458 March 2013 available for download af a PDF file here.
IV 458 March 2013 available for download af a PDF file here

Tunisia, cradle of the revolts in the Arab world, hosts from today [26 March] and until Saturday the World Social Forum (WSF), the most important international meeting of social movements and organizations. And this is not by chance. The promoters of the WSF chose this country in reference to the ”Arab Spring. The latter has not only given rise to new movements of opposition in North Africa and the Middle East, but has also “contaminated” the south of Europe, in particular with the movement of the indignant in the Spanish State, as well as the Occupy movement in the United States.

On the initiative of “Rproject” – the coordination of left forces in Syriza: DEA, Kokkino and Apo – an international anti-capitalist meeting took place which attended by nearly 1,000 people in Athens, from 1-3 March.

However small the Cypriot state is, the whole course of developments on the recent bank heist in the island offers us a good chance to evaluate some critical points about the response of the left on a number of questions that are raised about the nature of the current crisis and the response of the left.

Ahead of the World Social Forum (WSF) in Tunis, on Saturday March 23 and Sunday March 24, 2013 the first Mediterranean meeting against the debt, austerity policies and foreign domination, and for a Mediterranean which is free, democratic, social, solidarity based, feminist and respectful of the environment, was held.

By voting against the plan of “haircut” of the deposits in Cyprus the parliament has created a serious involution of the capitalists’ plans to manage the crisis from the side of the EU and the Eurogroup.

Although the end was expected hope always remained. Many voices asked “that he would stay because we need him”. It did not happen and sadness overwhelms millions faced with the inevitable. Somebody indispensable has gone away and no tribute will compensate for the loss. Each commemoration chooses a profile: the leader, the communicator, the tribune, the volcano of energy, the bold one. But some tributes dissolve his salutary legacy of socialism and the ALBA.

Hugo Chavez was, even with his errors and deficiencies as large as his historical figure, by far the most radical and steadfast among all the so-called “progressive” governments of Latin America and of all the politicians of this sector on our continent. He was able to evolve, to feel the popular influence, to respond to adversities with fight and tenacity and, although he rested on an apparatus — in particular, in the armed forces — he did not depend on it either to elaborate nor carry out policies. In a continent of caudillos, although himself a caudillo who measured everything with reference to his person and saw the organization of the workers as own emanation (for that reason he said that “the unions are counter-revolutionary”), he was not only a caudillo.

The second ecology seminar organized by the Fourth International represents a significant step forward for the sections of the Fourth International and its sympathising organisations. The presence of members of the national leaderships was proof of the fact that our work and activities linked to the ecological crisis is increasing and also that our ecosocialist alternative to the capitalist system, is becoming more and more a central concern our organisations in many countries. This was partly the result of integrating the resolutions of the last two world congresses on the ecological crisis at national level.

Despite the terrible price paid, the Syrian people is continuing its insurrection against the dictatorial and criminal Assad regime. This revolutionary process, with its own characteristics, is part of the dynamics of the movements in the region, which are driven by the absence of democracy and social justice.