Izquierda Marxista

Una dirección política para los movimientos sociales I

Autor: François Vercammen

Fecha: 28/3/2004

Traductor: Guillermo Crux, especial para PI

Fuente: Socialist Resistance, Gran Bretaña

Providing a political lead for the social movements

Broad anti-capitalist parties and alliances emerging around the world, with revolutionary socialists at their centre, must make the political running in the new social movements and strengthen the fight against neoliberalism. This was the issue debated at a recent Socialist Resistance Public Meeting ‘Regrouping the Left’ held in London in February with speakers François Vercammen of the Fourth International, John Percy of the Democratic Socialist Perspective/Socialist Alliance, Australia and Karen O’Toole from Socialist Resistance. The following are edited extracts from the speakers’ contributions.

François Vercammen

With the anti-globalisation movement things have changed. There is a perspective. There is a new mood, a new enthusiasm and a new generation. Most of all it has had an impact across society, particularly on social movements and trade unions within countries and regions.

I think it is very important not to be sectarian or ultra-critical of the new social movements, specifically the European Social Forum. It is something new, with the potential to develop in different ways. It’s a big place for mobilisation, for instance against the war, and led to a fantastic, anti-war united front on 15 February last year. More than in the 60s the Social Forum is a space where many ideas can be freely debated on all levels.

What happens in between each Social Forum is very important. Country by country the new social movement is having a direct impact on the traditional labour movement. The result is what could be called a “citizens, social labour movement.”

Look at Germany, the sleeping giant where everything had been under control for years. On 1 November 2003 you had a demonstration of 100,000 people, mostly workers, acting independently of the official trade union movement. For the first time there is some room for autonomous, anti-capitalist organisation inside the trade unions and on the political level. Next time it will be Britain’s turn because this was one of the key countries where the movement was very strong.

There is an enormous contradiction between the strength, enthusiasm and engagement taking place on the social level and the very great weakness on the political level both in terms of joining parties and even electorally. We can see this in Italy where there have been huge demonstrations and strikes but a party like Rifondazione Comunista has only grown modestly. In 1968 students and young people turned to the working class and to socialism for building new parties. That isn’t happening today and that’s a big problem of course.

I think that describing the social movement as “anti-capitalist” is wrong. It’s a massive exaggeration. If people are to be genuinely anti-capitalist we don’t ask them to be revolutionary, but at least they have to have an idea that you need to take economic and political power from the bourgeoisie to put it in the hands of the people. You must have an idea of building a social force which can go in that direction.

We have witnessed an historical crisis of social democracy. Twenty years of neo-liberal policies have broken the allegiance between political parties and the people. Social Democratic Parties have done many scandalous things in their history but in the 80s they discarded the very programmes on which they were built; collective bargaining, social security, pensions and social legislation. People see that the pension system is under attack so there is a big opening on that level. But at the same time as social democracy was collapsing the revolutionary left was also collapsing so there was a vacuum. There has been no massive influx of a new generation.

Now we are in a very particular historical situation where the revolutionary organisations have a fantastic opportunity to be at the head of rebuilding the social and the trade union movement.

In our view anti-capitalist, pluralistic new parties and alliances are the answer. The paradox is that only revolutionary organisations are capable of building such new alliances. This needs an understanding of the new capitalism and the new working class. You don’t try to hegemonize things even if you are the majority. You need to have a general atmosphere where everybody feels involved.

In France the Revolutionary Communist League (LCR) is in favour of creating a broad anti-capitalist party. If you want to win over the French Communist Party electorate you have to form a broad electoral bloc - you have to have partners. The problem is that there isn’t another national organisation apart from the LCR which has some weight. The LCR remains dominant even though it has moved away from democratic centralism and does not control the local cells in the old way.

Only non-sectarian revolutionaries who want a broad, pluralistic, free dialogue can create broad anti-capitalist parties or alliances. But while building these, we have to ensure they really address the real-life roblems of working people with concrete answers. Alliances and parties that don’t do that will fall apart.

And there’s another challenge we have to answer too. Because of the EU, ‘European’ parties and alliances are being built. At the next European elections there will be a European ‘left’ alliance around the Communist Parties. We are trying to form a European anti-capitalist alliance which will have a significant impact.