IV371 - October 2005

This contribution seeks to give a broad outline of the significance of the results of the 18th September federal elections, and at the same time give some information concerning the orientation around which our members are taking part in the process of building a new broad left party with a mass base.

Even after 17 days of the most disastrous earthquake in Pakistan, there are areas that no one has yet reached to help the victims. Farooq Tariq reports on the latest situation and appeals for aid from the international social movements.

The removal of settlers from Gaza has been presented to the world as the beginning of a new era. Anyone not totally taken in by the propaganda can look at the process and see it for what it is: the consolidation of the extension of the Zionist colonial project.

Salma Yaqoob, a founder member of Respect and a leading Muslim anti-war activist in Britain spoke at the SWP’s Marxism event in London a few days after the London bombings on July 7 on Muslims and the left.

We publish here in full the political declaration drawn up in August 2005 by the comrades who undertook the foundation of the PRS. This document is conceived as a basis for discussion. At the invitation of the PRS comrades the Fourth International will participate in this discussion and forthcoming issues of International Viewpoint will reflect this.

By identifying itself for more than two and a half years with the Lula government, which is carrying on the neo-liberal policies started by Lula’s predecessor, Fernando Henrique Cardoso, the Workers’ Party has gone into a deep crisis. The roots of the crisis are to be found in the rapid change in the identity of the PT.

The major difference between the October 15 vote and the January 30 election as is now confirmed has been the - uneven but nevertheless important - Sunni participation. It is interesting to have a close look at this development.

The workers and the inhabitants of the poor neighbourhoods have become conscious of their strength. They increasingly want to participate actively in the transformation of society. There lies the fundamental basis for the future deepening of the revolution in Venezuela.

The candidate of the left in the internal leadership elections of the Brazilian Workers’ Party (PT) has failed to win the party presidency by just 3.2%. The final, official results of the second round run-off - announced on Thursday 13th October - gave Raul Pont, former Mayor of Porto Alegre and a member of the Socialist Democracy tendency, 48.4% of the vote.

British Marxist John Lister has written an impressive account of the global counter-revolution in health care. One of the world’s biggest industries, accounting for global spending just short of 3 trillion US dollars in 1997, or almost 8% of world GDP, no wonder health care is a major casualty of neoliberal globalisation.