Correspondência Internacional N: 33

Number 33, September-December 2013, IWU–FI

Egypt Down with the civilian-military government ...................................................... 26

No 33 ● September-December 2013

Whither the “Arab Spring”? .................. 28

Magazine of the IWU–FI International Workers Union–Fourth International

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Syria The fight continues ................................ 30 Repudiate the imperialist intervention in Syria! ..................................................... 32 Brazil Palestine Nothing will be the same.......................3 “Peace negotiations” are a farce ........... 34 Brazil is not detached from the global Singer becomes a symbol ...................... 35 crisis .......................................................6 Argentina Readiness to fight by the workers and Close to a million votes for the Left Front the wear of the trade union bureaucracy ............................................................... 36 ...............................................................7 Great election in Cordoba ..................... 37 PSTU/LIT-CI: From scepticism to capitulation to the government .........................8 Unity rally in Plaza de Mayo .................. 38 First Congress of Unidos pra Lutar ........9 Venezuela The decline of Chavism ......................... 39 Is the PT of the left? Is the Government of Dilma Rousseff in dispute? ..............10 A left alternative in municipal elections 40 University academics strike ................... 41 10 years ago the PT expelled ‘radical’ parliamentarians .................................11 Bolivia Youth and global revolt against the sys- “The Second Congress consolidated the tem ......................................................11 foundation of the PT” ............................ 43 Trajectory of Gualberto Arenas ............. 44 “We connect to the outraged youth of the world” ...........................................12 People’s Revolutionary Alternative ...... 44 “For much more than twenty cents”...13 The great strike of May ......................... 45 Sergio Cabral: a Governor on the brink of Chile the precipice ........................................13 Crisis and presidential elections ............ 47

English Translation

Not even the Pope can save Cabral and Dilma! ..................................................14

Daniel Iglesias

Workers Administration in the municipality of Itaocara, Rio de Janeiro .........15

Contribution

Turkey “A new period in the class struggle has opened” ...............................................16

Argentina: Ar$○15 Brazil: R$○5 Rest of Latin America: US$○5 Europe: € 5 Rest of the World: US$ 3

Interview to Atakan Ciftci, militant of Workers Front .....................................16 Who is Erdogan and what is his government? ..................................................18

Colombia A people with humour ........................19 Growth of struggles in Colombia ........... 49 Stop the repression, strengthen interna- Global News tional solidarity! We all are Taksim! ....20 Panama.................................................. 50 The signed articles do not necessarily depict the position of the IWU–FI but only of its authors.

The Empire of lies is sinking ................22 Peru ....................................................... 50 Cracks on the shell of the revolution...23 Freedom for Bradley Manning .............. 50 Workers Front: A trajectory of over 30 Tunisia years ....................................................24 Statement on the situation in Tunisia ... 51 The struggle of the Kurdish people .....25

Istambul, Turkey

Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Presentation The mass rebellions of Brazil and Turkey have highlighted to the world that the economic and social crisis was also installed in these great countries, so far away from each other. Millions took to the streets, belying the imperialist spokespersons who paraded Brazil and Turkey and their capitalist governments (Dilma Rousseff and Erdogan) as examples of “modernity” and economic growth. Some already theorized about the supposed progress of these so called “emerging countries” which, along with India and South Africa, would show that they were not part of the crisis of the global capitalist economy, with millions of people out of poverty, entering an alleged powerful “middle class”.

We devote an important part of this issue to what happened in both countries, because there are great experiences for the fighters of the world and because, as stated on the heading of the note about Brazil, in them “nothing will be the same.”

Another substantial part of the magazine is dedicated to the situation of the Arab revolu-

tion started in 2011. The coup in Egypt and the stagnation of the situation in Syria show that there is a fierce struggle between revolution and counterrevolution. Moreover, by the time of going press there was a threat of Obama and some other partner to bomb Syria, which would add a new counter revolutionary ingredient. We join the millions who repudiate this imperialist intervention.

In the Latin American section, we highlight the almost one million votes that the Left and Workers Front (FIT) managed in the August elections in Argentina. Thus strengthening a pole of the anticapitalist and socialist left in the fight for an alternative political leadership for the workers and the people. This happens while it is confirmed that in all the big mass rebellions, the great problem to achieve lasting and substantive change is the absence of a revolutionary socialist direction. This is most dramatic for the most advanced processes and, in particular, for the Arab revolution. ●

Contacting us: Argentina: Socialist Left: opinaellector@izquierdasocialista.org.ar — Bolivia: b.bolivia.izquierda.socialista@gmail.com — Brazil: Socialist Workers Current : combatesocialista@gmail.com — Chile: mst_solidaridad@gmail.com — Colombia: Socialist Alternative : alternativasocialistauitci@hotmail.com — United States: Socialist Core: socialistcore@gmail.com — Panama: Socialist Proposal: propuestapanamauit@hotmail.com — Peru: United in the Fight: unios_cc@hotmail.com — Venezuela: Socialism and Liberty Party: usi_venezuela@yahoo.com Recomended Sites: www.uit-ci.org / www.nahuelmoreno.org / www.izquierdasocialista.org.ar (Argentina) / www.cstpsol.com (Brazil) / www.unios.tk (Peru) / www.laclase.info (Venezuela) / www.socialistcore.org (USA) / www.mst-solidaridad.cl In Facebook: mst.solidaridad@gmail.cl (Chile) / www.linkezeitung.de (Germany) / www.luchainternacionalista.org (Spanish State) / www.iscicephesi.net (Turkey) 3

Millions in the streets against rising public transport fares, corruption

Nothing will be the same

By Adolfo Santos

When the powerful demonstrations in Turkey filled the news broadcasts and all eyes were fixed there, in Brazil a mainly youth uprising occurred that abruptly changed reality.

In the country of Lula, the Workers Party (PT), football and carnival, for two years a revolt had been brewing that broke out precisely during the Confederations Cup, when thousands of foreign journalists were in the country and watched astonished millions of people who shouted furiously on the streets that they did not care about football and wanted this money for health and education.

For while in Turkey the trigger was the defence of a square that quickly evolved to the “Out with Erdogan”, similarly in Brazil, the trigger was the increase in transport which channelled the anger against a government that privatizes, delivers half the budget to banks, steals and let politicians and 4

businessmen steal and fiercely repress the people’s struggles.

In the marches, among thousands of slogans was chanted “Brazil will be Turkey”, showing the impact of the revolutionary processes that happen in the world.

Thus, Brazil joins the revolutionary torrent sweeping the world, obtaining some important victories such as the decrease of transport fares, the reinstatement of the dismissed striking fire-fighters, prison for the first time of a corrupt member of parliament, the regression in some privatizations and above all, the dramatic fall in popularity of the president, governors and mayors, as well as all parties and politicians from the Government and its environment.

With these articles, we want to present to readers, militants and supporters of the revolutionary left in

different countries, our view of this spectacular process, and the opportunity and the challenges for the revolutionary the awakening of this giant country poses.

It was a real tsunami. The June manifestations in Brazil placed the country upside down. More than 300 cities felt the cry of millions of demonstrators expressing outrage and hatred.

The marches began against rising urban transport fares and for a quality public transport. But every day, in the streets, new and heartfelt claims appeared in the handwritten cardboard signs, in makeshift placards and the shouts of the crowd.

In a short time it was shown the 20 cents increase in fuel was not the only fuel that kept the bonfire burning.

Education and Public Health of quality, against corruption, against homophobia and democratic demands for participation and transparency were quickly add-

became aware that with struggles it is possible to win victories. The cancellation of the increase of transport fares, something that initially the authorities considered impossible to do, was a great triumph of the mobilization. Another new fact is that the fear of repression and threats of the rulers was lost. A third element is the disappearance of the old leadership, the PT and the CUT, the UNE [National Students Union] and the PCdoB [Communist Party of Brazil] out of the command of the struggles and confrontations. When they timidly tried to appear wanting to change the focus of the protests, they were booed and rejected.

ed as claims. In truth, these are all old and known problems. What has changed then?

What was new was that Brazil began to feel the impact of the global economic crisis, so the government tried with inflation, wage freeze, increased transport fares and further destroying public services, to download the consequences of the crisis on the working people. This was the central element that generated this tremendous spike for the irruption of the masses on the streets, initiated mainly by young people, but which was gaining strength and sympathy in popular sectors and among workers.

The outstanding contrast between the expenditures of carrying the 2014 FIFA World Cup squandering public money, while health and education are shockingly dismantled, became a banner against the Cup itself — “It does not matter if Brazil becomes champion, I want money for health and education” the crowd chanted, and, “There won’t be a Cup”, which the corrupt FIFA officials heard with concern amid the protests, brutally suppressed, during the performance of the Confederations Cup. But to each act of repression the response came with more people on the street and more hatred against the rulers.

In this context, the rejection of governments, political parties, and in general, all institutions of the regime was expressed, a common occurrence in the demonstrations we saw around the world. This expresses a clear feeling that these politicians and their institutions do not represent them, since they 5

are in the service of personal enrichment and big business. The most visible characters of this crisis began to be remembered with hatred in the demonstrations. It was against Renan Calheiros (PMDB, [Brazilian Democratic Movement Party] chairman of the Senate), Sergio Cabral and Eduardo Paes (PMDB governor of Rio de Janeiro and mayor of the city of Rio), against Geraldo Alckmin and Marconi Perillo (PSDB [Brazilian Social Democracy Party] governor of Sao Paulo the first and governor of Goias the second) against Fernando Haddad of the PT, who had just taken over as mayor of the city of Sao Paulo against homophobic Pastor Marco Feliciano (PSC [Social Christian Party]) and their “gay priest”, against FIFA and, of course, against Dilma Rousseff and the PT. The trade union federations as the CUT [Unified Workers’ Central], which in recent years remained paralysed and acting as “spare wheel” of the government, were rejected in the demonstrations.

A great change happened No doubt the offensive of the June days has radically changed the political situation, creating a new balance of power, where the youth, workers and the people are stronger, and the federal and state governments and the regime as a whole are much weaker, in crisis and on the defensive.

The traditional definition of a revolutionary situation by Lenin —”those below no longer want to live as before, and those above cannot maintain control as they did” — fits perfectly.

A key element of this new situation is that large sections of masses

The government and its allies were demoralized. Beaten, they try to readjust with proposals that would supposedly give answers to the voices of the street. Lies! Pure action to halt the decline of popularity polls over the next election. The proposal of Dilma — of a covenant and plebiscite —does not serve the workers. The covenant is to maintain fiscal adjustment and the proposed referendum isn’t to deepen any democracy.

The voices on the street ask for something else. They ask for a public transport inexpensive and of quality and for this they have to attack the profits of the businesses in the sector.

The street called for health and quality public education, and for this it is necessary to suspend the payment of interest on public debt to invest in public services. The slogans of the marches call for breaking the agreements with FIFA. The street cries against the corrupt, it wants the “mensaleiros”(1) prisoners, and it wants “out with Renan!”

“No to Feliciano!” Regarding this, Dilma Rousseff and the PT do not want to consult the people, because it would mean to going against the interests of their true partners and campaign financiers.

The claims of the street are to defend the interests of the poor and working people, and are different from those of the government and the parties of the regime. To advance such (1).

“Mensaleiros”: It refers to people sent to prison due a vote-buying case of corruption that threatened to bring down the government of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in 2005.

claims it is necessary to defeat the government’s economic policy and reverse its logic, devoting greater resources for the workers. We are stronger and the government has been hit. Reflecting the

days of June, the day of struggle convened for July 11 by pro-government unions showed that, despite the neglect and betrayal of the old leaderships, the labour movement has dispo-

sition to become organized to fight. To continue the fight to the end in a general strike is not only a possible but a necessary task to continue moving forward. ●

Economy

Brazil is not detached from the global crisis By: Silvia Santos (CST / PSOL) (1) When the capitalist economy crisis exploded, Lula had the unfortunate idea to say that it would not affect Brazil, or that at most it would be a “little wave”, given that the country was “detached” of the fate of the global economy. Bringing a real propaganda campaign on the billions that would be obtained from oil and the Pre-Salt layer, of the benefits of the World Cup and the Olympics for the country; that with Lula Brazil had got rid of the debt and nothing was owed, that between the “family basket” subsidy program for the poorest plus succulent and cheap credit, life was just joy.

However, the impact of the crisis was inevitable precisely because of the domination of the capitalist world the large international corporations and banks have, which in minutes are able to wreck the economy of an entire country, at a time when speculation became the fastest and easiest way of reproduction of capital. Until the “bubble” burst.

And so, Brazil entered the path of the crisis, exacerbated by rampant corruption of the political world, which sharpened the contradictions of a Brazil that, in the period before the crisis, had one of the worst income distributions in the world, that is, one of the most unequal.

The public debt (foreign and internal) grew and today is over three (1)

trillion reais (US$ 1.3 billion). This is the reason why the government of PT / PMDB devotes nearly half the annual budget to pay the financial system interest and amortization of debt that continues to grow. They have just announced cuts to the budget of at least 15 billion reais (US$ 6.6 billion) to pay for it all!

The World Cup and the Olympics did not come to help Brazil and Brazilians to grow, but to make fabulous profits for FIFA and all companies linked to the wheeling and dealing, especially construction companies as well as governments, ministers and secretaries who, one way or another, are sucking at the teat of these events.

We reject Dilma Rousseff’s covenant, as it goes against the workers No one doubts that dissatisfaction with the economic situation is at the root of the massive mobilizations of June, of the continuing strikes and the day of struggle the trade unions centrals convened for July 11. Seeking to regain control of the country after the knock-out received on the streets that left groggy the president, she had no better idea than to propose a covenant to the governors and mayors, whose first point is the reaffirmation of fiscal adjustment. Translation — save to pay the bankers! Of course, the package came wrapped with the promise of a

CST / PSOL: Corrente Socialista dos Trabalhadores / Partido Socialismo e Liberdade (Socialist Workers Current, internal faction of the Socialism and Liberty Party).

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“plebiscite” for political reform, thinking that in this way the people would feel they had been consulted.

The trap did not work, although the PT, CUT and some fake socialists defend it. As there are plebiscites and plebiscites. The one of Dilma and the PT / PMDB was a trap for dismantling the colossal struggle process, deflecting the force of the people to the dead end of a consultation which, if passed, suited the government, because what they wanted was to pass the system of voting by

list and voting by district, that is, to give more weight to the chiefs and party apparatuses rejected on the streets. With fiscal adjustment, which already promotes more cuts in the budget, the new rise in interest rates and a declining economy which would hardly get to grow 2% this year, the outlook is of more struggles and strikes since young people and workers, encouraged by the June days and the triumph of having defeated rising fares, feel stronger to demand what

they deserve against a weakened government. The struggle for greater part of June’s list of claims is pending and, combined with wage campaigns in the second half of the year, may provide a new and hard blow to Dilma’s covenant and the economic policy of the government and the bosses. To encourage, support, unify and strengthen this process is the number one task of the fighters and socialists in the coming months. ●●●●

Readiness to fight by the workers and the wear of the union bureaucracy

By Diego Vitello(1) In the June days many workers participated in demonstrations individually, with their children or family, but not organized by their union, although there were exceptions in places that are led by classism. But the climate that was generated in the workplace forced union bureaucrats to convene a National Day of Struggle for July 11. Of course, there were conditions for a great general strike in the country, but that was not the purpose of the bureaucracy. As President of the CUT Wagner Freitas stated — “General strike to break with a government elected by the people in a country where Congress works and there is no dictatorship?”

Thus, with this view, the leadership of the CUT faced the day on 11 July stating that “it wasn’t against Dilma or against the government.”

But the workers ignored them and on that day there were heavy battles that questioned the PT / PMDB government. In major cities like Porto Alegre, Belo Horizonte and Victoria, where transport was paralysed, the climate was one of general strike. In the Paraiba River Valley, a major industrial region of Sao Paulo State, classist leaderships paralysed important factories as (1)

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Johnson and Heineken. Combative drivers did work to rule. In Rio de Janeiro teachers, workers of federal universities, some federal agencies and construction sectors stopped.

Across the country there were strikes of public servants as in Belem do Para, banking workers stopped strongly where the union and activists played a strong role, as in Porto Alegre. Oil Workers of Sergipe (Northeast) and the Paraiba Valley as well as metallurgical workers in the industrial ABC region of Sao Paulo and port workers of some states, although only partially, also joined the fight day. What was most reported by the media were the roadblocks involving the Movement of Landless Rural Workers (MST) and also by classist sectors and especially the unions.

The first conclusion we can draw after the first day of action called by the bureaucracy of no less than eight union federations is that there is a disposition to struggle among workers and the bureaucracy is increasingly worn out. Where leaderships were committed to stop, adherence was enormous.

It is a fact that the June days

represent a further break away of important sectors of the working class with Lula, the PT and the traitor trade union leaderships. The political struggle against the government stimulates the break away from the trade unions and vice versa.

The union bureaucracy, after ten years defending PT governments was already quite worn out. By not participating in the June Days (in fact they were overtaken), they were worse placed and far away from the spirit and agenda championed by crowds in those historic days. It is estimated that on July 11 about one hundred thousand workers mobilized in rallies and roadblocks, a number well below the millions in June. Not counting the huge apparatus moved by the bureaucrats with many trucks, loud noises, banners and t-shirts of all kinds, balloons and even paid “militant” to raise the numerous banners.

The treacherous role of the union bureaucracy The trade union bureaucracy, since the arrival of the PT to government, went on to defend its policies of attack on workers. The three largest

Diego Vitello is a leader of the Federation of Bank Workers of Rio Grande do Sul - member of CST / PSOL.

labour federations — CUT (led by PT); Forca Sindical (led by the PDT, Democratic Labour Party, has the Minister of Labour) and CTB (Brazilian Workers

Central, led by PCdoB, has the minister Sports) — are now the arms of government in the union movement. The vast majority of the CUT old guard now

PSTU/LIT-CI: From scepticism to capitulation to the government The PSTU (Unified Socialist Workers’ Party) was surprised with the days of June because in practice they refuted all of the PSTU analysis of Brazilian reality. They insisted that the government of Dilma Rousseff was very strong and that little could be done against her, so much so that limited themselves to “advise” her for example, against lay-offs or against privatizations. With this conception, they handed over the rights of workers in the main factory of the main union they lead in Brazil, the metallurgical union of Sao Jose dos Campos (Sao Paulo). Faced with the blackmail by the bosses of General Motors, who received generous tax benefits from the PT government, they rejected the proposal of a day of united struggle made by several unions in the region, and signed an agreement accepting inter alia banking hour, the dismissal of 600 workers and a reduction of the minimum salary for new workers went from 3100 reais (US$ 1350) to 1800 reais (US$ 786).

The day after the biggest demonstrations in the history of Brazil, the leader of PSTU and [Trade Union Confederation] Conlutas, Ze Maria, on behalf of “unity so the right don’t take

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possession of the demonstrations” participated in a meeting with the president of the PT and the Stalinist Orlando Silva (PCdoB), former Minister of Sport which had to leave accused of corruption. Ze Maria, who had already participated with the bureaucrats in the meeting with President Dilma without making any public statement, and neither did he make one this time to differentiate himself from such illustrious allies. Shortly after, he attended the congress of the mafiosi Forca Sindical and left in great praise of it, a congress which was also attended by the Governor of Sao Paulo, from the PSDB and responsible for the brutal repression in the days of June.

The PSTU policy has been one of unity of action with the bureaucrats of the pro-government union federations without ever differentiating from their treacherous policy. What we called with Nahuel Moreno “the tactic of the unity-confrontation” was despised by these comrades, who preferred to stay in the good books in order to obtain recognition as federation, despite the few unions in their membership but which let them receive generous government funding.

occupies positions in government or in parliament, in pension funds and the boards of state or mixed companies like Petrobras, receiving fat salaries and a life completely changed.

Faced with the upheavals that shook the country they adopted the government’s discourse, that these would be “led by the right and the media.” As this discourse failed, mobilizations kept growing, and after having been expelled from several demonstrations when they wanted to display the banners of their federations, the leaderships of the CUT and the MST were called to a meeting with Lula, who advised them they had to do some mobilizations. The goal was clear — they were feeling the pressure from the grassroots and they should seek to regain control of the situation, appearing as combative. But their call kept the same claims as before June, focusing now on a “political reform” and support for Dilma’s announced plebiscite, although it failed within hours.

It is necessary to demand a true general strike democratically built The continuity of the process initiated with the June days can be seen every day in our country. Popular and student struggles, strikes like doctors or teachers of Rio; sit-ins of local government councils and legislative assemblies. Faced with this pressure the same labour federations that convened July 11 set a new day of action for August 30. It is quite a bureaucratic call, without convening any meeting to discuss the action or the claims. Despite this, it is necessary to take this call into the hands of workers and fighters to make it a day of total gridlock and prepare the way for a general strike that has as its focus the defeat of the government and its economic policy.

From the CST / PSOL and the trade union current Unidos pra Lutar (United to Fight), we are committed to organizing the workers from the rank and file in the sectors where we lead, promoting rank and file meetings to discuss the situation in the country, our demands and the extent of struggle on the 30th, insisting also in calling the eight labour federations to summon all workers for a true general strike. ●

Angelica Laguna, from Argentina, speaking to the full session

Congress chairmanship: from left to right, Pedro Rosa, Neide Solimoes, and Wellington Cabral

First Congress of Unidos pra Lutar In the trade union of metro workers of Sao Paulo, between August 3 and 4 met the first congress of Unidos pra Lutar (United to Fight).

Delegations of workers from the metro, chemical, food, municipal employees, teachers from different states, federal university employees, bus drivers, metal workers, federal government public servants, of the Association of Insolvent of Para, banking sector, and university professors moved to Sao Paulo with enthusiasm , as the Congress was taking place at a time like no other.

Her report compiled the world political situation, the struggles of workers and the importance of Unidos pra Lutar Congress, because it occurs precisely in Brazil, shaken by national mobilizations against the government and the bosses, a situation that has great similarity with what happens in the world. She also noted that, together with the fight for a new union leadership, workers need to be committed to building a political alternative.

The opening was very touching, with the presentation of two videos.

One on the mobilizations of these days — which will become history —, and another one with the rap created and sung by comrade PH Lima, militant of CST / PSOL in Rio de Janeiro.

The opening on the national situation was given by comrade Pedro Rosa, coordinator of Sintuff (Rio de Janeiro State University Workers Union) and leader of Fasubra (Federation of State University Workers Union). He made a nice and enthusiastic presentation highlighting the new moment which opened in Brazil, the fact that the workers, the youth and the people are stronger and governments and parties of the order weaker, strengthening the conditions for progress in the construction of a new union, and also political, leadership for the working class.

The first debate on the international situation had the contribution of a comrade invited by Unidos pra Lutar, Angelica Lagunas, member of Socialist Left Party, leader of teachers union and member of the provincial parliament of Neuquen province, Argentina.

Comrade Baba, a university professor, former parliamentarian, founder and leader of the PSOL and CST, gave a greeting highlighting the struggles in the world and its impact on Brazil, exposing extensive data on the country’s debt and calling the

After the June days, the political concern about the direction of the country and of the class struggle and how to intervene in this new process motivated leaders and activists to participate in these days of intense debate.

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struggle for “Out with Cabral!”, the hated governor of Rio de Janeiro, and the suspension of debt payment and its audit.

Throughout the Congress the struggle for “Out with Cabral” and “Where is Amarildo(1)?” was present and having voted a resolution in the sense that Unidos pra Lutar strive on this campaign.

Among the many resolutions adopted, we can highlight the support for the campaign and rally of the metro workers of Sao Paulo against the corruption of the PSDB government and the “Out with Alckmin”, convened for August 14, and the slate of fighters for September election that will face the pro-government slate of the PCdoB. Comrade Neide Solimoes, leader of SINDSEP [Municipal Workers Union] (State of Para) stressed the importance of preparing the campaign of August 30, convened by the union federations, but called differently from bureaucratic way.

Unidos pra Lutar will hold meetings and convene the rank and file.

Also there was a vote to support the struggles of workers, their wage campaigns regardless of which federation their union belongs to, promoting unity committees and forums of those who (1)

Campaign for the appearance of Amarildo de Souza, a mason of 42 years in detention by the police.

are fighting. It was also decided to form a commission to begin work on the racial problem.

The Teachers from different states met to coordinate their actions and so did public servants of federal universities in Rio de Janeiro.

Finally, we highlight the greeting of comrade fire-fighter Daciolo, leader of the heroic fire-fighters strike in Rio de Janeiro, imprisoned, prosecuted and expelled, who days later — and as a result also the June uprising — earned his reintegration, which means another victory.

The conference ended with the adoption of accounts as presented by the fiscal council and the election of the new leadership, headed by Pedro Rosa as secretary of labour relations and Neide Solimoes as coordinators of administration and finance, leadership which was hailed by those present. ●

Is the PT of the left?

Is the Government of Dilma Rousseff in dispute?

By:Michel Tunes, CST–PSOL Coordination

Lula and Dilma planned a party to celebrate 10 years in power, 10 years of “popular and democratic” governments seeking to take advantage of the Confederations Cup and Neymar dribbling. They spoke of “social progress” and “strong economy” in a boastful climate. A re-election of Dilma was seen as guaranteed, especially since few (to the right or left) were in an uncompromising opposition to the government.

However, the days of June were a bucket of cold water on that party. Protesters beat Haddad (PSDB Governor of Sao Paulo) on June 17. Two days after Lula’s residence was the target of a protest by youths in Sao Bernardo do Campo, Sao Paulo state. On June 20, millions took to the streets and nearly besieged Dilma in the government house in Brasilia, showing that the indignant ones were questioning everything that was there.

Who are the enemies of the protesters?

The hurricane that swept the streets showed Lula, Dilma and the PT on the opposite side of the barricades and marches. The dividing line between the street and the “palaces” is sharp and marks where our enemies and allies are. However, this conclusion is controversial. Recently, Leonardo Boff — theologian and intellectual with a large audience in the PSOL — echoed

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the government in his paper “Against the machinations of the right: support Dilma”. This same concept led Senator Randolfe Rodrigues, who belongs to the faction currently in the majority of the PSOL leadership, to meet with Dilma and to support the PT’s plebiscite. Boff says the “right”, the “conservative elites”, the media and the PSDB are our main enemies as they try to “remove” the “transformations of recent years” to return to power. Therefore, he proposes “strengthening the government” and “influencing its path.” A policy that is impossible, as the government has already decided its course as an agent of capital, and that is why we reject it.

leaders (PCdoB) and former guerrillas who became wealthy in the state apparatus.

The PT has consolidated as a new right, that’s why it incorporated the PMDB in the vice presidency and countless corrupt parties and reactionary sectors to its rank and file, making deals with corrupt oligarchs as Sarney, Collor, Renan, Kassab, Maluf, Lupi and Jader, all of them with extensive dossiers for embezzlement of public money.

The Government of Dilma Rousseff is bourgeois!

The PT attacks the workers!

This is precisely why it is wrong to say that there is a right wing coup d’état on course. So much so that it was the PT and Dilma who criminalized protests with the National Security Force (which already acted against strikers and killed an Indian in Mato Grosso) and put the army on the streets during the Confederations Cup, a line that pleases the Military Club.

The PT rules for speculative capital and imperialism, devoting half of the budget for the payment of the public debt; for the contractors of major infrastructure projects and the Cup; for agribusiness, now central to the economy; for multinationals and big corporations with generous tax exemptions. It’s a bourgeois government, of class conciliation, where these factions of capital rule with former trade unionists, former student

Therefore, there is no room to be “played” by the left in the government. Our task is to defeat the antipeople policies of the government of Dilma – Temer (PT–PMDB–PCdoB), as we did in the adjustment of bus fares.

And in that way, to build an anticapitalist and revolutionary political alternative, task that the CST / PSOL is determined to carry on the political and social movement alongside Unidos pra Lutar and Vamos a Luta. ●

10 years ago the PT expelled “radical”(1) parliamentarians 2013 marks the 10th anniversary of the expulsion of the “PT Radicals”— Baba, Luciana Genro and Heloisa Helena. No doubt the “Radicals” were correct. The current popular uprising challenged the economic and social policy of the PT governments. In one of the demonstrations which filled Rio’s CBD, Baba, lead-

(1)

er of CST / PSOL, was talking with one of the protesters: “Look, as soon as the PT and Lula came up the ramp of the government palace, they deepened a turn to right and started to apply the neoliberal model. There came the re-

form that privatized retirement and our expulsion. This was what gave rise to the movement that founded the PSOL in 2004, a classis and socialist project we have to defend. “

They were called “radical” in the pejorative sense, as politicians who do not know and never will negotiate limits.

Youth and the global revolt against the system By: Michel Tunes, CST / PSOL Coordination

An outraged generation rebels against the system. This legion awakes in the heat of the Arab revolutions, European general strikes, encamped in Spain, Occupy Wall Street movement, demonstrations in Portugal, Turkey and Chile. They learned that direct action in the streets turns dictatorships and defeats governments. They are those who transform squares into mini-communes of the XXI century — Tahir, Puerta del Sol, Syntagma, Zuccotti Park and Taksin.

This is the vanguard gestated after the revolutions that defeated the Stalinist dictatorships and brought down the Berlin Wall. Untied to the bureaucracy that destroyed the Bolshevik conquests of 1917, they are not prey to the schemes of the Cold War, crying the end of the USSR and the “defensive situation “. Without following the old communists / socialists, they rely on their own strength and fight for their future, transforming the impossible into the inevitable and the extraordinary

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into the everyday. They question blind faith in the “leaders”, do not comply with ready made decisions, they want democracy in the discussions and sympathize with radicalization. They express a political revolution which advances since 1989; a rebellion of the grassroots that questions the “left” that manages the system and betrays the struggles. They protest against totalitarianism, bourgeois democracy and parties of the regime “that do not represent us”.

tion that carried them on the shoulders.

The renewal of the movement is done through youth, free from all responsibility to the past.” And that’s what we’re seeing globally against the decline of the old leaderships of the reformist and treacherous left. The revolutionary bet on the offensive spirit and enthusiasm of the indignant to overcome gaps and weaknesses of this new vanguard.

Youth is the engine of the global revolt because it has no future in capitalism, and because it is being attacked by the economic crisis — cuts in rights, low wages, unemployment, lousy public services. On the other hand, they do not accept the irrationality of the system.

Amidst the failure of reformists who apply fiscal adjustment, rule with the bourgeoisie and betray the Arab revolutions, strong revolutionary alternatives are not visualized. It is understandable, then, the growth of anti-party currents.

In this context autonomism feeds on anti-party currents and intellectuals emerged after the fall of the Berlin Wall, who campaign against the revolutionary parties of the left.

It was Leon Trotsky, founder of the IV International, who said that “when a program and an organization get worn out, they wear the genera-

We are not anti-party — Political organization is necessary!

We understand and respect the activ-

ists who defend these ideas, but we differ with these views. We believe this is the central controversial debate of the movement. Carrying or not flags on a demonstration is secondary. Those of us in the CST / PSOL and in Vamos a Luta, we defend the need for the organization, of a program and a partisan political tool for the protesters.

It is necessary a program and an anti-capitalist political organization Regardless of how massive the struggles are, regardless of how heroic the demonstrators are, without a program and a revolutionary party, as well as new agencies to continue mobilized, we won’t have any radical changes such as those proposals raised by the CST / PSOL. After the demonstrations, the powerful stay on the defensive or are defeated. But they try to recycle themselves to continue ruling. In Egypt, the revolution brought the Muslim Brotherhood to power and later it ousted them, and the military attempt to usurp the victory. It means that we can oust a government or conquer the reduction of transport fares, but then they return

to attack by other means or with a new ruler. It is impossible to change the country and the world without the working class and the people taking political power and ruling for the underdog, putting into practice our claims. And to carry out our program we need a revolutionary party. We do

not believe that these changes will come through elections, but we disagree with those who refuse to use that space. We think it’s important to also contest with our proposals in this area and, if possible, elect parliamentarians to support and disseminate the demonstrations. ●

“We connect to the outraged youth of the world” Luany Barros is a militant of the CST / PSOL and the collective Vamos a Luta. She is the general coordinator of Central Directory of Students of the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul. She was detained in the first demonstration in Porto Alegre on April 2013, and then released after the mobilization marched to the police station, and thus she gained more notoriety as youth leader.

“The days of June connected Brazil to the outraged youth that mobilizes around the world. Those who are in the streets fighting know that we are part of this global process. In between the rallies, we sang that Brazil would be Turkey and thousands and thousands sang. Across the country a new vanguard emerged that did not live at the time

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when the PT dominated leftist ideas. Today the PT of Lula and Dilma is just another party of the system which attacks our rights. This opens a wide space to discuss real solutions for the country, surpassing the experience of the PT of class conciliation and building a revolutionary political agenda that is able to unite the historical needs of workers and youth.”

“For much more than twenty cents” PH Lima, rapper and militant of CST / PSOL and the collective Vamos a Luta, created the rap “Brazilian Spring”, standing out in the mobilizations of June in Rio de Janeiro.

“In June the Brazilians took to the streets to fight for much more than 20 cents. They went to fight against the government which claims to be of the workers, but that attacks them, as well as attacking the Indians, the slums, the Quilombo communities, the landless. It places a sexist, racist and homophobic as president of the Human Rights Commission of the Chamber of Deputies, who rules alongside Collor and Sarney and those convicted for the corruption the PT (“mensaleiros”).

“People have had enough of being punished as they were before — public transport was the spark, as in all major cities of the country it is in cha-

os and increasingly expensive. The problem is that transport serves the interests of the monopolies that finance the politicians’ campaigns. Here in Rio, while the people suffer crammed like cattle in transport, Governor Cabral travels a few blocks in helicopters paid for all of us. Therefore, neither the Cup nor the Pope managed to stop the fight.

On the contrary, people questioned the billions spent on the big events. It is also questioned why a city like Rio, which is showcase for tourists, has its peripheries where the people have no shelter, no dignity or employment, and suffer a policy of extermination by the security forces.” ●

Río de Janeiro

Sergio Cabral: a Governor on the brink of the precipice CST / PSOL Coordination, Rio de Janeiro The governor of Rio de Janeiro, Sergio Cabral, is on the brink of the precipice, cornered by the protests in his state, which represents the second largest economy of Brazil. This affects the two main parties that command the government, firstly the PMDB (traditional bourgeois party) and the PT as well.

After the massive demonstrations that occurred in June, his approval rating fell to 12%, the most affected by the wave of protests that still continues.

At the same time, in Rio de Janeiro President Dilma Rousseff has her worst rating in the polls.

In July, the youth continued protesting, marching through the city CBD or to the seat of government. Furthermore, they encamped before Cabral apartment located in Leblon — famous neighbourhood which has one of the most expensive square meters in Brazil.

The communities living in the hills of the city protest cutting transit. In Au13

gust the council chamber was occupied for nearly two days and public school teachers went on strike with demonstrations.

These struggles are wrecking the PT project, which invested all in the state of Rio through mega projects like the World Cup and the Olympics.

Now, the union PMDB–PT can be dismantled by the force of the streets, which would deepen the crisis of the Dilma government and the national political regime.

The powerful no longer govern as before After defeating the increase in transport fares, the protesters are stronger and more politicized. Therefore, the pillars of the PMDB and PT (and their fellows of the PCdoB and PSB) policies are questioned. There is a jump in the level of consciousness, leaving the old rulers and treacherous leaders of the movement desperate.

This can be seen in the case of the disappearance of bricklayer Amarildo de Souza, a resident of the Rocinha favela, who became a symbol of the fight against police violence. Especially since Amarildo disappeared after being taken by soldiers to the headquarters of the local UPP (Police Pacification Unit). The UPP came about under the pretext of fighting drug trafficking in the favelas and treating people in a more “human” way, but neighbours’ complaints against their violent actions are growing.

Cabral’s security policy, which Dilma proposed expanding throughout Brazil, is crumbling thanks to the mobilizations. It was already being challenged by the young, but it is now the very inhabitants of Rocinha who sang in one of the roadblocks in front of the community — “the UPP entered and Rocinha finished”. The slogan “Where is Amarildo?” is present in the marches, on posters and became viral on social net-

works. The last few weeks, after the visit by the pope, it expanded to other countries.

Faced with the continuity of movement, Cabral went back on the Maracana complex, a soccer stadium which was privatized. Thanks to the fight, it was ensured that an aquatic park and an athletic stadium which are part of the complex won’t be demolished, putting the de-privatization of the stadium on the agenda. A breakthrough direct product of the demonstrations against the FIFA Cup. The military fire-fighters just got a huge win. The leaders of the last strike have just been pardoned and will return to the barracks. A symbolic victory as they were the first to massively demonstrate against Sergio Cabral.

It is now the CPI (Parliamentary Investigation Commission) of transport in the city of Rio that is transformed into a new onslaught. The government does everything for the investigation not to exist, as it would demonstrate its links with companies in the sector, and the protesters want to open the cost spread sheets of the companies to seek solutions to the transport chaos.

Coordinate the struggles The strike by education workers

should be used to help to massively expand the movement and to incorporate the workers, as a class and with their methods, to the wave of struggles. It is the arrival on the scene of the class which can quickly determine the fall of Cabral and the conquest of our demands. It is the collective and wide struggle and not the actions of small groups of vanguard (regardless of how courageous they are), what will ensure our victory.

Thereafter, we’ll have the national strike called by the trade unions on August 30, date that needs effective preparation at the grassroots, with democratic meetings, discussing the claims and actions to make that day. We must transform it into an effective general strike against the government and the bosses, everything that the leaders at unions HQ do not want. This means we must contest the movement with the treacherous leaders at the same time that the unity date is being built. A task that lies with the leftist unions and trade unionists and parliamentarians of the PSOL, whose weight in Rio is quite large.

Appearance of Amarildo de Souza! End of police violence and punishment to the guilty! Demilitarization of the MP! Right to freedom of association for the cops! Commission of the people and social movements to investigate human rights violations!

For wage increases, shorter hours and better working conditions!

Transform August 30 in a General Strike!

For the de-privatization of Maracana! Audit of the contracts with contractor companies and FIFA! End of privatization of health and education! For sanitation and investment in social areas! In defence of 100% state-owned Petrobras!

For the opening of the Transport Black-Box! End of subsidies to the bosses! Free Pass to college students now!

Municipalisation of transport with zero Fares! Tax on large fortunes and suspension of payment of the public debt to invest in state transport!

For strengthening the Fighting Forum creating committees by place of study, work and abode! ●

We must continue to fight for — Out with Cabral! End of privileges!

For no politician to earn more than a teacher!

Not even the Pope can save Cabral and Dilma!

CST / PSOL Coordination, Rio de Janeiro The World Youth Day (WYD), with the Pope’s presence in Rio de Janeiro, was a fiasco for Dilma and Cabral. The whole world saw the transport chaos in the city — Francis imprisoned in a traffic jam in the CBD and thousands of Catholic pilgrims without metro and buses due to the public transport blackout.

Infrastructure problems on the Western Zone (outer suburbs) led to the closure of the event which was transferred to the Southern Zone (privileged area of the city).

The mega events again turned against the rulers. A wear that also affected Mayor Eduardo Paes, who runs what should be “Olympic City”, but failed the test of the Confederations Cup and World Youth Day. The pres14

ence of Dilma in the stadium only increased the anger of the protesters and led to a booing.

The Pope is who took best advantage of the event. Pope Francis emerges as a function of the brutal Vatican crisis, with speeches and actions of centre-left, when compared to the papacy of Benedict XVI. Thus speaking of corruption, citing the tragedy at the Kiss Nightclub in Rio Grande do Sul where 240 youth died, and the trigger happy “slaughter” of the Church of the Candlemas. In interviews to the Globo Network, he said that he doesn’t like “a young man who does not protest” and that the dissent of youth is “cute”. All to hold that he was concerned with the “manipulation” that young people can suffer.

Francis’ rhetoric falls to the ground when he stood silent on the Amarildo case or when he didn’t condemn police repression and privatizations. Not to mention that millions of public treasury were used to fund the WYD, while the people are fed up of spending on mega events as health and education deteriorate. The worst is that he insisted on the defence of a utopian “dialogue” with the rulers, while the streets want to pull Cabral down.

Nothing new. With a different and Latin American face, recovering a discourse that was in disuse, Francis shows that the Church has several ways to exercise its role. Always at the service of maintaining the order and the capitalist system. □□□□□□

Workers Administration in the municipality of Itaocara, Rio de Janeiro

By Marco Antonio Pelaes, CST / PSOL Itaocara

In October 2012, in the small city of Itaocara, a worker was elected mayor. Gelsimar Gonzaga, municipal employee and former president of the public servants union, achieved an electoral victory dismissing the representatives of the local bourgeois, who took turns at the front of the municipality over its history. This victory came without alliances with bourgeois parties and rejecting private funding of the campaign. The slogan “I want to see which is worthier, whether the money or the people,” summed up the spirit of the PSOL victory and showed that it is possible to have success, even electoral success, without capitulating to the regime, to the bosses alliances and the economic power.

Gelsimar Gonzaga, in the middle, with his parents.

Gelsimar Gonzaga In his childhood Gelsimar was a cane cutter. At 18 he moved to the city of Rio de Janeiro and then became a bank employee. During the rise of the 1980s he was a member of the powerful strikes of bank workers. He joined the PT and from Socialist Convergence he disputed the CUT. By 2003 and with the expulsion of so-called “radicals” from the PT, Gelsimar and CST reunite in the task of building a new left-wing party in Brazil, the PSOL.

The challenge of managing a fragment of the bourgeois state Capitalism and its institutions are in acute crisis. Brazil, its states and cities go through the crisis of being unable to provide basic services like health and education. This is due to the fact that the option of the government of Dilma Rousseff (PT / PMDB) to “confront” the economic crisis is fiscal adjustment against workers to ensure paying the financial system.

We are aware that the Municipality, as an institution, is still part of the apparatus of the bourgeois state, but now it has a workers administration, as there is no bourgeois or representatives of the bourgeois party in government. The leadership of the process is 15

committed to deepen the democratic involvement, making the control of finance and municipal definitions go through popular decision. Another aspect, which the Mayor announced at every opportunity he could, is the assertion that we do not govern for all, but for the majority, for the workers and the youth.

Facing the bourgeois laws with the mobilization of the workers In Brazil, one of the cruellest bourgeois laws is the Fiscal Responsibility Act, which is exactly the same as that referred to by the IMF and the World Bank, primer followed by all capitalist governments of the world — save to pay the debt, shrinking wage budgets, privatizing and leaving services for the population increasingly worse. Currently, Gelsimar’s office is campaigning against this law and demanding more budget funds from the state and federal governments. To get an idea, if the law had been applied since the beginning of the year, the government would have to lay off and extinguish near 150/200 jobs, or risked losing the mandate. He convened a popular meeting whose main audience were the workers of the municipality

and which defined the campaign to gather signatures, denouncing the law, political mobilization in the city and demand more money from the governments. The June winds also blow in Itaocara!

Prospects The local opposition (expression of the bourgeois and corrupt parties PMDB and PR, which nationally rule together with the PT), the media, the state government, public department and most councillors are today in fierce opposition to our political project. We recently made a statement to the House of Councillors and we are now alerting the public about coup attempts against the government. We always knew it would be so, and that means we’re on the right track.

People assemblies, which have already been over 7 and have decided on various issues, need to evolve to people councils. Political cadres of the people and the youth are being forged so they can be the leading vanguard of this process, which will have limits but can be an important reference on the revolutionary principles and the ability to contribute to dispute for the consciousness of the workers. ●

Taksim Square occupied by thousands of demonstrators

“A new period in the class struggle has opened” The mass demonstrations in Taksim Square in Istanbul, which sparked protests across Turkey, have shaken the region and imperialism itself who did not expect this mass rebellion in one of its partner countries and key to its plans in the Middle East. As pointed out by the Workers Front militant in the interview, “a new period in the class struggle has opened” in the country.

Although Erdogan’s government managed to hold power, despite the rejec-

tion of the masses that raised the slogan “Out with Erdogan” in their demonstrations, it is clear that it will not be as easy to apply his adjustment and repression policies.

There is a before and after the so-called Turkish Intifada. And the changes are already seen because important struggles have emerged in the labour movement, as the strike for wages by 4700 iron and steel workers of Iskendum, on the Mediterranean

coast, or electric company Bedas, in Istanbul, against 500 layoffs.

Since May 31 and part of June, Turkey was shaken by a huge mass rebellion. Our sister Trotskyist organization Workers Front has played a prominent role in it. They even had a tent in Taksim Square. We reproduce an interview with one of its members and also statements, editorials and notes, many of them written in the heat of those days of struggle.

Interview to Atakan Ciftci, militant of Workers Front, of Turkey Conducted by Internationalist Struggle on June 20, 2013 IS: You had a tent in Taksim Square every day of the protest. How did you live it? What was the atmosphere in the square?

For a country which for many years has had a paralysed political atmosphere, the rebellion has undoubtedly been a new political experience for all of us. The masses have staged one of the most plural and inclusive protests that Turkey has ever seen. However, the resistance of Taksim has not been exclusive and it is the product of a series of events that have shaken the global political situa16

tion, as the Occupy movement or the demonstrations in Tahrir Square.

After the occupation of Taksim Square, the resistance grew with the participation of tens of thousands of people who filled the square every day and claimed the public space. Many people did not leave Gezi Park during the resistance and developed a new form of solidarity. The movement was characterized by the participation of students worried about their future, young unemployed, women tired of the politics of birth the government want to impose on them, office workers in pre-

carious conditions, etc.

Istanbul?

The masses were full of anger and hatred against the AKP (Justice and Development Party) government of the last decade, which has imposed neoliberal and oppressive policies. Despite the police brutality, the masses never lost their enthusiasm. On the other hand, the movement was lacking in formation of grassroots democratic organizations that could lead the struggle. Although, at the beginning, the government appeared confused and bewildered with the solidarity, they used the disorganized structure of the movement for their own benefit and “cleaned Taksim Square”.

The demonstrations were not limited to Taskim but spread to working class neighbourhoods, districts and other cities. Every night thousands of people demonstrated in their neighbourhood for hours with the slogan “Down with the government”. This mobilization continues. After the brutal eviction of Taksim by the government, the protests remain with the occupation of several parks in various districts. Popular assemblies begin to emerge through open forums in the parks.

IS: Police repression was brutal...

The police used excessive force and violence to suppress resistance.

According to statistics, in the first six days the tear gas used was twice that used in the entire European continent for a whole year. Besides, the Turkish Medical Association stated that four people were killed, 7822 were injured and 11 lost an eye in the repression.

Meanwhile, the government began a ‘witch hunt “against various political parties. In the operations against these organizations the police made many arrests. However, none of these repressive measures could stop the protests. On the contrary, the masses kept becoming increasingly enraged.

IS: How were the demonstrations in the working class neighbourhoods of 17

IS: There was a call to general strike.

How has the trade union bureaucracy acted?

The union bureaucracy again staged a historic betrayal against the uprising. During the protests, Türk-İş, the largest union, took sides in favour of the government. The unions with left tradition, DISK (Confederation of Revolutionary Trade Unions of Turkey) in the private sector and KESK (Confederation of Public Workers’ Unions) in the public sector, called for a general strike on two occasions. This was the product of the claims and the pressure of the masses. However, these unions made no effort to mobilize their members, and therefore participation in the strike was very poor.

IS: What has changed in Turkey these past few weeks?

A new period for the class

struggle in Turkey has opened. The legitimacy of the government of the AKP and Erdogan, which has ruled the country for 10 years, has been lost irreversibly. Millions of people took to the streets against oppressive and exploitative policies of the AKP government and took to the streets of Istanbul raising barricades and clashing with police for days. The protests were mainly concentrated in cities like Istanbul, Ankara, Izmir and almost all Turkish cities demonstrated against the authoritarian government. The masses saw they can fight the government and its policies taking to the streets.

In light of this experience it is not difficult to think that in future the masses will continue claiming their economic and democratic rights in the street. We may also say that it will not be so easy for the government to assert its authority and enforce its oppressive policies.

IS: How do you raise the continuity of the struggle?

The masses must find ways to build their grassroots mass-meeting organizations. As Workers Front, in the workers neighbourhoods, universities and other workplaces in which we are implanted, we have advocated the creation of these types of structures. Right now progress is being made in this regard. Among these are the forums, which for us are crucial. We try to participate and lead these forums that discuss the evolution of the struggle. ●

Who is Erdogan and what is his government?

By: Oktay Benol

The so questioned Prime Minister Recep Erdogan founded in 2001 the Justice and Development Party (AKP), of Islamic origin, with which he won the 2002 elections, in opposition to the historical Republican People’s Party (the secular Kemalist(1)-nationalists). The current mass outbreak did not arise out of nothing but out of a process of years of disappointment of the people. This process was anticipated by the Workers Front, who in March 2009 wrote a paper titled “Prelude to a new era”, reproduced in part, that gives clarity to what the AKP government is and how the elements were accumulated for the so-called Turkish Intifada.

The coming to power of the “moderate Islamist” government of the

(1)

Kemalist. Of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, founder and first president of the Republic of Turkey, Turkish fervent nationalist, who was determined to create a homogenous, secular Turkish state.

Justice and Development Party (AKP) with his flamboyant and populist leader, Tayyip Erdogan, in 2002 opened a new era in the political and social life of the country — that of structural transformation to be able to integrate Turkey into the European Union. With the Islamist hand the bourgeoisie led privatisation of the entire economy to its limits, turned flexibility into a general norm, put the national market at the service of the multinationals.

Through foreign investment and brutal exploitation of cheap labour, the economy entered a period of annual growth of between 8 and 11%.

This process caused the consumerist ideology, creating illusions of a powerful “European Turkey” that dominates the economies of the countries in the region (Middle East, Caucasian, Western Asia, etc.). While the trade union bureaucracy shared these illusions, the working class deposited its trust on the AKP to transform the repressive regime (under the mandate of the military) in a democratic system, and

also to achieve a standard of living a little more dignified.

However, now with the crisis hitting the economy, the waters returned to their natural level. In the last year production began to live a drastic decline trend. Massive layoffs have created an official rate of unemployment of 13%, generating more than 5.5 million unemployed. More than half of the workers do not have any kind of Social Security coverage. Not only did the domestic market decrease, but also exports, the main source of income, have been substantially reduced. Each month dozens of factories close and leave thousands of workers in the streets.

The first signs of workers reaction to this deteriorating working and living conditions have already begun to emerge. Especially in metal and automotive sectors, where layoffs are massive and unionization most extensive, workers respond to the effects of the crisis with strikes and occupations. In the most industrialized regions of the

Recep Erdogan, neoliberal and anti-worker

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country (Istanbul, Kocaeli, Izmir, Adana) workers perform unauthorized strikes (Philips, Desa, Tezel Galvaniz, Unilever, etc.), occupy factories (Brissa, Selga Textile, Sinter Metal, etc.), and organize demonstrations and mass mobilizations (Sarkuysan, Cayirova Boru, ABB, Akkardan, Makine Takim, Poly Metal, etc.).

Also in hundreds of small centres of production the workers implement various methods of struggle and resistance.

The main weakness of the struggle is the lack of coordination among them.

The union bureaucracy is reluctant to generalize the mobilisations to a general strike.

The AKP is a neoliberal and anti-worker party The AKP is a party founded by original leaders of the Islamist movement.

When the “virtual coup d’état” of February 28, 1997 ousted the Welfare Party, which is a sister party of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood, these leaders were at acme of “happiness”. They broke with the Brotherhood to build the AKP, in the first general elections, in 2002, obtained 34.3% of the vote (363 seats) and formed a government with

absolute majority.

The only opposition party that managed to enter parliament was the CHP (Republican People’s Party) which won only 19.4%. That is, four years later, the threat of the military caused a drastic rise in the vote (though with less seats due to the electoral law) of the AKP, which proved essential in Turkish politics.

The Turkish bourgeoisie has already overcome their misgivings and doubts about the AKP. The neoliberal offensive against the working class and poor masses has reached its peak during the governments of this party. The Islamist government proved to be one of the most anti-worker governments in Turkish history.

The offensive has not been merely economic, but also in politics — repression and state terror have been standard procedures. Undemocratic bans on demonstrations of May 1 are examples of this policy. The terror that the government is using against the Kurds is another proof of the alliance of Islamists with the Army.

The effects of the global crisis The AKP government, on the one hand exerts a brutal policy of repression against the working class, the poor masses, the Kurdish people, and ethnic minorities according to the traditional state reflexes.

And on the other hand, to be able to continue to rule, it distributed to the poor coal and food (without becoming a social right); set up a Kurdish channel in the state TV (but the rest of the channels are forbidden to broadcast in Kurdish); reinstated citizenship to the historic communist poet Nazim Hikmet (but indicted Nobel laureate Orhan Pamuk for insulting Turkish identity); improved

A people with humour The Turkish people are extremely friendly and with a great sense of humour. People started wearing t-shirts with penguins to mock the Turkish CNN. Masks with the V for Victory abound.

The term that Prime Minister Erdogan used to define the protesters was appropriated by the masses of Gezi and transformed in a game of words against Erdogan. The Turkish term is “capulcu” which means “lazy” or “laggard”. Therefore, one of the slogans shouted was “We are all Capulcu”. Some of the slogans used are untranslatable, but they are incredibly good-humoured. Here are samples to give you an idea:  Prepare my pepper spray hot, Officer!  If you have TOMAs [crowd control vehicles], we have Drogba [footballer in the team Galatasaray].  Pepper spray is good for the skin [written on the door of a cosmetics store].  No need to spray us with tear gas, we 19

already are a very sentimental people.  Do not worry, Mom, I’m not in the line of fire, we all are!  Enough! I’m calling the police!  You should not prohibit that last can of beer!

The song “Eyvallah” by the progressive Turkish music group Duman became the theme of the protests.

Lyrics of Eyvallah (Bring it on) To your pepper, your gas To your baton, your sticks To your harsh kicks I say bring it on, bring it on!

Attack me shamelessly, tirelessly My eyes are burning But I don’t bow Nor do I lessen I am still free, I said I am still right, I said to you

I am still human, I said Do you think I would give up, Tell me?

To your pepper, your gas To your baton, your sticks To your harsh kicks I say bring it on, bring it on!

Your slap in our face Your grudge against our voice Cheers to all of you I say bring it on, bring it on!

Raise your hand Without hesitation, without fear The squares belong to us Don’t forget it this nation is ours I am still free, I said I am still right, I said to you I am still human, I said Do you think I would give up, Tell me?

(You can see the video clip on http://www.youtube.com/watch? v=IALDK63fhkw.)

the law of minorities.

How far is it possible to take this hypocritical and miserable policy? And now the global economic crisis that originated in the U.S. is devastating Turkey along with other semi-colonial countries. From the second half of 2008, unemployment and factory and company closures grew brutally. In the last six months more than a million workers have lost their job. According to official

figures the number of the unemployed is 385,000! However, trade unions estimate the real number of the unemployed at 5.6 million, of which 400,000 are malnourished, while the number of poor stands at 20 million.

Under current conditions, the labour movement is still rather disorganized, disoriented, very defensive and local.

The union leaderships still have not moved from their more conciliatory

positions. And there is a vacuum of political leadership for a fight on a radical and revolutionary program. All this is true; however the objective conditions are maturing rapidly, laying the foundation to overcome these shortcomings.

And the Workers Front is fighting to help the working class and the peoples in this task. ●

Statement by the Coordinating Committee IWU-FI / ILS

Stop the repression, strengthen international solidarity! We all are Taksim!

June 21, 2013 After two weeks of occupation of Taksim Square and after the eviction, resistance continues. The government is preparing a systematic repression after Erdogan announcing that anyone who is in Taksim or Gezi Park “will be considered a member of terrorist organizations”. Deputy Prime Minister Bulent Arinc claimed — “What is required of us is to put an end to the protests that are illegal. There is the police and if not quite enough the Gendarmerie. And if not enough, the Armed Forces. Law gives us that authority.” But it is precisely the legality of that authority which the Government has lost in these days of intense repression. The dead, thousands injured, over a thousand pro-

testers arrested, doctors accused of helping the wounded in the square, the use of mustard gas and waterirritants are brutal methods to prevent the protest. They may get control of the situation for the moment yet nothing will remain the same.

The demonstrations have opened a political crisis. Erdogan, to whom everything was going smoothly — electoral processes, partner with the EU and IMF and faithful applicator of austerity plans, which had opened negotiations with the PKK — is now on the ropes. Even their international mentors have had to put distance at such ferocious repression. The dissen-

sions within the party and government on how to respond to the popular rebellion weaken Erdogan.

This situation comes when the effects of the economic crisis began to have significant consequences for workers and the government measures to impose reforms and reverse the living conditions begin to encounter resistance. In a stage qualitatively higher than the Occupy or May 15 movements, the demand for the fall of the government quickly connected with the first demands against the construction of a shopping mall and military barracks.

What would deepen the crisis of government was that the sympathies lead to the irruption on the scene of the working class in the general strike. The greatest ally of Erdogan is the lack of an alternative from the left, since the return to Kemalism is already well known and rejected. It is therefore absolutely essential to move forward, as proposed by the comrades of the Workers Front, with a proposal of a front of the left to start bringing together the necessary forces.

The “Turkish model” crashed But the impact of what happened quickly jumped borders. In neighbouring Greece, reinforcing the decision of the workers of public TV and radio occupying the facilities and broadcasting against the Government’s closure order. But even more, with the first general strike in solidarity con20

vened by the unions and which allowed a great show of support. Today the Government has retreated and is in deep political crisis. A few days later on the streets of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, young people shout “Love is finished, Brazil will turn to Turkey”. There the spark that blew up the conflict was the rise of public transport, but the similarity of the popular reaction, with youth in the foreground, denotes that there are deeper reasons that connect these processes.

Reality is that millions of young people are condemned to unemployment by the capitalist crisis; that those who do manage to work do so in precarious conditions, there are difficulties in obtaining adequate housing and when they protest, there is a growing repression. They are pressure cookers ready to explode at any time, as they did before in the revolutions in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya, and now are at the root of the Syrian revolution.

But where the impact is more direct is in Tunisia and Egypt, countries where Erdogan was on tour when the movement in Taksim Square rose. In the course of the process of the revolution

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in Tunisia and Egypt, imperialism introduced the “Turkish model”, the socalled moderate Islamism, as a channel to contain and close the revolutionary situation. So it was with the Ennahda Movement and the Muslim Brotherhood respectively. It is a question of a combination of support in the rural population with the introduction of Islamising measures with drastic neoliberal economics, a systematic application of all instructions that come from international organizations (EU, IMF) to reduce public expenditure, privatization, encourage entrepreneurial activities, in order to off load the entire crisis on the workers. A central issue in the revolutionary process as youth unemployment worsened and repression resurfaced as government responses to popular demands. In little less than a year we again began to see new demonstrations that claimed the revolution this time against Islamist governments.

Therefore it is no coincidence the continuous tours and references of Erdogan to instruct and shore up the Islamist governments in Egypt and Tunisia. Turkey, a NATO member,

sought to increase the role of regional power. Taksim Square has also touched the model while at the same time revives the struggle in Egypt and Tunisia.

The responsibility of international solidarity is more necessary now when it is necessary to face the avidity for revenge that Erdogan wants to make pay to the detainees or new arrests. It is essential to launch an international campaign from leftist political organizations, trade unions or social organizations to contact embassies and consulates with press releases and rallies, demanding: Stop the repression!

Freedom to all the prisoners!

Investigation and punishment of those responsible for the deaths and injuries!

Out with the Erdogan government!

IWU-FI / ILC Coordinating Committee

International Workers Union – Fourth International (IWU-FI) International Liaison Committee (ILC, Internationalist Fight, Spanish State – Workers Front, Turkey).

Workers Front (Turkey) Editorial — 4 May 2013

The Empire of lies is sinking…

Government, resign!

The demonstrations which have begun to save the demolition of Gezi Parki (Park and Promenade) in Taksim (Istanbul) have become a popular rebellion against the savage terror of the police and the arrogant and authoritarian attitude of the Turkish government.

The rage and anger accumulated for more than 10 years due to the repressive, reactionary and anti-working class policies of the AKP (Justice and Development Party) government has crashed the current uprising with one common slogan: “Government, resign!”

During these ten years the AKP government tried to legitimize their power building an empire of lies. Despite the economic growth, poverty of the working classes deepened through the policies of “flexibilization” of working life and extending precarious jobs across the country. Turkey is already one of the most unfair countries in the distribution of national income. On the

other hand, the rights and democratic freedoms are repressed by the AntiTerrorism Law, while police terror against demonstrations and protesters has become an “ordinary” procedure.

Nevertheless, during all these years there have been many struggles against the repression and exploitation policies of the AKP government.

Still, these struggles had a regional character and were isolated. But now, as a response to the attitude and speeches increasingly authoritarian of the government and the Prime Minister, Tayyip Erdogan, we are faced with a popular movement that stretches across the country. This popular movement is the biggest blow for a decade to the Government and made it shake all its legitimacy with the population.

The protests which begun in Istanbul spread quickly to Ankara, Izmir and other cities, and they have not

Downtown Istanbul

been limited to the city centres, with demonstrations organized in the working class neighbourhoods of the large cities.

At this time when millions are on the street and the government is facing the possibility of receiving a historic defeat, it is very important advance in the fight! The most urgent task is the coordination of struggles, both their continuity and their security, by a coordinating commission led by trade unions, social organizations, political parties, etc. We also need to build neighbourhood committees to organize and coordinate protests in different neighbourhoods and districts of cities.

Immediate cessation of police terror against the population! Release all detainees! Trial and punishment to all security officers and their superiors, responsible for wounding and killing protesters!

In order to achieve the resignation of the government, a slogan shouted by millions, besides strengthening and coordinating the struggles, we must organize a general strike. At a time when the working class is switching on, the Government cannot resist.

The Trade Unions cannot avoid this historic task.

It is time for a general strike, of general resistance. ●

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Cracks on the shell of the revolution By: Muhittin Karkın

We have witnessed for the last two weeks the violent Turkish police repression against tens of thousands of demonstrators in the streets and squares. Photos and videos recorded by courageous people and honest journalists clearly show what barbaric measures an authoritarian government can use right before they resort to firearms to pounce on protesters demanding their basic democratic rights. The struggles continue not only around Taksim Square but also in the suburbs of Istanbul, Ankara, Izmir and several other cities. The masses insist on defending their simple democratic demands which could have been absorbed in any bourgeois-democratic country without resorting to such violence such, and seem to have reached a point no return in the struggle. And the Turkish government, which insists on an authoritarian and repressive attitude, will it cross the threshold to use more lethal weapons? It already focuses its attacks on some organizations as scapegoats; will it turn into a campaign against these selected sectors describing them as “terrorist organizations”? The signs point in this direction. Will it be able to divide the masses with this method to dissolve the demonstrations and once again shut the people in their homes?

Everything will depend on the will of the masses.

But a process of no return has already started. Not only because the people have already crossed the threshold of fear against repression, but rather because hundreds of thousands who gathered courageously in Gezi Parki (promenade park in Taksim Square), who participated in demonstrations and marches in more than 70 cities nationwide, want to take ownership of their democratic rights of association and to demonstrate without being criminalized and punished, to organize political parties, unions and other organizations that are not in the same official line, to participate in social and political decision making that affect their daily lives, and indeed with their activities and demonstrations, they begin to practice 23

these rights. For a Turkey that was convinced that all “democratic openings” should come from “above”, this is not a familiar situation. Today we are witnessing a new raise with a changed leadership for the democratic revolution that had begun a century ago, very late and unable to come to an end. The shell of the democratic revolution is cracking by the forces acting from within. This is the process of no return, a break that cannot be fixed.

As in any major mobilization of the masses, here too the youth is at the front. Hundreds of thousands of young students, workers, unemployed, professionals have taken position at the forefront. The class composition of the demonstrations, again as in any popular uprising, has a plural, multi-sectorial texture. Although it looks like a middle-class movement by having started in the central areas of large cities, it is an undeniable fact the massive participation of the working classes, especially in working class neighbourhoods of Istanbul and other cities. However, the intervention of the working class is rather diffuse, not organized. Although unions as DISK (Confederation of Revolutionary Workers) and KESK (Confederation of Public Workers) supported the protests, their weight in the class is limited, and they are far from being the spokespersons for the workers. Also there are no political parties or groups which may claim to be the political representative of the working class masses. The spontaneity of the

“The violent Turkish police repression against tens of thousands of demonstrators in the streets and squares’

demonstrations far surpasses organized interventions, and the street and neighbourhood battles continue with little or almost no coordination.

Not having an organized political alternative precludes at the moment the realization of the slogan “Government resign!” which has become the most urgent the slogan in the minds of the masses. And this increases the possibility of manoeuvring by the bourgeoisie. There is a risk of the liberal bourgeoisie to become owners of the popular complaints with a democratic reaction to guide the mobilizations in their favour and extinguish them within the parliamentary institutions. The spontaneous nature of the protests and the brutal and systematic repression used by the government prevent the masses for now to build bodies of counter- power to organize their action and give it a dimension and political direction against of the government. We can say that at this time the status in this country is ranging between a nonrevolutionary and a pre-revolutionary situation.

Despite everything, the air the masses are breathing in the last two weeks circulates blood to all the organs of the political revolution. New forces are born and are alive. From this prelude there will be much more favourable conditions and opportunities for the working class to take awareness of their obligation to lead the people to provide a revolutionary program. Revolutionary Marxists are most necessary and vital part in this battle. ●

Workers Front: A trajectory of over 30 years By: Murat Yakin(1)

The Workers Front party was in the front line in the demonstrations and clashes in Taksim Square. It had wounded and arrested militants. It gave impulse to marches in working class neighbourhoods. It was founded in mid-1979, and published the first issue of its periodical in February 1980. The WF was historically expressed in several periodicals, including The Base, The Workers Voice, Class Consciousness, Socialism, and International Bulletin. In 2002 it gave a jump in its construction and since 2012 forms part of the Coordinating Committee IWU–FI / ILC. We reproduce a note of one of their leaders about their struggle to build a revolutionary party.

The Turkish republican regime, built in 1923 on the ashes of the Ottoman Empire that was destroyed at the beginning of last century, was mainly an attempt to erect a bourgeois national state as part of the world imperialist system. Born as a military-police regime covered behind a veil of pseudodemocracy, and it has been from the beginning a source of terror and repression against the Turkish working class and the Kurdish people.

The slow development of national capitalism and the emergence of the working class on the historical stage had a decisive effect on the currents of the left, and also on Trotskyism in the country. The traditional communist movement, controlled by the Soviet bureaucracy has always been a faithful ally of the Nationalist regime. Under such unfavourable conditions, Trotskyism could not achieve to become a current within the labour movement until the late 1960s.

The distinctive role of the Workers Front For first-generation Trotskyists, (1)

Workers Front’s tent in Taksim Square the 1970s was a very tough and slow construction phase. Despite having an internationalist and anti-Stalinist vision, what pushed them were avantgarde and populist tendencies. On the one hand they made propaganda of the legitimacy of Trotskyism to the communist currents with the limited material they had, and on the other hand they remained as small national circles isolated from the experiences of international Trotskyism.

pers and take a revolutionary action program to the factories, the working class neighbourhoods, schools, and other parts of the country outside of Istanbul. This practice and experience that was accumulating since 1979 would mean a qualitative leap for Turkish Trotskyism, and would help it to break its national limitations to be able to integrate into the revolutionary current of the Fourth International led by Nahuel Moreno.

The first cadres organized around the Workers Front were the first to understand the importance of bringing the party building to the bosom of the labour movement, the role of the slogans and urgent and transitional demands in the intervention in the mobilization of the masses, and the need to build international revolutionary party, leaving aside sterile propagandism.

The experience of Workers Front in the period before the dictatorship of 1980 had another important lesson. In the second half of the 1970s Turkey lived a wave of workers’ struggles, but meanwhile fascism also strengthened and the political polarization with dozens of deaths each day on both sides.

The Workers Front was part of the antifascist camp that prevented fascism to conquer the entire country and come to power. However, the failure to build a credible alternative for the masses, based on a revolutionary program, pro-

And so Trotskyists began to get out of the editorial offices of newspa-

Originally published in the Supplement of Internationalist Fight #95, March 2009.

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duced a growing weariness in the struggles of workers, and created a power vacuum for the coup that the military were preparing. And the Workers Front was too weak to reverse the process that ended with the coup of September 12, 1980, and destroyed the whole labour movement and of the left.

The reconstruction In the second half of the 1980s a new stage of reconstruction for both the Turkish labour movement and the Workers Front opened. The adhesion of the Workers Front to the international movement of orthodox Trotskyism, the International Workers League – Fourth International (IWL–FI), made it a benchmark for internationalist militants. However, the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and the crisis of Stalinism, with the imperialist offensive of the 1990s did not

just affect the currents of that origin but caused crisis in the Trotskyists ranks, and the very IWL of which the Workers Front was part. Thus, the crisis of Turkish Trotskyism led to divergences that produced affiliations to different international currents.

The crisis of Stalinism, the degeneration of the armed struggle of the Kurdish guerrillas since 1995, the 1999 financial crisis that hit the country, the coming to power in 2002 of the Islamist party AKP, have been factors of disorientation and demobilization in the mass movement for all these years. However, the heroic antiimperialist and anti-Zionist resistance in Iraq, Palestine and Lebanon, the resurgence of mass struggle in the cities of Turkish Kurdistan, the reconstruction of class unionism, the first

youth demonstrations in universities, all this has gradually contributed to the resurgence of a new mass movement since 2005.

Also, other important elements in building [the party] are the two unifications that Workers Front has lived in this era — in 2005 with a revolutionary workers group implanted in various sectors of industry, and in 2008, with the Marxist Worker group, who came from the student struggles. A qualitative and very important leap, not only to demonstrate once again the importance of Workers Front as a reference in overcoming the crisis of revolutionary Trotskyism, but also by the possibilities that open in a stage of economic and social crisis for the construction of revolutionary party in Turkey. ●

The struggle of the Kurdish people The Kurdish people are carrying out a historic struggle for their right to exist as a nation and state. The Kurdish question is part of the social and political conflicts that exist in Turkey. The government of Erdogan has in its jails thousands of Kurdish activists, among them Abdullah Ocalan, leader of the Workers Party of Kurdistan (PKK).

In Turkey there are 15 million Kurds, who represent 20% of the population. The Kurdish people are considered the largest stateless people in the world, totalling more than 30 million spread over four countries. Half is in Turkey, in Iraq there are 6 million, 7 million in Iran and in Syria 2 million. The Kurdish people are an interstate colony which historically has suffered their unjust division in the hands of various empires. It is a people that have suffered genocide and massacres, but which have never ceased fighting for their identity and independence.

In Turkey the Kurdish people’s struggle acquired forms of armed struggle since the PKK (founded in 1978) went on to fight in 1984. Since then there is a war between the Turkish state and the PKK spanning more than 40,000 25

people dead, a quarter of them Kurds. In 2007 Erdogan’s government intensified its repression of the Kurdish people, coming to bomb the Kurdish areas of Iraq, PKK’s base of support, along with a ground operation that was rejected by the fighters and the Kurdish popular resistance.

Despite the historical repression, the Kurdish people have endured and conquered various political and social spaces. In addition to the PKK, which is illegal, there is the moderate Party for Peace and Democracy (BDP) and the Union of Kurdistan Communities (KCK), considered the political and urban branch of the PKK. In the cities of Kurdistan, in Turkish territory, the BDP is a majority, getting to rule in over 50 cities and taking 35 seats in the national parliament.

The PKK is a mass organization, of Marxist origin, but which has been abandoning its slogan of national selfdetermination. In its origins it had a revolutionary nationalist program but now advocates reformist and concilia-

Mass rally of the Kurdish people tion policies. In this context, in 2012, a “peace agreement” began between the government and the PKK, supported by Ocalan from prison, leaving aside the claim of self-determination.

The Kurdish people and its working class need to build a revolutionary socialist leadership to continue their historic struggle to achieve national self-determination throughout Kurdistan. Meanwhile the peoples of the world must demand the Turkish government the immediate release of the thousands of Kurds political prisoners and unconditionally support the struggle of the Kurdish people for their right to national selfdetermination, independence and freedom.

Thousands on the streets of Cairo

Repudiation of the repressive slaughter in Egypt!

Down with the civilian-military government!

In Egypt the military staged a coup and launched a criminal crackdown on thousands of protesters from the Muslim Brotherhood. There would be more than a thousand killed by repression. Additionally a court released the former dictator Mubarak. We reproduce the IWU– FI / ILC Coordinating Committee statement repudiating the coup.

In Egypt there has been a slaughter at the hands of the military and police of the new dictatorship installed in July. The violent eviction of the two camps of Egyptian protesters supporting the deposed Islamist President Mohamed Morsi left more than 600 dead and thousands injured. These are the first figures, but may be higher.

This is the bloodiest day in the history of the country. The savage repression ordered and executed by the military-civilian government took place not only in the capital, Cairo, but also in several towns in the interior.

Since the coup of July 3, supporters of the former president Morsi, summoned

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by the Muslim Brotherhood (MB), mobilized massively permanently and ended up installing various camps claiming for freedom to Morsi and his reinstatement in the government. The army suppressed their protests several times and finally on Wednesday 14 launched a savage repression on the camps in cities and different neighbourhoods of Cairo. Especially in the Cairo’s Rabaa al-Adaweya Square where one of their camps was located.

Many of the bodies had been shot in the head or chest, clearly showing the action of Army snipers.

“Bullets fall on the Rabaa al-Adaweya protesters from all directions,” said the spokesman of the Muslim Brotherhood, Mohammed el Beltagui, who was later arrested by the police in the vicinity of such square. Among those killed by the repression are a journalist from Gulf News and a Sky News cameraman.

After the slaughter, the government declared a state of emergency for a month and announced a curfew in

Cairo and in 10 provinces (Giza, Alexandria, Beni Suef, Minya, Asyut, Sohag, Beheira, North and South Sinai and Suez), in an attempt to control the situation and prevent further demonstrations.

The peoples of the world must condemn this slaughter Cynically the Obama Government “condemned” the violence, while never repudiated the coup and continues to send military “aid” of US$ 1.55 billion to the Egyptian army. All this to keep “paying” their support for the “peace” with Israel against the Palestinian people. This is why after the July coup, the government and the Egyptian army closed the border with Gaza.

It is the Arab and the world peoples who must take to the streets to seek to stop this slaughter and put an end to this new dictatorship installed in Egypt.

The military who actually wield power in Egypt, led by the bloodthirsty repressor General Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, former Minister of Defence in the Morsi

government, used in July the genuine popular uprising against the government of Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood, with millions mobilized in the iconic Tahrir Square, to seize power in a coup.

In July, mistakenly, the mobilized people and youth welcomed the military intervention and the occurrence of a coup. Even the military and their new government received support from sectors of the Egyptian left, which are in the National Salvation Front, including the youth organization Tamarud, which prompted the uprising against Morsi, and the Federation of Independent Trade Unions, which placed the Minister of Labour. Only the April 6 Youth Movement distanced itself from the military government.

We reject the policy of class collaboration of a sector of the left forces now participating in the National Salvation Front, alongside the “fulul” (remnants of the former regime) and the liberal forces. The endorsement of a majority of the left to the military coup — that legitimized it to the masses — will have a heavy price. Only the people, the workers, women and the revolutionary youth mobilized and in power can achieve the fundamental changes that have been raised since the revolution began in 2011.

The revolutionary socialists we said at the time that it was a serious mistake to endorse the coup and to open a trust in the military and in their new government composed of political forces and political leaders of the bosses and pro-imperialist opposed to the Muslin Brotherhood. Such as Nobel Peace Prize Mohamed ElBaradei, now resigned, after he had supported previous repressions. The true power is a military that is suppressing and arresting thousands of supporters of MB. This is a new dictatorship that slaughters the people and threatens the democratic achievements of the Arab revolution.

No more repression! Down with the new dictatorship! Freedom to political prisoners!

We reject the repression of the Muslim Brotherhood. The popular sectors that are slaughtered today are essential to deepen the revolution. They 27

must break with the neoliberal Islamist leadership, but this will only be possible if the left assumes an independent class policy. In addition, today the military attacks against supporters of Morsi, only prepare the repression against leftist forces tomorrow.

First of all, it must be the workers, youth and the Egyptian people who take to the streets to stop these massacres and demanding an end to the dictatorship. The same ones that were mobilized at the time against Morsi must do so. Starting with the Tamarud movement and Federation of Independent Trade Unions which must now break with the military and take to the streets to demand an end to the repression of the MB and the release of all its leaders and members in prison.

The revolutionary socialists we supported the popular mobilization against the government of Morsi and MB, because Morsi along with the military continued to repress the people and rule for those at the top. We do not give any political endorsement to the MB because it is a social and political force of the bosses, linked to major Egyptian business sectors. Morsi dug his own grave because he did not want a break with the old regime but a negotiated transition to contain the revolution. For this purpose he found support of the Army and the United States.

But we will never endorse a military government and its repression. And even less that they be the ones to judge Morsi and the leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood. It will be the working people and their organizations who will judge them. This has been a big mistake of the youth sectors and the Egyptian left. There is neither progressive military nor coups.

Only workers, the revolutionary youth and the people in power will bring the fundamental change prompted by the Arab revolution. Therefore we call for an end to all repression, the lifting of emergency, the release of former President Morsi and all the leaders and activists of the MB, for all the military to leave and for government of trade unions, the youth and popular organizations that toppled Mubarak in 2011 and to impose a workers’ and

people emergency economic plan.

In a dynamic of permanent revolution, the masses advance into the experience of mobilization and defeat obstacles like political Islamism, which appeared as the main political force capable to divert the revolution of its objectives. But the needs of the masses and their social democratic demands have no way out without a project that advances towards socialism and breaks with any remnants of the old regime.

The fall of Morsi confirms that this process cannot be taken in stages, first consolidating bourgeois parliamentary democracy and then advancing in social measures, because any policy that does not progress toward breaking with capitalism will give the reactionary forces a chance to regroup. And because if democracy does not mean bread and work, what sense will it have for the millions who came out on June 30? The dilemma is not Islamism or dictatorship, but dictatorship or revolution.

From the IWU–FI / ILC Coordinating Committee we call to the workers and peoples of the world and all the organizations that claim to be democratic and of the left to speak out against this criminal repression and for the end of this new military dictatorship.

Repudiate the slaughter perpetrated by the military in Egypt!

No more repression! Out with the State of Emergency!

Freedom to Morsi and all political prisoners of the Muslim Brotherhood!

Out with the civilian-military government!

For a government of the unions, youth and popular organizations that toppled Mubarak!

IWU– FI / ILC Coordinating Committee International Workers Union – Fourth International (IWU-FI) International Liaison Committee (ILC, Internationalist Fight, Spanish State – Workers Front, Turkey).

August 15, 2013

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Whither the “Arab Spring”?

The coup and the brutal repression of the military in Egypt and the release of former dictator Mubarak pose questions in thousands of fighters in the world. Is the process of the Arab Spring ending? To this we must add new criminal actions of Bashar al-Assad in the indefinite Syrian civil war. Is the cycle

of successful revolutions that toppled dictators in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya closing? Are we faced with the danger of a bloody counterrevolution triumph, at least in Egypt, imposing a regional retreat to the revolutionary process open in early 2011?

By Miguel Sorans

There are several facts that show progress of the counter-revolutionary forces and agents of imperialism. In Egypt there has been a counterrevolutionary coup and the dictator Mubarak has managed to get out of jail and move to house arrest. In Tunisia the murder of prominent leaders of the Popular Front, which has been promoting the popular mobilization against the Islamic Ennahda government, have been taking place. The fury of the Syrian dictatorship has claimed more than a thousand new civilian victims of a rebel neighbourhood in Damascus. The government has accepted the existence of the slaughter, but rejects the evidence which would show that they used a deadly gas. These facts abound to show the difficult situation in the revolutionary struggle of the peoples of the region. In this context, the confrontation between revolution and counterrevolution intensifies.

What were the successful revolutions?

The rise of the masses and the collapse of dictatorships have been a complex process and full of contradictions since its beginning. A decisive factor causing enormous confusion was the fact that the governments of Hugo Chavez in Venezuela, of Cuba and the old communist parties, as well as Putin and the Chinese dictatorship, at all times supported dictators like Gaddafi and then Bashar Al Assad in Syria, who they continue to support, with the false argument that “they were attacked by imperialism”.

For our part, we said that in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya “great democratic revolutions triumphed which, due to the lack of a revolutionary leadership, 28

Dozens of dead by the repression in a mosque

failed to advance to the triumph of the socialist revolution. [...]The lack of an organized leadership, beyond local leaders, defines the spontaneous nature of these revolutions. Both the strength and the limitations of these revolutions arise from this character.

On the other hand, especially in Tunisia and Egypt, despite the fall of dictatorships, aspects of the old dictatorial regime still continue and fundamentally the capitalist exploitation continues.

Whereupon, it means they are unfinished revolutions. A new stage of the revolutionary process has opened, and new tasks, where the axis that orders the fighting program is to achieve the power for the workers to permanently solve both democratic and social problems such as wages, work, food, health and education.” (Global Political Theses, special issue of International Correspondence, p. 27/28 [in the Spanish Original]).

While we rejected the disastrous policy of the Chavist left of endorsing the dictators, we insisted that those democratic gains were born “unfinished” with “aspects of the old dictatorial regime”. And we warned about the policy of imperialism and the bourgeois and reformist (secular or Islamic) leaderships which would seek to hinder the mobilization of the masses and to channel their triumphs in “constitutional” bourgeoisie and proimperialist regimes, the so-called “democratic reaction”.

Reality has been showing the failure of this plan, especially in the case of Egypt, of trying to divert the revolution via Islamic “civil government” and certain freedoms. These governments fail for their complete inability to meet the demands of the masses, not only of freedom, but to achieve decent living conditions. So in Egypt the mobilization was further de-

veloped, now against Mursi. Hence, faced with the danger of a total overflow, they went to plan B — the counter -revolutionary variant, the return of the military to power and massive repression.

In the case of Syria, the counterrevolution has achievements because the governments of Russia and China (with the support of the communist parties and Chavism) are providing weapons to the dictator, and it was key the support from Iran, through Hezbollah, to shore up the regime at a time when reeling before the rebel offensive.

The counterrevolution wants to raise its head The absence of a revolutionary leadership in Egypt led to mass demonstrations against the government of Mursi being manipulated by the army (which receives millions of dollars of funding by the U.S.), achieving massive support from secular youth sectors. It raised the danger, with the repression and confusion reigning among the masses, for a new dictatorship to strengthen. The persecution of the Muslim Brotherhood will be extended to unions, the labour movement and the organizations that go on fighting against the military government. A new challenge is posed to the labour movement and all the Egyptian people. The consolidation of a new dictatorship would be a blow not only for them but for the revolutionary process throughout the region.

No doubt the military in the Egyptian government, U.S. imperialism and the Zionists in Israel are betting on that. The daily New York Times received

official information about the activity of Israeli ambassadors in Washington, London, Paris, Berlin and other capitals, seeking to meet with the foreign ministers to show their support for the Egyptian army, which they define as “the only hope to avoid more chaos” (Clarin, Argentina, 21/08/2013).

The Israeli Defence Force is acting in close cooperation with the Egyptian army to repress pro-Palestinian fighters and tightly control the Sinai border.

The problem of leadership is key In these more than two years of “Arab Spring” it became more and more evident and with increasing severity the absence of a revolutionary socialist leadership. The masses did the revolutions but as replacement leaderships emerged bourgeois Islamic currents like the Muslim Brotherhood (Egypt and Syria), Ennahda in Tunisia or the forces that make up the Syrian National Coalition (SNC) in Syria, backed by the governments of Turkey and Qatar, who do not want new successful revolutions. And in opposition to them have proliferated amongst the left and youth and trade union organizations reformist and class conciliation currents, both Islamic and secular.

The Egyptian youth movement Tamarod [Rebellion in Arabic, TN] is the ultimate expression of this profound weakness. Claiming correctly against the lack of response to their demands by the Islamic government, they fell into the deadly trap of supporting the military and justifying their

repression, along with the minority Communist Party and Nasserism, integrating the National Salvation Front.

In Tunisia, the government of the Islamic Ennahda Party has been faced with strikes and demonstrations for popular grievances. It left unpunished criminal groups who killed fighters. But the opposition, among them the leadership of the UGTT (Tunisian General Labour Union) and sectors of the left, grouped in the Popular Front, fall into class conciliation postures, like joining former regime elements as Nidaa Tounes [opposition party] or proposing a national salvation government.

This generates further confusion.

The process is still open At present there is a fierce struggle between revolution and counterrevolution in the whole region, but the last word has not yet been said. Mobilization and the will to fight of the masses continue. Thus, it is possible to defeat this offensive of the counter-revolution.

This is the most important task of the moment. And that in this way for new leaders and organizations that consequently drive the fight against the bourgeoisie, its armed forces and imperialism to emerge. Strategically it is raised to keep making further progress to conquer authentic worker and popular governments, which support the political independence of the masses, breaking with imperialism and with anti-capitalist measures to satisfy the immense demands of these peoples. Once again it is being shown that there are no “stages” in which to be limited to “democratic” demands or opportunities to progress supporting bourgeois governments, either Islamic or secular. And even less agreeing with the remnants of the old dictatorships or supporting proimperialist military coups. There is only one process of permanent and regional revolution which is what the military, Arab bourgeois governments, imperialism and Zionism are hoping to defeat.

We call on all anti-imperialist and anti-capitalist fighters, the Arab youth, to all peoples and the left of the world, to support the Syrian rebellion and, in the immediate future, to mobilize against the Egyptian military government, calling young people who support it to break away and join the fight to defeat the counter-revolution. ●

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In Aleppo the rebels keep fighting

Syria: The fight continues

By A. Pardales There are no words to define the heroic Syrian people’s struggle against one of the worst dictatorships in the world. The military actions of Bashar Al-Assad, supported by heavy weapons from Russia and by the Lebanese militia Hezbollah, go against the civilian population, reducing the cities to rubble. Despite this, and without sufficient weaponry, the armed popular rebellion holds. We condemn the use of chemical gas by AlAssad but reject any imperialist intervention and its “humanitarian” farce.

What began as peaceful demonstrations calling for greater freedom and social justice more than two years ago has become an open war where revolutionaries control half Syrian territory. Throughout 2011, the forces of

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the dictator and his mercenary militias moved freely across much of the country, creating checkpoints, conducting raids and trying to impose their will. In the spring of 2012 the situation had changed. Rebel fighters began to acquire rifles, machine guns and rocketpropelled grenades. Their needs also led them to the homemade manufacturing of weapons and bombs. Thus the militias supported by the Local Coordination Committees produced multiple victories. The Syrian army could not freely patrol without risking the loss of equipment and lives. Maintaining government checkpoints was abandoned because helicopter refuelling became untenable. The dictator was forced to concentrate his forces in the major cities, in the networks of

large bases and outposts, with the support and supply of the air force. On the other hand, many soldiers and weapons passed to the rebels’ side, also occurring defections of generals, officers and ambassadors.

This was perhaps the lowest point for Bashar Al-Assad. However, the huge supply of Russian and Iranian weapons and Hezbollah entry to the contest in favour of the genocidal dictator were able to balance the actions and even recapture some cities, as is the case with Al-Qusayr or the most emblematic Homs, considered the cradle of the revolution, through a massive bombing which had the city virtually flattened. These partial successes have led to the triumphalism of Bashar AlAssad to the point of proposing to fully

recover the city of Aleppo and to expulse the rebels from the slums of Damascus.

But on Monday August 5 rebels finally took the Mengh airbase. The final collapse of one of the most important air bases in the province of Aleppo represents the failure of the offensive launched last month by AlAssad with armoured forces of the army and Hezbollah guerrillas to break the rebel siege. This win not only allowed to take several tanks and ammunition but raised the morale of the fighters.

Why doesn’t Bashar Al Assad fall?

The dictator does not fall, for now, first of all because imperialism and its allies and agents look for anything but that the dictator be overthrown by the triumph of the people in arms. This result is to be avoided at all costs because it would be an example to the revolution spreading its wings as a single process in the Arab world.

These counterrevolutionary forces play different roles, sometimes antagonistic, but with the strategic goal of no successful revolution in Syria. Thus, Russia has become the main supporter of the Syrian regime by sending weapons and abundant credit to give mouth to mouth to a broken economy and does not seem very concerned about the political costs this support may bring.

Putin thus occupies a key role, supported by Iran, which also sends weapons and mercenaries.

They do so at a time when U.S. imperialism has been seriously diminished in its role as world cop after the failure of the invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan and its weakening in the Arab world. This is what our current calls the “crisis of domination” of imperialism, which makes it difficult to act with the determination it previously did. Although now it would launch a bombing to “warn” Al-Assad off the use of chemical weapons. Nevertheless imperialism is acting via its agents such as the rich Arab monarchies which are collaborating to not destabilize the region.

They are mainly Saudi Arabia and Qatar which have played it both ways — they sent arms to the rebels as a way to be well placed with their people, but not to the point that shipments cause an imbalance in favour of the insurgents.

But at the same time they “export” Is31

lamic fundamentalist militia of Al Nusra type, which have become a problem for the revolution because they divide the rebel forces.

Besides, outside Syria operates the so-called Syrian National Council (SNC), composed of several Islamic bourgeois parties, where the Syrian Muslim Brotherhood is hegemonic.

General Salim Idris, of the Supreme Military Council, is also integrated in the SNC. This grouping is recognized

by U.S. imperialism and almost all the bourgeois governments of the region.

Its objective is to achieve a negotiated solution, carrying out some cosmetic changes but leaving intact the economic interests of imperialism and its local bourgeoisie partners.

Another actor that has acquired a significant negative role in the conflict is the Hezbollah militia. It achieved great prestige in its country, Lebanon, for having fought fiercely Zionist expansionism in its own territory. It is a party-militia (it has seats in parliament and has been part of the Lebanese government) with bourgeois leadership who went from playing a progressive role to a counterrevolutionary role when entering Syrian territory and fighting against the revolution alongside Bashar Al Assad, prompting with this help the return of the dictator, for example, when taking control of the town of Al Qusair.

The left and the peoples of the world must support the Syrian revolution All these forces combined have led to Bashar Al-Assad’s survival, but have failed to defeat the revolution.

This thrives nurtured on deep underlying economic, political and social causes and has in poverty and lack of freedoms its essential driving force. Liberalism, as throughout the world, entered Syria under the rule of Bashar Al -Assad. It ruined industry and agriculture and generated a rentier economy ruled by a small minority of his family and circle of influence. To make the model work he generated unemployment of 33% and wages were taken to a fifth of what is necessary for life.

Salama Kayleh of the Syrian Left Coalition explains that this new oligarchy “strove to generalize the rentier economy, which is based on the service sector, tourism, real estate industry and trade (especially imports) and

banks. And it established networks with European and Gulf capital, working as a guarantor of U.S. oil companies (Muhammad Majluf, for example), and tried to be the guarantor of the car companies and all imperialists companies. Also it came into contact with Turkish capital; it even came to establish relations with the mafias of Eastern Europe and Russia.” And to contain the discontent to such an attack on living standards Bashar Al-Assad imposed a dictatorial regime structured around a number of political police who detained, tortured and even murdered those who dared to dissent or protest against this inhuman and corrupt regime.

This reality is what led the Syrian people to star in their current revolution and are the same causes that led to the overthrow of dictatorships in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya, with which it is demonstrated that the Arab revolution is a single process with its various national components. So strong is the revolution in the Arab world that all counter-revolutionary forces have come together to contain it with different tactics. Dictatorial regimes fall and imperialism finds partners in Islamist forces like the Muslim Brotherhood.

The Egyptian example will show the Syrian fighters and Local Coordination Committees, that the Muslim Brotherhood are wolves in sheep’s clothing, who once they came to power they rule against the people in alliance with imperialism. Therefore they are enemies to be fought the same way as Islamic formations of Al Nusra type who come to divide the revolutionary camp and impose dictatorial and discriminatory religious governments against women in the liberated areas they control. The population and the true revolutionaries of FSA reject these practices and armed clashes against the Islamists are frequent.

The overthrow of blood thirsty Al -Assad remains the key driver that moves the confrontation of the masses who want bread and democracy and who will also face Islamic forces standing in their way to this goal. Their best allies are the insurgent Arab masses fighting for the same goals. The crime committed by Hezbollah by attacking the Syrian people has had as immediate response the rejection from more than half of the population of Lebanon, a situation that places the revolutionaries

in better position to expel this force from the country.

We call on workers, students, youth, the left and peoples to unconditionally support the Syrian revolution doing solidarity actions around the world. We also call on the people of Tunisia and Egypt and especially Libyan militias, who have kept Gaddafi’s huge arsenal, to keep providing and qualitatively increasing the supply of weapons to the rebels. The peoples of the world must demand that their governments break diplomatic relations with the Syrian dictatorship to isolate it internationally.

Just as we support the revolution we condemn and reject the support that Russia, Iran and China give the dictator, reason why he has not fallen yet.

We give no political support to SNC either. We reject the intervention of Saudi Arabia and Qatar, patrons of “radical” Islamic groups. With the same determination we call for the defeat and expulsion of Hezbollah from Syria. We reject any imperialist intervention, whether direct or indirect, through NATO or the UN. We condemn the bombing carried out with impunity by the genocidal state of Israel against Syrian areas.

The massacres carried out by Al Assad increase the hatred and determination of a people who will not rest until they see buried this regime of horror, and when this happens they will make political, economic, and social transformations which cannot be other than obtaining the broadest

democratic freedoms and expropriation of the assets of a corrupt capitalist minority causing the misery of the people.

These objectives will only be achieved by a government based on the insurgent organizations and organizations of the workers and popular sectors, such as the local coordination committees, which already control and direct the liberated areas. So that these objectives can be met and the expectations of the masses are not frustrated by organizations such as the Muslim Brotherhood or Islamic groups such as Al Nusra, the Syrian revolutionary left have no another path than to intervene in the rebellion building a new independent political direction which is a genuine representation of the workers and oppressed sectors.

Repudiate imperialist intervention in Syria!

It was announced that the United States would be ready for an attack on Syria, which could be imminent. To do this they have several warships and submarines in the Mediterranean armed with cruise missiles and aircraft at various bases in the area with the capacity to bomb Syrian territory. They would count with the backing of Britain, France, some Arab governments (Saudi Arabia, Qatar) and Turkey. They would perform this action on the grounds that 32

the Syrian regime is “unconscionable” for using “chemical weapons”.

We are witnessing a new farce of “humanitarian intervention” for the use of “weapons of mass destruction”, as if the chemical slaughter were qualitatively more serious than the more than 100,000 killed by the regime’s conventional bombs during the last two years in the popular neighbourhoods of Homs, Damascus and Aleppo.

United States and Israel do not have an option to ensure its control, neither the regime nor a “moderate” wing of the opposition; therefore, the aim of the intervention is not to overthrow Bashar or to destabilize the balance of forces in the war — the goal is to continue the destruction of Syria.

According to media reports, the stated objective of the bombing would not be to overthrow Bashar al-Assad,

but only to “punish him” for the use of chemical weapons with a few days of bombing and a ground invasion is not expected. It is not indicated what they will do to not strongly affect the civilian population, bearing in mind they will use Tomahawk missiles which use depleted uranium.

Moreover, the immediate political effect within Syria will be confusion and may even strengthen the dictatorship, giving them arguments to massacre opponents in the name of a false “anti-imperialist national resistance”.

This also contributes to the confusion sown by “Chavism” and the government of Venezuela, which will use this intervention to continue giving its backing to the butcher Bashar al-Assad.

In the two years of civil war, the U.S. and European imperialism has maintained a partial “blockade” to the entry of weapons for the Syrian rebels.

And they have especially prevented the entry of heavy weapons and armour.

While there is no blockade to the heavy weapons and all kinds that Putin, the Russian government and Iran send in support of the Syrian dictator. So it is totally unequal war between the Syrian army, which has all kinds of weapons, including missiles, aircraft, helicopters and armoured vehicles, provided by Russia (which also has a naval base in Syria), and the rebels who have only light weapons, others taken from the enemy in combat and some self-made weapons. The rebel villages and neighbourhoods have to endure permanently bombings from airplanes or missiles, against which they cannot defend themselves.

With the announcement of the bombing by the United States, we are totally clear — we condemn any military action or imperialist bombing in Syria, both by the United States, supported by NATO, as well as we condemn the Russian military intervention and the Iranian-backed Hezbollah. We revolutionary socialists repudiate all criminal actions of the dictator Bashar al-Assad, including the genocidal action of using poison gas on the people.

We are against the Syrian dictatorship and support the rebel people’s struggle for its overthrow.

But we reject the idea that it is imperialism who intends to assume a “humanitarian” posture when they are those who have always supported all kinds of dictators, including the Syrian regime, until recently praised by those who now threaten it. All imperialist military intervention has always served to seek to oppress the peoples of the world. In this case, they would intervene to indicate that they are the global cop and to try to influence a future negotiated solution to the conflict (Geneva conference), seeking to prevent the triumph of the revolution of the rebel Syrian people. And to continue supporting the Zionist state of Israel against the Palestinian people struggling for liberation. Not surprisingly the regime of al-Assad has bolstered Israel’s northern border and has never lifted a finger to regain the Golan Heights, occupied since 1967.

We support the rebel people, the workers and young Syrians who fight and give their lives against the dictatorship. But we do not put any

trust in the politics of Syrian National Coalition (SNC) or the staff of the Free Syrian Army (FSA), which are monopolized by forces such as the Muslim Brotherhood, and supported by proimperialist governments like Qatar and Turkey, which currently endorse and call for imperialist military intervention.

Moreover, the strengthening of radical Islamist forces in recent months (AlNusra Front, Islamic State of Iraq and Greater Syria, and others), is a consequence of attempts by Gulf countries and Turkey to corrupt and divide the revolution. Their strength comes not from popular support of the Syrian people, but from the economic and military aid from the Gulf States. The attacks of these groups against Kurdish and FSA battalions, their authoritarian and sectarian practices against the Syrian people have shown their reactionary nature. The main task of the world left is to support the Syrian masses which rose up against the dictatorial regime of al-Assad, and help in every way the Syrian revolutionary Marxists in their task of building a revolutionary party on the ground.

We call on the Arab and Turkish peoples to mobilize to repudiate the imperialist intervention and in support of the rebel Syrian people, demanding from their governments to not cooperate with the imperialist attack. Weapons for the revolution! Material support for the rebel people, without any conditions! Including heavy weapons and anti -aircraft weapons requested by the rebel Syrian people to overthrow the dictator al-Assad. We call on trade unions around the world, but especially those from Greece, Turkey and Cyprus, to demand that no ship or aircraft of imperialism use the military bases in those countries.

Stop U.S. imperialist intervention in Syria!

Out with the military support of Russia and Iran to the dictator!

Long live the struggle of the Syrian people against the dictatorship!

Down with the al-Assad dictatorship!

Coordination Committee IWU-FI / ILC International Workers Union – Fourth International / International Liaison Committee (Workers Front, Turkey; Internationalist Struggle, Spanish State) 33

Middle East

“Peace negotiations” are a farce After three years of being frozen, peace negotiations resumed in late July in Washington between Israelis and Palestinians in the strictest confidence, strongly promoted by the White House and generating little excitement in the streets of Israel and Palestine.

By Mariana Morena

August 20 marked twenty years of the agreements reached by Israelis and Palestinians in Oslo, through which Israel managed to postpone the processing of the conflicting issues of permanent status (Jerusalem, the return of the 5 million Palestinian refugees, the Israeli settlements, security and borders), and transfer to the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) the responsibility for the welfare of the Palestinian population in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. Substantive negotiations were delayed while increasing the number of settlers settled illegally in the West Bank, so that in 20 years it has doubled. Also this territory was divided into three areas with different degrees of autonomy, and subsequently fragmented and atomized into real Bantustans(1). Gaza Strip would become, in turn, the “world’s largest open air prison.”

In 2000 there was an attempt at another agreement in Camp David, but the talks failed in the wake of the “fait accompli” of the complex and perverse

(1).

Bantustan: In South Africa during the apartheid era, area reserved for the Bantu ethnicity. TN. 34

US Secretary of State John Kerry and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas

system of measures implemented by the Israeli occupation and colonization since 1967. In 2010, the Obama administration managed that Netanyahu approve a 10-month moratorium on new settlements, but the deadline expired without results. In fact, since 2009 Netanyahu approved building 6900 houses and appointed prominent leaders of the settler communities in important positions of his government.

In July this year, after six trips to the area and intense negotiations, the United States Secretary of State, John Kerry, announced in Amman the resumption of the “peace process”. All parties expressed the need for negotiations under the rising tensions in the Middle East, and although Kerry declined to give details of the deal, he won the backing of the UN, the Arab League and the PLO. The PLO demanded the release of 350 Palestinian prisoners and a moratorium on settlement construction. Israel finally released the first 26 of a list of 104, but approved the construction of 5000 houses (of which1000 have already begun to be built) as well as a railway that will con-

nect it with Israel. Israel also demanded that the Palestinian Authority stop its unilateral progress in international organizations (last November Palestine was admitted as a “non-member observer state” of the UN General Assembly and threatens to sue Israel for war crimes and other violations in international courts).

It has transpired that Palestinian leaders demand all permanent status issues to be addressed during the nine months that the negotiations will last.

Aiming to the immediate proclamation of an independent state that enhance its flagging popularity, they will probably accept an exchange of territories to the 1967 borders, which would mean to definitively surrender to Israel large West Bank settlement blocs in exchange for similar areas under Israeli sovereignty. It is worth adding that the U.S. is the largest donor to the Palestinian Authority and presented an ambitious plan for the Palestinian economy during the recent World Economic Forum. For his part, Netanyahu will seek a series of short-term agreements on economic and security matters, in line with its right-wing coalition that oppos-

es the two-state solution.

From the IWU–FI we urge the Palestinian people not to be fooled by their leaders putting hopes on a “peace process” that calls them to reconcile with the Zionist occupier at a time when the Arab masses take the streets and squares and knock dictatorships and

false “democracies” demanding freedom and social justice. For over 65 years these leaderships have yielded to the Israeli delusions and claims on the entire Palestinian territory, executing a plan of ethnic cleansing under the protection of its main partner, the United States, and achieving the “normalization” of the Occupation, a

façade of legality to the world. Only the organized struggle of the Palestinian people may lead to the establishment of a secular, non-racial and democratic Palestine throughout the territory usurped since 1948, and would allow the return of refugees and the peaceful coexistence between Arabs and Jews. ●

Singer becomes a symbol(1) Mohammad Assaf, 23, grew up in the Palestinian refugee camp of Khan Yunis, Gaza. Until recently he was a wedding singer. With his victory in Arab Idol, the music contest on TV with the participation of several countries, the young man became an icon of the Palestinian resistance and was welcomed as a hero.

Now he faces the siege of his fans and a reality which, he says, exceeds the dreams of his childhood.

I was born in Libya and as a 5 year old I moved to the Gaza Strip. I spent all my life in the Khan Yunis refugee camp. I saw the suffering of the people. I remember jumping in the street, barefoot. It was life under Israeli occupation.

I suffered like everyone else. I saw the intifada (Palestinian uprising), the wars of 2009 and 2012, the closure of the borders, the sea blockade.

When I decided to participate in Arab Idol, I spent a week in preparation to get to go to Egypt. It is not easy to leave Gaza in the current political situation, especially at my age.

It took me two days to get to the test. I arrived at 7.30 am, as it was advertised, but other participants had come from 4.30 am. They had already closed the entrance and I was left outside.

I felt cornered, having done so many things. I tried to enter in a diplomatic way, but I could not. Walking around I saw that there was a wall and I jumped.

When they saw me, other people began to jump as well. Security grabbed me and I tried to explain all that I had suffered to get there. They understood and let me go in.

Then, I found that all numbers to (1)

participate had already been distributed. There were some who had one but were going to give it up, and I thought about buying one. But I got together with other people and began to sing among ourselves.

They were surprised by my voice. “Having that voice, you do not have a number to participate?” they said. They offered me their numbers and I started to laugh. One of them gave me his without hesitation. I told him I could not accept, as both had the same dream. He told me that if I participated, I would reach the final, I never forgot that.

In one night I won the Arab Idol. Today I get offers I had never dreamed about. I wanted something small, and now I have a lot. It’s too big.

Not that it bothers me, but I’m tired. I want to have more time to think, to organize my projects.

If we talk about the reaction of people when they see me on the streets, we would never end. Best of all is to have the love of the people.

That is worth more than money and fame.

Being famous will never change Muhammad Assaf, who comes from a hard life. I will not forget the wastewater trickling through the streets, or my friends. We grew up together, no electricity, no gasoline. I’ll never forget that even with all the helplessness, they never stopped giving me their support.

It’s good to be famous. You have money, things become easy. But it’s hard to forget that I’m from here.

Our situation during the occupation teaches us to insist on survival.

Do not think only in an intifada. It is

Article on Folha de Sao Paulo, August 21, 2013.

35

the opposite. We love life and we have to build our country. We are tired.

We know how to excel, how to be alive. Not that life is more difficult than the difficulties. Even with our poor economy, we have talent. There are thousands of talented people in the refugee camps.

The music I make is a type of resistance. As the Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish says, the revolution is not only weapons. It is also the surgeon’s knife, the brush of the painter, and farmer’s sickle. Music is our way to reach the hearts of people.

The occupation is difficult, painful. In the press they have said I could not give freedom to people, but I made them happy. This makes me proud. Palestinian society has not been happy for years. People were thrilled when a Palestinian won.

Above the difficulties, I believe

The main candidates for the City and Province of Buenos Aires on Sunday August 11

Close to a million votes for the Left Front

By Jose Castillo On Sunday August 11, the Primary Simultaneous Open and Compulsory (PASO) elections were held prior to the main elections on October 27 where senators and members of national and provincial parliaments and city councillors will be elected. The government of Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner suffered its worst electoral defeat since her, and previously her husband Nestor, rule Argentina.

They lost 4 million votes. There was a massive break with the ruling Peronism.

Most of this break was channelled to several candidates and opposition fronts of the bosses. But a band of workers and youth went left. The FIT (Front of the Left and the Workers) made a great election, doubling the previous result and reaching nearly one million votes.

The Peronist government of Cristina Kirchner stepped back from 54% of the vote they had received two years ago to just 26%. They lost 4 million votes, and were heavily defeated in the most important places of the country, including large worker and popular conglomerates. Thus, the Front for Victory 36

(FPV, electoral name of the ruling Peronist front) lost in the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires, the provinces of Buenos Aires, Cordoba, Santa Fe and Mendoza, and it was also defeated in its historic strongholds of Santa Cruz , Catamarca, La Rioja and San Juan.

It was a thundering “punishment vote”, where the working class and popular sectors expressed electorally a repudiation which was already manifesting since last year, when there was the first general strike in ten years, also through several massive pot banging demonstrations and union elections where the pro-government bureaucracies were defeated. It was a vote against unresolved structural problems such as inflation and low wages, railway massacres, corruption, sell out of oil resources to the multinational Chevron and promotion to army chief of General Milani, involved in the genocide by the dictatorship.

The bourgeois opposition emerged stronger. In particular the so called “Peronist opposition”, where stood out the figure of the “winner” in the province of Buenos Aires, Sergio Massa, Mayor of Tigre — one of the municipalities in Greater Buenos Aires

— who led a strong “leakage” of former Kirchner supporters towards the opposition. Massa remains as a possible alternative to unify dissident Peronism for the 2015 presidential.

Also capitalizing are the alliance of the remains of the old Radical Civic Union (UCR), with the social democrat Binner (former governor of Santa Fe) and other expressions of the so called centre-left, as in the case of Pino Solanas, of South Project, who is allied with the conservative Elisa Carrio, former UCR. This led to fractures in South Project. Radicalism won in provinces like La Rioja, where for more than 40 years they could not defeat Peronism.

There was a turn to the left The Left and Workers Front (FIT) — an umbrella organization of Socialist Left (organization of the IWU–FI), the Workers Party (PO) and the Party of Socialist Workers (PTS) — conducted an enormous election. At the national level it exceeded the proscriptive mechanism of PASO in the 19 provinces where they presented candidates and scored 4% to go over 900,000 votes (growing by 400,000 from its previous result in 2011), and ranking as the fourth national force.

The Left Front made an excellent election in the large urban working class and popular conglomerations — in the province of Buenos Aires reached 342,921 votes, which objectively gives it the possibility of getting seats to the National Congress in October. In the province of Cordoba it also capitalized on the large reputation of our colleague and current Socialist Left provincial legislator, who as national congressional

candidate reached 5.58% across the province and almost 10% in the provincial capital. In the city of Buenos Aires the Front received 4.18% of votes, so that it has a good chance, if repeating these values in October, to enter the City Legislature. There were also excellent elections in other provinces as Neuquen (6.65%), Salta (11.19%), Jujuy (8.97%), Santa Cruz (7.86%), Mendoza (7.61%), Santiago

del Estero (4%) and La Rioja (3.62%).

These results and the palpable enthusiasm among militants, supporters and voters, open the certain prospect that these elections can even be improved in October, and that the Left Front can get national MPs, provincial legislators and councillors in several districts. The FIT is strengthened as an anti-capitalist and socialist political pole to workers, youth and popular sectors. ●

Great election in Cordoba

By Liliana Olivero

phlets with the proposals and candidate profiles), allowed us to install the FIT in the city of Cordoba. Among the most important talks I highlight the one I gave in the tertiary of Carbo with more than 70 students, as initiative of a teacher supporter of our party. As well, talks with youth and workers who then joined in ballot auditing on Sunday. Of note is the active participation in this campaign of the neighbours of Malvinas Assembly Struggle for Life, facing the installation of Monsanto, who took our proposals from home to home, and those workers laid off by Volkswagen, who along with their families fought for the vote to the FIT.

With 5.58% in the province and almost 10% in the city of Cordoba, the FIT achieved an excellent vote in one of the most important provinces in the country. The FIT slate for national members of parliament was led by Liliana Olivero, leader of Socialist Left and provincial legislator for years. The claim, from now on, is that “Liliana has to be” in the national congress. We reproduce a note by her the day after the celebrations.

After an intense campaign we achieved an historic election in Cordoba. We got more than 105,000 votes (5.58%). In the city of Cordoba we got 70,000 (almost 10%), placing us a few votes short of Carolina Scotto (FPV). In the provincial interior we got 35,000 votes, with significant results in the departments of Santa Maria with 3,000 (5.41%); Punilla, 5,000 (5%), 8,400 in Colon (6.44%), among the most important ones.

37

From July 19 we toured major cities with Hernan Puddu (PTS) and Eduardo Salas (PO) — Rio Cuarto, Río Tercero, San Francisco, Villa Maria, Traslasierra, Alta Gracia and Carlos Paz, travelling about 2,500 km. This marathon tour included press conferences with articles on more than 50 media outlets. In some cities we had talks with members and supporters of Socialist Left, as in Mina Clavero, Cosquin, San Francisco, Villa Dolores and Villa Maria, giving a strong impetus to the campaign.

We collected the sympathy of youth and workers, who pledged to campaign and help with ballot monitoring on Election Day. The intense militant labour of Socialist Left, which stuck about 40,000 posters, leafleting factories, hospitals, schools and public agencies (distributing 60,000 pam-

This historic election leaves us some outstanding data — labour and popular support for the proposals of FIT and a legislator of the left who accompanied most of the fights in the streets and presenting projects in the legislative council of Cordoba. This large militant campaign puts us in some neighbourhoods as second force, obtaining an average of 35 votes per table, defeating Kirchnerism and Peronism variants disguised as “neighbours parties”, as the governor’s ex-wife. Another outstanding element was the collapse of the centre-left Progressive, Civic and Social Front (Juez, Binner, MST, etc.), left with 3% of votes, having been the largest minority in the province.

This successful campaign was based on showcasing the unity of the left, the proposals and program of the Front, as well as the establishment of the list of workers, youth and fighters who fight for a change from the left.●

For the re-nationalization of the railways

Unity rally in Plaza de Mayo

By Juan Rivera

With the slogans “more trains, less corruption” and “renationalization of the rail system under control of its employees and users” was held on August 23 a major march and rally in the historic Plaza de Mayo in Buenos Aires. Called by the Sarmiento line railway workers with families of the vic-

tims of Once and Castelar and user organizations. The speakers were Elida Cedro on behalf of users, Maria Lujan Rey and Paolo Menghini on behalf of relatives of the Massacre of Once and the “Pollo” Sobrero representing railway workers.

Speaking at the podium, Maria Lujan Rey, mother of Lucas, dead in Once

Some of the protesters, including members of Socialist Left

“Listen, listen, listen, in the Sarmiento there is corruption, we want trains for the entire population,” chanted hundreds of Sarmiento railway workers together with political, unions, consumers organizations and family members of victims of the train accidents in Once and Castelar.

This demonstration was convened by a Mass Meeting of the Sarmiento line railway workers, meeting in the union branch led by the combative leader Ruben “Pollo” Sobrero, along with other leaders as Edgardo Reynoso and Monica Schlotthauer, members of the Council of Delegates and the classist and antibureaucratic Burgundy Slate.

The march also benefited from the support of the CTA (Federation of Workers of Argentina) led by Micheli and CGT (General Confederation of Labour) led byMoyano. The CTA participated with an important column including members of the national executive as Carlos Chile and “Puppy” Godoy of ATE (State Workers Union), among others. And the CGT delegation was headed by Juan Carlos Schmidt (Dredging and Marking Union), along with a large delegation of truckers. Hugo Moyano, secretary general of the CGT, sent his greetings to the rally.

The railway workers of the Sarmiento line were also joined also by workers of the Roca, the Belgrano North, Mitre and Ferrobaires lines, with great presence of members of the National Burgundy Slate of the different lines. They were also ap-

38

proached by Laguna Paiva workers, who are fighting to be railway workers again.

Members of the National Save the Train Commission, the Council of Delegates of EMFER, subway and port workers, among others. Also present deputy Pino Solanas and Mario Mazzitelli of South Project, deputies Claudio Lozano, Víctor De Gennaro and Liliana Parada of Popular Unity, CCC-PCR (Classist and Combative Current –Revolutionary Communist Party), the MST (Socialist Workers Movement), MAS (Movement Towards Socialism) and Free of the South (with deputies Victoria Donda and Jorge Ceballos) and Marcelo Ramal (PO), Cristian Castillo (PTS), Juan Carlos Giordano and Jose Castillo (Socialist Left), who participated with a column of the Left Front. Well-known journalist Ernesto Tenenbaum attended the event doing the introduction of the speakers.

During the rally, each of the speakers laid bare the farce of the “rail revolution” and showed that emptying of assets and wheeling and dealing continue. All of them also raised as solution the renationalization.

After the slaughter of Once the government was forced to take away the concession of the Sarmiento and Mitre lines from Cirigliano, but in his place the entrepreneurs Roggio and Romero took charge, who continued to fatten their pockets with overprizes and several deals. For example, for every kilometre of

track laid by “Minister Randazzo’s administration” the state spends 10 million pesos (over US$ 2 million), when the market cost is one million pesos. The railway

subsidies increased 150% on average per year over the past eight years, going from 800 million (US$ 138 million) to 11.4 billion pesos (US$2 billion) in the 2013 budget. However, that did not translate into improved service.

Quite the opposite.

The re-nationalisation would direct the money currently going to fatten the pockets of these entrepreneurs to improved service. A comprehensive control of the railway system would turn rail freight transportation revenue (which makes a profit) to passengers, to offer an affordable and efficient service; away from the bosses’ speculation which only seek to extend profits at any cost. And the control and management by the workers, consumers and family members of the victims are the only guarantee for the fate of those funds away from the manoeuvres and attempts to make cash by the officials on duty.

Relying on rank and file meetings, the council of delegates of the Sarmiento line alongside railway workers the Burgundy Slate have had the merit of raising a fundamental solution for rail transport and the Plaza de Mayo day shows they are moving in the right direction, in unity with family members, social, political and trade union organizations.

Even when he pretends to be jovial, Nicolas Maduro rules for the bosses

Venezuela

The decline of Chavism

By Simon Rodríguez Porras (1)

After almost fifteen years of the coming to power of Chavism, and a few months after the death of Hugo Chavez, the country moves toward a new stage in its political history. The government is devoid of the charismatic leadership that served to promote a project that bet on the leading role of the “nationalist” bourgeoisie and the military sector. A dismal economic failure and the accelerated erosion of its social base have cornered the government of Nicolas Maduro, which seeks to redefine its relations with the Catholic Church, the big bourgeoisie and imperialism.

The leaders of the various fractions in which the PSUV (United Socialist Party of Venezuela) is divided internally are consistent in this endeavour, which plays its hold on power.

(1)

In the grassroots of the Chavist movement, things are not so clear. “I am Chavist, but not Madurist”, with this phrase a student activist defined himself during a debate about university strike, and remarked that there are many like him. If the Chavez government was finding it increasingly difficult to disguise the limitations of his political project, Maduro’s government represents the same bureaucracy unmasked. Only the fear of the return to power of the pro-imperialist right grouped in the MUD (Democratic Unity Roundtable), manages to defensively unite thousands of honest activists who have bet on the badly called “Socialism of the XXI century”. There are increasingly fewer who see in Maduro, Diosdado Cabello, and the leadership of the PSUV, the PCV

(Communist Party of Venezuela) and the other parties of the Patriotic Pole as a political leadership capable of leading a socialist revolution.

Crisis for those below, bonanza for those on top The cold economic data portray the failure of capitalism Bolivarian style by showing a stagnant growth combined with very high inflation, in a context of absolute dependence on oil exports. According to the National Statistics Institute (INE), the food basket prices rose 31.3% in the first six months of the year and reached the 2,737 bolivars [US$ 434] in June, above the minimum wage of 2,457 bolivars [US$ 390]. More than two-thirds of public employees and workers of state enterprises cannot cover even half the cost of the basic

Candidate to mayor of Merida, Libertador state, for the Socialism and Freedom Party (PSL).

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basket. Meanwhile, the profits of the multinationals which own up to 40% of the oil ventures are growing. In the case of private banks, the most parasitic and unproductive sector of any capitalist economy, profits grew by 53.1% last year, reaching almost 20 billion bolivars [US$ 3.18 billion].

A currency devaluation of 46.5% instrumented in February proved insufficient to balance government accounts. Thus in the last period it was implemented a currency auction mechanism, the SICAD (Complementary System of Foreign Exchange Administration), through which the transactions are made at a rate two to three times more expensive than the official. While popular majorities are impoverished due to the inflationary effects of the devaluation, the disparity between the official rate and the parallel market has been a colossal source of corruption; the government itself admits that it has allocated billions of dollars to the public and private sectors for fraudulent imports. The flight of capital between 2002 and 2012 is estimated at US$ 144.9 billion, an amount slightly smaller than the foreign debt. Domestic debt exceeds 200 billion bolivars [US$ 32.76 billion].

The vivid portrait of the country is one of decay. One third of the population, more than 9 million people, live in poverty; two and half million in extreme poverty. The housing deficit affects 13 million people. More than 95% of exports are oil, but the operational collapse of the country’s refineries has forced us to import gasoline and other petroleum products. In the countryside, 1% of the agricultural properties account for 40% of agricultural

land, and this extremely high concentration of unproductive land prevents the country to overcome the dependence on food imports. The basic industries of iron and aluminium in Guayana City are in a deplorable situation after a decade of plunder by the bureaucracy of the PSUV. Chronic child malnutrition is at 15.6% according to official figures for 2010. Staples are scarce and at unaffordable prices. Meanwhile, there is a succession of eschatological debates and fistfights in the National Assembly and semi-religious harangues in the public media and the statements of politicians on the right.

Mobilizations on the rise Not surprisingly the combativeness of the popular sectors grows, especially of workers. Last year, crossed by two elections, there were more than 5000 social protests, three quarters of them labour disputes and housing requirements. In response, in the same period the government approved an anti-terrorism law faithful to the dictates of the International Monetary Fund, which qualifies as a “terrorist act” any stoppage of transport, agribusiness workers’ strike, or even any protest seeking to pressure the Government or multilaterals to modify their policies. The use of the judicial system against strikes is a resource increasingly used by the government, an example of this are the lawsuits filed by students linked to the PSUV against the university strike, which despite being called by a union leadership linked to the right, however expressed the just wage demands of academics and a defence of certification standards, a sliding wage scale in

PSL: A left alternative in municipal elections On December 8 mayors and municipal councils in more than three hundred municipalities will be elected. The PSL has nominated slates in most states in the country, with a program that includes defence of the autonomy of trade union and community organizations, the adoption of measures in defence of the rights of workers dependent on the municipalities, a salary cap for councillors and mayors equivalent to the cost of the basic basket, and solidarity with the mobilization processes 40

led by the working class. Social activists, labour leaders, student, feminist and environmentalist activists, artists and revolutionaries are running in the slates of Socialism and Freedom Party (PSL) to give the fight against the candidates of the system, nominated by the PSUV and the MUD, and to show that among workers it is gathering momentum the notion that people do not want to be governed, rather they want to rule.

place since the 1980s, the government refuses to acknowledge.

The militarization of the electricity industry and companies such as FMO, and the arrest of the revolutionary syndicalist Jose Bodas in the east of the country, is part of the same picture of advance in the criminalization of trade union struggle. Another method of punishment which has become important is the killings and paramilitary operations by groups like Red Wall, in the Guayana Region, construction mafias linked to the PSUV, or joint operation between military and thugs linked to the AntiExtortion and Kidnapping Group (GAES) in Zulia state, which in March this year killed Yukpa chief Sabino Romero, who led the fight against ranchers and transnationals for the recovery of the indigenous territory in the Perija Range.

Given the crisis of Chavism, what’s to be done?

The April election result, when the right-wing businessman Henrique Capriles was close to defeat Maduro, for the first time in a decade, and in the absence of Chavez, put the government on the defensive. In this context materialized the concessions and agreements in meetings of Maduro and his ministers with representatives of the big national bourgeoisie as Lorenzo Mendoza — of Polar Enterprises —, with Pope Bergoglio and Venezuelan Catholic hierarchy, with the head of the regime in Colombia, Juan Manuel Santos as well as the meeting of Foreign Minister Elias Jaua with John Kerry, U.S. State secretary, with the intention of fully restoring bilateral relations. While President Chavez starred in many approaches to the bourgeoisie and imperialism throughout his years in office, this time the government’s weakness is more evident than ever. Maduro went so far as to publicly raise the possibility of an alliance between the Vatican and the ALBA — centre-left bloc founded by Chavez to counter the proposed FTAA — and giving the Church a leading role in the administration of a formal disarmament plan.

The so-called “war against corruption”, is nothing but a screen through which conflicts are resolved between internal sectors of government with detentions to senior and middle officials while maintaining the most colossal crimes unpunished, as the case of more than 150 000 tons of

rotten food belonging to the state network PDVAL discovered in 2010, or the more than US$ 30 billion allocated by CADIVI (Commission for the Administration of Currency Exchange) and SITME (System of Transactions with Securities in Foreign Currency) for fraudulent imports. In fact, several officials who had fallen out of favour by corruption scandals while Chavez was in office, as Jesse Chacon or Rodolfo Sanz, today return to their jurisdictions by the hand of Maduro. The intra-bureaucratic disputes also materialize in loud public complaints, such as the one carried out by Toby Valderrama, organically entrenched Chavist intellectual in charge of the editorial column “A Grain of Corn” and the magazine “Socialist Debate”, who published an article in July in which he states: “we are not going to Socialism, on the contrary, we are strengthening the national and international capitalism… In addition to going to the capitalism, we would try to impose it on blood and punishment… Not a day passes

without a declaration in favour of the capitalists, our senior spokespersons bask talking wonders of the capitalist sector, summon it, flatter it, create conditions for it, from the dollar incentives to the Special Economic Zones calls ...”

As an effect of this crisis, the moorings begin to loosen on the more honest and combative Chavist grassroots sectors. In Industrias Diana, state agribusiness company, workers require participation in decisionmaking and reject the imposition of a new management train. Dozens of social activists reject the imposition of municipal candidates, including pop artists and show business celebrities promoted by Maduro and who are postulated outside the Patriotic Pole.

The phenomenon tends to spread to all organized sectors in which Chavism has managed to become structured.

The revolutionaries we have the challenge of spreading the lesson that you cannot advance towards true democ-

racy and social justice, towards a new society without exploitation, holding hands with the transnationals, the landowners, the bourgeois armed forces, signing free trade treaties as Mercosur, or transacting with the government of the United States and its allies. The only way to stop that one way or another the social gains obtained after the defeat of the April coup be liquidated, and that within a few years the “puntofijista”(1) right — nucleated in the MUD — be back in government, is regrouping this band of activists and fighters who are splitting from the PSUV and the government parties, to build together a political organization under the banner of true social revolution, which become an alternative to the two blocks that now artificially polarize the country. This is the task that is raised today in Venezuela.

(1)

“Puntofijista”: refers to the Pact of Punto Fijo (Fixed Point) between bourgeois parties for the elections of 1958.

University academics strike

Stoppage is bending the Government’s arm

By Rolando Gaitan(1) In 1982, during the administration of social-christian Luis Herrera Campins the Norms of Homologation were imposed without consultation

with professorial bases. These became the instrument to set the salaries of university professors. Using these norms wages were increased every

two years according to the inflation rate averaged over the period. In those years Venezuela had a very low inflation which did not exceed 6%. The government’s goal was to limit wage increases to the low inflation rate.

Since the mid-1980s there has been an inflationary spiral in the country, which in the last 14 years of Chavist governments has worsened, making Venezuela the Latin American country with the continent’s highest inflation, deteriorating worker wages, and particularly the salary of university professors, who do not exceed the minimum wage in the case of professors located on the first step of the academic salary scale. Thus, the Norms of Homologation have become in practice a sliding scale of salaries, and a major claim of the university movement.

(1)

Director of the Association of Professors of the University of Carabobo, sectional Faculty of Science and Technology branch and member of the PSL. 41

ries and promotion of professors should be governed by the Universities Act in force and not by this Agreement.

Furthermore, the recognition of professors associations and their federation, FAPUV, and also that labour rights are progressive and intangible. To this we must add the victory for the student sector regarding an increase of over 100% in the scholarships, among other claims.

Demonstration by University professors in Caracas Neither the governments of “puntofijismo” (prior to Chavez), nor the current PSUV have observed or implemented the Norms of Homologation.

Nevertheless, since 2004 the situation has worsened given the Chavez government simply ignored the rules unilaterally. Since 2009, except in 2011, the government has not granted salary increases to the professors, bringing sector wages to the lowest level in its history, in a country with high inflation. So, for years, the higher education sector, including professors, clerks, workers and technicians, has been facing a contentious labour situation to which is added the granting of annual budgets in deficit for the universities — reflected in the low quality of education, poor technical training of personnel, insufficient provision for adequate infrastructure, deterioration in student scholarships and coaches’ salaries, among other things.

Many street actions and hunger strikes were held in a disjointed way since then without getting a clear answer from the government.

Government policy against autonomous universities in addition to unilaterally ignore the Norms of Homologation, has had the express intention of imposing a Single Collective Labour Agreement (ICCU) not consulted with the professorial rank and file, or the majority union, the FAPUV (Federation of University Professor Associations of Venezuela). This instrument was discussed only with unions and federations of “portfolio”, parallel in nature, and attached to the government. In addition

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to that, much of its contents placed university autonomy in danger by attempting to intervene in the mechanisms of entry and promotion of academic careers. Added to this, there is a deliberate government policy of imposing undemocratic and alien unions parallel to the grassroots, playing a role that favours the employers and demobilizing favouring the MPPEU (Ministry of Popular Power for University Education) interests.

The strike has been on for over two months Nevertheless, professors from 18 national autonomous universities have remained firm raising their just demands, prompting a strike that has already been on for a little over two months. The labour sector of administrative staff and university workers is not immune to the crisis, but the possibility of any autonomous and massive mobilization of these workers in defence of wages has been reduced by the trade union leaderships in service of the government. With these inequalities, the university academics in strike have begun to see fruits in this worthy fight. The government had to revise the unfair and discriminatory pay scales imposed by the collective agreement — which are below the increase that would be obtained if the Norms of Homologation had been applied since 2004. The government also had to recognize that the Collective Agreement violates the university autonomy as well as that the catego-

But despite the remarkable progress in the University fight product of the national strike, today the conflict is at a critical stage, as the government still does not recognize the Norms of Homologation. Some professorial leaders of the associations and FAPUV have wanted to present these advances as reason enough to lift the national strike without a clear and specific plan of struggle to defend these Norms of Homologation. For this reason, at this time there is the challenge of keeping the fight, and not leave on a silver platter to government and union bureaucracy the safeguarding of their claims. Thus, the professorial grassroots and conflict committees should demand a concrete plan of struggle that includes rank and file meetings in each faculty. In addition that the leaders of the professors associations and FAPUV appear in person at each faculty and university alerting the community, so that they may raise a new “zero hour” if the government does not definitely want to honour and implement the Norms of Homologation.

There are progressive sectors within these unions leaderships which together with the grassroots dispute committees can make a difference if they pose a fight plan that establishes inter-union solidarity and unity with all the labour sectors that currently are in conflict and who have been resisting the government’s anti-worker policies — of disrespect for labour norms, to the right to free association, to strike and rejecting the criminalization of protest.

PT leaders: from the left, Miguel Perez (with helmet), Executive Secretary Miners Federation; Gonzalo Rodriguez, lawyer representing Factory workers, General Secretary; Mario Martinez, Huanuni miner, Executive Secretary; Gualberto Arenas, peasant, General Secretary. Next, Jaime Solares, COB leadership and Lucio Gonzalez, member of the National Leadership

Interview with Gualberto Arenas, General Secretary of the PT

“The Second Congress consolidated the foundation of the PT” On Saturday June 29 in Oruro concluded the Second National Congress of the Workers Party (PT) choosing a Transitional Leadership of 21 comrades, and ratifying the Policy Paper voted in Huanuni on March 8, which clearly states the frontal opposition to the MAS (Movement to Socialism) government, the struggle for nationalization without compensation of transnational corporations, the liquidation of large estates, the anti-capitalist struggle for genuine socialism and a for government of workers, peasants and poor people. We spoke with Gualberto Arenas, peasant leader and member of The Protest, about this Congress.

How do you see the results of the Second Congress?

It was a consolidation of the PT, because it reaffirmed the Huanuni program of the First Congress held in 43

March and chose a new leadership, with stronger comrades to carry it out, as comrade Mario Martinez of Huanuni who is the new Executive Secretary. This was achieved despite the attitude of boycott of some leaders of the Bolivian Workers Union (COB) who did not attend the Congress and didn’t convene many unions. But the fact that Congress was held with 400 delegates reaffirmed the Huanuni revolutionary program which allows the PT to consolidate on solid foundations, with the decisive participation of the Huanuni miners, but also the presence of manufacturing (the most important union of Bolivia, with approximately 150,000 members) and I want to highlight a particularly significant representation of Cochabamba indigenous peasants, invited by the People’s Revolutionary Alternative (ARP) – The Protest and me personal-

ly, to join the PT. I also want to highlight the presence of a major university student delegation, sector which was almost absent in the First Congress.

Was there a discussion about the program?

It was the most important debate of the Congress because the Huanuni program clearly indicates the need for true nationalization and expulsion of transnational corporations, and the liquidation of estates to give land to poor farmers, these are historical demands of the labour, peasant and popular movement in Bolivia, and was the program of the so-called “gas war” in 2003, as well as large indigenous peasant mobilizations. Some comrades of the Political Commission, with the argument of the presentation before the electoral justice, had written a different document where these points did not

appear clearly. But Congress settled that argument and affirmed the original document as the basis of the PT program. And this, as well as a need for the Bolivian people, is very important to dismantle the government false discourse of the government that speaks of “anti-imperialism” but calls itself “partner” of the multinationals.

The PT has denounced the so-called “Anti-imperialist Summit” the government did with international delegates.

Yes, because it was a summit to support Evo and not an “AntiImperialist Summit”. The same day the Anti-imperialist Summit was gathered, supposedly to denounce the blockade of Evo’s plane in Europe, and even an “Evo assassination attempt” — according to the government —, Evo Morales was meeting with the French multinational Total and Russia’s Gazprom, to deliver one million hectares for oil exploitation and Evo Morales said he was happy for the good relations with Europe. What kind of anti-imperialism is that? That is to say the summit was a show to deceive the people and absolutely didn’t take any anti-imperialist action.

What obstacles have the PT? The PT will have many obstacles.

Firstly from the government that handles the Electoral Tribunal and the courts, that persecutes comrades who are with the PT, that can even remove trade union jurisdiction or persecute them with false accusations as is the

Trajectory of Gualberto Arenas Being from Santibañez, a peasant municipality of Cochabamba, he was one of the top leaders of the United Confederation of Peasant Workers of Bolivia (CSUTCB) from 1996 to 1999.

From the direction of the CSUTCB he was one of the founders of the Political Instrument for the Sovereignty of the Peoples (which later became MAS and won government in 2005). He believes that MAS betrayed the struggle and program of the Political Instrument. He was elected by the Second Congress of the Workers Party to Transitory Leadership, representing the peasants and appointed Secretary General (the second highest PT

case of the 22 Huanuni miners and the leader the Departmental Workers Centre of Oruro. There is a criminalization of protest; there are also processed leaders of indigenous organizations. This also shows the unpopular character of the Morales government.

Electoral empowerment is not easy; given Bolivia has an undemocratic legislation, which requires 2% of the total final vote as members in notarized books and who also do not have to be affiliated with another party. This involves gathering 150,000 signatures. The government manages the Electoral Tribunal and we know

officer). Arenas is also a member of The Protest and the National Directorate of ARP.

that they will present us with obstacles.

Within the COB there are some leader responding to MAS who boycott the PT. We had the recent case of Juan Carlos Trujillo, maximum leader of the COB who went to the so-called “AntiImperialist Summit”, support act to Evo Morales, and spoke on behalf of the COB. But this was not authorized by the COB leadership. The COB is not just some leaders, the formation of the PT was voted by Congress of the COB in 2012 with over 1,000 delegates. And now we’re seeing that the PT is growing at the grassroots and with middle and regional leaders, in the trade unions, as

People’s Revolutionary Alternative (ARP) In February 2012 The Protest held a national meeting, calling to support the COB resolution to form the PT. With many comrades who attended that meeting, in December 2012 the ARP was founded, integrated by the group The Protest (IWU–FI), the Rural Teachers Front Pachakuti and other colleagues, in a Congress in La Paz. Before that Congress, The Protest held a national meeting, in February 2012, supporting the COB Congress resolution calling to form the PT.

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“The ARP was born with the need of the indigenous, poor popular majorities, rural and city workers, teachers, youth of the working classes, small farmers, to have a political tool to confront the parties of the oligarchical and semi-colonial system governing us.” It adopted a revolutionary program focused on the fight against the MAS government, against the old right, for the true nationalization of hydrocarbons and mining, to end the latifundia, for true socialism, for “a

revolutionary, anti-capitalist, antiimperialist government in which the peasant- city people, natives, labourers and all popular sectors rule”.

Given the COB call to the founding of the Workers Party (PT), ARP decided to participate. It had delegates acknowledged as ARP in the First Congress (Huanuni, August 8), and at the Second Congress of the PT, also peasants and indigenous delegates from Cochabamba adherents to ARP on behalf of their organizations.

well as in rural, popular sectors and students looking for an alternative.

That is, the PT, to overcome these obstacles, should organize itself from the grassroots, with rank and file committees, departmental committees, in trade unions, among students and peasants. It must fight for electoral

participation and to be a party for struggle alongside all the oppressed people of Bolivia. We believe that there are conditions for that to happen because large sections of the poor have broken with the government and do not want to vote again for the old right. The development of the PT can

ensure that power does not reach the hands of the old right and fight against the new right which is the MAS. We have to give hundreds of thousands of workers, labourers, peasants, impoverished people, men and women of the oppressed people a channel of political organization and struggle.

The great strike of May In the month May a historical strike was held in Bolivia. For two weeks we went out to the streets, to strike, to block roads, hundreds of thousands of workers called by the COB, claiming a dignified retirement.

The event marked a break from massive sectors of workers with the government of Evo Morales who violently repressed with the police strikes and slandered the media, revealing like never before the government’s anti-worker character.

By Eliseo Mamani Former Executive Secretary of rural teachers of La Paz, leader Pachakuti Front and People’s Revolutionary Alternative (ARP).

This great movement, in which we rural teachers actively participated in La Paz with blocking of thousands of teachers in Apacheta (near La Paz, on the road to Oruro), was at national scale, involving manufacturing, urban teachers, miners with total strike Huanuni, health workers, academics, in La Paz, Cochabamba, Potosí, Oruro, Tarija, Santa Cruz, Trinidad, Camiri… We managed to corner the government, and even at a time the same police threatened to withdraw due to their own pension claims.

However, this great struggle, which involved hundreds of thousands of workers for two weeks, ends achieving nothing and with a “commission” between the government and the COB to “study” the possible changes to Law 065 for two months. After two months, the COB agrees again to another “study committee”.

To attack the strike the government launched a massive campaign through the media against the COB 45

The strikers face the repression (even threatening to divide it), against workers in general (they accused us of “privileged”), and against the miners in particular. They also accused us as “right wingers” and “coup-mongers “.

And they said the strike had an electoral political interest in strengthening the PT, which was a party of the “right”. At the end of the strike the government called peasant mobilizations against COB and supposedly to “defend the process of change.” Many of the attendees at these concentrations were municipality public servants required to attend, and grassroots peasants bound under pain of a fine to their union or paid to attend.

Alongside this campaign, there were strong police repressive actions against some blockades. In Caihuasi arrested miners were tortured. In Cochabamba the police shot and wounded a number of factory workers. Among the facts of Caihuasi, when the violent police repression already dominated the field, there was a dynamite explosion on a bridge and the police accused, without proof, the workers. With this argument they initiated process against Vladimir Rodriguez and Gloria Oblitas, leaders of the COD (Departmental Workers Centre) of Oruro, and 20 Huanuni miners.

The reasons for the strike and discontent of wage earners In the country of the lowest actual wages in Latin America, and where there is an enormous labour informality, the MAS government has maintained the neoliberal economic fundamentals. The average wages lost ground to real inflation (not the one measured by the National Statistics Institute, tricked by the government). We have made calculations with staple commodities where we show that purchasing power was lost in the years of the MAS government.

The other problem felt by formal salaried workers are miserable pensions. A rural teacher with 35 years of service retires with just over half of his final salary (a rural teacher salary with 35 years of service is about US$ 700).

But if this same teacher has only 15 years of service, he will collect a pension of less than US$ 100. For urban teachers, who on average earn less, the situation is even worse. And as for the factory workers a big part cannot muster the years of service due to labour instability.

The MAS government “nationalized” again the contributions, which were held by Private Pension Funds (AFPs). It has a mass of more than US$ 7 billion, but does not allow workers and retirees to participate in its management. Private AFPs did their business and took their huge profits at the expense of workers. And now the government “borrowed” those funds, which belong to the workers.

The leadership failed The conclusion we, the thousands of people who participated in demonstrations, strikes and blockades, draw is that the leadership of the COB and many union federations and confederations failed.

Firstly, the COB agreed with the government to a paltry 8% wage increase which was not approved by the grassroots. The claim of an actual increase in wages was and is the most felt among workers. Why did the COB sign this, two weeks after calling a general strike? The struggle for a real wage increase would have greatly strengthened our mobilization and we could have pushed the gov-

46

ernment to a much larger increase.

Secondly the COB threw us to an indefinite strike for pensions, but we workers never saw the claims document with the real demands the COB presented the government, or even less discussed them in our meetings.

They spoke of a “dignified retirement” and the maximum benefits which only workers with higher wages and more than 35 years of service would get. We were fighting without knowing what the COB was really asking.

This disinformation facilitated a campaign of lies by the government, saying that this entire struggle was “for some leaders who earn a lot.” The government denounced Juan Carlos Trujillo, the miner executive secretary of the COB, without his refutation, who earns 32,900 bolivianos (US$ 4,700). This was evidently part of previous agreements of the government with Trujillo, as it was COMIBOL (the state mining company) — which the government manages — which gave him that salary (most of the miners have good wages, but lower than the US$ 2000 and on the basis of a great sacrifice of working at the bottom of the mine while Trujillo is a desk miner, an administrative clerk).

The strike did not have the centralization of a National Strike Committee representing directly the sectors in struggle, which could provide guidance on daily actions, coordinate marches and blockades and express the demands of the rank and file. The COB Executive Committee did not meet this goal.

In our rural teachers union federation of La Paz there were also great shortcomings of the leadership, of the Executive Committee, as of the strike committee which was formed, who wore us sending 6,000 teachers to block Apacheta, instead of making a plan of blockades that would preserve our strength and, at the same time could strike decisively at different locations. In addition, and even more importantly, we were neither informed of the objectives of the struggle, of what we could win or lose. The leaders were chosen to guide the rank and file. We believe that this failure is repeated in many federations.

This showed that in rural teachers and in most union federations and confederations and the COB we need new leadership, with no commitment to the government and the actual commitment necessary to rely on union democracy, on direct participation of the rank and file in all decisions.

The other conclusion to be drawn is that this government represents the wealthy and transnational corporations and that, therefore, we need more than ever the Workers Party, a political alternative to represent the exploited in Bolivia. In this the COB leadership also failed, they did not attend the second congress of the PT in Oruro and its leader Juan Carlos Trujillo attended the official ceremony of the so -called “Anti-Imperialist Summit”. The PT will be built from the grassroots and middle union leadership, as well as with other popular sectors. ●●●

Students don’t give up on their fight for free education

Chile: Crisis and presidential elections At the end of this year presidential and parliamentary elections will be held in Chile, and the stage for capitalists is complex. On one hand, the many struggles of the people and the workers have not been resolved by the Piñera Government.

On the other, there is the deep crisis of the regime and especially of the traditional parties. Added to this, the anticapitalist nomination of Marcel Claude was raised with significant support of students and workers.

By Rainier Ríos and Oscar Manke With the students on the streets in 2011 began to come to light the privatization and precariousness of social rights, starvation wages, inequality, bosses abuses and the impunity of “white collar” crime. What once appeared as “the costs we Chileans must pay for growth and development” is clearly a symptom of a terminal illness that millions of Chileans knew for many years we suffer as a country.

The Pension Fund Administrators (AFP) imposed by the dictatorship, didn’t modernize the country, but rather daily condemn more than 60% of workers to receive hunger pensions. Educa47

tion and health are multi-million dollar businesses, based on the suffering of thousands of families. Salaries are calculated for workers to live by the day and without dignity. Therefore the same constant remains — a small minority prospers with the suffering of millions.

Because of this, the hundreds of struggles taking place in the country quickly dragged the massive support that the student movement has towards their own mobilizations. Because they all express the same thing, i.e. the confrontation of injustices and inequalities. It is becoming increasingly

obvious that however small the demand, it will only be heard and resolved if it “gets to the streets”. Hence the need to unite all the struggles, and place them directly against the government is so important.

In this context, in which the legitimization of the struggle as a method to obtain the demands advances, it frontally clashes with the traditional parties and the bureaucracy. The mobilization of 2011 left the capitalists and their regime in Chile a great lesson — any fight taken to its ultimate consequences can dump the weak government of Piñera. This has led the bureau-

cracy to publicly oppose and betray demonstrations, and although they have managed to support the government, the wear and break of important sectors of the mass movement with their parties have increased.

turn in the demands and pressure methods and mobilization by the mass movement.

Crisis of Government and the right

The policy of the bourgeoisie to deal with the crisis, accepted by all the traditional parties, is trying to channel the demands of the streets to the presidential elections, especially towards former president Michelle Bachelet. Thus they seek to sustain the demands for change by the people on the margins of bourgeois democratic regime inherited from the dictatorship. Bachelet is a servant of imperialism, who amply proved her loyalty the multinationals in her previous government. Hence, from the Communist Party to the right have taken care of her image as a “candidate of the people,” and the “greatest opposition to the right” in order to curb the mass movement leftward shift within the limits of bureaucracy and reformism.

The situation unleashed in 2011 has not been reversed by the bosses and their government. The government fails to reverse the disenchantment, held with less than 40% of public support according to the polls. Added to this, the fall of ministers and officials for corruption, conflicts of interest or because the mobilization directly “kicked them out” begins to take the form of a historical record. Only in the Ministry of Education, and in less than four years of government, four ministers have paraded so far.

But the conflict that has struck Piñera the most has been the differences between the capitalists on how to address the crisis. A section of the bourgeoisie tries to push concessions “to the extent possible” to the mass movement, convinced that this would prevent the regime to fall, because in the opinion of this sector Piñera has not the strength to confront and repress the movement. Another sector is prone to increase repression and concede nothing. This tension which is expressed in the very corridors of La Moneda turns erratic all the answers of the current government and the ruling party coalition against the demonstrations.

This crisis advances to such an extent that the government was crushed in the primary election this year by the Coalition. As if this were not enough, the candidate of the right who won resigned a few days later, claiming alleged health problems. This led to a new crisis in the administration, which was even expressed in the media as “bickering” between the two parties that support Piñera.

In the end, they decided to take a candidate who will ensure two things — cushioning the defeat that they predict in the presidential and parliamentary elections, and thus avoiding a majority of the Coalition in Congress, and also shift the centre of gravity in Chilean politics toward a conservative centre to act as counterweight to the leftward 48

Bachelet and the containment of the crisis

Consistent with this role, Bachelet faced the primaries with a speech that in a diffuse way was trying to raise the demands of the sectors struggling, and the most felt by the mass movement. However, the day after being crowned as the overall winner of the primaries, she began to “pick up the thread” and to go back on her promises. The national situation does not give room for adventures, and Bachelet and the bourgeoisie well know it.

Because if there is something that is taken for granted in Chile is that Piñera cannot stop the advance of the struggle, and therefore it is guaranteed that the next government of Bachelet will face the same scenario as the current government. So far all that Bachelet assures the bourgeoisie is more time to try to wear the struggles of the mass movement, and thus try to impose measures to ensure the profits for the capitalists.

Presidential election — the Marcel Claude factor Trying to put the demands of the street into the presidential election, as a way to gain time, has proved somewhat successful for the capitalists.

Major struggles continue to occur in the country, but the election is in-

creasingly placed at the centre, and thus the Chilean people waiting impatiently to remove the current government and through the vote deliver their support to some candidate who solves their most pressing demands.

This short-term solution also carries a great risk for the capitalists — that the most advanced vanguard can take their own candidate who takes in the elections a program of government that breaks with the traditional parties.

This risk has already materialized, and today there is a candidate who, with the prestige due to the support given to the student movement in 2011, has become the spokesman for those who fight.

Marcel Claude has managed to drag thousands of students and workers to an anti-capitalist program that contains among other measures: nationalization of copper and expelling the multinationals, free education and health, end of the AFPs and their nationalization, constituent assembly, support to all struggles and not calling for a vote under any conditions in the second round to Bachelet. This gave a voice to a significant segment of those who are mobilized in the streets.

While his program is of radical democracy, and not directly socialist Claude places himself increasingly to the left on his public speeches, in direct solidarity with every struggle happening today in Chile. Organized behind him there is a host of left organizations, neo reformist (Castro-Chavist) and revolutionary. Together with these, and even more importantly, thousands of new fighters see in Claude a real option to end the economic model and the Constitution of Pinochet, and they are giving active support.

Within the Movement to Socialism (MST), we believe that to realize Claude’s proposal will carry out the democratic revolution aborted by the Coalition when the dictatorship of Pinochet ended. We have decided to support this nomination, convinced that the massive youth and student support opens great opportunities to talk directly with all the vanguard that broke with the Communist Party and the Coalition in that fight and along with many of them we can build a revolutionary party to give a socialist solution to the crisis. ●●●●●

Growth of struggles in Colombia There is an intensification of labour, agrarian and popular struggles against the plans of the Santos’ Government. In this situation the national leadership of Socialist Alternative (AS), Considering: 1. That the policy of the Santos Government extremely deepened plans of his predecessor Uribe, signing more than 15 FTAs which threaten Colombian Food Sovereignty (...)

2. That in order to satisfy the voracious appetites of the large multinationals, it applies a strategic plan, called Five Locomotives, of which the energy mining sector constitutes the most dangerous of them, because it allows the plundering of natural resources (...)

3. That by pretending to differentiate himself from the government of Uribe, Mr Santos boasts of having restored the land to the peasants, with his land law, when in fact this is purely symbolic, because it aims to make a pantomime of a return of only 10% of the land (it is estimated that a total of more than 8 million hectares were expropriated) to 450 000 families (out of 4 million displaced persons) who were taken with bloodshed and fire. (...)

5. That for the implementation of these and other aggressive policies against rural and city workers he approves a reactionary citizen security law. Criminalizing social protest, (...)

6. That product of the above, the sectors are organized and defend themselves to face the onslaught appealing to the mobilization, walkouts and 49

meeting in Bogota on August 16 and 17, issued a policy statement that we reproduce in substantial parts.

strikes, as called by the Coffee and Agrarian, transport and health workers for August 19. (...).

7. That the Government continues to privatize public education through colleges in concession or by agreement and sweeps away the rights of teachers with the implementation of Statute 1278. (...)

Resolves: 1. To support the mobilization of these important agricultural, union and social sectors, this is a legitimate protest against the excesses of current government policy. We also share the pronouncement of the CUT (United Confederation of Workers of Colombia) and social organizations to the summon of the national meeting.

2. To reject the Public Safety and Military Jurisdiction Act, which allows the government to give war treatment to the just struggle of the workers and the people, (...) Furthermore, we demand the immediate release of the arrested and / or prosecuted fighters.

3. Accordingly, we demand real guarantees for the mobilization and protest. (...)

4. To call on all social sectors, unions and leftist politicians, human rights defenders, labour federations and other social organizations to partici-

pate in the National People Meeting convened for August 31 and September 1 in Bogota to unify the people’s needs in a Single Statement and a battle plan to prepare the national civic strike.

5. To call all youth to enthusiastically join the fight with their most important claim — Education is a right, not a business. (...)

6. We call upon the entire Colombian teaching fraternity to rally together with other sectors in conflict and urge the Colombian Federation of Teachers (FECODE) leadership to withdraw immediately from the tripartite commission together with its neoliberal Single Teaching Statute project, demanding the repeal of Statute 1278 and that all teachers be incorporated into Statute 2277 Statute, as true Single Statute.

7. We fraternally propose to the FARC to suspend, while the strike lasts, negotiations in Havana, so they can give all their support to the developing national strikes, suspending all military offensives that give arguments to this Santos government to suppress the protest.

8. We call all the grassroots on national strike to not place any trust in the large producers, or in opportunist Uribe’s followers who call to strike, in the leadership of the protest or the negotiation of the same.

Against Santos and his warmongering

emergency plan. Long live the struggles of workers in conflict, the national agrarian strike, health workers and truckers strike and the strike at Drummod. Down with the FTA, the undemocratic Public Safety Act and Law 100: Health is not a business, it is a right. Enough of robbery with the price of fuel and tolls that raise the cost of living. No looting of our natural resources by multinationals and government. By the professionalism and dignity of the teaching profession, everyone in the Statute 2277.

Outraged Teachers Socialist Alternative, section of the IWU–FI

Global News

Panama Thousands of signatures for the nomination of Priscilla Vazquez

dents, workers, housewives, small business owners, have supported us with their signature, to them we propose a work program to legislate for the people. A program truly independent of the bosses and their government. “ The Party of the Workers of Panama (PTP) are part of the Committee and called to support fighter candidates for all elected offices. They say, “The Panamanian people deserve the opportunity to present ourselves united against corruption, the selling of the the country, privatization of health and education, against the high cost of living, repression against the people and against the forces organized in unions and socially. If we fail to do so we will continue facing a scenario of the country being disputed by those who have always ruled in favour of the interests of the national bourgeoisie and the service of multinational companies and governments like the United States and Europe. In favour of a minority group, where the rich keep getting richer and the poor getting poorer. [...] Our task is to maximize the forces of labour and the popular movement in an electoral front of the popular sectors.”

Peru March and strikes against Ollanta Humala

At the close of this edition, Priscilla Vasquez’s candidacy to a congressional seat for the 2014 elections approaches its goal. With 2,500 out of 4,000 signatures refined, equivalent to 4% of the second largest electoral circuit in the country (8-8, Juan Diaz, Rio Abajo, Parque Lefevre and San Francisco) that the undemocratic Electoral Code requires to pick up the nominations by independent candidacies.

As the Bulletin N º 2 of the Support Committee to Priscilla Vasquez In Parliament states, “Men, women, young people and retirees, professionals, stu50

On July 27, more than 20 000 people from various trade unions, political and social organizations, took to the streets of Lima, to reject the continuation of neoliberalism and questioning the permanence of Ollanta Humala in government.

Thousands of young people took to the streets rejecting the socalled “repartitions”, as happened in the Congress of the Republic between the various parliamentary groups, dividing as quota seats for the Constitutional Court, the Central Reserve Bank and the Ombudsman’s Office. Rejecting also laws criminalizing protests by indigenous and social leaders who are demanding to ensure the process

of prior consultation with the population, to any concession of territory for the exploitation of mineral resources, gas, etc.

Among the labour unions were the federations of public workers (CTE, CITE, JOIN, among others), demanding the repeal of the recently enacted Civil Service Act, which affects a number of rights of workers (job security, unionization, collective bargaining, strike, etc.).

Also present were doctors of MINSA, the federation of nurses and medical technologists, demanding wage increases among other things.

The most important strike during the months of July and part of August is undoubtedly the strike of health professionals. Doctors of MINSA began the indefinite strike on July 16, demanding increases to their remuneration scale; there were a total 65 000 health professionals who stopped their duties. There was agreement on the suspension of the strike, after almost thirty days, having achieved the appointment for contracted physicians at 100% and a salary increase of 1,250 new soles.

The strike of nurses has had the same end, managing an increase of between 1,000 and 1,200 soles in their remuneration scale from September; nurses currently earn an average of 1,239 soles (US$ 439).

Freedom for Bradley Manning, convicted by imperialism!

Young soldier Bradley Manning, more than three years after his arrest in Iraq, was sentenced in a military court to 35 years in prison for leaking more than 700,000 classified Pentagon documents to WikiLeaks. He was also expelled from the army in disgrace. Manning also suffered discrimination for being homosexual.

We reiterate what we said as part of the global campaign in his defence — Bradley Manning has had a very courageous behaviour. With the theft of secret documents showing imperialist crimes, he has done a great service to humanity and to the people of the United States. We continue claiming for his freedom. Those who should be prisoners are the genocidal Yankees, who in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan and many parts of the world have been bombing and killing thousands of people.

The funeral of Mohamed Brahmi after leaving his home in the Tunis suburb of Ariana

Statement on the situation in Tunisia and the murder of Mohamed Brahmi Six months after the murder of Chokry Belaid, the Popular Front of Tunisia was struck again by the atrocious murder of Mohamed Brahmi, founder of Popular Current. We condemn this attack on the left, the only force that can give a revolutionary perspective for the Tunisian people.

1. We express our solidarity with the family of the murdered comrade, his party and the Popular Front. We demand the investigation and punishment of perpetrators and political leaders responsible for this crime. Finally, we denounce Belaid's murder remains unpunished.

2. The Ennahda government has the full political responsibility for the murders of Brahmi and Belaid because it supports impunity. The Troika has not solved the problems of the workers and the people of Tunisia that led to the revolution that toppled Ben Ali. In fact, they did not advance to the break with the old regime (to purge the security forces and justice). Instead, its neoliberal policies worsened social conditions, unemployment and misery of workers and young Tunisians.

3. After the fall of Morsi in Egypt, the Tunisian people began to organize to topple the Islamist government. We support their struggle to reclaim the revolution and put it on the way to meet the needs of young

51

people and workers. However, we must warn against the dangers of military intervention, the army stands as Bonaparte, above social confrontations and try to impose their rules, which have nothing to do with the people's aspirations. The call of the Egyptian General Al-Sisi for popular support for repression deepened divisions and seeks to gain legitimacy to have carte blanche. The current crackdown against the rank and file of the Muslim Brotherhood opens the door to the repression against the left and the popular forces. The only guarantee for the continuity of the revolution is the permanent mobilization of young people and workers in the fight for democratic and social rights.

4. We believe the only way to respond to the needs of the Tunisian masses is to put the country's resources in the service of the struggle against unemployment, with public hiring plans, nonpayment of the debt and the breakup with the European Union, which protects the interests of multinationals responsible for looting the country. This should link to the deepening of democratic break with the repressive apparatus of the old regime. If the revolution does not advance its social objectives, democratic achievements are in danger, and military intervention will only

lead to a setback.

5. The deepening of the revolution is impossible if done with political alliances that do not have a clear plan for the defence of the interests of workers, peasants and the army of unemployed youth abandoned by the policy of the Islamic government. The choice is not just between Islam and secularism, since both can impose a neoliberal policy.

6. This is why we believe that there is no revolutionary perspective with sectors of the former regime, as Nidaa Tounes, or with the formation of a national salvation government. Only a government of the workers, and for the workers with no ties to the old regime or neoliberal Islamism, formed by the revolutionary forces and the labour organizations, political and trade union, can respond to the Tunisian masses.

Istanbul, July 26, 2013 Coordination Committee IWU–FI / ILC — International Workers Union–Fourth / International Liaison Committee (Workers Front, Turkey, Internationalist League, Spanish State) GSI (Internationalist Socialist Group, France)