Important PARTICIPATION OF AFRICA at the II ISL World Congress

The participation of comrades from Africa, the debate about that continent and the prospects for intervention and construction of the ISL in it, were a notable part of the 2nd Congress of the International Socialist League.

The recent incorporation to the ISL of the Revolutionary Socialist League (RSL) of Kenya and the constancy of the ISL’s commitment to the Saharawi cause have been key in the incipient structuring of the International in this very important continent.

The importance that Africa would have in the event was evident from the beginning, with comrades Ezra from Kenya and Chaia from Western Sahara joining the Congress presidium. The presence and participation of other comrades of the RSL Kenya and of African Footprints of Tanzania reinforced this fact.

Already in the discussion bulletins, the comrades of the RSL had contributed important texts on Revolutionary Pan-Africanism and the debates of scientific Marxism with “African socialism.” The former explains the struggle of revolutionaries against bourgeois and ethnocentric pan-Africanism in defense of a class based, socialist and revolutionary pan-African movement. The latter delves into the debates with various leaders of the African struggle of independence and their attempts to develop a socialist ideology adapted to their reality.

In these texts, and even more so in the reports and debate in the session on Africa at the congress, both the importance of this gigantic continent for the world revolution, as well as the great opportunity that exists to build revolution- ary organizations there, were clearly evidenced. The emergence of a widespread and radicalized young vanguard throughout the continent since the Arab Spring rebellions and the vacuum left by the disintegration of Stalinism create great opportunities for the ISL.

The comrades of the RSL, of African Footprints and of the Saharawi youth are part of this vanguard, and the contacts they have in the rest of the continent pose a great challenge to advance in the organization of the African vanguard. Hence, the main resolution proposed by the comrades and adopted by the Congress was the organizing of the first ISL Pan-African Congress with the participation of organizations and comrades from Kenya, Tanzania, Ghana, South Africa, Nigeria, Namibia, Sudan, Burkina Faso, Senegal, Zimbabwe, Mauritius and other countries.

The resolution to intensify the ISL campaign in solidarity with Western Sahara, also adopted,