Correspondência Internacional N: 34

Nº 34 • May • August 2014 • IWU-FI

Argentina

Kirchnerism in its final stretch General strike 10 April

Teachers strike in Buenos Aires province

Internacional Unification Congress

Summary Presentation....................................1 Turkey Massacre in privatised mine in Turkey.21 Nº 34 • May • August 2014

Brazil

Magazine of the UIT–FI International Wyorkers Unity – Fourth International

Unification Congress.....................2 International Coordination Offices Hipólito Yrigoyen 1115 Buenos Aires Argentina Telephones +54 11 4383 7733 +54 11 4383 4047 Internet www.uit-ci.org

A strategic unity......................................... 4 Advancing in the reconstruction of the Fourth International.................................. 6

Wave of strikes hits the government of Dilma and the PT.....................................22

A step forward in the reconstruction of the Fourth International........................... 7

The reactivation of the shipyards has resurrected the workers’ struggle.......24

A true revolutionary alternative............. 8

Argentina

Mexico

Kirchnerism in its final stretch................ 9

Against the counter reforms imposed by the government...................................26

Left Front: A great pole of class independence............................................11

Venezuela

Successful Militant Trade Union Gathering...................................................13

Layout Isabel Sanchez Daniel Iglesias English Translation Daniel Iglesias

Venezuela and the spectre of social unrest..........................................................29

Ukraine Contribution Argentina: Ar$ 20 Brazil: R$ 5 Rest of Latin America: US$ 2 Europe: € 5 Rest of the World: US$ 3

The Social and Political drama of Ukraine.......................................................15

For a response of the workers and popular sectors to the crisis.................30

Global News Spanish State

China: More and more strikes...............32

For a general strike: out with Rajoy.....18

Cuba: New foreign investment law......32

Panrico: the longest strike......................20

USA: Fast food workers mobilise.........32

Backcover Signed articles do not necessarily reflect the position of the leadership of the IWU-FI but that of their authors.

Egypt: Down with the death sentence to 720 political prisoners!

Presentation

Izquierda Socialista in Buenos Aires and (right) Lucha Internationalista in Tunisia, in support to the Syrian revolution.

Thus unity was forged.

Presentation

Unity of the revolutionaries

This is a special issue of the magazine International Correspondence whose theme highlights the call to the Unity Congress of the IWU–FI with the International Liaison Committee (ILC, formed by Lucha Internacionalista, Spanish State and İşçi Demokrasisi Partisi, Turkey) and the Partido Obrero Socialista (POS– MAS, Mexico). Several pages are devoted to this conference to be held in Buenos Aires during the first days of August. This is a very important step in the unity of revolutionaries in the fundamental task of advancing in building revolutionary parties in each country and an international organization, with a view to rebuilding the Fourth International founded by Leon Trotsky. This merge of revolutionary

organizations in Latin America and Europe comes at a right time, in the midst of great workers, youth and popular struggles in the world, which are demanding new union and political alternatives. The fight to overcome the crisis of revolutionary leadership is the priority task.

The call to this event is an open invitation to the participation of the fighters to meet and discuss about our goals and policy proposals, with which we add our contributions to the burning issues of world reality.

So you will also find in this issue notes on Argentina, Brazil, the Spanish state, Mexico, Turkey, Ukraine and Venezuela.

Contacting us: Argentina: Izquierda Socialista: opinaellector@izquierdasocialista.org.ar — Bolivia: b.bolivia.izquierda.socialista@gmail. com — Brazil: Corrente Socialista dos Trabalhadores : combatesocialista@gmail.com — Chile: Movimiento Socialista de los Trabajadores: mst_solidaridad@gmail.com — Colombia: Alternativa Socialista: alternativasocialistauitci@hotmail.com — United States: Socialist Core: socialistcore@gmail.com — Panama: Propuesta Socialista: propuestapanamauit@hotmail. com — Peru: Unios en la Lucha: unios_cc@hotmail.com — Venezuela: Partido Socialismo y Libertad: 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)

Calling to the Unification Congress

Unification Congress

The Coordinating Committee UWU–FI / ILC in solidarity with Panrico workers, Barcelona, April 2014

Calling to the Unification Congress IWU–FI and ILC (IDP-LI) We transcribe the call to the unification congress that will take place in Buenos Aires from 31 July to 3 August 2014.

The International Workers Unity – Fourth International (IWU–FI) and the International Liaison Committee (İşçi Demokrasisi Partisi, IDP and Lucha Internacionalista, LI) decided to unify.

To do so we convened a conference in early August 2014. It will also feature the incorporation of the Partido Obrero Socialista – Movimiento al Socialismo (POS –MAS) of Mexico. This unity of forces is the result of of building a common response to the main problems of the international class struggle.

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Capitalist crisis and workers struggle We live in a terrible crisis of capitalism, which around the world hits the working class and is sinking the living conditions of the masses: destruction of millions of jobs, wages of misery, hunger and disease, destruction of public health and education systems, reversal of democratic rights, increased repression... They want to present this situation as a transient deregulation of capitalism, but as Marxists we know we are in a structural crisis caused by the system itself and that inevitably pushes it to further destruction of the productive forces.

Against this offensive, the workers and the people resist and fight. Special mention required for the revolutions in North Africa and the Middle East,

in which dictatorships that ensured the imperialist order for decades have fallen, in which workers and especially the youth, arose for bread, work and freedom and which spread in the region like wildfire. There is a permanent attempt by the counterrevolution and imperialism to defeat and stop these processes, such as the genocide of val-Assad in Syria or Al Sisi’s bloody coup in Egypt. But the masses resist under the rubble in towns and cities destroyed by the Syrian dictatorship, while new protests confront the power of the Egyptian military.

Our place is beside the peoples and the workers and young people, supporting the revolutionary left.

This process in North Africa and the Middle East impacted the world and has fuelled responses as the popular rebellion in Turkey (Gezi Park – Taksim Square). At

Calling to the Unification Congress the head of the resistance of European workers against the austerity plans that the governments of the European Union and the troika (IMF – ECB – EU) dictate is the Greek working class that has over twenty general strikes. Another expression of this struggle is the massive rally in Madrid on 22 March, which was not controlled by the big unions. We support the struggles seeking to unite them into a European general strike, for the defeat of austerity plans, against payment of the debt and for the break with the European Union.

There have been prominent mining strikes in South Africa, in the Indian textile workers and popular mobilizations in Asia. In Latin America there have been very important struggles against the adjustment that were expressed in the June days in Brazil, in the general strikes in Argentina and Paraguay and student demonstrations of Chile. There is a growing political erosion of the centreleft which had created expectations in the Latin American and in the world left, especially the Chavist government of Venezuela.

Building a political alternative At the forefront of these struggles appear new comrades willing to give their best, to go to the end, in the Syrian streets, in the Egyptian textile companies, in the Greek strikes or in the Brazilian demonstrations. Antibureaucratic sentiment grows, the old union leadership are questioned, control of the mobilizations is claimed from the assemblies. They face the power of the state and its repressive forces, imperialism, the bosses and the governments in their service.

They face the trade union bureaucracy accommodated to manage the crumbs that fell from the capitalist table and who attempt to disable any struggle or directly betray it. They must also confront the false political solutions, as Chavism, political Islam, or the Ukrainian bourgeois leadership.

Neither is a solution the reformism of those who say that it is enough with democratizing the state and the system as Syriza in Greece.

But the trade union and political alternative to the old leaderships that fetter the working class to capitalism, and

peoples to the dictates of imperialism, will not be the result of spontaneous action. Revolutionary parties which are a fighting tool for these activists have to be built. Parties are needed which make the problems of the workers their own, which are part of the working class, youth and popular sectors, and build with them the answers to their needs. Parties which, without losing their political projects, avoid sectarianism; because this is incompatible with the success of the struggles of workers and peoples.

Parties whose objective is not to have a new apparatus but to contribute to the struggle for workers’ governments and socialism. The lack of such instrument causes defeats and setbacks, even though workers and youth demonstrate an unquestionable ability to fight. To help overcome this problem is our goal.

We merge taking the pillars of revolutionary Marxisvvm, of Leninism, of the Fourth International. The theory of permanent revolution is essential for a dialogue with the trade union and youth vanguard of Tunisia or Egypt, to explain that there is no possibility of a revolution in stages. And that to even achieve democratic demands it is necessary for the revolution to join with anti-capitalist tasks, and become a socialist revolution.

We vindicate the currency of the Transitional Program on which the Fourth International was founded, which aims to respond to and from the most pressing needs of the masses to figtht resolutely for the workers to take power and build a socialist society. The fight for the working class to assume the defence of individual and collective rights, to lead the struggle of the oppressed against the system. Building parties for fighting based on democratic centralism: full freedom in the discussion and unity in action. Parties that rejecting all bureaucratic and pyramidal conceptions defend workers’ democracy.

We claim the need of a revolutionary international organization facing conceptions as Castro- Chavism which speaks of socialism for the XXI century while justifying the capitalist restoration in China and Cuba, and which rules facing the workers and agreeing with multinational like in Venezuela. They have a counter-revolutionary policy that supports the genocidal regime in Syria

and present to the world the reactionary Iranian regime as an ally of the workers and youth. Today Castro-Chavism tries to redirect the re-composition of the old Stalinism and is an obstacle to the construction of a revolutionary leadership.

We vindicate the method by which we come to the merger. We put at the centre the problems of world class struggle.

Based on these vital issues we elaborated and discussed to decide how to act. We continued discussing agreements and differences in a democratic, candid and loyal form of discussion. We come to the Congress with a principled framework and a common method, without solving all the issues but convinced that the new organization will be better able to answer the challenges of the class struggle.

We believe that the announcement of the unification is important in a situation marked by the division and fragmentation of the revolutionary forces. This Congress is also a call for other revolutionary organizations and fighters to work together in order to build an International. Our goal is to achieve the union of the revolutionaries.

We avoid all self-proclamation, all sectarianism. We reject reformism trying to make us believe that there is solution within capitalism, which can be humanized.

We join to continue to support more vigorously the struggles of the workers and peoples against imperialism and their governments, so that the capitalists pay for the crisis. The result of the unification of the IWU–FI with the ILC (IDP, LI) plus the addition of the POS–MAS is still far from resolving the historical crisis of leadership, but it is a bold step with the intent that the IWU–FI be the engine of the reconstruction of the Fourth International. Today more than ever the choice is socialism or barbarism.

International Workers Unity – Fourth International (IWU–FI) International Liaison Committee, formed by İşçi Demokrasisi Partisi (IDP, Turkey) and Lucha Internacionalista (LI, Spanish State) Partido Obrero Socialista – Movimiento al Socialismo (POS – MAS), Mexico.

Barcelona, 19 April, 2014 3

Calling to the Unification Congress

The convenors speak

The Internationalist Gathering of Istambul in November 2012 was an important step in the process of merger

A strategic unity Miguel Sorans • IWU–FI After more than two years of political exchanges and internationalist tasks common in the early days of August we will converge in a common organization with the fellow revolutionaries of the International Liaison Committee (Lucha Internacionalista, and İşçi Demokrasisi Partisi [Workers Democracy Party]) and Mexico’s POS–MAS. This event is a source of great joy for all the leaders and members of all our organizations.

It is a mutual joy because, although this is a modest step, we come together old and new Morenist militants who have been fighting for decades to keep building revolutionary parties in each of our countries without abandoning internationalism, without succumbing to the daunting task of continuing to fight for the reconstruction of the Fourth International.

This unit has solid foundations and is strategic, not in the sense we agree 100 percent, it would be impossible, but because we have a principled framework based on key agreements in the current revolutionary process, such as in the policies and slogans for 4

the revolutions of North Africa and the Middle East and on the nefarious role of Castro-Chavism, as reflected in the minutes of the agreement of Barcelona which we are publishing and all statements and common actions carried out in these two years. And with something which is essential, after years of crisis in our Morenist current, which is working with a common method of respect, fraternity and loyalty to each of the organizations and the resolutions taken.

The Unification Congress will take place in Buenos Aires on 31 July, 1, 2 and 3 August. And from there a new IWU–FI will emerge, strengthened by this merger that will give a qualitative leap in value for the breadth of leaders and militants and for its extension to Europe and Mexico. It is not a simple addition but something else. The new IWU–FI will have a presence in 15 countries in Latin America and Europe.

The IWU–FI has always acknowledged itself as an organization that is part of the international Trotskyist movement. We strive for the reconstruction of the Fourth

International founded by Leon Trotsky in 1938, but we do not consider ourselves to be the Fourth International. We fight for the unity of revolutionaries, Trotskyist or not, to support a principled revolutionary socialist program to rebuild the International and revolutionary parties in each country, rejecting all forms of opportunism, sectarianism and selfproclamation.

We strive to continue the legacy of our master Nahuel Moreno, who

Nahuel Moreno

Calling to the Unification Congress died in 1987 and who fought Mandelist revisionism and always sought the unity of Trotskyists and the revolutionary.

He said, correctly: “Revisionism has fulfilled its disintegrating role and keeps trying by all means to prevent the International and its parties from transforming themselves in authentic Trotskyist parties” (Thesis XLI, The Transitional Program Today). We follow the same combat and, as Moreno pointed out, in the task of rebuilding the Fourth International “we will not leave to their fate any militant or organisation claiming to be Trotskyist.

On the contrary, the reconstruction of the Fourth International also means that we will cease to have a defensive attitude of the principles and of the Transitional Program, to move to an offensive attitude to defeat definitely revisionism, with a bold policy of proposing common activities, of joint committees, with any honest Trotskyist group that, even if it disagrees with some of our points or with our interpretation of the Trotskyist principles, considers the unity of Trotskyism indispensable.

1 May 2012 in Tunisia, supporting the Arab revolution

This is why we make a fraternal appeal to any Trotskyist comrade or organisation that is willing to discuss with us and to make joint actions on the base of Trotskyism” (Thesis XLI, The Transitional Program Today).

The path of the reconstruction of the Fourth International is strategic.

And we know it doesn’t come just by the growth isolated of the IWU– FI, but as the result of unities with

different organizations or revolutionary currents. We also recognize that it is not an easy or quick task. But we are optimistic about the future of this reconstruction because there are thousands upon thousands of fighters in the world who come to fight and rebel against old apparatuses and are in search of new revolutionary political alternatives.◘

Barcelona Agreement The Coordinating Committee of the IWU–FI / ILC considers that: • In 2012, around a joint response to one of the centres of world class struggle, the revolutions in North Africa and the Middle East, we exchanged materials and publications, travelled to Tunisia together, developed a first joint statement and agreed to move forward in the convening of the Istanbul Gathering. This represented a leap in our relationship, because on the basis of agreement on the central resolutions of the world class struggle (revolutions in North Africa and the Middle East, Europe, and international campaign to support Chirino’s candidacy in the Venezuelan elections), we set up the Coordinating Committee and gave ourselves a year to assess if we could move towards a merger.

• In 2013, there was significant progress not only in joint political elaboration (international statement

with Syrian organizations, Brazilian mobilizations, assassination of Mohamed Brahmi and situation in Tunisia), but also in others which while having been written by one organization, they could be taken up by the other (assassination of Choukri Belaid written by LI, Egypt coup written by the IWU, or all material about Taksim written by Workers Front ...). In this year contacts were deepened with the invitation to participate in the IEC of the IWU where LI members attended, and the start of regular contact via Skype as Coordinating Committee.

• In these two years we witnessed: a) a progressive approach in the analysis and policy toward the centres of world class struggle; b) a methodological respect to agreements, differences and different rhythms of each organization; and c) that there are still theoretical differences that may have an effect on political analysis today.

• After the respective conferences

of LI and IDP approved the merger with the IWU, and the February IEC had positioned the IWU in the same direction. Additionally we take into account the decision of POS–MAS (Mexico) to join the IWU-FI in the next world congress.

The Coordinating Committee agrees to: 1. To make a joint call to the next congress of the IWU-FI, as unification congress with the aim of further promoting the reconstruction of the Fourth International. This text will be consulted with the POS–MAS. 2.The World Congress of unification will have open political discussion sessions, with invitations by common agreement. (Internal organizational points follow.)

Coordinating Committee IWU–FI / ILC 19 April 2014 5

Calling to the Unification Congress

Advancing in the reconstruction of the Fourth International

By Josep Lluis del Alcázar on behalf of Lucha Internacionalista (Spanish State)

Among the comrades of Lucha Internacionalista the prospect of the merger raises great expectations; we open a new phase of construction.

We had a hard time since the excision of the PRT in 1999 and the establishment of Lucha Internacionalista, as sympathizing section of the International Workers League–Fourth International (IWL–FI), suffering from isolation and boycott from the international leadership which ended with a bureaucratic exclusion to avoid the substantive political debates raised.

We then constituted a liaison committee (ILC), with Turkish İşçi Cephesi [Workers Front] (now Işçi Demokrasisi Partisi — Democratic Workers Party), to deal in common internationalist initiatives and relationships with other groups, as well as tracking the construction of our groups.

We established contact with the IWU. To understand how we come to a merger Congress, the discussions that allowed us to define a broad agreement on strategic and principled issues are as important as working together in the centres of the international class struggle and the method used in this period. We verified that we can intervene with a policy built in common in the revolutions of North 6

Africa and the Middle East or in the fight against Castro-Chavism. We share the importance of internationalization of struggles and that this is a hallmark in the construction of our parties (campaigns for Chirino nomination in Venezuela, against repression in Las Heras, in Gezi Park / Taksim Square, Panrico ...). And this process of joint work and discussion of the differences is conducted in a framework of transparency and respect, facilitating the various rhythms of each organization.

The merger with the IWU is part of the battle to rebuild the Fourth International. The IWU to come out of the merger — with the ILC and the POS (Mexico) — will still be far from being the revolutionary International required by the international working class, but it will have further strength to be the engine needed to give impetus to this battle. The very fact of the merger happens in a period marked by ruptures is a call to other organizations and comrades to join forces.

There are comrades who tell us, how it is possible that more than 75 years after the founding of the Fourth International in Paris, we still talk of its reconstruction? Organizations do not expire by the passage of time; organizations are useful until they are dissolved, as the First International, or used to destroy that for which they were created, as happened to the Second and the Third International, which were founded to extend the socialist revolution but ended up being their instruments of the counterrevolution.

The Fourth International was founded following the traditions of the First International and the Communist Manifesto, of the Second International

and the first four congresses of the Third International. It led the battle for the political revolution when Stalinism degenerated the workers’ state in the USSR. The Fourth International has experienced long periods of isolation under the weight of the powerful Stalinist apparatus. There have also been currents that have revised its principles and renounced the battle for the revolution. But there are forces which have resisted and had continued raising its banner and its program, keeping alive the struggle for building it.

The program of the Fourth International is based on the premise that capitalism has exhausted the creative capacity of productive forces; this makes possible and necessary the socialist revolution.

We are in the imperialist stage that Lenin characterized, of decadence, of wars and revolutions. Crises no longer regulate the system, but rather unleash the brutal destruction of these productive forces created. And we live this reality: hunger, unemployment, and poverty, destruction of public health and education systems.

There is no reform of capitalism, and the dichotomy of Marx, socialism or barbarism, acquires its full dimension.

It is urgent to build the political instruments that give perspective to the struggle of resistance of the workers and people: revolutionary parties in each country and the reconstruction of the Fourth International. ◘

Calling to the Unification Congress

A step forward in the reconstruction of the Fourth International By the Central Committee of İşçi Demokrasisi Partisi [Workers Democracy Party], formerly İşçi Cephesi [Workers Front] of Turkey In the month of April, at the international conference of İşçi Demokrasisi Partisi (IDP), we unanimously decided to join with the International Workers Unity – Fourth International (IWU–FI) as a step forward in the building of our party and in the reconstruction of the Fourth International. We believe that the unification of both the International Liaison Committee (IDP is part of the ILC, with Lucha Internationalista of the Spanish State), and the Partido Obrero Socialista of Mexico, with the IWU–FI will strengthen the international Morenist current and will also contributesto the IWU–FI becoming the engine of reconstr uction of the Fourth International.

The decision of merging with the IWU–FI is consistent with the internationalist challenge of our current İşçi Cephesi (lately in a legalization process with the name of IDP) since its founding 35 years ago, when we broke with the United Secretariat of Mandelism.

Until then we fought against the ultraleftist propaganda and then the eurocommunist opportunism of the Unified Secretariat. Finally we separated from it in 1979 after their betrayal in the Nicaraguan revolution. However, it took several years to connect with the Bolshevik Fraction, which Nahuel Moreno lead internationally, and then with the International Workers League (IWL) which he founded in 1982, because of the repression of the military dictatorship which took power in Turkey in the late 1980s with a coup and which also destroyed our party.

From the second half of the 1980s we managed to rebuild İşçi Cephesi with the best Turkish cadres and militants of revolutionary Trotskyism, always with a view to build the party in the mobilizations of the workers and popular masses and with an internationalist vision of becoming part of the the

İşçi Demokrasisi Partisi launching rally, Istanbul, January 2014

process of reconstruction of the Fourth International.

In 1995 we adhered to IWL–FI in full political and ideological crisis of this organization and the world left in general, shocked by opportunism and revisionism that escalated after the dissolution of the Soviet Union and other bureaucratic workers states since the revolutions of the East in 1989. We helped the new leadership of the IWL to overcome its crisis. However, five years later when the same liquidationism tried to converge in our party, the leadership of the IWL opted to align with the opportunistic sector. Hence our experience with this organization ended with political and method problems, which unfortunately left the section of the IWL in ashes.

In the last ten years we lived two major mergers with revolutionary Trotskyist groups, which strengthened the party, making it easier to participate more strongly in worker and student struggles. Meanwhile, we formed the International Liaison Committee (ILC) with Lucha Internationalista of the Spanish State for expanding the international activity of the party. Through the ILC we tried to give political answers to the most important global struggles. We got in contact with revolutionary parties in Latin America, Europe and North Africa in order to participate in the processes of struggle and construction. Especially our work with the Tunisian organizations in

the heat of the revolution in this country expanded our international space where we strengthened our internationalist collaboration with the IWU–FI. The meeting in Istanbul in 2012 was the turning point where we extended our ties with the IWU, coinciding in the analysis and policy responses we have to give to the world struggles and, most importantly, facing the revolutions in the Middle East and North Africa.

Now we are in the process of merging with the IWU in a single international organization, hoping to make it the engine of the reconstruction of the Fourth International, a task inherited from Trotsky, Moreno and all revolutionary Marxists of earlier generations. We know it is not an easy task. However, the ongoing revolutions in the Middle East, the protests have begun to expand in Europe and the struggles of the workers and popular masses in Latin America; we believe they create better conditions for participation in the revolutionary process, for the dissemination of our slogans and the building of revolutionary parties, both at national level and the Fourth International itself.

The reconstruction of the Fourth International as the Leninist and Trotskyist party of world revolution has been and always will be the main task of İşçi Cephesi, and now IDP. ◘

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Calling to the Unification Congress

A true revolutionary alternative

By Enrique Gomez, member of the Executive Committee, POS-MAS (Mexico)

In August, we will participate in the Unification Congress between the International Workers Unity – Fourth International, Lucha Internationalista (Spanish State), İşçi Demokrasisi Partisi (Turkey), and the Partido Obrero Socialista– Movimiento al Socialismo (Mexico), after a process of discussion, activities and internationalist campaigns, where we found a common framework. This is excellent news, because it marks a process of unity, after long years of dispersion and divisions in the revolutionary movement.

We arrive at this Congress after suffering painful breakups, such as we faced with the International Workers League— which all of us that today are regrouping were founders of— due to bureaucracy in its leadership, which kept expelling any organization which dared to express criticism to its leadership, far, far away from the teachings of its founder and main leader: Nahuel Moreno. It was particularly painful that it has refused to carry out a solidarity campaign with the great strike of workers in Euskadi, in El Salto, Jalisco, which faced a powerful German transnational.

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Thereafter we began a long sojourn in search of an alternative international revolutionary organization, which led us to found the International Revolutionary Current (CIR) in 2009, with whom we edited Pluma Magazine for some years. Unfortunately this was unsuccessful due to differences between the organizations we were part of it, as well as its failure to comply with the agreements, which showed that we did not agree on what type of organization needs to be built at the present time.

A clear revolutionary alternative is needed, based on revolutionary Marxism, the historical experience of Bolshevism, which led the first workers revolution, which built the Third International. An alternative based on the historical heritage of Trotskyism, the only current that faced the bureaucratization of those enormous conquests, which strove to keep building the tool that the working class needs to confront the imperialist offensive and its accomplices, the governments like Peña Nieto, who strictly applies the requirements of big business interests.

What finished convincing us to get closer to the IWU was its clear policy of class independence, against governments like Hugo Chavez in Venezuela, rejecting his call to build the “V International”, while agreeing with large multinationals, as well as their attempts to impose in the labour movement the construction of a new Trade Union Confederation controlled by his government, that reminded us of the subjugation of the Mexican

working class to the designs of the government of Lázaro Cárdenas, the real builder of the PRI regime we suffered for decades.

Because a Marxist revolutionary response to the current revolutionary processes— headed by the Arab revolution and its ongoing fight against dictators like al-Assad in Syria— is needed. Because with LI and IDP, it is campaigning to support the struggles of the European proletariat against the troika of the European Central Bank, European Union and US imperialism.

As in Latin America, where it develops the fight against the wild adjustment plans, against “nationalist” governments like Cristina Kirchner’s, taking a prominent role in the last national strike, after gaining a significant electoral victory, along with the Left and Workers Front, taking to congress federal and local deputies, representative of the demands of the Argentine working class.

And no doubt this alternative is today embodied by the IU, the most dynamic organization of revolutionary Marxism, because of its sound analysis and policy, of its program, although there are some nuances and possible differences. But what is most important is that we have a common base, a revolutionary democratic program and methodology based on democratic centralism, collecting the best traditions of Marxism. For this reason we consider a primary task our participation in this important Unification Congress, we call upon all organizations of revolutionary Marxism to join efforts to build this new alternative. ◘

Argentina

The strike of 10 April was conclusive

Kirchnerism in its final stretch Juan Carlos Giordano, Izquierda Socialista Elected Member of National Parliament for the Front of the Left and the Workers

A year and a half away from the 2015 presidential elections, there is already a clear result: we are witnessing the beginning of the end of Cristina Kirchner’s government.

A bourgeois replacement is being prepared through the anti-K [Kirchnerist] sectors of the Justicialist [Peronist] Party (PJ). The labour rise has taken a new leap with the second general strike in the “era K” that has just been taken place last 10 April. Militant trade unionism and the positions of the Left Front grow. In unity, they have been the protagonists of the largest and most combative May Day rally in Plaza de Mayo.

The Peronist government embodied by Cristina Kirchner, after eleven years, finds itself in what has been called its “end of cycle”. In last year’s legislative elections it lost

4 million votes. This showed the breaking of broad sectors with her government.

They concluded that this “decade” was won by the bankers (who continue to amass fortunes), multinationals like Barrick (which just fired half of its workers), Chevron (which keeps the oil reserves at Vaca Muerta), the automotive companies, international financial institutions (which get paid the foreign debt in cash) and so-called “national bourgeoisie”, i.e. the bosses tied to capitalist business sheltered under Kirchner (presidential figurehead Lazaro Baez, betting Tsar Cristobal Lopez, among others).

In its final stage, the government has decided to deepen the adjustment. It blamed a ‘‘speculative strike’’ for its brutal devaluation in January of the peso against the dollar (60 percent in one year). A measure which benefits the large bosses, especially the exporters. And with the increase in bank interest rates, in turn, it gave the banks large and growing profits.

The government lets run a brutal increase in prices, especially of food (45 percent last year), which has led to a wage loss like never before. Wage agreements were signed between 25/30 percent in instalments, which although far from the 18 percent the government originally wanted to give, are below an actual inflation estimated at 40 percent for this year.

At the same time, rate hikes are being implemented in Buenos Aires in water, gas and electricity bills (from 200 to 400 percent), that the labour rise had been freezing, but not so in the provinces, where increases have been very high in these years. Additionally, the government is bleeding the country with foreign debt payments. The government has now started negotiations with the Paris Club, paying a shameful and expensive compensation to Repsol after this multinational took our oil and gas. It has agreed once again with the IMF. And in the field of human rights, it has anointed the genocidal Cesar Milani 9

Argentina as head of the army, the first coming from “intelligence”, crowning thus an official policy of pursuing those who struggle, infiltrating labour marches and mass meetings. It has been trying to pass an antipickets law to regiment social protest. All this after having passed the Antiterrorist Act imposed by imperialism to apply against the fighters, after refusing to release from prosecution over 5,000 social activists and endorsing, as the president did in the legislative session in Congress this year, the life term to the Las Heras oil workers for fighting against the tax to wages in 2006.

In defence of the bosses’ profits and submission to the United States, is also the bosses opposition. In recent months there was a veritable parade to visit the mecca of imperialism: Macri, Carrio, Massa, Michetti, Sanz, Binner. They all seek Yankee blessing.

While they are partners in the national adjustment, the vast majority approved payments to Repsol, they are against the teachers and supported the devaluation.

Big general strike The working class has just starred on 10 April in a new general strike against the adjustment of Cristina and the governors.

The strike was also against the bosses’ opposition; because where they govern they also coincide with the adjustment tand, in broad strokes, with Cristina’s “model”.

The strike was the second in the Kirchnerist era; much greater than the last one on 20 November 2012, which had already been great. Then the UTA (bus

The Malvinas Argentinas teachers during the strike in Buenos Aires province

drivers’ union) and The Fraternity (train engine drivers’ union), did not stop. This time they did. In industry and the large automotive manufacturers there was no production or it was very low. In schools the strike was complete in most of the country.

Teachers, who were coming from a revolt in Buenos Aires province, imposing an indefinite strike and a partial victory against the Kirchnerist bureaucracy of Baradel, did not listen to the CTA of Yasky or CTERA (teachers’ unions), and did not go to work.

There was a clear contempt of official bureaucracy.

The strike was started from below.

The CGT of Moyano and Barrionuevo (in opposition) had to convene it because of the pressure from the rank and file and the teachers’ strike. They also called it to readjust and self-propose as replacement bureaucracy in 2015. And to shrink their space to militant trade unionism. Micheli’s CTA (state workers and unemployed), an

anti Peronist sector linked to the centre-left, joined the strike.

One of the “winners” of strike has been the militant trade unionism and the left, who achieved visibility with the pickets of conviction held on the day, as an actor and a very important part in the reality of the Argentine labour movement.

Millions of workers again gave a hard blow to the government. The middle class also joined, showing the important union and political break with the government and trade union bureaucracy. Defeated was the policy of adjustment and the official bureaucracy and strengthened the workers and militant unionism. The latter played a very prominent role. Many analysts recognize that is gaining on the union bureaucracy. There is a new generation of fighters who hates the bosses and the bureaucracy. A generation looking at the leaders who fight and are not sold, who are a way of organizing to confront low wages, adjustment, dismissals and suspensions.

PST: 40 years after Pacheco’s massacre On 29 May 1974 three militants of the PST – Partido Socialista de los Trabajadores [Socialist Workers Party] (predecessor of Izquierda Socialista) were killed at the hands of Triple A: Oscar “Hijitus” Meza (26), shipyard workers at Astarsa; Antonio “Toni” Moses (24), metalworker of Wobron, and Mario “Tano” Zidda (22 ), student.

Back then Juan Domingo Peron, who would die shortly after (1 July), was president. These were the first killings of the fascist gangs who later became known as the “Triple A”. Weeks before they had killed Inocencio “Indio” Fernandez, metalworker and militant of the PST at Pacheco.The PST had in that area a strong work in the union.

This is how Avanzada Socialista, the PST’s newspaper, reported the attack: “First a whistle sounded, similar to those used by police.

Then a shot and, after a tiny interval, a deafening burst of machine gun fire. Immediately, bursting the door and jumping from rooftops and the terrace, 15 murdering thugs, armed with long guns, entered amid blows and insults. The six comrades present were thrown to the ground and kicked, while others entered the rooms and burned and destroyed everything in their path. Then, with their head full of blood from the beating, the six comrades were forced to enter the 10

Oscar “Hijitus” Meza, Mario “Tano” Zidda and Antonio “Toni” Moses cars. A few blocks away, the three female comrades were unloaded from the car and forced to go away. The cars continued traveling to an unknown destination, carrying the comrades in their trunks.

On the morning of the 30 [of May], the bodies of Meza, Zidda and Moses appeared in Pilar, riddled with bullets” (Avanzada Socialista, 4 June 1974).

Two days later, at the massive unitary demonstration called by the PST, Nahuel Moreno, on behalf of the party leadership, said: “These three comrades will live not only in the memory of our Party; they will continue to live in the memory of their class and all the anticapitalist, anti-imperialist and revolutionary fighter comrades of the country. They shall remain beside us despite having physically gone.”

Comrades Meza, Zidda and Moses, until Socialism always!

Argentina Strengthening the Militant Trade Union Gathering and the Left Front In this framework takes on greater significance the successful Militant Trade Union Gathering headed by railworkers leader Rubén “Pollo” [Chicken] Sobrero, and Carlos “Perro” [Dog] Santillan (SEOM, Municipal Workers Union, Jujuy province) and countless factory committees, councils of union delegates, regional and militant unions gathered in Atlanta Stadium on 15 March. A provisional Caucus was formed and provincial and regional meetings were convened to build a national, democratic and anti-bureaucratic pole (see Successful Gathering …).

On May Day in Plaza de Mayo, in turn, thousands of fighters convened by the militant trade unionism and the Left Front staged a great rally, of unity and for the struggle. Increasingly more and more people are looking sympathetically to the positions of anti-bureaucratic union leaders and the militant left.

The militant progress it the unions, with new union branches (as the militant Sutebas [teachers unions]), factor y committees and councils of delegates, happens because the union bureaucracy is leaving a large space. Both the official CGT and CTA, as the opposition CGT of Moyano and Barrionuevo. The latter, although they called the strike of 10 April, are also questioned. Moyano, after the strike of 20 November 2012, did not lift a finger, letting nearly a year and a half go until he had to call to the strike on 10 April, because of pressure from the rank and file.

He is not interested in calling for a plan of struggle to defeat the adjustment. Why not give continuity to the 10 April strike

with a new 36-hour strike as demanded by the vanguard and the Militant Trade Union Gathering? And hence the standing of Sobrero, Santillan, the leaders of the militant Sutebas, factory committees as in Kraft and many others, many of them grouped in the Militant Trade Union Gathering. They are gaining ground in the unions, promoting a trade unionism of struggle and workers democracy.

Another element of change in reality is the political break with the bosses’ parties and the search for a different outcome.

Peronism, for decades, instilled class conciliation, whereby workers could be saved by the hand of the bosses. And in many years there were alternatives through the bipartisanship PJ–UCR. But that is changing.

The electoral projections for 2015 point at the main bosses political parties measuring little. There is a huge fragmentation. None of them reaches 30 percent. They plunged in this crisis due to the Argentinazo of 2001. Rebellion which, at the cry of “throw them all out”, struck against the disastrous Alliance government (De la Rua–Chacho Alvarez). From there, the bipartisanship has not been able to recover.

In this context it becomes important the development of the Left and Workers Front (Partido Obrero [Workers Party, PO] – Partido de los Trabajadores Socialistas [Party of Socialist Workers, PTS] – Izquierda Socialista [Socialist Left, IS]). The FIT along with the militant trade unionism occupied the vacuum always left by the PJ and the union bureaucracy on May Day. They left playing second fiddle the rally of the Movimiento Socialista de los Trabajadores [Socialist Workers Movement, MST], Classist Combative Current (CCC) and the CTA led by Micheli,

organizations which promote already failed centre left solutions.

The seats of the FIT, both in the National Congress and in many provinces are well received by vast sectors. Supporting the struggles and presenting alternative projects for the working people. The 1.2 million votes won last year by the FIT was a clear demonstration of an electoral left turn that is still taking shape into 2014.

In Mendoza the Left Front comes from getting almost 15 percent of the vote. And polls today show that it maintains a national commitment floor of over a million wills.

Its leaders are rightly viewed as “different”.

Jorge Altamira, Angelica Lagunas, Christian Castillo, Nestor Pitrola, Nicolas Caño, Juan Carlos Giordano, Liliana Olivero, Laura Marrone, Monica Schlotthauer, Jose Castillo, Anisa Favoretti are referenced as leaders for the struggle as opposed to the practices of the bosses’ parties.

As it was said on the May Day rally, the challenge is to “overcome Peronism by the left”, giving steps in the path of class independence. A historical path which we must contest daily; putting forward the Left Front in the struggles and fundamental political events.

The task for the fighters and the left is to fight for a new strike of 36 hours with mobilization to Plaza de Mayo. To further develop combative unionism via the Militant Trade Union Gathering, promoting regional plenaries and national coordination. And to keep strengthening a political alternative of the workers and the left, calling to join the Left Front.

Izquierda Socialista puts all its effort and labour and student insertion, and its parliamentary seats, at the service of these strategic fights that have opened in our country. ◘

Left Front: A great pole of class independence Jose Castillo The Left Front (FIT) achieved in the legislative elections of October 2013, 1,182,620 votes nationwide.

A front formed by three parties that claim to be Trotskyist (PO, PTS and Izquierda Socialista) achieved the best electoral results for the left in

Argentina’s history. It won national and provincial parliamentarians and local councillors, as never before. With a revolutionary socialist program capitalized the workers and popular votes of a wide sector of masses. The task is to sustain

and strengthen the FIT as a political class alternative.

The FIT’s election result shows that that a change is happening. A workingclass and popular sector breaks with 11

Argentina student centres were won from the proKirchner currents of the centre-left (La Mella) and where Kirchnerism (La Campora) now holds no student centre.

The seats of the FIT are rotational

Plaza de Mayo, May Day Rally of the FIT and the Militant Trade Union Gathering

their traditional vote to Peronism in any of its variants. This bourgeois political movement, founded in the 1940s by General Peron, is the great obstacle in the consciousness of the Argentine labour movement. The result of the FIT has no precedent for its magnitude. It exceeded by 30 percent the votes that had been obtained in the mandatory primary (PASO) elections in August. It went from 900,371 to 1,182,620 votes. There was a growth of 100 percent compared to the first electoral presentation of the FIT in 2009. Then it received 512,000 votes.

Now three national MPs and a fourth seat in Cordoba, with Liliana Olivero of Izquierda Socialista removed with fraud, are achieved. Two provincial senators (Salta and Mendoza), more than 10 provincial MPs and several local government councillors were obtained. In the subsequent election in Salta on November 2013, the FIT through the PO’s slate, reached the highest point, with the left winning the capital of the province to the Peronist (PJ) party, leading by 11 percentage points. Thus the left achieved four provincial MPs, eight councillors and a provincial senator. In Mendoza 14 percent of the vote was achieved, Nicholas Del Caño (PTS) became national MP. Córdoba is another example of this growth, in a province where Izquierda Socialista headed the slate. Due to fraud, our comrade Liliana Olivero is not the fourth national MP 12

of the FIT. Standing out is the city of Córdoba where we were achieved 13 percent of the votes, an unprecedented election.

A vote to the left who is present in the struggles The FIT receives the vote of thousands upon thousands of workers and young people who break with the Peronist government of Kirchner, defrauded by its policy, as well as the policy of the centre-left. It is a reflection of the political and social crisis, which is expressing in the vote what may come later in the class struggle itself. We must recall that in 2001, prior to the Argentinazo, the elections also expressed a turn to the left and advanced what might happen.

The FIT has transformed into an objective phenomenon, as more than a million people give support to a radical left front.

The good electoral results of FIT were preceded, for example, by the election of several opposition teachers union branches of Buenos Aires Province (the militant Sutebas). There the vote was for the left opposition (Multicolour slate) and it also was an anti-government pro-left vote for the referents who headed their slates. By the conquest of the Western branch of the Sarmiento railway line workers with the Burgundy slate or the last election of unity of the left at the University of Buenos Aires (UBA) where all

One issue that has impacted the vanguard is that the seats won by the FIT will be shared by the three parties: PO, PTS and Izquierda Socialista. In the case of Buenos Aires province, for example, Nestor Pitrola (PO) is occupying the seat for a year and a half and then he will rotate with Myriam Bregman (PTS) and Juan Carlos Giordano (Izquierda Socialista).

So later on, Laura Marrone (teacher) and Monica Schlotthauer (railway), of Izquierda Socialista, will take a seat in Buenos Aires City and province respectively. In Neuquén, our teacher’s leader Angelica Lagunas took the place left by Raul Godoy (PTS) and in Cordoba, Liliana Olivero left her seat, after years of consistent track record, to a leader of PO. This mechanism allows each party, with their leaders, to have the experience, carry forward the FIT’s program, showing in turn that the seats are not tenured or of privilege but fighting positions.

The role of the FIT With the worsening of the political and social crisis in Argentina, the importance of the Left Front is clear.

The working class needs to break its political bonds with Peronism and other bosses variants. They need a new political and union leadership.

This is key to preserve and develop the FIT, beyond the obvious differences between their components (see The debates ...). This is the great challenge.

Putting their seats to the service of workers and popular struggles. Putting itself forward at each union and political process. Fighting the adjustment and proposing another workers’ and people’s “model”. Consolidating this tool as a political alternative of class that fights for the strategy of a workers’ and people’s government. ◘

Argentina

The debates within the FIT

By Luis Covas

The FIT has had much impact on the national and international fighting vanguard.

It has always been difficult to achieve unity on the left. From our Morenist current, we have always fought for it. Many fighters always ask us if the unity is compromised by existing debates. Others go further and question whether there are possibilities to march towards a single party. At Izquierda Socialista we are champions of the FIT and aware of the many differences we have with the comrades of PO and PTS. Precisely because there are differences there are different left parties.

So we do not believe either that the goal is, for now, going towards a single party of the revolutionary left. The FIT allows achieving unity in a variety of positions. In our party we fight sectarianism and self-proclamation that do not help towards a bigger and better unity.

This year such attitudes, in the case of PO, have led to a polemic and to no longer act unitedly in the union movement. Along with PTS comrades we enthusiastically support the initiative of the Sarmiento railway workers and municipal workers of Jujuy province, led by Carlos “Perro” [“Dog”] Santillan, to

convene a Militant Trade Union Gathering (see note) which united various antibureaucratic union sectors. Unfortunately the PO refused to join with the unusual argument that the constitution of this trade union militant pole would contribute to the “development of a political bloc antagonistic to the Left Front” (Prensa Obrera No. 1313, page 10, May 2014). Arguing that Santillan and other components are not in the FIT or did not supported it electorally. Indeed “Dog” Santillan electorally neither endorsed the FIT last October, nor does he claim to be Trotskyist. But the purpose of the Atlanta meeting is not to make a political bloc, but rather it is a union plenary to discuss how to coordinate diverse forces to support the struggles and confront the trade union bureaucracy. For years a workers plenary with these features has not taken place.

Constituting a caucus of militant unity was a big step. To make it a condition, such as PO proposed, for union unity, to be part of the FIT, is incredible sectarianism. More so in a country where most of the workers are not on the left yet, but they come to it believing in Peronism, a political movement of the bosses.

There are still thousands of anti-bureaucratic fighters who still vindicate Peron.

PO wrongly questioned the Militant Trade Union Gathering for not belonging to the FIT, while its trade union organization, the “Classist Union Coordinating–PO” has joined the opposition CTA, led by Micheli and his current, which adhere to centre-left positions. Getting to form slates for trade union elections, in places such as Neuquén and Mendoza, with local bureaucrats.

Questioning the Atlanta meeting, PO has come to propose that the FIT convene a “fusion Congress of the left with the working class”. This formula may sound interesting to the ears of an unsuspecting comrade.

But what does this proposal mean? Who would be part of this “fusion Congress”?

It is not known, nor has PO clarified it. In reality it is just a simply a smokescreen to try to hit someone distracted, trying to “run left” to continue denying the importance of the meeting in Atlanta and continue holding its self proclamatory policy, a mixture of sectarianism with opportunism, as seen with its “turn” to the CTA. The debate is in place. Meanwhile we will continue calling the PO leadership to abandon its negative stance and join the Militant Trade Union Gathering. •

Successful Militant Trade Union Gathering Javier Leonforte Nearly 4,000 workers overflowed the Atlanta club last 15 March. It was decided the formation of a national coordination caucus of militant trade unionism, demanding a national strike (which took place on 10 April) and to organize a plan of struggle. The final hugs showed the emotion for having so successfully completed it. It had been months of work and preparation to get to this event. First with the trip of the Sarmiento railway workers to the inauguration ceremony led by “Dog” Santillan who recovered the Municipal Workers Union (SEOM) of Jujuy, against the corrupt bureaucracy linked to Kirchnerist Milagro Sala. Later on

with the coming of the “Dog” itself and several SEOM leaders to the rally our party did in Atlanta on 7 December, where both Santillan and Sobrero announced that “we are at work to organize in unity a union gathering”.

Then new travel and meetings, such as in Bauen Hotel on 25 February, which ended up launching the “call to the unity of militant trade unionism” which incorporated new union sectors, expanding the range of convening labour organizations. Among those many factory committees could be counted, such as Kraft and Pepsi Co from the food industry, Metro delegates, teachers, and others. In

addition to our party, the PTS, New MAS and other organizations joined with their trade union work.

In the opening ceremony, led by the bureau of conveners, had great impetus the fight for the acquittal of the Las Heras oil workers sentenced to life imprisonment. Right there the characteristics of democratic functioning and in various committees, so that more workers might make use of the word, were explained.

The committees overflowed with participation. Indeed, two of them ran into the street, three others in the social facilities of Atlanta and five others within the micro-stadium. Hundreds 13

Argentina of workers spoke and all sectors could engage freely with their proposals and opinions.

The closing plenary began with a fighting cry: Hey, hey, hey, for the teachers increase, for the oil workers freedom! After several speakers, it went on to democratically vote the decisons.

Undoubtedly, the militant trade unionism has taken a big step forward with the successful holding of the meeting and the establishment of national coordinating caucus. Now, with regional meetings and new activities we must deepen this journey started. ◘

Militant Trade Union Gathering in Atlanta

Ruben “Pollo” Sobrero

“We demand from the bureaucracy a general strike” “Here are those who want a different union model. Those who are facing the adjustment on the roads, in the factories and in all workplaces.We cannot afford the luxury of being divided. The government wants to pass the brutal adjustment that it is applying and for this it counts with the complicity of the bureaucracy, the Moyanos, the Daers, all the union bureaucracy. They all look the other way.

No one, absolutely no one wants to bring to the forefront a national plan of struggle.

Just now I was asked for what we came to this plenary. In each committee we will discuss and agree to demand from the union bureaucracy a work stoppage against the economic plan [...].

We have agreed to form a provisional National Caucus, we try to make sure all the comrades are represented and certainly many more will be added.

Because we intend to make a gathering, not an act. We want to discuss, to debate.

We want this to be extended to the

Rubén “Pollo” Sobrero, Carlos “Perro” Santillán and Juan CarlosGodoy

whole country. Making regional, provincial gatherings, all that is necessary to steer a new pole. A new pole bearing the voice

of those who want to fight the unions whose leaders are on their knees, a new democratic and combative pole.”

Carlos “Perro” Santillán

“This gathering has to serve to coordinate the struggles” “I am very proud of this great challenge with this gathering and being in this caucus of fighters. [...] And we will fight to reverse that shameful ruling against the Las Heras oil workers. As “Pollo” said, this meeting should serve to coordinate the struggles.

14

To demand from the bureaucrats to come out to the streets. We are for unity, it will not be easy. But if we do not unite we will be traitors to the working class [...] We come to join you. We come for unity. The word unity is already revolutionary. A unity

with the teachers, with the rail workers and all those who are fighting. With this meeting a new moment for the Argentine labour movement starts.” •

Ukraine

The Social and Political drama of Ukraine Miguel Sorans The crisis in Ukraine seems to have no end, in the midst of violent armed clashes in the eastern part of the country between pro-Russian separatist groups and the Ukrainian army, and among its own civilian population, which could result into an all-out civil war and walk towards the division and dismemberment of Ukraine.

Amid the complexity of this crisis, the Socialist Revolutionaries, grouped in the IWU–FI, we reaffirm the position that we have taken since the fall of the capitalist pro-Russian government of Viktor Yanukovych in February and the subsequent annexation of Crimea by Russia. We defended the revolutionary popular mobilization that toppled the corrupt and repressive government of Yanukovych, but we denounced that there was no solution for the Ukrainian working people with government pro

pact with the European Union (EU), the United States, and the IMF nor with the capitalist government of Putin.

And that this inter-bourgeois dispute established between the two could lead to a bloodbath and political and social debacle of Ukraine. And this is what is starting to happen.

The origins of the crisis The cause of this conflict has historical origins and others closer in time. Ukraine, a very rich territory for its fertile land and mineral wealth, has always been an invaded nation, divided and exploited by different empires. In the nineteenth century it was dismembered, with its eastern territory passing to be part of the Tsarist Russian Empire, while the western part was under control of Austria-Hungary Empire and Poland.

Only with the revolution of 1917, under Lenin’s policy of self-determination of nations, Ukraine was recognized in 1922 as an independent socialist republic and by the will of its people became part of the USSR. The later Stalinist regime kept whittling this autonomy and creating all kinds of repressive monstrosities, now hanging over the confused consciousness of millions of Ukrainians. Crimea, for example, was an independent Tatar republic in the USSR since the 1920s; it was “Russified” by Stalin after World War II, who expelled the native people, the Tartar, under the pretext of having collaborated with the Nazis, although most had been on the side of the Red Army. It was a false pretext to send Russian troops to colonize the region.

Later on Nikita Khrushchev “gifted”, actually “annexed”, it to Ukraine. The 15

Ukraine Stalinist bureaucracy sought thus to dominate, to avoid all autonomy and right to mobilization of their peoples.

The closest cause of the current crisis is the capitalist restoration that was consolidated in Ukraine and across the former USSR, since 1991, after the fall of the Stalinist dictatorship and the proclamation of its independence. The progress of the market economy caused Ukraine to suffer decades of plunder and impoverishment of workers and popular sectors, while a minority of Ukrainians billionaires grew. These billionaires are both in the pro-Russian capitalist sector of Yanukovych and the liberal opposition headed by Yulia Tymoshenko and Petro Poroshenko, aka “the chocolate king”, owner of the Roshem group in the chocolate and jam industry, both presidential candidates for the 25 May elections. All of them have created the current division of the Ukrainian people. Since the restoration of capitalism in the 1990s, living standards have fallen precipitously.

The population declined from 54 to 45 million people. Part of the former state industry was dismantled by mafia gangs.

The value of working time is now less than what is paid in China and 14 times lower than in Germany. Unemployment is 8 percent.

The background of the social crisis This social crisis is what stood behind the Maidan popular movement, unleashed in November 2013, which led to the fall of the pro-Russian government of Yanukovych last February. The revolutionary action of the masses, especially in Kiev, overwhelmed the liberal bourgeois political leadership, which only raised the banner of an economic agreement with the EU against Yanukovych’s pact with Putin. The masses went further and broke the covenant that the EU, Yanukovych, the opposition and Putin had already established to try to stabilize the country. Herein lies the root of the new crisis.

Since then the Putin regime has sought to turn on the “Russian 16

nationalist” feelings from the people of easter n Ukraine, seeking to divide the country. This is a counter revolutionary action that has nothing progressive. Because it seeks to defeat the revolutionary popular mobilization of Kiev, yearning for fundamental changes in the country, and pushes to reach a new pro-Russian government or be better able to negotiate with the EU and Obama an agreement on behalf of its business with gas and of plundering and political control in the region. We must take into account that the main pipelines carrying Russian gas to much of Western Europe go through Ukraine. Thus, the first step was to invade Crimea and keep the historic naval base of Sevastopol on the strategic entrance to the Black Sea. The current pro-Russian separatist uprisings in Odessa and Donetsk and Sloviansk in the Donbass region in the east of the country, are part of this manoeuvre by Putin. While it is true that in these states the Russian language and culture predominates, there is no genuine separatist movement. It is a fact that for over 60 years of coexistence there never were problems among Eastern and Western Ukrainians. Or with the use of the Russian language.

Why does this crisis arise now? Clearly, the separatist movement is being

driven by the capitalist government of Putin, taking advantage of, on the one hand, the social crisis that is also lived in this region with industrial (steel, chemicals) and mineral (coal, iron) weight, because of falling wages and unemployment; and, secondly, for the disastrous policies of the current liberal government of Kiev, which supported by NATO and the European and American imperialism, exercises a criminal crackdown of its armed forces against the alleged “terrorism” rather than having a policy of granting autonomous forms of government, language and culture together with the social demands which are claimed.

While Putin arms and encourages armed separatist groups, which has led to harsh confrontations in Odessa and Sloviansk. This further encourages the pro-Russian separatist forces; leading to a possible confrontation in a fratricidal war that would be criminal for the Ukrainian people. We say fratricidal because both sides of the conflict would be headed by equally reactionary bourgeois leaders, looking to put Ukraine and its workers in the service of European and Yankee imperialism, or in the service of the Russian capitalist oligarchy that rules and plunders many of the countries of the former USSR.

Fascist coup or popular mobilization?

Various sectors of the world left support Chavism and Putin’s version that what happened in February in Kiev was a fascist coup. And in this way, indeed, they justify Putin’s policy and provide full or partial support for the Ukrainian separatist movement.

This contributes to the logical confusion that has been created within the global vanguard on the events in Ukraine.

But reality is more contradictory. What happened in February was not a fascist military coup. It was a mass mobilization which for months checkmated and ended up toppling the capitalist proRussian and repressor government of Yanukovych. There was no military

coup. Another thing is that this mass movement had at its head a liberal bourgeois leadership which took power.

Putin holds on to the fact that certain nationalist fascist groups participated in this movement, which collaborated in the self-defence of the barricades.

But they have been and are minority.

What happened in February resembles the revolutionary processes, such as North Africa (Egypt, Tunisia and Libya), where great revolutionary mass action overthrew oppressors and derived, by the absence of a revolutionary socialist leadership, in new governments of capitalist currents and political leaders. •

Ukraine

Neither the EU-Obama nor Putin are a solution for the workers Sectors of the world reformist left, headed by the Chavist government of Maduro, support Putin’s policy of division of Ukraine on the grounds that the government of Kiev is “fascist” and pro-Yankee. And that Putin would be “anti-imperialist” and “not fascist”.

This is false. Of course the government in Kiev is pro- Yankee and pro IMF and no one calling himself of the left can support its imperialist policy of EU-IMF adjustment or sending troops east of the country and their criminal actions such as Odessa, which we repudiate. But it is a caricature of reality to place Putin as “anti-imperialist” and progressive. The Putin government is as bourgeois, repressive and of the right as the government of Kiev. To the point that, by its policy in Ukraine, it has received the support of all the European ultra-right as Mariana Le Pen in France and the neo-Nazis of Golden Dawn in Greece, among others. Meanwhile, Putin is carrying out a policy in agreement with the US to quell the revolutionary processes in

the region. Especially against the Syrian revolution, supporting the dictator al-Assad. In addition, Putin, perhaps playing a double game on Ukraine of military pressing and negotiating, signed a covenant on 17 April in Geneva with the United States and the Kiev government, to call for the general disarmament of the militias and the delivery of the occupied buildings in eastern Ukraine. And he even called to dismantle the referendum of 11 May, which the separatists did not accept.

We reject attempts to divide Ukraine, which will only serve to continue plundering its wealth and oppressing its people. Now Russia wants to raise a false separatist banner to defend its new oppression with Gazprom and its Russian oligarchs. The workers and the people of Ukraine should strive to avoid falling into this dramatic trap placed for them, on the one side by EU–Yankee imperialism and on the other, by Putin and the new Russian capitalism. And to fight for the defence of a united and independent Ukraine without covenants and adjustments of the EU–IMF–Obama, without pacts with Putin–Gazprom. Workers and the

Ukrainian people, both from the West and the East, Ukrainian or Russianspeaking, must unite against clashes between workers, against a possible fratricidal war, to repudiate massacres as in Odessa, against the Russian military threat; mobilizing to demand the non-payment of the foreign debt with Russia and the Western powers, for the re-nationalization of industrial and mining enterprises, so they can work conducted by their employees to serve the country, for a wage increase and more work. And that the workers, youth and the western Ukrainian people demand for the rights of regional autonomy for the eastern provinces, so that everyone can live together in a united and independent Ukraine.

Knowing that this will be achieved, in final form, under a workers’ and people’s government, consequently carrying forward the social and democratic demands of the mobilization. The revolutionary socialists, we call to conduct a global campaign to clarify the reality of this fratricidal confrontation and to support the development of a Ukrainian revolutionary left to fight for these banners. ◘ 17

Spanish State

Madrid, March for Dignity, 22 March

For a general strike: Out with Rajoy M. Esther del Alcazar The misery resulting from the implementation of the Troika’s austerity plans generates a muted anger, which only increases with the police measures and the corruption scandals of the government of the Popular Party (PP) and the very own monarchy. We must coordinate the struggles that arise isolated and convert them in an engine of the anger towards a general strike to put an end to the government of Rajoy.

May comes again with 6 million unemployed, cheapening of redundancies, rapid growth of 18

precarious work, expiration of labour contracts, wage cuts and increases in taxes and domestic consumption bills, thousands of evictions. While paying the illegitimate public debt, which has saved the banks and big business, and it is soon to be 100 percent of the state GDP. The full weight of economic adjustment of the Spanish and international bourgeoisie falls over the working class, in its attempt to meet the objectives set by the European Union. The Rajoy government says we began to emerge from the crisis, but does not say it is at the expense of greater insecurity and poverty for the workers.

This panorama of attacks comes garnished by undemocratic laws that

strengthen the Bonapartist traits of the government. Starting by the amendment of the Constitution agreed between PP and PSOE (Partido Socialista Obrero Español – Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party) to precede the payment of the debt to anything else, followed by the Labour Reform of PP and CiU (Convergència i Unió – Convergence and Union), the abortion law against the rights of women, or the Act gagging public order with the reform of the judiciary, the repressive actions have taken a qualitative leap against workers, youth, or in the bloodiest case against immigrant workers trying to cross the border at Ceuta who were directly victims of state crime.

Spanish State In this context, the PP government takes advantag e to force a recentralization of the state, which is a frontal attack on the waterline of the state of the autonomous communities agreement between the central and peripheral bourgeoisie during the Transition, which had the explicit support of PSOE and PCE (Spanish Communist Party) — currently in IU (United Left) — without which it would not have been possible.

The Wert Education Act with the Castilian language as mandatory vehicle throughout the state, the local government law which removes powers from the autonomous communities to close councils and cut back in transfers of taxes collected by the central government in the autonomous communities and which should be returned for social spending such as health or education which they depend on; these are the breeding ground for the resurgence of the nationalist movement, which today has its greatest exponent in Catalunya with three consecutive years of protests of over one million people demanding independence. This movement goes beyond the Catalan bourgeoisie that attempts to ride on it, but it also opens a wedge into the structural basis of the monarchy, heir to the Franco regime, which denies the right to selfdetermination of peoples.

With this background, it seems that the continuing allegations of cases of corruption of millions of euros linked

to institutional parties but especially the PP may be one more element of social unrest which will focus on ousting them out when it is obvious they charge fees to capital to govern for their benefit. That is always the case in capitalism, and it is also common to surface in times of crisis. What is less so is the total impunity. And for that, as in the previous case, the key is the impunity with which was born a monarchy which had to first grant it to the Francoist murderers who outlived in the constitutional structures. To this is added the politics of the EU after its failures to impose technocratic governments in Greece and Italy — in the latter with the appearance of ending with the corrupt Berlusconi—, in Spain opted to ensure the support of the PP government and force the unity of the other parties to keep it in power . Easy thing, when the crisis of the possible alternative, the PSOE, is absolute.

So we face the next European elections: with those who line up around the maintenance of a EU as is — option of the right around the PP-—, those trying to sell the already failed “growth” of Holland more or less radically—- from the PSOE, to IU, and even a Podemos [We Can] which with Pablo Iglesias apparently mimics the role of Beppe Grillo in Italy—, the bourgeois and petty bourgeois variants of nationalism, pro-Spanish Lerrouxist proposals, those directly fascist and the sectarian minority, who do pose a rupture with the EU by way of

propaganda. A distressing scenario in which already is envisaged such a high abstention that the PP would win again.

So we say that the objective conditions are ripe for a mobilization which could wipe out this government, with the struggle of the working class and of the peoples. But the iron determination of the bureaucratic political and union leaderships is a burden that the workers’ movement had not been able to break. The 15M Movement failed to be an incentive for the workers’ strug gle, and it dissolved like a sugar cube; subsequent mobilizations, such as health in Madrid or Gamonal, took to the streets from a citizen movement that goes parallel to the passivity in the jobs or isolated struggles, which while accepting layoffs, improve compensation. This is why before the eyes of all take special importance the indefinite strikes since late 2013 with Balearic Islands teachers first, the street cleaners in Madrid later, Monroe in Asturias and now Panrico.

Because these attempts could be the start of a shift of the protests, with the determined entry of the working class with methods of workers democracy, passing over their leaderships. In this possibility is also framed the March for Dignity in Madrid on 22 March called outside the mainstream union leaderships.

But here we must shun sectarianism, because the focus should be in existing real struggles and not on the whims of the individual apparatuses. It is essential to link the struggles that exist: be it Panrico, Coca-Cola, Bosch, Alstom or Dracka regardless of who the leaderships are, and once again we have to force the unified call for a general strike to retake the reins of the movement to overthrow the government. And its parallel in the political arena is getting a front of the workers and left to take in its hands the right to self-determination and the break with the monarchy on the one hand, and on the other hand to raise the break with the EU, for a Europe of the workers and peoples. ◘

March for Dignity, Puerta del Sol, Madrid, 22 March 19

Spanish State

Panrico: the longest strike The strike of Panrico, now 7 months old, is the longest in Catalonia since the Republic. But the importance of this struggle goes beyond this figure. It comes after years of layoffs, brutal wage losses, setbacks and more setbacks ... and with a policy by the majority Trade Union leaderships that there is nothing to be done, that you have to agree to the lesser evil. And the lesser evil today is just a bigger one tomorrow.

Over 95 percent of dismissals for ERE (Records of Employment Regulation) have been agreed. Labour reforms — many of them also agreed or decided without mobilization— have defined a panorama of entrepreneurial impunity, of arrogance, of mafia-like actions. Gila, the representative of the company— in the hands of vulture fund Oaktree —, takes upon himself not only to sit but to issue the crude insult of accusing the striking workers as possible poisoners. But the workers at Panrico have said enough!

They stand against a plan of massive layoffs at the plant in Santa Perpetua and wage cuts to the few remaining. They answer: 0 dismissals, 0 wage cuts.

The situation was not foreseen either by the company or by the Generalitat (autonomous government of Catalonia) or by the majority union CCOO [Workers’ Commissions]: it is not in the manual with which they have managed the crisis so far. UGT [General Union of Workers] got disconnected and publicly defined the strike as illegal. Too many open fronts for these 200-odd workers, who know they are risking their future and of those who come behind.

Support Committee— from which as Lucha Internationalista (LI) we have given them all our efforts—, travel through the state to coordinate with other struggles, demonstrations, rallies outside the municipalities or Parliament.The last one in April to deliver 8000 over signatures, with councillors and MPs (CUP-AE [Popular Unity Candidacy] and IC / EuiA 20

Workers solidarity rally at factory’s gate

[Catalonian Greens Initiative / United and Alternative Left]) denouncing the Government complicity in the violation of the right to strike by the company which outsources and expands days at other plants to cover the striking workers production as outlined in the resolution of the Labour Inspectorate.

Together with the Generalitat is the CCOO bureaucracy. Both try to negotiate with the bosses reduced layoffs in exchange for removing the conflict from the law courts, because during these months the company has violated all kinds of rights that the workers have taken to court and apparently in the current situation, Oaktree is unclear to maintain impunity. The most important trial, since it is about the illegality of the ERE, was on 20 March at the National Court in Madrid, and winning it would represent the reinstatement of those sacked. The Generalitat and CCOO endeavoured to suspend it and only the rejection by CGT [General Confederation of Labour] allowed ending it only in postponement. But it was a brutal blow to workers who had already been in strike for almost five months, but even so they responded by ratifying it until the new date of 6 May: 154 votes in favour and 11 against. The pressures of the CCOO bureaucracy against the strike escalated: even before, from the Current of Opinion of Girona’s CCOO this policy had been challenged internally, and the Panrico comrades had entered headquarters and faced the leadership, then signatures followed demanding from the union that the strike continued. This became visible in the demonstrations on May Day ... and on 6 May, the trial continued!

After this important step, the workers assembly reiterated the strike until the judgment, already surpassing the 7th month. But also, the Generalitat and the bureaucracy of CCOO rushed to make public their willingness to seek the “termination” with the acceptance of layoffs. Therefore, the swords remain high.

Until now, the heroism of the strike and its democratic functioning around the mass meeting and the strike committee voted by them, have been able to stop the manoeuvres, staying firm on not going back with a single comrade missing. But this has been made possible by the enormous sympathy aroused by the struggle and solidarity initiatives generated, among which we must highlight the International Day on March 20 that was driven by the IWU. It is grassroots support what has been filling the resistance box and enabled to resist all these months. And, because we have fallen too much, often without practical resistance, we all need a win to start thinking that if you truly fight, you can make the bosses go back. Hence many workers eyes now look at Panrico, admiring the capacity for struggle and suffering of the workers and their families, and willing them to win, because if Panrico wins we all win. •

Turkey

On the left, IDP taking part in the Istanbul protests. On the right Rescuers carry out dead miners on 14 May.

Massacre in privatised mine in Turkey At press time an explosion occurred in the mine and we publish this note with data sent at the last minute by the comrades of İşçi Demokrasisi Partisi, (Workers Democracy Party), formerly İşçi Cephesi (Workers Front).

Tuesday 13 May, in the city of Soma, an explosion and collapse occurred in a coal mine, while 700 miners were underground.

It is the largest massacre of workers in the history of Turkey. It is expected that more than 400 workers will be victims. Officially it was stated that 282 bodies were recovered, but there are still over 120 workers inside the mine.

Massive protests began immediately in Ankara, Istanbul, Izmir and other cities.

This situation is a result of the flexibilization, precariousness of working conditions and the government’s privatization policy. This mine had 3,000 workers, 700 to 800 of them were working in the mine. Their salary is around US$ 600 (the minimum wage in Turkey is around US$ 450).

The entrepreneur Alp Gürkan, beneficiary of the privatization and owner of the mining company Soma

Holding, two years ago had boasted of the huge low cost achieved since privatization in 2005. In the nearly 10 years of AKP government, more than 10 thousand workers have died of “work accidents”. For this reason, this disaster is not a coincidence, but the result of privatization and corruption.

For example, a day after the disaster, in two other cities, two workers died in the mines.

One of the leaders of the College of Engineers and Architects exposed the poor working conditions in the mines and stated “This is not an accident, it is a crime”. Mine Workers Union president Dev-Maden Sen said: “There were no dead when the mines belonged to TKI, the state-owned coal company; deaths began with privatization. These are not accidents, they are murders” (Clarín, 15 May 2014).

The g overnment once again reiterated its anti-worker attitude.

Erdogan stated that these accidents are part of this sector, so that it is “normal” and gave examples of Great Britain (an accident that occurred in1862!), the US (1907) and Japan (1914). When he visited Soma, he was met with angry

people protesting in the streets. They surrounded his car, and he was forced to get into a supermarket to hide. There he punched a girl of 15, whose father was killed in the mine because she protested.

On Wednesday, police forces brutally attacked the protesters in mass demonstrations in Istanbul and Ankara, with hundreds injured and arrested.

On Thursday 15 there was a strike called by several trade unions, it was not total, but protests occurred across the country. In Ankara, Izmir, Istanbul and some Kurdistan cities they were massive. İşçi Demokrasisi Partisi (which is in the process of merging with the IWU– FI) denounced immediately that this is a massacre whose responsibility is on the AKP government with its anti-labour policies. It rejected privatization and unsafe working conditions, demanding the re-nationalization of the mines without compensation and under workers control. Punishment and jail to those responsible! Resignation of the Erdogan government, who is primarily responsible for this massacre! For the unions to convene a general strike by workers demand! ◘ 21

Brazil

Wave of strikes hits the government of Dilma and the PT Michel Tunes (CST-PSOL [Workers Socialist Current of Socialist and Freedom Party])

The triumph of the strike by waste collectors in Rio had an impact

The working class and the people are protagonists of strong strikes and mobilizations that face the wage squeeze, authoritarianism and the real estate speculation of the FIFA World Cup, fiscal adjustment and corruption of the Dilma government (PT/PMDB [Workers Party / Brazilian Democratic Movement Party]).

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The long distance drivers from Rio de Janeiro paralysed the city for three days, stimulating strikes in several states. Before, the strike of bus drivers and conductors of Porto Alegre had occurred. Construction workers paralysed works in Cubatao (Sao Paulo state), held massive demonstrations in Para and 30,000 of them crossed their arms in the works for the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. Federal employees of universities and technical schools are

on nationwide strike and held protest in Brasilia. Municipal workers of Salvador, Belo Horizonte, and Natal are paralysed.

Teachers in the city of Sao Paulo have been on strike for several days conducting massive rallies. In Rio, security personnel, health sectors and state and municipal education are on strike, also there are stoppages and strikes by steelworkers and workers from the naval shipyards (see The

Brazil Reactivation of the shipyards …). There are ongoing strikes in the police barracks of various states, such as the radicalized action of low-ranking military in Para with occupation of the barracks and street closures. Increase in urban occupations and the fight against the high price of rents with its epicentre in Sao Paulo organized by the Homeless Movement. There are also explosions against police violence against black people in Rio’s favelas [slums].

This is the real Brazil, very different from Dilma’s speech on 1 May which attempted to deceive the people by saying that we live in a country of “economic growth” and good salaries.

In fact the economy remains in crisis, so much so that the automakers of Sao Paulo’s ABC attack their workers and together with the government and the trade union bureaucracy are planning flexible rights. At the beginning of the year inflation was 6.1 percent and the cost of living advanced. At the same time holding the FIFA World Cup has turned against the government, because its legacy is the elitism of games, deaths of workers in the reforms of the stadiums, overbillings in favour of the contractors and the risk of rationing electric power. The economic policy deepens the social crisis, as it has as focus the payment of the debt that today sucks half the federal budget, while education and health get only about 7 percent

The strike by Rio’s “garis” strengthened the class The “garis” are the municipal waste collectors in the city. In the middle of Carnival, the “garis” of Rio de Janeiro held a radicalized strike for eight days winning an historic pay rise of 37 percent and an increase of the food voucher by 66 percent. The strike was marked by marches, mass meetings and broad popular support. Also important was the emergence of a negotiating committee with the revocability of mandate, democratically elected by the rank and file to coordinate the movement. All this ensured the victory against the government of Eduardo

Brasfells shipyard workers on strike. Rio de Janeiro. May 2014

Paes (PMDB-PT) which threatened layoffs and against the bureaucratic leadership of the union which it had signed a lesser agreement. The strike falls in the context of a situation open by the strong demonstrations of June 2013. Since then those at the bottom do not want to live like before and those above can no longer govern as before. This explains that the triumph has stimulated “garis” strikes in Niteroi, Recife, ABC, Sao Luis and Belo Horizonte.

Similar to the example of the “garis” there are other processes where broad militant organizations emerged to group the strikers, because of the treachery by the bureaucrats. This is what we saw in the strike of civil construction workers of COMPERJ (petrochemical complex in Rio), where it even came to burning of the sound car of the bureaucrats; the long distance drivers of Porto Alegre through a rank and file commission; and recently in the factory committee at Brasa Shipyard in Niteroi. In the case of the long distance drivers of Rio the same happened: the bureaucratic leadership negotiated a low agreement out of category. The long distance drivers ignored the leadership, formed a rank and file commission and went on strike.

In the midst of this process we must focus our energy in the workplace on organizing workers in rank and file commissions, deepening these experiences and battling to oust the

bureaucrats of the leadership of our unions, demanding that our bodies return to democratic instruments and in service of mobilization. We propose that we all demand for decisions of interest for each category to be taken at mass meetings and that during struggles wide commands be elected to coordinate the movement, whose members must have revocable mandates.

Dilma and PT Government in crisis After 10 years in power, the PT and Lula have lost their hegemony in the streets. No longer are they able to fully control the struggles or easily deflect strikes towards the path of social pacts. This prevents the government from fully implementing all the measures of its policy of fiscal adjustment and privatization, which increases the friction within the ruling coalition. Thus we witness the increase of political crises between the PT and its corrupt allies and we saw the role of the opposition headed by the PSDB (Brazilian Social Democracy Party). Besides that, this explains the emergence of another bourgeois variant around Eduardo Campos (PSB – Brazilian Socialist Party) and Marina Silva (REDE – Network [Green Party]), two former ministers of Lula.

It is in this framework that we understand the crisis around Petrobras, one of the most iconic companies in 23

Brazil

Metalworkers

The reactivation of the shipyards has resurrected the workers’ struggle By: Rosi Messias (National leadership of CST-PSOL [Workers Socialist Current of Socialist and Freedom Party])

On the left, metalworkers of Niteroi on strike, on the right mass meeting of BRASA metalworkers In recent years companies in the shipbuilding industry, linked to the production of ships and platforms for oil exploration, have been one of the most dynamic sectors of the Brazilian economy. This reactivation occurred from 2003 with the Lula Government of the PT (Workers Party), with heavy government investment allied to international companies. Most contracts are for the construction of ships and rigs for Petrobras. This reactivation of the shipbuilding industry has caused a resurrection of the struggle of the industrial working class, which in recent years has been one of the most dynamic sectors in struggle. It was an industry in crisis, with just over 2,000 employees nationwide. Today there are already more than 65,000 workers, with over 16,000 just in Niteroi and adding the other municipalities, it can reach almost 30,000 in the state of Rio de Janeiro alone.

The perspective is this sector will continue growing due to large works related to the Pre-Salt Layer Project.

Among the main shipyards is Brasa, a partnership between the Dutch SBM and Synergy Group Corp. SBM is the largest builder of naval platforms in the world, and it has just been denounced for paying 30 million reals (about US$ 13.4 million) bribe to Petrobras employees, 24

to facilitate the approval of contracts.

Also VARD (formerly STX), composed mainly by Italian company Fincantieri and MAUA, controlled by Synergy Group Corp., a South American industrial holding. Together these three shipyards agglomerate almost 12,000 workers.

Strong strikes hit the shipyards Since 2012 the metal workers of Niteroi have been protagonists of strong strikes for wage increases and against the poor working conditions. Since then the strikes and work stoppages have been done against the bosses and outside the trade union bureaucracy. For over 20 years the union is being run by the CUT (Unified Workers Central) connected to the PT. A leadership embedded in the union and which through legal manoeuvres has been extending its mandate expired three years ago.

This time, driven by the wave of strikes happening in the country from north to south, the metal workers of Niteroi have been since April protagonists of strong strikes against the bosses, going over the leadership of the union. The protagonists are the Brasa shipyard workers, paralysing their activities and conducting massive street demonstrations. The workers self-organized outside of the union and elected as Factory Committee a

leadership recognized by the rank and file and which has been directing the struggle of the workers and has achieved triumphs through stoppages, radicalized strikes with 100 percent adherence, pickets and demonstrations.

The victory of the Brasa workers, who managed a profit sharing payment and the reinstatement of 14 workers who had been fired, has been infecting the workers of other shipyards. In VARD, heading the fight are members of CIPA (Internal Commission for Accident Prevention); site where the workers held two stoppages last week. In Maua, the strength of the strike unfortunately failed to reverse the nearly 150 layoffs as only a portion of those have returned to work at the shipyard. In this case the role of the union was nefarious, because on this this yard they have ten directors, including the president of the union, and ended up helping the company and its armed thugs to impose a defeat for the workers in relation to lost days off which were discounted. But the workers responded to this attack conducting further stoppages.

Now in the month of May, when wage category bargaining occurs, conditions exist for these conflicts to spread into a common struggle, a battle which is still ongoing. •

Brazil

Strike of Federal public servants, March 2014

Brazil. It is a kind of joint venture with hegemonic control of the Brazilian government which is being investigated by the Federal Police and may be the target of an investigation in the national congress. Petrobras is the pivot of a major corruption scandal that goes from overpriced purchases of a refinery in Texas to a grand scheme of money laundering and billionaire evasion of currency involving money changers, former Petrobras directors, PT parliamentarians and former Dilma ministers. What is worse is that the destruction of Petrobras favours oil multinationals as Shell, TOTAL and British Petroleum advancing in the control of our oil basins.

In this scenario the Dilma government has just fallen in the polls conducted by leading institutes of the country. About 72 percent of respondents want “that the actions of the next government be different from the current”. The pessimism of the respondents reveals that the timing is tricky for Dilma because most believe that inflation and unemployment will rise in the coming months before the elections for the presidency of the republic, governors and the national congress.

This panorama demands more than ever the construction of a political alternative to face both the PT as well as the other acronyms of those “on top” such as the PSDB and PSB / REDE

which are trying to impose a false polarization in the country since they have no fundamental disagreement. In this sense, to contend for a policy of class within the PSOL (Socialism and Freedom Party) and for a program that meets the demands of the strikers and the people will be a major challenge for the coming months, for the candidate of the PSOL to express the aspirations of the working class and having a left-wing candidate in the bourgeois electoral process.

Unifying the struggles towards the general strike All the ongoing struggles occur outside of or questioning the leadership of the trade union confederations (CUT [Unified Workers’ Central], Força Sindical [Trade Union Strength], UGT [General Union of Workers], etc.), and of popular and youth movements tied to governments and the bosses. To such an extent that on May Day the labour federations organized music concerts instead of a day of struggle.

It was interesting to note that Dilma’s ministers were booed in the events of the bureaucracy itself. Therefore we must demand that the CUT and the other trade union federations break their pacts with governments and bosses and orient their unions to conduct rank and file mass meetings for organizing the mobilization. We demand that the CUT and other union

federations abandon their collusion with our enemies and coordinate the ongoing strikes and demonstrations and push for wage campaigns in the second half of the year (banking, oil workers, metal workers, postal workers, etc.) aiming towards a general strike. If the union bureaucracy refuses to call a general strike, this must be headed by the rank and file, starting with building new days of struggle as occurred in May and what will take place in June.

To confront the economic and social crisis imposed by the capitalist governments of Dilma, governors and mayors, we must support the agendas of the strikers, the sectors in struggle and demand the following emergency measures: 1) General increase of wages, shorter workweek, better working conditions and collective labour ag reements ensuring automatic replacement of lost wages caused by inflation every three months. Freezing of service tariffs and of prices of staples. Suspension of external and internal debt payment, channelling these resources to social areas and a plan of public works that includes affordable housing.

2) We demand budget funds for health, education and transportation, and not for the FIFA World Cup. Popular audit of all contracts between the public authorities, contractors and FIFA. For free and quality State public services. End the criminalization of struggles and poverty, the militarization of slums and the extermination of poor and black people.

3) For a 100 percent stateowned Petrobras under workers’ control! Down with the rigging and corruption in the public and state agencies! Renationalization of all privatized companies! Independent investigation of Petrobras contracts with contractors and multinationals by a Commission formed by unions and popular organizations. Punishment to all politicians involved in the corruption scheme uncovered by the Federal Police. ◘ 25

Mexico

A new process of struggle incubates in Mexico

Against the counter reforms imposed by the government Francisco Retama, member Executive Committee of POS-MAS (Mexico) In Mexico the government of Enrique Peña Nieto, in agreement with the bourgeois parties and the bosses, has imposed severe blows against the workers: the adoption of a new generation of neoliberal reforms, which included the energy sector, was completed, opening the possibility of putting oil revenues in the hands of the private sector, as well as advancing the privatization of electricity. Also, the so called “education reform” which actually focuses on the destruction of important labour victories of the education workers.

It imposed amendments in labour legislation to further deepen the precariousness of the collective 26

barg aining, the cheapening of dismissals, among other regressive measures. It also adopted “reforms” in the field of taxation and finance, for example, which will give banks the opportunity to collect debts by force, garnishing the wages of the workers.

It was said that with the reforms Mexico would initiate an economic growth, of employment generation and improvement of income. Many had expectations that the government would mitigate the severe insecurity and violence caused by the action of the drug cartels, but the opposite has happened.

The country remains economically stagnant, growth does not get ignited

and unemployment remains high.

Unemployment is recognized at 5 percent, to which it must be added more than 20 percent of underemployed. A quarter of the economically active population, as the g over nment acknowledges, is outside formal work.

And more and more workers earn less.

In addition, workers get the burden of the effects of the crisis and the policy of adjustment in public spending, especially in the social field, increasing the price of various public services such as transport, reducing subsidies, lowering the depressed income of most Mexicans.

Moreover, violence and insecurity constantly runs rampant. This far in

Mexico the government of Enrique Peña Nieto the number of the so called “wilful” deaths does not represent a decrease compared to what happened in the government of Felipe Calderon. After 14 months of Peña’s government, the prestigious weekly ZETA, in the north of the country, recorded 23,000 deaths linked to drug trafficking and crime.

Fighting the “reforms” of Peña and the parties The so-called Pact for Mexico was the gimmick used by Peña and the bourgeoisie to tie the bourgeois parties to the approval of the “reforms”. A supposed political reform was sold in exchange for the reform towards the privatization of the oil and energy sectors. Financial and education reforms were also included in the package and they all were voted in common by the major parties, except energy. Indeed, even the Party of Democratic Revolution (PRD), which calls itself of the left, became complicit in the project of the government of Enrique Peña and his Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI).

The reforms were also adopted because it was allowed by the leaderships of the mass movement, subordinated to the PRI through corporatism; as well as those which are referred to as independent and which are mostly aligned with the PRD. Even Andrés Manuel Lopez Obrador (AMLO), the leading figure of “opposition” to the government, focused on the denunciation of the energy reform, but he refused to promote an intensive mobilization that could defeat the privatization attempt.

In several “assemblies” convened by the man from Tabasco, AMLO, many of his followers were clamouring for a national stoppage to stop the sellout. AMLO categorically rejected it, imposing a harmless mobilization, the “fence” to the Congress of the Union, on the day that began the examination of the PRI initiative that was being negotiated with the National Action Party (PAN), in the so-called Pact for Mexico.

Teachers against the education reform of the government

What the rulers and leaders of the political parties did not expect was the emergence of the National Coordination of Education Workers (CNTE) against the poorly named “education reform”, that hundreds of thousands of teachers across the country mobilized intensively and shook the national political scene, as did no other sector. For months, they paralysed activities, conducted mass demonstrations and installed a massive protest camp in the Zocalo1 of México City. A rich process of independent organization of the teachers, many of them with no history of struggle in their states. Only the weakness of the CNTE and their inability to achieve a truly coordinated plan of action at national level,2 in addition to the isolation in which the vast majority of independent leaderships left them, allowed the repressive action 1 The Zocalo, actually named Constitution Square, is the principal public square of the country and is the most important stage of the mobilizations in Mexico.

2 A great deal of the actions carried out by the education workers were separate from different branches of the Union; they never managed to coordinate an indefinite national strike by all mobilized so that the strikes had to be lifted separately, motivated by fatigue or private negotiations held with state governors. Thus was dispersed the energy of a mobilization that drew attention not only because of its massive power, but also for its radicalism, as they carried out roads cuts, regional airport sit ins making entities, gasoline service station sit ins, and even a massive blockage to Mexico City’s international airport.

of the government of Mexico City,3 which violently evicted the camp, in agreement with federal forces.

T h e t e a ch e r s ’ m o b i l i z a t i o n reached such intensity that forced the government to postpone for months its energy reform and to cancel the increase to the collection of value added tax (VAT). The teachers’ mobilization failed to halt the approval of the “educational reform”, but neither did it fell on its face. It is expected that the implementation of the reform will generate new demonstrations which may have the participation of union of sectors not previously mobilized and are now supporters of the CNTE. Similarly, the transport price increase led to a spontaneous mobilization of thousands of young people who, unable to cancel the increase, showed the potential of this sector, which had already been mobilized en masse before the election of Peña as president.

Community police and selfdefence: the sharpening of the class struggle The events in Michoacán that have flooded newspapers and political analysis magazines, television and radio newscasts and websites illustrate the degree of polarization which has reached the class struggle in 3 Mexico’s Federal District is governed by Michelangelo Mancera Espinosa, who was nominated by the Party of the Democratic Revolution.

27

Mexico the country. Although this is not a generalized phenomenon, since it has centred on a few states of the Republic, the emergence of groups of self-defense and community police and their confrontations with drug cartels and organized crime has tinted the national reality.

To analyse this phenomenon, we start with our characterization of drug cartels as capitalist organizations which motivated by illegality resort to extremely violent practices. From this point of view, it is possible to understand the confrontation involving criminal cartels and the reactions of peasant communities or sectors of the population who are victims of the criminal practices of these groups.

Also of sectors of small and medium businesses which are subject to the appropriation of a portion of their profits.

Fed up with the complicity of the authorities to these powerful economic and paramilitary groups has led to the emergence of self-defence groups as the only way to combat extortion and the climate of extreme insecurity.

It is an uneven process. On one hand are the communities, with democratic practices, as is the case of Cherán,1 which through their governing bodies are willing to defend themselves, something not provided by the capitalist state. On the other hand, sectors of the population who unilaterally decide to organize to take into their hand security tasks, arming themselves and creating police structures that are not based on a democratic community organization, although it is evident the support of local communities to their actions.

There is also evidence that different levels of government tolerate and even encourage the formation of selfdefence groups, where they estimate that is not necessary to expose the Army or Federal Police or where these have been subordinated to the interests of the cartels.

1 Cheran is a municipality in Michoacán, inhabited by Purepecha communities and where more than ten years ago they built a community police to confront criminals and looters of their forests.

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While there is no homogeneity, there are self-defence groups that show their weaknesses, their limitations and even their proclivity towards the bourgeois state. Here is the agreement signed by the leadership of the “selfdefence” groups with the Michoacán government and the representative of Peña, to integrate them into the rural police.

Our organization defends the rights of communities to self-defence against the omission or open complicity of government authorities with these criminal illegal capitalist groups.

However, at the same time we claim that self-defence rests on the democratic and independent organization of communities and peoples. When exercising self-defence the peoples should also build up new institutions of government that are put above the corrupt councils, subordinated to the interests of criminal gangs.

For a new revolutionary socialist organization The Partido Obrero Socialista [Socialist Workers Party – POS] has been an active participant in the struggle of resistance to the policy of the government of Peña and the parties. But it also identifies the absence of a leadership capable of successfully confronting the government and bosses offensive.

Therefore, in addition to committing to the struggle of the workers and youth against neoliberal reforms and the rejection of repression, the POS has put forth for discussion the proposal to build a new political organization, of socialist left, revolutionary, to bring together the best of the activism that mobilizes and to offer a new alternative leadership to the working class and youth.

We live in a situation where the working people are on the defensive, receiving hard knocks, but crucial battles are given in which there is an enormous learning, as is the case of the electricians of the SME [Mexican Union of Electricians] resistance or of mining sectors, or of education workers grouped in the CNTE and, of course,

Oaxaca teachers’ poster

in the small but significant labour organizations which have spent years waging struggles in defence of freedom of association or collective bargaining.

Recently, the youth has given ample proof of its potential vigour, first in their fight to prevent the return of the PRI to the presidency, through the movement #YoSoy132, and later with its active solidarity with the teachers’ movement facing with an exemplary combativeness a government which intensifies repression and reconfigures their fraudulent dealings of this democracy for the rich.

Without a doubt, this situation is evolving. It is incubating growing contradictions in the Mexican social and political system, and we must be prepared with an organization that is able to intervene in the intensified class str ug gle to come, with a class, independent, democratic and revolutionary position, which does not encourage new illusions in decadent or fraudulent institutions that are at the service of the survival of capitalism, but which seriously proposes building a new society.

Deserving a special mention is one of the assets that the POS wants to make available to this project: their role in the leadership of the victory obtained by the tyre workers of the Revolutionary Workers National Union of Euzkadi, through our comrade Jesus Torres Nuño. It is the only worker victory in years in our country, which was tested as leadership as we seek to build everywhere, to guide their behaviour based on principles such as honesty, democracy, independence, militancy, solidarity and internationalism. ◘

Venezuela

Venezuela and the spectre of social unrest Simón Rodríguez Porras

While shortages of essential goods grow, Maduro prepares a new adjustment.

Overwhelmed by the highest inflation in the hemisphere and shortages of essential goods, especially food, millions of Venezuelans face bleak prospects as the government prepares an upsurge of the adjustment. The economic, political and social collapse of the country increasingly brings to mind the events of the Caracazo, the powerful popular uprising that erupted in 1989 against the economic package of Carlos Andrés Pérez, Fedecamaras and the International Monetary Fund.

The government of Nicolas Maduro and Diosdado Cabello not only inherits the rhetorical script of Chavez and his eagerness to present himself as a socialist, it is also heir to his methods, and to face the crisis it applies the classic recipes of adjustment to reduce the fiscal gap, just as was the case in 2009, before the fall of oil prices worldwide. So far this year, the government has implemented a new exchange system

wherein a currency devaluation of more than 650 percent is implied, it has increased prices of foods subject to regulation by about 300 percent, public transport increased by 40 percent, and it is announcing the increase in electricity tariffs, in a country that has been experiencing a serious crisis in the sector, with frequent blackouts in the interior of the country, and it is conducting a campaign to raise the price of gasoline. These brutal blows against the real wages of the working majority, along with the increase in subsidies to the business sector, are yet another attempt to keep afloat the dependent and semi-colonial Venezuelan capitalism on the basis of further impoverishing the majority of the population.

“Economic War” of the government and business against the people The inability of Chavism to overcome the dependence is evident.

Between 1999 and 2013, the cumulative inflation was higher than 2300 percent and the depreciation of the currency

higher than 2000 percent; public debt climbed to about $ 200 billion, and the payment of interest and principal consumes 20 percent of the 2014 budget, an amount much higher than the combined figure for health and education. Today the country is more dependent on oil: in 1999, 68 percent of exports were oil, in 2013 this proportion was 96 percent. In the same period, annual imports grew 236 percent, going from $ 16.7 billion to $ 39.4 billion. More than half of all wage earners in the country, and about three quarters of public sector workers earn between one and two minimum wages. They cannot even cover the basic staples basket. At the official rate of exchange of Sicad II, the minimum wage is less than $ 90 a month, one of the lowest in Latin America.

The government has tried to explain the super high inflation attributing it to an alleged “economic war” by the bosses. Beyond the extortionate practices of big business, it was the government which through the Central Bank of Venezuela (BCV) in 2013 increased by 70 percent the 29

Venezuela amount of bolivars circulating in the economy, an increase which did not correspond to the production and therefore directly affects inflation, which reached 56.3 percent last year, destroying the incomes of the poor.

The decline in non-oil production, combined with a decline in international reserves of 29 percent in 2013, has limited imports, increasing scarcity, whose index stood according to the BCV at 29.4 percent in March. In the case of foods such as oil, sugar, milk, coffee or cornmeal, scarcity is around 90 percent. Thousands of people have to put up with queues of hours at the doors of shops to purchase a limited amount of food. State distribution networks of subsidized food accuse the same situation.

The combativity of conflicts increase The increasingly precarious situation of millions of people has been reflected in a rise of struggles, expressed in more than 15 thousand

protests between 2011 and 2013. This phenomenon frames the combativity of conflicts following 12 February this year, at whose root is discontent with the economic crisis, an unrest partially capitalized by the sector further to the right in the partisan coalition of the bosses’ opposition, the Democratic Unity Roundtable (MUD).

Although with significant weight of the middle class influenced by the sector of the MUD waving slogans like “the solution is on the streets”, the protests at the peak in intensity during the month of February extended to popular sectors of Caracas and other cities, in the form of pot-banging. The imprint of the leadership of the MUD, divided between the sector negotiating with the government and the sector advocating their “exit”, has been felt in the protests, not only because the socioeconomic demands have not been reflected in their demonstrations, but also for their adventurism. Beyond the intense rejection that the Maduro

g overnment has earned for its economic policies and the repression through the Bolivarian National Guard and paramilitary bodies, it is also true that the vandalism actions and in some cases terrorist actions by activists of the parties advocating the “exit” and a healthy distrust of millions of workers and residents of popular communities to the leadership of the MUD, have prevented the protests from spreading with greater force in the grassroots, in the absence of an alternative revolutionary political leadership with significant influence.

Trimming of democratic freedoms in the service of “peace” The criminalization of protest is a State policy that has deepened in the past seven years. More than four thousand people have open trials for participating in protests, including two hundred workers. An example is the case of José Bodas, secretary

For a response of the workers and popular sectors to the crisis With the participation of about 150 union leaders, indigenous students and activists of the popular movement, on 21 March was held in the Venezuelan capital the Trade Union and Popular Gathering convened by the Classist, Unitary, Revolutionary and Autonomous Current (C-CURA) headed by Orlando Chirino and José Bodas, as well as the National Union of Workers (Unete) and other adherent organizations.

In the effort to articulate a response to the crisis in an autonomous way, C-CURA put forward the need to postulate an Alternative Economic and Social Plan starting with the demand of a general increase in salaries and wages, a minimum wage equal to the basic basket, nationalization of the oil industry without joint ventures, rescue and development of basic industries in Guayana, removal of VAT, the confiscation of capital of the companies which have made fraudulent imports with 30

preferential foreign exchange rates, the cancellation of all trials against workers, peasants, indigenous people, and in general for all judicially processed for protesting or defending their rights; and an independent investigation into human rights violations in the context of the wave of protests that began in February this year, among other requirements.

In a statement issued in April by C-CURA and three other organizations, it was ratified that “workers and popular sectors cannot march behind a government that criminalizes us and downloads the economic crisis on our shoulders, in agreement with Fedecamaras. Nor can we march with an opposition which seeks to appear before the workers and the people as an option to solve the economic and social crisis of our country (...) Similarly, we reject any imperialist interference (...) It is clear that we must and need to mobilize in an independent, autonomous and classist

way to confront the economic package of the government and Fedecamaras, which is also enshrined to in the MUD’s economic program, while defending democratic freedoms”. Currently, C-CURA encourages participation in union and popular gatherings by region to give continuity to this effort. •

Venezuela general of the United Federation of Oil Workers (FUTPV) and leader of the Socialism and Freedom Party (PSL) as well as nine other oil workers, who were arrested on 3 February for performing a union meeting at the gates of Puerto La Cruz refinery, and then charged with resisting arrest.

Hiding behind his search for “peace” discourse, Maduro pacts with the businessmen of Fedecamaras new adjustment measures and gives them all kinds of benefits, while participating in negotiations with the majority wing of the MUD under the mediation of the Vatican and Unasur, throwing to the dustbin his previous allegations of “economic warfare” and “soft coup”, allegations to which at the time some sectors of the international left gave in.

At the same time, he continues criminalizing protest and imposing restrictions on democratic freedoms.

Two o p p o s i t i o n m ayo r s we r e deposed and imprisoned by expedited procedures of the Supreme Tribunal of Justice (TSJ). Congresswoman Maria Corina Machado was removed from her seat and Popular Will party leader, Leopoldo Lopez, was jailed for his alleged role in the violence that followed the demonstration of 12 February.

D e s p i t e t h i s, d o c u m e n t e d complaints about the responsibility of repressive bodies in the violence forced the government to imprison several staff members of the Bolivarian National Intelligence Service (Sebin) for material responsibility for the killings around the headquarters of the Office of Attorney General.

In late April, the Supreme Court ruled, in an arbitrary interpretation of the Constitution, that the right to protest is subject to the issuance of a permit by the municipal power, dictating instructions for police repression and the legal persecution of unauthorized protests, including fines and imprisonment.

The PSL has repudiated both the repressive actions such as restrictions on democratic rights as well as the judicial arbitrariness. For beyond

Jose Bodas in the middle after being liberated together with other oilworkers. He is still being processed.

that they incidentally affect MUD leaders or activists, these measures are part of a comprehensive policy against the population to discipline it politically to the government, and not resist the economic measures that Maduro is imposing at the service of transnational corporations, private banking and big business.

A revolutionary alternative is needed To the extent that the government intends to shield its adjustment from the population response with repressive measures, it further erodes their social base and feeds repudiation. The MUD, divided and unable to oppose the adjustment, mainly because they agree with the economic measures, is in its worst crisis since the defeat of the 2002 coup and the 2004 recall referendum. The recent impasse between the US Secretary of State, Roberta Jacobson, and MUD has shown the subordination of both wings of the bosses’ opposition to the government of the United States. Jacobson admitted at a hearing before lawmakers that Obama had not applied sanctions on the Venezuelan government at the request of the MUD. This exposed the differences

within the bosses’ coalition, as a sector does agree to invoke sanctions by the U.S. government, and launched violent public criticism. MUD spokesperson, Aveledo, was forced to clarify that they were not opposed to the imposition of sanctions against officials of the Maduro government.

For the majority of the population, the situation is becoming more and more unbearable. The economic disaster and its social consequences are the main spur of discontent. In the absence of an alternative with enough influence, Chavism and the MUD keep polarizing political support in the country. In this context, it is necessary to build a left reference, with the ability to give organicity to the opposition to the adjustment and the government attacks on democratic rights such as the right to protest and the right to information. The rapid deterioration of the economic situation, and the inability of government and the bosses opposition to present a strategy to overcome the crisis, push the exploited and oppressed masses towards forging this political alternative and that before a new social explosion as the Caracazo, the rebellion be channelled towards a fundamental solution, at the service of the working majority. ◘ 31

Global News

China More and more strikes On April 14 an indefinite strike began in Dongguan (Guangdong Province), which was extended to seven cities and lasted two weeks.

It was staged by the 70,000 workers (the largest number of strikers in the history of the People’s Republic of China) who produce sports shoes for Nike, Adidas and other famous brands, in seven plants of the Yue Yen Group. It lasted 15 days and had worldwide impact. The corporation agreed to disburse the workers social contributions and increase monthly subsistence allowances.

This is part of the remarkable increase in the number of strikes and protests by workers in all industry sectors and all regions of China in recent years. Strikes are basically now an everyday occurrence.

The world’s largest retailer, Walmart, had an unpleasant surprise this year when it tried to close a small store, of low yield, in the Chinese city of Changde (Huan Province). It did not expect any problems when on 4 March informed the 143 employees of store number 2024 they would lose their jobs. This time the workers blocked the store and unfurled banners in protest. Trusting previous times of apathy, Walmart had allowed the unionization of its workers. When Huang, a former teller who last year was elected president of the Changde store union, prompted the unprecedented step of challenging Walmart’s closure plan and demanded negotiations with management over severance pay, not only did this cause a chain reaction to other stores, but it challenged the pro-bosses national union bureaucrats.

32

In March, more than 1,000 workers of a Samsung supplier, Shanmukang, also in Dongguan, went on strike against a pay cut. The company immediately agreed to increase overtime pay and monthly benefits, and workers returned to work.

Although there are also repression and detainees, the growing activism of workers in China, and the rise of militant labour groups at the head of some of the fights are a challenge for multinationals which have been doing business without major obstacles in the wild capitalism ruled by the dictatorship of the Chinese Communist Party.

Cuba New foreign investment law The new law was published in the Official Gazette on 16 April. The official statement said that “it seeks to provide foreign investors with full protection and legal certainty” and exemptions from taxes on personal income “for foreign investors partners in joint ventures or parties to international economic association contracts”, additionally they can export their profits. The existing restriction to the sectors of education, health (excluding pharmaceuticals and biotechnology, both important) and defence remains in force.

For more than two decades now multinationals, associated with the State, have had an important and growing activity in the island, particularly in the areas of tourism, nickel, oil, rum and snuff, as well as in the trade in foodstuffs that scarcely occur within Cuba. The new law extends the provisions that already existed in 1995 (Act 77) and

provides greater benefits, for example installing companies with 100 percent foreign capital. The government of the Cuban CP led by the Castro brothers seeks to hide capitalist restoration with declamations on “update of socialism”. But every day is harder to hide reality. In January the first phase of the deep water port of Mariel opened, with Raul Castro and Dilma Rousseff holding hands for the photos. This mega-project is being built by the multinational Odebrecht, Brazil’s main construction company, which is preparing to address the construction of a new airport. A Singaporean company manages the operation of the port, which will be the Caribbean’s largest.

The government will continue to maintain its role as “contractor” of Cuban labour using foreign companies.

Foreign companies will be exempted for eight years from income tax, and then pay 15 percent. If they reinvest in the island the term will extend. “Cuban style” capitalism continues to progress, with its growing social inequality, poverty and derisory wages of US$ 20.

USA Fast food workers mobilise Workers of fast food restaurants in Miami and New York went on strike on 15 May to demand a salary increase and the ability to organize themselves in a Union, a protest supported in other US cities and the world.

The protests, which demanded that workers get double the salary to about US$ 15 an hour and allowed to form unions without retaliation, were convened in 130 cities in over 33 countries, said one of the organizers in Miami, Muhammed Malik. ◘

Estado EspaĂąol

Bolivia

Panama

Venezuela

Brazil

Mexico

Argentina

Turkey

Chile

Egypt

Down with the death sentence to 720 political prisoners!

In April, a court in Egypt sentenced to death 680 political activists of the Muslim Brotherhood (MB). The court produced the largest capital punishment of Egypt in modern times and of the entire world in recent times. Meanwhile another court decision revoked a March sentencing to death of over 520 political prisoners, changing most of them to 25 years in prison and leaving 37 sentenced to death. This gives, for now, a total of 720 sentenced to death.

Repression is not only against the MB, but also dozens of activists on the left are being tried. A court in Cairo, for example, ordered the banning of the 6 of April Youth Movement, which played a central role in the 2011 revolution against former dictator Mubarak.

With these punishments the military intend to frighten the masses and liquidate the revolution started in January 2011 in Tahrir Square. But the revolutionary process is still alive, and in February

there was a wave of strikes by textile workers and other sectors that put the civilian-military government on the ropes.

Neither the civil-military government nor the Muslim Brotherhood. Only the people, workers, women and revolutionary youth mobilized and in power, can achieve the fundamental changes that have been in the agenda since the revolution began in 2011.

The internationalist socialists we reiterate that we have no political agreement with the MB, because it does not represent the revolution, on the contrary, it is a reactionary apparatus of the Islamist bourgeois trying to liquidate the revolution for its own interests. But we reject the death sentence to the MB militants and demand the immediate release of all political prisoners in Egypt.

We call on the workers and the youth of the world to repudiate this aberrant death sentence of hundreds of political prisoners.