The Committee for a Workers' International and the Anti-Capitalist Demonstrations
Anti-capitalist demonstrations 'Round-up': Before and after Quebec.
Members of the Committee for a Workers' International have long been involved in international anti-capitalist demonstrations. Indeed, in 1992 they initiated the huge Youth Against Racism in Europe protest in Brussels that drew more than 40,000 participants across numerous frontiers. In Amsterdam in 1997 and Cologne 1999, CWI members from several countries made up lively contingents on the European counter-demonstrations in those cities. We said 'No' to the bosses' Europe of anti-worker, neo-liberal policies and argued for a Europe of workers' struggle and socialism.
Seattle - a turning point
Our members were also prominent in the mobilization of youth and trade unionists against the World Trade Organisation in Seattle, November 1999. This particular summit was abandoned after brutal police repression had shocked even some of the rich and powerful trying to attend the conference. After this, no world or regional meeting of government representatives or of bodies like the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank have been allowed to meet without mass protests against the inequitable system they help to sustain.
In Washington and New York in the early part of last year, tens of thousands of protesters gathered to vent their anger against globalisation and the domination of the world economy by the richest countries and corporations.
S11 in Melbourne
Later in the year - September 11 - a meeting of the World Economic Forum in Melbourne was blockaded into the Crown Towers Casino where it was meeting. Again CWI members, this time of the Socialist Party in Australia, were prominent in organising for the maximum impact. They insisted that the trade union demonstration crossed a strategic bridge southwards to the summit itself, instead of stopping half way. They brought out school students in solidarity strike action. In the course of the three-day 'stand-off', they took responsibility not only for first aid and refreshments, but also for political education meetings during the demonstrations and for recruitment directly to our party.
S 23-26 Prague
Ten days later - September 23-26 - came Prague with its battle for control of the bridge leading to the IMF/World Bank summit. The actual meeting was curtailed and the planned visit of all the participants and their guests to the opera was abandoned! A massive police operation did not deter the CWI members, who had come from seven sections, from selling over 800 papers and special anti-IMF/WTO pamphlets, produced in the Czech language.
D 6 & 7 Nice
By the end of the year 2000, the CWI was on the rain-soaked streets of Nice, on a mass protest against the European Union summit. The first day saw 100,00 trade unionists from France and many other countries filing though the town with their bands and banners and anti-EU slogans. The following day, a smaller band of more determined anti-capitalist activists battled with tear gas and water cannon to try, unsuccessfully, to reach the fortified Acropolis hotel where the conference was continuing. The impact was nevertheless felt throughout Europe, both by governments and by radicalised layers of youth and workers. The Nice protest was a kind of prelude to what is to come this year around the globe.
Porto Alegre and Buenos Aires
At the start of 2001, a number of CWI members travelled to the World Social Forum in Porto Allegre. Brazil (for 20 hours on a bus from Sao Paulo!). The Forum itself was large but not very radical, dealing with how to protect sovereignty and 'humanise' globalisation. Even some government ministers have started participating in such events to give the impression they care about capitalist exploitation!
However, there were many protest demonstrations in and around the Forum at Porto Allegre. The Youth Camp adopted a resolution calling for "a socialist world".. A lot of publicity was gained for the campaign called MSE - movement of those without education - initiated by members of Socialismo Revolucionario - the CWI section in Brazil.
Representatives of the CWI from Brazil and Chile also attempted to get to the counter-summit at the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) meeting in Buenos Aires on the week-end of 7 & 8 April. They report that all transport was being stopped at the borders of Argentina and inspected by heavily armed police and busses going to the demonstration were turned back.
Quebec - April 21 & 22
Up to 50,000 workers and young people demonstrated against the FTAA meeting in Quebec towards the end of April of 34 heads of government of the Americas (all except Fidel Castro, who was not invited!). A team of 25 CWI members from Canada, the USA and Britain intervened with papers, pamphlets and two huge banners saying "Abolish the FTAA; for Workers' Unity and Socialism!" in English and French.
[There will be an article on 'The significance of Quebec' in the next issue of 'Socialism Today' - the journal of the Socialist Party - England and Wales. It will also be accessible through the CWI web-site on a new page to be devoted to the anti-capitalist movement.]
The rest of the year
Throughout 2001 there will continue to be important mobilisations against meetings of capitalist institutions where deals are being done to give freer and freer rein to the already rich and powerful to pursue their profits. The CWI will be there to say 'no' to capitalist plunder! The main counter-summits the CWI will be intervening in will be the ones in Gothenburg in June, Genoa in July and Brussels in December. (A few CWI comrades will still go to Barcelona around June 15 and 16 for the scaled down demonstrations and 'victory' celebrations!)
CWI members, mainly from Austria, will be joining a counter-demonstration at the World Economic Forum in Salzburg from 1-3 July. We will also be present at the Climate Summit in Bonn, Germany, from 16-27 July. Given George Bush's recent pronouncements on Kyoto and the massive anti-nuclear protests in Germany itself, this promises to be big.
Events will swell the struggle against capitalism
Events in Argentina and Turkey, where mass protests were a daily occurrence, plus the general strike in Greece in May, are a pointer to what is to come as economic recession hits the rest of the capitalist world. The anger and frustration of youth and workers, already expressed on the streets around international summits, will find an even more powerful expression in strikes, general strikes and even uprisings like those that have toppled governments in recent months in Serbia and in the Philippines.
The need for clear strategies and programs for ending the rule of capital will be brought home and the task of building the forces of socialism and the Committee for a Workers' International will gather more and more urgency. Join us in the struggle - on the streets, in the schools and colleges, in the workplaces and in the countryside - to build a world party of socialism fighting to rid the planet of landlordism and capitalism once and for all.
Please send us any additional information you think could be useful.
AND, of course, any donations to the CWI to help with all this work will be very gratefully received!
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